(no subject)

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Hey Davis Square LJ,

A few months ago I started my own marketing business through Market America.

Market America is a product brokerage and internet marketing company, specializing in one-to-one marketing and mass customization.

Yeah. That didn't make a lot of sense to me the first time I read it either.

In my own words, I help my customers save money on things they're already spending money on anyway.

I work part time, in my own time, with enthusiastic and highly motivated people.

Market America offers thousands of exclusive products in several different markets, and has over 3500 partner stores whose products are available through my web portal:

http://www.marketamerica.com/barrysquared/

Anyway, I'm hosting an informal business overview meeting at my apartment in Davis Square on Sunday, March 8th, at 8pm. It'll be about 45 minutes, and yes, there will be snacks.

I believe that Market America is the key to financial success. Anybody who is interested in hearing about the business, whether to learn about some of the products that can save you money or to find out about an opportunity to make more money in your spare time, let me know and I'll give you more specific information.

You can either comment here, or email me at BarrySquared @ gmail.com, with any questions.

Comments

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Pyramid scheme?

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Nope.

Every person has the potential to make more money than the person who brought them into the company. "People at the top" do not benefit at the expense of "people at the bottom".

If you want to talk about a pyramid scheme, then let's talk about Corporate America.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Craigslist would be that way. ---->

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes.

Amway.

moderator note

[ron_newman]

This sounds like Scamway or some similar pyramid fraud. I'm inclined to delete it but I'll hold off and let other moderators have their say.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Founder of Market America, JD Ridinger, is reported to have been an Amway marketer.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a multi-level marketing scheme. I would agree with deleting.

Re: moderator note

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Not like Amway. Not a fraud.

I'm just stating that there's a business opportunity, and anyone's welcome to analyze it for themselves. Come and see for yourself, if you'd like.

Lovely....

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I love Ponzi schemes. If you get in early enough.
Question: is it early enough?

Re: Lovely....

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Ponzi != Pyramid.

Both are scams, but Pyramid Schemes (and multi-level "marketing" in particular) rely on a tiered structure which is absent from Ponzi.

Re: Lovely....

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Since Market America has been in business since 1993, then you would be out of luck if it were a pyramid scheme.

However, seeing as how it isn't, you'd be all set.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

So, regardless of the merits or flaws here, or whether or not this ought to have been posted on DSLJ, this probably would benefit from being behind an lj-cut.

Leaving aside any other discussion, I wonder if you'd be kind enough to edit this post with such a cut?

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Sure

[ron_newman]

A little googling led me to this which suggests that your post here may also be a trolling experiment.

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not.

I've been in this community for four years.

The post you found was in convert_me because it was satire of religious apologists. It was also in a few atheism communities. Read it again with 'moderate' Catholics or Islams in mind, and it'll make more sense.

This post, however, in in davis_square, because I live in Davis, I'm hosting an event in Davis, and I'd like to present people with the opportunity to make some extra cash in a company that is thriving in spite of (and mainly because of) an economic crash.

Also, I'm not in the Klan. Just for the record.

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Also, if you follow convert_me, you'd know that a troll post wouldn't last 4 hours there, let alone 4 days.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

So, tell me:

Would I, as a new recruit, be permitted and even encouraged to recruit other participants, who would in turn be encouraged to recruit others, and they still more, etc. – from whom I could collect commissions and/or bonuses on what they buy or sell?

Is advancement in a hierarchy of multiple levels of participants achieved by recruitment and/or by a combination of recruitment and sales volume, rather than by appointment, as in other work or sales settings?

Are participants are expected to buy (or subscribe to) products or services in order to qualify for commissions or bonuses or to advance in the scheme?

Does the company pay overrides (commissions and bonuses) to distributors in a hierarchy of more than four levels?

Would the total amount of commissions (or discounts, bonuses, etc.) paid by the company to the entire upline of a participant be more than he/she would receive for actually making the sale?

[muffyjo]

Thank you, these questions are well written and would answer all my initial concerns. I'll be curious to see what the answers are.

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

#1 That's a vast, inaccurate oversimplification of our business plan. If you put eggs, sugar, butter, and flower into a bowl, do you get brownies?

#2 It is a combination of sales volume and increasing your business by bringing other people into the company. I don't understand what you're talking about with "sales volume, rather than appointment". Don't all businesses that offer products want a high sales volume?

#3 Well, I'd be a pretty crappy marketer if I didn't have firsthand experience of my products. So I'd say you'd be a fool if you tried to sell things you had no personal experience with. But no, it's not a requirement. Most people I know in the business do, in fact, use their own products. But why wouldn't they, if they're getting quality items at lower prices... and making a commission on the sale? It wouldn't make any sense!

#4 What do you mean by over-ride? And what are these four levels you're talking about?

#5 If I correctly understand what you're asking, then the answer is no. But I'm not 100% I get you here.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

The sentence "I believe that $FOO is the key to financial success," is a sentence that can only be written by or for naive people. Sometimes good people, well intentioned, intelligent people, make bad choices and earnestly believe what they are doing.

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

I know people who have been in this business for three to ten years, and they're making a large residual income. I know dozens of people who don't have to work again because of what they're made in MA, but they continue to do it because they believe in giving other people the same opportunities they've had.

That's what I call financial success.

[yagagriswold.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is helpful to anyone, but perhaps it might be. I know who transformergeek is. He works in Davis, and has invited me to his information session in person.

I agree that this is an MLM scheme. I think its a bad business model and I wonder whether the company is truly on the up and up.

However, I don't think transformergeek understands that it's an MLM scheme, and I do not think he's being a troll. I think he actually believes MarketAmerica's tall tale, and is guilty of poor judgment rather than dishonesty.

I mention this because I think trolls and hucksters should probably be banned, but I'm not sure that people with lousy business sense should.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

His response seems to be sticking his head in the sand over it, because, like many who fall for MLM, he doesn't want to take the chance of finding out he may have been snookered.

And, so, he continues in his willful ignorance, because it's safe, and if he can get more people to join up, he'll feel safer, and vindicated.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Well, this is different.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

MLMs are proliferating REALLY fast among folks whom you'd otherwise expect to know better, because of the prevailing economic conditions. I'd guess it would be smarter to leave the post and the replies up, so that people who haven't encountered one of these before will get a chance to see what the pitch looks like, how questions like Pierceheart's get answered by a participant, and why people mistrust them. This stuff is creeping up into the neo-Davis education/economic echelon faster than seawater into Florida.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I have a sneaking suspicion that the OP just doesn't want to admit they were snookered by a MLM scheme, and somehow if they snooker more people into the scheme it validates the fact that they themselves got took. Or it makes them feel like "if someone else got took, I'm not as much of a doofis because I'm in good company". Thus he is fighting harder to try to convince HIMSELF and others that it's not what it really is (a scam).

But seriously, would YOU give money or a few hours of your time to someone who calls themself "Reverend Barry"??

Perhaps the fake Spare Change guy would be interested.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I mean, he can make some money, right? If so, then perhaps he'd stop cheating.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

Any time a job wants YOU to give THEM money it's probably a scam.

I suggest you listen to or read the following episodes of the Skeptoid Podcast:

Bend Over and Own Your Own Business (http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4095)
"Are business opportunities offered for sale truly worth it? "

Network Marketing (http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4176)
"Call them Network Marketing, Multilevel Marketing, or MLM, these pyramid plans are proven not to work."

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Please, identify for me a single instance, other than cases of inheritance, where someone owns their own business and yet had to make absolutely no investment.