Joel Screwed Up

Hey Mark,

Thanks for posting this.

The posts I made before were accurate. I just didn't think it was relevant to discuss the line items and shopping cart on the apology page. I just wanted to make sure I covered the core of the issue.

Best,

Joel

I got an email from Joel on this, this morning as well. Props to Joel for correcting the error and I'm sure this will only increase his publicity and book sales.

Imagine that.

Mark: While I was commenting on the other post, I saw the comment about this one.

You are right, the new version is better.

Joel: It's good that you are donating. You will get better "blogpress" for that ;)

Aww isn't that cute? Joel got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and figured out a way to spin it so he looks like a good guy again.

Any guesses on how much of this would have been done if Mark hadn't called him out on his deceptive practices?

Joel, next time, do what's right because it's the right thing to do, not because you got caught and forced into it. If the scape goat, I mean shopping cart wouldn't let you do things how you wanted, delay the launch.

I'm sure you're hoping that your admission that you screwed up and the donation to charity is going to make people trust you again but I for one think what you do in secret is more telling than what you do when you've been caught.

"He just can't get away from the marketer speak and long sales pages can he? LoL"

Agree with that one, Mark. ;-)

Maybe Joel should run several tests on whether his sales pages increase sales when they are shorter...

~Marcus

Ben, if you can't accept a sincere apology than there is no way to change your mind. You may believe as you wish, but my conscience is clear.

And honestly, it wasn't this blog that had the impact to cause me to evaluate. It was Clicknewz.com and the post by Deb Gallardo. Rather than attacking me (which rarely gets through to anyone... try it sometime), she spoke from her heart and pointed out some things I needed to see.

As for long-form sales letters, I am not a huge fan either. But sometimes it takes a lot of words to say what you want to say. I wrote the copy for the apology from scratch and there isn't a part that I would eliminate.

That said, I wouldn't mind split-testing the sales page for the ebook by cutting out most of the text and just letting the video do the talking. I think it is more powerful and the way things are going.

I appreciate everyone's comments!

Joel

i dont care how good the book is, i cant believe ANYONE would give him a dime

the site looks 100% like a spam site...

It was just a matter of time before Joel got busted on a massive scale like this as most of his products are just hype and borderline scams IMO.

Good Marketers fix the mess and turn negative publicity to positive even if it costs to fix it. These costs are temporary but long term value of customer is much more. I am so surprised to see Joel not only fixed up the mess but also turned all the negative publicity to good publicity. Defanitely good lesson. Good job Mark and Joel.

I saw this on problogger and followed the story around the net. It got me thinking about webpage usability issues I like to call "scam design" and why they fail to convert.

This might have been such an issue had the page design not look like a scam in progress.

What Joel did was fine even if it was deliberate. We all should move on and let Joel make his fortune.

creating controversy, making people talking about you, haaah...

iIsn't this all looking like another dirty marketing tactic?

think again....

Just stay away from anything with that name on it, including endorsements, JVs, etc. Pure hype and pure spin. The email marketing is relentless and boring tripe.

Should be at the bottom of everyone's list, with or without the apologies.

http://joelcomm.com/


How does one get to be Joel's Friends? or Joel's Enemies

Google should ban every account that uses Joel's method!!!

Credit to Joel for acknowledging his mistake....

I am not sure if Joel cares to target customers like myself, but if he does he really needs to reconsider the long sale pages. The snapshot above would have been long enough for me.

Just a suggestion. ;)

Mark,

I just posted the podcast that I did with Joel last Friday. A lot has changed since then, but it is still an interesting listen.

http://christianaffiliatemarketers.com/
(click the audio MP3 icon for best results)

I also changed settings so no login is necessary to comment.

I applaud Joel's reaction. I'm sure some will question his motives, but I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt on things... call it a character flaw if you will.

Vlad - you may not be Joel's target customer. For the record, I don't respond well to sales letters either - just not my thing, but - those things convert.

Hey Dudes, has anyone actually got an "Honest Review", as to the usefullness or lack thereof regrading this E-book.

Now that, Joel has cleaned his act up, is this e-book, any good?