Is Shop to Earn a scam or a legitimate business?
It you’re considering getting involved in ShopToEarn, don’t miss this post with lots of important information!
A fellow financial blogger recently went down the road of examining a new multi-level marketing company called Shop to Earn. He was considering signing up, and did a review based on the information he had up to that point. He asked readers to chime in with their views. Here’s some of what he had to say in that first post:
Pros:
- It’s so early (they just had their first public forum this weekend and it just hit my workplace; I think you’ll be hearing more in the coming weeks, but this is the closest to a “founder” that I’ve ever heard, only 6 or 7 levels away), that the likelihood of making some decent money is quite high.
- Of the various MLMs I’ve had some familiarity with, the time commitment seems quite low. My friend has sworn he’s doing no conferences, no recruiting sessions, etc. He’s signed up a few of his friends and family already and he’s done. At this point, he’ll passively mention it to people as he comes across entrepreneurial types, but he doesn’t “have to” to anything else at this point except watch the checks roll in (and eventually sell or buy some Earthy stuff).
- Each signup’s $100 and 200 points and these points all roll all the way up, so the bigger your network gets, your points end up accruing rather quickly. It’s roughly 10 cents per point, so if there are like 20-30 signups per month under you (many levels), that’s ~$400-$600 per month. It’s not a flat number though, the growth is exponential (unless it dies!)
Cons:
- As is usual for MLMs, there’s an up front buy-in fee. In this case, close to $400 to get the full benefits of a website and business owner. While $400 is nothing to sneeze at, it’s not as bad as some programs I’m familiar with where people have to take on all kinds of inventory, sell stuff, etc. Essentially, at this early juncture, I’m told (and I’m trusting my friend here) that everyone’s making it back in month one and from there, the growth is expected to be explosive.
- Frankly, I don’t like the Earth products. I don’t really see much use for them and I don’t know if I’ll find anything I actually need. Apparently, they’re adding new companies and products as they’re going and at this point, you don’t need to start with the $100 minimum. Apparently, that doesn’t start for a few months, so there’s a period where it’s income only.
- I’ve usually associated people involved in MLMs as being a bit different; especially the enthusiastic ones. My friends are one thing and they never got so into them that they started acting weird, but you always here about the Amway people or the ACN people who go overboard with the whole thing. I don’t want to be “That Guy”. So, all I can do is approach this with great skepticism and balance putting in the time for due diligence with waiting too long and ending up missing the boat while my friend’s bankrolling a few thousand bucks a month.
- It might peter out quickly and it wasn’t worth the time and energy.I might not be able to sign anyone up. I have a few people in mind, and of course, I have Everyday Finance as an outlet, but I’m not turning this blog into an MLM outlet. I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I guess 2 people sounds easy; would have to wait and see.
- Based on the presentation I saw, there are still many unanswered questions. I have a list out to my friend who has access to one of the early adopters, who pretty much knows all the details. I question why much of this isn’t in writing, but I guess if the top members are displeased and feel duped, this would quickly trickle down and everyone would quit and the whole MLM would tumble. So, I tend to trust what I’m hearing; I do fault them for a lack of communication though.
- Apparently, the two people you sign up (or have at least one placed under you) are your left and your right. At least 1/3 of all your points must come from either side to get the cash rewards. The points don’t disappear, but you might have say 10,000 points in queue on the left and only 2,000 on the right. You’d have to get the 2,000 up to 5,000 in order to get your reward of ~$1,500. I can see how this is a tool to keep your network strong on both sides. It’s just not ideal in that it might force you to replace a weak performer later on when you thought you were done putting any time in.
The blogger did not join Shop to Earn, and did a follow-up on the problems he found with the concept. He was planning on joining (ultimately changed his mind, though), and got onto a conference call to find out more. He found the person conducting the call to be a slick talker.
He was able to log into the site for a demo to see exactly how things worked, and here are a few things he found:
When clicking around the personnel network in the top earner profile, I noticed something pretty odd. Many of the people pretty close to the top, just a few levels below him, were already inactive, meaning they exercised the 14 day opt-out option.
Why would people who got in so early opt out when they stood to make so much money?
Next, I noticed an interesting geometric pattern. Especially for an initial member…a guy at the top…I figured his network would be filled up completely underneath him. But it wasn’t.
What I actually saw was that he had primarily filled up tons of people out his outer LEFT and RIGHT legs, but the center of the triangle was virtually EMPTY! This leads me to the FLAW.
Since you’re only able to sign up one person on your left and one on your right, what do you do with the extra people you sign up? If you sign up, say 4 people in your first month trying to get that “Score” bonus of 5 required, you end up basically forcing these new 3rd and 4th people under someone else below you.
[snip]
What I discovered through both the telecon and through asking questions of a member is that they actually recommend that you seek to place all additional signups on your outermost left and outermost right legs. This drives an exponential increase in membership the deeper you make those outer legs. Why waste time building up 1 level below you when you can build 6 levels down on the outside, right?…still seems OK I guess…
[snip]
Where this is problematic is that you only get your bonuses if your points are distributed with AT LEAST 1/3 on your RIGHT and 1/3 on your LEFT. Now, this is where the trouble comes in. By looking at the picture above, you probably shrug this off, right? You say, as long as each of the guys directly under me perform well, my points will usually be like 60/40, 40/60 drift and I’ll always get paid, right? WRONG. What struck me as I thought more about it is that YOU ARE ON THE OUTER LEG OF THE PERSON ABOVE YOU!
Because you are on someone else’s outer leg by necessity, you are locked into a massively lopsided point score immediately. You want that bonus, right? Well, by the time you figure this out, you’ve already placed multiple members on your outer left and right legs. Well, that outer left leg is like 6 deep in a week and the point score on the left has now run away from you because the guy above you is placing more people on that leg. If you want that bonus, you better work like hell to get 5-10 signups over on your right side.
Guess what? The same thing is happening to the guy above you. The same thing’s happening to the woman above him. It’s beautiful- Beautifully Evil. It forces everyone in the chain below say, the top couple founders, to scramble to fix this weighting issue. It forces them into a panic to sign up more and more people. Since everyone’s in the same boat, it’s a runaway scenario though, they cannot keep up because everyone above and below them are facing the same scenario. This now explains why one of the initial members had total empty slots in the center of his triangle and why others were dropping out so early on. They may have figured it out!
What is all of this saying? The only way to get your bonus money is with a somewhat balanced downline in order to meet the requirement of at least 1/3 of your total points on each side. If one side of your downline explodes, you won’t get your bonus unless you can add people (and points) to the other side.
And people above you can add to your legs, meaning that you have little control over this balancing issue. Oh sure, it sounds good that someone above you added to your downline. After all, you get a cut of the action. But if a person added to one side of your downline causes you to go out of balance, you forfeit your bonus money. Not so good.
I am going to look into this company more and write up some of my thoughts. I will say that this has some common red flags of fraud: It seems to have an overcomplicated pay plan. It relies on an endless chain of recruiting of new members. It seems to only offer a substantial benefit to early adopters.
Very interesting and smart twist on a binary plan (the 1/3 rule)… It forces you to try to keep your boat well balanced while everyone else is trying to capzise it, basically. An the big irony is that everybody else thinks they’re also trying to get it stable. And guess what: the higher you get in the network, the harder will be to get a grip on the “wheel”.
I’ve seen this problem in Agel (you can’t get your legs controled, because everyone on both your upline and downline are adding people to the network also)… but here you have that crazy rule. It will save the company millions of dollars in compensation bonuses, that’s for sure.
The rest of it is looks pretty much like the same old “No sales required recruiting game”…
Best Regards,
Pedro
very interesting, at what # in the network do you see as early, in amway i was told the first 60,000 made millions
60,000 sounds much too high to me.
I don’t know… The ability to make a lot of money with this would depend on its ability to stay afloat for at least 10 years or more. I don’t see that happening. It’s too pyramid-y to last much more than a couple of years, in my opinion. So I see those early thousand or two making *some* money, but certainly not millions.
Hey everyone, I had the chance to attend a very informal meeting about this “opportunity”. I decided to get all of my questions out into the open and probably came across as a “negative prick” since I am a very skeptical person, I mean come one people, there is no such thing as a “get rich quick” plan that exists on this planet. now I’ll be honest with you guys, I’m thinking hard about joining this thing, but only because it’s still a growing baby and true that on-line is the wave of the future, but how far into the future is plan aiming to go. Many factors have to be taken into consideration :
1) the economic downfall the country is facing isn’t a good sign.
2) how hard is it really to “convince” people to give up $438 these days?
3)how hard is it to “sell” people the idea of shifting their shopping habis from store to online?
I myself am an avid online shopper, although I play devil’s advocate and this is my personal mathematical equation: ” Is the time I’m going to save by driving to store + gas + vehicle depreciation EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN the shipping & handling charges from making online purchases + wait time (7 business days on average)?
** I’m in the market to buy a camera, so far best buy has the lowest price, the total of the cash back I’d receive were to have my own portal through STE on this one buy is $31.00.**
If I were to purchase the lower end of the “STE service for sale ($99) I would have made 1/3 of my investment back. So it works out…
BUT!!!!!!!
The real way to “make big bucks” is buy trying to convince people to purchase a $438 piece of the “pie”. Which isn’t so easy.
I’m leaning more towards not joining right now, simply because I dislike sales and being that annoying person trying to convince you to buy something you don’t really need.
Just some food for though.
I was looking into this opportunity as well. I was not a fan of trying to push my friends to MLM, additionally, there are several outlets to getting cash back from shopping online without having to pay the $448. So if your goal is to get cash back from online shopping then there are other avenues. Unless you are going to try to sell people to join, this probably isn’t for you.
If all you want to do is make cash back from your personal online purchases, then all you have to pay is the $99 fee. If I were to buy the camera I want, in one day I’d get back about $35 out of the $99. So not too shabby….
I am NOT going to join, made my mind up.
I too am not a fan of pushing my friends into spending money on a MLM company,but this company went well above the rest by getting top name stores to back them, i have been a member for 8 days now and i have received a check for $4500.00,not to bad for $448 so if some of my friends can make a couple of thousand $ in a short period of time well good for them too.
So tell us in detail what you had to do to be eligible for such a large check in 8 days.
As you already know you have to refer people to the site, and during the first 30 days they give you some really good bonus, if you sign up 5 people they give you your $448 back plus $550, if you refer 10 people in the first 30 days you get $4100 like i did. half of the people i got in already got there money back and $550 extra. starting 8/1/08 they are going to make you spend the $100 on there site shop to earth, but if you are getting a couple of thousand a month in bonuses why not,, in 8 days i have 27 people under me from just 10 referals, my check for the next couple months should just keep going up and if not i already made thousands in about a week and the friends i got in got there money back so i dont feel bad .
Yeah, don’t feel bad about the people below you who will lose money from this scheme! And I won’t believe you made that much unless I see your check.
I’m in the same boat with Tracy. To “convince” 10 people in less than a week to give up $450 you either lied your butt off to them, have friends who don’t care to lose that kind of money or you guys didn’t really analyze the borader picture of this.
like i said before half of the people i got in have received there money back plus $550, and tracy i also told everyone i got in to get 5 people involved and when i say get involved i dont mean just sit around and think people are going to come to you, you are not going to get money back if you dont work alittle bit for it and i mean a little bit,i also told them if in a month they cant get 5 people i would give them the money back. hector i do understand the picture and $450 is alot of money these days but i beleive if you dont take a chance you will not get anywhere but working the rest of your life for someone who took a chance.
i am not trying to convince anyone as far as the check i got this month there is no reason for me to lie i dont know you or anybody on this site and i am not trying to sign you up. if you dont want to get involved dont,i made $4100 taking a chance that does not mean you have too.
One of the most common ways MLMs promote their schemes is through false earnings claims. So like I said I will not believe this until I see it. There is reason for you to lie: You want to recruit more people to the scheme.
where do you live tracy? you should attend one of the meetings they have them almost every week , at least in nj where i live.
i am not trying to promote anything i am just trying to get by
Roy
LOL – My time is too valuable to be wasted on an MLM scam meeting.
but tracey you can waste your time online talking about what you think is a scam. I am living proof that it is not and you should always keep your ears open and mind or you will never make any money.
Kim – It is definitely not a waste of time if I can warn people about predators like you.
Where exactly is the scam in this?
I can see one of having to give up $450 up front.
But then, how does it get worse?
1. It is a recruiting scam. The goal is to recruit as many as possible to get that sign-up fee.
2. The process by which you “make money” is scammish, as noted above. One major problem is whether or not you can get this bonus payout or even have any control over getting it.
How many hours do you guys put in for $4100.00? That is the bonus opportunity in the quick start (initial 30 day period).
This takes a bit of effort to discuss it with people, and have them attend the online-or-live meeting(s).
As to the balance question, I do not see the issue here. I am now working on my weaker leg, but each time I reach 1600 points on that side, I score and earn $550.00.
The right 1600 IS wiped out as is the other 2/3 points from the left leg, but with my focus on the right, I have scored numerous times. That’s the model. It’s very clear.
The only people under me that may get hurt are the ones who joined up and do nothing. This is why I have been VERY selective in who I choose to bring to the meetings. This is not for the lazy ones.
Why wast your time or someone else’s time if they are only looking for a “Get Rich Quick Scheme”. Walk away and find better people.
Also, when discussing this one needs to be brutally honest about all aspects of the business model. Mostly that it WILL TAKE SOME EFFORT!
That way we all win. So again, I am a bit confused as to the concern here other then the whole thing collapsing someady, but I have made more then enough already to compensate me for the small amount of time I put into it. I’ll just keep accepting the auto deposits for now. If it goes away, so be it.
Ron
control over getting the bonus, its already in my account $4100 for $448, so you keep on wasting your time here while i will be out there making more MONEY
Tracey,If you get your $450.00 back in a short period of time like several of my friends have you have lost nothing.If you get $450.00 + and want to get out you have lost nothing.You must have been scammed at one time.That must be why you are so mean and bitter to and about people you don’t know. You don’t have to do it if you are not interested. I have not joined but have seen the money my friends have made. Just by shopping at the stores I already shop at I will make my money back if I decide to join.Life is too short to be so BITTER!
Ron – Who cares if a whole bunch of people at the bottom lose their money when the pyramid scheme crumbles. As long as you made your money, right?
Thank you for the beautiful illustration of exactly why these MLMs are such scams and the participants so shady.
One other point, curious and mybe a bit sad. The people I know who really need the extra money, and accordingly have the least available to risk, tend to opt out. Mostly, The ones who have joined under me considered $450.00 nothing and are now making money.
As I said, a bit sad.
FYI, I drew up a contract to help my bigger targets hop on. Basically if they do not achieve at least $1000.00 in the first year, I will refund the $448.00 plus 10% (Simple Interest) or $495. I ONLY offer this to the high potential people.
Believe it or not, one actually declined this. Go figure.
Hi Tracy, I went to a Shoptoearn meeting last night. A friend took me. Like some of the others I’m skektical myself. I never sign up right away.
The recruiter had a house filled w/65 to 70 people in FL. She showed her check amt of $16,583 in 3 mths. Said she’s #9 in the country.
Point is guys, I checked The Better Bus Bureau and the co is nowhere to be found. I called their home base in NV they’re not listed in BBB.
Don’t you have to obtain a bus license to do this?
And wouldn’t the BBB have you listed as an internet networking co?
Loch – The BBB isn’t the best way to check up on a company. First, this one is so new, that it’s unlikely to have any complaints registered to them. Second, they don’t have to register with the BBB, and even if they do, it’s really just a membership organization… you pay your dues and pretend to deal with complaints and all will go well.
Sure, the people at the top of a pyramid scheme make money. It’s good for them, right? Others get in, hoping they can make that same type of money. Almost none of them do, and upwards of 99% never make back the money they’ve “invested” in the scheme.
http://www.pyramidschemealert.org
Tracy, No, I am not overly concerned about that. I joined to make $$, not be a charity to others. Our meetings are very professional and painfully clear of the pitfalls.
I will continue to support my charities as I laways have. Cash donations.
And furthermore, anyone can, and should, perform due diligence before joining.
Free will is a great thing!
I think we are all glad you are not on board. Geez.
Excellent. You don’t care that others will be scammed out of their money when the pyramid collapses. In my world we call that fraud. In your world, that’s professional. Nice.
I agree with Tracy to some extent, however, it seems to meet that this product is very different from all of the previous MLM’s such as Amway, Agel or Mona Vie. Everyone buys products on the internet. Why not profit at least just a little. A friend of mine started a few months ago and he tried to get me into it then, but I was a skeptic. When I saw his first check I was sold. Rather than have my $450 sit in a savings account at 1% interest, why not try this. Worst case scenario is I’ll make my money back by making a few big purchases through the website.
I was thinking of joining for spongebob’s last reason, I buy enough online to make the money back in the first year before I get hit with the $112 renewal fee.
BUT again, for that, I’ll just pay the $99 and not have to worry or get greedy enough to want to try to sell it to my friends.
If what’s his face sends me a notarized agreement saying he’ll refund me my $450, I’ll gladly sign up.
I did a little math and I think If the person who under I sign up, brings in more people and they’ve maxed out their 2 (outer legs), do the new saps automatically fall under my legs if they’re empty.?
I would ask this of the naysayers, assuming this will collapse, which at this time is just an assumption.
From what I read, I assume the the total maximum exposure is $450.00.
The other style MLMs required that you purchase an inventory of stuff to sell, sell it and get others to sell it. I never wanted to sell so I chose (emphasis on CHOSE) not to participate in them.
So lets also assume (only fair) for a moment it survives and the folks who work at it do well.
Will you feel guilty for turning folks away? I am guessing not.
Bottom line is no one is holding a gun to anyone. If you do not like the business model, do not join as I chose not to. I do not get this debate.
99% of participants in MLMs lose money. That’s just because of the structure of them. So there will be no such thing as everyone doing well. There is an ever-increasing number of people who will lose money on this – they’re known as the bottom of the pyramid.
Sorry Hector, that offer was only for a few highly motivated friends and acquaintances of mine who were on the fence.
Tracy and Hector. Please do NOT join ShopToEarn, stay away from it as far as you can…….PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why do ask this? because I joined ShopToearn Five weeks ago and I have made over $9,800 already and in the process I have made many of my friends happy by introducing them to a great/legitimate/real/wonderful business opportunity. My best friend has made $4,700 in 4 weeks, my wife’s friend and her husband have made over $5,000 and today 07/12/2008 is exactly 30 days since they started and the list goes on, 3 Days ago I introduced another one of my friends who was skeptical at first and he has made $1,145 in his first 3 days.
So why do I ask you both to NOT join and stat away? because your negative energy is so strong and pathetic at the same time that nothing good could come from it.
People like Ron and my self get it, and that is the kind of people that I want in my business, the kind of people that will infect others with positive energy and have the vision that I have.
Thanks and please stay away!!!!
Shu, Shu!!!
WoW! I better go get a penicillin shot, I hope I did not catch a Negative Alien Bug by posting here.
I just realized that Tracy Coenen has an advertisement on this web site on her book Titled “Essentials of Corporate Fraud” she is accountant and a FRAUD examiner. Tracy my apologies, I was angry at you for being a person with negative energy, you poor thing you can not help it when the whole point of your profession is to look for the negative things in any system or organization. Do you own and moderate this web site? I suppose the answer is Yes. If so I’m sure that you will have the integrity to not delete my posts, specially the one where I call it as I read it and refer to you as a person of extreme NEGATIVE energy.
You poor thing !
PS. I was amused by this forum since a new ShopToEarn broker in my downline sent me the link. Now I see is the classic over analyze, think about it, I’m not really convinced yet, what’s the catch? kind of mentality that never ever gets anything accomplished.
Like Jason M. wrote “I do NOT get this debate”
Why not do like most people who look at something and decide not to join, just simply move on and get a life.
Have a good life everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
Hey Tracy – Where do you get your figures. 99% lose money?? What is that? This seems to be something totally different. You earn $$ by purchasing things on-line. I’ve been, and I’m sure most people in America buy products on-line, some more than others. Once this MLM is is extended to the bottom, even the bottom people will still be making money if they use their site to on-line shopping. I can tell you that I know buy all of my essentials, toothpaste, etc on-line. It’s been saving me in gas by limiting my several trips per week to the grocery store right off the bat. I also can by my contact lenses and prescriptions all on-line and over the course of each year even without anyone under my line, it should recoup itself from the original fee that I would pay. I think if Tracy had a good friend or family member try this and they earned a good chunk of change perhaps she wouldn’t be such a nay sayer with this particular MLM.
Wh I started writing I wasn’t planning on the “debate” which somtimes turns into childsplay, to be long, but this is good. PLEASE keep giving opinions, as I am only 99% NOT joining. There is still 1% of me that wants in, simply because it’s so new and I could make some money IF this is for real…
Hey Hector – it is for real, but it’s just like anything else. If it’s too good to be true then it usually is. But if you put a little time and effort and do some research, there is no doubt in my mind that you could at least double or triple your money. At this point right now, even if you lost all of it, we are talking about $448. My wife spends that in 2 months at Target on Crap
)
Anyone going to the grocery store “several” times a week has problems. I will save you money and won’t charge you $448 for the advice. GO TO THE GROCERY STORE ONCE A WEEK.
Tracy, what would you say if a Church group or a school PTA bought a site and used the site as a fundraiser. It’s being done. Schools and Businesses spend thousands and thousands of dollars at office depot….It’s money back in their pocket.
By the way, you sound very bitter. Were you burned before by something like this?
bitter = another buzz word used by MLM cult members against those who criticize the scams
Also buzz words for people like me: lazy, loser (usually spelled looser by MLM cult members), wanted a get-rich-quick scheme, not willing to work hard, negative, hateful, biased, zealot, irrational, closed-minded…
The list goes on and on. I simply want to stop consumers from losing billions of dollars to these scams EACH YEAR. If conducting a consumer awareness campaign means that I’ll be called names, so be it.
And I would tell you that the church or school would save FAR MORE money if they contacted the Business Services Division at Office Depot and got an account with them. Oops. Ya didn’t know about that program, did you? And it’s free!
Actually I do know about that program. The schools and church can still shop at Office Depot’s website through the Shop to Earn site and still get money back on top of the discount that they already receive.
Trust me, when you have growing kids, there are always several stops at the grocery store per week.
No, they cannot use ShopToEarn with the Business Services Division. And no, growing children don’t require more than one trip to the grocery store a week. It’s called discipline and organization. But that’s not really the point here. The bottom line is that a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money with this MLM. It sounds nice, but it’s not. $450 x thousands of people is a lot of money lost.
Just wanted to share my thoughts on what I have read so far in this blog…First off, let me start by saying that I joined STE June 19, 2008. A friend called me and briefly explained the concept to me. In a nutshell, it combines [1] an initial investment of $448 (your downside risk) [2] online shopping (a relatively untapped market) and [3] cash back for your purchases, future referrals & their purchases.
In an environment of stock market / real estate debacles, bank failures, job losses and rising gas prices, you must look to exploit opportunities when they avail themselves. This may in fact be one of those opportunities. Most people shy away from opportunities like this because of an overall lack of information, only to ultimately join at the tail end, muck like the majority of investors in the stock and real estate markets (right before they both plunged). My point…the masses are always wrong, mostly in their timing!
If you are a self-starter and have $448 to risk, this may be something to consider. My only suggestion is that you join under strong people (like me) for two reasons: [1] They will continue to refer brokers who will appear in your downline for your benefit and [2] if they are like me, they will help you recruit your own referrals. Those who join who ultimately become disenchanted and opt out, do so because they have “jumped in” under those who are, as one blogger pointed out “in it to make their money back”, so once you join, they chalk that up and after a few more joinees, are gone for purposes of providing any future help. If you are considering joining and want someone that will offer phone and online help to build your network, go to my site *****HA HA Not on your life will I let you promote your scam here ***** and get in touch.
My only goal is to help everyone in my downline keep their right/left relatively equal and we all understand the value in maintaining that, even it means helping others recruit for the benefit of future payout . My goal is to exploit this opportunity for as long as it stays viable. If it’s one day, then so be it; if it never ends, even better.
Tracey,
I’m a realtor struggling in this economy’s downfall with banks/appraisers/etc. Yes, some people will lose their $448. Other entrepreneur business owners lose far more. Yes, I was skeptical, but one thing I can tell you is I’m excited because I’m dreaming BIG again. In three days, I made $1145.00. That’s far more than I’ve made in a month in my business were I made $15M last year in total sales. I’m a top producing realtor caught in this economy’s gloomy situation. I’ve regained your “big deal issue” of it and made $697 ($1145 – $448). The lazy person will lose their $448, but they will have a dream for a few days. Nobody really knows who will be a stud and who will produce. However, being involved in something I have to do anyway is a no-brainer. This ain’t MonaVie (one product) or other MLM’s I never joined. You are entitled to your opinion, but compare apples with apples as this MLM is far superior than any I’ve EVER SEEN! God Bless You!
Had to put in my two cents. I joined about 4 weeks ago. I’ve read alot of information on this program since i joined. I still have not heard one negative comment from anyone who joined. Just from people who are jealous of the people who are taking the chance with $450. I also recently invested money in the stock market. Now in both instances ive put moneyup to try to make money. in shop to earn I’ve started to make money. in the stock market i’ve taken a bath plus still paid someone to lose me that money.
2nd isn’t every business a MlM company. The people on top make money, go golfing, have boats & go on vacations While the people on the bottom work long hours make little money and support everyone on top. Face it we all want a peice of the good life but the people who get it are willing to take chances and work hard to get there. In my opinion $450 is a small price to pay for that chance. Ive lost alot more than that in my investments in the past month alone and my investment broker still wants to get paid for that advice.
Now there will be people who will lose their $450 because they got into the program with the idea of making money on everyone elses hard work not their own. If you work at this program like the business it is you will and i mean “WILL” make money. If just by doing your best at shopping on your site and not referring anyone you can still get your money back plus more. I’ve in just one month saved over $75.00 by comparison shopping on the web site and at local stores (I found the best price, got cash back, Shopped on my time).
and this dosen’t even get into the fun me and my kids are having trying to save money on all the stuff we already Buy.
Yes there are some bad MLM companies out their but in my opnion and every other person involved this is not one of them. Think as you may but you also have to have an open mind to the great opportunity that is being presented here.
You go girl!
Mike, have you done the math? Maybe you should read my most recent article on this company. I don’t think most people will recoup their investment with shopping. They must recruit new marks. That, in an of itself is a scheme, because it depends on endless recruiting. At some point, those at the bottom aren’t in a position to recover their money. But no big deal, so long as you’ve gotten your money back, right?
http://www.sequence-inc.com/fraudfiles/2008/07/12/more-on-why-shoptoearn-sucks-mypowermall-teamnational/
Tracy,
Math $75.00 in one month
per year $75 X 12 = ? I think its above $450. but then again I don’t know math. Yes I work at it to save but it can be done by anyone. and I can still make money also. I guess every business in the world is a scam because every one is trying to make money from other people. I’m not forcing people to do this and i’m helping my referrals save by showing them how to save money shopping on the site, showing them where i found good deals, free shipping and good money back and the comparison to regular stores. yes we want to get others in our program but every store in the world wants to get as many customers as possible and get them to spend money at their store. Even the last people into this program can save more money in one year by far then they spend to get in. and in the following years its a lot easier to save big. if people don’t recoup their investment then it’s their own fault for not taking the time to learn how to shop smart on their own web site. I also get other people that don’t want to sign up (Which is just fine with me & once they decline I don’t bother them again with it) to shop from my web site track their order #’s and i split the difference with them. More earnings for me and savings for them & they didn’t pay the $450. Rember it’s my business and you have to make it work for you the people under you and customers. otherwise there is no business. in which case your business fails and you become the negative person that can’t belive in any opportunity.
I guess this isn’t for me since I’m not a stuggling real-estate agent huh? And am I too negative for having a REAL job and successful carreer? For making over 100K a year before I hit the age of 28?
I don’t consider myself NEGATIVE, I’m conservative and realistic. But I guess that hasn’t worked for me…
The thing is, I don’t have time to work this project all day. Maybe that’s why I don’t se a point to it, but maybe when MY profession’s market tumbles, then I’ll start to sweat it right?
And Raul, The Secret…… not true buddy, you will only get positive results if you WORK towards them, not by thinking them.
About the church issue, I think it leans towards the un-ethical side of the triangle a little, but that’s just my opinion.
Has anyone NOT thought about the recession we’re facing NOW and looking TOWARD?!
Shopping trends in general are expected to drop even more these upcoming holidays… plus, throw in Shipping + Handling charges. Also, have all of you people who have “switched over to online shopping only”, not considered the fact the this is consumer based economy, MORE demand = MORE supply. Why do I mention this, next time you receive one of you beloved online purchase receipts, look for some fine print “fuel surchage”. If they don’t make it obvious, you’ll see how what you buy will slowly have the price increased as we bump UP UPS/FEDEX/DHL’s nationwide usage.
But I’m crazy right?!