Joel Comm admits a mistake - clarifies purchase options for Adsense Secrets
Apr 21, 2008 Industry Observations
There was quite a bit of controversy at the end of last week on the continuity program that Joel Comm was offering with his $9.95 deal for his newly updated AdSense Secrets 4.
Mark of 45N5.com pointed out that there was a continuity program that he felt buyers were being opted in for without sufficient mention up front.
I took a look at the sales page and the continuity program was mentioned in plain text. I think there could have been a little more highlighting of this, but compared to some continuity programs I have seen in the past where there is no mention or tiny print mention after the fact.
I got on Skype with Joel and we spoke about how things worked. He indicated that he was working to make some changes to make the process more transparent and to give the user a choice of whether to buy the ebook alone or the bundled ebook with the continuity program with his 1% Report. He pointed out that the 1% Report is actually a physical product that the user would get a free month of, accompanied by a letter with instructions on unsubscribing if they were interested so a recurring charge would most likely not be billed.
Well - yesterday, Joel posted an apology on his site that I think is worth mentioning and reading. He’s now tweaked the shopping cart to allow for easy selection of the solo ebook or bundled package. He’s also pledged to give 2 weeks of the revenue from direct sales of the AdSense Secrets ebook to a charity .
I think the apology is sincere and I commend Joel for stepping back and admitting he’d made a mistake. I think there are many marketers who wouldn’t have reared their head at all, and definitely wouldn’t have apologized, corrected the issue, and made any kind of move to make something good of the situation by donating proceeds to charity.
One request for Joel, or anyone else who is going to make an offer like this to affiliates where there is a really aggressively priced “lead offer” to get people on a continuity program (other than to be as clear as possible with consumers) PLEASE TELL YOUR AFFILIATES WHAT’S UP.
The affiliates can then make a call as to how they promote the product.
Would I have still promoted the ebook offer? YES
I think the content is good stuff and I like to promote offers from fellow believers.
I would however, have made mention in my copy of the continuity program so my referrals were educated and would go into the deal knowing what is up. The benefit would have been mutual.
God Bless,
Wade
Tags: adsense secrets, continuity programs, joel comm, joel comm ebook
