There is no information on the Jollybuzz website indicating who runs or owns the company.

The domain ‘jollybuzz.com’ was registered on the 10th May 2011, however the domain registration information is set to private.

Curiously enough the ‘About Us’ page on the Jollybuzz website appears to be the default template for the free software the creators of Jollybuzz are using to power the website.

The About Us page references ‘Dolphin Smart Community Builder’ software which is owned by the company ‘BoonEx’:

BoonEx describe Dolphin as being ‘the world’s most advanced free community software‘ and offer it to the general public open-source and free of charge.

A look at the source-code indicates that Jollybuzz is indeed being powered by BoonEx’s Dolphin software:

In summary, it appears that whoever owns Jollybuzz has just downloaded BoonEx’s free Dolphin backend and launched a templated social network.

The Jollybuzz Product Line

Jollybuzz has no retailable products or services available. Instead, upon joining the company members are only able to market Jollybuzz membership to prospective members.

Bundled with each level of membership is increased access to the Jollybuzz social network, however membership is all that is able to be actually purchased within the income opportunity itself.

It is noted that at the ‘Prestige’ membership level members are able to sell their own items in a replicated online storefront, but these aren’t commissions offered within the Jollybuzz compensation plan nor are they available to all members.

The Jollybuzz Compensation Plan

Jollybuzz’s compensation plan revolves around signing up new free members and convincing them to upgrade to a paid membership subscription. For each free member that upgrades to a paid subscription Jollybuzz pay out the recruiting member a percentage commission on the annual membership fees paid.

There is also a points reward system where members earn points for interacting with the social network. Once enough points have been accumulated, these points are then redeemable for cash.

Membership Commissions

Jollybuzz offer two paid membership options, Deluxe ($60 a year) and Prestige ($100 a year).

For each free member you recruit and convince to upgrade to a paid membership, Jollybuzz will pay you a percentage commission on their membership fees down up to four levels.

Members you personally recruit are your first level, members your first level recruit are your second level and so on and so forth. How much of a percentage you earn of the membership fees paid and how many levels you are paid down on depends on your own Jollybuzz membership level:

  • Free membership – 5% earnt on level 1 referrals only
  • Deluxe membership – 20% on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
  • Prestige membership –  30% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3 and 5% on level 4

Points Commissions

Details on the points commissions offered by Jollybuzz are sketchy with the company only stating that points are awarded when members interact with the social network site. Additionally points are also given out for each new free member recruited.

No information is provided by Jollybuzz as to how many points are awarded for various actions nor the dollar value of a point or minimum cashout requirement on points awarded.

Joining Jollybuzz

Membership to Jollybuzz is free with free members able to earn points and 5% of the membership fees paid by members they recruit and convince to upgrade to paid membership.

As mentioned in the compensation plan section of this review, Jollybuzz offer two paid membership options:

  • Deluxe membership – $60 a year
  • Prestige membership – $100 a year

The more paid for membership the more Jollybuzz members are able to earn in commissions (by signing up other paid members).

Conclusion

Jollybuzz describe their commission structure as ‘all commission earnings are paid from membership upgrades‘, indicating that there are no other revenue sources of the company other than membership fees.

With members only able to market paid membership within the opportunity, this translates into 100% of the commissions on offer being derived from membership fees with members only able to market membership to non-members to earn a commission.

Or in otherwords, a textbook pyramid scheme.

As far as free members and the social network goes, Jollybuzz describe their social network offering as being

like facebook and ebay combined. It allows you to do all what most social media sites offer as well as the provision for carrying out business services.

Or in other words, it doesn’t bring anything new to the table other than rehashing what’s already out there.

Being built on freely available templated software, the Jollybuzz owners are also restricted to the confines featurewise of the owners of the Dolphin backend, BoonEx.

For a free user there’s thus no real reason to use the Jollybuzz social network and at the end of the day that leaves a social network populated by members who are only there because of an income opportunity attached to the network.

As we’ve seen time and time again in the social network MLM niche, for a network to flourish there simply has to be value provided and a reason to attract organic free members (both Facebook and eBay do this, which is why they’re succesful).

As far as Jollybuzz goes, nevermind the fact they’re paying out commissions on what appears to be a straight up Pyramid scheme commission model, I can’t really see any reason why the social network itself would take off.

Furthermore, without the income opportunity attached, who in their right mind would be paying $60-$100 a year for access to it?