February 22nd, 2010 Add Your Comments Bookmark and Share

**Update**
I’ve just watched the first video of month 2 and it looks like we’re going to get in to a lot of the social media stuff this month. Even the first video had some nice tips that provide useful insight in how to take advantage of various services. The second month looks much better than the first in the Shoemoney System, which I guess is what you’d expect from a 12 month course :)
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I’m going to write this post straight from the top of my head. I’ll apologise in advance if it starts to wander but I find that when I just write things down this way without too much extra thought the result is a much more honest opinion. So I’ll write down what I’ve thought of the first month of the Shoemoney System and then try to judge if it’s positive or not at the end.

Generally speaking I like Shoemoney, I like the way he talks about the whole industry of making a living online, I like the way he always seems very approachable, I don’t like the way he pretends to be some sort of gangster. I had massive hopes for the Shoemoney System, the build up videos made so many promises that even with being a bit hazy on detail it would be enough to convince most people that this was going to be “the system” to change their lives. As I told a lot of people, I was in to try this from a very early stage.

Once signed up early impressions were not so good. The advertising credits, there were none that you could use. The videos, I think there were only 1 or 2 available, neither of which taught anything practical. There was also no sign of any exclusive tools or a forum (did I imagine somebody mentioning a forum?). On the plus side the bookmarks list is great, the radio sessions are very good (even though I’m sure these are available for free elsewhere online?). Overall then not a whole lot of bang for your buck. Bookmarks are nice but not $197 nice.

That was 1 month ago and the system has moved along since then. After several feedback sessions the really basic videos have all now been made available in a separate section. We have been assured that from now on it’s all guts and glory stuff. I must point out that I wasn’t somebody calling out for a change in the way the system was delivered. Videos slightly more often perhaps but not a radical change to the order. I believed Shoemoney when he said about all the testers he had used and the results they’d seen. On the other hand I have no doubt that a lot of people who signed up for the Shoemoney System were using it as a gamble with their last few bucks. I bet their bums were twitching at the speed/nature of the content that was being delivered! My daughter is doing the course with me (to give a total beginners point of view) and for her, having things delivered in a step by step course from the very basics is probably best, perhaps there needed to be 2 systems – beginners and advanced? For somebody like me who is only really interested in 1 or 2 elements of what Shoemoney is going to cover I fully understand that it’s a waiting game till the content I want appears. I don’t mind that at all, I REALLY make enough online anyway to not worry about it. Having the opportunity to earn a wedge more and any other interesting tit-bits is just a bonus.

Anyhoo the guts is just starting to arrive (note to self – clever Shoemoney, splitting part 1 and 2 over a monthly payment renewal :) ). Ebay arbitrage which was much hyped in the preview videos is now being talked about. This is fine except I thought we were going to be told some sort of hot secret, not that it’s possible to arb on ebay. Surely everybody knows that already? It also depends on where you are based, the Shoemoney System was available globally and the arbitrage he shows is very limited as to where it can be utilised. E-bay arbitrage opportunities vary hugely from country to country*. There’s also the small point that there’s no guidance on how to find your own arbitrage opportunities. Maybe that will be in part 2 of the video, for Christ’s sake I hope it’s just not going to be a video showing how much they made from video 1! Yes there have been 1 or 2 tips on how to lay out your e-bay listing but once again nothing earth shattering. Then again if you’d never even heard of arbitrage I can see how all this would seem so exciting. It also doesn’t go along with the notion of not needing to spend money which I’m sure was part of the Shoemoney System hype. EVEN if you are guaranteed to get the money back arb’ing still involves an initial outlay** and it’s commonly known that you need a lot of money to make a lot of money with these opportunities. It’s just the nature of the beast.

*Just to add some value to this post I should add that there are opportunities in the UK to do similar. Any UK Shoemoney System members might want to check out Play.com and the Amazon.co.uk marketplace for opportunities that can be played of against Ebay.

**The actual method Shoemoney teaches involves getting money before spending it. Again, depending on where you are based in the world this can be both inpractical (in terms of delivery times) and still carry risk.

That’s about as far as we’ve got after one month. There have been some nice basic videos, an opportunity to sign up with Azoogle Ads and I can’t see anybody knocking the production value that has gone into the system. The videos are not painful to watch which is a huge bonus when you think of some of the IM video courses that have been released. My gut feeling is that perhaps the system wasn’t as tested as much as I’d like and that the first month has very much been a work in progress. It’s obvious that a few videos have been made late and thrown in to the mix as a result of feedback that you would have hoped would have come from the testers. I don’t mind testing, but not when I’m paying a decent chunk of cash each month for the pleasure. I absolutely still have high hopes for the system, it’s just going to have to deliver a lot more in the second month in order to deliver the sort of results that the testers have shown.

So Was That A Positive Or Negative Review Of The Shoemoney System?

I’ve just read back through and overall I’d say it was more negative than positive. One month in and it hasn’t delivered on the income side yet. Then again I can’t remember ever reading anywhere that it would so maybe my perception of what the Shoemoney System would do was a little twisted. It’s supposed to be a 12 month course, not a quick fix. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a lot of people start whinging about when are they going to make enough to cover the monthly fee. As Mr T would say “I pity the fool”. This could become the biggest trouble with the Shoemoney System, a bunch of desperados baying and screaming resulting in all sorts of random content coming out completely out of sequence. I’ll keep you posted.

Finally, my daughter thinks Shoemoney is great, I’m trying to get her a t-shirt if Tigh would ever reply to my e-mail!

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