LocalAdLink Exposed?
I received a tidbit of information today on who’s behind LocaladLink. We all know Bob McNulty’s rise and fall as a business man. But who else is behind LocaladLink?
Ever hear of BurnLounge?
Wikipedia – “The company claims that it provides record labels and artists with a fan-driven promotional channel. The advertisement videos on each BurnLounge store, however, promote recruitment rather than music.”
“On June 10, 2007, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on June 5, 2007 against specific BurnLounge participants and their involvement with BurnLounge’s alleged pyramid scheme. One person named in the lawsuit is former University of South Carolina football star Rob DeBoer, who says that he recruited about 45 other people to open their own BurnLounge sites. Those recruited would then pay a commission on their sales to DeBoer. DeBoer stated that he made almost US$300,000 from BurnLounge. The lawsuit is the result of a year-long investigation into BurnLounge by the state of South Carolina.[15] Others named in the lawsuit include BurnLounge CEO Alex Arnold, and two Texas men who promoted BurnLounge similarly to DeBoer. The FTC’s claim is that BurnLounge is a pyramid scheme because the company pays more money for recruiting new store owners than for selling music. According to the lawsuit, BurnLounge operators earned bonuses of up to US$50 for recruiting two new members and selling two albums per month, but only pays US$0.50 per album sold.[citation needed]”
In August 2007, Burnlounge laid off the vast majority of its New York employees. As of November 2007, the company is no longer operating pending the FTC litigation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnlounge
Notice the last name – Rob DeBoer?
Guess who is the “National Sales Director” for LocaladLink? – Yup, you guess it. Rob Deboer.
So, Rob made over 300K from pushing Burnlounge and was shut down due to FTC Investigations.
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme
Who else is behind LocaladLink?
Scott Elliot
Who just happened to be a part of BurnLounge
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/07/elliott.shtm
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme
Are we finished yet? No, not really.
How about Jason Borne’?
a VP Founding Partner it looks like.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=2Ib&q=jason+borne+localadlink&btnG=Search
And where did Jason come from?
http://www.google.com/search?q=jason+borne+burnlounge&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Yup, you guessed it, BurnLounge.
So it looks like a few ‘higher up’ in the company are/were former MLM scammers. Well, don’t take my word for it, thats what the FTC says anyway…
Any LocalAdLink Reps still out there wanna comment?
Maybe they should rename LocaladLink to “Burn Local Biz Owners” instead.
I heard DeBoer actually went to trial to fight the FTC. And there still has been no resolution.
“The settlement bars Elliott from participating in or assisting others in participating in prohibited marketing schemes, including pyramid schemes. It bars misrepresentations about earnings in any multi-level marketing program or business venture.”
Doesn’t this mean that Scott Elliot isn’t aloud to be involved with localadlinks
I’ve seen a few videos of “Dr. Scott Elliot” basically explaining the concept of Localadlink. Wouldn’t this be considered promoting the company?
what is the deal people? who cares where they came from before!!! they are business men who find an idea and run with it. our great inventors of the yester years where the exact same type of people & when they came up with a good idea skeptics (just like you all) would put them down or ban them from their communities. get over it. Burnlounge was & is not any different than the current ponzi scheme that is promoted by Donald Trump & apperared on the celebrity apprentice…. ACN ring any bells??? it has the EXACT same concept that Burnlounge has: do your research. I have been a member of both.
so what if these young men want to be the next up & coming ‘million dollar idea’ guys, at least they have a dream, an idea, passion & the heart to follow their dreams. most of us now-a-days don’t even have the desire to doing anything but the monotonous work of an employer. well I say hats off to these fine young men and to the skeptics get a life!
Well Stasi we can agree with one thing, that most people are satisfied with working for someone else….
However, everything else was plain wrong. They are business men that prey on the mis-informed or uneducated. Burnlounge was BUSTED by the FTC for its MLM scheme:
“The FTC’s claim is that BurnLounge is a pyramid scheme because the company pays more money for recruiting new store owners than for selling music. According to the lawsuit, BurnLounge operators earned bonuses of up to US$50 for recruiting two new members and selling two albums per month, but only pays US$0.50 per album sold.”
It appears these ‘business men’ as you call them, have found the latest get rich scam in LocaladLink. Do you think its a coincidence they all have ties to Burnlounge? Seriously…
Theres a huge difference between Trump and these businessmen, its called being legal with your business.
On the LocalAdLink front, here is all the scoop from MLM Watchdog: http://mlmwatchdog.com/ (second headline)
Bob McNulty has surrounded himself with “leaders” of dubious credentials. His lead distributors are Brian Underwood, Jason Borne, Rob DeBoer and Dr. Scott Elliott. All of these men were involved with the Burnlounge debacle. Elliott paid $20,000 to have his charges dropped and Rob DeBoer is still in litigation.
Next are Dan Wickline and his son Chad Wickline. Dan is married to one of LocalAdLinks founding top reps who is also a cash investor in the company, Saundra Dudley. She actually opened the launch event last month in Vegas.
Here is just one of many articles online about the Wicklines:
http://thinkdebtrelief.com/debt-relief-blog/dealing-with-your-debt/father-son-take-down-450-victims-in-debt-relief-scam/
This is stuff we should have dug up before joining LAL.
“Henry”
Here is an article on Chad and Dan Wickline. They both went to prison for 3 years @ Lompoc Federal Correctional in California..entered prison last month!! http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/lom/index.jsp and http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp Just put in Chad and Dan Wickline and you will see when they are getting out. They both were at the last kick off in Las Vegas… see this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKB3yiM-qfo
There are a few more cons in this party that spent time in prison. What is sad is that the Wicklines owe so many people so much money and somehow they had enough to invest in LAL…are you kidding me. Their victims are watching them closely to get the money from the judgment against the Wicklines. Kinda like other creditors who are watching some of these leaders.
“ACN ring any bells???”
I hear this time and again….a primitive defense: “Well, maybe these guys are scam artists, but there are lots of scam artists” LOL….so since ACN is a pyramid scheme, that justifies other pyramid schemes?? Have people just lost common sense? Anyone remmeber, two wrongs do not make a right. I swear if two “minority” guys rob a bank, we want to throw them in jail for 10-20 years because we “fear” them. A few white guys steal from innocent people in a pyramid scheme and you rationalize their behavior or send them to prison “camp” for 6-months….people, wake up…the moral fiber of our society is deteriorating….there is no reason to keep rationlizing it.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/10/defrauding_debtors.html?sid=101 Paper story on the Wicklines…
Also, Robert McNulty was broke from 2000 to 2006 (unless he lied under oath in a Nevada Dist Court) In addition, he was sued by shopping.com stockholders and it was settled out of court. See link: http://securities.stanford.edu/1011/IBUY...
His yacht was foreclosed upon in 2003 by the Union Bank of California. Case 8:03-cv-00060-DOC-MLG . Again, he was broke from 2000 to 2006 (unless he lied under oath in a Union Bank debtor exam)…read CV-S-05-0733-RCJ- (RJJ) U.S. Dist Court NV…Union Bank California vs. Robert J. McNulty , Vessel “Imagine”… Perjury laws will prevent him from denying his admission in front of a well respected magistrate in the Nevada District Court.
There are edgy characters in LAL than there was at Enron!
To “terry”: Thanks for wasting an hour and 25 mins. on my site. You’re the first person I have decided not to ‘approve’ in the comments section just to piss off. Do you know why? Because you say the same thing over and over on other sites:
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?s=0f3e7701604953b98f40d8d509c813e7&p=754753&postcount=77
and that was back in March. You could have just dropped a link and said, “go check out my comment from March.”
ps. you should seriously get your browser upgraded to IE or Firefox. Internet Explorer 6 is so 2001.
http://www.computer-juice.com/forums/f53/when-did-microsoft-release-internet-explorer-6-a-878/#post3256
And you’re into technology right?
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ontopresultsllc.com/news/2009/05/11/localadlink-exposed/
ontopresultsllc.com/news/2009/05/11/localadlink-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-141
http://www.forestmarie.com/why-localadlink-is-a-scam-localadlink-review-local-ad-link/
John says: “I heard DeBoer actually went to trial to fight the FTC. And there still has been no resolution.”
You say this despite the fact that the case was settled…..
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme
Hmmm……..
Joe Rose: If you would have read this article correctly, it states that Scott Elliot settled with FTC for $20,000, he is the only one back in mid 2008 that settled. However, Rob DeBoer fought his case which started in December 2008 and had closing arguments in Spring 2009, and the courts have not decided on a verdict as of yet.
Do you think that maybe Rob proved his case?
And for your previous statement regarding ACN, and that two wrongs do not make a right. I agree that they do not, but my point in stating facts about ACN is that no one is complaining to the FTC about that, but also ACN has been out a lot longer & scamming people a lot longer than BL. People are making money with ACN and therefore are not complaining, but it should be looked at with a fine tooth comb because if the courts do decide that BL is a ponzi scheme then ACN and its’ upper level executives and sales men should go down and have their lives destroyed like BL salesmen and executives had.
You speak of moral fiber??? Funny, one moral person might think that “innocent till proven guilty” but you are not taking that into consideration. Then you give a scenario of minorities robbing and bank opposed to a few white guys stealing, not even the same scenario or even close. Have you ever downloaded for limewire or other illegal sites??? Majority of the world does, but we forget that when we do this it is an innocent gesture to listen to a favorite band or artist, but we are stealing from someone; so do you think the people who illegally download deserve the same punishment as those who at gun point steal something else or I will make it simpler; the same punishment as someone stealing your identity??? No I do not believe so.
Keith: you feel that BL preyed on miss-informed or uneducated people. WOW! I attended the BL beta kick off event in Las Vegas, and I am sorry to inform you but I would say that 80% of the people in attendance where college graduates and/or successful business men/women (i.e. lawyers, doctors, nurses, executives) so last I checked those where not ignorant people or misinformed people.
Secondly, I don’t see anything wrong with wanting to continue to work with people that you have had previous working relationships with or be it build a “team” with former employees or employers. It just seems to me that you guys are looking for anything and everything to nail these guys.
Lastly, lets take Napster for example, that was the best idea, created by a college student. Although it was the birth of illegal downloading the educated people of corporations took the idea and made it work for them and here we are today with the many legal and not so legal downloading.
Bottom line: are the people of BurnLounge wrong or criminals? No I don’t think so, worst case they had a great idea and with trials and tribulations of starting any successful company they need to make some adjustments and go through the growing pains. However that was not allowed of them.
This is just my opinion and I am entitled to it just as you are entitled to yours, however I try to keep an open mind and listen to all sides and try to “walk a mile” in their shoes as well as their families. Do I blame the top sales men for making so much money opposed to the ones that did not, heck no. You get what you put in to it. No matter what the hard workers will always prevail in life and it is not my place to judge and it is not your place to judge.
Stasi:
I’m very sorry to inform you that college graduates, business owners, and people with MBA’s may not even know what a correctly managed pay per click campaign is. I’ve worked with all scales of individuals from the stay at home mom & pop to the MBA clientele, they don’t know. And to assume because they have a college degree or higher that they know the intricacies of an online marketing campaign shows your ignorance.
Heres a friendly reminder about my dealings with LAL for those that think I’m trying to ‘nail’ them to the wall. This entire post started because of one of YOUR LAL reps walked up to me, introduced himself, then proceeded to tell me how I can make a ton of money off of MY group of individuals by pushing this product. So excuse me for actually doing research and learning more about LAL. I wonder how many LAL reps tell the biz owners that 50% of their check each month goes to padding their wallet. You guys are hilarious.
“Lastly, lets take Napster for example, that was the best idea, created by a college student. Although it was the birth of illegal downloading” – Thats funny. Last I checked being illegal wasn’t the best idea for anything. We’re ‘here’ because of the music industrys ability to adapt to a changing environment and its opportunity to capitalize on it.
“No matter what the hard workers will always prevail in life and it is not my place to judge and it is not your place to judge.” – this combo makes zero sense “This is just my opinion and I am entitled to it just as you are entitled to yours, ”
You just gave your opinion then said you aren’t entitled to judge and neither am I. I am entitled to look for the small business owners who aren’t sure what to think of LAL, thats called free speech (and more importantly for them – facts on how PPC works). We are all entitled to our opinions and thats why your post along with others can published on this blog.
Staci:
You are so wrong it is not even funny…comparing some kid downloading some songs from limewire is quite different from the scheme to defraud innocent people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Is he innocent?…I guess anything is possible. However, considering the FTC shut them down, I would think not. Here is the injunction against Deboer:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0623201/070808burnloungestippideboer.pdf
What is funny, when people get nailed…the defenders never say they are in fact innocent, they just use the generic, “Well, in this country you are innocent until proven guilty” line. Answer yes or no – do you think he is guilty?
The point I was making is that if someone goes into a bank to steal money, those people are bad – we fear them. Madoff, Deboer,etc. do the same thing in a more “civilized” manner and it affects a lot more people. How many lives did Madoff destroy? You don’t think there is any problem with the moral fiber of our society right now? Have you heard of the recent banking scandal? AIG? Do you read? Do you breathe?
The fact is, there can be legit MLM’s, but most are not. Don’t shoot the messenger – it is just a fact. ACN, BL, YTB, etc. (put in any acronym you like) are primarily endless chain recruitment schemes where the owners push getting more “distributors” in their “downline” and selling the product or service is merely incidental and most often is not even emphasized. It is simple math, if you own or run burnlounge (or any MLM) and you sell distributorships for lets say $299.00 and you get 100,000 to sign up – they make = 30 million dollars. Basically, in these MLM recruitment scams they convince people to essentially mail them checks for a supposed business “opportunity” when none exists. If you think that is okay, well guess what? It does not matter what you or I think because the law says it is illegal, which is why Burnlounge was shut down, YTB was successfully sued in California, etc. There are so many and I will not list them – we do not need a history lesson at this point.
In any event, in my humble opinion I think he is guilty and a sicko…just my humble opinion.
Here is a great example of what I am referring to – this is a scam taking place in Canada — to sign up for this “opportunity” it is only $3,200.00 The owner was shut down already in Britain running the same scheme over there so he is now in Canada – apparently because the laws are not very strict with regards to MLM schemes in Canada – the video is 20 minutes, but it is fascinating and highlights and summarizes exactly what goes on these MLM schemes:
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/easy_money/main.html
BTW – regarding ACN:
Canada:
“The Competition Bureau alleges that ACN Canada, as it is known, and its participants, through its web sites and at public meetings, recruited new participants by exaggerating income expectations without disclosing the income of a typical participant…”
“Furthermore, ACN Canada was charged with operating an illegal scheme of pyramid selling by offering recruitment bonuses to participants who paid for the right to recruit other participants”
http://www.cb-bc.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/00441.html
Here is another MLM scam shutdown:
“Trek, like many other MLM schemes popular in the United States and around the world, seems to sell “dreams.” Specifically, “get rich quick” dreams. And within the group environment they created some felt that dream was promoted through a kind of “cult like” “brainwashing,” which appeared to be Trek’s real business..MLMs may provide money for those at the top, but it seems that too often little if any profit seems to flow to the distributors below and/or near the bottom.”
Apparently, some of those involved in these scheme went to ACN after they were shutdown.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/trekalliance/trekalliance11.html
Look, who knows the outcomes of any of these cases – they frequebntly settle or get shut down. Look at YTB, they settled and agreed to go “legit” as they say. And, why the FTC does not shut down ACN in the States? Who knows for sure – mb they do not have enough evidence, maybe someone is lining someone’s pockets, or maybe it is too hard to “prove” in a court of law where there are very stricy rules of evidence – no one really knows for sure – but, the point is whether a company is shut down or not – at this point it is relatively easy to spot fraudelent MLM’s (i.e. there is much more emphasis placed on recruiting more people in the downline with relatively high investment required to “get in” and very little or no emphasis on the product or service). That is just illegal – it is that simple.
Bottom line, do you see a pattern here with all of these MLM’s? I know I do…
Mmmh, I just stumbled onto this. I am a relatively new Brand Builder with LAL. I have had some experience with other MLM’s, and what I find different about LAL is that it is not all about recruiting, but that you can actually go out there and sell ads and make good money. The commissions are a lot higher for sales than just recruiting. So, I think that’s a big difference from what is meant by a pyramid scheme, which is also almost strictly making money off of “internal consumption.” In LAL I sell externally to clients, they get the exposure they were promised, and I make 50% commission, including on all renewals. If I choose to build a team I can of course make overrides as well, but we don’t sell ads to our downlines as is the case with Monavie, Kangen Water, Herbalife, etc. so, I don’t see where the scam part comes in. We got a good, and ever improving product, cutting edge technology and support, a great commission payout and an override structure that enables leaders to build up teams internationally. Where is the scam part?
Hi “Ranier”
Do you tell your clients (small business owners that half of what you make goes to your pocket? Do you explain that there $200 monthly advertising charge is less than $100, and probably more like $50. $100 goes to your pocket and LocalAdLink has to make something. Do you think LAL takes only $1.00 off of that remaining $100?
Did you read the original post of LAL on here? The scam part is:
Having a business listed with multiple others when they can send them directly to their site.
The scam comes from not understanding how LAL works – piggy backing off of Google through geo targetting.
The scam comes from telling them they can geo target 2 zip codes and only 5 phrases where as you can target 2 zip codes and AS MANY phrases as you like in Google.
The scam comes from telling everyone that their site is listed on thousands of websites when in reality Google, Yahoo, and MSN make up 98% of the search traffic.
The scam comes from BrandBuilders that are in other industrys that know zero about online marketing and pitch business owners that know zero that LAL is the best thing since sliced bread. That last combination is the perfect formula for scamming people.
The scam……nevermind……just go read the posts.
http://ontopresultsllc.com/news/2009/03/06/localadlink-in-charlotte-nc/
What Keith said plus:
1) bouncing thousands of dollars in checks
2) making empty promises of wealth to brand builders when in reality, the average or typical BB will never become rich from this scheme. Ya’ know just like the empty promises made to the YTB distributors – it is amazing, people in MLM always think “this is the one.” I guess that is the crux of what sustains an embarassing industry.
What I want to know is…How come they are not shut down by now? I still hear from individuals involved that they still haven’t received their checks, the ads are not showing, etc.
Why are they still in business?????
“shutting down” a business does not occur over night…but I agree, they are a total fraud. Imagine some major corporation, like Best Buy, bounced over a quarter of a million dollars in checks to their employees – hell would break loose.
I do realize with this comment that all the pro-mlm’ers will come out of the wood work now and start pouncing on “corporate America.” Oh well…..wannabees are like that
First of all, it is disheartening to me to know now what I did not know back before I signed up. I appreciate all of your comments and will be returning to this page to see further input.
I have been with LAL for over a month now and must admit that the business model of this company makes sense. Being a low cost platform to advertise on line is what caught my attention from the start. When LAL came down the pipe, I took a long look at it and delayed my sign up because of what I was hearing about. But, taking a RISK, like most of us entreprenuers do , I decided to go ahead and make this my primary business.
No, I am not happy about the history of certain leaders. AS a matter of fact, I blame myself for not researching more and doing my due dilegence. I have personally met with a lot of these leaders and I must say that they are very good at what they do. Rob DeBoer in particular, stood out the most for me. He is a man that does not smile very much and has a business only mentality. If he has done wrong ,like the others, I can only hope that they are repenting by making LAL right. If they can salvage their careers along with making LAL the next best and greatest MLM , I assure you, there will no longer be posts and comments like this.
My conclusion#1
LAL business model is what I like most. Google has also acknowledged it as well. With the help of Google, I believe LAL will straighten its act and prosper.
My conclusion #2
These are tough times…people are desperate. If LAL is a farce, I only have myself to blame.
Guys, stop the whining and understand that life is not perfect. We should not expect others to be perfect as well.
Shit happen so let’s not bury LAL just yet. If anyone has the right to complain it is the people who were directly involved with LAL at one time or another.
My 2 sense.
Willie Plasencia
Very interesting stuff. Wish I had come across it all before I signed up and flew to Vegas. My biggest issue with the whole thing was the ads never seemed to go out to 3rd party search engines. I tried my best to understand a new industry but other than the directory LAL didn’t seem to do anything. Great concept though if it only actually worked.
What happened to Jason Borne. He just disappeared.
A few points:
1) In response to the post stating that if a major corporation such as Best Buy bounced checks all hell would break loose: LocalAdLink is a START UP company – yes the goal is to be the major provider of cost-effective advertising on the web, but it is still a NEW company. I don’t know the long and detailed history of Best Buy, but I assume that, like most new companies in the beginning stages, it had it’s fair share of kinks. I DO know the history of AOL – and if you look it up, they missed payroll checks and had all sorts of issues in the beginning. The people who stuck through it all and saw the vision became rich off of stock. Companies do NOT just rise from the ground and become “Best Buys” over-night – any true entrepreneur knows this.
2) Bob McNulty has had some amazingly successful business ventures. Just like most people who have made it that big, he also has some major failures. As does Donald Trump, as do many entrepreneurs who take big risks.
3) People keep mentioning the names of people behind LocalAdLink so I think we should also throw out Ron Loveless to be fair. Ron was Sam Walton’s right hand man when Wal Mart was in it’s beginning stages. In 1983, he was named as the first CEO of the new Sam’s Wholesale Club Division and achieved over $1.5 billion in sales with 30 units in just three years of operation. He is now on board with LocalAdLink to help the company become the most affordable advertising solution for small to medium sized businesses.
3) People are quick to point out the Rob DoBoer’s role in Burn Lounge. I, for one, think the idea was brilliant and it is unfortunate that the company did not work. Many big names were behind BurnLounge, including Shaquille O’Neal http://www.studio2112.net/recommend/shaq.htm. Mistakes may have been made, but it is my opinion that the intentions behind BurnLounge were GOOD. There are many complicated factors in this scenario that I will not get into in this post – but that is my belief after lots of research.
4)In response to the above comment that every LocalAdLink rep is made to think they will get rich – that is ridiculous. As with ANY other sales position – be it a real-estate agent, an insurance agent, or an advertising executive – the ones who go out and SELL and WORK HARD are the ones who will make money. How is an opportunity to go out and sell advertising and make 50% commision, 40% residual any more of a scam than selling advertising for a magazine? Are you saying it is a scam because the commision is 50% instead of the industry standard of 35%?? My friends who works for top magazines in ad sales make 35% commision, but their companies also have MUCH higher overheads with large offices, computers, blackberries for all employees, health insurance etc. So please do not use the 50% commision as a reason the company is a scam.
5)I joined LocalAdLink last month so have not had to deal with the bounced checks that occured. My response to this is that 1) yes it was a PR nightmare for the company 2) everyone I have talked to has now been paid 3) LocalAdLink is a start-up company. We all make choices in life – I for one have decided to take a chance and sell advertising with a start-up company and I understand the risks involved with ANY start-up company. Nothing is perfect from the beginning.
6) I joined LocalAdLink at NO cost as an Account Executive. there is nothing to buy to be in this company. How many traditional MLM’s can say that? I have received checks for my 50% commisions in ad sales AND my customers are very happy with their internet presence. Again, I was not with LocalAdLink 3 months ago so I can only speak to what I am seeing from my customers NOW. And yes – we have paid and non-paid strategies of marketing for our customers. Our goal is to eventually make being in our directory, LocalAdLink.com, worth the advertising money alone.
I can only speak for myself. I have had nothing but wonderful experiences since joining LocalAdLink. The compensation plan is straight-forward, no strings attached. It is unfortunate that some people get into a company and when they don’t become rich overnight they start yelling “fraud”. This, as with any job, takes hard work and dedication – but the opportunity is REAL. I am so excited and happy about my experience with this company so far.
Thank you for reading.
Thanks for the post Jen. I’ll deflate a few of your far fetched truths.
1. I don’t care if you’re Best Buy or LocaladLink, if you’re company is profitable, which they ‘claim’ they are, you don’t bounce checks. LAL is built upon reps making money, in fact its the only way. But when you screw your salesforce you screw yourself:
Ever seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8-s6vW-wA
(in case you missed it, look at the ‘info’ on the side.
2. Its comical how many times LAL reps mentioned Donald Trump with Bob. They must have that in their PR pitch down pat.
3. Your quote: “People are quick to point out the Rob DoBoer’s role in Burn Lounge. I, for one, think the idea was brilliant ”
I love the fact you think it was a great idea. Whats your ‘idea’ of Apple as a successful company? The FTC sued Burnounge into bankruptcy and sends them to jail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnlounge
4. Or your labeled ’second’ 3. I would love to take a poll and ask every business owner thats spends money with you guys how much they ‘think’ their $200 dollar goes to driving traffic. Not one will tell you that $100 dollars each month goes to the reps. When business owners think their paying for $200 dollars in advertising and in reality only are seeing 50-100, thats a SCAM. PERIOD!
6. Your quote: “I joined LocalAdLink at NO cost as an Account Executive. there is nothing to buy to be in this company. How many traditional MLM’s can say that?” – This is funny too. Thats the basis of iJango..you must have missed the hoopla about that: http://www.clicksniper.com
All of their ‘reps’ claim theirs nothing to buy. Nothing to buy is nothing new. Do some research.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=TOH&q=mlm+%22nothing+to+buy%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
You’re right – I didn’t do my research. I didn’t realize you were just someone out there trying to push your own product/company. If I had seen that, I wouldn’t have wasted my time. The best and only true tetimonial a person can give is of their own experience and mine has been nothing less than phenomenal with LocalAdLink. Best of luck.
Jen,
iJango is a SCAM just like LocaladLink. Please read the post and other website again!
Jen, you obviously have an agenda here. My impression is not that Keith is trying to promote his company (and if he was, no big deal), rather he is pointing out facts – that’s all. It is amazing, virtually anyone involved in MLM is never interested in discussing facts. Like most MLM’s, virtually no one will make any legitimate money. It is a statistical fact that MLM’s are a losing proposition for 99% of those involved, See: http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/psamain/news/MythofIncomeReport.html
You have better odds in Vegas at Blackjack. The point is, if you understand anything about internet advertising, LAL offers crap to their customers (i.e. business owners). The fee for only 50 zip codes is 200 dollars and is a rip off and what Keith was pointing out is that since there is a 50% commission to the Brand Builder, and then LAL has to take a cut – right? That leaves out of the 200 dollars, less than half for the supposed ad campaign. That is way off industry standards and is a scam – bottom line!
Plus, I will take it one step further – I have a webpage and do Google Ad Words myself and ALL OF THE MONEY I SPEND goes to the ad campaign. Enough with this local ad link crap already – I just wish we could fast forward to when it goes down and then there will be the new flavor of the month – which of course will most likely be the Trump vitamin BS thing – can’t wait for that one!
BTW, do the Brand Builders tell the business owner that less than 1/2 the money actual goes to their “ad campaign”? Do the Brand Builders tell the business owner that Local Ad Link is nothing more than a directory that ranks a measley 3,493 (that is as of today from Alexa) whereas much more legit advertising directories with FREE listings rank much, much, much better: i.e. yellowpages.com = 151 or Superpages.com =276 or Merchant Circle = 291.
As for the Best Buy or AOL comparison, it is true that start ups having growing pains, but the difference there is that those companies are legitimate, unlike LAL, which is another MLM scam where those at the top pretend to sell a legit product when in fact it is nothing more than an endless chain recruiment scheme where the EMPHASIS IS placed on getting more distributors, NOT selling the actual product (i.e. see YTB, Burnlounge, ACN, etc.). So, stop comparing legitimate companies with these pathetic wannabe MLM companies. Enough is enough.
Looks like the scammers got scammed.
http://news.localadlink.com/2009/07/localadlinkdotcom/adzzoo/
Is it really surprising that someone involved in MLM could be dishonest? I mean c’mon, that is the basis of the whole industry!
“Our current liabilities exceeded our current assets by $9,443,091 at June 30, 2009 and negative cash flow from operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2009 was $3,403,485. Included in current liabilities is deferred revenue of $3,010,849 and notes payable of $5,350,391. These factors, and our inability to meet our obligations from current operations, and the need to raise additional capital to accomplish our objectives, create considerable doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”
The rest here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/090814/byoc.ob10-q.html