Does anyone have experience with iZigg?  I am intrigued by text marketing...  'would love to hear your thoughts.

Pleasure to meet you.

Word on Izigg is that its a new MLM company that promises to generate wealth through text message advertising, just like computer spam, only on your phone. Its fair to say that at this point, any time you go outside it seems as though 80% of the population is texting. Its happening in schools, movie theaters, the work place, church, you name it, its being done in it. I'm not much for spam see, but I could have appreciated the concept if only it didn't involve such infamous mlm stars such as the Burnlounge bunch. If you aren't familiar with Burnlounge, it was essentially a group of crooks recently shut down by the FTC. This collaboration of fellows includes Brian Underwood, Burnlounge distributor and Sales Director, Dr. Scott Elliott Jason Borne, a founding Partner. In my opinion this is another hype driven opportunity for many people to lose money, and to give some rapidly declining opportunists the opportunity to make another penny on their way down. Other projects these guys were involved with include YTB Travel, iJango, MyMusicTicket and a handful of others, all having failed. I hope I haven't come off as rude in my answer, especially if you are somehow affiliated or interested, I mean no disrespect. Welcome to Repspace btw.

Hi Carleen, would you share that what is iZigg?

Thanks for replying Carleen.

Regard

Ashley

I was just checking these guys out last week. Lets go into some detail here peeps, Mobile marketing is seriously the shiznat if you're looking to make some long term dollars. If you had the chance back in the 80s to invest some Microsoft stock would you do it? Hell yeah you would, I know I would. Now I don't know who is who as far as big dogs go in the mobile marketing industry, but I do know that its the future. I read somewhere that mobile marketing is actually like a 30 billion dollar industry, and its barely even started yet. More people have the ability to text now than they do access to a simply computer. If you can get an advertisement directly to a consumer, you're basically bi passing the TV, Radio, Internet and all that jazz. I don't want anymore spam than Rambo up there, but I do realize the potential to make some cash.

Let me go ahead and get it out of the way that I think iZigg is not something you want anything to do with, but like the op said, the concept is delicious with a capital D. If there's one good thing a group of con artists can do, its basically see an opportunity, and iZigg definitely has their eye on something. There's a study I heard about that says most people prefer to send a text than make a call, if you have in-laws, you probably agree. iZigg would theoretically allow you to jump in between two people and tell them to buy your new microwave able solar-powered pancake mix, but only if the two parties have opted to receive such advertisements, but get this: A ton of people will, because there will most likely be discounts for those that do, or the opportunity to get free Face book points or some other time wasting prize, it won't matter, people will want it.

The major plus with this kind of idea is that it gives access to massive advertising radius without paying Rupert Murdoch 275 million dollars. According to the Internet, iZigg offers "-mCard" for $14.95/month: which includes 1 keyword (text “keyword” to 90210), 1 account login, unlimited auto responder, custom text response, customized mobile landing page and a free Netflix subscription. Just kidding about that last part.

Now to tap into what Rambo was saying, and the bad news....

MlmRambo is in fact correct, that the people running the iZigg show are 1 step up from convicts.  Burnlounge, Inc. was founded in 2004, and was eventually dubbed a pyramid scheme by the FTC. Its product was basically music, via an online store. They of course considered themselves an mlm company and described their business model as "concentric retail". Burnlounge basically provided people with a music service that allowed customers to preview and purchase music, and chat. If you were a musician and wanted to sell your own music the you would pay for a subscription.  They did the whole ring tone, and audio books thing as well, but eventually fell flat on their face.

As far as iZigg goes, I love the concept, but I'd leave them alone, because the last thing you need is to vest your time and money into something that ends up being taken away because the founders just aren't capable of staying the hell out of trouble and doing things legally.

Hi Rambo,

Actually I prefer blunt replies and am loving this forum for the oft' respectful tone I am seeing.    :) 

I had run across similar information and wondered if the people who sign up don't research prior to signing up or just don't care because they might make a "ton of money"?

Is anyone here using text marketing, either for your business or as a customer?  Which company?  We use appt reminder texts for our other business and it has been very well received.

Hi Ashley!

In a nutshell, iZigg is an MLM that offers text marketing.  Their website is www.iZigg.com if you'd like to learn more.  :)

Travis, you sound like you know your stuff, though I still strongly disagree about the benefits you've listed. Again, you mention saving the city money, but you are doing it at the cost of the working man. You can't blame the American laborer for not utilizing Chinese technology, after all, this isn't China. Yet. The wealth is all being accumulated into corporations, none of whom REALLY give back to the community, in fact its focused directly on making the corporation yet even wealthier. That's all fine and good in the interest of capitalism, but your not doing a thing for the economy. Most of these giant corporations aren't even particularly affiliated with the USA anymore, even if this is where they begin. You can argue that they pay taxes, but are the taxes enough? Not by a long shot, not when compared to their annual earnings. It becomes an international entity that is basically providing inferior products for United States currency, the profit is then used elsewhere. No jobs are made, no quality is included in the product, and prices go down along with the value of minimum wage.

In some ways I think we are kind of comparing apples to oranges, because I'm focusing on products and your focusing on services, but the effect is more or less the same. Even for the businesses that do it, outsourcing isn't all peaches and cream.

You have to deal with linguistic barriers, which are easily worked around but still take a considerable amount of resources to get past. Everyone thinks the higher profit gets dumped back into the economy, but it doesn't, so the social responsibility of it is null since the government is the only one benefiting from the figures, not to mention the struggle of staff turnover. My arguments to the companies are weak, I realize that. The benefit for doing it far outweighs the cons, but for the sake of the country its taking place in, I can't imagine that few people seem troubled by how drastically things have changed because of it. The quality of every day items should be the sole sign of such change, but somehow no one seems to talk about it.

So Rick,

iZigg says 90210 is HUGE, comparable to dot com (back in the day)...  I'm just not feeling it.  Your thoughts?

I wish I had the time to peacefully debate with you boys because I've enjoyed this conversation so this will have to be my last post on the topic for a little while until I get this month's priorities in order. I can't see how you can say corporations don't give back to society, unless you're talking about the really bad one's. Corporations in and of themselves are not the problem. I know you are young, and with so many negative things being said today its hard not to form an opinion on things like this during economic down times. Its the nature of the game, that when things are going well, nationalism is at an all time high, but in times of war, crisis, and heavy criticism from the rest of the world, everyone becomes a critic. Capitalism, corporatism, and even democracy all become targets.

My apologies for sounding like a knowitall and doing the "dad" routine, but I can bet that as you get a little older, you will probably value the way things work here more than you do now. If we could all live by our ideals it would probably be much closer to an ideal world, unfortunately we share the earth with many different groups of people, thousands of cultures within cultures, all of whom seek to sustain not only their society, but also themselves. Its impossible to balance it all and keep everyone of them happy, and that also includes being fair. There really and truly are no rules in love and war guys, there is only survival. Corporations guarantee that, through jobs, affordable products, and contributing to the economy, which we all rely on. A little outsourcing isn't the problem, I would instead look toward where the majority of our money is going and policing 3rd world societies.

Thank you for the conversation gentlemen.

When I first started reading about this I was very leery, and I began thinking about things like Spam, etc. One of the most depressing changes I've seen in the last decade is advertising. It's seriously sickening, it has gone to the point where if you are in any way connected to the outside world electronically, there is some tiny space where someone has decided to insert an advertisement. This has been an incremental thing throughout history, and I was ok with it a good 15 years ago, but the beast has seriously changed our entire landscape.

I'll get more into iZigg don't worry, but for now let me get this off my chest :P.

People have become extremely tolerant about advertising, not because it has done us any good, but because we haven't had a choice. What once used to be 5 minutes per 1 hour TV show, has now become a stream of commercials with segments of movie in between. Email used to be a fairly pure function, but once your info is exposed to even the smallest of bad sources, its all over. You will fill your spam filter up so fast your head will spin. You can't read a magazine without 5 cards falling out of it anymore, or play a video game without blatant billboards that completely ruin immersion. It used to be you might see a Coke sitting on the table in the back ground of a movie, but now its become a parody of itself, and the star is drinking it with the label conveniently facing the camera, and the producers know it looks ridiculous, but that ridiculousness has somehow become a virtue.

You can't even surf the web smoothly anymore, because if you unconsciously move your mouse over the wrong part of the screen, a huge window will pop up and if you're lucky; won't blast out your eardrums with some @$$hole telling you you've won a free Ipod. Go ahead and turn on the radio I dare ya. If you're lucky you might hear a song in between all the marketing nonsense. If you get bored with that you can go on Youtube, but you may not enjoy watching that since that too has pop ups now. Yup, in the middle of your vitally important video, you have to hit an X to close whatever nonsense they throw at you. None of this is enough of course, because there is still room for more, on your phone and on mine.

The only blessing here is that according to iZigg, you can disable the feature, but you better believe it will most likely cost you, and that's not limited to that one company. We are a tolerant species, and we will let them trample on us eventually too. The text advertisements will become the norm over time, and you will be able to pay an extra $6.99 per month to disable them. And you will. I don't want to sound like an anti-marketing nazi or anything, but why is it necessary for a price tag to be place on everything in the entire universe? It just seems like not too many things are very fun anymore because of this intrusion, and I can't imagine services like this doing us any good overall.

I know that you me, and everyone else all want to improve our business every which way we can, but for the love of all that is decent in the world, when do we draw a line?

Ok, so I realized I advertised that I would talk a bit more about iZigg, but that was only a marketing ploy to make some of you read my rant! :D

So Rick,

iZigg says 90210 is HUGE, comparable to dot com (back in the day)...  I'm just not feeling it.  Your thoughts?

Well, I'd be a liar if I were to say there isn't an atom bomb of potential in mobile marketing. Though that is basically the capitalist in me seeing a damn good opportunity when I see one. I don't know if I am thrilled with iZigg being the ringleader though, and on a more personal level I can't stand the idea of adds on my Blackberry. Sure iZigg says its something you have to agree to, but I bet it won't stay that way given enough time. Other companies are probably working on this as well, and if I were going to try to get in on it, it wouldn't be through an mlm. I would probably just buy some stocks in the heaviest distributor of mobile marketing, and I doubt that is iZigg. Or is it?

iZigg has this posted on their web site: ("All cell phone carriers, and the FCC www.fcc.gov/aboutus.html have strict and enforced policies regarding text messaging. All campaigns are required to be 100% permission-based so you must have texted a KEYWORD to receive your communications. You can opt-out anytime, whenever you desire. iZigg does not support SPAM and enforces a zero-tolerance policy.")

I think that definitely sounds promising for a guarantee, but somehow I'm left with a lack of reassurance.

The other thing is, unless you're giving people surveys so that they can determine what types of adds have better odds at making them investigate further, its not going to have much of a point. I don't know any 18 year olds looking forward to life insurance adds, and how long you think they will tolerate it, even if they opted in? This will have to be well aimed for it to work, so the right adds get to the right people. If you do that, then I think its a revolutionary, albeit terrible idea since I think spam and advertising in general sucks.

Needless to say, I'm already finding a few complaints about people claiming to be ripped off. That's nothing new, and doesn't exactly mean its true, but its surfacing anyway.

I tip my hat to you sir, as I kindly agree to disagree. :P

Thank you too for the fun chat T, hope we get to continue it in the future.

When I first started reading about this I was very leery, and I began thinking about things like Spam, etc. One of the most depressing changes I've seen in the last decade is advertising. It's seriously sickening, it has gone to the point where if you are in any way connected to the outside world electronically, there is some tiny space where someone has decided to insert an advertisement. This has been an incremental thing throughout history, and I was ok with it a good 15 years ago, but the beast has seriously changed our entire landscape.

I'll get more into iZigg don't worry, but for now let me get this off my chest :P.

People have become extremely tolerant about advertising, not because it has done us any good, but because we haven't had a choice. What once used to be 5 minutes per 1 hour TV show, has now become a stream of commercials with segments of movie in between. Email used to be a fairly pure function, but once your info is exposed to even the smallest of bad sources, its all over. You will fill your spam filter up so fast your head will spin. You can't read a magazine without 5 cards falling out of it anymore, or play a video game without blatant billboards that completely ruin immersion. It used to be you might see a Coke sitting on the table in the back ground of a movie, but now its become a parody of itself, and the star is drinking it with the label conveniently facing the camera, and the producers know it looks ridiculous, but that ridiculousness has somehow become a virtue.

You can't even surf the web smoothly anymore, because if you unconsciously move your mouse over the wrong part of the screen, a huge window will pop up and if you're lucky; won't blast out your eardrums with some @$hole telling you you've won a free Ipod. Go ahead and turn on the radio I dare ya. If you're lucky you might hear a song in between all the marketing nonsense. If you get bored with that you can go on Youtube, but you may not enjoy watching that since that too has pop ups now. Yup, in the middle of your vitally important video, you have to hit an X to close whatever nonsense they throw at you. None of this is enough of course, because there is still room for more, on your phone and on mine.

The only blessing here is that according to iZigg, you can disable the feature, but you better believe it will most likely cost you, and that's not limited to that one company. We are a tolerant species, and we will let them trample on us eventually too. The text advertisements will become the norm over time, and you will be able to pay an extra $6.99 per month to disable them. And you will. I don't want to sound like an anti-marketing nazi or anything, but why is it necessary for a price tag to be place on everything in the entire universe? It just seems like not too many things are very fun anymore because of this intrusion, and I can't imagine services like this doing us any good overall.

I know that you me, and everyone else all want to improve our business every which way we can, but for the love of all that is decent in the world, when do we draw a line?

Ok, so I realized I advertised that I would talk a bit more about iZigg, but that was only a marketing ploy to make some of you read my rant! :D

Wallace, that is probably going to be the single most unpopular opinion on all of these boards, and you're no longer allowed to make fun of my rants by the way, since you seem to deserve an oscar for this one. Despite the fact that this pretty much is a gathering of advertisers discussing business, I couldn't agree with you more. I think advertising once had class, it was direct, and sometimes subtle. Advertising could even have once been considered pleasurable in moderation, but you know what? You're right. It seems like another form of pollution now. The worst part is, you can't beat its effectiveness, and the only way to compete with the advertising of another is to out advertise him or her, so we're all stuck either drinking the poisoned water or dying of thirst. That's life my man, that's life.

You guys lot me on all the political stuff, I just think spam is effing annoying, and I would never use a service like this. Totally respect that other people have specific needs, and I'm not knocking them for using it, plus anyone who has eyes can see beyond a shadow of a doubt that text marketing is seriously full of potential. Its not my kind of bag though. As far as corporations and capitalism, there are pros and cons, and the same could be said about democracy and socialism. There are negatives and positives that come with both, but most people think of an extreme version of either one causing them to be afraid of it. When you consider socialism without all the stigmas and the "horror" that is generated in the hearts of republicans for example, it really doesn't sound all that bad. On the other hand, it sure is a hell of a thing to enjoy the freedom to make as much money as you want, spend it on what you want, hire whom you want, and add to the variety of "things" already taking up most of the space on earth lol. I wonder if there isn't some happy medium in between somewhere.

Its not spamming when people opt-in, as they would have to do in order to get the texts...

Although I realize there is concern that the opt-out may not be satisfactory.  I won't be opting-in to unreliable sources, that's for sure.

A friend of mine uses iZigg so I opted-in just to try it out.   Personally I like the idea (as a consumer) of getting quick, short updates to my cell phone.  I have opted to receive cnn's push notifications and really like them. 

I think some of my customers would love to get a quick text/photo of each month's new warmer and scent or of a special sale just for them... 

So what subjects and/or companies/products/sales, if any, would you like to receive texts from if you knew you could completely opt-out at any time?

You guys are funny. Slightly misguided perhaps, but your posts always make me laugh (in a good way). The world is changing rapidly, and you two youngsters will be around to see the most prevalent changes of all. The economy has declined quite drastically, not only in North America, but Europe, and other places abroad. In the time my oldest son has been alive, I've seen the fall of the Soviet Union, a national catastrophe that surpassed the severity of Pearl Harbor, and the worst economic state of my lifetime. Meanwhile, China has replaced the United States of America on virtually all fronts, and as competing nation, we must learn to adapt every way that we can. I'm afraid that money is going to become even more of a necessity as resources, and living expenses continue to rise and jobs decline. I see The United States quality of living being brought down a few pegs, and we as a nation are going to have to get a little bit tougher, more willing to work for less, and give up some of the things we have come to enjoy.

This means making smart business decisions, getting rid of expenses, saving money, and getting as educated as we can. The United States has been one of the best places to live for a long time, and I believe it will remain that way for awhile, but there will be some lows, and embracing things that help us survive that low will be essential. Young guys like yourselves may have to forgo your opinions about marketing and advertising in favor of survival. I think your ideals are wonderful, and no one likes spam and commercials, but the fact is that its you, the consumers who are paying for the products that are giving profit to the companies that are paying for the advertising and providing others with jobs. Its like a garden, and needs to be maintained in a variety of ways. We need to find new ways to get people to spend money, preferably on American Products, but that's an entirely different debate.

You're right about iZigg not being the first to attempt to provide this type of advertising, but there is a very good chance (despite being run by criminals) that it may take off like a rocket. Keep an eye on these guys.

Fight the machine!

Just kidding, though I'm sort of not lol. I agree with you for the most part, I certainly can relate to seeing the same decline, and the world most certainly has changed. I would also agree that things are fairly dire, despite the mainstream media's best efforts to suggest otherwise, but I think your solution is a bit old fashioned. You're idea kind of equates to cringing just before getting punched in the face, when I think it would be much better to move out of the way. I don't want to sound like an anti-capitalist, but it could be argued that the very thing that you're suggesting we do to survive it is only going to make it worse.

It seems like everyone looks at the state of our biggest corporations, companies and banks to judge our wealth. These entities however have nothing to do with America, in fact Walmart is one of those images you think about that somehow appear in your mind when you hear the word America, yet it is basically a Chinese junk peddler, along with Christmas Tree Shop or Bed Bath and Beyond. You're lucky if you can find any of it having been made in America, by American workers, and out of American materials. These corporations have outsourced our jobs, and the ones that are still available are aimed at our newly accrued citizens because they come from places we wouldn't even visit. They will work more, for less. These companies won't offer insurance and will make you work one hour less than the amount required for healthcare. Yet you think we should all buy more? That would be awesome if only there was an American product to buy.

I completely feel what you're saying, especially about us having to get a bit tougher as a nation, but I still feel like you're too focused on that incoming punch instead of the guy throwing it. We need to spend less, starve these "discount" companies that we insist on feeding because they're cheaper and start to realize that we are trading our dinners in so that places like China can have dessert, and I have nothing against China, I'm just saying. Its the discount, money off, price cut mentality that got us in this mess in the first place. Only junk is cheap, only junk is discounted, only junk is the blood of a bargain. You can spend the extra money and buy an American can opener once in a lifetime, or buy a plastic one for a fraction of the price at Wally world and buy it once every 2-3 years after it breaks.

I consider "flam",  "hype", and SPAM to be at the center of this evil lol, so its hard for me to get enthusiastic about stuff like this. If my weird punch analogy didn't work, then consider this one: You are always being attacked by a big scary werewolf that comes out of the woods behind your house. You could kill him if you put the time and energy into it, but its easier to just run away until he goes back into the woods. As you get older, you're getting weaker and many of the things you have done in the past don't work anymore. Now you have a kid you've brought into the world, and you have handed him a problem that you could have dealt with, but didn't, and as I said, the solutions were limited in your day, but now there are none for your kid. Kind of a raw deal, no?

Oh and I'm not blaming your generation Travis, many MANY things go into whats wrong with the economy, all I'm trying to say is spending and boosting the same companies we have been feeding for the last 50 years isn't the solution. They sold us out as far as I'm concerned, so lets sell them out and go back to the mom and pop hardware stores.

Wallace I think you have a slightly inaccurate concept of outsourcing, but before I get into that I wanted to remind you that iZigg is an American company, so I'm not exactly sure how it fits on your "enemy" list my friend, they would probably be the ideal kind of investment, provided they end up being legit. Its been pointed out already that the founders don't exactly have the greatest reputation, but American business can teach you quite a few things, and that is that some of the most successful financial ventures in history have been achieved by some of the most questionable characters, like Bill Gates for example. He stepped on a few people on his way up.

Outsourcing: 101. Outsourcing refers to the process wherein a business contracts with a third party service provider in order to provide such services that would normally be done by "in-house" employees. Contrary to popular belief, outsourcing has been going on much longer than the typical critic realizes and has long been rubbing elbows with any kind of work/labor specialization. Its rooted in the need for skills that exist only outside a populace where the job or service is needed. One good example is the section of the San Francisco bridge that has a "Made in China" plaque on it. This caused an uproar amongst many Americans, but what they failed to realize that the labor was cheaper, the materials were cheaper, and the engineering was done by people better suited to understanding the technology (native to Chinese construction). Everyone is so focused on the labor involved, and how it should have been Americans building it, but it would have cost the states more on virtually every front. This also reflects the fact that Americans would not have been experienced building that particular type of bridge.

Some people might consider the entire thing "progress", you see nationalism has changed, our culture has been so focused on individualism that now our nation reflects that, and there is now an outcry for more unification, but funny how it is a hunger based on monetary need, and at the expense of successful entrepreneurs.

Anyway, back to outsourcing

Its cost effective, there is no way around this fact. Most people complain about the price of everything. They shop where a product is the cheapest, and even during times when we are in economic bliss, they still lean on the pros of hunting for better deals on products, because "everyone" is "scraping" to get by, which means HBO is just a bit too expensive for most people. Once again, this was what I was referring to about American people needing to be tougher. Most of my generation grew up without things like air conditioning, and without heat in the really tough situations. The least we can do is learn to live without the things we now consider necessity.

Outsourcing ensures a higher quality, and we aren't going by the trinkets you're talking about made in China, we're talking about services. Outsourcing companies thrive based on reputation, and that means they are going to insist on quality; quality service, quality trade skills, and of course "quality" pricing. They are also far more liable, and contractually obligated than an in house employee, which again, equates to a higher quality of service. Outsourcing removes the management requirement. No need for a payroll, insurance, time management, training, hiring, and minimal record keeping.

There are far more benefits, but we have drifted pretty far from iZigg, so hopefully we can get back on track and actually get the thread back to its native topic lol.