The Internet Is Being Infested!

When it comes to making money online, it's so easy why would anyone do any real work.

Or the fact that people still fall for these obvious schemes is beyond me.

I guess desperation creates hope, I don't know.

No worse than anything else really as far as I can see.

Heck the MMO niche is a Pyramid Scheme of sorts...

LOL I was half expecting you to say there is porn everywhere when I read the headline! Seriously though, humans always want the cheap, easy and lazy way to get rich, famous, and so on. Therefore they fall for every scam on the planet.

There are thousands of new people daily who want to make money online so falling into scam is not a new thing at all...

I've got HUGE blinders on. I remember when I got over my "shiny ball" syndrome some years ago and unsubscribed from anything thing that was remotely spammy or schemey.

I still have to keep up the housekeeping when people who I thought knew better than that start to go awry.

Like the other day, when I unsubscribed from one of my good marketing buddies list because all of the sudden he decided to go haywire with promoting Empower Network. I mean, really?

I got sucked into the Beachbody MLM in January. I should have "known better," but I was desperate. I had a degree in Math & Computer Science that was worthless; I couldn't even use it to get a $7.25/hour job. I was in an MBA program (and still am), but I didn't see that improving my job prospects. If a STEM graduate can't get work of any kind, a business graduate isn't going to fare better. I had a clerical job on oDesk that I'd been doing well with for awhile, but I could tell that the company was having problems and it was about to collapse (which it did, finally, in May).

I figured that since I love fitness and working out, and that I really love the Beachbody workout programs, that I could be successful selling them. I didn't expect FA$T EA$Y MONEY. I didn't think I'd make $9,000.00 my first month. I just thought it was an opportunity to build a good income over a period of time.

Unfortunately--as Terra pointed out--I quickly found out that the MLM had nothing to do with selling Beachbody's workout programs. Partially, it had to do with selling their overpriced health drink, Shakeology, which I didn't use and didn't believe in at all; I think it's snake oil. Mainly, it had to do with convincing as many people as I could to sign up under me. I was pressured to aggressively push Shakeology and Beachbody on everyone I knew, whether they were interested in it or not, and to spam social networks.

I quit in June.

Thankfully, while I lost some money, I didn't do what a lot of people who get involved in MLM's do:

* I didn't alienate everyone I knew by pushing Shakeology and Beachbody on them. I let them know that I was a Beachbody "Coach" (I really hated being called a "Coach"; I think it's deceptive) and that was it. I don't think most of my Facebook friends even realized that Beachbody was allegedly a "business" for me; I think they thought it was some sort of hobby. That's fine with me.

* While I lost some money--about a week's paycheck from when my oDesk job was going well--I didn't lose thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars. That's because I never went to their stupid "summits" in Florida, Vegas, etc. I ignored the absolutely horrid advice of my upline to "buy the tickets now and figure out how to pay for them later."

* I never took the advice to spam social networks with aggressive sales pitches, which would have ruined my online reputation. I made a few posts here and there, but nothing like what I see other "Coaches" doing.

Frankly, if I'd found the Warrior Forum back in December/January, I would never have fallen into the MLM trap. I would have seen that I had more and better options than hawking snake oil health drinks. I would have seen that if I just wanted to sell Beachbody workout DVD's, that could be accomplished through CJ, the eBay Partner Network, or even Amazon affiliate links.

I have a couple of friends who are still doing this. I wish them well. I really do, but I feel that MLM's are a stacked deck. Very few people ever make any money in an MLM structure. It's possible, but so is winning the lottery. Additionally, it seems like the people who DO make money are working way too hard for it. My husband knows a guy whose SIL is a "Coach." She makes about $2,000.00/month -- and works 60+ hours a week to get it. (Imagine what would happen if she worked that hard in a non-MLM business model.)