Your Travel Biz Source

Our site is a resource for those interested in YTB or who have already started their own travel business. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this amazing opportunity please feel free to give me a call at any time. You may also leave your contact information here and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Learn more about YTB:

• Brief Overview of YTB (A Must Read!)
• YTB Articles (A condensed list of articles I have published)
• Watch the Video Presentation
• YTB Compensation Plan

YTB has become "The Choice" for independent business people. We provide a real home based business opportunity that includes a travel booking web site and internet based marketing system.

Rick Clifton - (314) 667-3664

Want your own Independent YTB Website?

YTBSource.com - CliftonWebGroup.com - CliftonTravelGroup.com - CarolClifton.com

My last article about Your Travel Biz not releasing press releases that defend themselves against current legal accusations received a great response from an attorney as noted below. You would think that YTB would have an easier road to selling a home based travel business, especially an MLM travel business, if they addressed their legal woes. Read the following attorney’s take on the ramifications that YTB Travel faces with their “no response - Business as usual” position:

“WOW I couldn’t agree more. A very close friend of mine whom I’ve partnered with on several business ventures in the past, presented a YTB online travel agency to me for consideration. I am also an attorney in the corporate sector and saw the legal issues they are currently confronting. Of course everybody is innocent until proven guilty and I feel these complaints are as you stated from people who don’t know how, or understand how, to run a home based travel business.

That being said I am SHOCKED that this group has not responded in ANY FORM. I presented these questions to my friend who then passed them into his “local Director” and got nothing by fluff response in return. To quote, “people attached McDonalds and Microsoft” and attempted to just pass it off as that.

I responded by stating that in business your reputation is everything and also something you can simply “buy back” when it get damaged. I can’t figure any reasonable excuse or strategy as to why these people have taken a position of not caring to respond. I can not believe for a second this hasn’t impacted their ability to sign up new people. I held off 100% due to these issues.

Furthermore the other odd actions that concerned me were that coming out of a national convention I have never seen a company not issue a single press release!?!?! Especially when the two AG’s issue their own at the same time.

My friend has always stated to me that “Perception is reality” and right now the perception isn’t very good when you look under the PR, Hype, Glitz and so called hood.

Love to hear other feedback. I’m not questioning what YTB is or is not. However when a company is asking you to commit funds and your valuable time to a company or product you would want them to help PROTECT your investment under such allegations.”

This comment is right on the money, and I wonder how any YTB home based travel agency can sell new YTB affiliate memberships until the legal problems are addressed through YTB corporate press releases. Being silent, cavalier, or conducting business as usual draws suspicion and reason to pass over a YTB home based business that doesn’t address their legal problems on their corporate web site. To that end, I would release a press release as follows: “If YTB is an illegal pyramid scam, how did they get accepted on the stock exchange as a publicly traded company?…..or….. “If YTB has an illegal corporate structure, why wouldn’t they be suspended from the OTC exchange.” etc………, etc………

Keep the comments coming, and thanks for the recent input!!

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agency, Your Travel Biz, YTB, home based travel business, MLM travel business, online travel agency, home based business

If you go to the YTB web site and click on Investors, you come to a web page that provides Your Travel Biz Press Releases…Their latest press releases cover 2nd quarter financials and YTB’s franchise business model changes for next year. Why aren’t there Press Releases addressing their legal issues and claims of innocence?

As a former YTB Power Team Leader, I can’t understand why they don’t address YTB’s current legal problems. At the very least case, it’s only human to defend yourself if you’re innocent of legal charges or any personal accusations….Otherwise, questions arise that boggles the mind as follows:

When you consider that Your Travel Biz provides an MLM home based travel business with legitimate products and services, how could they get into this situation in the first place? After all, they are a publicly traded company and aren’t selling fruit juices that cure cancer, or gas pills for your car that will get you 10 more miles per gallon. They have never stated how much money you’re going to make if you purchased a YTB RTA home travel agency, or that YTB provides the cheapest travel available…So, where’s the rub?

I think the answer is quite simple if you follow this logic…Those who have a YTB online travel agency making money are not complaining, and those who aren’t making money are complaining. Since YTB provides the same home based travel agency to everyone who joins, why isn’t everybody making lots of money? It’s because they don’t know how to run a home based business, don’t know enough people to sell to, don’t have the time to dedicate to an online travel business and should not be involved with any MLM company regardless of what they sell.

If you agree with half of these reasons for failure, you can see why 85% of people in network marketing MLM’s fail. Check it out, because the Internet provides every statistic that supports this issue…

So, how can Your Travel Biz defend themselves against a former YTB online travel agent who did not make money at selling their products? First of all, I would put out a series of Press Releases that confirms YTB makes no committment, or promises on how much money anyone is going to make…In fact, it’s the law to do so….Secondly, any successful MLM online travel agency must work extreemly hard, put in long hours and have access to a large number of people to contact about their home travel business.

They should also stress the need to take advantage of all of YTB’s training, nightly conference calls and local weekly meetings. Most people that fail do not keep up with training, don’t understand the business, clueless on how to sell, or even describe the compensation plan. They depend on others like their upline to do their work, because it’s easier that way..After a period of time, their upline get’s smart and blows them off, because they are a drag to the spirit of an MLM business model. These people are “takers” and can never become “givers”, which is critical to the success of an MLM downline.

On the other hand, YTB is an Internet based company….Successful people must have very good, basic computer skills,and know how to promote their online travel agency over the Internet..Yet, YTB frowns on using Internet marketing tools like blog sites. In fact, this site…. YTBSource. Com….. is a blog site where we have recruited over 100 YTB affiliates.

Since YTB doesn’t allow custom YTB blog sites, we resigned from YTB two months ago because we don’t know enough people that are interested in any MLM opportunity. As a result, we would become another failure statistic…..No thanks…….

In spite of YTB’s “policies and rules”, we use Internet marketing business tools instead of YTB business cards, brochures, magazines and dragging people to weekly meetings, which is a recipe for failure with any MLM organization.

If anyone thinks otherwise, please respond to this post so everyone can benefit from your wisdom on this question…..”Why doesn’t YTB defend itself if they are innocent as charged?”

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agency, Your Travel Biz, YTB, home based travel business, home travel agency, online travel agency, home based business, online travel business, online travel agent, online travel agency, home travel business

As a former Power Team Leader at YTB Travel, I find YTB’s mounting legal problems predictable and boring because 85% of people who join any MLM fail. This failure rate statistic is well known, and widely accepted by MLM industry analyst. As a result, MLM’s like YTB are blamed, investigated and sued on a regular basis as follows:

People join MLM’s and Network Marketing companies because of the products they provide, percieved product demand and “all that money they’re going to make.” Any MLM’s basic “sales” strategy is to sell everyone you know, and they will sell everyone they know. After a short period of time, they aren’t making money, blame the company and quit. When enough people blame the company, the State’s Attorney Generals and BBB’s get involved because that’s what they do for a living. The movie “Ground Hog Day” comes to mind when I see this happen to MLM’s over and over again…..

How does this happen so often and why? To keep it simple, any MLM can provide legitimate products, have a great compensation plan and provide training for those who want to learn. The problem is that this business model attracts the wrong kind of people who lack the ability, experience and skills to even get started. For example, I have attended large YTB, Your Travel Biz,  training meetings where 95% of the group had no previous sales experience, limited computer skills, little or no understanding about the Internet, do not know enough people to sell to, cannot implement the training, and don’t have the time required to be successful in any home based business. In addition, they aren’t committed to really learning the product line, have great difficulty in understanding the compensation plan and truly believe that their downline is going to make them rich. Most importantly, they don’t realize that they will have to work harder than they have ever worked before to become a successful home based travel agent.

To make matters worse, they are constantly reminded of all the people making lots of money that are doing the same things that are causing them to fail…Now they are sensing fraud and deception. It’s time to put on their legal pants and march straight to the local BBB.

On the other hand, there are many YTB Reps who aren’t suing YTB, or complaining about their home based travel agency to the States Attorney General. They won’t because they have a successful online travel agency and are making money. They often use lead generation systems, have good computer and Internet skills and understand the art of sales. They also work very smart and put in the long hours. They usually take advantage of real sales training and know to sell outside of their friends and family. They use business tools to grow their business. They do not depend on their downlines to make them rich, but rely on themselves to meet that goal. They take the time to learn the business, and don’t rely on their upline to give simple presentations….

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agency, Your Travel Biz, YTB, YTB travel, home based travel agent, online travel agency

  As a former Power Team Leader with YTB, I can understand why YTB Travel is not a good fit for many who have joined this program. As a result, their level of discontent has risen to the level where the States Attorney Generals of California, Missouri and Illinois are preparing lawsuits against Your Travel Biz. The following is a former YTB affiliate’s “inside” opinion about these recent turn of events:

We became an affiliate with Your Travel Biz (YTB) because of the large demand for travel. Since YTB is a virtual company that “sits” on the Internet, we used Internet marketing tools to grow and run our YTB business, set up custom web and blog sites for exposure, and used lead generation tools to drive traffic to our sites. The good news is that we were successful.. The bad new was that we were notified by YTB’s Legal Department that YTB does not allow its YTB affiliates to have custom web sites, or blog sites so we terminated our relationship with YTB in July, 2008.

As for others who joined YTB, their chances for success was limited from the start. Unfortunately, the demographic,  or segment of the population, that is attracted to MLM’s or network marketing companies are often from lower income levels who view companies like Your Travel Biz as their ticket to get rich quick. Obviously, most of the people they know seldom travel, don’t go on cruises, don’t sign up for golf packages in Hawaii, and don’t have the $500 to join the program. Once they go through all their friends, family or “warm group” they run out of people to talk to and quit the business. Tragically, it’s really that simple, and much has been written about this reality.

Since YTB does not advertise, it’s up to the YTB Reps to get the word out about their home based travel business. How many people can the average YTB Rep tell about their online travel business as compared to the endless TV commercials that run Travelocity and Expedia.Com commercials 24X7? At the end of the day, your family, friends and warm group know about your home based travel agency and may book travel with you if they can get a better deal. Two problems with this scenario…YTB does not provide the best deals on travel, the commission on any domestic airline flight is $3 regardless of the ticket price, and how often does your “warm group” travel? Business travel doesn’t count because it’s booked through their company. In this case, not enough people will ever know about your YTB Travel business, can’t find your YTB web site on the Internet, and YTB’s policy does not allow custom web sites that provide the exposure you need so people can find you on the Internet.

As mentioned, the airline industry pays very little commission to travel agents. Roughly, $5 per domestic ticket. At Your Travel Biz, a YTB Rep gets 60% of $5, or $3 in commissions for each ticket booked on their YTB Travel site. The commissions for cruises are much better; however, how many people do you know that are taking a cruise next week? Usually you find out about someone taking a cruise after they have already booked the trip. In addition, no one takes a boat from St.Louis to Kansas City..They drive, or fly…

Most every MLM or Network marketing company pays commissions on people you recruit and bring into the business. In the beginning it’s very exciting, but before long two drop out for every one person you bring in…The drop out rate is high because the failure rates in MLMs is estimated at 80%. This failure rate is documented by most MLM industry analyst Secondly, they target the wrong audience or people to bring into the business. For example, recruiting people who have limited or no computer skills, literacy issues, aren’t open to learning or taking direction, low committment levels etc….

Since the failure rate for MLM’s, Network Marketing companies and any type of home based business is very high, what are the reasons for this extreem failure rate? People do not have the training required to succeed, lack of information, don’t use business tools, have little or no experience, don’t know enough people to contact, aren’t committed to working extreemly hard, little or no understanding of the power of the Internet, have limited computer skills, are not comfortable selling things period, aren’t familiar with the benefits of their product offering, don’t enjoy or know how to recruit people into their business and so on and so on…..

Moral of the story? Many YTB Travel competitors are using YTB’s legal problems as a tool to recruit people away from YTB. Let’s say the YTB Rep leaves and joins their company. He’s still faced with the same challenges to succeed, because nothing has really changed that would alter his chances for success. In most cases, he won’t make money at his new company for the same reasons he didn’t make money at YTB. So, who’s to blame? Is it YTB’s fault, the YTB Rep’s fault, or a combination of both parties? I fall back to my statement that some people just don’t fit within an MLM, network marketing or home based business regardless of the type of company or products they offer.

More to come on this soon…

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agency, Your Travel Biz, YTB, YTB travel, home based travel business, online travel business, YTB travel business

Yes, it is time for a change at YTB Source.Com…..Let’s look at where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

It all began when a few successful entrepreneurs and a former business executive decided to join ranks, select a business out of a hat, and have some fun. The following year, we became the top volume producer for “Team Gateway”, which is a large group of YTB Reps in the St.Louis Region. As a result, other Your Travel Biz Reps were interested in how we work, so we developed the YTB Source web site to grow and share that information.

At this time, we are truly humbled by the thousands of people who have visited our site to learn more about Your Travel Biz, and articles we have written about starting, growing and running a home based travel business. Due to this following, we re-visted our goal and purpose of maintaing the YTB Source web site, and made the changes that are in line with our new vision.

Our new vision is to help others in business, which includes the YTB home based travel agent and a variety of other work from home opportunities. To be more specific, we will provide information about business development tools and techniques, marketing and sales tools, recruiting strategies, lead generation tools, and customer management systems designed to retain your customer base. Due to conflict of interest issues, we ended our affiliation with YTB effective July, 2008.

When we asked ourselves,”What supports our reason for change in this direction?”, we considered the fact that most of the
companies in the US are Small sized companies that have high failure rates. Many depend on existing contacts and customers to survive. Very few have business developments tools and proceedures in place. Once the cycle is broken, their survival rate hits a critical stage.

For example, only a very small percentage of YTB Reps are Power Team Leaders, and it’s not because all the rest are at the Director level. They simple do not have the information, business tools and techniques to change the way they do business. If you don’t change the way you do things, you can’t expect different results. Even in a good economy.

We look forward to sharing free information that will useful to your business. Most importantly, we welcome your questions, comments and recommendations that will be critical to making this site a success for all.

More to come…

Technorati Tags: ytb, your travel biz, home based travel agent, work from home, ytb travel

YTB has been recognized in Travel Weekly’s 2008 Power List as one of the top leading travel companies the US. Based upon this year’s Travel Weekly Power List, YTB’s ranking is 26th as compared to all other travel companies nation-wide, advancing nine places over last year’s ranking. In addition, YTB earned the highest percentage increase in booked travel as compared to of all travel companies listes in this review. This reflects an increase of 83.3 percent over the previous year’s performance.

Travel Weekly Power List ranks US based travel companies based upon the annual revenue volumes and the Airlines Reporting Corporation travel bookings for 2007. The rankings also incorporate travel subsidiaries and corporate structures. This report includes the largest online travel agencies such as Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline and Expedia.

YTB attributes their growth to the hard work YTB RTA’s have demonstrated on an ongoing basis. Secondly, YTB has proven their committment to ensure that YTB RTA’s have all the tools and support required to be successful. To that end, YTB’s increase over last year’s revenues and upward movement in over-all rankings is a testimony to their effort.

If you are looking to start a home based business , you should consider an online travel agency that has a documented growth trend such as YTB Travel. If you elect to become a home based travel agent to book travel online , take advantage of the proven business tools and training that YTB provides its RTA affiliates.

AND WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE RUMORS ABOUT YTB AND OTHER WORK FROM HOME BUSINESSES?

“Once you become trained and effective within your home business of choice, focus on the business and not the rumor mills that permeate the work from home industry. For example, on a regular basis I recieve numerous phone calls and emails regarding negative rumors about Your Travel Biz (YTB). This is a prehistoric “old school” sales tactic to make you question the business you’re in, and join whatever business they’re pitching at the moment. If their business has made them that wealthy, how do they find the time to sharenegative rumors with anyone who will listen instead of using that time to promote the benefits of their business that they want you to join?”

In my case, I politely listen to their rumor of the day and respond with YTB being up 83% over last year’s performance. This response kinda freezes them, because I experience a long pause before they “thank me” for their time and move on to their next rumor sharing call.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agent, book travel online, Your Travel Biz, YTB, work from home, work from home opportunities, online travel agency

Many of you want to join YTB and start a home based travel business. Your decision is delayed because you don’t know how to get started. This can be frustrating because you often hear how well someone else is doing, or don’t know where to go for advice. Why not start at the beginning by getting trained on how to do the business and promote your home travel business . Sound’s logical to me, and can’t think of a better way to get started on the right track!

This is why YTB sponsors daily conference calls 5 days a week as scheduled below:

Monday 7:30 PM (CST) : “Getting started with YTB”

Tuesday 9:00 PM (CST) : “Association Division Training

Wednesday 11:00 AM (CST) : “Ladies only call”

Thursday 7:30 PM (CST) : “Weekly travel training”

Saturday 11:00 AM (CST) : “Leadership call”

Most of the people who do well with their YTB online travel business really know how the business works and how to promote the YTB service offering. They did not rely on “guessing what to do”. Instead, they contribute their success to getting trained so they would know what to do, how to do it, and equally important….what not to do…

The YTB daily conference calls will provide a wealth of information for those who want to create a successful home base travel agency . So, don’t let not knowing what to do delay your decision to join YTB. Visit HTTP://www.cliftontravelgroup.com ……. Click on Join Today……and hook up with daily training that will get you up and going..

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agency, YTB, home Travel Business, online travel business

If you plan to join YTB and want to be successful…..learn the business, products, services and how the compensation plan works. There is an old saying, “He who has the most information wins.” This is true in most cases with any sitation, or circumstance. In this case, YTB provides extensive training through nightly conference calls, local weekly meetings in many cities, referral and associate travel agent training, and the comprehensive E-Campus travel training programs.

In my case, I made the decison to read everything I could get my hands on about YTB, the travel industry, and the potential of the market place. By doing so, I can discuss the YTB travel business with confidence and credibility. I can also explain where and how YTB fits within the travel industry as a home based travel business . More importantly, I can answer most questions from people who are interested in joining YTB.

You often hear and read, “Most importantly, have fun with your new home based travel agency !” I don’t know how much fun it would be if I did not really understand the YTB business, products and services, or the compensation plan. In fact, I would be hestiate to tell anyone about YTB because they might ask a question I could not answer effectively. In fact, many people struggle along with a vague understanding about their home based business, and have to rely on others to get answers on a regular basis…again, not much fun and draining on those who took the time to learn the business. Even worse, downlines suffer because their upline sponsor hasn’t taken the opportunity to learn the business which impacts others.

The answer is very simple…read the training materials, attend as many training sessions as soon as possible, understand the competition and what they don’t offer, and attend nightly conference calls until you feel you can host the call. The confidence you will gain is overwhelming, and you will look forward to anyone asking you about your YTB online travel agency .

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel Agency, YTB, home based travel business, online travel agency

Is this a good time to start a home based travel business ? The answer to that question is to look at the numbers, which is the best way to make that business decision. So, check it out:

YTB travel total revenues for 2007 increased 177% to $141.3 million, as compared to $50.9 million for the previous year. Based upon the online travel business booked on the YTB rep’s websites, travel services increased 84% in 2007 to $414.5 million as compared to $225.7 million in 2006.

Since YTB is a publicly traded company on the stock exchange, the numbers for 2007 are of public record, and reflect a banner year for YTB. During the year we more than doubled the size of our network of YTB RTAs (home based travel agent) to approximately 131,000 across the country. As we continue into 2008, YTB sees no signs of slowing down, as we have expanded our services into Canada.

If you are considering starting your travel business, YTB is certainly a viable option. In addition, it is hard for the competition to overcome the success and growth rate that YTB has experienced. This makes it easier to win business within the growing travel industry.

Keep in mind that your travel biz not only sells all aspects of travel services, but also provides the ability to send flowers from your site, book all forms of entertainment and sporting events, and purchase automobiles.

Technorati Tags: home based travel business, Your Travel Biz, YTB travel, YTB, online travel business, home based travel agent,   your travel agent

In addition, record commissions were paid to YTB’s field team! YTB, your travel biz , ended 2007 with more than 130,000 RTAs, compared to 8,870 in the first quarter of 2005. The Company paid its Reps and RTAs more than $65 million in combined marketing and travel commissions through the third quarter of 2007. This figure represents more than the totals of the past three years combined. To top it off, YTB has opened Canada, Bahamas and Bermuda for those residents to join YTB and start their own home based travel business.

Since the inception of this company, YTB has had the vision of supporting their field reps and RTA’s with outstanding support and travel products. They knew that if they adhered to those core principles, growth for the Company and success for our field would soon follow. According to Lloyd ‘Coach’ Tomer, Chairman and Founder, YTB International, ‘We know that the heart and soul of our Company is our RTAs/Reps, which is why it thrills me to be able to pay out millions of dollars in commissions to the people who make YTB thrive.’

Now doing business in the Bahamas, Canada, and Bermuda, YTB expects the RTA base to grow even more dramatically in 2008. That will be a significant accomplishment, since YTB more than doubled the size of its RTA team from 60,000 at the beginning of 2007. Accordingly, the commissions paid in that timeframe also doubled.

Now that Canada, Bahamas and Bermuda has opened up for business, those residents should take advantage of joining YTB at the ground floor level by starting their own online travel business.

For those of you who are considering starting a home based travel business , keep in mind that economic recession has been a hot topic. According to most economic analysts, travel is one industry that will be least effected because of increases in the population, and the derived demands that cause people to travel regardless of economic factors.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Travel business, Your Travel Biz, YTB, online travel business