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Newsletter #5 (clipping)


4. Corey gives me an ethical dilemma

I promised to review Corey Rudl's Internet marketing course The Insider Secrets to Marketing your Business on the Internet in this edition, and I guess I can't put it off any longer.

Before I had even finished reading the first 215-page book of the course, I had decided that it was by far the most useful, in-depth marketing info I had come across. But I didn't like what I found in the second book, so I'll discuss one book at a time.

In the first book, the five lessons include topics such as how to structure a web site so that it sells, creating killer copy, the power of e-mail and the right way to use autoresponders.

An extraordinary number of people offer marketing tips on the Internet. What Corey does is different from most. He describes in detail what he has done and tells you what worked for him, and what didn't. (Corey has four successful online businesses, including Car Secrets Revealed, the number one best selling car book on the Internet.) He gives you copies of sales letters he sends out, and explains which ones get the best results.

The marketing course is crammed with practical advice, not theories. For example, you probably already know that an autoresponder is a great marketing tool. But Corey goes further. He says that most people don't use them properly, and that all autoresponders aren't the same. He explains what to look for and how much to pay.

The second book in the course starts by discussing spam. Here's my ethical dilemma. As you probably know, I hate spam. I live in a tiny fishing village in sub-tropical Queensland and for my first year on the Internet every connection I made to the Internet was via a toll call. I quickly grew to hate spam as I watched it slowly download. So I was upset and angry to find that in the second book Corey Rudl discusses the spammers' techniques in all their gory detail. He describes which methods work and which don't and tells you what software they use and where to get it.

I was glad to see that he thinks you're a moron if you simply strip random e-mail addresses from newsgroups and send your marketing message to them.

Corey says, most unconvincingly, that he doesn't condone the spamming methods he describes in detail. He is simply telling you what some people do. I little later on, he admits that he has used some of the methods himself.

In the Associate Programs Directory, I do my best to refuse submissions from spammers. I don't usually preach about it. If you're an unethical, selfish jerk who uses unsolicited bulk e-mail, I doubt if appealing to your better nature would do any good.

So now I ought to remove all mention of Corey Rudl from my site. But I'm not going to. I could try to dress up my arguments by saying that I'm offering an excellent service, I'm helping you by recommending by far the best marketing course on the Internet. I'm helping you identify spamming methods so that you can counter them. But when it comes down to it, I really just want to keep on receiving those amazingly generous commission checks from Corey Rudl. They're helping me save for an overseas holiday next year.

However, I promise I'll never use any of the spamming techniques described in the course. I hope that if you get the course you'll do the same.

The 12 lessons covered in the second book include telling you how to use newsletters as a marketing tool, how to use Internet classified ads, how to market to newsgroups, how to get free publicity, how to spy on your competitors, search engine secrets, the importance of backend and upsell products, hottest products and services, and how to set up a joint venture. That's fine. It's all excellent information in typical Rudl style, based on heaps of practical experience, telling you what works and what doesn't.

As I studied Corey's course, I kept getting a sinking feeling. Time and time again I would read a paragraph and think, "Oh no! THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING WRONG!" For example, I'm running a highly labour-intensive web site (well, I have four, if you count the neglected ones). In contrast, Corey believes in automating everything as much as possible, so that his four Internet business keep on ticking over, whether his hand is on the tiller or not. He tells you what software and what companies you can use and describes exactly how to do this.

He describes various little techniques he uses, and nonchalantly adds that this one or that added $2,500 or so to his monthly income.

I wish I'd read his marketing course before I started my business on the Internet. I would have done an awful lot of things differently.

After reading the latest newsletter Corey sends out to his associates, I followed his instructions and tinkered with a few words on my Top 10 associate programs.

Since then my average income from selling Corey's course has doubled from $50 a week to $100 a week. The sample is too small to be statistically significant - but it's very encouraging.

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