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February 27, 2003
First time here?
By QBlog in Blog News
Hey, if you're not familiar with this site there is an archives section over on the left of the page. Guess what it has. Yep, ARCHIVES! You're so smart.
It's about distributing information
By QBlog in
One of the things that I love about the Net is that information is always distributed. There is no control. Before the Net information was hard to distribute to more than a few people unless you were a large corporation or had a lot of money. Not so on the Net.
This is the beauty of a truly networked society. Information is shared equally, nobody is given preference. And this is why I personally believe Quixtar does not "get" the Web.
Not only does Quixtar seem oblivious to the nature of the Web, it doesn't understand the way it is changing our modern society. We no longer settle for just being ignorant of some fact, we actively seek out the information and then share it. Few companies get this but the ones that do are the truly innovative pioneers in this exciting new landscape. The companies that don't get this are doomed to extinction, or drastic modification in the future.
In my estimation Quixtar could gain a lot of ground by being extremely candid with its IBOs. Don't hide or obfuscate information, instead make it plain, clear and visible. Also, Quixtar could foster online communication by setting up methods for IBOs to share and distribute information with each other as well as the general public. Encourage communication. Realize that a network of IBOs that share gripes, praises, concerns, victories, successes, etc. in a candid fashion will be a strong and healthy network. Share this network with the general public too.
The key is share, share, share. If any business today does not begin to find ways to embrace this information distribution it will die a slow and horrible death.
This is why I get so frustrated when I find it so difficult to find candid, non-biased information about Quixtar.
February 25, 2003
Who is Bo Short?
By QBlog in Bo Short
Found this about a guy named Bo Short. I don't know if any of this is true but apprently he is a real guy who really quit Quixtar. I'm sure Quixtar has an explanation about why he left and I don't even know if this is really his explanation but it is a good read nonetheless. I just wonder who is Bo Short? And does anyone know the Quixtar version of why he left?
February 23, 2003
Reading Cluetrain
By QBlog in
I've been reading the cluetrain manifesto and though I haven't gotten very far into it yet I've found a couple of the 95 Theses extremely interesting:
7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. 12. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone. 18. Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity. 21. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor. 29. Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds." 40. Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die. 85. When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to.
Some of these ring true to me with regards to Quixtar. The book (Web site) is really pretty great and even though it's a bit dated (1999) it's still very relevant today. I recommend checking it out.
February 20, 2003
I appreciate you
By QBlog in
Just a big thanks to all those who visit this site and have provided some intelligent conversation. I have learned so much through this blog and I hope you have too. One problem I had early on with Quixtar was I felt like I was wasting the time of my upline because I wasn't really "excited" about all this and just had A LOT of questions. They honestly tried to answer those questions but I felt I was being a pain to them so I just stopped. However, many of those questions have been posed here and for the most part people have stepped up to answer them AND seemed to enjoy answering them.
Anyway, thanks much. You truly make this site a special place.
February 19, 2003
Join the global network
By QBlog in
One wonderful thing about Quixtar is doing local networking. Since my wife signed up and became an IBO she's met several people that have either become potential customers of my Web business, associates that I may work with on projects or have actually become clients. It's great. She'll meet someone to pitch the plan and then come home telling me that so and so needs a Web page or some consulting or is skilled in Flash and doesn't know many people in the business in my area.
I never would have met these people without Quixtar. I owe a lot to my wife and Quixtar for helping to introduce me to these people. I've made a lot of friends online and even developed some business relationships online but having some actual, real local people around is invaluable.
I just wish there was a way to do similar networking with just my business and I suppose there is but I haven't gotten to that level yet. I dunno. I just know that Quixtar has brought me into contact with a lot of really neat people, some with business needs and others who have just become good friends.
Thanks Quixtar, thank you for the networking. Thanks much.
February 18, 2003
Show me the numbers
By QBlog in
I asked this question last month:
My question right now is how many people drop out of Quixtar each month? I mean a solid verifiable number. Not some estimate. They have records. They know who is active or not. I want a solid number. They quickly tell you how many have made a million each month. Tell me who didn't. Thanks.
I just discovered that Jerry C. responded and made some good points. Yet the logic being employed in his argument is flawed in my opinion. Here's why:
Jerry says, "Okay, I just wanted to point out in this particular post that you wanted a number of people who dropped out, or who didn't make money. Ask yourself... is that really important? You are asking about those who don't do what it takes in order to make the money. That is like basing your decision on whether or not to ride a roller coaster on someone's advice who had backed out at the last minute, or jumped off because the first drop was too scary. Following the ones who don't or didn't make it will get you just there. There are two sides of every coin. You can either focus on the positive side and get positive results, or focus on the negative side and get negative results." (read entire comment)
With all due respect Jerry, that is the answer that I've gotten many times when I've posed this exact question. Here's where I find fault with the logic:
To continue with the roller coaster example I pose this question - Would anyone ride a roller coaster if they knew that 18 out of 20 people who rode the coaster died during the ride? My guess is very few people would be in that coaster ride. How would the park get people to ride such a horrible coaster (assuming that it's still functioning)? They would hide the numbers and not let the new customers know that they would probably die on the ride.
Ok, yes, this is an extreme example and in case I haven't made my point let me try another, less extreme example.
Let's examine the lottery. Most people know that their chances of winning are something like 1 in 140 million or something. Really bad odds. Most people either don't play or only spend spare cash for fun without investing a large percentage of their income or their time in playing. Yes, there are those with problems but you get my point.
Now, with the lottery we generally only see the winners and this gets us excited about playing yet we don't overplay (us rational folks) because we know the odds.
With Quixtar I do not know any numbers. Let me make that clear. These numbers are examples only. But what if you found out that only 1/2 of 1% of everyone who invested in Quixtar for 3 years ever made a profit and only 1/2 of those people ever made it to Diamond. Would you be willing to roll those dice? Maybe you would be, I don't know. Yet many people would not. Many people would rather spend their time and money on something less risky.
And that is my point. We don't know the numbers, or at least I don't. To my knowledge nobody is forthcoming with some independently audited numbers of the Quixtar winners and losers. The numbers may be an 80% success rate or they may be closer to my made up example. I just don't know.
So when I ask for numbers, please don't give me the whole loser/winner song and dance. Just give me numbers. The state lottery is required to by law.
Comments return
By QBlog in Blog News
Hi all. For the time being the comments are back. Should be back for good but who knows with HaloScan. So if you feel the urge to comment then do it.
More voices
By QBlog in
I got a wonderful e-mail from "Hoop" the other day and felt I should share some of what he had to say. He has a site similar to this one where he recounts his personal experiences with Quixtar. He isn't overly angry or bitter, he just expresses some of his concerns and opinions about Quixtar. He does site some statistics that I'm a bit dubious of but those stats aren't the main thrust of the story. Not saying the stats are true or false, just that I prove their validity. Here's a quote that rang true with me personally:
... Lisa and I realized that our business was moving further and further from our initial expectations of it. The business was not so much “web-based” anymore as it was what we called “coffee-shop based”. The internet is the means by which orders are placed, but the means by which you do the lucrative part of business, is your ability to meet people in the coffee shops, bookstores, wherever. You’re not making money by selling products on the web, you are making money by promoting IBOs in the Coffee shop. This concept was not what we wanted...
The reason this hits a chord with me is that I live the Web. I'm on the Web almost 14-16 hours a day. I love the Web. And I cringe every time I hear an IBO tell someone that this is a Web-based business. Every time someone quotes the potential retail sales growth of Web businesses I shake my head because in reality the success of this business is not determined by the Web, but by relationships and the ability to get others to change their shopping habits.
The Web is as much a part of this as the trucks that deliver the products or the cardboard boxes that hold the products.
Anyway, it's good to hear different voices. I welcome all voices hear. Positive, negative, indifferent - it doesn't matter. Only requirement is that you make sense.
February 17, 2003
Is this about Quixtar?
By QBlog in
I'm giving HaloScan one more day...maybe two more. Their service is free and pretty good when running but my comments have been down for several days now. Ridiculous. Note to HaloScan: Whatever you were doing before the comments went down - Do that. Whatever you started doing after the comments went down - quit doing that.
THANKS.
See, sometimes I talk about stuff other than Quixtar :o)
February 16, 2003
Meet the Mrs.
By QBlog in Blog News
My wife has found this site. I wasn't hiding it from her, I just never bothered to mention it to her in our conversations. Needless to say she was greatly intrigued and wanted to get involved in this site at some capacity. I'm mentioning this to say that it's quite possible you will see comments (when those are working) from her on various posts. I think it will provide a new and interesting dynamic to this site. So, if you see someone posting a comment signed "his wife" it's quite possibly really my wife.
If the comments are down just wait a while and they'll be back up. I'd rather host my own comments but Haloscan provides much more administrative control than my own tool allows so I'll tough it out with their buggy system and hope they are up more than they are down. So far they've yet to lose a comment to my knowledge so that is a good thing.
Update: One of my wife's IBOs that cancelled on her last night called and apologized. She feels much better now. This business is about friends after all. Friends and business and relationships and all that jazz.
February 15, 2003
Quixtar disappointment
By QBlog in A/QMOs
My wife is currently at a Quixtar conference near our home. She was really upset because none of her downlines showed up at the conference. I try to be as positive and supportive as I can be but I know that it just isn't the same coming from someone who is not really all that excited about the business. In part, I guess I feel somewhat guilty for not participating more in the business. I think that maybe she'd feel better if I started getting excited about Quixtar and showing the plan and buying the products (she buys them now) and stuff like that.
But I just can't do that. I can't get excited about Quixtar for some reason. And as a result I my wife feels disappointed and I feel inadequate. And then I just remember that this is just a business. I tell her that as well. This isn't some emotional Rehab, it's just business. It's not a place to make life long friends (though that can happen) but it's a place to make money. Money and emotions just shouldn't ever mix. If I got all offended every time one of my customers wasn't satisfied with something I did or didn't immediately return my phone call then I'd be out of business pretty quick. When they say, "It's just business, nothing personal" then they really mean that.
I hope this conference picks up her spirits some. Business is tough right now.
February 14, 2003
They just don't get it
By QBlog in Quixtar
I'm convinced (rightly or wrongly) that people running Quixtar just don't get the Internet and more specifically they just don't get the Web. Example, everyone I've ever talked to has no idea that the Web is NOT the Internet. The terms are not synonymous. I usually don't say anything when I hear someone say something like, "When the Internet first became open to the public commercially in the early 90s..." because, what's the point. But the fact is, the Internet has been open to the public for a long time. It's the Web that was invented in the early 90s. The Web is a set of protocols enabling different OSes and computers to share information over the Internet.
Anyway, there are many more examples than that. The Quixtar.com site launch debacle is another example. Quixtar isn't alone in misunderstanding the Web, many sites have had similar problems. Yet there are other signals too. Such as the poor site design that I've mentioned before in other places. The main thing is that Quixtar isn't really a Web company at all, they are an Amway-type company using the Web as a method to improve distribution and cut costs. This is a good thing but I don't think it bodes well for Quixtar.
In my humble opinion, companies that don't get the Web, especially those who depend heavily on the Web, will be in trouble soon. Some examples of Quixtar's anachronistic ways is that there is not a unified system for Web communication. They all still use Amvox or Voicecom or whatever you call it. E-mail, Message boards, discussion groups, Listserves, Web logs, etc. are all much more effective and cheaper ways to communicate but the use of this "new" technology is sporadic at best. It is left up to the individual promotional groups like Qbiz and they don't seem to get it either.
There should be some sort of simple publishing format in which IBOs with say 1000 pv get their own generic Web site where they can post info and stuff for their downline. These are just ideas but I've yet to see a single innovative idea regarding the Web from anyone related to Quixtar. I'm not even talking about the next Killer App, I just mean regular use of email. It just doesn't exist.
Join Quixtar and make money like it's 1989.
February 12, 2003
Made in the USA
By QBlog in Quixtar
I have no way of verifying this but apparently all Quixtar products are made in America. More specifically, all products made by Alticore are made in the USA. Obviously the third party stuff could be made anywhere. But really, that is a positive thing. Made in the USA.
The only possible negative is that a lot of people in Quixtar are in other countries. A decent amount of visits to this site come from Canada. I wonder how our northern cousins feel about selling products made in USA. Wonder if they mention that in the pitch to appeal to prospective customers? Probably not. But for Americans it's a good thing to have all products made here.
February 9, 2003
Quixtar Emails
By QBlog in Quixtar
Just wondering but...
Is there something about people in Quixtar that causes them to write incredibly long and unreadable emails? Every single email I've ever gotten from anyone in Quixtar is this HUGE block of unbroken text (exceptions are people who've emailed me from this site) that just goes on and on and on. Ok, sometimes I get the brief "Go team, get your PV/BV" cheer email but even those have line after line of rambling nonsense. Just fewer lines.
I'm just wondering if this method of authoring emails is something learned in Quixtar or if people who are already writing really, really long blocky emails are more apt to be getting into this business? To me it seems the latter and that may explain why just about every Quixtar related site looks like complete crap. Even Quixtar.com looks pretty lame.
I don't know why this is but my guess is that most people who are currently successful in Quixtar are former Amway folks and that most Amway folks (this is only a guess, apologies to Amway folks) are just not all that Web-schooled. They understand the business but they don't understand the Web, which is fine, it just seems to lead to a lot of really, really long emails and crappy looking Web sites.
About this blog/site
By QBlog in Blog News
Ok, this site is not a definitive repository for Quixtar information. It's a site that just expresses opinions and hopefully in a genuine manner. The tone is meant to be conversational and not up to the same types of standards as a normal, edited publication. That said, sometimes things are mentioned here that are later just not followed up on because, for one reason or another, they just don't hold my interest any longer and I don't (yet) feel an overwhelming obligation to anyone to follow through. I may, in the future but not right now.
What am I talking about? Well, a couple of weeks ago I promised to discover what the position of ISC is on reselling tools. I don't really know. I don't think it's illegal but I don't think it's encouraged either. Frankly, I don't care. All I know is that when I raised this tools question before the response I got was a.) that it's not a secret and b.) that each person is only making a few cents on each tape sold. Fine. Is this true? I don't know. And right now I'm not all that interested in finding out.
February 7, 2003
The uplines are coming, the uplines are coming
By QBlog in A/QMOs
Ok, my uplines are coming to town tomorrow. Actually they are already here I guess. They are nice enough people but there is just so much "stuff" involved with uplines coming to town. I just went through all this about two weeks ago when they were in town to show the plan and consult with my wife and her downlines. The thing that kills me is that when she got into the business she was told that it won't be a big deal and a big inconvenience to our lives. It will be a job we can do ON THE SIDE. Yeah...who has heard that line before. It's a side job. Something you do in your spare time. What a freaking load.
We spend almost all of our spare time with this business. My wife organizing things, getting things ready for her uplines, downlines and sidelines (joke notice for those humor-impared) and me being the supportive (yes, I can be supportive) and friendly (I do try) husband who at least attends all this stuff to show my support. So basically we have no spare time. Not only do we not have spare time but we don't have time to do other things like do our taxes, get car maintenance, minor home repairs, taking pets to vet, etc. all get pushed aside for "later" because some Quixtar related item needs to be attended to.
I know the arguments and yes, I guess all this is my fault. I really shouldn't complain but I am because we have another weekend filled with plans, something called a beauty party, dinners, greetings, etc. and I'm just about tired of shaking hands and smiling. I'm just not that kind of guy. Ok, I'm that kind of guy when it's a crowd of like-minded souls but very few are much like me...at least it seems that way.
I just want a weekend alone. A weekend without Quixtar. A break from the big Q. I guess I only have myself to blame but it's much easier to blame Quixtar. And I guess I'm lazy. Goodnight.
February 5, 2003
Comments and losers and other notes
By QBlog in Miscellaneous
Hey, I think something got screwed up with the commenting system at Haloscan, the people who facilitate the comments. If you left a comment and don't see it here any more I did not delete it. It just disappeared. If you left some comment and now it's gone then please re-comment or send me an email.
Also, this is from one of the comments left on this site:
Losers will always find a way to defend losing, while winners will continually outperform all spectators and naysayors. I have been an IBO for three years, and have never accheived beyond the 1,000 point level. I will be the first to tell you that this is strictly a failing of my own activity level, and no reflection on the business. Within 2 years, I will be at q12 level, pulling in over $50,000 per year in passive income. Winners make $$, losers make excuses. Losers usually have much more time for creating excuse-based websites than winners do.
- louie gimbutis
I really love the last comment, "Losers usually have much more time for creating excuse-based websites than winners do." I have no idea if this is a reference to this site and don't really care, what amuses me is when others take the time to explain why you are wasting your time doing something that you enjoy. If a guy enjoys posting pictures of ham salad on the Web then by golly, go for it. If some lady gets a thrill out of telling the world the habits of her cats then I say Hooray. It's interesting to me that when people hear a voice in opposition to something they believe in they immediately assume that the other person is wasting her time.
People are funny like that. If you feel someone is wasting his time building and maintaining a Web site then ask yourself whether you're wasting your time reading it. Anyway, I appreciate all comments, good, bad or ambiguous. This site is mainly for me, and if you like it too then cool. If you don't like then cool too. By the way, for the curious, this site is not costing me any money at all. However, Quixtar is costing me a lot of money. I know, I know...can't compare them...but it's just an observation.
February 4, 2003
Upline and help
By QBlog in Miscellaneous
I called my upline the other day asking for help or advice or direction or something. This whole Mortgage thing (see previous post) had me pretty scared and I began to realize that my wife was convinced that spending for Quixtar stuff (tools, conferences, etc.) was inherently beneficial no matter what the cost to our family now. After all, every business requires some investment to achieve success, which is true but hardly what I wanted to hear when I was pulling money out of retirement to pay our mortgage.
So I called my upline and basically just ask for any tips, guidance or advice on how to present the reality of our situation to my wife in relation to Quixtar. I was just asking because he's a "friend" and "mentor" and NOT because he has any sort of responsibility for my present financial situation. I made this extremely clear, that I was simply looking for pointers and didn't know who else to call. He got a bit aggressive and began telling me that he undoubtedly spent as much or more money coming to my home and helping my wife build our business than we had in the past month. This did not make me happy. It suddenly seemed like a competition to see who was MOST devoted to Quixtar and that maybe he was suggesting that I just not worry about all the money I spent on Quixtar this past month.
So I asked him if he had spent close to 50% of his net income on Quixtar and Quixtar related products in the past month. He suddenly didn't want to compare our expenditures any more. Ha. And I'm not making that up...my wife spent about 46% of our Net income on Quixtar tools, trips, products, etc. and you know how much Quixtar paid her this month? Less than 1/2 of 1% of our Net income.
In all fairness, my upline is a decent guy and graciously offered to go over my finances to see what could be done. I didn't ask for this but he offered. My only hope is that when he sees how bad our situation is that he will quit pressuring my wife to spend so much on trips and tools and crap and we can begin repairing this financial mess and maybe even building a business where expences won't exceed income by 1000 to 1.
February 3, 2003
Mortgage Update
By QBlog in Miscellaneous
Just so you know...we can pay our mortgage, it's just that I've gotta take money out of savings (retirement money) to pay it. Just wanted to be sure nobody thought I was about to be homeless.
February 1, 2003
Mortgage
By QBlog in A/QMOs
Remember my bit about the trip to Tampa? Well my wife just informed me that we can't pay the mortgage this month. Yup. We can afford trips to Tampa for Quixtar but we can't afford the mortgage. Now that's what I call setting priorities.