The Wall Street Journal, the largest and most influential newspaper of all time, is now partnering with UnhappyFranchisee.com, a web portal currently powered by a guy in a bathrobe speckled with English Muffin crumbs.
Founded in 1889, the Wall Street Journal has the largest circulation of any newspaper in America (2.1 million, including 400,000 paid online subscribers) and is revered as a journalistic bastion of truth and integrity. In fact, the Wall Street Journal has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize 33 times!
Today we are happy to announce that the Wall Street Journal has entered a powerful partnership with franchise issues website UnhappyFranchisee.com!
Yes, the two titans of financial journalism, WSJ & UF, have joined forces and inextricably fused their reputations and allied their brand images for all to see!
UnhappyFranchisee.com has arrived! Also in the works are UnhappyFranchisee.com power partnerships with Forbes, Time, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, the Vatican and even FOXNews. Our humble blog is commanding recognition and respect from the biggies, aye? These major brands would not risk their reputation by partnering with just anyone, would they?
How to Use Affiliate Marketing to Fake Credibility
Is the Wall Street Journal really partnering with UnhappyFranchisee.com? Why… sort of!
Many major companies have what’s called affiliate programs where they provide coded ads and offers to people with access to a potential customer base. If someone clicks on one of these coded ads and and buys something, the “affiliate” receives a small referral fee. There is no huge difficulty in getting accepted as an affiliate and most companies just make sure you’re not running a porn site. Once I promised that UF was not engaged in cannibalism or ritual human sacrifice, I was accepted as a WSJ affiliate.
To characterize the affiliate relationship as a “partnership” is misrepresentation at best. And when it comes to unashamed misrepresentation at its best, who can compete with AMWAY?
AMWAY Fights its Sleazedog Image… Again
One of the latest and most embarrassingly misguided AMWAY ploys is their attempt to promote simple affiliate relationships with mainstream retailers as “partnerships.” Here’s how their press release touts their “Best Buy” relationship:
#1 Consumer Electronics Retailer Best Buy Joins Amway Global Partner Stores
A lot of top brand stores have partnered with Amway Global in the Partner Stores & Services area. In this technological era, none is more exciting than the recent addition of number 1 consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., Best Buy.
It seems that Best Buy is not “partnering” at all but merely extending a small referral fee to AMWAY and its distributors that refer them business. But this gives AMWAY IBOs a chance to exaggerate the relationship in fending off those who say AMWAY is a scam. IBO Shekhar added these comments on our lively AMWAY post ( IS AMWAY A SCAM?):
Credibility:
IBM, Microsoft, DELL, AT&T, Dish Network, Visa…..these are some of our partners. Will such companies parter with a Company without checking its market standing ?…Barnes and Noble, Tmobile, Dell, Dish, Ace Hardware, Sears, AA – have PARTNERED with Amway…..do you understand now ?????? Do you think these companies will “partner” with Ponzi schemes ? do you think they do not have lawyers to check a company out ? Do you think they will partner with a Scam ????
However, other AMWAY IBOs are frustrated by what they see as another thinly veiled deception that will – as always – backfire and cause the opposite of the intended effect.
Here are come comments from the pro-AMWAY comment board AMWAY Talk. Michman wrote:
Personally, I wish the Partner Stores would go away.
In my experience, the Partner Stores only give the curiosity-approachers an excuse to decieve people into seeing the Amway business.
“I am working on an online marketing venture with Bass Pro and Office Depot.”
After the person gets into the business they finally realize that 99.9 percent of their products are going to come from Amway, not Bass Pro or Office Depot.
ibofightback wrote:
If Amway in this part of the world isn’t going to make the effort to do good deals, then they shouldn’t do them at all as all it does is give critics legitimate ammunition.
stickshark wrote:
Because partner stores (in this market) often have better deals when you don’t purchase though Amway… the Amway brand is tarnished due to the association with partner stores / non core items.
Bridgett wrote:
The argument is that these stores “give us credibility.” Really? I think the negatives (misrepresentation of the business, confusion, non-uniqueness of business model or products) far outweight the positives (supposed credibility).
Well, finally, the AMWAY detractors and supporters can agree on one thing: AMWAY should stop trying to use blatant deception to build a reputation for honesty. Both sides are embarrassed by it.
ALSO READ: IS AMWAY A SCAM?
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
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View Comments
I love the partner stores. I'm an IBO. It's another way to get paid on things that I already buy, from stores that I already buy from. I get points which turns into more money on my monthly bonus check.
Simple.
Why would I be embarrassed to tell people about our partner stores? The people who are my repeat customers (yes, people do use and like the products), are happy to hear that they can help support my business by shopping through the partner stores.
I have also personally saved money buying through the partner store link over buying in the store itself. So at the end of the day, I'm really happy with the Partner stores, and tell everyone I know about it.
We the ibo's get some money for stuff we are gonna buy anyway. I save, you don't, not even the referral fee. Products are great and work fine. They are worth every single penny paid for them. Proud to be part of amway.
NotDisgruntled
How much money have you made each of the last 3 years?
Many people knows and think they know all about Amway and it's partner stores.if you have not been long enough in the Amway business ,it's easy to trash anything and everything about Amway .however ,look at the number ,their sales volume ,what they do for communities that they do businesses with.many people are so shortsighted,they comment in so many things and that they don't nothing about.they don't do their homework and unhappy about experiences and guess what ,they want to share miserable life to others.how pathetic can u get.grow up people.amway is here to stay.you like or not,I'm will be there to witness it.Bring it on
I would love to personally school any of you amway bashers on why amway is way better than your job. For those of you who think amway is a pyramid, take a close look at your job. Owner, manage, assistant manager, employees. Each title has a different pay rate. You, as an employee, can never make more than the assistant manager and so on. I however as an amway ibo, can make more than my sponsor. At no point in time is my income capped
"I would love to personally school any of you amway bashers on why amway is way better than your job."
johnny cam:
Please school us by stating how many hours you have spent on your Amway business, how much money you have spent, and what actual income you received. School us with the FACTS, not more AmSpeak.
Jobs provide a minimum wage that must be paid in currency, not in cliches, smoke and mirrrors, and lost friends.
School us please...
You are correct. Jobs do have minimum wages. Amway does not. However, amway should not be viewed as a job. That's idiotic. Amway is a business, you treat it like a business.
Money spent on my business? About $69. I don't count that as a loss. It includes 24 hour customer service, billing, accounting, order processing, returns, inventory management, and a personal retail website.
Time lost= 0 hours and 0 minutes. If you understand the business, you lose zero time. Yes, I buy the products, but it's because I like them.
Your job tells you what time to wake up, what time to go to bed, how long you have to be there. I don't have that with amway. You are paid based on what you do. You have built in profit margins on every item. Yes, you can make more money by sponsoring more people. Not like any other franchise.
If someone went to a McDonald's and said I want to open one. The owner will tell them where to go. The owner doesn't make one penny off the new franchise. For people who say they lost money, or its a scam, aren't really the brightest of the bunch. They are probably people that bought a bunch of products, couldn't sell them, and now say they lost. Or maybe they went to one of the functions and spent money. Either way, it's all done by choice.
I will admit there are some bad eggs that give the business a bad name. Sponsors that in a way force down lines to attend functions, buy products, buy books and audios etc. That's not the way the business is intended to work. I build my business with the concept of, if I help somebody achieve what they want, I will in turn get what I desire.
The amway business is NOT for everybody. A little side note, amway did 11.8 billion in revenue last year. They have never bounced a check and they owe $0 to anyone. Can you say the same about your employer or other businesses?
As far as what I make, all I will say is that I was in profit with my very first check. Regardless of if I make $100 or $10000 a month. The fact that I never lose one single cent is worth staying in. I will not divulge how much I actually make because everybody is different and my income won't change what you think anyway.
Have you ever started a business for less than $100? Probably not. How many businesses do you know of that show profit in the first month? Probably none. A lot of people have a bad thought on their mind about how amway works or how they scam you, it's simply misinformation. People that go about building in the wrong way tend to make people think bad about amway. Everything you do in amway is based on personal choice. Whatever you decide to do.
I am unsure if my comment is going to be posted or not. Got some weird message when I hit submit. If it does not, go to my website, there is a button you can click to email me. I will gladly email you my response. Thank you
Johnny cam- don't you also pay $52 per month in website management?
johnny cam says: "Regardless of if I make $100 or $10000 a month.... I will not divulge how much I actually make because everybody is different..."
hahaha If you made $10,000 a month you'd be shouting it from the rooftops. C'mon, johnny, we know you don't even make $100 a month.
Amway doesn't sell products, they sell false hope to the johnny cams of the world who are so desperate to believe they defend their losing venture tooth and nail, even when it's obvious to everyone but them that they are fooling themselves.
They want to call themselves business owners but they won't do what business owners do, which is add up their sales subtract all of their expenses before calling it "profitable." johnny cam doesn't want to admit that he will never, ever make even minimum wage for the hours he devotes to Amway.
Face it, Wal Mart sells better stuff cheaper and more conveniently, and the guy who retrieves the shopping carts in theWal Mart parking lot makes more then Amway IBOs.