Having reviewed both Shopping Sherlock and Vitel, one of the common traits amongst both businesses is the lack of products both companies provide.

Shopping Sherlock had an app that provides discounts to third-party products and services, and Vitel up until recently exclusively offered third-party products and services through its network.

A few months ago Vitel introduced what they call the ViSocial, a $69.95 a month “social marketing platform” that doesn’t appear to have generated any significant interest.

That said, at least it was a solid attempt at finally offering an actual product within the company itself, as opposed to other company’s product and services.

Shopping Sherlock on the other hand continue to lead with their free app that provides access to third-party offers.

With that in mind, I can wholly see the commonality between the two companies that would be ideal for a merge. And that’s exactly what Shopping Sherlock and Vitel have done. [Continue reading…]

There is no specific information on the WaraNetwork website indicating who owns or runs the business, with the company only providing the following vague marketing spiel:

WARANETWORK.COM is an online advertising platform created and backed by financially diversified and financial services company based in the United Arab Emirate.

A group of social networking entrepreneur experts was hired to establish a successful microenterprises online advertising platform in order to help networkers and low income scale individuals/families, private businesses / enterprises, simple network users and experienced administrators and all those who looking for a stable and steady income business.

The WaraNetwork website domain (“waranetwork.com”) was registered on the 27th of May 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Last week, shortly after a judge denied his application for anticipatory bail, Carlos Costa (one of the three owners of TelexFree) put out a twelve-minute YouTube video outlining a proposed matrix based business model.

The idea behind the new model was that TelexFree will petition the courts in Brazil to permit them to adopt the model for 90 days. Costa argues that because the new model does not require TelexFree to charge membership fees, this would prove that TelexFree is not a Ponzi scheme.

The problem?

Charging affiliates membership fees or not has nothing to do with TelexFree being a Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Weexor website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Weexor website domain (“weexor.com”) was registered on the 4th of June 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

“Share certificates” issued by Weexor list a “Rodney J. Watson” as Chairman of the company:

However no further information is provided, with the certificates appearing to be printed off a computer-generated template.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Macros Capital website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Macros Capital website domain (“macroscapital.com”) was registered on the 4th of March 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

A “certificate of registration of a limited partnership” certified by the “Registrar of Companies for Scotland” is provided on the Macros Capital website, however all that is needed to obtain this is the filing of an application with the registrar.

At the time of registration an address in Scotland must be provided, but once obtained a company can register its address offshore. So in summary, the certificate doesn’t provide any useful information.

Two languages are listed on the Macros Capital website, Russian and English, which indicates that these are the two primary markets the company targets.

Also provided on the website are the names of three “representatives”: Jevgeni Hotejenkov (credited as a US rep, however his country is listed as Estonia), Igor Avdeyev (Ukraine) and Pavel Boyko (Spain).

No further information as to what specific roles these three representatives have within Macros Capital is provided.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Trivita launched in 1999 are based in the US state of Arizona. The company operates in the nutrition and weight loss MLM niche.

Heading up Trivita is CEO and Founder, Michael Ellison. According to Ellison’s Trivita executive bio,

Mr. Ellison has over thirty years of experience leading his own businesses including: Ellison Media Company; Global Duplication & Fulfillment; and Ellison Research.

Through Ellison Media Company, he helped many recognized non-profit organizations grow their outreach in the United States, Africa, Latin America, Australia, Canada and Europe.

Michael Ellison has carried over this same innovative and entrepreneurial spirit into the founding of Trivita in 1999 after going through his own personal health crisis at the age of 50.

He joined with a successful developer of four independent direct sales businesses, Barry Borthistle, to create Trivita Inc., a company dedicated to the mission of helping people fight the war on disease by focusing on physical, emotional and spiritual health.

I wasn’t able to find any record of involvement in an MLM company by Ellison (right) prior to 1999, indicating that Trivita was his first stint on the executive management side of the industry.

As for the Ellison Media Company, it appears to be a religious orientated marketing group. Founded in 1977 by Ellison, the company credits itself for much of Trivita’s success.

Founded by Michael Ellison in 1971, Ellison Media Company quickly grew into a national presence in the Christian media industry.

Ellison Media Company was responsible for developing the front-end direct response strategy, which included placement of long-form television and radio infomercial programming, DR print, and Web-based direct marketing response marketing. As a result of Ellison Media Company’s direct response strategies, TriVita

-Acquired over 2,000,000 customers via radio, television, Web and print

-Sold 11 million units of its flagship product

-Ranked in the top 20 frequently aired television infomercials by “Response” magazine

-Expanded its DR activities internationally

Read on for a full review of the Trivita MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Dear Team Herbalife,

Today is a very sad day for us all. Founder’s Circle member, John Peterson passed away suddenly today, following a tragic accident at his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

The Herbalife family has lost a dear friend, an inspirational leader, and a loving husband and father of John Jr., Jennifer and Bryan.

John occupies a special place in Herbalife as one of our original Founder’s Circle members, and we spare a special thought for his business partner of many years, Susan.

There can be very few Distributors around the world who have not been inspired by his story or benefitted from his experience and knowledge; something he was always so generous with and willing to share.

John was one of Herbalife’s true personalities and he will be missed.

-Herbalife CEO, Michael Johnson

Despite it being referred to as a “tragic accident” by Herbalife in the above email sent out last Monday, news broke today that Herbalife top earner John Peterson’s death was infact suicide.

Peterson was found inside a 2008 Ford pickup parked at his residence in Steamboat Springs, Colo., where he “succumbed to a single gunshot wound,” said Ray Birch, undersheriff for Routt County. Birch said the initial investigation indicated the gunshot was self-inflicted.

What caught my interest was not the suicide itself, which by all accounts was unremarkable, but rather the environment surrounding it. When I read that Peterson’s death was suicide, immediately the question of whether or not it had something to do with Herbalife came up.

To start with, let me say that trying to link any of this with Wall Street theatrics is a futile effort and I’m glad to say that to date, Peterson’s death hasn’t been used by either side of the stock market battle. Let’s hope it stays that way.

On the MLM side of things however, after reading it was a suicide I began to research some immediate thoughts I had and now, a few hours later, despite some pretty large pieces of information missing, think there might be a bit more to this story than we’re being told. [Continue reading…]

Uneeqlee launched in August of 2013 and as per the company’s website domain registration, is based out of Colorado in the US.

Heading up Uneeqlee on the management side of things is CEO and Founder, Seth Fraser (right).

Fraser’s past MLM ventures include the “free stuff” themed MLM opportunities Freebie Force and That Free Thing.

Freebie Force launched back in 2007, offering affiliates access to free stuff deals for a monthly fee and paying them per new affiliate recruited.

By 2010, Freebie Force had collapsed with Fraser selling the affiliate member list to LiveSmart 360 and eventually moving on seven months after the merger.

Convinced that the free stuff MLM business model could still work, Fraser returned with That Free Thing in early 2011.

Again the “affiliates paying a monthly membership fee for free stuff and getting paid for recruitment” business model was used and once again the company eventually went bust.

Affiliate membership went into decline shortly after launch, peaking at a 25% reduction between August and November of 2011.

Today That Free Thing still exists but no longer charges for membership. The site is plastered in advertising and appears to have dropped the concept as an MLM income opportunity altogether.

I’m unaware of any additional projects Fraser has been involved in since That Free Thing, noting that in a Uneeqlee marketing video Fraser states the idea behind company has ‘been in development for two and a half years‘.

Read on for a full review of the Uneeqlee MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the AdProfitFund website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The AdProfitFund website domain (“adprofitfund.com”) was registered on the 25th of June 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

A big of digging around on the AdProfitFund website revealed the hosting of banners that advertise something called “Xtreme Text Ads”:

Xtreme Text Ads charges affiliates $15 to join and then pays them $5 per affiliate they recruit.

There’s no information on who owns or runs Xtreme Text Ads on the website, however the domain registration lists a “Greg Chadwick” of “Trax Web Design Inc.” as the owner, operating out of British Columbia in Canada.

At this point I was ready to chalk up the trail going cold with Chadwick simply being a web designer, however when I visited the domain of the supplied email address in the registration (“traxwebdesign.com”), I found it redirected to yet another income opportunity.

Trax Web Design’s website domain redirects to something called “MyVipLinks”, which appears to be a directory of dodgy-looking affiliate income opportunities.

Given that web design company websites generally don’t redirect to income opportunity sites, in addition to designing them I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest Chadwick owns all of the websites above, including AdProfitFund.

Read on for a full review of the AdProfitFund MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Tazew launched in July 2013 and is headed up founders Dave Lear, Wallace Nunez and Jeff Whelan.

No information is provided on the Tazew website indicating where the business operates, however the company’s Terms and Conditions to state the following in reference to their affiliate’s Code of Conduct:

The State of Texas is the place of the origin of this Contract and is where the Company accepted the offer of the Applicant to become a Distributor and where the Distributor entered into the Contract with the Company.

The Contract is therefore to be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas (without giving effect to any conflict of law provision or rule) as to contracts made and to be wholly performed within the State.

Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to the Contract or the breach thereof, or any controversy or claim relating to the business relationships arising between Distributors shall be resolved by mandatory, final, binding, non-appealable arbitration in Dallas, Texas, United States of America.

There’s nothing explicitly mentioned on the Tazew website (the domain registration is set to private), however the above indicates that Tazew operates out of the US state of Texas.

One additional point of interest can be found in Tazew’s “cancellation and refund” policy, which appears to link the company to the previously launched Mobile Blog Pro opportunity.

Here’s Tazew’s cancellation and refund policy:

And here’s Mobile Blog Pro’s version:

Apart from the identical language, note the support email address using the domain “organicwealthacademy.com”. At the time of publication the Organic Wealth Academy domain is expired.

Other similarities linking the two companies are the same hosting company (Xeex) and hosting IP addresses. Tazew is currently hosted on 216.151.159.154 and Mobile Blog Pro over at 216.151.159.153.

That said, Mobile Blog Pro is owned by admin Rune Fjortoft who, at least publicly, doesn’t appear to have any personal connection to Tazew.

Meanwhile on the Tazew admin side of things, at the time of publication Dave Lear and Jeff Whelan are currently involved in VidaCup as affiliates, and Wallace Nunez (who credits himself as Wallace Nuanez on his marketing blog “WorkWithWallace”) is in Empower Network.

Read on for a full review of the Tazew MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]