I recently purchased the "Top Secret Magic Code" eBook and I feel the need to post an honest and fair evaluation of it for the sake of others struggling to find something, anything, to help them in their quest to build an online business.

I have to admit, up front, that I am just the guy this type of product is suited for. I have a corporate job that requires 70+ hours a week and don't have the time or energy to research and develop new and exciting ways to make money online. I am always looking for that "magic bullet," or "magic code" in this case, that will set me free and get me on my way to replacing my current job with one I can do from anywhere in the world. With that said, I am very vulnerable to products like this and often have to fight my urge to purchase them because of all the time and money I have wasted in the past on things like this. It's almost like being a recovering drug addict and someone is tempting me with the newest recreational drug that "will blow your mind!"

Now, let's get down to dissecting this product from beginning to end.

THE LANDING PAGE

The web site claims this product contains a snippet of "magic code" that you can simply add to your web page and start making money immediately. You can view the web site here, and see for yourself. I will wait while you read the landing page......

So, like you I assume, I got the impression this eBook would contain the snippet that I would need to ad to my web pages and start making money. This sounded very appealing and interesting and being that I have little knowledge of the whole HTML world and language, I thought this sounded like it could work. With all of the money exchanging hands on the internet daily, I would think someone could develop a script to filter some of that cash and redirect it to their account and perhaps this is what Dr. Cohen had done.

One thing that caught my eye was the fact that Dr. Cohen states this is not AdSense. I feel that AdSense has been beat to death and since Google insists on slapping down the members of their advertising program every month or so, I steer away from those types of offers, of which Dr. Cohen has one.

One other thing that gave me some comfort about buying this material was the "Full 8 Week 100% Ironclad Guarantee" shown on the web site. I figure any product I can get that kind of insurance on makes it less risky of an investment. Whether Dr. Cohen upholds his guarantee is a whole other issue to be discussed in another post, perhaps.

I am somewhat critical of spelling and grammatical errors on sales documents and I found a few on "The Top Secret Magic Code" web page. Some real minor errors that most people will never catch, but these things catch my eye and make me wonder how much time was spent putting this site together and how many people proofed it before it went live. I understand that all of us have times when we just can't seem to get the fingers and keys to line up and spellchecker misses a misspelled word here and there so unless a site has the evidence that a child in 4th grade could have done a better job, I let these things go. Just something I notice and tend to be critical of.

THE PURCHASE

Nothing critical to note here. The purchase went fine like most ClickBank transactions do.

THE PRODUCT


Once you purchase the product and verify your email, you can download the product in PDF format. It's a small file (3MB), so it downloads rather quickly.

The eBook consists of 7 sections, a summary, and 2 pages of wonder?! It totals out at 33 pages which I seem to like. I hate those books you get that are as thick as a dictionary and contain 2 or 3 useful tidbits of information and the rest is filler and fluff. I like things that are direct and to the point, don't string me along here. With that characteristic in mind, I expected to open the eBook up flip to the second page and see the "Magic Code" that I would cut-n-paste into my web pages to start making money, well no such luck. Ok, well maybe page 3? Nope! Page 4? None! In fact, there is no "magic code" on any page of this eBook.

What the eBook does contain are links to an ad broker and to various advertising mediums that you can sign up for and get HTML code to paste their widget or advertising feed into your web page, just as you would with Google's AdSense. My guess is that anyone who has been trying to make a go of it in the online business world already has at least one of these chunks of "top secret magic code" on their web sites already, I know I do and I generate very little from it. As anyone with any PPC advertising on their web pages will tell you, you can't make money if you don't have the traffic to click those ads. To answer that problem, the eBook also lays out a plan to drive traffic to your web sites via the typical routes, free ad forums and PPC. The concept behind the PPC advertising is to generate enough revenue from the ad space you sell on your web site to pay for your PPC campaign. One thing wrong with this theory is, in order to generate that revenue, you need the traffic first and if you pay for the traffic before the revenue, you are getting the cart before the horse, aren't you? These kinds of schemes scare me!

The eBook is also full of misspelled words and typo's that give it a feel that it was either put together by someone who was in a big hurry to get it to market and didn't take the time to proof-read it or it was outsourced it to a firm in a "English is a second language" country where grammar and spelling don't always translate well.

THE SUMMARY

In conclusion, let me first say that I am sure Dr. Cohen makes plenty of money using the techniques described in his eBook and I am quite sure other people could do the same if they follow his advice. I, however, think the sales hype is deceiving and misrepresents what the eBook actually is and what it contains. When a person buys something, they expect substance and not just theory, at least I do. If I could sell every "theory" I have come up with, whether it worked or not, I would be a very wealthy man and I wouldn't be spending my time on this blog.

If you are a newbie to internet marketing and online business, Dr. Jon Cohen II's Top Secret Magic Code may be just right for you. It can save you some time on the "what" and "where" of online advertising and give you some good ideas on how to go about getting those things set up. However, if you have been working this business for any length of time and are looking for something that will put a spark into your web pages and generate some revenue for you, steer away from this book and save your $37.

I have come to the conclusion that there just isn't a "Silver Bullet" out there that will generate you income without hard work and dedication in updating your web sites, creating links, and establishing your base. Like my old Granpappy used to say, "If it sounds too good to be true...," well you know the rest. If anyone thinks there is any such "silver bullet," send me a link and I will review it just like I did this one.

PS The two pages of "wonder" I referred to above are the two last pages of this book. We've all seen pages like these that leave you scratching your head, saying to yourself, "I wonder why these were included?" That's exactly where I found myself when I came to the end of the book, They are basically ramblings about Carpe Diem and a picture of a car Dr. Cohen claims to own but downloaded the picture off the web to show everyone. Right, Doc! Give me a few minutes with Google and I can show you several pictures of houses I own all over the world, including this castle in Germany!

3 comments

  1. Anonymous // August 1, 2008 at 1:18 PM

    Thank you for the honest review. I am new to the online internet marketing world and wish there were more blogs like this that would provide the truth about such products so the vulnerable like me don't help make these frauds richer.

  2. Anonymous // August 18, 2008 at 6:35 AM

    Thanks...I'll save my money. Cohen is obviously getting rich by selling this so called "magic code," otherwise why go to all the trouble, right? I too do not like misspelling of words in any document or article - haven't they heard about spell checking? I have been trying to make an honest living through internet advertising and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure it can be done by the average Joe like me. I really don't want to be unethical. Every time I go to one of these "How to Get Rich on the Internet" web pages I feel like I need to take a bath afterwards.

  3. Anonymous // May 5, 2009 at 4:08 PM

    Thanks for the review. Just ran into this product & was intrigued. Even better was running into your blog. Will be visiting again. I already have plenty of ' magic code ' on my site. :)

    http://thebeautybeatblog.blogspot.com/