I didn't like the first 30 minutes I spent with Simpleology, so why bother at all? I blog about podcasts and loathe to engage you with thoughts on blogging at all. It just so happened Simpleology was offering this "multi-media course on blogging" which I could obtain for free if I'd announce it the way I did in the post below. I was tipped off by a blogger whom shall remain nameless, but who I highly respect. On account of my trust in him, I took over the advert, without additional investigation. And I regret it now. This post is to warn others who consider doing the same.
Immediately after I posted my embedded ad, I was allowed access to the so-called course. Before however being able to embark, I had to sign up and go through a couple of pages of account set-up which step by step made me feel worse about the direction it was taking.
On the first page, before getting anywhere, I am treated with unsolicited health advice which is summed up in two rules: chew well and drink enough water. In the process you are invited to say some of the sentences aloud (!). The rest involves a old sales trick: this is your one time opportunity to save $97 dollars and apply for a free trial of 6 more courses by Simpleology. Are they about blogging? Are they even remotely about blogging and the web? No, no, no. This is all para-medicine. How to lose fat, how to stop hair loss and stuff like that and then it is on to the next page.
The second and third pages urge me to download and install all sorts of applications and to turn the Simpleology page into my homepage. Do I want that? Do I need that? I wanted a course about blogging. Get me some content, get me some ideas first. As many other heavy PC users I have bad feelings about downloading and installing applications. This is by all standards a big no-no. And so I skipped these steps and peeked at the pdf that gave the course outline. This at face value contained lots of psychology exercises and nothing about writing, blogging, attracting traffic, keeping your readers at the site and that kind of stuff I want to know all about.
In stead, it looked like the DIY's in psychology that are so inevitable these days. That look so similar even if they claim to be utterly different and not be spawned of Scientology AT ALL. I do not care if it is Avatar, or Landmark, or Forum, or NLP, or the Purpose Centered Life (
podcast), or what have you. It is all the same in my eyes: train your mind to think the right thoughts and your life will change into one sensational feast of happy successes. I am no vessel of negativity but I do not believe this for a moment and find it utterly untrustworthy, bordering on dangerous.
In short, I was seriously put off by Simpleology and stand to be corrected on my initial impression: no actual, practical course on blogging is offered at all. And as such this is a scam.
The man behind this all is
Mark Joyner. He is no psychologist, no philosopher, no teacher, master, rabbi, guru of any kind. He is a marketeer. A web search on his name or on his Simpleology, will hit you nearly exclusively with shouting, singing and swinging exclamations. Well, yeah...
The latest to issues I listened to with great interest carried these two marks. One analyzing the latest results and evaluating the three most likely candidates as things stand right now: McCain, Obama and Clinton. McCain earned from the success of the surge in Iraq and seems to manage to overcome the hesitations Republicans have with him (as not being enough of a conservative). Obama is characterized as the one who may mobilize 60% of the electorate, yet can also drop to 40%. Clinton on the other hand is named a controversial figure who may hold 49% and has no chance on the opposing 49% and whose presidential campaign should mean to to win over the remaining 2%.
