I have been asked by quite a few clients about my opinion on the new FTC rules for biz opps. If you are not familiar with what they are, here is a video that can help explain.

In my opinion the hardest obligation to fulfill is the 1 page discolsure document. According to the rule:

If you sell business opportunities, the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule requires that you give potential buyers a one-page disclosure document.  You have to provide this document at least seven days before the prospective buyer signs a contract or pays any money for the business opportunity. If you promote your business opportunity in Spanish or another language, the one-page disclosure document must be in that language.

Here is a link to an example of this document

So, what do I think…probably the same as every other online marketer out there….you cannot possibly sell this online. Conversions would be killed. I understand that the goverment wants to protect consumers, but this is extremely unrealistic and I strongly believe that with the tools available today, any individual can do their own research. Will this kill the online business opportunity market, absolutely not. Marketers are smart, they know how to adapt, and like other typs of business….they can easily expand outside of the US just like many other have already begun to do with great success.

I believe that you need to teach people to do things for themselves, if something appears to be shady, learn how to do research and how to make informed purchasing decisions. I don’t believe in deceptive marketing, but if everything is spelled out for someone they should be able to make a decision if they want to purcahse something with their own funds instead of relying on an organization like the FTC to make these decisions for them. If people become too reliant on organizations like this they they are much more likely to succumb to scams in other industries. Teach people to think, don’t think for them.

Those are just my two cents… but what I think you might want to hear is how does this effect getting merchant accounts for biz opps. Well, we have a few strategies that we like to employ and I would be more then happy to discuss those with you. Just contact me for more details.

Some points:

1. Consider expanding to new markets outside of the US

2. 1 time sales is much better then recurring rebills

3. Think about shipping something (CD, etc)

4. Don’t mention how much money people can make, position as a learning tool/course.