Is Chat To Text a Scam?
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Chat To Text has been getting an increasing amount of buzz lately on the blogs and social media sites. The response so far has been pretty much favorable, but there is a healthy amount of skepticism going around as well with people expressing concern that Chat to Text is a scam.
The central argument being expressed is that Chat to Text is nothing more than a “pyramid scheme” that will end up going down in flames, taking with it the hard work and money of those involved.
The problem with this line of thinking is that it is making a common mistake in confusing Network Marketing (MLM) with a Pyramid Scheme. Such oversights are pretty much the norm whenever a new Network Marketing venture is launched because the public at large tends to judge any new Network Marketing venture as a pyramid scheme because all MLM business models are built on a pyramid structure.
It’s only after years of proven performance that this type of stigma disappears. Well known Network Marketing companies like Amway, Premier Designs Jewelry, and Tupperware eventually lost the “Pyramid Scheme Stigma” after years of brand establishment.
The major downside to this common series of events is that if someone decides to get involved with a Network Marketing venture only after years of brand building, the market for that particular product or service become saturated and it becomes very difficult to get a foothold when so many other people have a such significant head start.
The key then is to be able to distinguish between a valid Network Marketing opportunity and a pyramid scheme. Once you have that knowledge you can evaluate a MLM launch such as Chat To Text and determine for yourself if it falls into the category of “great opportunity” or “scam”. Let’s identify the qualities of a Pyramid Scheme first…
If you do a Wikipedia search you’ll find a Pyramid Scheme defined as:
…a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered.
So the core characteristic of these types of scams is that there is not an actual product or service being offered, but instead the business model is sustained by the addition of new members only. When new members are not added to fuel the machine, it loses it’s ability to function and collapses inward on itself.
The Wikipedia entry for Network Marketing however indicates that a Network Marketing business
…is a business-distribution model that allows a parent company to market its products directly to consumers by means of relationship referrals and direct selling.
The key difference then that separates a Pyramid Scheme from pretty much any other true business model is that it does not have any real product or service that is being offered.
So when evaluating any Network Marketing opportunity, and particularly that of Chat to Text, you need to look at the business structure and see if a true product or service is being offered.
The Chat To Text program can be summarized as a service that enables integrated text message communication between online blog and social sites and someone’s personal cell phone.
But does this service have any value?
Fortunately we can determine that already because there is one micro blog platform that incorporates the heavy integration of this type of text-to-cell communication already. That would be Twitter.
Now I have a Twitter profile and happen to know a few Twitter addicts, and they are ALWAYS on their cell phones texting back responses to those who are sending them messages via the Twitter site. They are junkies. Seriously. This service is one of the main reasons the term “Crackberry” was coined and truly went viral.
The downside to Twitter is that it is only available to people that want to sign up and use their particular service. That leaves out the millions of people that are not Twitter users and who don’t want to learn their way around “another” social media tool.
That would be where Chat To Text comes in.
Designed from the ground up to be integrated into the sidebar of any blog or social media profile, it creates the same type of experience for anyone who visits any of your personal site pages.
So is this a valuable service? Based on how Twitter users talk, I would say yes.
Well then, is Chat to Text a scam doomed to fail as the newest pyramid scheme? My money is on no…which is why I signed up and you should to.





August 1, 2009 am28 5:51 pm
Hi Brian, I think ChatToText is a great service for people who needs to stay in touch with their customers. I think this type of service would be better for professionals such as realtors, car dealers, outside sales reps, people on ebay etc etc. I doubt that it would be popular with social networking sites. The only reason it would be is because of the hype to make money and if you take that equation out, it does not make sense to pay a monthly fee when you can use existing free services provided by these sites. I haven’t heard much about this company lately. Are they dying down? I also heard that a new company is launching right around the corner that is similar but the focus will be towards the service side and not the mlm side even though they will pay double of what CTT is paying. You have my email, if you want more info just let me know. I don’t want to make it public yet because I want to be one of the first to promote it. Someone I know has a sister that is dating one of the founders and it got back to me about it.
Mike