Month: August 2009

Today’s post is by I’ve Tried That reviewer extraordinaire, Miyako. She is the Web master at http://www.gokugirl.com, an Anime fan site. Check it out. Another reviewer, Barney, had a less favorable take on Postcardprofits.com. I’ll post his remarks on Wednesday.

When I started this review I thought, “There is no way someone could make $52,923 in five days by mailing postcards. That’s almost $10,600 per day! Who is this Luke Jaten guy? Does ‘Direct Marketing Group Inc.’ even exist?”

The most interesting thing I’ve discovered about this program is that it actually seems legit. The postal address on the terms and conditions page is real and DMG Inc. is actually located there (according to Google Maps). There are video testimonials. Jaten’s eBay seller account has been ID verified and his listings qualify for 100% PayPal buyer protection. His positive feedback is 100%. He has sold ten copies of his multidisc course on eBay for the same price that it’s being offered for on postcardprofits.com, but he supposedly threw in something called a project license for free. From what I understand, the license gives the purchaser permission to use one of Jaten’s “projects” that he has already developed and tested. It’s worth at least $1500, but the purchasers of the “Buy It Now” auction were so special that he wanted to give it away to them. The eBay auction information is essentially a transcription of his sales pitch from the video on the Postcard Profits website.

After signing up with your name and precious credit card information and paying $4 for shipping, you enter into a 30 day trial period. If you return the course within that time frame you pay nothing. If not, you are billed $59.99 in five (weekly? monthly? yearly?) installments. On top of this, if you try your best and don’t make at least $10,000 in 90 days, he will not only refund the money you spent on the course, but will also FedEx you a check for $500 just to say “thanks for trying it out.”

What Luke Jaten is selling is not a program where you profit simply from the act of mailing out postcards. It’s a course on how to use postcards to convince people to buy your products. And he never promises anything else. It’s true that the name of the site is as misleading as the terminology he uses to refer to postcard marketing (“postcard project”), but if you pay close attention to the video (or to the transcript) then you won’t be taken by surprise. The eBay listing isn’t clear on whether a product comes with the free license.

This DOES NOT mean that he is squeaky clean. Some of his business practices are on the shady side. He claims in the eBay auction information that you don’t need an actual product or an idea for one to get started. The last time I checked, it was illegal to sell merchandise that you didn’t have. [Note by Joe: I suppose you could use his tactics to sell products as an affiliate. That means you don’t technically “own” the product, but you still have the right to sell it.]

After Googling information from his site, I found three more websites dedicated to the Postcard Profits course. The sites are 1) postcardprofits.com, 2) postcardprofits247.com, 3) makingmoneywithpostcards.com, 4) profitswithpostcards.com, 5) simplepostcardprofits.com. Only #1 and #3 are in the Go Daddy WHOIS database as being the property of DMG Inc. #4 contains information in the footer that points to Relevant Marketing Group as the owner, but the organization doesn’t exist. Even without Googling them, it’s easy to be skeptical as there is absolutely no contact information listed on the website besides an e-mail address. Googling the organization with double quotes turns up three sites, one of which is supposedly the home page (relevantmarketinggroup.com). The entire site consists of a single page with a single link labeled “Postcard Profits” that points to website #4 above. Website #2 references two different phone numbers that connect to the same prerecorded sales pitch, four written testimonials from people who are different from the ones on site #1, and the sales pitch transcript. It is also the only site to mention a mailing list. I signed up for it.

DMG Inc.’s official Postcard Profits Web sites have secrets. If you use Google’s advanced options to search within each domain exclusively, you find longer video interviews of the people in the video on postcardprofits.com and a privacy policy that none of the pages link to. The policy was copied almost verbatim from a site called doubleyourdating.com. The two e-mail links in the policy still point to doubleyourdating.com e-mail addresses in the HTML. Site #3 keeps you on the main page unless you use Google because the page’s only link links to the page that it’s on.

There seem to be two phone numbers that will connect you to an actual person. One number was found on the Better Business Bureau website (and, yes, there have been complaints filed against them) while the other was found on the terms and conditions page of postcardprofits.com. I received the same voice mail message after dialing each number that said everyone was currently out of the office. I wonder if it’s worth trying again.

As almost a side note, Luke Jaten and Matt Trainer from TheMarketingMoron.com seem to be friends. The video on postcardprofits.com is copyrighted to Matt Trainer and Trainer conducted a 38 minute web cam interview with Jaten that was supposed to be about Postcard Profits but instead focused almost entirely on Pay-Per-Click advertising and Google Ad Sense. The video is supposed to have a second part, but I doubt there will be one as the first part was posted to Trainer’s blog in April. There was also some sort of seminar on Postcard Profits in Phoenix, AZ in May with both Jaten and Trainer. I have yet to find commentary about it.

If you have done very much searching online for medical transcription jobs, you have probably heard of Transam Associates. Maybe you have even heard from them, like our reader, Teresa.

Like many of you, she posted her resume online and has started to hear back from scum sucking bottom feeders cesspool worms people claiming to be recruiters.

Here, for your education and edification, I include the email they sent her along with my editorial commentary [in brackets and bold]:

Subject: Medical Transcription – Will Train – No Experience!
[“No Experience!” Here is the first red flag. In a tight economy, employers are more concerned than ever about getting the most bang for their buck when it comes to employees. Legitimate employers who are indeed willing to hire with no experience aren’t going to shout about it. It will come up in the interview if you impress the hell out of the interviewer.]

via Beyond Job Alert

Hello, Teresa
Thank you for your sharing your Beyond resume for this work at home Job Alert! We are a medical transcription company.

After reviewing your resume we are interested.
[Uh-oh, second red flag. Not that Teresa doesn’t have a killer resume—I’m sure she does. But this just doesn’t sound like the language of a real employer to me. While jobs in which employers chase the employee are certainly real, I believe based on years of experience that they are rare. You chase the employer. That’s the way it works in the large majority of cases.]
Transam Associates provides precise medical transcription of voice files that doctors dictate for hospitals, clinics and doctor offices.
[Maybe. But its Web site is so cheesy that if I were a clinic looking for a transcription service, I would not give it a second glance. This leads me to believe that Transam is not really interested in doing transcription.]

Transam Associates also conducts its own training program that prepares individuals for the medical transcription profession. This training is done online in the comfort of your own home. A personal trainer is provided to guide individuals in the training program through a Live Chat environment.

As a recruiter for this national transcription service, I am seeking full-and part-time, home-based medical transcriptionists. We are committed to providing a work environment where medical transcriptionists can grow and be respected for the professionals they are.
[But can you provide jobs? Not according to some of the complaint sites I’ve been reading.]

This is for entry level individuals and if you are not yet qualified, we’ll provide tuition FREE training and a personal trainer that you’ll need to become qualified. Once you meet our criteria, which will be defined for you before you begin, you will be certified by us as an accomplished medical transcriptionist and can begin to work for Transam Associates, Inc. Our special books and software are required.

[Remaining paragraphs deleted because we’re not going to do their advertising for them.]

After transcribing this sample we will answer all your questions.

You are asked to transcribe a simple audio file and submit it to Transam for consideration. I can’t prove it, but my hunch is they would accept just about anything as a transcription of the audio file.

Why? Because Transam Associates is not looking for transcriptionists. It’s looking for people to sell its software to.

After you submit your sample transcription, you will receive another email that says it was true and accurate and worthy of moving forward (their words, not mine), and inviting you to request an application agreement.

The agreement is too long and boring to reproduce here, but it boils down to this the following. Transam claims to be able to train you in medical transcription and then to set you up with paying jobs.

First, however, you must by the proprietary Transam software, which apparently runs about $500. Here is one user’s experience:

They will do no more than rip you off money by making you buy their MT software and never putting peole into real work situations. The only thing they care for is for your MONEY from your purchase of their equipment(total of $490). This is obviously a SCAM. They want the money upfront and they offer NO refunds for any circumstances.

Transam Associates has a BBB rating of C-, for what it’s worth. I don’t put much stock in BBB reports, personally, but if you want to read it, it’s here:

The BBB has received complaints concerning the business’s selling practices and product quality of the software it sells. Specifically, consumers filing complaints with the BBB have stated that the business misrepresents its program. Consumers stated that they are required to purchase medical transcription training software in order to work for the business. Once the software is purchased, the business then requires that they complete practice tests prior to being given paid work by the business. Consumers are not provided work by the business until the business feels they have successfully completed the program. Additionally, consumers have stated that the software the business requires does not work properly.

So, back away from the computer and go for a walk. You are not on the verge of making $4k per month using your typing skills. (Oh, and here is a free bonus tip: MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION INVOLVES MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN GOOD TYPING SKILLS.) You are about to purchase non-refundable software and a lot of headache.