Follow-Up to “JoshMadeCash.com” Review

Well, this gets interesting. At the end of April, I get this message on my voicemail from a young gal who says she’s from CBS News. I called her back and she says she’s a producer from CBS and that they’re working on an investigative story on “JoshMadeCash.com” — about whom, she tells me, many, many people are quite upset.

The producer asked me about my earlier review of the ads and products. But like some other TV people I’ve encountered, this producer seemed functionally illiterate when it comes to the Internet and computer technology. She kept talking about how you “put” ads on Adsense… and I explained that, no, Adsense is a system in which Google puts ads on your websites and blogs, not the other way around. Adwords is Google’s program for buying ads to promote your websites. I then gently suggested that, if CBS News is planning an “investigative report” into alleged Internet scams, they’d better first learn the difference between Adwords and Adsense.

Then, about a week later, I got a thin 5-x-7-inch cardboard envelope in the mail with the headline, “MAKE MONEY FROM HOME.” The return address was:

Google Treasure Chest
837 E. 9400 S Ste 233
Sandy UT 84094
866-951-1406 MF 9am-5pm
support@googletreasurechest.com

Inside contained a CD-Rom disc with the same headline, “MAKE MONEY FROM HOME: The Easiest Way to Make Money Online,” with pictures of falling dollars on it.

The envelope flap had a note:

“Welcome!

Are you ready to start working from home?

Congratulations on becoming a member of the most popular work-at-home community on the Internet. Each day, hundreds of people begin their own journey to personal freedom by working at home — when they want and how they want. We’re so glad to have you!

To begin your own journey, insert this CD into your computer and scroll through the various video, audio and e-books that will help you start making money from home right now. Everything you need to know is just one click away.”

When you insert the disk in your CD-Rom player, you see that it does, indeed, have literally DOZENS of ebooks… a bunch of flash video instructional videos… and programs and templates for Internet marketing. It appears to be a grab bag of ebooks available at other places on the Internet but some of them seem well worth reading, especially for beginners. Below are some screen shots of what’s on the disc (click on the image for a higher-resolution view and so you can read the names of the e-books better):

 

Here is a screen shot of some of the instructional videos available.  (You have to know how to unzip these files and view them on a Flash Video player.)

Once I went through the disc, I fired off an email to the email address on the envelope, thanking them for their “free trial” but insisting that they cancel so I would not be charged anything.  Here is my email:

From: Blog Classes
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:22 PM
To: ’support@googletreasurechest.com’
Subject: Please cancel trial membership.

 

Thank you for your free trial.

 

Please cancel my membership per the terms of your Terms of Service.

 

Username: bob@blogclasses.com

Password: XXXXXXXXXXX

 

Robert Hutchinson

 

P.S. A CBS News producer, who called me last Monday, is apparently doing a story about your website(s). They want to know if you honor cancellation requests as per your original “JoshMadeCash.com” ad.

My conclusion? It seems to me that “JoshMadeCash.com” actually does fulfill the underlying promises of its Internet ads — at least in the sense that they do provide you with dozens of e-books, instructional videos, templates and pieces of software that would be useful to people trying to learn how to make money on the Internet. However, they provide no guidance or help in navigating through all this material — and they do some sort of “bait and switch” by automatically signing up prospects for a “free grant” website that automatically bills you $24.87 a month. If I were advising them, I would say that, as soon as someone signs up for their “free trial,” they should get an email that says, “In about two weeks, you’ll get a cardboard envelope with a CD in it. This CD contains dozens of e-books, instructional videos, templates and software that will help you get started making money on the Internet. You will also gain access to our website with additional tools — for which you will be charged $24.87 a month for as long as you wish to continue. If you do not wish to have access to this website, simply click here, cancel and you will not be charged a penny.”

A note like that would provide complete honesty and transparency upfront and would keep “JoshMadeCash.com” on good terms with government regulators and out of the spotlight of news media like CBS News. Too often, these Internet marketers try to pull these semi-shady offers when they really don’t have to: the truth works just as well. There is enough material on the CD that they could just flat-out sell it for $24.95… or even $99.00… and avoid all the hassles of the phony “free trial” offer and the inevitable cancellations and complaints.