What Is Up With GDI?

[webatomic]

I don't get it. Someone enlighten me. $10 per month for a domain name? What's up with that?

[webatomic]

GDI is an easy program to build an income from because it offers a great product and it is 100% free to sign up for. This eliminates a lot of the objections prospects have when they are looking at business opportunities. There is no risk.

I can't figure out how to "sign up" without being charged $10 per month for a domain name. I must be missing something.

[amreen]

Hey Active Warrior!
Well, every body including Stone is saying GDI sign up is free. I tried to sign up for free a number of times only to know that it is not free, just have to make a delayed payment. Am I right or wrong?

[Graham Maddison]

You get a free trial.....during which you can elect to cancel, if you do nothing you are then charged $10 per month............you can cancel at any time, but it must be by phoning them.

Just clever marketing.

Graham

[Alexa Smith]

I think the $10 per month for a domain-name actually includes hosting for it as well? So it could actually be worth $5 per month, to some people.

They're selling a $5 per month service for $10 per month because they're paying 5 people a $1 per month commission out of it.

I don't know about "scam", but this certainly looks like MLM at its very, very worst, doesn't it? The product is one that can't be sold "retail" but only to people joining the "business opportunity" because no retail customer would pay that price for it. According to most of the world's regulatory and legal authorities, having no retail sales (i.e. to people who aren't distributors) is a huge red flag.

Network marketing forums are certainly full of people who joined, regretted it, couldn't earn much through it, and dropped out. And with products/services for which there's no retail demand from that source and at that price, this isn't surprising. There are literally no retail sales at all. So it's certainly not "legitimate MLM", even if it isn't definitely a "scam".

[MBeshr]

GDI free for 7 days only,
you will be charged $10 each month after,

so you must discover that program in the first free 7 days.


thanks
MBeshr

[digitalpimps]

not meaning to step on any toes, but why would you call it a scam just because you dont like their business model?

[Overdose0101]

Originally Posted by digitalpimps

not meaning to step on any toes, but why would you call it a scam just because you dont like their business model?

Finally, someone said it. The words scam get throw around WAY too much nowadays. I can't even trust people when they say such and such is a scam. The reasons people say that are

1. With every business at least one customer is gonna get screwed (They were that customer)

2. They have never tied it and they only give a cursory glance at the overall structure.

3. They have been burned in the past by other companies offering something similar so they assume every company that offers this is a scam.

[Patrician]

I experience this everyday - the scam mentality. Yes there are a lot of scams. However that is a serious accusation and people just throw it around mercilessly. Because someone doesn't get your email or you don't receive a response (usually because your email service blocked it) does NOT make a company a SCAM - for instance. Maybe they are guilty of poor customer service, but that's a long way from being a criminal enterprise.

Because they charge unreasonable fees, does NOT make them a SCAM. Just don't buy it. In this case it is true and can be misconstrued. FREE is only for a 7 day trial wherein you can get a refund.

However a scam is not a scam unless it does not deliver what it promises, doesn't honor guarantees or refunds, etc.

Not to mention that slamming one of our affiliate programs CAN HURT people who are trying to promote it. This is a SUPPORT FORUM not group therapy or scam.com.

I am the first one to exercise my right of free speech and many times to my own detriment. However "Freedom is Not License'.

I want you to understand that we can really be SUED for LIBEL unless a company or person HAS BEEN CONVICTED in a court of law of what you are saying about them.

I am no fan of GDI and personally don't think it fits with PIPS at all. From their cheesy ads with bathing suit beauties to their obnoxious audios, and on to ugly domain ".ws" extensions.

The worst part is the confusion it is causing on our application because they are also a host (we do not accept them as a host - only as an affiliate program). The domain names are only acceptable if they are redirected/pointed to the Host4Profit domain nameservers AND HOSTED by HOST4PROFIT.

Yes if you look at it as a domain registration that costs $120 per year it is ludicrous. If you look at it as a $10 per month membership fee for a business opportunity that includes one domain name, it is not a bad deal.

[Jeff Casmer]

H Pat,

I agree completely.

Just because a person worked a program or opportunity and didnt make money doesnt give them the right to call something a scam...

A scam is when someone takes your money for a service and runs like hell....and you cant find then to get your service or a refund....

Take care
Jeff Casmer

[Patrician]

Oh yeh, Jeff - right I left that out - big time - just because someone fails to succeed with a program doesn't make it a scam.

NO PROGRAM WORKS UNLESS WE DO.

[Alexa Smith]

"Scam" is a bit strong, I agree.

But there really are some legal questions, here, you know? An MLM that has no retail sales is, at the very least, "legally questionable", as you can see from this interesting little article by an industry expert and owner of a network marketing forum.

[Patrician]

Yes they have to have more than a 'business opportunity' - hence services do constitute 'product' or 'retail sales' - domains, hosting and all the rest would make it legal as far as GDI.

You would find that all of our affilaite or so-called MLM core programs do offer bonuses, services and products either included in the membership or available.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with 'due diligence' or with questioning something. It is just that where I come from you do not start a dialogue with an accusation.

...that is the point I am making.

[webatomic]

Wow. Sorry if I offended anyone, but where I come from that's what we call something like this. You want to have some fun? Go sign up and then try to back out of their order form and have a conversation with their "live virtual assistant" Anyway, I don't get it. there are plenty of legitimate hosting company and domain registrar affiliate programs available where you don't have to pay for anything and you can enjoy nice commissions. Very disappointed so far. I have yet to look into SFI and the others yet, but this one left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

[Overdose0101]

None taken. It's just that things need to be given appropriate classifications. Saying something is a scam when it isn't is just as bad as calling someone a liar when they really aren't. Just thought someone should set the record straight. From the looks of of the record has officially be straightened.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Patrician

Yes they have to have more than a 'business opportunity' - hence services do constitute 'product' or 'retail sales'

I completely accept that "services" constitute "products".

But my legal advice is that a "retail sale" is a sale made to someone who isn't a distributor or otherwise involved in the business opportunity.

Distributors buying products/services for their own use aren't classified by courts and regulators as "retail sales".

As Jeffrey Babener, perhaps the most well-known and respected MLM lawyer there is, has said: "Some regulatory groups, including the FTC, have historically rejected personal use as a legitimate retail sale."

So to be honest I'm far from convinced that domains, hosting and all the rest necessarily make it legal, if they're selling only to people joining the business.

Originally Posted by Patrician

There is absolutely nothing wrong with 'due diligence' or with questioning something. It is just that where I come from you do not start a dialogue with an accusation.

...that is the point I am making.

I hear you there.

[Patrician]

I see what you mean, Alexa - however in this case it is catch 22 - you really do not have to pursue the membership/business opportunity/MLM - however it does look like you couldn't just buy a domain from them(?) "retail".

I do not understand why there should be a law that someone is forced to have retail sales -

As well just like the large corporations always find a loophole, the small ones are probably creative too.

The question is first of all if no one is hurt by the company's protocol - that is 'scammed' or if no one is misrepresenting anything, where is the beef?

If anyone was paying attention from law enforcement I guess there would be a lot less businesses -

In any case, I am all for 'government off our backs' - they should not be impeding commerce - particularly while they are corrupt/negligent, etc.

Having said that, I am all for law enforcement jamming up anybody who steals or lies. Tired of the little people being victimized with no recourse...

So as usual I sit on the fence with 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.



P.S. Just for the record, we are not an MLM. We are a free program. We do not accept membership fees, we do not pay commissions or issue refunds.

We deliver exactly what we promise - a fully customizable website and training for free. All of our affiliate programs are free or optional if not.

The only requirement to join our program is to pay for your own domain registration and hosting account; and I believe we have the right to require the one we prefer to work with.

Both Stone and I pay for our own hosting the same way as anyone else.

[moneysoapbox]

Unless you can recruit a LOT of people into GDI, it's probably not worth it. And considering how hard it's being promoted anyway...

I wonder when Allen decides to replace the word "scam" like he did with guru and BlueFart >:P

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Patrician

I do not understand why there should be a law that someone is forced to have retail sales -

Nope, this escapes me, too. But the FTC and some case-law precedent say it's so.

Please don't anyone imagine for a moment that I was offering any opinion on the Plug-In Profit site or program - I don't know the first thing about it. I was talking only about GDI itself.

Originally Posted by Patrician

The question is first of all if no one is hurt by the company's protocol - that is 'scammed' or if no one is misrepresenting anything, where is the beef?

My guess is that so far (and GDI's well established) enough people feel that way for nobody to have taken any serious action.

Originally Posted by Patrician

The only requirement to join our program is to pay for your own domain registration and hosting account; and I believe we have the right to require the one we prefer to work with.

Sure, of course. I accept this entirely!

[SuccessForFree]

From my point of view, GDI is a good program because there are two ways to market it.

You can sell the business opp, which I don't have much time for. There are many better and cheaper programs out there, and many would make you a lot more money than GDI. I think the only way to make money with GDI this way is if you can get hundreds to sign up under you, such as the "People Search" deal that every one seems to be selling right now. The guy who came up with that is laughing!

The way I prefer to promote it is as an easy way to have a website. This is a good way for those who are just starting their biz, but want more than a "gateway" site, to gain experience owning a website. GDI has a Sitebuilder program that is easy enough that my 4 year old son could probably do it, so anyone can design a website using it.

While we're on the subject, you can also have .com and other URL's with GDI. It didn't used to be this way, they changed it a while back I guess.

The problem I have is that the owners of GDI would rather push the biz op side, not the website side of it. You will not find a promotional tool in GDI to advertise the website building program. If you visit the GDI Forum, many others share this view, so hopefully they will change it around soon.

I've come up with a plan that uses SFI, GDI, and PIPS at once to run a business. This is not a perfect plan, but I think it would work well for a lot of people. If you want, you can see the plan here:

What Happens When the Top 3 Home Business Programs Join?

There is no denying that GDI is a powerful company, but that doesn't mean it's for everyone. If you doubt it, don't join. It's that simple.

[Palitra]

Good Point. I was thinking if I need to join GDI. In any case it is better to join such programs when you have traffic and won't pay $10 per month without sign ups.

[vandebiz]

IF you think GDI is bad, take a long hard look at LCM!
I signed up under Stone thinking his recommendation would justify a worthwhile program, boy was I wrong!

[joanpeterson]

I think one pays $10 a month to GDI if one wants to be in their bizop. When I look at domain names only throught GDI, it says you can have 1 domain name for two years at a cost of $35.

As far as the GDI bizop is concerned, I think the average person would have a difficult time making any serious income. You would get $1 per person if they maintained their $10 per month. You would have to be an extremely serious and successful builder to generate high income with GDI.

I know some that heavily promote GDI also have huge email lists from other things that they run and can generally get a fairly decent amount of signups from these lists that they have. The average person will NOT have access to such a list and therefore success becomes harder to achieve for the average joe just joining up.

But I don't think GDI is a scam. People do succeed at it but I am sure the numbers that do succeed are rather small.

[Patrician]

Originally Posted by vandebiz

IF you think GDI is bad, take a long hard look at LCM!
I signed up under Stone thinking his recommendation would justify a worthwhile program, boy was I wrong!

,,, and you are saying this after how many days of effort on your part?

Read what one very reputable person who has been working for years found out about LCM in just 2 months!

http://www.pluginprofitsitetraining.com/2009/06/review-of-lawn-chair-millionaire.html


p.s. I believe in honesty - but before you slam one of our programs in a public forum be sure of your facts.

No offense but the vast majority of naysayers are ready to judge in a very short time having put in little or no effort. They don't get it that no program works unless we do (work).

A scam is a program that does not give you anything that you pay for, does not refund your money or respond to you. For obvious reasons, they disappear quickly.

Because something doesn't work for you does not necessarily make it a scam.

In the meantime you may have cost someone a sale including yourself.

[Suzanne Morrison]

Originally Posted by joanpeterson

I think one pays $10 a month to GDI if one wants to be in their bizop. When I look at domain names only throught GDI, it says you can have 1 domain name for two years at a cost of $35.

As far as the GDI bizop is concerned, I think the average person would have a difficult time making any serious income. You would get $1 per person if they maintained their $10 per month. You would have to be an extremely serious and successful builder to generate high income with GDI.

I know some that heavily promote GDI also have huge email lists from other things that they run and can generally get a fairly decent amount of signups from these lists that they have. The average person will NOT have access to such a list and therefore success becomes harder to achieve for the average joe just joining up.

But I don't think GDI is a scam. People do succeed at it but I am sure the numbers that do succeed are rather small.

Hi Joan,

When I started with GDI I had similar thinking to you - I thought it wasn't really worthwhile promoting GDI heavily because of the $1 per month per person commission. I ended up sticking with it because after a short amount of time my monthly commissions exceeded my monthly payment.

After a couple of years of not really promoting it much my income had grown to a couple of hundred dollars per month. A lot of this was due to the fact that you also get a $1 for people in your downline who are not sponsored by you (i.e.recruited by people in your upline or downline).

BUT, it was only when Stone added GDI to PIPS that I really saw the true income potential. The GDI Bonus pools.

Every week that you personally signup at least 5 people you receive a $100 bonus. If you signup 10, then it is $200 and so on, $100 for each 5 people. So in the first week that it was added to PIPS I got an extra $200 bonus.

So, if you include the bonus pool commissions, GDI is a much more lucrative program. 5 people in a week may seem like a lot, but because of the free 7 day trial, and the low $10 fee, the conversion rate is pretty good.

As a result I do plan to promote GDI a lot more than I am now.

Cheers,
Suzanne

[bizbooster]

In my oppinion, I find GDI like any other Network Marketing Program wether online or offline.
If someone focuses on what will not work, he does not make any profit of it. If we focus on what is possible, there is no need to spekulate on the Legality of the program.

Originally Posted by alexa_s

"Scam" is a bit strong, I agree.
...
An MLM that has no retail sales is, at the very least, "legally questionable"....

I do not agree with you Alexa!
I think GDI is a program that retails domains (.ws) and hosting and offer bonuses in form of MLM to any customer helping them to promote their business (just recommending their service like we are using it ourself). Like any other company should do it.

Prudence

[locpic63]

Bravo Pat
I am so tired of hearing people say something is a scam because they do not like, understand it, or didn't make money with it!!

locpic63

[briley knox]

You have to understand what PIP's is to you if you don't like a pip's program than you don't have to promote. Promote the PIP's program that work for you and your business some people can't afford to promote all the pips programs at the same time if you don't know what you are doing you will lose money. The key is to work with one program at a time if you make some income with that program than, think about working with another. beleive me I learn this the hard way the first program that I made money with is SFI they have improved and there a better opportunity to make more income with them if you work the program. When you start having some success you feel better about the PIP's programs. Just Keep working it can happen for you.

[MissTerraK]

You are wrong, you have a 7 day trial period, you can cancel before that week is up and you won't be charged!

[sarahberra]

I have heard that GDI is a good biz opp, but I have yet to really look into it. I don't want to pay the extra money right now though. I am focusing my efforts on what I know works. Is anyone here making a substancial amount of money from GDI?

[janet2]

Hi. Patrician. first of all thanks I have learnt so much here, when I first joined pip I saw the forum but had no idea how important it is to come and read what is here. it answers so many questions. Just a thought, it should be the first thing you should do after joining pip is go straight to the forum.

[mysteryleaves]

very interesting read, l have the posts with great interest, an eye opener of how they work

[Achilles1963]

I joined GDI when I was first thinking about starting in on internet marketing, I didn't realise that it was so expensive compared to the other top level domains (but you can still get good domain names there), I don't have a problem with the .ws like some people seem to, but they spammed me big time (and really pissed me off), the people seem nice...but I'm a 20 year professional salesman and I just can't see working for such tiny commissions (standard is 20-25% of gross sales).

Anyway...I don't consider it a scam, but I also don't consider it a wise investment of time or money either.

[Patrician]

Originally Posted by janet2

Hi. Patrician. first of all thanks I have learnt so much here, when I first joined pip I saw the forum but had no idea how important it is to come and read what is here. it answers so many questions. Just a thought, it should be the first thing you should do after joining pip is go straight to the forum.

Hi Janet - I agree - actually it did used to be right up there in the first part of the training about the forum - not sure why Stone has thought to move it back.

Maybe a little too overwhelming for some - maybe he wants them to focus only on completing the training before they venture out into other avenues.

I definitely think the forum is one of the most valuable resources we have available. I often say I never would have survived the first year without it. Fun 'working at home alone' - but then 'we are not alone' is very comforting as well.

[Phildir]

Well, when I joined them I had similar feelings / ideas about that system.
That has changed later totally! WHY?

Well, they are offering a real product beside of the domain and hosting : the easy to use website builder!

THAT is in my opinion the way to sell their product to people who are not at all interested in the business opportunity ( at least not at the beginning ) but in an easy product to create their (maybe even first !) webpage without knowledge of programming.....Users like it as they safe a lot of money because they are able to update their webpage ALONE = FREE !

and.....

After building their webpage and being able to update it easily ALONE they do not only stick with GDI for a long time but start recommendation "automatically" - by the word of mouth.

So, I am convinced that this works very well !

[easyprofitbiz]

I have just subscribed for the free 7 days trial to GDI through PIPS and wanted to cancel my subscription but to my surprise it's very hard and cumbersome to cancel an account. It create so much agony, and too much money spent for the international calls. Sometime I cannot sleep.

I keep on calling their line but to no avail they just keep me on hold for almost an hour and imagine the cost of keeping that line. I tried several times but still the same story, they just keep me on hold. Up to this time still I could cancel my subscription because of this problem.

GDI Please do something to solve this issue of cancellation. I think your support cannot handle the bulk of people calling you to cancel their subscription or there is any other reason behind.

My usernamer in GDI is rommelronda and my upline is Ewen Chia and Stone. I already send email to help solve this cancellation problem.

People with good heart please help me as I don't have money already to keep on calling them and putting me on hold. I want to cancel my subscription now.


Rommel Ronda

[Patrician]

Log in at http://www.website.ws/members

Or eMail:
support(at)wsdomains.ws (replace (at) with @)
support(at)website.ws


Sorry there is not one thing anyone here at PlugInProfitSite can help you do at GDI - it is a completely separate entity. Keep trying to reach them and if you can't get a response you may want to just contact your credit card bank and dispute the charge/get a refund if you were charged.

Document the times you have tried to reach them without a response, but note that your email account may be blocking the response from GDI.

[easyprofitbiz]

Thanks Patrician for your quick reply to my message. I truly appreciate it.

By the way, Shana of GDI replied already to email and I hope she/he will cancel my subscription now as my trial subscription is going to end already.

I will appreciate so muc also Shana's help once she/he cancel my subscription so that I can sleep now. I'm bothered of so many write ups with GDI and I don't know which one is correct. I hope they are all wrong and Shana will do the job.

Rommel

[Patrician]

I have never heard anything bad about their customer service or anything, Rommel. I think that especially if Shana replied via email that your cancellation will be processed.

Do however check your credit card to make sure you are not charged. Your free trial should be completely free if you are cancelling within the 7-day trial.

If you are charged I am also quite sure they will process a refund if you contact them again. (sometimes this does happen if you are cancelling too close to the billing date (8th day) but most companies are very good about issuing a refund when requested.

They would not be in business very long if they don't keep their promises, etc.

[easyprofitbiz]

Yes, I will do really check my credit card.

Thanks again for always replying promptly. I do really appreciate it.

Rommel

[easyprofitbiz]

Hurray! I just received confirmation from Fabiola that my account had been deactivated and she give me the control number also. Really, she save me from spending too much for the international call which is very costly in my place.

Now I know that GDI support was really good and active.

[Willmarathon]

This is a review I wrote 2 years ago when I quit the first time:

"After 2.8 years at $10/month and massive advertising, I never made a cent off of Global Domains International, but when I tried to cancel my subscription, there was no place on the website to do that. I called them repeatedly after trying to create my own website, but you are allowed only 4,000 characters with their web design tool which is worse than bad garbage collection.

I tried for 4 months to get into the URL where you can create your own web site with your own tools and the site was ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTION or being MAINTAINED. I tried everything but could not get into that site. Then it took me 4 months of calling GDI headquarters to get them to stop billing me while they kept ripping me off."

I have since signed up again because I use it as way of one-way linking to my other sites. I
intend to use it for three-way linking and within 2 days I will put a copy of the Web Success Funnel
System optin page on the index page. But the real reason I made this post is to ask the great people in this forum and possibly even Stone Evans to come up with some system that I often see
that helps you include value with this site to make it much easier to sign people up.



I have not checked since 2 years ago if you can get into the URL where you can create your own web site with your own tools and whether the site is always UNDER CONSTRUCTION. So I do not know whether they have changed or improved. I am hoping my Web Success Funnel System will
work to sign people up. I know people have seen hyper GDI sites with some sort of super value
added that makes people want to join. I sued to belong to Turbo GDI but that went out of business.
Hopefully Stone will come up some very thoughtful,constructive idea some time in the future because he is always making improvements and innovations. (-: In the meantime, my suggestion is to use it as an optin page. My optin page is much more extensive than just a newsletter optin. And you cannot really understand it just by looking at the page.

[tawn31]

I see alot of negativity on this topic. In my opinion GDI is a great income earner if you stick to your guns. This is one of my main income streams. Over the past year and a half I've gained a nice monthly income of $1100 a month which I use to fund some of my other ventures. The only thing I can complain about is that the website builder isn't the greatest but for a $10 a month investment to make $1100 a month is a no brainer in my opinion.