Wow...someone on Adland Pro that is intelligent! I'm shocked!
Good post Ken...I thought I was the only here who understood a legal and legitimate network marketing opportunity versus a "money game" or illegal program.
In addition to the few that you mentioned, you can also throw in most of the Internet related opportunities, especially those with a matrix plan, where you commonly see verbiage like "No sponsoring and you can still make money," "Don't do anything and make thousands," "No selling, no sponsoring, etc., and you can still get paid," etc., etc., etc.
What many here evidently also don't realize is that while your program may be legitimiate, when you use phrases like those above, it now means your program is subject to regulatory scrutiny as regulators consider programs to be pyramids when there is no selling, no sponsoring, and no ongoing activity being conducted by you as a justification to receive commissions and bonuses..
Another phrase I'm seeing by a few people now is "guaranteed income" which anyone who is knowledgeable and experienced in our industry knows is a real no-no...
The problem is that most people just copy and paste the ad they responded to when they signed up and start using it, assuming the ad must be ok, and they sign up in programs and erroneously think, "well the program hasn't been shut down, so it must be ok or legal."
Wrong!
In addition, if the vast majority of sales of whatever it is that is being promoted are being made to distributors (business participants), your program is also going to be in trouble as regulators like to see quite the opposite, sales being made to NON business participants. The same holds true if the vast majority of your income is coming from revenue generated through business participants and not non-business participants. Regulators like to see a 3 to 1 customer to distributor ratio...
Frankly, very few of the programs I see promoted here on Adland would pass regulatory scrutiny as many appear to be nothing more than $10 a month deals, internet deals of various types marketing something that has no legitimate value to non-business participants, pay it forwards, cash gifting deals, etc...
In addition, there seem to be a lot of "new deals" promoted here, and if you're interested in putting the odds of success in your favor, start ups wouldn't be at the top of the list as 99% of them fail within their first 2-3 years...
Is it any wonder that 97% of people in our industry fail? I'm not surprised...