Well, by now you've probably been approached by at least one new and eager MLM recruit, or perhaps a seasoned network marketeer asking you to try out this great new product or service, and by the way you can also introduce these products to your friends and earn money.

After a bit of deal-sweetening later, you've probably signed up and are left with a truckload of products that you can't seem to consume/use or sell.

After maybe one or a few such "hole-in-the wallet" experiences, you'll swear you're never going to fall into such a trap again. You're yet another sorry statistic in MLM who's beginning to realise there isn't any truth to the network marketeers favourite adage "Everyone can make money from it... including you!"

So is RIOY: Retire In One Year a program that feeds on hype?

Let me just say first up that I believe that the concept is sound. Unfortunately, the devil is in the execution.

Previously RIOY: Retire In One Year System consisted of TrafficWave, Bigorilla and the RIOY advertising co-operative (Made up of Mark Stubbins, Karl Green, Brian Cook and Linda Acosta) which promotes and recruits for you so that you can earn a monthly income without changing your daily routine.

Unfortunately, the RIOY team made a serious error in judgement when it incorporated Bigorilla as one of it's programs. Bigorilla is basically a pyramid recruiting scam run by Steve Sigman, the creator of other scams like 14DayWealth, ProWealthBuilder and BigMoneyPro. Don't believe me? Just run a who.is on Bigorilla.com. You'll see it is registered through BigMoneyPro.

That's not the only thing. When I was sending support ticket after support ticket to Bigorilla for my missing commissions, Linda Acosta replied to one of them and told me that I did not qualify for commissions. When I repeatedly asked for clarification (you need 2 personally sponsored affiliates to qualify), there was no response. I finally filed a complaint with Paypal and got a refund of my monthly subscription.

Linda Acosta is still part of the RIOY team. Hmmh...

As of now RIOY consists of TrafficWave ($17.95/month), The Online Ad Network (TOAN - $19.95/month), the RIOY Advertising Co-op ($35/month) and All-Teamed-Up (one time fee of $35). Basically, that's about the same price as the previous incarnation of RIOY (see RIOYsystem.net - now defunct).

BTW TOAN is owned by Brian Rooney of TrafficWave.

Well, that's not all. Just get a free account at RIOY and you'll see that they have a barrage of other optional programs in their back office: Top 3 Percent, Driven Rapid Wealth, Retire On Spending, Freebie Force, ZLinkPTP, S4PMI, Savings Highway, Music Forte and TriVita. That's a lot of programs!

In Conclusion: Looking back at RIOY's past history I believe that it's a good concept but there is a history of bad judgement and a lack of honesty. In business, honesty, trust and integrity are critical.

There have been some who have made a comfortable income from RIOY but on the whole I have yet to see anyone come out and proclaim that they've made $4,000 a month from RIOY. Let's wait and see.

Basically my advice is be careful about the claims of RIOY and make sure you read the policies and procedures of every single program you join BEFORE you join. As for me, I'm sticking to TrafficWave alone. I know of a cheaper and more effective way of promoting it, thank you very much.