Appreciate the update

> Rich responds: My # 1 source is search engine advertising. I
> like people to be looking for info about making money from home,
> finding my ad, clicking on it, seeing my info, and then wanting
> more information. Most people who try PPC exhaust their capital
> before they understand how to make it work. A group of us worked
> on this for months, and we didn't give up until we got it right.

Excellent. Sounds like the right way to do it.

> Rich responds: Which websites have you reviewed? Try
> www.wealthandself.com. It is a "product only" website where the
> product is retailed for $1295 with no mention of a bizz opp.

This site was registered in Dec 2002. If they were selling the product only for ten years before that, I would have thought I'd find some mention of the name of the product for sale before 2002. I didn't. But that doesn't mean the product actually *sells* just because it's offered for $1295 on a site.

> Rich responds: Don't forget to work on those anger management
> skills. Also, maybe there is a supplement you can try to help
> you stay with the facts.

I find it useful to assemble the entire background on an operation as I conclude if it's going to build itself on a base of spam-generated business. But you're right - I never considered that PPT was the rogue spamming team and it was not sanctioned by EPI. In my experience, the mother ship (in this case EPI) would do anything they could to protect the successful teams and ignore or deflect spam compaints.

> First, the A - Team is just that,
> a team of distributors in EPI. Maybe they have 10% of the
> whole pie. I'm not really sure. Second, the Power Profit Team
> is the company that EPI fired. Remember the Cease & Desist
> Order I mentioned?

Hmmmmm, it's strange that the Ateam training site is the one with the email blast link: http://www.ateamtraining.com/media/epibts42.mp3 and they also have links to Profit Masters web sites and training. But you're right - there is no mention of Power Profit Team on that site.

> The only official marketing company recognized by EPI today
> is the Profit Masters Team. The Profit Masters Team does not
> allow email blasting. In fact, you are only allowed to send
> 30,000 emails monthly from their virtual office. You may buy
> leads only from vendors that guarantee that the leads were not
> purchased from another vendor and will be sold to another vendor.
> Your ranting and raving is misdirected. EPI got rid of that trash
> as soon as they smelled it.

Fantastic! My ranting and raving is valid as long as there's no public way to tell that PPT was terminated. They can say it's an internal and confidential matter, but I've got 30,000 colleagues in the network admin community that have a permanent distrust of EPI unless they're going to be a bit more transparent about their abusive distributors.

I tracked a lot of former 1UpAutomated members to EPI and LLI. They seemed to not know ANY way to market on-line except for spam.

> Rich responds: I believe I have addressed all these issues
> already. EPI and the Profit Masters Team do not teach, endorse,
> or condone spamming.

So they have the industry-standard abuse address set up and if I email them a researched spam report they will investigate? Cool!

At least two of the PPT spammers look like they've mutated over to push thecashsecrets.com now, so I should reserve some of my ire for thecashsecrets, eh? They're just another marketing team for EPI. And they still spam the same way. Do we have to complain to EPI about thecashsecrets team?

Odd lie posted here:
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/9/prweb162181.htm

"Charlie Golick further added in regards to the Profit Masters Team (The original Power Profit Team was squeezed out after a tense power take over) "You know, for years I had to be a "phone jockey”, pounding the phones making hundreds of out bound calls daily working 12-14 hour days just to make a 6-figure income from home. As soon as I started using the Power Profit Teams’s (Now called "Profit Masters Team " not to cofuse the reader) automated marketing system I started making one to five retail product sales per week, at a thousand dollar profit per sale, I quadrupled my weekly income with less than two hours per day on the phone and that was just to return in-bound calls from willing EPI customers. I have been marketing on line for 6 years now and I have seen many companies come and go and I believe Emerald Passport’s Web Education video and audio e- library coupled with the Profit Masters Team’s 21st century automated marketing system will be around for a very, very long time.""

Sounds like the MEMBERS who were using spam from the PPT marketing engine weren't terminated, and Charlie here puts some kind of spin on it that Profit Masters is the same stuff in a slightly different package. "Power takeover" indeed?

And you wonder why trust is hard to come by?

> I'm sure there are bad groups in every
> good company. I'm sure there are bad groups in your company.

Ummm, actually I'm not in direct sales or MLM. I'm a small network owner and engineer. I'm just here for the spam-related issues.

> But that does not make your company bad, and it does not make
> you bad. I know that it's fun, and certainly easier, to bash
> companies without all the facts, and all the others cheer in
> unison for you. But let's try to be a little more accurate in
> our reporting to the public that looks to us for guidance and
> due diligence.

How would anyone not an insider ever know that EPI finally woke up after MONTHS of inaction and did something about their spammers? I know now why PPT ignored me, because they advertised that they didn't tolerate spamming, either - but they were the spammers!

PPT, PM, and EPI *all* claim to not tolerate spammers. It's definitely easier to add all of them to our filters, and not let our clients visit their web sites, than spend hours trying to figure out who's lying and who might be the rare ethical operation.

Actually, the EPI no-spam policy looks like it was designed with a loophole big enough to drive a truck through it:

"As long as the EPI or any of our web site addresses, are not mentioned in any way, or are not in any way linked to EPI, you may pursue any advertising that you wish, or e-mail anything that you wish, that is strictly your business."

Hmmmmm. So if you spam using a landing page hosted in China, and get the spam victim to go there, and you leave the EPI name out of it, then it's not actionable?

See the problem? EPI is still allowing members to spam to generate leads, and they're using a non-standard address "admin@epibiz.com" instead of "abuse". That's highly suspicious in the network admin community.

Why do you think they cut their members such a big loophole?

> I have a backround in journalism and insurance underwriting.
> I deal with facts only, not hype, either pro or con. Whenever
> I see a message board with bashing that I know is false, because
> I know the facts first hand, I feel it is my duty to set the
> record straight. It does not make me very popular, but my pillow
> is very soft.