Have you ever heard of the Book Arbitrage business? The rules are simple: you buy a cheap book, then sell it on Amazon for more money.
If you’re interested in this field, you have probably seen ads on YouTube where a guy named Luke Sample tells you how to make easy money with his Book Arbitrage program.
Higher Path Ventures is the training program Luke talks about, and he promises to help you from start to finish until you set up a sustainable Book Arbitrage business.
But before I get into my review of Higher Path Ventures, I need to be up front with you: I have major concerns with this business model. I have personal experience selling on Amazon, and I don’t recommend it to beginners.
Why? If you are new to making money online, you really need a more beginner friendly business model. It takes serious marketing chops to succeed on Amazon, and it is much more difficult than it once was. You need a business model that pays you on autopilot without having to continually hustle to find new products to promote, deal with sales tax, refunds, shipping, etc. Check out this video that shows you how to setup an autopilot business using google maps.
Here’s a video of my daughter’s business using this :
Click Here to Get The Course My Daughter Used.
The course my daughter used above is much better than the Higher Path Ventures course. But since you are here to learn about Higher Path, lets get back to our review of that:
I know the promises are tempting, and you might be thinking about signing up. To help you make your decision, I’ll tell you all the details of this money-making program and discuss whether it’s legit or a scam. Let’s dive right in.
About the Course Creators: Luke Sample & Jon Shugart
Higher Path Ventures was established by Luke Sample & Jon Shugart. As you might have guessed, both of them are highly successful in their professional life and are now helping people make money online.
Luke Sample is a well-known entrepreneur who was featured in the Wall Street Journal at the age of 23. He’s also a motivational speaker, and you’ll find many of his videos online.
The interesting thing about Luke is he never wanted to be a businessman. He wanted to change people’s lives and preferred using science to fulfill his vision.
However, at some point, he started a side business, and it brought him lots of money. He also realized that his services were helping his customers to achieve their goals.
It was then he decided to continue changing others’ lives through software, training, etc. And that’s exactly what he is doing today.
As for Jon Shugart, he too has a science background, but he was particularly interested in mathematics. Later, he became fascinated by technology and started to build software for solving the more complex problems that most developers avoid.
In 2008, he built the ‘Keyword Rockstar’, a product to automate the keyword research process. This was a huge success that brought one million dollars in just six months. Jon Shugart has been working in the technology field for 19 years, and he has built a number of million-dollar businesses along his way.
What’s Included in the Higher Path Ventures Program?
If we take the creators’ word, this program is the only thing you would need to set up a successful Book Arbitrage business. It includes a training course and several tools to help you find low-cost books.
Here’s what this money-making program includes:
Training Course
Of course, the main purpose of this course is to teach you the proper tactics for finding low-cost books online and selling them for a considerable profit. This course will help beginners start their own businesses and use the right platforms to grow them.
Apart from this, you’ll learn —
- Ways of offering incentives like free shipping to increase your sales
- How to correctly do keyword research to easily find the products you need
- How to take advantage of various handy features of Amazon to increase your profit
- How to use helpful business features of Amazon
- How to convert Amazon gift cards into cash
- How to sell books on Amazon from other websites
Software
This customized toolkit allows you to find cheap books more easily. Without this tool, you might have to spend hours finding the right book at your preferred price range.
It helps you avoid wasting time on product research and utilize it on the more important stuff like expanding your vision, promoting your business, etc.
Other Benefits
For extra money, Higher Path Ventures will also take care of the logistics. They will receive your ordered book, inspect it properly, repackage your shipment, and deliver it to Amazon.
This way, you’ll be able to make money without doing all of the work.
Higher Path Ventures Public Reviews
Now that we know the big promises, let’s see what the consumers have to say about Higher Path Ventures. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find many reviews of this program on trusted websites. That’s because it has been renamed a few times which I found it quite suspicious.
Higher Path Ventures was previously known by several names, including Textbook Money, Book Arbitrage, and Book Profits. Here’s what people are saying about these ventures-
In a review on the website warrior.com, a student says, “Been in TB$ for ten weeks now, and yes, it can take a while to find profitable books. Then there are days like yesterday that I found $220 in under 3 hrs. You have to stick with this to develop your strategy that works for you.”
I find this comment to be appropriate for most online businesses. It takes a while to take off and slowly starts to grow. According to this person, if you stick to the program and keep trying, you’ll be able to make money from it.
Another student ‘nlanda’ says, “This is the BEST program I have ever been a part of. The training is excellent, thorough, and ongoing, with weekly Q & A sessions. Jon and Luke have a heart to want folks to succeed and have done so much more than anyone else to ensure that their members are successful. I’ve made money with this…”
I know there are many fake reviews available online, but this one seems genuine to me. It’s just not possible to fake this type of emotion. However, this person hasn’t completed the course yet, and we don’t know whether their opinion remained the same.
As you might expect, the official website of Higher Path Ventures has many testimonials from their students. Let’s take a look at some of those.
A student named Randy A, who supposedly made million from this program, says, “All the mechanisms for being successful are in this program. It’s made me a self-made man. I mean, it’s freaking awesome!”
Well, that’s what you’ll say if you made a million from a single program. What concerns me is that these reviews are very short, and no one talks about how much effort they had to put in to succeed in this business. Here’s another review from Andrew & Kate:
“It’s hard to believe we’ve earned in the mid-six figures in this business and started with just a $500 credit card. I’d recommend this to anyone!”
If you want a legit answer on whether you can earn money from this program or not, then there you have it. All you have to do is pay for the training, put your money and effort upfront, and keep trying until you succeed.
However, Luke and Jon earned some terrible reviews as well. When the program was run by the name ‘Textbook Money’, it received some shocking accusations. The website fbamastery.com claimed that the tool Luke and Jon included in their course was actually a clone.
Also, they gathered many claims from ex-members of the program, saying that they were scammed and this course isn’t worth the money.
For example, an ex-member says, “I’m a single mom who invested a year’s wages in their scheme and list half of it while the rest is stuck as useless Amazon gift cards. They treated me so horribly. I complained and complained, and eventually, they suspended my account and kicked me out.”
This is the problem many old and new students have addressed. After you sell the books, you don’t get your money right away.
Instead, Amazon might pay you some Gift Cards that you need to convert into dollars. Now, in the course description, it says the course creators will teach you ways of converting the Gift Cards. So, if they don’t, that’s a huge issue!
Here’s another review from a student: “I am retired and could certainly use the extra cash…. It cost me $997 to get in plus $97 per month… so far, I have made about $200 for my efforts.” This shows you the reality of the online business world. Nothing is certain here.
Higher Path Ventures: My Verdict
So, is Higher Path Ventures a scam? No, it’s a legit money-making program that teaches you the ways of getting success in the Book Arbitrage business. But, do I recommend it?
To be honest, it depends on you. This course is not for everyone. As we have seen from the reviews, you’ll need to put a large amount of money and time into it. Besides, the chances of getting success aren’t guaranteed. So, if you’re looking for a way to earn passively without giving much time, this program isn’t for you.
However, if you’re willing to take a risk and be patient, there are many scopes of earning thousands from this business. And hey, you can get a refund on certain conditions. If you have the money and time for this program, you can feel free to give it a try.