Forum Moderators: skibum
Now my question. Has anyone made good money with multi tier affiliate schemes? If you have, do you mind sharing which program is the one you made money with ...
Thing is they have a product that people buy in any case and aren't looking just for recruiters, they are looking for those who can do both, sell first and find good recruits second.
There are a fair number of two tiers and you can make good income from the tiers.
From time to time I hear about good ones, but I'd simply prefer to spend my time otherwise.
There are some excellent two tier programs which don't require purchase of product, etc.
[edited by: eljefe3 at 12:43 pm (utc) on May 1, 2003]
[edit reason] TOS [/edit]
Personally, I shy away from multi tier (MLM) programs that require you to purchase products up front and where the only real prospect for success is to recruit rather than sell products.
To clarify, the question was about multi-tier affiliate programs. Multi-level marketing is by definition different than affiliate programs because a MLM member needs to either subscribe for a fee or buy product. With affiliate marketing, there is no such requirement.
I agree with Go60Guy that if you are presented with a MLM opportunity to turn it down, but personally instead of shying away, I would turn around and run away as fast as possible. whoooooooooooooosssssssshhhhh........... :)
Multi-tier [b]affiliate[/] programs can be good, but think of them as a bonus vs. the main component of your income stream.
Ted
I know there are a thousand out there that are scams requiring you to hold an inventory etc...I know of the Amway's etc..but could there still be some good business using this as a method to sell?
The one I am working with is paying me $15 or $25 per new customer aquisition, and 20% on any orders above the 1st single purchase, for instance if they buy two for $50 each I get $15 on the first and $10 on the second and every one after that. These are great fees, and it is a consumable item and many/most customers go on repeat orders.
So now you guys have me worried again, what should I look for and be afraid about?
The only negative they had as far as I was concerned was a $100 sign up fee, of course you can buy inventory, but they handle all orders online as well so there is no need to, in any case, I made the $100 back very quickly, they have a $10.95 to set up a duplicate site for you to direct people to, much like txxxxware charge $8.95/mth for the same service, you can always deep link in either case.
I guess with txxxxxware and the MLM I am referring to, the number of company's that pay 20% are far outnumbered byn the one who pay less, and I'd rather work on the high commision fees.
That said, should I happen upon a workeable one, such as you describe, with payouts at the level you indicated, I would definitely be interested. Ordinarily, the very mention of a $100 up front fee would send me away in an instant. I may be missing the boat, but there are an awful lot of fish in the ocean.
Programs with consumable products and the kind of payout you're getting are very few. Its great you found something in this genre that's working for you.
The vast majority of MLM companies are glorified pyramid scams. It is actually illegal to operate MLMs in some regions of the world. Many MLMs are run by people who have had prior incidents with the law, often securities / investment related fraud. I know this from reading numerous financial statements (proxies, 10-K filings, prospectuses) while working on Wall Street, in addition to reading about these shysters in financial trade journals.
The premise behind MLM is to recruit others to recoup your "investment". So-called product is often junk. When these MLM get to a point where they are not able to recruit any new members / distributors, they close up shop and open up a new MLM with a different theme.
Try looking up MLM on any search engine. The overwhelming opinion is negative.
Read what the FTC has to say about MLM [ftc.gov] and what to consider before joining an MLM [ftc.gov].
Multi-tier affiliate marketing is different from MLM because they are free to join with no membership fees, do not require inventory and merchants are more interested in selling product to consumers than finding new members / distributors. You should consider earnings from multi-level affiliate marketing a bonus vs. the primary source of income. In the UK, laws actually restrict affiliate program to one level of sub-affiliates to avoid similarities with MLMs.
Ted
I guess I am doing this. We have been in this kind of program for over 2 years and are making over $6000.00 a month from just selling products. Getting distributors is part of it but I have never been into recruiting freinds and family like they say.
I think if you are working with a strong product this business model works. We have even started getting established websites and paying them up to 40% for their referrals from a simple link to us. We also link back to them with a high PR page.
I think you need to do your homework but they are not all bad.
That means that there is no barrier to people entering their program and giving it a shot. On the flip side, however, it doesn't pay on tiers. Now everyone can be pleased.
Thanks for your responses, I read the FTC warnings, I think it's still a valid business as their model does not require recruiting or purchasing inventory to create success or income, just a focus on product sales.
