Liberty League bans advertising income potential
In a recent communication to its associates during a Summit Advisor Mastermind call, Liberty League has banned the use of dollar amounts and the word ‘potential’ in marketing.
The ban comes from the internal compliance department and covers online, offline and verbal advertising.
Associates are no longer allowed to advertise specific dollar amounts (ie. EARN $500,000 in your first year OMG!), or use the word potential (ie. earn a potential $100,000 CEO income in your first month!) to represent incomes.
No official reason has been made public (as far as I know) as to why after eight years of operating in the US and two in Australia Liberty League have decided to implement the ban.
I can only speculate it’s got something to do with advertising complaints as various publishers pull the plug on Liberty League advertisers. If 85% of associates are making less then $35,000 a year then it’s hardly accurate for associates to advertise high blanket amounts of income as the norm.
Currently in Australia Liberty League ads are not accepted by
Seek or
Craigslist (do not allow business opportunities)
Ebay (do not allow ‘marketing or pyramid programs’ or ‘listing no item’)
Facebook (see LibertyLeagueLife quote below from associate dated 29/07/2009)
They explained that after visiting my website, that they don’t condole ‘this’ style of business. Another reason was ‘..because my website doesn’t SPECIFY what it is we are offering…’
Seek (see LibertyLeagueLife quote blow from associate dated March 17, 2009)
I have just been advised that SEEK.COM are no longer listing home based business opportunities on their website. They have been tracking these over the last 12 months and are not happy that many people are not listing in the correct categories.
Of course this doesn’t stop associates trying to list ads on these networks. Liberty League themselves offer advertising copy to market both home business style ads as well as more “job looking” (sales marketing director etc.), which have less of a chance of being pulled but due to their nature are more deceptive.
Currently the main players in the Australian Liberty League market all have websites that use the word ‘potential’ to represent incomes.
Sixfigurechicks.com states that “Therefore your annual income can potentially become your monthly income.” on their ‘opportunity’ page.
In addition to this the very name ‘Six Figure Chicks’ seems to contravene the new directive. If SixFigureChicks isn’t putting a dollar value on potential income then I don’t know what is.
Rachel Oliver’s UXL.com.au states on her FAQ page;
What is a realistic first year income?
Your first year potential is massive given you do EXACTLY what I say and follow the system.
Note UXL.com.au also breaks section 8.2 of Liberty League’s compliance code which states “It is prohibited to use the term “no selling.” The Company is in the direct selling business.”
UXL.com.au clearly advertises “No Cold Calling or Selling” on its homepage.
Cassandra Rigbye’s secretofsuccessbiz.com states in the FAQ section;
The difference here is this business has high retail profits which has the potential to cover your expenses and still have profit left over.
Yonika and Paul Mantel’s fivestaronlinebusiness.com also appears to breach both the ‘potential’ and ‘no selling’ compliance codes;
We are currently looking for individuals who want to realise a 6 figure earning potential within 12 months.
You do not need any prior experience or to do any direct selling.
Sue and Jerry Smart’s homebiztopearner.com is probably the most blatant in breaching the codes;
Your earning potential is huge if you’re determined to follow the business model and fill you bank account with as many dollars as possible.
Understandably given the directive has just been issued I imagine there’s an amnesty period to for associates to comply. It is still interesting to note though that all the websites appear to use this now banned technique to market Liberty League.
Earlier this week we saw the departure of two US top income earners, Michael Hamburger and Rhonda and Brian Swan.
Whilst publicly they have both stated they left Liberty League to join Lifepath Unlimited, BehindMLM reader John Galt alleges that
Michael Hamburger, Rhonda Swan and Brian Swan did not quit Liberty League. They were terminated for multiple compliance violations.
Now I haven’t been able to verify this claim, can we expect to see more high profile departures as Liberty League tightens its grip on its associates?
Note: All quotes were verified August 14th, 2009 but due to the dynamic nature of websites may not be accurate if accessed in the future.
Or maybe it has to do with the class action suit filed in California?
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/07/31/Liberty%20League.pdf
Possibly Phil, as far as I know there hasn’t been any communication as to why they’ve implemented the policy.
It’s only just been directed though so maybe it’ll come out eventually. As of yesterday LLI’s compliance reference hadn’t even been updated yet.
Now they just need to ban the dollar amounts from being quoted to entice newbies to the conferences and events.
We all know the SuperSaturday is coming up… well in a promo email for the event, these are the testimonials that are linked to attending last year’s event…
“That month we finished with a profit of $41,000…”
“That month we achieved our first $50,000+ month…”
“Straight after that day I made $22,000…”
So how did they achieve those figures? I’d bet that instead of being educational, the event was used to excite and inspire the newbies and then to pitch the conferences to them, as most ‘training’ is with LLI, so the leaders can earn $5k or $8k per sale.
So when LLI stop the use of income figures in their training, which in reality is just another level of marketing, then we’ll know they are serious about cleaning up their act.
Thanks for that Jenny, I’ve attached the flyer to the post “Liberty League associates start offering discounts” and have forwarded it to the ACCC.
I found this link rather interesting.
FYI: The Hamburgers and Swan’s actually stepped off leadership and left the company. LLI terminated them as a formality. I guess it looks better to say they terminated than to have someone leave.
I figured as much, the old
‘I quit!’
‘You can’t quit, YOU’RE FIRED!’ routine.
Hi Soapbox. Im stumbled upon your very informative page while looking this company up after seeing them on jobs websites. (well, seeing a bunch of jobs that sound the same, leading to a bunch of websites that look the same, that lead to LL).
Was just wondering why the ACCC isnt doing anything to stop this? Have you received any official statement from them on LL? I cant see anything on their website.
Also its odd that there arent any blogs from spurned people complaining at being mislead at these ‘opportunities’ – suckers who invested before realising they’d be on the bottom of the pyrimid. From your research do you think its because even the low rungs are making something from the scam, or that it just seems to be a case that dodgy thiongs like this attract likeminded dodgy people?
I think everyone needs to grow up a little. Not EVERY business opporunity suits EVERYBODY. Find something that you are willing to work at instead of blaming the actual business opportunity for own short comings and bad work ethics. Don’t you think it’s funny how it’s only those who aren’t successful who view it as a scam?
Either make it work or move on…
Sue and Jerry smart are the biggest scam scammers of all time. Do not trust them. Jerry and Sue Smart spell SCAM!
“Sue and Jerry smart are the biggest scam scammers of all time. Do not trust them. Jerry and Sue Smart spell SCAM!”
The Smarts now head up Wealthmasters Australia