|
Overview:
Jeff Mulligan is the king of Clickbank. If you are not familiar
with Clickbank, it is a storefront where people, anyone like
you and I, can place electronic download products which can
then be sold by the many Clickbank affiliates. Many of the
Guru's sell their products through Clickbank, such as Michael
Green, and RichJerk.
But Mulligan has taken it to a new level.
He designed CBMall as a way to give you a personalized version
of the Clickbank storefront for your site.
Besides his primary products, Mulligan takes
advantage of his mailing list by regularly sending out links
to other affiliate products, and indeed that accounts for
huge portions of his income.
Positive:
I have a great deal of respect for Jeff Mulligan. His approach
is a bit different from other Guru's. He doesn't write ebooks
and courses about how to succeed. His genius is in his two
primary products, which fill in a gap left in the Clickbank
system. Read the product reviews for more details.
There
are two main reasons I have so much respect for Mulligan.
First,
Jeff Mulligan is about hard work. He makes it clear that there
are no shortcuts to working to market your product on the
Internet. He admits that he works long hard hours himself,
and that you will do the same if you are going to succeed.
It 's about time an Internet Marketing Guru was honest about
that!
Second,
I admire Mulligan's commitment to support. He doesn't have
a large staff to guarantee 4-hour turnaround like Ken Evoy.
Actually he has just one employee, Laura, who helps keep up
with the great deal of work it takes to run an Internet Business.
But he makes himself available several hours a day. Scratch
that - not just available, but personally available. He puts
his personal phone number right on his Web page, and if you
call it, guess what - he answers it himself!
If
you write to him, he has a support ticket system to track
his email (Kayako) and he will answer you as soon as he can
- I've had his emails take a couple of days to be answered,
but he is dealing with them personally rather than with a
large staff. By contrast, for example Ken Evoy has fast response
but has a staff of 20. Derek Gehl takes days or gets no response
at all, and has a large staff so he got low marks. Jeff Mulligan
gets high marks even though sometimes you wait for a day or
two, because he is dealing with them personally and yet in
a reasonably timely manner. See more later under the Support
category below.
I
have written to him several times and he is very courteous
and responsive. Even though I only bought the regular package
of CBMall, that doesn't have the "Personalized Assistance"
he still answers my questions. In fact, even before I made
any purchases, he was there for me. This impresses me. (top)
Negative:
Jeff Mulligan violates one of my pet peeves, Pop-unders and
pop-ups on exit. Granted he uses them very sparsely, and not
on all his sites. But truth is that his entire searchfeast
program is based "exclusively" on pop-under and
pop-up on exit techniques. For more details on that program
see the review of it below.
Yes
- it works, and yes it makes him and his students money -
but I do not like it. As I've said in other reviews, I will
not profit at the expense of annoying my guests. I do not
believe successful salesmanship is predicated on in-your-face
techniques.
The
newsletter you receive if you sign up for the general newsletter
at the bottom of the CBMall storefront is not an article-oriented
newsletter. It is a sales email list. However taking into
account that CBMall shoppers are not necessarily interested
in marketing or any other particular subject, I guess it's
what you would expect.
(top)
Affiliate
Program
Yes,
through clickbank. You first have to sign up as a member of
clickbank. Then you can offer either CBMall or Searchfeast
Gold through the clickbank hoplink.
Of
course, the real idea is that he'd like you to join CBMall,
which in itself is an enhanced version of Clickbank membership.
See the product review section above.
(top)
Site
Popups
Some pages such as jeffmulligan.com and the searchfeast join
page pop-under the Searchfeast storefront either at load or
at exit. Mulligan isn't real annoying with popups, but I do
take issue with his entire Searchfeast product being based
on the technology.
(top)
Valuable
Free Content
I
couldn't find any good articles on the site for the general
public. However there are some pages full of good articles
for paid CBMall affiliates. They aren't protected or hidden,
but Mr. Mulligan has requested that the URL's not be given
out to non-affiliates, and I will respect that request.
(top)
Newsletter
General
Newsletter. There are two newsletters. One for the
general public and one for CBMall owners. The one for the
general public consumer seems to mostly consist of affiliate
ads. For example, one might say "Have you heard of such-and-such?
I've learned a lot from him and you should check out his site
at http://suchandsuch.com.
It's
doesn't come titled like an ezine with an issue number and
such. It's more like a sales email. In that newsletter I haven't
yet seen any real marketing content, but it's not really designed
for the marketer. It's designed for the consumer of all manner
of products that CBMall offers.
If
you wish to browse interesting featured products, then this
is a way to have Mulligan's personal recommendations sent
to you. Some people like that. For me it's valuable, as a
reviewer. It gives me a way to keep up on what's out there
as potential subjects for review.
CBMall
Newsletter.
The other newsletter comes automatically when you sign up
to market CBMall. You cannot distinguish it from the subject
line because again it doesn't have a specific formatted heading.
However, in the body itself there is a formatted heading that
starts "CBMall Owner Update."
In
this publication Mulligan talks about such subjects as ideas
for using your CBMall, anti-spamming guidelines, short tips,
and an invitation for questions. No major articles that I've
seen so far. Those are saved for the website I mentioned under
the "Valuable Free Content" section above.
Searchfeast.
I've also received specific mailings addressed to Searchfeast
owners, although when I conversed with Mr. Mulligan about
this review he didn't mention a formal regular newsletter
for Searchfeast owners exclusively.
(top)
Money-Back
Guarantee
This is where Jeff Mulligan shines over every other marketing
guru. If you return CBMall, you do not return it at all. You
do not stop using the product. You keep it, and keep on using
it forever. Mulligan is counting on the majority of people
being honest, and it turns out most are. Of course there are
going to be a few who take advantage of it, but they are a
small percentage. (top)
Support
Jeff Mulligan has offered personal support beyond just about
anyone I've seen. He constantly invites questions, and even
gives his personal phone number on his web page. He does answer
it during regular business hours.
By
email I've found Mulligan to be very responsive. He has only
one employee and invites support questions so sometimes his
email response is delayed a couple of days. But he will get
to it relatively quickly and will take the time to give adequate
attention to your question or issue.
In
short, Mulligan gets high marks from me for support. He cannot
match the support system of a Ken Evoy who's staff answers
in 4 hours, because he doesn't have a staff of 20 people.
But then I've never had Ken Evoy himself actually deal with
me directly. When I email Jeff, I have always dealt directly
with him. For more common questions his one office hand may
answer it. (top)
|
