update: please note the update at the bottom of this post.
It has been a big week for bloggers launching products and making special offers.
AdSense guru Joel Comm has this week also announced a new product (or rather an update of an old one) called AdSense Secrets 4.0.
Joe’s written many resources for those wanting to improve their AdSense earnings and his book on the topic has been a best seller on Amazon.
This week he’s launched his 4th version of the product.
Before you visit his sales page – take a deep breath. It’s long, its full of sales talk…. but the product is only $9.95 (his previous ones have been $97).
Joe’s AdSense resources are always a great resource for those starting out with AdSense – so if you’re wanting to improve your AdSense performance or want a good introduction to it a $9.95 investment is definitely worth it.
If that’s you just scroll to the bottom of his sales page, skip the sale and click purchase – you’ll save yourself 15 minutes of reading an watching videos in the process!
update: friends I want to make a couple of clarifications to this post after reading the comments left so far.
1. I have bought the product and believe it contains useful information to those starting out with AdSense.
2. Joel Comm’s previous versions of this product were helpful in my own journey with learning about AdSense. Yes I learned some of what I now know about AdSense through my own experimenting and the reading of free information online about it but his books have helped me – as a result I am mentioning this latest version.
3. In signing up for this product there are a few ‘catches’ that I didn’t realize. As I mentioned in the post the long page is very salesy and as I encouraged you to skip through it – I skipped through it. This was a mistake on my part and I apologize for this. Please do read the sales copy and understand that there’s a membership program/monthly report with this that costs $29.95 a month which you are subscribed to when you sign up for this. You can unsubscribe at any time if you don’t want to be in it. I’m a little surprised and disappointed to see Joel doing this to be honest but it is mentioned in the sales page (see the ‘free’ bonuses).
I am sorry for not pointing this subscription cost out in my original post. It was a dumb mistake from me. Having said this I think Joel’s product here remains a worthwhile resource for those starting out with AdSense.
update 2 – Joel’s seen the error of his ways and has changed the process again meaning you’re not automatically subscribed to the ongoing reports. All seems to be good now.
Thanks darren for the info. I think i will spend the 10 dollars on this book. Yeah i am saying this after reading the sales page and watching the video.
By the way thanks also for the preview chapter on “Blogging for dollars” from your book. It was a great read. You can actually be a good author, if you give some thoughts to it. he he.
c ya.
FYI – By default you’re signed up to a membership site which you’ll have to cancel if you’re not interested.
An interesting dicussion on this is at ClickNewz blog under the comments here:
http://www.clicknewz.com/1449/download-joel-comms-97-guide-for-under-10/
~Shannon
Ya as Shannon said be aware that you are also signing up for a 30 buck a month member ship site. here is a video post about it: http://www.45n5.com/permalink/adsense-secrets-scam-alert.html
Mark from 45n5.com talked about the automatic subscription too. I am surprised you didn’t highlight that issue Darren.
Its bad marketing practice, and shouldn’t be promoted because of it.
“Buy this book for $10, and be automatically subscribed for $30/m to a service that you now have to cancel!” What the heck!?
Why are you promoting this without mentioning the hidden continuity program that people are signed up to? — false advertising, and you obviously haven’t bought this product yourself…
Pretty sneaky, me thinks.
I’ve seen a similar practice wherein a premium WP theme was once offered for sale but it’s for free – but users have to subscribe to mailing list first before actually getting to download the theme.
I’m a little disappointed Darren, I thought you were better than this.
Just click cancel on the checkout page to be given a “wait, before you go” offer where you can buy just the ebook for $9.95 and not the monthly membership.
This looks to be interesting, will check this.
my commons sense says to me that if the first product was sold for 95 and second for 9, it means that it doesnt have success. and the fact that you promote a hidden subscription…not nice at all
Wow, I was going to take a look at the book but I’m just not into “auto” memberships…
There’s also the very nasty signing you up for THREE different e-mail lists without permission. You can opt out — but I’ll tell you, I’m sorry I spent $10 — and that WAS the come on, right — and then was abused by the sales pages, and then the e-mails. I swear, I spent 15 minutes opting out of stuff I didn’t want, just so he could do his middle-of-the-night hardsell. Bad blogging, bad business if you ask me. I hope it bombs so that the practice is removed from the blogging gene pool.
One more thing — when one of the e-mail subscriptions said to “let me know if you have any problems” by sending an e-mail — I forwarded an e-mail complaint and received ANOTHER e-mail forcing me to identify myself as a non-spammer.
I HATE THIS.
site looks like a spam-site, darren – did you really link us to this?
no thanks…im buying your book though – NYT bestseller isnt a selling point to me – demonstration of knowledge is !
Yup the sneaky bit is in BONUS 3. Watch out for that if you consider buying.
Darren please make people aware of the $30 monthly subscription when they join.
Darren — strongly recommend you revise your post to warn about the subscription.
I am currently working on my first few AdSense sites, and was anxious to purchase this until I heard about the subscription deal. What a bummer.
I really don’t think it was even worth $10. You can find all the info in the book free on the internet. I have only been blogging for less than 2 months, and the book didn’t even teach me anything new.
I hope Darren didn’t realize this when he posted it. From his trackrecord, I think this was just an oversight. When does the sun rise in Australia again?
The “adsense secrets” web site is an example of what stinks about the internet. It’s a little disheartening to see someone like Darren promote something like this. Whether his book is helpful doesn’t matter because the way he’s going about selling it is so scam-a-licious.
The link is http://tinyurl.com/4kj92a for the low down on this product. I went on to Twitter to alert you to this YouTube video and find you are promoting the product. i can only think that llke myself you skipped the long copy. We live and learn.
Why on Earth are people promoting this crap? I would expect this on a new ‘make money online’ wanna-be blog, but not from Darren.
What bothers me is that a bunch of websites are pushing this product, using affiliate links may I add, and are saying things like “just hit the sales button” because they know that the only place this $30 add-on is mentioned is about 3/4 down the page, and not on the order confirmation page. Now THAT is exactly how people make money with internet marketing…
The product really intrigues me…it’s that lack of transparency that turned me off.
Agreed – VERY shoddy practice with the sneaky newsletter :(
I have run into at least 5 blogs promoting this so called “great deal”
The book is good, I have read an earlier copy. And the membership site…well a snakey kind of thing to do but I have no problem with joining, testing membership sites and then quitting them.
Try out some of these sites. Often a membership site is a good group of people that will open up because they have common interests and money on the line.
About Joel Comm’s membership site? I have no idea. Never looked at it before, anyone else have any input about how good/bad it is?
Thanks for posting the update, Darren. I’m sure we (all 47K of us :) are glad it was just an oversight and not an “active hard sell” from you.
I do intend buying YOUR book, though… and soon !!
Hey Darren.. Do you believe in this product? as you know, the unique way to make money with adsense is fresh content and big traffic.. nothing more…
I have one of Joel’s ad sense books it wasnt 97 dollars bought it at amazon.
Sort of reminds me of the “7 Dollar secrets” where you build your email list AFTER they purchase the product – but THREE subscriptions?
I have the older version and I realy recommend this book too.. :)
Thanks for the clarification Darren :)
I’ve bought the book and browse through it. Its almost the same as version 3 which i paid for $97. Actually I’m surprised that it is selling at $9.95. Anyway for that price I believe it can help more beginners to start with adsense. The monthly subscription can be opted out, so just skip that part.
You guys crack me up. Look, people make mistakes. You must ALWAYS do your own due diligence…
And suppose you joined Mr. Comm’s membership site which helped you make some extra money with your blog using adsense….would that be so bad?
People are so quick to judge others–meanwhile most of the posts here are how to make money with you blog…if you’re in it to make some money, you guys need to get over this kind of stuff.
@Fadzuli The book may be fine but if people did not realise they were signed up for the subscription could not be opted out of and they might not know for several months. I think it is disgraceful way to behave to just hide it in extremely long copy. In fact the copy was so long Darren unwittingly advised people to skip it.
Price keeps on changing because there’s just no price for that stuff. I wonder who would buy it anyway. Come on this guy is selling words and dreams. Time to grow up or take a break from the webrealm.
It is amazing at how much power people like Darren have though. Usually when I come across a site that like the one for this book, I say to myself “SCAM!” But just because Darren suggested it I decided to get it anyways.
AdSense Secrets 4.0 is quite fabulous. I have gotten my own copy! I did’t hestitate to buy the book aparently because of the reduction in the price. But what I don’t know is if it contains the same information that the earlier edition contain. Or is it just an update.
It was all over Twitter updates that Joel Comm was “practically giving away” this Adsense thing and leading everyone to various internet marketer blog sites [alarm sounds] … and his page looks like a Clickbank page…so most people know immediately that it’s a referral link that they just clicked on, and the “review” they just read in a blog or whatever was not a review in the 100% honest sense of the word. I think this can make the bloggers who directed their readers to the site look like he/she does not have the best interests of his/her blog’s readers in mind. But I realize in your case how you missed the recurring deal, and you have done everything you could possibly do to let everyone know, and that’s completely understandable.
The way Joel’s set up the intro offer and then the recurring charge is actually good sales and marketing… if it’s done really well. I’m personally very against things that put recurring charges on credit cards. As a business owner, I’d love to have recurrent charges to my clients, but as a shopper, I absolutely hate recurring charges. People are so busy, they forget to get the recurring charges canceled. If people will actually use and stay committed to the training and the Adsense program, it would probably be worth it.
But do most people have websites that generate the amount of traffic to make big money with Adsense? No, I don’t think most of them do. I think their money would be better spent on improving every aspect of their website that they can, and improving their site’s SEO. But if you have a website with a lot of traffic like Joel Comm’s DealofDay.com , then by all means, you definitely want to boost your Adsense profits.
My Adsense account is at $70 after more than a year of doing it, and I’m happy with that, after all it was free. So take my comments with a grain of salt, but that’s where my brain (my WHAT?!?) is right now.
@Bill Parlaman I disagree. Someone will have to get over it and my money is on all the marketeers that follow in his wake.
Uh oh, this doesn’t look too good. Big mistake. Advising your readers to “skip” the sales page and go straight to the buy page is very unethical, specifically for reasons like this one – Hidden charges or fees. This is not going to look very well on your track record. And this “AdSense Secrets” book is your typical “info” product, there is nothing and I mean nothing in this book that you can’t find for free on the Internet. If anything the $10 is only worth saving you the 3 minutes it’s going to take to search for the same info for free.
Overall it was a bad move trying to recommend this book, Obvious affiliate link, but the worst part was telling people to skip the sales page. Hope this doesn’t damage your credibility, you seem to be a really good guy.
PS Blogger’s are in Guru’s are out, Don’t affiliate yourself with them anymore. They have the track record of scam artist, even though they’re not, but to an average person they’re marketing tactics come off as a “scam.” Blog in Guru out!
It’s not a membership site, it’s a physical newsletter, and Joel’s already amended the sales process and made public apologies regarding the confusion.
If what Dennis said is true, I may go back and actually buy the book. I appreciate the professionalism with which Darren approached this issue as well.
In the interest of full disclosure, Darren should also mention his links to the product are affiliate links.
Why can’t people make advertisement sites look a bit more professional? after clicking what looked like an affiliate link ^^ from this site. You get hit with the thing. Trying to exit the site seems to only anger the beast even more, and sales boxes with pretty women with headsets come leaping out at you, asking you to wait a min, boxes then start flying up asking are you sure you want to quit this site… Just really bad sales spam with a product to match, wonder if it’s PPC?
Hey Gang,
I am terribly sorry for what took place, especially to Darren who believes in me and the product I produce.
I have posted a public apology page at:
http://www.adsense-secrets.com/apology.html
Darren has never let me down with his advice, tips and techniques, so I’m not going to think any less of him because of one, I believe honest, mistake. I do feel though, that Darren is selling a bit much lately. My guess is, that he trusted Joel’s word (because he read his previous book) without really looking at the sellpage itself and just went ahead with it. Darren, please don’t become some sort of Oprah “and you get a car, you get a car”. Although I do actually want to know what your favorite things are… :-) But “and you get traffic, and you get traffic!” sounds rather good actually… Keep your chin up Darren!
A reader from Holland
Why do people try to trick customers? Where does in get you in the long run….once you lose your core customers trust you have NO legs to stand on.
@GW — if we get to the point where we cannot trust Darren, I give up.