When someone wants information on a topic these days, they usually utilize the Internet and a search engine. Google is a popular one. Yahoo is another one used by many as well.
While many people have subscribed to this blog and many more are just bookmarking it and checking back, we do get a ton of traffic from the search engines. Last week, I was watching the search terms used to find this blog and I thought it was interesting.
For the most part, they are negative terms. People are actually looking for specific bad things, like "is this a pyramid scheme". They are not looking for "is MLM a great opportunity". Both search terms likely would have eventually brought you here, but the list below shows the search terms people used to get here--so there is no influence of the blog. At least at this point.
Take a look at some of the top phrases entered into search engines last week:
- FTC YTB
- Dr. Bob Seligman
- Is Mike The Travel Guy RTA a pyramid scheme
- Ted Lindauer
- Travel MLM
- Fired YTB Lawyer
- CLIA and YTB
- MLM cult
- Opinion about MLM
- YTB and TICO standards
Wow, Seligman is apparently still trying to be verified. People are still very curious about Ted Lindauer and his firing and I suppose his subsequent reconciliation. But a lot of people are wondering if MLM is a pyramid scheme or a cult.
How does this happen? I am unaware of any traditional business model in any industry that garners those terms in their searches. "Is GE a cult?" got one return on Google. YTB got 4,630. "Is the IBM salesperson a pyramid scheme?" got one. YTB got 6,780. "Fired American Express Lawyer" got no responses. YTB got 1.
Very interesting. It seems that it is not only the folks on here that are questioning the validity of MLM in travel. It seems to me that there might be more of a pervasive attitude out there as well. I have said it before, but if I were involved with a travel MLM and had to spend most of my time and effort defending the shady business practices, I would move on. Well, maybe I would put some pressure on management to do something first--one would think that if they were truly vested and interested in the business they would welcome the opportunity to "legitimize".
