Coastal Vacations--a Balanced Review

In today's review we will be taking a look at the Coastal Vacations business opportunity. As a professional online marketer who has had the opportunity to evaluate hundreds of different programs I will begin by telling you that it is very important to educate yourself before becoming involved in any of them.

Coastal Vacations is a discount vacation program that can save a person up to 75% off of regularly priced hotels, condos, travel costs, etc. without the need for purchasing time shares or paying expensive maintenance fees, etc. This is significant and a very nice feature of this program as travel costs have increased substantially over the last few years, and time share purchases are very expensive. The company offers three different levels of service starting with Level I which is priced at $1295.00. The company offers other packages that sell for as high as $11,000.00! For this price you can purchase a "Platinum Package which consists of a combination of Level I, II, and III packages.

Those members that choose to do so can then market the program, if they desire. Once fully qualified, a "director makes $1,000.00 profit on every Level I package that they sell. This is a very nice commission and one can see how just a few sales each month could lead to a decent online income, but there are some catches. First of all, to become "qualified" a new marketer must give up their first two sales commissions to the person who sponsored them. In my estimation this is a huge disadvantage as the first sales in any company are often the most difficult to make, especially if you are brand new to internet marketing. In addition to losing out on the first $2,000.00 in commissions I found what I perceive to be an even bigger problem. That is, when (and if) a person becomes "qualified" by making their first two sales they break away from their sponsor, which means that their sponsor no longer gets paid on any sales made by them. In essence, these two then become direct competition, and there really is no motivation for the sponsor to continue offering training and support. This effectively ends any teamwork and synergy that may have previously existed.

Beginning marketers who are not as skilled in selling online now have the option of using the "Coastal Call Center" to do all of the presenting andselling for them. At first glance this seems like a great idea, but when one realizes that the call center charges an additional $700.00 to the price of each package for their services, it seems to me prices already expensive packages out of reach for most consumers. As an example, the price of a Level I package would go up from $1295.00 to $1995.00! This seems like an unfair cost that is passed on to the unsuspecting end consumer.

While I was doing research for this article I should note that I did run across several complaints concerning Coastal Vacations posted on various online "Rip-Off Report" sites. I have no way of knowing whether or not there is any merit in any of these complaints, but wanted to let you know that they exist.

In conclusion what you really want to know is "Is it possible to make a decent income with Coastal Vacations?" The answer is a qualified yes. As with other internet programs there are many who do quite well with this program and make very good money, but I would not recommend this program unless you are a seasoned internet marketer who knows what you are doing, and are not as concerned with training and support. As with any business opportunity, it takes time and hard work to make money online, but for those who have a burning desire to educate themselves and work every day on their business the personal and financial rewards can be very substantial.