Today I removed myself from several mailing lists of people I had a lot of respect for — people whose products that I have purchased and/or recommended to others, people who I thought were honorable and created good value through their lists. Why did I remove myself, you you may ask? I removed myself because all of them (including Jeff Walker himself) have bombarded me with e-mails about the Product Launch Formula before, during, and after its release on Tuesday this week. It is bad enough to get an e-mail or two per day from the creator of the program — getting one or two e-mails from each of 8 people per day for a week is completely out of control. (In fact, Jeff himself will probably send our 4-5 e-mails today alone because his program is allegedly closing tonight.)
Yes, I understand that you need to make money. Yes, I understand that you are an affiliate of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula and you stand to get a cut of the TWO-THOUSAND DOLLAR PRICE TAG on this thing if I buy it. The problem is that I used to have respect for all of you, which is why I was gracious enough to give you my contact information and trust the e-mails that you sent me. I have since lost respect for a lot of people over this product.
Here is why you have wasted my time and caused me to lose respect for you.
1. E-mail Overload
I have received over 45 e-mails in less than a week for a product I will not buy. Enough said.
2. Lengthy Videos
All these emails had a link to this page where there is a 30-minute sales video and a button that says "Get Started Today!" That is it. If I didn’t have 30 minutes to listen to this guy drone on, I could use the little progress bar to click ahead to the end where Jeff Walker (around the 27-minute mark) finally tells you that the program is priced at nearly $2k. Had I listened to all 30 minutes only to find out he was selling a $2k program, I would have been even more pissed.
I’m sorry, but someone who takes 30 minutes to get to the point really has no respect for my time and doesn’t deserve my business.
3. Hiding the Price
Not only it the price not mentioned until the end of that final video (and this is the 5th or 6th video of his that I have seen), it is not mentioned in ANY of those e-mails. In fact, you have to dig pretty hard around the internet to find the price anywhere, and all you can come up with is the price from a launch of an earlier version of the product.
4. Affiliates Galore
Do you know who is talking about the product? People who are going to financially gain if you buy it. There are very few independent reviews of it, and the course descriptions during the launch process are pretty vague as well. Do you really think you are going to earn my respect talking about "Jeff Walker, that Great Guy" instead of giving me an actual hard review of the offerings?
5. The Precedent
Will Jeff Walker make money from launching this program? I’m sure he will make something, and so will his affiliates — but the reason why I won’t be buying into it is because he is setting this precedent of building hype for his launch instead of building relationships. After all these e-mails, videos, and Googling I have done on this subject, what more do I know about Jeff Walker? Nothing much really, other than this is the 3rd version he has released of this product, he likes to just talk you through the slides you can download and read faster than he talks, and his products are rather expensive. I have also found out that he is now offering some sort of product creation course, although for some reason that I can not understand, you take this course after you take the product launch course.
Do I know what his coaching methods are? No. Do I know what his coaching calls are going to be like? No. Do I even know if I will like him? No. He even added some sort of limited-caller, last-minute Q&A session to answer last-minute calls before the close of the program tonight, but I shouldn’t have to rearrange my day and spend my valuable time researching his stuff so I can give him my money. If you want my money, you should try picking up a copy of Scott Stratten’s book, Unmarketing, and learn how to reach out and engage your potential customers.
Tell me, who in their right mind purchases something with this sort of price tag without any sort of test drive? Imagine going into a car lot and asking to buy a car. The salesman tells you "You have to buy the car and then I will give you a money-back guarantee so that you may return the car within 30 days if you don’t like it." This program is asking you for a $2k loan while you decided if you like the product (and he can keep your money) or if you don’t (and you can hope he gives you a refund as promised).
People, please. Common sense. Stop the info product overload insanity. Stop buying this stuff from people who engage in these kinds of tactics. Stop peddling this stuff if it’s going to make you look bad or you haven’t personally tried it yourself. Stop wasting all of my time. And please stop spamming me. This stuff is not okay. This guy is not the first person (or the last) to engage in these kinds of tactics — he just happens to be the target of this discussion for today because of his gratuitous spamming. So all of you, PLEASE JUST STOP IT.
I look forward to your flaming and comments below.
March 3, 2011
Opinion