Here we are again – yet another upgrade and more product enhancements for the YTB and ZamZuu Representative. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I absolutely love how this company listens and responds to the needs and desires of the field. Most companies that I’ve worked for in the past – and you’ve probably experienced it too – make changes and decisions without any care or concern to what YOU actually need or want to make your job easier or more attractive.

Most companies act more like a Dictatorship that strike down new initiatives and changes without any concern or care for field input. It’s refreshing to see a company that actually sends out surveys asking for input. Based on a majority rule – changes are then made and implemented that benefit the majority who voted for the change.

They call that a Democracy.

One other aspect that I’ve come to appreciate over the years is how our Founders and Executives aren’t “know-it-alls”. You know the type I’m talking about – the ones who have an answer for everything under the sun. They’re experts in every area you can imagine. Heaven forbid if you don’t agree with their perspective or decision. You’ll be condemned in an attempt to make you feel stupid and insignificant. Let’s face it, our Founders are incredible marketers and recruiters – but they never had any illusions that they possess a better skill set or temperament than someone like Robert Van Patten when it comes to the day to day operations of a publicly traded company.

As I write this piece, I’ve yet to see the working model of our new sites and enhancements that should be up and running later today. I did get an advanced copy of what I can expect when the upgrade is complete. Some of the upgrades are minor changes and tweaks that have been missing since the initial launch of ZamZuu back in January, while others streamline both the free shopping experience for customers and the sign-up process for those that want to capture the growing trend of online shopping as a business owner.

It’s a whole new look for the ZamZuu Marketing sites, the new media center that includes the ZamZuu Revolution webcasts that are readily available and on demand right from the new homepage. There’s also a private media center in the Rep Back Office containing important information and presentations for the marketing business.

The company has also made the recruiting process better, with a sign-up process that’s a bit more familiar to what they experience in a retail environment. The information form is all in one step as many retail stores are doing these days. The prospect’s email address will also be their user name, making it more convenient and a quicker process. The process will auto-populate their marketing site URL. After finding an available domain name they’d like to purchase from a register like GoDaddy, the user ID can be changed at any time from their Business Center or by calling into ZamZuu Support.

Demographic information will also be asked during the process (which is completely optional) and by doing so, it will provide a better experience for the Representative with targeted campaigns such as local events and trainings that are happening in their particular neck of the woods.

The Associate Registration process is exactly the same, minus the payment information. For those in California, the sign-up process also works the same, minus any place for payment information until after the 14 day waiting period has expired. Instead, California prospects will see a confirmation message explaining the next 14 days.

Speaking of California, unfortunately I have to cut ALL of our enhancement short here and save it for another day. It’s not that I don’t want to or don’t have the time. The problem resides with a small group of individuals who must have struck a deal with California called “Narc That Blogger”. You see both these individuals and California don’t believe you have the capability or the intelligence of understanding that there are two separate income opportunities. They believe that explaining both at the same time will not only confuse you but it’s somehow unfair to provide another income stream with products that are attached to the business you’re actually selling.

Truth is – our model not only confused the snot out of them, but makes them extremely uncomfortable. And because of the fear and discomfort it produces, they become childish tattle tails who want to see me punished for speaking my mind with views and a position that does not match their limiting beliefs.

It’s not that they come after me personally – they go after the Home Office with some letter or call about a rouge blogger who’s trying to recruit the world into a gigantic pyramid scheme.

However, if you’ve already figured out that this is a viable business and happen to own a site that’s been enhanced, feel free to sign up for our free newsletter. There I can explain both sides to you this weekend, not because you’ve proven to be more intelligent, but because there’s no chance of me “recruiting” you.

Dumb and cumbersome I know. But like you, I’ve come to enjoy my business and don’t want to put our company in jeopardy regardless of how ignorant and childish others can be.

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If you’ve been following along with me over the last several weeks, you know that I’ve taken on a HUGE task of answering all of John Frenaye’s questions concerning YTB. John has been unable to find adequate answers to questions he’s posted towards the end of 2007. Yesterday morning I attempted to answer question #10 in his looooong list of questions. That being; How many RTA’s drop out in a month or a year. John has stated that he fears he would NEVER know this answer.

When I answered John’s question yesterday I didn’t answer it correctly as John was able to point out in a comment made directly after I posted. I’ve always tried to admit when I’m wr…wroo…wro (NUTS) I’ve been “inaccurate” in any statements that I happen to make. My purpose is to be open and honest about what I believe to be true, and I also attempt to document as much as I can to help you verify that what I’m talking about to help you form your own opinions and conclusions. It’s never been my intent to mislead anyone in this business, ever.

Yesterday, when I spoke of the “drop out rate” in YTB, I was speaking of Reps, and John correctly stated that he was looking for RTA’s who have dropped out of our program. There are key distinctions between the two positions. A “Rep” in YTB only sells “Travel Agencies” or “Booking Engines”. There is no fee required to become a Rep, and we do have people who sign with YTB as a “Rep ONLY” with our company. Some sign at first as a Rep in hopes that they can sell Travel Agencies to make enough money to eventually upgrade to the RTA position. While this certainly isn’t impossible to do, it is very difficult to sell something that you don’t personally own yourself.

RTA’s on the other hand sell Travel. (Referring Travel Agent) RTA’s are able to purchase a “Booking Engine” similar to Travelocity, Orbitz, and Expedia and sell cruises, air, hotels, cars rentals, tours, and other travel related items at comparable prices of the other highly advertised sites. The cost of owning your own “Booking Engine” is a one time setup fee of $449.95 (US) and a $49.95 (US) monthly maintenance fee for continued licensing, tracking, and marketing of you site through Steels and Deals. There are no long term contracts to speak of and participation with YTB Travel Network is on a month to month basis.

I had mentioned in my last post that when researching I found several sites that have dismal retention rates. If you Google “drop out rate for MLM” you’ll see percentages as high as 97%-98% all over the internet. John and others are counting on YTB following this percentage and that’s exactly why he asked, and precisely why he took me to task in stating RTA’s and not Reps with our company.

YTB is a publically traded company and because we are publically traded we do post financial statements for the public to look at and review. I mentioned in my last post that the answer John is looking for CAN be found in the financial statements filed with the SEC. However, John, like most who oppose our industry and company don’t take the time to actually learn what these financial statements actually mean and what type of information is truly available to make an accurate assessment of our company.

A quick side note: It’s very often thrown up in our faces that YTB is traded on what’s know as Pink Sheets, which is a lower class market and does not have the same requirements as AMEX or NYSE. While this is true, if YTB ever hopes to move to either of these top exchanges it would be in our best interest to have our current financials in order when we submit our application for approval to either of these exchanges.

In these financial statements YTB does provide both Active RTA’s and Site Sales. These numbers can be found in the 2006 Annual Report at the top of page 11, and for the purpose of this exercise we will also be posting numbers from a Quarterly Report which represents numbers for the first 9 months ending September 30, 2007. RTA numbers represent the number of active RTAs paying $49.95 (US) per month to YTB as monthly license fees. The site sales numbers represent the number of online travel store sites sold during each respective period. The number of sales, and the number of recurring monthly license fees paid, each directly impacts YTB’s revenues and expenses. As each new site is sold for $449.95 (US), marketing commissions are paid on that sale. Likewise, each recurring monthly license fee paid results in marketing commissions paid to the IMRs. As the number of active RTAs grows, the amount of our travel commissions revenue grows as well. Correspondingly, travel commissions expense follows suit.

For the purpose of this exercise, the only number not documented and accounted for are the RTA’s as of December 31, 2004. While I do not have an exact number, it is known that we did have approximately 8000 Active RTA’s at this time. (Ronda and I joined January of 2005 and this was the number quoted to us at the time we joined the company.) This is the only number not found on the financial reports provided.

To calculate the Retention (those who do NOT drop out) for 2005, 2006, and 2007 we are taking the active number of RTA’s as of December 31 and adding them to the total number of site sales of the following year. (8000 Active Sites + 22473 of Site Sales = 30473 Total RTA’s were ACTIVE at some point in time during 2005) We then subtract the total number of active RTA’s as of December 31, 2005 (21384 Left) from 30473 who were active during all of 2005, and this gives us the number of people who are no longer active at the end of the year and have “dropped out”. This number 9088 gives us the number of “drop outs” John is asking for, which would average 757 people who drop out per month. (9088/12)

The following chart is the results of the numbers found on the SEC filings.
While other MLM’s are tagged for retention rates of 2%-3%, YTB has an astounding retention rate of 70%-74% over a three year period of time! That’s absolutely ASTOUNDING for traditional business models let alone Network Marketing! Granted, the number of people who do drop out of the business rises year after year, which is due to attrition. (9088 for 2005, 20,635 for 2006, and 44,544 so far in 2007) But to have THIS kind of percentage of people still working the business is just going to blow the lid off what some of the Anti-MLM’ers “think” about our model.

I did e-mail John to let him know that he needed to be sitting down when he read this number, as I didn’t want him to hurt himself. (I know there are people that wished I had not, but if you really look at these numbers, believe me…it still hurts.)

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

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