It is my assertion that there has never been a single multi-level marketing company that isn't guilty of either grossly overpriced products or misrepresentation.
Can anyone name a product offered by a multi-level marketing company that isn't either a scam or available elsewhere (or the equivalent available elsewhere) for much cheaper?
Has anyone on this forum ever participated in selling multi-level marketed products? Be honest. I would love to hear about your experience.
Amway? Herbalife?
Legend tells that there was once such a man who roamed here but he was banished to the outworld.
I have worked with many people who sell Avon, Tupperware, LTD and Longaberger Baskets. They do the selling and creating a network to get free items with their profits. They seem to enjoy throwing the parties and selling things to coworkers. I have not been scammed from these people but can get some of the items for the same price at stores like Walmart.
P90x - well reviewed and part of a mlm company
Avon and Scentsy seem like the other two most reputable mlm companies.
Other than that most are scum
Shadiest industry out there imo. I know this guy who got filthy rich by getting in on bottom floor of juice+. Guy makes 2.5 million a year. He's ligit one of the biggest douchebags in my neck of the woods.
I'm down probably 1 to 1.5k lifetime in MLM programs.
I did make money with one of these. It was a gasoline additive to increase your mileage which I'd say the product did work for me somewhat but whenever I read the reviews some were really good to some saying the product didn't do anything for them.
It was possible to make money back in the day if you got in these early and recruited a bunch of people but the problem is by the time you have those people under you they have a hard time finding people so they give up. When they quit you lose any monthly revenue you get from them purchasing their product/subscription quota and they don't bring in many new people so you don't make money several levels deep.
The people that make money are the ones that start these programs. Other people who get in early and have a good amount of people they can market to who are suckers can make money too but like I said if those people who sign up under the big recruiter don't make money they leave.
My experience is mostly from the late 90s before it was so easy to advertise on the internet. These days even if a program catches on it will blow up big early on hitting it's peak and go downhill from there.
A lot of the reason I tried these programs was a hobby and to see if it was even possible to make money knowing I would likely lose out on the deal.
Before ebay blew up and advertising was cheap I made out well on there selling tons of stuff. Some of the products I shipped myself and others I was hooked up with a few drop shipping companies. For anyone who don't know what that is I basically list the auction for a product the company sells so I make a profit over what they charge me and once I get paid from a buyer I call the drop shipping company up providing them the buyers information to ship it out to them.I built up a nice credit rating charging a whole lot and paying it off instantly doing this before I turned 21.
I was heavily recruited by a Ruby in Amway back in the 90's. It was surreal to me at the time and I didn't get in because I saw how much time you would have to put in to it and at some level it was just shady. Just after that the cell phone market exploded and I really regretted not getting involved. They were all cool people though, just the way it was marketed was too creepy.
Only chance of making any money in this is for an American to travel to a foreign country and recruit the hell out of it. They call it the three foot rule in the industry.
I did some research on MLM like 10 years ago. And I mean I was thorough. The bottom line is unless you are at the top, and I mean the very top, MLM is impossible to make money at. The math does not work. If you get in at the very top you can make money, but can also be indicted.
I remember having an MLM come over one night to sell me some type of computer product. I was a real piece of shit, but he brought his real trashy albeit hot wife. He was a real tool and weak, but she was real pushy and basically was making overtures to me during the presentation at my kitchen table. She basically asked if we could have some drinks at this bar down the street and go over the way I could make a lot of money working under their team. There was no doubt she would have fucked me that night if I had signed up and her lame husband would not have cared. They looked desperate for the $2,500 sign up fee.
So we went down to the bar, and I really was skeptical but wanted to get them out of my apartment. So we ordered three drinks with an accompanying shot of tequila. Anyway, she began doing the math on a piece of paper and he was just staring off into space, completely zoned out. I have no idea if he was high or just defeated. She kept grabbing my hand in a sexual way saying "oh we are going to make a lot of money". Meanwhile he was just looking around, occasionally nodding his head.
I ended the meeting in the bar saying the drinks were on me, and I would review her literature (some canned piece of shit pamphlet) and call her tomorrow. She kept insisting for them to meet me back at my place to talk more, there is no doubt in my mind she would have fucked me, but then I would have been on the hook for the $2,500.
I believe many of these MLM deals end up in sex for money deals. She was there for a reason, and it was basically sex for the sign up fee.
I will say this, this chick was hot and trashy, she had wiry red hair and was a smoker with a scratchy voice. She was in her early 30s and was wearing tight white jeans and had a small tramp stamp on her lower back. She was ready to party for sure. He was just so aloof, it was almost like he was going to do exactly what she would say. Like I said, he was either on drugs or just mailed life in.
The reason why I left was because after I fucked her they might have demanded more money and killed me. The $2,500 fee really did not concern me, the Glock to my head demanding money at 4am was my big concern. Nobody knew I was with these people so they might have gotten away with it.
Interesting stories, especially from tgull.
I agree with most of the posts in this thread. Unless you are at the top of the chain, or you enter some untapped market (such as a foreign country which hasn't been penetrated yet), you will lose money attempting to sell MLM products.
A bigger problem with MLM products, however, is the fact that most are absolute shit (or completely useless), and are just a front for a pyramid scheme.
It's illegal to sell the opportunity to sell if there's no product. If there is a product, then it is legal to sell the opportunity to sell it, according to a 1979 FTC ruling regarding Amway.
Unfortunately, this gives rise to lots of completely worthless products, which exist simply to enter that loophole in the law. When the product is obviously bullshit, at least it only affects the MLM distributors and not outside consumers. Unfortunately, few MLM products are clearly bogus nowadays (so as to avoid legal trouble), and instead you get an actual product which is either crappy, misrepresented, or overpriced.
The problem is when you are contacted by a friend or relative who is desperate for money, and they try to push their crapola product on you. They tend not to take "no" for an answer, and will usually get offended if you dare say anything bad about the product, or accuse it of being a pyramid scheme. These MLM schemes have survived so long because of people's cult-like devotion to the companies they distribute for. Some of this devotion comes through parties and other social functions where distributors get together and feel like they're becoming like family. In most cases, MLM distributors are ordinary middle-class and lower-middle-class people who believe they have found an exciting way to make big money, and they basically force themselves to drink the Kool-Aid regarding the "wonderful" product they are selling.
Here is a MLM marketing scheme that I have recently come across, as some acquaintances of mine (nobody you guys know) have been selling it. It's called Youngevity.
Youngevity already has a very scammy-sounding name, though you can see how it can appeal to idiots (basically a concatenation of 'young' and 'longevity').
These are vitamin supplements which are greatly marked up in price, and basically the same thing can be bought much cheaper on Amazon or at health food/supplement stores like GNC.
Beyond the markup, however, is a lot of nonsense promoted by a "Doctor" Joel Wallach, who isn't actually a doctor. "Dr." Wallach has been in various legal trouble over the years as a result of his other business ventures, but that doesn't stop his followers from taking his word as God's. Some of these people seem to honestly believe that they are distributing a supplement that will actually make a real difference in people's health.
Here are two exposes on Youngevity:
http://nutra-smart.net/al.htm
http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/youngevity-scam/
I think you are missing the marketing objective for the top guys in an MLM. It is *not* to sell product to "outside consumer(s)", but the dream of making an easy living to people gullible enough to believe they can rake in the dough on residuals/commissions from downstream distributors in their own networks. There are a few excellent YouTube vids and websites explaining this, but my Internet speed is shit right now, so I don't have the bandwidth to quickly find them.Originally Posted by Dan Druff
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Pretty much anyone that's 35+yrs old realizes this is all the same shit as Amway and the millions of other MLM's that have come around. It's always amazing to me how many dipshits are out there still believing they are going to get rich by becoming part of some "team". It's so cringe to watch these women posting on FB about their "biz" and how they're going to have a lexus, etc,etc. Posting about how rich they are going to be while also recruiting people and selling to their "preferred customers". Like hey "we are going to make so much money off of you suckers". Sick marketing strategy.
Everyone of these has the same business model with the only variable being the product. It always ends the same where they finally give up once they've hit up every single member of their family and every friend/acquaintance to buy their shitty products.
The thing about Amway that makes it successful, at least the way it was explained to me is that it's like Amazon in that it has a bunch of stuff you can order that is shit you use everyday like laundry detergent, coffee etc. with the whole thing being that it is cheaper than what you would get it for at the store anyway. I think Amyway glass cleaner is like the #2 brand in the country and you can't even buy that shit in a store if you tried. The thing was with them that you could literally get everyone you know involved and you'd be helping them save coin and have the option to recruit if they wanted to. The kicker was you had to come out with like $250 to get in the game. I mean it's not much, but it's a hell of a lot of window cleaner to make up for before you save dime one.
Here's one of the vids on MLM that lay out why they are scams.
And be careful taking cues from the many short fake "MLM's are a scam" that are put up by MLMers trying to recruit people using a false lead.
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It's like you don't understand that you are on level 1 and everybody engaged in the conversation except you, is already on level 3.
The P90X is a fine product as are all of the other beachbody DVDS.
But where the money off these DVDS is made by people marketing them and the company is when people buy the Shakeology crap. More or less people will give these videos away on Social Media sites as long as you buy the shakeology which is $120 a month which is a protein shake with extra nutrients etc.... and when you buy this stuff through beachbody and when you order it comes on autoship and to cancel it is kind of a pain in the ass as you have to fax/email them something and if you don't hear from them when you call you are on hold for a long time or harassed to try and keep buying it.
So more or less here is how these girls make money. They get some workout program like 21 day fix (I'm sure you have seen the infomercials) and they do the workout program/follow the eating guide and they lose a shitload of weight and get in good shape. They post before and afters------> other girls or guys see the results-----------> people click their link and order the product and if they become sales members (or coaches as they like to be called) and everyone from the top gets a cut. I know some people making like $2,000 a week off this stuff.
Anyhow I think the shakeology stuff is a semi scam which is marked up about double what it should be and it is so all the promoters can make money. I've have discussions with countless "coaches" about this stuff and how it is not necessary to lose the weight as it is all eating right and exercising that does the weight loss. But they will have u believe that one cup of this stuff = 30 salads and that your nails will grow faster and your hair will be shinier etc....
But hey more the power to them as they are getting $$$
The health fitness market is the perfect niche for MLM. People don't shop price.. China has nailed the only successful MLM I can think of.
I am involved with a health & fitness club and we aren't $10/mo. Got three key markets.
One of my mantras is that parents will spend almost anything on their kid's athletic success. Parents will even spend money they don't have. The younger the parent & the kid the dumber they are and easier the sale.
Evidence.
Little leaguers with $300 composite bats.
Tennis kids with tennis bags (some have fucking wheels) loaded with multiple racquets.
Hockey kids are the best. 11 year olds with $300 composite sticks.
20 something males will spend almost anything on supplements and gear to look good. (Privately I am thinking their athletic days are behind them and they shoulda been doing this work in their teens.) It's just a looking good thing as a practical matter.
Best market for us: Women 30+ with money will spend almost anything to look good. Present them with products and programs. Sell, then continue pushing something else. They are insatiable. Failure to sell means you're a failure.
MLM ain't the best way to market health/fitness but the money is falling all over the floor so why not scoop it up. The Beachbody thing is pretty hot. Giving away cruises to coaches and their spouses and all that crap. Money is there. My idea was to recruit nurses like Splitthis as coaches and you can't lose.
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