Lauren › Comments

Yeah, I got that too, but I was careful enough to make a note of the day of purchase and cancel on time. The course is great, but international shipping on the newsletter made it too expensive for me. Fortunately the cancel process is very easy :) - Jorge Blanco

Not to worry, its only 40 bucks, before spending anything just think if it that is something you can live without. Only then spend the money, otherwise its better not to buy. - TrafficBug

I bought the Butterfly Marketing too and cancelled the newsletter two days later. I must say that I found the cancellation process a bit complicated unlike Jorge, but that is probably me. - linda saunders

TrafficBug: *only* 40 bucks!!!! 40 bucks is a HECK of a lot to me (& it's 48 bucks including handling) for nothing. I won't get the next issue, since I cancelled before it was posted, & I thought the sample was about the worst newsetter/mag I'd ever seen. I agree with what you say about spending anything. & I'm going to try my hardest to get the dosh back [Edit: I've now received a... more... - Isha (Marysia)

With all this talk, I went and checked my credit card just to find out I was charged for the second month of BFM as well :( Upset as I was, for I had already canceled and thought of it as a closed matter. I went to thecustomerhelpdesk.com and filed a ticket for the matter. Long story short, the money was refunded immediately :) Kudos to Mike on great customer service, albeit some previous mishaps ;) - Jorge Blanco

Thanks for the tip about the helpdesk. When I tried phoning them I got the message that they were closed & that their office hours are Mon-Friday. I've now submitted a ticket myself. We'll see what happens. - Isha (Marysia)

I hate this kind of stuff! FIlsaime really does this very well. I've spent more than an hour trying to confirm that I've gotten my subscription canceled, but I still just received another stupid newsletter. It's definitely not worth $40 in my opinion. I hate forced continuity! The least they can do is make it possible to stop-- how likely is it that we disgruntled canceled subscribers will try them again in the future? Not good business. - Lauren

I got one issue of his newsletter -- and despite his assurances that human editors had been through it, it had so many spelling and grammar mistakes that an elementary school teacher would have handed it back with an F. And to top it all off, he had idiots who couldn't speak English or understand mine calling on the phone! I unsubscribed to everything with his name on it. Just don't need the aggravation. 8-P - LJF Wolffe

LJF, the misspelled words and grammar mistakes cracked me up. But more than that, they made me think, if Mike makes the money he claims to make on his products, then by God that there is hope for all of us :p If nothing else, the newsletter gave at least that much ;) - Jorge Blanco

Very true, Jorge! If he's making money that way, there's hope for us all -- especially those of us who CAN spell! 8-) - LJF Wolffe

Definitely not good business Lauren, I agree whole-heartedly. As for the "Best Damn Newsletter" I thought it was on the whole very poor. He'd have done a lot better to put the best issue of it ever in the pack (as a sample). The Burn-as-soon-as-you've-read insert was much better, & I got some value from that. But not, to me, worth 40 bucks a throw. - Isha (Marysia)

Jorge, that is a very good observation - thanks - makes me feel a bit better about it! - Isha (Marysia)

If you went in through an affiliate link, contact the affiliate, affiliates seem to hold direct connections to the internet marketers and will listen to them. very helpful is wanting to discontinue - bruce jones

I didn't sign up through an affiliate - I would have signed up through Ed or through Noble Samurai if I'd thought it through (I mean thought about how it woulda given them commission), but I signed up through the link in Mike's own email to me. My bad. - Isha (Marysia)

Some things are worth paying for as a great example of what NOT to do. Please don't think because Mike can get away with crap quality, that you can do it too. We need to improve the market, not degrade to the lowest common denominator. So what if you "leave money on the table", at least you will be able to look at yourself in the mirror and be proud to tell your kids what you do. - Allison

Thank you, thank you for all the info? I did not order this program but I had this itched in the back that I should have done so. After reading all your comments I am glad I didn't. Just love the sharing of information. - Pine Pienaar

As soon as I got the package I canceled the newsletter. No problem there. But it was my understanding that there was software on the Quick Start Bonus disk. All I got were MP3s. I also can't play the DVDs on my computer. I sent in a ticket and never received a reply. The 2 books are good though and I enjoyed them. The newsletter was interesting if you ignored the spelling errors and bad grammar. - Michael Wilson

You guys are funny... The software is downloadable. You should have info somewhere in that package that will tell you the link as well as your User Name, etc... 30 Days from the time you ordered... That is not unreasonable as Mike cannot possibly know exactly when each person gets their order in their hands. Come on people, think about it! - Mike Hill from twhirl

"Come on people, think about it"? Mike actually sent out emails telling us how long we should expect to wait to receive the pack, & he added another week (or perhaps it was 2 weeks - I don't have the figures to hand) for foreign countries. So he'll know very well when is the very earliest we could have received. There was *no* way I could have had time to inspect everything in the pack within 30 days from my order. So if the DVDs don't work on my computer I shall be very, but *very* teed off. - Isha (Marysia)

The package came wih a "note" that explains that the software is in one of the MP3 cd's and the cd labeled as quick start is just a cd with MP3's (funny enough). The software cd is nothing but a link to the online software page. And the password, if I remember correctly, you made it upon signing up. - Jorge Blanco

That's interesting - I've just checked mine and there's no such note with it at all - the only papers with it are the Customs Declaration Dispatch Notes and a yellow sheet headed "Urgent: Before You Do Anything, Call This Number: 1-866-533-6736, and which I've been through several times . Also, nowhere on the sign-up pages did it say that you have to do anything within 30 days other than cancelling the newsletter and the "Instant Affiliate Website" & the 7-Figure Secrets. - Isha (Marysia)

@Mike Hill: I think I misread your comment about the 30 Days. Now I read it again I think it's saying that the link only works *after* 30 days from the order - is that right? - Isha (Marysia)

Isha, it's all about the launch. The money is made by the few who have cleverly (and fair play to them) positioned themselves as figureheads. Their products make so much on launch (even if they have been on the poor side as a couple of people have eluded to) that a few unhappy or forgetful consumers don't really matter. How many others around the world feel like you but have just... more... - san

Me too san - me too. A Porsche wouldn't make me happy tho - but selling it for a tidy sum might do ;) - Isha (Marysia)

Marysia, when I first joined Twitter one of first wouald-be followers for me was that guy! Then hundreds more of his 'followers!' Needless to say he was gone the next day- I block most everybody except now it's annoying cos some are spam and seems best not 2 even go there to their profile to do thst! - Inspired Writing Research

I've now received a refund note from Mike Filsaime's team. So I'm thinking of him in a rosier light again :) - Isha (Marysia)

I was very surprised at how bad the newsletter was, very little if anything of value in it. Not worth the $40 at all. - David

David, I couldn't agree more. I'm completely baffled as to why he's willing to send out something that is so poor and charge so much for it. It may be that it's the "Burn" insert that people are really paying for, but even so they could wrap it in a better mag than what they sent me - I was stupefied. - Isha (Marysia)

I'm with Pine (above) I came this close ll to ordering myself but I hate going through the hastle of figuring out and going through the ordeal of canceling but I've always had an itching to get it the promo looked good but sounds like the product wasn't of much value and the cancelation a nightmare. - Russ

I think the manuscripts themselves were great. It's the newsletter what wasn't up to par. - Jorge Blanco

Thank you very much, LJF Wolffe! I hope so. :-P - Lauren

Fabulous! congratulations - wishing you many more sales!!! - Elizabeth

Positive energies all around!! :o) - Aline Ohannessian

Lauren, first sale is always a beautiful moment. Congratulations! Keep the momentum going and post here soon with news of your first $1000 in the bank :-) - Ritesh Lal

Woohoo - congratulations Lauren! - Isha (Marysia)

Hi Lauren - could you explain what trial pay is and how you incorporate it into your business to make money. I just went to the site and don't really understand the concept. Thanks! - Elizabeth

Congratulations Lauren! - Chris Linseman

Congrats! May you have many more =) I've heard about it, cause WPD uses it, but I've never looked into it before. Will try! || @Elizabeth If I'm not mistaken, customers can sign up for free offers, for which Trialpay pays you. So customers are indirectly buying your product by signing up for free trials. Though, I think there are paid trials too - Art Y.

It's kind of like using your product as an incentive for CPA offers, except that they usually pay around $15 or so. (You can adjust how much you'll accept for your product.) So instead of selling your product, you give it away for free and in return TrialPay pays you for the person who completed one of their offers. - Lauren

No, it's my own registered domain -- trainingyourlab.com. I have it registered with godaddy, hosted with hostmonster, and I'm using WPD. I use google webmasters to keep tabs on it and just today it says there's a "warning" on my sitemap -- but I haven't changed anything. I don't know what's going on. - Lauren

When I look at webmasters, I tried searching for some of the keywords that it says I have rankings for and my site isn't there at all. - Lauren

@Lauren. I've recently read a few blogs suggesting that google is trying some new things in Feb, it's possible your blog is caught up in that? Also I know that it's quite normal to have a site disappear temporarily from google as Ed eluded to in the lessons. I would wait a few days to see if it irons itself out. Please keep us posted though, as some people are having issues ranking with WPD - specifically the free platforms. - Peter Gibson

Get out your spade and bucket because it sounds like you are in the sandbox. Ed does talk about this in the challenge. Just try a recap of the lessons. And to quote Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy .... DON'T PANIC. - gerry

Thanks for your comments-- It's now been over a week and I'm still not seeing any of the traffic I had from google. I tried resubmitting my URL, but that hasn't made a difference so far. Could I have been banned or blocked or something? I can't imagine why that would be, though... I don't know how to fix the problem. - Lauren

Request Reconsideration from Google if you suspect you have been blocked by some blackhat competitors - TrafficBug

Looks like a winner, you might consider another background color for the header though. I like it other than that. Good luck to ya. - Don Kerns

I would definitely suggest getting an autoresponder account and setting that up so that you can be building an email list while you work on other things. I use getresponse, but I know a lot of people use aweber (I didn't really like it when I tried it, though you may have more luck if you're interested) - Lauren

You should switch to WordPress and get a good theme... Honestly - it's pretty ugly - andy brudtkuhl

I second Don Kerns on getting a better background color. Actually might be better if you tried a more professionally done website theme entirely. There are thousands available for free on the net. Otherwise the content and organization of the site seem fine to me. - Ritesh Lal

My longer term plan is to produce my own book of pizza. I want to use all the recipes that I post on my site for the text. My thinking is that I dont have time to write a whole book, but I do have time to write on a weekly (or so) basis). Each item that goes on my website goes immediately into the 'template' for my book. - Johanna

I really like your idea, the concept is great and I think the book idea could work really well - but I'm definitely with Don and Ritesh on the theme. I find it almost painful to look at, something about the contrast and the blue/greyish colour not being very appetizing. Best of luck to you and let us know how it is going! - Jen

Thanks Jenny and others with comments about the colours. I was trying to do too much. I wanted to create my own CSS as well as web page. Good job to keep me inside for the day when it is 42 degrees out there today. - Johanna

The blue print on the red hurts my eyes. Don't chase your customers away before they even see what you have. - Glenna

Johanna, is this your personal project? Or are u doing the 30DC? I ask bec 30DC uses a blog to rank, you have a website. A SEO optimised blog is easier to rank in Google than a new website. - Buff Toast

your website looks cool but you need to work on the design a bit. - TrafficBug

This is a great website which tends to rank really well. I've been doing some testing and in some cases the documents that were posted on scribd.com outranked squidoo or hubpages hubs or lenses. This website can be a good traffic generator ;-) - Robertas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Scribd is a document sharing website.It houses 'more than 2 million documents' and 'drew more than 21 million unique visitors in May 2008, little more than a year after launching, and claims 1.5 million registered users.' The site was initially funded with $12,000 funding from Y Combinator, but has since received over $3.7 million from Redpoint Ventures and The Kinsey Hills Group. - Jolly Panda

Love Scribd because people with great information about "stuff" post it there. they aren't marketers, just normal people, so they don't know that their information freely given is gold dust to us. Check through using your niche and see what is there, you might find buried treasure - Allison

Here's anothe rplace for fabulous freely available info http://www.slideshare.net/ - Allison

Thanks Allison - I'll check it out :) - Jolly Panda

I just posted two articles and got 11 views in the first five minutes! Incredible. - Lauren

Yes Scribd is a valuable site for authority building like hubs, squidoos thanks for the reminder to pay attention to less buzzed about opportunities to communicate with targeted audiences. - JuneM

scribd.com is awesome for pulling Google SEO (and other search) traffic. here's my latest there: http://www.scribd.com/doc... - Viqi French

Slovenia :) u? - Mitja MG

I think the youngest participant was 12 this past August...but you are one of the younger ones. Good for you! Good luck! - Corinne Mitchell

Wow 12 interesting, thanks. Good luck to you to! - Mitja MG

My two sons and I went through the Challenge last August, they are 12 & 15 and they loved it. - Greg Martin

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have completed 30dc and I'm 17... :) - Lauren

GO to www.seodigger.com, if you're site has any significant rankins they will show there :) The data is normally around 2 weeks out of date thou, still very helpful i nfo :) - Jayen from twhirl

Jayen, seodigger.com is no longer operating. - Isha (Marysia)

Could try spyfu.com - Andy Roberts

I think spyfu gives the keywords for a site as a whole but not for individual webpages unless you pay them a hefty fee? - Isha (Marysia)

Marysia, that's a shome, i just took a look, i see semruch.com is there new version, some good info but extreamly limited to free users :( - Jayen from twhirl

I just tried out the free search facility at semrush.com and got back "Nothing found" when I input webpage urls that I know shouldn't bring this response. - Isha (Marysia)

I like your blog and especially liked http://web2marketing.com.au/2008... Great way to make it "make sense" OH and you are right about the photo :-) - Mark South

I was a full time network marketer for many years online and loved it! - Mark South

Thanks Mark, Yes this is turning into an amazing time to be in network marketing. Our team is growing amazingly. And as the economy is changing people being people are looking for opportunity. Network marketing, especially web based, is going to get much much bigger. As regular business struggle with overheads internet business is booming. - Greg Martin