Hi Dave; ========================================= I REALLY enjoy your forums! It's like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise smoggy, stagnant world. Ooooooohh... I hope I don't get hurt for that! ========================================= Thank you. And, you won't get hurt... just hide over there in the corner for a while until some new juicy bit comes along. lol You make a very good point - I sure as shootin' wouldn't want every customer in my downline. Yikes. What a recipe for a nightmare! You're very right about MLM... to succeed, it would need to offer all of: -- great product. (good isn't enough) -- fair retail price (agreed that most fail here) -- customers don't have to join to buy. -- focus on the product, not the downline Plus, I think... -- ability to sell from MY website, not send people to theirs. That way, I can brand me, and then sell to those that trust me, instead of trying to convince people to "sign up" at such and such site. Finding one that offers all that is next to impossible. That's why I always mutter that MLMs don't "get" the Internet. They work the math to keep everyone in their pocket and on their site - not to empower their sellers. Pity. : ) Linda

===================================== -- ability to sell from MY website, not send people to theirs. That way, I can brand me, and then sell to those that trust me, instead of trying to convince people to "sign up" at such and such site. ====================================== That's definitely a plus in my books Linda. At least when it comes to the retail aspect of things. Most MLM companies do not do good in that area. I don't know if I have yet seen a good site when it comes to the retail end. You're always confronted with the business opportunity. You would think that they would have a separate site for each so that you can direct your potential customers and/or business associates to the appropriate site to get to the information you need them to see.

Hi Linda, -------------------------------------------------------------- Plus, I think... -- ability to sell from MY website, not send people to theirs. That way, I can brand me, and then sell to those that trust me, instead of trying to convince people to "sign up" at such and such site. ------------------------------------------------------------------- That's a very good point. I can think of one MLM that is a close fit on the other points, but has always discouraged members from marketing online! :-| Bizarre! They're trying to protect themselves, I guess, but would be smarter to offer guidelines and let members use the net like any other tool, like, for example, the telephone. The problem is, most people think of the net as some magic "being" that does all the selling for them, rather than a communications tool. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Finding one that offers all that is next to impossible. That's why I always mutter that MLMs don't "get" the Internet. They work the math to keep everyone in their pocket and on their site - not to empower their sellers. Pity. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I couldn't have said it better. I was with one company a while ago who had great products with high customer satisfaction that I was able to market through my own site. I even framed their shopping cart and sign up pages in my site to keep the customers on my site. It worked great for a while, until they incorporated framebusting scripting on their sites that made me look like an idiot as when they broke the frames, they dumped my id as well. Anyway, they have enough problems of their own, now. Serves them right for not backing the people who were making them money! Keep 'em coming, Linda! God bless, Dave

Hi, Linda Wow, lots to read here, as I also missed the thread notification somehow. Or maybe my mind just skipped over it because of the title. 'Destined to fail' is not a phrase that I would want to enter my energy field! But, everything you write is valuable, so when I found it accidently, I came to read. I got really interested in the discussion on MLM, because as you know there are a couple I promote. I've been back and forth half a dozen or more times between 'recruit' and 'sell product' and finally concluded that I'm not a very good recruiter. One of the reasons is that you have to teach your recruits to do as you do, and I sure wouldn't want them to do that! I have too many projects to focus on recruiting. It's kind of a circular 'destined to fail' issue. But I love, and use, the products involved, and at least one of them can meet all your tests including selling it from my own website...and guess what? I make more money selling it at retail than on downline. So there's at least one out there. This discussion clarified one of the points in lesson one of our test for me...thanks! Cheri