AGLOCO for newbs

Patience, grasshopper

The corporate blog for AGLOCO has a new post out today, biding time, making a couple of tweaks here and there - and the natives are getting a little restless. Take a look at a couple of comments:

1. mark said,

   January 31, 2007 @ 6:35 am

   people we just wana know when we’re gona get paid. i’ve joined this network since november and i’ve been waiting ever since. i’ve put a stop on recruting until i see results.

   you said you will come up with the bar by like february. isn’t it february already?
   i remember reading clearly that you were making plans for february for the viewbar.

   if it was really coming out in february then im sure you’d be already talking about the launch. instead nothing is really happening other than promoting promoting promoting.

   you know what. i’m out until i see action. i’ll come back in a month or two.

   i’m sure at least 50% of people feel this way so don’t try to bash my comment i know i’m right.

   bye

Mark, I can understand your frustration in wanting the toolbar launched, but I am sure it is not ready yet, nor are they ready on negotiations with advertisers. Like I said, I am a newb, so take it with a grain of salt. This is a great time to build up a base of referrals while it is basically no competition. When they do launch the toolbar, us little guys with blogs will be blown out of the water, unless we outwork them now while the work can be done.

I would, but

One thing I would hope would not happen to Agloco - which can do so easily in a marketing plan like theirs - by depending on members recruiting members we may build a network, but wouldn't it require the cold hard facts?

Would you like to:

Earn income just by surfing the web?                                                                  

Earn 4 to 5 figures monthly by simply inviting your friends to do the same?

                              

Be part of possibly "the next big thing" in online advertising?                                  

Join a team where members help each other succeed?

                                 

 

For me, when I first read the ad on aglocovip.com I thought that it was a really cool way to market AGLOCO and to grow a membership base that would rival the top 1%. I'm pretty sold on the concept, but the money pitch in this ad is misleading - unless the stock was issued today.

Now, I am a noob, ovbiously. It may be the way to go to get that many members to put you into the top stratosphere - so be it. But I think that in the long run, those big numbers may just peter out after a short time. RZ McCall's approach of building a base is the better bet for the long term viability of AGLOCO.

I think I have about 15 referrals - and thank you for all who have done so here, I hope you kick some ass. I want AGLOCO to beat nay-sayers like this guy who said:

After all, logically some of these users are on the search engine just to make an easy buck and are not necessarily interested in serious searching. Lower quality viewers aside, there is bound to be a market here worth tagging but I expect advertising on any of these properties should be carefully thought through before proceeding.

Well, if AGLOCO goes the route of McCall, the base will grow exponentially and will become a powerful consumer market in and of itself, and threatened types like Ross Dunn may need to get a new job. Such a group would be so serious in their searching that the money spent from the community itself could make the above ad from aglocovip.com true. Hopefully it grows the right way.

McCall crosses 12,000

Just a point of order. When RZ McCall is lighting cigars with $100 bills, at least we will know how he got there:

12,000 AGLOCO Referrals - Sounds Good to Me
I was of course thrilled to hit 12,000 so early in the year. My stated goal of 20,000 by the end of 2007 seems closer every time I post an increase (seemed like a bit of a stretch back on December 13th when I made the prediction).
 
Many people have asked – How did you get so many total referrals when you only have 82 direct people you recruited? I have been giving advice in many of my previous posts (click here to get the referral advice posts )
 
Today, I want to show the math of the 12,000 referrals as I see them.
 
Line 1 – My Direct recruits = 82
 
Since I know most of them and talk frequently to some of the more active ones for AGLOCO, I know something about this group.
Two of them have more than 1,000 people in their networks. A couple of them have more than 50 Direct recruits. And a few of them “still haven’t started”.
 
Line 2 – My Direct recruits’ Direct recruits – I am guessing around a 7 to 8 recruit average for a total of about 600 members on that line.
 
The next three lines are even more guesswork, but it is fun to think about how the set up looks and how can I make adjustments accordingly.
 
Line 3 – If the 600 second line members average 3 to 4 recruits each then this line is about 2,000. They are newer to the system and have not had as much time to get motivated etc.
 
Line 4 - If the third line members average just 2 to 3 recruits each then this line is about 5,000. They are even newer to the system this group represents a huge potential to me. If I can get this group to average the 7 to 8 that Line 2 appears to be doing then this group can supply 25,000 to 30,000 more people in my network.
 
Line 5 - If the third line members average just 1 recruit each then this line is about 5,000.
 
Final look (remember – just a guess)
 
Line #1        82
Line #2      600
Line #3   2,000
Line #4   5,000
Line #5   5,000
 
How do I leverage all this to exceed my goals?
 
I think my advice to myself would be the same to someone with 10 directs and only 100 total in their network.
First, over the next 6 months I am going to try to double my Directs (to 160). If the quality of the new recruits is as good as the original 80 then that effort alone should double my results.
 
Second and maybe more importantly, I am going to work with my Directs to get them to double their Directs (or in some cases just start recruiting).  http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!427.entry
 
This effort includes giving them emails to send to people who have not yet signed up plus advice on how to get their Directs to recruit.  Here is a link to the sample email I use for second attempts. http://mccallsnotes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F2891B66EBAA762!427.entry
 
The real “trick” to getting a huge referral network is getting your Directs motivated and then getting their Directs to do the same thing. This chain reaction can result in amazing results.

The key indeed. Next post will be about alot of other 'things' that some feel is prohibitive to getting people motivated at this time. Fair & Balanced, haha!

Interview with Agloco Founders Ray Everett Church and Akshay Mavani

Doing some surfing around today and reading different AGLOCO blogs, here is one that has an interview with the founders of AGLOCO, and some other great info on his referral network of members.

One of the first live interviews with the Founders and Creative force behind Agloco. Robert Scoble does a good job interviewing these two and asking the right questions. Ray is the Chief Council and Chief Privacy Officer, while Akshay is the Chief Strategist; the Video is awesome motivation for those who are either skeptics, or just uninformed about the Agloco Economic Network concept. If you know who Scoble is, then you know how Big Time’ this interview was. I wish they had a sample ViewBar to get us all drooling, but maybe that’s next week - not holding my breath, but crossing fingers...

More analysis

From the 'how does this thing work' file, I came across a very informative analysis of AGLOCO. Read on, newbs:

Analysis:

This analysis is centered around the amount of personal value an AGLOCO user could get, with a special focus on a user who is actively referring new users to AGLOCO. Material used included the AGLOCO website (membership agreement, privacy policy, FAQs and general information pages). management interviews, critical blog postings concerning AGLOCO, internet advertising and commerce data, valuations of other Internet communities and the business model economics of Google, Yahoo, MySpace, You Tube, etc.

 

Conclusions:

The valuation conclusions are based on AGLOCO reaching two million users in a two year time span:

• A user who has no referrals should      receive ownership in AGLOCO worth on average      about $150. (plus monthly cash distributions)
• The average value of an AGLOCO      user’s referral network should be $30 each in ownership shares plus the      referrer’s share of monthly cash distribution.
• The average AGLOCO      direct referral should be worth in excess of $3,000 each (see example      below for details)
• The analysis also shows a range of monthly      cash distributions of between $5 and $15 a month per user.
• The AGLOCO      business model looks theoretically sound – (assuming they get      to a decent size quickly - at least 500,000 users within nine months to a      year.

Explaining AGLOCO to potential members

More from the AGLOCO company blog. A lot of people are asking how does this make me money. Read the bottom (or the whole post) :

Once you get someone’s attention, you might have about 2 more minutes to explain the details. There are a number of points you could hit, and it sometimes involves determining what the person would be most interested in hearing. Remember, you may not have time to explain EVERYTHING, but after referring them to www.agloco.com (perhaps using your referral link), the website can fill in the details. 

Below are some topics you might want to talk about (from the same graduate school friend who gave me the 30-second pitch):

Why does AGLOCO use a referral system?

“The most valuable part of AGLOCO is its Members. By referring others to AGLOCO, you provide them with value and for that, AGLOCO thinks you should get some of that value you provide.

It makes sense. Think about YouTube. The first, most active users were on the site when the software was buggy and there were few videos available, but their Membership (and referrals to others) is what made the site a success. When it was sold for $1.65 billion, how much of that did these first users see? Nothing. With the AGLOCO referral system, Members get more for building the network.”

Member Privacy

“AGLOCO takes privacy very seriously and keeps all of your personal information strictly confidential and secure. Some other popular Internet companies take your personal information, use it, profit off it, sell it to others, and then give you nothing. AGLOCO will not share ANY of your Membership information with any unauthorized third party, and YOU share in the profits made from more personalized advertisements.

AGLOCO’s privacy policy stipulates exactly what information might be collected. It is 100% transparent and spyware-free. Moreover, while you are paid for the time the Viewbar is up, you can turn it off at any time. To ensure that your privacy is kept paramount, AGLOCO has hired a Chief Privacy Officer, Ray Everett-Church. Ray was the Internet’s first Chief Privacy Officer, and co-author of ‘Internet Privacy for Dummies’. You can trust that our privacy is safe with AGLOCO.”

Where AGLOCO makes money

“There are a whole bunch of ways AGLOCO makes money on behalf of Members. Here are just a few quick examples. 

First of all, the Viewbar has a search function you can use to search yahoo, google, etc. Every time you use this search bar, the AGLOCO community makes money.

Second, the Viewbar has space for a text-only ad (no loud, flashing banners – just unobtrusive text). These ads make money for the AGLOCO community.

Third, AGLOCO has affiliate programs with a number of online retailers. Buy from one of these sites and AGLOCO makes money.”

Craigslist links

I see my first real connection to readers is coming through craigslist - this blog is not associated with anyone sending you e-mail or posting online - just want to get that disclaimer out now. I appreciate it though, thanks for coming and leave a couple comments on what your motivation for coming here is if possible.

John Chow's secret

Newbs, when John Chow speaks, we are supposed to listen. He speaks the gospel on how to market free software:

How To Sign People Up

I’m going to reveal some of my referral ideas from the old AllAdvantage days. As far as I can tell, nobody has written anything about the methods I’m going to talk about. They are divided between no cost and cost. Everyone can do the no cost methods and some may want to try some of cost methods. This should help you in your quest for more referrals.

This Is An Easy Sell

Many people are making AGLOCO way more complex than it really is. This is an easy sell. You should be able to convert better than 50% of people you talk to. Just keep the following in mind; it cost you nothing in time or money and you make money. If the person you’re talking can’t grasp that concept, then you’re talking to the wrong person. Move on to the next.

When someone asks what it is, the only thing you need to say is, “AGLOCO offers a toolbar that display advertising. If you run the toolbar, they will give you a share of the ad money. They also pay you if you refer other people to use the toolbar.” That in a nutshell, is what AGLOCO is. If the person cannot understand that, there no use going any further. Take the advice of McCall - go after the 20%. Show the other 80% what it is, but don’t spend too much time with them.

No Cost Referral Methods

A lot of AGLOCO sites has talked about no cost referral methods so I won’t spend too much time on it. Basically, they include telling your friends by phone or email, or setting up a blog or MySpace page. The personal email is very effective. McCall displayed a nice referral email used by one of his referrals. You may want to use it as a template for your email.

One guy's secret

Getting a bunch of direct referrals seems to be working well for this guy:

6,000 AGLOCO Referrals

I have been asked to do two things on this blog recently.

One is give my status. – I crossed over 6,000 total referrals yesterday.

Two how did I get there. – Mainly I recruited friends with emails. I have just 58 direct referrals (I plan to get more, but day job is in the way and I have grown a bit lazy.) But I do talk to the friends I have recruited and do two things.
I give them help in answering AGLOCO questions they may have or people they recruit have. (I read a lot about AGLOCO so this makes me better able to do that than they are. I do this mainly in email so they can forward the information on.
I act as a cheerleader. Recruiting new members for AGLOCO is sales. And in all sales you get lots of no’s. Sales is numbers you need to get your message to the right people at the right time. I email my friends often to make sure they are feeling supported by me in the effort. Please note that only 1/3 of my recruits have direct referrals so far – the others have not tried. I am hoping to get this up.

That post was waay back in December 15th - the guy is at 12,000 today.

AGLOCO company blog motivational speech

For those that ask, 'well what if I only get like, 1 person, am I going to make any money', the AGLOCO folks have a reply in their company blog:

Some people have asked me, “What’s in it for regular Members who have few or no referrals?” I like this question because I know there is a whole lot these Members have to gain. We designed AGLOCO as an Economic Network to benefit every Member, not just those who help build it.

For example, I was reading a blog post about the affiliate commissions AGLOCO will collect, and I realized that I hear a lot of talk about how AGLOCO will make money from advertising, but less buzz about the other (perhaps even more interesting and directly useful) ways Members will make money.

It's worth a full read to fully grasp what they are up to, and how that revenue makes its way back to you, the member. Some more:

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on online shopping, whether for books, electronics, cars, airline tickets, or just about anything else. Many online retailers such as Amazon, Orbitz, and CarsDirect have programs that pay for attracting customers to their online store (basically, to get you to purchase on their site and not that of a competitor). AGLOCO Members will be able to take advantage of these programs simply by having the Viewbar active while they are shopping.