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| Author | Topic: Anybody got anything bad to say |
| Dr. Curt Nicol D.D. Ph.D. |
posted 12/23/07 3:35 AM
Does anybody have anything bad to say about the course? Admittedly I've not read every thread here, but all the ones I have read are full of glowing reports, which you might think would be a good thing, I'm a little more sceptical though. I would rather read both sides and make a judgement myself. So what bad things do people have to say? |
| Robert Shields |
posted 12/23/07 10:37 AM
Scepticism is not always a bad thing and I understand Curt's feelings on this as there are more and more scam artists joining the Internet. That is why I include an 8-week money back guarantee with my course. I think eight weeks to decide if my course is a con or not is fair enough - don't you? OK, you may think that I don't honour the guarantee, but ask yourself if I would have lasted almost five years and still use the same payment processors, if I did not refund when requested. Also, if anyone is considering enrolling on my course, bear this in mind - 'If something seems too good to be true, it probably isn't, BUT, there are a small percentage that are simply genuine offers'. So, answer Curt's request and if you have something bad to say about my course, let him know as I am sure he is intelligent enough to know if you are one of my competitors or a genuine student/graduate. I am, of course, assuming Curt is a genuine enquirer and not associated with a high priced competitor (smile) and he will not reply to his own postings using another name (an even bigger smile). http://www.hypnotherapy-training.com A full Hypnotherapy Course for less than $200.00? Impossible? See for yourself. |
| NESTOR |
posted 4/19/08 1:24 PM
The only complaint I can have is not about the course itself (wich I have finished alleady) but about the keys and codes to access the material, I had frecuent dificulties to open the course and since I can not cut and paste I can not use text to speech software to read the content. Anyway Robert is allways pront to respond and solve any problem. |
| Robert Shields |
posted 4/20/08 5:15 AM
Nestor's case is unusual as you can see. In his case, even thiough he registered the course on three separate occasions, for an unknown reason (although I suspect it had to do with using a number of different locations to access the internet) he was unable to open his course in the usual way and I circumvented my system and gave him direct access. All I asked of him was to send me a number that appeared after a certain number of days and I would supply an unlocking code. To the best of my knowledge, an email received from him today asking for an unlocking key is the first problem he has had since his purchase seven months ago. So I would be happy to consider any suggestion he has to what I should do to secure the course from illegal distribution without using some form of security measure. I could, of course, just leave the course open and expect/allow anyone to copy and sell/distribute it, but I am sure many of you who have paid for the course would feel cheated. And, of course, I would be leaving myself wide open to abuse by the growing number of liars, cheats and con merchants on the internet who would use my course for profit, fun and games with possible dire results, not to mention third-party litigation. So, Nestor, or anyone else, let me have any suggestions you may have. http://www.hypnotherapy-training.com Low cost Hypnotherapy training. |
| Steve |
posted 4/23/08 11:25 AM
Hi Robert,I for one would not feel cheated if you distributed your course as a pure pdf, as long as you also made it available to past / current students.In fact, if it was up for a vote, I would vote for a pdf file rather than the compiled ebook you currently use.You can still password protect a pdf.Compiled ebooks are not overly difficult to hack if you are determined. You can also print them out to a pdf-writer printer driver if you wanted a non copy-protected pdf version.In these modern times, unless you spend a significant amount of money, copy protecting material via password gives the CREATOR a false sense of security, and only deters but doesn't prevent the cracking of the material.To get the full value from the course, one has to complete it. And you already have a list of legit users.Alternatively, you could distribute the course on a per chapter basis. The student would have to use their email or something to access the next chapter. You could have a time period before the next chapter was available after the previous download. Another automated and viable alternative is to have the pdf's downloadable via the students registered email. It is now a straight forward and simple task to add a stealthy document watermark based on some data from the registered user. This can all be automated by the web-server at very little cost. Each copy of the downloaded course material will be uniquely watermarked in some way. This adds traceability to the materials.The website download page would make the purchaser aware of the watermarking and that any publically posted material would be easily traceable etc.If you find such material, then the purchaser is in breach of contract and copyright. What you do with them after that would be up to you. But you will know who originally downloaded the material from the watermark.This is best of both worlds. The genuine client has easy to access materials, no password needed. They just use it as a normal pdf document.However, you have full traceability, via the document watermark.Just as password protected materials, watermarks can be circumnavigated by the determined. You can control this difficulty depending on the type of technology (and cost) of the watermarking. |
| Robert Shields |
posted 4/24/08 0:04 AM
Thanks for the input Steve. One thing is absolutely certain, I would NEVER supply the course purely as an unprotected pdf file. Pdf files have no security, even when password protected (I personally know how to get into almost all of them and I am not a hacker), and they do not fit in to the construction of the course. As I am sure you are aware, I have thought about this many times in the past and always opted to keeping it simple by using an exe file. Much easier to use and compliant with Window users and full security (yes - I know any file can be cracked but from my experience, the scum that steal other people's property on the Internet (such as Dr. Lovelos) look for high priced/popular items to spend their time on). I did not know about watermarking and will look into that as it may give me another option. Of course, it may prevent illegal selling, but not illegal distribution which is so common. The way I have my course file set up requires a 'user' to register it before they can view. This stops illegal distribution as I am notified immediately of any registrations and also if more than two registrations are made with the same file with different IP addresses. Your other suggestion about supplying the course per lesson is valid and I am presently working on a similar idea. The problem I have to overcome with that is how do I make each lesson secure as a simple password would be useless and using/providing unlocking keys would absorb a massive amount of my time (watermarking - maybe?). I have considered using a membership site for downloads, but again all the dishonest purchaser need do is supply the log in details - aaaargh, Internet Security is a headache when you provide something you don't want 'nut-cases' and 'idiots' to get their hands on!!! Anyway, thank you again Steve, I appreciate your reply and will now do some research on watermarking a pdf file (fingers crossed it is not too expensive). |
| JamieT |
posted 5/3/08 8:38 PM
Another option for content delivery is to provide the course through online membership site. The site administration could be mostly automated (payment/access, email activation, lost passwords etc) and you could require personal details such as address (for certificate posting) which would discourage sharing login details. You could also see unusual activity such as logging in on multiple ip's in a short space of time etc and deactivate the account. I have had a little bit of experience on setting up such sites if you wanted some thought starters of where to look etc.Regards,JamieT |
| Robert Shields |
posted 5/5/08 2:31 AM
Thanks for your suggestion and offer of help JamieT. I truly appreciate it, but the problem is not so much the downloading security (that's taken care of by having each purchaser complete a student's registration form) but rather the illegal distribution and copying of the course material. At the moment I ask every download to be logged into a security setup that enables me to disable the course file within minutes of seeing an illegal registration. It takes no more than three minutes and only requires an internet connection. Thereafter, the course automatically verifies it is a genuine download at various intervals when used. The user needs to do nothing, yet the simple and effective security measure sometimes comes up as an issue. The reason often given is that the student has purchased the course and should be able to do whatever he or she likes with it. I find this incredulous as, to the best of my knowledge, no course provider in the world gives full copyright to the courses they provide. It is often forgotten that I spent a considerable amount of my time (and dare I say 'talent') putting my course together and the real value of it is in the thousands. But as the saying goes, 'You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of them all of the time'. So, I simple do the best I can to keep everyone as happy as possible:-) BTW, has anyone noticed that the originator of this topic has been silent since he opened it? Competition or just someone who wanted to create disharmony - if so he failed as I have a VERY high percentage of happy and satisfied students and graduates. |
| Steve |
posted 5/6/08 2:59 PM
Yes,I whole heartedly agree.The course content is very good indeed.There are courses that charge orders of magnitude more than Robets course, yet deliver the same, often less.The only thing you need to do above and beyond Roberts course is to practice, practice and practice. |
| David Bellis |
posted 10/4/08 2:12 PM
It is very difficult to really say anything negative about the course. It is a good introductory course to grant certification due to the content, and it covers what is required to provide professional therapy to most cases. Having been doing hypnosis myself since I was 16 ( I am now 49) the only thing I felt was lacking was the actual mechanics or practical hypnosis scripts or wording which is used. I accept that there is a WIDE variance of methods employed by each individual hypnotherapist when it comes to wording/scripts, but some examples would be helpful I believe to those who have never tried it. Perhaps some actual wma files (audio files) would be helpful. From a psychological aspect however, I found the course to be excellent. It was quite full of in depth information to allow a good understanding of the sources of problems most clients would need help with.You may be asking why I took the course now since I have been doing hypnosis for 33 years? I wanted to move to full-time healing and required my "certification" (which I now have)David BellisReiki master/teacher, and now CHt. |
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