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How Much Does This Beach Bum Make Anyway?

written by John Chow on October 13, 2007

How to make $593 in less than one hour

ty-hawaii-crib2new.jpg

No doubt you’ve seen a few ads on here for a certain beach bum who claims to be making $237,000 a month while sitting at home with his laptop.

It all started when Home Business Seeker purchased a 125×125 sponsorship button to promote Ty Coughlin’s Reverse Funnel System. When I put the 300×250 ad for sale, I got an order from another advertiser that wanted to promote the beach bum. Then one more order from a different advertiser. Then another.

In all, I have four advertisers promoting the same thing. It’s quite obvious that this is an affiliate program and a pretty successful one at that. I’ve been seeing beach bum ads on many of the major make money online blogs. The beach bum’s “Reverse Funnel System” claims to put $5,000 to $10,000 in many affiliates’ pocket every week. I haven’t dug too deeply into it but as far as I can tell, it’s a funded proposal. The fact that I have three advertisers promoting it would seem to indicate that there’s money to be made from the deal. I’m just not sure for whom.

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{ 80 comments }

Calvin October 13, 2007 at 10:08 pm

why don’t you take up that spot yourself and give the same affiliate program a try, and then blog about it… ?

SEO Optimization October 14, 2007 at 1:58 am

Thats what I was thinking while reading this post. John, why don’t you sign up for their affiliate and try it here on johnchow.com (even tho it would not be that much related, with the amount of visitors you have there will be someone interested in that, and if it will work here it will definitively work better on related sites, don’t you think) ?

Collin October 14, 2007 at 9:11 am

I think he should as well. Go for it John

Turk Hit Box October 14, 2007 at 3:21 am

I agree as well, you should set up an example for all of us :)

Israel October 14, 2007 at 3:08 pm

the problem with that is that it wont be a realistic example. especially if he pushes it on his blog. now if he joins and does some other advetising for it like ppc, etc then it would be more realistic to relate the example to something a normal not big name blogger.

Rob October 15, 2007 at 12:56 pm

Why doesn’t John put the add up on his “test blog” and use that as a real world experiment? That’ll be a more true test.

Mike October 18, 2007 at 2:55 pm

I’d be very careful when going to one of them sites like beach bums. They all ahve a big long winded salespage that tells you how much they are earning and how they will show how to do it. They will also tell you that they are not like all of the others and dat the price has gone down from a kigillion dollars to only $dollars and will have to go back up soon.

I don’t trust them at all.

Mike

Dr. Badminton October 13, 2007 at 10:17 pm

Hi John! The system is something like stock investment. Am I right?

Joe October 13, 2007 at 10:19 pm

Affiliate programs like that make me nervous. A lot of times they seem too good to be true, but then I see people making a ton of money off of them. I just don’t have the resources to invest in it. You might, John! I support Calvin’s vote up there. Let us know! :twisted:

James Wilcox October 13, 2007 at 10:20 pm

if it sounds too good to be true…

All those kinds of programs claim the same thing and I am sure many people are successful but it sounds to me like it’s another “pay x amount for this book for the right to resell this book…” Don LaPre used to peddle this kind of stuff back in the 90s.

lyricsreg October 14, 2007 at 4:58 am

It does seem a bit far fetched. But … who knows ?

Israel October 14, 2007 at 3:01 pm

its usually those on top that make the most cash.

Michael October 13, 2007 at 10:21 pm

He does “bum marketing” which basically just consists of affiliate marketing with blogs and that, as well as article writing to make some money. You then re-invest that money into your business with PPC advertising or whatever else you need.

It’s essentially the program online that you need to work hard at, but don’t have to invest money into. This is how I’ve grown my work online. I started with blogging/bum marketing and I’m slowly moving up.

btw. John, how is your challenge going? didn’t you have a blog that you made and had to see if you could get it making $XXX in a month without branding it with your name?

Pam Hoffman October 14, 2007 at 12:21 am

“btw. John, how is your challenge going? didn’t you have a blog that you made and had to see if you could get it making $XXX in a month without branding it with your name?”

I was wondering too – I couldn’t remember where it was first posted.

Anyone have that link? send to pamhoffman at cox dot net

Thanks!

Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com

Israel October 14, 2007 at 3:02 pm

i dont think he has released the blog yet. i am eager to see how its doing too.

dcr October 13, 2007 at 10:25 pm

The fact that they have a cute little name, “Reverse Funnel System,” for their “system” sets off warning bells right away.

Aaron Cook October 13, 2007 at 10:51 pm

Exactly!

Hoto October 13, 2007 at 10:27 pm

:twisted: it never sounds good to me if anyone tells me no work and a lot of money for it. this really sounds like an illegal pyramid schema. sure the first few people make some money out of such plans but hte most of the people loose their money. my advise: just say no.lol

squaretan October 13, 2007 at 10:28 pm

Even John Chow is lost at times! :grin:

Michael October 14, 2007 at 2:30 am

Lots of times, I would say :evil: Just joking! :mrgreen:

Jeremy Steele October 13, 2007 at 10:29 pm

I wonder what happend to the post about him on NetBusinessBlog?

Wikillionaire October 13, 2007 at 10:30 pm

Sounds way too good to be true! ,wikillionaire.com

BP October 13, 2007 at 10:31 pm

Shoe me the money! :cool:

lyricsreg October 14, 2007 at 11:40 pm

Chow me the money :)

Hawaii SEO October 13, 2007 at 10:35 pm

The guy is a phony. (Hawaii is a small place) I’ve been doing SEO, PPC and affiliate marketing here in Hawaii for quite a while and I’ve never heard of the guy. The picture looks like it’s from the Hilo side of the Big Island. I know several, professional SEO’s/Affiliate marketers in that area but never heard of him. (Hawaii is a small place)

Prove me wrong Mr Beach Bum, Big Shot.

Hawaii SEO October 13, 2007 at 11:26 pm

Hey Ty Coughlin – AKA – Beach Bum,
I’m right here in Hawaii. I’ll come over and you can show me how the system works if you want. However… I have a strong feeling your system works by suckering people into signing up, versus providing value. – If your program works off of some sort of travel program, I’m sure I’ll be able to understand what it’s all about. (I’ve managed the internet marketing for major airlines and hotel chains) Don’t be afraid to come over or give me a call.

Aloha,
Dave.

Israel October 14, 2007 at 3:04 pm

i think you are scaring the guy off. lol.

Hawaii SEO October 14, 2007 at 4:51 pm

I have no doubt about the guy making money. However… I know a LOT of online, and offline timeshare & vacation rental marketers out here and none of them are participating in his MLM Affiliate program or have even heard of it. There is a lot of information about how you can use the MLM Affiliate program to make money if you can get others to buy into it, but almost no information about the product it’s promoting. Whenever I see things like that, it just makes me wonder.

Shaun Carter October 13, 2007 at 10:36 pm

There’s no doubt someone is making money from this system… the beach bum who’s selling it.

Making The Money October 14, 2007 at 7:13 am

I have the feeling he’s making $200,000 a month purely on the belief of other people who think that they can make $200,000+ too.

Chris Jacobson October 13, 2007 at 10:42 pm

Another program I’ll have to look into. I’ve seen these ads too, but never paid much attention.

OnlineCashFlow October 13, 2007 at 10:48 pm

Some of these things are unbelievable. Honestly, $237k a month seems a little steep and makes me NOT want to purchase the program. However, if it were to claim 5-10k a month, I would be exponentially more inclined to research and potentially purchase this product.

Blog Contests October 13, 2007 at 10:49 pm

The photo cracks me up

Neil Duckett October 13, 2007 at 10:58 pm

Looks dodgy to me.

Celebrities & Blog Tips October 14, 2007 at 12:17 am

I think it’s a marketing gimmick!!

lyricsreg October 14, 2007 at 11:41 pm

No it’s not. I make twice that much in a month. It’s easy. E-book coming soon

Adam October 14, 2007 at 12:41 am

John, I have looked all over the internet to find out if this system is a scam and I can’t find any negative reviews. Me and a lot of other people would be very interested to hear your review of the system if you would be kind enough to dig deeper. It looks like a pyramid to me, so I am not going to invest money that I can’t loose into an unknown system.

Teddy Wong October 14, 2007 at 12:50 am

I don’t know how to know they said truth or not. So, I never join this kind of programs.

Michael October 14, 2007 at 2:32 am

Good choice. I got tricked the other time (well, I didn’t really get tricked because I was prepared for it :twisted: ) and I learnt my lesson to never join these get rich quick services

Rhys October 14, 2007 at 12:59 am

Wouldn’t mind, but I call scam. He looks like he’s in a hotel, not on the beach from that picture. :)

esofthub October 14, 2007 at 1:52 am

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Making good money involves hard work, personal sacrifice, timing, and sheer luck.
“Reverse funnel system” – What the heck does that mean, outflow of your cash?

Ash Haque October 14, 2007 at 2:01 am

Hey John I know you’re trying to increase your rss subscriber account, but having the flashing beach bum ad (exactly the one I presume you’re talking about above) really does get kind of annoying.

Daniel Scocco October 14, 2007 at 2:19 am

The thing I always wonder when I see these schemes are:

If you are making $200k monthly from whatever technique you use, you still want to waste time producing an ebook to sell it and let MORE people know about? HHmm…

Jonk : Bargains October 14, 2007 at 4:06 am

Too right Daniel
The things I use to make money, I don’t tell anyone !

Shams October 14, 2007 at 4:19 am

Reverse Funnel System means money is not going out of your hand but coming in from somewhere. I have seen the 125*125 ad. Will he put one on my site?

esofthub October 14, 2007 at 4:44 am

Thanks for the “Reverse Funnel System” explanation. I’m still skeptical about the system.

MillionDollarJourney.com October 14, 2007 at 5:13 am

I’ve had the same people contact me and advertise on my site. I’m looking forward to your analysis on their system.

Cash Quests October 14, 2007 at 5:43 am

All I know is that after he gets your e-mail address, there is a $50 fee just to see if you’re suitable to go to the next level. He claims it is to filter out those who aren’t serious….I claim….scam.

Justin October 14, 2007 at 7:00 am

I think giving away 50 bucks is serious enough to let someone know you want to work with a program.

Making The Money October 14, 2007 at 7:14 am

Ha ha, that would be enough for me to run a mile.

Home Recording October 14, 2007 at 5:50 am

Reverse funnel could turn out to be a reverse pyramid! Haven’t similar things been done off line, only to leave a lot of sadness around?

Marco October 14, 2007 at 6:12 am

It seems to me that you pay to learn the ‘system’
Then you actually learn that you make the money by selling the system to other people.

Aditya Kumar Singh October 14, 2007 at 6:31 am

I am getting more and more tempted to try this out ;)

Justin October 14, 2007 at 6:56 am

Looks like more people getting suckered. I don’t like to offer ads that seem like they are ultimately, How do you say…. SCAMS!

Liberty and New Creation October 14, 2007 at 7:19 am

That’s always the kicker isn’t it? For whom indeed.

James October 14, 2007 at 7:25 am

A bit of like THE RICH JERK, isn’t it?
Sounds to me to be something not for me to buy, only for fooled people. Maybe the money is in being an affiliate and promoting it but surely not in buying whatever they have for sale.

Just like THE RICH JERK…

Poker October 14, 2007 at 7:51 am

I agree, this really sounds like TRJ. Well there are many people around who traps into things like this, i’m not even gonna try it.

MrBeachBum October 14, 2007 at 7:55 am

What I like most about the “Rich Beach Bum” is the fact that I had mrbeachbum.com first! I get all kinds of searches for beach bum and rich beach bum that make it to my page instead and if you look at his hosting info he was almost an entire year after me. I am more like John Chow, however, in that I believe in freely offering info to those who wish to get started versus selling some product with catch (fake) marketing terms like “reverse funnel system”… Though I should probably consider joining his affiliate program and cashing in on the fact that I get a lot of his traffic via natural searches.

Derek October 14, 2007 at 8:33 am

Try it out John, make a case study and then that will get you more referrals yourself. Sounds like an interesting program.

Paul E. Zimmerman October 14, 2007 at 8:47 am

As best as I can tell, the reverse funnel system is little more than an automated sales system to push Global Resorts Network memberships (if you google that, you’ll find dozens and dozens of affiliate sites).

The offering is for a limited time or a lifetime membership that gives one significant discounts on travel and access to numerous timeshares worldwide.

On its face, the product doesn’t sound half bad. My hesitation is saturation: how many of these things can be/already have been absorbed by the market for them, i.e. how much room is left for a new guy to get in and find some interested clients?

The reverse funnel system seems to require that one sign up with GRN for the lifetime membership ($2,995), and then turn around and sell them to new RFS prospects. That, to my mind, answers my previous question: the only market left is people who want to be affiliate marketers. That could make one some money, but it’s a matter of not being the last guy in…

Googlelady October 14, 2007 at 9:01 am

When there is more than 1 spot advertising the same affiliate program for sure will not successfull I think, that this is what the advertiser fault and not JC.

Zeila Rich October 14, 2007 at 9:21 am

Isn’t everything about getting people to help you make money?

JohnChow.com is giving information you use to make money, to help him make money.

This bum gives you the hope of making money, and tries to teach you how, and in return you pay him all the money he wants you to give him.

Even Google Adsense is doing the same thing. They pay you money to help them show their ads, so that the advertisers can pay them the money.

Nothing unusual. Can somebody tell me who else has made the same amount of money as John Chow by learning from him? How about 20K a month? Anyone?
But some teachers have disciples who had the exact or better successes.

So anyone here made the same money as John Chow ever since you’ve been following him?

great008 October 14, 2007 at 10:19 am

Good point Zelia….The market does sound a bit saturated for this kind of product i think…I suppose that guy is no longer a beach bum…am i correct?

Freelance Writer October 14, 2007 at 2:13 pm

Hmm, it does sound fishy as a program, but you have to ask yourself, would you make 250 grand if you were in his place? We should concentrate on whether the program works, not on the individuals motives behind it. If it works, the “beach bum” is pretty much irrelevant. The profit is the relevant factor. So, John, what’s the word? Does it work?
J.L. Graham

A skeptic October 14, 2007 at 2:15 pm

I don’t know. Perhaps the man’s character does matter. Yet, we have to ask ourselves again, what if he were to be reading these, as the above posts seem to point out, and he offered John ten thousand dollars to say it works? That’s what I would do in his place. If John took the money and said it worked, how many of us on here would jump onboard?

Israel October 14, 2007 at 3:07 pm

tons actually. the mere fact that john mentioned it in this post has probably led some folks into joining.

BlogsTheme.com October 14, 2007 at 3:22 pm

I guess it’s just another “rich jerk” trying to sell one of his get rich quick books…
At least that how his website looks like…

The Foo October 14, 2007 at 3:33 pm

Personally, I think you should research the money making opp before putting it on Johnchow.com as it might be a scam or a bad affiliate scheme that you might not want to associate yourself with.

I think this is a very amateurish way to blog about an affiliate program. Putting out a post and saying “I haven’t dug too deeply into it.. ” is really an amateurish way to report something. If you want to blog about something or an affiliate program, especially in your blog, at least do some digging on it, make it factual and opinionated rather than putting unsure statements out there that I can read on any other non johnchow blog. Reading this post is liken to a blind statement of saying “Try it, I think it is good but I’m not sure, I haven’t tried it and I haven’t done the research”. Imagine if Michael Arrington did that with tech companies without any research behind it? … i.e. with him saying “I think this tech company looks good, I have seen it a lot and you should try it out but I have not really looked into it properly”.

Your blog stands out because you teach people how to make money and write about the good and bad affiliates out there based on facts, and your own research based opinions — not blind statements.

Plus, you might have just given this so called affiliate scheme a boost of johnchow traffic. If it is a good system, then good for them and you… if it is a bad one, then you might have just given them free publicity that they don’t deserve.

On this affiliate program — my take on it is, if you go on an affiliate site, read it and at the end of it all you have NO clue how the money is made and you have to sign up to reveal the secret — it is not worth it and is pretty suspect. At least tell me what area one will be focusing on to make money i.e. is it real estate, selling ads in newspapers, selling groceries etc. How do I know I am not going to be an affiliate for lingerie or sex toys etc…. not saying that it is but that’s just my point — one really doesn’t know what this affiliate system is for except for the vague term “reverse funnel system”. Without knowing what I’ll be getting into, I won’t sign up or give them my information and basically will stay away from these sort of programs.

Also, if it seems too good to be true, it normally is.

Free Backlinks for You October 14, 2007 at 5:34 pm

I must admit, it’s a clever concept. Reminds me of the rich jerk, just without the jerk. :P

PipholicDotCom October 14, 2007 at 6:23 pm

I always wonder why person who has earn so much money with his/her system trying to sell it. It is the same doubt I feel when reading Kiyosaki book at the first time. Well, for sure kiyosaki is now a rich guy from his book selling profit :D

Carlo Selorio October 14, 2007 at 7:51 pm

I’m a bit curious about this…

I hope his claims are true.

Teejay October 14, 2007 at 8:45 pm

Hmm… I have seen this guy before!

Celebrity Trashcan October 14, 2007 at 8:55 pm

I’ve seen the beach bum ads popping up too. I Checked out the guys sales copy and left the page quickly. Sounded too scammy for me. Someday I will be a beach bum diva but I’ll do it the old fashioned way.

Albert October 14, 2007 at 9:32 pm

I think the question we should all be asking here is has ANYBODY tried this, and how was it?

Angel October 14, 2007 at 10:35 pm

So who is the dude in picture?

keel wong October 15, 2007 at 1:03 am

i saw this on major ptr,ptc websites everyday!
well,my opinion is i don’t believe in this kind of get rich scheme advertisement,there are too many “Business Guru that broke” on internet!

abdou October 15, 2007 at 2:53 am

hmmm!!

we are tired from this lies we want to make money
recently i discovered that the huge amount of ads about data entry programms that claim helping you to make 200$/day and few hours ork per week and show this ferraris and beaches it i not data entry but it is affiliate via ppc search engines
i found it here

abdou October 15, 2007 at 3:08 am

i think the amount they mentioned is achivable but not for a newbie with small amount of ad budget

lately i discovered that the data entry programms tell us that we have to enter data and get rewarded but the truth is not like that at when you purchase this kind of programms they will tell you:
-register for click bank account
-choose a product
-promote it via ppc search engines

so they are not scams but the information (or training material) can be found everywhere for free
like this blog
data entry exposed

Blogging Success Journey October 16, 2007 at 12:04 am

is he really a rich jerk as mentioned?

Alistair October 16, 2007 at 4:46 am

This is clearly a pyramid scheme.