I was a paid (Platinum) member of Ryze for four years and it’s true – people joined Ryze in their droves, back then. The objective was to offer quality articles and discussion on a variety of topics, in order to drive traffic to their websites.

It worked well for a while!

Let’s back track for a moment:
Ryze was a social network for small business. Let’s face it – we never saw networks by Buffett or Gates, but there were Entrepreneurs with good ideas willing to share ideas and help to boost their fellow Entrepreneur to the next level.

With good marketing ideas, tips and low cost or free tele-seminars, these selfless members saved tens of thousands of dollars for the small business owner or Entrepreneur.

As those selfless members realized the futility of free services with no return, and as their businesses grew (outgrowing the Ryze population), they left – simply moved on to the next level in their business growth. Some were ready to move away from online networking altogether, while others graduated to less social/more business environments such as Linked in and Xing which evolved with the needs of the membership.

Regretably, their places were taken up by the negative element of egotistical ‘know-it-alls’ who had nothing better to do than to cause trouble, hitting various networks with slander, ridicule and criticism under the guise of ‘Freedom of Speech’.

It is not quite true that Ryze leadership did nothing. What they did was to ‘axe’ good members and network leaders, who lost patience waiting for Ryze to ‘clean up’ the membership and took matters into their own hands – Ryze did this in favor of retaining the cancerous element which dragged Ryze slowly and agonizingly to its death on a daily basis.

It’s amusing, really. I have kept in touch with many of the then-successful network leaders who were either ‘axed’ or simply folded up their tents and moved on – they have gone from strength to strength in their businesses, while those who remained with Ryze continue to post their negative drivel several times a day. Those Ryze members who read, but don’t post are subject to a daily diet of negativity, sense of lack and mindless chatter about illness and family misfortune, which has dragged them into the vortex of dread and fear. The tragedy is that they don’t know it.

Ryze has become a ghost town of defunct networks and personal pages of past members, no longer there. Visiting Ryze is like riding through a film lot – the facades are there, but there’s nothing behind them and the streets are full of those whose lives consist of creating an illusion in order to make money at the box office. Just like the movie created from facades and stage sets, looking behind the scenes of Ryze, reveals good actors steeped in a world of fantasy.

It wasn’t always like that – Ryze was once a great place!

Althea Garner
House Of Homes Online
http://www.HouseOfHomesOnline.com