This Article Sums it Up!!! Part 1

The YTB mailbag (11/05/2007)
By Arnie Weissmann

We may all, at this point, be suffering from a bit of YTB fatigue. This multilevel marketing company, which sells "referring travel agent" status and then incentivizes these RTAs to recruit more RTAs, is the most prominent of the companies to recently be labeled a "card mill" by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

As a result, this week YTB will lose its ability to sell RCCL products, a move welcomed by most traditional agency groups.I wrote in this space two weeks ago that the concept of referrals was hardly a new phenomenon and that the entry of so many people selling travel was not necessarily a bad thing for an industry that has for years struggled to attract new talent.

I also said that several suppliers had told me they had no problem with YTB, but none would go on the record for fear of alienating traditional agents. Perhaps I'm suffering from YTB fatigue more than most because the e-mail reaction to that column continues. But what I learned from those who wrote was enlightening and clarifying, if not always in the manner the writers intended.

The mail ran 4-to-3 in favor of YTB (e-mails from travel sellers supporting YTB were, with only two exceptions, from YTB agents). Supplier mail was split more evenly, but still no supplier who wrote supporting YTB was willing to go on the record. What struck me about much of the e-mail from YTB members was its almost religious quality. While I was aware of a quasi-evangelical aspect to the recruitment component of YTB, some letters stated belief in a dogma holding that traditional travel agents are damned. Conversely, it also holds that YTB members are on the Internet-enabled pathway to heaven.

The YTB mailbag (11/05/2007)
By Arnie Weissmann

Part 2

Not surprisingly, this doesn't sit well with much of the travel-selling orthodoxy, which views the YTB philosophy as not just uninformed but misleading and more than a little annoying.Because of YTB's dual approach of selling travel and recruiting members, its sales and proselytizing efforts have the potential to convert business away from traditional agents while simultaneously promoting what appears to be a sales model that fails to meet established professional standards. Traditional agents and suppliers provided me with many vivid examples of obnoxious behavior by YTB referring agents, from flushing a toilet while talking to a supplier to crashing an agency's cruise night activities to poach clients.

And indeed, some e-mail from YTB agents -- fan mail, by some definitions -- was disturbing. These agents made sweeping assumptions unsupported by facts, made unwarranted attacks on traditional agents and demonstrated a level of naivete about business that saddened me. But I also received mail from YTB members who did not see their participation in that organization in apocalyptic terms.

Perhaps they were in the rest room when the Kool-Aid was passed around, but they didn't speak, as one travel agent put it, in the "Amway meets Rev. Moon" language common to multilevel marketing, or MLM, companies. They simply indicated that YTB provided a business platform that worked for them.

Kelly Sinkey of Pura Vida Travel in Fairbanks, Alaska, wrote: "[My] family owned a travel agency that went bankrupt in the '90s. It was a terrible, life-changing event. YTB presents a low-cost, low-risk opportunity to invest in an industry that has room to grow and potential for success. I agree that if RCCL has concerns about legitimate professionals, they can raise the bar for whom they'll do business with. But within YTB are folks who had brick-and-mortar agencies and brought their clients with them."

The YTB mailbag (11/05/2007)
By Arnie Weissmann

Part 3

Whether or not the debate on both sides is ever stripped of its good-vs.-evil trappings, it may, if history is an indicator, play out something like this: Since successful MLMs don't remain MLMs forever (adding a new foundation level to the pyramid becomes increasingly difficult), they very often continue in their industry but drop the pyramid model.

Should this happen, YTB will need to identify and retain only its 1,000 best agents -- less than 1% of its membership -- to instantly become as large as or larger than today's biggest agent consortium.

And perhaps at that point the gates of heaven -- or better yet, the doors to the executive suite at RCCL -- will open to receive them.

RCCL has a different agenda. It has nothing to do with getting rid of Cardmills.
It has to do with conflict of interest. RCCL just recently started to endorse Magicjohnson. So they had to cut their ties with YTB, MJ has a price tag of
$ 5,000.00 and they do pay for agents that you recruit. And I don't see the justification of the $ 5,000.00. for a website that doesn't give anything more than YTB gives you for 500.00. Maybe it's a higher Class Cardmill with fewer Agents at 10 times the price.

Martin
Fetztravel

RCCL backed the MJ thing without regard to YTB. If you look at their statement, what they said makes sense...basically it has to do with numbers, if you guys say you produced me 14 million with 70,000 - 120,000 RTAs then that really reeks of scam or at least suspicious...you can get less than 500 hundred TAs to produce that kind of money

MJ is not a cardmill but a franchise operation which is different than your model. YTB wants you to use YOUR company to sell services with their backend, MJ wants you to use MJs name and their technology

If it was only about endorsing MJ against YTB then you would have to put all agencies in that same basket

Here are some facts--no comments just some facts

notravelmlms.blogspot.com/2007/11/for-complete-change-of-pace.html

I wanted to let you know about our company. We sell 3 day 2 night travel certificates that are used by many companies as incentives.

The cost is only 0.35 cents each and they come with your company name and website imprinted on the certificates.
www.increasebusinesssales.com

Think about using these for referrals or give them to customers/clients. You can sell them for a profit to your down-line. Or they make a great gift to certain people in your down line. Nice surprise when they open it up and see their business name on the certificates.

The end user of the certificates has a choice of over 20 destinations to pick from. Take a look at the destinations at the website. www.increasebusinesssales.com

They pay a processing fee of $12.00 and the taxes on the room which is about $7.00-$12.00 a night depending on the location.

www.increasebusinesssales.com

First off, I *AM* a YTB Rep. So what?

10 years ago there were 250,000 travel agents in the US. Today there are 10% of that.

Why is that?

It used to be that you had to go to school for several months and pay for it out of your own pocket in order to become one of the "annoited few" privleged enough to know how to do searches in Sabre and the dozen or two other systems that the travel industry kept locked away and available exclusively to "travel agents".

Back in the early 80's my brother was dating a girl who almost went bankrupt paying for school after the scammers who supposedly were going to provide her with "scholarships" folded up and disappeared. The school threatened to sue her anyway.

She finally got a job as a "real" travel agent earning about $6/hr. She wasn't allowed to get an "benefits" as a travel agent for 9 months. They finally offered her a "fam" trip to some place in the Carribean, and my brother went along. He said it was one of the most expensive vacations he's ever been on -- even to this day. It turned out that his girlfriend only qualified for a discounted room -- nothing was free and most stuff was extremely expensive. She wouldn't earn any "freebies" until after she'd been working there for at least 18 months.

Trade schools that grant some kind of "industry certification" have always been a great way to restrict entry into various professions. They can be found just about everywhere in every industry.

Today, if you know how to run your computer and work your web browser, you can book travel. It doesn't take a 9 month course that costs $15,000 to learn, and you don't have to get a $10/hr job with no benefits to be able to do it for others.

The problem is not YTB. Rather, the problem is that travel agents are a dying breed, on their way to extinction just like the dodo bird. I feel for them.

The reason for this is ... see part 2

The reason for this is...

Marketing in ALL industries, including travel, is being transformed by the internet.

This is a tidal wave of change that has only just begun. The trade schools and people trained in them can make all the noise they want about places becoming "card mills" for whatever profession.

The truth is, companies want and need a large motivated sales force. YTB has found a way to deliver that in spades. Trade school training and certification are no longer a necessity.

If one particular vendor wants to turn away business from some large and growing sales force, that's fine. There are well-known churches in America that all urge their members to buy certain products and avoid other products. The size of these churches makes YTB look like a boy scout troop. I don't notice companies benefitting from this kind of "affinity marketing" complaining. Do you?

We're going to see more and more marketing organizations being built that offer similar benefits as YTB, but in other industries. It's only natural. And it's inevitable in a market-driven economy.

See the recent book by Seth Godin entitled "Meatball Sundae" for a wonderful explanation of how the internet is transforming marketing. Travel is only one industry. Seth identifies many others where the adoption of the internet is resulting in realignment of massive fortunes and displacement of major industry stalwards by unknown startups with no office, no staff, no furniture, and nothing more than a web site. How can companies with expensive offices in Manhatan compete with these guys? Do you think they're going to have anything positive to say about them? Or will they malign them and do all they can to convince people that they're "bad for the industry" and say how they're "card mills" for their respective industries.

... continued ...

Again, the problem is not YTB. The problem is that people entrenched in their industries are feeling the earth start to move under their feet just before it opens up and swallows up their entire life and livelihoods because some kid in Podunk Idaho has figured out how to offer the same services to the world on their web site without any of the infrastructure that the larger entrenched companies have become acustomed to -- and even addicted to.

Casting stones at YTB and similar organizations isn't going to stop the wave.

It won't stop the steady decline in traditional travel agents.

It won't stop the fact that while travel bookings are growing at double-digit rates, travel agents are in less and less demand and are not earning any more today than they were 10 years ago. Yet YTB reps are earning thousand dollar bonuses every month, and $10,000 bonuses are being paid out every day.

If you're a travel agent, when was the last time your employer handed you a $10,000 bonus check based on your PERFORMANCE? Maybe a fam trip after helping them put another of their kids through college for the year. But what about cash rewards for all of the money you put into THEIR pockets?

That's why organizations like YTB are becoming popular, and why they're the wave of the future.

Argue and complain all you want. It won't make a difference. The internet is transforming marketing to the extent where nothing will be recognizable in 10 years from now. Fight it or adapt. The wave is coming whether you like it or not. YTB is only a reflection of this transformation.

I came very close to joining YTB. Fortunately I was apporached by a 10+ year network marketing veteran who introduced me to a ground floor opportunity of a different network marketing company thats really blowing up and generating crazy money for its members. Needless to say I joined this company. He did his due diligence with several network companies and made a lot of money. YTB included. But he was shown something different by another YTB Rep thats blowing up the internet and he's now a part of this company. Need I say more. Some say its not about the money, but who are you fooling? YTB is a great company and for all of you who are doing well, I pray that you will continue to have much success, but really if you can recruit and be rewarded for you efforts $150.00 or $400.00 opposed to $50.00 who wouldnt take advantage of that. I mean for real its a no brainer. I jumped on board and if you can see what I see so will you. Email me if you're interested in knowing what I know at
gods1man7@yahoo.com

"blowing up the internet", eh?

What you should be looking for is a company that's actually involved with booking travel and not just paying big bonuses to people who sign up.

Hello-

I would just like to add a comment - I am with TraVerus and love it. I am being trained as a CTA and earning commission of travel. I really can see that I DO work for a Legit business. The customer support at TraVerus is very good. So, please don't let other MLM travel business make you feel that they are false. I am getting ready to train with AppleVacations. I have actually found a Career from Home!

If you would like to speak with me, please email me at: mtnlaketravel@aol.com