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 don’t believe he wasn’t out to get (or scam) anyone"
Whoops! That is an unfortunate freudian slip:)
haha, I proof read the article, then switched it because it didn't sound right… updated now
Good way to fix the situation.
I’m sure he didn’t want to scam anyone ( I hope so) but the impression were there. The sale page was made so confusing (mixing the word free with a membership plan next to it). Now it is much better. My question is he said in many comment the page wasn’t as great as I want it.. so why make it live .. Why did no promoters know about this membership plan? I do not say it was done on purpose but the reaction was strange. One after one said they had no idea about this membership plan.
It gives another reason for haters to hate internet marketers and those sale pages.
Anyway, I am happy he fixes everything and sends apology. I still think Joe is a great person. Everyone made mistake. We are human being at the end of the day. I only hope the book worth the drama.
It is maybe time to rethink about those long sales pages and make it simple and clear.
In my opinion, Joel made a massive f**k up with his latest marketing campaign & I do think he was hoping to dupe his customers into a subscription service while also duping his affiliates into promoting that service while the affiliates only get paid for the initial payment on the ebook.
Anyone with marketing experience like his knows what he is doing.
If he gets called out on it & then blames it on his shopping cart script that went wrong in the last few hours before the product went live, it only looses more respect in my mind.
If he wants to be known & promotes himself as an online marketing guru, he knows well that he can postpone any product launches until any billing glitches have been worked out…
Then again, he also knows that him being called out on this issue is massive link bait for him, so cashing in on that link bait now is a fantastic idea.
Who else is going to be promoting the ebook now?
You can be sure that all the bloggers that provided their affiliate links in the last few days since launch will post again now offering their apologies along with Joels apology, which will justify the original post and will push the product even further…
But fair play to him, a few new ebooks encouraging his customers to buy more of his products & a few goofy images of him offering his apologies will work well i'm sure…
All that aside, i'd love to still read the ebook but still haven't seen on any site promoting this ebook what it can offer outside of what google publish in their own guidelines, so i'd love to win…
Please count me in Zac.
Yeah sort of shady and I also have a hard time believing his wasn't trying to scam. He is a freakin' salesperson people!
Anyway, I'd still take the book for free. As long as that isn't…a…scam…too.
That's funny. I wonder if he didn't think that he wouldn't get caught, or simply made a mistake setting up his the payment processing.
Thanks for this post , I just had someone asking about this , so will point them in the right direction , here to your blog.
sound like a fair solution,
to your abundance
Suzie
I love this….if you think he was not trying to deceive people then YOU just got deceived. Guys a POS…let the product speak for itself. In the long run you lose when you mislead your core customers and especially the people that piush your product. People like this give a bad name to the ones actually makin a honest livin on the web.
I have a deal for him:
I will pay him $25,000….
Boxing match ME vs. Him
He wins = $25K
I win = $1
Wow, some pretty violent language from folks.
I wrote the apology from my heart.
I thought we were QUITE clear by having the offer listen both on the sales page and on the order form. It was there in black and white.
Honestly, this was a completely FTC compliant offer. If you want to go after people trying to scam people I can point out tons of offers. You just don't hear about them because they are HIDING their continuity. I got called out because someone spotted it… because they were supposed to spot it!
Furthermore, when the first copy of the newsletter arrives in the buyer's mailbox, there is a very obvious letter that explains what it is (once more) and tells them how to cease receiving it if they don't want it. We are going the extra mile to make sure that it gets in the hands of people that want it.
Nevertheless, as I said in my apology, I have made it much clearer now so there can be no mistake.
I'm not interested in taking money from ANYONE who doesn't want what I have to offer. And I've got a spotless reputation for providing refunds on products EVEN when we have a no refund policy. Why? Because a lifetime customer is more important to me than a few dollars.
Hope that clears things up. I truly am sorry that it came off like it did and hope I can earn people's trust once more.
Joel
P.S. – can I win a copy of my own ebook since I posted? ;-P
Few Points I would like JOEL to read:
1.Anyone who quotes FTC guidelines must be a POS. The honest guiy doesn;t need to check with the FTC before making an hionest offer.
2. Don;t pass the buck off to other people doing scams…we know there are others. But guess what…you are one of the others now.
3.If you have to have a reputation for giving refunds then generally you have a misleading business model.
4.You say you are sorry if it came off the wrong way but in the next breath you ask for a FREE ebook. Even though you are kidding makes people even more aware of the type person you are.
5. You wanna make $25K my offer still stands. Name the time and the place and I will even pay yoru way there.
I'm not sure why you changed anything in the first place man. The only scammy thing about the entire deal is that your product is a retarded e-book. Almost every affiliate marketer I know has promoted an offer that has a low starting payment for the "free trial" after which the customer is billed a higher monthly fee.
The reason people are so up-in-arms right now is because you admitted you were doing something wrong. If you had just stuck to your guns and not backed down like a puss, and just explained that you were in the right from the start, then you wouldn't be having any of these problems.
Joel:
Please correct me if I am wrong . . . but I understand that your sales letter was close to 15 pages . . . and you included "ONE" single line in this massive sales letter to let the customer know about the recurring charge. Is that right?
A long time ago a wise man taught me the following lesson: "In life there will be times when you have to make the decision to do what is right or do what is legal. Just because something is legal does not make it right. Always do what is right."
That single line about the recurring charge may satisfy the FTC from a legal standpoint, but it does not make it "Right" . . . and it certainly is not smart marketing.
But there is a valuable lesson here. There is nothing more important in this business than your credibility and reputation. It takes years to build it and a day to turn it into ruins.
I am not saying Joel's reputation is in ruins. But what I will say is that he had a choice . . . do what is right or do what is legal. He made choice and now he has to live with it.
People make mistakes. What is important is that he is trying to fix it.
He knew what he was doing the whole time. It's not like he is a noob at setting up shopping cart systems. I'm sure he'll get that $30 for the first months subscription from a lot of people. He's shady and seems like a douche to me.
Free ebooks you say, of something I was looking at buying anyway…sounds like a good deal to me.
Fingers crossed.
Thanks man.
heehee…joel is the man. there's never such thing as negative publicity! take it to the bank!
Hey – stuff happens.
If anyone wants to figger out how to do the Adsense thing I think this is the book to read. Joel has been around for a while and has proven himself as an excellent teacher in this arena.
So – sign me up for the free drawing!
Jack
I wrote a post about the "scam design" of these marketing blogs and why they fail to convert
I hate to miss out on a good secret. Count me in. He did the right thing by changing his pricing system. But he is getting extra publicity from this.
Put me in the hopper for one of Joel's free ebooks. I'm thinkin the whole thing is link bait on Joel's part, quite the shrewd marketer he is.
Looks like this little gaffe (intentional or accidental? you decide!) sure got big in a hurry… I look forward to be in the running for a copy of the book sans top 1% subscription.
Nobody's perfect by any means, and Joel is showing good business and customer service by offering something free for his mistake. Furthermore, he giving to a good cause as well. This, in my opinion, is what they call great customer service. I'm certain Joel has learned from his mistake, and many times learning from your mistakes in business can lead to better things down the road. Not only has Joel learned from his mistake, but he was honest enough to bring the mistake to everyone's attention, and now, they can learn something too. What can they learn? It's simple, check everything more than once before going live with it. Sometimes we get in a hurry or get excited and overlook things.
Joel is on every blog out there. Quite a publicity. His book must be valuable stuff as he is one of the best known names in the industry. I knew something like this would come up as I read the sales copy. Mistake or no mistake he is back in the news again. Great!
Things happen, good way of solving it.
This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Joel really sacrificed his credibility with this one. I read his “apology”. It reads like a sales letter. It doesn’t feel honest at all. With this stunt, he’s gotten a lot of free publicity, but he’s sold his soul in the process. I’ll never look at him as someone I can trust ever again.
- Dave
Zac I like your title but I think you left out someone ELSE who screwed up and that was you. I didn't read your original review so I am going off the assumption of the way you wrote the first paragraph that you failed to point this little fact out in your original review.
You have a responsibility to report the complete picture, not just the part where you earn a few bucks.
In my opinion you screwed up too.
Once I was aware of the situation, I updated the original review on the program.
I read Joel's first book, and frankly the adsense world has changed so much, I wondered when a new one would come out.
As for the "messup" he has a big enough name and plenty of income, I am willing to believe it was a mistake.
I think it was an honest mistake by Joel. I dont think he would stake his reputation for a few hundred dollars or maybe less.
He is smart enough to realize that he wouldn't get away with such a scam especially with the knowledgeable affiliate marketing readers.
In my opinion Zac there are too many books and articles out there who claims to tell you secrets and tips to get rich or make more money online that I have stopped believing the till I know them from my trusted sources. J Chow is also promoting this and now you may be this book has earned my credit. But sure the start for this e-book was scamy after all, and if I will be not be so lucky to get a free copy here I will sure buy it out
I truly believe this grave mistake that Joel made taught us a very good lesson to read every single fine print before purchasing an item, i don't blame Joel Comm and it's not like we do not know who he is. I am sure he had done enough to earn back his respect from all of us.
smart move
Hi Zach. Thanks for posting about the this. I wonder how the internet community will react to this apology? I'm sure he learned his lesson on this one. If these darn sales pages were 18 MILLION pages long, then maybe people would read everything on the page. Either way trying to slip something like that into the deal was wrong without clearly stating it during the sale process. I've seen plenty of other sites clearly point out thier negative acceptance offers.
That's very smart of him to correct this error so quickly. However, when you go to his promo site, if you don't order, you still get annoying pop-up windows asking if you are sure that you want to leave — pop-up windows that show up even with Firefox!
Lane of VeganBits.com
I did not think that someone whose big products were in the $100 range would really be selling the current version for just $10.
There is a gray area in wording marketing and sales and the way the cost is presented to a customer. It looks like Joel crossed that gray area and went well into the black void.
Who cares what the FTC says. What does the customer say?
Yup, I noticed that in the small print right before I was about to click to buy the ebook. Turned me off right away. Glad he switched it up because I really did want to grab the ebook without worrying about canceling in time, etc.
I think Joel handled the situation quite well.
He did what most affiliate marketers do to consumers anyways – the only difference here is that he tried to do that to the "marketers" itself. How does that saying from Diggstown go? "Never try to con a con-man!"
I agree – things happen. Seems like Joel acted appropriately to fix the situation.
I'm not sure where I fall on this… I don't know Joel or his products well enough to make an assessment but I will say that it seems like he's been in the marketing arena long enough to know to steer clear of anything that could remotely be considered underhanded.
There's definitely a moral to the story – stay away from tactics that appear less than kosher if you're not a shady guy. If you're chummy, don't look scummy.
I don't think he was trying to scam anyone really, but he certainly wasn't shouting that there was a $30/month charge. The fact that he had to check with the FTC guidelines shows that he wasn't being totally truthful.
Typical long sales page BS, he's not the only one. Nickycakes is right that he shouldn't have admitted wrong-doing though. He should have either kept it as-is, or changed it and said "due to customers being confused, we've changed this…" or whatever. Not admitting he did wrong.
Either way, even if I was interested in this ebook I wouldn't buy it. I can't stand long sales pages. I would have went to the site, saw the sales page and immediately closed it.
I would check it out though if I won one of the five free ones.
Mistakes do happen and Joel posted his mea culpa, but this kind of thing only adds more fuel to the "why we hate IM ebooks" fire.
I clicked through to the sales page, but I'm really glad now that I didn't purchase. The sales page is excessively long and I'm sure nobody reads even half of the shill that is on it.
I think Joel should have made his apology simple rather making it as another sales pitch.
Anyways–
Well you get into a sales roll and sometimes it's hard to get out I guess. Some people are just like that, although I tend to agree with you for the most part.
Has Zac given away any of the 5 free ones yet?
Jack
A winner will be selected each day of the week.
Being in marketing as long as he has, he knows about the “tricks” of the trade. Tactics like this is the exact reason as soon as I see one of those long “ClickBank” type sales letters, I can’t close my browser fast enough.
Most of Joel offers are very interesting. I see most of the blogs taking adsense out, is it still viable option to get revenue to a blog?
Good move there by Joel
Btw it wasnt really a good option of $30 a month instead of $10 as stated.
I can see that he made a marketing mistake. Now that he corrected I will give him a chance. Everyone can make a mistake, I have seen other marketers do something similar. And it can have a bad turn on your bottom line. The ebook still sounds like a good read.
I want the free ebook.
Hope i will win one.
We know what the secret is with adsense….. Joel got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
please let me win!!!
I am interested..I want to read the e-book.
I am pretty much sure that he didn't wanted to scam.
But I am not a adsense fan. I would never buy an adsense ebook.
Anyway, there is nothing bad on getting free books.