United First Financial management has asked its agents to not participate on discussion forums, message boards, and blogs. Why? Because they’re having their hats handed to them. Simple math outdoes the UFF “factorial math” any time. Save the $3,500 and simply put your extra cash each month toward your debt with the highest interest rate. You’ll be out of debt faster than UFF will get you there, and you won’t waste hours each month goofing around with this near-worthless software.

Here’s the letter agents received, instructing them to not participate in discussions on the internet:

Dear Agents,

2007 has been nothing short of phenomenal in UFirst™ growth, sales and promotions. This is due to the undying and unwavering efforts of the field force, which stands second to none in the industry and is a shining example of what can be done when people share a common desire, goal and purpose.

American homeowners of tomorrow will have greater opportunities and the possibility of a brighter future because of your individual and collective efforts as Agents selling the Money Merge Account™ system. There have been challenges to be sure, but the focus has always been on the solutions and moving forward with a resolve to stay a leader in this industry.

One such challenge has been negative influences surfacing on the Internet as an attempt to turn the heads of homeowners researching for a better way—a better way to free themselves from their current financial situation of debt. These influences have not been able to maintain the attention of the public, yet some are distracted enough to turn to other, less effective (or opposite) avenues, placing a bandage on the broken arm of their mortgage. In the attempt to educate these investigators, many good-hearted Agents have made the effort to offer their views with a valiant desire to convert others to our program.

We commend many of you who have done so, within the confines of policies and
procedures, to spread the word to the country, as well as the world (yes, we get e-mails from around the globe asking questions). However, we also found this effort to be a twoedged sword.

While seeking to make both side of the coin known to all who inquire about the Money Merge Account system, Agents have also been limited to posting on competitors’ Web sites/blogs/message boards. This has only increased the popularity and search engine rankings of those who would like to see our program fade into the sunset never to return—in other words, it puts the naysayers on the first page of Google. In short, good intentions have fueled the very sites opposed to us, giving them an advantage over us on the Web. In other words, we must stop giving them an advantage by posting on their sites.

At the same time, UFirst has seen a need to provide a vehicle online, where our qualified Agents can respond in full to comments made against us and our program, in a professional manner—and in full, without the fear of deletion. We see that it is imperative to address ‘both sides of the coin’ to educate the public, and to provide complete information on all issues concerning our program.

So it is our pleasure to announce a new set of official UFirst Blogs, created to address the online challenges made by less than savory opposition. We are confident this tool will allow our combined intelligence, experience and views to dominate the search engines, possibly increase your personal and team sales, as well as lend official credibility across the board. We also feel this will allow those who have built a professional image online to ‘pull’ their sites to the front of multiple search engine listings once these blogs dominate the existing front page results.

To eliminate confusion and to keep all comments professional, guidelines will be
established, regulated and enforced by an independent moderator who has been trained in compliance and the dynamics of this program. This is to prevent ‘bashing’ or inappropriate language and/or comments being made in an attempt to defend the company and product. Therefore, all comments must be reviewed and approved before being posted. This will apply to both UFirst Agents as well as those who may desire to challenge us, which will no doubt happen as time goes by and their own sites lose momentum due to a lack of UFirst Agent participation.

The advantage you now have is the ability to answer comments made, in full, without fear of deletion or improper modification. Another advantage all Agents will have is the ability to leave a signature with a link to your own site and contact information, which will open the possibility of sales by those interested in your own point of views. This will also increase the rankings of your own Web site in search engine queries. UFirst is very excited to provide this service for our field force to take advantage of.

It is our hope and desire each and every Agent will take time out and engage in topics of interest, or even start topics that will change the perspective and views of the American homeowners, as well as convert professionals to the business opportunity. United in purpose, we can change the financial landscape of America and create a niche in history that will affect families for generations.

We look forward to hearing from each of you at: www.ufirstforum.com and its related links:
The Whole Truth
Both Sides of the Coin
ProViews
What You Should Know
Answers from the Source

– UFirst Executive Team

And if you take a look at the company’s blogs, you’ll see that in the last year, they have 10 or fewer blog posts, and almost no participation. What a great effort on the part of UFF management to help their agents and disseminate the information they want you to see.

One Comment

  1. Craig Hansen 12/17/2008 at 12:43 pm - Reply

    Thanks for posting this, Tracy.

    As agents have indeed limited their online discussions to “UFirst-friendly” sites, including the blogs listed above (which are closer to discussion forums than blogs), I have been discussing the MMA with agent Jaime Buckley on “The Whole Truth”, one of the blogs listed in the memo above.

    http://ufirstforum.com/thewholetruth/?p=10

    As of this comment, you won’t find my latest reply to Jaime, as it has been “awaiting approval” for over two weeks now.

    Turns out, it’s not UFirst’s “combined intelligence, experience and views” that I have to be worried about – it’s their ability to prevent comments critical of their product to show up on their own blog.

    If you want to read a date-stamped copy of what I did write to Jaime and the UFirst blog moderator, see the following link:

    http://scam.com/showpost.php?p=633222&postcount=25

    Craig

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