Q&A about Blastoff

I've mentioned the Blastoff Network here a few times. I've had several questions about it so I thought I'd answer them all together.

What is Blastoff?
It is an entertainment, information, and shopping network online. When you sign up, you are given a home page that you personalize with feeds from various news outlets and entertainment companies. For instance, you can — with one click — add a feed from Fox News. Or CNN news or any of the other news sites on the web. You can also add feeds from YouTube or Hulu or other video sites. And finally it offers you the Blastoff Mall where you can shop at over 400 companies, including Target, Sears, Macy’s, Old Navy, K-Mart, Starbucks, Priceline, Best Buy, BooksAMillion, etc.

What’s the advantage of using Blastoff instead of simply going to the companies websites directly?
If you use Blastoff, you actually do shop directly at those companies’ websites, but by using the Mall to reach them, you can receive up to 15% in cash back or discounts. And you do nothing to receive those rewards, except go to the Mall first and click on the company you want to shop it.

How does Blastoff make its money?
Those companies pay Blastoff to send them customers.

So it’s really free?
Completely and totally.You don’t even have to shop if you don’t want to. You can just use Blastoff for info and entertainment.

Does it offer games? (Okay, I added this question myself.) Yes, a bunch of free ones. I can’t tell you much about them because I haven’t played them, but I’m told you can waste hours and hours playing everything they offer. Have fun, and don’t do it at work.

What about junk mail or spam?
I’ve been signed up on Blastoff since it opened its electronic doors, and I’ve received two pieces of email from them. One confirming my email address and one welcoming me to the network. That’s it.

What does it take to sign up?
Your name, your email address (it has to be valid because they’re going to send you an email address confirming your account that you have respond to or your account is suspended), and your birth date (or a fake one). No credit card, no mailing address, that’s it. It takes about a minute.

Is it multi-level marketing?
Sort of. Blastoff makes its money by convincing companies that it can expose their products to a large number of people. So Blastoff wants a lot of people to sign up. Every person who goes to your page and signs up becomes part of your network. If they shop online through Blastoff, you receive a tiny percentage of what they pay. You receive that tiny percentage down 10 levels. Mind you, it won’t be enough to live on, but you can receive a monthly check every month, depending on how many people sign up and how much they shop online. However, you do nothing with your network. No sales talks, no accounting, no emails, nothing. Telling them about the network is all you do.

Do the discounts work at the physical stores themselves?
No, you have to shop online to receive the discounts.

The discounts sound too good to be true.
Well, all I can tell is that several of my friends have used them and received the discounts. My roomie was able to get a phone for free when the same phone would cost $50 at the AT&T Store. And another friend ordered from Target and received a discount and a cash back on his order. And because they're in my “network,” I have a bit of money in a pending status for me. (You have to reach a certain amount before they mail you a check. Otherwise, the money stays there until you do reach the limit. That's also the only time you will have give them personal info: When they need to send you a check. Then they will need your mailing address, accurate birth date, and social security number because they do have to report the income to the lovely IRS.)

How do I sign up?
You go to my.blastoffnetwork.com/stephenbagley. You can also call me, and I'll sign you up or walk you through it. It really does take only a minute or less, depending on your computer speed. After you’re signed up, you can immediately start tell others to sign up in your “network” and start collecting your tiny percentage of their online shopping. (Your home page will be normally be my.blastoffnetwork.com/yourname, but you can pick something else besides your name to call your site.)

Still sounds too good to be true.
So far I haven’t found the “catch,” and I’ve been looking really hard. There are plenty of other shopping networks besides Blastoff that use this model to build up number of users. They all doing well, even in this economy. I don’t think you can make a living off Blastoff — I may be wrong, but that’s what I think now — but I do know you can save some money and make a little money, too, without much effort. I think that’s a good thing. Thanks for reading, and if you have any other questions, let me know.

Talk to you tomorrow!

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