Learning the technique to count cards is not hard, in fact its easy. The difficulty comes in the practice to become proficient enough to play under game conditions. Even when you have tha nailed there are still issues like finding a game with conditions you can actually make money at (not all BJ games are equal.)

In my view there is no need to pay someone to teach you how to count cards. There are many cheaper and just as effective methods out there to learn. I learnt through a few books and many many many hours of home practice.

Even when you have everything in top shape, it is still a grind to make a decent income. It's all about your $ per hour and Australian conditions aren't ideal for maximising that.
After a few years playing I was making a reasonable income but gave it away because quiet honestly, it was too much of a struggle. The technical side of playing was easy...to the point that it wasn't a challenge, but the increasing difficulty in finding a game with profitable conditions in Australia meant that the number of playing hours had to be increased to maintain the same returns. This meant playing at any and all hours of the day and night.....which makes you more noticable to Casino staff.
From my persepctive the struggle wasn't worth it, I now make more from Racing by focusing 100% instead of 50% of my time on that and I have no pressure from Casinos.

Back onto card counting.....
There is also more than one card counting method. For beginners I recommend the Knockout Plan which is much easier and just as effective as the traditional True Count system i'm led to believe is taught by schools here.

You can find the site here:
http://www.koblackjack.com/

Also just to show you don't need to pay someone to learn 90% of what you need to make money playing blackjack, visit:

http://www.gamemasteronline.com/indexa.shtml

This is the Gamemaster Online site which includes a fully fledged FREE blackjack school (19 lessons I think) which teaches you all you need to know about basic strategy and the traditional true counting method. I can thoroughly recommend it for any beginning BJ player.

Hope this helps.