Whenever I see hype, it raises a huge red flag for me. It’s a sign of something that is driven by recruitment, and does not have a long term future. In the case of efusjon there was bucket loads of it.
The company began in 2008 and was formerly launched in January 2009. It experienced rapid growth until their Facebook Application Launch failed miserably and a lawsuit was filed against it by MLM attorney Kevin Thomson in late 2009.
The lawsuit was filed in an effort to get the company to change its business model to protect its distributors from promoting an illegal pyramid scheme.
Since then it has been on a gradual decline. In late August 2010, it sent this letter to its distributors… [click to continue…]
You may find this a little bit worrying. You may or may not believe it could happen to you. But it does happen… more often than you think. It’s already happened with two major companies in 2010.
Some “network marketing” company managers are so stupid, that they don’t even know what their primary asset is. With their massive greed and over inflated egos, they let the distributors do all the hard work, then they pull the rug out from underneath.
Imagine building a network marketing downline up to the point where you’re earning $46,000 per month, then in the first days of the New Year, you get this letter in the mail… [click to continue…]
It seems the state of Montana is having a field day with service MLM’s this year. First it was FHTM (Fortune High Tech Marketing) in April, now it’s ACN’s turn.
The Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance ordered both companies to shut down it’s operations in the state.
FHTM settled with the Government and was allowed to continue operating by refunding over $800,000 to its reps and drastically reducing it’s enrollment fees. ACN may be forced to do something similar… [click to continue…]
iLearningGlobal is the second major MLM company to terminate it’s pay plan in 2010, and therefore all of its distributors. It follows XELR8′s painful decision to go direct sales in February. It was announced on March 17 that iLG will cease distributing it’s products via MLM and go to a more traditional retail sales model.
This decision will be hugely detrimental to the many distributors who have put their belief, faith, trust and energy into the company for their future. It will be especially so for the top distributors who will bear the responsibility of emotions from their entire downline team. It’s also bad for the entire MLM industry as many will lose confidence in it as a vehicle.
iLearningGlobal began in early 2008 with Brian Tracy, a global leader in personal development, as one of its founders. It was in pre-launch for about year before it officially launched in March 2009. Come March 2010, the company has failed its hard working distributors. [click to continue…]
A network marketing company must keep it’s distributor force and grow it, otherwise there is no network marketing company. That’s not an easy thing to do for the companies, considering there are endless competing opportunities. Individual reps have a high tendency to quit, or jump to another company in order to find success.
So in order to keep their reps from leaving, they need to make themselves look good. Companies need their reps to think they are the best thing since sliced bread. But… some MLM companies are willing to lie, or use deceitful practices to paint a glowing image of themselves, desparately trying to retain their distributors and gain new ones.
They don’t lie directly. However they don’t tell the full truth either. They use voodoo, black magic, sorcery to twist the facts and spin the numbers. There are a lot of facts they can spin to make themselves look like a great opportunity. [click to continue…]
The first step to MLM success is obvious. It’s to make a list of your friends and family and get rid of them completely by constantly annoying them with your deal. That’s exactly what your “successful” upline mentor told you to do right? So now that you’ve exhausted your warm market and severed all of your close relationships, what do you do? (First of all, congratulations, you haven’t quit yet.)
Did your “successful” upline mentor then tell you to go buy expensive leads? Some people will tell you that the quickest way to build your network marketing business, get it going and earning commissions, is to buy hundreds, even thousands of targeted leads. After all, getting your business in front of the right prospects is one of the hardest aspects of this business and takes the most work.
So in buying leads, or effectively outsourcing your marketing, you have short-cutted one of the biggest obstacles in the process of building your downline. Great. All you have to do is establish a good relationship, introduce them to your team, show them how good the products are and get them to do the same as you did and your destiny is built. Umm… no… [click to continue…]
I used to think being associated with a heavy hitter was a good thing, because I saw them as successful business builders. At least in the pictures they show you, they dress for success, they drive the best cars (usually a Mercedes or a BMW), they live in mega houses with luxury furniture. They walk around with their chest puffed out and they speak with an attitude.
I used to think being associated with heavy hitters was a good thing because I believed that some of the “success” that they displayed would rub off on me. Many other people I’ve met used to think that too. But let me tell you, it’s not a good thing, because a heavy hitter cannot help you become successful.
A heavy hitter does not care about legalities. A heavy hitter does not care about what’s right or wrong. All that a heavy hitter cares about is making money, and they don’t care how they make it. They have big, big egos. They can sell and they can close. But… the majority of people will not be able to do business their way. [click to continue…]
As a professional network marketer, you should always conduct your business in an ethical, open manner with integrity. It’s your duty at all times to conduct your business according to the laws of the MLM industry. There are certain things you just can’t do, or you’ll be breaking the law.
One of those is making an income claim, or showing off how much money you’ve made to potential prospects. You can’t make recruitment claims either. These are strictly against the law. Are you surprised? I don’t blame you if you are, because you the all hype and hooplah on the internet everyday. You think it’s normal.
Here’s what I found in Google Ads after searching several network marketing related terms: “I recruited 3619 in 13 days – See How”, “Make $1050 Today Online”, “Make Huge Monthly Network Marketing Profits”, “$1250-8K Residual for 1x$325″. Every single one of these advertisers are breaking the law. [click to continue…]
In this world, we have a wonderful industry of network marketing, where there’s an awe inspiring culture of people connecting with each other, believing in each other and helping each other achieve success. However, there is a dark side to this industry that’s taking advantage of the good will of the people who participate in it.
There is an over abundance of pyramid schemes who are masquerading as network marketing opportunities. Pyramid schemes by definition are illegal because they are only sustained by the endless recruiting of new participants into the scheme and they impoverish 99 people for every 1 that benefits from participating.
Being a rep for a pyramid scheme is bad, bad news. Over the past 10 years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shutdown 17 illegal pyramid schemes and collected more than $90 million lost by victims. But more and more, the Government is not just going after the perpetrators of pyramid schemes, they are going after the top earners as well. [click to continue…]
On January 27, 2010, Arbonne International, a major MLM company with a distributor force of 800,000 filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy with over $800 million in debt. How did this happen? Arbonne has been retailing it’s own brand personal care and skin care products through independent distributors for 30 years. It has always had a reputation for providing reps a solid business opportunity.
My concern is how Arbonne distributors will fair after this restructuring. Will they be able to continue doing business as usual? Moreover, what can we, as network marketers learn from this episode to protect our own long term future in this wonderful industry of MLM?
Michael Dlouhy, my personal mentor, MLM industry leader of over 30 years experience and still actively building his business says in his book, “Success In 10 Steps” that most companies and large distributor organisations crash and burn because of greed and ego. Greed and ego. [click to continue…]
"I've been in MLM since 1972. I've written and published several MLM books that people have used to build a good income from home. I've read all the great books this industry has produced. And yet, I've never seen a book that has produced as many strong network marketing leaders as fast as 'Success In 10 Steps.' If you're serious about avoiding the pitfalls and creating a successful future in MLM. THIS is the book you need to read!" Tom "Big Al" Schreiter, MLM Trainer & Legend
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