Cynical Manipulation of AGLOCO Sheep

Posted by shawn on February 9th, 2007 | 8 Comments

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I have been getting a steady stream of spam e-mails from people promoting the AGLOCO multi-level (not affiliate!) marketing program, and it’s getting worse.

Not only is the spam from these AGLOCOians incredibly annoying, but it’s based on a big BS story perpetuated by AGLOCO themselves.

One recent e-mail I received from an AGLOCO rep had this subject: BILL GATES!! HE’S HELPING START THIS!! YA BETTER GET ON BOARD WHILE IT’S STILL NEW!!…

The body of the e-mail featured the following in a variety of colors and large font sizes:

CHECK THIS OUT…
SIGN UP IS REALLY FREE
AND
BILL GATES
IS ONE OF THE MAIN DUDES BEHIND IT…

SO IT’S GONNA GET BIG!!!

I was curious of the origin of this crazy story, so I searched around a bit.

A search via Google for Bill Gates on agloco.com turned up a couple results from their corporate blog.

One is a question in the comments section (which goes unanswered) asking, “Care to make a comment on some recent posts that Microsoft/Bill Gates are â€˜behind (encouraging orâ€¦.)â€™ AGLOCO?”

The other was part of a post from Brian Greenwald of the AGLOCO Development Team where he stated, “We have comments from Bill Gates (and now this week, YouTube Founder Chad Hurley) indicating that we are on the right track.”

This post led me to a couple posts by some blogger who promotes AGLOCO:

What a bunch of hokum – Bill Gates and Chad Hurley made comments about revenue share for their respective users. This has nothing to do with the dubious MLM scheme that is AGLOCO.

If AGLOCO expects to be taken seriously, I would urge them to clarify this misinformation with the people promoting them right now.

Posted in Affiliate Opinions

On February 9 @ 11:36 pm Steven Wilson said

Hello
I am signed up in the agloco program to test it’s waters.I do not promote it other than a link to the signup page.I agree with you on all the false e-mails put out by some of its members.I get them regular even being a member.

My main concern with this program is they have recruited so many people that there is no way they can generate enough ad revenue to make the payoff they claim to members.

The going platinum program was much like it.
That guy I think went to jail if I am correct.

Just my two cents worth.
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On February 17 @ 3:26 pm Ray said

Hi Shawn,

If you want to be taken seriously (and you do, because otherwise you wouldn’t enlighten people with your blog), then I urge you to clarify your statement that AGLOCO is dubious.

“This has nothing to do with the dubious MLM scheme that is AGLOCO.”

Thanks already.
Ray
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On February 17 @ 6:49 pm Shawn Collins said

Ray -

I think I was quite clear – I think the AGLOCO scheme is dubious for the MLM basis and their tacit approval of the Bill Gates lie.

If you want anybody to consider you objective, don’t include an AGLOCO link with your comment.

I am calling it as a see it – while you are on their payroll.
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On February 19 @ 2:18 am Nenad Ristic said

I have also signed up for AGOLCO, and pretty much forgotten about it since then. I have to admit that I am disheartened by some of their/their affiliates strategies… It actually puts me off promoting it myself.

I will see how it goes once the actually have the toolbar, and decide from there.
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On February 21 @ 11:36 am Michael Lewis said

Ok, in response to the first comment about not being able to pay members: AGLOCO’s predecessor, AllAdvantage, made that mistake. They paid members before calculating a rate of income per member. AGLOCO will not do that. The rate per hour surfed with the Viewbar on will be a direct function of the actual revenue made by AGLOCO. That is why there is no exact figure of how much members will be paid yet. I am not uncomfortable with this.

Nobody here is going to jail. AllAdvantage did nothing illegal and AGLOCO intends to do the same.

Also remember, even though AllAdvantage in the end was not able to survive, it did pay $120 million to its members. John Chow made some $25,000 on AllAdvantage and he is not hesitating to get people to join AGLOCO. I didn’t have the pleasure of benefiting from AllAdvantage, but I’ve seen the images of members’ checks all over the Internet and that was enough to get me to sign up (especially considering that AGLOCO is free). I ain’t gonna wait for the Viewbar to come out to sign people up. By then, it’ll be a free-for-all to refer people.

Here is the URL for a useful article about AllAdvantage: http://joinagloco.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-happened-last-time-around.html

I respect your viewpoints and wish you the best. However, I think you may have a change of heart soon…
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On March 17 @ 3:51 pm jord said

Yes, we have to stop the misinformation campaigns that is ruining the Agloco name. It is hard with so many members…but we as the members must help to put away these rumors.
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On March 26 @ 8:24 pm Jon said

Just found this on digg today:

What Everyone Ought to Know About Agloco

Devastatingly good analysis.
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On July 31 @ 9:27 am Scam said

Like AllAdvantage, I think Agloco is also flawed because when (if) they release shares then a huge number of people will want to cash them in, thus crashing the price.

The likes of John Chow will do well as he has managed to sign up huge numbers of direct and indirect referrals. However, the guy at the bottom will make next to nothing and then walk away. When the base of the pyramid is removed the whole thing will crumble.

As it costs nothing to join I hold back from calling it a scam, despite the use of MLM recruitment which is usually a big red flag.
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