zmcnulty
08-08-2006, 07:18 PM
I can't be the only person that isn't really happy with how Joel's newsletter has changed over the past year or so. It used to be a nice newsletter with tips about how to optimize my AdSense site. It came, what, once a week?
But now, it seems like every time I open my email, there's something from Joel like this:
I've known (INSERT RANDOM GUY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF HERE) for years. He and I met at (INSERT RANDOM MARKETING CONFERENCE HERE) back in (ANY YEAR WITHIN THE PAST DECADE), and I can tell you that he's a (INSERT COMPLIMENT HERE). He's also an Internet Marketing Legend!
Now, for a limited time only, (RANDOM GUY) is offering (PRODUCT X) for ONLY (EXTREMELY HIGH PRICE)!!! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in the latest online marketing trends!
(INSERT AFFILIATE LINK HERE)
Sometimes as frequently as twice a day. I wasn't interested in "Butterfly Marketing" the first time you told me about it (back in, uhh, November of 2005?), and I'm not interested in it even though the writer has some kind of super-top-secret-manuscript conference call at 8AM, 9AM, and 10AM.
I appreciate Joel offering me the opportunity to spend virtually all of my hard-earned AdSense dollars on what I consider the "downward spiral" of get-rich-quick schemes and online marketing e-books, but frankly, I'm not interested.
When I purchased AdSense Secrets, I was extremely satisfied. Correction, I am extremely satisfied. Looking at the AdSense Secrets site advertising the product (which you can't seem to access anymore without inputting an email), I knew I was taking a risk. As far as I'm concerned, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Somehow I managed to avoid fate and AdSense Secrets turned out to be worth every penny probably 1000 times over.
So I've recommended AdSense Secrets to a few of my friends. Like me, most of them are hesitant to put money into something like an e-book about AdSense, because of the absolutely ridiculous amount of scams and "MAKE THOUSANDS$$$$$ FROM HOME!!!!111" schemes there are these days, particularly on the internet.
That's why I'm disappointed to see the direction Joel's newsletter has gone in the past few months. It's pretty obvious that Joel actually does know what he's talking about, as evidenced by the very content of AdSense Secrets. Joel was the gold nugget inside the cesspool that was online marketing; he was the beacon of hope in the darkness of webpage monetization tips.
Like anyone else reading this post, I understand that Joel's entire income depends on this kind of thing, but surely you must understand that Joel needs to cater to both of his audiences.
Every person who makes even 1 cent from their webpage makes a decision about how far down the road of online marketing they want to go. Do they want to just have one website with tried-and-true self-created content? Do they want to create thousands upon thousands of websites with the assistance of article writing software? Do they want to create AdSense spamlogs? Do they want to write a few e-books about writing e-books and peddle them to unknowing housewives with too much time on their hands? Do they want to copy and paste articles from other websites and plaster their own AdSense advertisements on it?
As you can see, every one of us has made certain decisions about how far down the road we want to go -- where we want to draw the line in the sand and say "nah, I'm not doing that." We all have different values, and we all have different stances about what is considered "ripping someone off" and what is considered "business as usual."
I realize there are some of you who bathe in Joel's every recommendation and invest in basically everything that has to do with online marketing, but there are some of us who do not. I'm not out to say that you're wrong, but given the content of AdSense Secrets, I feel as though Joel has an obligation to appeal to both audiences -- the audience that wants additional tips about online marketing, and the audience that just wants to know about how to improve their actual AdSense performance.
It seems Joel himself already makes this distinction, though I'm not sure if it's a conscious decision or not. The newsletters that actually contain AdSense tips seem to have "[AdSense Secrets]" in the subject line, and the newsletters that don't just have a subject line such as "Your FIRST Step to Internet Success is..." I know I could setup some complicated filtering in my email software, but I don't think that responsibility should fall on the readers.
So why are there not two different newsletters? I'm positive Joel has the expertise to allow users to opt-out of the "general online marketing" newsletters. For the sake of Joel's credibility, I think the AdSense newsletter should be strictly about AdSense.
But now, it seems like every time I open my email, there's something from Joel like this:
I've known (INSERT RANDOM GUY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF HERE) for years. He and I met at (INSERT RANDOM MARKETING CONFERENCE HERE) back in (ANY YEAR WITHIN THE PAST DECADE), and I can tell you that he's a (INSERT COMPLIMENT HERE). He's also an Internet Marketing Legend!
Now, for a limited time only, (RANDOM GUY) is offering (PRODUCT X) for ONLY (EXTREMELY HIGH PRICE)!!! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in the latest online marketing trends!
(INSERT AFFILIATE LINK HERE)
Sometimes as frequently as twice a day. I wasn't interested in "Butterfly Marketing" the first time you told me about it (back in, uhh, November of 2005?), and I'm not interested in it even though the writer has some kind of super-top-secret-manuscript conference call at 8AM, 9AM, and 10AM.
I appreciate Joel offering me the opportunity to spend virtually all of my hard-earned AdSense dollars on what I consider the "downward spiral" of get-rich-quick schemes and online marketing e-books, but frankly, I'm not interested.
When I purchased AdSense Secrets, I was extremely satisfied. Correction, I am extremely satisfied. Looking at the AdSense Secrets site advertising the product (which you can't seem to access anymore without inputting an email), I knew I was taking a risk. As far as I'm concerned, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Somehow I managed to avoid fate and AdSense Secrets turned out to be worth every penny probably 1000 times over.
So I've recommended AdSense Secrets to a few of my friends. Like me, most of them are hesitant to put money into something like an e-book about AdSense, because of the absolutely ridiculous amount of scams and "MAKE THOUSANDS$$$$$ FROM HOME!!!!111" schemes there are these days, particularly on the internet.
That's why I'm disappointed to see the direction Joel's newsletter has gone in the past few months. It's pretty obvious that Joel actually does know what he's talking about, as evidenced by the very content of AdSense Secrets. Joel was the gold nugget inside the cesspool that was online marketing; he was the beacon of hope in the darkness of webpage monetization tips.
Like anyone else reading this post, I understand that Joel's entire income depends on this kind of thing, but surely you must understand that Joel needs to cater to both of his audiences.
Every person who makes even 1 cent from their webpage makes a decision about how far down the road of online marketing they want to go. Do they want to just have one website with tried-and-true self-created content? Do they want to create thousands upon thousands of websites with the assistance of article writing software? Do they want to create AdSense spamlogs? Do they want to write a few e-books about writing e-books and peddle them to unknowing housewives with too much time on their hands? Do they want to copy and paste articles from other websites and plaster their own AdSense advertisements on it?
As you can see, every one of us has made certain decisions about how far down the road we want to go -- where we want to draw the line in the sand and say "nah, I'm not doing that." We all have different values, and we all have different stances about what is considered "ripping someone off" and what is considered "business as usual."
I realize there are some of you who bathe in Joel's every recommendation and invest in basically everything that has to do with online marketing, but there are some of us who do not. I'm not out to say that you're wrong, but given the content of AdSense Secrets, I feel as though Joel has an obligation to appeal to both audiences -- the audience that wants additional tips about online marketing, and the audience that just wants to know about how to improve their actual AdSense performance.
It seems Joel himself already makes this distinction, though I'm not sure if it's a conscious decision or not. The newsletters that actually contain AdSense tips seem to have "[AdSense Secrets]" in the subject line, and the newsletters that don't just have a subject line such as "Your FIRST Step to Internet Success is..." I know I could setup some complicated filtering in my email software, but I don't think that responsibility should fall on the readers.
So why are there not two different newsletters? I'm positive Joel has the expertise to allow users to opt-out of the "general online marketing" newsletters. For the sake of Joel's credibility, I think the AdSense newsletter should be strictly about AdSense.