Send Out Cards: ¡Has sido timado!
By: Dennis Yu
Un artículo del escritor invitado Dennis Yu, CEO de BlitzLocal, proveedor de servicios locales de publicidad en el Internet.
Un vistazo rápido a SendOutCards.com: Es una conspiración de MLM (Marketing de Multinivel), como muchos otros de su tipo. Simplemente es uno de los más recientes, y es popular con los padres de casa quienes no pueden salir a trabajar fuera de sus hogares. La idea es que tú envíes tarjetas de felicitación a tus amigos, familiares, compañeros de trabajo o quienquiera que tú escojas pero sin ir a la tienda a comprar las tarjetas; tú escribes el mensaje en una forma en el Internet y la carta es imprimida y enviada sin que tú tengas que hacer nada más. Actualmente suena como si fuera un producto decente – con la excepción de que esa no es la finalidad del programa. El objetivo de Send Out Cards es el conseguir más distribuidores y conseguir más personas vendiendo, porque entre más personas venden, más dinero tú haces. Clásico.
Los Hechos:
Yo no sé tú, pero yo croe que es muy difícil discutir con los hechos que el mismo Send Out Cards ha publicado. Nadie ha llegado a ser nivel 7 – El Águila, 95.5% de los usuarios todavía están atorados en el nivel 1 (Distribuidor), y 69% de los Distribuidores ganaron CERO dinero. Pero no simplemente creas lo que te estoy diciendo – aquí está lo que Send Out Cards ha publicado:
En un artículo anterior habíamos discutido que Send Out Cards es una estafa, y ésta persona llamada Sandy escribió una defensa impresionante (un total de 4,634 palabras) – las credenciales que ella misma se ha dado son que es una experta en redes sociales, una abogada exitosa, y por supuesto, una vigorosas defensora de Send Out Cards. Digamos que el producto es, como ella lo dice, de excelente calidad y a la gente le encanta. Es tan bueno, ella dice, que tú ni siquiera tienes que vender el sistema pues éste se vende solo. Lo único que tenemos que hacer es ver lo que el mismo Send Out Cards dice – claramente no se vendo por sí mismo porque nadie está ganando dinero vendiéndolo, dah.
Los padres de casa deben ponerse en guardia cuando alguien les dice algo que suena muy bueno para ser cierto. No somos como otros trabajadores. Nosotros tenemos que permanecer en casa para hacer dinero, y algunas veces nos desesperamos porque nuestras opciones son limitadas. Si algo suena sospechoso, es sospechoso – punto. Seguro – hay personas atractivas en su video – igualitas a ti – vendiendo historias exitosas con música para inspirarte en el fondo. Te hace sacar tu tarjeta de crédito y enrolarte ahí mismo.
¿Los cigarros causan cáncer? Por supuesto que no.
¿Y esa hermosa muchacha se va a ir contigo si tu tomas la cerveza correcta? ¡De seguro!
¿Es Send Out Cards la manera en la que te vas a volver rico? ¡Definitivamente – simplemente pregúntale a Sandy!
Nuestro artículo anterior se encuentra en la posición #6 en Google bajo el término “Sendoutcards.com scam” (conspiración de sendoutcards.com) y ha estado atrayendo atención. Esto es lo que pasa cuando tú te encuentras en la primera página de un término razonablemente popular. Y tú ni siquiera tienes que ser un experto en marketing del Internet para hacerlo. Simplemente escribe un artículo de calidad en tu blog – y cuando las personas lo promueven, Google lo nota, lo que te da un incremento en resultados de búsqueda. Sin quererlo Sandy ha incrementado la posición de nuestro artículo anterior con su vigorosa defensa del sistema. ¿Por qué no tomar ventaja de eso y aventarnos otro cuadrangular, cierto?
Así que si tú eres un padre (o madre) de casa y estás considerando ¿es Send Out Cards – una conspiración? No necesariamente. Si tú quieres comprar tarjetas de felicitaciones a sobre precio (considerando el costo por enrolarte sumado a todas las personas que son pagadas cuando tú te enrolas), entonces el costo es probablemente no muy diferente al que tienen las tarjetas que tu compras en la tienda, y es, en defensa de Sandy, una manera conveniente de enviar tarjetas – si tú compras suficientes tarjetas para verdaderamente cubrir el costo de enrolarte en la conspiración. El enviar tarjetas no es una conspiración. Sandy está en lo correcto en cuanto a eso se refiere. Pero, ¿para hacer dinero? ¡Si lo es! Definitivamente si es una conspiración. Tú tienes un 95.5% garantizado que vas a hacer muy, muy poquito dinero y un 69% garantizado que no vas a hacer nada de dinero (o hasta vas a perder dinero). Esos son los hechos.
Si tú quieres probar este programa, debes platicar con Sandy en mi artículo anterior – si tú te enrolas bajo su link, ella recibe un pago.
Related posts:
Its not ecards though. These are actual greeting cards that arrive in your mailbox. I use them all the time. SEND OUT CARDS is the BEST system out there.
True, Cindy! Me, too! I am addicted, lol.
Keith,
I love your line a few posts back, “Don’t you have anything better to do than argue on the internet?”
Are you freakin’ kidding me?
It’s all you do!
Seriously, you sound like some angry jerk who joined a few mlm’s in the past, sat around doing nothing for a couple months, maybe approached a few family members, failed miserably, and quit.
If you had even a small inkling of positive energy in your mirky little soul, you’d see that success in mlm doesn’t matter at all what company you’re with, who your sponsor is, or any of that.
It is the sole responsibilty of the person involved. If they sit around complaining and whining that their company isn’t working, they won’t make a penny.
If they get off their ass and make it happen for themselves, they have no choice but to be successful.
Send Out Cards is not a scam at all, not in any way.
There are many, many people making comfortable livings with it. But it’s not because Send Out Cards works. It’s because they made it happen for themselves.
They didn’t have a ridiculous, negative outlook on the whole thing, and THANK GOD, they didn’t listen to idiots like you.
Thanks for giving me a good laugh this morning.
Mike: I’ve never wanted to, tried to or been involved with selling anything from an MLM. It’s because I’m not an idiot that I haven’t. Unlike you, my work actually makes money.
So, all people in MLM opportunities are idiots? I know for a fact that’s not true. I know hundreds of successful and very intelligent people who are in this very MLM opportunity.
And how in the world do you know whether or not I make any money?
Are you kidding me?
You’re a negative-minded, cynical, ignorant twit, dude.
Why in the hell is there a halo over the title of your blog? Because you home-school your kids and brew tea? Get real with yourself.
How much money do you really make from your little HOP affiliate program?
wow…
Mike: The halo in almightydad is a play on the word almighty. But, hey, thats pretty witty of you. You’re hilarious and that was an awesome put down. pat yourself on the back for thinking of something so awesomely scathing. I have no response to it because it’s so great. You should make a living out of thinking of really insightful zingers like that.
Btw, Keith, GOOD JOB with the good work if, as I believe I understood, you HOMESCHOOL your kids. My mom is an amazing woman who homeschooled 6 kids through highschool. Actually the last two are still homescchooling teenagers. My mom also got her Bachelor’s degree in just two years through home study and clep tests. She is the one who introduced me to SendOutCards. My sisters send cards using the online card system, too, and they love it.
Hey, you know what would be frickin’ hilarious?
Put all this negative, goofy, put-everyone-else-down, bad-mouthing energy of yours into actually succeeding in an MLM, and I guarantee you’d be successful.
That would shut you up.
Mike: why would I want to try succeeding at an MLM again? You’ll have to work out how that math works in my favor. I know you’re not making money because you haven’t made eagle level. Even eagle level isn’t that impressive. Anything else is sorta sad. That’s how I know.
SendOut Cards is NOT A SCAM… If you have passion for what you do you can make it in any MLM business . When people have negative thoughts negative stuff happens. Thats where the whole Law of Attraction comes into play. I was a SendOut Cards user before becoming a distributor. There is no other business that I rather do. People love getting cards and I love sending a card for no reason.
Success takes patience and tenasity. Sendout Cards is soo awesome because it is cost effective.. You can send a real card with a real stamp without ever leaving your home. No pricy cards or waiting in line at the post office.
Ya know what, dude?
This is pathetic that I’ve spent this much time on this.
The world is full of ignorant folks such as yourself who will just never get it.
There ARE 2 Eagles in Send Out Cards that I know of, and one of them makes around $180,000.00 a month the last I heard and that was maybe a couple of months ago.
That’s not impressive, huh? Must not compare to your HOP affiliate commissions.
And by the way, every person I know in Send Out Cards that is making a good living with it, including myself, is below the Eagle level.
Seriously, man, do you ever say anything at all that is based on something you actually KNOW?!
Go brew some tea, and write some posts somewhere else that make some sense.
Mike: look at the numbers. they speak for themselves. You don’t know anybody making 180k a month on sendout cards. HA! Why don’t you prove how much you make with sendoutcards by posting proof. When you do that then I’ll shut up.
You’re right. I don’t personally know Jordan Adler. But he really does make that much. Sorry.
I don’t share how much money I make, personally. I think it’s tacky.
And what numbers are you talking about?
The ones that say the most money is made by people at higher levels?
And your point is what, exactly? Name one single company in existence in which people in higher positions don’t make more than people just starting out.
The CEO of HOP makes way more money than you do! Must be a scam! There are probably hundreds of people within the company making far less than him. SCAM!!! All these people were hired and are paid to do one thing: MAKE MONEY for the people at the top! They make a small portion, he gets filthy stinkin’ rich! SCAM!
The dish washer at Olive Garden makes crap, but works his butt off. The waitress makes more than him, SCAM! The Manager makes more, SCAM. The Regional Manager Makes Even More! SCAM!!!! The CEO of Darden Restaurants is rich beyond measure, UNHOLY SCAM!!!!
You know why the vast majority of people in MLM’s or any other company on the face of the earth make almost nothing and give up and die broke?
Most of the time it’s because they’re lazy, and alot of the time, just plain stupid like you. They join thinking they’re going to get rich doing NOTHING. So they do nothing, make nothing, and quit.
This, apparently, is how you think things should work. But this is ridicuolus. Go get a job at the Olive Garden, sit around doing nothing, don’t even show up most days and then wonder why you got fired! Get pissed and call Olive Garden a scam, because IT didn’t make you any money.
Do you even realize how freakin’ stupid that is?
This is what your “NUMBERS” reflect. The VAST majority of people who don’t get it that they have to actually work at it like it’s a business.
It’s that simple, pal.
Why don’t you try something. Find a Send Out Cards Distributor and ask them to show you how it works.
I guarantee you that they might mention the business side of it, but ABSOLUTELY will not try to pressure you into it. We have killer products, plain and simple. When people start using them they realize that they can really stand behind them and start to sell them.
Just like you and HOP, only after a while we start making way more than you can ever hope for with a simple affiliate program, and it’s residual income that lasts a long time and it keeps growing.
It’s that simple.
Mike: Sorry, I didn’t finish reading your little rant here. I’ll just say that the numbers I’m referring to are the ones I posted in the article. They aren’t comparable to any other business model. The fail rate at MLMs is much higher than any other business. You really can’t deny it (but I guess you can try). I don’t know why you’re on this HOP thing so much. You must not understand how affiliate marketing works.
This really isn’t worth my time.
I’m done.
Way to make a good counter-argument, Mike. You called Keith an angry jerk, said he had a mirky little soul, called him an idiot, a negative-minded, cynical, ignorant twit, and ignorant, to name a few. And you think it’s tacky to post your income, but your fearless leader does:
http://www.soccoach.com/members/step-2/jordansmessages/19.htm
Notice how Mike not only could not or chose not to refute my post; he obfuscated and used other non applicable business comparisons, again proving my point.
Virtually every rabid MLMer sounds the same. Buh-bye, Mike. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya… spend your time instead “working your business”…
Doo Dilly– well put. The trouble with forums or the web in general is that anyone can come in and post idiotic remarks that have nothing to do with the original content, nor provide useful material for the readers here.
Based on the criteria of whether his posts were furthering the discussion versus just name-calling, it would seem that Mike fails here. I’d encourage anyone who wants to participate in this forum to check their egos at the door and discuss the facts at hand. The previous commenters have already made a number of salient points, so no need to rehash the “all MLMs are scams or not” positions– that is not what this community is about.
Hi:
This will probably never be published on this website, but here it goes:
It’s absolutely amazing to us how people blame everything else in their lives for their non success except themselves. They blame the industry, the company, their mom, or their dad. They think it’s easier to do that than to take 100% responsibility for their circumstances and actually, it isn’t. Then there are the real jokers like the guy who runs this website that makes a whole business out of all the losers coming to this website so they can blame everything and everyone except themselves for their lack of success.
My wife and I were in seven different network marketing companies before Send Out Cards and never made a penny. Why, BECAUSE WE DIDN’T WORK! When we joined Send Out Cards I had just been fired from a company that I had worked at for fourteen years. After building their business from $650,000 to over 300 million, as their National Sales Manager, they fired me and gave their son my job, who by the way, I trained for two years. This was the fourth time I had been fired in my 40 year career and it hurt the worst because I was making $250,000 year, That brings me to who makes all the money. While me and the three other top people in the company were making a minimum of $250,000, or more, the people that worked in our plant were making between $6 and $7 per hour. Quite a difference to say the least. So, to recap, out of a company with 1,500 employees, only four were making the big money. The points is, a few people at the top making big money and the rest not making much is not unique to Network Marketing.
With all that said, has the owner of this website ever been to a Send Out Cards Treat’em Right Seminar, or a convention? Has he sent out any cards, we have sent out over 12,000 in five years and actually had people call us up crying they were so blown away? Has the owner of this website ever gone into network marketing full time and really worked it? Has he ever had a down line of over 2,000 distributors and 5,000 customers? If he had, he would understand that very few people go after their dream and to us, that’s a good thing. If all 100,000 distributors in Send Out Cards were working, this wouldn’t be an opportunity. By the way, our last company had almost three million distributors and it still had plenty of room to grow.
Quit crying and get off your you know what and go out and make a difference, any difference. Circumstances don’t make the person, they reveal him to himself. Taking responsibility is your ability to respond to the things that happen to you in life. Stop trashing any network marketing company until you have been fired four time over a forty year career and find that network marketing is the only place to have your own business without handing out three, or four hundred thousand dollars for a franchise that you will have to be married to, to succeed. The fact is, Network Marketing is the fairest, fastest, and economical way to get rich, if you want to work. Work is not spending one hour a day sending out emails, or learning the website. Work is honing your skills and putting in some serious time and working all the time you are suppose to be working. For instance, I called a prospect and told him I was following up and he said, “Your lucky you called today, I’m already to join up. What he didn’t know is, that was the 60th call I had made that day. That’s why it’s called Network Marketing and not, Notwork Marketing.
To wind it up, Send Out Cards to us is the best product and service in the Network Marketing industry on the face of the planet. We can honestly say we would not be in Network Marketing if it wasn’t for this great company. One more thing, we know Kody Bateman, or founder and CEO personally and he had more integrity in his little finger than all the CEO’s I worked for collectively had in their whole body.
All the best,
Phil & Sheila
Phil: clearly I’m making a difference if I’m getting these sorts of diatribes from you people. Kool aid taste good?
I joinder SOC last year as a retail user for $99. I just wanted to get used to it, try it out, play with it, and see what I thought before taking the next step. It took me months to get around to actually using it, but when I did, OH BOY! I think this is the greatest tool I’ve ever seen. There are over 20,000 cards to choose from on the website, but it’s organized nicely in subcategories and it’s never taken me longer than 5 minutes to find the perfect card. You can send it as a post card, a bi-fold or a tri-fold, with or without your own photos downloaded from your computer, with or without your own custom handwriting font. You write your own sentiment in the card so you can really personalize it. The typical bi-fold card without a custom photo costs either $0.98 plus postage at the retail level of $0.64 at the wholesale or distributor level. You can attach a gift, a gift card, or a book, or just send the card. You get to add the person and their data to your address book in your account, and the account will even remind you when it’s time to send that person a birthday card, etc. It’s phenomenal! I upgraded to distributor because I felt that if I was going to be constantly answering the question “Hey, that’s so cool, how did you DO that?” I might as well be selling it.
If MLM is such a heinous crime, why did David Bach list it as one of 4 primary ways to boost your income in his book “Start Late, Finish Rich”? He too admits to having spent years as a basher of MLM – until Warren Buffet bought a MLM company and added it to Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. And if you don’t know who/what David Bach, Warren Buffet, and Berkshire Hathaway are, may I suggest you go do some more homework and reading before spouting off about things you don’t understand?
Linda: Did you just try to put David Bach and Warren Buffet at the same level? Nice. And you’re telling me I don’t understand.
Goodness but you are indeed being deliberately stubborn and obtuse! No I most certainly did not. I merely said that if you don’t know who they are, do some research. MLM is not the root of all evil. Schemes that make you invest large sums of money up front, for a basement full of merchandise you will never sell, are scams. SOC is a real service with a quality product that is inexpensive for the consumer and the distributor. You know what? Why don’t you try it out? Any distributor will give you an opportunity to click on their banner at the top of their own page and send up to 3 bi-fold cards at their expense, not yours, and if you don’t like what you see after that, then nobody can help you. I’ll give you my banner address if you’d like to try it out. Just send me an e-mail.
Linda: Thanks but no thanks.
Defenders give up already! A person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still.
There is an agenda of this site…Bash MLM at all costs. Seems like someone embraces negative debate way too much. Could lead to a heart attack!
Skepticism is very healthy, but cynicism is can be described as a type of “hate group.”
No doubt, I’ll get some well thought out response, because that is what cynical people do…poke holes in any and everything that doesn’t agree with their view.
I’ll close with this “In seeking happiness for others, you find it for yourself.” I’m not sure this type of site makes very many people happy. Maybe you could find some things you like and start a site about them. What a concept!
Let the poking begin!
Smile: There are two articles about MLM’s on this site. 360 others. Yeah, this site is all about bashing MLM’s. You got me.
Keith,
You have made your stance clear on MLMs and in terms of the average or typical individual moving into this business model, you are correct; the vast majority will fail. Now, that doesn’t make this particular business or product worthless though (and no, before you start shouting, I’m not in MLM and NOT in SOC)..
Here’s the point you are missing..(and a few of your informed readers).
Send out cards offers a real product (not an e-card) delivered on demand at a good price (less than $1 per card I think). As a customer management model (i.e. for a business, charity or entrepreneur looking to simplify, personalize and organize a way to keep in contact with new customers or list subscribers, send out cards is a valuable business tool). No value in the product? I guess you’ve never heard of direct mail?
Happy MLM bashing!
Neil Ashworth
Neil: there’s no need for SOC to be an MLM. Why is it set up like that? Perhaps because it’s the “opportunity” being sold, not the actual product. It’s funny how many of you have just totally bought into MLMs without thinking even once what’s the purpose of doing it that way. It’s opportunity, man!
Keith,
Thanks for the reply. Of course people buy into the opportunity. You’re correct, SOC doesn’t need to be an MLM but choses that particular marketing and distribution model (it suits their needs). This doesn’t make it an illegal or unprofitable business model for those who chose to build a home business with it though – it really doesn’t.
You are missing what most people miss about the business model. MLM companies open their doors to anyone and everyone who wants to work from home/start a business. The vast majority of these people have little or no idea of how to work for themselves, how to time manage, market, maintain cashflow in order to sustain advertising and simply hit the wall within 1-2 years. The companies are at fault in terms of how they teach the traditional network marketing model as are many distributors who team build also (friends and family crap) and until you (obviously not you Keith) understand business, acquire a little marketing knowledge and understand that any business is built over time then you will not be successful.
The model will always mean that fewer people reach the higher levels of income because it takes time and business knowledge to get where you want to go. It doesn’t make it a scam and I’ve not bought into it, I’m simply pointing to how business is done. Slowly, with effort, with cashflow and good marketing skills, over time.
I know you don’t like the real world comparisons but look at it this way…
If you buy a franchise, you buy the rights to sell a brand, with advertising support and a degree of training from the company in your initial investment.
Okay, so then you have to learn the business; how to sell coffee, sandwiches, cold showers on the move for flee ridden labradors etc..
You invest time, effort and funds into a model which sees you paying staff from your profits, while passing up an annual license fee to the franchise company. If your business profits, so will you and the company who’s brand you have used and who you have most likely paid several thousand dollars for.
If it fails (as many do) then you have nothing left at the end to show but debt, a few redundant staff and a bad taste from your business exploits.
MLM is no different to Starbucks or McDonalds, only no staff, less investment and yet we are all happy to see our friends and family invest 100,000 or more into a Starbucks on Main Street.
I don’t know a single person who has tried sending cards with Send Out Cards who came away disappointed although I know many who are frustrated trying to build a SOC business. The number one obstacle in people’s way is fear–fear of presenting the SOC opportunity for fear of failing. Read “Go For No” by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz (no affiliation) if you want to overcome that fear.
P.S. This has been an entertaining and informative thread no matter whose side you’re on.
.-= Roland´s last blog ..No Excuse NOT to Send a Mother’s Day Card =-.
I love Send Out Cards! It has helped me in my business and personal relationships. It is so easy when I am travelling to send high quality cards to the people I care about.
I love the campaign feature, this has made me lots of money and saved me time!
Thanks!
Yawn… MLMers are all the same, no matter the company. Same circus, different clowns. Same clowns, different circus. Same dog, different fleas… well, you get the idea.
I won’t waste my time dissecting the recent comments, as anyone who is not in MLM and has checked out my aforementioned links already understands the dishonorable ways of the wacky world of MLM.
This particular article is the most telling:
http://www.falseprofits.com/files/0e84fa53401abaf0461335365f0641a4-21.html
But if you really want a sure fire way to make money and stay off the hamster wheel, try this:
http://www.buymystupidebook.com/
Keith,
There is a great book called “The Richest Man in Babylon,” and it teaches lessons about how to become and stay wealthy. It uses parable type stories to share wealth lessons, and it’s a legendary book. One of the most important lessons in the book is about gravitas. If someone has gravitas, they posses the expertise to intelligently (and when I say intelligently I’m not speaking about IQ, but about possessing personal experience regarding a subject) counsel someone in a subject area and give sound advice based on their personal experience.
I don’t know you personally, but in all of your posts, you haven’t said anything about your credentials and experience in multi-level marketing. I have been reading diligently and I was certain at some point you would divulge this information, but I was wrong as you have said nothing to this.
So my question to you is, “What makes you an MLM expert? And why should anyone value your counsel on this subject matter?” And when you answer me, please don’t quote some article, Send Out Cards earning statistics, or anything from a website you found online. I want to know about your personal expertise. Why should anyone value your opinion on the subject of Send Out Cards and MLM’s.
I’m a single guy, with no children. So, if I read some articles in “Dad Today” and did some research online about being a stay at home father. Would that make me an expert on being a dad even though I don’t have any children? Absolutely not. I would lack the gravitas, and the personal experience to intelligently counsel anyone on being a stay at home father, because as I’m sure you can attest. There is a lot more to being a stay at home dad, than you can learn from a website, or spread sheet of facts.
I don’t know, what I don’t know. I haven’t done it. Never changed a diaper, never grounded anyone. Never woke anyone up for school, or made breakfast and got someone dressed. Never done any of it. I could read articles and books and quote facts all day long about being a father and you would be an absolute fool if you listened to anything I told you; because I lack the personal experience and I’m not an expert.
I’m afraid to say, that while you speak very passionately against Send Out Cards and MLM’s in general, and have mucho mucho disdain, you lack the fundamental understanding of the intricacies of the business model. And since you don’t have any experience in this business (Send Out Cards), you are unqualified to castigate it. Just as I cannot set up a blog and talk about how awful it is to be a stay at home dad when I’ve never done it myself. I would have no credibility, and you don’t have any credibility either.
I can’t learn how to change a diaper researching online and quoting articles no more than you can understand how to operate a business you have never done. You have changed more diapers, gone school shopping, lead car pools, teacher conferences, and grounded individuals. And I have had more Send Out Cards business presentations, gift account walk throughs, setting up new card senders, and training new distributors than you have. I would strenuously recommend that you stay in your lane. I won’t tell you how to be a stay at home dad, and you don’t tell me that a business that brings me great joy and extra money is a scam. I send my mother cards just to tell her that I love her. And the response I get from those cards would be worth all the money I have. I never used to send cards. Ever! Now, I send over 100 cards a month and I get more joy out of sending them, than the recipients get from receiving them. It’s awesome to be sitting in my bed, going through my family pictures and finding that perfect picture of my bro and sis. Then putting it in a card, writing something nice and sending it to them. You can’t put a price tag on that. It’s something that can’t be measured. There are lots of people in SOC’s that sign up and just use it b/c they love to send the cards. The company stats you keep quoting don’t account for that. Many of the people in SOC are very successful business people that make a good living at their jobs and businesses, so it’s of no consequence that they aren’t doing anything with their SOC business…well except sending out cards to their friends and family.
You see Keith, as I said earlier, you have never done this business, so you don’t understand that it’s not just about how much money you make. This is a lesson that I hope you are teaching to your children. Then again, don’t take my advice b/c I have never raised children, but nonetheless. Some things just can’t be measured and are worth it, regardless of the money you make.
I was a successful business to business salesman for 8 years. Worked for 2 Fortune 500 companies and quickly rose up the ranks. Eventually got into pharmaceutical/medical sales and within 2 years was completely burned out. So, I decided to quit my job (with no back up plan) and made a career change. Got into entertainment and I have been doing that for the past 5 years. I work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and the NBA. Got to this point by working hard and hustling my arse off. That’s the only way you can get anywhere.
As a B2B sales rep, I’ve seen companies start up. Burn through $2-$3 million, then close their doors. Seen this many, many times. It’s tough as hell to start up and business and survive for 5 years. Really tough. You have had a business that couldn’t survive, so you understand how hard it is. With that being said, the MLM model, when operated by a legitimate company, with conservative management. Can be very successful.
Amway, Tupperware, Mary Kay, Avon, Herbalife, Pleasure Parties, Pampered Chef, Pre-Paid Legal, etc, etc, etc have been around for years-Amway 60 years. Amway and Mary Kay have 2 of the largest sales forces with each having millions of sales reps all over the world. These are very, very successful companies which are well respected in the business community.
I can guarantee you that the financial companies, hedge funds, mutual funds, who were cooking their books for 20 years and stealing people’s hard earned money, have done way more damage than any MLM could ever do. Bernie Madoff stole upwards of $50 billion, mostly from charitable organizations which are all now pretty much defunct. Goldman Sacs, the Bond Rating agencies, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and others have perpetrated the real scam–and you should be writing about them.
They were selling securities that they knew, or should have known, were bad paper. And gladly took people’s life savings, only to receive a get out of jail free card with the massive $800 billion bailout at the end of the Bush Administration, and then a $700 billion bailout at the genesis of Obama’s term. These crooks are the real scammers. If you want to direct your energy to expose fraud and scams. Put your excellent blogging skills to work on these guys. The light is a great sanitizer so expose them.
As for Send Out Cards. There is a saying, “You never can get something for nothing.” And this holds true in all businesses. Any business. Whether you spent $400 to start or $4 million. If you sign up for Send Out Cards or any other MLM for that matter, and then you don’t do anything to build and grow your business. You will not make any money. It’s plain and simple. There isn’t a business in existence that can survive without customers, and efforts to sell the products or services. SOC’s has 2 products: Greeting Cards & Distributorships. Just like other companies, it cannot survive if those 2 products don’t move off the shelves. MLM’s are the product of the American capitalist system, which is the greatest economic system in the world. There are very, very few countries that you can be poor and rise up into the middle or upper class. I’m not saying MLM’s are the only way to do that, but it gives anyone a low, low cost vehicle to try and improve their situation.
Believe it or not, just a extra couple hundred dollars a month, could help millions of people avoid bankruptcy or financial ruin. And SOC isn’t meant to be started as a full time job. It’s a business that people do on the side to earn extra money. If they bust their tail and build it to a full time income. Great. If not, then they get from it, whatever they put into it. This is an opportunity that anyone can do. It costs about as much as a good dinner to start, and you have the ability to resell amazing products that everyone that has every seen them, loves…
I have been a distributor in SOC since Jan 2010. I have already received 5 checks and I have 1 more coming in a few weeks. I’m working the business and selling the products. That’s the only way you can make money. You have to work. The reason the vast majority of people in general, not just in SOC, don’t make much money is because they are not willing to do what it takes.
I signed up a new customer today, and I’m signing up another distributor tomorrow night. I even have 1 of my distributors, who has already signed up a distributor. I’m working my business in my spare time and making some extra money. Most people doing something on the side, don’t rely on that business to support their family. I have a full time job as a manager for a well known celebrity and I’m a free lance producer in television and film. So these greeting cards are amazing tools for my full time operations. And I would use them regardless of working it as a business. And just b/c you can’t support your family doing something, doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing it. And since you love facts, you stated that there are no Eagles in SOC. And this is incorrect. There are 2 Eagles in SOC’s, but since you are not in the business and you don’t understand how any of this actually works. You would not know that.
I have nothing against you, and I wish you and your family well. I just hope you put your efforts into something that you actually have personal experience in, and that you can intelligently discuss.
All the best,
Aston
Aston: You’re a diligent reader of ALL my MLM related posts? What? All two of them? You mean the two I didn’t write, but were written as guest posts by someone who owns a successful business and has two degrees from the London School of Economics (economics and finance for your information)? Are those the two you’ve diligently read? Because this is a parenting blog and I have plenty of experience in that subject if that’s what you’re talking about — the 360 posts I wrote on parenting. But, I guess you didn’t diligently read those because if you had you might know this blog isn’t about MLM’s, just two posts are — and a business expert actually wrote them.
Keith,
Thank you for the very informative response, but you still have not answered my questions. So, I’ll give them to you again: What makes you an MLM expert? And why should anyone value your counsel on this subject matter?”
Feel free to have your “guest blogger with 2 degrees from the London School of Economics” answer them if it’s more appropriate.
Thanks,
Aston
Aston: I’m as much as expert on this topic as you, Aston. I’m an expert who doesn’t need to actually get run over by a car to know I don’t want to be run over by a car. Jeesh. Go click on Dennis’ link and find out about him yourself. I’m not going to hold your hand.
Keith,
I have a very, very important principle that I live by. I learned it from my experiences in college, being in the corporate/entertainment field for many years, from business mentors, and from reading many books (The Richest Man in Babylon being one of them).
And my personal experiences have proven this principle to be worth it’s weight in gold, many times over. I never, never, never, ever accept advice or give credibility to anyone who pretends to be an expert in something, but does not have any personal experience actually doing it. This is why I asked you the 2 questions, which you (or your unnamed guest blogger) still have not answered. It’s impossible to gain the level of expertise in something that you have never actually done. It’s impossible.
This is why when you go to get a job you have to put together a resume and prove that you have direct experience in the field you are applying for. Without this experience, you are not qualified for the job (generally speaking). Companies apply this standard for good reason. And that is because it’s important that you understand something before you can competently perform the duties necessary to get the job done right. The same standard applies here.
Unlike all the other posts on this thread, it would not be fair for me to comment on the substance of your posts, because it’s not a fair fight. You have no experience in Send Out Cards or MLM’s and I do. I’m sticking to exposing you as an unqualified advisor and someone who give people terrible advice. You say that the vast majority of people in SOC never make money and quote statistics from the company. Yes, those statistics from the company are correct, but it only proves that SOC is no different than society in general. Send Out Cards is not the only place in the country where people fail to earn a lot of money. Failure is just a part of society, and a part of life.
Did you know that there are millions of people in the U.S. that work their entire lives. Forty plus years, and retire dead broke? These are people working full time, and the vast majority of people in SOC or MLM’s only work it part time as a hobby. 1/3 of all the income earned in this country, comes from 6% of the population. So proportionally, all of the wealth is concentrated at the top. That’s just the natural order of economics and the way our system works. Keith, most people don’t make much money, and that’s how it is.
The truth is, you are not qualified to talk about Send Out Cards or MLM’s because you have no experience working the business. And to the best of my knowledge, you have never actually seen one of the cards, or even sent a card using the online system. How can you speak so passionately about something you have never seen or used? I’m trying to figure out why you have posted so much about a company you have no experience with.
The bottom line is, you are not qualified to give anyone, any advice about anything outside of being a good parent. Which from reading your blogs, I’m pretty confident that you are an expert at that. And if someone is intelligent (and I don’t mean IQ), they will NOT accept your “advice and counsel” as the gospel, but they would seek out someone with actual experience using Send Out Cards, and who has been working the business. Or at the very least, seen the cards and used the system once.
You (or your unnamed guest blogger) are still free answer my questions, but I don’t think you will because it will prove to everyone that reads this thread that you simply don’t have the credibility, you are NOT an expert in Send Out Cards and MLM’s, and you are not qualified to talk about it. Please prove me wrong.
All the best,
Aston
aston: You aren’t listening. I didn’t write the post. An actual expert wrote them. Why don’t you click on his link and visit his website. While your at it try learning a little from him. He’s more qualified and has more experience with MLMs than anybody you know. Besides, even if I did write those posts I’d be qualified to say it’s crap. I don’t need to do drugs to say they’re bad, right? You need to stop talking and start listening. I urge you to look at the name and profile of the person who wrote the article and stop repeating the same tripe as yesterday AFTER I already told you I didn’t write it — I hosted it (and I absolutely agree with it).
You cry that you didn’t write the article, ok that’s cool. But you responded 50 times to other posts, and this is your blog so not sure why you cannot answer 2 simple little questions.
I have major deals to finish up, so I have to dedicate all my time right now on wrapping up 8 months of hard work. I cannot afford to waste anymore time with someone who hides behind the skirt of his friend that wrote an article on his blog. When you’re ready to leg go of your wife’s apron strings and answer my simple questions we can finish our conversation. Until then, I wish you and your family all the very best.
Aston
Aston: I’m not crying about anything. I’m stating a fact which you’re not listening to. I also said I’m perfectly qualified to comment on MLMs because i don’t need to be a drug addict to know I don’t like drugs. Remember that? Probably not since say what’s convenient for you and forget the rest.
Hey guys,
I came across this post and was shocked to see the bullcrap that keith and Dennis yu are exposing to drive traffic back to Yu’s website.
Obviously its pretty clever because the majority of people in SOC are professionals who use it as a follow up tool and to build relationships.
Now this post is completely off, and the claims are incorrect. Although there are a few EAGLES in SOC and they are doing very well.
Queef over here thinks he’s really mr.almighty because it took the snapshot from the INCOME DISCLOSURE PDF and used it against everyone.
Of course not everyone makes money in mlm, and if it were a scheme the SEC would have shut it down a long time ago.
Look around Queef, you have AMWAY running full TV ads and doing 9billion a year in sales “OH YEAH SUCH A SCHEME”..
Dennis Yu is an idiot, I was a client of his and he didn’t come through at all with his techniques and information.
I happen to be reviewing his site to leave a comment about what I had experienced and he obviously monitors his posts for that specific reason.
Keith (Queef) is just another guy JV partner of Dennis who has a older domain and dennis didnt want to really rank his own domain because he doesnt know how.
SOC is a great company, I use it for my legal firm where we get clients off of RipoffReport and other scam driven sites.
Keith has NO CLUE what he is talking about at ALL… Honestly the guy doesn’t know anything about SOC or MLM.
A scheme is where money is flowing without products, like cash gifting. There is a product and service being traded here.
You pay to join the company, your buying a membership just like your going to the gym retards, costco…
Next, the lady above that mentioned about HALLMARK, you can not customize and add photoshopped images onto pre-printed hallmark cards.
They are cheaper than hallmark an average $1.50 to send out card including postage.
Its disgusting to see blogs like this of people taking advantage of the SERPS (Search Engines) to talk incorrectly about a company, just to benefit there friends “local marketing company”..
I will make sure keith and Dennis have a great little spot on “ripoffreport” and I will begin to make a blog about them and rank it on their names so people can really find out what they are doing.
best of luck to all of you.
-
All Readers: See how rabid these MLM guys can get? Shouldn’t that tell you something about their character? Dennis posts facts and these guys respond with hate.
Hey Keith,
I am not a MLM guy at all actually. I am a professional attorney in the marketing industry of online & offline.
If you re-read once again I mention I do use SOC as their service is great my client communication, follow up and prospecting.
But you on the other hand are loving this interaction on your blog, creating the rankings and google does like that.
You are not providing any value, nor are you impacting the lives of others by creating information that is non-sense to certain facts.
If you were more clear (Dennis Yu) about MLM, and yourself being in affiliate marketing for sometime clearly know that affiliate marketing is worse, with these fake blogs you guys create and trial offer type of products that re-bill people at $89.95 on a monthly basis. The big product launches that are over hyped with false promises and useless ebooks and products.
So before you go out shooting down companies in-directly, take a look at what you have truly done and how you have impacted and brought value to the masses.
For the whole “almighty dad” website, its great for dads and people out there. I watched the videos etc.
But to come and in-directly bash a $100 million dollar MLM company with NLP tactics and persuasion in your writing fulfilling the feelings of those who sit around and can only dream but can’t do, is absolutely bogus.
We can keep going on here for days, or you guys can remove this post completely.
2 can play the game as I can begin to rank under your names and begin the same bashing as you have begun here in-directly.
-
Reader: go ahead and outrank me on my own name. I don’t drive traffic with my name anyway. I don’t even get much direct traffic to almightydad.com anyhow. Keywords on individual articles are what drives traffic from google. Thus, if you want to make this post disappear, I suggest writing an opposing view and getting readers. Eventually you might actually manage to push this article down and make it disappear. I welcome the debate, and if you do manage to get this particular article to become irrelevant then that’s really ok with me. Keep in mind that this is one article out of 361 others. It gets a fair amount of traffic, but that’s not really the point. The point is that it’s only ranking highly now because people find it relevant (which I didn’t expect). When something else eventually starts getting more reads then that’s fine. Please, Reader, understand that I’m not just bashing for the sake of traffic. I like the traffic, but this post was originally intended as a warning to parents not to get wrapped up in what I consider to be a losing bet. You disagree; that’s fine. But, it’s not helpful to be mean and use made up slams (we don’t spam, we have no re-bill scam offers, we don’t have useless e-books and we certainly don’t have fake blogs). All this content is original. I haven’t scraped a single word from someone else. Dennis’ site is completely legit too. We aren’t spammers, Reader. We don’t do that.
By the way,
If you head over to Godaddy.com or any of the domain registries, you will find that the following domains are available for purchase:
1. http://www.almightydadscam.com
2. http://www.dennisyu.com
You both know how well .com rank, and how effective they are in the eyes of people.
Just a heads up!
Thank you for removing this post, bashing a highly successful company in-directly to benefit your local marketing company (unprofessional).
-
Reader: .com doesn’t have anything to do with rankings. Nothing at all. I thought you said you did online marketing.
I’d respond to our “show biz “poster, but reading comprehension does not seem to be a skill he possesses, since he refers to Dennis as an” unnamed”, guest blogger. Besides, I fell asleep reading his posts. Verbosity is not a virtue.
But our “attorney” is another case. He:
1. Calls you a vulgar name. I had to consult the urban dictionary to learn it’s meaning.
2. Links his name to ripoff report?
3. Makes retaliatory threats.
4. Doesn’t seem to know the difference between the FTC and the SEC. Maybe his law firm is Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe, and he graduated from the Acme School of Law, a subsidiary of the Acme Corporation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_Corporation
5. Calls your blog a fake blog. Hilarious considering how many preemptive MLM blogs there are. Google the name of your favorite MLM and the word,”scam”, and see how many positive reviews there are. Why are they ranking so high? Because the word is getting out about the despicable world of MLMs, and they are desperately trying to convince folks that they are legitimate. If you Google a legitimate company (non MLM) and the word, “scam”, you’ll either find someone who hates the company or some nefarious activity directed at the company or its products.
Many MLMs are indeed LEGAL pyramid schemes and will continue to operate as long as they can continue to find and indoctrinate/deceive recruits. Plenty are operating illegally until they get caught. Interestingly, may of the longest established MLMs have expanded oversees searching for fresh meat, er, recruits as Americans become more educated. Amway ran into trouble in England, but managed to get in, while Mary Kay has recently been spending a lot of money in China and India.
“Mr. Attorney” has the credibility of a mountebank.
From Top 10 reviews (SOC ranks… last at 13th–can see limited review on left hand link):
http://online-greeting-card-review.toptenreviews.com/index.html
Review:
“SendOutCards is a network marketing company. Individuals buy into the program and operate their own card sites under the SendOutCards umbrella. This makes the site confusing and difficult to use.
You must buy a $99 membership to purchase, and cards are charged on top of that. However, the designs and selection are great, customization process is streamlined including a font which duplicates your handwriting, and a range of gift cards are available to add to your card for a complete gift.
Summary:
Use with caution if you don’t want to be involved in a network marketing company, or just use another one of the card sites on our matrix.”
http://online-greeting-card-review.toptenreviews.com/u-design-it-cards-review.html
Watch the sheeple jump on the two positive statements, make excuses for the last place ranking, claim you can join for less (which may be true but is besides the point), slam the competition inaccurately, etc., ad nauseam…
Keith, I want to say that it is really amazing the amount of rage in the midst of the comments here on this blog. I would have to agree with you that many mlm companies are scams, but I think you have gone overboard to make Send Out Cards the bad guy here.
I would like for you to know that the company puts out a quality product, with the ability to create cards from your own digital pictures and to write in your own handwriting. I also don’t forget birthdays anymore because the system sends me an email for everyone in my contact list in plenty of time to get a card out to my friends, family and people I do business with.
I only wish I was an Eagle but I will say I have made much more than my investment back and just today got a call from an insurance agent that is a friend of mine , I’ve sent him numerous birthday and anniversary cards, he wants to start using our system to keep in touch with his clients. The company has a valuable product and very easily could have just sold it and would have been successful without the multi-level system of marketing.
I’m not sure what you have a problem with when a company sells it’s product for as little as 62 cents and is atill able to give some back to the distributors. Oh by the way I really don’t know what you do but I have noticed something about affiliate marketing in the comments. Does every affiliate selling your product make it big? I just think we can all be a bit more reasonable and maybe realize that some aren’t even trying to make big money they just like the product and want to pick up a few bucks.
Jeff: I don’t think you read very well. Either that or you just don’t pay attention to the names people have been calling me and Dennis. If you’ll read the actual article you’ll notice there’s no rage at all. Also, there’s no rage in any of my comments perhaps you should look up what “rage” means. And while you’re at it look up hyperbole.
I think for a stay-at-home dad, Greg sure seems to have a lot of time on his hands!!!!
Carrie: Who’s Greg?
Keith,
I had never heard of you before today,but I will say you certainly know how to stir the water. You have obviously noticed that there is a large number of people in MLM so you have a very big market place. There is an awful amount of abuse coming from you towards opportunities given to people who are trying to make a difference in their lives, and usually this talk comes from people who are perhaps jealous at someone else’s success.
I was like you in business and found also that my income would not support my family. There wasn’t a lot I could do about it apart from hang on in there and hope for an upturn. The upturn came when some one told me of MLM, the fact that I could make an extra income outside of my other business and that I would’nt have find extra capital that I hadn’t any chance of getting anyway and I wouldn’t need to add to my staff or overheads. I saw an extra £500 a month as a life saving figure for us and achieved it within 18 months. No super deal, but it was earned in the time I would have spent drowning my sorrows about my failing business or sitting at home in front of the TV, and it kept the roof over our heads.
Can I ask you if an extra $500-$600 a month at the time your business was failing would have made a difference to your family? Who gave you the advice that you could support your family on the back of other peoples dreams of becoming a Bruce Lee? I dont see you slagging them. MLM gave me a chance, which I took and worked alongside my other business in which time I also had quite a few team members earning far more than me and can I say, thanks to the support and training I passed onto them from me. There is a lot of satisfaction in knowing that you have contributed to peoples succes and Kieth that doesn’t happen too often in the corporate world.
When my income from MLM grew bigger than that of my other business, we were able to get out of that business and continue working our MLM business from home less the £650,000 per annun overheads that came with running a ‘normal’ business. Twelve months ago I came accross SendOutCards and saw it as a great way to save money and time that we spend every year on cards and gifts supporting our team in our MLM business. It is a first class company!
I have studied their latest 2009 Income Disclosure (not the 2008 one you had published in Nov 2009) and taking into account that the company is only in it’s 6th year and markets a $0.62 product it’s earnings figures are impressive – far more impressive than you make it out to be. What you seem also to forget Kieth is that people don’t have to do MLM, they can quit whenever they like, so when I see letters of people saying they lost thousands of dollars, I say more fool you. You should have got out earlier!
I now promote SendOutCards and have plenty of testimonials from satisfied wholesale account holders who are gaining extra business over their competitors thanks to SendOutCards and a growing team of Distributors who have invested only $398 in opportunity that gives them a chance to, as Kerry put it back in March 30th this year, ‘actually own their own business’.
To quote from the SendOutCards Income Disclosure, “Your success with SendOutCards results only from successful sales efforts, which require hard work, diligence, skill, persistance, competence and leadership. Your success will depend upon how well you exercise these qualities, in addition to your effectiveness in selling SendOutCards products, developing customers, building and training a sales organisation (downline). The company does not hide this and neither should any Distributor hide it from a prospect.
Come on, all business’s are hard work, they take time, but the biggest reason for people failure in MLM in my experience is that they do not treat it as a business. they treat it as a hooby, get hobby money and then blame MLM.
The people that do work hard, are consistant and disiplined will get results.
Best wishes
Eddie Daly
Eddie: I didn’t want to be Bruce Lee as I never studied Kung Fu. And, no, I wouldn’t want another 5 or 6 hundred extra dollars if it meant ripping people off to get it. All you people are so passionate about this sendout cards things. That’s weird because if I had written a post about how martial arts academies are a rip-off, I never would have gotten such impassioned responses. Could it be that that other business owners are much less fanatical about their method of making money? Perhaps they’re less defensive because there’s less to be defensive about.
Another country heard from, Keith. (literally). The threads on scam.com died a while ago, and this little MLM is so small that very few folks care. So now we again have the “I” story, the lazy loser argument, and the deceptive information. You do NOT own your own business; you are an independent contractor who pays to participate.
Our “across the Pond” friend has a whopping two testimonials on his web page. He also claims SOC is the largest privately owned card company in the world on his link. American Greetings is a public company, but Hallmark Cards is privately held.
Some fun stuff:
http://www.thecoolbuzz.com/whats-the-potential.html
(SOC response: get in early, data outdated—but who cares? What a tiny little MLM we have here)
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/sendoutcards.com/
(easily manipulated data, current Alexa ranking 3711 in US, but not very impressive—did they have an annual meeting in September ? Why the dip at Christmas?)
http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/online-shopping-sites/send-out-cards-in-salt-lake-city-ut-22002277
(I think the BBB is pretty scammy itself, especially with their new grading system, but, really, all SOC has to do is join and their rating will zoom from “F” to “B+” faster than a speeding bullet)
Even publically held MLMs creatively spin their numbers, but it is easy to see one thing clearly: The product is ALWAYS a small portion of income generated compared to sales of pay to play sheeple (membership, which includes purchasing the product to varying degrees, training aids, etc.) Those that publish their sales never separate out wholesale vs. retail sales—if they did, you would easily see that the opportunity to simply sell the product and earn anything other than pocket change would be self-evident.
Bottom line: I would guess this itty bitty little MLM will chug on along but never be a big player in the unethical, immoral world of MLMs. Personally, I really don’t care one way or the other. On another blog, I presented a compelling argument to cause an MLMer to get out of MLM once and for all. My sole purpose is to contribute to the education of potential recruits.
I believe this gentleman summed up the best way to make money in an MLM: “I have found one surefire way to make loads of money off of an MLM scam: be the bartender.
I work in a hotel bar and after what I can only assume had been a long, hard-sell performance in one of our conference rooms, the scammers brought their prospective clients down to the bar. In an effort to impress the suckers, the leaders were literally throwing money over the bar at me. 4 shots cost $16 bucks, so he tipped me $20, 10 drinks for all his “friends” is $50, here’s a $50 tip as well.
By the end of my normally sleepy Tuesday night shift, I had made over $600… my average on a Tuesday being about $75. It almost made me uncomfortable to take his money because I could see that he was trying to show off, and I had a feeling this kid didn’t really have the money to spend.
I don’t know for sure what the product or plan was for this group, but I’ll bet I probably have the highest income/time-invested ratio in the whole company…”
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/05/11/how-one-reader-narrowly-avoided-multilevel-marketing/
☺
Hmmmmm. I will be walking to my mailbox to get my check from my send out cards business
William: Why not disclose how much that check is if you’re so proud of it?
Angie,
Send Out Cards greeting cards are real physical greeting cards sent through the U.S. Postal Service, not free e-cards. Frankly, SOC is the only company I’ve seen in 23 years around network marketing where the product is cheaper through the company than you can buy in the store. The average Hallmark card is about $3.00/piece, and unlike the SOC cards they won’t have your own pictures in them.
With Hallmark cards you can’t upload your own pictures to print out on the inside of the card, and even though there are other services out here where you can do that none of them offer the ability to do it for a maximum of $1.24 per card. That happens to be the most expensive card you can send on SOC and that’s a fully customized 5 panel greeting card that you can upload as many as 17 of your own photos to be printed on the front and inside the card.
I actually promote the program almost exclusively to business owners and teach them how to use it as a customer relationship marketing system and it works great for that purpose.
I’m a retired attorney who teaches business owners how to market their businesses through relationship marketing and I’ve studied the network marketing/MLM industry for over 23 years now. The vast majority of people in network marketing don’t make money, from my own experience, because network marketing sometimes attracts the kind of people who are not truly committed to making their businesses work. The success stats for network marketing are sometimes skewed by the fact that so many people will pay a little money to sign up and then do absolutely nothing to build the business.
The average network marketer pays about $300-500 to start a business which is nothing in comparison to traditional businesses. Compare that to a franchise where one may be required to invest $50,000 or more to acquire the franchise rights and then have to build out a store and hire staff on top of it. McDonald’s franchises can start at $500,000 before you even open your store. By comparison, network marketing businesses are less risky, but they many times attract people who should never be in business for themselves anyway, which is why the attrition rate is so high.
All things considered networking marketing as a business model is not the problem. The quality of business professional it attracts, because of the low price of admission, is what makes it appear to be a scam. As I look around at most network marketing presentations I see a bunch of employees who are just a step short of getting fired from their jobs for doing the bare minimum to get a paycheck, and they bring that same mentality into network marketing. If we were being totally honest in our assessment of the facts, and if we look into the qualifications of people who start network marketing businesses I think there would be less surprise about how many people fail at it.
.-= Glenn Garnes´s last blog ..Village Connector Howard County Launches! =-.
No Glenn Garnes listed as an active Send Out Cards distributor as of August 2011, nor is Send Out Cards listed on his LinkedIn page. Guess studying the network marketing industry for 23 years didn’t help him succeed in Send Out Cards.
Dennis and Kevin – I am in the mortgage industry and have been using SendOutCards for over 3 years. I have found the service to be an essentional component in my business. Over the years I have found that there is not a single system that works best. I use a little bit of everything to reach out to prospective mortgage clients and to retain existing ones. I have a top ranked website for my search terms. I use email to the extent that it is realiable. I use the phone, and, I use SendOutCards. Why, because the cards are high quality and they work.
The reason I joined SendOutCards rather then another service is because of the cost and convenience. I cannot buy and send an equivilent card for the same cost. What put it over the top for me was the ability to send a single card, that I had created from scratch for less that $1.50.
I have found that in my business it is unwise to rely on email or printed material. Most people are overwhelmed with Spam and junkmail. A card seems to have a higher success rate. I have yet to be told by a receipant of one of my cards that it was unthoughtful or cheap.
Kevin, you are welcome to critize MLM’s and Dennis, I understand why you would rather have busineemen like me pay you for AdWords rather then send a client or prospect a heart-felt card, That doesn’t negate the value of the service. AdWords can help bring the clients in, but they can’t close the deal. SendOutCards helps to differentiate me from my competition.,
I believe enough in the service that I have started a side business, NiceTouchMarketing to help other small business men and women do the same. Yes, I make a little money off of them, but I am helping them to pursue their passion within their industry. I sell them on the service, not the dream of walking away from their job.
One of the reasons that SendOutCards success rate appears so low is because many of the reps are working their own business and not SendOutCards. But if it is helping them to make money in their chosen profession, why is it wrong?
What I do dislike about MLM’s in general is that many people who join would never go into business for themselves. They have no business or sales skills, so they “sell” their friends, family and co-workers. On that we can agree.
SOC’s prices may indeed be the best around, even if you factor in the membership fee and only use it as a marketing tool for your business. BUT…
Despite our recent posters, MLMs are simply immoral and unethical, and most folks lose money:
http://www.vandruff.com/mlm.html
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/MLM.php
Personally, if i owned a business, I’d rather pay more for marketing tools than play any role in the deplorable ways of MLMs— even as a consumer of the product.
How do you send cards and how much do you spend on cards? What business are you involved in?
Keith, with the time you have wasted with your negative replies, you could have been out doing some voluntary work or helping someone in need. Do you have nothing better to do than sit and knock every comment… Get a life….. you are boring.
Carolyn: And you could be doing something better than trolling for the keyword “sendout card scam” I suppose people who write things you disagree with must all be wasting their time. They should all go volunteer or something. Would that save your precious sensibilities? If people just shut up about the things you don’t like?
I can’t help but be a little curious as to what you get out of bashing Send Out Cards? Did you once lose money to a MLM company? Do you hate someone who was in a MLM company? What has SOC or any SOC distributor ever done to you to warp you so badly?
Meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder why you would not take me up on my offer to send you my banner address so you could try it out for yourself. You can send up to 6 free cards, on me, for a 15 day period. When the 15 days is up, guess what happens? NOTHING. You don’t turn into a frog. You don’t get plagued by locusts or warts. You just make your own decision as to whether or not you want an account of your own, and that’s the end of it.
Scared you might like it?
Send Out Cards is appropriate for anyone who can read and write, has a computer, and loves their friends, families and customers enough to send them a heartfelt greeting. We know you can read and write. We know you have a computer. Uh oh. Maybe you don’t love, or have any friends, family and customers. Maybe you don’t have a heart with which to send a heartfelt greeting.
I’m sorry. You are a sad case, and I will go away and stop commenting, because your problems are way worse than I thought. If I had your address, I’d send you a sympathy card.
Linda: I don’t have anything against SOC that I don’t have against any MLM. You just happen to be another zombie. There’s no arguing with a zombie.
Wow. The typical MLM zealot/troll response.
1. Attack your motives: hatred, lazy loser, ulterior motives. (Instead of the obvious: educating consumers/readers about MLMs)
2. Ad hominem attacks.
3. Avoiding the obvious: presenting evidence that proves you can earn money with SOC, since both blog articles showed that not only is that difficult, no one other than the creators and TOPPS are doing so.
I’ve never met Keith and have only come to “know” him through his blog. Seems to me he is a nice guy with a loving family and a good blogger who writes on a variety of topics that show his strong moral and ethical compass. I’m sure he has plenty of friends. But Keith, if you need any more, I’ll be happy to apply for the position of cyberpal.
Doo Dilly: Thank you. Sometimes I listen to all this hate and wonder if I’m really so horrible. I also wonder how some people can be led so easily by avarice. It’s like a person who’s willing to kill over a lottery ticket with a 1 in 14 million shot. I’d love to have another cyberpal!
Send out cards is poorly represented. Their software is outdated. They make promises they can not keep. And the cards print out unlike the ones designed on their crappy software. Once you try to talk to customer service you will get the run-around from a bunch of mindless fools. Do Not Waste your time or Hard Earned dollars on another lame pyramid scheme!
This is a retarded article.
Most people don’t make any money at MOST businesses.
To say it’s a scam because “69% of people aren’t making any money” is very disingenuous. Most people start things and don’t take action. Most people that buy treadmills stop using them and remain fat. Most people start diets and then fall back into their old eating habits quickly.
I’m not affiliate with Send Out Cards, but let’s get some truth into this post instead of just slamming them based on nonsense.
Kevin: Retarded? It isn’t a scam because most people don’t make money, it’s a scam because the few people who do make money do it off of the people who don’t make any. I’m not sure if you understand how that works, Kevin. If I own a business where I employ people at 8 dollars an hour to work for me and I produce an actual product, there is no scam going on (provided I tell the truth about the product). However, if I sell you an opportunity to make money (no product), take your money and then tell you it’s your fault you aren’t making anything because you didn’t turn around and sell other people? That’s a scam. Yes, SOC has a product, but that’s not what’s being sold (it is, in fact, how they get around the law) and that’s not how people are making money. Kevin, You should use the word “retarded” a little more selectively. Perhaps it’s retarded to not listen to an argument before calling it retarded. I think you should stick to swimming, Kevin, before you get bamboozled by one of these con artists. You say you want truth? What exactly is that table I put in the post? Not facts? You think that’s a lie? How about you drop the hyperbole, Kevin.
Can you use my name a couple more times?
I’m not getting what you’re saying. If someone wants to join, it’s their choice to join. If they want to make money, they have to buy & sell the cards, as well as get others to join and do the same. I’m not sure why this is a scam. If you research it fully, you can see exactly what it is. Of course some people will join and expect money to be deposited in their account without having to do anything. But how are they being scammed exactly?
Swimming?
Aren’t you Kevin Koskella? I’m not going to explain how MLMs work, Kevin. You sell opportunity, that’s how you make money. You don’t make it by selling cards. Not sure how much clearer that could be.
No, I never put my last name in here to my knowledge. Are you tracking IP’s or something? That’s not too cool.
A scam is where you buy a product that doesn’t work and the seller vanishes. I’m not sure how this is a scam, unless there are lies being told. What exactly are they lying about?
Ok, I looked it up and you’re right, by definition the post cannot be “retarded” as I had stated. Sorry to have offended you, that wasn’t my intention, it was more of a knee jerk reaction.
Calling people “zombies” is along the same lines though, so you may want to watch that.
Anyhow, the post certainly can be incorrect and misleading, which I believe it is. The last part of the post is why:
“For sending cards it’s not a scam. Sandy is right about that. But, for making money? Yes! It is most definitely a scam. You are 95.5% guaranteed to make very very little money and 69% guaranteed to make no money at all (or lose money). Those are the facts. ”
How is this a scam, even with those statistics considered? One of my friends owns a very successful internet business where they have a membership site. He says that only about 3% of people that sign up for his site actually use the services. Is this too a scam? Should he be responsible for every single person using what they paid for?
69% not making any money should not be a surprise if you’ve had any experience in business or in MLMs.
It’s the 80/20 principle, only this is a little better at 70/30.
I’m very curious about these people who are supposedly getting scammed. Did Send out cards lie to them in some way? Did they promise huge earnings? Or was it like other businesses where they showed the potential?
It’s a scam for the same reason all MLMs are scams. Doo Dilly has posted some excellent links that talk all about MLMs and the tactics they use to get people to drink the kool aid. Maybe check those out for some really in depth reading. Also, see his very long comments on the matter here in this thread. It’s all been explained before. See also my comments on what constitutes a real business. I’m not offended by the word “retarded”. It’s not a matter of being PC that got me riled, it’s the fact that you called actually think it’s retarded. I can understand if you disagree, but it’s far from retarded. Oh, and I’m not tracking IPs. Your e-mail is the same as someone who happens to be a triathlon coach by the name of Kevin Koskella.
MLMs aren’t scams as a rule.
Some are scams. Not all.
You still have not explained yourself.
What specifically makes Send out cards a scam? Did someone promise that everyone who joined would make 100k a month? I feel like you’re making a huge leap here, and assuming that because 69% aren’t making anything that it must be a scam, but you seem to have no evidence of this.
A scam is a fraudulent business. Who are they frauding? What are they promising that they are not delivering on?
Kevin: You are just willfully not listening now. I was very clear. Scroll back in these comments and read Doo Dilly’s very long and very thorough explanation of why it’s a scam. I also told you why it’s a scam, but you choose not to listen to that either. The product being sold is not cards, it’s opportunity. People do not make money by selling cards, they make money by selling the system. Now, if you’re really interested in having some answers (which I really don’t think you are) You’ll go back and read previous comments by doo dilly and myself.
I read the comments Doo Dilly made, and I read yours and Sandy’s and nearly all the others here.
There is still no evidence that this is a scam. I’m fully willing to listen. I have no vested interest in SOC, I just happen to know someone who is making money in it, and I’m curious. (BTW, would you say that my friend is likely lying to me since it’s a scam?)
Even if you are correct, that there is no product but just opportunity, this is not a scam…UNLESS, someone is specifically deceiving others and getting them to join by lying to them. Is this happening? If not, you don’t have a case. If you can show me where this is being done, I’m wide open to the idea that this is a scam operation.
If you bought a course from me that I told you had the potential to earn you $10k/month if you followed along and implemented the ideas, would you say I scammed you if you were making $0/month 6 months later?
I’m really trying to follow your logic here but so far, there’s no evidence being pointed to.
Kevin: Sorry, we’re just talking past each other here. You want a definition of scam. I’m telling you the act of pretending the product is cards when it is really opportunity is a scam. We disagree on the definition of scam. You clearly have some interest in MLMs if your this bent on twisting the definition of scam.
This article i hilarious! It doesn’t take into account ANY of the merit of the product.
Send greeting cards from any computer to anywhere in the world for .62 cents plus postage… That is HUGE value.
Yes it is MLM and we are SO lucky it is. This means we can be paid if we help it grow. You are paid for the growth you are responsible for… I can accept that, in fact I love that!
Most people make zero dollars because most people buy SOC to use not sell. It’s unlike any other MLM in the industry because of this and we have the largest if not THE largest retention rate of any MLM and most companies.
There are two eagles in SOC. But they have been working the business for 5+ years. That’s what you have to do to become the top level pay outs in any company.
Hethe?: No, you’re hilarious. Publish how much money you’re making at SOC. If you made any money, you made it selling the system to other people, you didn’t make it selling cards. That’s the hilarious part. All you MLM people are the same.
A scam is where someone is lying.
Where is the lying here?
We’re not talking past each other, you simply will not provide evidence to back your claims. What you are describing on this blog is a “risky proposition”, not a scam, by definition.
I have been a part of 2 mlm’s in the past. The first one, I made $0 after putting in some time and effort (but no money). I definitely had the get rich quick mentality, and was not putting in the work required. I can’t really blame the MLM company on that one.
The second one I did, I made back the money I invested ($500) about about another $1200 within about 3 months. The company had problems and I could see this. I don’t think they were shady or scammy, just poorly managed. I bailed out before even finding out what happened to them.
I became interested in SOC when my friend was actually making money with them. Do you think he’s a scam artist by telling me about it? Is he lying? Who is scamming who? Where’s the victim?
If you can’t answer my questions, you don’t have a case. You have built a strong case that this is a very RISKY business proposition, but this is by no means the same thing as a scam.
Definitions are extremely important here.
The lie is that the cards are what is being sold when it is in fact opportunity that is on sale. A scam is also a deception (the truth can be told, but masked by less relevant information). I’ve now answered your question several times. Yes, definitions are important — thus you should listen to what I’ve repeatedly said. If you disagree then that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t answer your question. You not liking the answer is not the same as not having answered it. I’ve explained repeatedly why I think it’s a scam and exactly how. The fact that you can’t understand is your problem and not mine.
Keith,
Let’s just be specific here.
I honestly think of a deception as a lie, maybe just a small lie, but a lie.
Can you tell me specifically what the lie or deception is? I’m not trying to be snotty or anything. I really want to know. Who is the victim, and how are they being deceived?
Many people here have outlined out they use the service for buying cards. This means they are using it. There is a product. Anyone who signs up is aware of what it costs to use the system.
Again, where specifically is the deception?
Dang it, Kevin: Read my comments. I just got finished telling you what the deception is. Here, just for you, since you’re so persistent, I’ll tell you again. The deception is the same as all MLMs. The cards are nothing but a front for what is really being sold. The thing really being sold and pitched is OPPORTUNITY, not cards. Again, I really want you to understand how that is deceptive, but if I can’t get you to see it then we’ll just have to part ways here because you’ll never get it if you haven’t yet. By the way, every time you comment I get higher rankings on this article. Nobody gives a damn about the cards. What people who sell really care about are getting more people to sell. The product is really irrelevant, and it’s totally deceptive. If you’ll notice, most of the posters here are affiliates. You think they really care about the product. The product doesn’t make them money. Selling the system makes them money. But, of course, when they tell you about SOC they’ll start by telling you how great the “product” is. It’s only later that you find out what is really going to make you money, and it’s not the cards. Scam.
That’s not being specific Keith.
You’re saying “It’s a deception because…”
But you’re not saying who is doing the deceiving, and who is being deceived. Therefore, what you are stating is your opinion, not based on facts or specific examples.
I could say “Keith’s blog is deceiving, and this is obvious because of all the people that argue with him”. But I didn’t provide evidence of you being deceiving.
Who within SOC is going around telling people that they only make money from the cards, and not from people signing up? If that is the case, you are right, this is deceiving. But the fact is, people are making money from the cards. So there IS a product, and people working with SOC CAN make money and ARE making money.
It’s very possible that people don’t give a damn about the cards. But one, you haven’t shown this, and two, this still doesn’t mean there is no product and that it’s a scam.
If you can get specific and provide examples, great, otherwise, you are being deceiving and are just wanting more comments to up your google rankings!
Kevin: I’m sorry that you don’t know what a deception is or how MLMs work. I’ve tried to explain it, but it’s falling on deaf ears. look at all the people who’ve commented here. Many of them talk all about how great the cards are. But, then listen to their sales pitch and they’ll suddenly start talking about something else. If you’ve never heard an MLM sales pitch then you’re ripe pickings for these people. Like I said before, go see all of Doo Dilly’s links. That will take you right to the information you seek. I can recount my personal experiences with MLMers but I doubt that will convince you as you won’t take that as proof. What you’re really doing is going around in circles. But, that’s fine with me. I’m happy to keep going because every comment I get just helps this post.
Kevin, You brought up two points on my last comment.
1) If I make money selling cards and 2) how the money is made.
I don’t “Sell” cards – I create awareness of a product/service and the awareness of an opportunity. If you want to say I “sell” this product and opportunity, I wouldn’t get offended.
The answer to the (1) question:
It’s actually illegal to state what I make. I’ll just say after 2 years (not overnight) I’ve matched my previous income on the residual side….. but do you really care about the numbers? If so I could provide you some very realistic but still hypothetical examples. The potential is huge, simple to do, but I don’t say it’s easy because you won’t make huge buck over night.
The (2) question:
The greeting card service is one of the most valuable services I have EVER seen for business professionals who need to have ongoing relationship with their clients. Not just because it’s 1/5 the price of a store bought card, but because of so much more (time, effort, relationship building, positives to the world, customization, opportunity cost of all thing things that would go unsent without sendoutcards, speed of delivery internationally, ect.). I could go on but I’m not trying to “sell” you on the idea of using cards as a way to keep in touch and why SOC improves upon it.
Money in SOC (and any MLM) is made by the growth you are responsible for in the company. Unfortunately, most of the time a MLM is a “Opportunity Driven Product”. What I mean by this is the only reason there is any on going sales and growth in sales is because of the potential to make money (the product itself has no merit).
SOC is a “Product Driven Opportunity”, meaning for the last 5 years people mainly talked about the product as the main feature and not the opportunity (which is unique to a MLM industry). This could change at some point and the majority of people could start leading with income first but this would not devalue the product.
I signed up a person as a Distributor (entrepreneur) today to use SOC in his business – Originally he was just going to be a customer but “I asked him if he knew anyone else who could benefit from using this product?” He is an insurance agent who is moderately successful but does ZERO follow up marketing. He loves how easy and inexpensive this is… there are 4 other agents in his office he thinks will LOVE this and he told me they to do no follow up marketing. Will this insurance agent be a Network marketing superstar? Probably not… but if he signs up his just 3 people he has 100% of this service paid back to him. He gets this money because SOC pays him for sponsoring people into the business. Personally, I used this product for about 1 year before I even told single person about it… I didn’t want anyone else to know about it, for fear they would start competing with my marketing
Some look at this initial pay check as simply a referral bonus… much in the same way some businesses and professionals give a referral fee when they get a new client. In this case though, he has just helped his fellow agents stay in front of and relevant to their clients BUT he will still get an ongoing commission for all the cards the people in his office send. Ideally they will duplicate what he did and break even themselves but there is no guarantee. In fact, the majority of people never sign up anyone because their ambition is not to grow a SOC team but to improve their business which is why they bought SOC in the first place. The still have an use SOC… are “technically” a distributor/entrepreneur but in reality they are just glorified customers (which is ok too). Again, this insurance agent breaking even will not likely make him a network marketing superstar… but I have found (my personal example but feel its typical) that 1 out of 10 people will work hard to make some real money at it.
Here’s where the money comes in… You don’t “Beach Money” from breaking even and stopping. You make that on going residual paycheck (Beach Money) when you have a team of people growing and using SOC. The “REAL” (as in large and long term) money in SOC comes from the cards being sent and NOT people joining SOC. This is probably a surprise to you… but again, it’s all in the numbers. (no promoting your business here) to see examples of the pay outs, but I can provide more detailed and more realistic examples if you’d like.
Let me ask you… do you consider “NetFlix” to be a scam? Our company provides an EXTREMELY similar value. I haven’t shared the following website with anyone in one year (since our SOC distributor web pages got their own video that talks about the product and income opportunity) but I have a NetFlix vs. SOC comparison video that you should take a peak at. Unless you consider Netflix to be a scam, watch this video and then try to look at SOC again as either a person who would love to use the service… OR as a prospective investor who sees a company about to grow 10 fold.
The website with the Netflix vs. SOC comparison:
(no promoting your business here)
—–Yes SOC is network marketing, but it is not a pyramid. If that is what someone is looking for they will be sorely disappointed as they won’t be making much money.
(Point of clarification, no hostility is put towards anyone. This is just my long/short answer to the post by kevin).
-Hethe
Netflix is not MLM. There’s no comparison.
Hethe: I respect what you’re saying here, I really do. You’re making your case in a grown up and rational way without calling names. That’s gotta be worth something, right?
We clearly have a disagreement about the merits of the MLM distribution method. But, I’m going to let Dennis read what you’ve said and perhaps he can respond as it’s his post. I’ve made my peace about MLM so I figure it’s his turn now 
Woops… on the long post by me… I meant to reply to “Keith”
Sorry Kevin.
The comparison takes place in how these companies bring value to the consumer. Not in how they choose to “market that value”.
Can you not see that?
If not then you either did not watch the video or are not being honest.
Let’s look at some numbers. I don’t have the ability to post a side by side comparison, but let’s see who’s making money and how much. I hope everyone knows that median income is a much more valuable parameter than average income.
From 2008-09, median incomes dropped significantly for 99.95% of participants. Only 0.05% rose, and the highest level went from 0-270k. Look at the incomes. They are very illuminating.
Now that’s probably reported from 1099 info, so you have to deduct business expenses (tax deductable does not nullify) and self-employment taxes.
If the median gross income ranges from $9.30 to $22,915.29 for 95%, how is that making a good living?
Many MLMers have real jobs and don’t realize that they actually lost money, even if they added income to their 1040 via their MLM. I have posted previous links to CPAs and their experience with MLMers.
https://www.sendoutcards.com/images/pdf/income_disclosure.pdf
It’s illegal to post income? By whose authority? The feds, the state? I already posted a link to a SOC big wig who posted his numbers—troll on up and find it.
As to the retention/churn rate, number of participants, we’ll just take your word for it, right? No, not really.
I too award points for politeness, Keith. But the rest of the post is the same that I’ve seen from numerous other MLM people on many other blogs. It always reads the same: Why my MLM is different/better than all the other MLMs.
Brother…
why is this a scam? do they not tell you the product? do they not show you the pay plan? if send out cards is a scam so is your translation service… why? because i say so… i’m just like you… i just say things and call it “opinion”… i’m sorry but your article is silly… once again, do they not explain the service, business, cost, commission, and everything else one would need to know to make an informed decision? maybe we sould all contact you… the stay at home dad and get permission from you? … i’m not sure what the failure or success rates of these mlms are… and i don’t care… i’m a chemist… most people failed many of the higher level courses i have taken… when i signed up… they didn’t tell me that… i guess i should have called the stay at home dad and asked about the various courses in chemistry… do you have opinions on these as well? with all due respect… you seem to be a stay at home dad with tooooo much time on your hands… for goodness sake, we are becoming a nation of silly bloggers… i’m not a member of this service (send out cards)… but i did receive a card from a friend that is so i looked up the company… the card was good quality with his pictures and his handwriting… i was impressed! i guess these scammers scammed me!!!! in closing, i ask once again, why is this a scam? (answer: because the stay at home dad says so…)
okay… i’m back… wanted to apologize for my message… didn’t mean to be a jerk… i never write on these damn things… anyway, everything i said about the card was true so i looked them up and ran into your analysis… i do not believe this or any other mlm business to be a scam… although, i’m sure some are… just as any business… some good/some bad… but people need to make “grown up” decisions… as long as they include “the details”… even if it is difficult to reach success… they are not scams… just difficult… all the best to you and your blogging…
Hi Keith. Since you’re a stay-at-home Dad, and have been doing battle with the SOC crowd, I thought you might enjoy this parody article I just came across:
http://www.happywomanmagazine.com/DIY/MLM.htm
Your cyberpal,
Doo Dilly
Doo Dilly: That’s perfect. I love their tagline “We do the thinking so you don’t have to.” Gold. Hey, we ought to market pine cones too! We’d get rich and then we could bicker with all the “naysayers”
Wow! That’s about all I can say. It’s taken me a few days to read through this thread. I’ve been trying to understand why people publish mis-information as fact and not just their opinion.
I’ve been using the SOC service for 4 years. I signed up for the service to better stay in touch with my customer base. Finally, I had so many people asking me about “the cool cards” I sent them and how they could do it too, I became a distributor by default.
Have I signed up distributors? Yes. Have I signed up customers? Yes. Do I make money when they use the service? Yes. Will I continue to sign up distributors and customers? Yes. But here’s the REAL question that seems to nullify your argument about SOC…
“If every customer and distributor I signed up quits using the service and I never make another dime from that, will I still continue to use the service?” YES!
Every person I’ve talked to in SOC feels the same way. If the company announced tomorrow that they would no longer pay commissions, every person I’ve talked to would still use the service.
Here’s the point that this amazingly long thread fails to reveal. Most of the distributors, from my personal experience, signed up for the service FIRST because they saw value in the service.
They then used the service to enhance whatever they were already doing professionally along with personally using the service to send birthday cards, anniversary cards, etc.
Then, just like what happened to me, other people who see value in the service wanted to know more about it. They then, like me, became distributors by default. After all, if people want to know how you do what you do, who better to show them than you?
The people in SOC are not focused on money. You may find that hard to believe but it’s true. The people in SOC are genuinely focused on finding ways to celebrate others lives while they are still living. It’s about giving, not getting.
Have you ever been to a funeral? Remember all the nice things that were said about the person who passed? Why didn’t someone take the time to say those things while they were still alive?
That’s what we do. We send a “from the heart” card and gift to celebrate people while they are alive to hear it and appreciate it. Plus the contact manager that comes with the service never lets me forget a birthday, anniversary and any other significant event making me a hero to my family, friends and colleagues.
My intention here was to shed light on a subject that, from what I have read, people are confused about or simply don’t know about.
Thanks for the opportunity to share my views.
And, by the way, Jordan Adler hit the rank of Eagle with several Senior Executives knocking on the door to Eagle so please update your “facts.”
Will: You put quotes around “facts” as if they aren’t. Tell me how they aren’t again? Explain this flood of eagle level people? This article was written a while ago. The fact that one guy makes eagle in all that time is hardly a ringing endorsement for the system. By the way, you know what quotes are for, right? They aren’t for emphasis or sarcasm. They’re for QUOTING somebody.
Okay, Keith. I tried to tell things as I see them and all you can say about the whole entire post is that I misused quotes? Really!?
I just wanted to make you aware that the facts (no quotes) have changed since this diatribe began and your original facts are no longer valid.
I never once, in the entire post, claimed a flood of Eagle level people. I said Jordan Adler attained that level with several others knocking on the door.
Instead of acknowledging that maybe a lot of people, including you, may have had the wrong idea about SOC, you choose, instead to comment on my misuse of quotes.
if you have the time, please look over my post again and let’s discuss the points I made.
Will: The reason I no longer respond to these sorts of impartial reviews of SOC with any seriousness is that I’ve already said everything that needs saying in past comments. There is ample rebuttal to all of this already. I’m sorry I wasn’t serious with you, but the sarcasm of that statement from you was pretty obvious. I just wanted you to know that the sarcasm was unwarranted.