Well... a pre-review. I paid $12 to get access to Getting Rich With eBooks 3.0 video course for 10 days. At this point I can access and review only a part of the material.
Steve recommended Getting Rich With eBooks 3.0 in his Passive Income Series article Passive Income Systems. Vic Johnson, the creator of the course, pulled the right strings for me by announcing that the video linked above will not be available forever. In the video he says that to ensure proper access to all, he will close the entry after 500 participants. As I already missed Amy's course, I did not want to miss this one too. So I bought the trial even though I was not too impressed by Vic's pushy marketing tactics.
After I paid, I was taken through several long and annoying popup windows. Vic tried to make me pay the whole course right away, then sell me some ready eBook content to publish myself and something else too. To be honest, the pop ups were full of crap and when I was done with them, I was left hanging. There was no registration link at the end, nothing, just ads. I was pissed. I was like, "OMG, this must be a scam, how stupid can I be! How can Steve recommend this nonsense?"
I felt I had just wasted a good deal of my precious time. The registration link, of course, was in my mailbox, but after the popup show I was highly skeptical that I would get anything worth the money. The course costs the initial $12 and after that $97 per month for 4 months. So a total of $400. What would I get for that?
After the login I was taken to a WordPress page that has placeholders for the training modules, resources, bonuses and advanced training (whatever that is). The menus are there, but only part of the content is accessible during the trial. The training modules contain 8 webinar videos, 2 of which are available for the initial payment. The resources contain link lists, templates and other stuff that might get handy. The resources that are available during the trial are ok, but I felt they did not contain much new information for me. Only unlocked bonus is Affirmations Audio. Advanced stuff is all unavailable and getting to know Vic, I would not be surprised if that would cost something more...
Ok, so I was not impressed. I started watching the first webinar. The videos are not of a good quality and Vic spends a lot of time messing up with the Q&A. The first 2 videos were both 1:40 of length, but Vic takes a lot of time in the beginning for motivational talk that did not really give me much. But the gem part is when Vic rolls his sleeves and gets to work! He goes through free tools (that maybe 1/2 I knew already) and shows how he is using them to find ideas and in the second video he again uses a bunch of free tools to analyse the market potential for his ideas. When I looked at the list of the tools in the Resources section, I was not impressed by them. The value in this course is that Vic shows HOW he is using them and what to look for in the results that he gets.
I must say that without this information I would not have known how to pick the best idea. For example, when I have been messing around in Google Keyword Tool, I have been looking for keywords that have the most searches and not much competition. But Vic taught me otherwise.
If I split the $400 to the 8 videos, that is $50 per video. So I have now watched $100 worth of videos, and maybe one hour of it was really good stuff. So would I pay $100 for an expert like Vic to sit with me and tell me how to use the tools to find ideas and how to evaluate the potential of my ideas. YES, yes I would. And I would not even blink.
So at this point I have decided not to cut my subscription after the trial period. Maybe I will learn to like Vic's style more when the course proceeds, but even that doesn't really matter to me. What matters is the content, and this far I have gotten enough for my money. I will be giving you updates as the course proceeds.
Did you join this course? How do you like it?
Comment at 5th of June - I decided to cancel my trial after reading a comment telling me that this "one-time offer" has been online for over a year now. That is a marketing tactic that I don't really like and do not wish to learn myself. I do wish that I will find a good course that will go through the whole process, because I sure need that! I'm going to try SBI next and I hope it will be better. Thank you to everybody who commented on this.
Comment at 6th of June - How to cancel Getting Rich With eBooks trial? You need to go to Vic's company's helpdesk page and create a new support request using support category "Getting Rich With eBooks"->"Cancellation". They answered withing a day and confirmed the cancellation.
Comment at 7th of June - I reactivated my account. Read more in my post Self-Sabotage by Proxy
*UPDATE on 1st of August 2012*
I'm now midway this course and I have changed my mind a bit. Read my full second review of Getting Rich With eBooks 3.0 for more information.
Hi Janaa, I signed up for the course as well and was sorely disappointed. The pushy marketing tactics and the repeated upselling were so tiresome. Worse was that I didn't learn anything new in the two starter videos. Some of the information was good, I just already knew about it. So, I've lost trust with Vic and am personally going to cancel before moving on to the next videos. I was tempted to continue -- I'm still curious what piqued Steve's interest -- but that's my decision for now. I hope the rest of the course is insightful!
ReplyDeleteHi Pierre,
DeleteI can understand that well. If I had already known how to use these tools together I would probably feel the same.
I don't really enjoy watching the videos thinking "he is so wasting my time" and waiting for the good 30-45 minutes that are valuable to me.
Also, if I would not be planning on actually publishing an eBook, I would probably have decided not to continue too.
If the course continues to deliver what I got from the 2 first videos, I'll be happy. If not, you are going to hear about it :)
Oh, one more thing! I'd love to hear where you learned about how to use the tools? What other options for this course there are?
DeleteHi Jaana,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insightful review of what you have seen so far. I am still on the fence about this.
I will look forward to what you learn and your thoughts as you go along.
Thanks again! Karen
Hi Karen,
DeleteI'm glad if I was able to help you.
I am still a bit worried about this myself. I mean, if these videos were a good sample of what the course will contain, I'll just stick to it even though I'm not really Vic's fan... but if this was the best he can do and the rest will be worse, then I'm not going to be happy.
Anyway, I'll be telling you how it goes.
I still have high hopes for SBI, maybe it is better...
Nice review!
ReplyDeleteI was also put off by Vic's approach to marketing. By the way, this particular program has been up for at least a year and "bandwidth limitation" talk is most likely bull (what is this, 1999? :) )
Anyway, for my keyword research I bought Market Samurai. It's $100 but it streamlines the research process quit nicely and can potentially save you a lot of time.
Thanks!
DeleteI kinda guessed that... While unicornfree's Amy's courses are really full (=one cannot get to them), I kinda realized already that Vic probably had his first 500 on the same day Steve published or something.
That is one of the aspects I am worried a bit about this course too. If he is being dishonest then he is probably going to be teaching that too! Maybe some of his teachings will be unusable for me.
Thanks for the tip to Market Samurai. I'll take a look at it!
But I definitely am such a newbie on this that I'll need some complete course that goes through marketing and all.
Hi Jaana,
ReplyDeleteSorry for interrupting :D, just wanted to share this podcast by Internet Business Mastery, it provides some good insight on internet marketing. Maybe can check it out as well since it is free :D http://internetbusinessmastery.com/podcast
Cheers,
Charles
Thank you Charles, I will definitely check it out!
DeleteYou have an interesting blog, I added it to the links page.
Thanks a lot Jaana. :D
ReplyDeleteWill be checking back often to your blog as well.
Cheers!
Charles
Thanks Charles!
DeleteThanks Jaana, I was considering this myself. I think I'll look for a well-reviewed book that covers the same subject.
ReplyDeleteHey Jaana. I'm about half way through Vic's program (just finished my 4th module). So far I have to say I am extremely disappointed by this program. I saw the videos and cheap marketing sales pitches and was extremely turned of by it.
ReplyDeleteThe ONLY reason I decided to purchase the program was because of Steve's recommendation. Everything about the program had been a turnoff with the quality of the video pitch, the slow pace of presenter, the inflated expectations etc.
I kept telling myself "Why would Steve possibly recommend this ?" I purchased it because I trust Steve's judgement. I bought SBI because of him and that was by far one of the best decisions I ever made. I have been able to make passive income through SBI so I know it works and there are lots of case studies which back up their claims as well. SBI OVER delivers while VIc Johnson's program severely UNDER delivers.
I've been through half of the program and feel like I've learned nothing. Anything I did learn could have been easily summed up in an hour or so. Maybe this is supposed to be for a complete new beginner. Like I said I've been using SBI and have received a far better education and actionable suggestions on what to do to make money online.
I feel like any of the information on Vic's program can be easily googled. Or you can go to Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income blog (and several great blogs) where you get tons of quality information for free.
I wish Steve would have written a review about it (like he does with all his other products) so that I could have determined if it was the right product for me.
I'm still going to finish the series because I keep thinking maybe there is something that will make it worth it. But so far I believe this has been a waste of time and if Steve did not recommend this I would have never bought it and asked for my money back a long time ago. I will keep you posted if I discover any insights from the remaining modules. Best of luck.
Hi mat!
DeleteThanks for letting me know about your experiences. I must say that I completely agree with you that SBI feels SO much better than Vic's program. I wish I had joined SBI the first day I found it.
I also agree that the pace of this program is slow. I've been using double speed where suitable when listening the sessions.
And yes, Vic's program works best for beginners like me. I don't necessarily need over delivery of content like SBI does, I do like when I get condensed information readily picked for me. But Vic's program does not do that either. Lol.
I'm still planning to go through Vic's program, even though I am now "distracted" by SBI. Eventually what counts is where the money comes in and as I am newbie, Vic's program contains new information for me :)
I hope to hear from you again!
Hey Jaana. I can see now that Vic's program is aimed at complete beginners. And that is fine but in my opinion I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is completely new to online income. At the end of 4 modules I honestly don't know what a newbie would take away from this program in terms of what actions to take.
ReplyDeleteThe material has just felt incredibly thin and definitely not worth the cost. The pitch is that he has made millions from ebooks. That's great for him but so far I have not learned how I could duplicate that success. To me that's a misleading and overhyped marketing tactic which comes off as dishonest. This is something I never associate with anything Steve recommends. So I am still puzzled by it. I still have 4 modules left so hopefully my opinion will change by the end.
That's great that you are checking out SBI. In my opinion that is BEST option if you want to start your own business. Besides the content and tools what I like about SBI is the community in the forums. You have thousands of people world wide who are trying to accomplish the same goal. So that in itself makes you feel connected and makes you think it's possible.
I remember when I started I didn't believe it was possible to make money online. But people kept posting their stories and how they achieved their goals. It takes time but eventually you figure things out.
I see that you have made $8 so far online. Thats AWESOME. Congrats. I remember I made my first dollar online about 2 years ago. A whopping total of $3 haha. And that took me 2 years to get there. However, at the time I felt great and I told everyone I felt more proud of that $3 than I did my entire year's salary. This is because it was at times internally difficult for me to believe it was possible but now I had proof. After than I just moving forward and it has been great.
I wish you the same as you're off to a good start. Keep it up. Later.
Hi mat!
DeleteThank you so much, that is so inspiring to hear.
I did feel the same. I was as proud of my first passive income dollar as I was of my very first paycheck.
I am going to write another review at midway and at the end of this program. And your comment will definitely help people who have more experience to decide whether they want to buy Vic's program or not. I do hope you'll find some gems in the last 4 modules though.
Now I'm off to write a report of my first expressions in SBI. I hope to hear from you again!
Hi Jaana,
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear what I suspected straight from somebody who has actually purchased the course. Vic's sales pitch inspired me to get into eBooks, but as I couldn't afford his program, I just used the internet marketing knowledge that I amassed over several months of diligent study and voracious blog reading, and I've been doing great! My first full month of selling and I've already made 400 dollars, and I can't even see the end of the income potential. It's possible to do what Vic did without Vic's program.
One thing I've learned in my real-time eBooks crash course is that many distribution channels screen for and will not accept Private Label Rights eBooks. The ready-made eBook content Vic was trying to sell to you? Those are PLR articles, and that sets off a huge red flag for me. What I have found is that writing decent quality, original eBooks about things people want to read will sell. After reading your article and those in the comments, I'm convinced that I don't need this course to continue succeeding with eBooks. Thank you, and congrats on earning your first passive income.
Hi CLGPopFax,
DeleteThank you! Your comment was really inspiring.
At the moment I am halfway in the course and I'm not quite happy with it, but still it has some value for me. Not much, but some. But I think you did the right move by not buying it.
Vic does tell later that PLR books cannot be used as they are. That Amazon has made their rules stricter about them. But I think he should have removed them from the sales material altogether.
@CLGPopFax
DeleteI know this is an old post but there isn't any chance of you giving us an update on how the ebook writing (and more importantly) selling is going...?
Could you roughly outline the method you're using. How are you identifying the topics/ subject matter? How are you researching the subject matter? What channels/ marketplaces are you selling them on?
Thank you very much in advance,
Kieran
Hey Jaana. I just finished Vic's program. After going through all of the modules I can say that I would not recommend this to anyone. There just really wasn't any substance in it. Handful of good tips that can easily be found online. Definitely not worth the price. I have already requested a full refund.
ReplyDeleteI'm really disappointed I wasted my time with this product. I still don't know why Steve would recommend this crap. His recommendations are typically excellent. So I have no idea what would cause him to recommend such a terrible program. I'd rather save that money for one of his workshops.
Vic's program just gives you same content about starting online businesses, just repackaged towards ebooks. The fundamentals are still the same. Find a good niche, analyze competition, then market.
However, there is just so much still left to do in between. People will still make lots of mistakes that Vic won't be able to help them with. There is no forum or help guide to assist you when you meet those eventual roadblocks. If there was ongoing help such as a members only forum, maybe this would be better. But probably still not.
At least with services like SBI you can talk to other people who have succeeded. You have hundreds of articles and lots of videos. You have case studies. You can check if people are exaggerating their claims by looking at their sites. With Vic's program there are no case studies that show who has succeeded using his programs. Perhaps you could be one of them. So good luck if you continue with this program.
Thanks mat!
DeleteI full-heartedly agree with you, I would not recommend this program anymore. I have actually written a new review concluding my experiences which I'll publish tomorrow or day after.
When I wrote this review, I had not found SBI yet.
I really appreciate you telling about your experiences. So many people come here looking for these review - they are going to benefit from your experiences.
hey...wondering what is SBI?
ReplyDeleteHi nitesh!
DeleteSBI is abbreviation for SiteBuildIt!
It is a course that helps you start a web business over a topic that you feel passionate about. I highly recommend it over Getting Rich With eBooks.
I have written about it in at least these blog entries:
$1000 Passive Income Site Walkthrough
Midway Battle - SBI! vs GRWeB 3.0
Hello......
ReplyDeleteCould you tell me how to join SBI? Is that a kind of discussion forum?
Thank you,
Aryojati Ardipandanto
Hi,
DeleteSBI is an online course for starting a web business. There is also a discussion forum. You can find more info and my reviews in the Resources Page
Here's a direct link to SBI too.
When you write ebooks and also publish and market them you become a publisher by default. Take a look at some of Dan Poynter's books on publishing, you'll probably get a better education on publishing that way.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious... I don't want to use his course, I don't quite trust it... but what are the methods he suggests for using the Google Keyword Tool? I'm wondering if it's stuff i already know or can find online....
ReplyDelete