How is Inspired Living Application being marketed?
In BehindMLM’s recent review of Inspired Living Application (also known as iLA), I identified a concern regarding the viability of charging people $6.95 for library access to videos that are initially given away for free, and a further $3 to participate in the iLA income opportunity.
Although the $6.95 product is iLA’s retail offering, I wasn’t entirely convinced people were going to pay $6.95 for library access, especially when they can receive iLA’s weekly videos for free.
Over time iLA might amass a sizeable library worth charging $6.95 a month for, but what happens until then?
With the income opportunity priced just $3 more, I suspected that most people are going to sign up as an affiliate, with little to no retail activity occurring within the company.
Shortly after publication of my Inspired Living Application Review, company president and co-owner John Rodgers sought to address some of the concerns I’d raised:
The difference between the free membership and the retail membership is huge. Access to the archive will be of tremendous value.
I would add that I think that it’s premature to speak of the “lack of value” in the product when you have yet to see the product. We will be very confident in our product as we will be producing it.
I think that you’ll find that when our final marketing pieces are done (we have not even opened for prelaunch at this time and a lot of things are in progress) you will find that we will not be beating on the “money drum” in the way that a lot of MLM companies have been known to.
Regarding the value of the library retail membership, despite my concerns I agreed that it wouldn’t be until an official launch that the ratio of retail customers vs. affiliates would be useable as an indication of the makeup of the company.
With Inspired Living Application’s prelaunch set for February 1st and full launch in “early April” (iLA FAQ, cited 20th January, 2012), no doubt how the company is being marketed today will set the tone and culture for the future of the business.
So right here right now, how is iLA being marketed?
Today I thought we’d take a look at the first page of Google results and analyse how iLA affiliates are marketing Inspired Living Application.
1. John-Juantez McKinley’s Youtube Review
Currently the #1 Google position for the term “Inspired Living Application”, as you can see above McKinley’s “review” presents the viewer with a big red banner advertising the iLA income opportunity.
The video itself runs for 1:52 and although McKinley does go into a brief explanation of the what the iLA app is at the beginning of the video (stating it’s “the first of its kind” because it “combines a mobile app with “referred marketing, network marketing”), by 25 or so seconds into the video McKinley is well into a hard sell on the iLA income opportunity itself.
McKinley urges viewers to “sign up now for free to secure their spot”.
Curiously McKinley refers to John Marr’s company “Savage Apps” as the “makers” of the iLA app. John Rodgers has stated that despite Marr’s involvement with iLA, there’s no official relationship between Savage Apps and iLA.
McKinley’s video was uploaded on January 16th so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
McKinley closes the video with one final push to get people to sign up as an affiliate:
[1:19] So guys you need to grab your spot today. You can sign up by clicking on the link below this video to get and secure your spot.
Guys we’re super excited and with my team going we’re pushing this thing really hard. I’m an internet marketer so be surprised if you see spillover of um others joining you underneath your um name.
So sign up today, click the link below and get started with iLA, Inspired Living App.
Spillover of course being used to incite prospective affiliates with the prospect of benefitting directly via McKinley’s ongoing recruitment efforts.
2. Rob Sevilla’s “Don’t join Inspired Living Application” Youtube Review
Number 2 in the current Google listings, Rob Sevilla has published a review attempting to lure in those skeptical about the iLA business opportunity.
Typically this marketing technique relies on targeting words such as “scam”, “fraud”, “don’t join until you’ve seen this!” etc., but then proceed to pitch the opportunity to the viewer.
Sevilla’s six minute “review” is no different. Sevilla opens the video claiming to be “everywhere” on YouTube and Google regarding iLA.
Sevilla warns viewers that joining iLA, although being a “great decision”, isn’t enough. Those interested in joining should be “careful” and only do so under the “right team”, with Sevilla’s iLA affiliate group being one such “right team”.
Like McKinley, Sevilla claims his team will benefit prospective affiliates due to “massive spillover” (the recruiting efforts of the existing team benefitting new affiliates that join Sevilla’s team).
Sevilla then briefly touches on the compensation plan, warning viewers that if they don’t join the “right team”, they aren’t going to be making as much money as they could.
Then things start to deteriorate. Sevilla notes that the official iLA compensation plan states that “no sponsoring is required” to earn money, however in the same breath he then states that
[1:16] you really wanna get ten people. And the reason you wanna get ten people is because you want to be able to maximise the comp plan and be able to get that forty percent matching bonus.
[1:38] You wanna be able to get that forty percent, okay, cause that’s really where the real money is.
You make the money here you see it on the screen the $2500 when you fill the matrix up, but also you get paid an additional 40% matching bonus on all people that you’ve personally put into the business.
So you definitely want to get at least ten, alright.
In mentioning the matching bonus, it’s clear that Sevilla is referring to the recruitment of ten affiliates (retail customers don’t count for it). Sevilla again pushes his team as the “right team” because they “help their members get their ten” affiliate recruits.
Offering up social proof, Sevilla claims to be “dominating” YouTube and Google listings for iLA, claiming that he’s getting ‘massive traffic, which is resulting in (affiliate) signups‘ [3:08].
Sevilla closes the video “review” by logging into his backoffice and sharing that in ten days he personally recruited thirty seven new iLA affiliates with combined downline recruiting efforts resulting in a total downline of 148 affiliates [4:28], claiming that ‘you’d have to be an absolute idiot not to join this opportunity’ [4:07]. Sevilla also claims that his team ‘is growing by about ten to fifteen‘ affiliates a day.
Despite Sevilla’s “review” running in at six minutes and eleven seconds, not once does he mention the iLA app or retail side of the business.
3. Kevin Waldron’s “Fans of iLA” Facebook Page
Third in the iLA Google listings, the Fans of iLA Facebook page appears to be a communication group for Kevin Waldron’s recruited affiliate downline.
The page offers up a mixture of company written marketing spiels (both mentioning the iLA product and income opportunity), with entry’s by Waldron himself focusing on the recruitment efforts of his downline.
The following update was published just yesterday on the 19th of January:
I was just about to commend everyone on their efforts and celebrate reaching 100 referrals on the team but (see the screenshot)…
Published just underneath the text above is a screenshot of Waldron’s iLA backoffice (under the iLA affiliate account “mobilbo”), showing the current number of recruited downline affiliates sitting at 101.
Despite only having 101 affiliates in Waldron’s downline as of Saturday the 18th of January, the Fans of iLA Facebook page has currently received over 3,000 “likes” (hmmm).
An earlier update published last Friday by Waldron states:
Quick update (no screenshot this time)
13 days until pre-launch and we now have 95 team members. Keep up the good work, it’ll pay off!
Along with Waldron’s own iLA affiliate links, the Fans of iLA Facebook page is also littered with iLA referral links belonging to one can only assume are affiliates Waldron has recruited.
4. Erwin Dungca Reyes’ “Inspired Living Application” Facebook Page
Bearing the name of the company itself and offering up no distinction of disclaimer that it is not the official Facebook page of iLA, Erwin Dungca Reyes’ Inspired Living Application page comes in at fourth in the Google listings.
Currently the page is filled with affiliate recruitment links, including those of Reyes.
In a nutshell, the entire page appears to be set up to capitalise on the iLA company name, with the goal of increasing Reyes’ affiliate downline.
Just four hours ago Reyes’ posted the following update:
For those who are new to this page WELCOME. We would like to thank you for stopping by and liking our page. What you are about to see is revolutionizing the mobile app industry.
Now you have a chance to profit as well. Please contact the page manager (Erwin) and I will be happy to assist you.
Although the iLA app is mentioned on the page, little to no effort has been made to differentiate it from the iLA income opportunity:
As iLA is drawing near to the much anticipated prelaunch, it is at the prelaunch that you will be able to purchase the iLA application and start enjoying the powerful weekly content and build an income with our matrix program (published Friday 18th January, 2013).
5. Chery Schmidt’s Marketing Blog, “Chery’s Online Gameplan”
Number 5 in the Google listing is Chery Schmidt’s marketing blog “Chery’s Online Gameplan”. Despite heavily promoting the iLA income opportunity (and simply regurgitating alot of iLA’s prewritten marketing material), to her credit Schmidt actually bothers to separate the income opportunity from the retail side of the business.
About halfway down the page of her latest blog entry, “iLA –Inspired Living Application Is Your Key To Success!”, Schmidt clearly lists not only the affiliate $9.95 joining option but also the retail and free membership options too.
6. Lee Wise’s iLA Press Release on IBOSocial
Number 6 is a “press release” by iLA affiliate Lee Wise, which markets the iLA opportunity and makes no mention of the retail side of the business.
Wise’s release contains three (that I counted) affiliate links of his, with Wise explaining why he “appreciates” the iLA business opportunity.
Although no mention of how large Wise’s current affiliate downline is, he does mention that on a recent company call it was announced that ‘around 21,000 people had decided to join the adventure‘.
7. Nemrod Kedem’s Inspired Living Application Review on SlideShare
Employing the deceptive tactic of promising a review and then bait and switching, Nemrod Kedem has uploaded a one page slide to SlideShare and labelled it a “review”.
In actuality Kedem has done nothing more than copy and paste marketing material from the iLA website and included four affiliate links of his on the page the “slideshow” is viewable on.
The intent here is obviously to trick people into believing Kedem has written a review of iLA and then get them to click his affiliate referral links to recruit them.
8. Douglas Fossett’s “Team Bulding Methods” Marketing Blog
Number 8 in the rankings is Douglas Fossett’s “Team Building Methods” blog, with an entry titled “Inspired Living App” by author “Team6730”.
In his blog entry, Fossett heavily promotes the iLA business opportunity, claiming that “thousands are joining by the day”.
if you have nothing better to do and are looking for a rock solid business opportunity to place your future, than look no further than the Inspired Living App.
Those who get left behind by failing to see the money that WILL be made will be regretting their decision for years for not getting in on time.
Combine the mammoth technological world of cell phone devices with the personal development industry and you have a winning combination that is destined for many years of success.
This is truly a match made to serve the masses. It will be exciting to see just how many more millionaires will come out of the network marketing because of this great idea.
In the blog entry, Fossett manages to squeeze in no less than six links to his iLA affiliate signup page, specifically targeting the keywords “Inspired Living Application” and “iLA”.
No mention is made of the retail side of the business.
9. David Jackson’s “Inspired Living App” Twitter Profile
Yet another deceptive entry by an iLA affiliate, number 9 is a Twitter profile that attempts to pass itself off as the official profile of iLA.
Offering no disclaimer differentiating itself from the official Inspired Living Application Twitter account, David Jackson merely provides his masked iLA affiliate link on the account’s profile description:
The content published on the account itself makes no mention of the retail side of the business, instead focusing on the income opportunity with a link to Jackson’s referral signup link provided in each published tweet.
Jackson urges readers to “be your own bank” and claims that ‘thousands are joining iLA daily‘.
10. Kathy Jodrey’s “iLivingApp Review” marketing blog
Appearing in Google under the domain “ilivingapp.net”, trying to access this domain redirects visitors to Kathy Jodrey’s “iLivingAppReview” marketing blog.
The use of ilivingapp.net is obviously an attempt to compete directly with iLA’s own website (“ilivingapp.com”), and I see it as yet another deceptive marketing attempt by an iLA distributor.
That aside, despite merely regurgitating iLA’s own marketing material Jodrey does mention the retail side of the business on the blog. To her credit she even goes as far as to include a disclaimer on the site, clarifying that
this website is not owned or operated by Inspired Living App.
Despite the mention of the retail option in the copying and pasting of iLA’s own material, the main purpose of Jodrey’s sit clearly appears to be the recruitment of new affiliates.
A big purple box on the right side of the blog urges visitors to ‘secure their spot in a top ranking, profitable position!‘. Meanwhile the subheader of the blog markets iLA as something you ‘share & make $$$ for just $10/month“.
Despite the name of the website, an actual review of iLA written by Kathy Jodrey appears to be absent.
Conclusion
When I initially sat down to write this article I intended to go through the first few pages of Google results for “Inspired Living Application”. Upon going over the first ten results however and coming in at just over two thousand words, I deemed these results to be enough to gauge the current marketing approach iLA affiliates have thus far taken.
With the exception of Chery Schmidt and Kathy Jodrey, none of the top 10 Google results for “Inspired Living Application” focus on the retail side of the business.
And even then, it’s worth noting that both Schmidt and Jodrey have only copied and pasted iLA’s own marketing material, which mentions the retail side of the business in presenting the joining options the company offers.
The other 8 entries in the top 10 simply present the business opportunity side of iLA and sing its praises.
One could argue that being in pre-prelaunch it’s only natural for iLA affiliates to focus on recruiting affiliates to build their downlines but does anybody really believe that post-launch things are going to change?
No matter how good the iLA videos might be, at the end of the day by the time April rolls around we’re going to have thousands of iLA affiliates recruited on the promise of recruiting affiliates of their own, filling their matrix and earning money.
Does it make any sense to suggest that come April all these recruited affiliates are going to drop what they were sold on and instead focus on selling the merits of a digital video library archive?
Despite co-owner and President John Rodger’s insistence that ‘access to the (video) archive will be of tremendous value‘, after going through the methods and material iLA affiliates are using to market the business, I’m even more convinced now that come launch the revenue makeup of iLA is going to be heavily skewed in favour of affiliates over retail customers.
Making matters only worse, iLA themselves don’t currently have an entry in Google’s top 10 search results, meaning the above ten websites are all prospective iLA members or customers are currently seeing.
As noted in the analysis above, this has led to several iLA affiliates presenting their recruitment orientated websites using official looking iLA social profiles, domains and websites.
Furthermore, with only 2 of the above results bothering to even mention the retail side of the business and all ten focusing heavily on the income potential of iLA, is there any question as to what the focus of iLA marketing currently is (and will likely remain post launch)?
With April still just under two and a half months away and a purported 20,000+ affiliates having already signed up to iLA, things could get extremely messy down the track.
Inspired Living Application – retail or recruitment? You tell me.
Footnote: Google’s search results are ever-changing and whilst the results above were accurate at the time of publication of this article, they are of course subject to change (and no doubtedly will over time).
This is a problem with most MLM out there… It seems nobody wants to talk “retail”.
Wonder why? Could it be that you don’t make money off retail, because it’s too hard and too much work? Could it be the only real way to make money is to recruit other associates/distributors/consultants/affiliates?
Without pointing fingers at anyone in particular, let me just say that some individuals launch their own MLM company to make a “quick hit” (they know it will have a short life, but still will make much money from it), while others do it purely for the ego gratification.
Then there are those who do it for both of these reasons. That’s why one must do everything in one’s power to find out EVERYTHING about the company owner.
Like I said in another post on this web site, if you cover a mud cake with great tasting chocolate frosting, it’s still a mud cake.
Both reviews of iLA at this web site are incredibly revealing. As a result, I wouldn’t touch iLA with a ten foot pole. It’s a mud cake.
On a related note: about four years ago I was at a MLM company convention, it was late at night, I was at the hotel bar sitting with six of the company’s big money earners.
I asked them, “What’s the fastest way to make a million dollars in MLM?” One of them answered, “The fasted way to make a million dollars is to start up your own MLM company, and make it last for at least two years.” He wasn’t kidding. I’ll never forget that.
The simple solution would be every associate needs to qualify by getting some customers.
This will show the value in the product and resolve a lot of the way people are marketing iLA.
Then hopefully you will have a compliant ratio of customers and affiliates.
“Simplicity is the canvas of innovation”
Perfect solution Raw Synergy
Here’s what I don’t get. People can promote iLA all day long. But not one person knows how they will get paid. Meaning direct deposit, a Visa debit card, etc…
One thing is for sure. If it’s through e-wallets like Payza or Paypal. You will never get your money out. It’s an absolute nightmare to get your money out of these systems. Also, first payout isn’t til April.
Good luck on this one. You also need a small nation to many any real money in this. Lastly, why would I pay $10/ month for a daily or weekly motivational message. I can get that for free on YT. Anyone agree?
A “life coach” has announced on FB he has joined this. I’m already seeing people comment that they have joined under him. He has over 200k “likes” on FB so this could be a fairly good sized wave of people joining. Gird your loins.
Hey, I have no problem with the app itself or its contents. It’s always how it’s being marketed that’s the problem.
A “life coach” can be used for both good and evil. I know several life coaches pushing the TVI Express pyramid scheme Filipino may have heard of Clarissa Calingasan, suspected of being one of the leaders of TVI Express in the Philippines. Calingasan is a “Bob Proctor certified” life coach, and has appeared on stage several times with Tarun Trikha, head of TVI Express pyramid scheme.
I wasn’t being anti-life coach, I was just using the term instead of his name. He’s marketing it as being easy to make money. Basically, because he has such a large following, you just need to sign up under him and he’ll take care of the rest.
So he’s using his “lifecoaching” credentials to promote iLA not as a life-coaching product, but as an income opportunity, interesting.
Q: How many life coaches does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None! They all sit around and ask the light bulb questions until it realized it can change itself!
I find the whole “life coach” thing a massive joke. Life coach? Who would waste their money on such B.S.? Worse yet, who has the ego to call themself a ‘life coach’?
Life coach . . . one big joke.
Not that it really has too much to do with iLA…
But those who’re interested in how… ridiculous the whole lifecoaching and self-help industry, may want to consult an episode of Penn & Teller’s Bull****! (They also discussed MLM in a different episode)
And that’s the last word on lifecoaching. 🙂
I would like to thank you once again for all the time you have put in to your research and for offering your review.
One of the things that I have noticed over the years is that there are certain people that enjoy the retail end of things and there are others that enjoy team building.
While some of the examples given above are in clear violation of the companies web compliance issues (we are doing what we can to address some of this) it isn’t a surprise to me that many are excited in sharing the opportunity. After all, we don’t have the ability for someone to become a customer at this point.
As I mentioned in my last response I submit that it is too early to judge as we have not even opened for business yet (for the record, prelaunch is Feb. 1st. and the official launch is not until at least 90 days after that).
Here is the official view of iLA. Customers are very important to iLA. It is because of this that we are already exploring what we can do to increase the value of the subscription as a stand alone product. We are also giving thought to what we can do to encourage a culture that values obtaining customers.
We will soon be introducing a website that is geared especially to the the retail customer. It doesn’t stop there. We are also white boarding other apps that we can bring to the market that will be absolute GAME CHANGERS.
Of course I can’t get into that here but I will say that it will be possible for people to make a good living without recruiting one person. When we are open in the market it will be clear who iLA is and what our vision is for customers.
Is that to say that there won’t be people that focus entirely on building a team? Of course not. Every company has people that focus on team building. That’s to be expected.
However, as things roll out, and as people get to know iLA they will see that we are not entering the market to “make a run” and see what we can do in the short term. Our vision is one of excellence and our vision is for the long run.
Remember,
Believe for GREAT things,
John Rodgers
President,
iLA
Dear Mr Rodgers,
Thanks again for clarifying some of the issues. Whilst it will of course be possible for people to earn monies without actively recruiting, the problem as you mentioned is that something like iLA does NOT come around very often. Once in a lifetime may be a good estimate.
Of course, this brings with it the examples above as well as the others brought to Matt’s attention.
I commend the VERY strongly worded letter which is on the team’s website and which I would LIKE to have re-published here, so that Oz and the other great folks of well above average intellect can see that the company is fighting the exact war which I mentioned to you in our first phone conversation.
Unfortunately, this thread stands out much more than the other in which you stated the aspirations of yourself and your team quite eloquently and comprehensively.
I look forward to yourself, or even myself gaining permission to re-post Matt’s [The COO’s], response to this situation here, as the good folks who frequent this forum need to know exactly how strongly the company will react to those in clear breaches of the agreements they have legally bound themselves to when they joined.
Unfortunately, probably only 1 in 100 actually read and study these items when joining.
Yours Respectfully,
TCH.
Mr. Rodgers, I fear that some opportunists, i.e. MLM “hoppers”, who basically hops from MLM to MLM by recruiting a bunch of people, (if applicable, grab a bunch of early recruitment bonus), then move on to something else, may be taking advantage of your… opportunity.
As you can see, few if ANY people are selling iLA as sorta life coaching. All are claiming iLA to be MONEY-MAKING opportunity. That’s… bad.
This is the FB post I was referring to:
The way I read it is, pay your $9.95/mo and there’s really nothing more that you have to do to earn money.
That’s the spillover dream lots of recruiters use. Basically non-existant unless your directly under them (and you won’t be, because they put their buddies there before they start their campaigns) and the effects of which decrease overtime as the matrix/pyramids widen at the base.
Actually, there’s another concern… charging extra $3 if you want to recruit. Burnlounge did that (charge extra per month for the “mogul” positions) and look at what happened to them.
Though, Mr. Rodgers, I assume that you did retain Mr. Kevin Thompson to review your business model? That interview ain’t bad. 🙂
To toss something into the mix: There is a woman named Ali Brown that has been around for many years selling marketing info. She started many years ago as the E-zine Quenn (that’s when I first came across her).
I have bought products from her and she is legit IMO. I just remembered the one of her products was a monthly call on marketing/business topics that you paid $9.97 for. I just checked and it still exists – it’s now being called the Success Club.
This monthly call has been in existence for at least four or five years, so people must be buying it. She does have an affiliate program but her main push is retail.
So, if the content is there, people are willing to pay $10 a month for it. Unfortunately, other than a brief list of types of topics that would be covered, there is nothing on content. From the home page, all the way through is focused on the comp side. I didn’t find any sample videos, no info on who the speakers would be, etc.
Mr.Rogers, if you are still reading this, this is what you can do to get retail customers – set up a separate page that focuses on the retail and doesn’t blast you with the business side. Give samples of the content. Tell us who will presenting the material and what their credentials are.
Right now, I can get personal development videos till the cows come home for free by some top names. Tell me what makes yours worth paying for other than it is an app.
The extra 3 dollars a month is for the website, Admin, and support and in compliance with law is not commissionable.
That is a great idea and we will be making that available soon. At the time of writing this is only the first day of prelaunch. There are a lot of things that will be developed in the following months.
While it’s true that there is a lot of good information out there it’s sad that the masses simply do not access it. This truth can be seen by going to You Tube and seeing that the average number of views on a video from well known names is in the area of 50,000 to 60,000 views.
iLA, unlike any other service, provides the ease of delivery platform as well as originally produced information that simply will not be available on the general net.
I know it’s still early days but…
until retail capture pages are up, given that the extra $3 affiliates pay is for a replicated website that is a capture page marketing the income opportunity, isn’t it a fair statement to make that affiliates are indeed paying $3 to recruit?
“Admin and support” are both tied into the income opportunity.
Neither was the $6.95 per month commissionable at Burnlounge. They even had “free” positions available… But to earn real $$$ as commission (the free position only earns credits) you need to pay $6.95 a month (and some “sales goals”).
Not saying you aren’t compliant, but this may be something to ask Mr. Thompson to explain to you. 🙂 I’m sure he recommended something ELSE to make sure you’re in the clear, as it’s all interrelated. Or to put it another way, charging a fee to participate in the comp plan is NOT necessarily a smoking gun for pyramid scheme, but it’s… uh… smoke? 🙂
Respectfully, I couldn’t disagree more. A person is paying an extra 3 dollars to own there own business.
Oz I’ve given a lot of thought to trying to make this accessible to the average person. Along the way I’ve had a myriad of consultants tell me that we should charge more. That we should charge an “initial investment”.
That it would be good for the company because it would generate more profit. While all those things are true I have resisted and chosen not to do that.
I feel very confident knowing that the kind of admin, support, and website that we provide for an extra $3 is something…… how should I say…….. rare to say the least.
Actually that’s not true. A customer pays the same percentage as an associate. If what you are saying is true than it would be more profitable to recruit an associate than it would be to acquire a customer.
They are both the same and the only thing that is commissionable is the $6.95.
We have put in place everything that Kevin has requested and there isn’t one thing that we have chosen not to put into place.
Actually I’m glad that you bring that up. There are so many questions and speculations on this particular blog about legality and compliance. It’s because we want to do things right that we brought Kevin Thompson to advise us.
He is a highly respected and competent MLM attorney. People can be assured that if we have it in place than he has given us the green light on it.
Someone is not required to pay a fee to participate in the comp plan. This is something that we put into place per the request of Kevin Thompson.
For those who have not had an opportunity, I highly recommend watching an interview that Kevin conducted at
https://plus.google.com/113143561586530648571/posts/Grva9y3gRWk
So does that mean everybody’s charged $3? Or that $3 is OPTIONAL among comp plan participants?
@John
Not to be nitpicky but you just said:
And out of the above three things, you just ruled out “admin and support” because you’ve now stated ‘a customer pays the same percentage as an associate (for support and admin)‘. If that’s the case then admin and support has to come out of the $6.95 an affiliate pays.
That leaves the website alone for the additional $3 and with the website being nothing more than an affiliate recruitment capture page, how is that not pay to recruit?
Until those retail capture pages come up affiliates are clearly paying an additional $3 to recruit. You can call this “the business” but that only raises further questions about what “the business” actually is.
Free iLA members can earn single level commissions by recruitng new iLA affiliates. This side of the business is not MLM, if you want to participate in the MLM business opportunity you have to pay $10 a month.
No one is “required” to pay anything. The only requirement to participate in the matrix program is to be an active associate. There are two ways to be active. 1. Pay $9.95. 2. acquire 2 retail customers. This is explained on the compensation overview on the website.
Not to be picky but? Now Oz that is exactly what you are doing. the statement two statements are the same. A person pays $3 for admin, site, etc. and a person pays an extra $3 to own a business.
In stating that a customer pays the same percentage as an associate I meant that it pays the same commission. Let me put it this way. An associate gets paid the same amount on a customer as they do an associate. Once again, the $3 is not commissionable.
Once again $3 = website, admin, own your own business. The solo retail site will be up in the future but the current site allows for someone to become a customer.
But the regular retail is $6.95, right?
So pay $9.95 is self-consume (I buy for myself), then $3 for admin and whatnot?
Then how is this different from Burnlounge, where the “mogul” members bought one of the levels, then paid $6.95 or whatever for “mogul”?
(Look, I’m not trying to be hostile here and imply you’re a pyramid scheme, I’m merely asking questions that more… discerning people will be asking, with the Herbalife and FHTM and all that)
Well admin and support you’ve stated comes out of the $6.95, same as customers leaving only the website (replicated affiliate recruitment page) for the extra $3.
Out of curiosity, who is paying for free member’s (recruit 2 customers) replicated websites? With no $10 there sounds to me like the extra $3 only covers participation in the comp plan for members who wish to pay rather than find customers.
Let’s face it, if they can’t find customers over paying $3 then they’re probably not going to focus on finding customers after paying $3 a month either.
Commission on what? Website, support and admin fees aren’t commissions they’re fees going to the company. You’re trying to mix fees with commissions costwise.
I’m not saying the $3 is commissionable, just that from a money flow aspect it the extra $3 only seems to be a fee to participate. If two retail customers can cover an affiliate’s replicated website cost, obviously these costs are not coming out of the extra $3 paid affiliates pay.
That leaves what? The business opportunity itself.
Anyway, out of curiosity how is the retail customers/affiliate ratio looking at the moment in iLA?
Too early to tell, Oz. Too early to tell. I’d give them a couple months of “slack”, but the initial ads, as you pointed out, are worrisome, as they all seem to be targeting business opportunity seekers, and nothing about retail.
How about if we keep this simple. I don’t have the knowledge of what is and what is not acceptable. That is why we hired a well qualified, well known, and highly respected MLM attorney in Kevin Thompson.
Any question on legality or compliance has the same answer. That answer being; We have had our compensation vetted and approved by legal specialists.
the answer that I share on this point will also serve as the answer to your following points. It’s clear that there are a number of things that are not clear to you (like this point for example. At no point have I said that admin comes from the $6.95).
While I appreciate your stated desire to do research and provide information for people I would encourage you to do thorough research. So far in your research there is one very basic thing that you have failed to do. You have not called and asked.
If you would take the time to ask and interview the company on these matters than it would go a long way to answer any questions or concerns that you might have.
I have mentioned in past posts (on your previous article)and will say again that I am personally available to answer any questions that people have. Why, when my schedule is quite busy, would I take the time to do that?
Because it’s important to let people know that we are a transparent company and that it is our desire for people to who we are and what we stand for.
(Ozedit: further attempts to take this discussion offline and behind closed doors to to speak will be marked as spam, if anyone wants they can contact John via the iLA website)
We are here to be a positive presence in the industry and to make a positive impact in peoples lives.
Believing for GREAT things
John Rodgers
President,
iLA
Okay, your comp plan was “vetted” by “the” MLM attorney, got that.
I know you rely on his judgement, but next time you run into him, have him explain to you the Burnlounge significance (he wrote a paper on it, it’s on his blog somewhere). 🙂
Remember, rules set by the company, if not enforced, is almost worse than not having any, as it implies a level of fraud.
You may have a legal comp plan in place, but if it can be bent/ abused / misinterpreted / misrepresented by affiliates promoting the wrong things, who will be held accountable in the end?
Hmm… Zeek Rewards had their compensation plan vetted and approved by legal specialists too.
No offense to MLM attorneys, but their approval counts for dick when analysing an MLM business opportunity. All that matters is the business model.
And I quote (in reference to customers and affiliates paying for “admin and support”):
If customers are paying the same as affiliates for “admin and support”, obviously it’s coming out of the $6.95.
Furthermore, upon thinking on your comments some more above – I have to disagree and state that it is more profitably to recruit affiliates over customers.
The compensation plan pays down multiple levels on the recruitment of affiliates. Customers can’t recruit therefore it’s obviously more profitable to recruit affiliates (with the assumption they too will recruit affiliates).
Unless you are misrepresenting your compensation plan on your website, I don’t need to. All you need to analyse an MLM company is their business model.
“You’re wrong, call me for the real story” is an all to familiar marketing cop out we see quite regularly here.
Oz it is a mystery to me why you have chosen to take a hostile tone. All along I have been nothing but available to you to answer any questions that you might have. I have never heard of someone making themselves available being referred to as a “marketing cop out”.
If someone is at this site than it is no doubt because you are doing research to find out if iLA is a reputable company. If that is the case than you are to be commended. I am always in favor of someone doing research.
In the short time that we have been on the market we are pleased to say that there has not been one person that has had a bad report in their dealing with iLA. As a company we are working diligently to have a good reputations with all we do business with. That is why we have a no risk money back guarantee.
I am confident that as time goes by and people get to know who we are in the market that people will see who we are, what we stand for, and how we encourage people to rise to levels of excellence in all areas of their life.
It is clear that my words here have reached their limits and my invitations to dialogue will not be received. I think that is unfortunate. If anyone truly wonders who we are I will invite you to watch our actions as it is by our actions that you will know who we are.
Believing for GREAT things
John Rodgers
President,
iLA
John I’ve reviewed hundreds of MLM opportunities and overseen tens of thousands of comments since starting BehindMLM. During this time I’ve grown accustomed to identified patterns and tincan responses.
“Contact me for the real story” is just one of them.
Unless you are grossly misrepresentating iLA’s business model and compensation plan on the company website, I see no reason why discussion beyond hard analysis of the business model is of any value.
I get this crap from MLM marketers all the time and my response is always the same, if there are corrections that need to be made than point them out in already existing discussion and we can go from there.
This is also known as the dummy spit. I was going to predict it (it usually closely follows “you’re wrong! Call me for the real story!” but I figured I’d give you the benefit of the doubt.
As it stands we’ve identified that retail customers and affiliates both “pay the same” for admin and support, meaning it comes out ofthe $6.95 customers are paying. As for the remaining $3, with no retail capture pages the only thing left they are paying for are affiliate recruitment capture pages and the income opportunity itself.
It is noted that this additional $3 is not commissionable (it was never claimed to be) however it is also noted that the recruitment of affiliates is far more profitable than the recruitment of retail customers, due to an affiliates ability to recruit and generate residual commissions for the affiliate who recruited them.
An issue ignored thus far is the question of what the current retail customer to affiliate ratio is in iLA. Just a hunch, but I’d peg the ratio at close to 100% affiliates.
Facts are facts and that’s where the discussion is currently at. No idea why you think taking the discussion offline and behind closed doors would change any of the above.
@John Rodgers — You have to keep in mind that VERY few MLM startups are as… transparent as you, the founder, currently are, making yourself available for questions.
Usually what Oz and I see are affiliates, armed with whatever they gathered / understood from their upline, did some Google search, read something they felt “insulted” what they chose, then choose to post some horribly reasoned marketing “spiel”.
They usually have absolutely NO understanding of what constitutes “legal” in MLM, other than what their uplines told them (if anything at all). They certainly haven’t even heard of “MLM Attorney”, other than to name-drop “if ____ checked this company, it must be legit”, when Zeek (and ASD) had proven that to be false.
And Oz takes a MUCH HARSHER TONE with those willfully ignorant affiliates than he had with you, honest.
Have you considered consulting a MLM Comp Plan specialist, such as Rod Cook or Len Clements? They are not legal advisors, but they do know MLM comp plan variations and how they affect legality, possibly better than MLM attorneys.
By way of clarification before I depart you say,
No such thing has been identified. I will state clearly as I have in the past that customers do not pay admin. There is no need to. The only people that pay admin is the associate. The only thing that you have called on to support your idea that I have said that is my quote
I clarified later that what I meant is that a customer pays the same percentage when it comes to commission not admin. To be specific I stated on the 3rd
another thing, you have misquoted me. At no time have I said, “your wrong call me”. I have simply made myself available to fill any details that you may be lacking.
Once again I don’t know why you have chosen to take a hostile tone. In commenting on my legal team of whom I have become personal friends with you say, “their approval counts for di..” When I make myself personally available to help you with your research you charge me with a “marketing cop out” and “I get this crap from MLM marketers all the time”.
When I say that I am not inclined to continue with such a tone you once again make the charge “This is also known as the dummy spit”.
I trust that I have provided enough information in our dialogue that the thoughtful, discerning person will be able to determine what kind of company iLA is and what we stand for.
Sincerely,
John Rodgers
President,
iLA
Clarification received.
Out of curiosity, given that commissions are automated what exactly does the admin fee cover?
No doubt customers do pay for support too just incase there’s something wrong with their access to the library.
As for your victimisation dramatics save them for the conference calls John. We’re all big boys here, man up son.
The dummy spit and ‘you’re wrong call me’ (please don’t pretend you’re implying something else by stating “I have simply made myself available to fill any details that you may be lacking”) are standard tincan responses we see here far too often from MLM marketers.
Anyway, back on topic.
This will be the third time you’ve conveniently dodged the question of what is the current retail customer to affiliate ratio in iLA?
I’m happy to revisit the topic a few months after launch but am curious how the business is shaping up at present.
I find it strange that John says that
BUT today, if you click any iLA affiliate’s page “Join Now” button, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find any option of joining without paying a fee! The only way in are paid subscriptions of $9.95 or $6.95.
What is really happening?
How much exactly is an affiliate paid per customer? Does the customer go into the affiliate’s matrix in order for the affiliate to get paid?
So do we have a verdict?