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	<title>Comments on: Marketing as Freedom: Mead&#8217;s Mojave Manifesto</title>
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	<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/</link>
	<description>Exploring the Future of Personal Development</description>
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		<title>By: Andy</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1937</link>
		<dc:creator>Andy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 03:54:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1937</guid>
		<description>It really sucks that your friends didn&#039;t have the same results with the program that I&#039;ve enjoyed. Business is not easy, and not everyone will &quot;succeed&quot; (whatever that means to them personally).  
 
I work a lot more than 10 hours a week, but I love my work, and I wouldn&#039;t have found this path without Project Mojave.  </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It really sucks that your friends didn&#039;t have the same results with the program that I&#039;ve enjoyed. Business is not easy, and not everyone will &quot;succeed&quot; (whatever that means to them personally).  </p>
<p>I work a lot more than 10 hours a week, but I love my work, and I wouldn&#039;t have found this path without Project Mojave.</p>
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		<title>By: Andy</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1936</link>
		<dc:creator>Andy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 03:51:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1936</guid>
		<description>Just a quick note: at least one of those sites was not created by Clay (on what evidence do you claim that anyway?). I built it because I believe in the program, and it has taught me a lot of actionable information.  
 
Nowhere does anyone in Mojave promise quick riches. There is a suggestion that consistent income can be made in three months, and that&#039;s entirely realistic.  </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just a quick note: at least one of those sites was not created by Clay (on what evidence do you claim that anyway?). I built it because I believe in the program, and it has taught me a lot of actionable information.  </p>
<p>Nowhere does anyone in Mojave promise quick riches. There is a suggestion that consistent income can be made in three months, and that&#039;s entirely realistic.</p>
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		<title>By: Duff McDuffee</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1935</link>
		<dc:creator>Duff McDuffee</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 02:04:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1935</guid>
		<description>I&#039;m sorry to hear that, but I appreciate you sharing the information. Unfortunately the only money to be made in such programs is from the very sale of the empty promise of &quot;freedom.&quot; </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#39;m sorry to hear that, but I appreciate you sharing the information. Unfortunately the only money to be made in such programs is from the very sale of the empty promise of &quot;freedom.&quot;</p>
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		<title>By: steve</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1934</link>
		<dc:creator>steve</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 00:37:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1934</guid>
		<description>This program is somewhat unique in that it targets otherwise fairly bright people. I know a couple that jumped in with both feet. While smart, I&#039;ve always felt that they lacked judgement. After several hundred hour of work and no sales they finally gave up. The sad part is that their campaign and product were fairly well done. The wife passed up a real job because she thought she was going to make $50K working 10 hours per week.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This program is somewhat unique in that it targets otherwise fairly bright people. I know a couple that jumped in with both feet. While smart, I&#8217;ve always felt that they lacked judgement. After several hundred hour of work and no sales they finally gave up. The sad part is that their campaign and product were fairly well done. The wife passed up a real job because she thought she was going to make $50K working 10 hours per week.</p>
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		<title>By: Amber</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1601</link>
		<dc:creator>Amber</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:25:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1601</guid>
		<description>Wow - interesting conversation here.... Wish I would have seen this sooner.  I&#039;m currently a Project Mojave member (about one month new) and am very impressed with the level of information Clay and his team provide for budding entrepreneurs.  I&#039;d be happy to serve as a personal/live reference for anyone who wants to chat.   
 
freedom7312009.wordpress.com </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Wow &#8211; interesting conversation here&#8230;. Wish I would have seen this sooner.  I&#039;m currently a Project Mojave member (about one month new) and am very impressed with the level of information Clay and his team provide for budding entrepreneurs.  I&#039;d be happy to serve as a personal/live reference for anyone who wants to chat.   </p>
<p>freedom7312009.wordpress.com</p>
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		<title>By: Duff McDuffee</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1051</link>
		<dc:creator>Duff McDuffee</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:57:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1051</guid>
		<description>This is a classic tactic taught in all the internet marketing courses to crowd out criticism, effectively preventing any consumer protection. By getting lots of affiliate partners, you get more sales and guarantee all search engine results. 
 
A common marketing tactic is to either create natural search results or buy AdWords for search terms that add &quot;scam&quot; on the end, which often advertise the very product or a competitor. For instance, if you Google &quot;frank kern scam&quot; the first natural result goes to an article advertising a competitor. In this case, since Frank Kern actually has been caught scamming by the FTC, the second result links to information about that. 
 
The products themselves are usually not described fully until late stages in the marketing hype, after customers are ready to buy. With so much disinformation and confusion, it becomes nearly impossible to evaluate such products rationally. 
 
I&#039;ve covered Tony Robbins&#039; strategies (copied from Frank Kern and others) here on Beyond Growth: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/wuJta&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://bit.ly/wuJta&lt;/a&gt; </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is a classic tactic taught in all the internet marketing courses to crowd out criticism, effectively preventing any consumer protection. By getting lots of affiliate partners, you get more sales and guarantee all search engine results. </p>
<p>A common marketing tactic is to either create natural search results or buy AdWords for search terms that add &quot;scam&quot; on the end, which often advertise the very product or a competitor. For instance, if you Google &quot;frank kern scam&quot; the first natural result goes to an article advertising a competitor. In this case, since Frank Kern actually has been caught scamming by the FTC, the second result links to information about that. </p>
<p>The products themselves are usually not described fully until late stages in the marketing hype, after customers are ready to buy. With so much disinformation and confusion, it becomes nearly impossible to evaluate such products rationally. </p>
<p>I&#039;ve covered Tony Robbins&#039; strategies (copied from Frank Kern and others) here on Beyond Growth: <a href="http://bit.ly/wuJta" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/wuJta</a></p>
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		<title>By: Jamie</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1050</link>
		<dc:creator>Jamie</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-1050</guid>
		<description>Great article.  I really wanted to find out if Project Mojave is a scam but it is almost impossible to find unbiased information and reviews of Project Mojave since they have stuffrf the internet with fake &quot;reviews&quot; that are just more sales pitches for Project Mojave.  If it was so great, we&#039;d see more results and they wouldn&#039;t need to resort to dirty tricks like this.  See for yourself - search for things like &quot;project mojave review&quot;, &quot;project mojave scam&quot; etc. - there are virtually no legitimate search results, just sales sites obviously built by Clay Collins himself.  Not to mention he is making money on the internet by....telling other people how to make money on the internet! While I&#039;m sure it has some useful information, in reality Project Mojave is another get-rick quick scam (and saying &quot;I tell people they will have to work hard&quot; doesn&#039;t discount that). </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Great article.  I really wanted to find out if Project Mojave is a scam but it is almost impossible to find unbiased information and reviews of Project Mojave since they have stuffrf the internet with fake &quot;reviews&quot; that are just more sales pitches for Project Mojave.  If it was so great, we&#039;d see more results and they wouldn&#039;t need to resort to dirty tricks like this.  See for yourself &#8211; search for things like &quot;project mojave review&quot;, &quot;project mojave scam&quot; etc. &#8211; there are virtually no legitimate search results, just sales sites obviously built by Clay Collins himself.  Not to mention he is making money on the internet by&#8230;.telling other people how to make money on the internet! While I&#039;m sure it has some useful information, in reality Project Mojave is another get-rick quick scam (and saying &quot;I tell people they will have to work hard&quot; doesn&#039;t discount that).</p>
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		<title>By: EricSchiller</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-281</link>
		<dc:creator>EricSchiller</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:02:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-281</guid>
		<description>Andy, 
Give me some specifics, show me your product, show me the happy testimonials.  All you have done is tell me a story of that anyone could tell (and reminds me of many ebook testimonials).   
 
I&#8217;ve seen thousands of sup-par ebooks out there.  The ebook model was originally created by internet marketers as a product they could create with little to no overhead which worked very well with the long-form sales letter funnel model.  If you are so well researched and you believe your content is so worthwhile, why not sell it for a reasonable price in line with hard-cover books (say $27)?  You sell it for more because you can get away with it using the persuasive marketing techniques that you use.  Something is wrong here Andy.   If I could program you with a long-form sales letter to paypal me $47 and in return I give you absolutely nothing other than the satisfaction of giving me the money, would that be ethical for me to do?  How is it the same if they get a product of questionable value? 
 
Where&#039;s the proof? Where&#039;s your product, your sales funnel?  If you claim you are ethical, stop telling us the story about it, and show us your product! 
 
Andy, perhaps you are the exception.  I&#8217;m willing to accept that, however I am entirely unsure why you are taking this personally considering I have not directed any of my discourse specifically at you up until this point. I have never interacted with you before, nor have I attacked you directly in any way in the past.   If you are the exception, then none of my comments are directed at you and I don&#8217;t really think you are any kind of person, other than someone I do not know.   
 
Give me some specifics, and then we can talk about whether you specifically apply to my generalizations about Clay&#8217;s student&#8217;s products. 
 
I strongly believe that selling $47 ebooks is unethical, unless it were say 500 pages and well beyond what you get from an ordinary book written by a professional author.  If you are so well researched and your book is worth so much, I challenge you to call up some publishers and get your book in their hands.  &lt;strong&gt;That&lt;/strong&gt; should be interesting. 
 </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Andy,<br />
Give me some specifics, show me your product, show me the happy testimonials.  All you have done is tell me a story of that anyone could tell (and reminds me of many ebook testimonials).   </p>
<p>I&rsquo;ve seen thousands of sup-par ebooks out there.  The ebook model was originally created by internet marketers as a product they could create with little to no overhead which worked very well with the long-form sales letter funnel model.  If you are so well researched and you believe your content is so worthwhile, why not sell it for a reasonable price in line with hard-cover books (say $27)?  You sell it for more because you can get away with it using the persuasive marketing techniques that you use.  Something is wrong here Andy.   If I could program you with a long-form sales letter to paypal me $47 and in return I give you absolutely nothing other than the satisfaction of giving me the money, would that be ethical for me to do?  How is it the same if they get a product of questionable value? </p>
<p>Where&#039;s the proof? Where&#039;s your product, your sales funnel?  If you claim you are ethical, stop telling us the story about it, and show us your product! </p>
<p>Andy, perhaps you are the exception.  I&rsquo;m willing to accept that, however I am entirely unsure why you are taking this personally considering I have not directed any of my discourse specifically at you up until this point. I have never interacted with you before, nor have I attacked you directly in any way in the past.   If you are the exception, then none of my comments are directed at you and I don&rsquo;t really think you are any kind of person, other than someone I do not know.   </p>
<p>Give me some specifics, and then we can talk about whether you specifically apply to my generalizations about Clay&rsquo;s student&rsquo;s products. </p>
<p>I strongly believe that selling $47 ebooks is unethical, unless it were say 500 pages and well beyond what you get from an ordinary book written by a professional author.  If you are so well researched and your book is worth so much, I challenge you to call up some publishers and get your book in their hands.  <strong>That</strong> should be interesting.</p>
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		<title>By: Andy</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-277</link>
		<dc:creator>Andy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:52:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-277</guid>
		<description>Hi Eric. There is a lot of interesting inquiry on this site, and I&#039;ve been enjoying reading and thinking. 
 
I just wanted to chime in here as an amateur author who has created an ebook worth much more than $47 in just a few more than seven days. I am a member of Project Mojave and a hell of a nice guy. I also happen to know a shit load (technical unit of measure) about the subject of my product. 
 
The content I created is not &quot;out there for free,&quot; and it&#039;s through Clay&#039;s encouragement that I decided to create something of value rather than slapping together another &quot;Six Pack Secrets&quot; program. I also enlisted the help of other experts to review the final product before releasing it to the public. In other words, there was an editorial process, and I am an extremely well researched author.  
 
Mind you, I&#039;m not seeking spiritual freedom from Project Mojave. I would like to be out of debt, and with Clay&#039;s help, I&#039;m getting there.  
 
I don&#039;t think you can make the assumption that my freedom requires my customers to be dissatisfied. In fact, I can tell you that all of them are quite satisfied with their purchases so far.  
 
I guess what I&#039;m trying to say with all of this is that you have no basis for judging what &quot;Most of these people are creating,&quot; and it&#039;s value to our customers. You also have no basis for making generalizations about the editorial process for products you have not seen. That&#039;s pure assumption based on your fantasy about the types of people who might be involved in an online business course. Maybe we could have a beer together, and then you can tell me what kind of person you think I am. 
 
As the topic of your original post was Jonathan Mead&#039;s manifesto, perhaps I should comment on that as well. It didn&#039;t speak to me. In fact, very little of what Jonathan says speaks to me. But that&#039;s cool. I can still learn from Clay and Jonathan and the other faculty and members.  
 
I agree with several of your critiques of the manifesto, though I can knowledgeably assert that Project Mojave does attempt to fulfill its promises. Since it&#039;s not mine to defend, I&#039;ll let Jonathan respond to the critique for himself. Still, to judge everyone involved with Project Mojave on the basis of Jonathan&#039;s writing is poor logic at best. 
 
I&#039;m looking forward to your next articles and the continuing development of Beyond Growth.  </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi Eric. There is a lot of interesting inquiry on this site, and I&#039;ve been enjoying reading and thinking. </p>
<p>I just wanted to chime in here as an amateur author who has created an ebook worth much more than $47 in just a few more than seven days. I am a member of Project Mojave and a hell of a nice guy. I also happen to know a shit load (technical unit of measure) about the subject of my product. </p>
<p>The content I created is not &quot;out there for free,&quot; and it&#039;s through Clay&#039;s encouragement that I decided to create something of value rather than slapping together another &quot;Six Pack Secrets&quot; program. I also enlisted the help of other experts to review the final product before releasing it to the public. In other words, there was an editorial process, and I am an extremely well researched author.  </p>
<p>Mind you, I&#039;m not seeking spiritual freedom from Project Mojave. I would like to be out of debt, and with Clay&#039;s help, I&#039;m getting there.  </p>
<p>I don&#039;t think you can make the assumption that my freedom requires my customers to be dissatisfied. In fact, I can tell you that all of them are quite satisfied with their purchases so far.  </p>
<p>I guess what I&#039;m trying to say with all of this is that you have no basis for judging what &quot;Most of these people are creating,&quot; and it&#039;s value to our customers. You also have no basis for making generalizations about the editorial process for products you have not seen. That&#039;s pure assumption based on your fantasy about the types of people who might be involved in an online business course. Maybe we could have a beer together, and then you can tell me what kind of person you think I am. </p>
<p>As the topic of your original post was Jonathan Mead&#039;s manifesto, perhaps I should comment on that as well. It didn&#039;t speak to me. In fact, very little of what Jonathan says speaks to me. But that&#039;s cool. I can still learn from Clay and Jonathan and the other faculty and members.  </p>
<p>I agree with several of your critiques of the manifesto, though I can knowledgeably assert that Project Mojave does attempt to fulfill its promises. Since it&#039;s not mine to defend, I&#039;ll let Jonathan respond to the critique for himself. Still, to judge everyone involved with Project Mojave on the basis of Jonathan&#039;s writing is poor logic at best. </p>
<p>I&#039;m looking forward to your next articles and the continuing development of Beyond Growth.</p>
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		<title>By: EricSchiller</title>
		<link>http://beyondgrowth.net/guru-criticism/marketing-as-freedom-meads-mohave-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-255</link>
		<dc:creator>EricSchiller</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:36:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://beyondgrowth.net/?p=248#comment-255</guid>
		<description>Non-fiction books go through an editorial process, are approved by the publisher, and there are a wide variety of ways for a consumer to find out if the product is quality and worth purchasing. Digital information products such as the ones which you suggest people create have no such process. I believe you have told your customers to try to create their products in 7 days or less. Can you honestly tell me that an amateur author can create an ebook worth $47 dollars in less than 7 days? I could easily buy 3 marketing books at the local bookstore by well known, well researched authors for that price (and even better at a used bookstore).  
  
Most of the content these people are creating is out there for free already anyway. Your methods are not exactly encouraging people got go out and create products of great value. Don&#039;t get me wrong, there are great full-length ebooks out there which are worth the money, but seriously, 7 days? So what is worth more Clay, the freedom of your clients, or the satisfaction of their customers? What is freedom anyway? It is a socially defined thing, it is intangible, it is likely not possible for your clients to gain, because the freedom they want is perhaps spiritual, and what you are offering in many ways is superficial and temporary.  
  
I&#039;m not sure why I would want to get rick quick, however as far as your get rich quick comments go, we will just have to agree to disagree, just as I wrote to Mead. </description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Non-fiction books go through an editorial process, are approved by the publisher, and there are a wide variety of ways for a consumer to find out if the product is quality and worth purchasing. Digital information products such as the ones which you suggest people create have no such process. I believe you have told your customers to try to create their products in 7 days or less. Can you honestly tell me that an amateur author can create an ebook worth $47 dollars in less than 7 days? I could easily buy 3 marketing books at the local bookstore by well known, well researched authors for that price (and even better at a used bookstore).  </p>
<p>Most of the content these people are creating is out there for free already anyway. Your methods are not exactly encouraging people got go out and create products of great value. Don&#39;t get me wrong, there are great full-length ebooks out there which are worth the money, but seriously, 7 days? So what is worth more Clay, the freedom of your clients, or the satisfaction of their customers? What is freedom anyway? It is a socially defined thing, it is intangible, it is likely not possible for your clients to gain, because the freedom they want is perhaps spiritual, and what you are offering in many ways is superficial and temporary.  </p>
<p>I&#39;m not sure why I would want to get rick quick, however as far as your get rich quick comments go, we will just have to agree to disagree, just as I wrote to Mead.</p>
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