About
Ever visited a MLM review site that just didn’t seem right?
‘Don’t join this MLM company, it’s a SCAM! Join MY MLM company instead!‘
There’s a lot of rubbish MLM review and news sites on the internet that masquerade solely as lead generation tools for their owners. I believe there’s a distinct lacking of concise and clear information out there regarding companies within the MLM industry and MLM itself.
The aim of Behind MLM is to fill that void and prove to be a useful resource to people curious about the MLM industry.
I created BehindMLM out of a genuine interest in the MLM industry and a desire to provide the public with relevant and accurate MLM information, news and company reviews.
I hope you find BehindMLM a useful resource and feel free to leave any feedback below. Additionally you can contact me if you’ve got an further queries about the site, want to submit a company for review or for any general questions.
Thanks for reading!
April 11th, 2010 at
[...] free to have a poke around the new site and let me know if anything is horribly busted in the About section. Here’s hoping this new project works out and as always, thanks for [...]
June 24th, 2010 at 8:50 pm Jay Volles(Quote)
Can you give me your insight on Ignite powered by Stream Energy… Give me your positives and negatives, or write an article about it.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:14 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Hmm an electricity MLM, that sounds interesting!
Due to travelling and other commitments I’m way behind the 8 ball on publishing articles for BehindMLM. I’ve added Ignite to my list though I can’t promise when I’ll publish my opinion of them.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:59 am Anonymous Aussie(Quote)
Hi Oz!
I’m definitely looking forward to hearing your views on the MLM industry and looking at some MLMs a little more in detail.
Should prove an interest read on what generally ends up being a hot topic of discussion.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:59 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Thanks Anonymous and I look forward to writing about them!
Finding the time is proving all to challenging at the moment but perseverence is the key hey.
October 4th, 2010 at 5:47 pm Vince(Quote)
Hey, you reckon Xyngular is worthy of a mention? Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, here’s a guy posing as a doctor, alongside a few sidekicks.
October 5th, 2010 at 1:58 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Haven’t looked into them but I’ve added Xyngular to the research list. Thanks for the heads up.
December 25th, 2010 at 4:47 am Tha Teacher(Quote)
Are there any companies that you do recommend?
December 28th, 2010 at 12:44 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
I don’t particularly see BehindMLM as a platform to recommend business opportunities. Along with some broader articles I try to analyse MLM companies and present an unbiased factual look to differentiate from the abundance of marketing spiel available.
These days it’s quite hard to get information about MLM business opportunities without being subject to an ulterior motive (usually business related) in the process.
Although progress is admittedly slow, I aim to over time build a sizeable cache of knowledge for those out there researching the various MLM business opportunities available.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:48 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Just a quick note, I tried adding comment numbering and found that in doing so it was overriding the Gravatar placement.
I wasn’t able to get both showing (I think this is a theme limitation of only being able to display one thing beside each individual comment.
I think gravatars are more functional than comment numbering so for now I’ll leave it. As for quoting individual comments, even on the longer commented articles you can always blockquote or simply reference the date (comments are published via date hierarchy).
March 17th, 2011 at 3:40 am Chris Molinari(Quote)
I’m just wondering why you are “anonymous” and don’t put your identity out there.
Also, anyone can post negative things about MLM companies online, and they are usually by someone who has joined a company, bought the “dream,” yet sat around “dreaming they’d become rich” without doing much of anything.
They blame their company, their sponsor, the leads, the system, their parents, whomever or whatever rather than take responsibility that they simply didn’t get off their “sofa” and get to work. Then they quit and the whining begins.
Your site and others like them can ruin the reputation and business of a company without even giving them a chance. I believe there should be a process where the offending remarks can be removed if the person crying like a baby because they didn’t have the “goods” to make it in the big, bad world of MLM.
How about being fair and making the person PROVE what they say and not put the negative info up about the company until they get a chance to make a rebuttal and/or show the “whiner” never did a darn thing to build a business.
Like the BBB-although even with them, if you are a PAYING member you won’t get a negative report. How about being fair in this horrible economy-give a company a chance.
They may have many people who DO want to give it a shot and will actually work the business, but with negative info on the Internet it makes their chances at success harder to achieve. Plus without proof it’s just mean spirited pseudo “journalism.”
March 17th, 2011 at 9:27 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Because the information I publish should be able to stand on its own, regardless of who I am. It’s not about me, it’s about reviewing and analysing MLM and the various opportunities available.
Exactly. That’s why BehindMLM is different. I’m not affiliated with any MLM company. Instead I try to provide information from the viewpoint of someone doing their own research and analysis into a company.
Informing people before the marketing side of a company saturates them with blind positivity.
You’re implying that MLM itself has a 100% success rate and that any failure is on the distributors part. This is as nonsensical as claiming that 100% of MLM failures lies within MLM itself.
People have a right to publish their negative experiences, regardless of why you think they ultimately failed.
Companies are free at any time to publish rebuttals. Instead, they usually take the path of lawsuits. This also ties into the anonyminity of BehindMLM as a lot of countries out there currently have judicial systems that heavily favour business over people in terms of capital needed to effectively defend yourself against legal allegations.
Easier to bog people down in the legal system and hope they fold than to engage people.
And as for proof, this works both ways. I don’t expect people to divulge personal information up on here. But on the other hand, ever tried asking an MLM to back up its ‘multi-billion dollar this and over xxx thousand members’ claims?
Good luck with that!
Information on the internet in no way shape of form changes the probability or percentage rate of succesful distributors/associates/representatives in a particular MLM business. This is a fixed statistical number.
BehindMLM is a blog, it’s not a major news broadcaster.
March 17th, 2011 at 1:22 pm K. Chang(Quote)
@ChrisMolinari — While associates have at least a part in failure of their own “venture”, it would be EXTREMELY unfair to blame it all on them without studying the overall picture. In fact, it is one of the 13 excuses I’ve identified by scams to blame their victims, i.e. “you must be doing it wrong”.
In fact, I’ll go as far as guess most of that attitude is pushed by their own uplines, who promised them success, and blame them for failure.
This is just ONE blog among the bazillion different sites / blogs about MLM (or scams that claim to be MLM). If you really think one website can ruin a MLM, you need an attitude adjustment.
March 17th, 2011 at 7:39 pm B.F.(Quote)
Almost every MLM has a disclaimer that tells the prospects to do their due dilligence. Still they are mad about sites like BehindMLM that actually do this work for them just for free.
However, I can only speak for myself and my blog, and it has certainly had influence on the reputation of the companies Wealth Masters International and Carbon Copy Pro.
The reason why I created my blog was the extreme amount of garbage posted everywhere about these companies, and my blog appearantly drowned in this ocean of deceit. However, it caused enough attention from both journalists and authorities, and now the companies are in serious trouble.
However, I have several times asked for information about the company and every time they have served lies that have been very easy to reveal. One example is the claim that the average annual income for WMI representatives is 1.300.000 NOK.
Pretty stupid as the Norwegian top consultant Per Gunnar Hoem has denied such an income for himself. Still he seems to tell his new prospects face to face that he earns 300.000 or more each month as this is refered to in their marketing material.
Even their Norwegian lawyer has not been able to point out anything wrong, he has only claimed that there is a possibility that it could be wrong to use the words “illegal”, “pyramid scheme” and “fraud”, and if it appeared to be wrong they would then consider legal action.
He even accused me for hacking into WMIs data center, he appearantly did not know that this information was available in WMI’s homepage. Every term he was mad about has been documented very clearly to him, and after then I have not heard from him.
This is probably the reason that CCP has not contacted me yet. Instead they are treathening OZ for a comment citing my blog. They are
There were at least 500 websites in Norwegian describing the “fantastic business opportunity” of CCP/WMI when I started blogging. If these companies were solid, ethical and making success for their representatives there is no way that my single blog could ruin the reputation of these companies.
The main reason is that my blog is based on proven facts, and these 500 websites were based on lies and deception that could easily be revealed (like people claiming to be successful internet marketers one week after signing up with the company).
The chance that any online business opportunity is a scam is at least 99 %. Giving a business a chance in this branch does not mean joining them by paying hundreds or thousands of dollars and eventually find out if it worked or not.
According to you, if these lazy people with the wrong mindset were filtered out in the application process for all MLM companies, the success rate in MLM would explode.
This is not going to happen. There must always be hundreds or thousands of loosers in every non-retail scheme to produce one millionaire.
March 20th, 2011 at 5:34 am Chris Molinari(Quote)
I have no idea what you are talking about. Of course people that say they are successful internet marketers after one week, but those people are simply stupid and think by “puffing” they can get people to join.
Saying 99% of MLMs are scams is untrue. Most of these companies have to pass through their state Atty. General’s office, file papers, fund the company, and spend hundreds of thousands if not over a million dollars getting off the ground.
How stupid to spend all that money just to create a short-lived scam.
The “gifting” programs and their “ilk” are the scammers. The work from home deals where they want you to open a bank account and deposit checks then send one of your own to them, only to find their checks were bogus-THOSE are scams.
You are in a foreign country and do not know how difficult it is for companies to even get off the ground. They have legal teams and if they screw up the Atty. General will shut them down.
And NO there are not hundreds of thousands of losers in ONE company to create one millionaire. Most GOOD companies tell new people if they follow instructions, talk to enough people and actually do some work, within 8 to 12 months they could potentially increase their incomes to say $500 to $1000 extra per month.
For most people that seemingly small amount of money could change a person’s life especially in this economy. But there are NO guarantees. I just think you have been unfair to a few people I see on your site and should have a way to find out the truth and if they person shows you some proof of what they say you should remove the offending report.
It would make you seem very fair and give you a lot better PR. Incidently, I do online PR and SEO, so I know what I’m talking about.
March 20th, 2011 at 8:51 pm B.F.(Quote)
Chris, I guess you have to find the difference between “hundreds or thousands” and “hundreds of thousands”.
When I said that 99% of all online business opportunities are scams, I did not say that 99 % of all MLM companies are scams.
For companies that claims to do MLM, I will rather say the scam rate is at least 95 %. This will not include 95 % of MLM participants, as the “good” ones are bigger than the dirty ones. Still it has been proved that 97 % of all MLM partipants never earn money.
You claim there is NO guarantee in MLM, which is completely wrong. If you are an average MLM representative there is a guarantee that you will loose money.
The online business opportunities that can not be considered as MLM, are gifting schemes, ponzi schemes, affiliate scams and classical pyramid schemes without any product. These scams pop up everywhere, new ones each day, and actually only a few of them ever succeed scamming a considerable amount of people.
Most of them disappear within months.
I can again verify that no WMI og CCP member has been able to point out anything wrong in my blog, they just say it is full of lies without bringing any documentation of it.
The reason is simple, I have the proofs, they have nothing to show and they stay away to avoid even more embarassing stories. I have even asked their lawyer for documentation, but he has not even replied to my e-mail. As the Norwegian authorities have confirmed that WMI is a illegal pyramid schemes, what is still missing to make you believe this MLM company is a scam?
I have no interest of PR for myself, my only goal is to tell the truth about WMI and CCP. If the truth is bad PR for these companies, it is not correct to hide the truth just to seem fair.
BTW, I can guarantee that it is a lot more difficult to establish a business in Norway compared to USA.
It is interesting what you write about what good MLM companies tell new people. If most MLM companies are good companies, why is it then so difficult to find them? Please bring examples of “good” MLM companies.
March 21st, 2011 at 7:29 pm B.F.(Quote)
Chris, Carbon Copy Pro does not fit your definition of a “good” company. This is from an e-mail from CEO Jay Kubassek which recently was posted in a Norwegian forum:
“So that folks with ZERO experience can plug right in and
have success in a matter of weeks not years or decades like
in the “old school” M L M model.”
And Mr. Kubassek has no doubts about how successful you will be with CCP:
“Tell your boss at your ‘JOB’ that you may not be needing
him or her much longer. I mean that.”
Read the rest of the BS here:
http://forum.hegnar.no/thread.asp?id=1948693
PS! If you work with online PR and you are the manager of International Association of Home Business Opportunities, why does the homepage look like this: http://www.iaohbo.com ?
March 22nd, 2011 at 12:43 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
@Chris
Uh, who are these companies?
A fair chunk of my research time is sifting through the marketing crap that MLM distributors love to market with;
‘multi-giga-infinity incomes!’
’2-3 hours a day is all that’s required!’
‘tell your boss to go and get f….ed!’ etc. etc.
Exaggerated yes but I think you’ve got a bit of a naive view on how MLM is marketed these days.
March 24th, 2011 at 1:26 pm D. F. Halstrom(Quote)
Actually, most of those companies do not have to pass through their state Atty. General’s office. Surprised you don’t know that, since you do online PR and SEO
How does that demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about?
March 25th, 2011 at 1:03 am K. Chang(Quote)
@Chris Molinari — Oh, please. The ONLY relation of a company with Attorney General’s office is a) if you incorporate and you need to report corporation officers to the state or b) you’re getting investigated by the AG.
The former is usually a $25 dollar form to be filed annually. I had to file one just now. Nobody looks at the stuff until someone wants to research you. It’s just public disclosure info, and there are ways to hide even that by going through a proxy that’s incorporated in Nevada.
I know what I am talking about too. And I believe you don’t.
August 7th, 2011 at 3:49 am Raj(Quote)
I am wondering why your domain’s whois information is confidential ??
August 7th, 2011 at 10:41 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
@Raj
Because it’s irrelevant to the information presented on this website. I’m not trying to market or sell you anything.
September 3rd, 2011 at 3:16 am Marc Barrett(Quote)
You have an interesting About section since it has no information about your background (or even your name) and what qualifies you to comment on the MLM industry.
So fess up here dude, what are your qualifications?
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:20 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
The information provided on this website stands on its own, irrespective of my ‘qualifications’ or background.
Apart from my opinion, it’s mostly backed up with cited sources and is credible, but you’re still welcome to refute it.
Who I am or my ‘qualifications’ doesn’t factor into the equation. Moreso when we’re dealing with an industry where it’s touted that qualifications usually don’t matter.
You yourself hold a degree in psychology, surely you can appreciate that that alone doesn’t define who you are or validate your opinion.
September 3rd, 2011 at 12:34 pm Marc Barrett(Quote)
Woah, careful there ozsoabox you show yourself to be a true idiot. Qualifications don’t matter???
I am afraid if you chose to comment on any subject as an authority which is what you do with your domain behindmlm you hold yourself out to be an authority. Cited sources? Sorry I am not seeing any authority you have actually cited.
My degree in psychology has nothing to do with my expertise in this industry. I have been in the industry for over 24 year, have been on the presidential advisory boards of multiple MLM’s and have been cited in 4 nationally punished books on MLM and have been a 7 figure earner so I think that gives me more authority than you speak with.
I take real exception to all the internet junk that is generated just to get traffic such as your website
September 3rd, 2011 at 12:49 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
In MLM, no. What qualifications do you have for MLM, where did you get them? Is there a university for MLM I can go do a certified MLM course at?
If anyone believes I’m authority it’s on the basis of the information and opinions I provide and that alone. Qualifications can’t count because I don’t run around the internet telling everyone I have so and so years network marketing experience…
If people read what’s here and conclude I’m an authority, well, I’ll leave you to ponder what that says about the credibility of the information presented here.
You demand authority because you’ve been in the game for X amount of years, I humbly accept it (if at all) based on my work. And I certainly don’t profess to be more authoritable than others simply because I may or may not have been doing MLM for longer than them.
Information is taken directly from the companies I write about or as close to as possible. As with anything published here you’re free to independently verify the information yourself.
My opinions are based on this information and obviously don’t need cited sources as I am the source.
No it doesn’t. As I’ve repeatedly stated, my information stands on its own, irrespective of who I am or my experience.
Attempting to discredit the information here based on who I am and my experience is thus pointless.
Please, don’t even try to group my website into the mountain of trash available on the internet that is nothing more than thinly veiled MLM marketing spin. Websites such as your own which exist only to funnel people into the opportunities you’re in (such as Wealth Masters International and Family IQ, both of which you appear to be involved in (and who knows what else)) are a dime a dozen and people are sick and tired of them.
People marketing the companies they are involved in under the guise of hackjob coaching, such as yourself, are one of the major reasons I started this website and what I believe will hopefully contribute to it’s ongoing success in the long run.
September 3rd, 2011 at 1:04 pm K. Chang(Quote)
@Marc — claiming the other side is not qualified to comment on MLM smacks of “ad hominem” attack. If you want to attack his opinion, attack his opinion and his evidence backing his opinion, not his qualifications.
Right now, you’re using at least three intellectually dishonest debate tactics:
name-calling — unqualified
claiming membership with audience group — successful in MLM
my resume is bigger than yours — great, so?
cited from http://www.johntreed.com/debate.html
September 3rd, 2011 at 2:02 pm K. Chang(Quote)
@Marc — clarification, if he is using his qualifications to support his opinion, then yes, you may attack his qualifications. However, he is NOT doing so. Thus, you also qualify for intellectually dishonest debate tactic badge #4 and #5
red herring — attacking other side’s qualifications instead of evidence or logic
changing the subject — ditto
YOU, on the other hand, claims qualifications as if that explains everything. Based on your debate tactics demonstrated thus far, I have some doubts on your qualifications, on what they actually mean (not their validity).
September 3rd, 2011 at 2:11 pm K. Chang(Quote)
Come to think of it, this is the same Marc Barrett that wrote TVI Express is good opportunity:
http://askmarcbarrett.com/mlm-reviews/tvi-express-fast-lane-or-a-dead-end
Sorry, Marc. Your credibility just evaporated. You can’t recognize a pyramid scheme when you see one. Your 24 years in MLM apparently is full of ****.
September 3rd, 2011 at 2:42 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Uh lol?
That’s what happens when you’re just out there promoting the various opportunities of the day.
September 3rd, 2011 at 2:56 pm K. Chang(Quote)
I guess we have to throw him in along with Nettle’s CitizenCorp.
September 3rd, 2011 at 3:04 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Not quite, unlike Nettle at least Barret, to his credit, isn’t posing as a division of a government organisation claiming to offer impartial advice on ‘top tier’ home business opportunities.
September 3rd, 2011 at 5:44 pm K. Chang(Quote)
But did you read Barrett’s website? He reviews “top tier” MLMs too. To him, MLMs that offers BIG ticket items (several thousand USD) are “top tier”, and he claims those are the future of MLM, because you can recruit less people to get paid, unlike “normal” MLMs where you have to recruit like hundreds of people to get paid.
Apparently he considers every MLM he joined as a recruiting game, and that’s where he wants to sell his “Lead Generation System Pro”. It’s mentioned at the bottom of just about every review he did.
September 5th, 2011 at 9:35 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
The fallacy of big ticket MLMs is that people need to have ‘big money’ to purchase the products. And they don’t have that without succesful jobs.
That and it kills the notion of anyone can succeed in MLM. Nobody with a job that enables them to afford products, services or membership that costs thousands of dollars is going to purchase from someone with literally no money in the bank.
Given Barret’s lack of a reply, I think it’s pretty much safe to say he was just here for some market exposure. I guess even nofollow comment links help in the eyes of some website owners.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:20 pm Susan Shaw(Quote)
1 Marc Barrett did not mention his qualifications; you did OZ > Marc said :’My degree in psychology has nothing to do with my expertise in this industry.” he said his time in the industry did.
You Oz have never been in an MLM compnay. YOu have jsut decided to become the font of all knowledge on MLM companies. But really you are just here to put all MLM companies down: in other words a make wrong machine!
You clearly have never been in business; you set out to ruin people’s businesses with you blatent lies. and no one it appears cna stop you. that is why you remain anonymous. So you cna tbe sued for defamation.
You are happy to put up other people’s addresses and phone numbers ; put up photos of pople’s homes , accuse them of the most usnspeakable t things , make fun of them, abuse them but you are too gutless to put your own detail anywhere! you really are a joke.
You allow others to upload lies about various people in these businesses, not makeing anyqueries to seeif they are true,some of the stuff you and your cohorts write is rubbish and very poisonous but you just don’t care. tha is why you don’t put your own details in. Just hopeless
September 7th, 2011 at 1:54 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Ah Susan Susan Susan, still banging the ‘why are you anonymous?’ drum? Careful there, your Beyond Freedom doesn’t seem to be addressing your anger issues.
Sure he did, how else did I find out about them? And Mark very much presented his time in the industry as a certifiable qualification that trumps all else. Despite the obviousness that he was only here to promote his latest companies.
So? Neither have a lot of people looking at MLM companies, are their opinions and concerns any less valid?
Now now, a lot of work and research goes into the information presented here. At least give me a little credit.
If your dodgy business gets ruined, that’s hardly my fault for pointing out it’s a dodgy business.
The first two are only made public to confirm whois records to establish ownership of companies and/or domains. This information is in the public domain and is verifiable by anyone with an internet connection.
Fail Susan, fail.
As for the second two, lol… ad-hominen accusations. The only person I’ve ever put up a photo of a home was of one mr. Colin Greig. This was after he stomped about on here claiming to be living the life and driving his lamborghini about. His address was in the public domain and a quick google maps search revealed he didn’t even have a paved driveway.
After that revelation Mr. Greig mysteriously vanished along with his fictitious claims.
But of course you’d naturally be totally against exposing those being untruthful.
In order to be sued for defamation something has to be published that is false. By all means challenge any of the information presented here. My own research is obviously not infallible but I do the best I can when researching an opportunity – corrections are welcome.
The main reason for this (and you already know this, as it frustrates you to no end and has done so for nearly three years now), is that it detracts from the information presented here.
My details in shape or form alter or have an impact on any of the information presented here. All it would do would provide a means for detractors such as yourself to divert people’s attention away from the information presented here. In the interests of professionalism and keeping this site of interest there is no point in cluttering it up with irrelevant information.
I’ve said it many times now, the information here stands up to scrutiny on its own. Who I am is irrelevant.
Anyone is welcome to challenge anything published here, whether it be by a third party or myself. if you have an issue with a third party, take it up with them.
September 7th, 2011 at 4:06 pm K. Chang(Quote)
Apparently his experience led him to conclude an OBVIOUS pyramid scheme, such as TVI Express, is a great opportunity, and will be declared LEGAL, according to his own webpage. See above for the URL.
As he can’t tell a pyramid scheme from a legit MLM, clearly his 24 years of experience is worth nothing.
Which renders the rest of your argument completely moot.
September 7th, 2011 at 4:29 pm K. Chang(Quote)
Why is it his fault that here’s so much **** for him to report on?
Now Oz can sue YOU for defamation, since you just accused him of lying. Can you prove he’s lying?
You, Ms. Shaw, have a clear misunderstanding on what supports what.
If Oz used his reputation to make claims (like Mr. Barrett claimed “I am an expert in MLM because I have 24 years of experience”) then his details and his history is then relevant. However, he has NEVER (to my knowledge) used his reputation or history to support his claim.
Thus, trying to attack his reputation or history is a red herring. And that makes YOU, the unethical debater.
On the other hand, Marc Barrett DID claim his reputation of 24 years in MLM made him an expert in MLM. He also claimed to have been in top tier on multiple MLMs, and claimed to be cited on “nationally punished books” (his words, not mine).
However, one only needs to look at ONE example, from his OWN website, to find that his judgement is faulty, and thus, his reputation is clearly worthless. He tried to support his claim with his reputation, and thus, his reputation is open to examination, and what did we find in there? Skeletons!
Thus far you have yet to PROVE any of your points. It’s just one accusation after another.
Did Oz steal your dreams? Is that why you’re so mad?
September 11th, 2011 at 4:10 am K. Chang(Quote)
More than a year late, but here’s a relevant article on Ignite:
Atlanta newspaper ponders whether Ignite is a pyramid scheme or not
http://pyramidschemealert.org/atlanta-newspaper-examines-mlm-scheme-stream-energyignite/
December 9th, 2011 at 4:57 pm K. Chang(Quote)
It appears that Marc Barrett has some balls: that TVI Express review he did is STILL up on his website.
December 18th, 2011 at 3:11 pm Hari(Quote)
Please anybody tell about this company.
http://travistaworldwide.com/
December 19th, 2011 at 11:40 am M_Norway(Quote)
@Hari
I believe it’s better to use the “Contact” button near the upper right corner, and contact Ozsoapbox via email. Questions asked in this thread are easy to forget.
I had a look at the video presentation. I don’t think this is a real business opportunity, but it may be a short term income opportunity for some (at least for the owner).
I don’t think TravistaWorldwide have any retail sales at all, since I don’t see any relation between the money you have to pay and the service they claim to offer. You don’t pay for any membership in a “travel club” here, you only pay for the opportunity to make money by recruiting others into a scheme. I didn’t do any exact calculations, but most of the money involved seems to be distributed between members (and the company).
RSI Reservation Services International use independent marketers like Travista, according to some BBB-reports I found.
You don’t buy anything (like a travel club membership) from RSI when you buy a membership from Travista. They don’t have any products or services of their own, except for the income opportunity scheme. The so called ‘product’ attached to this scheme isn’t necessary at all (as part of the income opportunity), as far as I can see. It’s only needed to make this opportunity look more like a real business.
First and foremost, this “opportunity” seems more to be an incomesource for the owner of the TravistaWorldwide website, Andrew Zic / Destination Network Int. LLC. I don’t see any reason to pay him any money, unless he is a family member or something? Or unless you really know what you’re doing here, and have tried similar schemes before.
I have one “red flag” if people consider to join this. The video stated “You don’t have to sign any contracts”. Why does a company want to do business without any contracts or written agreements? I don’t see any reasons for a company to avoid written agreements, unless …
December 19th, 2011 at 2:48 pm K. Chang(Quote)
The short answer about that company… it’s a TVI Express clone, and TVI Express is an illegal pyramid scheme.
ANOTHER TVI Express clone is getting hammered by critics: Bon Voyage 1000.
http://obtainer.posterous.com/scam-alert-bon-voyage-1000
December 19th, 2011 at 3:28 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
@Hari
I concur that Travista Worldwide appears to be just another recruitment driven travel club niche MLM that only pays out commissions from membership fees.
Travista Worldwide: A Travel Club Scam
@Kasey Why are they only reviewing Bon Voyage 1000 now? I myself reviewed it over a year ago…
December 19th, 2011 at 7:07 pm K. Chang(Quote)
Apparently they only reached Europe relatively recently. Seems previous efforts are mainly aimed at the US market.
December 22nd, 2011 at 11:09 am Bill(Quote)
Hey Oz,
Have you seen this yet? http://www.EmpowerNetwork.com
100% commissions. Over 11,000 members and $2M of sales generated in 60 days.
December 22nd, 2011 at 11:14 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Yeah I glossed over the Empower Network a few weeks back. It appeared to be some affiliate type deal combined with blogs?
Didn’t seem like MLM to me at the time (although could be used to market MLM).
January 12th, 2012 at 1:33 pm rod(Quote)
@Bill – Oz remembered the Empower Network correctly. It’s not an MLM, but an affiliate program. A massive blog with 11k or 12k members on the same domain. Last I checked their Alexa traffic rank was at 1250 (and at 332 in the US).
They are reporting great SEO ranking when blogging on their platform. I assume if there is any competition for keywords you would still need good on-page SEO and backlinking…not to just post something and expect to get ranked.
They offer a reseller program that looks like an mlm compensation plan when explained, but’s it’s a complicated affiliate structure instead. They let you keep your leads, so it can be used as a front end product to market other things.
I’m starting to experiment with the SEO potential of blogging on the network. That’s where I see the value as a product…and as a potential valuable product for re-sale if it’s effective in getting content ranked.
January 12th, 2012 at 5:46 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Do they publish on the same domain or sub-domains?
Free article directories took a massive hit in the last Panda update, I can only imagine that trying to manage 1000+ marketers on the one domain would be a content farm nightmare.
Imagine just fifty of these guys all trying to use Empower to push the same opportunity, it’d be a duplicate content disaster – moreso if they just copy and pasted official marketing spiel.