Say 'Bon Voyage" To Your Clients

As YTB re-stated in their December 15th revision to their terms and conditions, the TSO or the Rep ultimately does not "own" the client or the client list.

Of course no one "owns" a client and the client if free to do business with whomever they like.

But it seems YTB is kicking that up a notch and will now be directly marketing to the clients of the TSOs. What ever happened to the best way to market was face to face? The following was forwarded to me and is excerpted from a YTB newsletter.

Traditionally, YTB has focused it's marketing efforts on THEIR customers - which is us, the Travel Site Owners and Reps. Beginning August 1, YTB will extend their efforts to the TSOs' customers as well -- the ultimate consumer of travel and retail products. As you'll hear at Convention, YTB will commence marketing on behalf of our TSOs. Deals and Steals will no longer be about travel only, although they'll continue to highlight great travel packages. In fact, you will have the ability to piece together highly targeted travel offerings to your customers. YTB will include a "Deal of the Week" and will focus on our most loyal customers like many of the top companies in the nation.

Does this also now mean that YTB will be re-combining the two "separate" businesses because the Deals and Steals will no longer be about "travel only"?

Happy Fourth of July

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A Happy & Safe Independence Day!

Sound Familiar?

Do any of these press releases ring a bell?

PTN Continues Growth Strategy, Acquires Leading California Agency
FRESNO, Calif., June 23, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PTN, Inc. (OTCBB:PTVL) is pleased to announce today that the company has entered into an agreement to acquire Cruise Adventures, which has operated its travel business for nearly 10 years, in the affluent River Park retail shopping area, and is among the leading travel agencies in the Central Valley of California.

This acquisition is important as we continue to build our Retail Division. Cruise Adventures has operated successfully for 10 years under the ownership of Industry veteran Craig Mungary. Mr. Mungary will also take control of the Retail Sales Division of PTN, Inc, which now includes, Pro Travel Fresno, Cruise Adventures and Laser Travel of Melbourne Australia.

We are running a pyramid and in an attempt to comply with seller of travel laws, we will buy a agency, call it a "leading agency" and everyone will think we are legitimate.

Pro Travel Network Announces Q3 Results for Fiscal `09
FRESNO, Calif., May 18, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pro Travel Network, Inc. (OTCBB:PTVL) (the "Company") has released its unaudited financial results for its fiscal third quarter which ended March 31, 2009.

The Company had total revenues of $1,181,960 for that time period compared to revenues of $2,672,811 for the quarter which ended March 31, 2008. Gross profit was $602,477 compared to $1,104,167 for the same period last year. The company did experience a comprehensive loss of $94,981 for the third quarter compared to a comprehensive gain of $241,088 for the third quarter of 2008. As a result, earnings per share for the third quarter were $0.00 compared to earnings of $0.01 per share for the third quarter of 2008.

Pro Travel Network President & CEO Mr. Paul Henderson commented, "The first three months of this year were not only challenging for our company, but for the nation as a whole. Financial markets were under incredible stress and while some were looking for a bailout, we were looking for growth opportunities."

Eeks, people are seeing this scheme for what it is and are dropping like flies. But we will blame it on the economy and hope that people don't realize that the the revenues from the first three months probably came from prior sales.

Pro Travel Network Wins Award for Sales, Professionalism and Marketing
FRESNO, Calif., June 10, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pro Travel Network (OTCBB:PTVL) has been recognized in the industry for its sales, professionalism and marketing by Carnival Cruise Lines. Carnival's top "Pinnacle Award" was given to Pro Travel as one of the top marketers of the "Fun Ship" vacation experience.

Apparently the Pinnacle Award is exclusive to Pyramid Schemes. Maybe the award designer made a boo boo and got the words confused..PINNACLE and PYRAMID..3 syllables, each starts with the letter "P". Not awarded to any legitimate travel agency...hmmm. Hey Carnival, are we on to something here?

Pro Travel Network Undergoes Name Change to Reflect New Ventures
FRESNO, Calif., May 28, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pro Travel Network, Inc. (OTCBB:PTVL) (the "Company") has announced that effective Friday, May 22, 2009, the Company has officially undergone a name change to PTN Inc. This will serve as a parent company to five separate operating divisions that will be launched this year beginning June 1st.

Company CEO Mr. Paul Henderson commented, "PTN is a travel related company with several travel related offerings. With the launch of several new products on the horizon, we believed that rather than launching them under the Pro Travel Network name, we would launch them as fully separate operating divisions, since they have very little in common with our current Pro Travel Network model."

Oops, we got in trouble on infringing on the brand of a legitimate travel business called ProTravel International (#22 on the TW Power List). Well, in order to more accurately reflect what we do, let's eliminate "pro" and "travel" from the name. That way when we add more potions and lotions, it will be easier.

And the financial playbook seems to be the same as well. Lose $1.7 million but pull a $600K+ salary. Hire the a used car salesman for your COO. It's a perfect recipe for a travel agency!

Once Inside, Now Out Looking In

This was posted on a forum. It is reportedly from a former Power Team Leader in YTB, yet offers the same advice many have been saying for years.

As a former Power Team Leader with YTB, I can understand why YTB Travel is not a good fit for many who have joined this program. As a result, their level of discontent has risen to the level where the States Attorney Generals of California, Missouri and Illinois are preparing lawsuits against Your Travel Biz. The following is a former YTB affiliate’s “inside” opinion about these recent turn of events:

We became an affiliate with Your Travel Biz (YTB) because of the large demand for travel. Since YTB is a virtual company that “sits” on the Internet, we used Internet marketing tools to grow and run our YTB business, set up custom web and blog sites for exposure, and used lead generation tools to drive traffic to our sites. The good news is that we were successful.. The bad new was that we were notified by YTB’s Legal Department that YTB does not allow its YTB affiliates to have custom web sites, or blog sites so we terminated our relationship with YTB in July, 2008.

As for others who joined YTB, their chances for success was limited from the start. Unfortunately, the demographic, or segment of the population, that is attracted to MLM’s or network marketing companies are often from lower income levels who view companies like Your Travel Biz as their ticket to get rich quick. Obviously, most of the people they know seldom travel, don’t go on cruises, don’t sign up for golf packages in Hawaii, and don’t have the $500 to join the program. Once they go through all their friends, family or “warm group” they run out of people to talk to and quit the business. Tragically, it’s really that simple, and much has been written about this reality.

Since YTB does not advertise, it’s up to the YTB Reps to get the word out about their home based travel business. How many people can the average YTB Rep tell about their online travel business as compared to the endless TV commercials that run Travelocity and Expedia.Com commercials 24X7? At the end of the day, your family, friends and warm group know about your home based travel agency and may book travel with you if they can get a better deal. Two problems with this scenario…YTB does not provide the best deals on travel, the commission on any domestic airline flight is $3 regardless of the ticket price, and how often does your “warm group” travel? Business travel doesn’t count because it’s booked through their company. In this case, not enough people will ever know about your YTB Travel business, can’t find your YTB web site on the Internet, and YTB’s policy does not allow custom web sites that provide the exposure you need so people can find you on the Internet.

As mentioned, the airline industry pays very little commission to travel agents. Roughly, $5 per domestic ticket. At Your Travel Biz, a YTB Rep gets 60% of $5, or $3 in commissions for each ticket booked on their YTB Travel site. The commissions for cruises are much better; however, how many people do you know that are taking a cruise next week? Usually you find out about someone taking a cruise after they have already booked the trip. In addition, no one takes a boat from St.Louis to Kansas City..They drive, or fly…

Most every MLM or Network marketing company pays commissions on people you recruit and bring into the business. In the beginning it’s very exciting, but before long two drop out for every one person you bring in…The drop out rate is high because the failure rates in MLMs is estimated at 80%. This failure rate is documented by most MLM industry analyst Secondly, they target the wrong audience or people to bring into the business. For example, recruiting people who have limited or no computer skills, literacy issues, aren’t open to learning or taking direction, low committment levels etc….

Since the failure rate for MLM’s, Network Marketing companies and any type of home based business is very high, what are the reasons for this extreem failure rate? People do not have the training required to succeed, lack of information, don’t use business tools, have little or no experience, don’t know enough people to contact, aren’t committed to working extreemly hard, little or no understanding of the power of the Internet, have limited computer skills, are not comfortable selling things period, aren’t familiar with the benefits of their product offering, don’t enjoy or know how to recruit people into their business and so on and so on…..

Moral of the story? Many YTB Travel competitors are using YTB’s legal problems as a tool to recruit people away from YTB. Let’s say the YTB Rep leaves and joins their company. He’s still faced with the same challenges to succeed, because nothing has really changed that would alter his chances for success. In most cases, he won’t make money at his new company for the same reasons he didn’t make money at YTB. So, who’s to blame? Is it YTB’s fault, the YTB Rep’s fault, or a combination of both parties? I fall back to my statement that some people just don’t fit within an MLM, network marketing or home based business regardless of the type of company or products they offer.