While scrolling through Facebook earlier this morning, an ad caught my eye. In the most old-fashioned click-bait style, it utilized garish colors and power words of "a weekly payout of $9000 or more" to tempt the more naive of us into clicking. Now, normally, I don't bat an eye at these attempts. However, today, I heard a small voice in the back of my mind saying "Due diligence, Katrina."
And, so, I clicked. It immediately brought me to a page where I entered my email address and "saved a spot" in the live webinar happening that night.
My day went by rather quickly and as I settled in to begin the seminar I couldn't help but dream of a life where I was free to work from anywhere in the world.
The "live" seminar began and it very quickly became apparent that it was a recorded video. Although he begins by referring to generic names and cities as people log in, if you watch closely they just don't line up. As well, he likes to get his viewers to participate by typing "yes" and other such agreements but it really just backfires when, 30 minutes after I was prompted to type, others are only just seeing that screen. If it were real-time, wouldn't it be synced up?
Still, I continued watching because, hey, just because it's not actually live doesn't mean it's a scam right?
Well, after 45 minutes of circular logic where Julian cycles through talking about common knowledge for five minutes, then promising to tell us the "big secret", then "HOLD ON, just one more thing before I let you in on our secret" garbage; he finally did explain the steps in his process.
What he's offering his viewers is to use their software bundles to create more click-bait and continue the cycle. The more clicks you get, the more money you make.
On it's own, not too shabby an idea. And to be quite honest, it could possibly work for those who are willing to spend 8+ hours a day sharing links and getting clicks.
Here's his technique:
1. Create a "High-Converting Sales Funnel:"
- Due to the large amount of gullible internet users, (myself included) it creates an incredible net for you to sift through. Of this large intake of clickers, some may buy, some may not. But the more people you get interested, the more people will buy.
2. Capture Page:
- When the average person clicks the link on Facebook, it brings you to a capture page where it offers another small tidbit of information to get you to click again. This creates suspense and makes you really curious about the offer,
3. Email Leads:
- If the user clicks again on the capture page, it brings them to another area where they can enter their name and email address. If they don't buy in right away (which, only 1-3% of people do), now the company has the means to continue to remind and persuade you by email until you do buy in.
THE LOW DOWN?
What you're buying is access to Julian's software bundles that make it quick and easy to get into that lavish click-baiting life. It honestly seems like a pretty okay cycle that likely generates a lot of buy-ins. I mean, it got me interested enough to sit through an entire one and a half hours of Julian's blabbing that I will never get back. However, by the end I was still not convinced. Although there may be a few successful people out there who really put their time in, for a $99 start up fee it's a little too steep to risk.
S-C-A-M.
