VM Direct

[Funkalicious]

I rarely get this sort of thing from friends (and didn't, in this case), but I was sent a semi-broken e-mail about a company called "VM Direct" (http://www.vmdirect.com) which does some sort of dealie with a web-based subscription service called "Hello World" in which you can upload all of your digital media content to a central server and have access to it from "any computer, anywhere". You can also do some level of video-email and video broadcasting (I think it's simultaneous broadcasting via some sort of closed-system proprietary tool as opposed to YouTube type stuff).

Apparently, "any computer, anywhere" means any Wintel computer running later versions of IE; a lot of what looks to be the juiciest promotional material won't run on my MacBook running Firefox.

You can sign up as a customer, with several levels of service, from $10/month to $40, but what's the fun in that? You can be an affiliate, from $79 + $49/month for service as a Basic Affiliate, to $1999 + $199/month as a Chief Executive Affiliate. (Did you know that the Chief Executive affiliate package is "Absolutely the best deal of all, [...] the package for the serious minded entrepreneur interested in business to business selling opportunities, selling the VMdirect Affiliate opportunity, as well as helloWorld retail accounts"?)

I'm lucky enough to share a city with these guys; the address tracks back to an actual business park, not just a mail drop, which I was somewhat surprised at. Has anyone here heard of VMDirect or Digital FX International, the company listed at the bottom of the VMDirect.com? I'm trying to make sense of the compensation plan (posted at their website), but since this is the first MLM I've paid attention to, I can't make heads or tails of it (except that somebody other than the reseller is making money).

[wserra]

Has anyone here heard of VMDirect or Digital FX International, the company listed at the bottom of the VMDirect.com?

I'd heard of them, but that's about it. There seems to be a lot out there, though. Digital FX, the parent company, is publicly traded; its stock [sarcasm]hasn't been doing so well lately[/sarcasm]. From $15.50 to $2.50 over the last year.

A guess as to why: what these guys claim to do for money, lots of others do for free. Ever heard of Myspace or Youtube? As for just publishing and streaming videos, check out a service like Brightcove - also free. It's quite hard to see why anyone would pay for Helloworld - VM Direct's service. Moreover, in all likelihood the 900-lb gorillas - Yahoo and Google - will soon be in similar businesses.

OTOH, it makes perfect sense in the twisted world of MLMs - you're not paying for the product, you're paying to sign up other people. The next step would be to check public filings to see how much goes to the distributors (if they report it at all), then figuring the percentage of distributors that make anything. Bet: industry average of less than ten percent. I have no time to do it now.

I'm trying to make sense of the compensation plan (posted at their website), but since this is the first MLM I've paid attention to, I can't make heads or tails of it (except that somebody other than the reseller is making money).

What makes you think they want you to make sense of it?

[BIGfranky75]

hey there... i am VERY familiar with this company. trust me.... i will be very surprised if it is still around 3 or 4 years from now.... it is alreadya sinking ship.

having been a former "heavy hitter" in another MLM (i have since "seen the light" and no longer participate in the industry), the original owners/founders flew me out to vegas to try and reel me in.... these guys are shady.... i wouldnt touch this thing with a ten foot pole. there is a very good thread about it (very informative) on another site that i have taken part in and described some of my experiences with the company, but i am not sure if the admin here would appreciate me posting the link here.

wserra, you know what site i am talking about.... if you dont mind me mentioning it, let me know, or respond in kind with the link. if not, i can PM the link to this guy.

later...

[BIGfranky75]

sorry... i forgot to mention one thing.... this company has close ties to NUSKIN.... which definitely CAN'T be a good thing! again... proceed with caution!

[wserra]

wserra, you know what site i am talking about

Yes, I do, and I certainly have problems with the way that site operates. But if you believe there to be useful info in a thread there, BF, by all means link to it, and thanks for your contributions.

The only thing we don't like to see is advertising.

[Funkalicious]

BigFranky,

I read through all of the posts at the site I think you're talking about, but I'll allow you to post the link in case I'm wrong. I've largely given up on those guys since my accounts mysteriously disappear and when I go to reregister, it tells me that I already have an account associated with that email address. Was it something I said? It's hard to be commentarily correct when the philosophy of the site is that scams are bad, except when they're not.

I'm certainly not interested in either buying helloWorld or working for DigitalFX; they piqued my curiosity through a rather ham-fisted e-mail I received, and the fact that they're headquartered in my city. The fact that large amounts of their website is inaccessible to someone using a Mac, and that their self-styled universal product doesn't support Macs, just made it juicier.

The email I received from one of their "independent associates" was a piece of work. The native format of the email didn't survive its decoding by Outlook; the email itself contained a link to one of those unique URLs spammers and others use to track which email accounts they've contacted are live.
I was able to go to helloWorld.com and track down the sender, and watched her video from her helloWorld site. "I'm broadcasting... on the INTERNET! Have you ever seen such a thing?" Yes, I have. I believe the year was 1997. I mean, our first attempt at it brought down our workplace's LAN, but we got better at it. And I believe that in general parlance, broadcasting means sending the same file to multiple recipients at a set time. "Streaming" is what was occurring when I was watching her video. VMDirect actually makes quite a distinction between "broadcasting" and "streaming" in its helloWorld pricing.

I can only see about half of the Flash animations on the VMDirect website, but the ones I can get to are true pieces of art. The PowerPoint inanity of "Tom Goes to the Mayor" has nothing on these people. I only wish I could view the other vidoes, which look to be more recruiting-focused. Lots of good scamminess in there, I imagine.

[Edited because I confused my "direct" and "digital", and in today's networked, synergistically aligned headspaces of core competencies, we can't have that now, can we?]

[BIGfranky75]

wserra, you know what site i am talking about

Yes, I do, and I certainly have problems with the way that site operates. But if you believe there to be useful info in a thread there, BF, by all means link to it, and thanks for your contributions.

The only thing we don't like to see is advertising.

no problem wserra.... i PMed the site to funkalicious... the only reason i think that there is valuable info there is because i tell my story as to my experience with vmdirect that occured prior to my anti-MLM stance... so i think that there is some stuff on there worth reading. i have spent some time with the snakes that started this company i thin kthat it is a total soulless operation.... even compared with other MLM/scams! which to me speaks volumes...

best of luck everyone and stay away from MLM!

[videomaster]

I am very familiar with VM Direct. I was going to join the company with a group of people and I personally know someone who was very involved with the technology with the company. I along with a number of others joined a company called My Video Talk. The reason why is, it is far less expensive and the services works well. Yes it is an MLM, but the nice part is that you don't have to be in the business to use the services. If you would like more information, feel free to visit my site: [deleted by moderator] or email me with any questions.

Thanks.

[wserra]

you don't have to be in the business to use the services.

OK, so perhaps you'll tell us: what percentage of sales are made to people who are not distributors? Please provide documentation of that figure, whatever it is. As perhaps you are aware, if it is not seventy percent or more you are likely to fail the FTC's definition of pyramid scheme, and should be avoided like the plague. And what's the average income of your distributors? What percentage leave the company each year? Cites for your answers?

As long as we are on the subject, why should anyone not dreaming of (as one of your distributors put it) being "bigger than MSN, Yahoo and AOL" pay money for something available for free? Video email, streaming video on sites - all available at no cost in various places. Why use you?

Oh, and this site doesn't permit advertising. You're welcome to contribute, you're welcome to defend yourself, but do so without advertising your site.

[videomaster]

Well I am somewhat new to the business. Most of what I have done is retailing the product. I am not going to defend the service, but tell you the benefits to it and you can then judge for yourself. Yes there are free services out there. What the service offers for just the video emailing part is up to a 10 minute video email. Most of the services are limited on time. This service is going to be used by someone who has a business and wants to customize a banner around their business. You can also create a video in a video, so if you have multiple videos, they can roll, one right after the other. There are so many more services it can offer you and I will be more then happy to discuss about it off line. There is a my video web streaming allowing you to have your videos stream on your website without the logo of the free services on it so it looks more professional and your own private web conferencing room. There are different sized rooms and for a flat fee per month.

For the network marketing part. The companies focus has been the international market and it is now making a presence in the US. This is not for everyone, but if you want to be associated with what the future is, video streaming and get paid for it, let me know!


[The advertising in the signature line was remoived by the moderator.]

[Nikki]

Are you unable to read?

Advertising, including posting web-site links to your business,is prohibited.

I suspect you won't get a third warning.

[wserra]

Yes there are free services out there. What the service offers for just the video emailing part is up to a 10 minute video email. Most of the services are limited on time.

True. I am not going to take a lot of time to look them all up, but the free services seem to limit to either three or five minutes of video. How much do you want? For comparison's sake, Lincoln probably (there are no tapes, obviously) delivered the entire Gettysburg Address in about a minute and a half. How often do you need to email a video more important than the Gettysburg Address?

Hell, you can even do it yourself with an add-in to Outlook.

You can also create a video in a video, so if you have multiple videos, they can roll, one right after the other.

Free services too.

There are so many more services it can offer you

And I guess the point will be comparison of price and service with others in the same business. As we've seen time after time here, goods and services delivered by MLM are considerably more expensive than comparable ones delivered by mainstream companies, for the simple and unavoidable reason that you gotta pay the upline.

For the network marketing part.

OK, what about it?

The companies focus has been the international market and it is now making a presence in the US.

So what?

This is not for everyone,

You got that right. If you go by the industry practice, it's only for people who want to lose money.

but if you want to be associated with what the future is

Every MLM ever "launched" claims to be the wave of the future.

If you're serious about this, you really ought to get the answers to the questions I asked in my first post. And one more word about forum policy: no advertising in posts, including in signature blocks. You have an email and a web site link at the bottom of each post. You can put what you like in them, so long as you're not obnoxious about soliciting in your posts.

[videomaster]

Look I am not going to fight you on this. Read the newspapers. Ever heard of the NY Times or Wall Street Journal. Video streaming is the future. It has nothing to do with MLM. The company I am associated offer services that free services don't offer and you can get paid on it. If you are not interested or not going to want to look further at what the company offers, then I guess its your loss.

[BIGfranky75]

Look I am not going to fight you on this. Read the newspapers. Ever heard of the NY Times or Wall Street Journal. Video streaming is the future. It has nothing to do with MLM. The company I am associated offer services that free services don't offer and you can get paid on it. If you are not interested or not going to want to look further at what the company offers, then I guess its your loss.

actually... if i were a betting man, i would say it is your loss. dollars to donuts says that you are not involved with this company in one years time, and that you have lost a lot of money in it...

but regardless... good luck.

oh yeah, one more thing, i read the WSJ daily and my office subscribes to the NY Times as well.... i do not recall any articles about "video streaming being the future" (as you put it), and i woudl have certainly read that article. could you please cite those articles that you stated were written about "video streaming is the future".... my company library keeps all back issues for 18 months, so i am definitely interested in reading those articles... i am sure you wont have any trouble citing them (title, author, date), as you obviously must have read them yourself, correct? you wouldnt bring something out as evidence to strengthen your arguement without first hand knowledge of it i'm sure.

i look forward to your response.

[focus]

I had been thinking about vm direct for a while now, and was unsure about jumping in. After running across that discussion, I am just writing to say thank you for the truth.

[wserra]

Ever heard of the NY Times or Wall Street Journal.

Well, since I live and work in NY, I subscribe to the Times and frequently read the WSJ. I don't recall anything about "waves of the future", although that isn't dispositive. In any event, though, even if luxury cars were the "wave of the future" in 1957, that hardly means you should have bought an Edsel. If providers of streaming video are good places generally now, that doesn't means that your company is the one to join. That depends on the answers to the questions I asked you above, which you never even attempted to address.

Remember them?

[videomaster]

Well, I am not going to prove anything about my company (WHICH IS NOT VM DIRECT). I have a very large corporation using this service now and they love it. If you want to know more about the services, the company and cost, please contact me back. If not, good luck to you.

[wserra]

I have a very large corporation using this service now and they love it.

Isn't it amazing how anonymous MLM millionaire wannabes think they prove something by citing supposed reactions from anonymous customers?

good luck to you.

Thanks. I doubt I'll need it, though, since I do real work.

[JamesVincent]

Even though I came to this forum because of MLMs I had never noticed this thread until looking up old threads. VM Direct/ Helloworld was one of my first MLMs to get involved with. The product itself, at the time, was ahead of it's time but not that much. It did have a lot of uses and it wasn't tied into the affiliate part of the business like a lot of other MLMs are, you didn't have to be an affiliate to use it. It actually seemed to do rather well for a few years when they redesigned the whole product and upgraded it. Unfortunately, in 2011?, there was major breakdown in the company structure when the then CEO decided not to pay a lot of the downlines for several months. Needless to say a lot of people went elsewhere. When I had talked about a friend who had made a good chunk of money in MLMs it was here I had met him. When this happened he took his whole downline and went to SOC.

Helloworld restructured itself and became ComF5 and another one of my friends became the CEO. It has since upgraded some more and branched out into a couple of different areas, all involving communications tech. They just redid the product again this summer and is now called Alphaloop. I really can't tell you what the total difference is as I have not been paying much attention to it, I just know when they send me updates and whatnot.