Be Clever- It’s More Fun

The video was a waste of his time and mine. It missed the mark for clever. It was gimmicky. Hope he didn't actually hire a bad marketing firm that advised him to do this.

Wow, it has been very nice to receive the suggestion of This great book. I love reading and always finding great books for it. It has been very nice to read this informative article.

He's a cheapskate and I didn't like it. I felt deceived. Perhaps it's because I run a business book club and have gotten quite used to getting advanced copies of books either in “e” form, or in print. I even watched the stupid video clear to the end thinking that at the very end I'd see a URL that would actually keep the promise. The implication was clearly that a reader / viewer was to receive a free book – usable, readable, implied. Had he done something like that – a “gotcha” – the impact would have been tremendous and the effect universally pleasurable. This is a great example of using a cheap trick to try to make money. It does not portend well for his advice in general.

Hm…didn't like this. It falls off the “authentic” cliff and feels like a middle school prank.People take “free” in our marketing space rather seriously. Doesn't feel 3Tish.

Jim's video and concept was simply AWFUL.

And we're suppose to learn marketing from this guy?

No thanks.

Clever is a function of allowing your personality into your work. There is currently a “Corporate” backlash taking place… you see Multi-Billion dollar companies doing ad campaigns that look homegrown… The reason, “Corporate” is out… The Entrepreneur is In…

Where Clever promotion… thanks,

Ryan H., http://www.RyanHanley.com

I like Jim Kukral…mostly because he agrees with me on a lot of stuff, but also because he's smart, honest, and not afraid to throw a punch when he needs to. Going to buy this one.

I had the same initial reaction as most people on this thread (and on the thread at the book website) about Jim's tactic being “cheap” and a waste of time. Then I tried to take a step back and figure out the different strategies that Jim may have had with this idea. I think he was trying to be funny, yes, but I'm not sure he realized the fact that people would feel dooped, thus creating a lot of negative feelings toward him. OR, maybe he IS trying to get a lot of negative press (with the thought of “any press is good press”), in which case he did his job well. Maybe he just thought he'd get a lot of people talking about it, which is what we're doing now…

You're promoting his book Chris, you must know his tactic here. Can you fill us in?

I don't really feel duped. All of the copy was pretty clear. He was going to put the book in a video.

Thought it was funny :)

Cute but misleading.
I like it anyway.
Note to self; be outstanding.

Thanks all, and to Chris for posting this. I feel a blog post coming on about this, but for now. To those who felt cheated, well, I apologize. You feel what you feel and I can't change that. I'm a marketer. I wrote a book about getting attention to drive sales, leads and publicity…

What do you expect from me? lol

It's not about lying to people. That's what bad marketers do. I'm just trying to have some fun and get some attention. Personally, I think it's funny and clever, and so does about 90% of the people that see it. They get the joke. It's a joke.

The good news is this. If you didn't like what I did here, you will probably hate the book because this is what it's all about. So I just saved you $25!!!!!

Cheers, Jim Kukral

Thanks Nathan. I'm a fan of yours too.

Rule #1 in comedy. If you have to explain the joke, it's not funny. Like I said, this is what the entire book is about really. If you don't like this, I just saved you $25. :)

What this “clever” idea has done, is misled and annoyed me. I will never buy this book now.

@Danny Many folks here have exhibited that whining and having an opinion are not mutually exclusive.

Jim Kukral = Epic Fail

Watch how so social media star will never endorse this guy again.

I think we can all learn something from this.

Everybody likes a surprise as long as there is still a take-away to go along with it.

His book will attempt to teach us “how to increase revenue” YET he doesn't know how to increase his own.

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I found it very creative, BUT, people hate to feel tricked and that is where the negative reactions are coming from. The video is very cool, it just needs a tweak in the way it is being pushed out. Instead of “Free Book” maybe an “Exclusive Sneak Peek at the Speed Reader Limited Edition” or something like that. There is always that fine line between being clever, and being a bit deceptive in the minds of the consumers.

Thanks Chris!

Many authors, Seth Godin, John Janstch, Dave Lakhani, Grant Cardone, and others have, and do, provide pre-release hard cover copies of their books to at least some of their readers – and those lists have included me. Robert Kiyosaki's latest book was published one downloadable chapter at a time on the web for anyone who was interested. I forwarded that link to people who forwarded it to others who forwarded it. It's still SELLING like crazy. In the case of Grant Cardone. “If You're Not First, You're Last,” probably never would have never popped to the top of my list. By sending me a copy, which fortuitously arrived at lunchtime, allowing me perusal time as I drank a cup of coffee, his book got exposure it never would have gotten – including the fact I just mentioned it here. I loved it for people thinking about, or opening, their first small business. These authors get the books into the hands of people who will read them, Tweet about them, and write about them thereby driving sales. As far as I’m concerned, these books are far from free. As I get more of them, my policy will change but now I feel obligated to exchange about $600 of my time for that book that costs the author little more than shipping – and, if it’s any good – review it, tweet it, facebook it, and send it out to my list, adding even more time value to the proposition for them.

Chris Brogan asked for our opinions. That was mine. I am who I am, I think how I think, and I'm honest about it. I didn't get an advance copy of Trust Agent either – and I did buy it – along with about 200 other business books last year. The problem with the piece Chris asked about is that it was misleading with no redeeming creative value. Minimal use of creativity went into the construction of that time-consuming, boring, and, ultimately, deceptive, piece of work. The discussion was not about whether people should use free books as part of a marketing campaign – and that's exactly what it is – nothing is really free. It was about whether this particular approach was good or bad. Had he not insinuated he would be giving away free books, I would neither have expected, nor asked, for one. Typically such offers are made to one's list – those people most likely to make such an investment pay. E-Books cost virtually nothing so the investment there is minimal for any amount of viral chatter it might generate. Without those marketing methods, this author will take his chances alongside the tens of thousands of really fantastic books Amazon (for me) has to offer. It was the deception I didn't like.

I still remember the feeling of having been deceived, and how it was accomplished, yet I can't remember the author, the name of the book, or the subject matter. It was so unmemorable that it won’t even count against him when I’m going through new releases on Amazon – except you said “Jim” so anytime I see that name there will now be an automatic negative association – damning all Jims into the indefinite future. That’s the best that can be said for it. Had he popped the name of the book into the wanna-be joke in really huge letters – perhaps along with a Berma Shave kind of “Ha, ha, I got you” message, or added some kind of creativity that might have made it fun, perhaps he could have gotten away with it. He could have used the pages, origami style, to create something that would be a symbol of, and help people remember, the book. He could have made it really, really, long and run it against beautiful backgrounds – or highlighted pieces of it – offered a summary of the book by having important chunks of text jump out – endless options for real creativity. As it stands, an extra huge pile of dog poop goes to that marketing tactic – especially now that I realize all I can recall about the entire thing is that it was a negative experience.

Everyone else, of course, is entitled to their own opinion.

I haven’t watched the video because I dont want to waste my time, I’m not a fan of people who comment on things they haven’t seen but here goes – you probably offered everyone something in a link and then when they clicked it they got an advert or some product you have or something else they didnt want – at the very least something different from what you offered them, or maybe the same as what you offered them but not what was implied because of small print, twisted words, etc. Then you say ‘I never meant to decieve you’ which is strange because (and I know I haven’t seen whatever it is) but lots of people seem to feel decieved and I’m sure the whole point, or joke, is that the thing is a deception – the viewer recieves something unexpected. Thats the only thing that seems annoying, that you can just say words ‘I didnt mean to decieve you’ and think that makes them true, maybe whatever it is isnt even that bad but I bet at the forefront of your mind was decieving people and that your the kind of person who can lie to people, whilst saying ‘I dont want to lie to you’ and these words float through your brain without you even noticing that your lying. If your going to be an asshole you should at least admit it to yourself.

actually had to see if I was on the mark and yeah, its shit, not clever. Its true you have to be an idiot to want to read a book on youtube but your just leeching off other peoples stupidity, your on about the same level as a tv psychic or email fraudster. Sorry to go on but it really pisses me off that you can say ‘my intent was never to fool anyone’ I dont care about the video, thats just rubbish but its people like you who can just say untruths without a care that ruin this world. (because of small print, hah)