There is no information on the BlockBuzz website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company domain (‘blockbuzz.com’) was registered on the 21st August 2012 and lists ‘Block Buzz Inc.’ as the domain owner, operating out of Nevada in the US.

As always, if a MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

The BlockBuzz Product Line

BlockBuzz supposedly revolves around the sale of 1×1 pixels for the purpose of advertising, with each pixel costing $35 and being valid for a year.

Each ad pixel purchased by affiliates comes with two matrix positions and it is on these matrix positions that affiliates earn money, thus as far as affiliates go matrix positions are what is being purchased. Pixel ads bundled with matrix position purchases by affiliates can be ignored altogether as they have nothing to do with affiliate earnings.

Members who do not pay a $25 a month membership fee only receive an advertising pixel spot.

Both BlockBuzz affiliates and non affiliates are capped at purchasing 200 matrix positions and ad pixels respectively.

The BlockBuzz Compensation Plan

The BlockBuzz compensation plan heavily revolves around the recruitment and purchase of matrix positions by affiliates. Additionally affiliates are also offered participation in several bonus pools and retail ad block commissions.

Membership Ranks

There are seven membership ranks within the BlockBuzz compensation plan and, along with their qualification requirements they are as follows:

  • Bizzy Bee – recruit 1 active affiliate
  • Buzz Builder – recruit 5 active affiliates
  • Beekeeper – recruit 20 affiliates
  • Diamond – have a total of 200 active affiliates in your downline, 5 of which are Beekeepers
  • Double Diamond – have at least one Diamond affiliate in three separate legs of recruitment and at least 1000 affiliates in your downline
  • Crown Diamond – have at least two Double Diamond and a Diamond affiliate in three separate legs of recruitment, and 5000 active affiliates in your downline
  • Royal Crown Diamond – have a Crown Diamond in two and a Double Diamond affiliate in three  seperate legs of recriutment and 20,000 active affiliates in your downline

Retail Commissions

BlockBuzz pay out commissions on the sale of ad pixels to non-affiliates. These commissions are paid out as a percentage at 40% of the ad cost ($14).

Retail commissions are also paid two levels to an upline, with the direct upline earning 10% and their upline earning another 10% on each sale.

Matrix Position Commissions

For each $35 matrix position bought by a BlockBuzz affiliate, the company pays out $3 to the recruiting affiliate, $1 to their upline and $1 to their upline’s upline.

Matrix Commissions

Upon purchasing their first matrix position, a BlockBuzz affiliate is given two matrices. The first is a company wide 3×8 “Gold Maxline” matrix and the second a “Platinum” 3×9 matrix. They are also given a position in a 2×15 “residual ad block matrix”.

The Gold Maxline Matrix is company wide, with each affiliate purchased matrix position being placed directly into the matrix. Upon purchasing their first matrix position, an affiliate is placed into the matrix and able to earn 3×8 positions directly under them.

Any subsequent matrix positions purchased after their initial one are placed within their original 3×8 structure within the company wide matrix.

Upon filling their own 3×8 structure, an affiliate is again placed into the company wide matrix and given a new 3×8 structure within the company wide matrix.

BlockBuzz pay out affiliates a commission for each affiliate purchased matrix position that falls within their matrix (whether they recruited the purchasing affiliate or not). How much an affiliate is paid per position in their matrix purchased depends on what level the purchase falls within their 3×8 structure:

  • Levels 1 to 5 – 10 cents
  • Level 6 – 30 cents
  • Level 7 – $1
  • Level 8 – $1.20

An affiliate’s Platinum matrix operates in the same manner, with the exception that it is only fillable with positions purchased by the original affiliate, or those of their upline and downline affiliates.

Like the Gold Maxline Matrix, how much an affiliate earns on each position in their Platinum Matrix depends on what level the position is placed on:

  • Levels 1 and 2 – 25 cents
  • Levels 3 to 9 – $1

Finally the 2×15 Residual Ad Block Matrix also pays out in much the same manner as the previous two matrices, however only initial matrix position purchases made by affiliates are placed in this company wide matrix.

A 2×15 matrix starts with 2 members on level 1, which then branch out into an additional 2 positions (4 on level 2) and so on and so forth. The 2×15 matrix is also company wide, meaning that positions can be filled by anyone in the company (although as time goes on, company matrices get bigger and bigger meaning spillover is less likely to occur).

Once again, how much of a commission pays out depends on where in a 2×15 matrix the position is placed:

  • Levels 1 to 3 – 25 cents
  • Levels 4 to 6 – $1
  • Levels 7 to 9 – 50 cents
  • Levels 10 to 12 – 75 cents
  • Levels 13 to 15 – $1

Matching Bonus

BlockBuzz pay out a matching bonus on all matrix commissions earnt by affiliates, payable once an affiliate reaches the Bizzy Bee membership level.

Commissions are paid out down four levels of recruitment, dependent on the membership rank of the qualifying affiliate:

  • Bizzy Bee – 20% on level 1
  • Buzz Builder – 20% on levels 1 and 2
  • Beekeeper – 20% on levels 1 and 2 and 10% on level 3 and 4

Note that a level is defined via recruitment. Members an affiliate personally recruits are their level 1, members recruited by level 1 affiliates are their level 2 and so on and so forth.

Forced Matrix Position Purchase

20% of all commissions paid out to affiliates are withheld by the company, with affiliates instead being paid out “Buzz Buxx”.

Buzz Buxx are a virtual currency only able to be used by affiliates within the BlockBuzz income opportunity to purchase matrix positions.

Diamond Infinity Bonus

The Diamond Infinity Bonus is available to Diamond affiliates and pays out an additional 25 cents on every ad block or matrix position sold by a Diamond affiliate’s downline.

The Diamond Infinity Bonus is paid out down four levels of recruitment.

Diamond Bonus Pool

The BlockBuzz Diamond Bonus Pool is made up of 1% of global company ad block and matrix position sales. The Pool is paid out monthly to qualifying affiliates, with how much shares a qualifying ranked affiliate entitled to being dependant on their BlockBuzz membership rank:

  • Diamond – 1 share
  • Double Diamond – 3 shares
  • Crown Diamond – 5 shares
  • Royal Crown Diamond – 8 shares

Top Leaders Bonus

Rewarding top recruiters in the company, the Top Leaders Bonus pays out 0.5% of the global ad block and matrix position sales to ten affiliates every month.

How much of the Top Leaders Bonus is earnt by affiliates depends on how many members they’ve recruited each month:

  • Top Recruiter – 15% of the pool
  • 2nd – 14%
  • 3rd – 13%
  • 4th – 12%
  • 5th – 11%
  • 6th – 9%
  • 7th – 8%
  • 8th – 7%
  • 9th – 6%
  • 10th – 5%

Rank Advancement Bonus

BlockBuzz’s Rank Advancement Bonus is a one time bonus paid out to an affiliate upon achievement of the following membership ranks:

  • Diamond – $500
  • Double Diamond – $2000
  • Crown Diamond – $10,000
  • Royal Crown Diamond – $100,000

Joining BlockBuzz

Membership to BlockBuzz is free, however an affiliate must remain “active” if they wish to earn commissions. Remaining active requires a $25 monthly membership fee.

Upon paying their monthly membership fee, BlockBuzz gives an affiliate another matrix position.

Conclusion

Despite having a retail option, there are several red flags within the Buzz Blocks compensation plan and business model which indicate an overwhelming strong focus on the recruitment of affiliates and purchasing of matrix positions as the primary source of revenue for the company.

First and foremost I can’t honestly see the attraction of purchasing pixel ads on a retail level. Way back when, when the idea of pixel advertising was new and gimmicky, businesses did indeed sign up to purchase pixel ads.

Seven years on however and the novelty value has surely worn off, raising the question of who is going to purchase pixel ads at $35 a pop on a website only frequented by those participating in an attached income opportunity?

Not to mention the dilemma of ineffectiveness exponentially increasing as the pixel billboard grows larger and larger.

Infact pixel ad as a retail MLM product offering only makes sense if the primary goal of those participating in the income opportunity is to recruit affiliates and purchase matrix positions. And looking at the Buzz Block’s compensation play layout, this definitely appears to be the case.

For starters the membership ranks are all recruitment based, there’s nothing tying them into retail sales whatsoever.

Moving on the matrices, essentially a vehicle to shuffle newly “invested” affiliate money amongst existing affiliates, they too have nothing to do with retail sales.

Indeed the only thing separating “retail customers” and affiliates is the mandatory monthly membership fee / matrix position purchase of $25.

And in order to get paid anything, of course affiliates must recruit new affiliates (as opposed to generate retail sales):

You must personally sponsor one (1) person who purchases a minimum of one (1) Ad Block in order to qualify for commissions.

And this recruitment requirement is only emphasised upon getting into the finer details with incentives such as the Top Leader Bonus (directly paying commissions to your top 15 recruiters, really?) and withholding of multiple positions purchased at once,

the other 9 Gold and Platinum entries (total of 18) are held out of the structure and placed at the end of each week in order to create a sense of urgency to get new people to take action immediately.

in order to encourage affiliates to recruit new affiliates and in turn encourage them to purchase matrix positions.

And the whole 20% forced repurchase of positions? That perfectly highlights the expected dependency of affiliates signing up and purchasing matrix positions to keep the company afloat, as opposed to any genuine retail interest from advertisers.

From the compensation plan, the affiliate membership ranks to even the way BlockBuzz is marketed as an income opportunity, it’s clear that most of the focus is on the recruitment of affiliates and purchase of matrix positions.

Naturally BlockBuzz attempts to pass of these position purchases as ad block purchases but the reality is it’s on the matrix positions that affiliates get paid, rather than any ad block purchases – thus the reality is that positions are in actuality what is being purchased and marketed within the opportunity.

I’d strongly advise anyone considering joining the BlockBuzz MLM income opportunity to request to see their potential uplines recruitment vs. retail ad block statistics, along with those of their upline (2 levels of recruitment).

Anything less than at least breaking even between how much monthly commissions are paid out on the sale of retail ad blocks vs. matrix positions would strongly indicate that mechanically, BlockBuzz was operating as a pyramid scheme.