Lets Talk About AGLOCO
Posted on February 27, 2007 by
Adie 
General 
35 Comments
When I explained this new MLM program in What the Hell is AGLOCO? I tried to be somewhat objective - whether I succeeded or not is up to you. I’m going to go ahead and warn you, however, that this post is going to be entirely my opinion as it relates to some comments I’ve seen across multiple blogs over the last week or two.
Argument 1: The Average AGLOCO User Won’t Make Much Money
I’ve seen this one being used by far the most out of any other anti-AGLOCO argument. Unfortunately it’s true. The average AGLOCO user won’t make much money. Here’s an excerpt from Shoemoney’s post on the subject:
Well AllAdvantage (the former company) had over 10 million members and paid out over 120 million dollars to it’s members. So at best the average person made $12 ?? And some people are claiming they were making 5-6 figures from AllAdvantage which means the average user probably is only going to make a dollar or 2….. at best… per year….
To which I replied:
To say it’s worthless because only a few people will be banking on it doesn’t really make any sense to me.
How many Adsense publishers make what you do?
How many Azoogle affiliates make what you do?
How many CJ publishers make what you do/did?Sure a limited amount of people will be making the real money with AGLOCO (just like AllAdvantage) but is that different with any other earning avenue on the net? No.
Shoe didn’t give me a response, but I don’t think it’s because he was ignoring my point; I think it was because this post came just before all that MBL drama you’ve been reading about and he just didn’t get around to it. Just in case my point isn’t clear, I’m arguing that with anything online (and offline too) there is going to be a very small amount of people really exploiting any given industry.
Lets take Adsense for example. Markus Frind of PlentyOfFish.com earns at least $300,000 per month from Adsense alone according to John’s Google Whores post. I don’t know about you guys, but that’s a whole hell of a lot more than what I’m pulling in through Adsense. Does that completely discredit Adsense as a potential source of revenue? No, it doesn’t.
Argument 2 - Even Industry “Big Players” Are Staying Away From It
I saw a comment about this in John’s most recent AGLOCO post (6,000 signups) and have also seen it on a couple forums, IRC, and IM as well. It’s true a couple A-listers (gogo gogo) have expressed their doubts or outright disapproval of AGLOCO. That’s fine. These guys have taken what little knowledge they have on the subject (none of us have any real knowledge on AGLOCO at this point) and formed their own opinion. At the same time a lot of A-listers have also shown big support for AGLOCO. How do you pick and choose which A-lister to believe when (no offense) many of these guys didn’t even have names for themselves when the AA craze was at its peak?
I’m not saying the “big players” should be discredited, but when did *opinions* of these guys become the Word? I’ll go ahead and clue you in on something: the “big players” know as much about AGLOCO as you do. Use your brain. Come to your own conclusion. I’m not saying you shouldn’t listen to the opinions of others - that would be dumb of me - but what I am saying is to not take every word they speak as truth. At the end of the day it’s still opinion. It might be an educated opinion, but it’s still an opinion.
Argument 3 - AllAdvantage Went Under and So Will AGLOCO
Okay now this is just an argument spoken out of ignorance. Yes AGLOCO will run ads on your PC just like AllAdvantage did, but the business model is completely different. AGLOCO isn’t paying flat rates (as AllAdvantage did) for hours surfed. AGLOCO is going to pay in proportion to the amount of income they receive. Don’t take my word for it, read the terms that are posted on their website. Please read these terms in their entirety before comparing AGLOCO’s model to AllAdvantage.
Argument 4 - AllAdvantage Didn’t Pay Anyone
That’s simply not true. John made $25,000. What’s that you say? They paid John but not the little guys? That’s a lie too. Hell even my roommate who was one of the 0 referral fellas got a check. I don’t really even know what to say about this one other than the fact that people *did* get paid from AllAdvantage. Yes AllAdvantage went under (but so did a lot of other companies, remember?) but the users didn’t lose money. It’s untrue.
Argument 5 - AGLOCO Will Not Make Money Online! Ever!
Kumiko got a lot of link love for her post AGLOCO Will Not Make Money Online! Ever! She got so much attention in fact, that I’ve decided to dedicate a whole section of this post to hers!
1) Multi-level Marketing at its Worst
Kumiko claims AGLOCO is MLM at its worst. It’s true AGLOCO is multi-level marketing, but it’s far from a “pyramid (scheme)” as she puts it. With AGLOCO there’s no buy-in. There’s absolutely no way you can lose money. You might not make much if you don’t spend some real time promoting the service and building referrals, but it’s not a scam unless you risk actually *losing* money. You won’t lose money with AGLOCO. It’s not a scam like many other MLM programs.
2) Internet Advertising Market is Saturated
What market isn’t saturated? The only hurdle for internet advertising is to get the ads in front of visitors. The saturation doesn’t mean a damn thing as long as AGLOCO puts ads in front of people’s faces. It will do that with the viewbar. Why? Because they’re paying people for it. Kumiko also mentions “ad blindness”. Although she has no real data to support her claim, I would have to agree that certain demographics do have “ad blindness”. Unfortunately AGLOCO will target many of these people because you have to have at least some level of tech-savvyness (I’m sure that’s not a word, but I’m using it anyway) to use the viewbar. Will this affect it? I doubt it. I’m sure people will still click on ads that are relevant to their search patterns and even purchase products through it. Targeted ads generate leads and sales no matter what the demographic. The only thing that this may hurt is in the payout amount. The pay for end users may be smaller if “ad blindness” really is a problem, but it won’t eliminate it altogether.
3) It Failed Before and It Will Fail Again
See Argument 3 and 4.
4) Do the “Maths”
See Argument 1.
5) Don’t Believe the Hype
Apparantly a Stanford MBA is worthless because Kenneth Lay was an asshole. Point?
I’m not sure why this post of Kumiko’s got so much love across the blogosphere, but I just felt I needed to dispel some of the myths she was keeping alive and arguing (with little to no support).
Conclusion
I’m not here to tell you that AGLOCO will succeed overnight, make you millions, and let you retire before you’re 30. But who’s to say it won’t? The fact of the matter is this is all still really new to everyone. Yea AllAdvantage existed before, but this is radically different in so many ways. It’s idiotic to cast AGLOCO aside because AA went under or because most MLM programs *are* in fact scams. Why not give it the benefit of the doubt? Build your network now while the competition is still relatively low. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. You lost no money. Your friends might poke fun at you, but who cares? If it does work you’re making money.
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“The Average AGLOCO User Won’t Make Much Money”
You didn’t dispell the myth you validated it. You said “Unfortunately it’s true.”
You can’t compare Agloco to adsense or azoogle becuase they send out large checks each month. Agloco has never paid anybody a dime.
You are promoting hype, not substance. You are defending a promise not a reality.
“AllAdvantage Went Under and So Will AGLOCO”
Maybe or maybe not, that isn’t the point. Rather, if you burn me in business once I doubt I’ll be back.
Good point, Mike, I should fix my wording on that. I’m not so much trying to dispel the myth that AGLOCO won’t make much as much as I’m pointing out the flaw in the “only a few will get rich” argument. I also do understand that AGLOCO has yet to send out a check, but I still guarantee it will follow the trend of few will win big and everyone else will just win (as is the same with Adsense).
it’s mark ;-) man I need to work on my personal branding.
“few will win big and everyone else will just win”
we’ll see. should be fun to watch
LOL I was thinking Mark when I typed it but Mike came out sorry sorry!
no need to apologize as I was serious, I need to work on the personal branding. sometimes I’m mark or 45n5 or mark from 45n5.com etc.
thanks for the comment on the feedburner trick, don’t forget to DIGG it if you digg it ;-)
Good luck with agloco, I’m off to bed.
I am willing to try out AGLOCO but somehow I dont buy the argument that most of the network has to be built before the ViewBar is out … anyways its interesting to see who makes money and how much …
You make some interesting points. I’m a little disappointed that you added an affiliate link. It kind of took away the ‘unbiased opinion’ aspect. ;)
MLM - While it’s true that you won’t lose any money, the only real way to make decent money is to spend a lot of time promoting for referrals. How long did it take you to write this post that will no doubt give you more referrals? On a popular blog, the time is minimal compared to earnings gained, but for the ‘working-class blogs’ a lot of work promoting needs to be done. Those without any referrals will make cents at best. In my opinion, losing your time doing that is the same as losing money. I stand by the saying that “time is money”. I’ll concede that AGLOCO is not a MLM in the traditional sense - but I’d love to know what else to call it! :)
Saturation - AGLOCO could beat the saturation initially (due to the hype) and get the ads into people’s faces. But I don’t think this will last very long. Once those without referrals realize that they are making cents, they will stop using the viewbar. This will flow upwards (inwards?) until the program collapses. AllAdvantage (and even Adsense) have suffered massive declines in click-through rates during their lifetime. Even if this doesn’t happen, I don’t feel like they’re offering anything different than the existing advertising. Does anybody really want to sacrifice their screen space for more ads? I don’t at least.
AA - I don’t think to say the business model is completely (or radically) different is quite correct. It is slightly different at best. All I’ve noted is that they’ve changed their payout system and changed from ‘user-targetted’ to ’site-targetted’ ads. Is that radically different? While stopping flat-rate payments will save the company a lot of money, it does also mean that users will receive even less money than they did with AllAdvantage. AllAdvantage could have easily changed their payout system to save the company. But perhaps the business model was no longer viable?
$ - I freely admitted in my article that some people will make a lot of money from AGLOCO. However, I felt that people needed to be aware that (despite the immense hype surrounding AGLOCO) the number of people is very, very, very small. The hype I was hearing was similar to the “make $500 a day with adsense” crowd. That crowd needs to be warned against and I felt that the AGLOCO hypesters needed to be warned against too.
MBA - An MBA (from anywhere) is no means worthless. But many were saying “it can’t go wrong - it’s got 8 MBA’s behind it”. My desire was to point out that just having an MBA does not guarantee success. As was illustrated.
Your argument in favor of AGLOCO is honestly one of the best I’ve seen. Well done! But, as I said, it’s unfortunate that you provided an affiliate link and took away your impartiality.
Best of luck. I truly hope that you make money online through AGLOCO!
Have a great day!
Kumiko
xo
wow what a response Kumiko! I only wish my comment line breaks weren’t so screwy.
Yes this is a very biased article and yes I do hope to get some AGLOCO referrals with it. I’m one of the ones goign into AGLOCO with a positive outlook hoping it will make me money. If it doesn’t then it’s no big deal. I also plan on doing a lot more than just making these blog posts in order to promote it. I’m going to document it all and *BLOG* about it of course :) All I mean is that there are other ways of promoting AGLOCO that doesn’t take a lot of time and won’t cost you much money.
All of your other points I think are alright. I just didn’t feel like you presented your argument well at all in your original article and just created a lot of blind animosity towards AGLOCO.
Thanks for the response, Kumiko!
Wow, that’s the longest comment I’ve ever read, but it was a good one. Kumiko falls into the category of taking the time to work hard to make money online.. she’s not a ‘fly-by-nighter’, which is refreshing to see. Both of you guys had well thought out posts.
Haha!! I’m the first to admit that my article was a little reactionary and not the best piece of literature ever written! The amount of AGLOCO spam I was receiving was really getting on my nerves. However, I’m happy in the fact that I’ve provided ‘balance to the blogosphere’ but presenting the opposite opinion of the AGLOCO hypesters! Well just have to wait and see if I’m the Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader of the blogosphere!! Haha!!
May the blog be with you,
Kumiko
As I understand you made your opinion when you were frustrated with all the spam you got. This brings me to the idea that you from start weren’t objective . Next thing MLM -> pyramid -> another point not to like Agloco .
Sorry but I can’t get your opinion as an objective one. If you get spam report it to Agloco and everybody who cares about Agloco should do IT ! These guys make Agloco look bad and this is OUR company . Do you allow spam in your blog? Agloco is Your company you should take care of it .
Agloco is the first ( I know ) company that gives you the chance to create basically your OWN internet company , how you will promote it , how you will take care of it on this your earnings will be based on .
Of course you won’t make any money but people who care about it and are serious about it will make money . It all depends on you . I see all the comments that Agloco won’t make money bla bla bla . It’s not about AGLOCO , it’s about YOU !
I know that Agloco is in beta but we should have more (ALL)control over it . There should be at least a forum on AGLOCO’s website where we can give our opinion on most/biggest decision they make now . I hope more people will read and post about this and require from AGLOCO this .
and my last 2 cents :
Komiko won’t make any money .
I will ;)
Matt will .
John Chow will .
A lot more people who is serious about this will .
It depends on YOU !
Use the blog, Luke.
Oh please….”it’s YOUR company”, “AGLOCO gives you the chance to create basically your OWN internet company”…
This makes me want to write another article!!
But geez….where would I begin on how wrong those statements are……!!
Kumiko
xo
Matt,
Wow, that really motivates me to want to try and give Agloco a second try at getting some referrals. I got alot of negative feedback when I tried the first time but after hearing your case that really gives me a boost to try again. What a great artcile.
I checked out this blog after the guest blogging done on John Chow’s blog. Nice article here Matt, and you have an interesting blog as well.
Shoemoney’s article on AGLOCO seems almost like Kumiko’s in that it looked to basically be posted after being annoyed by AGLOCO spam.
But with Darren’s post it seems that he at least is giving it a chance, albeit with a hint of skepticism.
I’m glad I joined AGLOCO and am learning a lot about blogging, marketing, and several other things that I may not have learned without starting with AGLOCO.
Don’t get me wrong. Even though what I wrote was inspired by my annoyance, it was not based on my annoyance. I still stand by what I initially wrote on my site.
And writing that AGLOCO article has taught me more about the blogosphere in a week that I could’ve learned in a lifetime! I guess we both at least owe one to AGLOCO for that one!!
Have a super great day!
Kumiko
xo
[…] from the benefits of guest blogging to his newest post (since the time I write this blog post) Lets talk about AGLOCO. Always interesting and very informative in his posts, I would recommend this blog to anyone […]
I’m still on the fence. I just think that at this late stage I’ll be one of the $1.89 brigade - which isn’t even worth the effort it will take to install the toolbar.
and another thing, if I do decide to join who do I give my referral credit to, Matt Coddington or John Chow?
Me, obviously!
No offense Matt you aren’t gonna make much and I go into it here
http://thalasar.com/archives/agloco/more_agloco_non.html
Nice blog design Brian ;)
Yeap - I liked your and asked your designer to do something similar. That’s what he gave me and I am pretty happy. Far better than the previous design which was highly similar to Craig Newmarks blog but grayer.
You asked my designer? I designed this o_0
Hmm.. I think this is one of the postings in a long time that I have seen with some discussion in the comment section. Usually its a one liner that people post !
More AGLOCO nonsense…
I noticed that Matt Coddington continues his flogging of the MLM scheme, AGLOCO, in this recent post. Instead of a simple rebuttal I am going to speak very frankly about AGLOCO. It’s not going to be pleasant. I would sit……
The way I look at it, the most likely result is that almost everyone makes some paltry amount. Lets say $12. Well, as far as I’m concerned that just proves that there’s such thing as a free lunch! That’s worth the 30 seconds it took to fill out the form. Of course I have some higher hopes for Agloco myself, which is why I too am looking to make a large network with the goal of contributing a lot of what I make to charity. Either way, the effort to sign up is minimal, so who cares if you only make a couple bucks? No one said this was a get rich quick scheme.
Great work on this site. I almost never find a blog this young that I like!
Nice description about agloco.
[…] read more… […]
Thanks for the insightful post!
jk
http://www.whyagloco.com
TIP:
There is a directory where you can register your website. It shows exclusively sites about AGLOCO:
http://www.AglocoDir.com/
I hope you get more visitors from it.
TIP: There is a directory where you can register your website. It shows exclusively sites about AGLOCO:
http://www.AglocoDir.com/
I hope you get more visitors from it.
Nice directory, easy to use, and my site got added instantly. Best of all, it doesn’t require a link back to them.
Matt
I have been curious about AGLOCO for quite a while so clicked on your referral link to have a closer look at their site. However there seems to be a problem with the link/site with constant attempts by my PC to find the site, just a blank browser window and annoying constant clicking through my speakers. I even tried the official AGLOCO site with no referral link and got the same result.
Anyone else seeing the same issue?
all i wana know guys it that how and when will one get paid..agloco so conviniently skips the whole topic and doesnt even mention contact info…finally..is it a spam????