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Overview:
Britain's
Michael Green (penname) rose from Internet unknown to major-player
Guru in less than one year! That's quite a feat. But he wasn't
a nobody to start with. He also runs a very successful offline
printing business, and is a member of the British Parlaiment.
The most amazing thing about Green's rapid rise to Internet
millions is that his work on his Internet business is very
part time.
In
fact, it's said that Green only works one day a week on his
Internet Marketing business, and that includes Web site development
and producing all his products. He uses the rest of his time
for his offline business and his Parliamentary position (the
biggest reason he uses a penname).
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Positive:
Green is a genius when it comes
to managing time. In a fraction of the time most marketers
take to put together a single course, Green can pop out several.
He serves them up like hot pancakes at a community pancake
feed.
One
might think that producing materials as rapidly as that must
mean they are not quality products. Not true. Buyers of his
products seem to be universally thrilled with the quality
of information in them. He's known for his no-nonsense get-to-the
point writing, with little filler. This is refreshing after
wading through some of the other guru's products.
No
filler means his books are smaller - more in the 250 - 400
page range, rather than 1000+ pages. And rather than trying
to write one all-inclusive course, he produces smaller courses
on very specific topics. Of course, this means more revenue
for him, because you'll want to have all of them. Several
of his topics are on subjects only lightly touched on by others,
such as, for example, using a forum to get you high hits on
search engines.
When
it comes to his advice for others, some of his articles talk
about the very things he is good at, like managing your time,
and staying focused on a single method. Most of us, he points
out, like to read a little of this guy and a little of that
guy, until we're swimming in so much information we don't
know where to start. Green preaches, find one guru, focus
and don't get distracted. Good advice!
Probably
the most notable endeavor Green has undertaken is his marketer's
forum
(Here).
It's a nice place to talk to other Internet
Marketers - some successful and some struggling. Enjoy it.
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Negative:
Greens
Products are good, although the fact that he writes quickly
and not in great depth shows. But my main problem with him
is his sales tactics. Specifically I'm turned off by the following
practices:
- Over-inflated
values of
his bonus teasers
- Nearly
every link pops up a new window
- Some
products are over-priced
- Overly
hyped-up sales pitch
- Over-use
of the word "secrets"
- Resorts
to the "I didn't intend to tell you this" card
- Way
too many pop-ups
- Advocates
use of pop-up blocker fooling pop-over scripts
- Uses
fake number or date limitations for offers
- His
entire methodology reminds me a great deal of Derek Gehl/Corey
Rudl style, which I also find distasteful.
I
keep going back and forth between admiration of Green for
his products and successes, and the distrust he generates
by practices like these.
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Affiliate
Program
Green pays a straight 50% commission
on all his products. He operates through Clickbank, so that
he doesn't have to use his own affiliate management software.
To sign up you have to first sign up with Clickbank.
One
weakness with Clickbank is that casual thieves can easily
substitute their own user ID's and steal your sales. To get
around this Green uses his own product "easyClickMate"
which pretty much eliminates the problem.
Another
weakness for the affiliate is that it means the customer must
purchase the product directly through you with each purchase,
for you to receive the credit. There is no system in place
such that if a visitor buys another product while on Green's
site that you will get credit for the referral, or that if
a visitor comes back later you will get the referral. This
makes it harder to get residual sales. I much prefer Evoy's
program, which makes all future sales from a link into his
site automatically get credited to the referring affiliate.
Michael
Green ranks among the top sales from Clickbank, so there is
real potential, although in my personal experience so far,
sales of his products have not outperformed Evoy's and Gehl's
(Rudl's).
The
fact that Green's products are good products, and mainly that
they are compact information rather than rambling text make
you proud to carry his line. That's certainly a plus. (top)
Site
Popups
Yes.
Ouch! Michael Green is adamant that pop-ups are the way to
go, and he practices what he preaches. Every time you click
around from one place to another, there is an exit pop-up.
This gets terribly annoying, and makes me avoid surfing around
his site as much as possible. The products are great, but
it's too bad he has to ruin the shopping experience.
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Valuable
Free Content
Yes
there is valuable free content on the site - mainly in the
form of the mini-courses, and some not-so-obvious articles.
With each product there is a mini-course available to subscribe
to. These courses are actually pretty good material. Of course
the main reason for the courses are to get your email address
for his newsletter, called "Top Posts." Please read
the Newsletter section below for more information about Top
Posts.
The
articles are, as I said, not so obvious. There is no menu
link that I've found to go to the collection. But you'll find
them if you go to http://www.howtocorp.com/articles
(opens in a new window). These articles
are, of course, designed to allow Green to wet your appetite
for related products, but they do contain some real content
as well.
I've
signed up for a number of the mini-courses and found the information
to be good. It doesn't give away all his tools of course,
but it does give you ideas about subjects to study further.
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Newsletter
There
are two newsletters available from Michael Green. One called
"Top Posts" and is available to anyone. You subscribe
by visiting any of his products and filling out the form for
the free mini-course on that product.
I
don't personally like the signup method, since it presents
the mini-course first and the newsletter as an afterthought.
In other words, it kind of tricks you into the newsletter
in order to get the course. I'd rather see it presented as
"sign up for my newsletter and receive this additional
free gift" or as two separate things - but that's my
own ethical spin.
I
also don't like the pop-up method of shoving the sign-ups
in your face.
What
Top Posts is, is a set of small links to the "top"
posts in Green's forum. This can be a helpful way to glean
some of the best information from the forum rather than having
to spend hours searching through the posts. Here's one example,
from Top Posts issue #120:
-
- - - - quote - - - -
=======================================
People are still Marketing the 1970 way
=======================================
...
claims Christopher who says that lots of yellow highlighted
words and big black and red text might appeal to other internet
affiliates, but that it's no way to sell to the masses. Really?
Is there a better way? Find out at >>>
http://www.howtocorp.com/cgi-bin/webbbs_config.pl/read/46162
- - - - - End quote - - - - -
Some
of these turn out to be valuable and interesting threads,
and others are a waste of time. One recently, on getting one-cent
google adwords, simply introduced a thread that said "good
luck, pal." Not very helpful. Others are excellent tips.
The
other newsletter is the How To Affiliate newsletter and comes
with your signup as an affiliate. It's designed to keep you
up to date on product releases and give you tips on representing
them (as well as, of course, continue to try to sell products
to you).
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Money-Back
Guarantee
Excellent. Michael Green gets high marks
from me for his money-back policy. He teaches (and practices)
the philosophy that you do not ask questions - just refund
if asked - even if you know you're being duped.
His
policy is nominally generous at 2 months. However, I think
he's cheating himself some sales by not making it a year.
People who know the return policy is short will evaluate the
product and decide quickly. A longer policy will delay returns
and cut ultimate returns in half. (The statistics here come
from testing done by Evoy and reported in his Make Your Site
Sell package).
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Support
I've received very good
support from Green. While his ad copy and sales style remind
me of Gehl's (Rudl's) firm, his support is 1000% better than
Gehl's.
Green
is only a part time Web marketer, mainly devoting Fridays
to his craft, but throughout the week he does keep up with
reading and writing in his forum, and in answering email -
even though he has an offline printing business and holds
a seat in Parliament. His return emails are not long treaties
of information, but he gets to the answer you seek and takes
care of it, even if a bit briefly. It is, in a word, adequate
to get the job done, and timely.
I
think Green has struck a good balance of efficiency and yet
good personal support. With his emphasis on time management,
it's what I would expect - and I admire that he doesn't shirk
on support. He's there for you when you need him.
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