Late last year it was announced that Wealth Masters International were planning to branch out into nutrition, insurance and finance.

WMI Health and Nutrition was supposed to provide WMI members with affiliate opportunities to market ‘the world’s most advanced anti-aging technologies’ and slated for a first quarter launch in 2011.

Since last November however, nothing has been officially announced by Wealth Masters leaving me wondering what had happened to their plans.

With the deadline for a first quarter launch just days away however, at WMI’s recent Peurto Rico M2 conference, an announcement was made outlining the Wealth Master’s roadmap for ‘PURE’.

Wealth Masters International’s ‘PURE’ (ok enough with the caps) will not be launched in the first quarter and has been officially delayed until September later this year. [Continue reading…]

Back in December 2010, the Norwegian Gaming Board ruled that after a lengthy investigation into Wealth Masters International, that the WMI business opportunity was indeed a pyramid scheme.

Effective back in December, the Gaming Board ordered Wealth Masters International to

cease operations in Norway. The same applies WMIs members.

It would be illegal to create, operate, participate in or propagate pyramid schemes or similar system.

Unless the sale of products WMIs stops in Norway, it could lead to penalties or fines.

Wealth Masters Scandanavia, on behalf of Wealth Masters International appealed this decision but this appeal was dismissed in March with the Gaming Board reiterating that

The Gaming Board has considered the concept of WMI (and) our assessment (is) that the WMI is a pyramid-like sales system.

All sales of products to Wealth Masters International in Norway must immediately stop.

In plain English, Wealth Masters International in Norway was dead.

Well, unless you’re Per Gunnar Hoem, the top WMI consultant in Norway. [Continue reading…]

Six years ago Wealth Masters International was launched and over that period of time WMI has been putting ‘the keys to true personal and financial freedom in (their member’s) hands‘.

Wealth Masters claims to have ‘the most innovative and lucrative compensation plan in the industry’, and that the

Wealth Masters business opportunity empowers you to help others transform their lives, as you build your own foundation of financial freedom.

Members of the Wealth Masters International community are creating lives of greater wealth, health and wisdom by simply applying our proven formula.

Yes, for six long years members of Wealth Masters International have been applying WMI’s proven success formula and as such, you’d think after all this time there’d be some vibrant success stories for the Wealth Masters community to share with us all.

If you look at the latest spate of external promotions WMI has made over the last few weeks though, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nobody within the WMI community was successful.

Over the last few weeks WMI has brought in no less then seven outside marketers to its community whilst completely neglecting those that have been with WMI (and presumably found success) for years.

With some recognition bestowed on marketers from other opportunities, one can’t help but ask – where are all the home grown success stories of Wealth Masters International? [Continue reading…]

Over the past few years the travel industry based MLM offering a matrix compensation plan has become somewhat of a cliche.

Paired with a travel opportunity that is in no way tied to the compensation plan or commission structure, these companies usually require members to recruit a minimum amount of people before they can earn a commission.

Today we’re going to look at MLM travel company ‘Fortuna’.

Not only does Fortuna fall within the travel industry MLM niche, but by introducing a 2×1 matrix, they’ve gone for the unsustainability jugular. [Continue reading…]

As we know it today, social media is huge.

Facebook has over five hundred million users and Twitter isn’t too far behind with around two hundred million.

With such potential reach and exposure, it isn’t surprising that many seek to duplicate the larger social network’s success.

To differentiate themselves though they have to offer more. This might be the combining the network with other things we do online, a closed niche community, or in the case of Unaico’s SiteTalk, a MLM business opportunity.

Combining a binary MLM compensation plan, shopping portal, travel, education, pay per click advertising and social network together, SiteTalk aims to carve out its own piece of the social network pie.

Today I aim to find out if there’s any value in SiteTalk’s offering. [Continue reading…]

Last week I wrote about TVI Express South Africa playing the race card as the South African regulators closed in on the business.

This investigation, launched by the South African Reserve Bank, came on top of an already existing criminal investigation underway by the South African department of Trade.

Whilst the South African Reserve Bank investigation was only just recently launched, the Department of Trade investigation has been running for a while now, and just last week resulted in the first arrests over the promotion of TVI Express in South Africa. [Continue reading…]

One of the more persistant and common marketing techniques utilised by the MLM industry today is the idea of ‘duplication and retention’.

‘Hi, I’m so and so and today I’m going to share with you how I achieved MASSIVE success in my company.

By putting together a team of four or five people and showing them how to duplicate your results, you too can be on your way to riches!’

This type of mareketing spiel I’m finding is increasingly common and most likely for one very good reason:

The idea of ‘duplication and retention’ adresses the need to recruit other people and keep them in your business, without actually saying so.

Recruitment is a dirty word in the MLM industry. Tell a lead they need to recruit to achieve success and more often than not they’ll ask you what it is you actually sell.

That’s usually when the conversation stops.

Tell them they need to duplicate your success after you show them how however, and marketers might just find the conversation lasting that much longer with a much higher chance of conversion.

But what exactly does ‘duplication and retention’ really mean? [Continue reading…]

I’ve been writing about MLM in one way or another for a few years now and over that time there’s been quite a lot of discussion about why I publish under ‘Oz’.

Critics of my work use it against me as a grounding point to establish a lack of credibility and the inevitable ‘but you just work for (insert rival company’s name here)’.

This is a recurring theme that seems to pop up time and time again despite not showing any bias in the MLM opportunities that I’ve thus far reviewed and continue to offer coverage on.

Getting back to the critics however, one of the particular reasons I publish under Oz is that, like any other industry, there’s a lot of deceptive and malicious people in MLM.

When you start critically analyzing the MLM opportunities they happen to be promoting at any given time, they tend to get nasty and what usually follows are emails like the following one I received. [Continue reading…]

You’ve been running your TVI Express business for about a year now. During this time you’ve seen neighbouring countries strike out against TVI, labeling it a pyramid scheme or money game scam.

Still, nobody’s said anything in your country yet so, perhaps with a little more caution, you continue to publicise your business and recruit new members.

Finally, when the regulators in your country do announce an investigation into TVI, do you

a. Accept that what happened elsewhere is most likely going to happen in your country?

b. continue to promote TVI and hope for the best? or

c. play the race card?

If you live in South Africa, the answer is of course ‘c’. [Continue reading…]

When Wealth Masters International had their appeal denied and a ban on operating the business in Norway was upheld, you’d have thought some uneasiness would have flowed through the company’s ranks.

After all, Wealth Masters strives to be the ‘world’s premiere wealth creation community’, and it’s a bit hard to achieve that status when countries start banning you for being a pyramid scheme.

Instead of publicly addressing the concerns, accusations and final ruling of the Norwegian Gaming Board against them however, WMI have instead appeared to have shifted focus entirely on their North American operations. [Continue reading…]