@ANGELSDEN with the exception of the odd comment on here, I have yet to hear positive things about Ecademy - not one single person I know has a good word to say - and that's *a lot* of people. OK, so perhaps you're an exception to the rule ;)
I must declare that I don't know Thomas or Penny. I can say however, that I kinda know (of) Julian - CTO. Here's the last (Twitter) conversation I had with him a while back:
Me: "I think Twitter is turning into a conversational tool" (we're going back a while!) Julian in response to my comment: "I think Twitter turning into a conversational tool is stupid" Me: "Julian, you're now conversing with me" Julian: :::Radio silence:::
Dear 'bad things', bring it on baby.
haikuriousgeorg
· 10 months ago
i warned you about this cult a long time ago Paul. Nice to see you've finally realised it. Love Mr Power's twitter accounts. But his wifes blogs are even better. You would think she was Mother Mary the way she writes.
Whitehall Webby
· 10 months ago
Thank you so much! Been trying and meaning to get rid of that thing for ages :)
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
@haikuriousgeorg - I realised a long time ago but didn't feel it was appropriate for me to publish the management email thread that you sent me - it would have made me look like an even bigger dick :-) BTW I had it out with the CEO in Adam Street when he introduced himself to me in the gents toilets at Adam Street - how fitting huh!
@Webby Boy - glad to be of assistance lol
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
I've received many Twitter DMs, emails and FB messages since writing this post - all from people who wanted to delete their account but until now, found it too difficult. Here's a message I got from a FB friend request on FB - very funny:
Well done on the "Get Rid of the Scourge that is Ecademy" post. Getting rid of one's Ecademy account is like washing the filth off after visiting a rendering plant which only slaughters slow, dim-witted animals.
haikuriousgeorg
· 10 months ago
OK fair point. Dont need to know about your lavatorial habits. But answer me this. Maybe there are a lot of happy people on Ecademy. I thought about this after my last post http://www.whoisgeorgewiley.com/2008/07/leaving.... Ecademy does have a very loyal following. Maybe we should just realise it' not for us, but maybe it is for some people.
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
@haikuriousgeorg it is good for some - just like self-harm is good for some. It's full of people who don't know any better and people who don't know how to delete there account - oh, and those like me, who registered an account years ago.
Without giving names, very qualified and respected people agree that the Blackstar thing is a little short of pyramid marketing.
john m howitt
· 10 months ago
There is a much simpler way, simply point out, on the Eek front page, that the place is a complete waste of time and run by by an incompetent bunch of no-hopers and they will do all the hard work for you.
Aldo Gobbi
· 10 months ago
Good point John
In the video clip here, Penny Power makes the breathtakingly false claim that Ecademy is "amongst the most visited sites in the world" - http://www.ecademy.com/membership.php
All a member needs to do is to point out that she's lying and they'll be erased from the site in minutes.
Laurence
· 10 months ago
Spamming your contacts was becuase you failed to TURN OFF the auto repeat function.
Shame really because in over five years on Ecademy I have made some great friends and done some brilliant business
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
@laurence 1) having that feature is SPAM if it means that your contacts continue to receive invites **years** after they were sent! 2) it was switched off.
john m howitt
· 10 months ago
Bad things will happen, every time you upset Penny Go kills a puppy. Honest.
Sarah
· 10 months ago
Brilliant. Well done Paul I thought it was just me who found ecademy depressing and rather desperate. I closed my account a while ago by sending them increasingly aggressive emails asking them to delete it. I trusted them to do so. I think they did ...
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
You can find out by clicking on the link in the post - try to login. I wouldn't make any assumptions as your contacts could still be getting invites from you - even after a few years - like mine!
Vanessa Warwick
· 10 months ago
Hi Paul,
I am surprised to read your blog. I cannot speak highly enough of ecademy myself. The generousity of the many people I have met through ecademy in sharing ideas has been enormously valuable. I cannot put a price on the value I have got out of it personally.
We have made many new deep and lasting business relationships that have led to business and we have been able to promote what we do to over 300,000 business owners and entrepreneurs. You cannot get better niche marketing than that, and all at no other expense than the time that you take to make and nurture connections.
It also gives us profile and visibility as professional people when we are "google-d".
ecademy takes time to master and understand how to get the best out of it. At the end of the day it's like anything - you get out what you put in.
I believe ecademy to be way ahead of its time in many ways, and attending the events has really expanded my thinking and helped us find a clear way forwards. Our business has never been in better shape, and I credit ecademy for a having a signficant input into that success.
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
Vanessa I'm delighted to hear you got something out of Ecademy - really, I am. I'm sure others have benefited from it too. In the long run however, when it comes to any of the people I know (journalists, correspondents, entrepreneurs, PR people, marketers etc.) not one of them has anything positive to say about Ecademy. The Blackstar stuff is very close to pyramid marketing according to some. Also, there are lots of other negative threads going around. If you're plugged into the tech industry you'd know all of this.
Vanessa Warwick
· 10 months ago
Thanks for your reply Paul.
Like I said, I get enormous value out of it and I am really not too interested in what other people think. I choose to judge things by the actual results I achieve in my business, not hearsay. There are negative threads going around on every subject under the sun .... one of the good things about ecademy is that that it is policed by the community, much like Ebay is. That leads to transparency. People are intelligent enough to make up their own minds about things and don't have to rely on comments like "all the people I know ... " , they can find out for themselves. If ecademy works for you .. great. If it doesn't work for you ... great. However, it does take consistency and effort to get the most out of it, so if you are a seeker of instant gratification you will be disappointed.
Although I never claimed to be in my original post, I am plugged into the tech industry to a degree, although probably not to the level you are. I am very interested in Web 2.0 and I believe in "contribution currency" and ecademy is a big part of implementing that philosophy. However, I've got better things to do than rubbernecking on negative threads. I am not willing to pay for rubbernecking with my time and attention. I'd rather put the energy into my property business. Thanks to using Web 2.0 strategies including blogs, social and business networking, forum posting, attending networking events, etc. our marketing budget is zero. I am a big fan of Seth Godin.
Anyway Paul. Let's agree to disagree. I find ecademy an incredible tool and if people make a few quid out of is, then good for them. As long as people get value from it, they will be willing to pay for it although I myself only joined the free part. From what I know, the Power's privately funded ecademy themselves. I think that took tremendous courage and I respect them for that.
I have joined you on Twitter and will look forward to reading more of your blogs as you seem to have some varied and interesting business ventures..
wecandobiz
· 10 months ago
Vanessa, can I ask where you get the figures that Ecademy enables you to promote what you do to 300,000 business owners?
As far as I know Ecademy has something like 170,000 profiles on the site, but many are redundant -- the majority of the 22,500 support e-mails leaked a few weeks back were requests that accounts be deleted. My own guess is that there is fewer than 10,000 active members on the site, although I welcome correction from someone with independently verifiable figures.
Compete says that Ecademy gets about 100,000 unique visitors a month. I just can't see a reach of 300,000 business owners as you state.
As an extension of that, even if it is JUST 100,000 business owners, how many of them do you believe make it to your profile or webpage? And I would also ask how many of those 100,000 actually have a need or interest in what it is you do? Perhaps the fact that is *is* possible to reach so many people on Ecademy regardless of any level of basic pre-qualification on the part of the sender of correspondence is what gets Ecademy a bad reputation with some people.
I consider Ecademy to be quite a useful site, although I share the concern that too many members send out broadcasts without any thought for the value for the recipients in what they send.
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
And how many aren't life bloody coaches?
Manoj Ranaweera
· 10 months ago
Once I had a paid account on ecademy (cannot remember the justification - ebdex days). When I wanted to discuss a potential partnership, the CEO insisted I upgrade my membership to Blackstar before approaching them. I believe I downgraded my membership to FREE after this conversation but their CEO added me to their Blackstar e-mail list and the e-mails continue to arrive one after another.
Overall, I believe ecademy is not for lot of us, but there are people who continue to value its services. We have to accept that therefore there is a market for ecademy. An overhaul of the design is fundamental to building new opportunities as it is so out dated and they have only done minor changes ever since i came across it in the first place.
I believe their CEO is willing to listen, which is a major change, perhaps due to all the changes taking place around them with social networks. Going forward, they would also need to redefine their customer proposition as it is not clear to many of us.
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
Manoj - get off the political fence with the general obvious statements. There's a hospital for some people but it doesn't mean it's a good place for anyone.
Zahid Malik
· 10 months ago
Don't know if this is true or not but it is interesting:
There is some interesting discussion re blackstar etc.
Paul Walsh
· 10 months ago
Now that I've seen it's published I can confirm that it is true - I have a copy of the actual email thread. I decided against publishing it as it would have been irresponsible of me.
Edd
· 10 months ago
Thanks for the post Paul. Could I also suggest to people to add emails from ecademy to junk / blocked senders list, as even though my account has been deleted I still receive emails from them.
Edd
webtogs
· 10 months ago
I just deleted my account but for some reason I can still log in. This is dodgy stuff!
Alex Kinch
· 10 months ago
Same here.. I deleted my account a few days ago, but still get tonnes of spam from Ecad. Just tried logging in again, and my account is still there. Deleted it again, and successfully logged in again.
Pattie
· 10 months ago
thanks for the link. I was just looking for a way to delete my account, they keep that info pretty hidden.
Gary
· 10 months ago
Oh dear, just sent you a mesaage about whether you knew about ecademy on facebook. Now I realise you do! I found them ok but agree with you about the awful emailing they do... I am still being haunted by one person in particular...
Bill
· 10 months ago
thank you so much. that does feel better.
shaun gisbourne
· 9 months ago
Thanks for the link Paul, it's saved me time. Been there 5 years and just cancelled account. There are lots of reasons that I won't bore you with, you'll probably be aware of most of them, but the last straw has been the treatment of Sarah Arrow, who is accused of practices that the management themselves actively indulge in, namely third parties accessing member accounts. In seeking to blame anyone and anything but themselves for their predicament, (myself included for which I received no apology), they've chosen Sarah, someone revered by the membership and a great contributor to the website in numerous clubs, blogs and more. They don't appreciate the membership, so won't stick around any longer, there are better ways to spend ones time
kevin arrow
· 9 months ago
I have just canceled our accounts over there. I have never come across such a badly run business. Ever. Management think its ok to harrass the members, fabricate lies about them, tamper with emails and outright lie. Lucky I had the proof of what was said. By all parties. I feel so much better since I deleted the accounts, like a bath after a trip through an abattoir.
All Comments
Bad things will happen to you Paul .....
I must declare that I don't know Thomas or Penny. I can say however, that I kinda know (of) Julian - CTO. Here's the last (Twitter) conversation I had with him a while back:
Me: "I think Twitter is turning into a conversational tool" (we're going back a while!)
Julian in response to my comment: "I think Twitter turning into a conversational tool is stupid"
Me: "Julian, you're now conversing with me"
Julian: :::Radio silence:::
Dear 'bad things', bring it on baby.
@Webby Boy - glad to be of assistance lol
Well done on the "Get Rid of the Scourge that is Ecademy" post. Getting rid of one's Ecademy account is like washing the filth off after visiting a rendering plant which only slaughters slow, dim-witted animals.
Without giving names, very qualified and respected people agree that the Blackstar thing is a little short of pyramid marketing.
In the video clip here, Penny Power makes the breathtakingly false claim that Ecademy is "amongst the most visited sites in the world" - http://www.ecademy.com/membership.php
All a member needs to do is to point out that she's lying and they'll be erased from the site in minutes.
Shame really because in over five years on Ecademy I have made some great friends and done some brilliant business
I am surprised to read your blog. I cannot speak highly enough of ecademy myself. The generousity of the many people I have met through ecademy in sharing ideas has been enormously valuable. I cannot put a price on the value I have got out of it personally.
We have made many new deep and lasting business relationships that have led to business and we have been able to promote what we do to over 300,000 business owners and entrepreneurs. You cannot get better niche marketing than that, and all at no other expense than the time that you take to make and nurture connections.
It also gives us profile and visibility as professional people when we are "google-d".
ecademy takes time to master and understand how to get the best out of it. At the end of the day it's like anything - you get out what you put in.
I believe ecademy to be way ahead of its time in many ways, and attending the events has really expanded my thinking and helped us find a clear way forwards. Our business has never been in better shape, and I credit ecademy for a having a signficant input into that success.
Like I said, I get enormous value out of it and I am really not too interested in what other people think. I choose to judge things by the actual results I achieve in my business, not hearsay. There are negative threads going around on every subject under the sun .... one of the good things about ecademy is that that it is policed by the community, much like Ebay is. That leads to transparency. People are intelligent enough to make up their own minds about things and don't have to rely on comments like "all the people I know ... " , they can find out for themselves. If ecademy works for you .. great. If it doesn't work for you ... great. However, it does take consistency and effort to get the most out of it, so if you are a seeker of instant gratification you will be disappointed.
Although I never claimed to be in my original post, I am plugged into the tech industry to a degree, although probably not to the level you are. I am very interested in Web 2.0 and I believe in "contribution currency" and ecademy is a big part of implementing that philosophy. However, I've got better things to do than rubbernecking on negative threads. I am not willing to pay for rubbernecking with my time and attention. I'd rather put the energy into my property business. Thanks to using Web 2.0 strategies including blogs, social and business networking, forum posting, attending networking events, etc. our marketing budget is zero. I am a big fan of Seth Godin.
Anyway Paul. Let's agree to disagree. I find ecademy an incredible tool and if people make a few quid out of is, then good for them. As long as people get value from it, they will be willing to pay for it although I myself only joined the free part. From what I know, the Power's privately funded ecademy themselves. I think that took tremendous courage and I respect them for that.
I have joined you on Twitter and will look forward to reading more of your blogs as you seem to have some varied and interesting business ventures..
As far as I know Ecademy has something like 170,000 profiles on the site, but many are redundant -- the majority of the 22,500 support e-mails leaked a few weeks back were requests that accounts be deleted. My own guess is that there is fewer than 10,000 active members on the site, although I welcome correction from someone with independently verifiable figures.
Compete says that Ecademy gets about 100,000 unique visitors a month. I just can't see a reach of 300,000 business owners as you state.
As an extension of that, even if it is JUST 100,000 business owners, how many of them do you believe make it to your profile or webpage? And I would also ask how many of those 100,000 actually have a need or interest in what it is you do? Perhaps the fact that is *is* possible to reach so many people on Ecademy regardless of any level of basic pre-qualification on the part of the sender of correspondence is what gets Ecademy a bad reputation with some people.
I consider Ecademy to be quite a useful site, although I share the concern that too many members send out broadcasts without any thought for the value for the recipients in what they send.
Overall, I believe ecademy is not for lot of us, but there are people who continue to value its services. We have to accept that therefore there is a market for ecademy. An overhaul of the design is fundamental to building new opportunities as it is so out dated and they have only done minor changes ever since i came across it in the first place.
I believe their CEO is willing to listen, which is a major change, perhaps due to all the changes taking place around them with social networks. Going forward, they would also need to redefine their customer proposition as it is not clear to many of us.
http://ecademythomaspower.blogspot.com/
There is some interesting discussion re blackstar etc.
Edd
just sent you a mesaage about whether you knew about ecademy on facebook. Now I realise you do! I found them ok but agree with you about the awful emailing they do... I am still being haunted by one person in particular...
Been there 5 years and just cancelled account. There are lots of reasons that I won't bore you with, you'll probably be aware of most of them, but the last straw has been the treatment of Sarah Arrow, who is accused of practices that the management themselves actively indulge in, namely third parties accessing member accounts. In seeking to blame anyone and anything but themselves for their predicament, (myself included for which I received no apology), they've chosen Sarah, someone revered by the membership and a great contributor to the website in numerous clubs, blogs and more. They don't appreciate the membership, so won't stick around any longer, there are better ways to spend ones time
I have never come across such a badly run business. Ever.
Management think its ok to harrass the members, fabricate lies about them, tamper with emails and outright lie. Lucky I had the proof of what was said. By all parties.
I feel so much better since I deleted the accounts, like a bath after a trip through an abattoir.