Collectible (noun) – things considered to be worth
collecting.

Collectibles can often be a subject of discussion that lends itself to confusion. With virtually anything able to be defined as a collectible these days, value, as mentioned above, is largely subjective.

Value can be measured in the form of personal attachment, scarcity of the collected item, the personal interests of the collector themselves, popularity of an item and the list goes on.

What’s common with each of these factors however is the subjectivity of each. One collector might love collecting a certain type of comic for example, primarily because they enjoy reading them.

On a secondary level these comics might have a dollar worth, but to another collector the comics might still be worthless. Without the pleasure of enjoyment from reading the comics, the dollar value simply doesn’t make the comics desirable as collectibles for the second collector.

In a business sense, specifically MLM, we can strip down the factors that make up the collectibleness of an item down to pure dollar value. [Continue reading…]

The World Ventures compensation plan revolves around a Binary organisation.

This means that for every representative active in World Ventures, beneath them are two split downlines.

In turn these two split downlines then have two split downlines under them and so on and so forth down to theoretically unlimited levels.

Each arm operates independently of the other but under World Ventures’ commission structure, both arms rely on each other to generate residual commissions for qualified active representatives. [Continue reading…]

Affiliate marketing has been around for almost as long as internet marketing itself and revolves around the basic principle of one person selling another person’s products.

When a sale is made, the product owner then awards a commission to the affiliate who sold the product. This typically ranges in the vicinity of 5-50% of the sale, although it can be higher or lower depending on the type of product and retail cost.

When I began my research into Carbon Copy Pro’s latest partnership, Pro U and Automatic Millionaire, I was tempted to write off the entire thing as straight forward affiliate marketing and simply not write about it.

After all, Behind MLM is about the MLM industry – affiliate marketing is something else altogether.

Digging a little deeper though, I began to realise that there is indeed a MLM’esque business opportunity available here via the two programs. It’s quite shallow and offers no residual income but it’s there.

Oh and did I mention it will cost you $39,980 to maximise your commission?

Introducing Pro U and Automatic Millionaire – the most expensive business opportunity I’ve ever seen. [Continue reading…]

Recently TVI Express celebrated two years of being in business in the MLM industry. Along with the celebrations, most of which used the milestone as a pointer to the legitimacy of the TVI, TVI members took the opportunity to share with the world some statistics about the company.

Despite troubles in Africa and Australia recently and slowing down due to members jumping onto similar new opportunities so they can relive the early fast cycling glory days of TVI, some members persist in shouting the praises of TVI.

These members most likely have a lot of money and time invested in TVI along with huge downlines. For them, jumping ship isn’t an option until TVI itself is absolutely no longer financial viable.

One such possible TVI member duo are Ros Kaspi and Vanessa Jackson from over at IncreaseMyMonthlyIncome. In light of TVI’s two year milestone, some of the claims Jackson and Kaspi have made are quite dubious.

Here’s a rundown of Kaspi and Jackson’s 2010 TVI factsheet; [Continue reading…]

Polaris Global, a leader in network marketing and home-based businesses, is urging its members and all entrepreneurs to follow a strict code of ethics while building their business.

Polaris is trying to change the perceptions of network marketing, also known in the industry as multi-level marketing, through its honest and ethical business practices.

Polaris’s leaders believe following good business practices will result in a stronger and better industry.

– June 08, 2010 Press release for Polaris Global.

When we, as an individual or company, conduct business with a third party there’s a certain level of trust involved.

During the transaction, whether it be for electronics, a book, advice or personal development courses, certain personal details are exchanged and we as the consumers often take it for granted that our details will be kept private.

For the most part the world’s business’ strictly enforce their privacy policies because they know that if caught losing or trading their customer’s information – it’s a surefire way to also lose a ton of business.

Not so for Polaris Global. Well, at least not for founder Gregory Strom whose ethics undoubtedly hit a new rock bottom recently. [Continue reading…]

When you Google search an MLM business opportunity, due to the introduction of predictive search and now Google Instant search results, more often then not the company in question is associated with the word ‘scam’.

Not unnoticed by MLM marketers, over the last five years or so there’s been a big attempt to capitalize on this market.

The process is quite simple; focusing on the keywords ‘scam’ and the business opportunities’ name itself, a marketer creates a website, does some basic SEO, generates a few decent backlinks all with the hope of capturing some of the people doing their due diligence out there.

Due to the ulterior motives of an MLM marketer however, instead of factual independent analysis, more often then not a researcher is given biased, vague and sometimes inaccurate information aimed at convincing the researcher that company X isn’t a scam, or information that rubbishes company X whilst subtly (and sometimes not so subtlety), promoting company Y.

In both instances the MLM marketer gains the attention of the researcher through blatant deception.

Some marketers have even taken this process one step further and set up entire sites promising independent and accurate reviews of MLM business opportunities, but in reality are nothing more than recruiting portals for the business opportunities their owner promotes.

One such website is the MLM marketing portal ‘Citizen Corps’, run by Mr. Alan Nettle. [Continue reading…]

Back in December last year, TVI Express took note of its members concerned and sought to address claims that fraud was rampant in the business.

With no verification process attached to the process of joining TVI Express, members in countries where identity fraud was difficult to police were presumably finding it easy to inflate TVI membership numbers.

Just two months after implementing a photo ID check however, TVI Express unofficially announced last week it was scrapping the verification system in countries it has ‘not established as a local official body as yet.‘

The countries listed as having established a TVI local official body in are India, Indonesia and Philippines. As far as the rest of the world goes, TVI Express members are free to continue the fraudulent activities they were engaged in before. [Continue reading…]

A couple of weeks ago now it was announced that Avant were looking to make their products more accessible by reducing the purchase cost and altogether removing their premium product.

Avant’s products, which previously cost between $1595 to over sixteen thousand dollars were slashed in price by up to $5,000.

But why the adjustment and on a larger note, why such a dramatic price adjustment? [Continue reading…]

Due to a combination of government policy, the time required for a thorough investigation to be carried out and the inevitable appeals process, it’s all too well known that there’s often a large disconnect of time between the establishment of an MLM company, and a regulatory body investigating it.

At the heart of a scam MLM is the principle of extracting as much money from unsuspecting victims, in the least amount of time possible. And when you combine this with a long delay in the investigation process, a lot of people can be taken for a ride and driven to financial ruin in the meantime.

One group of MLM companies in Bangladesh sought to address this problem and have called upon the government to regulate the MLM industry. [Continue reading…]

Pyxism are a US based company and claim to be ‘a licensed Seller of Travel in California, Washington, Florida, & Iowa’ with Hawaii pending (they state that other US states do not require a relevant license or registration).

This would indicate that Pyxism themselves operate their travel portal, which makes for a refreshing change. Most MLM business opportunities I’ve seen in the travel niche simply outsource their travel products and focus on member numbers via recruitment.

Let’s see how they hold up to a more indepth analysis. [Continue reading…]