New MLM

Back when I was in my twenties, I was a restaurant manager. I absolutely hated my job. At one point, I thought that I would to anything to get me out of that line of work. That is until I went to my first "management trainee" interview. Well, you may ask wasn't I looking for a management job? Yes, in fact, I was and that is exactly why I responded to job posting. Really, I should have known better. I called the number. The pleasant sounding woman began asking me questions. Her reaction to my responses were so positive. I was ecstatic when, at the end of the call, she told me I was exactly the type of person they were looking for. Flush with excitement, I made my way to the Denver Marriott SE for my interview. Once again, how stupid was I? When have you ever been to a job interview for a "national" company in a conference room at a hotel? The first inkling that something wasn't quite right is when I walked in the room and saw 50 or 60 other people mingling around. I shook a few hands and then a man called us to order. We all took a seat and he said "Welcome to Herbal Life!" The passed out packets of information and kicked off the presentation. For the next 40 or 50 minutes he discussed the program and how we were all going to be millionaires if we followed the program. Then he did the most shocking thing I could imagine - he asked us to pull out the "Contact Sheet" and write down the names and numbers of everyone we knew. These were going to be the first people we contacted to sell our product to or better yet get them to sell product for us. In case you don't know about Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), it works on the premise that you make commission on what you sell, but you make even more in commission on the product that people sell that you bring into the program. I was mortified. I could not think of anything more crass than to try to sell to my friends or get them to join my organization. As soon as I could, I got up and walked out the door as quickly as I could. It was the last time I attended one of these session. Despite my previous experience, I was sucked in a few more times. MLMers are not stupid, they change tactics and have been known to lie when asked directly "Is this a sales position?" or "Is this MLM?" Regardless, I never got involved. So why am I telling you this now? Isn't this supposed to be a blog about a novel? Yes, it is a blog about my novel. But it is also about the process that I am going through. A month ago, I sent out an email to several of my friends to inform them that I started this project. Not wanting to share everyone's email, I bcc'd everyone. How dumb is that? Multi-recipients in the bcc line is one of the key triggers for a spam filter. Since I figured that out soon after - like a minute - I sent the message, I decided that I would send individual emails to people and let them know how things are going - you know. On about the fifth email I sent today, I thought about my Herbal Life experience. It really bugged me for a bit, but then I decided - this isn't like that at all. Although I would like to increase my traffic and build an large audience, I really just want to share what I have been doing. It's my new hobby, I like doing it and if things take off great. If not, we'll see how long it takes me to get bored. Tags: Fiction, Online Book, Rebeleyeball, Paul GavinCopyright (c) 2006 Paul Gavin. All rights reserved.