What Is YTB's Favorite Color?

Hint: it's the color of their first quarter financial report which was released yesterday.

Here are the similarities to the annual report filed a little bit ago:

• Website sales and fees account for 79.5% of total revenue
• Travel commissions account for 12.5% (no real surprise there)
• Marketing income is 7%
• Miscellaneous is 1%

Pretty standard stuff.

On the expense side:

• 58.7% of the money earned went to the rep side of the business
• 9% of the money earned went to the travel side of the business --but they sell travel ;) ...really!

A comment that really stood out for me was that the training and marketing income DECREASED 10.5% over the previous year same quarter. Yet the number of RTAs (the guys who need training) INCREASED 67%. As I have been saying, they may offer training, but the adoption rate is dismal. There are currently 138,814 RTAs out there today.

Which brings me to the huge increase in the number of people that are bailing out on YTB. Last year, for the entire year, YTB had 66,910 RTAs quit the program. This is a simple calculation on page 12 of the report. Number of RTAs at the end of 2006 plus the number of websites sold minus the current number of RTAs. That gives you the number that bailed. They lost 5,575 RTAs per month last year!

Let's look at the first quarter of 2008. At the end of the year in 2007, they had 131,065 RTAs in the program. During the first quarter of this year, they added 30,893 (which incidentally is an 8% drop in recruiting from 2007) websites, which should effectively bring them to 161,958. However, they only currently have 138,814 RTAs. That means that in the past three months, 23,144 RTAs have dropped out of YTB. That is 7,714 per month or a 38% INCREASE in drop outs.

My speculation on why?

• Loss of IATA
• Loss of RCCL
• Continued bad publicity from RTAs scamming people
• Lack of qualified travel leadership
• The Olympic debacle
• The 2 Fly Free debacle
• The Piccolo debacle
• name your own debacle

OK--YTB reporters, start your cotton gins! Spin spin spin. Hint--don't try the "well we wanted to lose money and RTAs" line--it did not work when IATAN shot you down a second time, it won't work now.


PS: I forgot to mention that they posted a NET LOSS of $3.5 MILLION.

The opportunity of a lifetime!

So I was doing a little surfing trying to learn more about the much talked about 90 day blitz that was supposed to produce a bumper crop of new YTB millionaires. While I couldn’t find anything new about the 90 day extravaganza, I did learn about a very interesting guy who seems to be making a crapload of money as the latest guru of YTB, Mr. Holton Buggs.

According to his numerous videos, Holton and his lovely wife were down on their luck, only 45 days from foreclosure and a quarter of a million dollars in debt. Miraculously, Holton found YTB and became a director in just 45 days!
In fact, Holton claims that by 2010 his downline will be responsible for 50% of the income that comes into YTB. And for only $29.99, you could be a millionaire just by purchasing Holton’s life changing video, Duplication Nation.

Given the amazing success of Mr. Buggs with YTB, not to mention all the EXTRA cash he is making off his video sales, this left me with a couple of questions.

First, if Holton can make director in just 45 days, then how is it that a super smart guy like Doug hasn’t made it in over 1200 days? Even a guy with a fancy web cam like Earl hasn’t made it yet. Hasn’t he seen Holton’s videos?

Second, Holton’s Cash Cow videos are only $30.00, but there were only 163 directors by the end of 2007. With the majority of YTB’s members making less than a high school dropout who operates the sour cream gun at Taco Bell, why did the Coach blow all that money on a plane for himself rather than buying the video for every single YTB member? Coach could have just “traveled like a travel agent” and got bumped to first class, couldn’t he? Then he could have had enough cash to buy a few thousand of Holton’s videos to share with the members. Oh just picture it now….

But after a bit more research we discovered that this was not the first mlm venture that Holton has been in. In fact, there are multiple internet sites that would indicate that Holton may have in fact been in some other mlms prior to YTB, and was kicked out for some of his questionable business practices.

If you want to jump on the Holton Buggs path to the easy life, you first must agree to the following:

• In the event that Holton Buggs is harassed by his former company in an attempt to hold him or any 3kmg leader liable for soliciting me, I will be willing to file a complaint with several regulatory agencies and testify in court on Buggs/3k Marketing Group's behalf as it relates to this non-inducement letter.
• In the event that any company tries to restrict my business trade, I will consider participating in a class action litigation suit for compensation due to harm caused to me by deceptive trade practice and harm to my reputation and business.

Even weirder, in the “contact us” part of the site, Holton asks if you would be willing to file a complaint with the FTC or AG. (Of course, now that the AG is in YTB, it wouldn’t be too hard to catch up with him to file a complaint, right Crystal?)

Could it be that the man who claims to have helped thousands find financial freedom, and will soon be responsible for over half the income generated by YTB, is headed for the State Penn rather than Penn State?

The Phil Piccolo Story

Several people asked me about Phil Piccolo and who he is and what he did. I do not know the man personally, but from what I read, he is the King Zealot of MLM. If it is not MLM, he is not interested. Apparently, he has had some less than reputable programs over the years and was officially retired until Coach Tomer requested that he come check out YTB and help recruit more reps. YTB flew Phil from Florida to HQ in September 2007 two times and Phil signed up.

Within a month, he was a Level 1 Director and by the end of the recruiting period for the Birthday Bash had recruited enough people to steal the number one spot on the cruise.

For a more detailed description, here is a comment from this blog:

It seems that everyone wants to know the truth about Phil Piccolo and YTB and they don't feel they'll ever hear it until Phil leaves. Wrong. I happen to know the truth and everyone can take it for what it is worth -- even those who drone the Piccolo mantra about Bob Burtis having his bankruptcies. What Bob Burtis has or has not done does NOT change who Phil Piccolo is, what he has done and what he IS doing one iota. Phil stole the birthday bash away from whomever the second place winner was. This is how he did it: Phil started another one of his famous (or infamous?) programs and called it DubaiMLM. He made inferences to Dubai Dollars and free money and people went totally nuts signing up into the program from all over the world. Switch to YTB for a moment. Phil is doing his darnedest to sign up RTAs. He is also DYING financially because he has no income streams coming in. He needs money. So, he devises a clever plan to separate people from their money at $500 a whack. He starts telling everyone who signs up into YTB that they can be an RTA for free. He has access to a Florida travel agency (K & E International, Inc/KE Travel located at 4607 Lake Worth Rd, Lake Worth, FL 33463-3451 Phone: (561) 966-9808 who begins handing out FREE travel ID cards to everyone and anyone who signs up with Phil. Now, because Phil is giving away these RTA positions, he's not making any money. So, everyone who does this RTA thing must also participate in his "lead program" - $500 a pop. They are "GUARANTEED" ten sign ups a month and 3 conversions out of those ten. He tells them he is getting these super qualified leads from a high-end source and says they normally go for $1500 a month but that they are running a "special" and he'll get them in on the lead program for just $500. So people begin jumping on it. Phil is now raking in $500 from each person signing up as an RTA. I'm sorry, how many RTAs did Phil sign up? Each of these paid him $500. So, instead of YTB getting the money, PHIL PICCOLO got the money. Back to DubaiMLM. Everyone and everyone from all over the world is signing up into DubaiMLM. Since YTB is USA only, Phil can only use those leads that are here in the USA. Phil then takes the leads that have come into DubaiMLM and slams these people into YTB via a small sentence in one of his infamously long, boring and poorly worded emails that says they will be placed into a travel opportunity. So, the people from DubaiMLM are getting slammed into YTB, and the people from YTB who are paying $500 for ten leads are getting CRAP leads who know absolutely nothing about anything and are only interested in *free* money from DubaiMLM. Isn't that nice? THAT is who Phil Piccolo is. THAT is how he won coach's birthday bash. THAT is how he cheated the second place winner out of their RIGHTFUL place. It makes me sick. I can't believe that whoever the second place winner was really worked the program and DESERVED to win -- yet slimy con-man Phil Piccolo gets the free pass right under YTB's nose. I hear that he went to YTB headquarters to plead his cause and apparently fooled them into thinking he's just such a swell guy and is really just helping people. Right? I mean, after all, he has probably told them, "Look, I GAVE away the RTA positions and I made NO MONEY." When in actuality he was making $500 a month off of each person as long as they participated in his program. Phil Piccolo is the consummate con-artist and don't allow anyone to tell you anything differently.

And in a subsequent comment:

I'm anonymous for a reason. It isn't because I don't have proof -- I just prefer to remain anonymous for my own protection. Your wonderful Phil Piccolo last year set up some guy who crossed him and duct taped him to a chair, put duct tape over his eyes, and he and his "henchmen" slapped the snot out of the guy. I think there are a number of charges that would arise out of something like that, like probably felony kidnapping just to name one. Of course Piccolo was stupid enough to photograph the event -- and I just happen to have obtained one of the copies of that photograph. What is it about stupid, arrogant criminals that drives them to photograph or otherwise document their crimes? The funny thing about this is that there are a number of other people who would be able to independently verify the person in the photo I have and it is certainly authentic. Also, Piccolo had bragged about it to someone I know. Phil Piccolo is nothing but a common criminal who at some point will end up in jail.

After this post appeared, the anonymous poster contacted me with the following email:

Hi John. Please forgive my caution. You simply cannot be too careful out there. I took a look at your sites and read some articles you've written -- you're extremely talented and, I think, in no way connected to Phil Piccolo. What I would like to do is give you a call tomorrow sometime, if that is okay with you, and discuss my experiences with Mr. Piccolo from a first-hand point. You may, from there, make your own determination. It would be nice to have someone with some credibility help to address some of these issues. I will be happy to, after our conversation, provide you with the photograph in question. Also, when we talk tomorrow you'll know the story behind the photograph and the "why" behind it. From what I understand now, the authorities are breathing down Piccolo's neck and it is very likely that something will come to a head. At any rate, let me know your thoughts on tomorrow. Do you mind providing me with the best number with which to reach you? Thanks John.

Well, apparently when old Coach realized that Phil had scammed the scammer--by not legitimately recruiting RTAs, he was canned from YTB. Back in February when I asked about this, here is the response I received:

I know all about the crap on the internet about Phil. I got flooded with e-mails from other RTA’s to ask if what they read was true. He’s one of those “Professional Networkers” that everyone just hates cause he’s an MLM junkie. He’s been terminated, but what I don’t know is if it was because of all the fuss we made or something he did. (I even had a couple Directors ask if I could find something on him, that’s how bad they wanted him out.) I know the guy who brought him in and from what I hear, Coach was a little upset about the e-mail concerning him and Phil getting together. Apparently it was fabricated. I don’t know if Peter knew about his history or not, but he’s not responding to my e-mails. Here’s Piccolo’s rep site: www.ytb.com/themillionairementor, it’s no longer available. His other two marketing sites are also down. (http://www.sell3travelfree.com & www.joinforfreetravel.com )

So there you have it. The story of Phil Piccolo!

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey Joins YTB

Although his official biography does not reflect his latest business venture as a Referring Travel Agent, I have it on "unimpeachable" authority that he is indeed with YTB! Congratulations on scoring such a good recruit. I am sure he is up there with Dr. Seligman, Chris Paraldi (maybe they can chat gambling sometime), Phil Piccolo, the mythical Florida Senator, and the Director from Florida that was investigated and slapped down by the Florida Attorney General.

Folks, it has been proven all weekend that no one in YTB ever tell anything but the truth and that they are the bastions of integrity and honesty, so this news must be true. And just to make sure I properly identify my source, I am posting the proof!

Everyone please check back to AG Michael Mukasey's page in a day or so and I an sure the omission will be added. No doubt there will be a press release from YTB on this latest "acquisition" as well

from marchinek@xxxxxxxxx.net
to frenaye
date Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 5:35 PM
subject YTB
signed-by xxxxxxxxx.net

hide details 5:35 PM (20 minutes ago)

Interesting information you claim about YTB! Have you seen the year end reports and the income reports that have the low,average and high income earned last year? I've been in YTB for a few months and the checks are coming in and it has already paid for my investment. The company has incredible training provided online, live and phone training. If YTB was a scam we would not be publicaly traded? YTB is also a member of the Direct Selling Association that prohibits pyramid schemes, and to my knowledge the Attorney General has joined YTB! Keep your comments coming, its people like yourself that will motivate YTB to prevail. Best of luck to you and your travel business.

Crystal Marchinek