Esto's Testimony

[YMSurvivor]

Success Through Advertising "doubled" its Ad Credits in 2006 when it definitively moved from being a "cycler" to becoming a straight wholesale and retail advertising business.

That was a good move but the effect of the doubling has been devastating because, for reasons that Success Through Advertising claims are supported by the IRS, the 1099 forms that have just been sent out are flush with income claimed to be the result of this doubling.

People who have given up on the company are suffering serious shock on receipt of 1099s telling how much they earned when they in fact earned nothing.

Having essentially seen the writing on the wall, I returned 20,000 Ad Credits to STA on New Years Eve, 2006, responding to an invitation from the company to its Associates.

Still, I now find a whopping $110,000 included on my 1099 and am told if I had not given back the credits my 1099 would have been in excess of $300,000!

I have written to STA urgently demanding that they revise my form to reflect the actual dollars paid to me. I was a consultant for most of the year trying to help guide the company, with decreasing success. I advocated they move servers to a place like Rackspace and give entire responsibility for operations to Mike Hamilton. In the summer this path was definitively rejected.

I have received no response to my recent request for a revised form beyond the first which argued that I would have had the higher 1099 if I had not given the credits back.

If the actual value of the doubling was tangible, one might argue that I could claim this largesse as a purchase of advertising. But the company virtually admitted that there was no realistic relationship between the original cost of EPCs ($10) and the real world cost of advertising on the STA site. So they LOWERED the number of EPCs (now called WACs).

A good move.

But in terms of any fair market within the network marketing community, the cost of ads on the STA site is STILL high and could never be made the basis of actual cash purchases.

Originally, cash purchases for advertising from STA were predicated on a substantial money return which in fact dwindled to almost nothing as the company failed for a period of more than two years to take the advice of many to rid itself of its family business model and move into the real world of warp-speed Internet business.

I cannot believe that the outcome of this 1099 fiasco will be good for the future of the company. It would be a comedy of errors if I had not been privy to the sad stories of many who fared much worse than I. A tragedy of errors.

I have suggested a future for the company, even now: That it become an advertising venue for network marketers who pay cash up front, just for the advertising. If this ever is done, the pricing will reflect the market. And the obvious discrepancy between reality and the inflated and even deceptive figures of the 1099s will be plain to anyone with a mind.

http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com...sing-1099.html

[Simba]

Esto........So what do you suggest we do now. I don't care about the company......too many people have been scamed. What do we do next???

YM Victim

[YMSurvivor]

Welcome, Simba. I love "The Lion King!"

Please see these threads for suggestions from fellow YMMSS/STA victims.

Erroneous 1099 Procedure
STA TAX FRAUD - COMPLAINT TO IRS
Contact Vincennes Indiana Police

[cheryl20772]

Originally Posted by YMSurvivor

http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com...sing-1099.html

Too bad Steve lost his courage and removed his page. I thank him for sharing it for the brief time it was there. We have saved it.

[YMSurvivor]

There is more. The same "blah, blah, blah" we've come to expect from Esto, except that here, he admits to his central role at STA.

Saturday, February 03, 2007
Still Reading Ads at Success Through Advertising (STA)

Having been something of a "kingpin" in Success Through Advertising between September 2003 and about the time of my third anniversary, it may be of interest that I continue to read ads on the STA Retail Site (found in the left hand column of links here) quite faithfully.

The IBA (aka Independent Business Associates) advertising on STA is in my view a sadly underutilized cash cow. If STA would simply charge a fair dollar price for advertisements to home business folk, I feel thousands would flock to STA because as a "virtual" safelist it continues to work better than any venue I know. Maybe I get response there because I am advertising a winner called Search Big Daddy and maybe because I am known there. But I know others who do as well or better than I.

The sad thing is that we have a transformed money opportunity that has not been able to make the adjustment from a small and quite successful business -- up to about November 2004 -- to becoming a most ambitious retail and wholesale advertising business.

It boils down to whether the people we danced with at the start have the capacity to achieve the high aims of a retail ad business, even with the "unique" Pay Per Unique Visitor" ad product.

While I believe the jury is still out and that Providence is without boundaries, I do believe that there have been serious flaws:

1. The failure to insist from almost the start on an integrated sites policy and the placement of the sites out of the house as it were, someplace like Rackspace with a guaranteed capacity to deal from the git go with huge growth. For all I know the original program might never have stalled and essentially died if this policy had been followed.

2. The tendency to want to please so much that promises were made that were never to materialize. The most damning being an investment that was made with member receipts that was to pay millions monthly and never did. My guess is it was Forex-related.

3. The failure, when Mike Hamilton was named head of marketing and eventually COO, to allow him the authority to essentially replace the people we were dancing with, with the elementary capacities and person power needed to move toward a retail advertising model, one that might carry the failed money opportunity forward. This has been nothing less than egregious in my view. I do not know if Mike Hamilton could have rubbed the lamp successfully, but he never had a chance. Saddled with a system and persons who were fundamentally inimical or unable to accept his lead, it was inevitable that things would not pan out even at one tenth of the levels hoped for and at times predicted. (I suspect he would have opted for the Rackspace, no mom and pop model I have always favored.)

4. There is yet another issue and that is the essential devaluation of the value of the advertising credits that initially were purchased for $10 each. The plain fact is that this valuation may have worked for a money program but it is outlandish for the ad marketplace. And massive confusion now holds sway owing to the effort to sustain the notion that an evolution in the business that resulted in a doubling of credits actually amounted to income at the original price of the credits. I suspect that this decision -- whatever necessities may have been involved -- will result in possibly serious repercussions.

Providence.

In my view the company would take what works which its original safelist model and create a cash-up-front option which would be attractive to stalled Web marketers. It would continue to try to expand its growing advertising reach and make that a reason for an up-front cash involvement -- at market rates. Persons who have money in the company would reap the benefits on the current pay model which does distribute income if there is any to distribute.

Way out of the loop now, I doubt the company will knock on my door for advice. But I will continue to read ads. And to hope -- against hope, for real.

http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com...s-through.html

My jaw dropped upon seeing Esto's "admission of guilt".

This is delightfully funny.....betrayed by his own ego.

It's almost as if I heard Esto say "Doh!" before deleting his post.

LMAO