Don Lapre Don't forget To Take Your Vitamins I think I've been ripped off Internet

WHO'S FAULT IS IT?!

I've been in marketing most all of my life.

I've seen many a marketing plan... plans before they were plans too. Ideas on napkins,
and scribbled across newspapers in restaurants, you name it.

What many people on here fail to realize is that it is hard to be ripped off if you
know what you're doing. Also, it seems to me that many people on here are actually
complaining about the "number of sales" that they were able to make.

Excuse me... I'm not a part of the LaPre camp or an attorney, but professional
marketing and public relations executive in the media as well for 30+ years...
and Don LaPre is not wrong or a ripoff because you can't sell.

Now I don't know if he is a rip or not. I've not investigated the program to the
point that I could say that. But I do know that a lot of people feel that if they
advertise in the papers and don't get rich, it's the paper's fault, or the TV station,
or radio station's fault. Regardless of the numbers in Arbitron, or ratings of
any medium, you do not necessarily have to make money.

You 'can' deduct much of this "advertising, loss, etc." as a business expense
and carry it over for several years; but it's not a rip-off if you can't sell and
many MLM people can't sell; especially the ones who sign up at those little
meetings being told they will get rich. Personally I've never seen many people
rich from selling MLM. Most just end up with a garage full of stuff.

What I "do" know is that regardless of what you get into, if you can sell,
you WILL make money if you focus on the principles of marketing correctly.
And if you cannot sell, you will not make money even though you were trying
to give away gold bullion. Many people just can't sell. They generally blame
the company when they buy the product and are stuck with it, not having
sold much at all. It's not the company's fault.

Now as far as "claims" go about products: The FTC, FDA and Chambers of
Commerce as well as other organizations get involved when there are
unscrupulous trade practices. But just because someone is investigated,
doesn't mean that he or she is guilty of deception. They may have their
marketing plans that just over-emphasize the ability to make money which
all people like to hear... think about it.. would you join if you heard that
you would work 60 days and make two (2) sales, and invest $1,500 dollars?
Of course not. But the company is not at fault because you can't sell, or
can't find a sucker like you!

The company is not wrong for having a product priced in MLM to create
wealth through a downline basis that works for that company. You cannot
have it both ways... You cannot introduce a product with a street sales
price of .49 and expect to make a fortune on downlines 4 levels deep
and sell ten or twenty units a week!

So the prices are inflated, with the understanding that you are not only
'buying' a product with an inflated price; but 'selling' the product with
the same inflated pricing. That's where the huge profits come from.

The moment that you have a problem with the price of the product that
you buy, but you have NO problem with the commissions that you make,
then you have become unreasonable. Instead of trying to develop the
marketing plan of "someone else's" company, you need to start your own.

I don't know the price to profit ratio of the World's Greatest Vitamins, but
I would suspect that the price is high, as are the prices of many other
MLM products, including the Girl Scout Cookies, and the College Kids
Sales, and the Amazing Window Cleaner sold to help college students
to win scholarships! $35 bucks for a can of window cleaner??? Come on!

But every day, I see men and women approached at convenience stations
to buy this product. And one woman wrote a check for TWO cans of it,
with smile on face... another satisfied customer. $70 dollars for TWO
cans of window cleaner?! Hey, this is America!

Now all things being equal.... I cannot recall going to ANY MLM meeting
in the past where the 'barker' stands and says, "Well folks.... we have a
product that will never make you rich... it is very cheaply priced, and
you will have to sell 10,000 of them to make $100 dollars!!! But sign up
anyway... as it is a nice thing to do." Would you go to a meeting like
that one? Exactly!! All work, no pay... forget it!

But if you go to a meeting that your own daughter invited you to, and
the fella stands and says, "I have been in this company for 3 days and
already, I have made over $4,500 dollars!!! I paid $300 to sign up,
I make $150 average an order and my website does the work! Yes!!!"
... people would be tripping over each other to get to the sign up desk!

Problem: Where do you think those huge profits stem from??? Right, the
inflated pricing. Why is that? Well... the government cannot regulate the
prices that we put on most things like vitamins that have no HEALTH
claims that can be attacked by the FDA, or practices that offend the FTC.
The companies that operate as MLM businesses check all of their bases
generally over and over before going to the public. They are generally
legit... some a tad unscrupulous, some a little sketchy, some seedy,
some filthy, some pricey and many just lie, lie, lie... but they're legal
according to the laws of the States where they operate. And there are
some that are of course illegal for one reason or another, and have to
do some revamping of their policies, etc... or go out of business.

But if you look at the majority of the complaints, you'll find that most
of the people are disgruntled because they have put money in, and
don't know how to extract it out.

If you check with others in the same MLM situations, you'll find that
they have made a bundle of money because they know what they're
doing, know how to recruit, know how to sell, know how to promote,
and have been doing it a long time. Just like in the sport of fishing,
it is more an art to do it well, but a pastime to do it by most who are
not doing it for a living. So blaming the lure company, the live bait
company, the rod and reel manufacturer for their inability to catch
any fish is going to be the norm. Winners seldom complain.

Losers complain all the time. Unfair. Not nice.

So before you give your money to someone on a deal, MLM or not,
find out how well you think you will fare in that business; and never
put in more than you can afford to lose. Good common sense is
probably more important than listening to all of the hype about the
giant profits people are making.

The only certainty is that is no certainty.

Instead of trying to sue a lot of companies for what is clearly the
fault of the buyer (in many instances)... getting in over their heads
thinking that they will get rich quick... just make up some garage
sale signs... "VITAMINS CHEAP!!" Get what you can, cut your losses,
and stay out of businesses where you're unwilling to lose all or even
a part of your investment.

There is NO SUCH THING... as a sure thing!! Every marketing
plan has flaws, and iffy situations, possible losses, and lazy people
who won't work, or hard-working people who are already tired even
before they joined the network marketing businesses.

Think about why you're signing up... for more income to pay bills,
because you want to put kids through college, to retire early?

Well... join the crowd. You'll likely find a lot of company with others
who wanted to short-cut work to ching ching! Just keep in mind
that even a so-called ''sure thing'' will most likely be extremely
hard work... if it was so easy, everybody would be doing it.

Finally... if you want to make huge amounts of money, there are
only a couple of ways to do it. One is to sell a cheaply priced item
at a high volume, or an expensively priced item in smaller quantity
for higher profits. And if you can sell the latter at high volume
the more the better.

But don't cry foul because you don't know how to make money.
Big money tends to follow those who know how to get it; and
nothing ventured, nothing gained.

By the way, for those of you who are wondering... I stumbled
across this site after "signing up" in the company. I could not find
the page I'd saved in my favorites, and searched for it, finding
this Rip-off site. Also, I ''will'' be marketing the product to those
who want to buy it... but I will not put more into it than I am
comfortable with losing. Neither should you. I don't buy stock
orders, to get a price break, but rather drop-ship.

If the product is a good product, or at least is not a harmful
product, and it makes money, be satisfied with that. And remember,
the pet rock was a terrible rip-off too, making millions of dollars
for many... as well as the (ahem) pet rock CEMETERY!? LOL

So, for all of you folks suing the "Hula Hoop" people... remember that
whether you can keep it going 3 times, 10 times or a world record
of (guessing here... ummm) 7,581 times, without stopping... it's
still NOT A GOOD PRODUCT for some people.

Just have fun, be smart... and make yourself some money! ++

Good luck.

Lon Dorsey
Talk Show Host
ksevradio.com
Houston/Katy/Tomball
kvceradio.com
Dallas/Ft. Worth/Irving
Listen LIVE
Fridays 8-9 p.m.

here's your success story: for a mere pittance ( $300) you learned an invaluable lesson about staying up too late and falling for the ultimate scammer don lapre...
sounds like a success story to me.