Howie Schwartz - Mobile Money Sites (Blackout Firesale) | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

14 years ago

That is a great question that I would also like to read the answer too. Seems odd that with all the active members on here that some members would have tried it. If anyone has any experience with Howie's do it for you programs then please post the reviews asap.

Thanks

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affiliatechick

14 years ago

I've never actually bought any of Howie's products or services, but his free pdf reports are killer and super helpful, so I wouldn't doubt his paid products are just as good...

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Global365 14 years ago

The blog creations service looked like a total disastrous...you could always get 8 guys together to share the risk and just pick up one each, beats the heck out of fighting for your $1800 back if things head south..
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pavionjsl

14 years ago

Never did get the "these sites will make all this money" and sell them thing. If they make all that money why share?

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HollandsFinest 14 years ago

Always pay with your creditcard when you order these kind of packages.

Print the salespage or copy the content to a word document and don't forget the fine print.

If things go south, you can always go to your CC company since most of them offer a money back guarantee of 180 days.

Had to use it twice over the past 10 months and always got every cent back. When paying with Paypal you have much less days, I believe 45 or 60 days for a refund.

Since Howie is talking about 4 months (4 x 30.5 is 122 days) this is more suited for a CC payment.

But to come back on topic: Did anyone took one of the Mobile Sites packages and what is your experience?
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Amanda_Davis

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Jerry-Leventer

- Does he deliver what he says he will?
- Does he deliver ON TIME?
- Does he handle technical problems in a timely manner?
- Is his support staff responsive to your issues?
- Does he actually issue refunds as promised?
- Does anyone have an actual phone number or physical address for Howie's business?

Howie isn't particularly reliable when it comes to delivery of what is promised. He has a LOT of stuff going on, and things often fall through the cracks. Sometimes he takes on more customers than he can handle, and things grind to a halt.

His support staff are generally really good - although they can't always help.

Never had to request a refund.

The only address is the one at the bottom of his emails. Don't believe he gives out phone numbers.

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mikewa

14 years ago

Buyers Beware! If you search back far enough for Howie's Blog Store products you will see this thread:-

http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...rb7uFeWap4SEvI

Also this one where I got a refund even though there was no guarantee offered by howie (how dumb was I?):-

http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...D37GIE8CTOTb1O

Anyone needing any advice on getting a refund - please pm me or use the email address in the other posts.

I had met Howie and thought he was one of the good guys; he is certainly very smart but has no idea on how to deliver!

[ 1 ] Thanks

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silho

14 years ago

I've had a few people ask me about this program of Howie's. Here is my opinion.

Now before you get started please search for 'Silho mobile' here in the Forum and you might find a few of my posts in regards to mobile marketing. That might help with everyone in getting to know me. I must start out by saying that I have worked for and with a variety of advertising agencies, marketing firms and entertainment companies for the past 13 years. My response comes from having a deep understanding of how CPA firms work.

Here is a list of all of the benefits you get with Howie's program...
1 - WE pick the hottest offers in the best niches for mobile...
2 - WE build you an arsenal of different mobile sites...
2 - WE register the mobile domains for you
2 - WE host your sites for 12 full months...
1 - WE do all the keyword research to find the hot offers...
2 - WE develop all the content for your sites..
2 - WE do all the graphics and templates for you...
1 - WE get you all the traffic you could ever dream of and funnel it to your sites...
3 - WE handle all the monetization and mobile CPA offers that you make 100% COMMISSION on...
4 - WE do all the site maintenance to keep your rankings on top of mobile search...
????? - WE manage everything for you... PERIOD

Here's how my legend works.
1 - The CPA firm is supposed to choose the hottest offers for you. This is their job and how they get paid.
Keyword research to find the hottest offers?? The CPA firm is already supposed to know what the hottest offers are and deliver that straight to you. That is what they are here for.
Driving traffic is what a CPA firm is supposed to do.

2 - You can build a mobile web site yourself for almost not effort - Wordpress plugin.
Building a mobile web site is as simple as getting a mobile template for $20 - $100.
Getting a mobile domain.... Come on, you all know how to register a .mobi, but you can simply use http://m.XXXX.com on your own domain.
Hosting... Don't you already have hosting for the seven web sites that you have now?
Developing content... OK so this might be the best part of this offer.
Graphics and templates (we covered this already $20 - $100 max).

3 - This might the only thing that I find to be of real value for me, but I have been in mobile marketing for 11 years so I see thing differently. Then again there's no way a CPA firm can give you 100% commission and survive so there's something missing with this equation. I will handle my own monetization, thank you.

4 - I don't know about you, but I wouldn't care about search engine rankings if I'm making money.

Just my thoughts on this. Once again, I am NOT bashing Howie, but these are my honest to God reasons why I would not bother with this offering.

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brendan301 14 years ago

i've been getting emails saying they're saving a package of sites for me even though they're sold out. No Thanks.
Plus I'm focusing on product creation for the moment, I'll get around to cpa stuff later.
- Thanks
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alextsui

14 years ago

My issue has been settled amicably.

Thanks
1 reply

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silho

14 years ago

Alex:

I have not missed the point of this offer at all. I understand what Howie is offering and I understand mobile marketing very well. Please understand that my perspective on this is that Howie is not offering anything different than any other CPA firm (even though he is blending the Publisher and advertiser role together). Their job is to drive traffic to your site and help promote your offer, or to pay you for the traffic you drive to other people's web sites. It depends on which side of the fence you sit on.

So saying that you (as a publisher) would have to get your own traffic and monetize doesn't make sense in this instance. This is how a CPA firm works.

A publisher does not have to search for traffic. He drives the traffic. He has an email list or runs CPC campaigns to drive traffic to an offer.

The advertiser is the one that is seeking the traffic. He is the one that would normally have to search for and find traffic for his offer so he is the one in need of the publisher's traffic.

The CPA firm/Network Marketing firm pairs the two companies together and gets a commission of the sale prices from the advertiser and then cuts a check to the publisher. The firm KEEPS a commission for themselves. That's how they make money. You cannot effectively be a publisher and advertiser during the same campaign. If you could drive traffic (publisher) to your own offer (advertiser) you wouldn't need the CPA firm.

You should understand that if someone is taking care of the payments on your behalf you will never know what is really being made as a commission. Just because he tells you that you are getting $6 and pays you $6 does not mean the real commission isn't $10 and he kept $4 for himself. That's how a CPA firm works. That's how any brokerage firm works. Look at shopping malls, real estate agents, and eBay. These companies are all marketplaces. But since he is taking all of payments you will never know that. The way a REAL CPA firm behaves is that you manage your own payments - as the advertiser. That is the ONLY way it is supposed to work. Ask anyone with a merchant account. You cannot accept payments on behalf of anyone else or another company. That's a completely differnt business model. Real CPA firms do not accept your payments for you - as an advertiser.

You can make a lot of money without even thinking about search engine rankings. That's how a CPA firm works. You don't need to take care of SEO. You just need to have a good offer or drive traffic. Again you ARE the advertiser and not the publisher. If you were the publisher you would have a list and other sources of traffic that you would send over to the advertiser and you would get paid a commission of the sale made. In that case you would probably have done your own SEO (in order to have a big list).

What Howie is doing is mixing the two sides of CPA marketing and confusing the marketplace. You are not supposed to be the publisher and advertiser at the same time, but this is what he is doing.

IN a real CPA firm it would be broken down like this:

PUBLISHERS would receive this from the firm
WE pick the hottest offers in the best niches for mobile...

PUBLISHERS would do this on his own (but let's just say Howie is being nice)
WE build you an arsenal of different mobile sites...
WE register the mobile domains for you
WE host your sites for 12 full months...
WE do all the keyword research to find the hot offers...
WE develop all the content for your sites..
WE do all the graphics and templates for you...
WE handle all the monetization and mobile CPA offers that you make 100% COMMISSION on...
WE do all the site maintenance to keep your rankings on top of mobile search...

ADVERTISERS would receive this
WE get you all the traffic you could ever dream of and funnel it to your sites...

You cannot be both in the same campaign. It's just not possible. So whatever he's doing he's taking a big but of your money. If you think any company is out to look out for your best interest and not their own then we really need to talk about marketing 101. Of course he's looking out for your best interest. His bank account depends on your success. That's a good model since you know he will want to make all of the campaigns work.

If he's doing this for the testimonials he'd give out evaluation copies and then get the testimonials. Anytime anyone takes the time to write a long sales copy or make a sales video (or hired it out to someone else) he's in it for the paycheck - not the testimonials.

Originally Posted by alextsui

Silho,

I have signed up in this Mobile Money Sites project and currently my sites are being built. I think I can give some good insight on this project.

You claim to have a good grasp of mobile marketing but you seem to have completely miss the point about Howie's project.

Yes, this is true if Howie's company is servicing you as an advertiser. For this project however, we are signing up as his publishers. Normally publishers would have to get their own traffic and choose their own offers to promote. In this case Howie is doing all the work- choosing the offers, building the sites, driving traffic and monetizing them.

Again, you are thinking of us as Howie's advertisers. Howie owns OfferMobi, the mobile CPA firm involved in this project. Yes, he is taking a cut from all the advertisers that he signs up but we are in this project as his publishers.

We will be earning 100% of the payouts of all the ads placed in our sites. For example, if we are promoting a CPA offer paying $6 per lead, we get $6. Howie will not take a cut of our commissions even though he is doing all the legwork promoting our sites.

How are the sites going to make money if you don't care about search engine rankings? Again, we are NOT the advertisers. We are publishers with sites built to promote mobile ads from Howie's OfferMobi network.

Howie has a vested interest in our success. The reason Howie is doing all this is to gather positive raving testimonials. If we make money with our sites, we will generate publicity and word of mouth advertising for his OfferMobi network. Lots of advertisers and publishers will join his company. It's a win-win deal.

Alex

Thanks
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alextsui 13 years ago

My issue has been settled amicably.
- Thanks
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- rchudej1 13 years ago
  
  Alex,
  
  Don't want to be a spoiler. I bought into Howie's Mobile Money sites, too. Those commission that we get does not have anything to do with the CPA offer at all. Those Mobile money sites doesn't make any money from CPA offer.
  
  The commission came from his link building service. Howie offer his link building service by USING our mobile money sites as a place to put his link service. That's why he's paying us $1.49 per mobile money sites.
  
  Sure, the share of each site will likely go up. The question is how much???
  
  Currently, Howie's link building service is grossing a revenue of $13,000 for the month of Nov 2010. If he can find more customers, let say he get pay 10 times that amount of Nov every month. That bring his total revenue from link building service to $130,000 per month. Let also assume that our share of the commission will goes up 10 times as well. That mean we can expect about $15 per site, per month. Is that worth anything compare to the investment that we spent????
  
  Let see $15 x 8 = $120 per month!
  
  Let assume that his service also double, so we get a share of $30 per month from his link building service (do remember that he is putting those links on our sites, he is using our sites for this service to make money). Currently, there are over 6,680 sites that he is using for this service, if my math is correct.
  
  Now, let's get back to the double revenue that I am talking about.
  
  Assume that we will get $30 per month from this link building service:
  
  $30 x 8 = $240 per month. It could be a nice little income over the year. (remember this is the made up number). I doubt that we will get more than $5 per site, per month from this service. As for the CPA offer themselves, I would not put my hope into them.
  
  Currently, 2/3 of my sites do not even have any hit. The one that has any hit seems to be from the same ip address which I believe are from his web designers. There were less than 10 legitimate hit (seems that way).
  
  Needless to say, I will be asking for my refund. Can anyone walk me through how to get a full refund via my Credit Card company? Please make it an idiot proof for me.
  
  Thanks,
  Mike
  
  Thanks
  
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CianMcCarthy

Banned 14 years ago

Howie seems to dropped the ball lately, last year he was really kicking it

Thanks
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Jerry-Leventer

14 years ago

I went ahead and took advantage of the 8-Site offer.

MY DECISION was based on the following:

1. It's an investment. I'm having 8 sites built and marketed for me in a market segment (mobile), and using a monetization strategy (CPA), that I have not branched into yet. The risk is a manageable $300 if it fails to show adequate returns after the 4-month assessment period.

2. I have been satisfied with Howie's article writing and submission service that I joined three months ago, so I know that at least one of his outsource teams is capable of delivering a satisfactory product and service.

3. Howie's outsource team will do all the work for four months for $187 per site. They will host the sites for 12 months then charge $1 per site per month for continued hosting. I will take ownership of the domains after four months.

Conclusion: To me it's a worthwhile investment that fits well with my current business strategy. I will report back when I have more information about the performance of Howie's team and the websites.

TECH SUPPORT
Some notes regarding Howie's tech support ...

- Their response time is about 48 hours. (GOOD)
- They were unwilling to give me Howie's business phone or address. (BAD)
- They were unwilling to give me a phone call themselves. For a $1,000+ product, this is a MAJOR disappointment. (VERY BAD)
- Refund policy: (NEUTRAL)
The Order Page states the following:

I also understnd that I HAVE NO RISK because of your money back guarantee. After letting my site network grow for 4 months I am not happy with all the money you're sending me, I get a full refund minus a 20% restocking fee to cover part of the expenses. I have 15 days after the four months (not before) to claim a refund if I choose.

When I asked about when the 4-month clock starts ticking, they said, "at time of purchase." To me however, it seems to be saying the 4 months should begin not when payment was made, but only after the network of sites has been built and marketing begun, since the first site may not be built for a couple weeks after payment, and the final site might not be built until well into the 4-month time frame, this would shorten the assessment period significantly.

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jan roos 14 years ago

I also asked a few questions and asked If I could speak on the phone with someone since it is a $1800 purchse but got response saying no phone calls and also they would get back to me with my uestions but never did.

Cheers
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- infowarrior 14 years ago
  
  I've bought several of Howie's products in the past, I believe they're overpriced and he doesn't deliver. There are a lot of gaps. I actually bought one of his $2,000 products and on the surface it seemed like a good product, but after getting more experience with SEO, I can tell you that the product was full of holes, at least for $2K
  
  As for the support it's generally good and fast, UNTIL you request a refund. Better pay with a credit card and not your PayPal balance.
  
  After spending over $2K with him, I bought another product, because I bought into the hype of the sales letter and it was a $700 product, which I thought was a complete flop. Anyways, I asked for a refund and after about a month of going back and forth, I called my CC and they took care of it.
  
  However, I immediately was blocked from accessing the product that I purchased before for $2K. It took almost 2 months and some nasty emails, for them to give me access to the product again.
  
  So I would be really careful. He's a good marketer and knows his stuff, but in my experience the offers he creates are irresistible, but don't live up to the expectations.
  
  Just my 2 cents.
  
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tm2889

13 years ago

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rchudej1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by tm2889

Mike,

I agree with your review of this product as I have also purchased this and the only money I received was from the link share service. None of my sites are getting more than 2 hits a month after 4 months. Too bad I am a complete idiot and purchased through Paypal... Lesson learned and I will definitely never ever buy anything from Howie Schwartz again.

Hopefully I can get some money back. I mean what the hell is the 20% restocking fee for anyway? He is just going to resell the sites to some other sucker or use them for himself.

No more "done for you" bullcrap for me. If you want it done right do it yourself.

TM2889,

Take it up with PayPal and tell them that you demand a full refund. Otherwise, you can tried to ask for refund from Howie (less 20%).

That's not a restocking fee as Howie put it. It's the cost of building those sites and promoting them (if he ever get to the promotion part).

I will definitely ask my Credit Card company about getting a full refund since he never ever get to the promotion part for my sites. (The sales letter stated something like, build sites, optimized them, and throw traffic at them).

If you listen to the most updated video in the member area, you will noticed that Howie used the words "we've learn so much" (or something to that effect). I think he meant his team and himself, not us, his customers.

This Mobile money sites are not working at all. That's why he giving all kind of bonuses to try to keep us from asking for refund. Let see the bonus

1. Get the same amount of blog build for the number of mobile money sites we've bought (They're just blog version on the same domain. Hence, more place for his link building services. Btw, he is USING our site to put those links on and paying "Rent" for those links.)

2. Apprentice 6 member access to the course for FREE. This has never been given as a bonus EVER! Why do it now? (coz, the course is not working out and he's trying to divert our attention).

3. Mysterious bonus at the end of the year (have no clue what to give yet, that's why he can't tell us what it is). My is that he will give this out after the end of the refund period.

I will ask for a refund for sure and I will unsubscribed from his mailing list. Those duplicate emails are starting to bother me now. I will also refrain from any of Howie product or anything with his name on them.

Mike Chudej

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silho

13 years ago

WOW!!!!! It sounds like you guys have really been through it. I hope your sorrows help shed some light on others in this thread that really couldn't understand my position on this. All I was trying to say is that you cannot be the advertiser AND publisher simultaneously in a network deal (computer or mobile based).

What Howie was offering just didn't make sense to me. You are either one or the other. I'm not knocking the guy, but I think what he was offering was not well thought out, and it seems to be that it was not well executed.

I would make sure to copy and keep the entire sales page. Take screenshots of the WHOLE thing. And when you contact your CC company and Paypal make sure you give them all of the sales and marketing material so you have a leg to stand on.

Thanks
1 reply

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rchudej1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by silho

WOW!!!!! It sounds like you guys have really been through it. I hope your sorrows help shed some light on others in this thread that really couldn't understand my position on this. All I was trying to say is that you cannot be the advertiser AND publisher simultaneously in a network deal (computer or mobile based).

What Howie was offering just didn't make sense to me. You are either one or the other. I'm not knocking the guy, but I think what he was offering was not well thought out, and it seems to be that it was not well executed.

I would make sure to copy and keep the entire sales page. Take screenshots of the WHOLE thing. And when you contact your CC company and Paypal make sure you give them all of the sales and marketing material so you have a leg to stand on.

Silho,

I do not have the actual sales page. Perhaps someone who is reading this may have a copy somewhere.

As for the advertiser and publisher role and the 100% commission, I believe that Howie is right on that in a sense. Please hear me out:

* 100% commission is accurate in my opinion --> Let's say the advertiser is paying $1.00 for each info to a publisher. I believe that Howie will pay us that commission. However, his CPA company, OfferMobi, will also make on top of that, let say $0.25 for each of the info from the advertiser of course.

I do not know the exact figure but the CPA company has to make money this way and that is the very essence of my decision to purchase his product.

I believe that the more our web sites make money through CPA the more his company make. Hence, it's a great motivation for Howie and his team to do an excellent job on all our sites. It's a win-win situation.

Obviously, the promotion part can't last long since it typically involve paid advertising of some sort. Therefore, I believe that Howie has to let us work on those sites for them to work in the long run.

I believe that he was saying after 4 months when our sites up and running and making profit then we can take over and work on them or just let them stay as the way they are.

I order 36 websites, which most of them has just been finished in the last 2 weeks. 11 of them has any hits (mostly from his web designer teams). How do I know that? There are a certain set of IP address hit across those sites. Surely, the legitimate customers won't check out most of my sites.

That left 25 sites without any kind of visitors (sorry, I don't like the term traffic. It's just not respectful in my opinion). That's why I believe Howie and his team has not done any promotion on my sites.

** Please forgive me if I get the term advertiser and publisher mix up, but I believe you know what I am trying to say.

Mike Chudej

I will checkout this forum more often before I buy anything online.

Thanks
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silho

13 years ago

Here's my last piece on this as I'm sure I've stated this before. I've worked with (and for) advertising agencies and marketing firms for 13 years. I know the CEOs, Presidents, and owners of a dozen network marketing firms (CPA firms as everyone calls them in the IM space). I can tell you this. There is no way you will ever, EVER, EVER earn 100% commission on a payout. It does not happen that way.

They will show you certain numbers to make it look like you are getting paid 100% commission, and make you believe it.... as so many people have been led to believe.

Originally Posted by rchudej1

Silho,

I do not have the actual sales page. Perhaps someone who is reading this may have a copy somewhere.

As for the advertiser and publisher role and the 100% commission, I believe that Howie is right on that in a sense. Please hear me out:

* 100% commission is accurate in my opinion --> Let's say the advertiser is paying $1.00 for each info to a publisher. I believe that Howie will pay us that commission. However, his CPA company, OfferMobi, will also make on top of that, let say $0.25 for each of the info from the advertiser of course.

I do not know the exact figure but the CPA company has to make money this way and that is the very essence of my decision to purchase his product.

I believe that the more our web sites make money through CPA the more his company make. Hence, it's a great motivation for Howie and his team to do an excellent job on all our sites. It's a win-win situation.

Obviously, the promotion part can't last long since it typically involve paid advertising of some sort. Therefore, I believe that Howie has to let us work on those sites for them to work in the long run.

I believe that he was saying after 4 months when our sites up and running and making profit then we can take over and work on them or just let them stay as the way they are.

I order 36 websites, which most of them has just been finished in the last 2 weeks. 11 of them has any hits (mostly from his web designer teams). How do I know that? There are a certain set of IP address hit across those sites. Surely, the legitimate customers won't check out most of my sites.

That left 25 sites without any kind of visitors (sorry, I don't like the term traffic. It's just not respectful in my opinion). That's why I believe Howie and his team has not done any promotion on my sites.

** Please forgive me if I get the term advertiser and publisher mix up, but I believe you know what I am trying to say.

Mike Chudej

I will checkout this forum more often before I buy anything online.

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hatdance 13 years ago

Yes, the advertiser pays the CPA company, and the CPA company pays the publisher. Howie is saying you get 100% of the publisher commission, and it is fully documented what that is. So Howie still makes his money, and you get 100% of the commission for the offer as per the publisher agreement. So conceptually, it is a win-win.

The question becomes, why did Howie not follow through to monetize and promote the sites? Did he use the money we spent for something else? Do they just not know how to do this on such a large scale? Is it just mismanaged (sites were outsourced)?

My experience with Howie is that if you complain clearly and logically, with respect and without hostility, he will give you a full refund. It takes a little back and forth, but it is just what is right if he did not do what he promised. You have the FCC on your side. It is called false advertising and there is no expiration date on that. Just be persistent and tell them how unhappy you are and give him the option to refund directly before you go to your credit card company (which incurs additional fees and higher CC rates for him if there are a lot of refund requests).

I have the original offer if anyone needs it to quote the promises made.

[QUOTE=rchudej1;2907088]

As for the advertiser and publisher role and the 100% commission, I believe that Howie is right on that in a sense. Please hear me out:

* 100% commission is accurate in my opinion --> Let's say the advertiser is paying $1.00 for each info to a publisher. I believe that Howie will pay us that commission. However, his CPA company, OfferMobi, will also make on top of that, let say $0.25 for each of the info from the advertiser of course.

I do not know the exact figure but the CPA company has to make money this way and that is the very essence of my decision to purchase his product.

I believe that the more our web sites make money through CPA the more his company make. Hence, it's a great motivation for Howie and his team to do an excellent job on all our sites. It's a win-win situation.

Obviously, the promotion part can't last long since it typically involve paid advertising of some sort. Therefore, I believe that Howie has to let us work on those sites for them to work in the long run.

I believe that he was saying after 4 months when our sites up and running and making profit then we can take over and work on them or just let them stay as the way they are.
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brendan301

13 years ago

i'm glad i didn't order this product. needless to say i won't be purchasing anything from this guy. his offers tend to be overpriced anyway

Thanks

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www111

13 years ago

I bought 32 sites and will stick it out. My take is that he has yet to run traffic thru the sites. I think he will use web 2.0 strategies for his traffic a la Conversation Domination 2.0.

If he owns Offermobi (or partially), then he would know what kind of CPA offers are killing it, wouldn't it be logical that our sites will get some of that action?

Yes, the bonuses look like a diversion tactic but then, with the blogs, you just doubled the link revenue. So this play becomes more of a dividend play rather than a capital gain play although you can probably do a Flippa auction on those sites later.

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rchudej1

13 years ago

A lot of my sites are here today and gone tomorrow style. There are a lot of domains that use the name of cellphone make and model e.g. Nokia 6510 or something to that effect. This type of domain will probably last 1 year max.

I got $53 for the month of November, so if my link revenue goes up 3 times that would be $160 per month. That's barely pay for anything even here in Thailand.

This is actually the 2nd product which I bought from Howie and it's a complete disastrous. The 1st one being his Video Creation service which I believe he only did the marketing part for that launch. Those videos are not good at all.

I also bought into his article marketing service. This one is good.

If any of you bought into his writing service, please let me know. I found out which company that Howie is using for this service and it's $100 cheaper than $177 that he is charging. Just PM me and I will point you to the right direction. I am not associate with this company in anyway. I am currently using their service at the moment.

Mike Chudej

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rchudej1

13 years ago

Silho,

I do realized that. However, I believe that your take on 100% commission is different from Howie.

It seems like 100% that you meant is the whole total that a company will pay a CPA firm for an acquisition. (e.g. $1.50 for each acquisition)

While, Howie would argue that, the 100% commission he referred to is on the PAYOUT or what his company is normally pay an affiliate for that particular acquisition, NOT the whole total that his CPA get from that advertiser. e.g. $1.00 for an acquisition commission to an affiliate

You would know that in order to get someone to fill in a CPA offer there is a cost involve (advertising etc.) Normally, an affiliate will have to promote the offer out of his own pocket to do this.

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Darren Yates 13 years ago

Has anybody approached Howie for a refund yet with any success?
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- Jerry-Leventer 13 years ago
  
  Here are the Statistics from my 8 Mobile Money Sites (for which I paid $1,495):
  
  Year 2010: PAGES HITS
  -----------------------------------------------
  Site 1: - 12 - 42
  Site 2: - 4 - 11
  Site 3: - 2 - 5
  Site 4: - 5 - 11
  Site 5: - 1 - 3
  Site 6: - 4 - 10
  Site 7: - 2 - 3
  Site 8: - 1 - 1
  
  Total Commission Received: $11
  
  The domain names are .info and .mobi and have hyphens in them.
  
  This is absolutely Pathetic!
  
  Howie should be ashamed of himself. Now, if he had done as I suggested to his tech support team and given us four months from NOW, when the sites are built, he might have gotten a better retention rate.
  
  I've asked for a refund today, and unfortunately this embarassing debacle will cost me $300, unless I can get my CC to pay.
  
  I'll continue to download Howie Schwart's Free PDF's that give updates about Google, internet, local, & mobile marketing, and niche market suggestions, but that's about it.
  
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rchudej1

13 years ago

I've asked for a refund, a FULL REFUND, actually.

However, his support reckon that they will only give me 80% of my money.

I told them that since Howie failed to deliver traffic as promised it meant that he broke his promised in the sales letter which one part read

"...WE get you all the traffic you could ever dream of and funnel it to your sites..."

I only get traffic to 11-16 of my sites which most of them were from his web designers team (same ip address across all sites multiple time).

I felt that this is absolutely ripped off since Howie will be using these sites to make money from his linking services, by the way these sites were build FROM my money!

I've taken this up with my bank and they will take it up with his bank.

Anyone wanted to sue Howie? I do have the exact sales letter if you wanted it.

Jerry, I am not going to get anything from Howie again, even those reports. They're absolutely not worth my time and effort. He clearly had someone written those report for him for pennies.

PM me for the exact sales letter,
Mike Chudej

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hatdance

13 years ago

The sites never got monetized or promoted, as promised. When I inquired about it, they say the FCC will not let them project any income. So I said the FCC also calls false advertising fraud.

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mish_h

13 years ago

Seems to me this should be free as what you are doing is marketing his products for him

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alextsui

13 years ago

My issue has been settled amicably.

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SarahMcHarry 13 years ago

I haven't bought this one but I have had experience of Howie's Apprentice 5, which was a rip-off. See http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...ntice-6-a.html

I have tried repeatedly to get a refund but they refuse. I have thought about reporting him to FTC but I don't live in the US.

My advice is to insist on a refund, get them to refuse and then report it to your credit card (or PayPal) immediately. And tell Howie's people what you have done. They may prefer to avoid the hassle.

Good luck.
Sarah
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- alextsui 13 years ago
  
  My issue has been settled amicably.
  
  Thanks
  
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Giani

13 years ago

wow. Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences.

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vndnbrgj

13 years ago

Wow... His sales copy must have been really convincing or something.
I can't imagine spending $1,500 for 8 websites.

I don't understand why anyone would do this in the first place.
However, if people still want to shell out $1,500.... contact me via the second link in my signature. That goes to my email.
I will create some websites for you, get them set up with CPA firms. (One in particular), and market them.

I will make you 4 websites, if you are not happy with them, I will buy them back!
That's a 60 day money back guarantee.

I will drive traffic to them for the first 60 days, after that they are your responsibility.
They are your websites. Why would I work for free to make you money?
Why would Howie work for free to make you money?

Doesn't make sense to me.
But hit me up if you want some websites. Lol

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alextsui 13 years ago

My issue has been settled amicably.
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- Jerry-Leventer 13 years ago
  
  Hi Alex,
  
  While this was not a complete ripoff or scam (or was it?), I would say it has been a big disappointment to me and others, and I will not be so ready to give Howie any of my money in the future.
  
  I am not a legal advisor in any way, but I can speculate that this would involve contract law to some extent. If you can prove in a court of law, or to the correct agency, that they did not deliver on their part of the contract, you might be able to get your money back.
  
  However, from their perspective they have delivered and abided by the agreement (I happen to also disagree with this). And you failed to request a refund in the time specified.
  
  Paypal provides a limited time (45 or 60 days?) during which you can file a dispute, so you will probably have no recourse there.
  
  Visa and the bank that issued your card, also provides a limited time during which you can file a dispute (45 or 60 days?) So both of those options will not be available to you, however, it can't hurt to try. At least you can file a complaint the may eventually help shut down the bad business, or at least help to others be aware of their bad reputation.
  
  Other than that, you would "probably" have to hire a laywer and file a lawsuit against Howie's company directly.
  
  There are also some "scam" or "ripoff" reporting sites that you may want to post to. But be careful so as not to look like a ranting disgruntled customer. Stay calm and objective when reporting what happened, as you've done here. Then others will see your story as being credible. One such site is: RipoffReport.com
  
  The only real option to you seems to try to make lemonaid; try to make money using the apprentice program and sites he has offered you. You may also try to find a way to contact Howie directly to let him know how you feel, and see if he can compensate you with some personal attention to help you earn more money from your online real estate. Perhaps he has some live calls you can get in on.
  
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  SarahMcHarry 13 years ago
  
  Alex,
  
  I can't help with advice on Paypal/credit card but I can advise you not to waste your time on Apprentice 6. That, too, is a rip off (see my earlier post) and is offered By Howie simply as a diversion.
  
  When I was seeking a refund I asked for my email to be forwarded to Howie. I think they did forward it, but it did me no good. They again refused to refund but I did notice that they took me off all their mailing lists, where I had been getting almost daily emails trying to sell me other stuff.
  
  What I thing this needs is for someone to report Howie Schwartz to the FTC. I am not a US citizen so I don't think I could do it but I would happily provide evidence of his dubious programs if anyone else was able to lodge a complaint.
  
  Sarah
  
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  Wuuki 13 years ago
  
  Hi,
  
  I've purchased 8 of his Money Blog Sites and it led to one decision: Never buy anything from Howie again.
  
  What happened?
  
  - Purchased for $1497
  - Couldn't access my membership area - wrote e-mail
  - They answered in time: Good.
  - Membership area? Just a plain page with no information
  - Mailed support to ask for time line other than, "in 4 months you will......"
  - Support answered that , "forms will be added within one week."
  - Nothing happened after a week
  - Nothing happened after two weeks
  - Received e-mail stating that Howie will look into my questions
  - Nothing happened, wrote another e-mail
  - Wrote more emails to support explaining my concerns and asking for answers
  - Just standard answers came back, no forms uploaded
  - Wrote my last e-mail to support telling them what will happen IF they do not answer
  - They answered back just to tell me they will refund 100% (not 80%) , "since you did not understand our terms and goals."
  
  Haha, that's a good one, isn't it?
  4 days later I have received my refund.
  
  Bad way to treat customers like this.
  
  I was ready to upgrade to the $4k package once this would work to offer Howie's program to my students. But now?
  
  Now I have to share something else.......
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Cheers
  
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  HappyFeet 13 years ago
  
  Can I add my own experience with Howie. Mine is not with the mobile money sites but blog money sites but it would appear the salesletters are essentially the same. I had given Howie and his team 6 months to complete the sites and monetize them. 6 months on, none of the 8 sites is getting a single traffic...and they are supposed to be making me money. He promised traffic as well by the way. Yeah, right. Its supposed to be a done for you kind of package.
  
  Got frustrated and asked for refund. Was refused point blank. Jeez, we are talking $1497...paid for nothing in return. The blogs are really cheap looking and in fact 2 of them have texts over the images.
  
  My other experience was paying $747 for so-called effortless links to sites I already own. Also over 6 months gone, not a single backlink has been built by his service. I complained to his team and I get some non-comittal response and would also not refund my money.
  
  Its sad when you outsource to someone who calls himself a guru, pay good money and you get nothing but grief.
  
  If Howie and his team are not prepared to provide the service he is so good at promising, then he should stop trying collecting money from unsuspecting prospects.
  Let's just say he may have my money but he's lost me as a customer. Good luck to those who still believe in him and his products.
  
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James_Harkin

13 years ago

$1497? You could have bought all the software and services to build a thousand blog sites yourself in no time...

Keyword Research Tools
Hosting
Wordpress Themes
Wordpress Plugins
Blog Network Syndication Software
Outsourcing Article Writing & Spin Software

Basically what happens with these mega-launches with multiple upsells, downsells, sidesells, backsells, frontsells, insells, outsells and shake it all about sells, the $1497 value is halved, since they would pay 50% to the affiliate, making it $748.50 for 8 blogs to be written, which is just under $100 each. If each blog took 1 hour of dedicated work to create and they could handle 8 blogs in 1 day, that would mean that they could handle 40 blogs per 5 day working week per person working at their office. 4 months (4 weeks per month) would mean 640 blogs were worked on in that period from a single person in the office. If they had 4 people working on blogs, that would mean 2,560 blogs. If they had finite limits on building sites, then they should have X number of spots open and not a free for all. I don't understand some marketers that overburden themselves just to make a buck and then don't follow through with getting a site monetized and traffic flowing to it.

Personally I have been thinking of offering a done-for-you service for site creation, but not just blog sites, but product sites. For example, I was thinking of a service that offered people a custom written niche info or simple software product (with affiliate programs inside the guide or software program) with custom graphics and monetized with clickbank or another affiliate prorgram backed by 8 or so keyword rich blog sites all pushing traffic and sales to the main product site. But not just blogs, going after all areas of Internet marketing (seo, ppc, articles, videos, facebook, twitter, mobile apps, press releases, jvs, affiliate marketing, etc.) to drive traffic to the main product site. The twist to it would be that each site would have to be based on a passion of the customer, whether it would be golf, fishing, hiking, vehicle maintenance, etc. Then after the site was built with traffic and money coming in the customer can take control of the site and update and promote it themselves because we would give them the training and access to the resources to do it themselves. But instead of giving 100% control to the customer, do a 75/25 profit split where the developer has a small stake in the success of the site. Basically the product site would allow them to be an instant expert in a field they know about and can talk, produce content and articles themselves...

What could be offered is a basic service, site creation, blog creation & promotion. Then more advanced opportunities, such as membership site integration, additional product development, etc. Charge a guesstimate $1500 for the basic, $2500 for advanced, $1000+ for extra product development (or more complex content like advanced software products a lot more) with a small affiliate program, where those promoting the service would get say 10% of the initial sale and 5% profit from each site (taken from the 25% developers cut) and then the initial affiliate has a stake in the success of the site.

Call it... Reciprocal Alliance

Regards

James Harkin

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