No Dojo...Doh!

As much as I have tried I have had no luck in finding anyone who knows where The Sensei's legendary Dojo is located. I know there must be a Dojo because that's where the Sensei repairs product, reviews new stuff and writes witty tidbits about exercise, good and bad products and the evil equipment manufacturers and unscrupulous fitness dealers. On the site there is a phone number:

"You can reach the DOJO by phone or fax at: 206-339-7022"

But alas, I found out that this is an unlisted number from Seattle Washington, not So. California. Real businesses don't have unlisted numbers.

I was so disappointed when I found out that there isn't a real Sensei. It was reminiscent of the devastation when learning there was no Easter bunny. Now I am just beside myself with grief after learning there is no Dojo either. I am now resigned to the fact that there is only Mat "Comic book Sensei" Nastos and his computer; no Dojo, no senior partner with 20 years experience, only a man with a minimum of fitness experience passing himself off as an expert. Why would he make all this up? His comic book career is over and he needed something quick, what with a new family to support. So he used his comic book experience to create a fantasy world he calls "Treadmill Sensei".

You see, Mat learned during his comic days about something called "Affiliate marketing". Here is a snippet from his blog on the Nifty comic site (which he recently deleted...luckily I saved it before then)....

Monday, February 19, 2007
Comic Book Publishing -- Marketing Techniques for Dummies

"If you're a comic book publisher and you aren't familiar with Internet marketing techniques like article directories, tagging, blog directories, or link campaigns then you're in trouble. If you don't know what the terms PR, PPC, CPA or CPC then you shouldn't be online."

"If you're a comic book publisher and you aren't maintaining a mailing list (online and off) then you're in a lot of trouble."

"Finally, if you're a comic book publisher with a trade paperback (or other higher priced product) and you don't have an affiliate program for it, then you're a fool. If you don't know what an "affiliate program" is then you're a moron. "

From my crash course over the last few days I have learned that affiliate marketing is when you start a site (doesn't matter what it is) you can earn money if people click on a link from your site to go to Amazon, for instance, and buy something. He makes nothing if someone buys the product from a store instead of the Internet. Since this hasn't worked out so well in the comics game (I'll bet commission on a $2,000 treadmill is a whole lot better than a $5 comic book) he started his little fantasy fitness review site. Knowing this information, how would you think he answered this question on Treadmillsensei:

Friday, April 06, 2007

Treadmills and Ellipticals - online buying vs offline buying
Ohiyo!
"As the Treadmill Sensei and knower of all things fitness related, a lot of readers email me here at the DOJO and ask, "Oh, great Sensei, where should I purchase my new treadmill or elliptical? Should I buy it at a local store or online? Which is better?"

I won't bore you with his answer, you can go to his site and read it for yourself...his answer is what you'd think though. All this is fine and legal, but what I object to is out and out lying about a product when you pass yourself off as completely objective and not in it for the money because..as it says on his site "I have a good day job".... I don't think so!

I hope Spirit's dealers will read this next part carefully...from an email Mat sent out:

"I'm just going to be blunt here, and please don't take it as either an insult or an attack. I enjoyed supporting Spirit this past year and being a major factor in building the recognition of your brand and I loved the commissions I made from my affiliate partners in doing so. The fact is, whether your company can admit/accept it or not, without the focus my site (and the Treadmilldoctor's site) brought to Spirit you would not be in the outstanding place you are in today. Spirit does no advertising or marketing as far as I can tell. Spirit's brick-and-mortar shops don't really do marketing/advertising to increase the recognition of the brand (having local sales doesn't really count). What built you to where you are right now is my site exposing 1000-10,000 (depending on what time of year it is) people PER DAY to positive reviews about your equipment and glowing commentary on your company.....

Just remember, your brick-and-mortars are down by 30% on the whole and places like Home Gym Central are up 50-100% because of the sales I bring them. That's right -- I allowed them to as much as DOUBLE their sales from previous years, even in the supposedly "slow months" of summer (last month they pulled in almost $250,000 in sales versus $110,000 in July from the previous year).

I make my money by finding high quality equipment and I support it -- My only requirement is that the equipment be available for purchase online. If it's not, then I can't support it as fully because it does me absolutely no good."


Well, well, well...not only has he not "fully supported it", but he completely trashed it!!! This is what we get for telling him in Denver that we will not allow the X series product to be sold on the Internet. He looked at our equipment from the edge of the booth in Denver and never even got on our new, and much improved over last year, product. He then writes complete product reviews including comments about plastic flywheels, bad quality, wiring problems, using a frame design from a recalled product...and more...without ever even giving the product a good look.

To be continued....