News By Tom Brownsword

I’m tempted to write that we all want a second opinion regarding the headline, but it might be misinterpreted as a criticism instead of humor…

I’ve ranted about Joel Comm on this blog before, mainly about the way he uses audio. I don’t like the pristine, tranquil silence of my office being shattered by Joel’s voice, yet I get it whenever I visit one of his sales pages. But it isn’t just Joel; it’s anybody who thinks that I want to hear their voice when I’d prefer to listen to my dog snoring (to each his own, eh?).

On the other hand, I genuinely like Joel. I had the pleasure of being teamed up with him in Los Angeles last month at Yanik Silver’s event (our team took first place in the scavenger hunt — and my five year old son and two year old daughter LOVED the dart guns. Thanks, team; you made a hero out of me to the people who matter the most!). We had a great time that evening as we ran all over the streets of Los Angeles, looking for little clues, taking pictures, and baptizing / drowning Eric Holmlund (you had to have been there… Eric was a great sport about the whole thing, BTW!).

See what you miss by not attending live events? Why not jump down a couple of posts and sign up for Mark Hendricks’ event — and take advantage of my bonus offer? You never know what might happen… and I’m sure the hotel for that event has a swimming pool… And in all seriousness, both of those guys — plus the rest of my teammates — are now “approachable” in the future should I want to talk to them (”Hey, remember Los Angeles?”). Can you say that?

Anyway, Joel recently came out with Version 4 of his AdSense Secrets ebook. He’s selling it for about $10. I recommend that you click that link now and get a copy.

The way he structured his offer, however, generated a lot of controversy because the offer includes a continuity program — at $30 a month — for another product.

I read the offer, noted the continuity program, and purchased it anyway. Why? Because I know from past experience that Joel honors cancellation requests should I choose to exercise that option. I can quit any time I want and Joel’s staff will take care of me. In my case, he went even further a couple of years ago.

I don’t remember which product I purchased but it included two free months in a membership site that I didn’t find particularly useful. I promptly forgot about it until I got billed for a month’s worth of membership! When I wrote and explained that I’d never really used the membership and asked for a cancellation, I also got a refund for that month’s fees.

Joel’s not in business to get people upset, and as he mentions on his website, he did make a mistake in the way he structured and presented his offer. He’s also taken some steps to make amends. He’s revised his sales letter, his order process (you can now order the book with or without the monthly continuity), he left clear instructions on what to do if you don’t want the continuity program, and he’s going to forgo his profits for a couple of weeks and donate all profits to charity. He also promised to not do it again.

Works for me.

Joel is “driven” — that’s a common characteristic of any successful person, regardless of their field. He is also the kind of guy that you won’t mind spending an evening with, as I know from personal experience. I don’t think there was any malice intended here; he simply wanted to keep on moving forward and didn’t think things through to their completion. Never happens to me… or you…

So go ahead and order Version 4 of Joel Comm’s AdSense Secrets. You now have the choice of doing it with the extra offer (which I think is worth considering) or without.

Just make sure that you mute your computer’s speakers first…

Thanks for listening,
Tom

P.S. Michel Fortin made a great post about continuity programs that is definitely worth reading.