Recently I have received several emails about programs that are touted as a new paradigm in Internet programs. These new programs are being called member-to-member programs. Here are excerpts from two such emails: “Give yourself permission to make money the easy, internet way!
BE A PART OF THE PARADIGM SHIFT THAT IS TAKING PLACE!
The whole program is managed for you! All you do is join!
No company....no matrix...no gifting....just plain and simple profit!
To receive information on how to get started - send an e-mail to....”
And
“The rules of Affiliate Programs have changed!
The new "member-to-member direct payment" business model is quickly changing the industry. There is no reason to join another "company-based" program EVER again.
You no longer have to promote anything to earn $150 each and every week!
Still wishing you could make money the easy way--- by doing nothing?
Wish No More!”
These new programs are like one level affiliate programs. Normal affiliate programs pay a percentage of sales to the upline affiliate. They usually pay 25% to 50%. These new programs pay 100% of the money to the upline or sponsoring affiliate.
Another difference between the new programs and the old is that the product offered by most of these new programs is a safelist, or a safelist and an ebook. As some of these programs cost $100 a day, it appears that the safelist is only an attempt to legitimize the program.
The first member-to-member program that I saw was Cash a Day, which cost $20 a month at the entry level and $500 a month at the highest level. Their product is a safelist and some ebooks. The section on their website that describes these products contains this information, “Now Please remember its not the products (heck I could use this system to make money with a couple of packs of chewing gum). Focus on the Income Plan...”.
The plan with Cash a Day is that you join for $20 a month and every one you sponsor pays you $20 a month. As you organization and income grows you move up to the $50 a month level, then the $100 a month level, and eventually the $500 a month level. There is also a small administrative fee.
Another such program is My Tycoon Manager. With this program you join for $150 per week and the program administrator guarantees that they will place two members under you within ten days, so that you will earn $150 per week. Their product is a safelist.
I have received emails on at least three other such programs, all of which resemble My Tycoon Manager. There are several problems with this type of program.
The cost is way out of proportion compared to the value of the product. You can join thousands of safelists for free or for about $10 per year. So the product is only an excuse to have a program.
These programs either promise that it will be easy to promote the program or that they will do all the work and place people under you. These promises are much like the promises of a typical ponzi or pyramid scheme. There is a very good chance that these programs are illegal and will face federal scrutiny.
These programs feed on the desire for quick riches without doing any work.
As one of these programs grows they must recruit an ever larger number of people every week (for a weekly program) to keep the program working. In fact they must, at the least, double every week. Many of the people that join cannot afford to pay $150 a week with out seeing a quick return on it. So if they do not receive the promised two signups quickly they may drop out of the program.
There will be a constant battle to get new signups under a new member before the member drops out. When a member does drop out that member must be replaced quickly before his upline decides to drop out. Thus, if the growth does not double every week, the program could easily start collapsing on itself. As a program grows it will become increasing harder, and eventually impossible, to maintain the growth. Then it will start to collapse.
Those that start the program or join the program near the top can make some very nice money. However, those that join later will have a hard time to just break even.
These programs violate the work ethic. Men are to work for their bread. To expect it to be given to them with no work on their part is wrong.
I think that we will see more of these member-to-member programs appearing on the Internet. Many of them will not last long. Other will stay around for a long time, but with an ever changing membership.
When you are introduced to one of these programs you will have to decide what you want to do with it. As for me, I will be staying with traditional network marketing programs and affiliate programs. Programs that have a legitimate product that offers a good value for the cost. Programs that pay you on you marketing efforts and are likely to be around for a long time.
Albin Dittli has been writing software for the network marketing industry for 12 years and marketing on the Internet for over two years. Please visit his web site at http://www.The-Home-Business-Center.com. You can subscribe to his free ezine, eBiz Marketing Tips, by sending an email to moneystrategies@listwarrior.com.
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, in your Newsletter, on your website, or in your E-Book, as long as the author's Resource Box is included with the article.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Affiliate Promotion Articles
More By Developer Shed
 developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
Hold your calendar on January 30, 2008 for this free webcast on the new i5/OS. Rational's Enterprise Modernization products will be discussed at this webcast as they help to drive the application development environment for this new System i OS. <br />And learn how i5/OS will take you to the next step of efficient, resilient business processing. You will hear about the new i5/OS capabilities as it will be the most significant i5/OS release in years. If you cannot join the webcast on 1/30/08 you can still use this link to listen to the replay.<br />
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
The IBM DB2 Deep Compression ROI tool is designed for DBA’s and IT management personnel to perform a clinical analysis of the cost savings gained from the Storage Optimization feature of DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX and Windows. The feature, also known as Deep Compression, compresses data that lies within a database by up to 80% at times.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
David Barnes, Lead Evangelist for IBM Emerging Internet Technologies will discuss aspects of Web 2.0 that bring value to corporations, academia, and government. He'll also discuss IBM's vision around Web 2.0, including the importance of remixability and consumability. The discussion will culminate with examples of various IBM Software Group solutions you can use to get ahead of the Web 2.0 adoption curve.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Poor Requirements Management capabilities in an Enterprise have been linked to excessive project failures, escalating IT costs, and failure to deliver competitive advantage into the marketplace. Join Brianna M Smith from IBM Rational and learn about how successful organizations align IT and Business stakeholders through collaborative processes and tools for effective requirements management, and how an integrated approach across the IT lifecycle can provide unparalleled visibility and traceability to ensure that project teams are delivering on the business vision by "doing the right things" and "doing things right."
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Learn to enable users to both rate existing animations and to combine existing animations into new snippets. This is the third in a series of three tutorials that chronicle the building of a site that enables collaborative discussion and animation building using Domino and OpenLaszlo.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Build secure Web services with transport-level security using IBM Rational Application Developer V7 and IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1. Follow this three-part series for step-by-step instructions about how to develop Web services and clients, configure HTTP basic authentication, and configure HTTP over SSL (HTTPS). This first part of the series walks you through building a Web service for a simple calculator application. You generate and test two different types of Web services clients: a Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) client and a stand-alone Java client. You also handle user-defined exceptions in Web services.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
In this tutorial, you can learn how to install and configure the IBM Rational Asset Manager Eclipse client, explore the different views in the Asset Management perspective, learn various search techniques, work with existing assets, and submit a new asset.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
You can now evaluate IBM Rational Asset Manager V7.0 online without installing or configuring it on your own system! Rational Asset Manager helps create, modify, govern, find, and reuse any type of development assets, including SOA and systems development assets. Rational Asset Manager helps you reduce software development costs and improve quality by facilitating the reuse of all types of software development-related assets. Visit developerWorks to learn more about this product and register to explore its capabilities online.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Whether you are creating new applications or modifying existing ones, managing integration of new components with traditional z/OS elements is a critical part of building and deploying modern applications. Listen to this webcast to see how IBM can help you optimize your development process using an IDE like Rational Developer for System z that integrates with management tools, such as ClearCase to manage your application development on mainframes.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
The unprecedented scope of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiative brings to the forefront a number of management and governance issues that were sidestepped in the past. The key to a successful SOA implementation is managing and governing activities throughout the entire SOA delivery lifecycle by ensuring that services conform to the needs of all of the business’s stakeholders. Learn how service lifecycle management allows the business to ensure that the process by which services are defined, created, tested, deployed, optimized and retired is manageable, repeatable and auditable.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
|
