Before you read this it’s important to get a few things first. I don’t mind filling out forms or optin boxes. In fact I actually enjoy it. I also did not write this to bash anybody. Frank clearly is a genius and heck, I’ve been listening to Tony’s stuff since I was a teenager.

I got this email from Frank Kern today:

Subject: VERY IMPORTANT

This is the most important video I’ve ever sent you.
http://www.frankkern.com/tony-robbins-video.html

It’s an interview with me, Tony Robbins, and John Reese
and in it, Tony helps us determine the formula for taking
action every time.

http://www.frankkern.com/tony-robbins-video.html

No charge

Frank

P.S. If you’ve ever bought a marketing product only to have it
gather dust on your shelf, this will really help you:
http://www.frankkern.com/tony-robbins-video.html

P.P.S. Be sure to laugh at the look on Reese’s
face when Tony tells him to sit on his lap. Classic!
http://www.frankkern.com/tony-robbins-video.html

This is the full landing page

After reading it, I thought this might be interesting because I have seen lots of chatter  on forums about a video with Tony, Frank and John. I clicked the link and after a redirect I ended up at this page. It’s a standard optin page. No problem. So I read the text and put my email address in the box.

Notice how it says the only way to get this unreleased footage is to enter your email below. This content will not be released to the public.

Ok cool we are getting something exclusive!

So I press the send button and I am off to another page. Did I land on some interior page? Maybe a special page on a unknown website. NOPE! I was deposited on Tony’s blog. http://tonyrobbinstraining.com/320/interview-with-frank-kern-and-john-reese/#comments

At first I am like hey “I didn’t know that Tony had a blog. Cool.” But then it dawns on me. IT”S A BLOG. What happened to the only way to get this unreleased footage is to enter your email below. This content will not be released to the public?

I am sorry but in my book putting video on a blog and not restricting access to it – is releasing it to the public. Especially if you happen to be Tony Robbins. I am sure the Google bot just does laps around Tony’s websites.

OK – So why do I have a beef? It’s pretty basic. See, it’s one thing to use exclusivity to illicit response but don’t misrepresent the facts so blatantly. If the landing page had a quick note or video from Tony and he asked for my email I would give it to him to no questions asked.

So why didn’t he just ask? Actually, I am not exactly sure who got my email address but I am sure it wasn’t Frank. He sent me the email. It could have been Tony. But again I really don’t know. I don’t know what  moneymastersseries.com does or whose it is.

All of this leaves me wondering why ask for the email address? The fine print under the optin says **Please double-check that your email address is correct or. you won’t be able to get all the free training material. What materials? The video? Who knows. Maybe they are going to partner up and do a course. If that’s the case I am on the list. Looking forward to getting my first email.

After writing this it occurs to my that the landing page might have been put up quickly without thinking it through. Sort of like they got together and said “hey I know how to add a bunch of people to the list. We’ll just promote the video.”  And furthermore I believe that neither Frank or Tony or John would intentionally use such a tactic.

I hope not because it’s people like them that inspire me and countless others to dream big.

So guys: “Say it ain’t so”.

UPDATE: The website was corrected and it appears to be a miscue. No problem. It does raise another topic. I posted on the warrior forum about this and got some interesting responses. I will post later about this.

P.S. For god’s sake watch the video. I believe it’s principles are a cornerstone to realizing anything you want in life.

1. Utilize permalinks. Notice how some blogs posts have url that resemble mathematical formulas? These urls are actually queries to your WordPress database. Human beings and search engines have a hard time figuring what your page is about by looking at that type of address. Think of it this way which makes more sense yourdomain.com/shoesthatfeelgreat or yourdomain.com/?P=12? The recommended permalink structure is either /%postname%/ or /%category%/%postname%/. Some people recommend that you put the date or the year in before the postname(e.g. /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/). Which from a database point of view makes sense but from a SEO point of view it does not. Since your blog is probably new and does not have a lot of traffic don’t worry about it. Focus on SEO first. If you get a stampede of visitors you can always switch to a dedicated server.

2. Install a SEO plug-in. There are few great plug-ins on the market. All-in-one SEO is a perennial favorite. It gives you the ability to customize every aspect of your meta tags. Another plug-in is called Platinum SEO – a personal favorite. A key feature is that automattically adds a 302 redirect entry anytimeyou change the name of a post or page on your blog. This is critical when you have a post that is already indexed on search engines and people are linking to it. For more info on 302 redirects see this article.

3. Build a Sitemap. Having a sitemap for your website helps search engines catalog your site. The best plug-in to use is Google sitemaps. Its name is somewhat misleading because it actually builds and reports to all major search engines.

These are just a few strategies that will help make your blog visible on the net. Feel free to contact us to find out more.

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If you have any questions about the video or web design feel free to post a comment.

1. Bad Search: overly literal search engines reduce usability in that they’re unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the query terms. Such search engines are particularly difficult for elderly users, but they hurt everybody.

2. PDF Files for Online Reading: users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing, because it breaks their flow. Even simple things like printing or saving documents are difficult because standard browser commands don’t work.

3. Not Changing the Color of Visited Links: a good grasp of past navigation helps you understand your current location, since it’s the culmination of your journey. Knowing your past and present locations in turn makes it easier to decide where to go next. Links are a key factor in this navigation process.

4. Non-Scannable Text: a wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read.

5. Fixed Font Size: CSS style sheets unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser’s “change font size” button and specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny, reducing readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.

6. Page Titles With Low Search Engine Visibility: search is the most important way users discover websites. Search is also one of the most important ways users find their way around individual websites. The humble page title is your main tool to attract new visitors from search listings and to help your existing users to locate the specific pages that they need.

7. Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement: selective attention is very powerful, and Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their goal-driven navigation. (The main exception being text-only search-engine ads.)

8. Violating Design Conventions: consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don’t have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That’s good.

9. Opening New Browser Windows: opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer’s carpet. Don’t pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management).

10. Not Answering Users’ Questions: users are highly goal-driven on the Web. They visit sites because there’s something they want to accomplish — maybe even buy your product. The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.

You can read the full article here.