volishon-logoVolishon identify themselves as “a new company” on their website, with a corporate address in the US state of Georgia provided.

Cited as CEO and President of Volishon is Joel Santiago (below right), with Joseph Otis, Daniella Le Roux and Sankie Beukes credited as “partners”.

joel-santiago-ceo-president-volishonDating back to 2013, Santiago’s YouTube channel reveals marketing material for Pro Travel Plus, EPIQ Energy, Fantasy Draft, Tsu, RE247365, Xplocial, Dream Life Vacation Club and EPX Body.

Of those opportunities, with respect to Volishon, Pro Travel Plus and RE247365 are the most pertinent.

RE247365 was a $39.95 a month recruitment-driven travel opportunity launched in September of 2014.

By December, amid reports of over a half million dollars in fraud, the scheme had collapsed.

Pro Travel Plus, another travel themed recruitment scheme, was launched earlier this year in April.

The current status of Pro Travel Plus is murky, with the following information forwarded to BehindMLM via email:

It (Pro Travel Plus) crashed in the aftermath of them getting ripped off on their first big affiliate group trip in early October.

The stories don’t add up, either PTP used their in house booking engine and got ripped off, or they used another booking service but long story short a bunch of affiliates paid for lodging in Cabo San Lucas far enough ahead of time that they couldn’t do chargebacks and a few weeks before the trip PtP discovered that no one had reservations.

PTP went out of pocket to book stays though at a lesser hotel.

There was a good amount of dissatisfaction among affiliates, the week after this Charles Vest left PTP for HopRocket and Seth Fraser disappeared from the internet.

Ben Glinsky is the real owner of PTP and it looks like he didn’t pay the December access fee for the travel portal.

Pro Travel Plus covered one aspect of the purported Cabo San Lucas scam, through a video uploaded by a Pro Travel Plus affiliate.

As far as my own research goes, as at the time of publication the Pro Travel Plus website is little more than a sign-up form.

Alexa statistics support that the scheme has all but collapsed, showing the usual recruitment hype boom followed by a sharp decline:

pro-travel-plus-alexa-traffic-december-2015

This supports the information we received via email, in that Pro Travel Plus as it stands appears to have collapsed.

Further supporting the received information is a Volishon webinar aired a few hours ago, featuring Joel Santiago and Joseph Otis.

In the webinar Otis “illuminates the negative”, bringing up a recent email purportedly sent to the entire Pro Travel Plus affiliate-base.

The corporate email explains

The owner (of Pro Travel Plus) didn’t pay the bills, and they closed down the portal.

Santiago and Otis are credited with helping create a “new” opportunity, Pro Travel Plus Vacations, which Ortis claims is “absolutely false”. Otis goes on to identify “the guy behind the email” as Lee Freidman. Otis cites Freidman as “the previous travel provider” in Pro Travel Plus.

If any existing or former Pro Travel Plus affiliates can fill us in on exactly what happened and/or the current business status, that’d be greatly appreciated (leave a comment below).

In any event, Joel Santiago was a prominent Pro Travel Plus affiliate. Santiago’s Facebook profile reveals he was still promoting the scheme as late as October.

The recent launch of Volishon is unlikely to be coincidental, with Santiago assumedly looking to salvage what’s left of his Pro Travel Plus downline.

Read on for a full review of the Volishon MLM business opportunity.

The Volishon Product Line

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

Bundled with Volishon affiliate membership is access to “over 300,000 discount providers”.

The Volishon Compensation Plan

Update August 3rd, 2016 – I was contacted by Volishon’s attorney, who advised that the compensation plan analyzed in this review was out of date.

BehindMLM has since published an updated Volishon review on August 3rd. /end update

 

The Volishon compensation plan sees affiliates pay $34.95 a month in fees, with commissions paid when they recruit others who do the same.

Volishon Affiliate Ranks

There are three ranks within the Volishon compensation plan.

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

  • 1 Star – recruit five affiliates within four weeks
  • 2 Star – recruit seven affiliates within seven weeks
  • 3 Star – recruit forty affiliates within ten weeks

Recruitment Commissions (Powerline Bonus)

As described in the Volishon compensation plan material;

As soon as you upgrade as member, you were logged in to the top position in the fastest growing company in the travel industry.

In fact as soon as the following 5 people upgrade to being a member of our Travel Club, YOU WILL EARN A MONTHLY INCOME, regardless of who enrolled them.

That means as soon as someone becomes a Volishon member, YOU START EARNING A COMMISSION.

As long as you stay active you will be paid this bonus every month.

Referred to as a “Powerline Bonus”, no specific commission payouts are detailed.

In any event, this sounds like a straight-line queue commission structure. Subsequent affiliate recruitment pays a commission to existing Volishon affiliates, regardless of whether they were directly or indirectly recruited.

Recruitment Commissions (unilevel)

Residual recruitment commissions in Volishon are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

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

unilevel-commission-structure

If any level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, 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.

Volishon cap payable residual recruitment commissions at three unilevel levels, with commissions paid out of fees newly recruited affiliates pay.

How much of a commission is paid out is determined by a Volishon affiliate’s rank, and what level of the unilevel team a newly recruited affiliate is placed on:

  • 1 Star – $15 on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • 2 Star – $25 on level 1 and $5 on level 2
  • 3 Star – $30 on level 1, $5 on level 2 and $3 on level 3

Coded Infinity Fast Start Override

The Coded Infinity Fast Start Override is a generational bonus, that pays up to $2 per recruited affiliate down three generations.

The Coded Infinity Fast Start Override bonus is paid out via a unilevel team, with a generation in each leg defined when a 3 Star Elite ranked affiliate is found in the leg.

Once found, that 3 Star Elite affiliate caps off a generation, with the next beginning the level below them.

If no 3 Star Elite affiliate is found, the generation thus extends to the end of the leg.

Note that generations across all available unilevel legs are calculated independently of each other.

3 Star Elite affiliates qualify for the Coded Infinity Fast Start Override bonus, with commissions across three generations paid out as follows:

  • first generation – $2 per affiliate recruited
  • second and third generations – $1 per affiliate recruited

Recruitment Commissions (matrix)

Secondary residual commissions in Volishon are paid out via a 2×14 matrix.

A 2×14 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the matrix, with two positions directly under them (level 1):

binary-MLM-compensation-plan

These initial two positions form the first level of the matrix, with the second level generation by splitting each of the first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

The third level of the matrix is generated by splitting each of the second level positions into another two positions each, and so on and so forth down a total of fourteen levels.

Each 2×14 matrix has a total of 32,766 positions in it, with positions filled via affiliate recruitment.

Commissions are paid out per affiliate recruited into the matrix, with the commission paid out monthly recurring affiliate fees.

How much of a commission paid out determined by a Volishon affiliate’s rank and what level of the matrix a position is filled:

  • 1 Star – 2% on levels 1 to 4, 2.5% on levels 5 to 8 and 3% on levels 9 and 10
  • 2 Star – 2% on levels 1 to 4, 2.5% on levels 5 to 8 and 3% on levels 9 to 12
  • 3 Star – 2% on levels 1 to 4, 2.5% on levels 5 to 8, 3% on levels 9 to 12 and 2% on levels 13 and 14

A matching bonus on matrix commissions earned by recruited affiliates is also available.

This matching bonus pays out a percentage of matrix commissions down six levels of recruitment, with how many levels paid out on determined by a Volishon affiliate’s rank:

  • 1 Star – 15% match on level 1
  • 2 Star – 25% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
  • 3 Star – 30% match on level 1, 15% on level 2, 5% on level 3, 3% on level 4 and 2% on level 5
  • 3 Star Elite – 50% match on level 1, 15% on level 2, 5% on level 3, 3% on level 4 and 2% on levels 5 and 6

Profit Sharing and Travel/Product Commissions

Profit sharing and travel/product commissions are mentioned in the Volishon compensation plan, however the material only lists a “release date” of February 1st, 2016.

The following additional information with respect to profit sharing is provided on the Volishon website:

Volishon members, by sponsoring new members, have the opportunity to earn based on a six month cycle.

There are three levels, your membership active status unlocks level one, as soon as the target is met on time and with active members, then level two is unlocked, as soon as the objectives are reached, level three is unlocked.

To be able to keep your profit sharing active in the six months, the following is important to note:

All sign-ups must be at least be 2 or 3 star, or have paid at least 3 months as 1 star for the signee to qualify.

The material suggests that 1 Star affiliates receive share(s) in a 1% pool, 2 Star affiliates share(s) in a 2% pool and 3 Star affiliates share(s) in a 5% pool.

Joining Volishon

Affiliate membership with Volishon is $35 plus $34.95 a month.

Conclusion

Volishon follows the tradition of offering a travel-related MLM opportunity that has nothing to do with travel.

As it stands, 100% of revenue entering Volishon is derived from affiliate fees. In turn commissions paid out are 100% based on affiliate recruitment, placing Volishon in clear pyramid scheme territory.

The promised profit sharing is particularly eye-brow raising, as it could add an additional Ponzi layer to the already dubious scheme.

After recruiting enough investors, for $34.95 a month Volishon affiliates would essentially be buying a position that pays a passive ROI out of subsequently invested funds.

The lack of travel commissions is also interesting, belaying the actual business model being affiliate recruitment and nothing to do with travel.

Honestly, an MLM opportunity launching without paying out on use of its purported service?

CEO and President Joel Santiago’s MLM history is of particular relevance here, as he’s got proven experience with at last two short-lived travel niche recruitment opportunities.

RE247365 and Pro Travel Plus failed first and foremost due to the fact that recruitment slowed down.

This resulted in those at the bottom stop paying fees, which over time saw both companies collapse.

For all the marketing pitches of “dream lifestyles” and travelling the world, both business models simply required payment affiliate fee and recruitment of new affiliates.

Through Volishon Joel Santiago is again pushing this model, with the outcome likely to be the same.

 

Update August 3rd, 2016 – I was contacted by Volishon’s attorney, who advised that the compensation plan analyzed in this review was out of date.

BehindMLM has since published an updated Volishon review on August 3rd.