Revenue Times Review: Job Spot investment scheme

There is no information on the Revenue Times website indicating who owns or runs the business. The company website does have a “who we are” section but, other than a PO Box in the British Virgin Islands (a known tax-haven), fails to provide any further information.

The Revenue Times website domain was registered on the 9th of April 2012, but only lists “Revenue Times LTD” as the domain owner.

As always, if an 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 Revenue Times Product Line

Revenue Times has no retailable products or services. Affiliates join the opportunity and are then able to purchase “Job Spots” or various products.

Revenue Times state that each Job Spot will “assign various online jobs” to the affiliate that purchases it, however they do not clarify what these jobs are.

Revenue Times claim the cost of their products “ranges from $25 to $500” but don’t provide any specifics, other than all products requiring an ongoing monthly subscription. On their website they list the following services available under the “products” section:

Website Crafter:

Revenue Times offers an opportunity exclusively for its explorative and creative set of users. The user herein gets the chance to design, innovate and create a website of its own.

Training Material:

Revenue Times offers you a set of training materials which will guide you through your expedition in search of success.

E-Mail Services:

Revenue Times offers the users the privilege to hold an electronic mail id registered with the Revenue Times domain. This gives the user an enhanced social and online status.

“Blogging”

I tried to click on the “blogging” link off the product page and Google Chrome told me the Revenue Times blog site was infected with malware:

Make of that what you will.

The Revenue Times Compensation Plan

Revenue Times claim their compensation plan is ‘shaped by industry experts‘, with the payout of commissions revolving around affiliates purchasing Job Spots and the company’s advertised product services.

Job Spots

Affiliates purchase Job Spots for $10, with each Job Spot paying out a ROI of 15 cents a day for 150 days (150% total ROI).

Referral commissions are also offered on the purchase of Job Spots by recruited affiliates, paying out 5% (50 cents) per new Job Spot purchased.

Each Job Spot purchased also created a binary position, with created binary positions placed in the binary compensation structure of the affiliate who recruited the affiliate purchasing the Job Spot.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of the structure, with two positions created directly under them. These two positions form the beginning of a left and right team.

In turn, these first two positions branch out into another two positions and so on and so forth down a theoretically infinite number of levels.

Revenue Times pay out a $1 commission, each time a new paired ratio of positions is matched on both the left and right sides of an affiliate’s binary.

How many pairs are required to generate a $1 commission depends on an affiliate’s Revenue Times membership rank:

• Basic (earn $20 in both Job Spot and product commissions and have personally purchased less than 10 Job Spot positions) – each new 1:1 pair pays out a $1 commission
• Silver – (earn between $20 to $100 in Job Spot or $100 to $250 in product commissions or have personally purchased between 10 to 25 Job Spot positions) – each new 3:3 pair pays out a $1 commission
• Gold (earn between $100 to $250 in Job Spot or $250 to $750 in product commissions or have personally purchased between 25 to 50 Job Spot positions) – each new 5:5 pair pays out a $1 commission
• Solitaire (earn between $250 to $750 in Job Spot or $750 to $2000 in product commissions or have personally purchased between 50 to 100 Job Spot positions) – each new 10:10 pair pays out a $1 commission
• Titanium (earn between $750 to $2000 in Job Spot or $2000 to $5000 in product commissions or have personally purchased between 100 to 300 Job Spot positions) – each new 25:25 pair pays out a $1 commission
• Platinum (earn over $2000 in Job Spot or $5000 in product commissions or have personally purchased over 300 Job Spot positions) – each new 50:50, 100:100, 250:250, 500:500 or 1000:1000 new pair pays out a $1 commission (unmatched paired positions in an affiliate’s weaker side are flushed)

Revenue Times don’t specify the time-period in which pairs are counted, but it appears to be monthly.

Affiliates are able to purchase a maximum of 300 Job Spots at any given time, with 100 “repurchased” Job Spots able to be open simultaneously.

Product Commissions

Revenue Times pay out 40% of the fee an affiliate pays for one of their products to the affiliate who recruited the affiliate making the purchase. 20% is paid out to the affiliate who recruited the affiliate earning the 40% commission.

Both 40% and 20% commissions paid out also contain a pass-up feature, with every 5th 40% commission and every 3rd 20% commission passed up to an affiliate’s upline (note that all commissions generated by the affiliate are passed up, not single product orders).

In order to qualify for Product Commissions, an affiliate must have they themselves purchased the said product but also maintain an ongoing monthly subscription.

Joining Revenue Times

Affiliate membership to Revenue Times is $10 a month.

Conclusion

When analysing the Revenue Times compensation plan and business model it’s important to note that first and foremost there’s no retail revenue coming into the company. All revenue is generated by affiliates, meaning affiliates fund 100% of the commissions Revenue Times pay out.

That aside, the two primary components of the company’s compensation plan are also problematic.

Job Spots quite obviously operate as an investment. Affiliates put in $10 and earn 15 cents a day. Where does this 15 cents come from? Other affiliate’s Job Spot purchases.

The requirement to do “work” with each Job Spot is typical in these types of schemes, with affiliates usually required to spam the income opportunity or complete some other rudimentary task (view ads, complete surveys, visit websites etc.) to qualify for their daily ROI.

Additionally the notion that you have to pay a company to complete “work” for them is absurd in and of itself.

Needless to say such activities have no impact or relevance to the daily ROI paid out, which is only dependent on affiliates investing new money into the scheme via purchase and repurchase of new Job Spots.

The product commissions (not the products themselves) are problematic in that affiliate are required to purchase each product level in order to receive commissions from it.

With a retail offering this would call into question the motive behind the product purchases made by affiliates. With no retail option however there’s no way to prove this either way (no retail sales to gauge analysis on), so therefore on paper every affiliate who earns a product commission can be said to have made their own purchase solely to qualify on the purchases made by those they’ve recruited.

This equates to the product commissions offered by Revenue Times as mechanically operating as a pyramid scheme (affiliates are recruited and buy into the product levels solely to qualify to earn commissions off affiliates they recruit who do the same).

The pass-up mechanic only serves to encourage an upline to get their downline to recruit, so that residual commissions perpetually trickle up the scheme.

As such when combining both Revenue Times’ Job Spot ROIs and recruitment-driven product commissions, what we have here is a Ponzi/pyramid scheme hybrid.

The Job Spot ROIs will dry up once new money ceases to be invested by affiliates and the product commissions stall if affiliates do not pay their monthly subscription fees, which they will do if they are unable to recruit new affiliates under them.

For all its red flags though some value is still observable in the Revenue Times business opportunity, with affiliates able to participate in two unsustainable business models for a single $10 monthly fee.