Cody Moya’s AdSense Templates – Just Say No!

By | September 4, 2006

Edition #81 – 9/6/2006

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UPDATE: I wrote this review yesterday, before the product actually launched (based on the preview sample sites, and sales page). Today I ordered and paid for the full product and my review still stands. I am also adding some additional notes to the bottom of this review, now that I’ve had a chance to see the full product.
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Tomorrow Cody Moya launches his AdSense Templates product. It is a monthly membership site, which provides templates and pre-built sites for AdSense.

Unfortunately, I have to recommend that you do NOT buy Cody Moya’s AdSense Templates, and I’ll tell you exactly why.

First of all, you may already know that I’m looking at this through a somewhat biased lens, because I happen to be Joel Comm’s partner for his Instant AdSense Templates product.

However, I’m going to IGNORE the fact that Cody “borrowed” several key elements, design concepts, and parts of the sales letter from our product… (He even went so far as to put Joel Comm’s name and image on his squeeze page until Joel told him to take it down…)

Competition is a part of the business, and I don’t blame Cody for competing… unfortunately he just went about it the wrong way at first (and in talking to my marketing friends, it sounds like he may have a track record of doing that kind of thing). But like I said, I’m going to completely overlook that side of it and focus on the product itself to bring you as accurate and objective review as possible.

First of all, let’s look at the templates themselves. Here are the three sample templates he provided (with pre-built sites):

(Links removed – no longer available)

Let’s talk about the design first. It’s OK but could be better. He is using one of the basic designs that we used in the first edition of Instant AdSense Templates. The navigation is on the left side, and he’s got either an AdSense leaderboard with thumbnails above it, or an AdSense large rectangle with thumbnails to the left of it.

If the illustrations on the sales page are any indication are any indication, then ALL of Cody’s templates are based on these two variations. For the kind of volume he’s providing, it’s understandable that not every template would be a unique design, but I would have expected more than two.

Another thing I don’t like about the structure, is that it’s so graphically-based. Even the borders are images, so if you wanted to change the look of the template you’d pretty much have to be a graphic designer.

Since Cody is not an AdSense expert, he repeatedly talks about being an SEO expert throughout the sales letter. This makes it somewhat surprising that the sites are poorly optimized.

The same TITLE tag is used for each page (the most important tag for SEO). This almost ensures that not many of the pages will be indexed by the search engines. Also, he uses graphics in place of the article titles. In general, the article title is one of the most important key phrases on a page, and should be bold or even in a header tag (like H3). However, he’s got nothing, and since he doesn’t use ALT tags on his images, the search engines see nothing. This is from Google’s webmaster guidelines…

“Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images.”

OK, so let’s talk about the AdSense implementation. This is one area where Cody’s lack of expertise really shows. He’s got ONE AdSense block per page. This could be OK if AdSense is just one of several strategies you’re implementing on your page, but if your main objective is to get AdSense clicks, then more AdSense blocks is almost always better (compare to Instant AdSense Templates, which utilize the maximum allowable three blocks per page).

Another thing you’ll notice is that he’s got a link back to his own site at the bottom of every page. Obviously that’s not helpful to you as the user, as it would only serve to take visitors away from your site. It also creates a nice footprint for the search engines to find all of these sites and drop them from their indexes.

So those are some things I noticed about the templates… now let’s look at a couple other things that he’s including.

I’d say his implied unique selling point (USP) is his inclusion of what he calls the “White Hut Template HTML Code Randomizer“.

No that’s not a typo… he actually calls it “White Hut” about 10 times in the sales letter. I’m guessing someone may point that out to him before he launches it tomorrow.

Closer inspection of the concept reveals that indeed, it is NOT a “white hat” tactic. In fact, it is a very BLACK HAT technique.

Here is what the sales letter says about it…

Each of my AdSense Templates members will receive proprietary “White Hut template randomizer/content wizard” software.

This incredible software makes random changes to a template’s HTML page code. These changes don’t make the page look any different to human eyes but do make it appear different to the search engines. This is NOT so called cloaking which show different page to search engine and different to user. This software produces your own unique to you static html page each time. Therefore this unique page code is the same to search engine and to viewer which is white hut technique.

Just to reiterate… the program does not make any visible changes, it ONLY changes what the search engine sees. In other words, it is designed to trick the search engines into thinking the content is unique.

Why do you need to be VERY concerned about using this technique? Because it could cause you to get completely dropped from Google’s index. Here are some key points from Google’s webmaster guidelines…

“Make pages for users, not for search engines.”

“Another useful test is to ask, ‘Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?'”

By the way, perhaps you’re wondering about the technical side of how someone would make their code unique without changing the look of the page. There are several ways it could be done, including…

  • inserting random invisible bits of code
  • using various combinations of alternative HTML tags which basically do the same thing
  • randomly change various numbers into hexidecimal format
  • randomly change various characters or portions of text into numerical format (probably the most likely method)
  • randomly encrypt portions of the document

    Cody says his program is the ONLY place you can do this, but there are other places. I just listed a bunch of methods, but the point is that you shouldn’t use ANY of them.

    There are other inconsistencies, and I’m not going to take the time to point them out, but one particular irony that I noticed is his bonus #2 (277,000 Article Database Plus Article Directory Script). In the sales letter he goes to great lengths to diminish the value of free distribution articles (while building up the value of PLR content), and then he includes a monster sized directory of what? Free distribution articles!

    He says this about it…

    “…so you will immediately have all the important content you need for your AdSense pages. You should not need to search for any other content for a very, very long time!”

    This is after he specifically warned that free distribution articles should be avoided due to their duplicate content and outbound links. Hmmm…

    His bonus #3 (Cookie Stuffer Software), which is another black hat technique, almost inspired me to do a little cookie stuffing of my own, LOL. I thought it might be interesting to drop an affiliate cookie for Cody’s product on all my readers just to see who buys it in spite of my warning. But I’m not going to stoop to his level. I’m not cookie-ing you for his product, so just don’t buy it, OK?

    If you’ve been reading my newsletter for awhile, you know that I do not make a habit of badmouthing people, or bashing their products without warrant. Look, I’m going to see Cody in about a week at the seminar in Baltimore, and then I’m going to be hanging out with him and some other marketers later this year. I’m OK with that, because I feel that I’ve given an honest review, and I value my readers.

    I’m probably burning a bridge or two with this review, and that’s OK. I hope you’ve gleaned something from it, and I wish you the best.

    As always, you can leave your comments here in the blog.

    Have a great day!

    =========================
    Additional notes added 09/05/06, now that I’ve bought and seen the full product:

    After reviewing the full product, I’m sticking by my review. One positive thing I will add, is that the graphics are excellent (particularly the first 25 templates).

    One thing I was surprised about, was that there were not 100 topics covered by the 100 templates. There are exactly 51 topics covered by my count, with the rest of the templates being alternative templates about those topics. So that’s not really too big of a deal, but I thought I’d mention it because I think a lot of people would be a little surprised by it.

    Also I should let you know that I’ve been dialoging with Cody, and one thing he was concerned about is that I reviewed the software as being “black hat” without having actually tried it yet.

    I have now tested it, so rather than adding further comments about it, I’ll post my results and let you draw your own conclusions as to whether the software improves the site, or simply games the search engines…

    I used the “chocolate” template from the sample sites:

    So that’s about all I have to say about this product.

    I would like to take this opportunity to address a couple of other issues though, that a few people have brought up.

    I’ve received about 3 emails so far from people who think I am “the pot calling the kettle black” with this review. In other words, they think it is hypocritical of me to criticize Cody or his product, because they think I am as bad or worse.

    First of all, let me say that the pot is calling the kettle black ANY time someone points out the shortfalls of another person, because everyone makes mistakes. I am the first to admit that I make mistakes frequently. And that’s probably the biggest reason that it is so difficult to write negative reviews.

    There are two specific incidences that have been brought to my attention in this regard.

    1) the fact that IAT was accused of copyright infringement
    2) the theory that my Motivated Marketing System was a rip-off of Butterfly Marketing

    So let me address those two issues.

    The IAT issue was an honest mistake on my part, due to a misunderstanding. The fact that I didn’t intend to misuse any material does not negate the fact that it was a mistake. I admitted it, we worked it out professionally, and it will not happen again.

    The MMS issue, I think is misunderstood by some people. I did not rip off Butterfly Marketing. It is true that I created a similar product and went into competition with it, but the way that I did it was very different than this scenario.

    I do think Mike Filsaime was very gracious in the situation by not launching a counterattack of sorts, and I appreciate his friendship. I consider him a mentor, and he has even given me advice regarding MMS. One thing that some of the BM customers (who were upset at me for competing) probably don’t realize, is that I never stopped promoting BM or referring my readers to it.

    I sold several copies of the full BM home study course both before and after launching MMS. And when Mike launched the BM manuscript I promoted it heavily, ending up 2nd in his affiliate contest (only behind Cody Moya, LOL 😉 ). I even promoted it to my MMS customers, because I knew there were things they would learn from BM that they didn’t get from MMS.

    I think another reason Mike didn’t freak out about MMS is because I took a different approach. Neither the learning materials, nor the script were based in whole or in part on the BM materials.

    While the BM site builder script was revolutionary, it wasn’t the first of its kind. Some people may remember the Instant Split Commissions script, or the JV Firesale automator. We did not reverse engineer the BM script. In fact, my programmer had never even SEEN the BM script.

    Ok, so all that said… hopefully most people will realize that I competed fairly. NEVERTHELESS, I will say that if I had to do it over again I would do it differently. I am aware that my intentional riding the wake of BM’s success tarnished my reputation with some people, and I do value my reputation more than any amount of money I could have possibly made from MMS.

    I have learned so much this year, and I’m sure that by this time next year I will look back and see some more things I would do differently.

    But I don’t interpret all of this to mean that I shouldn’t TRY to help people, or that I shouldn’t speak the truth when I am able.

    As I mentioned when I first started writing this review, my point was not to drag Cody’s name through the mud by making accusations. My point was to do a product review for my readers, while admittedly defending my own product. But since some people are insisting that it become more than that, I’ll leave you with a couple of final pieces of information to help tell my side of the story.

    As I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago, when we created MMS to compete with BM we did not reverse engineer it, and in fact my programmer never even saw the BM script. Cody’s situation is a little different because his programmers clearly did have access to the IAT product. Various elements of the product, sales pitch, and business strategy were copied.

    Like I said before, this isn’t the point of this review, and I wasn’t even going to show any of this. But some people seem to thing it was WRONG of me to even insinuate that our product ideas were used unfairly.

    I could show you several examples, but I don’t want to go overboard, so here’s a couple comparisons…

    copied material 1
    copied material 2

    I’ll let you decide whether that was a cool thing for him to do.

    I have been conversing with Cody about it, and I am ready to move on and put all this behind us. But I do hope he learns something from this experience, as I have learned from my own mistakes in the past.

  • 127 thoughts on “Cody Moya’s AdSense Templates – Just Say No!

    1. Sarah

      I was wondering why Mark Tse would make the comment that Cody Moya’s products are “all for newbies”…

      That just smacks of telling newbies that they deserve an inferior product, since they don’t know what to do with it anyway.

      Thanks Eric for giving an honest review that pointed out things I wouldn’t have known to look for.

      Reply
    2. Rajesh Mago

      Hi!,

      I read all the comments with great interest & specially Of Anthony Tomei. I immediately recalled that I had subscribed to his Internet marketing related tips (newletter) few months back & I still remember bitterly the way He used to send me the same Sales related mail again & again which finally led me to Unsubscribing. I think his strategy was to send the mails till the subscriber buys it or Unsubscribes & I happily did the later one. I didn’t get any value addition to my Internet Marketing knowledge from Anthony. Once I receive 3 mails of the same product (Clickbank Monster) from Anthony on the same day. And this had happened not once but several times earlier also. I still have the proofs of several similar sales related mails sent by Anthony.

      Rather than blaming Eric of unnecessarily criticising Cody Adsense Product, Why Anthony or Cody themselves prove that Eric logical replies are wrong. Are they short of technical knowledge? If they are sure that Cody’s Adsense product is best & is being pulled down here why don’t they prove that the review done by Eric is wrong. This needs confidence in their product which certainly seems to be missing from their end.

      Eric being a Marketer has every right to give honest opinions with logics to his subscribers for a bad product other than Not Promoting It. And Eric doesn’t need Permission from Anthony & Cody to give an honest opinion about a product on his own blog.

      Thanks a lot Eric for posting a No Nonsense intelligent review with proofs for a Competitor product.

      Cheers

      Rajesh

      Reply
    3. J.R. Wilson

      Eric –

      About that “hut” vs “hat” thing, it may well have been deliberate. I recently sent Cody an e-mail after seeing one of his pages that was so poorly written, with so many errors in language, it was nearly unintelligible. I offered to help him clean them up. One of his staff (I presume) replied that cleaning up Cody’s errors would ruin the “energy, passion and message” – and, besides, people have become so used to them, they are now considered an integral part of his “brand”.

      As a professional writer/editor for nearly four decades, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to be branded as illiterate in the language they use for business. And, as I pointed out in my e-mail offer, anyone considering paying for something he has written would have to be hesitant if his sales page is almost impossible to decipher.

      Still, he seems to be making money hand-over-fist online – which I certainly am not – so maybe I’m the one out of step.

      J.R.

      Reply
    4. Stephan

      Hi Eric,

      It’s always better to put your but on the line being honest then putting it on the line by selling a shoddy product. I really appreciate your honesty and guts. Thanks!

      And like Father Dave, I developed a rule to live by: ‘Never buy a fatally flawed product from a crappy sales letter’. Not only is it misleading advertising…did you happen to notice the waterfall of spelling and grammar mistakes in that huge pile of solicited testimonials?

      There are 3 annoying and very unprofessional errors just in Anthony Tomei’s “testimonial” alone. And that’s just for starters.

      Sincerely,

      Stephan

      Reply
    5. Jeff

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks for being frank enough to publish something which exposes this guy (Cody) for what he really is. I bought a licence off him at quite a substantial cost, to a run membership site (by the way he clearly stated that the fee was non refundable), this was about 10 months ago.

      Two days after the purchase, I received an email from him saying that he had changed the terms and conditions on the licence and I now had to pay him an annual subscription on top of my initial payment. Needless to say that I have not run the program and will be waiting for his demand for payment of the annual instalment, before I take legal action.

      This man (and his company) might make a lot of money, or so he claims, but he casts a bad shadow over all of us trying to earn an honest living using the Internet and in my opinion does not deserve to be in this business. I agree with some earlier posts that we should all unsubscribe from any list, newsletter or ezine that is associated with him and advise others to do so.

      We all make mistakes… but not deliberate ones!

      Keep up the very good work Eric,
      Jeff.

      Reply
    6. Robert Williams

      Eric, this has been one of the most personally rewarding threads I have seen in a long time
      for this reason. I was getting to the point of not ever wanting to be a marketer as I thought all they are
      doing is constantly promoting things that there is NO WAY that they could be using themselves
      and that everyone was the same thing and I was alone.

      Boy is it refreshing to see that there are so many people that feel the same way about integrity, honesty,
      and genuine caring for their fellow human pilgrims as we are passing through this life and that
      not all the “gurus” are greedy, self centered, false motive and otherwise those you would not
      want as your friends.

      Eric is certainly one of those that it seems most of us here would be proud to have as a friend.

      Thank you for this thread,

      R.W.

      Eliminate ALL Debt including Mortgages, Car Loans, Credit Cards.
      in as little as 60 days with our 15 Yr Old company.
      http://ourbest4u.com/loves/nomoredebt

      Reply
    7. Stuart Halpryn

      I’d like to take a second to address an issue that has been brought up
      as a parallel discussion, because it really needs to be addressed.

      Co-reg leads;
      This is Go Daddy’s official stance on the subject, and you can be fairly confident
      that most other entities have a similar stand on the subject.

      “Go Daddy defines spam as a mailing sent to recipients, as an advertisement
      or otherwise, without first obtaining prior confirmed consent to receive these
      mailings. Prior consent must be given to you and your domain name directly
      from the recipient.
      Go Daddy does not consider consent to be transferable.
      For example, simply purchasing, renting, or leasing an “opt-in” list from another
      company does not constitute proof of opt-in or prior consent. If you or another
      company is sending mailings advertising your site to individuals that have not
      requested this information from you directly, it is our opinion that you are
      spamming these individuals.”

      Is that clear?
      Did you read between the lines and catch that “obtaining prior confirmed
      consent” ditty?

      Does that mean that you not use co-reg leads?
      Yepper, from where I stand, my answer would be ‘never use them’, AND
      ensure that EVERY ONE OF YOUR SUBSCRIBERS DOUBLE OPTS IN…
      ===> “Confirmed Consent”

      Reply
    8. Yuan Yudistira

      Hi eric,
      I have reading your tips newsletter for a while.
      I also subscribe to many newsletter.
      While most of the newsletter I subscribe to, is always promoting other products without
      giving a fair review, yours is different.

      I will always open and read your email, as I believe you will always give the best
      tips,trick and honest review about anything.

      Lova always

      YUAN YUDISTIRA

      Reply
    9. Boris

      Thank You Eric..
      I almost fell for another of cody’s tricks i fell for his past BM which was a total R* worthless subs.
      You showed alot of character by sticking to what you believe and pointing out some very good points. i dont know much of adsense myself infact i had my adsense suspended for incentive clicking but more importantly for not knowing what i know now about adsense. I’ll have my girffriend create a account once i have some real content and do it right based onthe right recommendation. Thanks Man!

      Boris

      Reply
    10. Lisa Preston

      Hi Eric –
      I am simply delighted that you are a marketer with integrity.
      I was a bit shocked by Anthony’s assessment – and as a result, I too am leaving his lists.
      Anthony, if you read this, you must understand that as a well-known marketer, people look to you for guidance – perhaps that is a foolish mistake, as you seem to feel that whatever a marketer does to make money is “okay by you”.
      It is absolutely essential that Internet Marketing “gurus” and “experts” truly police themselves and each other.
      And for newbies – do your due dilligence!
      Focus your efforts on one thing at a time, and research the products you buy!
      Until today, I would have probably taken whatever you (Anthony) said as the truth – now I am afraid to trust you.
      I am delighted that I was given the opportunity to see this review with SOLID EVIDENCE behind it before I wasted my money on this product!! If Eric had waited until I actually purchased it, who knows if I would ever see my money back if I requested a refund?
      Again, THANK YOU Eric for putting yourself in the “line of fire”…
      You will remain my first source for honest marketing information.

      God Bless.
      Lisa Preston

      Reply
    11. Jerold Johnson

      Eric,

      I appreciate the review of Cody’s launch. Another gentleman whose list I am on sent a “do not buy” type of email last week regarding different site’s launch. A few days later he sent an “apology” email regarding his thoughts from the earlier email…

      Apologize for what I asked him…!!

      You and I have an right and even more so…AN OBLIGATION…to share our viewpoint and experience with others that look to us Online for help and guidance.

      If I come across a product / service / or person that should be well regarded, then it is in the interest of my list memebers to know about it if it pertains to the topic of the list…. likewise, as in this case, if there is something to stay clear of then better to let people know–either way!

      I myself am not a member of either Adsense membership site, so do NOT have an opion. If I was interested in a membership, I except I would have to make a decision based on what you’ve shared Eric…

      …though I must say this…

      …that earlier this year Cody’s name did come up with another Online maketer.

      She went through a tremendous effort to create a Niche membership site and to provide some great niche product packages for the members, and as I recall, some of the information that was supposedly “private label” for reuse ended up being a huge fight between Cody and this marketer who was AT LEAST DOING SOMETHING with the articles she was paying Cody for every month!!

      Plus the added expense of hiring a copywriter, graphics person, etc.

      Needless to say, that roadblock with Cody, pretty much gummed up the whole works for this newly launched membership and her efforts.

      I would HIGHLY recommend that everyone seeing your review take a few moments to see some of the other feedback that has been given…

      JR’s note above is excellent, plus I loved the response you got from
      Anthony Tomei at September 5th, 2006 at 12:41 am above THEN YOUR response…

      That’s it exactly Eric!

      You’re the man… 🙂

      Jerold Johnson

      Reply
    12. Pete Mastroianni

      As always, we can depend on you for an honest review.
      Being the owner of Joel’s Adsense manual, I am always
      looking for creative new templates to rework.
      Thanks for the heads up, I think I will pass on these.
      Always looking for your next review.
      Thanks again

      Pete Mastroianni
      http://www.petemastroianni.com/

      Reply
    13. LISA GODDARD

      HI ERIC

      I ALWAYS ENJOY READING YOU EMAILS….FROM DAY ONE I FELT YOU WERE AN HONEST AND DOWN TO EARTH GUY. I DONT TRUST MANY PEOPLE AS MOST ARE AFTER AN EASY WAY TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF ALL THE NEWBIES OF THIS WORLD. I HOPE YOU NEVER GO TO ‘THE DARK SIDE’, I AM SURE THE TEMPTATION MUST BE THERE, SO I AM GLAD YOU TELL IT AS IT IS!!!!!

      THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP YOU HAVE GIVEN ME SO FAR.
      BYE4NOW
      LISA

      Reply
    14. Cliff Hammock

      Eric, I have to say that I was not that overly impressed with IAT, but it was a good investment because I used the templates to learn and have used the content on a site that I created that is more aesthetically pleasing and have started to generate a few dollars, which is OK since I am just learning.

      Eric, you also introduced me to Ewen Chia’s Super Affiliate Cloning Program (SACP) and I am in. We had our first telecoaching call last night. It was great and I will be updating My Super Affiliate Journey website if anyone wants to follow my progress at http://www.mysuperaffiliatejourney.com .

      Keep up the great work Eric.

      Reply
    15. Martin

      Hi Eric, You gone and done it again……… another excellent review, straight from the barrel, and even bought the product just to review it further (hope you get your money back) and all for OUR benefit and then I find myself spending another hour reading your reader’s comments. I must say Anthony Tomei (September 5th, 2006 at 12:41 am) did add a spark to the fire with his comment and lost a few members, me included. I’m sure he’ll think twice next time.

      Fortunately last year, I had been warned about Cody Moya and his unscrupulous methods by a fellow marketer from the UK, and although I do get CM’s emails, I don’t ever feel inspired to sign up for any of his programs. Maybe I’m being looked after from above.

      I’m certainly being looked after by people like you Eric, I respect your honesty and the time you spend in doing your researches and writing your findings for all of us to read and obviously it helps us all in our decisions if we should buy or decline an offer. And we could do with you being cloned several hundred times.

      Another marketer I respect is Stuart Halpryn above, (September 5th, 2006 at 9:39 pm) who also shoots from the hip and gives no bull crap, calls a spade “a spade” and prices his offerings realistically.

      We need people like you guys to keep this industry clean and free from “hacks” and money grabbing, back-stabbing b@st@rd5, sorry I mean infidels.

      Martin
      UK

      Reply
    16. Jerk

      Hi Eric,

      It seems you stir up a lot of discussions after providing a negative product reviews of Cody’s new product. Create controversial discussion is a way to create publicity 🙂 You really hit the heart of some hard working internet marketers especially for those who does not have enough money to spend on the “next big thing” like myself.

      Even though templates and contents are important but “traffic and conversions” and no need to mention “how to organise an online business” play an important role in online business success. Would you please consider to spend some of your valueable time and wealth to review a new product from a super star internet marketer Jeff Johnson. It is TrafficKingPro at http://www.traffickingpro.com/ (not an affiliate link) costing USD10K. I am sure we all will be much appreciated if you do.

      I really would like to jump on the boat even it will cost me broke.

      thks/Jerk

      Reply
    17. Michael Santiago

      I’ve been pointed to this particular discussion more than several times during the past couple of days from many of my members. And now feel obligated to respond since I have promoted Cody’s product to them.

      I never promote any products to my members unless they have value and can actually be used by them to make more money online. PrivateLabelMonthly.com is not my cash cow and I certainly don’t need to push “rubbish” to my members to make a quick buck. That’s just not my way of doing business.

      And another thing to consider. I’ve even had a couple of my members ask me why I’m even promoting Cody’s product since it seems that we might be competitors. Competitors or not, the fact of the matter is, there IS value in Cody’s product.

      Is it the best set of “Adsense Templates” or “Instant Adsense” sites available? No, of course not. Was IAT? I leave that up to you for discussion.

      I recommended Cody’s product to my list only after I did a more in-depth review on his templates. The xSitePro templates were nicely done. The adsense placement on the page seemed to be perfectly optimized. Now I’m not THE adsense expert, however, I do know the basics of optimized adsense placement on a page and that, it had.

      The wordpress templates seemed good too. Yes, there are alot of resources that offer free wordpress templates, however, these are niche themed and conveniently categorized. So if you’re creating your own blog networks then it will prove to be useful.

      In my promo to my members I don’t go on to recommend the “white hat html randomizer tool” that’s included. I actually advised against it. And just as Eric mentioned above, there are plenty of ways to display content on a page to make it appear more unique.

      I also don’t recommend to use the standard html templates as-is. And personally I feel the graphics are too large and take up too much space for a so-called optimized adsense template. But again, there is still some value to these templates if you’re not focusing on adsense as the main source of revenue from the templates.

      As for Cody copying the exact layout and code…agreed, that wasn’t cool. And trust me, I know a similar feeling 😛

      But anyway, bottomline is, there is value to his xSitePro templates and wordpress templates. If you are taking the site building “game” seriously and are making good money from it, then let me ask you, Are those 200 templates worth at least $97 for your business?

      If yes, then buy it. If no, then pass and wait for IAT 2 just like I recommended in my promo 😉

      That’s my 2 cents.

      If anyone’s interested in the EXACT email I sent out to my members the other day here it is below:

      ========================================================================

      Hi,

      If you’re using xSitePro to build your content sites then I
      recommend you get Cody’s Adsense Templates. I had to spend some
      time tonight reviewing the entire package since I was receiving some
      specific questions.

      The xSitePro templates are nicely done and it’s obvious that the
      layout was made to fully optimize for adsense placement. I’ve yet to
      use them on a live site, however, I’m almost certain that they will
      have a relatively high CTR percentage.

      And get this, the xSitePro templates are of such good quality that
      even the xSitePro creator, Paul Smithson, is recommending his users
      join Cody’s site. Now that means something.

      The other templates that looked good were the WordPress templates.
      If you’re creating wordpress blogs and need more templates, you
      will again find Cody’s package useful. There are also 100 standard
      html templates and 100 blogger templates that I found just ok.

      One question that I was asked several times from different members
      was regarding Cody’s “Hmtl Randomizer” software. I’m not going to go
      in-depth about the software, however, what I can say is, I would
      not recommend using the software on your sites.

      So does this mean that his Adsense Templates package isn’t worth
      getting? Again, that depends.

      As mentioned, if you’re created xSitePro sites and wordpress blogs
      then this package is really a great deal. If you’re NOT using
      xSitePro or wordpress and don’t plan to, then save your money and
      wait till “Instant Adsense Templates” comes out in October (Joel
      Comm’s product).

      So grab your copy of Cody’s Adsense Templates from my link and
      receive the several unreleased bonuses listed here:

      http://www.privatelabelmonthly.com/adsense_templates_bonus

      Thanks again for reading 😉

      To Your Success,
      Michael Santiago
      PrivateLabelMonthly.com

      ============================================================================

      Reply
    18. Royal Rife

      Eric,

      I think you’ve done a great job at laying the truth out there in a very confessional and honest kind of way.

      Nobody’s perfect but you sure seem like an honest guy. Personally I think most of these template packages including a lot of what I saw from IAT is heading in the wrong direction for sustained adsense income due to all the human “site reviewers” and some crappy software like this “randomizer” definitely doesn’t address that issue.

      If Cody thinks that a human reviewer is going to approve a site that looks exactly like a zillion other sites that they know are designed to get adsense clicks – just because it’s been run thru some code zapper he’s barking up the wrong tree.

      Good luck to all whether they buy the templates or not. I appreciate your input.

      Joshua Parker

      Reply
    19. Lawrence Bethel

      Hail King Eric,
      ( The Wicked Marketing Witch Is Dead )

      This review has got to be the “Biggest Breath of Fresh Air”, i have ever gotten in the internet marketing arena.
      There are so many who pass themselves off as the latest and greatest “Internet or Adsense Guru’s”, it kinda
      makes you reluctant ,”WHO”, to believe anyone anymore.

      I’d rather have an honest review of a product from someone who’s “Been There and Done That”, than someone
      who literally has no proven trackrecord in this market. “Keep on Keeping On”, Eric and just continue to “Keep Telling It Like It Is”, and not like they would like you to believe is.

      Destroy those untruthful internet marketing “Smoke and Mirrors”, and free our minds from those who would manipulate them as the the wizard manipulated Dorothy in the “Wizard of OZ”.

      Lawrence Bethel
      http://www.precisionemedia.com

      Reply
    20. Trevor

      Hi there Eric.

      I’m eager to learn. Could you suggest a course to understand and implement these stragies.
      Also how to succeed white affiliate marketing?

      thanks, Trevor

      Reply
    21. Graham

      Eric – I’m behind on my emails and have only just read your review on Cody Moya, and comments from your subscribers.
      I just want you to know that I have just deleted all emails on file from him and will unsubscribe from his list.
      I won’t pretend to understand all the techie stuff in your review – but I can read and see for my own eyes!
      Keep up the good work – honest reviews are better than fiction!
      Graham in the New Forest . Hampshire. UK

      Reply
    22. Tired & Ready To Quit

      I am new to the internet marketing game (and it is ALL G-A-M-E no matter who writes it. Rich Schefren was right.) I want to market a paticular website as one of their affiliates. But here’s the pooper, I don’t have a clue where to begin. I do not trust 99% of the e-book hawkers; I believe they are all out to separate me from my money with useless, poorly explained info. And after reading this review of Cody’s jive-in-the-box website templates only reaffirms my thinking. Are there any real books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble that tell the truth on how to do this business. Or am I wasting my time with this stuff?

      -Very frustated and tired!

      Reply
    23. Russell Hallonquist

      Hi Eric,

      I respect your observations, and in fact I DID join Cody’s site to see what he was up to with the Adsense Templates. I gave it about 45 days or so and then got out. To be fair, he even refunded me although I even offered to return the few items I downloaded (I never used them, just looking them over) and I never requested a refund since I did utilize the membership for a month and part of the next. He refunded it all, no questions asked.

      I can only speak of my own experience with Cody, as really only anyone can do. I don’t put a lot of stock in heresay, so I don’t pay much attention to it. After all, it could be anyone posting, even a competitor! Having said that, yes Cody’s english leaves a lot to be desired, but I personally believe this is intentional. Cody has a staff and can certainly afford to hire copywriters to do his sales pages. It is a peculiar phenom that his style seems to elicit quite a lot of sales!

      As to his prowess as an affiliate, the man is definately a machine. I have taken advantage of his “MEGA” bonus’ twice and have received what was promised and then some. Yes, even a couple of his lists that went with them, although I have purposely NOT blasted an email to these lists right away….huge mistake to do that! I have my own strategy for “cleaning” these lists and I look at them as simply of “possible” benefit and and I don’t really expect a big return on them. The main items in the bonuses I got from him were just fine without the lists. I only used his link for products I planned on purchasing anyway, and believe it or not, I have NEVER promoted ANY of his products at all. I tend to study marketers and what they are doing before I even think about doing that. Time always tells 😉

      I DO think that Cody will be put on the right path by many of the top marketers around today. It’s either that or simply dry up and disappear. You MUST be ethical and honest in your business dealings, particularly online. You can be smacked down so much more quickly out here. I also think that Cody means well and has been completely overwhelmed with his success and if you consider all of this in the context of where he came from, you can perhaps understand when he does pull something like that which you have pointed out. Again, time will tell.

      As to unsubscribing from any of his lists, I have never had a problem with him there. Of course I personally use a system that allows me to manage all the lists I am on anyway. Before you start subscribing to lists, you had better prepare yourself or be overwhelmed! I am probably on all of the top marketers lists and a number of top affiliates lists as well. But then again, I am on them mainly for my research purposes and I know how to “tame” all of the emails that come my way.

      In summary, your points are well taken and you have presented visual proofs to support them. Also, I think most marketers out here, including myself, make many mistakes unintentionally and the faster we own up to them and correct them, the better for our businesses. This is not only the ethical thing to do, it just makes good business sense. If you are a “get rich quick” grab-a-fast-buck type with no concern with the long term success of your business, then you won’t care anyway and you will end up a “one shot wonder”.

      AdSense is not really a big part of my business anyway, so I can’t really speak to IAT. I can only say from my own experience, I really wasn’t impressed with Cody’s templates, or for that matter with most of these type of templates in general.

      Best Regards,

      Russell Hallonquist
      Infolife Marketing

      Reply
    24. Froodle

      Hi
      Does it need to be adsense code, or can I use any other code ie. adbrite.
      Cheers

      Reply

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