Prepaid Legal & Blastoff Network…Boom Or Bust?
A Match Made In Heaven?
Why would a 38 year old NYSE company like Prepaid Legal Services, Inc hook up with a brand new internet start-up company like the Blastoff Network, the internet equivalent to a Home Shopping Network?
Let’s Start With A Brief Review Of Prepaid Legal Services, Inc
Prepaid Legal Services, Inc is the brainchild of Harland Stonecipher who founded the company back in 1972 after a devastating automobile accident that occurred in 1969 left him with huge legal fees when the person responsible for the accident had the audacity to sue him!
Because Stonecipher had medical insurance as well as automobile insurance, the financial impact from the accident was minimal. However, Stonecipher had no insurance to cover the cost of the subsequent frivolous lawsuit, a lawsuit he eventually won. The out-of-pocket costs associated with defending himself were born by him personally and left him financially devastated.
It was this experience that led him to found the company known today as Prepaid Legal Services, Inc., offering legal expense reimbursement services and today, Prepaid is listed on the NYSE and boasts 1.5 million members owning their Prepaid Legal membership plans and Identity Theft Shield, a unique and highly effective Identity Theft prevention and restoration program that is virtually unmatched in the marketplace!
So why would a successful 38 year old NYSE company with a reputation like Prepaid Legal’s want to partner up with an unknown startup company like the Blastoff Network?
Let’s Look At The Blastoff Network
The Blastoff Network is the brainchild of William Rodgers, Adam Smith, and Scott Berman who’s idea it is to provide Blastoff members cash-back shopping from over 400 online merchants like iTunes, Walmart, Travelocity, Best Buy, Starbucks and the Gap. Blastoff members can also earn rewards as they invite other folks to join Blastoff and their network of members grows.
According to Harland Stonecipher, CEO/Chairman of the Board/President/Director of Pre-Paid Legal, “When you combine the rewards-based, 'viral' nature of the Blastoff platform with the large, well-developed and powerful direct selling organization of Pre-Paid Legal Services, it's a combination that offers incredible potential.”
Pre-Paid Legal will be the only Network Marketing/MLM Company to be part of the Blastoff network and Pre-Paid and its legal services membership plan will be prominently featured with a link on the Blastoff home page.
A Win-Win For PrePaid Legal & Blastoff?
That being the case, it’s not hard to understand why Pre-Paid Legal has struck an alliance with Blastoff. Pre-Paid’s membership has been at 1.5 million members for several years now and the possibility of increasing membership sales with increased exposure on Blastoff is significant! Sounds like a potential Win-Win deal to me!
But will that exposure be enough to energize the 400,000 member sales force of Pre-Paid Legal to further push sales of the legal membership beyond the 1.5 million member mark? We’ll see!
Show Me The Money!
As for Pre-Paid Legal representatives without an already significant downline organization, will they make any significant passive or residual income from Blastoff?
This author believes it unlikely and while Pre-paid is likely to experience a surge in new membership sales, new reps with Pre-Paid would likely be better served by aggressively marketing the various Pre-Paid Legal products and expanding their Pre-Paid Legal organization rather than expecting that Blastoff will generate any significant passive or residual income for them! However, only time will tell for sure!
Ahhhh, The Effects Of Viral Marketing…My Favorite Subject!
Will the hyped headlines surrounding the Pre-Paid Legal - Blastoff alliance such as: “Direct Selling Meets Viral Marketing,” or “The Blastoff Network is said to be the biggest thing since Twitter, Facebook and Google combined” prove to be just that, hype? Does anyone really think Blastoff will exceed the phenomenal ‘viral’ growth of Twitter, Facebook AND Google COMBINED? “I’m just sayin’…”
For some thoughts on viral marketing, don’t miss reading my recent article entitled: “Viral Marketing Puts MLM On Autopilot!” You can get to it from the link below…
About The Author:
Dan and his wife Laura live in