Cloud 9 Life operates in the nutritional supplement MLM niche.

The company is based out of Florida and headed up by CEO A.K. Khalil.

In 2013 Khalil (right) was appointed President of Zrii. I wasn’t able to pin down when Khalil left Zrii but in 2017 he was appointed CEO of Gold Canyon.

Gold Canyon shut down last month. Again, not sure when Khalil left the company but Cloud 9 Life’s official Facebook page was created in June 2019.

Read on for a full review of Cloud 9 Life’s MLM opportunity.

Cloud 9 Life’s Products

Cloud 9 Life markets a range of nutritional supplements:

  • 3 in 30 System – bundles a 3 day supply of Moxy Body (digestive enzymes) and 30 day supply of Moxy Builder (pre-biotic), retails at $62.49
  • Quench – “replenish all major electrolytes and drained energy levels with a unique combination of vitamins, minerals, natural caffeine, nopal and evodiamine”, retails at $49.99 for a pack of thirty servings
  • Great Greens – “nutrient-dense greens and Cordyceps mushrooms”, retails at $37.49 for a pack of thirty servings
  • Mission Control – “healthy glucose metabolism and weight plateau buster”, retails at $49.99 for a pack of thirty servings
  • Secret Weapon – “accelerated fat burner and mood booster”, retails at $49.99 for a bottle of thirty capsules
  • Focus Fix – “fuel your brain daily with natural nootropics that deliver key nutrients and produce an energized alertness”, retails at $49.99 for a bottle of thirty capsules (15 servings)
  • Improve Focus Repair Bundle – bundles a bottle of Focus Fix with a pack of Quench for $94.99
  • Increase Energy and Immune Support Repair Bundle – bundles a pack of Quench with a pack of Great Greens for $83.99
  • Weight Control Repair Bundle – bundles a bottle of Secret Control with a pack of Mission Control for $94.99

Cloud 9 Life’s Compensation Plan

Cloud 9 Life’s compensation plan revolves around a unilevel team.

Rather than pay commissions using a traditional level-based approach however, Cloud 9 Life pays commissions based on rank generations.

Cloud 9 Life Affiliate Ranks

There are eleven affiliate ranks within Cloud 9 Life’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • Executive – sign up as a Cloud 9 Life affiliate and keep up to date with membership fees
  • 1 Star – generate 1000 accumulated GV
  • 2 Star – generate 2500 accumulated GV
  • 3 Star – generate 5000 accumulated GV
  • 4 Star – generate 10,000 accumulated GV
  • 5 Star – generate 20,000 accumulated GV
  • 6 Star – generate 40,000 accumulated GV
  • 7 Star – generate 80,000 accumulated GV
  • 8 Star – generate 150,000 accumulated GV
  • 9 Star – generate 250,000 accumulated GV
  • 10 Star – generate 500,000 accumulated GV

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is PV generated by an affiliate and their downline.

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail orders and an affiliate’s own purchases.

Retail Commissions

Cloud 9 Life affiliates earn 25% of sales volume generated by retail customer orders, made within thirty days of the customer’s first order.

Recruitment Commissions

Cloud 9 Life affiliates earn 25% of sales volume generated by personally recruited affiliate orders, made within thirty days from the affiliate signing up.

Matching Bonus

1 Star or higher ranked Cloud 9 Life affiliates earn a 25% Matching Bonus on retail and recruitment commissions earned by personally recruited affiliates.

The Matching Bonus is paid on commissions earned within the affiliate’s first thirty days.

Customer Cloud Bonus

The Customer Cloud Bonus is a retail bonus based on monthly retail customer order volume.

  • generate 500 PV worth of retail orders across at least five retail customers and receive $50
  • generate 1000 PV worth of retail orders across at least ten retail customers and receive $150
  • generate 2000 PV worth of retail orders across at least twenty retail customers and receive $400
  • generate 4000 PV worth of retail orders across at least forty retail customers and receive $1000
  • generate 6000 PV worth of retail orders across at least sixty retail customers and receive $2000
  • generate 8000 PV worth of retail orders across at least eighty retail customers and receive $3000

PV for the purpose of Customer Cloud Bonus qualification is restricted to sales volume generated by personally referred retail customer orders.

Residual Commissions

Cloud 9 Life pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Within the unilevel team Cloud 9 Life defines generations based on rank.

A generation is defined and begins once the paid as rank of 1 Star Executive is achieved.

From the above explanation, it appears generations are defined as a Cloud 9 Life affiliate ranks up.

E.g. Affiliates added to the unilevel team when an affiliate is 1 Star are counted in the first generation.

Once the affiliate ranks to 2 Star, affiliates added to the unilevel team are then counted in the second generation.

Using this generational structure, Cloud 9 Life affiliates are able to earn on up to seven unilevel team generations.

  • 1 Stars earn 5% across one generation
  • 2 Stars earn 5% across two generations
  • 3 Stars earn 5% across three generations
  • 4 Stars earn 5% across four generations
  • 5 Stars earn 5% across five generations
  • 6 Stars earn 5% across six generations
  • 7 Stars and higher earn 5% across seven generations

Note that generations are calculated for each unilevel team leg independently of the rest.

Residual commissions are paid out based on rank, as 5% of generated sales volume across however many ranks an affiliate qualifies for.

Leadership Coded Bonus

Cloud 9 Life rewards affiliates 8 Star and higher ranked affiliates for having 1 to 7 Star ranked affiliates in their unilevel team.

  • a 1 Star unilevel team member pays $10 a month
  • a 2 Star unilevel team member pays $15 a month
  • a 3 Star unilevel team member pays $20 a month
  • a 4 Star unilevel team member pays $25 a month
  • a 5 Star unilevel team member pays $30 a month
  • a 6 Star unilevel team member pays $35 a month
  • a 7 Star unilevel team member pays $40 a month

When an 8 Star unilevel team member is found in a unilevel team leg, they cap off the first Leadership Coded Bonus generation for that leg.

The second generation for that leg begins immediately under them.

If a second 8 Star or higher ranked affiliate exists deeper in the leg, they cap off the second generation and a third begins under them.

If no such affiliate exists, the second generation extends down the full depth of the leg.

Using this generational structure, Cloud 9 Life affiliates can earn the above monthly bonuses on up to three generations per unilevel team leg:

  • 8 Stars earn on up to one generation per leg
  • 9 Stars earn on up to two generations per leg
  • 10 Stars earn on up to three generations per leg

Performers Pool

Cloud 9 Life takes 1% of company-wide sales revenue and placed it into the Performers Pool.

Cloud 9 Life affiliates can qualify for shares in the Performers Pool over their first six months with the company.

A Cloud 9 Life affiliate receives a share in the Performers Pool each time they refer a retail customer or recruit a new affiliate who orders at least 50 PV in a month.

A minimum of three shares in a month are required to earn in the Performers Pool. Shares are reset monthly.

Rank Achievement Bonus

Cloud 9 Life affiliates receive a Rank Achievement Bonus as they qualify from 1 Star to 3 Star.

The Rank Achievement Bonus is time sensitive, paying more the sooner an affiliate ranks up:

  • qualify as a 1 Star within 30 days and receive $200, within 60 days and receive $100 or within 90 days and receive $50
  • qualify as a 2 Star within 30 days and receive $400, within 60 days and receive $200 or within 90 days and receive $100
  • qualify as a 3 Star within 30 days and receive $800, within 60 days and receive $400 or within 90 days and receive $200

Cloud 9 Life’s compensation plan states the Rank Achievement Bonus is a “one-time bonus”, so I believe it pays out once per the highest rank achieved within the overall ninety day qualification period.

Lifestyle Bonus

The Lifestyle Bonus is paid monthly based on rank qualification.

The Lifestyle Bonus starts at the 4 Star Rank:

  • 4 Stars receive $500 a month
  • 5 Stars receive $1000 a month
  • 6 Stars receive $1500 a month
  • 7 Stars and higher receive $2000 a month

Joining Cloud 9 Life

Cloud 9 Life affiliate membership is $59 or $49 with a monthly autoship order, plus the purchase of an Executive Pack:

  • Fast Start Pack – $110
  • Value Pack – $210
  • Builder Pack – $459

The primary difference between the packs is bundled Cloud 9 Life products.

After a Cloud 9 Life affiliate’s first year a $49.99 annual fee applies.

Conclusion

Cloud 9 Life presents itself as a bit of a “vanilla” MLM opportunity.

There’s nothing inherently red flag worthy about the business, but there’s also nothing that particularly stands out.

Cloud 9 Life’s products span well-covered nutritional niches; digestive, energy, weight-loss, greens and brain fuel.

The products seem reasonably priced (run a comparative check in your area) but again, nothing stood out as particularly marketable.

This is standard fare for a nutritional based MLM company.

Moving onto Cloud 9 Life’s compensation plan, I found it a bit odd that retail commissions were only mentioned by way of Customer Bonus.

The problem there is the Customer Bonus is a timed 30 day bonus.

I’m giving the company the benefit of the doubt that commissions are otherwise paid on retail orders outside of this period, but this isn’t explicitly specified in Cloud 9 Life’s compensation material.

Part of the reason I’m willing to give Cloud 9 Life the benefit of the doubt is the Customer Cloud Bonus.

The Customer Cloud Bonus is a raw retail incentive, rewarding affiliates month on month for generating retail sales volume.

That said, there are no strict retail volume qualifiers. There is nothing explicitly preventing Cloud 9 Life affiliates from signing up with autoship, and focusing solely on recruiting others who do the same.

The company does implement affiliate order limits, but these are pretty airy:

To help ensure that C9 Life Executives are purchasing the amount of product that can be consumed or sold within a reasonable amount of time, only orders equal to or less than $700 will be accepted and processed.

Before an order will be accepted, an C9 Life Executive must certify that products representing at least 70% of his or her prior purchases have been consumed by or sold to end consumers (which may include the C9 Life Executive and his or her family).

Certifying 70% of prior inventory has been consumed doesn’t negate affiliate autoship recruitment (at the expense of retail). It’s also meaningless unless actually verified by Cloud 9 Life compliance.

I’m not entirely sold on using generations to pay residual commissions over regular unilevel team levels.

I feel capping each generation to 5% isn’t as beneficial as paying specific percentages on each level.

5% is a pretty average number. What you might otherwise make with higher percentages paid out across the first few levels, you might very well make back in later generations at 5%.

Trouble is those generations are only open to higher ranked affiliates.

On the other hand I’m not sure I’m fully understanding the point of using generations. Typically a generation extends down the full depth of a leg.

So what’s the difference between 5% on one generation, extending down the full depth of a leg, versus 5% on two generations?

In either scenario 5% is paid on volume generated down the full depth of the leg.

I might have misunderstood Cloud 9 Life’s residual commission description, so I’ll include it verbatim below:

A generation is defined and begins once the paid as rank of 1 Star Executive is achieved.

I read that as based on the qualifying affiliate’s rank. If it refers to generations within a unilevel leg defined when a 1 Star is found in a leg, that defacto in most instances will cap a unilevel leg to seven levels.

I’ve gone with how it’s written, hopefully someone will clear that up though if I’ve misinterpreted.

Unfortunately with Cloud 9 Life affiliate ranks tied to accumulated team volume, verifying retail sales are taking place as a prospective affiliate isn’t straight-forward.

You could ask your potential upline what their retail order volume is each month, but you’re limited when it comes to verifying a given number.

At best you can ask for receipts but it’s not uncommon for retail orders not placed directly through a company to not have any.

I think the best overall approach with Cloud 9 Life is to first verify the supplements are competitive in the area you intend to market them.

Then sign up as a customer and trial them for at least a month. If that checks out then see how you go marketing the supplements before committing as an affiliate.

Good luck!

 

Update 5th June 2021 – Not sure when exactly it shut down but Cloud 9 Life is no more.

Co-founder and CEO A.K. Khalil has taken up an executive position at Jeunesse as President Of Global Field Development.

 

Update 14th November 2022 – A.K. Khalil has left Jeunesse and now works for the OmegaPro Ponzi scheme.