I Found The Holy Grail In An Online Business - Or So I Thought
I am sure that we have many members here who have been involved in one or more MLM programs. Some existing members may still be. What if it was possible to operate an MLM business like an affiliate marketing business?
Why not market the MLM products online using affiliate marketing techniques to generate enough volume to pay you a decent income? In fact don't even bother to build your network until you succeeded in achieving this objective.
Once you have that income flowing then use Email marketing to introduce these customers to the business opportunity. Some will get with the program and others will not. But you will be operating from a position of strength and confidence.
Can This Realy Work?
There are good reasons why this would NOT work with the vast majority of MLM opportunities. Why? Most of the products sold are overpriced in order to pay the commissions and bonuses. There are always close equivalent products available in the marketplace at lower prices. If an MLM falls in this category, affiliate marketing strategies will not work.
What if the products were exceptional and fairly priced? Then I suggest marketing them like an affiliate program. Please do not assume I am implying that affiliate marketing strategies can work with all MLM companies. It will not.
One of our Wealthy Affiliate members has succeeded immensely doing MLM online using affiliate marketing techniques. Many of you may know whom I am talking about. I think very highly of him and appreciate how well he has succeeded in running his MLM business online, He also spends a great deal of time in training his recruits.
The Company I Found
I found a company that combines MLM and Affiliate Marketing. It markets luxurious coffees and teas, nutraceutricals, CBD Oils as well as self development programs. It is called Success By Health. All its products appear to be fairly priced except the self development programs.
Hence, why not keep an open mind and review it? I am not a member, hence the link I'm using above is NOT an affiliate link but a direct link to the company's website.
They have a system that works just like affiliate marketing. When you join them you get an affiliate link that is attached as the URL to any area of the website. For example, you can provide the link to the product page where anyone who clicks that can make a purchase. If they do, you will earn a commission. Commissions are a flat 10% of the sale price.
For those who wish to take advantage of the MLM part of the business they can send the URL to the affiliate sign up page to recruit affiliates under them. This URL will include the affiliate code. Any affiliate can earn commissions at a reducing scale up to 6 levels deep.
Sounds amazing, Right? This was a company after my own heart. In fact, it was the first MLM company I came across that created this hybrid approach to online marketing. Sounded pretty exciting to me.
As I read further red flags started to rise!
Business Packages
One could join for free to learn about the program from inside. That sounds like a great idea. Isn't that what Wealthy Affiliate does?
Not so fast. The similarities end there.
Free members have no rights to market the products and earn an income. They are observers and are place holders for the person who did the recruiting. When they upgrade, then the person who recruited them will be able to benefit from their sales too.
The cost of entry goes up from there. In order to qualify for earnings you must pay a fee of $49 annually. Then there are the product packages that range in cost from $125 to $1995. When I see high priced membership options like this, clearly they are encouraging affiliates to stock up on products that will increase the value of commissions flowing upwards.
I decided to dig deeper and found an FTC report that was very disturbing.
FTC Report
You can see that the FTC has designated this company as a Pyramid Scheme.
It doesn't look like they have gone on a full out investigation yet. However, they have forewarned the public what they will be getting into if they became an affiliate.
Lost Opportunity
I feel that Success By Health has lost a great opportunity to graphically demonstrate how to combine MLM with Affiliate Marketing using a business approach that was fair to everyone. Without all those excessively high priced business packages.
Sadly it appears that greed overtook their motives. What a shame.
On a positive note, if Success By Health figured out the possibility of combining Affiliate Marketing with MLM, perhaps others will too.
A Word Of Caution
If you decide to go this route for an online business, do your homework. Any MLM opportunity could be approached like an affiliate program. They will not be exactly like a pure affiliate program as upfront costs will be involved even if you just want to sell the products.
Make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully for any gotchas!
Review
I just published a review of Success By Health on my affiliate marketing website if you care to check it out. Just know that I gave it a very low rating and didn't recommend becoming an affiliate of this company.
Guess what my #1 Recommendation was? Do I really need to answer that?
I wish you all the best in your afiliate marketing journey.
Cheers.
Edwin
Recent Comments
66
Definitely an interesting post Edwin.
I really do like the way you write, it keeps me wanting to read more.
I would agree that there are some MLM Companies that can be worked through all that we learn at WA.
It must take doing the research ahead of time or you might end up being distracted or wondering off on a tangent toward another shiny object. Just thinking.
Definitely something to consider.
Thanks
Ray
Hi Ray, thanks for your kind remarks. Any business requires focus and hard work to succeed. Distractions will always be there. That's where discipline to follow a plan is essential. I wish you great success in your ventures.
Edwin
Edwin,
I was thinking about doing the same thing with a company called Zilis, because I am using their CBD and CBG products. But I found it to be the same as the one you have described above, except that it didn't have an affiliate side to it. I did find one of their CBD products on Amazon, so I might be able to add a banner in my sidebar widget of my WA Website.
I haven't tried it yet.
Barbara
Hi Barbara, approach it like affiliate marketing like you're thinking of doing. You could write about your experience with the products that could be powerful.
Edwin
Are you referring to your website that is promoting the WA program? That is what I am doing. And Chuck Holmes who is a biggie in the MLM world told me I should devote one post towards my LegalShield MLM program. So you can do that too since it is about making money online.
He has posted here a lot recently. I suggest you approach him for advice.
Cheers!
Edwin
Edwin,
Thank you.
I'm not planning to join the company's MLM program. I just intend to promote the one product as Affiliate through Amazon.
Barbara
What I meant was devoting one page to the company's products that has an MLM program. Not the MLM program itself. Since you only plan to market the product you're doing the sensible thing using Amazon. I wish you well in getting lots of sales.
Edwin,
I plan to do that. Maybe do a page on the product itself and how it benefits me and maybe also do a review on the company itself. I am going to a seminar on the products on the 19th of the month. My doctor is hosting an open house (probably because he's an ambassador selling the products).
Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it very much.
Enjoy your weekend!
Barbara
Sounds like you have a great plan. Glad the product is working for you. I wonder if your Doctor is hoping to recruit people into the business.
I wish you much success with your seminar. You could use that as a guide for your blog post.
Edwin
Edwin,
Thank you. I was thinking the same thing about the seminar. Both about the doctor recruiting and how I could use the information to write my posts.
Have a good one!
Barbara
That is such an interesting post as I have thought about this too. The biggest headache I found with MLM is that the retention rate of distributors runs at around 3% globally so you need to spend the majority of your time sponsoring and training and hopefully find some others prepared to do the same.
I am feling so free since I gave it up for something where I am not relying on anyone else's performance to earn. 😁
I wrote a blog post that emphasized exactly the point you mentioned. If recruitment stopped, the companies would die a slow death. Glad that you found affiliate marketing.
Edwin
The vast majority if not all of those MLM companies make money spend by the distributors itself on those so-called "starter packages" and recruiting others. The products are usually overpriced and seldom sold outside the "inner circle" of distributors. I stay away from MLM as a whole.
Thanks for sharing,Edwin
What you said makes a lot of sense. As far as the MLM companies are concerned the network is what drives sales more than creating new business opportunities for its members. I agree with what you stated.
Edwin
See more comments
The FTC is a wealth of information when it comes to exploring dodgy companies, A lot of these companies come to attention for making unfounded promises and claims as to the methods used and earning potential.
The sales pitches never live up to the expectations that they create, and any model that requires the participants to promote to others in order to create income is borderline if not fully over the line scam.
It is interesting because the model could be upgraded as you have expressed to include that affiliate marketing hybrid model.
Thanks for sharing Edwin.
Best wishes with the review that you created.
Alex
Well stated Alex!
Edwin