It’s been an ethical direct mailing strategy, but the way they’ve used it on the Internet lately might get a little on the evil side, especially when it’s planned in such perfection.

I thought Joel’s page still looks believable, as its short and usually doesn’t take too long to create copy like this.

The picture though…hm, if he’s a quick-minded creative entrepreneur, it’s possible. I have to agree though, it makes people go…

“hm…”

I feel you can’t fault Joel for turning the ‘public apology’ into a sales opportunity. I think any seasoned marketer would have done that.

Now, whether the forced continuity was a genuine mistake I’ve no idea. But I did know about it when I bought Joel’s Adsense Secrets ‘cos I read that part of the sales page.

There was no way I could avoid it though ‘cos there simply wasn’t an option to opt out when I bought on Apr 17 (my time, probably Apr 16 Joel’s time). There was only 1 item of AS4+Newsletter at checkout IIRC. I figured I could cancel the newsletter later since I know about it.

I heard later it was changed to 2 items: 1 for AS4 and 1 for Newsletter at checkout. And then now of course it’s very clearly 2 options at the sales page.

You might be interested to know this: As a customer of AS4, I haven’t officially received any email about the ‘public apology’ nor the forced continuity of the newsletter. There was a mention of the newsletter in the welcome email but nothing about continuing subscriptions. BTW, I’m also on Joel’s other lists which I don’t recall seeing any mention of this hoo-hah.

Maybe I missed the ‘apology’ email or the message was buried deep in one of the emails, being away and having lots to catchup and what not. When I got the news through other lists I’m on, I went back to search through the emails: Nothing. (To be fair, I won’t say I scrutinize everything though.)

Don’t ask me how I feel about Joel ‘cos I’m not sure myself. I’m just adding my own bit of first-hand experience to this whole incident.

KokPang

I was one of the internet marketers who initially promoted Joel’s product, having missed the almost-hidden forced continuity.

When people started pointing this out to me, I immediately contacted all my subscribers and put up a blog post on the topic.

I also contacted Joel directly, and he commented on my blog:

http://www.marketingsparks.com/archives/208

Subnsequently, following a lot of protests, including from some well-known people such as Dr. Mani, he then published the apology.

Yes, I agree that the apology page was also a sales page, so it would be possible to view this with a certain amount of cynicism.

But I hope that Joel has learnt from his error – and I do think that he hadn’t realised how so many people would have thought it a sneaky tactic.

Regarding the BBB logo, Joel’s company is, indeed a member. See here:

http://wynco.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=98&bbb=0805&firm=46013275

Hope this helps

Regards

Ian Traynor
Professional Webmaster
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