The Fine Line Between Legitimate Businesses And Pyramid Schemes
You must have come across such a message in your life and have ignored it. But there are people like mentioned in the above three bulletins, they become victims and eventually clicks on attacking links attached inside the mail content and boom, you’re hacked! With false advertisements and spammy materials, the USA has finally been tagged as ‘pyramid scam’.
While most of the focus has been a battle between hedge fund managers, what is often overlooked is the actual impact on the often low income individuals who were lured into this “business opportunity”. After spending a few thousand dollars to start their business, the distributors are incentivized to recruit new members, and build their “downline”. Upon advancing to higher levels within the pyramid, distributors must continue to buy certain levels of inventory each month. At these levels, it becomes increasingly challenging to sell the product. Eventually, distributors realize how pointless is it to keep throwing money away and it is estimated that 90% quit within one year. The article noted that most distributors lose between $1,000 and $10,000 with the average distributor losing $3,000.
Make sure the product or service offered by the company is something you would buy without the income opportunity and the product or service is competitively priced. Illegal pyramid schemes often sell products at prices well above retail or sell products that are difficult to value, such as health and beauty aids, new inventions or "miracle" cures. MLM companies are designed to make profit for the owners/shareholders of the company and a few individual participants at the top levels of the MLM pyramid of participants. Federal Trade Commission , some MLM companies already constitute illegal pyramid schemes even by the narrower existing legislation, exploiting members of the organization.
If you read this far it is because you are a stand up person truly looking to understand different perspectives or you are looking for how to punch holes and attack everything I am saying. I just please ask you read this to understand, not to reply. But we have learned these stigmas don’t go away with one to two sentence phrases that don’t truly dig through layers of context and perspective. If you have any more questions or would like me to write on anything else about the myths and confusions of this industry, please let me know. I can fight the fight for people to see things more clearly by being the loudest voice out mlm scam there but I have learned education, perspective, and giving grace for those looking to understand is where my strong suit lies. #4 - Ponzi schemes requires more deposits than withdrawals in order to pay investors.
Traditional MLM programs are legal because there is a real product that is being sold through the channel. There is a growing rumble of discontent against multi-level marketing businesses. As well as a growing backlash from former MLM recruits, regulators are getting involved, too. Unfortunately, however, these businesses that have been likened to legal pyramid schemes are unlikely to disappear altogether. Unlike MLM businesses, affiliate marketing programs cost nothing to join and don’t require that you recruit anyone into a network.
And so, in some of these companies, the only way to make significant amounts of money is to recruit many, many people and collect commissions on their sales, too. One of the benefits of affiliate marketing programs is the level of control you have. For starters, you get to pick which brands you want to work with and which products or services you want to promote. If you’re looking to earn some additional income, affiliate marketing is an effective way to do so. Unfortunately, many people mistake affiliate marketing for MLM marketing, which stands for “multi-level marketing” and is sometimes referred to as “pyramid schemes”.
One study by AARP found that 73% of sellers either don’t earn a dime or actually lose money from the venture. One highly-circulated report from the Consumer Awareness Institute puts that number at closer to 99%. At some point, you’ve probably been contacted by a family member, friend or Facebook acquaintance who fancies themselves a budding entrepreneur. Maybe they want to offer you the “amazing business opportunity” of joining their team and becoming a seller too.
Money is an independent, advertiser-supported website and may receive compensation for some links to products and services throughout this website. “There are really only two groups of people who are positioned to crack down on shady MLMs,” says Teel Lidow, an attorney and CEO of the consumer protection startup FairShake. That includes regulators, like the FTC or the Securities and Exchange Commission , or former MLM distributors themselves. Network marketing is a business model that depends on person-to-person sales by independent representatives, often working from home. Kirsten Rohrs Schmitt is an accomplished professional editor, writer, proofreader, and fact-checker.