Devil's In Details

Is Genesis Rocket A Scam? Find Out Here . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Gillian Grannum) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:08:00 +0000

This blog's title is an actual tweet used to advertise the Genesis Rocket (GR) eBook on Twitter. The link attached to the tweet opens to the GR sales page. This page boldly goes where few have gone before. It states GR is "The only Twitter method that actively promotes your Twitter account through a network of over 350,000 followers."

Sounds great, doesn’t it? With the exception of the sentence highlighted in yellow, it's a stark, white sales page decorated with a single Paypal button at the very end, and filled with compelling text as follows:

"Get over 1,000 new high quality followers every week, easily generate an annual income in excess of $100,000, become an influential player in the niche of your choice and market your brand to an audience of millions. Right now people just like you are making big money online with Twitter using Genesis Rocket. This is your chance to join them.

No gimmicks, no hype, just a simple, effective and proven plan."

Wow!

In a nutshell GR offers you the opportunity to learn how to grow multiple Twitter accounts using free tools and to get these accounts in front of 350,000 readers. All that’s required is a purchase and the product owner will network your twitter account for you.

Sold, I hit the Paypal button and in less time than it takes to write this sentence was relieved of $97. Within a few hours I got a confirmation link and happily downloaded the product.

This was approximately when reality set in.

Rule #1: If It Sounds Too Good To Be True It Usually IS

My euphoria dissipated within 2 minutes of opening the 46-page double-spaced eBook. The lack of a cover page didn't bother me. It was the missing Table of Contents that got my attention. Ok, what exactly have I bought for $97?

I’ll go ahead and create a quaisi version of the absent Table of Contents for your convenience.

Prologue

Stage 1 Open and prepare a Twitter account

Stage 2 Automate hard work

    * Automate reciprocal follows
    * Automate content
    * Get listed in directories

Stage 3 (5-day plan)

The 5-day plan is the heart of this program. I’ll simply state it covers many aspects of using Twitter wisely, such as syndicates, hash tag conversations, retweeting, geographical searches, and the advantages of some conventions such as #FollowFriday.

Stage 4 Monetize your Twitter account

Here you’re invited to sell Genesis and pocket a commission and the wise utilization of Direct Messages

Stage 5 Stay safe

Here you learn how to create and maintain multiple accounts, distribute follower liability and are supplied with scripts (packaged separately) that automate your advertising efforts. In addition, the “Inner Circle push” is explained. This is the Network push that allows your account to circulate among hundreds of thousands of networked blogs, etc.

My Critique

GR has useful content which is, for the most part, well organized. The issue therefore comes down to value. Assuming someone’s status as a complete newbie, is this worth $97? In my opinion – NO! And if you’ve been on Twitter a while my answer to you is NO, NO, NO, NO – Absolutely NOT!

Does the product have value? Yes, the inherent value is real but the sticker price is out of proportion to value. At best, this product should sell between $29-$35, all items included.

Rule #2: NEVER Buy Electronic Ebooks/Downloads From Paypal Unless You’re Willing To Lose Your Investment

This purchase ended badly. However, as I’m unclear as to whether it was the owner’s fault or my ISP’s fault, I will not assume that my results will necessarily be yours.

After communicating successfully with the product owner when my purchase was initially made I read the plan and discovered I pretty much had already performed all the recommended steps to monetize my primary Twitter account. The next step, therefore, was to avail myself of the promised Network push. I emailed the product owner requesting the push.

No response.

I sent a second email to the product owner requesting a network push.

No response.

I sent a third email to the product owner requesting a network push, this one accompanied by a delivery receipt request. I got back confirmation of email delivery but no response from the product owner.

That’s when I decided it was time to engage Paypal. I initiated a Paypal dispute. The product owner replied that no emails had been received from me. I sent the delivery receipt to him via Paypal. He continued to the indicate he’d received no emails from me. I asked for a full refund. He declined. I asked for a partial refund. He declined. I escalated the matter to Paypal. Paypal promptly closed the dispute with a decidedly unapologetic note saying they only intervened in matters concerning non-delivery of shipped goods.

That ended the matter.

So, be warned. If you buy something with Paypal that is not a physical item requiring delivery you will not receive a refund unless the product owner decides to give you one. The likelihood of that happening is not great. In fact, it’s next to zero. So if you’re purchasing electronic goods and services via Paypal that are not physical items make peace with the fact that your investment is likely a permanent one. I’ve decided to limit all electronic purchases (that lack physical properties such as a cellphone, e.g.) to less than $25. This way I can take comfort in the fact that my loss is not particularly excessive, such as the almost $100 loss associated with GR.

Learn from my mistake. Buy this product only if you’re financially flush and able to lose ~$100 painlessly if dissatisfied. Better yet, get the information from a source that more appropriately gauges the quality of his or her offering and thinks of you, the end-user, as a fellow human being and not a sucker waiting to be fleeced.

Watch Out For Auto Rebilling Thieves

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Gillian Grannum) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:36:00 +0000

So how many times have you seen someone offer you a
free trial of something or other, but to get started
you need to provide a credit card number, or use your
Paypal account to sign up.

A lot of services or products even ask that you pay
ONLY $1 to start any sort of trial and act as if you
are getting an incredible value.

But what they are really doing is getting your credit
card number or PayPal account locked into their auto
re-billing feature and hiding behind their real motive
simply by telling you that it is for your convenience.

It is a well known fact that many people who offer
products or services are making more money due simply
to people forgetting to cancel these auto re-bills.

Now I'm not in any way speaking for all marketers.
Many do in fact provide great value and are trying to
make things easier, but it is also an overly abused
marketing tactic to make the product or service owner
a lot of extra recurring income.

You see a lot of unethical marketers know that most
of the time you will forget about the trial and a few
months later you will finally notice that you have been
charged XX dollars every month. Guess who makes a pile
of money that way? It's truly insane!

So it's something to watch out for when signing up
to any free trials of anything.

On the flip side here's an example of a guy who
has an insanely good free trial offer but you don't
have to give your credit card or Paypal account up
front. It's just a free trial, because he believes it
works and is not hiding behind anything!

http://bit.ly/4rymNd

It's a no obligation 90 Day Free Trial of what's
called the Smart Subscriber marketing system. His name
is Ian and he's been an online marketer for over a
decade and claims he will make you money through
affiliate commissions just to prove his service is
worth paying for!

With no credit cards or Paypal account stuff upfront,
I'd say that's a pretty rock solid and safe free trial.

The Devil's In The Details -- In's and Out's of Online Affiliate Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Gillian Grannum) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:46:00 +0000

It took a while but I finally decided it was time to start blogging about topics that are near and dear to me. Turns out what I care about most is treating others as I would like to be treated. And as I want to be treated fairly I'm thinking possibly you do, too.

This blog is dedicated to finding those little "gotcha" bombs cleverly planted in marketing material. As "gotchas" they seldom show up before you've parted with your cash in hopes that this or that online program/offer is truly "IT" -- the one that will live up to its clever packaging and liberate you from the debilitating, soul-sucking, mind-numbing requirement of earning a living through some "9 to 5" job.

Don't get me wrong. There are some great jobs out there and some folks who truly enjoy what they do. These are not likely to show up at this blog for they likely aren't looking for a way out of the matrix. The matrix works just fine for them.

No. This blog is dedicated to the multiple millions who've had it with the world "as is" and are seeking more than corporate enslavement from life. These are the ones with the temerity to believe they're worth more than the pittance handed them in paychecks that barely cover expenses each month.

It's for those who've had enough and want more out of life, those who've made the decision they're ready to try something else so they can get a shot at freedom. And the definition of freedom is entirely relative. For some it may simply mean time to spend with children, pets, extended family, friends. Time and extra cash to take in a good movie, visit a ballpark, attend a night game, pay the plumber. For others freedom might be visiting some exotic foreign locale and staying in a 5-star hotel as long as their hearts' desire.

Well, there's a journey to be made from "here" to "there," and that's where this blog comes in. Between the world of Daily Grind and the Land of Financial Freedom there's a terrain filled with all manner of beasties -- sharks, snakes, wolves in sheep's clothing, "gurus" who bleed you dry while pretending they're the best friend you'll ever have, charlatans, pretenders, cheats and thieves. You read their product offer and believe "This one's IT! This is what I'm looking for." You buy the product and within 5 minutes (or 10 if they're very, very good at emptying pockets) you get that sinking feeling that lets you know you've been had. Once again.

Oh, the marketing blurb you read was "true." It works great if you have a 50K mailing list of eager buyers, marvelous abilities, gifts and "oh, oh!" -- those skills they forgot to mention were required if you're to succeed.

Sometimes they over promise. Sometimes they provide exactly what the offer said they would, you just didn't realize that when you read "copy n paste" it really meant "tag, you're it, Sucker!"

By the time you get up to speed all the big boyz'ngirls have saturated the marketplace with their PPC campaigns, 150,000 mailing list campaigns, networked campaigns, etc. If you scratch and scrape enough (and are very lucky) you'll get the scraps they've left for you.

And they'll say, "What? You didn't make a bundle? Awwww -- don't worry! There's this great little program that just came out you can buy for a few measly dollars and it rocks!"

Now, by dint of much trial, error and money chucked down some lucky affiliate's Clickbank, Paypal (or whatever) account, I've finally arrived at the place where I can spot the "gotcha" in the marketing material and run in the other direction. There are a sufficient number of failures I've copped to over time to make this blog very much worth your while.

I'll be revealing the in's and out's of many products. The intent is not to skewer the product. It is to provide a clear, unbiased-as-possible view of what the product offers and where it fails miserably to live up to expectations.

There will also be Angel Posts. These posts review product owners/creators who offer superior value for their products, whose websites, fora, and/or membership sites are valuable, satisfying experiences. Per my policy, these will be unbiased reviews (hey, nothing's perfect) but the evaluation will lead to a "Buy and Be Happy" conclusion. Should something arise in the course of daily life to change this opinion, I will reveal the unhappy details and update the beginning of the blog title with "TID:" (Turned Into Devil) in the Archive.

Feel free to add your comments -- good, bad, indifferent. Just keep them relevant. That's all I ask. If there's product you've bought yourself and have an opinion about please, by all means, add it in your comment. We can collaborate and expand it into its own blog, if need be.

So, let's go on this journey together. Here's to your enjoyment and online success!