Greetings everyone, A question has come up about so-called Guaranteed Signups. Here are the questions and my short answers, followed by perhaps some eye-opening information: Does anyone have any experience with buying guaranteed signups? Yes, I certainly do! How was it? Every one I tried was totally useless. Did they do as promised? Yes, they did. Was it just for free programs? Yes. Would you recommend them? Absolutely not. Any feedback would be appreciated before I go and spend a whack of money on something that doesn't work. Don't spend ANY money on ANY of them. They simply do not work, UNLESS you are trying to market a downline building system (often called a Powerline - more on that one later) and want to make it LOOK like it's a screaming success machine. Here's how almost all so-called guaranteed signups work. There are several companies around the internet that offer to pay their members a fee for performing small, easy tasks for them. (Lots of suckers... oops... I mean really nice newbies sign up for these paidto programs, most of which pay very little in reality and often nothing at all.) Here is the bottom line. These companies ALSO sell guaranteed signups, usually on another site. The tasks that they are "paying" people to do almost always involve signing up for the free introductory offer in some MLM, affiliate program, powerline, etc. They have no interest, whatsoever, in what you are marketing!! All they want is their one or two cents for doing the task!! They will NEVER, EVER upgrade in your company, unless, by some amazing miracle, they actually figure out that they're being scammed and helping the scammers to scam YOU. If you're a little unethical, yourself, and want to make it look like you're the sponsoring guru of the program you're in (if your program runs a powerline), then go ahead and buy 50 or a hundred guaranteed signups, but be aware that unless you KEEP buying them, the REAL signups who come in will soon notice that almost no one is actually upgrading, and if they have upgraded, will quickly notice that no one is actually upgrading under them, either. OK - that brings me back to the so-called Powerline programs. I bring these up, because they often encourage their members to buy guaranteed signups, because it makes them look good to all the suckers... oops... there I go again... I mean new online entrepeneurs who haven't learned the ropes yet. (I was one once...!) A Powerline campaign uses huge blocks of guaranteed signups and tons of traffic to splash pages to create a huge amount of (phony) momentum, with the sole purpose of kick-starting an upgrade frenzy in as short a time as possible, so that those at the top can sit back and let all the people they fooled do all the hard work while they cruise and schmooze with all their heartless friends. Do I sound too negative? Well, if you haven't been online long, perhaps I do, but once you've been kicked around enough, as I have, you'll realize I'm simply telling it like it is. There ARE good businesses and opportunities out there, but you have to look hard, do a lot of due diligence (translation - real digging), and ask a lot of people how much money they are REALLY making, BEFORE you spend a whack of cash on the next great "We'll Do All the Work and You'll Make All the Money" program. Here's the advice I give everybody. Join me in a business that's REALLY free to join and has NO upgrades. Why should you pay someone else to sell their stuff?? That's absurd! Then work at this one until you really start making money with it. It CAN be done, but you WILL have to work. Here's the bottom line. Quite a few people HAVE joined me, but not one of them is making a thin dime at it. Why? Because they'd rather pay their money on a wallet-sucking program that promises to do all the work for them, and they'd rather pay it over and over again to one such program after another till their credit cards are maxed RIGHT OUT, than actually knuckle down to ONE real program and learn how to make money with it. I hope YOU are one of the few who WILL be successful. God bless, Dave

Hi, Dave, Once again you are sounding an alarm that should not need to be sounded. Anybody who thinks their on-line business is any different to a high street business is heading for a fall. The first question they should ask themselves is - "If this was a shop on the high street - would this work?" I know many shop keepers who would simply love to buy customers - but they would only buy them if they were going to spend money in the shop. Remember, traffic in a shop wears out the carpet but does not help pày to replace it. Arthur p,s, Common sense seems to be not that common on line - what about sense?

Dave,

As usual, you have submited some valuable information.

There is a lot to be said about the "Free" and what it is doing with the industry.

Network marketing is a profession and should be treated as such.

It can and should be an "Honorable Profession," but it will never become one until Professional Marketers begin policing and reporting the Pit Falls that abound in the industry.

Powerline, Forced Matrix and Downline Building programs will produce a lot of Deadwood which does not produce profitability.

Here is an article on Downline Building organizations that may be of interest to those that take the time to read it.

When you receive an email telling about the Downline Clubs,
it sounds real exciting doesn't it!

Untill you put the calculator to it!

As professional marketer, I am obligated to send this
message to you!

I like to adhere to solid advice that is presented to me by individuals
that have more knowledge and experience than  I presently have.

Here is some information that Mike Feury, a marketing expert passed
on to me.  When I examined the figures I determined he was correct.

Here is Mike's expert advice to me, I hope that it will also be of value
to you and your marketing Program

Mike Feury

When I was helping design a Downline Builder for the AIC forum I moderate,
we looked at all these combinations and concluded that anything other than
a 1-wide vertical chain was unfair. 2-wide is the least unfair of the
rest, but look how it goes :

2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
512
1024
2048
4096
8192

With 16,382 members, as you can see 50% have no referrals, another 25%
have 2 referrals, 12.5% have 4 referrals, 6.25% have 8 referrals and so
on. That's 93% with 8 or less referrals, and as you know 8 referrals won't
earn you much !
Only a tiny minority will have a decent downline - provided there are
enough levels in whatever program they join of course ! So essentially
it's a scam which can only benefit the top guys - although it's less of a
scam than the 5x5 matrices which are springing up all around.
My advice is steer well clear, this can only damage your credibility.

All the best,
Mike.

_________________________________________________________________

It is evident that the ones that benefit the most from these types
of clubs are the ones that set them up:
Stop and think if you were on someone's 7 level and in order to
have 4 enrolled under you, how many would your upline have
to enroll in order to place 4 under you?
Get out your calculator and figure it out!

Then if they are going to build the business for you, why do you
have to work so hard to build an organization?

Compliments of:

Again Dave, kudos to you!

Do you remember Nitro Clicks? Boy... I do. I joined that Paid to Task program when I was a newbie, then ended up writing a big time scam report on it. They were shut down by the government a short time later.

How can any business gaurantee sign ups? They can't. Even if they could, what is the quality of the person who gets into your downline?

Personally, I'd rather have control over who is  joining me. I don't see it as recruiting, but interviewing. I am selective when it comes to people I work with. That is the only way to get active members into you business. Who cares if you have a million members, if they don't do anything to enhance your business?

These programs are a waste of time and money.

Trina

I completely agree. I had not wondered about where these "guaranteed" people came from until I started getting calls because I had filled out a surrvey.

Well, of course I had! These programs that you have to do a "survey" sell them-I don't know what I clicked.

The only question that is asked is: "Do you want to start a home based business?"
That's it-almost everyone does until they find out that it is still work and no guaranteed pay check at the end of it.

Better to make your own lead capture pages if your program doesn't have one that you like-but there is no getting around the screening process.