Last week’s column about work-at-home scams generated a flood of e-mails from people desperate to find another source of income and confused about how to identify legitimate offers.
Many of the questions appear to be about multilevel marketing, one of the most common forms of work from home.
People often confuse illegal pyramid schemes and legitimate multilevel marketing companies. You definitely want to avoid pyramids. But the truth is, even if a multilevel marketing company is LEGAL, it may not be PROFITABLE.
For one thing, most MLMs allow an unlimited number of people to become distributors in a single market. That’s in contrast to traditional businesses, which often give each salesperson an exclusive territory.
Furthermore, even though multilevel marketing companies pass the government’s legal litmus test by offering products for sale, sometimes they are still structured as a pyramid that rewards longtime distributors more than new recruits. In a traditional business, a veteran and a newcomer make the same amount of money if they sell the same item.
Because of these inherent disadvantages, drop-out rates in multilevel marketing are astronomical. One major MLM says 50 percent of its sales force bails out every year. Only nine percent of its people last 10 years. The Web site MLMSurvivor.com says less than 1 percent of multilevel-marketing participants make a profit — and even fewer make a living.
Read more.
Photo by MSDesigns.
Legit Work-From-Home Jobs
February 27, 2008 by Rich | 4 Comments
In Self-employed, Success, Work at Home
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annalaura brown on February 27th, 2008 at 11:07 am
While that may be true. If you have a high enough quality product at an affordable price with a high enough markup, and the support is strong enough. You can definately make money in MLM. With my business you can make quite a bit even just with retailing.
Tom At The Home Business Archive on February 28th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It is true that many people mix illegal pyramid scams with legal MLM programs.What does it take to change their attitudes?
Takeoffzone on March 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The true is that MLM has failed to deliver on its promises to the people it has attracted. What makes it even worse is that the failure rate reaches across all companies, all compensation plans and all products. I don’t wonder why the drop-out rates in multilevel marketing are “astronomical”. - Javier.
Julie on March 21st, 2008 at 8:33 am
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH TO INVEST IN A HOME BASED BUSINESS?
I joined ITV Ventures on February 28, 2008. My initial investment was $299. With that I received a website, a very nice briefcase, tons of information about the business and why it is so easy to start. They were right, it was easy. My website was active in minutes. I began advertising online to get some traffic and within one week, I had already sponsored a complete stranger and received a $100 bonus. I have now six other people in my pipeline and I hope to sign atleast 3 of them within the month. So, I’ll make my money back plus some. There is a $29.95 per month fee to stay active and have access to tons of up-to-date product information and support materials, audios, videos and more.
The second part of the business is the Home Agent Program which is when you receive live calls from customers who are motivated to buy after view an infomercial on TV. To join this part of the business, which is not required, is an additional $299. This includes a background check, one month of the technology behind the call routing, training and $200 in call credits.
What are call credits? Each product that you take calls for requires that you pay a call credit. For example: A natural cures call is $5, an Almighty Cleanse call is $20. If you sell the Almighty Cleanse to your caller you can earn $45 or more, in as little as 5 minutes. So your profit would be $25. DO YOU HAVE A JOB WHERE YOU CAN MAKE $25 IN 5 MINUTES? My full time job doesn’t pay that well, and I’m in management.
So how much is too much to invest in your future? I ask you to respond and let me know what you invested in your business or what you are willing to invest if you have not started a home based business yet.
Check out my site for more information: http://www.workfromhomeops.info