zeekrewardsOver the past few weeks there’s been a lot of speculation as to what Zeek Rewards plans for compliance are.

Along with announcing that they were going to force all members to undergo a compliance course (at cost to their members), Zeek also made a big deal about the partnerships they’d gotten into with a bunch of lawyers – presumably in an attempt to assure their members that they were serious about the business addressing its compliance issues.

The latest news is that Zeek Rewards have banned any and all promotional material not authored by the company themselves, with the company threatening to terminate the accounts of any members who break this rule.

That and under the name ‘Zeek Squad’, the company is actively enrolling its own members to police the internet and report Zeek Rewards members they find breaking Zeek’s new compliance rules.

One thing you’ll notice is that, despite Zeek Rewards’ business model essentially operating as an investment scheme, rather than address why this is by going over their own business model, Zeek instead have cracked down on its members.

Members who, upon joining the company and working within the business model Zeek use, are simply advertising the Zeek Rewards business opportunity for what it is.

I’m no lawyer with a fancy degree, nor am I member of Zeek Rewards (you don’t have to be to understand any analyze the business model), but it strikes me that with a few simple changes, Zeek Rewards could not only ensure complete and total compliance from its members – but simultaneously put to rest the main problems critics have with the business model.

1. Publish the daily revenue generated by the Penny Auctions

Zeek Rewards claim to pay their members a share of the total revenue the company makes from its penny auctions (through Zeekler), on a day-to-day basis.

The problem?

As it stands there’s no transparency and members have no idea what the revenue being generated is.

When you consider that Zeek Reward’s daily profit share payouts have been suspiciously consistent despite the fluctuating nature one would think penny auctions have, there’s a strong case that Zeek Rewards are not paying out a profit share based on the penny auction revenue at all.

This could easily be remedied via the publishing of the revenue generated in the penny auctions. Furthermore this would serve as proof that people are actually using the penny auctions and allow members to pro-rata calculate where they stand in the company, based on their vip bid share of the profit pool.

And before anyone suggests that this is confidential information, to them I say hogwash!

Hundreds, if not thousands of MLM companies (Ok so I don’t know exactly how many MLM companies are out there today) utilise a bonus pool which is a percentage of the total global revenue generated (usually by sales) of the company.

Furthermore, seeing as the success of the penny auction side of things is irrefutable proof that Zeekler’s penny auctions are a roaring success, one would think the company would be all too willing to announce to members what the total daily revenue generated by the penny auctions is.

Not only that, but the reporting of the daily revenue generated would easily allow members to quantify what their share of vip points earns them on a daily basis and effectively stop member’s advertising based on speculation and promised returns.

Being able to say ‘I have xxx points and I earnt $xx from a total daily revenue share of $xx’ is much more compliant than ‘I invested $xx and Zeek paid me a return of $xx from an unknown daily profit share that may or may not have just been the daily real money Zeek members invested into the system’.

Keep in mind of course that it’s legally frowned upon to use proof of income as an advertising tool, but I digress.

2. STOP accepting members VIP bids and paying them a return BEFORE you’ve even given the bids away

As it stands, I can join Zeek Rewards, invest in some VIP bids, give the bids back to the company and enjoy a daily return on my investment immediately (provided I spam the internet with Zeekler ads of course).

This happens whether or not Zeek Rewards has even given away the points I’ve given it and is cause for serious concern over the legitimacy of the Zeek Rewards program.

After all, how on Earth can one receive a return when the bids they’re supposed to be receiving a return on haven’t even been given away yet?

Furthermore it’s unrealistic to suggest that over time, as each and every Zeek Rewards member’s VIP point balance incrementally increases, that Zeek Rewards can continue to give away enough points to customers they are supposedly generating on behalf of their members.

Infact, it would go a long way compliance wise if Zeek Rewards just did away with this component of their business model all together.

And why not? I mean, Zeek Rewards and Zeekler harp on about how important customers are to their business model right? So why not make their members share in the profit pool be reliant on how many customers they are able to generate and give VIP points away to?

There are absolutely no checks and balances as to how out of control Zeek Reward’s VIP point balance is vs. the actual points they give out on a day-to-day basis.

And as far as Zeek’s members go, the uncomfortable truth is that as long as the daily revenue returns are paid, they don’t seem to be interested in where the bids go they give Zeek and whether or not they’re ever eventually even given out.

If the company stops paying out returns on points it hasn’t given away, or better yet stops accepting member’s bids without any checks or balances, it would be hard to suggest that Zeek Rewards are simply paying out a profit share based on the money members are investing in VIP bids.

 

Like I said, I’m not a compliance lawyer with a fancy degree but if I was approached to give my opinion regarding compliance over the Zeek Rewards scheme, the above two points would appear to be no-brainers.

Best of all they require changes on the company end and don’t directly disrupt the activity of Zeek Rewards’ members. Let alone leave them worried about having their accounts terminated because a fellow member reported them because they got a little too creative with their marketing efforts.

To Paul Burks and the rest of Zeek Rewards management: I’m doing you a favour here and I’m not even going to charge you for it. If you want compliance in the Zeek Rewards programs the above two changes will guarantee it and silence your critics once and for all.

The ball is in your court guys.

I personally can’t fault a company that is openly transparent about where the daily profit share comes from and how much it is, nor can I fault a company that requires its members to attract genuine retail customers and only pays them a return once the points they’ve given away have actually been spent in Zeekler’s penny auctions.

Can you?