MLM Bot Watch 19 - chat about Utah based tragicomic cultastic racketeering scamalangadingdongs like Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juiceplus etc etc etc

[chuckingstones]

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It's a high risk strategy for the MLMs, I think, and they may have got it a little wrong.

I'm going to start reporting the LTW ads to the ASA because you can't earn £200 from 'just doing your shopping' you have to have 6 people signed up and active, and after 3 months you can start to earn from them

Those chairman bonuses in FL are made up of 3% of global revenue and spread out amongst the people with the most CCs and downline managers. Here is a website explaining the criteria. foreverliving.com/page/incentives/chairmans-bonus/usa/en

Looks like an awful lot of work to me and a horrendous amount of personal CCs. A level 3 needs 500 personal CCs. I calculate that at £80,000. I guess all that spending pays off for some people. Just a shame for all those for whom it didn't work. How many have spent and spent, on the gamble it would get them higher up, only for it not to work?

And it still doesn't actually explain the divvy-up, does it?

No it doesn't. The bots themselves don't seem to have a clue how much they're getting either, until they get there.

Try this little film. It explains about how CCs are changed to points and then converted to chairman's bonus. I think a bit of my brain just melted.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=fGSE035ZRZU

Why would you leave at the top of your game?
I would imagine maintaining the activity required to be a top bot is completely exhausting. You still need to recruit even as a castle bot type figure. She admits to being knackered. You can't step back from it for a couple of months to have a break or the pyramid shaped house of cards falls down. You have to keep spending on products and flashy lifestyle stuff to keep up the facade so you can't really save much. There is no residual income

Hah! It sounds as if it ought to be rigorous doesn't it? (That's just the humongous apparent detail.)

It's not at all though. All of that - brain melting though it might be - relates to the qualification. And there are enough woogles in even that to drive a coach and horses through.

They've also forgotten to include, it seems, the part that says 'and we like the cut of your jib'.

Has anyone ever seen an actual breakdown of how these cheques are calculated? By person?

My God toobusy no wonder no-one knows what they're going to get! But having watched that the one thing I can say is that an awful lot of money must be flowing downwards from the top levels in order to ensure that there are enough new managers so that they qualify. Given the complex rules I can't imagine that they would simply encourage and hope that their downlines achieve enough CCs so that they can get their bonus. More they probably "incentivise" their downlines by giving them money that they can spend on more products.

What we'd obviously love to see is the net profit for the year for anyone including the bonus. I suspect it might be 6 figures but low 6 figure range.

I also wonder how many of the events they have to attend each year seeing as they are a must. Therefore how many hours they have to put in outside of their daily work hours. What it all boils down to is that their hourly wage probably isn't that great compared to 6 figure earners in a 9-5 job.

toobusy have I got this right? Does a level 3 need to spend £80k of his or her own money on 500 CCs to qualify for a bonus cheque? If that's right how much are they likely to see written on a big plastic cheque?

The maths are byzantine!

I'm sure Companies House will be very revealing in due course. I see someone has two companies in her name now - one covers pro planners.

I've only ever dipped in and out of these threads so apologies if this is the wrong forum but.....
I have a bot in my living room!!!!!
Ex sil has just joined utility warehouse - have I heard of it? Do I know anyone who uses it?
If someone signs up to the full package she earns an awesome......50p (or less than 5 mins work at min wage)
It's not a pyramid scheme you know - coz they're illegal!!!

It remains that from millions of customers "distributors" there are a few favoured souls getting the money in a very public way.

The video was fascinating, utterly revealing about the bizarre world of MLM. Like - you get 15,000 "shares" (of how many? Shares of what?). Lots of jargon. Really odd.

As far as I am aware "personal CCs" are products you use and sell personally. I suspect there's a lot of buying stock to make sure you qualify....

Dolly yes you're right! It's much more than "just doing your shopping"

Probably best not to be bedazzled by the 'cheques' but to keep your eye on the big MLM picture.

A company that - say - 'distributed' 3% (3%) of global revenue would still have a lot of money going somewhere. (And that's even given that that's 'revenue' and not 'profits'. )

I wonder not only where this revenue originated but how much of it was profit and how the profits were allocated? Data doesn't seem to be easily available somehow.

There were actually 944 cheques given out - approx 26 million in total - so just to balance out the thought that it's just Super bots that get the cream. 750 cheques alone dished out on the first day, so to add parity - 750 flights and accommodation all paid for by the company alone as they qualified - not from their own funds as you may suspect - the thought that money flows downstream is misplaced

But I thought there were more than 9 million distributors, doesn't that mean that only the top 0.01 of a % qualified for a cheque? That sounds like only the very top people to me? You maybe haven't realised quite how high up you are?

I still believe that it would be a high risk strategy for any MLM to hand out large bonus cheques to a very few people. The rank and file adherents might not take too well to the notion at all, contrary to organisational belief.

Could someone remind me what the 'churn rates' are for the prominent MLMs?

This is the percentage of people who receive any sort of Chairman's bonus.

Not one percent, not one tenth of one percent, but just under one hundredth of one percent.

(Sorry am in NL and a comma means a decimal point!(

You need qualify to receive a cheque, and by building your business to the criteria needed, will determine what level or how much you will receive. All those that got anything had worked hard to get there. There are millions of people that play golf to a high level - but only a handful that will play in the Open for the big prize. Those ones are usually the ones who have practiced the most in the rain, snow and sleet in order to perfect their game.

So to be a success you have to work really, really hard, as in 19hrs a day.

Nothing like those 5hrs a week/do it around the family posters that you see then.

I think I'd rather be poor. See my family and not work myself into the ground.

Most people work hard
You could argue there are some hard-working burglars, hard working drug dealers, and certainly fraud seems like very hard work.

People play golf for pleasure. Some are so good at it they play in competitions and some are so good they turn pro. They are not lied to and they do not commit fraud to get there. There's plenty wrong with the sports world but it's not in any way comparable to an MLM.

The only way I agree that it is like golf is that it is a game.

Imagine if those hard workers put their efforts in to their own products or business, they too could be a millionaire. Instead they're earning for the boss and upline just like any other J.O.B. A very select few receive any kind of bonus at all.

A new thread about LTW here. I have commented.