Bidify launch second compensation plan in a week
In the wake of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme being shut down by the SEC, rival penny auction Bidify almost immediately shut down their own similar Ponzi points compensation plan announcing that they’d be bringing out a more “traditional” MLM focused plan shortly.
A few days later Bidify relaunched with what I’m calling v2.0 of their compensation plan. In a nutshell, the Ponzi points were gone and in its place a stock standard unilevel commissions structure which paid out residual commissions on the sale of bids.
Other than some cruises, there was little else to it. With the SEC having shed light on suspicions that the former largest MLM penny auction in the world was unable to attract significant retail customers, Bidify was probably not going to fare too well down the track.
Indeed, just a few days ago I wrote:
I’d strongly suggest any change in Bidify’s compensation over the next few weeks would be an indication that a MLM penny auction relying on the sale of bids to customers isn’t really viable.
Three days later and here we are with the Bidify compensation plan v3.0.
So what’s changed?
The unilevel residual commissions structure that pays out down 8 levels, along with Personal Volume (PV) requirements that were launched in v2.0 of the Bidify compensation plan are still there.
The joining fee has been increased from 25 Euros to 50 Euros, with the monthly membership fee remaining at 25 Euros a month.
The major addition however is the introduction of Bidify membership ranks and bid packages affiliates are able to purchase upon joining the company.
Bidify Membership Ranks
There are five membership ranks within the Bidify compensation plan and, along with their qualification requirements, they are as follows:
Qualified Affiliate
- generate a minimum 25 PV a month
Team Trainer
- generate a minimum 100 PV a month
- personally recruit a minimum of 3 affiliates
- personally recruit a minimum of 10 verified customers
Ambassador
- generate a minimum 300 PV a month
- personally recruit a minimum of 3 affiliates, 2 of which must be Team Trainers or higher
- personally recruit a minimum of 15 verified customers
Ruby
- generate a minimum of 500 PV a month
- personally recruit a minimum of 5 affiliates, 2 of which must be Ambassadors or higher and 1 a Team Trainer or higher
- personally recruit a minimum of 20 verified customers
Diamond
- generate a minimum of 500 PV a month
- personally recruit a minimum of 5 affiliates, 2 of which must be Rubies or higher and 1 an Ambassador or higher
- personally recruit a minimum of 30 verified customers
Note that PV in the Bidify compensation plan is defined a bid sales volume an affiliate themselves purchase or that of their recruited customers.
One-Time Bonus Commissions
When an affiliate joins Bidify, they have the option of purchasing a one-time bid package, which in turn pays out a one-time bonus commission.
There are five bid packages available –
- Bidify Starter (100 Euros) – 230 Bidsson bids (generates 100 PV)
- Bidify Premium (250 Euros) 550 Bidsson bids (generates 250 PV)
- Bidify Builder (500 Euros) – 1100 Bidsson bids (generates 500 PV)
- Bidify Advantage (1000 Euros) – 2200 Bidsson bids (generates 1000 PV)
- Bidify Professional (3000 Euros) – 7000 Bidsson bids (generates 3000 PV)
Affiliates earn commissions on one time bid packages purchased by affiliates, based on a sliding upline scale. The way this works is that upon the sale of a one-time affiliate bid package, the system pays out a fixed commission to the recruiting affiliate, their immediate upline and the 1st Team Trainer, Ambassador, Ruby and Diamond members found in their upline.
The percentage breakdown paid out in commissions for one-time affiliate bid purchases is as follows:
- recruiting affiliate – 32%
- direct upline – 6%
- 1st Team Trainer – 3%
- 1st Ambassador – 3%
- 1st Ruby – 3%
- 1st Diamond – 3%
This equates to the following payouts in Euros:
- Starter Package – 32% = 32 Euros, 6% = 6 Euros, 3% = 3 Euros
- Premium Package – 32% = 80 Euros, 6% = 15 Euros, 3% = 7.5 Euros
- Builder Package – 32% = 160 Euros, 6% = 30 Euros, 3% = 15 Euros
- Advantage Package – 32% = 320 Euros, 6% = 60 Euros, 3% = 30 Euros
- Professional Package – 32% = 960 Euros, 6% = 180 Euros, 3% = 90 Euros
Note that if a higher ranked affiliate is found in the upline, they receive their ranked commission as well as all commissions under them.
Eg. If a Ruby Affiliate is found after the direct upline, they receive the Ruby, Ambassador and Team Trainer commissions.
Leadership Bonus Pool
Operating I believe separately to the “Ponzi points” affiliate pool (made up of 50% of the Bidsson auction revenue), Bidify’s new Leadership Pool consists of 5% of the global bid package sales made by affiliates.
Shares in the pool are decided by membership rank:
- Ambassador – 1 share
- Ruby – 3 shares
- Diamond – 6 shares
Note that shares are stackable, meaning a total of 10 shares are achievable at the Diamond membership level.
Conclusion
With the unilevel residual commissions still keeping focus on the sale of bids, the new changes are obviously aimed more on the recruitment side of things.
With the way the one-time bid packages and commissions are structured, it’s clear the idea is to sign up new affiliates and get them to buy into a one-time bid package.
With the commissions trickling upline, no doubt increased marketing pressure will spur affiliate downlines to get their new affiliates to purchase bid packs.
Retail customer retention issues still exist as far as the unilevel goes (as pointed out in v2.0 of the compensation plan), and I’m not particularly sure what kind of affiliate the new additions are aimed at.
By and large as far as MLM penny auction affiliates go the consensus over thousands of comments in discussions on BehindMLM seems to be most affiliates can’t be bothered with the penny auctions.
Looking at v3.0 of Bidify’s compensation plan, they seem to be going after affiliates who would have an interest enough in the penny auctions to make that initial one-time bid package purchase (which would have to be pretty strong interest to warrant a 3000 Euro purchase for nothing more than bids).
Having seen the Zeek Rewards bid figures, particularly the 3 billion VIP point number (points = bids), and that only 0.25% of bids were actually used on auctions with an attached Ponzi investment scheme, I still have my reservations about the viability of an MLM penny auction focused around the sale of bids.
One thing I’m not particularly keen on is the recruitment requirements built into the membership ranks.
It was quickly noted when Bidify released v2.0 of their compensation plan that they might struggle to attract affiliates due to the simplistic nature of the compensation plan.
From what I can see the only reason Bidify forces affiliates to recruit if they wish to advance membership ranks is the hope that newly recruited affiliates will purchase on-time bid packages to generate commissions. Otherwise why not just have requirements based on bid package sales volume?
That said, this does appear to be somewhat of a genuine attempt to restructure the MLM penny auction niche away from the Ponzi points style compensation plan and full credit to Bidify for that.
I’m only aware of one other MLM penny auction that’s launched with a bid sales focused compensation plan (One Penny More) and as of yet none of the MLM penny auctions in pre-launch have come forward with anything tangible (Global One simply abandoned their penny auction plans altogether).
Zeek Rewards was heavily praised for being trailblazers in the MLM penny auction niche and while they were the first to combine MLM with a penny auction, ultimately being a Ponzi scheme is was nothing new.
Bidify’s attempt at bids as a viable product is more like what they should have launched with, but whether or not it penny auction bids are viable as a stand-alone product remains to be seen.
In the meantime some recent comments by Bidify affiliates might shed some light on where things are currently at:
it’s a pretty pointless program now unless you’re a recruiter. I was doing ok before the changes, now I am making next to nothing from my 1500 leadership points, after monthly fees.
This is probably the situation that 95% of affiliates now find themselves in. Most cannot recruit, certainly not paying auction customers.
I don’t think any of my customers ever made a purchase, in Bidify or Zeek.
There was a very drastic decline in Founders Bonus since the compensation plan changed… it’s kinda disappointing and I feel that they have let us down.
Stay tuned.
Update 11th September, 2012 – After reading reports that Bidify’s Ponzi points global pool returns had dropped so low that members who had Ponzi points couldn’t even cover their monthly membership fees (25 EUR) and minimum PV (25 EUR) to earn, Bidify have just announced they’ve dropped the eligiblity requirement to paying the admin fee only.
This effectively means that those members who participated in the old Ponzi points investment scheme are now back to earning a passive investment (pay admin fee, do nothing, earn ROI on previously invested money).
Well, until the Ponzi points revenue share drops below paying out a ROI of less than 25 EUR a month – what happens then is anyone’s guess.
Joined as a founder started well but the new changes are really disappointing , I think they should offer a refund option as this is not we originally signed upto.
Here’s something that can be of interest, the first public call from ZeekRewards’ receivership, about different aspects like clawbacks, cashier checks, class action lawsuits and more.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanmaglich/2012/08/27/zeek-receiver-holds-press-conference-with-media-up-to-two-million-victims-herculean-effort-ahead/
Bidify’s business model was relatively similar to ZeekRewards’ until a week ago. I haven’t studied the new compensation plan, so the link is primarily related to the old one.
Other articles found there (links disabled, to slip through moderation queue):
As we now know, there was no “business model” other than “rob Peter to pay Paul”
One suspects Bidify is merely engaging in some sleight of hand rearranging of the deckchairs on the Titanic
I think Bidify is sunk. Nobody’s going to want to join in order to try to recruit customers, and there’s only going to be a set number of actual auction customers anyway.
People joined Zeek because it was an easy investment opportunity. Nobody cared about recruiting actual customers there, either.
They probably don’t have enough money to make refunds work, either. So a refund solution will first require that people can be willing to accept losses (with no hard feelings if it’s done correctly), and a plan for how to distribute it.
I have absolutely no idea about how to change 5,000 optimistic investors and recruiters into well trained and hard working sales people, able to recruit enough paying customers to Bidsson to support their own payouts. 🙂
Old affilates are earning indefinitly through the bidsson bonus and founder bonus. Does that mean they do not need PV or to pay the admin fee – assuming that they just want to earn passively without recruiting?
Yes they still have to pay the admin fee and also need PV so a minimum of 50 euro per month.
I know there is alot of pretty pissed off people, last night bonus equated to 1 euro for every 1000 euro in.
This is more like V2.1: more bonuses based on sales.
Frode and the Bidify management are sitting on $1.2 million made from founder members who put in 1000 euros each.
There were 1200 founder positions. Bidify got another bulk of money in last 60 days from people who put in anywhere from 100 to 25000 euros as they were told by bidify leaders that they would get anywhere from 1 to 2% on it each day.
More so the sales mantra was… Bidify is so much better than zeek as in Bidify the points retire after 120 days. Zeek with 90 days points retirement couldn’t survive, how did bidify think it would pull this off.
Clearly shows Bidify model was flawed to begin with and it would have met the same fate as zeek sooner or later.
After collapse of zeek, Bidify management tried to save their face legally by quickly erasing the daily bonus pool and changing the comp plan twice. They can change the plan 10 times but it wont do a thing as the Penny Auction + MLm models have been exposed.
It has been revealed that all these firms were getting fake customers whom they are giving bid to. To find a real customer who wants to play auctions is like finding a needle in a haystack. And here the haystack is fairly big.
These firms seem to have no ethics and don’t want to refund the affiliates money. What options do affiliates have. I strongly feel that all affialties need to get united and ask Bidify management to refund their monies as it violated certain legal parameters.
Collecting 1000 euro for founder position by itself is a clear violation of SEC securities law. These firms need to be exposed to SEC, FTC, DOJ, BBB, etc. so that they can be held accountable for their actions.
Ultimate Power Profits just dumped their Penny Acution biz, Zeek rewards is gone, Bids that give will soon have to suffer the same fate.
This is one reason why Oz raised a big red flag based on the country of operations and banking locations for Bidify.
The one thing about Zeek and ASD that helped investors recover some money is that they operated in US jurisdiction so Federal authorities could take action.
While it’s still possible for US regulators to take action outside the US, the threshold required for action is much higher, and the probability of recovering money or even having the ability to sue Bidify or their management in civil litigation is much more challenging, if not almost impossible for the small investors who say has invested under 5k euros..
They’re not firms, they’re pyramid/Ponzi scams. And they usually have an identifiable type of “ethics”, where those who joins early and brings in most money directly or indirectly will be paid most.
As long as you can identify some type of “ethics” it’s usually possible to find solutions, but Bidify seems to be in too deep shit already.
To be able to pay out to old investors, they were dependant on money coming in from new investors, just like Zeek was. When Zeek was shut down 11 days ago, Bidify lost that stream of money coming in.
Low payouts can actually be a positive sign in that situation, a sign of “We’re trying to solve it”. Or it can be a negative sign, “We just need some time to bring the money out of the country”. 🙂
To get some facts straight here:
When you’re investing in schemes like that, it’s closer to gambling than to investment. People are gambling on that other people will join after them, so they can make a profit themselves. And most people knows what they’re doing when they’re putting money in.
Technically Bidify did open a US office (in Delaware, technically a virtual office), so it *is* subject to US jurisdiction. I think Kevin Thompson did the paperwork.
They are hoping to be judas goats instead of sheeple by joining early and be “head of the pack”.
How would the SEC freeze Bidify’s accounts if all they have is just a US registration?
If you look at the poker industry as a guide, all they can do is freeze assets in US banks, usually just a fraction and Bidify would probably keep the funds there to a minimum just to handle necessary day to day/week to week cash flow.
@M_Norway
Point taken about investing in such schemes is like gambling. I and many other I know joined based on the misleading fact that Penny Auctions are profitable business model and firms actually make money.
I realize now that they are not. They are just sucking people’s money and when people realize it, these firms go after another sucker and the game continues.
What is the best way to get a never ending supply of new suckers? Open a MLM Penny Auction where people use their credibility to get the new sucker in their network so people at top and management make money doing nothing.
Oh I forgot I got to give them credit for copying the model and buying a script to run the Penny auction and use a third party outsourcing firm to maintain the IT servers. Zeek couldn’t even do that right. It seemed that bunch of dumb heads were running their IT.
Finally one day it all folds and then people realize omg these Penny Auctions are just a scam. I just woke up from such a dream recently and it cost me few thousand Euros 🙂
I spoke with SEC and they are already aware of all Penny Auctions after zeeks collapse and they are looking into them. So they are very much aware of Bidify. Its just a matter of time when all these firms will get shut down at least in the US.
Why do you think Bidify just changed the comp plan overnight to comply with the US law. But by complying with the law it doesn’t just make it right as they already violated SEC laws when they raised 1000 euros for the founder positions in the US without filing with SEC.
That itself is enough for SEC to go after them.
After reading all the comments its clear that all these penny auctions are ponzi schemes but I have couple of questions about bidify’s new compensation plan to figure out if it works or not. Can someone help me with these?
First if as a affiliate I purchase a bid package do I make profit off of those bids without using them and if I do use those bids do I have to buy more bids after I use all the bids ?
Earlier you could buy those retail customers from a website can we still buy those customers or do we have to recruit ?
Update: After reports from affiliates indicated that the Ponzi Points revenue pool was not paying out enough to even cover membership + the minimum 25 PV qualifier, Bidify have scrapped the PV requirement.
Now all members with existing Ponzi points have to do is pay their 25 EUR a month admin fee, meaning the Ponzi points returns have gone back to being a passive ROI.
Not sure what’ll happen if the ROI drops below 25 EUR a month…
We invested money on bidify,and were told the points get retired after 120days. However they changed the compensation plan apparently,and announced that those point will never retired,which means we all lost money .
If anyone know how could we file a complain to relative department? At least we could get some money back if its shut down by the government.
thanks very much
I need help guys. I want to drop out of Bidify but I have concerns. I joined as a founder when their comp plan was like Zeek – repurchase more. Will those repurchase be consider income like Zeek?
Also, I haven’t withdraw anything since it began, however, I have been paid daily to my cash account but I never withdrew from my cash account so all my money is still virtual within Bidify.
If I want to drop out, how would I do so and will anything in my cash account and fees that I paid effect me?
Also, I do not believe I provided any information such as my S.S or government idefication to Bidify. I am not sure if Towah asked for my Idifenfication but I believe I didn’t provide any information to Bidify.
So if I drop out, will they still send me the 1099 to my house. They do have those information on file.
No, he won’t do the same mistake as Paul Burks. If the “money” is virtual it’s not taxable. Zeek’s 1099’s were just a part of the scam.
“Fraudy” Jørgensen is relatively safe when it comes to personal data (SS number). He’s a different type of scammer, a Ponzi/pyramid scammer.
And Towah is basically legal, so there isn’t any particular risk there, either. The banking part of Towah-cards was handled by Newcastle Building Society when I checked in 2009. Towah just SELL the cards and do a few of the services, some type of “middleman”. Towah’s role is to solve the payment problems in network marketing, but with a NWM/MLM structure rather than a “normal” structure.
Bidify’s compensation plan was 95% similar to Zeek’s, so Bidify was a Ponzi scheme before the change in compensation plans. Money lost there (before the change) should be deductible as “money lost to theft” (or money lost in an investment).
http://www.justanswer.com/tax/6keyn-need-tax-expert-what-zeek-rewards.html
The answer from justanswer.com wasn’t exactly 100% correct, because Zeek hadn’t been shut down at that time. But the methhod for posting “money lost in scam” is probably correct.
I’ll guess Bidify will be closed within a few months, before the end of 2012. The change in compensation plan is just a method to prevent a SEC shutdown.
So if I have money in my cash account That is still virtual right? In zeek that would be cash available.
I have not withdrew from my cash account worrying about taxes for this year. So what u r saying that I will only pay taxes with money I put in my hand If I choose not to Give my gov id
The Bidify website has been down for “system maintenance” for a week now, purportedly with little to no communication to affiliates.
Wonder what’s going on…?
Many of us know what is going on with the Bidify website.
Thus, we are not wondering what’s going on.
I’m reading it’s the old ‘we’re being attacked by “the hackers”‘ line.
MLM companies don’t pull their websites offline for over a week for security updates.
Should I provide Bidify with my SSN? I haven’t cash out anything yet and I am not making much, if I don’t provide them anything then I don’t have to worry about taxes right?
I got couple hundred in my cash account ready to cash out but haven’t for concerns. But if I want to drop out I can right?
Maybe 5 dollar a day if I am lucky. Will Bidify even last long enough to get my intial money back?
IF Bidify was paying out 1% per day, and we all know it’s not, it would take 100 days for a member to earn back their initial deposit , before they would be “in profit”
Without knowing when you joined, it’s impossible to estimate how long it will be before you “get your money back”
I wouldn’t mind betting, however, it won’t last another 100 days and DEFINITELY won’t be able to continue to pay out 1% per day.
My best guess ???
No way it’ll last until Christmas, (unless they decide to have a “round 2” and require old members to pay more to continue playing)
what do I need to become a affliate.? and what I have to do first?
Pay an affiliate fee I think. Either that or buy bids (invest).
It’s been a while since I looked into Bidify.