Mike Filsaime’s Review Crusher: Why It Won’t Make You a Dime
By Anna Johnson on July 28th, 2008Right now, Mike Filsaime is promoting his limited edition software product, Review Crusher. As at writing the product has not sold out, but that may change by the time you read this.
I guess the title of this article is somewhat ironic given that during his promotional video Mike condemns Google Adwords ads with headlines that appear to be critical of his name and the names of other high profile marketers. I hope you can see, though, that my headline is not in any way critical – it’s just based on a simply reality:
Mike Filsaime’s Review Crusher software won’t make you money. Only YOU will make you money.
Here’s why I raise this issue. Based on the popular business model of using product reviews to sell affiliate products – i.e. where the affiliate attracts prospects to their site by promoting reviews and then entices people to buy through their affiliate links – Mike has created software to automate the process of constructing such websites.
Mike’s contention – made in his promotional video – is that while the successful review sites he’s aware of manually build their websites, his software will make it easier for someone to build their own review site.
I say: so what?
Does his software bring qualified traffic to your site? Does the software make visitors buy from you?
Mike’s software is just… software. Sure, it may make it easier for you to create a product review site than if you used an HTML editor or blogging software like WordPress.
But it’s not the construction of the site that is going to be your biggest challenge as you build a business based on product reviews. Your biggest challenge is going to be the same challenge faced by EVERY Internet marketer: getting lots of qualified traffic to your site and converting them into customers that, ideally, come back to buy from you again and again.
Personally, I think Review Crusher has a few bells and whistles that might make it worth getting. But if you decide to get it, please, whatever you do, customize the look and feel of your site. Do NOT use the same templates out of the box.
I can only imagine how many other people will get this software, use the same templates, and end up trying to sell the same products. That’s a recipe for getting crushed… not crushing others.
Put it this way, by definition, this product is aimed at people who don’t have the time, money or ability to create their own review sites… so you can bet that many of them also don’t have the time, money or ability to customize the look and functionality of their Review Crusher site!
On the other hand, if you do have the ability to customize the look and feel… before you take out your wallet for Review Crusher, you may want to consider customizing a WordPress blog into a review site… After all, WordPress is free!
Of course, you don’t get all the support Mike is offering if you use WordPress, but the bottom line remains: Review Crusher won’t make you money.
Once you’ve installed, configured and customized the software, you need to get traffic and convert it into customers. An underlying that, you need a sound business and marketing strategy.
And just in case you’re wondering, this article is not a product review! It’s more like a “concept review”. I haven’t seen Review Crusher for myself and I am not an affiliate. I AM a fan of Mike Filsaime and think he is super-smart jumping on the review site bandwagon with this software product.
But the chief editorial aim of this Internet marketing newsletter is to empower you with news,\ comment, research, tools, tips and more to help your business become more profitable. And your business won’t become profitable if you get Review Crusher WITHOUT having a solid strategy for acquiring traffic and converting that traffic into customers.
Source: Review Crusher
May 25th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Anna,
Butterfly Marketing, Review Crusher, Traffic Fusion, I could go on for an entire page.
All these things have helped me to come to one conclusion…some things work for me….some things do not work. I have not failed because I purchased products that I believed would be the cure to my obsession for making money online, I have advanced and grown and learned.
Mike Filsaime is a great internet marketer and the difference for me from then until now, I do not look forward to receiving those emails.
I was just getting prepared to start writing about my MLM and Product adventures over the last year. That is how I found you.
Is this really the only reply to this post?
Cheers,
Dirk Poulsen
May 26th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Not the only reply now
Thanks for your contribution, Dirk!
March 11th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Hey Anna!
Back again and maybe you didn’t know but Mike (The Shark) Filsaime is leaving Job Crusher and Eric L. is selling Review Crusher all over again. This software didn’t even get off the ground the first time.
If it is not bad enough to flog garbage 1 time and get away with it but a second time?
I hope that the internet world is going good for you.
This a terrible amount of complete useless junk that they are selling. The sad thing is that inexperienced poor people purchase this junk and really get excited about it.
I know cause I was one of them.
It only takes a few thousand dollars and then you start to catch on…..maybe?
So here is to your 4th comment on this post.
What other stuff do you have going on? You have my email address.
Dirk Poulsen
March 12th, 2010 at 1:34 am
Apparently Mike is leaving to focus on providing software/services to the Internet marketing community. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with…
March 13th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
I noticed this and could not help but replying to Dirk.
First full disclosure: I was Mike’s V.P. of Operations in 2008.
When we developed this product for our use only, we designed it as Mike was steaming over the folks putting scam and such behind his name to make a buck, as he describes in his video.
Then as we made more and more reviews, and more and more money with it, I am sure Mike decided to release it to help more folks in the industry benefit from a great tool. (I was not there any longer, I am now partners with Robert G Allen for a couple book launches and other projects.)
Anna has it correctly… You still have to do the correct things with the tools. I hope Dirk is not giving up, he sounds a little discouraged.
I do know Mike personally now, and I know it’s hard to believe, but he makes plenty of money from lots of sources, he does not sit around thinking about how to get money from folks for things that won’t work.
They have money-back guarantees on almost everything they sell I think, so what happens that I’ve seen, and I’ve done it too, we buy a product thinking it will do the magic trick that will finally “work for me” and then just as it gets too hard or too many steps or too slow to bring in the bucks,
the next “Shiny Squirrel” comes along and distracts us, our 30-60 whatever money-back guarantee timeframe passes us by, and we say… Oh that doesn’t work, it was not worth $XXX, when had we stuck with it for a few more weeks or maybe months,
we would have started to see the $ and made the progress to keep going till that plate was up and spinning, before we grabbed the next plate and started again. — Wow lots of metaphors, I’d better stop now..
Anna keep up the good work informing people of what’s real… (I’ll have to read more of your posts now…)
Dirk, Hang in there and if you need some encouragement, give me a call…. I’m in the book
– Sincerely
Rick Dearr
P.S. For a mindset adjustment go see http://freecashinaflashvideo.com (not an affiliate link, but I do work with Robert Allen as I mentioned before.) : – }
March 14th, 2010 at 2:27 am
Thanks for your contribution Rick – thoughtful and spot-on.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:55 am
@Anna Yep, it will indeed be interesting
@Rick,
I completely agree with you if you were talking to a newbie.
Point…
The software was presented as turnkey but was not. I and many others invested hundreds and hundreds of hours into becoming code writers to make the garbage work.
I don’t want to be a coder and designer that is why I purchased the software. If you need a refresher of the original presentation I have it saved.
I also have screen shots of the posts of discouragement that all the purchasers felt in the forums on Job Crusher.
The software did not work.
By the way, I own my 1 license completely. Maybe you would like to buy it or know someone this great software could help.
I will stick with WordPress for most of my sites.
Hangin in there Rick,
Dirk