Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 12: Affiliate Summit Pre-Show
Friday
Jul 31, 2009
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We’re back together again! It feels like it’s been 10 years, but with technical problems and schedules we’re finally back in the saddle. And just in time for Affiliate Summit! With the show about a week away, this is our Pre-Show. Follow along with the agenda for the summit and make this interactive! This week we clock in at an EPIC 1 hour and 12 minutes. In in this episode we discuss:
- Affiliate Summit East 2009 Agenda
- Christian Affiliate Marketer’s Gospel Brunch at the Cotton Club.
- The parties surrounding Affiliate Summit (Thanks to Missy for putting the post together with them all!)
- Trisha’s husband Dominic experiencing Affiliate Summit as a student interested in marketing and affiliate marketing.
- Dominic’s awesome airbrushed shirt for Blinkstar Media.
- Shout out to Sticker Giant for donating stickers for Affiliate Marketers Give Back and for the Getting Noticed FAST Panel.
Joel Comm – Scummy or Chummy?
Monday
Apr 21, 2008
A bit of a scandal broke out last week regarding AdSense guru Joel Comm’s latest eBook offering – AdSense Secrets 4. The landing page as you can see is one of your typical sales pages that usually screams of scam – at least that’s my usual impression of pages like this. Mark Wielgus from 45n5.com noticed many trusted bloggers and affiliate marketers blogging about this book and it’s greatness – people like super affiliate Zac Johnson and Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins. Mark was ready to go ahead and buy the book, until he noticed the fine print (figuratively…) on the page – when you buy the $9.95 eBook you were also automatically enrolled in a $29.95/mo. program to receive a newsletter with more tips & such from Joel.
To make a long story short since I linked to Mark’s post in last Friday’s Cribbed Content, he called Joel & this offer out as a scam and was none too happy about it. Joel swung by 45n5.com to explain himself – apparently there were glitches with the landing page and the shopping cart process that combined what was originally intended to be an opt-in offer (the $29.95 newsletter) with the main offer of the eBook. Some of the commenter’s over there are still not convinced that Joel’s being honest about the mix up considering his many years in the field – the “he should have known better” argument.
But the good news is that Joel, in either an effort to make good by a screwy landing page or an effort to save his ass from bad PR, has offered to make it up to people who feel like they were duped. Zac Johnson seems to have the scoop – he corrected the landing pages (well, no duh), added some “Fast Action Bonuses”, and for the next two weeks will be donating 100% of the profits to charity. Wade Tonkin over at Christian Affiliate Marketers just today posted a podcast chat he had with Joel about the offer & spam accusations. Again, whether this is an honest apology or an attempt to save face, it’s still a good gesture and good deal.
The moral of the story? Accusing an internet marketer of spam is akin to accusing a home run hero of corking his bat. Keep this tale in mind the next time you formulate a marketing campaign or launch a new product. Do what you can to make sure that there’s nothing shady, underhanded, or illegal about your offer – or anything that could remotely be considered as such. It’s a good thing to have the blogosphere talking about you, but not when they’re roasting you on a spit.
