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A review of the history of internet marketing, the facts, what it’s about, and what’s next! Also, new opportunity iJango: is it a scam? Or are you being scammed ?
With a down economy, people out of work, and many grasping for hope just to hang on to what they have, less scrupulous organizations are looking for a ways to market to these people and take what little money is left in their wallet. The promise of untold riches, time spent with family, and freedom from the man motivates the average citizen to signup now without the proper research. Recently, I explored one such opportunity that was based on the internet: iJango. To really understand where this will go, you must first understand my background and some history of the internet. For the past fifteen years I have owned an online service that provides web hosting, domains, web design, and internet marketing to clients around the world. We are small in comparison to companies such as Godaddy.com, but back in 2002-2003, we were ranked as one of the fastest growing hosting companies.
Today I spend my time consulting with companies and organizations in entertainment, government, education, fashion, and retail to provide continued results to position their business image as a leader in the marketplace while furthering my breadth of knowledge within each industry.
The internet is always changing and no one person can have the answer, so education is a huge part of staying current with trends. I have spent the past two years under contract with one of the fastest growing colleges in the America, guiding their online presence and marketing. That said, there is a level of expertise that I bring to the table when looking at opportunities to make money online. By no means am I the absolute authority on this subject. I am not a multi-billionaire and have never been on CNN, CBS, NBC, or ABC. I don’t drive an Austin Martin, or own a plane, or travel the world each week. I am an average American who makes a good living doing what I love.
Having experienced what works and what doesn’t over the course of the internet’s short life provides me with a clear vision on how to recognize the trends and opportunities it affords.
The Prompt
Recently, I was asked on a local radio station to talk about the entrepreneurial spirit of America and how people could harness this for their future. I gave two main points for being an entrepreneur: you have to be willing to risk it all for what you believe, and you have to be willing to work 18 hour days. I was then led down the path of talking about “what’s next for the internet.” I answered convergence. Convergence is taking each way companies market online and putting them into one place to give value to both the end users and the companies that advertise.
The History Behind It All
In 1993, when the internet really came online in full force, the first marketing medium that caught on for business was email. Sending information across the world in seconds sparked the marketers to start to use email as a tool. It was very effective at first, but over time, as more organizations started to use it the return on investment was diminished. Companies had to spend more money to get the same results they did just a few months or years ago. Is email still used today as a marketing tool? You bet! Is it the most effective tool? No. Email boxes are being filled with spam, and viruses while people are fear driven not to open email that they don’t recognize because it could cause damage to their computer and steal personal information.
Email today has migrated to a double opt-in system that makes users confirm twice that they want and know they are going to receive email from a business or organization. This opt-in system is an effective way to reach customers, clients, and constituents but still less effective than when the medium of email was introduced.
Next, it was websites, then search engines, then affiliate marketing, then auction sites, and then social media all vying for your attention and revenue. All these mediums are used as marketing tools, are still going the same way as email, and are less effective with respect to an advertisers return on investment, but still having value. We knew Facebook was headed that way when Grandma hopped on and was finding all her high school friends. Why? Youth drives our economy.
Today we see companies taking it to the next level to attract consumers to their products and services. Google provides a vast sea of tools and within the past month launched their own social network called Buzz. Yahoo has done the same. Even last month we saw the powerhouse of Microsoft and Yahoo sign a deal to converge their resources for searches. These free tools are affective for gathering people so that advertisers have a pool of people to message their brand to. Google’s profits soared 17% in the last quarter of 2009 to nearly $2 billion dollars, up from a year ago where they only took in a cool $382 million dollars.
So is providing free tools and services profitable? Yes, very! But how? Advertisers! It’s how your local TV and radio stations have been providing free services to you since their inception. Isn’t everybody offering free stuff on the internet? For the most part, you can get free hosting, free domains, free email, free social networking, and so on. What separates these companies for the consumers and why do they use Yahoo, Google, Facebook, MySpace, Friendster? Is it value, brand, or reputation? None of or all of those! You as a consumer use what you use because someone told you about it: a friend, family member, business associate, or maybe an advertisement. I suspect nothing you own was acquired without an outside referral from something or someone. It’s how two years ago everyone migrated from MySpace to Facebook. It’s how consumers will migrate from Toyota to Honda or maybe even buy American. It takes one bad experience and a referral to make people change their spending or use trends.
The iJango Heard Around the World
On the radio interview mentioned earlier, I was asked about a new browser called EOS by iJango. I was asked to explain how it works and why it is different. I had mentioned to the interviewer that I believe this concept would catch on and that seeing the current trends, this is where I believe the next greatest opportunity for business ROI was heading. My statement was specifically from an advertising and marketing perspective.
What is iJango
Simply stated the EOS Browser by iJango takes everything that all the other marketing mediums do and converges it into one place. Earlier I mentioned Google, Yahoo.com, and many others are doing it. Subtle but strategic. What is so different with iJango? Here are just a few differences:
#1: Most of the others are portals (although Google released its browser, Chrome, in 2008). EOS by iJango is a browser. iJango started as a portal which made it unattractive to many because it was not unique. Since their inception in July 2009, they have evolved to provide a product of value to their users and to businesses using it as an advertising medium. By launching a browser specifically dedicated to their users it helped set them apart. It’s not a bar you install within your browser (although that’s how it started), but a browser, a browser like Internet Explorer and Firefox. In fact the browser is based on the open source version of Firefox. Is anyone else doing a browser? Yes, but other people started Social Media sites. Ever heard of Friendster? Jonathan Abrams, founder of Friendster, started the social network trend. I suspect most of you never heard of or him or his network. Why? Because Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook came along, used the same concept but executed and maximized it correctly. Our history is riddled with people who have great ideas but fail to execute it because they are afraid to fail or lack the will to weather criticism and the storms.
#2: They pay their community members for using it. I asked the question, what would happen if Facebook paid you for each friend you had or Google paid you for using their search engine and earning them two billion dollars last quarter? People continue to use these services that were referred by a friend or they saw on TV, heard on the Radio, and so on…
#3: it’s free. That’s it. Built within the iJango system is an opportunity for people to own, so to speak, their own iJango business and generate income in four distinct ways, and I suspect they will be adding more as their network and community grows. The sole goal, and the way you make the most money with this business opportunity, is by referring other free users. It is a no brainer. I have used Firefox because a friend told me about it. People have to use a browser to view the World Wide Web in a GUI (Graphical User Interface) format. Why not use one that pays you back?
Emails received by the radio station during my interview said that this sounds like a Multi-level Marketing Scam. If iJango is an MLM scam, then so is Facebook (where you built their empire and didn’t get paid), Avon, MaryKay (costs an average rep about $1500), SendOut Cards ($500), Excel Long Distance (youngest company ever listed on the NYSE ) and so on… All of these businesses require the person who wants to earn revenue to buy a product or service from the company. iJango doesn’t. Why? The product is free and advertisers pay the bill. What if Google, Yahoo, and Facebook all decided to share with you their revenues for just using their tools? iJango is! Now are you going to become rich, probably not, but would an extra $20-$100 a month change some things? After speaking about all of these things I gave the mic back to the interviewer.
Lights went on in people’s minds all over and, of course, everyone hit Google.com to search for this company iJango. First page of Google reads SCAM< SCAM< SCAM. Of course staff and owners of the station started to freak out. Just before I got on the radio, the DJ was talking about fear and how it disables people from action. It was awesome to see their fear in action. The first page of Google is like the tabloid magazine when it comes to new startups and bad press. The best lies are ones that have some truth in it but in essence are still false truths. I can only imagine how Tiger Woods felt when his whole life was printed on the front of every paper, search engine, and network in the world. None of us are that good and perfect. So it is with business.
Let’s Talk Facts
Did iJango have the best start? No, Steve Smith, the man behind Excel and other profitable companies teamed up with a couple guys, which included Cameron Sharp, with whom the financiers trusted to build the concept to a working model, but failed. They built a search bar, which had been done a hundred times by other companies but failed. Their bar failed on first launch. In fact it failed while presenting it to the hundreds of community members on a national call. Additionally, some of the initial staff made assumptions of partnerships with other companies that were not in place which caused additional adverse relationships. The natural reaction of people who have no clue about technology is to freak, run, and call it a scam. I would love to call my network administrator a scam when my internet connection stops working or I get spam in my email box. Hey people and business technologies fail, get over it. It’s what you do after, that makes the difference. Yahoo failed in February 2000 when their network was hit with a distributed denial of service attack. In my opinion, they failed to protect their servers and network. It crippled them for a day and caught national attention. Did they fail as a company? Not at all!
How did iJango correct it? They started from scratch with a new design team and decided to pause and evaluate the vision, took the time to follow the vision, took the criticism, acquired the correct partnership and affiliate agreements and did it right. Many of the original design team members (Cameron B. Sharpe included) are NOT with the company. Today, iJango is more than willing to provide documentation to those who want to take the time to discover the truth. I have attached a detailed release from iJango concerning this that their corporate team forwarded to Fujah for distribution. Click to View
Why did the Better Business Bureau get involved?
As I said earlier, when technology fails people naturally think they are being taken for a scam. There were nearly 40 complaints, all of which have been resolved. The BBB of Austin, failed to follow proper procedure giving iJango 30 days to correct the matter, and as such, because of the great liability they have forced upon themselves, they have yet to correct any statements. I suggest you search google.com for the BBB scam, some interesting reading. See the attached .pdf below for more information on the BBB issue. Click to View
Have other companies failed with their product or services? Yes the internet and our world is riddled with them but we continue to use the services of Yahoo, Facebook, Google, and many others. All have run into technical difficulties with their services. What makes a great company is how they respond to them.
Where is this all going?
I don’t know. If I could predict that I would be a multi-billionaire, driving my Austin Martin to the airport, to hop on my plane, flying to my yacht off the coast of France. iJango could very well be the next name on everyone’s lips when it comes to the internet. I know the convergence concept is sound and the market is moving that way. All I know is that it’s a browser. It came out in January of 2010. It works well, and a user can earn a few dollars for using it, a few more dollars than Facebook paid for all the friends. All of the scammers, the BBB’ers, and anyone else who has a problem with the leadership at iJango have quieted, haven’t heard a word from them since last fall. Maybe if we could all get over the fact that we don’t understand everything we could learn to evaluate things from a business and strategic perspective rather than an emotional one. I challenge you as the reader to go deeper into things. Don’t just take the surface statements of organizations. If we, as Americans, continue to believe what other people say rather than researching it for ourselves, well, opportunity and the world will pass us bye.
Final Thoughts
The thing that makes life great is exploring new things, overcoming extreme obstacles, and succeeding regardless of the past. I would say the team at iJango is showing their true colors and their ability to not give up, even when false information and half truths are spread about their company and their product. I know I will be watching them closely because in the end, I believe, it is the false statements and scam websites that are scamming you, the consumer and not ijango.
Online Marketing Tip
The easiest way for search engines to pick up your website for a product or service you sell is to create a scam website about a product or service, and direct them to your website. Online marketers have been using it for years and the internet always likes a good scandal.
Other Failures
iJango BBB Statement
Click to View
