Mikkelsen Twins / Audiobook Income Academy is it legitimate?

[westlake503]

You sound familiar. Did you, by any chance, give similar testimonials to all those affiliate marketing gurus, you know the ones with the secret code to make six figures a month and have pictures of yachts, mansions and Lamborghinis all over their newsletters.

Still we need a laugh after this year and I do so enjoy these pathetic little attempts to legitimatise what is obviously a con with a great bit capital C.

Are you talking about that IM Rhys guy? Or that other guy that reviews all these courses and then always recommends his small business leads system? Yeah, I've seen that too. I've only given one testimonial and I don't think that person even owns a car! So no, I'm not in that space. However, I understand where you're coming from. 99.9% of people scam. Let me know when you find the Secret Code!

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[westlake503]

I'll repeat what I said earlier upthread: one is probably much better off getting advice from places like KB (and perhaps a few indie author reddits and other forums) where real indie authors hang out. Some of them -- including a couple in this thread -- are quite successful and can give a newbie better advice. Shortcuts can get you into trouble.

I see. So any newbie is illegitimate. Great culture! And believe non-experts here more than others giving free tutorials over YouTube that try to sell a course that may or may not work. Got it! I guess I'm that ONE person on the planet who took a paid course and made more than my money back. Life is so great.

[westlake503]

These two jokers have lost their Amazon accounts - KDP, Merch, and ACX. Before handing them your money, ask yourself why. Black hat tactics. Amazon always finds out. They've lost the support of all the reputable people in the business. They started out with a bang. I liked them. I even bought their course, something I'm not proud of now. Ashamed is a better word.

They have, or had, a video about getting review swaps. Not saying they were bad, saying you had to do them. Christian lost his KDP account for using software to translate books to Spanish. I pay a translater just to translate t-shirts! He used software for books. That's the kind of shady crap you'll learn from these two. Don't do it. A lot of people have lost their accounts because of these guys. Don't be one of them.

One of the things they taught was to find two top-selling authors in audiobook niches, switch their names and have co-authors (Jack Roberts and Julie Harrison become Jack Harrison and Julie Roberts.) If you could talk a narrator into using a pen name, you'd have one for the author and one for the narrator. They figured out author names are searchable keywords. It didn't matter what order they were in. This got people banned.

ACX banned all their accounts and really don't like them. If you ever talk to their customer service, never mention you took their course (if you did) them might just instaban you.

Actually, that's one of the first things they admit in the course. How to get banned and how to avoid it. They admitted to that and worse. They were black hat, but they had to do it right to stay in business. Isn't that valuable advice? How to not get your account closed? Perception is reality. I do not think these guys are publishing gods, but exercise reason here. These are the facts.

[westlake503]

Nah, that's not libel. Not in the USA anyway. If it were, the links below would be filled with libel. Lots of libel.

Do your own research to find out whether these things might be scams or not. Then make your own decision. Don't believe any single poster's opinion. Add up the weight of reports and decide for yourself where you want to send your hard-earned money.

Here's a few I found on page 1 of a search:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/gh23d7/mikkelsen_twins_scam/

https://www.scampulse.com/mikkelsen-twins-reviews

https://scambusters.org/eviltwin.html

Clearly you don't understand law. It IS libelous if you can prove it. I think they can it if falls outside of the first amendment and if it causes damages [sales, character, etc]. Pretty basic, really. But who cares, I really don't! I'm just not corrected here by your speculation on American jurisprudence. https://www.freeadvice.com/legal/can-i-sue-someone-who-says-or-writes-something-defamatory-about-me/. Interesting articles though. They fall into the first amendment clause. However, the twins could follow up as well as the FTC. If there is a legitimate complaint the consumer protection agency verifies, 100% of their stuff would have to come down. They're still up. In the end, neither party wants to follow through. It's a headache for both sides. It's sad how people will get scammed, but entrepreneurs have rights too. If you ever sold a book, you have rights too.

[Doglover]

I see. So any newbie is illegitimate. Great culture! And believe non-experts here more than others giving free tutorials over YouTube that try to sell a course that may or may not work. Got it! I guess I'm that ONE person on the planet who took a paid course and made more than my money back. Life is so great.

Any newbie who joins only to legitimise a service that is dubious at best, is suspicious. Surely you can see that. Newbies who come to discuss their writing, publishing, or simple discuss writing with other writers, do not come under suspicion. Now if someone with say, 1000 posts, came along and declared that these scammers are legit, we might listen.

[Doglover]

Actually, that's one of the first things they admit in the course. How to get banned and how to avoid it. They admitted to that and worse. They were black hat, but they had to do it right to stay in business. Isn't that valuable advice? How to not get your account closed? Perception is reality. I do not think these guys are publishing gods, but exercise reason here. These are the facts.

Genuine writers and publishers don't need to be told how not to get banned; we already know. Are you saying it's a good investment to pay nearly $1000 for a course on common sense? Do I get a degree in the bleeding obvious?

[Doglover]

Clearly you don't understand law. It IS libelous if you can prove it. I think they can it if falls outside of the first amendment and if it causes damages [sales, character, etc]. Pretty basic, really. But who cares, I really don't! I'm just not corrected here by your speculation on American jurisprudence. https://www.freeadvice.com/legal/can-i-sue-someone-who-says-or-writes-something-defamatory-about-me/. Interesting articles though. They fall into the first amendment clause. However, the twins could follow up as well as the FTC. If there is a legitimate complaint the consumer protection agency verifies, 100% of their stuff would have to come down. They're still up. In the end, neither party wants to follow through. It's a headache for both sides. It's sad how people will get scammed, but entrepreneurs have rights too. If you ever sold a book, you have rights too.

I'm English - we don't have any amendments, first, second or otherwise. The law here is it is only libellous if it isn't true. Added to that, I don't think the law has caught up with the internet; libel needs to be written on paper. I could be wrong. It does happen. 

[lafnian1990]

Clearly you don't understand law. It IS libelous if you can prove it. I think they can it if falls outside of the first amendment and if it causes damages [sales, character, etc]. Pretty basic, really. But who cares, I really don't! I'm just not corrected here by your speculation on American jurisprudence. https://www.freeadvice.com/legal/can-i-sue-someone-who-says-or-writes-something-defamatory-about-me/. Interesting articles though. They fall into the first amendment clause. However, the twins could follow up as well as the FTC. If there is a legitimate complaint the consumer protection agency verifies, 100% of their stuff would have to come down. They're still up. In the end, neither party wants to follow through. It's a headache for both sides. It's sad how people will get scammed, but entrepreneurs have rights too. If you ever sold a book, you have rights too.

You have forgotten about business ethics which secretly influences legal aspects. It seems to me that a decent person should not make explicit accents on the legal side.

[jb1111]

I see. So any newbie is illegitimate. Great culture! And believe non-experts here more than others giving free tutorials over YouTube that try to sell a course that may or may not work. Got it! I guess I'm that ONE person on the planet who took a paid course and made more than my money back. Life is so great.

No, what I said was caveat emptor, especially for newbies.

Newbies aren't illegitimate. They're newbies. They don't have the experience of people who have been in the game for years, some of whom have -- through trial and error -- become successful, some even wildly successful. Some of them here, from what I can ascertain, are indeed experts. An expert is someone who is successful at a trade or craft, and can live off of it. Some of the posters here match that definition.

You claim to have made more than your investment back by taking a YT course. Good on ya. I won't knock your right to state that here, and tell others that it worked for you, and I haven't knocked you for it.

There are KB'ers who swear by some marketing seminars, too. They say it works for them.

I just think any newbie needs to be careful with whatever advice they receive.

As for the Mikkelsen twins, yeah, they reminded me of Wayne's World without the Van Halen playing in the background. But I will give props to the one guy admitting he screwed up and lost his account permanently. I'll grant him that much. I saw that video. He was at least straightforward about what he did.

[unkownwriter]

They were black hat, but they had to do it right to stay in business. Isn't that valuable advice? How to not get your account closed?

They had to find a way to get around rules, you mean? To cheat a system, to break rules, not because they're harmful, but because the rule breaker wants an easier, quicker, better way to steal money?

Amazon already gives us valuable advice to avoid getting our accounts terminated. No workarounds are needed. No thousand dollar courses to learn how to game the system. No easy, sneaky way to get ahead of anyone else. There are thousands of people who follow the rules and make very good money. Some make winning lottery ticket money. They don't have to worry about getting caught at something they shouldn't be doing. They don't have to find a way to break any rules.

Anyone who thinks finding ways around the rules aren't in this for the writing, they're looking for easy money, and they don't care that every time they get caught, Amazon amps up the rules and makes it harder and harder for honest people to find their dream as a writer. We've seen it with KU, we've seen it with simple things like tags, or being able to add images to our sales page, or every other little thing that made it better for those of us willing to follow the terms of the contract we signed.

But you keep on, dig that hole deeper, keep finding excuses for the cheaters. I for one don't care about you, or anyone like you. When you get caught, don't come looking for sympathy here, because you won't get it. Except maybe from that other person who signs up just to support something that's wrong. That will be your solace.

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