Why this wonky chocolate MLM won't wash and another cashback opp
Today's Adventure in the Biz opp Jungle:
'In which Charlie is swamped by disgusting
amounts of luncheon meat.... goes to Willy's
Wonky Chocolate Factory...wonders whether
these latest MLMs will make you money... and
hears of the latest cashback opp.'
Hi,
First up an apology...
If you've sent me an email since last Friday and
not got a reply, please don't think I'm ignoring you.
I opened my email inbox on Monday to find 996
emails had come into my inbox in 3 days.
Almost all were spam, weird bounce-backs and
odd email addresses.
Now, I do usually get a lot of hugely irritating
emails "about my degree", "Beryl, Sharon, Phyllis
are waiting for you", "your online bank access has
been suspended", "Make yours larger", "medical
directory", "Offer for Charlie"... blah blah and so on
an so forth.
How mad with rage do they make you?
For me, I have to click and delete... click and
delete... until my repetitive strain injury flairs up -
and I still haven't even replied to a single
subscriber yet!
ARRRGH!
Thing is, 900 of them in 3 days is ridiculous. I'm
covered head to toe in luncheon meat!
I'm not sure if someone's hacked into the jungle or
not. But it's being sorted out by the good folk at
the company behind my broadcasting system.
Hopefully I should be able to locate the genuine
reader emails later today or tomorrow.
Anyway, sorry.
By the way, if you're tearing your hair out with
similar problems, there's a free report out called
'Iron Clad Your PC: 7 Easy Ways to Protect
Yourself from Spam, Hackers, Phishers, Bugs and
Pop-Ups'. It's well worth getting your hands on it.
Click here:
www.unclereboot.com
Okay, onto other matters...
The story of Willy's Wonky Chocolate
Factory
Did you ever see the programme on Channel 4
called Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory?
It was about a guy called Willie Harcourt-Cooze.
He wanted to imported 100% cacao from
Venezuela and sell it in the supermarkets as a
high priced culinary ingredient.
The pure stuff is very different from your average
chocolate bar. You can use it in cooking and as a
health aid, crazy as it may sound. Without all the
added sugar and processing, it's an ancient
Andean "pick-me-up".
The Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes once
said "An army can march all day on one glass of
chocolate."
Of course, Willie Harcourt-Cooze had his work cut
out convincing people this was a high quality,
healthy cooking ingredient.
But it is a growing idea, and people are jumping
on the chocolate bandwagon (if you can imagine a
bandwagon made out of chocolate.)
Now a US company called Global Rewards is
trying to spread the word about "healthy
chocolate" using a classic multi-level marketing
technique.
And as a biz opp seeker, you may have been on
the receiving end of their advertising.
Is this chocolate opp a goer?
I've had a look into this. While the product may be
okay, you'd need to have a serious list of health
food buyers to make this work. Trying to recruit
friends and family may not cut it.
I've been involved in a bit of health book marketing
before, so I know a bit about what works and what
doesn't.
If it was me - and this product was tested on the
market and found to be popular - I'd sell this
product into a good health email newsletter list.
Even then I'd prefer to simply go to the source
company and sell the product on commission than
get into this 'downline' malarkey.
One of my readers agrees:
"Seems to me you will have to get through an
awful lot of chocolate and have many on your
'downline' to make any real money from this."
Also, there's another parallel story that may be
worth considering...
I found an article in the Sydney Morning Herald
called 'The Great Chocolate Rip Off'. It was about
a company called MXI Corp, which has been
selling their 'healthy Xocai chocolate range'...by
offering it as a multi level marketing opportunity.
The article said that the company claimed that
"Several of the 620 Australian distributors were
'making six figures' and there are big plans to
expand."
However, the article then says...
"But Jon Taylor, the Utah-based president of the
Consumer Awareness Institute and an adviser to
Pyramid Scheme Alert, who has analysed
hundreds of similar schemes, warned that recruits
were having to spend money to qualify for
commissions and advance in the scheme.'"
If you want to take a look at the article, it's here:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sweet-
schemes-the-great-chocolate-
ripoff/2008/08/01/1217097533797.html
On a similar subject...
The cashback opp with the rubbish
name
I got an email about a project called "Ei42" (catchy
name, huh?)
It's a Cashback shopping site that offers you the
chance to affiliate-sell products from high street
retailers like Argos, M & S, B & Q, Amazon, House
of Fraser, Curry's and Pc World.
It's free to join. The idea is that you open your own
online shop and order goods through these
affiliated companies. In return you get a cash-back
commission.
When you recommend others to start their own
shop, you also earn commission through them.
This continues down through 7 levels before you
stop earning.
Basically, it's like MLM-meets-loyalty card.
A reader has been looking into this and says:
"Last month the highest earner received a cheque
for £500 - so it isn't massive money yet but it is still
early days and not too bad from no investment
and just recommending people to save money!"
I had a fish around for more information online.
Again, this is a Multi Level Marketing opp which
means that large list owners could probably make
a good thing of it, but your ordinary Joe could
struggle to extend their downline.
Here's an online comment I found:
"The Brand Names are tops with a good cross
section. The problem of growing your network of
'friends' is limited only by the list of those you
know. Once you reach the end of your list,
convincing others may not be so simple."
And another says:
"It only works if you are willing to be dedicated and
enable focussed activity to promote it, so that you
get about 20-50 members signed-up under you."
And another...
"It may work slightly if you have a lot of tolerant,
obliging and free-spending friends who are
remarkably unsavvy about cashback sites."
So this looks legal, but the organisers will probably
make the lion's share of the money. And anyone
else will struggle. I personally wouldn't go for it,
but it's above board and I'm not going to criticise
someone for a business idea that does offer some
return.
By the way, if you want to learn how to tell an
MLM from a pyramid, you should check out this
past issue of the Biz Opp Jungle.
I wrote it a few years ago now, but the advice still
stands.
http://www.bizoppjungle.com/Letters/A_Pyramid_Of_Mice_and_Men.aspx
Later alligator
Charlie Wright
The Biz Opp Jungle
www.bizoppjungle.com
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