The principal at Citizen Corps is Alan Nettles and he is a Pyxism Associate, also a Life Path Unlimited Associate, a TVI Associate and probably more, but since he does not disclose that information up front or at all, it’s hard to say if he is a current or former associate in these and other opportunities.
And for the record, I believe it critically important to know that information up front because it is a necessary filter through which to view and assimilate the article, review, blog, etc and to discern the difference between information/data and opinion/editorial license.
And I’ll go one further, I am just tired of the lack of integrity in the Network Marketing industry, the continual hype and focus on “the money” and in general, the say/do anything to sponsor someone, promote your opportunity, mentality that’s running amok these days.
This isn’t about denigrating Allen Nettles and/or Citizen Corps, it’s about identifying Citizen Corps for what it is and what it is not. It is a marketing tool for Allen Nettles and his current opportunity, Pyxism. Citizen Corps is not as it tries to suggest, “…dedicated in researching and providing the most truthful and factual reviews of the legitimate home businesses.”
And the relevance of knowing where someone (or in this case a site-Citizen Corps) sits before it tells you where it stands in its reviews is credibility.
An objective, 3rd party, unbiased source providing reviews would be a highly valuable due diligence tool and resource for prospective associates and a great 3rd party, independent affirmation and marketing tool for existing associates. However, when that site (Citizen Corps) is so clearly linked to and promoting the interests of an associate and opportunity (Allen Nettles/Pyxism) the credibility of the site, the information therein is, in my opinion, severely, if not completely compromised.
This isn’t just a danger to prospective associates doing their due diligence that may or may not realize they are actually on the front end of a marketing funnel about to get sucked down.
It’s also potentially very injurious to current associates who are sending their potential business partners (prospects) to the review as a 3rd party validation of the credibility of the opportunity. I wonder how many of those prospects with their notoriously short attention spans and memories end up clicking the link in the review and end up in the marketing funnel, never to return to who originally sent them there?
On the other hand, I wonder about the damage to the credibility of the associates that send prospects there who are astute enough to realize and see Citizen Corps for the marketing tool that it is. Tell me, would you want to partner with someone who couldn’t discern this for themselves? I’d wonder what else are they missing?
And to be fair, if there is full or even adequate disclosure up front then people have the choice and can take the information and opinions as they are offered, like here at Be Free Faster, you know who I am, what I am involved into and so can filter what ever information you find here to what ever degree you desire and are comfortable with, in short, I’ve been honest with you and have treated you professionally and like an adult—that’s how I’d like to be treated and that is how I try and help others. I am here, the information is here to support your due diligence. If we decide to partner together, that’s a decision we both knowledgeably and willingly make.
Citizen Corps first came to my attention when I was an active LifePath Unlimited associate because my upline and many business associates were pointing to Citizen Corps for it’s great “Review” of LPU as proof of what a fantastic opportunity LPU represented. And then it came to my attention that Allen Nettles owns Citizen Corps and is (or was at the time) also an LPU associate. At that time I also noticed that the banner ads for LPU directed the click straight to Allen Nettles’ LPU site.
To me it’s a significant credibility issue when a site that promotes itself as independent makes a favorable review of an opportunity and then conveniently points people to the replicated site for that particular, favorably reviewed opportunity OR makes an unfavorable review of an opportunity and in that negative review promotes another opportunity that they just happen to be involved into.
To be clear, in this specific instance Citizen Corps/Allen Nettles has posted a favorable review of Pyxism and then points people to his personal Pyxism site, but does not disclose anywhere on Citizen Corps his involvement/connection to Citizen Corps and Pyxism.
And then, Citizen Corps/Allen Nettles posts a negative review of Club Sea Breeze and in that review blatantly promotes Pyxism.
This is absolutely in direct conflict with copy on the Citizen Corps site which states on the “Home” page:
“There are many legitimate home business opportunities available today, but the majority of so-called home based business opportunities that are being advertised are simply schemes devised to take advantage of people’s naivete.
That’s where Citizen Corps comes in. We are dedicated in researching and providing the most truthful and factual reviews of the legitimate home businesses.”
And this isn’t a new tactic for Allen Nettles and Citizen Corps, it’s chronic, pathological misrepresentation and misleading practice. When Allen Nettles was a TVI Associate there were banner ads for his TVI business embedded in the glowing TVI review by Citizen Corps. There always have been links to his opportunity site within the favorable Citizen Corp Review of that particular opportunity. Citizen Corps is and always has been a marketing tool to promote the opportunity de jour of Allen Nettles. And so it seems in its own words, Citizen Corps is “…simply schemes devised to take advantage of people’s naïveté.”
As a friend of mine is fond of saying, “I’ve had you enough”, which just means when I ran across that review I just knew I’d be posting to my blog in the hopes that someone, somewhere might be spared the marketing funnel of Citizen Corps. Actually, I believe that if she could, Lady Liberty would be running away from that home page or torching it, probably both.
If you’re interested in all the details and OMG, there’s a ton of them, you can read the full article here:
To Your Success,
Kurt
Tags: Allen Nettles, Be Free Faster, Citizen Corps, Club Sea Breeze, CSB, Global Resorts, Kelly Williams, LGN, LGN Prosperity, LLoyd Wilson, MLS Reviews, Pyxism, Recession Proof Home Based Business, The Panel Revolution, Top Tier, travel consultant, Travel Online, Travel Ventures International, TVI, Wealth Masters International, WMI
June 3rd, 2010
Finally! Thank you, Kurt, for speaking out about this guy. I too have been in other businesses with him, and I remember sending prospects to his “review” site in the first biz – having been told that there was this stellar “independent” review of our company. I was so impressed at our 5 star rating that I sent a number of folks there to read all about it. Boy, was I red-faced when I later learned that he was also an associate of the same company. Totally embarrassed, I backtracked and let people know that the Citizen Corps site was not as it seemed, and that I had learned that this was not an “objective” review at all, but essentially a marketing ploy on the part of Mr. Nettles. No integrity there. Then when it happened in a second company, with ad banners prominently displayed to HIS sales funnel for our “5 Star” company, I told my biz associates NOT to be fooled – the guy lacks any sense of biz ethics. This is but one more example of the way some internet marketers give the rest of us a bad name. Thanks for calling him out – I wish I had done so long ago.
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