Ah Africa, home of blood diamonds, daily mass rapes, guerrilla warfare, theft, car hijackings and of course the largest internet scam industry on the planet.

Anyone who’s been on the internet for more then ten minutes has undoubtedly come across a 419 scam email from someone claiming to want to export riches from somewhere in Africa. The catch? You need to send them money first.

Yes, there’s entire offices of people sending out these emails every day in the same manner that people would work a 9-5 job. Meanwhile the authorities haven’t really done much over the last two decades to combat any of the crimes being committed.

Taking all the crime that happens in Africa into consideration, you know you’ve got real problems then if Africa starts claiming your business is an ‘illegal scheme‘.

Enter TVI Express. [Continue reading…]

Once upon a time there was an MLM company who marketed coffee designed to help you perform better in the bedroom.

Magic Power Coffee claimed to be an all natural alternative to synthetic drugs on the market like Viagra and Cialis. All was well and Magic Power Coffee grew as an MLM company… well, until the FDA got involved.

Following an analysis of Magic Power Coffee’s product sometime during May or June this year, the FDA slammed Magic Power Coffee over it’s claims of offering a ‘100% natural sex enhancement product‘.

The FDA’s analysis revealed that Magic Power Coffee contained something called ‘hydroxythiohomosildenafil’.

For those of you not in the pharmaceutical industry, hydroxythiohomosildenafil is similar to sildenafil – which is the active ingredient in Viagra. So it turned out Magic Power Coffee was literally nothing more then coffee + Viagra.

The FDA put out a public health warning resulting in Magic Power Coffee and its parent company, INZ Distributors put out a voluntary recall on all stock manufactured up to the 5th August.

Fast forward a few months and now it seems Magic Power Coffee is trying to relaunch themselves as Magic Power Drink.

They’ve dropped the coffee and presumably gotten rid of hydroxythiohomosildenafil… but thankfully the marketing is still just as cheesy as ever. [Continue reading…]

Wealth. It’s something that most of us strive for in our lives and can be earnt in a variety of ways. Some people derive wealth from a steady income, some work on a commission whereas others run their own businesses.

Regardless of how you accumulate it, ask most people and they’ll tell you that wealth is an integral component of their life plans. Therefore the value of wealth goes without saying.

Given this desire to accumulate wealth in most of us, it sort of makes sense that there’s a market out there to teach people how to not only accumulate wealth but also how to preserve and make the most of what they make.

Wealth Masters International are one such company that combine MLM along with a vision to ‘empower individuals to create success on their own terms and achieve true freedom in all areas of their lives.’

Now as far as visions go, that’s a pretty broad and high reaching aim to strive for. Wealth Masters International (WMI) have set themselves some pretty high goals and the burning question of course is: do they deliver?

Let’s find out. [Continue reading…]

As you become familiar with anything in life it’s all too easy to begin to forget that not everyone you encounter might have as an indepth a knowledge level as you.

Time and time again in life you’re going to find yourself having to explain something, be it a concept, mechanic or an entire overview of something they don’t nearly have as much experience with as yourself.

If you’re in the MLM industry, then one of these things could very easily be network marketing. From the very moment you start searching for leads, it’s important to be mindful of the fact that not everyone knows how MLM works or what’s involved in network marketing.

Let alone the intricacies between compensation plans, companies that use hybrid models or what it takes to be successful in MLM.

Last week Alexandra Cain, writing for the Age blog ‘Savvy Investor’, provided some insight into the mindset of someone who isn’t MLM savvy, when they are exposed to the increasingly elusive marketing campaigns used to market MLM opportunities today. [Continue reading…]

A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position.

To “attack a straw man” is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the “straw man”), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

-Wikipedia definition of a “strawman argument”

For some reason, when you criticise the compensation plan of TVI Express and the fact that its members are not awarded any commissions based on the use of TVI’s product, members of TVI Express interpret this as ‘TVI Express’ product does not work’.

Given that this is not the argument presented to them about why TVI Express is nothing more then a money game pyramid scheme, it’s accurate to label their retorts as strawman arguments.

Despite the ineffectiveness of countering an argument with an irrelevant rebuttal, recently NSW based TVI Express member Jack Panaghis decided to record a video of himself redeeming one of TVI Express’ travel vouchers; [Continue reading…]

There’s no hiding the fact that Facebook is the largest social media network in the world today.

Ranked #2 for global internet traffic and with a membership now of over 500 million, that’s a huge network that is no doubt the envy of every internet marketer out there.

Naturally the success of Facebook has resulted in many competitors trying to emulate the success of the social giant over the years but thus far none have prevailed.

One of those competitors is MLM startup YourNight, who appear to be the first to partner social networking with an MLM income opportunity.

Social networking with an MLM compensation plan? Hmm…how’s that work? [Continue reading…]

It’s no secret that TVI Express has had a rough year. Their first major hiccup was in Australia after the ACCC accused TVI Express of being a pyramid scheme and launched court action.

The case is currently being played out.

Meanwhile over the in the US, TVI Express received a confirmed cease and desist in at least one state – citing that TVI Express was engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices‘.

Despite these two major setbacks however, there are still those out there claiming that business in TVI Express has never been better. Depending on who you listen to… either TVI Express is on the verge of cataclysmic collapse or a massive global expansion boom.

So which one is it? [Continue reading…]

Polaris video and written course products have consistently avoided any particular political or religious belief system as a matter of company policy, and will continue to do so in the future.

-Gregory Strom, author of Polaris Global product line

One of the longstanding conundrums of Polaris Global has been the ongoing question over the direction the company is heading in.

Back in September 2009, Liberty League International became Polaris Media Group and a number of the executive branch quit. One of the common reasons cited was that they didn’t agree with the ‘new direction the company was taking’.

To date, this new direction hasn’t been specifically quantified but one thing Polaris Global has remained adamant about is that the company has nothing to do with Scientology.

Back in April this year I wrote a piece on how Polaris Global can restore some of its credibility. In this piece I raised the question that if Polaris Global are in the personal development industry and CEO Shane Krider uses company products, then surely these products must be in line with Scientology’s core beliefs and principles.

Shane Krider of course being a self confessed member of the Church of Scientology.

I haven’t seen this addressed anywhere other than in the Gregory Strom quote above, which clearly states that there is no religious influence on Polaris Global’s product line.

Last week saw the release of a promotional video for Polaris Global’s Beyond Freedom Evolution product line. Within the first few minutes of footage I began to see some nasty parallels that not only perfectly aligned with Scientology doctrine, but actively preached it. [Continue reading…]

About a week ago now it was revealed that TVI Express had been ordered to cease and desist operations in the US state of Georgia and possibly Hawaii. The reason for the cease and desist was because TVI Express was allegedly non-compliant with US state law regarding MLM business opportunities.

Turns out these orders are not only very real but serious enough that TVI Express has hired lawyers Grimes and Reese (who count Monavie and the Trump Network as clients) to ensure full compliance in the US. [Continue reading…]

this is… my last network marketing company.

-Donna Valdes, ex frontline distributor for LiveSmart 360

One of the biggest cliches that exists in the MLM industry is the stereotype known as the MLM junkie. The MLM junkie is a network marketer that jumps on board a MLM business opportunity during pre-launch or the early stages of a hard launch, cashes in on the hype and then jumps ship again to another company after the hype dies down.

MLM junkies are the scourge of those trying to bring repute to the industry and are often the posterchildren for critics of MLM. After all, what better indication of non-sustainability is there than repeated post-hype slumps?

Roughly two months ago LiveSmart 360 made a big deal about its 8 top earners taking home 35% of the commission payouts and treated them to a company retreat.

One of those 8 top earners was Donna Valdes, pictured here with her giant oversized fifty seven thousand, five hundred dollar cheque;

One month after taking home this financial reward for her efforts during LiveSmart 360’s pre-launch hype campaign, Donna Valdes announced she was leaving LiveSmart 360.

That’s right, Valdes quit her ‘last ever network marketing company’.

The obvious question: Why? [Continue reading…]