There’s a report being promoted by a lot of Internet marketers at the moment called “Give Pay Per Click The Finger”.
(Am I the only person to find the report’s title offensive? Perhaps it’s a phrase Americans aren’t concerned by… but I find it distasteful. It’s almost certainly part of the “viral” marketing scheme to use a “shock” title. Sigh.)
Well, anyways, I tried to get the report just to see what Keith Baxter says in it. I’d be interested in his comments on PPC, even if I dislike the report’s title.
But, what’s the HECK is with the long-winded sign-up process?
It’s a FREE report. I can understand asking for my email. I can understand asking me to click to confirm my email. But, after that, give me the freaking report!
But, noooo, that’s too simple.
I have to visit the website. check.
I have to put in my name and email address. check.
I have to choose a password. (why?). check.
I have to put in my activation code. (huh?).
I check my email.
I have to click the confirmation link in the email to get the activation code.
I click the link in the email and my browser takes me away from the “input your activation code” webpage to the “this is your activation code” webpage.
Now I want to get back to the “input your activation code” webpage. So I click “back” in the browser.
I enter my activation code.
Now I’ve been forwarded to the “referral contest” page. (Edit personal information to earn $1 for every person you send to us and $.75 for every person they send to us on your 2nd tier and $.50 for every person they send on the 3rd tier. So if you refer 3000 people to us that refer another 4500 people to us and they all refer another 10,000 to us, then I will send you $11,375.00!)
Where’s the FREAKIN free report?
Oh, click the link near the top. Right. Done that. Open the PDF. The 11-page report promotes Keith’s ModernClick.com service. Wow.
What do you think? Am I the only person to be annoyed at the report title, annoyed again by the long-winded sign-up process and then underwhelmed my the report itself?
Nope, you’re not the only one. All that and then read the report only to find that it’s nothing that I can use since I don’t have my own products or services.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s bad enough knowing that you’re about to be bombarded with spam from the guy, but then having to jump through hoops to get a report that is just an elongated ad is ridiculous,
And I don’t particularly like the title, either.
Hello, Neil …
Right. I agree. The title is probably a spin off on “The Death of AdSense” and “The Death of Internet Marketing” that have been going around.
Still, what I understood Keith Baxter to be doing is setting up his own CPA network, which is quite an achievement. Those who couldn’t afford
to buy into it are welcome, it seems, to become affiliates of it.
Myself, I finally got so frustrated just trying to obtain his report that I sent him an email saying that I was tired of going around in circles, and that if he wanted to just sent it to me, then I would read it; otherwise, I would be getting off the merry-go-round.
To do him justice, he did send it; but, as I wasn’t in the market for a CPA network, it didn’t do him any good. Later, he sent me an invitation to become an affiliate of the merchants of his CPA network; but, as I wasn’t in the mood to vet a new entity, that didn’t come to anything, either.
Regards, Elizabeth …
There have been many web offers that are presented in a way I find offensive, but not so much to me as my readership.
I can put up with the crass language people use in every day life. Of course, once they realize what they have said, they say something like, “Oh Chaplain Paul, I didn’t know you were listening”. Usually I reply that “If you can say it in front of God, you can say it in my presence too”.
But the reason I avoid offensive language is that it is one more barrier to reaching my audience. If in my using crass language, my particular readers are already turned off, it does make getting their click impossible. For me it is just a matter of common marketing sense.
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
Hope this is good…