Original Article
Recently I started seeing a lot of postings on my Facebook page about something called “Blastoff”. I pretty much ignored them though until someone sent me a message directly inviting me to be part of a “pre-launch” with Pre-Paid Legal (a direct sales company that offers legal plans and identity theft protection).
I spend a lot of time on the internet and see a lot of “crap” out there. As soon as I started looking at Blastoff, all my alarms went off. The promise of “free, easy, save money, make money” sounded like all the internet pipe dreams bundled up in one place. I’m generally willing to give people benefit of the doubt (innocent until proven guilty…that kind of thing…) so I did some research.
First, I found a lot of people saying good things about the company…and several people saying really nasty things. No surprise there…you can put in pretty much any company on the internet and find the same thing. Since they are privately held, I couldn’t find much information on the company itself or the CEO of the company (Bill Rodgers) except that he had a former site that didn’t seem to be in existence anymore dealing with online auctions.
There was one thing that caught my attention though and that was the CTO of this company according to their “about us” page was Doug Gray, CTO of Travelocity and the guy who basically revolutionized how online travel is handled. So, I decided to dig a little deeper.
Turns out the company has some pretty reputable people at the helm including the founders of a few other companies, including LetsTalk.com…one of the biggest online resellers of wireless plans.
Still, the company motto seemed like a bit much. Their commission page showed some pretty big “get rich quick” type numbers. It left several questions unanswered:
- How big of a network could you REALLY build?
- How could any company pay out those kinds of commissions and still make any profit themselves?
- Why would any company want to sell their goods through this company?
- What is this pre-launch thing and relationship with Pre-Paid Legal?
How big of a network could you REALLY build?
Screenshot of my LinkedIn statistics
To answer this first question, I looked at other sites that are free and that people pass along to one another…mainly social networking sites. The only one that gave any statistics that I could find was LinkedIn. I included a screen shot of my LinkedIn network, which all I’ve ever done to promote was allow them to access my email address book and send emails inviting people (which is what Blastoff says they will do when they launch). Surprisingly, Blastoff may even be understating the size of network that could be built if my LinkedIn stats are showing the way they are at only 3 degrees of seperation. Of course, people can only sign up for Blastoff once…and will only be part of one person’s direct network, so there is some limitation there.
Why would any company (like Walmart) sell their good through this company?
This is actually the easiest part of their whole model to understand. While it looks really fancy, all Blastoff has done with their “mall” is setup what are called affiliate links. While I don’t have any proof, I bet they even go through established channels like Commission Junction or Click Bank for these relationships. They may have gotten a better deal than the average Commission Junction affiliate (by promising higher volume), but this is pretty straightforward and is something anyone could really setup. The challenge for “just anyone” would be getting the traffic…which is why I’m betting Blastoff setup their whole (admittedly pretty cool – found this guy’s page through a link you’ll see later) customizable home page…to get the traffic.
Can/Will Blastoff really pay out any money?
I think this is probably the biggest question. Will anyone actually make any money? I did some digging and found a commission plan that you can see. Its full of the typical disclaimers about how much anyone actually makes…here’s an excerpt:
These figures should not be considered as guarantees or projections of your actual earnings or profits. Any representation or guarantee of earnings, whether made by Blastoff or a Member, would be misleading. Success with Blastoff results only from successful sales efforts, which require hard work, diligence, and leadership. Your success will depend upon how effectively you exercise these qualities. Because Blastoff is so young, it has not yet had the ability to determine either: (1) the average earnings for all its Members; or (2) the percent of Blastoff Members who achieved or exceeded the hypothetical earnings set forth in this document.
I’m fine with all of that, but some of the figures they show are pretty incredible. Here’s one:
Commissions from Blastoff Website
I could see how they could pay out a couple dollars to 10-20 levels of commission on a new 2 year contract (that contract probably represents $2400+ of revenue for the company afterall)…but really…is EVERYONE in your network going to get their new plan through their Blastoff site? That seems really unlikely. It would have been far more realistic (and less exciting) to show 3-5% of people getting wireless plans and what those numbers would be. ($8,000 if it is 5%…over some period of time)
Still, while you might not make the “quit your job, Blastoff retired me early” kind of money, it does make some sense that money could be paid out.
However, they only show big-ticket, big margin items. In the Blastoff mall (Target, Walmart, Starbucks, iTunes…etc.), the numbers get WAY smaller. Commission, according to that commission document, “Ranges from .02% ‐ 1.5%”. So, on a $20 Walmart item, your looking at: 4-30 cents…probably closer to the 4 cents. Excited? I guess it depends on the person. Its still “free money” essentially…so its better than a kick in the shins (as my dad likes to say).
So…what about this Pre-Paid Legal pre-launch partnership deal?
In my hunting, I ran across this website which talks all about this “pre-launch” partnership. Its some guy’s website, so you can go there if you want to check out a somewhat long video about it if you want.
If you haven’t ever heard of Pre-Paid Legal, here’s the gist: you can pay a monthly fee to have access to attorneys for certain pre-defined legal issues and have identity theft protection. Think of AAA or health insurance…except for legal stuff and ID Theft. Pre-Paid Legal is another company that you can find a lot of positive and a lot of negative about on the internet. But…unlike Blastoff, they are publicly traded on the NYSE, so you can do LOTS of research on them. This is good too, because it means they have to report to the SEC and other commissions which pretty much forces them to be on the straight and narrow. It also is a positive for Blastoff, because if Blastoff does turn out to be a shady deal, Pre-Paid Legal has A LOT to lose…so you’d think Pre-Paid Legal has probably done some extensive homework.
If you didn’t go watch that video, here is the synopsis according to that video if you join as a Pre-Paid Legal “associate”:
- Get paid on 20 levels instead of 10
- Get paid on legal plans that people buy through Blastoff
- Introduce Blastoff to all your friends, family, neighbors, loose acquaintances…etc. before anyone else can get to them
The 20 levels could be a big deal. I’m sure they’re paying half the commissions at each level, but if your network was 100,000 at 20 levels instead of 10,000 at 10 levels, you’d probably make more than double all other things being equal. There’s no real way to know if anyone will actually buy a legal plan through the site, but there’s no reason to think that no one will either. The biggest of those three is really getting the head start I would think. Since people will only sign up for Blastoff once, if someone invites your Aunt Sally who buys everything online…she wouldn’t ever be able to be part of your network…so that could be a big deal.
So…what does it all come down to?
I guess it depends on whether anyone will actually USE Blastoff on a regular basis. The homepage technology they have setup looks pretty promising (despite a few technical glitches). The money pretty much makes sense…although I think they are greatly exaggerating what people will likely make. So, for whatever it’s worth, I’d say sign up if you want to. Probably won’t do any harm, and who knows… you might make a few bucks.