You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2007.
It looks like Travel Based MLMs may be in for stormy waters due to supply side issues. According to various sources, including this press release from YTB Travel, Royal Caribbean is terminating their contract and in fact terminating the contacts of other Travel MLMs. There are apparently hard feelings from independent travel professionals against the MLM industry when it comes to travel. For instance, here is a petition to stop MLM travel companies. There is a feeling that people join Travel MLMs just to take advantage of the benefits being offered such as FAM trips. There is further feeling that Travel MLM agents don’t have the level of professionalism that independent agents do.
It seems that there are always unhappy people in an industry when Network Marketing companies start to plant their models in the industry. This is to be expected. The Network Marketing company that can bring professional level IBOs to an industry will be able to compete in that industry. But those that are built only on perks or on the MLM model itself may be swept away. MLMs in the travel industry have only been around a few years and it will be interesting to see how this develops.
There’s a new kid on the block on the Network Marketing Juice block. It’s called Zrii (pronounced Zree as in tree). Its formula is based on the Amalaki fruit, a fruit that grow in the lowlands of the Himalayas. It was apparently used in the ancient science of Ayurveda.
Amalaki (emblica officinalis) is a fruit which grows at the base of the pristine Himalayan mountain range in northern India. Ayurveda describes amalaki as the single most important botanical for promoting cellular rejuvenation, immune function, and increased vitality(Source)
There seems to be some confusion about its launch date however. Certain press releases such as this one, claim the product was launched 10/3/07. However the main site (here) says it’s still in pre-launch. The main site has the unfortunate feature of an automatically lauchned audio-visual SitePal style talking head. She sounds like a 12 year old girl! Could they not find an adult woman to lend her voice? You can turn her off by hovering your mouse over the area of her feet to show the object control.
That said, I suppose the best of this is that you can get in early. And the best time to join an Network Marketing company is at or near the beginning. However, it doesn’t do any good to just join them as they roll out. Once the buzz stops, will it be a sustainable product and opportunity? That’s always the question.
Update December 2007: Looks like that link I listed as “main site” was just a distributor site I followed from the press release. And now it’s selling Xango. Now that’s interesting and I’m sure there’s a story behind it, but that distributor bailed pretty quickly didn’t she? Below is the link to the actual Zrii site:
Exponent Trading launched late in June of 2007. They are a network marketing business with an eBay and Craigslist selling component. The idea is that you list items to sell on CraigsList or eBay and you earn commissions on your sales. You also earn commision on the sales of your downline.
The basic commission structure is as follows:
70% for the first $200 sales volume each month
95% for the sales volume between $200 and $1000 each month
97.5% for sales volume above $1000 each month
The flip side of this is that you pay as follows:
30% for the first $200 sales volume each month
5% for the sales volume between $200 and $1000 each month
2.5% for sales volume above $1000 each month
So if you sold $1000 in volume, you would have to pay Exponent $100 ($60 + $40). It’s two sides of the same coin and Exponent of course emphasizes it as commissions. What does Exponent provide for that 30/5/2.5? A listing interface which has been publicly dissed as overly simplistic and useless. Training, which no one has gotten other than conference calls.
Interesting that even the Exponent opportunity conference calls seem to have dried up. The basic problem with this network marketing model is that you must bring others into the organization to make up for monthly $100+ that you’re giving up. From what I’ve been reading on eBay boards and blogs lately, margins on eBay won’t allow for this monthly ‘commision’. I can possibly see this working if you have an eBay consignment business. Even then you will have to somehow justify the $100+ dollars taken by Exponent.
I will be surprised if this is around by this time next year. This just doesn’t look sustainable. I could be wrong, but I put this here to mark the spot. I am not the only who feels this way. Look here and here.
Ecoquest itself of course doesn’t have a face, but the thousands of Ecoquest dealers in California who do have faces have been collectively slapped by a California law banning ozone based air purifiers. The ban will take affect in 2009.
Ecoquest International is a network marketing company that sells many products. But the ‘bread and butter’ are the air purifiers, particualry the Living Air series which are Ozone based air purification systems. Certainly this will hurt this line immensely.
The objection to ozone based air purification systems is not exactly new. In 2004, the EPA issued a damaging report on the danger of these in-home system but did not outright forbid them. However, that should have served as the red flag for this product.
It will be interesting to see where Ecoquest goes with this. Nearly all if not all of their Air system are ozone based and this will mean some serious re-engineering. I have a Breeze AT in my home but we rarely use it after reading all the warnings. It is great to use after we cook fish!
State bans in-home ozone air purifiers, citing health risks
It’s all about selling. Call it network marketing, but somewhere along the line, you’re going to have to sell something: either the product or the opportunity. And along with selling comes rejection.
There are volumes written about the psychology of handling rejection so I won’t go into that here. But that does lend weight to why most people who go into network marketing never make it to higher levels. If you want to make it to the higher levels in a network marketing organization, it is necessary to accept rejection and have the ability to move up and on after the rejection.
