Gob (noun): A lump or clot of a slimy or viscous substance.

Gobza probably isn’t the smartest choice for a MLM company name and possibly an indication as to why it’s unclear as to who owns or runs the company.

The Gobza privacy policy mentions that anyone who has questions about Gobza should write to ‘Tops Global Inc, One Riverway, Suite 1700 Houston, TX 77056’.

I wasn’t able to find any further information on Tops Global Inc., however a search of ‘One Riverway, Suite 17000 Houston, TX 77056’ reveals a number of businesses using this address, strongly indicating it’s a virtual office.

The domain ‘gobza.com’ was registered on the 19th August 2010, however the domain registration is set to private.

The server that hosts the Gobza website (50.63.46.1) appears to be a private hosting machine with a number of websites on it owned by a ‘Joanne Nicholls’, operating out of New South Wales in Australia.

Websites hosted on the same server as Gobza include:

  • toptotoesalon.com (domain offline, registered in 2008 by Nicholls)
  • bodaciouskids.com (website discontinued, domain registration set to private)
  • toptotoespa.com (Nicholls listed as ‘Spa Director’ on website and owner of the domain)
  • instantgiftvouchers.com (website contact address in NSW Australia, domain owned by Nicholls)
  • salonsuccessclub.com.au (domain owned by Nicholls)

The exact relationship between Gobza, Top Global Inc. and Joanne Nicholls isn’t clear however it appears as if she is at the very least somehow involved in Gobza.

Why this isn’t mentioned or clarified on the Gobza website is a mystery. Read on for a full review of the Gobza MLM business opportunity.

The Gobza Product Line

Gobza themselves don’t offer any retailable products or services but instead allow businesses to sign up and advertise offers and deals via their website.

These deals are redeemed via coupons that Gobza members can then print out or store on their phone, to be presented to the business in question to redeem the advertised deal at a later date.

The Gobza Compensation Plan

Gobza utilises a unilevel compensation structure to pay out commissions on the purchase of Daily Deals offered through the company website.

In a unilevel compensation structure, you are placed at the top and everyone you recruit is placed directly underneath you (your level 1). When members on your level 1 recruit new members of their own, these form your level 2 and so on and so forth.

Called a ‘GobzaOffer’, each time a member on any of the first four levels of your unilevel compensation structure decides to purchase something, you earn a 2% commission on what I believe is the purchase price of the GobzaOffer itself.

Note the GobzaOffer price is not to be confused with the Daily Deal price. If a business runs a Daily Deal through Gobza offering a $500 TV for $400, you don’t earn 2% of $400.

Any Gobza member who wishes to redeem the GobzaOffer must first pay Gobza a fee. You earn 2% of that fee.

At the time of publication of this review, Gobza do not specify or give an example as to how much they will be charging members to redeem GobzaOffers.

Joining Gobza

Membership to Gobza is free, for both business and shopper members.

Conclusion

When I began researching the Gobza MLM opportunity for review my initial question was “so where does Gobza’s money come from?”

I saw that businesses took money directly from the customers and weren’t charged to place deals, so that left the customers.

Gobza don’t charge a fee for company membership and the commissions paid out do rely on actual sales, what is being sold however is a little unclear.

Traditionally MLM Daily Deal companies rely on the acquisition of advertising businesses via their members, who in turn get a cut of the membership/advertising fees these businesses pay and/or each transaction they are involved in.

This hasn’t gone too well and despite a few of these companies launching over the last few years (since Groupon took off), none have really managed to gain any solid traction.

Gobza are flipping this by having customers generate revenue for the company with each Daily Deal they wish to purchase. However with the business advertising the Daily Deal collecting money directly from the customer for the sale, that leaves Gobza collecting money from their members for merely providing access to the deal.

Gobza claim this approach is a new “patent-pending” advertising medium:

I suppose so long as the deal is unique to Gobza then this isn’t a problem as it is an exclusive service members can’t get anywhere else (despite Gobza not selling the end-product themselves).

All in all, company ownership issues and an unfortunate name aside, Gobza seem to be a decent enough improvement on MLM Daily Deals by shifting their revenue generation onto shoppers rather than the businesses advertising.

The Daily Deals equation does however require both businesses and advertisers to work out (especially here where no commissions are paid unless people actually purchase the deals), so whether or not Gobza members will stump up extra money in fees to access each individual deal pretty much dictates Gobza’s  viability.

Charge too much and members won’t purchase GobzaOffers. Charge too little and Gobza themselves won’t make enough to survive and the commissions they pay out won’t attract heavy marketers.

If Gobza can fine tune this balance however, after countless flops, this might just be the first company to pull off a successful MLM Daily Deal hybrid.