I recently got a copy of Mike Hill’s CPA Tsunami and have had some people asking me what I think of it so far so I thought I’d do a “mid-term” review of the product. Admittedly, I have only gotten through 1/2 the course even though I have had it for awhile. That’s what the holidays will do to you!
Anyway, here are my raw honest opinions/takes thus far:
1) The bonuses more than make up for a lot of what the program lacks. The collection of bonuses are worth the price of the program by themselves. The offer truly is a good one from that perspective.
2) The program itself isn’t all that earth shattering or even that well done considering the price point. It’s more or less Mike Hill sitting in front of a computer reading over slides on his deck that they periodically cut to shots of him talking then back to the slides. They have nice backgrounds for the slides and use color effectively, but that doesn’t compensate for some of the bigger pot holes that I’ll get to in just a bit.
3) One thing that Mike could have improved upon is stepping into his slides versus tossing the whole slide up there and reading over it. It makes it much harder to follow along because our natural human tendency is to read ahead so that’s a rather significant criticism of the program. It’s simply not that hard to step into slides point by point so I’m surprised and a bit disappointed at this oversight.
Maybe the coordination between showing the slide and Mike talking was tricky . . . I don’t know, but stepping into each point is something you’d (at the very least) expect out of a $2,000+ product. Sure, for a $197 product, toss your slides up on the screen with all the points showing and read over them all day long, but that’s unacceptable for a product at this price point. Sorry.
4) Something Mike has done very well: it’s as if he’s having a one-on-one conversation with you, and that’s something we could all learn from & model. You hear everyone say “write or talk to one person with your marketing,” and Mike does this throughout the course.
5) The packaging is absolutely top flight, and I believe that sold some people including yours truly. It looks cool, and that may make a difference for some folks. Hey, I’m vein and can appreciate cool packaging! LOL
6) There are some really good tips for beginners, intermediates, and advanced marketers so there truly is a little something for everyone. It’s not a heavyweight bout of rainmaker tips, tricks and pointers however.
Some of the stuff is a bit too basic, but I’ll cut it some slack because Mike & his gang were aiming to be a product for every level. I belive they’ve pulled this off, but some advanced level guys (no names mentioned–ha, ha) get bored and tend to zone out especially when there are 10 bullet points on a slide that someone is going to read over . . . our minds tend to zoom to the last point and wander away from there before the presenter is even to point #3.
7) The creative examples are good to model after, and that’s one of the strengths of this program. If you’re not sure how to craft an offer effectively with solid creative, this is a good course for you.
8) If you’re looking for a course that will take you by the hand and teach you exactly how to make a lot of money quickly through CPA networks, I’m not sure this will do it because I honestly haven’t finished it yet.
I say that as an “advanced” level internet marketer that isn’t all that great with CPA networks yet. That’s the primary reason I got this course, and I’m hoping there are some serious “ah-ha” moments to come later in the program.
9) I will say that no matter what level you happen to be right now, you can learn a lot about offer formulation, creative, up-sells, cross-sells, and down-sells through this course.
You may not know exactly how to pull one off with your particular shopping cart & auto-responder, but you’ll understand the theory and tenets behind the concepts. It’s clear that Mike knows how to capitalize on a customer at the point of sale very well, and that’s the difference between a mediocre business and a high flying one.
10) The Value Trojan concept is pure gold! That might make up for some of the shortcomings mentioned above. Too many marketers get caught up in continuity programs that they design to break the bank from day one, but a much more powerful strategy is to implement Value Trojans as much as possible. Think “Consumer Reports” and their model for getting you into and keeping you in their program.
This did provide me with a significant “ah-ha,” and it’s something I’m trying to instill upon clients and partners alike because there’s more money to be made over the long haul with this concept than the traditional continuity models. If you implemented nothing else from this program aside from The Value Trojan, you’d improve your business significantly so I’m contradicting myself a bit with some of the earlier criticism.
The Bottom Line
Mike can show you a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, but don’t go into this thinking you’re going to raise your game from a nobody to superstar in a week or two. You can add some cool components & tactics to your existing strategies that will improve results so that’s always a worthwhile endeavor in my opinion.
Overall, I’d recommend the CPA Tsunami, but I’d recommend it as much for the bonuses as the core content.
I would not have paid that much for just the core product. By itself, it’s not worth that much money as it stands today. I wouldn’t pay someone over $2,000 to more or less read complete slides to me no matter how nice they look, how well the packaging is done, or how good the bullet points are on the slides. As mentioned above, at least step into the slides so “students” don’t read ahead and get frustrated that it’s hard to follow along with the “instructor.”
Hopefully Mike & the gang enhance the core product to include some of the recommendations to make it better next time so the bonuses don’t carry the product quite so much. I believe it could be a great standalone product that could require zero bonuses to tip the scales with some tweaks here and there.
Report Card
Product by Itself: B-
Bonuses: A+
Overall Offer Including Bonuses: A
Overall Offer Sans Bonuses: D (if the product were offered by itself at the current price point and no bonuses, it’s not worth it)
Buzz Created: A
Launch Process: A
Educational Value: B+