Spread the Word Ministries Review and Profile

Spread the Word Ministries no longer appears to be active as a direct sales company.

Spread the Word Ministries is no longer active. The original bookstore operation disappeared from the internet, and STWM.com was subsequently used by an unrelated business-training organization. The domain is now parked and offered for sale. There is no current Christian bookstore, representative enrollment program or compensation opportunity operating through the former website.

Original Npros business profile for Spread the Word Ministries, preserved below for archival purposes:

Spread the Word Ministries, commonly abbreviated STW, was an internet-based Christian retail and fundraising opportunity operating from Phoenix, Arizona, during the early and mid-2000s. The company provided churches, ministries, families and individual entrepreneurs with customized online Christian bookstores. Its former website operated at STWM.com. Contemporary reporting shows that the program was active by 2004, although a precise founding date was not identified.

STW's online stores offered more than 150,000 Christian products, including books, Bibles, music, videos and gifts. The company handled the product catalog and e-commerce platform, while participating organizations and individuals promoted their customized stores to congregations, personal contacts and other customers. In 2005, STW advertised potential gross profit margins of up to 30% on sales made through those stores. The company reported paying more than $1 million to its clients during 2004.

The company described its sales method as "relationship marketing," but the surviving evidence supports classifying the opportunity as an online storefront, affiliate-sales and fundraising program rather than a conventional MLM. Participants earned a portion of retail sales generated through their individual stores. No reliable compensation document was identified showing distributor ranks, binary or unilevel organizations, multigeneration commissions, or overrides on the sales of recruited storefront owners.