A few days ago I profiled Joel Comm’s new ebook, “Adsense Secrets 4.0” on the blog. Along with many other well known bloggers promoting the book, we were previously sent the ebook before it went live for sale. I assume the majority of us only looked at the landing page, but didn’t go through the full ordering process as we already had the ebook. It wasn’t til Mark made a post and called out Joel for “scamming” users by telling them the ebook would be $9.95, then to have them billed for $29.95 a month.. It wasn’t so much that the users didn’t know, it clearly said you would be billed $29.95 a month if you didn’t cancel, but how many of us read everything on the order form page. I didn’t realize this additional monthly fee either, until I looked through the site and went to the order form. Not only did Mark win by getting a ton of attention from the post, but Joel is looking to clear everything up and give everyone that orders the ebook a bit more.
Today I got an email from Joel along with his apology version of the site and how he wants to make good on his ebook campaign and the misunderstandings of his ordering process. To make good on the ebook, not only has Joel corrected his landing pages to make it EASY and CLEAR for subscribers to choose if they just want the ebook for $9.95 (or $29.95 monthly package), but Joel will also be donating 100% of the profits for the next two weeks (starting today) to the Hearts and Hands International foundation. Joel has also added a few “Fast Action Bonuses” to anyone that orders the ebook. This was a good move on Joel’s part and as a personal friend, I don’t believe he was out to get (or scam) anyone, it just wasn’t setup the way it should have been.
To make things even more exciting and beneficial to my readers, I’ll be giving away FIVE FREE COPIES of Joel’s Adsense Secrets 4.0 ebook all of this week. A winner will randomly be selected from the comments made on the post. Simply make a relevant post (no spam or trash) and each day come back to this post and the winner will be listed and contacted. One entry per person.
If you don’t want to wait, simply click here to buy Joel’s Adsense Secrets 4.0 ebook.
UPDATED WINNERS:
Monday’s Winner – The Manager
Tuesday’s Winner – Kerry
Wednesday’s Winner – TrishaLyn Fawver
Thursday’s Winner – Not John Chow
Friday’s Winner – James Seligman
Comments on this post are now closed as the promotion has come to an end.
I have to say that this just seems like a very ingenious way to advertise his new book. First the release, then the apology. It's a pretty darn smart way to get people talking about his book.
Regardless of the intent, people saw the fault. Joel saw the fault as well and went above and beyond what needed to be done and turned this PR mistake into a customer service example of how companies should treat customers.
I've bought several of Joel's titles in the past and spent a lot more than $9.95 on them. The secret is that there is no big secret with Adsense, generate more search traffic (ideally from MSN and Yahoo) and blend the ads into your page content. There you go, secret revealed.
I wonder how many of you a-listers would be promoting this if
1. It wasn't written by your friend Joel
2. There was no commission for promoting it
Did someone say free?
Count me in, put me in the running for one of the remaining free e-books.
Thats really nice of you to give away free copies of the eBook Zac. I think Joel Comm messed up, but giving some of the profits to charity makes it a lot better.
Some people are idiots. Yeah, companies have been including sketchy terms in their "small print" forever and it's pretty common. Sure it's annoying to have to read that small print to get the whole story but if you don't then you deserve getting charged for as long as it takes you to figure it out. Joel didn't invent that strategy and it should have been obvious because of the dramatic price drop from previous versions.
I agree, Joel shouldn't have admitted to doing anything wrong. Sure, it's an annoying and somewhat shady practice and makes him look like a crappy company but it's still legit business and falls on the customer to read the terms they agree to when they purchase.
I think automatic recurrent billing is a bit iffy. There's no doubt in my mind that a business that uses this is hoping that the bill will slip the mind of the customer and, "Ooops! Another month went by when I forgot to cancel."
I think it's more trustworthy to just bill a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription. Don't automatically take money out of my bank account with the subtle hope that maybe I'll forget to cancel. Most people don't like that … hell, I don't even let my mortgage company do that.
If you want to be trusted, don't use an "iffy" billing method. Just my opinion.
I like the fact that he apologized, really a good thing to have someone that is responsible enough to do that. I know it might seem like too little too late, but its definitely a good sign overall. I'd love to win one of those books
Good Day Zac,
I will take a free copy,
wow this post has become a hatred post with comments …
guys Joel made a mistake and he is working on fixing it … is that too hard don't tell me that all of you are sacret and have never made a mistake in your life.
just marketing.
This is a good way to make it right and he might sell even more now because of this good deed. It also proves he is not trying to scam because he is going to give away his profits!
I would hope it was an honest mistake. I read his blog and he does not seem to be the kind of person who would do anything like this on purpose. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe if I win this book I could learn to get someone to actually click on my ads (wierd concept I know).
I would love to win one of those books, then maybe I can learn how to be a scam artist like this Joal guy.
Ya…I was tempting to buy that book. But when I saw the $29 monthly fee, I stopped.:)
I've always been skeptical of his ebooks. thanks for the contest.
Ever since Eban Pagan talked about how he used recurring billing to do $20 million with DoubleYourDating.com, everybody has been falling over themselves to do the same too.
Sounds like a bunch of greedy A-holes to me. God, I hate America sometimes. Where I'm from, nobody is better than the next guy.
The great thing is that at least he can admit when he has made a mistake. I think that it is a great thing that he is making donations to Hearts and Hands… this is a great gesture
WoW! I won! Thanks Zac! Thanks Joel!
Oh snap I won too! Sweet… should we be waiting for an email…?
Congrats on being a winner, just sent you an email.
Glad to see that everything got cleared up. Shame to see a person like him getting caught up in a "scam."
What is included in the monthly $29.95? Not worth it unless he plans on releasing a new e-book monthly or something along those lines.
He sure is gaining some outstanding publicity and future sales from this fiasco…..
one mans foul-up is another mans gain….
Honestly… How much will we publicly see going to charity xD