48 Hour Report Review

Jason Fladlien is an impatient copywriter. His copywriting goal is to create highly effective sales pages as quickly as possible and to enjoy the process to the point that he quivers with excitement at the mere thought of sitting down at the computer to whip up a sales page.

The results pretty much speak for themselves – you can’t swing a dead cat without banging into a sales page for one of Jason’s products. He’s created and sold quite a lot of products over the past two years.  (Yes, believe it or not, Jason has only been a serious practitioner of copywriting for less than three years.) This guy is seriously prolific.

And guess what a lot of those products have been? Reports. Also known as Information Products or info products.

Free reports, inexpensive reports ($7, $17, $27), bonus reports, expensive reports ($47, $97 and up) – you name it, Jason’s likely created one. A lot of his products are in the copywriting, time management and Internet marketing niches. But before creating his own products (such as the 48 Hour Report package under review here) Jason did a fair amount of ghostwriting, which means that he’s worked in a number of other niches as well. So it’s no exaggeration to say that Jason knows a thing or two when it comes to the creation of information products. He’s “been there” and “done that” in spades.

But what you want to know is this: Is 48 Hour Report any good? Is it worth the investment of time and money? And will his approach work for you, even if you aren’t a successful, impatient copywriting dynamo?

The bottom line answer to those questions, in my opinion, is “Yes”.

[In fact, I feel so good about this product that I've put together a special bonus package that's available to everyone who wants to get it through me. I'll provide a link to my bonus page at the end of this review.]

But before you get all excited about my “super awesome killer bonus” (just kidding) you need to figure out if this product will solve your problems and help you achieve your goals. 48 Hour Report won’t be a good fit for everyone, so it doesn’t make sense to get it if it won’t help you.

Let’s start with the name of this product, which is a major minor complaint of mine.

I’ve been calling this product the “48 Hour Report”, but I can’t actually prove that that is the official name. The domain name is 48hourreport.com, but the title of the home page is “Instant Product Creation System”. One of the testimonials calls it “High Quality Reports in Under 48 Hours”. Then the sales page points out:

… all of those raving testimonials were for the “Instant Product Creation System Version 1.0″. I’ve now updated the whole system, and created the enhanced “Version 2.0″ (Now with 6 videos!)

At the same time, the graphic for the ebook and videos shows a cover with the words “48 Hour Report”, the bullet list of what you get says it is the “How To Create a Report in 48 Hours That You Can Sell for $47-$97 PDF Ebook” and that it includes a “48 Hour Report Video Series”.

Then, when you get the actual product, the ebook file is named 48hourreport.pdf, the cover says “Instant Product Creation System”, yet the title says “How to Write A Report In Under 48 Hours That You Can Sell for Profit”.

So what is the actual name of the product? I’m not sure.

Does it matter? No, not really.

However, it perfectly illustrates something about Jason that you must know if you plan to buy any of his products. Jason is all about maximum value for minimum effort. The result of that attitude is that his sales pages and products often contains typos. And you won’t always see a definitive name for a product. Or the name may have changed over time. Or the product appears to go by multiple names.

And rather than spending his precious time going back and fixing typos, making names consistent, and making minor, perhaps irrelevant, perfections to his existing material, Jason chooses to spend his time creating a brand new product, or hosting a webinar, or providing coaching. Get it done, don’t look back, don’t nitpick, never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Does that make you uncomfortable? Does that go against your own values?

Don’t be afraid to say that it does. I’ll be honest – I notice every single damn typo in everything he writes and part of me flinches every single time.

You see, for years I was a software engineer. And you can’t be a good software programmer with lousy attention to detail. When you’re coding a software program, every single letter, every bit of punctuation, even how you indent your code, is significant. One single mistake and the program won’t compile, won’t run, or will crash unexpectedly and make your users very unhappy.

So if you want to be an efficient and effective computer programmer then you either have, or you develop, a heightened sensitivity to details. The alternative is to waste a lot of time going back and fixing your mistakes, and that, at least for me, was no fun. I’d rather have my programs work the first time so I could concentrate on adding cool new features rather than cleaning up my own slop.

What does any of this have to do with creating an info product? Quite a lot, actually.

Jason is a master at developing systems that teach people how to get things done quickly and easily. And not only teach them, but really get them to learn it by taking action and changing their behavior.

And what are the things that will keep you from getting your own report created? Perfectionism? Procrastination? Analysis paralysis? Writer’s block? Jason can solve all those problems for you, if you let him.

And there’s the catch: “if you let him.”

You’ll often hear that the key to success in Internet Marketing is taking action – massive action. Jason Fladlien is living proof that taking action works.

And what makes one info product better than another? Is it the quantity of material, the “quality” of the material (in terms of typos, formatting and such), the grammatical structure and elegance of the writing? Or is it something else?

I think Jason would argue that the quality of your info product is in its ability to get your readers to take action, to change their behavior, to be able to demonstrate that they really did learn and internalize what you were trying to teach them. Do that and you’ll have a very happy customer. One who will willingly provide you with testimonials, purchase more of your products, and rave about you to everyone within earshot. (Okay, yes, the shoe fits – I’ve clearly become a fan of Jason’s. What can I say? Guilty as charged…)

So how does Jason do that with (what I will continue to call) his 48 Hour Report product?

48 Hour Report Overview

In a nutshell what you get is a simple, effective way to structure your info product report so that it delivers maximum value to your entire reading audience, with the least amount of effort on your part.

As I mentioned earlier, Jason has written a lot of reports. And he’s a bit of a time management fanatic. And he genuinely believes in helping others. So over time, Jason refined his approach to report writing, combined it with some theories about individual learning styles, and came up with a particularly powerful blueprint for presenting information in a way that results in action, not just the transfer of knowledge. This system of this is what you get as part of his 48 Hour Report product.

By having this system, you pretty much have the outline for either a mini report, or the outline of each chapter of a larger report. Now you just need to fill in each section with your unique content. Done this way your material flows in a logical fashion, people with different learning styles all understand your material better, and you don’t have to sit staring at a blank screen wondering what to do next.

You also get some videos and audio files as well. I highly recommend watching the videos. The videos alone are a terrific lesson in how to add value to your products, how to present without actually being on camera (Jason prefers to show a mindmap while he speaks and I’m completely sold on that technique), and how to convey enthusiasm for your material (Jason has an infectious enthusiasm that’s never fake or cloying and that I can’t seem to get enough of).

You’ll also get tips on doing research, eliminating writer’s block, and motivating yourself. All of which I’m using in the creation of this review, which is coming together a heck of a lot faster than it would have otherwise, even though I have a long way to go to reach Jason’s level of prolificity (not sure that’s a real word, but who cares, I’m going with it and not looking back <wink>). But it does illustrate that you can apply what you learn to other areas besides report writing.

Who Should Get 48 Hour Report And Who Shouldn’t?

As much as I like this product, I will issue a word of warning. If you read my New Year’s Resolution post you’ll see that my goal for this year is to create my own products in order to build a list and connect with more people. So Jason’s product was a perfect fit for me and I don’t feel a need to go looking for any other report creation types of products (though I will probably be looking for ways to market my reports and get traffic).

Also, the reports I want to create are “how to” types of reports. With my technology background and attention to detail I’m often able to help people solve problems that are keeping them from reaching their goals (hence the self-proclaimed “JumpStartGuy” nickname). Since I want to give people a jump-start, Jason’s focus on different learning styles and getting people to actually take action was a perfect match for me.

So if you are in a similar situation and have similar goals, I can recommend 48 Hour Report without reservation.

However, if any of the following are true, you might not want to get Jason’s system:

• You already have a lot of experience creating reports
• You already know how you want to structure your reports for maximum effectiveness
• You have no trouble getting your readers to change their behavior
• You get plenty of testimonials from people who have put your advice into action
• You need help creating white papers, entertaining stories, opinion pieces, autobiographical material, or anything other than a “How To” type of report
• You never have writer’s block or difficulty motivating yourself
• You already have a report and now you need help marketing it
• You’d rather die than put out a product that was less than perfect in every way

To summarize, while Jason’s outline will work in a wide variety of niches, it is clearly ideal for “How To” types of reports that are providing advice or techniques or tips that require the reader to learn something and to take action in order to truly benefit from the report. Granted, this is probably true for 80% of all the info products out there. At the same time, there are other styles of reports (White Papers for technology products came to mind). So if you need to create something other than a “How To” report then you’ll have to work harder to apply Jason’s techniques, or it might just be that you’d be better off with some other solution.

Likewise, if you don’t have a problem with content creation, but need to know what to do with your finished report, how to give it away or market it, how to use it to get traffic or build your list, how to build a squeeze page for it or a sales letter, then you should look elsewhere. 48 Hour Report is clearly focused on content creation, not on the marketing or sale of your report.

Is 48 Hour Report a Scam or a Ripoff? Is Fladlien an Evil Scammer?

Oy, the things I do for search engine ranking. You just can’t write a review for an information product without touching on the questions of whether or not the product is a scam or worthwhile, and whether the guy who sells it is a scam artist or is trustworthy. I understand the concern, having purchased a lot of marketing products, some good, some junk. Which is why I’m writing these reviews in the first place – to provide insight and opinion to help others find good stuff and stay away from the garbage.

In short, I do NOT think Jason Fladlien is a scam artist or is untrustworthy. I wouldn’t have written this review if I thought otherwise. And I do NOT think 48 Hour Report is a rip-off. It might not be the right thing for you, and it isn’t a perfect product, and the price might be too high for some, so please read all of this review before making your final decision. Or take Jason up on his guarantee if you decide to invest and then find out you aren’t happy after all. In any event, have no fear – the product is real, it has an interesting twist I haven’t seen before, the videos are top-notch (I could watch Jason Fladlien videos all day long), and I have no hesitation in recommending it for those who need help creating “how to” info-product reports.

P.S. Did I revise this page a dozen times to find and fix every last typo? You betcha! Old habits are hard to break.

P.P.S. Would Jason Fladlien have created a new info product with one hand while writing this review with the other in less time than I took? You betcha! But just think of all those nasty typos you would have seen. ;-)

P.P.P.S. The following (pain in the ass) code is so Technorati will let me claim my blog – pretend you don’t see it: 54GWQRTSD5V8

Tagged as: 48 Hour Report Review, Info Products, Instant Content Creation System Review, Internet Marketing, Jason Fladlien, Report Writing