Unless you’re in the top bracket of an MLM or Network Marketing company, traditionally you don’t make a lot of money. Despite numerous startups over the years covering a variety of products and compensation plans, a common trait amongst these companies are that a small core of elite members take home the lion’s share of revenue.

These associates are usually the ones who jumped on the opportunity first, or brought with them insanely long downlines that they accumilated during their time in other MLM companies over the years. In short not at all representative of your average associate within the company.

Unfortunately if their first month of commissions is anything to go by, LiveSmart 360 doesn’t appear to be any different. [Continue reading…]

Magic Power Coffee markets its product as a ‘100% natural sex enhancement product’. The company claims its coffee drink contains Epimedium (horny goat weed), Ginseng, wolfberry (goji berry) and a host of other natural ingredients. The coffee is designed to be a healthy natural alternative to commonly used chemical enhancements such as viagra or cialis (tadalafil).

After examining Magic Power Coffee, last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went public with its findings. Turns out Magic Power Coffee isn’t natural after all.

Infact it’s potentially downright dangerous. [Continue reading…]

After months of speculation on whether or not Polaris Global would meet their July deadline to ship Beyond Freedom Evolution: Decision, the company sent out an email yesterday advising those that had purchased the package that it would indeed be shipped out on June 30th.

Unfortunately unless you bought Decision after January 2010, you’re looking at some hefty shipping fees to have the package sent to you. [Continue reading…]

Ask any MLM or Network Marketing company today about their core marketing strategies and it’s almost guaranteed you’ll hear about their ‘social networking campaign’.

Whilst most people understand that the social networks are there to connect freely with other people over a variety of platforms, the MLM industry seems to have forgotten what this is about.

At a time when information is so abundantly available on the internet and in an industry that continues to try and control how information about itself is distributed and presented, is it any wonder then that nearly every MLM company completely misses the mark when it comes to social networking?

Not really. [Continue reading…]

One of the things I was looking forward to with LiveSmart 360 was the culling of non-active members so that we could get an accurate view of associates who actually committed to themselves with the company.

It’s one thing to get 160,000+ people to sign up for a business opportunity that costs them nothing and another thing entirely to get them to financially commit.

When the deadline came around to ‘lock your spot’ in the Smartline, LiveSmart 360 decided to extend it, twice. [Continue reading…]

Following the departure of Brent Payne from Liberty League International early last year Shane Krider began a transformation of the company.

Amongst the changes introduced over the next six to twelve months, two major transitions stood out above the rest. The first obviously Liberty League’s restructure and transformation into Polaris Media Group (now Polaris Global), and the direction of funding seemingly random documentaries.

With two documentaries already released and two more on the way before the end of 2010, I can’t be the only one scratching my head wondering just how much of a detraction from the core business of Polaris Global each production is. [Continue reading…]

Brent Payne and Shane Krider first publicly entered into a business partnership when they launched Liberty League International back in 2001. After eight years together in early 2009 Brent Payne abruptly sold his share in Liberty League and shied from the public eye.

Shortly afterwards Krider changed the name of Liberty League to Polaris Media Group and the company continued on under the single leadership of Krider.

A few months ago Brent Payne resurfaced and has since independently launched a new MLM/Network Marketing company, Avant. Referring to Avant as ‘the awareness company’ Payne appears to be going at this venture alone.

Meanwhile Shane Krider partnered up with top Polaris Media Group advisor Rachel Oliver and have since launched a continuation of Polaris Media Group, Polaris Global.

For all intents and purposes it appears Shane Krider and Brent Payne have well and truly split up and parted ways.

…well, almost. [Continue reading…]

The Magic Power Coffee compensation plan offers five ways for independent associates to earn revenue.

Retail commissions, a product order bonus, matrix commissions a check match bonus and leadership pools.

Before we start looking at the various components of the Magic Power Coffee compensation plan, here are some definitions of some of the terms used later in this article. [Continue reading…]

The essential idea is that the mark, Mr. X, makes only one payment.

To start earning, Mr. X has to recruit others like him who will also make one payment each.

Mr. X gets paid out of receipts from those new recruits. They then go on to recruit others.

As each new recruit makes a payment, Mr. X gets a cut. He is thus promised exponential benefits as the “business” expands.

-Wikipedia’s definition of a successful pyramid scheme model

One of the fine lines that a lot of MLM companies struggle to walk on is the balance between retail selling and recruiting.

Naturally in order for the business to grow new members, associates or distributors must be recruited but in order to sustain this growth there also needs to be strong sales.

These sales need to be independent of product purchases from within the company’s member base.

Failure to ensure this usually results in the eventual collapse of the business, that is if the authorities don’t catch up with the company first.

This should be common knowledge to anyone running a multi-level marketing company.

Let alone somebody who’s been in the industry for nearly a decade.

Listening in on a recent Avant back office call I was therefore quite surprised at the level of blatant recruitment pushing going on. [Continue reading…]

When LiveSmart 360 first launched their compensation plan it was a mess. I tried to do a writeup on the Smartline component of the LiveSmart compensation plan but hit a mathematical roadblock trying to understand it.

Initially the LiveSmart 360 Smartline was billed as a compensation component that rewarded you for your position in the Smartline.

Whilst this is is still true the updated compensation plan which was rolled out last week has diminished the importance of your place in the Smartline. [Continue reading…]