I distinctly remember the night I came across Chris Campbell's "Big Money Millionaire" site or whatever the domain was that it was hawked on.

I had just recently been studying marketing & sales fundamentals. As everyone knows or as heard at one point, the "sizzle" sells the steak. Not the steak itself.

You look on the menu at McDonald's. That's one sexy ass burger. Compare it to what you actually get & you're not as excited as you were when you saw that steaming fresh hotness of a burger in the neon billboard.

So to with this 23 year old, Chris Campbell. His video right there showing exactly his merchant account and all the income laid out. I'm very tech savvy as that's what I do for a living -- these kinds of videos cannot be faked, at least not easily, not by a schmaltzy 23 year old.

Enter EDC Gold

I called the phone number listed on the website. I got someone else, not Chris. Let's call him "Jay". Jay told me that he was Chris' business partner, that Chris wasn't there (even though that's what the website made it look like, that I was calling Chris directly)

But since Chris seemed hard to get ahold of (I mean, counting all his money and taking dives in it, Scrooge-style, must be hard work), I was willing to let this slide & work through Jay, though I still expected to hear from Chris as soon as he got some free time on his hands.

Work Sucks, You Know?

I've seen some poster in this thread poo-poo how some people expect to work a 9-5 and retire a millionaire (when that rarely happens), and meanwhile things like EDC seem shady or only "work" for all but a select few.

You know what they call that, kid? Life. Thems the breaks, kiddo. You either make it or break it out there in your own, with whatever sh*tty hand you were dealt with in life. (or relatively lucky one, for that matter)

So, I can't stand working at a place after about 6 months - 1 year. It just gets really boring & old after a while. I'm definitely meant to be an entrepreneur in life -- so many of us are. But it's not easy.

So Chris' message spoke to me... but I knew, I just felt, that there had to be something shady going on.

But you know what? And this is sad, sad to admit this, I was willing to compromise my integrity and actually schlock this crap if I could just have a teeny, tiny fraction of the success he has had.

I had racked up a lot of credit card debt and was looking to get out of it (still am, though I'm better off now). This would be a way to pay down my debt, get a little nest egg & then work on other stuff full-time.

Hook Line & Sinker

So I was in such a hurry to signup with EDC Gold and start my cash quest, that I plunked down the $997 to Jay, never having spoken to Chris directly. Jay explained the whole deal. I had heard of "2-ups" before, but didn't really know too much about em. I'm definitely the kind of guy who will Google the crap out of something before I make any big moves. Part of the problem was that EDC was just starting up, so there were hardly *any* negative sites on the web about it yet.

Jay explained to me that I would simply do what he had done. I understand franchising & that the best way to succeed as a "franchise" was to replicate the system. i.e. you get the McManual on your desk, you don't throw that out the window & re-invent the wheel. You follow it to the letter, at least for a while, because a lot of bright people have optimized this stuff over time.

That's how I viewed my experiment, and honestly, I wanted to see the inner workings of one of these kinds of operations. How much of a scam was it? How much of it was legit?

But of course, I wanted to make a decent chunk of change from this thing as well (my goal was $10-20k at least).

Building Momentum

So I was supposed to get this "replicated marketing site" that was exactly like Jay had, the one that "sold" me. Instead it was some piece of crap, nothing like I had seen & signed up for. After all, his site had hooked me -- I wanted the same thing, not some cheap imitation that's only good enough for second-rate downlines.

Being savvy with HTML, I actually pulled down the entire site & started hosting all 10-15 pages on my own domain. The only differences were my custom phone # and URLs throughout.

Instead of the links saying "Call 888-123-4567 and ask for Chris (or Jay)" it would say "Call 888-555-1234 and ask for Chris (or __me___)"

I also started buying AdWords on related topics and driving targetted traffic to the site in whatever ways I could.

When you googled "Chris Campbell", which I would think, any normal person would do after reading about this kid's story and wondering if he was legit, one of the sites said "Official Site of Chris Campbell". Well Holy F*ck! How am I supposed to compete with that?

Won't everyone just go to that site, and signup there? So I started using that language in my AdWords campaigns for the "replicated site."

One Pissed Off Chris

Oh boy. What happened next was funny, and really pissed me off. Chris emails & calls me threatening me with copyright infringement of all his materials. Eventually his hot head cools down & he talks to my upline, who explains what I had done & that Jay had said it was okay. The one thing they said I'm not allowed to do is use "Official" or anything like that in AdWords campaigns.

Ok fine, whatever. This left a sour taste in my mouth around Chris (who came off like a total dick of course), but I had a lot of $$ and time invested at this point and didn't want to back out just yet. (yeah I totally understand why he wouldn't want ME saying I have the Official Site, but still, the whole idea is we get a site just like his... anyway)

The AdWords campaigns persisted and I actually spoke to about 15-25 people about EDC Gold. Most were callins (these were the best), but I also tried some of their "home business opportunity leads" which were just a joke. It was clear from speaking with these people, almost any of them really, that they were not very tech savvy at all. I had a huge advantage here because I already knew about all this stuff and could setup websites, etc. in short order.

These poor saps were clueless, and just wanted to make some extra money so they didn't have to work their sh*tty jobs anymore, or were out of work period.

Coming to a Head

Eventually what brought the whole thing to a head, was Chris was still basically pissed that Jay and I had taken, really, his main marketing site and co-opted it as if we were really him.

This, in my mind, was the one hook / piece of leverage we had as deep resellers of his personal money-making brand, as it were. As others have stated in this thread, what's to stop someone visiting a David Dubbs marketing partner site, only to eventually track down the "Real" or "Official" D. Dubbs site and signup directly with him? That's what I'd have done if I knew what I was doing.

Anyway Chris sent another series of angry emails & voicemails, and I had just had enough of this punk. I wanted to make a few k, and meanwhile he was so freaking greedy he couldn't even help his marketing partners by leveraging the same tools he used to make all his $$$.

All for the Best

It was all for the best though, my upline was willing to give me a refund of the $997. (who knows their oficial policy on this) He even offered to let me "skip" the 2-ups that would've been due to him, so that if I had been able to bring someone in, I'd see that cash into my pocket immediately. The whole thing was too tainted at this point and I just wanted to get my money back as quickly as possible.

I even called my CC company and canceled the card I had used, to ensure that no future recurring billing's would go through at all for all the related EDC services I had signed up for.

Anyone else besides PA27 care to share their personal EDC Gold story?

I hope you enjoyed / got some benefit out of reading mine!

I have to apologize to you. I have known for a while (as have others) they way Chris Campbell operates. It is why I preached so fervently on this and other forums not to fall for the "top earner" trap. While they may flaunt their proof of income, their names and their stories, they aren't worth signing up with if you expect to get quality service, tools and training. I've also spoken about how I despise replicated sites. I have created my own, and do the same for my own team members, who seem very happy with what they've gotten. I don't understand how anyone could hope to succeed with a replicated site, especially one with someone else's face, cars, houses and voice all over it.

So, you got the worst of the worst (IMHO) when it comes to sponsors. I have had several of his team members (both back when he was in EDC Gold and even in his other ventures) contact me asking for guidance or assistance.

This is just my personal opinion, but I still do not hold a whole company accountable for what the rotten apples of the bunch do. I believe that there is a correct and ethical way to run this business, and that many EDC sponsors do just that. There are also those who don't, and doing a good amount of research will show you who to and not to follow. I have a close network of about 40 or so friends/business contacts, all members of EDC Gold (and not on my own team). We regularly talk about our experiences, how we're doing things, and ask for feedback and ideas. the majority of those that I know have their own websites, not replicated sites. And these websites present the products, training and services just as much as the income opportunity. Not to mention, most of them offer some additional services, such as exclusive training websites and other tools to help new members get started. There are tons of EDC Gold websites out there, and unfortunately most of them market the income opportunity, as you said. But there are those that show the opportunity for what it is, a lucrative home business and a chance to learn more about how to market effectively online.

Though this may not count for much with you (having had a bad experience and thus your current feelings), I am one of those who actually use the products I've purchased through EDC Gold. Two very well-known products in particular are Article Submitted and Camtasia Studio. I consider myself lucky that I didn't have to go out and pay the retail price for those (Camtasia alone is $299, check download.com if you're not convinced). And how do I use these? To market (I enjoy writing and submitting articles as a way to express my business ideas and drive traffic to my website (and it's all free, which I love even more), to promote (I recently created an extensive training website for my team members and any other EDC Gold members interested in joining, and created a promotional video with Camtasia in which I took viewers on a short tour of my new training site) and to train (I've created some step-by-step videos from the back office, explaining how to navigate, how to get set up and what important tools to look for). If you are interested in whether I've used these to further my business and earn income outside of bringing in new members, I frequently use the audio and video software to clean up files, add effects, compress file sizes, convert file formats and stream video on my own website and the websites I've created for others (I do not charge my own team members, but other EDC members can have a customized website as part of my Co-op program). Many of my own members have reported using many of the products for their own ventures (one owns a music studio and is using products to enhance and promote that, one owns a mobile detailing service and using them to promote that...). Again, I don't know what that will mean (if anything) to you, but it shows me that the products everyone speaks so harshly of are only considered "garbage" when someone can use them or sell them themselves. That, to me, isn't enough to deem a product as valuable or worthless. That is all in the eye of the beholder.

As I stated before, there is a correct way to run a business with EDC Gold. It takes originality and creativity. One should always look for ways to brand themselves and set themselves apart from other team members or competition. Having skills with HTML, I'm surprised you didn't just opt to make your own website (however, I do understand that you wanted a site similar to the one that converted you). If anything, marketing is partially trial and error. I've tested my own websites against the replicated sites that supposedly convert so well, and the resounding opinion was that the personalized site was much better for visitors.

At the end of the day, I cannot say what will happen to EDC Gold in the future. I do know that other programs which are similar have endured and are still running in their normal way years later (I'll use Liberty League as an example: different product line and physical product, though similar to products offered by Roadmap to Riches, but similar compensation plan involving the passing up of sales). If anything I think EDC has a lot of room for improvement, but one thing I like is that they are steadily working on such improvements, and always announcing new tools and programs to help us (and no, they aren't things we have to pay for). I'm also happy that they regularly add to the products we've purchased without us having to pay extra. I do not look at the experience solely from the aspect of sponsors (if I did, my story would probably be similar to yours, as my sponsor did little to nothing to help me get going). While it is important for newcomers to have a good sponsor, success can be had without one if you put your mind to it. When I say EDC Gold, I am speaking about the company itself, the training, tools and services it provides, the products we're given access to, the support and the constant updates and new ideas that are thrown into the mix. I don't look at it from the income-earning aspect only (though the income is nice). There are a million ways to make money out here, but hardly any of those ways would show you how to do it effectively and inexpensively.

I value more the fact that I can take what I've learned from EDC Gold to start up new ventures of my own, and know exactly how to market them effectively and without spending hundreds of dollars (and that I can use the products I've purchased from EDC to help enhance and promote those ventures). Despite what rogue distributors claim, EDC Gold is much more than just a chance to make money. Those who promote from that angle rarely see success, and those that do see a bit never have it for too long. I feel that people need to look beyond the surface when doing research. If they do, they'll get the full picture, not just bits and pieces.

This is nothing against you, but for all others who are ex-members of EDC Gold and are now claiming that it is a scam or they never made any money and tried to the best of their abilities...I'd like to "Google" each and every one of them to see how much info comes up about them and their business. I have done this with some, and can report that I didn't find much of anything. Posting ads on Craigslist or other classified sites isn't enough. I learned that early on. While you can gain short-lived exposure from this, you won't gain enough to see a steady flow of traffic (unless you know exactly how these sites work and can post literally hundreds of ads a day). True marketing is much more than posting ads or believing that a website will convert every visitor who looks at it. That's where the difference comes in. Those who understand this do what's necessary to market. Those who don't never see success. We never want to blame ourselves for our shortcomings. I admit that in many cases it is not entirely the fault of the new member (because people are often misled by ads), but when it comes right down to it, you can tell if someone tried or not. From what I've seen, those that complain of failure didn't try too hard. Again, this is not true of everyone, only those I've spoken with.

Take all of this for what you will. At the end of the day, I don't think it's about comp plans or sponsors. It ultimately depends on the person involved and whether they had the drive and fortitude to make it work. Even without a helpful sponsor, there is plenty of info, training and support to help a person succeed. But success can't be given or provided for you. You have to take what's given, add your own flare, and make it work. Simple as that. If I fail, at the end of the day I feel I have no one to blame but myself. As harsh as that may sound (and as much as humans like to place blame on any and everything but themselves), it is just the truth. I could have given up when my sponsor dropped off the face of the earth, like so many others have. I could have become bitter and regretful of investing my hard-earned money. But I still saw the potential in the program and I just got going to make things work. It's all a choice. You either want to succeed or you want to be skeptical and cautious and never give a program the attention and effort that's required. Again, these are just my opinions. I'm a bit biased...I guess I have little sympathy for those who blame lack of success on a sponsor because I was in the same boat. Does not apply to pdandy, but the countless others I've seen who do nothing but complain without having really tried.

Success is what YOU make it, regardless of the program, the products or the sponsor. If you want it badly enough, and you take measures to do things the right way, success will come. My 2 cents.

-PA27

Camtasia - US$30
Buy cheap Techsmith Camtasia Studio 4.0.1 oem downloadable

I must say PA27... your team is really lucky if you put even a fraction of the time & effort you do here into them!

What is the longest forum thread to date on the internet? Did PA27 contribute?

If you were ever to speak with my team members, I believe you'd find that they are quite pleased with the service, tools and training they get from me. I am available to them 7 days a week in a variety of methods. As I've said, I work from home, and contributing to this and other threads is just a part of the daily routine. I am ever-present in my training community, so they actually get me more than TFF does!

And that's great that you've found Camtasia at a cheaper price. As I mentioned, I was referring to Download.com's Download/Purchase Page. For big-name software titles, I usually only go there unless EDC has it. I don't trust many other places when it comes to downloading, as viruses, spyware and malware are a big issue. So thanks for the input, I'm sure others will be pleased!

-PA27

PA27 -

Please post some URLs that are examples where people are promoting the products of EDC and not front-and-center highlighting the opportunity of making $997 a cut or thousands per week.

If I had come across just another web page hawking ebooks, camtasia, software & other e-marketing materials for EDC, I would have just kept on truckin. And I assume many like me would have as well.

What piqued my interest was how this 23 year old, but really anyone, could make $100k+ in a few months.

PA - Can you point us to the URL or site that got you to signup with EDC or first interest?

Because I'm 99% sure it wasn't hawking the products prominently at all. (99% of the pages on the web on EDC are highlighting the opportunity, and being pretty elusive about what the actual "products" are)

pdandy:

It was originally a page of the website MYEDCONLINE AND EDC Gold - HELPING YOU START YOUR OWN HOME BASED BUSINESS. I had searched for the term "products of EDC Gold" and found this page: My EDC Online - Products - Your Home Based Business Opportunity (this is from the WayBack Machine, and how it looked during the month that I joined EDC Gold). I liked the references being made to Microsoft and Google in terms of the future of e-books, and looking to make a few myself, I found out that EDC Gold actually provided software to help you create them, and covers for them and so on. As I said, I'm a web designer by trade, and was looking for products to help with the web design firm I was trying to start up then. In talking to the member who's website is listed above and a few others about the products, I found that there were more things that could help me with web design, like special scripts, like search engine submission and ad submission software (that I wouldn't have to pay extra for). The folks I talked to were great about explaining the products, and showing me screenshots of the back office. I'm not sure what you call "hawking the products prominently," but to me when sites (and individuals) take the time and energy to dedicate a page to their products, and offer samples and so on, that counts as promoting products.

I was not signed-up with the same website, because a friend and his girlfriend spoke to me about the income opportunity. I joined through them instead. They lived right here in the same city, so I figured I could get help from them if I needed it.

Perhaps you don't care much for software or internet marketing in general, and that's why you would have "kept on truckin" if you'd come across EDC Gold sites promoting the products. We're all interested in different things, so perhaps this wasn't as much up your alley as other things.

I don't deny that there are a lot of websites out there promoting only the income opportunity. I have said that myself in this thread. However, realize that the income isn't all people are interested in when researching EDC Gold despite whatever mis-educated distributors put out there) . The questions I get most often are about the products: how can they use them, can they find them somewhere else, how many are there, are they ever added to, are they required to download them by a certain time, will they have immediate access to the products....

Craig and Mike also provide training on how to effectively sell the individual products, and how to use many of the products in the back office and incorporate them in your marketing. To me, that speaks volumes. It doesn't seem likely (though I guess none of us can be entirely sure to be fair) that they'd waste their time dedicating training to the products if they were only there as a cover-up to make the program look legit (like so many have suggested), or if they were just worthless and couldn't be used. Our training classes are always pretty full, and with other EDC members expressing what great training was provided that day. I don't think that would be happening if in fact the program was nothing but bs.

I look past all they hype and fluff that other less educated distributors bandy about, and look at the meat of the program (what it provides, how it can help people, what kind of market there is for the products or services, and if it's something I'd use even if there was no income opportunity attached to it). I encourage others to do the same. I think doing research in that way would help a lot of people get right down to what the program is about and decide without the pressure of hype or special offers. It would also save a lot of folks who don't feel that they'd stand to gain anything personally, from jumping in (all too often I've heard of ex-members that woke up one day and suddenly "discovered" that the products were worthless and they could no longer sleep at night promoting this unethical program. My question is did the program always look this way in their minds? If so, why did they join in the first place (makes me wonder about the character of such a person)? If not, then what brought them to this sudden realization after months of earning money with this program? Perhaps they felt guilty about their own intentions, or noticed their sales starting to drop and needed a way out "gracefully?"). I think that the newer distributors coming in are learning from the mistakes of past distributors and working to do things with more honesty and less hype. I'm happy about the direction things are going.

I'll put this plain and simple, because I feel that by now this thread is so full of discussions on the worth of the product and how people choose to (or not to) promote that it's getting to be like a broken record. I feel that the following types of people stand to benefit most from our products and services: webmasters, bloggers, business owners, marketers, entrepreneurs looking to start/drive niche programs or joint ventures, and commission-based agents from the working world (such as realtors and insurance salespeople). The reasons for choosing the above groups are as follows: there are tons of scripts and tools to help webmasters boost the interactivity and conversion of their (or their clients') websites, and to help drive traffic to those sites; there are tons of tools that can help bloggers add interactive features to their blogs, stream audio and videos (without the hassle of hosting those files elsewhere and risking periods of downtime); there is software to help business owners create legal forms and documents, as well as training tailored to their specific business; there are tons of e-book courses and tools to help marketers perform better online (to benefit themselves or their clients); tons of info on niche-marketing and joint ventures for entrepreneurs, including how to start them, how to create affiliate programs, etc.); finally, there is exceptional training and also services geared specifically toward commission-based agents, including how to effectively generate their own leads (something that several real estate agents have told me is extremely helpful, as generating leads seems to be the hardest part of their business). For folks who don't fall into those categories of have use for those kinds of products, then EDC Gold may not be the best program for you. I feel that you can best help your customers and team members when you have personal experience with the products or services. I also feel that people are more passionate about products that they can stand to benefit from themselves.

At the end of the day, everyone has their own reasons for joining the EDC Gold program. I'm finding more and more that people actually are interested in the training, the services and the products. And there are more than enough sites and discussions on the internet for them to do research and decide if the products are a good buy or not. We all also have our own opinions, and as I've said a million times, the value of something is in the eye of the beholder. If it has no value to you, that's perfectly fine. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't or won't have value to anyone else. It's for that very reason that I explain exactly what the products are and who stands to benefit the most from them (I even do this in the FAQ on my website, and I go over this in training with each of my team members). That way, there is no confusion about what's being purchased, how they can use it, etc. And there's no confusion among my team about who they're better off marketing to. Either a person sees fit to join, or they don't plain and simple. Just realize that despite how the program is being marketed by distributors, there are folks who are interested in more than just the chance to make money. I am one of them, so are the people I work with, and though we are just a small percentage, we do still count.

-PA27