BehindMLM’s initial 7K Metals review was published back in 2016.

Based on 7K Metals’ compensation plan, we expressed strong concern regarding the autoship recruitment nature of the business.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, autoship recruitment in MLM is where you have affiliates signed up for autoship, which qualifies them to earn commissions.

Said commissions are then primarily paid on recruitment of affiliates, who also sign up for autoship. They then recruit affiliates who sign up for autoship and so on and so forth.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with autoship in and of itself. When autoship recruitment is the primary source of revenue for an MLM company however, that’s indicative of a pyramid scheme.

A few weeks ago Robert Olson began commenting on our review.

Among other things, Olson claimed;

All of the information you started out with for your expose on 7KMETALS is outdated.

Retail is definitely available. That is the main reason I looked into them more extensively.

Having not looked into 7K Metals for two years, I queued 7K Metals up for a review update.

Today we go over what’s changed at 7K Metals since our initial December 2016 review.

Spoiler Alert: Retail is still not possible within 7K Metals’ compensation plan.

The Company

7K Metals is still based out of the US state of Idaho.

On the executive side of things, the only change is the addition of Roger Ball as a co-founder.

Not sure why Ball was omitted from the original lineup of co-founders back in 2016.

7K Metals Products

7K Metals has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market 7K Metals affiliate membership itself.

7K Metals does provide an online store on their website, however if a visitor wishes to buy they are redirected to the company’s affiliate membership signup page.

The 7K Metals Compensation Plan

7K Metals affiliates sign up, pay an annual fee and are paid to recruit others who do the same.

7K Metals pays commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

Commissions paid out through the binary team are tracked via points:

  • recruitment of a Regular affiliate ($249 a year) generates 100 points
  • recruitment of a Premium affiliate ($499 a year)  generates 150 points
  • purchase of coins by recruited affiliates generates 20 points (cited as a typical amount)

At the end of each week 7K Metals tallies up new points generated on both sides of the binary team.

For each 500 points matched on both sides of the binary team, a $500 commission is paid out.

Note that 7K Metals cap weekly binary commission amounts based on the following qualification criteria:

  • Associate (recruit and maintain at least two MLM commission qualified affiliates, split one on each side of the binary team) – $500 weekly commission cap
  • Copper (recruit and maintain at least four MLM commission qualified affiliates (two must be Associate), split two on each side of the binary team) – $1000 weekly commission cap
  • Bronze (recruit and maintain at least six MLM commission qualified affiliates (two must be Copper), split three on each side of the binary team) – $2000 weekly commission cap
  • Silver (recruit and maintain at least ten MLM commission qualified affiliates (two must be Bronze), split five on each side of the binary team) – $3500 weekly commission cap
  • Gold (recruit and maintain at least sixteen MLM commission qualified affiliates (two must be Silver), split eight on each side of the binary team) – $7000 weekly commission cap
  • Executive Gold (recruit and maintain at least twenty MLM commission qualified affiliates (two must be Bronze or higher and two must be Gold or higher) – $10,000 weekly commission cap

MLM commission qualification requires a 7K Metals affiliate to generate at least 20 points every 32 days.

Note that unmatched points are carried over the following week, provided an affiliate didn’t max out their weekly commission cap.

Joining 7K Metals

7K Metals affiliate membership is either $249 for Regular membership or $499 for Premium membership.

The primary difference between the two memberships is included coins with the Premium Membership.

An additional $10 monthly fee applies to affiliates who wish to withdraw calculated commissions.

Conclusion

7K Metals does its best to create the illusion of retail activity, without actually paying commissions on retail sales.

In a legitimate MLM company, retail customers are just that. They purchase products and have nothing to do with the compensation plan.

In 7K Metals the illusion of retail customers is used as a “fear of loss” marketing tool.

You can get started with 7K Metals by purchasing an annual membership.

The membership allows you to buy precious metals at wholesale cost and refer others to the program so you can accumulate points.

7K Metals affiliates, although they can see how many points they’ve accumulated via recruitment, can’t actually withdraw earned commissions unless they pay an additional $10 a month.

In effect, 7K Metals hides generated commissions behind a monthly paywall.

And if you don’t pay up;

Points are deducted and “cycle” EVEN IF YOU DO NOT QUALIFY for the commission.

For reference that’s not my emphasis in the quote above, that’s how 7K Metals pushes its fear of loss marketing onto its affiliates.

Basically the two membership options are a taste of what you can earn, with a token $10 monthly payment required to qualify for commissions.

7K Metals can’t argue affiliates who don’t pay $10 a month are retail customers, because they admit these members can ‘refer others to the program so you can accumulate points‘.

And note the following wording in 7K Metals compensation plan;

Once you have qualified to receive a commission, (which, by
the way, will be a minimum of $500.00), you will be asked to electronically sign the Associate Agreement.

On top of that 7K Metals affiliates who don’t pay the additional $10 monthly fee receive “exceptional training”.

Premium affiliates are also given “Business Builder credits”, which are not defined or explained anywhere on the public 7K Metals website or in their compensation plan.

Why would a 7K Metals retail customer need “exceptional training” or business builder credits?

Underneath 7K Metals’ “membership” pseudo-compliance we have the same autoship scheme we reviewed back in 2016.

Well, not quite the same.

Cycle commissions have been slashed by half to $500 and there wasn’t a $499 Premium affiliate membership option.

Other than that you’re looking at the same ruse.

The 20 points required to get paid (in addition to the $10 monthly fee) is either obtained via recruitment, affiliate autoship or an affiliate manually purchasing coins.

Of the three active qualification, 7K Metals pushes “coin of the month” autoship as the preferred guaranteed method;

Until a cycle is earned your points remain intact and will continue to accumulate, as long as you are active.

Select one of the three “Coin of the Month” options to guarantee your active status

Seeing as there’s no true retail within 7K Metals compensation plan, affiliates cannot qualify for commissions via retail sales.

This creates a closed-loop of affiliate money funding 7K Metals’ business model, which in MLM is indicative of a pyramid scheme.

As with all pyramid schemes, once affiliate recruitment slows down so too will the monthly autoship orders.

This will stop generating volume for affiliates at the bottom of the company-wide binary team.

They can’t get a refund on their annual fee but they can stop paying their monthly $10 fee (and monthly autoship or manual purchase).

This trickles up the 7K Metals affiliate genealogy, until an irreversible collapse is triggered.

If 7K Metals were serious about retail sales, they’d have an option for retail customers (not “members” attached to the compensation plan) to purchase coins, which in turn would generate commissionable sales volume for affiliates (members).

Until that happens, 100% of sales revenue generated within 7K Metals is sourced from affiliates. And for any MLM company, that’s a regulatory compliance problem.

Or in other words, not a whole lot has changed with 7K Metals’ MLM opportunity since 2016.