Ask Gina Gaudio-Graves’ … About Internet Marketing & Strategic Alliances

If you’ve been in the Warrior’s Forum in the last week, you’ve no doubt seen the controversy that’s been stirring over the “Google Ads for Free” product. 

I’ve discussed this product with several of my friends, each of them having a different opinion.  Let me share those opinions with you.

First, though, here’s a little background. 

The product in question happens to be a pretty darned good product, at least in terms of the content.

The product teaches a strategy for recouping more than your cost (actually, about 30% more than your cost) of using Google AdWords.  But the sales letter suggests that the methods contained in the book will show you “how to get your Google AdWords FREE”.

In other words, the sales letter is completely deceptive.  In fact, it is pretty much an outright lie.

When I asked my good friend, Louis Burleson, what he thought about the product, Louis admitted to purchasing it, reading it, and then returning it.  Louis thought the product was pretty good, actually.  Yet, he still returned it.

I asked another friend of mine, Sam Freedom, for his thoughts about this ebook.  Like Louis, Sam had purchased the book and read it.  However, he had not returned it.

So, I thought that I would ask the same questions of my readers …

If a product comes out, and that product happens to be a pretty good product in terms of the content, in the methods and strategies that it teaches, but the marketing and copy for that product are totally deceptive, is it ethical to return the product?

This particular product has caused more big named marketers to retract their endorsements than I’ve ever seen before for ANY product.  Why would they do that?  What made them promote in the first place?

If you haven’t already checked out the sales letter for this product, you’re going to want to do so when you’re done with this article.  It’s at:

http://www.GetGoogleAdsFree.com (nope - no affiliate link either)

BUT DO NOT BUY THE PRODUCT (at least not until AFTER you’ve read this)!

The reason that I tell you to study that sales letter is because it is a brilliant piece of copy!  I know that I’ve already carefully placed it in my swipe file.

When I spoke with Louis and Sam, they had done the same as well.

What makes this a “brilliant piece of copy”?

Well, the fact that so many marketers were enticed into promoting the product in the first place, in part.

You can tell that the words were each chosen carefully for maximum hypnotic affect, too.  It’s what Dr. Joe Vitale would call a good example of a “hypnotic sales letter”.

Pay particular attention to the careful way that the word “Free” is used throughout the copy.  It’s inserted at strategic locations, and even the appearance is carefully selected.

Look also at the way that the sales letter suggests that you should promote the product.  In fact, from an affiliate marketing standpoint, this was one of the best promotions I’ve ever seen.

Look at the huge assortment of affiliate tools.

Look at the notice on the sales letter itself warning affiliates not to purchase through their own link, and even suggesting that the product will be disabled if this were to occur.  (I don’t think this is even possible with a plain PDF document.)

And, in the book itself, the author again goes into how an affiliate can promote and recoup their money, again with the same stern warning about using your own affiliate link.

The layout and appearance of the book are also a brilliant piece of marketing.  Whoever the author is, he is clearly NOT a newbie to marketing on the internet.  Nor is he new to selling info products.  Too many things are just perfect for this to be the case.

Let’s talk a little bit more about the message in the book, before I answer this question.

In this book, the author lays out a step by step method that he supposedly uses to sell advertising.  These ads are placed on pages that he then runs AdWord campaigns for.

Also on those pages is an opt in form, allowing him to collect names and email addresses.  One of his other strategies is to then sell these leads.

In all, there are 4 separate ways that the author explains, again, in step-by-step fashion, that you can earn money.  Each time that you earn money, that income goes to reduce your AdWords cost.

I have not personally tried any of these, but I do know people that use variations on these same methods successfully.  So will the strategies work?  Absolutely!

Will you make enough to cover your Google AdWords costs?  Having never tried them myself, I can’t guarantee if you use all 4 in tandem as the author suggests, then yes, you should be able to recoup your costs.

But, let’s get back to the question that I raised earlier …

Despite all of these factors, the MESSAGE in the sales letter is a flat out lie.  Yet, the strategies in the book are sound.  What should you do?

If you purchased this book based on the message in it’s copy, and then later returned it, Is that ethical?

I truly believe that the answer to this question depends on how you would definite “business” or “sales”.

One of my mentors defines the term “business” as “an exchange of value”.  In other words, a sale is based on a bargained for exchange of something of value ….

One party pays money to the other to receive, in return, something of equal or greater value.

Based on this definition of a sale, if you paid $67 for this ebook, and got at least $67 worth of “stuff” in exchange, then you shouldn’t complain.

I know that I got at least my money’s worth in terms of the education I got about marketing in general, just from studying the sales letter, the book, the affiliate tools, etc. — and that doesn’t even include what I would value the value of the actual system that the book outlines.

Louis and Sam agreed with me, too.  Both of them felt that the marketing in the sales letter and in the book were very strong.  Yet, Louis returned the book and didn’t feel badly about doing so at all.

The answer to my question is really going to be different from person to person (which is what my survey really showed).

• If you’re a newbie, just starting out, you probably won’t want to use the strategies in the book at all.  They’re quite costly, bear a certain amount of risk, and would be much more effective if you could afford to outsource that type of work to others while you concentrate on your primary business.
• If you’re an experienced marketer, and you’re already using Google AdWords, or you already have  outsourced help that can assist you with implementing the strategies, well the content of the book may be valuable.

The same is true of the marketing lessons inherent in the entire promotion. 

• The newer marketers won’t even realize that there is a lesson there.  They’ll be so drawn in by the hypnotic affect of the copy, they’ll miss out.  The stellar example of running an affiliate program is also wasted on them, as they most likely have no affiliates to use these techniques with.
• A more seasoned marketer, though, could gain much value in any single aspect that I’ve discussed.  Whether it’s examining the copy that most assuredly uses NLP techniques (that stands for “Neuro-Linguistics Programming”), or the example of affiliate management, or the superb product creation ideas … all would be helpful to the seasoned pro.

There are many more ethics issues that are involved in this promotion, such as:

• Is it ethical to lie in your copy just to encourage sales?  (The answer is NO — Never Mislead Your Customers even if it does result in more sales!)
• Is it ethical for marketers to promote a product without thoroughly researching both the product AND the sales letter AND the marketing materials accompanying it?  (The answer is again NO — but if you should rush through these pieces and make the mistake of promoting a product anyway, at least do the right thing — as many of the marketers did — and retract that recommendation asap.)
• Is it ethical to purchase a product from your own affiliate link even when the seller warns you not to and threaten to disable your product?  (This is a bit of a sticky issue.  If doing so would take a commission away from another affiliate, then absolutely not!  If you weren’t referred by anyone and found the site on your own, well … I don’t personally do that, but the seller should be expecting each sale to come in through an affiliate, and it isn’t hurting anyone at all, so maybe.)

I could write an entire post about any of those issues (but don’t worry, I’m not going to make this post any longer than it already is!).

I raise them only to show you that there are MANY issues with this particular promotion, and perhaps those in the forums are focusing on the wrong aspects.

I raise these also to show you that when you are surfing the net and evaluating products for possible purchase, you need to ask yourself several questions, not just one.

And the whole point of this long post was this …

When you are looking at possible products to purchase, do not miss the marketing lessons that are inherent in the promotion!

Use them and learn from them!

The “value” of any product is not just found in the product itself.  It is also found in the copy, in the download/member’s area, in the affiliate area, etc.  Learn from these examples!  Use them to grow as a marketer!

Focusing on the lessons you can learn from a product is SOOOO much better than focusing on the negativity that surrounds controversy of any kind.

Besides, you don’t even have to spend a penny to benefit from many of these lessons.  Their free when you surf the internet!

So what else can you do to help improve your skills as a marketer?

You can attend seminars, teleconferences, coaching programs.  Read ebooks, watch videos, listen to audios, etc.

You really want to try to use a combination of the many available learning methods if at all possible, though.  When you can do that, you’ll absorb the material much better as you will be using more than one area of your brain.

That’s the reason that I am incorporating webinars with my teleconferences and incorporating audio, video, text, and flowcharts into a single package.  It will help my students to learn the lessons that I am teaching.

(NOTE:  If you want to see an example of what I am talking about, check out the 2–part webinar with bonus teleconference package that I have just reduced the price on.  The webinar covers the “Royal Secrets of JV Giveaways — Using Blogs & Articles to Explode Your List Building Efforts”.  It’s now only $27 thanks to an internet glitch!)

So what are some of the other marketing lessons that can be found in products being promoted today?

To Your Abundant Online Success!

Gina Gaudio-Graves

P.S.  I have a multi-media package coming out in less than 2 weeks as well.  That will also incorporate audio, video, text, and flowcharts.  I call it “Secrets of the JV Queen – Increasing Your Profits Using the Power of Joint Ventures”.  You’ll want to watch my other blog for the details.  You’ll find it at http://www.jvsuite.com/blog.

Affiliate Marketing, internet marketing, List Building