Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Sites

[lloyd]

In Froogle they do not permit Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Sites.

What are Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Sites.

Examples would be helpful.

[MatthewHSE]

You buy a certain dollar amount of my product each month, then you sign up all your friends and relatives, and get them to sign up their friends and relatives, who in turn sign up their friends and relatives, all making that same minimum purchase each month as a condition to remaining in the program, and you get a small portion of all those sales since they're all signed up under you. And the guy you're signed up under gets a portion of all those sales, too, plus a portion of what you're spending. And your friends and relatives get a portion of the sales of people who signed up under them, ad-infinitum.

Otherwise known as pyramid schemes, network marketing, etc.

A lot of people make a lot of money in MLM, but far more never can make it work. I imagine several folks here are making some money in MLM; speaking for myself, I paid my $49.95 startup fee once and bought the product for three months before I realized it was going nowhere. I cut my losses, got out, and haven't tried MLM since.

Probably the reason Froogle doesn't allow MLM sites to be listed is because it would totally flood the results with the exact same product for the exact same price from thousands or tens of thousands of identical websites (many MLM companies give every "sales rep" their own website, and of course the websites are exactly the same).

[Essex_boy]

MLM aka pyramid schemes keep clear.

[mattglet]

MLM aka pyramid schemes keep clear.

Only keep clear if you don't know what you're doing, otherwise get a back brace for the wads of $$ you'll be lifting. :)

[Sanenet]

Aren't pyramid schemes illegal anyway?

[mattglet]

Most pyramid schemes are illegal, yes... but all of those have pretty much gone extinct. There are a lot of network marketing/MLM sites out there today that are perfectly legal, and very profitable (provided you have the knowledge in working with them).