Customer Reviews

Multiple Streams of Internet Income

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

The fundamental example in this book is flawed. Mr. Allen set up an experiment to show that he could make $24,000 in 24 hours on the Internet. He actually did much better than that. Presumably, the purpose was to show you that anyone could. What he did was make a lot of special offers on products and services that he sells all the time to an e-mail list of 11,000 names he had been developing over the prior 9 months. In fact, he used four messages to the list to define the offer and to alert everyone it was coming. Now, if you were one of the most famous authors and investors in America and you gave special deals, couldn't you sell over $24,000 worth in a day? But presumably you aren't, so this book will be very valuable to all the other celebrity authors as an example, but not so much for you. The book does have a few examples of ordinary individuals succeeding on the Internet, but these examples don't exactly scream out at me about how I can do the same.

The principles in the book are a distillation of almost every marketing guru who has published a book. In fact, there is so much Jay Abraham in the book that I wondered if Mr. Abraham might have ghost-written it (or at least commented extensively on it).

Mr. Allen promises too much in the beginning. If you follow "the strategies and techniques in this book, you will be well on your way to Internet riches . . . ." Not only will you be rich, you won't have to work very hard for "the by-product of your start-up Internet business is freedom." If one percent of the people who follow this advice get to either result, I would be surprised. I suggest that Mr. Allen take 100 people, teach them his principles, and report back on the results a year later. Then, if they succeed as he promises, I will write a new review that gives this book five stars.

The strength of this book is in encouraging you to select your target audience and understand their wants before you think about what type of business you want to have and the services or products you want to provide. The advice about how to build traffic to your site, get income once they are there, and to build repeat business is all quite good at a general level.

The other interesting part of the book is Mr. Allen's description of how he changed his unique selling proposition over the years from "nothing down" to "hands-on-training" to "real-time millionaire mentors."

There's no bad advice in the book, as far as I could tell. It just overstates the ease of making money on an Internet start-up with limited investment capital.

Where else have people indicated that things are easy that you have found difficult? How about losing weight? How about getting into shape using the latest piece of equipment? What's the best way to evaluate these claims, without pursuing them yourself?

May the Internet bring you all the success you would like to have.

Multiple streams of Internet Income by Robert Allen is an excellent book for those considering starting a web based business or those interested in learning more about the world wide web and how businesses are marketing to them. The world wide web is truly transforming the global economy despite what the stock market might be stating. I would highly recommend this book for those not familiar with formal marketing strategy or those seeking to learn more about the Internet and various business opportunities available. Some excellent marketing books / concepts quoted include the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Influence, Permission Marketing and Viral marketing buzz marketing or word of mouth.

The new economy is knowledge based and based on expansive communication networks that grow in importance as related groups / interested parties meet each other and conduct business. Mr. Allen clearly understands this and I give him kudos for pursuing such an endeavor.

Here are the pros and cons of the books.....a personal opinion:

Pros:

1. The book is very broad and talks about sales, marketing and advertising, which is rare in such books

2. The book provides Allens example via his business.

3. The book was well written

4. Many excellent marketing books are quoted.

Cons

1. This book is a sales pitch. Mr. Allen clearly has sales copy experience which makes the book interesting but definitely somewhat misleading. He knows what he is doing and he has a VERY successful marketing / product track record. As a result, he is very successful in his Internet trials / examples. He has customers that already know about him, have purchased his products for the last 20 years and others that are interested. He doesnt mention this in the book enough and marketing costs are a HUGE variable cost to businesses. This will likely result in readers being too optimistic about their ability to generate wealth on the web.

2. The book was written by several co-authors. It seems as though Allen, in a rush to get the book out, heavily relied on so called experts within various parts of Internet Marketing.

3. He plugs various peoples products that are not that good. I have perused many of these products and it is hit and miss. Some are good and some are not so good.

My final thoughts on the book are this: Read it. It is worth the time for beginners. For those seeking a wide exposure to marketing/advertising/sales in an Internet world it is well worth it. There are some pitfalls though that I cant overemphasize.

Any business, irregardless of distribution channel, is a lot of work. Internet businesses require hard work, lots of sweat, lots of perseverance, lots of testing, lots of learning and, for those interested, they can be very fulfilling opportunities. If you are trying to make major money or simply pursue a hobby online via a personal website this book is worth reading.

Most of my reviews are in business / economics and I encourage people to read them, whether here on Amazon or at my personal website. If you are interested in economic history book I would encourage everyone to read The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner since it is more international in scope and deals with the lives and times of the most famous economists in history. If you are interested in economic development / evolution of U.S. property history I would encourage you to read Hernando DeSoto's Mystery of Capital but note his lack of focus on corruption in certain countries. A great general business book is by the management guru Peter Drucker entitled "The Essential Drucker."

The claim of "How to Make 24,000 dollars in 24 hours" was solely created to get people to buy his book. What he *doesn't* say is that it took him about 9 months to build a subscriber base to his newsletter which then allowed him to send out a FINAL email with several offers; only THEN did he make over 90,000 dollars in a 24 hours a period, even after chargebacks. Any Marketing Guru worth his salt knows that it takes time to build a brand, reputation, and sound Marketing principles. This book is a good read and does provide SOME useful information, however, it seemed to have been written in a hurry, not to make a quick buck but to get the book out quickly internet. Bottomline: If you have the time to scour the net, you can find all this information and so much more and do not need to buy this book; look up Corey Rudl, Mike Enlow, Jay Abraham, Terry Dean, etc. My advice to Robert Allen: continue to help make millionaires out of ordinary people, however you NEED to be more up front about your methods. The 24K in 24 hours was misleading. Building any solid business takes time.

It must have taken Robert Allen about 2 hours to write this book, but I tell you how to make money even faster:

1) Find a hot topic which you know nothing about
2) Write a book that rehashes a bunch of tired marketing concepts in this new context
3) Put tons of advertisements in your book
4) Get rich as out-of-work people buy your book

Those looking for serious suggestions about how to make money on the internet can look elsewhere. Here's the gist what he offers: develop a useful product that everyone wants and sell it on the internet. Gee, thanks.

A better way to make money on the internet would be to write a book about it, like Robert Allen did. And, hey, you'd probably know more about the subject matter than he does.

Oh, and the cartoons in the book aren't funny.

What a waste of trees. If you are looking for an insightful, professional approach to doing business on the Internet, this book IS NOT it. What a throwback to the 20th century. Haven't we all had enough of those slimy, "no money down" infomercials, and the MLM "opportunities" that makes us all somebody's friend as long as we by their health drink or makeup?

This author has no credibility in this area. This book is the antithesis of what E-Business is all about today for anyone interested in succeeding on the Internet...or making money. And there are so many better ones! Run from here to "E-Business To Go" by G. Thompson, or "Max e-Marketing" by Rapp - you'll find exactly what you're looking for, and get 1000% more practical information in the first ten pages of either, than this thinly veiled ponzi publication gives you in its entirety!

Save yourself time, money and aggravation. Leave this one for the pyramid schemers. The only "multiple streams of income" this book will generate is into this guy's pocket.

This book has some good ideas on how to make money on the internet, but the ways to go about them are hidden behind advertisements for the guest writers in the book. If everyone who reads this book went to the website of Robert Allen and the guest writers, they would make a fortune off of the internet.

There are better books out there that can help you out with making money. Robert Allen is a great motivator and can get you pumped up, but this book is nothing but a series of advertisements for himeself and his friends. Save your money.

If you want a "nerd-inspired", tech-oriented "how to make money on the Internet", don't buy this book.

This is a book written for entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of what the Internet offers in terms of reduced marketing costs, broader reach, inexpensive frequency of message dissemination, and the cumulative impact of marketing and advertising on the web. In other words, practical solutions to making money on the net.

I have read more than two dozen "how-to-market-on-the-Internet" books. They seem to fall into one of two categories: (1)Basics 101, written for a plumber or a grandma who just learned how to turn her computer on; and (2)books written by those 'baseball-hat-turned-backward' types who will 'html'-you or 'browser' befuddle you to death with arcane terminology, or whack you upside your head with a bag of zeros and ones.

Bob Allen's book is right in the middle. It's not a basic primer on the Internet. Nor is it a techhie wonderland that assumes you have at least a Masters in computer science. This is a book for people who already know something about how to operate on the Internet, but have not yet been exposed to all the pros and cons of the various methodologies present today. There are still lots of pundits out there who try to sell you banner ads, classifieds or other ... you just don't need, because they just don't work. Bob has done a great job of demystifying some of these sacred web cows, and in detail, explains just how to make things work. His main concern is to demonstrate how,if carefully thought out and planned,almost anyone can make a lot of money on the Internet.

I've been on the net for over three years, far too many hours per week to admit to. I though I knew most everything there was to know about marketing on the web. I walked into a book signing and thought I'd at least give him a listen. I picked up a copy of the book, and quickly flipped through it. Then, as I listened, some of the ideas Bob was sharing with his audience struck a responsive chord with me and helped me see how to solve a major marketing problem I had been wresting with for weeks. Bingo, the answer dropped into place. Other things he stressed, simply verified my own thinking. Needless to say, I walked out of there with a copy under my arm.

If you want to understand HOW to do it, and you want to learn what NOT to do before you waste money, this is an excellent book for you.

Our website was doing "okay". After 4 months on-line we were selling about $400+/month. I read MSOII and found a goldmine of ideas to fine-tune our business. After reading this book, we surveyed our customer base, found out what they would (and would'nt) buy and how much they would pay. We created a "marketing machine" by adding autoresponders, an e-zine and a second web site. The how-to and why-to were all in this book.

Bottom line.... we will see our first $10,000+ month 12-weeks after reading MSOII! This book is the best investment I ever made.

Robert Allen's previous book, Multiple Streams of Income, is EXCELLENT and I can't say enough good things about it. This one was a MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT in comparison. He talks about the same rehashed Internet marketing strategies that everyone else does. Creating email lists, newsletters, blah, blah, blah...

The most disappointing thing about Robert Allen -- and I lost so much respect for him over this -- is that he demonstrates how to get a bunch of people to order his product within minutes of putting out an email blast. What's stupid about the whole thing, and demonstrates that he's a snakeoil salesman scam artist, is that what he's selling by email is a course on how to make money on the Internet...so how do you make money on the Internet? According to Robert Allen, by selling courses showing people how to make money on the Internet is the only way to make money on the Internet. That's a scam! How does he sleep at night?

Don't buy this book. It's a waste of money.

A lot of the techniques discussed in this book rely on using e-mail marketing. With the spam problem getting worse, many of the ideas won't work or will require too much effort to get your marketing messages delivered.

The book does provide solid explanations on other ways to make money online, but there're newer strategies being used.

I can't recommend another book at this time. Your best bet is to do searches on the Internet for money making ideas.

This would have been a 5 star book when it first came out. If Allen were to write a revised edition I would get it.