Royaltie Review 2.0: AI powered marketing platform?
Royaltie was reviewed here on BehindMLM back in 2017.
In the comments of our review a reader recently informed me that it was due for an update.
Today we revisit Royaltie’s MLM opportunity with an updated review.
Two years later and Royaltie is still a faceless corporation.
The company provides no executive information on its website, nor is there a corporate address.
Royaltie’s affiliate agreement still suggests the company is based out of Ontario, Canada.
A video on Royaltie’s official Vimeo channel reveals Justin Belobaba is still running the company:
Why this information still isn’t provided on Royaltie’s website is unclear.
The video also reveals Royaltie rebooted itself about a month ago. Although I believe marketing for the new AI suite began 4-5 months ago.
Royaltie’s Products
Royaltie has ditched their “gem” bluetooth spam devices. The company now cliams to offer the
first all-in-one marketing platform powered by artificial intelligence.
Marketing copy on Royaltie’s website suggests their marketing suite spans website hosting, SEO, online advertising, social media, blogging, email, lead management and analytics.
Pricing for Royaltie’s AI marketing suite is three-tiered;
- Entrepreneur – $87 a month
- Small Business – $167 a month
- Marketing Agency – $327 a month
The primary difference between the three price-points is increased quotas within the marketing suite.
The Entrepreneur tier, for example, can only run three “AI marketing campaigns”. The Small Business tier can run five and the Marketing Agency tier ten.
Royaltie also sells advertising impressions:
- $30 for 5000 impressions
- $50 for 10,000 impressions (restricted to Small Business and Marketing Agency only)
- $112.50 per 25,000 impressions (restricted to Marketing Agency)
- $200 per $50,000 impressions (restricted to Marketing Agency)
Royaltie’s Compensation Plan
Royaltie fail to provide a copy of their current compensation plan on their website.
The following is analysis of what is believed to be official Royaltie compensation documentation, dated late 2019.
Royaltie Affiliate Ranks
There are ten affiliate ranks within Royaltie’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Bronze – generate $250 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Silver – generate $1000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Gold – generate $2500 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Platinum – generate $5000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Jade – generate $75000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Pearl – generate $10,000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Sapphire – generate $15,000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Ruby – generate $25,000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Diamond – generate $40,000 in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
- Black Diamond – generate $60,000+ in monthly sales volume across levels 1 and 2
Levels 1 and 2 refers to levels 1 and 2 of a Royaltie affiliate’s unilevel team (see “residual commissions” below).
Commission Qualification
As stated in Royaltie’s compensation documentation;
You must have three active Level 1s and an active Affiliate account (Royaltie subscription & commission portal access) to earn commissions.
As I understand it an “active” Royaltie affiliate account is one that has purchased a monthly marketing suite subscription.
In summary, to qualify for commissions a Royaltie affiliate must
- purchase a marketing suite subscription; and
- recruit and maintain three affiliates who do the same.
Residual Commissions
Royaltie 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.
Royaltie caps payable unilevel commissions at eight.
A flat commission is paid based on rank for sales volume generated across levels 1 and 2.
Residual commissions across levels 3 to 8 are paid out as a percentage of generated sales volume.
- Bronze ranked affiliates earn $100 on levels 1 and 2
- Silver ranked affiliates earn $365 on levels 1 and 2 and 3% on level 3
- Gold ranked affiliates earn $1000 on levels 1 and 2, 5% on level 3 and 3% on level 4
- Platinum ranked affiliates earn $2000 on levels 1 and 2, 5% on levels 3 and 4 and 3% on level 5
- Jade ranked affiliates earn $3000 on levels 1 and 2, 5% on levels 3 to 5 and 3% on level 6
- Pearl ranked affiliates earn $4000 on levels 1 and 2, 5% on levels 3 to 6 and 3% on level 7
- Sapphire ranked affiliates earn $6000 on levels 1 and 2 and 5% on levels 3 to 7
- Ruby ranked affiliates earn $6000 on levels 1 and 2, 5% on levels 3 to 7 and 3% on level 8
- Diamond and Black Diamond ranked affiliates earn $15,000 on levels 1 and 2 and 5% on levels 3 to 8
Leadership Bonus
The Leadership Bonus is paid out on personally recruited affiliates:
- Bronze ranked affiliates are paid a $50 Leadership Bonus
- Silver ranked affiliates are paid a $75 Leadership Bonus
- Gold ranked affiliates are paid a $100 Leadership Bonus
- Platinum ranked affiliates are paid a $150 Leadership Bonus
- Jade ranked affiliates are paid a $200 Leadership Bonus
- Pearl ranked affiliates are paid a $250 Leadership Bonus
- Sapphire ranked affiliates are paid a $300 Leadership Bonus
- Ruby ranked affiliates are paid a $400 Leadership Bonus
- Diamond ranked affiliates are paid a $500 Leadership Bonus
- Black Diamond ranked affiliates are paid a $600 Leadership Bonus
Unfortunately Royaltie’s compensation plan fails to clarify what the Leadership Bonus is paid out on.
To receive a Leadership Bonus, your rank must be the same or greater than the Level 1 Affiliate from whom the bonus is earned.
As above the Leadership Bonus is tied to personally recruited affiliates and rank. Beyond that no information is provided.
Joining Royaltie
Royaltie affiliate costs, if any, are not disclosed on the company’s website.
As per commission qualification criteria in Royaltie’s compensation plan, each affiliate is required to purchase a marketing suite subscription.
This pegs monthly Royaltie affiliate costs, at a minimum, at $87 for Entrepreneur, $167 for Small Business and $327 a month.
Which subscription tier a Royaltie affiliate chooses does not impact their income potential.
Conclusion
In our initial Royaltie review we saw their gems as gimmicky at best and flat-out annoying to the public at their worst.
Nobody likes spam and we’re glad to see them go.
The irony of Royaltie now pitching themselves as a marketing focused company, is that they do a terrible job of marketing themselves.
Any MLM company should be providing the public with executive and compensation information on their website. Both should be easy to find and easy to understand.
Royaltie fails on both counts.
There is a copy of their compensation plan tacked onto the very end of the company’s provided nine-page long Affiliate Agreement, however there’s no explanations.
Also the provided compensation plan, when compared to terminology used on Royaltie’s website, appears out of date.
Royaltie do a pretty decent job of explaining the marketing suite, although it’s pretty obvious Justin Belobaba didn’t code everything himself.
Who’s behind Royaltie’s marketing suite is also not disclosed.
This is important given Royaltie’s marketing claims.
Online marketing is a pretty competitive niche, and I’m pretty sure Royaltie isn’t the first company to incorporate AI into their suite offering.
Punch “AI marketing suite” into Google and you currently get 85.7 million results.
So anyway, how exactly does Royaltie use AI?
What is Artifical Intelligence and how does Royaltie use it?
Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a computer program to think and learn.
Our AI engine learns from marketing data about your business and your online audience.
The more data the AI engine receives, the more it learns.
The more it learns, the more it can improve your online marketing presence – from your website to your email to your social media posts.
Oh, it’s just data analysis. Y’know, same as every other automated online marketing suite out there.
Without digging to much deeper into Royaltie’s suite, the company offers a website building service.
Royaltie’s own website is built on WordPress, specifically the free JointsWP theme.
That’s not to rubbish WordPress (BehindMLM runs on WordPress) or suggest custom coding went into Royaltie’s website, it’s just not what I’d expect from a digital marketing company.
From the surface, it seems much of what’s available through Royaltie is template driven. Again, nothing wrong with that – but that’s not what Royaltie are pitching.
I’ll leave it there. If I’m missing something value-wise in Royaltie’s digital marketing offering though, let me know below.
On the MLM side of things, Royaltie forces their affiliates to purchase a subscription – which lays the foundation of how compensation is paid out.
I believe the ambiguity between Royaltie retail customers (if they exist) and affiliates is intentional, owing to the majority of subscriptions being held by affiliates.
I can’t say for sure – just a hunch based on how secretive Royaltie are about their compensation plan and affiliate sign up process.
I noted the same page is presented whether you’re interested in signing up as a Royaltie customer or affiliate, so there doesn’t appear to be any differentiation.
By forcing affiliates to purchase the service to qualify for commissions, Royaltie sets itself up to operate as a pyramid scheme.
There are no retail sales requirements, meaning it’s highly likely Royaltie affiliates are signing up, buying the service and then recruiting others who do the same.
Not a problem if there’s matching retail, but I’m doubtful that’s taking place (reasons above).
If the majority of marketing suite subscriptions are held by Royaltie affiliates, that means the majority of company-wide sales revenue is from affiliates.
According to the FTC, that’d make Royaltie a pyramid scheme.
One final note, if you’re going to drop a product – drop it.
Royaltie have repurposed the term “gem” from their spam beacons to… whatever this is:
How the GEM Program Works
We believe in the power of entrepreneurs to improve their lives and make the world a better place. But not everyone has the resources to get started. We want to help fix that. No strings attached.
The GEM Program is open to aspiring entrepreneurs of all ages, anywhere in the world.
We are looking for candidates who are passionate about starting a business, but who also do not have the resources to do it without our help.
We do not provide loans. We do not make investments.
Our goal is purely to help those less fortunate start a business.
Mmmhmm. Comes across as a shallow SEO attempt to recapture “gem” related searches from people wondering what happened to the spam beacons.
In summary the “pay to play” aspect of Royaltie’s compensation plan is a roadblock.
There’s no need for it, other than to artificially generate sales revenue via mandatory affiliate purchases.
That lends itself to Royaltie’s marketing suite being used to promote Royaltie, which in turn lends itself to Royaltie operating as a closed-loop pyramid scheme.
Under the gem spam beacon model, Royaltie did have a retail offering. So sadly it appears things have gone downhill since 2017.
Approach with caution.
Update 16th January 2020 – In response to our concerns about Royaltie’s retail viability, Justin Belobaba claims
As of today, we have approximately 18,000 customers and 2,000 affiliates. 90% of our revenue comes from retail customers.
Belobaba has also clarified that, despite the compensation plan wording, retail sales count towards Royaltie commission qualification.
These two points alleviate much of the pyramid scheme concerns brought up in our review as initially published.
Belobaba’s claim can be seen in the comments below this review (#8 and #21).
Update 4th September 2021 – In mid 2020 Royaltie’s marketing suite opportunity was rebranded as Nowsite.
I joined Royaltie in late Oct 2019, for the purpose of creating leads for my primary business. In the last 3 days of that month I signed up about 12 reps who wished to do the same thing. I earned $415 as a ‘Silver’ from Royaltie.
Most of the reps I signed up are very computer and internet savvy. Yet none of us were able to generate even ONE legit lead, NOT ONE. After several complaints to upline, we were eventually told it was all our fault. Ha!
However, each Royaltie rep did receive so-called leads, which were a list of name and email addresses ONLY. No phone numbers.
Of course any emails to these people would go straight to spam or junk folder, and since our “Phone” field was a “required” field, we asked “where did these leads come from.”
Royaltie said those leads were “extra” and from their own database, and NOT from our digital Royaltie advertising. In other words they were junk and worthless intented only to deceive the gullible that their Royaltie site was working, when it was not working.
Royaltie top leader Richard, clearly states that Royaltie advertises on Facebook and Linkedin. Watch at the 10 min 40 sec mark for 10 seconds: youtube.com/watch?v=BbZOwacUpuI
But when we asked Royaltie about this, Royaltie said they absolutely do not advertise on Facebook or Linkedin. This is a major bait and switch deception.
One of the people I had referred is the technical director for his church. His church had signed up for the $327 per month plan, and this was his analysis in his words:
Then there was the issue of my receiving the $415 in commissions. There is nothing in the Royaltie back office to setup how to receive commissions.
I asked the upline Richard who said “contact support.” That day was a live webinar with the CEO Justin and Coco (his assistant) so I asked on that webinar.
Justin said nothing, and Coco gave me an email address to request more information. There is no mention of this special email address anywhere in their back office or their website.
Royaltie uses Tipalti to pay affiliates. After numerous emails, I finally got it setup and I was paid $405.
They have some hefty fees they take out of your commissions before giving them to you. You pay a $5 fee if you’re paid under $100. You pay a $10 fee if you’re paid $100 – $999. And you pay $25 if you’re paid $1,000 or more!
All 12 of my referrals and I proceeded to cancel Royaltie. Only to discover there is no option in the Royaltie back office to cancel. You have to email request a cancellation and only after answering a questionnaire can you cancel.
When a rep does cancel, the sponsor receives TEN emails (all the same) that your affiliate did not pay their subscription.
Not true, they did pay but now they are cancelling. Royaltie had to write these emails, and being a tech company that cannot even get this right is inexcusable.
Since Royaltie cannot figure out these basic measures now after 4 years in business, I have zero confidence they will figure out something as complicated as Artificial Intelligence.
As for unlimited websites .. with WordPress making up over 60% of all websites globally for free and other companies like Wix, Weebly and others, create websites for free – this is not an advantage for Royaltie – especially when the other webpage maker programs are far superior in quality, design and function.
By the way, if you don’t signup at least 3 people who subscribe for at least $87 per month, you receive zero commissions. How many do you think will sign up less than three?
Hi,
I wish you had reached out to someone at my company before publishing. A few things to know:
1. You’re right – I do not write all the code myself. We have an incredible team of more than a dozen full-time developers building our software.
There was no reason to assume that we outsource or license our tech – we don’t…it’s all proprietary, and it has quite amazing capabilities.
2. You’re right – we do not have an executive section on our website. But it’s not because we are hiding. I am extremely proud of our business.
In fact, I go live on facebook twice a week to answer any questions people have. Our website is intended to be product-focused. If you would like to know more about my background, I’d be more than happy to share.
3. We provide our affiliate agreement and compensation plan on the homepage of our website. It’s not prominent because most of our customers are regular retail customers who are not interested in the sales opportunity.
4. We most certainly do have a huge retail customer base. In fact, less than 10% of our customers are enrolled as affiliates.
The overwhelming majority of our customers are independent business owners who love our marketing platform. And more than 99% of our customers market a separate business – less than 1% of our user base markets only Royaltie.
5. Our website is in wordpress because we need a site with multiple tabs, and we have not yet built that capability into our own platform…but it’s coming soon.
6. Most importantly, we provide a valuable, important service to independent business owners. Marketing online is complicated…building and integrating a website, analytics, email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, a CRM, a blog and optimizing your site for search engine ranking…it’s difficult and expensive.
That’s why hundreds of millions of business owners have not taken their businesses online. Our platform makes it easy to acquire all of those tools in one place…plus we automate the process, and we use our machine learning models (a type of AI) to improve results over time.
The vast majority of our customers succeed with our platform. Not everyone of course. But that’s almost always because their expectations are unrealistic (overnight success) or because they just don’t use the platform.
If you have more questions or would like clarification on these items, please feel free to ask. I believe that you provide a valuable service in protecting the public.
I think what you do is important and admirable. But, in this case, you have arrived at an incorrect conclusion. I look forward to providing you with whatever information you’d like to help set the record straight.
Our goal is to provide independent business owners with the online marketing tools they need to succeed. Ensuring that accurate information about our company is in the marketplace is critically important to achieving that goal.
Sincerely,
Justin Belobaba
Founder & CEO
Hi Justin, thanks for stopping by.
I think it was a fair assumption. If you can’t keep up with WordPress you want me to believe Royaltie is going toe to toe with corporate AI data giants?
First and foremost Royaltie is an MLM company. There is no excuse for an MLM company not to disclose corporate information on their website.
If you’re talking about the linked affiliate agreement, comp details are not complete. Nor are there any explanations provided.
How do you differentiate between affiliates and retail customers?
Whether I click “get started” from the homepage or affiliate opportunity page I’m still redirected to the same sign-up form.
Got an example Royaltie crafted website we can take a look at? Doesn’t have to be an actual customer site.
Greetings Oz,
Thank you for your diligence and update on the Royaltie Marketing Platform and the “Royaltie Affilliate Program”. Please consider the caliber of the leadership of Royaltie and this gentleman Justin Belboba.
From the Washington Post, April 21. 1999
Common sense will tell us that Harvard educated and Oxford educate people wouldn’t go out of their way to create a scheme that you site in your reporting here BehindMLM.
A good journalist report information that is first validated from interview from first hand source and not opinion and heresay.
Additional investigative report should know that Justine Belobaba had founded the Publicly Traded Company Healthscreen Solution, Inc, a medical software and service company for Canadian physicans which was later sold to a private equity company.
In my opinion, Royaltie should not be place in the same category as most of the pryamid scheme and ponzi scams that you report here to your audience without first vetting out what’s real and what’s not.
Good and ethical journalism should be about reporting the truth to their readers and not inaccurate uncollateralized information just to appease to their base.
Oz, I appreciate your reporting on the MLM industry and many of the ponzi scheme that you reported on, as many including myself have found this information very helpful in evaluating a business opportunity and staying abreast of what’s going on in that sector.
Thank you for all that you do and we appreciate you!
Sincerely,
John G.
Founder & CEO
Hmmm, either you’re selling the system or you aren’t, you can decide to become an affiliate after purchasing the platform. Do you honestly believe Royaltie doesn’t know how many people they are paying Commissions too?
From the tone of your entire article, coupled with the inaccuracies within it, it makes me wonder what your agenda is?
@John G
You’re going to tell me opinion has no place in journalism? This isn’t a “breaking news” piece, it’s a review.
Journalism be damned, I’ve got just as much right to critique Royaltie’s MLM opportunity as anyone else on the planet.
Why not? Legitimacy by association doesn’t work.
This review relies on Royaltie’s own publicly available website and documentation. Are you claiming those first-hand sources are incorrect?
If so, that’s not on me.
I don’t care how much smoke you want to blow up Belaboa’s ass. My point of contention is that there is no executive information provided on Royaltie’s public-facing website.
There is no excuse for this. Period.
Been doing it for over a decade. Trouble is people don’t like hearing the truth. Case in point.
Thank you for attempting to serve me a compliment sandwich!
@Braheem
So affiliates must sign up as retail customers first? Historically cannibalizing your retail customers hasn’t ended well.
To be MLM commission qualified in Royaltie, I have to make a monthly spend and recruit three other affiliates who do the same.
You’re all also ignoring pay to play. Forcing affiliates to purchase a product or service to qualify for commissions is one of the foundations of an MLM pyramid scheme.
It’s for these reasons I’m casting doubt on Royaltie’s retail viability. It’s not coming out of nowhere.
If Belaboa wants to confirm that the majority of sales revenue company-wide is generated via retail sales over affiliate purchases, then I accept that.
He hasn’t made that clarification though. I can only take Belobaba’s representation as given.
Something else to think about:
If every commission earning Royaltie affiliate has to recruit and maintain three subscription fee paying affiliates, can Belaboa confirm that of Royaltie’s commission earning affiliates, the majority of commissions are paid out on retail sales?
Confirmation that Royaltie affiliates who don’t qualify for commissions are not counted as retail customers would also be appreciated.
As you can see I did give Royaltie and Belaboa some benefit of the doubt. If want to push Royaltie’s retail viability though, let’s drill down into it.
Oh that’s easy. I work for all your competitors, the FBI, SEC, FTC and little green men on Mars. Duh.
Hi,
Thanks for the reply Oz. I’d like to respond to your comments.
First, it’s not realistic (nor is it our goal) for us to offer more features than WordPress any time soon. They are a huge company with vast resources, and we are just getting started.
It is also not our goal to provide more sophisticated AI than Google or other tech giants…at least not in our first few months. Our goal is to bring the most proven online marketing strategies (landing pages, email, CRM, blog, SEO, social media, online ads, analytics, content marketing) together in a simple, automated, affordable system for small business owners.
That complete online marketing solution is missing in the market, and is needed by millions of business owners. Our mission is not to build the most complex marketing platform in the world – our mission is to deeply understand our customers, and build the right marketing platform for their needs.
Second, it sounds like we may have differing opinions on a few other matters.
You have suggested that we are an MLM above all else and should therefore position our website accordingly. I disagree. First and foremost, we are a software company.
Network marketing is how we sell our product…it’s an efficient way to reach our target audience, but it does not define who we are as a company.
And so our website is more product focused, with perhaps less emphasis on executives and compensation plans than you may expect. That’s our choice to make as a business.
Likewise, we have also chosen to only allow our customers to become affiliates.
Why is that our policy? Because we do not want people who don’t truly understand our software representing our brand and creating confusion in the marketplace. We tried that, and unfortunately it just didn’t work.
Customers can choose to sign up to become affiliates for $4.95 per month. About 10% of our customers choose that option.
The other 90% are happy to remain regular, retail customers. (So, to be clear, 90% of our revenue comes from retail customers who are not affiliates.)
You obviously have the right to disagree with our policy and website decisions…and I can absolutely accept constructive criticism. But you have accused us of running an illegal pyramid scheme, which is not only totally untrue, it is highly distressing for all of us here who are trying to build a great software business that provides real value to our customers.
Network marketing is our primary sales channel – and we run this part of our business ethically and fairly.
Finally, you asked me to send you a landing page. We have 150,000+ landing pages in our database across 200+ industries. But sending you a landing page would only show you 1 out of 9 online marketing strategies that we make accessible for our clients.
We also provide integrated, fully automated email marketing, CRM, social media marketing, content marketing, online advertising, analytics, blog and SEO.
You should really see the entire platform in action! Tell you what – email me any time at (Ozedit: removed) and I will be pleased to provide you with a complete demo of our platform.
It’s an incredible product and we’re very proud of it. And you can ask me anything else you like about our business.
I sincerely hope to hear from you. But if you don’t wish to learn more about our company or our product, then I hope I can appeal to your integrity.
I have directly addressed your allegations with data and factual assertions. I have also offered to provide any further information you may require. In the interests of truth and fairness, I ask that you remove these false and terrible allegations from this website.
Sincerely,
Justin Belobaba
P.S. I want to also mention that the GEM program is not about recapturing some minor SEO advantage. We were never that popular to begin with!
It’s all about giving disadvantaged people the help they need to start a business.
We decided to call it the GEM program as a cheerful, positive nod to our early days as a company. We really just want to help some people get started in business.
Please expect some truly inspiring success stories on our website in the coming months.
I Have been with Royaltie since 2017. I thought the original idea was a good idea for business owners to get their message where their customers eyes were. It was NOT an MLM in the beginning.
However since then it has been down hill since then. Every comp change has been for the worse.
Royaltie’s so called Gem Levels are break pints so the company can keep more money. And they have made the dollar volume even greater to reach the levels.
Currently it works like this. You must first remember even though Royaltie is an MLM now the main comp plan is paid only on the first two levels.
It takes $250 in volume to reach Bronze. You need to personally sponsor 3 to qualify to earn commission. The lowest package is $87 so 2×87=261 so you now earn $100.
The truth is you are paying $87 plus $4.95 back office fee and then they charge you $10 to pay you the $100. So your cost is $1.95 and you get your service paid for.
Now here is where you have to watch. The next level is Silver or a volume of $1000. It takes 12 people at $87 on your first and second levels to break thru that level, ($1,044) and you would earn $365, minus the $4.95 and the $20 they charge to pay you now.
BUT HERE IS THE RUB. If your volume is below $1000, (even if it was $999, you fall back to the Bronze level and only earn $100. YOU DO NOT EARN VOLUME IN THE COMP PLAN FOR THOSE SALES.
IT GETS WORSE. The next Level is Gold and takes $2,500 (up from $2,000) You are now looking at at least 29 people, and remember that is on ONLY your first and second line.
That is a $1000 earnings level, but miss $2500 by even one dollar and fall back to silver. So you could have worked your butt off and not get paid for your efforts.
BUT WIAT IT GETS EVEN WORSE……
Sometime this past summer Royaltie added a clause to the comp plan that was not there before. It reads.
Read that a few times and let it sink in. It prevents you from finding a super star and earning from their efforts.
I know of people that had reached the gold level but had a super star on their Level one and because of that clause after the calculations were done, instead of getting a check for $1000, the volume adjustment dropped him below Silver ($1000) and he was paid only $100 minus the $10 fee so $90.
It only gets worse from there.
I have been after the company to pay on every dollar of volume earned and the answer was NO every time.
Personally I have had to remind them at least 6 times to pay me as they seem to forget sometimes unless you stay on top of them. 2 times it took over 2 months to get paid.
Also I can’t tell you how many times I was a few dollars below the next pin level, and did not get paid for my efforts.
Justin is correct when he says that he has 90% customers but he doesn’t admit the reason for that is the comp plan. Everyone becomes a free Affiliate at sign up. But you don’t qualify to earn until you sponsor 3 personal, so you are a customer. My guess is that very few people ever get 3.
I have terminated my position with Royaltie. The company marketing plan to recruit is full of sizzle, but there is no beef.
He is claiming his AI is the answer, but he is using Facebook and Instagram Posts and Blogging and content marketing, and we all know what a long road that is. You better plan on at least one year of marketing for any results.
In a video Justin even said that if you manage to get 8 to 10 leads a month that the system is working. By my math that is $8.70 per lead and I know where I can buy phone verified leads for $3 to $5 per lead.
In My Opinion the comp plan is a pure rip off. If you have the money to stay for a year to use the product and you are too lazy to do the work yourself then good luck. The value is just not there.
I am not gonna hide from this so if this post will let me here is my email address if you want more details. I will be glad to talk with you and save you the grief.
My Name is Greg Wilson
my email is (removed)
Hi Greg,
It seems that you did not like certain aspects of the compensation plan. I accept that – it’s impossible to please everyone.
However, we share a large percentage of our total revenue with our affiliates, and the compensation plan has become increasingly generous over time (not less so as you suggest). And we have hundreds of affiliates who are well compensated every month for their efforts.
I also agree that marketing takes time. Building a business is not done overnight, and anyone who expects instant results must either be willing to invest meaningful amounts in paid advertising, or must have a large pre-existing social media audience.
If not, users should be prepared to build their business over time. Our product provides the tools to do exactly that.
I take issue with your claim that “Everyone becomes a free Affiliate at sign up.” This is simply not true. In fact, you yourself acknowledge that there is a separate affiliate fee of $4.95 per month.
This fee is totally optional. That is how we measure affiliate participation.
Once again, only 10% of our customers become affiliates. 90% of our customers are retail customers.
All the best in your future pursuits.
Justin
Justin,
You should focus more on the product not recruitment side of it.
Justin you can take issue with everything you wish. The fact remains is that I have been trying to get you to pay commission on every dollar and you are so stuck on your pin levels that people are not paid for the work they do.
If you miss the next level by one dollar you don’t earn any commission on the work you did. You are stuck on the pin levels because it creates breakage so you make more money.
It is your company you can do what you want. I am just sick and tired of all the changes that do NOT make it worth my time.
And the fact remains that several times it took over 2 months for my commission check to arrive and I have to constantly check to see that you have paid me. Even last month they said it slipped thru the cracks.
I am going to make sure that everyone understands the comp plan and what they are getting into.
Also you have never sent a 1099 to any one in the USA for earnings which is required.
@Justin, as Oz asks…
Also Royaltie just started that $4.95 fee for affiliates a few months ago. Prior to that everyone was an affiliate, it was just a check box. Just not earning until they got 3 personals.
He has also never sent out a 1099, and he does not have an office in the USA.
@Justin
I never stated Royaltie was a pyramid scheme, I provided scenarios such that it would be operating with one. And to be frank, you haven’t addressed those concerns.
Greg, a former Royaltie affiliate, has revealed the $4.95 affiliate fee was new. And that prior to that it was “just a checkbox” and so “everyone was an affiliate”.
Again I ask, are you now counting these affiliates as retail customers? I.e. affiliates who haven’t commission qualified are retail customers?
Because if that’s the case, then your retail customer numbers are off.
You did not address my questions so I’ll repeat them:
1. Can you confirm that the majority of sales revenue company-wide is generated via retail sales over affiliate purchases (remembering that anyone who is an affiliate now or under the previous “everyone is an affiliate” model is not a retail customer.
2. Can you confirm that of Royaltie’s commission earning affiliates, the majority of commissions are paid out on retail sales? (again, actual retail customers)
3. Can you confirm that Royaltie affiliates who don’t qualify for commissions are not counted as retail customers (related to actual retail customers numbers)
With all due respect something isn’t adding up here.
You launched AI a few months ago, and you want me to believe you have a substantial AI marketing suite retail customer base, coming off of two years of “check this box to become an affiliate”, AND recruit three affiliates to qualify for commissions???
Maaaaaaaaaaate… come on now.
Cool. How many market Royaltie but?
How are you drawing this conclusion after a few months?
Can retail customers sign up affiliates?
No I wanted to see one in action, specifically the code behind it. All I need is a URL.
Make no mistake, Royaltie is an MLM company. And so I’ll continue to hold you to higher standards. Consumers deserve better.
Executive information is not optional. Neither is withholding detailed compensation information and affiliate membership costs.
Forcing affiliates to purchase a service and requiring them to recruit three subscription autoship affiliates to qualify for affiliates is FTC territory.
The FTC isn’t going to care about you seeing yourself as a “software company” when there’s a business opportunity attached.
So …..
To me it Looks like ALL these Compensation Plan Changes actually were in favor of ONE Thing …. Justin !!!
We are NOT Stuck in 1980 anymore ….. You actually can TRULY PAY People for ALL the Work and Volume they bring into the Company these Days ……
If it SMELLS like a DUCK and WALKS like a DUCK ….. ITS A DUCK !!!
@OZ
Oz Ask justin to explain why he felt the need to add that Volume adjustment clause to cut your commission is you happen to sponsor a super affiliate on your Level 1?
I also forgot to mention that this Jan. Royaltie brought out a new requirement, that every affiliate MUST sit thru a one hour training every month and pass a test at the end of the training in order to qualify to earn commissions.
He claims because Royaltie is so technical that you have to be trained to sell it. He is just trying to create more breakage for his own pockets.
The main reason I joined Royaltie back in 2017 is because I was Heard Justin on a Call say that Royaltie was NOT an MLM and would never be an MLM. I had joined Asirva Go and quit and got a refund from them because they were an MLM and I joined Royaltie because it was NOT.
What happen? I think I know. Cheryl Coco got a hold of him and wormed her way into the company and since that time Royaltie has mad a slow but steady move toward MLM.
Justin thinks that because he is in Canada he does not have to follow the rules of America. I can’t wait until the FTC hears about Royaltie. I only feel sorry for all the people that put trust in Royaltie.
Quack Quack it is a Duck…..
Hi again,
I think it’s important to first clarify that our new marketing platform was launched on December 6, 2018, starting with online ads. Then, over the course of 2019, we added landing pages, email marketing, CRM, analytics, social media marketing, content marketing and blog capabilities.
All of these major features are proprietary (yes, we built the technology ourselves, and I have built two other successful software companies prior to this one), and were announced to our customers as they were released.
You incorrectly assumed that this all happened in the last few months. It did not. We have worked tirelessly on our platform for more than a year.
It is the Automation and the AI capabilities that are new as of November 23rd, 2019. And so, based on over a year of data from thousands of customers, I am absolutely in a position to conclude that the vast majority of our customers succeed with our platform – even without the latest enhancements.
As for your concern about revenue, I confirm again that 90% of our revenue comes from retail customers. We do not count affiliates who don’t earn commissions as customers.
To deal with the period before the $4.95 fee (when the “affiliate checkbox” was automatically pre-checked), we looked at which customers ever accessed our affiliate/commission portal. If you clicked on it even once, we count you as an affiliate. If not, we count you as a customer. (I’m sure you’ll insist that there is some kind of horrible problem with this approach and we are all terrible people, but we think it’s a reasonable way to measure intent.)
As of today, we have approximately 18,000 customers and 2,000 affiliates. It is not correct to assume a 3-to-1 ratio just because you need 3 customers to earn commissions. We have affiliates who have sold to hundreds of retail customers.
(By the way, if all of our retail customers suddenly decide to start referring their colleagues, that will not mean we are doing anything wrong. The product has tremendous value, which is why 99% of our customers and affiliates use it to market unrelated businesses.
No one with any knowledge of online marketing will say that getting a website, email marketing, CRM, SEO, blog, social media marketing, content marketing and analytics for $87 per month isn’t incredible value. I look forward to your cynical reply.)
As for your assertion that we are, “forcing affiliates to purchase a service,”…we are actually doing the opposite – we don’t want those kind of affiliates here at all.
Unlike most network marketing companies, we do not want to recruit affiliates who are only here for the business opportunity. No thanks.
We want customers who first see the value of the platform for their own business, and then (after they use and understand the product) they can decide if they’d like to refer their colleagues and earn commissions through our affiliate program. This approach has served us well, and has led to extremely high customer retention rates.
I understand that you feel it’s your job to be skeptical. It makes sense…I can imagine that there are many companies out there that deserve your skepticism. However, while not everyone succeeds with us as a customer or as an affiliate, we run an ethical business.
There is no reason to characterize everything I say in the most negative light possible – it makes you seem more interested in inciting fear and negativity than uncovering and sharing the truth: that we are emerging as a world class tech company with an innovative way of selling a valuable product to the historically hard-to-efficiently-reach independent business owner.
I have answered all of your questions, so unless the hyper-cynical tone changes, this will be my last comment. But I would like to reiterate my invitation for you to meet with me any time so I can show you the platform in action – at that time, I will be pleased to answer any further questions you have.
You (and anyone else reading this) should feel free to email me directly at (removed). I will respond personally.
I ask again that you remove the damaging allegations from this website.
Justin
@ Justin,
I went to your site and cannot see a single example of any of the offered features… Is there a reason for this?
Also, where can the public view actual stats of your income disclosure?
The ads are not the AI Marketing Suite, which was only launched a few months ago.
I never stated development of anything happened in late 2019. Anyone can verify this via the screenshot I included in the review intro.
It’s a launch video for the AI platform you uploaded to Vimeo in December 2019.
Define “succeed” please.
That’s great to hear!
I didn’t assume a 3:1 ratio. I just stated it was unlikely that retail was dominant when every affiliate is required to recruit three affiliates to qualify for commissions.
Why not make it three retail customers if acquiring retail customers isn’t a problem as you represent?
Can retail customers refer affiliates? What happens money wise in this scenario?
No, you’re not. Again, this is from Royaltie’s own compensation material (emphasis my own):
You must have three active Level 1s and an active Affiliate account (Royaltie subscription & commission portal access) to earn commissions.
Forcing affiliates to purchase anything to qualify for commissions is pay to play. It’s a regulatory red flag, because it’s a pyramid scheme marker (ref FTC vs. Vemma, Herbalife).
I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t thorough. I’m not interested in marketing spiel, we treat every MLM company the same on here.
Still waiting on an example URL that has been “AI marketed” I can go over for evaluation…
Oh and please don’t try to take the discussion offsite. This is a public record so let’s keep it that way.
OK Oz…I said I wouldn’t comment again…but I really have to clarify one last thing!
You said,
This is a misunderstanding of how our plan actually works. Anyone who signs up three customers (yes, RETAIL CUSTOMERS not affiliates) qualifies for commissions.
There is absolutely NO requirement to recruit affiliates to earn commissions. When we say “three active Level 1s” that means “three customers that you personally sold.”
Regards,
Justin
You might want to change your wording then. Retail customers aren’t put on level 1 of a downline, affiliates are.
It’s not a misunderstanding on my part, it’s a misuse of terminology on yours. Anyway, thanks for clarifying that.
Maybe take a lesson away from this. I write reviews from the perspective of the general public.
Instead of clearly providing all of this information on Royaltie’s website (executive information, detailed compensation information, income disclosure statements), it’s now here – albeit split between comments and the review itself.
Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Royaltie is an MLM company pitching an MLM opportunity. If the website doesn’t provide clear information on this then it’s not fit for purpose.
Seems like a bit of a bonehead oversight for a marketing niche company to make.
I have been on the internet since 1994 and building websites since 1998.
Justin said that they developed their own website platform. He has said it was build on WordPress. His Automated site builder is 3rd grade level. You can buy a script for $49 do do that his does.
The major problems is they don’t always pay commissions on time. They are pure MLM.
The reason he has as many customers as he says is that they have not sponsored 3 people.
Now you have to talk a monthly training and pass a test to qualify to get paid.
They charge $10 to $25 to pay out commissions on top of the $4.95 fee.
They have eliminated the number of ads that were in packages and now selling them on the side.
You can buy those ads from several suppliers for 20% of what he is charging.
Royaltie only grandfathers you into a package if you upgrade to it. Not true grandfathering.
Too much volume required on the first 2 levels to reach the next pay grade and he keeps making it wider.
This summer he added a volume adjustment part to the comp plan that will reduce the volume of your star recruit by up to 50% thus reducing your total volume. Highway robbery in my mind.
He refuses to send out 1099’s to US affiliates.
I see major trouble for them with the FTC down the road. Justin appears to to to believe that because his business is in Canada he does not have to play by US Rules.
He may be shielded in shell companies, but I can see the failure of Royaltie in the near future, unless he stops the MLM plan and starts paying commission on all volume instead of those STUPID Gem Pin Levels that provide lots of breakage for the company, I lost interest after the 3rd time they made an adjustment and I fell short of a level.
Their back office accounting system was NEVER accurate.
Way too many changes to benefit the Company and none to benefit the affiliates.
Reading these responses has been the most painful five minutes of my life. I’m losing brain cells by the minute. Understanding Royaltie is exceedingly simple unless you EXPECT it to be like all the rest.
I’ve been involved in Network Marketing for six years, built a successful MLM team and studied the comp plan of every serious player in the health and wellness category. I know a few things! I’ve made it my business.
I joined Royaltie to build my online presence for my MLM business and for my wife who is a Holistic practitioner. I have built at least 12 landing pages in the past few months – all based on different product offerings and demographic targets.
I share these with my team and I direct customers to these highly individualized pages. I have found them to be exactly what I was looking for.
I tried Wix, Go Daddy and Word Press over the past three years and never came close to accomplishing that which I accomplished with Royaltie in three months.
Included in my $87 per month service is a $25 ad sample. I successfully pull website visits and leads off that little bitty ad and I can confirm that with Google analytics.
The ad building and approval process through Royaltie is extremely simple – easier than anything I’ve ever seen.
Value???? I feel I am getting one heckuva value out of Royaltie.
In my opinion, Royaltie is a very viable, promising company that would easily succeed without any Affiliate pay structure at all.
There is an extremely small sales force working off the simplest comp plan I have ever seen and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of them.
Greg has an issue with the structure of the comp plan. Granted, it’s a little different, but that is the compaines’ prerogative to do business and pay commissions as they darn well please.
It is clearly stated and anyone Can I strand it. Every comp plan I have seen has some sort of threshold to reach. You either reach it or you don’t.
When you don’t reach it, you don’t earn it and you don’t get paid. I don’t why Royaltie would be any different. I’ve never seen a comp plan that said if you don’t make rank we’ll pay you for it anyway
P.S. I pay $4.95 per month to be an affiliate. That is the ONLY difference between me and a so called retail customer.
Retail customers and affiliate customers are all added equally to my downline and sales volume is handled equally.
In three months I have not added anyone underneath and I really don’t care- I have three other businesses to run and Royaltie helps me with all three.
I am extremely happy. If I do find someone to add at some point, the $4.95 allows me to start a team.
This is a really crappy company with a crappy compensation program…
I was an affiliate with Royaltie since the very beginning. I stuck with them through the transition to digital marketing.
I sold the digital marketing product and has good success with it. The platform was simplistic at first but they expanded it over time. It was a bumpy ride with lots of changes.
Then they stopped paying me the affiliate commissions that I earned. I asked why they weren’t paying me and I go a short snippy answer. I asked again why they weren’t paying me and they again were short and basically said that it was my fault.
I wanted to know how to resolve the issue and they told me I needed to read the Affiliate Agreement.
The company is just not good at customer service and taking care of problems. Not a great company to work with.