The Glenn Canady Gorilla Website Marketing Course Review

At some point Glenn Canady’s guy finally managed to get hold of me again. He was a pretty pleasant guy, and he’d caught me in a good mood. I was still annoyed about Glenn Canady’s e-book and that I’d not only been caught out by it but done nothing about it. My previous anger had turned to annoyance as much at myself as Glenn Canady and his Gorilla Website Marketing e-book.

Let me make something very clear before I go any further. This telephone conversation, and any other telephone conversations I had with Glenn Canady’s people or ABDevelopment are obviously completely undocumented. I wasn’t sitting there with a tape recorder, I didn’t write down everything word for word, and these conversations took place almost a year ago, and to be honest, I can’t remember word for word what was said by whom, when, or in what order. What I am giving you here is the gist of what I recall being said and the way the conversations panned out. I do remember a lot more vividly the latter conversations prior to signing up. By this point it felt like there was a lot at stake and I was a lot more focussed on the conversations and the way things were panning out. Even so, I have nothing in writing to back up what I am saying here, but this is the way I remember it. I had a number of phone calls from Glenn Canady’s people / ABDevelopment, prior to sign-up. I can’t remember how many. I didn’t buckle after the first call. However, for the sake of brevity I will roll some of these calls into one otherwise anyone reading this will probably die of boredom.

I let the guy, Scott I think his name was, say his piece and then I explained to him politely why I was annoyed about the book and why I wasn’t interested in anything else that they might have to offer. What I do remember is that there was no way I was going to fall for anything else. I wasn’t interested and that was that.

What I was being offered was all a bit vague at that point. All I was really clear of from what the guy was telling me was that I was being offered a rare opportunity that not many people were going to be offered. They had to make sure they got the right people and certainly not everyone that was called up was going to be offered this. They had to screen out those that they didn’t believe would be able or willing to do what was necessary. I was told that Glenn Canady had an update to his site coming up (I think he mentioned a new version of the Gorilla Website Marketing book as well) and Glenn Canady needed some fresh new testimonials. This meant that they would be willing to take some people and personally show them step by step how to go from nothing to creating and building a successful and profitable web business. This, I was told, was why they had to pre-screen people. To make sure that they had the right attitude. To make sure that they were committed, that they had the drive, that they would be willing to listen and follow exactly what they were told. It was explained to me that they simply couldn’t afford to waste time or money on the wrong people as Glenn Canady had his update coming out and they needed to make sure testimonials were ready for that. So, whoever they worked with HAD to be a success. Was I interested in being shown this ? Was I interested in being someone holding my hand and taking me step by step through EXACTLY what needed to be done to create a successful and profitable web site ? You bet I was ! But hang on, what was the catch ?

I remember starting to sound sceptical and disinterested, and then Scott, if that actually was his name, then slipped in his winning line. I can’t remember the exact words but it was along the following lines : What if there was absolutely no risk to me ? What if I couldn’t go wrong ? I started to get interested again. I told him to let me think about it and he promised to ring me back in a few days.

I can’t remember the date. It was something like September or October of last year when I got the first call. Out of the blue I got a call from a guy in the US, who if he had told me he was calling from Mars I would have believed him. The call quality was shockingly bad. I think it was probably one of those IP calls to the voice network. Why do people use these things when they are phoning up trying to impress people ? It certainly doesn’t impress me when I can barely make out what someone is saying to me. It impresses me less when I think they are ringing up on one of these things and I think that they are also trying to sell me something. Cheapskates ! Anyway I don’t know if it was one of those IP things or not, but the quality was bad.

The guy introduces himself and tells me he is ringing me because I purchased Glenn Canady’s Gorilla Website Marketing e-book. Well, thats what he told me eventually, after we had several ‘Sorry, what did you say’ and ‘I can’t hear you’ sessions.

I mentioned in my previous post that I was not happy with Glenn Canady’s book. Not the message that ‘linking is a good thing’, but with the feeling that I had been conned. I felt that the book was so much about Zeus that it was unreasonable to say that you didn’t need to buy Zeus. If nearly 50% of the book is about a software product that you don’t own or can’t afford to buy, and you feel you were led to believe that you wouldn’t need to pay a dime extra then I think you are bound to feel cheated.

Anyway, the guy at the other end of the phone asks me ‘what did you think of the book ?’. Boy, was that the wrong question ! I start to tell him EXACTLY what I thought of the book. I told him I thought it was one of the biggest rip-off’s that I’d fallen for and that I was kicking myself for forgetting to ask for my money back, etc. etc. And then I realise that there is no answer from the other end. His crappy ip to phone, or whatever the connection was, had dropped the line and I’ve been ranting away to myself for the past minute or two. So basically, the guy hasn’t heard a word I said !

I figured that was that out of the way and I wouldn’t be hearing from him again. WRONG !

Over the next couple of weeks the guy rang me numerous times, but by some amazing stroke of luck I had managed to miss every call. Dashing up the stairs to get the mobile, just for it to cut off as soon as I pick it up (it happens 9 times out of 10 for me). He left voice messages. I never rang back. And then he finally got me, but I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

As I mentioned in my previous post I was purchasing tons of internet marketing e-books, trying to find the missing something that was going to kick start my web sites into profitability and success.

When I came across Glenn Canady’s Gorilla Website Marketing site I was a little sceptical. I read it a few times and from the site it appeared that whatever secret Glenn Canady had a) it had obviously worked for him and b) from what he was saying on the site it wasn’t going to cost me anything, other than the price of his e-book.

The price wasn’t much and it came with a money back guarantee. So I figured I couldn’t go far wrong and I bought it. I downloaded the book and started reading it straight away. Let me take you through what this book comprises.

Pages 3 - The Secret of Reciprocal Links : Glenn Canady tells us links are very good thing.
Page 4 : This is where Glenn Canady first starts talking about Zeus. What the hell was Zeus ? I didn’t have a clue, but out of the blue the guy starts talking it. I’ve only got to the second page and he is talking about some bit of software that I know nothing about and from the sales blurb on his web site shouldn’t need. Here is what he says on page 4 :

=== Start of quote ===
By the way, about once a month, I get somebody that writes me an email and says something like, “I was never told I had to buy Zeus to get results with my website so I want a refund!” So before we go any further, I want to make something very clear. You DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT have to purchase Zeus or any other tool to use the concepts in my book effectively. You can do everything in this book without buying any other product. And if you find another tool that you like better than Zeus that does the same thing then by all means use it. There is always more than one way to skin a cat. Zeus is just a tool that I used with great success to get the results that you’ve seen on my website. I could have done the same thing without Zeus or with a similar tool and the end result would have been exactly the same. In fact, as I stated on my website, I’ll be happy to give you a full refund even if you don’t buy Zeus as long as you use my methods for 90 days
=== End of quote ===

Great ! So, I’ve gone to Glenn Canady’s Gorilla Website Marketing web site and read the headling “I will reveal the shocking secret of Internet Marketing. Once you learn it, you can successfully promote ANY website without spending a dime!”. I buy the book only to find that it looks like I need to buy some software to take advantage of Glenn’s ’secrets’. By the way, why do all of these internet marketing books contain so many ’secrets’ and why is it that when you buy the book you find that none of them actually are ’secrets’. It’s just the same old knowledge cut with a different slant, repackaged and churned out to a gullible and desperate public. The only ’secret’ I have found so far is that there are no secrets !

Anyway, back to Glenn Canady’s book ! Yes, I know Glenn says that you don’t need to buy Zeus and that you can do what he suggests with other software (which you still have to buy), or no software at all. Now lets look at the no software at all option. On one site that I ran I set up a links directory. I did the whole thing manually and believe me it was not a fun or easy experience. I found it a fiddle to get everything in the style of my site (this is before CSS was widespread, or even existed). It was also a tedious and time consuming task that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. And none of that took into account the need to check on the reciprocal links periodically etc. So when Glenn Canady talks about doing it manually I KNOW from experience that this is not an option for me.

Look I know there are probably people reading this who are thinking that I’m some kind of wimp, or lazy. I’d like to point out that if I want to start a fire I would use a match, not rub two stick together, if I build my web sites I use Dreamweaver, not Notepad. Just becasuse there is a basic, but more difficult option doesn’t mean to say I should take it. Life is too short. I’ll leave those options for the ‘hair-shirt’ brigade. I should also point out that Glenn insists that to get your money back on his e-book you have to have tried all of his ‘techniques’ for 90 days, and at the end of 90 days if you find that they have not worked for you then you can get a refund. One of the conditions that he lays down is as follows :

=== Start of quote ===
Have a themed link directory with a minimum of 100 links to your website using “structured” text links that contain your primary keyword(s) as discussed later in my book.
=== End of quote ===

Do you know how many webmaster you would have to contact to get 100 reciprocal links ? It is a hell of a lot more than 100 ! Getting 100 reciprocal links to a site, and doing it manually (ie without Zeus or any other software) within 90 days may not be impossible, but you would really be struggling and probably have to put the rest of your life on hold while you were doing it.

By this point I was already disenchanted by Glenn Canady’s e-book and certainly feeling cheated. I started looking through the rest of the book. Over the next few pages I was confronted by headings such as :

“Zeus Gives the Search Engines Exactly What They Want”
“Zeus Etiquette & Usage Guidelines”
“Emailing prospective link partners using Zeus”
“How Zeus Works”
“Another Zeus Example”
“Your Zeus Strategy”
“The Official Word From Google.com about Zeus”
“Be A Zeus Pro and Save Big!”

And that is from virtually the start of the book right up to page 21. Bear in mind Glenn Canady says you don’t need Zeus ! Lets see whats next.

Pages 22 - 43 : Zeus Power Tips

This is 50 tips specifically on how to use Zeus. But Glenn, you said I didn’t need Zeus !

Pages 44 - 65 : Some basic, useful, and general information on marketing.
Pages 66 - 70 : General advice on email marketing.
Pages 71 - 88 : General advice on search engines.
Pages 89 - 91 : General advice on affiliate programs.
Pages 92 - 99 : General advice on other ways to market your site.
The remaining 5 pages are appendix.

So, if you have Zeus then Glenn offers some good advice on how to use it effectively to build up a themed link directory. If you didn’t have Zeus, like me, then you were left with the very brief and simple message that themed linking on keywords is good, some general marketing information that you’ve probably read numerous time before, and page after page of Zeus specific information.

Within 20 minutes of reading Glenn Canady’s Gorilla Website Marketing e-book I had dismissed it completely. I promised myself I was going to get my money back on this e-book. I was feeling angry with myself for having fallen for the hype on the web site, and definitely feeling like I had been duped. This wasn’t to be the last time I felt like this in my dealings with Glenn Canady and his Gorilla Website Marketing.