Customer Reviews

No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-direct Marketing Businesses

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've bought and read all of Dan's No B.S. books and was very dissapointed with this one. While he does promote his books and services in the other books, it's not in a blatant hard sell fashion as in this book. So much so, the whole book seems to be a tease and a marketing attempt for his inner cicle's services.

Nonetheless, I'd give Dan the benefit of the doubt, he is after all a marketing guru. In fact, I got a lot of good ideas from his free newsletter. It seems to me, however, that ever since he partnered with Bill Glazer, everything that's published under his name is a non-stop commercial for the Kennedy inner cirlce.

I am not sure if I should be disappointed with the book itself, or the fact that Dan Kennedy's students run around online giving all his products 5 star blindly.

This book is NOT written by Dan Kennedy. Dan Kennedy only wrote the first chapter, and from that point on, each chapter contains teaser content and a plug for a different guru.

This book has some nice overview of some examples, but it is not as good as the reviewers make it out to be. You will not get anything concrete out of it.

This book is nothing more than a marketing tool for the author to get you to buy more of his books, seminars and products. Each chapter gives a taste of a marketing concept and then ends the chapter with a website to go to for more information. Of course these websites want you to purchase the information in the form of more books, newsletters, seminars, etc. I also purchased 2 other marketing books at the time I bought this one, "How To Become A Marketing Superstar" by Jeffrey J. Fox and "Your Marketing Sucks" by Mark Stevens. Both offered complete, sound marketing concepts that I've already put to use and are showing results. And best of all...they didnt' try to sell me anything!

Since the early 1990s Dan Kennedy has become a one man industry in selling his advice on selling, copy-writing and running businesses, but his body of work has suffered from two things:

First - for the most part Dan's ideas really aren't original. He's an effective magpie who knows how to retrieve a glinting treasure of an idea for his own use. Nothing wrong in that - but it does leave the reader, frequently, with the feeling of: "Yeah, but haven't I seen this before?"

The other turn-off is his tendency to use his books as a sales lead - and to upsell us into seminars, courses, CDs: you name it. Look what comes with this volume:

FREE--Email Course & Direct Marketing Tool Kit
FREE--$995.00-Value Seminar Tickets
FREE--Tele-seminar Invitation
FREE--Newsletters

For the reader, the effect is simply way-uncool. I don't doubt that Dan achieves monumental results when he turns his hand to direct marketing - but then again, (and I'm not tooting my own horn) I've achieved some excellent DM results too simply by sticking to two basic rules: 1) Be honest; respectful. 2) Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient. Don't forget also, that the bulk of direct marketing in this world is pretty lackluster also. Those glinting gems stand out for a reason.

The experience, here, of getting "sold to" makes me feel neither respected or empathised with. Managers of traditionally non-direct marketing businesses might have their eyes opened here, but I just felt that Dan is too busy trying to open our wallets as well.

It's an okay book. There are a lot of contributors
who each wrote a chapter. It's not really written
very much by D.K. - it's written by his disciples.

Dan Kennedy is engaging on tape and somewhat dry in
print. He tells it like it is. He doesn't feed you
the fantasy of easy riches. He's really an expert
in the info-product business so it's worth studying
what he does with it as much as what he teaches about it.

This book isn't about the info-product business but
it illustrates exactly ow info-products are easily
made - hire people to do it or compile a bunch of stuff.

There are problems with both approaches. If you
outsource everything sometimes the product quality isn't
up to snuff - which isn't the problem here. In this
case Kennedy has had several other people basically
write about how they used his strategies to build
off-line businesses. Each chapter is succinct and
some are fun to read, but never does this book get
very deeply into the head of one creator.

Dan Kennedy isn't a marketing philosopher, he's a
practicalist. We all need that. He never inspires
with the grace of his words however. I like
his stuff and I have read some of the old classic
books he recommends.

The deeper I delve into the literature of marketing
the more I discover writers who inspire me not only
with practicality but with grace. Perhaps Kennedy
is well-represented by his signature bull - full
of power but not very refined.

Kennedy's stuff is uneven, kind of messy. This book
is no exception. There's still some good information
in here though, and lots of real-world examples.

One cannot deny the fact that the book is used a selling vehicle for all of Kennedy's other books. You have to look past that however, and focus on the meat of the book, which is the only reason one would buy it.

The concept of having 90% of the book written by others is interesting, but makes some chapters far better than others. The audience of this book is meant to be small business owners, but I can't imagine that this book gives them enough content to actually get a campaign off the ground. It basically says that marketing, when done right, works. But makes it sound much simpler than it really is. Most of the details as to what makes something work are left out. It also contains blanket statements like, long copy is much more effective than short, which leaves out many details. An untrained person will think that the more you write, the better your response rates will be. Marketing is not that simple. Otherwise, why would Dan Kennedy change six figures to write copy for someone?

The book also loses some credibility because of the excessive self-promotion on behalf of most of the writers/contributors. In my opinion, the writers' accomplishments should be used to add to their credibility as subject matter experts. Not as a vehicle for expressing their over inflated egos or blatantly selling their products and services. Rather than impress the reader, the author pushed many away, who may have otherwise gained something from this book, which does contain some useful information.

On the positive side, the examples given are great. For the reader to be able to see the actual pieces that are being described in the chapter, can be really helpful. Statements like focusing on what your customers WANT rather than what they NEED, are great. So there are useful bits scattered throughout the book.

I have not read any of Kennedy's other books, so I'm by no means discounting the rest of the No B.S. series. However, before you start spending your hard earned money on marketing, I hope your research goes far beyond this book.

The Ultimate Sales Letter was a great book. Great for beginning copy writers, a nice refresher and inspiring for veteran copywriters, and priceless to small business owners. But that was then, this is...this. When you see the reviews that there is little substance, they're right. There is very little of use. Most chapters are ads for other books and info programs.

I have a client that is a chiropractor, and there's a chapter for them in this book. I thought I was really going to go back to my client with some really great no B.S., kick-butt, take no prisoners insight, but all I got was B.S. The only part of this book that is worth anything is the chapter by Glazer, but it's not worth the price of admission alone (almost though, he's great).

I had just starting to trust the Kennedy brand, and then he puts this out. It almost proves that the only people he respects are his inner-circle members and the rest of us must be chumps because we only want to pay for a book.

I really wish this book was all that it promised to be or I had read the reviews before purchasing. If you know Dan you'll be disappointed, and if you don't know him, avoid this book like the plague. Buy the Ultimate Sales Letter, otherwise you'll think he's a con man, which he isn't.

I have never been compelled enough to leave a review for any product. However, I felt the need to warn prospective purchasers of this book about the bs you will find. This book is essentially an outline and a directory of service providers. Many chapters (most) do not provide any kind of information. I tried reading between the lines but just couldn't find anything but paper. This book has references to all of Dan's friends. I went to some of their websites and they have broken links, no information or way to sell any of their products. Sorry guys, this book has little or no substance. If you like Dan Kenedy, and just have to have it, buy this book used. Don't spend the money on a new volume. It just doesn't have anything to it that is very helpful. This reminds me of a seminar you go to that is essentially a sales pitch for the products they want you to buy. You don't get much meat but you get a lot of sales...sales...sales. Pick up a copy at your local book store and read one of the chapters before you buy. I feel strongly that you will put it right back. Again, sorry but this book was very dissapointing. I really wanted to learn about direct response and this book isn't even for beginers.

Dan Kennedy should be embarrassed that he actually charges money for this. The only information worth anything in this book are his 10 rules, which are summaried in the index. The rest of the book is a shameless sales pitch to get you to sign up for his seminars. Worse yet, he doesn't even write the biggest part of this book which are testimonials from other marketers that have attended his seminars. Pathetic! This book is nothing but B.S. I'd like a refund Dan!

I am a big fan of Dan Kennedy, and his books, and in case someone is in doubt - the history of my pathetic reviews for other books are just there. But i must admit, that not this one. This one is far from best, and in case you are looking for first book in BS series - DO NOT choose this title, as you will have wrong perception, what are the pure winners of no BS series.

For those who have a number of Dan books - i need to warn you, that this volume is not written by himself, but similar to Wealth Attraction - by his friends and partners.

Each of them wrote his own chapter - some of them more honest, some of them - as pure & and I will not afraid this word - disgustingly unmasked sales letter style like for example Mr Rory Fatt with his hype of himself and his restaurant marketing system. Instead of sharing ideas, this guy wrote long sales which says something like - your restaurant sucks, i know it looser, and if you want to know what to do - here is a my bank details where you can send a money for consulting. Phui!

Hey! such a feeling that Kennedy were so busy, that even did not read himself, what his proteges wrote under his own name!