re: DISTURBING article about JOEL COMM

Anyone read this disturbing article on Joel Comm:

http://www.system0.net/2008/04/21/joel-comm-says-sorry-for-stealing-your-money/#comment-2841

It’s a pretty serious indictment on Joel Comm.

If you feel you’ve been deceived or defrauded in any way by Joel Comm, you should contact the FBI’s internet crime division:

http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

 

Everyone and their sister is promoting Adsense Secrets as a $9.95 ebook, however if you read the thousands of lines of text there is one small section that says you are buying more than just an ebook:

simply contact us and cancel your subscription at any time! Otherwise, you may continue to be in the Top 1% for the discount rate of just $29.95 every 30 days.

WTF? 99% of the site says I'm just buying an ebook. Everyone linking and promoting to this site says it's for an ebook, but somehow I'm enrolled to pay $29.95 every month now?

I HATE that type of deceptive nonsense and so does everyone else. It's the reason "internet marketers" have such a bad reputation, because people like Joel and Adense Secrets take advantage of them.

In fact this is so deceptive that I know at least one person that bought the ebook and had no idea about a $29.95 subscription (notes from twitter):


charleslau: @45n5 Oops. I bought Joel Comm's book...

45n5: @charleslau - be sure to cancel your subscribtion for 29.95 per month now

charleslau: @45n5 Thanks for letting me know... I didn't realize it. :O


Don't feel bad though Charles, I almost bought this book as well thinking I was only paying $9.95 (I mean, many of my internet friends recommened it and it was only a book).

I got lucky and stepped away from the computer though from an interruption and came back with fresh eyes and noticed the fine print.

Buyer Beware


It's my opinion that this is a scam to get you to subscribe to a $29.95 service under the deceptive disguise as a $9.95 ebook.

I was almost fooled, charles was fooled, Shawn didn't realize or mention it in his review, Zac Johnson didn't notice or mention it in his mention of the book, and I couldn't find anyone promoting this for what it really is.

This is the type of marketing I hate and will never buy any info product from Joel Comm or recommend his products until he quits with these deceptive practices.

Buyer beware, adsense secrets is more than a $9.95 ebook.

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LeonWestbrook says on April 17, 2008

Thanks for the heads up. I knew that book looked too good to be true.
Think Like An SOB says on April 17, 2008

Good for you Mark for calling it what it is. Not sure many bloggers would have the balls to say it.
Scot Smith says on April 17, 2008

John Chow was also promoting the book... I was curious how much the affiliate payout on it is
Charles Lau says on April 17, 2008

Can Joel Comm be more specific in his selling?
He may have a good product.
But he actually charged additional cost in fine prints... Not even at the CheckOut when I clicked...

I even promoted his book in my blog post.
PWA says on April 17, 2008

Joel Comm is a great marketer who'd sell his mom on eBay if he could make it profitable year after year. Just my opinion which I am fully entitled to.
Shawn Collins says on April 17, 2008

> Shawn didn't realize or mention it in his review...

Totally didn't realize - I expected there would be upsells, but not automatic.
siva | car345.com says on April 18, 2008

Thanks for pointing this out.., When I was watching internet millionaire show, I subscribed to his daily email. Every other day, I would get some sales email, looks like great story and when you go and follow link, I get trapped in these kind of sales landing pages... simply unsubscribed all.

Shane says on April 18, 2008

Want to buy just the book and not get the monthly billing? Go to the order page and then click cancel. You'll be given the option to just buy the book for $9.95 and nothing else...well...nothing except for a few upsell pages that you can cancel through.

Originally posted on twitter:
http://twitter.com/ShaneEubanks/statuses/790692261

I knew there had to be a "wait....don't go offer." Just had to dig for it.
45n5 says on April 18, 2008

@Shane - wow, a different offer if you hit cancel lol. Thanks for the heads up.

For some reason I don't trust that either after the first deception.

@all - thanks for the comments
Josh Spaulding says on April 18, 2008

I've read many of your rants in regards to sales pages in the past and I normally disagree. But I don't care for this type of tactic at all.

My feelings are that not all long sales pages are scams. There are MANY excellent products out there that are sold via long, "hyped" sales pages.

But, you're absolutely right here, Mark. The overall pitch makes you think you're just buying a low-priced ebook, but you're really creating a monthly membership, not cool.
Shane says on April 18, 2008

Well...he needs a new developer. There's a non-secure image on the secured page, which causes security issues. But that's another story.

Throw in every marketing tactic possible....oooooorrrrrr....code the checkout page correctly. Hmmmmmm.

Shane says on April 18, 2008

Oh...one last comment. He has a hackersafe logo on the checkout page, but it's just that...a logo. There's no hackersafe scanning anywhere. There SHOULD be code referring to scanalert that scans the page daily for vulnerabilities, but there's NONE. NOT hackersafe.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up on that part of it.
45n5 says on April 18, 2008

thanks @josh

 

Why do you need to buy this book altogether? Why is it so valuable? I know how to use adsense. The thing is that you need to try different positions on pages to get a high clickthru rate, try to get as much good traffic as you can and you are there...

Of course there is content which pays more per click and that pays less, but this is obvious I guess.

 

From another poster:

JOEL COMM AT A NEW LOW

Duncan Riley has already discussed Joel Comm steeping to a new low, but this is a doosy.

A few days ago, a very special information product was released titled “Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing manuscript”. Mike’s full product (Butterfly Marketing) costs around $1500 and he has decided to release a special chunk of this product for $97.

Because this product is valued quite highly by professionals, it was interesting to see everyone scamble out emails and articles, filled with their affiliate links.

Yaro pumped out a well written review, while Joel simply emailed his list with the following.

"So many people are wanting to download Mike
Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing manuscript
today that the servers have been unable to
keep up with the demand!

I’ve received emails from many people
telling me that they have been unable to
access the site."

Now hold up a second, let’s look at the link Joel provided. When visited, it redirects to .. yep an affiliate link for the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript. The domain is also owned by...Joel Comm.

Registrant Contact:
InfoMedia, Inc.
Joel Comm

In fact, when you do a Whois search, this confirms the site is actually registered by Mr. Joel Comm.

 

"I was really shocked to hear about this deal and I have posted a blog about it on my site.

I really hate this kind of marketing as it has happened to me in the past, and I never saw the deal coming in this case.

I have written to his (Joel Comm's) company, Infomedia, asking for the subscription to be cancelled. If they don’t do it, I will dispute the charge every time it shows up on my card. I will be watching."

http://affiliates-make-money-online.blogspot.com/2008/04/bad-news-about-joel-comms-new-ebook.html

Franklin Banker, April 21st, 2008

 

"Why do you need to buy this book altogether? Why is it so valuable? I know how to use adsense. The thing is that you need to try different positions on pages to get a high clickthru rate, try to get as much good traffic as you can and you are there...

Of course there is content which pays more per click and that pays less, but this is obvious I guess."

Totally agree with you!

 

Never bought an ebook in my life - and because of the shady, underhand tactics used for buyers of this one - I don't think I ever will.

This sounds blatantly like a scam - but at the end of the day, if its in the small print, and you can agreed to those terms and conditions, you can't do much about it. Though if it did happen to me, I would complain like hell and take it as far as I could.

ALex

 

So joel COomm Is a cheater and a liar and a thief then!

 

Other people have complained that they had a hard time collecting money from Joel Comm.

I remember one poster saying 'getting money from Joel Comm was like pulling teeth'.

The post then mysteriously vanished from the blog's site. No explanation was given.

 

I guess a lot of people thought he actually made his money from Adsense lol.

Haven't see an e-book yet that wasn't a total crock of shit.

 

My experience has been that the only people making money from these marketing ebooks are the people selling them. However, this Joel Comm tactic sounds like a new low even for ebooks.

 

Internet Marketers do not have a bad reputation for nothing.

For them, Adsense money is just spare change when you have houses and want to jetset around the world. You need much more money than what Adsense can bring...

 

Mike Filsaime is one of the worst scammers of all time. I've had a hard time getting money back from him, but after Better Business Bureau got after him and the lawsuit was about to get him busted, he'd refunded my money. Utter scam.

 

People who buy ebooks are the biggest fools on the face of the earth.

 

You've got a visitor to your site, and the idea is to get them right off your page for just a few cents? That doesn't make sense. Maybe feasible if you could have the link open in a new window so the visitor has to come back to your site as well, but adsense won't do that...

With relevancy and longtails, conversions are easy when you have no or outdo the competition. I wasted a little time with joel comms book on adsense and I regret it... lol, like I know a guy who spent 8 months working just on adsense and now he's at 100 bucks a day.

It's too bad because it's not hard to make good money and actually give value on the internet in so many ways.

On ebooks,

I actually disagree sort of, one of the ways you can get ahead is with a good ebook written by someone who is giving good value. I personally found it boring searching through forums although I heard a lot that was the best way to learn...

Too bad 90% of ebooks are not that great tho

 

I saw one of Joel Comm videos and was actually thinking about buying this. Appreciate the warning!

 

Nice heads up man. I appreciate the report on Joel.

 

I haven't read more than the first paragraph here (TOO MUCH TEXT), but Joel Comm is a member here at DP, so you should probably contact him if you have any issues.

 

With so much info on the net eventually every ebook is the same.
But like Johnson said, better contact him

 

I think according to your lines their are more than 20% users and webmaster fool . Yes i have seen many polls about this that most of them first purchased ebook about adsense than they came to know what it was all about .