Can't believe what this guy is telling people

by 32 replies
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Last night I sat through a 1 1/2 hour webinar where this guy was spouting off about how you could create a book in 10 minutes time and sell it through Createspace and Amazon and make tons of money.

There was some software that picked up articles on a topic and formatted them into a book form. Then the book was uploaded to Createspace and bam...you had a book ready to sell.

This is extremely destructive advice to anyone. I've seen enough PLR books that work that way and they often have repeat information in them, they have mistakes in them, poor grammar, sometimes broken links, and more.

Someone might buy your book from Amazon once it was up for sale, but if it was crappy you'd get a lousy review and you could really ruin your reputation by doing this kind of thing. I hope that others who listened to this webinar realize that and don't do this.

I know that one of the things that IM is all about is speed and auto-pilot, but this is a sure way to give yourself a bad name and once you have a bad name, you're done in.

I'm thinking about contacting the "guru" who did the webinar and suggesting that he is doing a disservice to anyone who doesn't know any better than to follow this advice.

What would you do in this kind of situation?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #guy #people #telling
  • Banned
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  • I would unsubscribe and move on.
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  • Ironically, I just wrote a blog post on this sort of thing. Not this webinar specifically, but the quick 'n' dirty product creation method.

    I've seen too many eBooks that are put together like that. Too many. Often they are easy to spot and, if you're looking at them from a buyer's perspective, you don't have a high opinion of them.

    I'd rather spend some time on the book and improve my odds of people buying a second book from me rather than just look for one-off sales and a bad name.
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    • Man, I second that. All past business practices are and will be used against you (or for you) in the future.

      You can use music industry examples or even book publishing examples to see that your business should be one that slowly builds over time....not one-and-done's formulated for quick money at the expense of your name.
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  • I don't know how you could sit through a 1 1/2 hour webinar about this. I would never have made it 5 minutes. You are right that it is "destructive advice" and I would add worthless.
  • lol...I don't know about that webinar, but it reminds me of a growing number of approaches that seem to assume that filling up Amazon with "books" written without much effort is a viable business model.

    Like Curtis said...unsubscribe and move on...
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    • It's a bummer that he's selling crappy scraped information and it's very noble that you want to seek him out and "fix" the problem, but he's not building a real sustainable business and will likely be gone soon.

      In the time it takes you to chase him down and get your message across, what could you do in YOUR business that would bring you closer to your goals and dreams?
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  • I guess it depends on the quality of the PLR. Can you confirm that it actually had poor grammar, broken links, and more?

    Another point is, if the author/publisher really cared about his book, he'd take the time to edit it and not just publish crap. Should the finger be pointed at the software maker or the author?
  • Destructive advice sure is a nice way to put it... What the hell could he talk about for an hour and a half!?!?! He could of made 9 books in that time. What a waste of time! Sheesh!
  • Grammer and spelling have nothing to do with the value of info being imparted but... yeah I get your point.


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    • I know exactly what product you're talking about and I totally agree 100%. Just go onto Amazon Digital and search the Ebooks for sale. You'll find 20 versions of the same PLR Ebook just with a different authors name.

      Who's going to buy crappy books like this? A bunch of articles turned into a book? Lame...
  • Hey you guys,

    Thanks for the advice. I am movin' on. It's good to see that there are so many people here who have a conscience and wouldn't use that kind of a tactic.

    And to answer the question...yes, he was promoting the 'scraping' software!
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  • Haha ....i saw the recording. it was interesting.

    I thought it was more about creating books that were promotional items - not to make $$$ from the sale of the books per se.

    And please ... lets not all get on our Quality Content High Horses ... Ive stumbled across many a marketers articles on EZA and in the serps - and 50% of them are vomit inducing Bio-Box SPAM.

    I never knew 1 guy could be an expert author on Ring Worm, Homeopathic Acne Cures, Genital Herpes relief secrets, Puppy Potty Training, and how to make $750 a minute with CPA offers!

    bahhhh ....
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  • I can't believe most people commented on your post, without knowing what you were really talking about...

    And I cannot believe that you are willing to toss the baby with the bath water...

    I had to hold up before responding to this thread, because I started listening to that webinar last night and paused it to finish today... I wanted to finish the webinar, before I responded to you here...

    There was a lot of really good info in that program...

    There was also some bad info in that program...

    Should you be publishing PLR content on Amazon? Certainly not... But people will try anything for a buck...

    The concept he was presenting was simply how to get your manuscript prepped and delivered to Amazon in less than ten minutes...

    There is value in that information... Value that I am already looking to integrate into my own marketing endeavors...

    The only thing disingenuous about his advice is publishing PLR content as a book for the Amazon marketplace...

    The good advice was that he showed how to take any manuscript to Amazon really quickly... That was great advice actually... I did not know about CreateSpace before that webinar, and now I am happy that I do...

    If you start with a good manuscript for a book, and follow the foundations laid down in this webinar, where is the problem?

    There isn't one... It was not bad advice on the whole...

    Another excellent piece of advice the presenter offered was that it is much more powerful to use a printed book as your business calling card... It serves to develop a more lasting impression on your potential clients than a mere business card could ever do...


    The presenter did get me thinking... I thought back to the last time I tried to prepare a book for sale on Amazon... Painful is the description... Then I went to trusty Google and found a WSO that would give me the most important part of the webinar hosts' offer...

    The best part for me was the suggestion that there are software tools that would enable me to easily format any manuscript for Amazon, quickly and easily...

    The webinar guest will give us the tools we need for $97, but the following WSO gives me that same kind of software tool, for a measly $10: http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...-template.html
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    • You are right about that. There was some good information in the program. I am the first one to admit when I make a mistake and I did make a mistake. I did not give a balanced look at the program. I guess I was so amazed at the poor content that I didn't think to take a more balanced view and I acknowledge that.

      I'm not sure what value there is in finding out how to publish in 10 minutes when it could lead you to ruin your reputation by doing so.

      I DO think there is value in some of the information in the program, some of which you highlight below. However, this is the part of the presentation that I felt and still feel will do people more harm than good.

      I disagree with you here. I think that implying that a book created in 10 minutes could sell anywhere is probably more damaging than using PLR. However, these two points are the ones that I had the problem with and still do.

      The advice about Createspace was really good. The problem was with the speed. I have written eight books and of those two have become best sellers. And trust me, you cannot create a book in 10 minutes and have a quality product. The speed is where I see the major problem. The advice about Createspace is not the problem.


      You're right...if you start with a GOOD manuscript then there isn't a problem. But when you take PLR and create a book in 10 minutes is that a GOOD manuscript? Again, this is where I get hung up.

      This was one of the pieces that I thought was excellent as well. I agree with that...I've done it myself and know it is effective.


      I agree that the template is an excellent tool. I have one of my own that I use and it works really well.

      I agree with you that I did not give a balanced review and I recognize that there were many good pieces of information in the webinar. I appreciate your input and I'm glad your post got me to realize that I needed to take another look at my thinking and clean up my act.

      Thanks
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  • The one problem with IM is that there are to many people marketing it as get rich quick (GRQ). To make real money on line you need to establish yourself as a brand, this takes time. It does take time and hard work to build a solid reputation & build credibility online.

    The sooner the GRQ guys bug of the better, steer well clear of the GRQ 'gurus' and make quality products that your visitors will refer on and get repeat sales.

    Best wishes,
    Joe.
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    • I know exactly what you are referring to. I'm not a fan of the "Make crap really fast and sell it for a stupid high price" business model.

      Sure, the basic concept of creating a book or making audio recordings may be valuable, but these types of marketers never talk about quality and the importance of creating something worth reading / watching / listening to.

      The focus is alway on how fast can you make a product and never how good can you make it. Quality is mentioned only in passing, if at all, and no one ever talks about how to achieve it. Because then they wouldn't be able to "write" a book in 15 minutes or create a "product" in half an hour.
  • this is exactly why i stay away from most ebooks claiming the heavens
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  • I cannot believe what a of lot of Im-ers tell people.

    So I don't!

    Move on, find something that you do believe in.

    My best,
    Jerry
  • Please read TPW's review as well as that of the OP. I have read allot of TPW's posts lately and he seems like a genuine guy and a straight shooter.

    Often people and products get bashed that do not deserve it ... Only because the user never saw past one principle, as seems to be the case here.. The user had unrealistic expectations ... or the user was not technical enough to integrate the system.

    Be careful to bash a product it might say more about you than the product.
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    • Hello Cathy,

      As I said in my post to TPW above, I'll be the first to admit when I make a mistake. And you are right in this sense: I did not see past the things that I found harmful.

      You are not right, however, about my expectations. I had no expectations going into the webinar, I was just going to listen to what I hoped would be a good idea. You are also wrong to assume that I do not have the technical skills to integrate the system. I have published on Createspace, so I do have those skills. I also have the skills to gather PLR and use it, I have done so.

      As I said, I'm more than willing to accept my errors, but I won't accept statements made about me that are not accurate...like the expectations and technical skills.

      I guess you have had the same problem as I did...making assumptions about another person.

      Cheers,
  • I saw this webinar too.

    As someone who has used Createspace and published my own books I was interested to see what he said about the process.

    It didn't even occur to me that people interested in doing this may still not even know about Createspace as it's the most popular way to self publish now.

    I think in his rush to sound like the speed demon of publishing he probably (hopefully not intentionally) gave the wrong impression about the quality of what you publish. I know he used software to grab articles and throw them together into an ebook and was actually recommending you do the same - that still does depend entirely on the quality of the writing in the first place.

    I would not recommend people use PLR articles to do this as all you'll really do is make people who do get your book think you're an idiot, which is sort of the opposite of the effect you want.

    But I also use a template for formatting my books ready for Createspace and a fellow warrior for the graphics, so the process is the same no matter how you get your content.

    Using Createspace is simple. It's not quite as quick as he was making out but then again - I'm not sure anyone watching would actually intend to try and do it so quickly anyway - it's stupid unless you're trying to show off your speed.

    Once you do submit your book for physical availability they need you to buy a couple of 'proof' copies, which once you receive and 'ok' will then go live. If you make any changes you then need to have them ship you new proof copies before it goes live again.

    This is a valuable step as even though I read my stuff through many times in electronic format - I always find errors in the printed version the first time around.

    You don't need any special software. You don't need any special process or systems to do this - Amazon make it REALLY easy and it's step by step.

    If you're happy to use their graphics you don't actually need anything at all to get this done - for free.

    If you want extended distribution then you can pay something extra (I think it about about $40 for a year) to show up on lots of other book properties. You get less when you make a sale this way, but it's probably sales you wouldn't have got anyway so it's all good.

    If you really want to know about this - just Google 'Amazon Createspace' and go read about it on their site. They tell you everything you need to know and you can even get started right away.

    But - please don't grab a bunch of PLR and fill their marketplace with more crap. It ultimately hurts your business in the long run, and other peoples.

    Andy
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    • Just another dude without honor. Luckily, those will be out sooner or later, people are not as dumb as these marketers would like to.

      As for you, just smile, perhaps write a blog post about it and move on.
  • Personally, I'm getting hacked off with this webinar way of selling products i.e. instead of the long sales letters, which were easy to skim through, everyone is now doing 1 -2 hour webinars, with recordings often not having forward/rewind controls, meaning you have to sit through a lot of cr*p to get to the meat of whats on offer.

    Time is a premium -don't want to sit through all these webinars! Can't people just get to the point!

    I'm not bothering with them now, unless I know specifics before hand or trust the source.
  • I didn't see the webinar but reading this thread have checked out several services referenced including createspace. Thank you. Createspace looks like the solution we have been looking for to get several original works published. Thank you all.
  • There is another thread running on this forum at the moment about what people to listen to when on this forum, and I guess it could apply to webinars and all sorts of sales pitches as well - you take what works for you and leave the rest. I will be checking out createspace thanks to your thread Marg because I do write all of my own original products and have been looking for outlets to sell through.

    Thanks for yet another great idea thanks to the WF
    Lisa
  • Unsubscribe and Move on!
  • This an eye opener for the newbies.It's good things like this are being brought to the notice of those who didn't take part.

    Wish everybody learns something in this.

    However, l want to conclude that there is nothing comparable to hard work and perseverance.They paid very heavy dividend in the end.If you work hard on your product,it will yield good amount of money for you for a long time.
  • I definitely use PLR, but...

    Using PLR is not intended to be an instant product. So I agree with your thoughts and you should not rely on such a model.

    I often use PLR simply for the organization. You are definitely correct that a lot of PLR has terrible grammer, and things that are just plain wrong.

    I always, review the PLR page by page, re-write everything I have to, and put new artwork anytime the product is significant. I have literally re-written entire PLR products because I couldn't stand the way the originator wrote things.

    If I don't know enough about a subject to do that, then I don't use the PLR.

    Of course, you can also hire ghost writers to do the modifications for you.

    But, like you, I would never just grab a PLR product a junk up Amazon. Your reputation depends on it.

    Have a great day

    Wayne Sharer
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    Can't believe what this guy is telling people

    Last night I sat through a 1 1/2 hour webinar where this guy was spouting off about how you could create a book in 10 minutes time and sell it through Createspace and Amazon and make tons of money. There was some software that picked up articles on a topic and formatted them into a book form. Then the book was uploaded to Createspace and bam...you had a book ready to sell.