About the rug cleaning demystified class...
Hello everyone. I just wanted to comment and let you all know what the intent was behind this thing. This is my first comment here. Mike invited me in, and I have to say... It looks like a great forum.
With regards to the marketing hype. Yeah, I suppose I'm guilty of that. Unfortunately in our over-marketed world, you almost have to scream from the rooftops in order to get anyone to take notice. I have to say I wish that weren't as true as it is. Unfortunately sometimes I have to put my 'marketing bastard' hat on before I sell stuff! Anyway, hopefully you can forgive me for that.
With regards to the class, here's the thing: It costs a small fortune to attend most classes (many are $5,000 and even more!) and that never made sense to me. You can learn how to do almost anything for a few hundred bucks in this industry, but not when it comes to rugs. (I'm not saying they aren't worth it... but they ARE expensive!)
Many of the classes are heavily focused on rug ID. I used to clean a lot of rugs, and I made a lot of money doing it, but honestly I couldn't tell you where most of them were made. I COULD tell you what they were made of and how to clean them though...
I've worked almost exclusively with large carpet and rug cleaning operations over the past 12 years, and what was always interesting to me was who was actually cleaning the rugs in most of these plants... It wasn't some textile god!... No, it was some 23-year old kid that used to work in a video store. Now of course that guy was trained, he knew what he was doing... sort of... but was he an expert? I'm not so sure he always was.
This class grew out of several conversations I've had with people in the industry about rugs. They were asking me why more people didn't get involved in cleaning them and my response was that rug cleaning in some cases would almost qualify as a religion! Many cleaners are very intimidated by rugs, and some people really get 'out there' about rug cleaning! But what's happened is that rug cleaning hasn't been made very accessible for the average carpet cleaner.
The average carpet cleaner is usually scared to death of rugs because they cost a fortune and people figure if they don't know the difference between a Heriz and a Kilim, then they have no business cleaning them.
My point was always that these are pretty much a lot like anything else, they're fibers, usually wool and cotton, and once you know how, cleaning them is pretty straightforward. You DO have to know what you're doing, but learning how doesn't have to be that hard.
So what does the class do? Can it really make you an 'expert'? Well, loosely yes, in other words, you can learn how to stay out of trouble and learn a process for dealing with rugs that works. You can definitely market your services and probably know more than almost everyone else in your town does about actually cleaning rugs. (Most cleaners either don't touch them at all, or treat them like regular carpet, imho, neither approach is right.) Are you going to know as much as the experts that often post in this forum?
No, of course not! But you'll be able to clean rugs... You'll be able to get started. That's the point. You can make money, and do it relatively safely.
Should you take the other classes? ... Definitely.
After all, you can't know too much. But as a jumping off point, a starting place, there isn't anything like it out there right now. And maybe you can pay for those other classes out of the profits you're making from cleaning rugs. That makes sense to me.
It's going to sell for $297, and Robert's going to teach the thing 'live' one more time, also comes with a 30-day guarantee.
Is it for everyone? Probably not. But I really do think it will help out a lot of people. We've had some pretty incredible responses from the first time out.
Now I have a favor to ask you. I've got Mike set up as an affiliate. The way that works is that if anyone actually buys this thing from his list, he'll get credit for it and he'll get paid something for each sale. But in order for him to get credit, people have to use his affiliate link. So I think he just posted the regular address at the beginning of this thread and NOT his affiliate link! So if you're interested, use this link:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3061789
instead of the regular address that he posted. That way he'll get credit for it.
If you Do opt in, I can positively guarantee you a steady stream of 'snake oil' emails! (Hey man, it's what I do!) But it is a good class and we are giving away some good bonuses. Anyway... that's your call.
Good to see you all here. I'll keep in touch now that I know about it. I'll leave my snake oil at home...
Mark