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WebProsperity: why I’m NOT promoting it.
January 7th, 2009 | 
Author: 
I’ve been receiving a growing number of enquiries from people wanting to know my view of this opportunity. I’ve chosen not to comment so far, but with the level of confusion, uncertainty and sheer hype surrounding it, I’ve decided to post my view here, so anyone can read it for themselves, and there’s no doubt about where I stand.
Please understand that this is my personal view. I’m not asking you to agree or disagree. You should make up your own mind, preferably based on factual information, not just emotional appeal — especially the powerful use of fear-of-loss that powerline systems use, including this one.
Evaluation Criteria for MLM Opportunities
The five critical criteria for evaluation of any MLM opportunity are:
- The Company — it’s owners, management, executive team, industry experience, track record, and its principles, policies and practices. The company is always the #1 risk to network marketers.
- - The Compensation Plan — how much YOU get paid, and how that’s calculated. Is it fair? Balanced? Does it reward ALL stakeholders? (Download three FREE white papers from here.)
-
- The Products — Are they real? Legal and ethical? Do they meet the Three Criteria of Fulfilment? Are they suited to the network marketing distribution model?
- - The Support Systems — Do they exist? Do they work? Are they free or do you have to pay for them?
- - The Upline Team — Do they provide adequate, worthwhile training, communication, recognition and support? Is it free or do have to pay?
WebProsperity hasn’t yet launched (at time of writing), so some of these criteria can only be assessed on the basis of published information and past performances by those involved. On that basis, I have some serious reservations with the company and compensation plan. The products are an unknown quantity at this stage, so I can’t comment here. So, too are the support systems and upline team. But the first two criteria are, by far, the most important, because they directly affect your prospective success and sustainability.
Serious Red Flags
How is this opportunity being promoted? Are the primary appeals to your rational, objective reason — this is a BUSINESS decision, remember? — or do they target the Big Five Failure Factors?
- Fear of loss
- Greed
- Laziness
- Ignorance
- Gullibility — or, if you’ve been bitten before, plain, old-fashioned stupidity
Here there’s no doubt or uncertainty. ALL FIVE Failure Factors are being heavily and directly targeted by the company and by “heavy hitter” promoters and their clones.
Bottom Line: there are too many issues, uncertainties and questionable track records involved in too many aspects of the opportunity for me to be able to support it, in principle or practice.
ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!
If you decide to join WebProsperity, think seriously before complying with the company’s recommendation to allow it access to your personal contact lists: you may leave yourself exposed to the risk of prosecution and/or litigation for breaching privacy laws. Your contacts did NOT give you permission to release their private contact details to the company!
You can obtain more information and insights from these blogs:
Author Profile Consults to managements of direct selling companies, small business and home business owners. Writes regular columns and feature articles for various business media, online and offline. Author of several best-selling business books. Presents seminars and workshops, webinars and other training programs. Creator of Fourth Generation Thinking, Selling, Business Systems. Read more from this author
Posted in Bad Practices, Compensation Plans, Dubious Practices, MLM Companies, MLM and the law, Sponsoring Methods, Upline Teams | 
Tags: fear, greed, gullibility, ignorance, illegal, laziness, matrix, powerline, privacy
4 Responses to “WebProsperity: why I’m NOT promoting it.”
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Thanks John for this post.
Few days ago, I wanted to make my first Squidoo lens on how to properly evaluate business opportunities. Your post is therefore timely. I now have that lens (WebProsperity: Is it Really Right for You? http://www.squidoo.com/webprosperity_review) and it’s an integration (and application) of what I have been learning from you.
Jose
For MORE comments on WebProsperity, check out the comments on this page: http://realnetworkmarketing.com/?p=473#comment-126 and http://realnetworkmarketing.com/?p=458
Well, from looking at the “opportunity” I was repelled. I’m not looking for an opportunity anyway. However, there is something shining through that reminds me of a story about the Fox and The Scorpion: It goes like this…
A scorpion was wandering along the bank of the river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river.
The fox said, “No. If I do that, you’ll sting me and I’ll drown.”
The scorpion assured him, “If I did that, we’d both drown.”
So the fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him.
As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, “Why did you do that? Now you’ll drown too.”
“I couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”
Saying one thing and doing the other. I think that this is again a “self-consumption” downline. Products/Services seem to disguise the real selfish intent. Also, how long is it going to take until other companies offer the same for much less?
Let them go on and feel the benefits… the balanced win-win outcome. Does it really pull you off your socks?
One thing is for sure:
They understand marketing in the classical offline business sense and transported it into the online world. I am citing John Counsel:
” Marketing is about finding out what people need and satisfying that need.
Sales is about getting people to want what they need…
No matter how much they need it, until they want it, they won’t buy it.”
Folks are blinded by potential incomes and prosperity (it’s an arduously long way to ever get there when you don’t know why you do what you do) and that clearly is an appeal to the greed, gullibility, ignorance and desperate and even lazy folks. It’s those same old lures that make most curious people stop thinking and have their emotions rule.
To most who joined, the rationale will come when again, another year of their lives has passed by, eating their family budgets and nothing has changed in the end. OK, with one exception: Real Network Marketing has received yet another bad example which it needs to clear out of the way so it can provide evidence that it really can be beneficial to more people than the folks in the same business.
Frank
Thanks Frank
I made just a couple of important corrections to your comment because they way it was put suggested the opposite of what was intended. I figured you wouldn’t mind me clarifying your real meaning.
John
PS: There’s a similar tale to the scorpion and the fox right here on the blog, about a young native American boy and a rattlesnake. You can read it here…
http://realnetworkmarketing.com/?p=231