Cheap Affiliate Profits scam? (Review)

I have to say this book has one thing going for it and one knock against it before I even bought it. First, the positive is that it is written by T.M. Harris, whom I do not know personally and have no idea if he/she even exists. T.M. Harris is an internet marketer who has all of the trappings of other internet marketers: the badly designed web page, the overuse of hyperbole, and the promises of unseemly profits for a low, low ‘investment’ price.

Let me say this, I am always, ALWAYS looking for the con. I guess it’s a desire to stay “street smart” and not get taken. I guess even if I get conned I’d prefer to see it coming, and I really like keeping other people from getting conned. So I bought this book and expected a con job.

I will say that there is something slightly different about Harris, in that he – and I will assume for the purposes of this review that Harris is a real person – writes very openly about the type of marketing he does, exactly what he does and what products his readers should avoid. The other key thing about Harris that almost all of his informational ebooks are about $7. This is a pretty fair price for an ebook, at least a valid ebook. Most major publishers produce ebooks that are equal to or less than printed books, so Harris’s pricing automatically puts him in a more scrupulous category of internet marketers. Not entirely different, in a Captain Kangaroo-is-different-from-J.R. Ewing kind of way, but still different.

So I purchased Harris’s ebook, ‘Cheap Affiliate Profits’ to get an idea of what he had to offer. First off, the book is short, about 11 pages. Not much for seven bucks, but I assume the idea is that the information contained inside is intended to be short and concise, and to be honest, I’m not sure if a 1,000 page tome extolling the massive variations of internet marketing would be very valuable to anyone. Plus, page count isn’t a good indicator of quality – would ‘Romeo and Juliet’ have automatically been a better play if Shakespeare had added 500 words?

Still, within this short space Harris manages to break down some of his list-building techniques and how he promotes ‘squeeze pages’ and how he makes his list ‘go viral’. I read a lot of similar material from Frank Kern but Kern charges $2,000 for a limited course while Harris is offering similar information, albeit, much much leaner for $7. However, there are some key points like where to get a free autoresponder that works and scripts for automatically piggybacking onto other products. I’m not really looking to promote internet marketing products for themselves, but I am interested in marketing in general and how it applies to real world products.

So is the book Cheap Affiliate Products a scam? I would have to say technically, Harris’s book is not a scam, because the book states it is intended to explain how to get ‘cheap affiliate profits’. He offers the ‘cheap’ in a free autoresponder service (can’t really get any cheaper than ‘free’) that he recommends, he offers list building information that seems solid and he explains at least one method of how he builds his own list. The idea is that you implement these things and then sell either your own product, Harris’s products or an affiliate product. I would not say that this is an exhaustive resource, but it does have some good information without much investment. I could definitely see someone buying the book, putting the information into practice and making a little money pretty quickly if they were so inclined. That said, it is not a serious financial resource or more than a good, short informational pamphlet. So, yes, it could make you some money, but it is not an entire money making scheme or resale rights nonsense.

So to sum up, the book only costs $7, it’s cheaper than paying $2,000 for Mass Control but nowhere near as exhaustive, but probably the autoresponder and list building information is worth it. Plus it’s PayPal, so you can get a refund if you buy it.

Cheap Affiliate Profits e-book

UPDATE: After purchasing the Cheap Affiliate Profits e-book, I was sent two more bonuses, (links by email) , one of which was four more downloadable e-books and some links to other internet marketers free products. I have not read through them, but I will. But the other bonus was more of an upsell, which I am not ready to pull the trigger on just yet. Like I said, these products are more for pure internet marketers, and I am just looking to do a little scam busting and maybe learn about marketing.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that even though I do not consider T.M. Harris’s book a scam, I felt I should still let everyone know that he makes his money by selling internet marketing products. In other words, he makes money online by selling products about making money online. However, in the case of this book, there are specific, usable pieces of information that could be applied to any business or marketing endeavor.

All product reviews are reviewed according to my Rook’s Money Blog Review Rules