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I have mixed feelings about SFI Marketing Group

June 8, 2009 by John Dilbeck
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Network Marketing, SFI Marketing Group 

This is difficult for me to write. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it for over a week and didn’t really know how to approach it, so I decided to just start writing about it and hope that I can sort out my feelings with the help of some of my friends.

I am really conflicted about SFI Marketing Group.

(Update August 2009: Affiliate links removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

I’ve been an affiliate with SFI since late 2002. I’ve put a lot of work into promoting the company and products, despite all the changes – some of which made months of work obsolete.

That’s one of the downsides. They’ve changed direction several times over the years, but – for the most part – I think they made the right decisions, even though some of them were particularly bothersome for me.

For example, I spent months promoting NiceOffers and had a pretty good thing going. But, when the program was put on hold, I was stuck with a complex blog, about 50 Squidoo lenses, and I don’t know how many promotions that were suddenly obsolete.

What could I do?

I took down the blog, deleted or converted the Squidoo lenses, and moved on – though not with the same enthusiasm I had before this happened.

This was about the time that the CEO of SFI, Gery Carson, announced that they would be opening the TripleClicks store to sell their products and to make it easy for people around the world to sell their own products.

The store was months away, but it did open and, despite some early flaws, has improved over time. Now, there are thousands of items on sale there.

In some ways, I think of the store as a different kind of eBay. There are lots of people promoting the store, so that means a lot of traffic. The current Alexa ranking is just under 34,000, so that’s a pretty good indication that they are receiving lots of people on the site.

I don’t have any information about how well the products are selling, however.

Still, even though it is taking a long time, the store is progressing and seems to be living up to the promises of several months ago.

Most of the products in the store are either SFI’s own products or products being sold by private sellers. There are quite a few other items in the store and I don’t really know how they fit this picture.

Eventually, the TripleClicks store will have more retailers offering their products, but I don’t have a timetable for that.

You see, this is part of the problem. There is so much uncertainty around everything that it is hard to know what to do to generate sales.

I like some of SFI’s products, but I’m not too wild about others.

I was a member of the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs (IAHBE) since it opened, but I canceled my membership last month. I realized that I wasn’t spending nearly as much time on the site as I used to and I haven’t been taking advantage of their free books and free magazine subscriptions as I used to. (The books and magazines are free, but you do have to pay a small processing fee.)

So, without this subscription to IAHBE (called a standing order), I may, or may not, remain an EA (executive affiliate) with SFI in the future. This is a major change for me.

For years I was MIQ (multi-income qualified) before they changed that to EA. I’ve been either a team leader or EA ever since, until this month.

Why did I make this change?

Primarily it was because my income from affiliate marketing has plunged since last September, although it is showing signs of starting to grow again. I went from earning a pretty good income from all the businesses I promoted to earning between 25% – 35% of that amount, practically overnight.

After having that kind of revenue decline, I had to make some hard choices to protect my cash flow. So, I canceled everything that wasn’t critical to my marketing. Hopefully, my cashflow will rise again and I’ll be able to restart some of the things I dropped over the last couple of months.

On the other hand, I’m using this as an opportunity to re-examine what I’ve been doing and I’m making some big changes to my business plan.

I am not a fan of MLM (network marketing).

While I like the theory of multi-level marketing, the reality does not match the promise.

Over the years, I’ve introduced hundreds of people to SFI, but the great majority of them never did anything that I could see. There were a few who worked hard for awhile, but eventually they all slowed and stopped.

Some joined and were never communicative.

Now, I’m not going to blame all of them. It’s not that simple.

People sign up for affiliate and network marketing opportunities because it looks like easy money. It’s not. It takes a lot of work and creativity to earn decent income through online marketing.

Some people find it much easier than others. Some find it so confusing that they never really get started.

I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m too stubborn to give up, but I find a lot of inconsistencies and some things still confuse me.

I also find that I’m getting much “pickier” when it comes to what I’ll promote. I promoted lots of things a few years ago – when I was first learning – that I would not promote now.

This year, I’m pruning back even more. If I am not a happy customer of the products and services a company provides, I’m not marketing for them.

So, what do I buy from SFI?

I really like IAHBE, but it doesn’t offer the value for me that it once did. I like their non-toxic cleaning products, especially the orange cleaner and all-purpose cleaner. They are inexpensive and work very well.

Some of their other products are over priced, in my opinion. Even though I could earn a good commission when someone purchases them, I’m not comfortable with promoting them.

This brings us back to an earlier discussion on this site that related to reviews and personal recommendations.

I’m looking at my marketing efforts less as advertising and more as personal recommendations these days.

That’s a big change in how I see all of this and it’s the main reason I’m re-examining all I’ve been doing.

(I’m so far behind on getting things done that I have several websites that are sadly neglected, out of date, and need to be revised. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day or enough energy to do all that needs doing.)

I’m rambling. Let’s get back on topic…

I’m not a fan of network marketing. The idea of leverage sounds really good, but the idea of easy duplication by hundreds or thousands of people in your downline rarely ever develops.

In my experience, there is a lot of churn. People sign up, people quit. It’s an endless cycle.

I’m going to accept my part of the responsibility for this.

I am not a social person. I’m not a team builder. I’ve tried, but it just isn’t part of my personality.

I’m a loner who prefers to work by himself and get paid for his own efforts. That’s why I like affiliate marketing better than network marketing. I can accomplish much more in the same amount of time by talking directly to prospective buyers than I can trying to build a network.

So, MLM just isn’t for me.

Now that I’ve realized that, is it worth my time to promote SFI and TripleClicks.

I don’t know.

What I do know is that I’ve been getting checks from SFI just about every month for years. Some have been large and some have been small. I made a profit most months, broke about even some, and lost a small amount a few times. Overall, it has been a profitable venture.

But, profitable and worth doing are two different things.

I’m getting tired of working hard for meager pay from some companies. With SFI, the pay I receive from my downline’s efforts has been meager. On the other hand, the commissions I receive from sales to non-affiliates have been excellent.

Therein lies the dilemma.

So, now I’ll respond to people in my downline who contact me and I’ll give them my best advice, but I’m not going to tell anyone that it’s easy to earn a full-time income from online marketing.

Some people do very well, some never earn anything.

I’ve been lucky in that I have earned enough to meet my needs and to have some additional spending money left over. So, I consider that a successful venture. On the other hand, I could earn a lot more if I went back to full-time consulting or got a good job.

So, this year, I’m combining the two. I’ll continue affiliate marketing, but I’m also doing consulting in the real face-to-face 3D world. I’m hoping the combination will be more successful, and I’ll still be able to do most of my work from home.

So, I’m going to continue doing limited promotions for SFI and some of their products, but not to the extent I did in the past.

I’m not going to quit, because I really think Gery Carson is doing all he can to make the company more successful for its affiliates, but it’s an uphill climb.

I also don’t believe in quitting. Once I start something, I’m stubborn enough that I’ll face the difficulties, weather the storms, and find a way to solve any problems I encounter.

Whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable.

So that’s a long overview of some of my thinking on this topic.

I’m planning to revisit this topic later this week and address specific things rather than repeating this rambling monologue.

I would love to hear your opinions on affiliate marketing, network marketing, SFI Marketing Group, and similar topics.

Share your experiences and thoughts and maybe this will develop into a good discussion.

Act on your dream!

JD

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12 Comments on I have mixed feelings about SFI Marketing Group

  1. ProfitBrite on Mon, 8th Jun 2009 10:49 am

    2. wow, what a long story, very educational, thanks for your opinion, I learn very much.

    ProfitBrite´s last blog post..Preparation is Key to a Successful Home Business

  2. ade ade on Mon, 8th Jun 2009 1:47 pm

    3. Very good post. You have right . I am affiliate sinse 2007 but my feelings about SFI MG are the same.

    ade ade´s last blog post..Learn how you can make a perfect cup of coffee…every time..

  3. John Dilbeck on Tue, 9th Jun 2009 7:13 am

    4. Good morning PB.

    (I prefer talking to people with real names and I don’t know yours, so I’m abbreviating your keyword.)

    Thank you for your comment. Welcome to our discussions.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  4. John Dilbeck on Tue, 9th Jun 2009 7:20 am

    5. Good morning, Ade.

    (I’m not sure. Is Ade your first name, or is it Ina as shown on your Blogger profile page?)

    I see that your last blog posting is about PurJava. I like that product and it makes a nice, smooth cup of coffee easily when a coffee maker isn’t available.

    I also found that it made a nice coffee-flavored ice cream when mixed with vanilla ice cream.

    Welcome to our discussions.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  5. Mitch on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 8:26 pm

    6. Very passionate post, John.

    I’ll talk about network marketing first. I hate it with a passion. I’m not necessarily a loner, but I hate the idea that my income is dependent upon getting other people to sign up under me, and then to hopefully keep that kind of thing going. No sir, I know that’s going to end at some point, and like you, I don’t want to have to babysit anyone else for my income.

    Affiliate marketing seems like the way to go, but I just don’t seem to have the promotion thing going at all. I know I’m missing something big or small; I’m not sure which it is. But if I could just turn that one corner, I’d be on my way.

    I can’t comment on the other thing, SFI itself, but I will say this. You built all those Squidoo lenses, which hasn’t interested me, for someone else, in a way, and I’m wondering if right now you’d be feeling better about it all if you’d use your SiteBuildIt stuff to build websites, which are pretty much always there and totally yours. Then again, I don’t know much about them either, so I’m not sure if you’d like going that route.

    Obviously you see part of what I’m trying to do. If my new site starts generating any real income, then I’ll know that’s the route to go. We’ll see.
    [rq=1140,1,blog][/rq]Smoke Not So Much

  6. Ina on Thu, 11th Jun 2009 1:10 am

    7. Hi John .Ina is my first name . Nice to meet you.
    From the SFI products I really like PurJava and Natural Cleaners and I tray to promote them.
    Do you have some conversation statistic about this products?

  7. John Dilbeck on Thu, 11th Jun 2009 1:41 pm

    8. Good afternoon, Mitch.

    I’m starting to think like you when it comes to MLM. I don’t quite hate it, but I don’t see the potential that I thought was there a few years ago.

    Affiliate marketing is getting harder. There’s a lot more competition and too many not-worth-buying products and services. The more everyone promotes, the more blind we all become to the ads.

    Even for the good products, affiliate marketing isn’t working the way it did a few years ago.

    For example, I used to earn pretty good checks from Amazon.com, when it was new and most folks weren’t sure about buying anything online. So, their thousands of affiliates, including me, paid for all their advertising and helped them build their brand name.

    Now, everyone – just about – knows Amazon.com and can go there directly to shop. Most of us who continue to promote them and the products that can be bought there are seeing diminishing returns on our efforts.

    Affiliate marketing – more and more – requires good niches to make a good income. For example, on the radio interview you did, you talked about someone with a passion for hydroponic gardening who was earning a pretty good amount by constantly blogging about hydroponics and was selling the products she used and recommended.

    That’s a good example of a site selling to people who want to buy. There probably isn’t a lot of competition in that niche, at least not when compared to some of the things we’re doing.

    Squidoo has some really nice features that aren’t easily available elsewhere. For example, in the situation I mentioned, I was using a WordPress blog to post Nice Offers coupons, and I was using it as both an RSS feed generator and a database program, more than a blog.

    I had a category for the month the coupons expired, another category for every state and province in the US and Canada, and other categories based on the business category of the advertiser.

    I would get the new offers from the Nice Offers site, repost them with my affiliate code to my blog, and it would automatically rebuild all those RSS feeds. (I’m sure you know that WordPress creates a feed for each category, in addition to the main RSS feed.)

    Those Squidoo lenses (one per state and province) were ranking well in Google and the offers were getting found there. Plus, I was signing up businesses who wanted to advertise their products.

    It took a long time to set all of that up.

    Then the rug was pulled out from under me.

    In that particular case, it would have made no difference if I’d done it all using SBI or any other set of tools.

    With no way to monetize what I’d been doing, and no way to switch to something comparable, the only choice was to shut it down, lick my wounds, sulk awhile, and start over with something else.

    The other side of your question, if I’m reading it correctly, is whether I would have been better off building SBI sites in other niches. Yes, I’m sure I would have. But, even then, if the monetization model that pays for the site changes and there is no way to remonetize, then it’s a lost cause.

    That’s why it’s so important to pick niches where there is relatively high demand, relatively low competition, and which attracts people who want to learn more about the topic and are inclined to buy on a regular basis.

    If I were better at doing that, I’d be earning more now.

    However, as we’ve discussed in the past, I’m not one of those people who can build a site just to make money. It has to be something I am really interested in, or it just isn’t worth doing.

    One of the things I’m really interested in, for example, is helping small business owners promote their products and services online, and that’s why I’m in the process of building a new SBI-powered site to do that. I know how to get them found for what they’re offering and know how to put the tools to work. We’ll see if they see the potential and are willing to pay for it.

    Good luck with the stop smoking site. I’m happy that I quit smoking many years ago.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  8. John Dilbeck on Thu, 11th Jun 2009 1:47 pm

    9. Mitch, I forgot to say that I did get something very valuable from what may look like wasted work.

    I got a lot of experience and learned how to do some things that I’ll use in the future, but in different ways.

    So, even though I lost time and money, I gained knowledge and experience, both of which – I believe – are necessary for future success.

    JD

  9. John Dilbeck on Thu, 11th Jun 2009 2:01 pm

    10. Good afternoon, Ina.

    It’s nice to meet you, too.

    I agree with you about PurJava and the Veriuni natural cleaners. In my experience, they are great products.

    I do not have conversion statistics to share. Even if I told you my statistics, or you read what someone else was doing, it would be of very little use to you.

    Each of us advertises and promotes differently, so our statistics can diverge greatly from others promoting the same thing.

    I will say this. If I had to feed myself based on commissions received from selling those products – even though I really like them – I’d be a much skinnier person, if I were still alive.

    In order to make a good income from promoting just those products, you’d have to sell hundreds per month, and that’s very hard to do. I know that I can’t do it.

    Maybe some people can, I really don’t know.

    That’s why it’s so important to diversify and not put all our eggs in one basket. By having multiple streams of income from different categories, our income isn’t as likely to suffer across the board as it would be with only a few sources of income.

    It’s also important not to spread ourselves too thin by trying to promote too many things. That leads to confusion and the inability to keep current with everything.

    There is an art to finding the proper range that works for each of us.

    However, I and many others learned the hard way last fall that world economic conditions can change very rapidly and it isn’t something that we have much control over.

    Some of my income streams have dried completely. Others have diminished. A few are still coming in, but not like they were a year ago.

    Maybe they’ll recover in another year or so.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  10. MY Special Education on Sat, 20th Jun 2009 3:46 pm

    11. What and who is SFI marketing group? Whats the honest potential of being a affilate?

  11. John Dilbeck on Mon, 22nd Jun 2009 8:18 am

    12. Good morning, M. S. E.

    You ask some questions that are hard to answer.

    SFI Marketing Group was founded by Gery Carson over a decade ago. You can learn a lot more about the company if you search for “What is SFI Marketing Group” on Google.

    Essentially, it’s a multi-level marketing company that sells some of its own products and which has created it’s own store for selling those products. The store also allows individuals to sell products of their own and will be introducing more retailers in the future.

    Affiliates can earn commissions in a number of ways.

    As far as the honest potential of being an affiliate, that’s an impossible question to answer.

    Most affiliates never earn anything, and that is more of an indication of their lack of marketing skills than a reflection of the products they promote. At least, that’s my opinion.

    Of the 5% to 10% of affiliates who do earn incomes, their revenues can range from a few dollars per month to thousands of dollars per year, and there is no way for me to predict the potential earnings for someone I don’t know.

    Even if I do know someone, their potential for earning is based on many factors and I would not be willing to make any predictions.

    I also think that there are legal restrictions regarding predicting earnings through affiliate and network marketing companies, but I’m not entirely sure of that.

    You can learn more about MLM from the FTC website:

    Multilevel Marketing Plans

    As far as I know, SFI follows all the rules and is a legal company. I have had good experiences with them for about seven years and always get paid what I earned.

    Unfortunately, the payment I’ve received has not been enough to compensate me for the effort I’ve put into it.

    That’s why I’m not actively promoting them right now.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  12. MY Special Education on Thu, 2nd Jul 2009 8:10 pm

    13. Has anyone had any experience with SFI Marketing at home business?

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