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FIB - Scams 101
Re: AWAI Copywriting Course Scam Not All bad news
Posted By: Blaird Foxton In Response To: Michael Masterson/AWAI Copywriting Course Scam (Jim Wilcox)
Date: Sunday, February 1, 2009, at 2:23 p.m.(pst)
I have been reading the AWIA Golden thread for about a year now. AWIA gave me the idea to become a writer of sales copy so I could pursue my goal of making a living with my computer anywhere I choose to live in this world.
I make a decent living now building/selling/servicing an industrial product that belongs to someone else, however I needed to hone my skills at making sales letters and cut sheets to improve sales and figured I could take the AWAI course and transition from selling the products I have to selling other products while I travelled around the world.
Today, I was going to bite on the AWIA course but something told me I had to check out the reviews on them and now here I am!
Thanks to the input of those of you who have taken the time to post to this board I will hang on to my money and invest in an acredited course at our local university or college. It may take me longer to get all the training I need, but at least I will have a diploma or certificate that means something to potential clients instead of an additional cost to my business for information I am able to glean just by being aware of what I read when I view an advertisement.
The Golden Thread did give me a few ideas and I must say I gained some knowledge that I have transfered over to my sales copy that I use today so I can not be negative about them. I think that if I had paid for the course though, recived what everyone says is a poorly presented course note book and then been hit up for more money everytime I turned around, then I would more than likely have been one of you that have posted here warning all to leave AWAI alone. (Sort of like time shares I almost purchased)
The irony of this thread though was not lost on me when I noticed that the Google adbanner for this site was promoting;
"Copywriting Secrets
2 Free Reports: From Top Ad Writers Start Your New Life & Career Today
www.AWAIonline.com/14_Free_Tips"So one one hand the owner of this site is allowing others to warn people away from AWIA and on the other the owner of this site is benifitting from Google banner advertisments promoting AWIA.
Welcome to the new world of "buyer beware"
Glad we still have "freedom of speach">> There have been a lot of messages here about AWAI's Michael
>> Masterson's six-Figure Accelerated Copywriting Course. I thought I'd fill
>> everyone in on what it's really all about.>> This whole “get rich copywriting” thing is comparable to the old
>> envelope stuffing con of decades past. It’s all done with careful
>> omissions, half-truths, lies, distortions, deceptions, selective memories,
>> phony testimonials, exaggerated claims, over-simplifications, forced
>> conclusions, unsubstantiated “facts” and good old fashioned trickery.>> It really is a remarkably involved and finely crafted charade that
>> convinces people they can truly earn $100,000+ a year after taking some
>> poorly written, lame correspondence course or attending a silly 3-day
>> rah-rah “bootcamp”… for a hefty price.>> It's all designed to separate you from your money. They even have
>> people whose job it is to search for negative comments online and respond
>> with favorable and phony testimonials.>> Unfortunately, the scam is so good, and so convincing that many people
>> are into it for quite a while before they begin to realize they've been
>> continuously shelling out money and still don't have a career.>> The truth is, this weak correspondence/home study course will not
>> prepare you to compete with others who have master's degrees in business
>> and marketing and universities around the world are cranking such
>> graduates out by the hundreds of thousands each year.>> There is a new book coming out later this year entitled Copy Crooks
>> which highlights AWAI and the Michael Masterson’s copywriting course as
>> prime examples of direct marketing scam.>> I've only seen part of the introduction and part of the table of
>> contents, but it looks devastating. It “dissects him like a frog in a
>> biology lab.”>> And with the success of the copywriting course, they branched into
>> other areas like travel writing, resume writing, etc. AWAI operates out of
>> a dinghy little building on a side street in Delray Beach in Florida. If
>> you ever visited the place, you'd never buy a thing from them.>> And Michael Masterson isn't even the guys real name. It's Mark Ford
>> and he uses testimonials from other family members so sell his products.
>> It's all pretty shameless.
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