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March 31, 2003
One reason I don't care for Amway/Quixtar
By QBlog in
In 1996 I was engaged to be married. While living with my 4 (gasp) roommates I got a call from an old friend who had been sort of a mentor-type friend of the family. He was my dad's friend but was like an uncle to me and my sister. We spent a lot of time together growing up and I respected him and more importantly, I considered him my friend.
In 1996, during a stressful time of making wedding preparations and getting back into school, I got a phone call from my friend. He said he was coming into town for the weekend and would love to get together with me. Of course I was extremely busy but I shifted schedules to make a few hours available to meet with my friend and catch up on old times. I'll also note, that this was to be our first "adult" meeting, where I was an adult on my own and we could talk on relatively equal terms instead of the child/mentor relationship we'd had while growing up.
Well, we arranged to have coffee at my favorite coffee shop and I was extremely excited. We exchanged greetings and hugs and began catching up on old times. However, after about 15 minutes into our conversation he began pulling out some brochures and talking about Amway.
Amway! I'd heard of Amway (my high school buddy's parents were in it) but I didn't know much about it and certainly had never had anyone pitch the business to me before. He continued to explain all the benefits of Amway and how it would help my new future and all that but I was really too stunned to comprehend what he was saying to me.
I felt betrayed, used and shafted (are those emotions?) all at the same time and was getting very irritated (that is an emotion). He never once mentioned that he was going to "show me the plan" or even hinted that he had any other motive in meeting me besides talking to an old friend. He ended by giving me some tapes to listen to (which I never did) and he told me he'd call me to see how I liked it.
In my mind, I'd been lied to by a man that I deeply respected and loved. He'd "tricked" me into meeting him so he could show me some business that would make him (and me) money. The funny thing is, if he'd even hinted that he might want to talk about Amway or something I'd still have met with him and been much more receptive to anything he said.
I know people will say, "That's one guy, not everyone does that" or "that method isn't encouraged" but I've heard too many tapes and talked to too many people to believe that's the exception rather than the rule.
And this, folks, is partly why I'm so adamant about being candid and open from day one. If you're in a business where you have to "hide" the truth or at least confuse people so that the truth is hard to find then frankly, you can just kiss my ass.
PS: I haven't talked to my "friend" since that incident.
March 30, 2003
Notice to Quixtar IBOs
By QBlog in
Hey Quixtar IBO, I got a tip for ya. When your new prospects (those you show the plan to) research the business on the Web (and they will) and start asking questions DO NOT SAY THE FOLLOWING:
"Well, you can't believe that nonsense you read on the Web. Who knows where that information came from or what hidden agenda such and such site might have. Who you going to believe, successful millionaires or some crank with too much free time?"
Why should you avoid saying that or something similar? Well, might I remind you that you are in a WEB-BASED BUSINESS yourself. Essentially you're telling them that the Web is full of lies and is not to be trusted. Then saying that you are in a Web-based business that is factual and trustworthy. That's like a lawyer saying, "You can't trust lawyers, they're all scum... except me of course. I'm the good lawyer."
Uh, yeah. So the point of this helpful notice is to advise you to be careful what you start slamming. You just might be shooting yourself in the foot.
Check this out
By QBlog in
I was sent a link to a pdf (portable document format - need a pdf reader to access it) the other day. There are a couple of spots where some opinion is evident but overall it's a pretty fair assessment of Quixtar and Amway. Download it, browse through it and see what you think.
http://www.well.com/~cchoffme/quixtar.pdf
March 29, 2003
I really don't know the truth, but I'm trying to figure it out
By QBlog in
WARNING: The following post will probably bore most people to tears. Additionally people will mutter, "So, what? Big deal. Get a life" and things like that. Well, for you folks I'll prevent you the frustration and warn about the following post. If you're interested in learning what I know (or don't know) about Amway and Quixtar then read on. Otherwise wait till next post.
--------------------
I love the truth. I'm always searching for the truth. One thing I learned early on about Amway and Quixtar is that finding the truth is really hard work. Recently I posted A Brief History Lesson which contained information from the Amway and Alticor Web sites to try and end any confusion about the origins of the company and who owns what and when.
My good Canadian friend Tim, never shy about speaking his mind, said:
When Rich and Jay handed their original operations to the next generation they wanted a new direction. Quixtar was set up as a separate company with private funds. Family funds of the second generation. Well yes it was from profits of the Amway company. Not all family members are investors in Quixtar. Not all partake in Quixtar. So Amway did not own Quixtar.
Well this inspired me (a natural truth-seeker) to do some further investigating and find out once and for all if Quixtar was ever a subsidiary or Amway. After much searching I've learned one thing:
There does not seem to be a definitive answer.
I found only one source that mentioned that Quixtar was NOT a subsidiary of Amway. I found many sources that either say Quixtar was developed and owned by Amway or strongly imply that as fact. Below I've posted links to the sources and quotes from the pages. If anyone knows the truth about this please send me links to documents that support your claim. Don't say, "Quixtar is NOT Amway" or "Quixtar IS Amway" without providing a link. You can't use links I already used, that would be cheating. Here are the sources, enjoy.
Amway site remains under fire - from CNET.com
Upon launch of the Amway's direct-sales Web site, yesterday, users immediately reported problems in reaching interior pages or even the site at all. CNET News.com was unable to access the direct-sales shopping site until late today.
Jobsahead.com - Company Research
Amway is the world's largest direct-sales company. The firm and its 50 affiliates sell over 450 personal care, nutrition, home, and commercial products -- plus products of other companies, like long-distance provider MCI WorldCom -- in more than 80 countries. Amway employs revival-like techniques to motivate its over three million distributors (mostly part-timers) to sell products and find new recruits. Amway has ventured into new territory by creating Quixtar, an Internet consumer products subsidiary, which operates like Amway but does not use the Amway name. The DeVos and Van Andel families own Amway.
Better Business Bureau of Western Michigan (The state where Amway started).
... Randy Bancino, VP & CIO of Quixtar, Inc. an E-commerce marketing subsidiary of Amway.
Oklahoma Electronic Commerce Connection
Amway is taking this model online (Quixtar). Already the Countdown 9199 site reports more than 100,000 subscribers and it doesn't offer a single product until September 1. Of course, it tapped right into Amway's extensive network of sales people, but the Internet is a perfect medium for this kind of exponential marketing (what some have called viral marketing).
MacCentral Breaking News: Monday, August 16, 1999
Although Quixtar has been started by the founders of Amway, it's a separate entity; not a "subsidiary" of the latter. The only reason Quixtar's operations are currently associated with Amway is because Quixtar will not be online for business until Sept 1, we're told. Apparently Apple has decided to become involved in Quixtar's e-commerce operations, but calling Quixtar a reseller is like calling your local shopping center a reseller if it has a CompUSA in it, according to our source.
Amway , the infamous multilevel marketer, has launched an e-commerce sister company, Quixtar . For $99.95, you, too, can have your own e-commerce business!
Amway launches web commerce site
This after a relentless, months-long drumroll by Amway that included a Web cast last week viewed by more than 500,000 Amway reps and friends.
Finally, I'll simply add that I'm just a guy and don't claim to be an authority on Quixtar or Amway or Alticor or anything. I may be wrong, I may be right, my main point is that it should not be THIS hard to find out the truth on something so trivial as to who once owned Quixtar. The confusion and bewilderment surrounding this corporation is frustrating to say the least.
March 28, 2003
Brief History Lesson
By QBlog in
Just to clear things up for anyone who is confused I'll detail the history of Amway and Alticor.
1959 - Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel started Amway. Over the years Amway began expanding and producing a variety of products.
1980 - First billion dollar year for Amway. Expansion rapid. Amway is a global corporation.
1990s - Amway passes from Rich and Jay to sons Steve Van Andel and Dick DeVos. Amway begins to position itself for the next phase of growth.
1999 - Quixtar launches. Quixtar is a subsidiary of Amway. That means that Amway owns Quixtar. Yet Quixtar replaces the Amway name in North America. Think of it as a baby Amway with a different name and a slightly different way of doing business (online instead of in your garage). The parent company is Amway at this point. There is no company called Alticor in 1999.
2000 - Alticor is formed (there is no "e" at the end of Alticor). Alticor becomes the parent company of Amway, Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Access Business Group and Quixtar.
The confusion develops because essentially, the company that was once simply Amway is now Alticor. Yet, a company named Amway still exists as a "child" of Alticor. This is similar to Philip Morris changing its name to Altria. There is still Philip Morris, the tobacco company, but the parent company is now Altria. Altria owns Kraft Foods, Miller Brewing and Philip Morris among other holdings.
Hope this ends any confusion. I doubt it will but let's hope so. All my information came from Amway and Alticor as well as newspapers.
March 26, 2003
Lies, damn lies and statistics
By QBlog in
According to Mark Twain, Benjamin Disraeli was commenting on statistical analysis and said, "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics." Brilliant. True. Brilliantly true. This is one reason I have avoided posting statistics on this site. It's one reason that I have rarely been impressed when hearing "impressive" statistics rattled off about "the business."
However, what I really want to talk about is lies in general. I can honestly say that I don't believe anyone in this business (Quixtar) ever lied to me directly. I believe that some facts were conveniently omitted and some questions were purposely unanswered but I can't say that anyone lied to me.
Yet, I was misled. Just like a newlywed who gets excited about the "invitation" in the mail for "special prizes," only to discover it's a 3 hour sales pitch for kitchenware with some "valuable" coupons as compensation, I feel misled.
I know, this is a business. A serious business that takes a lot of time, energy and money. But if someone had told me on the front end that to be successful I'd need to spend roughly 10-15% of my combined (married) gross income on this business with no guarantee of any return this year I'd have walked away and STRONGLY encouraged my wife to do the same. We don't have that kind of money. We are making monthly credit card payments on tools, trips and tickets. I know that wasn't smart but it's reality.
Nobody forced us to spend that money and I know this business does work. Yet, when framed in the context of annual expenses it's hard to get really excited about something that has very little guarantees. Business is a risk. Most businesses fail. Yet my main complaint is that Quixtar is sold on the premise that it's built with spare money, during spare time and with spare energy. This, I'm convinced, is just not true.
My point is that I wish people had been more candid on the front end. I wish they'd said that this business was costly, that we may be deeply in the hole the first couple of years and that it would require a lot of time. I think that if my wife had decided to stick it out she may have begun to turn things around in a couple of years but she decided this was not worth the risk for her own reasons. This is one of the reasons I've been so adamant about knowing the negative statistics regarding success in this business. If I was going to participate I'd want people to understand that not everyone is going to make it and to exercise caution and thrift when spending money on tools, tapes, seminars and trips.
March 25, 2003
The Jig is Up
By QBlog in
Well, we haven't received the letter telling us to shut down the site and now I don't think we ever will. My wife has decided to "quit" the business. For reasons of her own she's letting her IBO number go inactive and won't renew it. She's still technically in Quixtar but isn't participating, much like myself. Therefore, it won't really matter to the uplines whether this site stays up or down.
I feel sad to be honest. We've done our taxes and it turns out we spent about 1,000% more than we made from Quixtar. Almost all of that money was spent on tools, trips, hotel rooms, tickets, etc. and is a business expense so some amount of it is tax deductible. This doesn't make it any more pleasant knowing that we suffered this great monetary loss and now will have no way of recouping the loss because our family's only active member (my wife) is no longer active.
I also feel sad because everything seemed to end on such a bitter note. Mainly the controversy surrounding this Web site by uplines has contributed to the sourness of it all.
The ironic thing (to me anyway) about this is that this site was up since November of last year and nobody knew about it and so it made no impact. This site's existence had zero effect on uplines, Quixtar, the business, individual successes and my wife. It was only after learning about this site that anyone started to get upset. Why? That is still a mystery to me. Why get upset? It wasn't affecting your business before, why is it affecting it now. I've never made my skepticism of the business a secret but it seems that once they realized that I'm telling others and publishing it for the world to read they get upset. Weird. Similar thing is happening to the music industry but I'll save that rant for another site.
Anyway, this does not mean the end of this Blog. It is really the beginning. Some changes may be coming soon and I think they will be quite welcome. At least to me they will be. Thanks for visiting and don't forget to tip your waiter.
March 22, 2003
Why I never "joined" Quixtar
By QBlog in
Sometimes I sit and wonder why I never "joined" Quixtar. I ask myself what defect in my personality prevented me from ever getting excited and enthusiastic about the potential success this business has to offer.
I'll be honest, I've tried to get excited about this business. Every time I saw someone show the plan I would think about how I could do it better. How my gift for understanding people's needs and emotions would propel me to unimagined success.
Yet, I kept coming back to a few issues that just nagged at my integrity and would not let go. I'll try to list some of them here. Maybe getting them out will be somehow cathartic and work to change my feelings of being some sort of social misfit.
1. Saturation. Other sites do a fine job of addressing the saturation issue so I won't go into details here. My main hang up was how my questions about saturation were answered. They weren't. The answer given was "don't worry about it, it's never going to happen." My favorite non-answer was "someone turns 18 every minute." That answer smacked of the old huckster line, "there's a sucker born every minute."
The thing with saturation is that most businesses have competitors to take business from if the market becomes saturated. Or, like Microsoft, they have services to offer as well as products. In Quixtar, as far as I know, there is no plan to implement if a market becomes saturated. There is also no mechanism to detect saturation. As you can tell, saturation still is a concern.
2. Conflict of Interest. If a doctor is earning $10 each time he sells Pill A and he prescribes Pill A for my condition then I'm going to wonder why he prescribed Pill A. Even if Pill A is the best medicine for me, I'm still going to question his motives. You'd be naive not to question.
Similarly, when an upline says "buy this tape, you need it" I question if I really need it or if they are just wanting my money. I may really need it but the question remains. To compound my conflict of interest concern I learned that discussing things with people other than my specific line of sponsorship (where the conflict of interest is less) is frowned upon.
3. Deification of Uplines. Ok, this is my term but it seems that diamonds have almost celebrity status. Why? What did they do? All they did was work a system by following the plan laid out for them. I'm not knocking their success at all, getting to diamond isn't easy, but they didn't really do something so spectacular to deserve the type of adoration that I've witnessed. I mean few people do. Off the top of my head I would say Lawrence Lessig, Steve Wozniak and Tim Berners Lee deserve some amount of adoration. But some 5 year diamond? Give me a break.
4. Quixtar Web site. I was underwhelmed. This site was far short of what it could or should be in my estimation. Especially given the excitement and hype surrounding it. If I did get "active" in the business I'd have to apologize for the site to everyone I meet. Oh, and I heard it was designed by Fry Multimedia. If so it's the worst work they've ever done. Not sure why but Quixtar is not listed in their display portfolio.
5. Information Suppression. I'm not saying anyone tried to suppress information but it sure seemed that way to me. My wife says that I may have given up on getting a straight answer from the uplines too quickly and she may be right. I asked quite a few questions that were never answered to my satisfaction and I finally felt that I was wasting their time because I wasn't really "active" in the business. I can see their point if that was the case. Why spend hours each week answering questions from some guy who wasn't going to be making me money?
Anyway, that's some of the issues. Don't know if that makes me feel any better but now they are on the Web. Somehow I can't help but think that's a good thing.
March 20, 2003
Quixtar and Cults... again
By QBlog in
I got an extremely encouraging email the other day from someone who can relate to a lot of what I'm going through. One thing that was mentioned is that this person felt that Quixtar was/is a cult.
While Quixtar does some things that may seem cult-like to a few people I feel pretty comfortable in saying that it's definitely not a cult. I told this person pretty much the same thing.
However, over the past few months I've begun to realize that the way people perceive Quixtar is through their upline and more importantly, through their BSM (Business Support Materials) organization. A BSM organization is the non-Quixtar company that facilitates the purchasing of tools, organizes functions and networks people together to optimize productivity.
The problem, I think, is that some of these organizations employ tactics that may actually be considered cultish. We are not associated with an organization like that but I am afraid that some do exist and the sad part is people learn about Quixtar through that organization. So, they think that Quixtar is a cult when in reality it's the organization that is more like a cult and not Quixtar.
Anyway, that's how I see it. I think that some bad apples end up giving Quixtar a really bad name and that is one of my complaints. There seems to be very little brand management with Quixtar. Maybe it's logistically impossible to do this consistently but it seems that it would be prudent for Quixtar to be more active in ensuring that it's brand was being properly represented within these organizations and individual downlines.
Especially since Quixtar doesn't spend major bucks on advertising or brand awareness in the traditional media outlets. Just some thoughts.
March 19, 2003
Site Update
By QBlog in
FYI: My wife still has not received any documents from her upline regarding this site. I expect them any day but part of me is wondering if we are really getting any documents. Surely they can't revoke an IBO number without some sort of paper trail and written notice? Maybe they can. If so then I'd have to say this is one weird company. But, we'll probably get the notice tomorrow. Also, I wonder if the 30 days starts from the day we get the written notice or if it started when we got the phone call about taking this site down (see earlier posts)?
March 18, 2003
It's all about Compliance
By QBlog in
Ok, as you may know my wife's upline has told her that she has 30 days (minus time passed) to take this site down, bring it into compliance or resign her IBO number. If she does not then they will take away her IBO number for her. I'm not debating whether they have the authority to do that right now, I'm simply examining the official Quixtar compliance document sent to me by Quixtar. This document is what determines if a site, such as this one is in violation of rules or codes of conduct for IBOs. Get the entire pdf here. Below I've noted my comments in BOLD.
---------------------------------
Requirements Specific to Personal Home Page (PHP)
1) Passcode Protection is NOT required for PHPs. I'm ok here for sure
2) Appropriate Content Includes:
a) Independent Business Owner‚s name and state. Ok with this one
b) IBO Achievement level. Fine here too
c) Personal statements regarding the business that comply with the General Requirements stated above and the Rules of Conduct. This is not listed on this page but it seems like I'm ok there too. They just want to be sure I'm not saying you can get rich quick or buy stuff if you live in China. Don't believe me, read it yourself.
d) A photograph of the IBO featured on the Personal Home Page. Kosher
e) Artistic elements in good taste which will reflect positively on the IBO and the Business Opportunity. Extremely subjective but I think I have enough emails from actual IBOs (don't worry, I won't use names) who feel this is in compliance to set up a defense should this be questioned.
f) An audio greeting. Does anyone do audio greetings?
g) The Business Opportunity must be identified as applicable in North America only.Right-O
Please be aware this information can be viewed by anyone on the Internet so you may not wish to publish information considered private or personal.
3) Prohibited Content (in addition to that listed in General Requirements above):
a) Product or service information. No prob b) Content which could be interpreted as an advertisement or prospecting information. Ditto
---------------------------------
As you can see, I don't quite understand how this site is violating any rules. If you are a lawyer (or just smart) and see where this site is not following these rules then please point this out to me. From my perspective, it seems like Quixtar is mainly concerned with people violating Federal Trade laws and not so much opinions. Could be wrong but that's just my perspective.
So tell me. According to this document, is this site in violation? Don't hold back now. I can take the truth.
I did not know that
By QBlog in
According to Alticor's own report for 2002 over two-thirds of the company's revenue comes from Asia. That's right. Asia. Who knew? I had no idea. Amazing.
That means that of the $4.5 billion Alticor generated in sales, around 70% of that money came from Asia. And in Asia the countries with the most significant growth and sales were Korea, China, India and Thailand. Amazing. I had absolutely no idea.
Additionally, sales in Japan, Europe and North America were not quite so spectacular due to "difficult economies."
I have no idea what the economic state of any Asian country is but I do know that with the possible exception of Korea, all the countries with the most reported growth are the least developed and modernized while the countries with the sluggish sales have the most modern and developed societies.
Am I insinuating anything? No, not really. Just stating a couple of thoughts that came into mind. I could also say that the high sales areas watch less television than the other countries and it would probably be true and yet not prove much of anything.
I just heard something the other day and I'm trying to see if it's true or not. Someone told me that Alticor (which was formerly Amway) has seen declining sales since 1997. Just trying to verify that and it's not easy. For some reason Alticor isn't even listed in the Fortune 500.
Finding info on Alticor, Amway, Quixtar and Access Business Group is not easy.
March 17, 2003
War and Quixtar
By QBlog in
Quixtar has nothing to do with war but I just saw the Bush speech tonight where he basically said we are going to war very soon. I just pray for all our troops during the next few weeks or months.
God bless America.
March 15, 2003
Let the people speak
By QBlog in
I recently was shown an email from one of our uplines. It was about a lot of things but one of the comments mentioned me and this Web site. After reading the comment I wonder if the person making the statement had even visited this site at all. In addition to the comment regarding this site, the individual said some things about me that were plain lies, bordering on libel. I am still mulling over how to handle that but for now I want to address the perceptions of this site.
Upline comments: (edited for this blog)
"Here is QBlog's wife trying to build a business, and sleeping next to her is the very man who is trying to tear her group apart with his website, I mean not only does he not support her he is working against her..."
Ok, I get stuff like this all the time. I even post some of it here for all to see. Now I want to post some more comments, from people who only know me through this site. People who actually read this site and therefore, have a bit of credibility when commenting about this site.
Wayne
Thank you for writing this blog. An old friend called me recently and started talking aobut "going into business together." He sent me some CDs to listen to, and eventually I figured out it was Quixtar, a company I had never heard of. Naturally, the first thing I did was search Google, and I have found a number of useful sites. Yours has been quite enlightening. Thanks again for dong it, and I hope you get to keep it up. Quixtar should not fear an honest opinion.
Brian
I think the stories and comments about the business are interesting. The one thing that I do not hear about is why would some one bulid the business. It's obvious that people who participated in the program had something they wanted out of it that JOBS cannot provide. Thats's why the business works no matter product or service...It's important to understand that you're not going to agree with what everyone says about everything, but if you stick to the basics of what makes the business work, later, most of the changes you want to make can be incorporated without affecting your business in a negative way.
Luke
You are so right about your postings and ideas. One of the main problems out there with IBO's is they dont seem to understand that they tie into the Quixtar website. When you have 1000s of people on your team you cant help them all. Thats why you have to have a business system. Something to distribute that everyone gets the same info. Otherwise its like passing a secret down the church pew and finding it changes a lot when the last person hears it. I happen to be fortunate enough to be on a team that uses that type of system and is having rapid growth. But just wanted to say i can totally understand your opinions on such things.
Those are just a few examples of the emails I get from this site. The tone is greatly contrasted to that of my upline. If others, people in the business, people I've never met, read this site and come away feeling that the content here is open, honest and candid and mainly unbiased then why do I feel like I'm being attacked by my upline?
This mess with Quixtar and uplines has taken its toll on my family. We honestly want to stay in the business but I also feel compelled to express myself in this space. What will the outcome be? I don't know. But I hope Quixtar doesn't kick us out. I really think it would be a mistake.
March 12, 2003
The call of doom
By QBlog in
My wife got a call tonight from her upline. It was the call I'd feared since mid-February when she told her upline about this site. Basically she was told that this site must come down in 30 days or her IBO number and status would be revoked. They did agree that if this site was approved by Quixtar then she could remain an IBO and didn't need to worry about anything. We sent in the review submission this evening. Awaiting the reply.
Even though I'm not "in the business" I'm technically an IBO so this is the leverage they are using, I think. I never signed anything but she put me on the IBO thing and so I'm an IBO I guess. I would like to remove my IBO status while keeping hers but apparently this is impossible. I don't know why I can't simply resign. Makes no sense.
Anyway, things have been rather gloomy around here this evening. I'm becoming more and more discouraged in general. This site has ended up impacting my life in ways I never anticipated (some good, some bad). I don't want to get into the gory details but let's just say it's been hard lately.
So, I'm waiting for the letter demanding that this site come down and in the meantime wondering what the future holds for quixtarBLOG. I've really enjoyed posting this blog and have met some truly wonderful people as a result. My opinions of Quixtar have changed dramatically in the last couple of months and I appreciate all of you who have been open and candid with answering my questions.
All I really wanted to do was have a forum to express my feelings and opinions. I thought it would be nice for people searching about Quixtar to find my site and simply read some honest perspectives without all the hyperbole and charged rhetoric. I've gotten many emails and comments congratulating me on the objective and unbiased views expressed on this site. I hope that's what is conveyed here.
quixtarBLOG goes Global
By QBlog in Blog News
Welcome France. We received our first "verified" visitor from overseas today. Many visitors to this site are shown as "unknown," "network" or "military" so those could be anywhere but today France was the first overseas visitor that I know of. So welcome France.
We also have visitors from Canada, Dominican Republic and of course good ole USA.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Ya'll come back now ya hear?
Interesting information
By QBlog in
March 11, 2003
Learn from the Indians
By QBlog in
Lately I've come into contact with a few individuals who run sites about Quixtar. Most of these sites have MUCH more information than this one and I appreciate the service they provide and have learned much from their sites. I purposely don't post much definitive information here for a variety of reasons but mainly because the truth is so incredibly hard to determine when it comes to Quixtar and all the affiliated businesses. Since the truth is so hard to find I mainly post my opinions, emotions and random thoughts which are exclusively mine.
However, it has come to my attention that this site attracts many individuals seeking information about Quixtar. I know that feeling:
- You hear about Quixtar from someone or you "saw the plan"
- You want to find out what this is really all about and what others say about it
- You want to be educated
- Yet it becomes EXTREMELY hard to wade through all the junk about Quixtar on the Web
- Trying to navigate and track down information on some of these sites gets extremely frustrating
- You realize that MOST of the information about Quixtar is several years (if not decades) old and most of that mentions Amway, not Quixtar (I know Quixtar is only about 3 years old)
- You just want straight answers, a site that is easy to get around and figure out what this Quixtar is really all about... you just want the TRUTH
I know this because I'm one of those people. Those feelings are partly the motivation for me to create this site. Now I have bigger dreams. I take my inspiration from the American Indians (Native Americans).
Proposal
My idea is to try to unify some of these sites about Quixtar. Right now I think of them as tribes spread across the Web. Each tribe duplicating information, some doing better than others but none overwhelming successful at presenting and providing that information. Many of the sites are just a visual and navigational mess (I don't fault them, most aren't professional Web designers). The end result is that there is no authoritative, professional and relatively unbiased site providing information about Quixtar. This equals confusion.
The Indians ended up losing all their land partly because they did not unify. Other nations like Scotland succeeded in protecting their land by unifying their clans. Businesses do this too. Why not the Quixtar info sites?
What I want to begin working on is some basic guidelines for content presentation, a code of ethics, a linking protocol, some rudimentary visual standards, a common discussion forum and a system for distributing information to avoid duplication and repetitiveness.
So what do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? You willing to help? I don't think I can do this alone. Leave a comment or send me an email. I'm all ears.
March 10, 2003
We get letters
By QBlog in Reader Mail
Got this e-mail from "fred smith" the other day:
i have been involved with quixtar since launch and am making money. the people that dont make money are the ones who dont educate themselves or quit before anything developes. its sad that people have to sue wealthy people because they dont have the guts to succeed on their own. if you are dumb enough to think you can make money without having to invest some time and money you deserve to be broke. (my opinion) i'm curious to see if this gets posted and not just the negative stuff. have a great day
My comment is: "say What?"
Something in the back of my mind tells me this is just a prank e-mail. Some kid in Vermont who stumbled across my site and was just a bit bored. Yet another part of me knows that this guy is real. He really thinks this way and talks this way.
I'm glad he's a wealthy IBO. I was reading some Quixtar literature the other day and was amazed at how many people had made Q12 recently. This business works. It makes people a lot of money. Yet it obviously does not require people to make a lot of sense, which is fine, because I guess you don't need to make sense if you're rich. Just look at Michael Jackson.
Anyway, daring me to post an e-mail is a good way to get something posted. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff, like McFly in BTTF.
March 9, 2003
Just a quick thought about...
By QBlog in
One of my pet peeves about "the business" is AmVox or VoiceComm or QuickSpeak or MessageStar or whatever you call it. Why is this one of my pet peeves? Well the main reason is that I spend a large part of my life on the Net and understand how Web technologies vastly improve communication and allow the fluid distribution of information at an almost insignificant cost.
What is VoiceCommAmVox?
Well, it's a messaging service that allows people to...uh...leave voice messages for a large group to listen to at their leisure. It's not a bad service to be honest. It has some great advantages:
1.) You can access it anywhere that a cell phone works (car, work, etc.)
2.) You get to hear actual voices of the people in your "business"
3.) You can leave messages that everyone in your "business" will be able to hear.
My only real "problem" with it is the cost of close to $25 per month. But my wife likes it and if it's a valuable tool for her then I understand, even if essentially the same type of communication can be done much cheaper on the Web.
And this has been my take on the whole phone message tool for a while, that it was just people who were used to a particular way of communicating and they hadn't yet embraced newer and possibly better (and cheaper too) communication tools. Then today I had an epiphany of sorts:
There is no easily accessible documentation of voice messages.
E-mail leaves a documented trail. Memos do the same. Message boards too. And while voice messages are also documents they aren't nearly as easy to reference and archive. I'm just stating some facts.
March 4, 2003
Responsibility
By QBlog in
This site (as of right now) is a first page search result in Google for the following search strings:
quixtar reputation
quixtar comments
anti quixtar
opinion on quixtar
quixtar problems 2003
- (and there are others) -
This means that this site is very visible when people are searching for current information about Quixtar. To be sure, I take this site seriously and I view it as my responsibility to provide honest and candid information about my experiences.
However, lately I've received a lot of information from other people about the business and I ask that you continue to contribute whatever content you deem relevant and I will pass it along as long as it's honest and true.
March 2, 2003
Forget the traffic
By QBlog in
Stats. Stats. Stats.
I recently read a blog comment questioning the validity of Quixtar's apprarent boasts of extremely high site traffic. Well, this is something that I know a little bit about and now seems like a good time to share what interests me about Quixtar's site traffic.
Newspapers and magazines track readership and circulation to set advertising rates. Excluding demographics, the higher the number of readers the better rate the publication can charge advertisers. This is true of television too. And radio. And Web sites. Actually, it's only true of SOME Web sites.
See, not every Web site sells ads. A site that does sell ads is extremely interested in traffic but a site that depends upon product sales or services (such as Amazon.com or PressPlay) is not as interested in those numbers. Yes, they are interested but for different reasons and the traffic numbers are less important than the product sales or subscription numbers.
And this is what has always perplexed me about Quixtar. When we first got in I heard almost daily about the HUGE number of visitors that Quixtar got and how it was such and such rated site on the Net. Since I'm in the industry these numbers never impressed me. I didn't doubt whether they were real or not but they never impressed me because I knew (as does anyone who has ever taken a stats course) that using numbers is the BEST way to "distort" the truth without actually lying.
The Point: I have no way of knowing exactly what Quixtar's site stats are so let's assume that every number they quote is real. My question is this: So what? Who cares if 50 billion people visit your site every day, if they don't buy anything that traffic is meaningless. And, if they DO buy something, that's what you want to talk about...not the traffic they generated before the purchase.
However, that's not the only thing that perplexes me about the Quixtar traffic. Quixtar.com, as you know, greets all visitors with a log-in page. What this means, practically speaking, is that every visitor to the site is a member or IBO. This also means that as a business there are virtually no casual browsers poking around the site. Where Amazon.com might get many people casually browsing the items, Quixtar.com, by its very design, discourages this practice.
Argument: But the stats MUST prove something you say. Well, no they don't. Example - The U. S. Government has an intranet page that is the required default home page of every government employee. Each time any government worker, from the President to the postman, logs onto a computer at work this government Web site is displayed. The stats for this site are HUGE. Traffic is outrageous. Records are broken. But does it mean anything? No. It means nothing. And Quiixtar is essentially the default home page (figuratively speaking) for every IBO and loyal customer.
Thanks for reading this. Yawn.