UPDATE: This review is now outdated, and I do not make any current claims regarding this product/website. To get the most up-to-date information and recommendations please join my free newsletter.
Edition #129 – 6/16/2007
There’s been a lot of buzz in the internet marketing community (and the usual barrage of emails from the gurus) about Carlos and Lupe Garcia’s new videos showing how they get millions of visitors to their websites.
I saw them speak at Yanik Silver’s Underground seminar a few months ago, and I was very impressed with their paid traffic techniques. Another marketer recently mentioned in an email that Carlos and Lupe sold 30 memberships of a $25,000 coaching program at the seminar. Pretty compelling, eh?
Since everyone at the Underground seminar signed an NDA, I couldn’t talk about it. But now they’ve posted it publicly (including a video of the actual presentation they gave), so it’s open season.
It can be reasonably assumed that Carlos and Lupe’s free videos are a lead-in for a product that they will be selling in the near future.
Unfortunately, the slightly deceptive nature of these videos combined with their track record of pushing the envelope leads me to NOT recommend whatever they are selling (even though they haven’t launched it yet).
The first video starts out with Carlos saying, “Hey it’s Carlos and Lupe, and yeah it’s true, our websites pull in over five million a month online”.
What he should have said is “our websites USED to pull in over five million a month back in 2004”.
Not a good sign when you can’t get past the first sentence without stretching the truth.
During the video he shows the Alexa traffic rating for one of their sites (mydietpatches.com), and says, “As you can see, this website is getting tons of traffic.”
Hmmm… it looks like they GOT a lot of traffic back in 2004 but in the video their current traffic rank is 2,759,627 (not very good).
In case you’re wondering if I misunderstood his first statement about “getting tons of traffic”, he reiterates it by saying, “As you can see, we’re getting more traffic than Etrade, Mastercard, Pepsi, or Pizza Hut.”
OK, so pushing aside the wrinkle their timeline, let’s take a quick glance at their business model.
They find a high converting product (such as cable descramblers or diet patches) and push as many orders through as fast as they can until they have to shut the business down. In other words, they “get away with it” as long as they can.
In the case of their diet patch business, you can find customer complaints peppering several online fraud-report sites, a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Attorney General, and a report (which I have not confirmed) that the FTC ordered them to shut down their business.
Since they were selling millions of dollars of the product, it’s no surprise that they’d have a bunch of complaints, but at the same time it seems clear that their profitable conversion rate was driven largely by hype and/or false claims.
OK, so pushing aside the timeline, the products, and their alleged lack of business ethics, let’s look at the traffic techniques.
Basically, they BOUGHT traffic in bulk from high level traffic brokers such as Yahoo. Their main form of traffic was banner ads.
Their video mentions doing a $163,000 deal with Advertising.com, a $370,000 deal with Fastclick, and a $300,000 Yahoo. They said they negotiated those deals on credit, most likely paying some money up front and covering the rest with profits made as a result of that traffic.
They took a well-calculated risk, having already tested the conversion rate of their product, and optimizing their offer.
They were playing in a league unknown to most internet marketers, where the big dogs dictate the majority all paid traffic on the web. And when you play with big numbers like this, you can make (or lose) huge amounts of money.
In case you want to watch the videos without having to go through a squeeze page, here they are:
(Links removed – site no longer available)
I am NOT using any affiliate link. Also they posted the videos on Google video, so I could just embed them here but I figured I’d do the Garcia’s the courtesy of letting you check out the site for yourself since I’m not recommending the product.
So this one thing I will say: the method is REAL and the opportunity still exists, although I suspect it has changed in the years that have passed since the Garcia’s were playing at that level.
The question is whether or not this technique is applicable to your business. The answer is that it will only work if your product has true MASS market appeal.
Beyond that, you need to MASTER your conversion rate and backend monetization and be a slave to the numbers before you risk your shirt in the big game.
I have not personally used this method, but I’d be open to trying it if I found the perfect offer. However, I’d probably start small and learn from trial-and-error (or try to find someone who is currently active in the game), rather than giving my money to someone who is trying to make a killing selling information about how they played it two years ago.
Let me know what you think. Am I overreacting?
As always, you may leave your comments here on the blog.
Have a great day!
Hi Eric,
Thank you for pointing this out. I have to admit, what they discussed looked appealing but in the end, it’s probably not worth the risk for the rank and file small web businesses.
Like Rob above I have to agree with what he says here. I love Carlos and Lupe’s free Traffic Tactics PDF. You coudn’t get this information for free and I for one am thankful that they put it out. The $25,000 price tag may not be affordable to 99% of the people here but the information contained in their report is priceless – and will help you to get unlimited converting traffic. If you actually follow the instructions in their PDF you will make money and you don’t need their $25,000 coaching program. If you optomize your creatives, implement the 24 hour out clause, test test and test some more you will convert. No one needs to spend (or leverage ) hundreds of thousands of dollars on IO’s if that’s not their comfort level. You can test for $100.00. The Double Click Adserver for optomizing and tracking is expensive – $500. a month. Personally I’m implementing every single one of Carlos and Lupe’s recommendations over the next year – yes year as that is how long it will take to do it right. The only comments that Carlos made that pdddd me off is that he said Vincent James is not being called a douche because of how and the amount of money he made. You’ve got to be kidding me. This is a guy who sold men pills that supposedly would grow the size of their penis’ into record lengths. Come on now, Vincent knew his claims were B.S. but he also knew many men would fall for this – he found the perfect sucker. He also hit their credit card repeatedly even after they cancelled and complained. He was convicted and charged of fraud because he lied in his advertising and he stole people’s money by repeatedly hitting their credit cards without authorization to do so. I’m sorry but this guy is a douche bag of the highest order. It’s remarkable to me how people can put the likes of Vincent James up on a pedistle because he figured out a way to scam 88 million dollars off the public by deceiving customers. I choose to read the works of millionaires who earned their monies legitimately by providing a great product and great customer serice. The other issue I have is with one of Carlos and Lupe’s endoresments named by Buck Rizvi and Brock Felt of Pipeline Profits which was nothing more than an out and out scam. Personally I wouldn’t have Buck endorsing my product when the guy is nothing more than a scam artist. That makes you guilty by assoication. I also think that if a so called goroooo promotes one of these scammers that they too should be held accountable. Frank Kern endorsed Pipeline Profits – in fact he was the guy behind their launch. Actually alot of the goroooss endoresed Pipeline Profits. I happen to like Frank Kern but there needs to be a whole lot more accountablility beyond the take your commission and run philosophy which is prevelent amongs all guru’s who promote other wanna be guru’s products without checking to see if it actually works. Just my two cents !
Reilly
Hello Eric,
Thanks for taking the time to publish this, it’s great material.
When I saw the first video, usually I listen to what they have to said, in their voices and in their presentation (dress appeal) and their organization (the way they prepared to do the presentation), and at first glance, I have to agree with many of the people who had post their comments here, that was a real low/bad presentation, I don’t really know how they can get away with it… (Bad dressing, broken voices, bad notes, bad comments, etc.)…That is the kind of people that makes the rest of us look bad, and not only that, but makes our business harder to conduct, for the damage that they do is great, and it makes it harder for the rest of us to gain public trust for later business….
Ludier Pabon
Best eBooks Online
Dear Eric – I client of mine mentioned he was working with Carlos and Lupe, and I’d never heard of them and found your site doing an informational search. My interactions with info-marketers is on a different level, so I appreciate having found this forum with your perspective and that of your readers.
I have read most of the comments regarding Carlos and Lupe. From them being uneducated and down right shysters! You are all entitled to your opinion and I definitely respect Eric’s from a hard headed Internet man. You are all missing something , They are a couple of innocent hopefuls who struck it lucky with a couple of products people wanted ,they were niave enough to think that the little guy can run with the big guys and be allowed to succeed. For a while they tasted success miracle of miracles! They made too much money.Then the A.M.A lowered the boom. .. but it makes sense to me . The diet patch may or may not have worked but anyone who expects a diet patch to work is a ning nong anyway but milliions of hopefuls buy into these sort of things every day! They may help the user by inspiring motivation to exercise and diet then it works. Unscamblers do work , tell me who objects to them the most.? Carlos and Lupe have friends among the Guru’s who have probably advised them, as they cannot come up with another lucritive product that everyone wants ( can you?) then advised them sell the method that worked for them( and it did) to people who do have that kind of product.Simple.
Why you all so bitter and twisted jealousy perhaps.?
Well I have only this to say you are very quick to think the worst of these two people who were simply Naive. Diet Patch ‘s and scramblers were something people wanted and it did very well until those in powerful positions didn’t like them infringing on their areas and they got the particular departments to lower the boom. Carlos and Lupe were just two no bodies making too much money.Who actually believed in free enterprise LOL..Their method of advertisng
and getting that much traffic was genuine and works for those who can handle it and have a good product that sells and everyone wants.
Why did they decide to tell everyone else? Ofcourse it was necessity . I suppose I am not privy to the facts but it doesn’t take too much imagination if their is litigation against them true or false, it is going to take a lot of money to defend themselves isn’t it? I am just guessing here ofcourse.
It is a safe bet that their guru friends were the first to advise them when they were at a loss to think of a new product , that the information they had would sell.
It amuses me that any of you would think that they would just give that information away to you!
Or wonder why they suddenly decided tell all now.If you were having the success they had would you?
Ok Eric what is wrong with another perspective besides tearing them down?
I don’t know much about these two characters in a business sense, but Lupe is pretty hot LOL!
Hi Eric,
You made some very interesting pointsin your blog, and I have to say they do make sense. I am at a loss though. I am trying to sell three books from my website. Now perhaps they do not have a universal appeal, but I would have expected that they would sell at least a few copies here or there.
I did the google adwords thing to try and see if that would work. $200 later and not a single sale and of course I canceled that idea pretty quick.
Now I have taken a number of internet marketing courses. I even went through the gorilla marketing stuff and I have had some success in generating traffic to the site… I am not however generating sales!
Am I missing something here??? Maybe you can explain it!
Thanks for one thing though… I think you just saved me the $1000 per month that I was going to spend on traffic university.
Regards,
Lionel
Hi Eric
Do you still fill the same way about Carlos & Lupe. Initially I joined their program but have asked for a refund before it started.
What do you think of Ryan Deiss’s Wholesale Traffic System.?
You people are crazy if you dont think these methods work. Don’t get turned off because you can’t afford the price tag of the program.
5 billion impressions a month and 5 million dollars in revenue a month selling a cheaply made dietpatch. Proof is in the numbers.
Find a good converting CPA offer, do some media buys to get traffic, and collect some money.
Offer+traffic+conversions= money. Just find something you are comfortable selling.
Agree its BS – if you look at screen shot of $302K media buy from Yahoo in April 2004 it shows email address of carlos@internettrafficpros.com.
That domain was not registered until June 21 2007 and it points to a junk adsense page.
Also take a close look at their 5.3 billion impression screen shot and see how many days are in the “red” – anyone can buy traffic – but can you make more money than you spend and is the risk worth the reward?
Hi Eric,
Carlos & Lupe did not invent CPA marketing, but got it to work for themselves and I personally know others who have gotten it to work. I agree with jr, “Offer+traffic+conversions= money”.
In fact I know someone who made over 1M in a year with a very elaborate CPA marketing plan, a loophole, and arcade sites. If you have the right product and great conversions then it will work. The key is TESTING, Tracking, and conversions. The traffic is real!
You have to do your homework and don’t expect to just learn a technique and start spending your profits before you even start.
TEST….TEST….TEST….and TEST some more and have an “escape” plan or at least a plan “B” and you will be fine!
Thanks Eric for your blog!
Good Luck To All!
Thanks for the heads up. I had bookmarked these guys and thought they could’ve been onto something. But after watching their videos them saying they were spending like 300k + I’m sure this is viable but you gotta work up to that…Good info though and thanks.
That last comment from Hugh sums it up fairly.
I think, the Garcia’s did do all the work and got the results.As to the legitimacy of their products I doubt that at the time they saw anything wrong with their products and people wanted them.
They must have felt quite dizzy with the results. Carlos’s natural aptitude with numbers stood them in good stead.Lupe obviously thought he was some kind of genius ….for a while anyway.
As for complaints re diet products there are people stupid enough and ignorant enough to think they can actually stick a diet patch on themselves and watch the fat melt.Diet patches or diet products concocted by anyone out there are just a help they are replacement for food with fillers to make them feel full ; they too work best with diet and exercise. If the fat didn’t just melt those people with their diet patch complained.Especially I suspect when they heard how successful the Garcia’s had become.
All that Hugh says is true, with the right product enough money and enough nerve others CAN do the same .But even with the hardest work in the world a great new product is hard to find.
I suspect that was the problem and why Carlos and Lupe thought teaching their method to others might be a goer.Maybe others might have a great product idea.It would work for them.
Eric’s cautions are well placed as are Hughes and others but I do not and I will not believe that Carlos and Lupe are Charlatans .
The scramblers I think they worked also. My theory is that that kind of volume in sales started to take away from some big players products in the offline market and they didn’t like it.
This is ofcourse is only my theory the Garcia’s were young naive and trusting they actually believed in a Democracy that would give them a fair go.Perhaps they thought the Internet was a new playing field.
They were a phenomenon not seen before.Because no body before had been so naive as to think they wouldn’t get up someone’s nose doing what they did.
I hope they can find their way out of this dilemma
http://www.patsite.ws
http://www.patsite.com
hi marvin my name is kevin and like everyone else thats looking to make money on the internet my wife and i are also looking we are new to the net since last jan 08 i have seen carlos garcia videos it looked really good to me i think the info is good i have siged up with six figure yearly i was just wondering if a guy could use any of the traffic tactics to get our internet business going please reply
Watch out, these 2 scammers are at it again. I saw a video recently of a seminar promoted by 2 other confirmed scammers, Buck and Brock, where Carlos pretends he’s crying while describing his early struggles and then Lupe takes over, of course, and explains he gets sentimental. Academy award time. 2nd time in a month that I see an IM try that ploy. Must be a new “emotional sucker tactic” or something.
Towards the end of the video, the sentimentalism quickly turns to greed as they go for the jugular, the $25K Coaching program, which they explain they’re doing ONLY because they want to help newbies. And no, they don’t need the money, after all they’re making 25K an hour. Wow, how very kind of them to share for only 25K! These 2 have obviously taken acting classes. Hide your wallets, folks.
I got sucked into Brock & Buck’s $2,000 *POOP-LINE PROFITS* and they closed their forum down before I had a chance to request a refund.
I’ve been using their useless list of
Co-Reg Agents for bum wipe ever since!
🙁
I think you have offered some helpful observations – thank you.
But I beleive the priciples of their method are sound.
Like most things (including AdWords) one must test foe themselves to know for sure if it works or not.
Whilst Carlos and Lupe are young and a little irresponsible, we need people like this to test the limits, discover new grounds.
I say good on them and I hope they discover eventually that long term success in business is a by-product of providing real value to others (and ignore the short term, get rich quick scammy products like descramblers and diet patches).
Rob, Can you bring us up to date? Did you go through the training? If so, was it worth it? Thanks.
Franklin
I believe Carlos and Lupe were asked by the FTC to stop retailing / advertising online… so maybe that’s why they don’t have any “current” data on their marketing activities.
Regardless, I don’t know of any sane person who would pay $25K for a seminar — I don’t care what the subject matter is…
These two might be scammers, and they may produce garbage products. I don’t know.
I can say with absolute certainty that the methods I watched them discuss in one of the videos work.
We have and continue to use some of the same methods of driving traffic and they work well.
Of course you can get into trouble with the FTC, merchant processors, etc… In this business that sometimes happens.
The FTC are really hitting hard on the online marketing world. You have to be really careful on what you write about and all of your income claims and privacy policies…everything. But the two guys your talking about…crazy stuff.
As one internet marketer i really respect thank you Eric for clearing this up.
That is a great post thank you,and so very true.
What’s wrong with you? It was a really great down to earth post and I for one appreciated it.Do you think perhaps it might have been Garcia himself??Or even Lupe?Gret post.
FTC mmnnnn interesting that explains a lot and my suspicions are correct.
There were a lot of influential business people who didn’t like what they were doing and literally cut them down to size.
And it wasn’t because they thoughtthey were out and out scoundrels.No they were naive and hadn’t felt the need to protect themselves with their built in lawyers.
That Carlos had a natural talent for numbers and little nous about the business world was his downfall.
That he survives at all after they have successfully all but ruined his credibility
with the public…is well sad.