Home based opportunities - Real potential of substantial income or just another scam?

First of all thanks for viewing this thread, I would really like your views on these opportunities you see plastered across your screen so often.

My name is Dan I am married with a 2 year old son - life has never been better!

I have recently joined an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company that appears so exciting and innovative sometimes I have trouble sleeping lol.

My goals are to build to residual income substantial enough to not work fulltime but spend time with my family and friends more often and be able to work for charity. (I sometimes help out to feed the hungry and things like that)

I want to dedicate the time I have whilst not working a full time job to helping others in various ways.

1. More charity work for those more unfortunate than most.

2. Giving people the opportunity to understand and be able to earn their own substantial residual income if I succeed in doing this.

Before you say, not another con-man pyramider. I have been in MLM marketing for 1 week now and have not made a cent (as i expect). I am simply asking for peoples views, either good, bad or simply dunno.

The reason I signed up is I thought about how much money needed to be invested into this website in order for it to work. It has a high capital outlay. Anything with a low or zero capital outlay would be website scam site!!! They practically put a price on a bunch of useless information.

Anyone knows that in a MLM environment the best place to be is near the top, however being near the top requires more risk because you don't know if people will come in underneath you because it is an unrecognised company. So lets assume you have the chance to be near the top.

There is so much propaganda and fake promises on the net these days about getting rich quick that most people say no in their heads well before they even start researching the facts. So lets assume you truely haven't heard of how an MLM works. Then you read the facts.

Lets also assume:

The products are well known brands
Any company with any type of product is welcome to sell their products or services there
Its Australian owned and moderated
It plans to go global within 12 months
Their cards are safer than VISA or Mastercard
Its completely legal and ethical!
You can start earning income immediately
Very realistic potential earnings of over $10,000per mth within 6-9 months Residual! depending on member growth

All these factors taken into consideration please tell me your views on why you wouldn't sign up, is there a catch? or do i have good reason for these sleepless nights?

I can't post the site on here coz i don't want to get in trouble but if you want the address just msn, skype or email me

Thank you and God bless
Dan

Ok - so gimme the focus on the products versus the focus on recruiting other people...

fast and quick money... its always a scam ;)
If it wasn't millions of ppl would be doing it, noone would be working down at the local woolies, and we would all be RICH

Well its main catch phrase/mission statement is 'turning expenses into income' in order to do that you only need to become a member, to seriously profit in the business you would need to recruit from as little as 2 people but realistically would only need to personally recruit 10-20 good people to generate a 6 figure residual income per month. At least thats how I have worked it to be approximately. Does that answer your question?

did millions of people start using ebay within 2 weeks of its launch to the world? Do millions now? If you had a chance to buy shares back then would of you? No-one ever knows whether a website or any business will fold or flourish unless someone takes a chance and tries it. Atleast thats from an entrepenueral persective. Which I am trying to adapt.

Seriously Dude, if you are here to SPAM us you'll be banned before you can finish that next post. So if you're after minions this isn't the place for it. Seriously.

More about me:
Previous to me taking on this challenge i developed a career in 'tyre fitting' for the last 10 years.
I have never been a blue collar infact very rarely wore a collar. lol
I will say that I was told once not to look for advice on how to paint my house from the local butcher.

very sorry i will leave things be. I will lay off

I'm happy to discuss this if the mods don't mind where this goes.

There are so many things wrong with this, but by jeez these people are good at stirring you up.
So you have to buy a certain amount of product EVERY month right? And so do the people underneath you.
There isn't any focus on the product you are supposed to sell, because its not about selling a good product it's purely to recruit more people, to personally buy stuff each month.

Where are you going to get 10-20 people? Once you've driven your family and friends insane about the "great opportunity" and 'residual income', what then?
You make money buy either selling something people need/want or providing a service - not by selling them a dream or ideal, that has little foundation. The products this lot sell are VERY expensive anyway and many people aren't willing to part with cash for stuff they can buy at the supermarket. You will have stockpiles of product in your garage that you had to buy to make it to the next 'level' - betcha $100.

Do the provide any product training, or is it all focused on 'simply' recruiting people underneath you?

The website outlay - please don't think that if you throw heaps of money at it, that it will mean something, or that if it was cheap it means nothing. You won't be investing your money in a product, service or any type of bricks and mortar...just an idea, dream, propaganda started by people with big charisma.

I've seen this before in a few different shapes and forms, but recruiting people underneath you and being whipped into a frenzy seem to be the main theme...

See this is the perspective I have been looking for. Lulu thank you. Have you seen this particular website? I am not sure if I am allowed to announce it on here so until I find that out I wont. I will admit I have repeated to myself a million times 'This has to work' so I have brainwashed myself into believing it wont fail. My optimism doesn't really stem from what i've been told but more what I have researched. From your experience Lulu do you know if any sites/companies like this have actually worked for people like me and you? If so how?

More importantly please explain the moral issues you feel on a deal like this. That is my biggest worry. Is it morally ok if you are open and honest about your own experiences?

Thanks again for your in-depth and constructive opinion

So if they are well known companies and well known brands why are you being charged to sell them? (website outlay).

Look they make it sound so simple, but these things have been around for YEARS. The main theme is this 'residual income' tactic they use. To me this implies you can step back will all your minions run around selling stuff and you rake in the cash, you must know this can't work.

Who is the parent company? All these roads tend to lead to Rome if you know what I mean..

I don't know anyone who has made decent money from this, no one has ever had enough time to relax and do a bit of charity work on the side. I know for a fact that many many people have been badly burnt from these setups and heaps of friendships lost.

There's no reason you can't have personal integrity, but does the company?

What makes you feel uncomfortable about this setup?

Yes, please DO NOT mention the name of the website, although I know you are just gagging to do it. If it sounds like it's all a bit pyramid shaped, then it probably is. Every single person I know who has gotten involved in similar companies have no friends left - not one! And they are ridiculed for taking part in it.

Fools and their money are soon parted my friend.

They work on the theory that you buy these products and use these services every week anyway..which i do. There is no stock pile up as you dont have to buy anything to stay a member, you just wont earn anything for that month. I see it as a safeguard against the sign up once and do nothing type of people as opposed to having to rip yourself off to make money.

There are 3 types of products for sale:

1.Goods and Services (via warehouse and direct website links to participating businesses)
2.Rewards card to buy these goods and services with (similar to Visa etc)
3.Business opportunity

The compensation plan they call it has 8 different bonuses which sound very attractive and achieveable (business opportunity). You can simply just sign up as a shopper (no money making priviledges just reward points towards other products). You can sign your business up as a merchant e.g if bottlemart signed up you can earn rewards on purchasing liquor using your rewards card, furthermore if you are a business owner you and other members earn a percentage of the profit off that sale plus get the rewards points etc. etc.

The residual income statement to me implies the harder you work in the early stages the more you can sit back and relax in the later stages. I have met people who have been involved in successful mlm'ing who have been able to quit their day jobs. I have been advised of this:

mlm is not for everyone - make sure you understand it before you join
minions won't make you money, entreprenual thinkers will, so recruit entreprenual thinkers
effort you put in = results you receive

What makes me uncomfortable? The fact that I can't find anything wrong or unethical with it like I can almost every other opportunity I have researched. Wondering if I am missing something?

Thank you trillian, I don't intend to burn up all my friendships and seriously recommend anyone else interested in mlm'ing doesn't do that either. I thought to myself I never hounded my friends to buy tyres off me when I was a tyre fitter so why should I now.

I will not announce the website on here, I don't want anyone thinking they are suckered in. I love kids and take my hat off to all the mum's out there moulding our future generations. God Bless

And dads too.....my brother is a solo parent of 3!

Well if you think that you can make a go of it and do well, then go ahead and do it. You sound like you've really looked into this, but IME there are always strings - they may not be apparent at first but they are always there. If you have nothing to lose financially if it doesn't work out and you don't become a social lepper then give it a go.

I'm a bit weirded out by the "compensation" plan. What a strange word!

Who is the parent company?

All mlm's run a compensation plan - meaning you get compensated for yours and others purchases.
It has no parent company. It is a middle agent between retailers/wholesalers and consumers.
The company negotiates all pricing on products with seperate merchants. Its like any other shopping directory but you can run a business from it too

I'm going to have to agree with everything that Lulu has mentioned.

And Trillian said exactly what I've been thinking while reading everything... Sounds very pyramid shaped...

Oh it is, but its done legally and ethically I am led to believe. There is no other way to generate a substantial income with little investment unless you are intelligent enough to invent something incredibily useful. I am not that creative myself......wish I was, he he.

Do you honestly think we can't see what you're trying to do here?

You are trying to peak interest, debunk "myths" (or what I like to call facts) about pyramid schemes so that people will just have a look and get sucked in. Seriously do you think we are all that silly? Not trying to be rude, but I've seen how these things work and how people who get infected by these schemes operate and tell themselves they just want everyone else to be just as happy as they are. Which is complete and utter brainwashing rubbish.

So please lets forget the charade and be honest about what your intentions really are, because we can see through it all.

I've been burnt enough by people who want to be my friends or "help me" financially when eventually the charade wears off and you can see what they really want... to help themselves!

Yeh, I'm not convinced though. I've just met too many manic MLM people that can talk of nothing other than the 'business opportunity'. I've also met many with the same type of spiel - you buy the stuff for yourself each week anyway etc etc etc.

Its also not that easy to find entreprenurial people. Out of a team averaging 20, I could only ever say that 2 of them could be described that way. I had an excellent team, but most people need to be rallied and motivated, you will have to manage them. This takes time!

How are you planning to find your recruits?

The other thing...most of us want to be self employed to be able to choose the conditions in which we work. On one hand you can control things, but you are also at the mercy of THEIR conditions, pricing etc, or delivery fees, admin stuff.

They would want to give you a heck of alot of support, do they?

I'm in talks with them now of their website referal rules etc. I may have found something that makes recruiting a little harder. entreprenual thinkers are hard to find, I'm quite lucky tyres gave me a good business client database.

As for Niliac well your the boss. Power is in your hands. I dunno how can you say your not trying to be rude when your accusing me of sucking people in! If your unhappy about this thread then just remove it

Yes all franchises have rules whether they be online or physical. Its how many and how strict are they that counts I guess.

I agree with everything Lulu has said.
And I agree with Niliac in that the way you are giving us information is exactly how these MLM's target ppl. They are never upfront about who the company is. They just pester you about the "business opportunity" and "residual income" until you cave in and agree to a meeting.
The products are more expensive than in the shop. Why would I spend a whole lot more on products I use to earn a 3% bonus every month? I'd be better off buying the products from the shops and putting that difference that I save into a 5% interest savings account.

Not to mention all the training you have to pay for, plus the meetings where you have to contribute $5 here and there and the books and cds they "recommend" you buy each month to learn how to grow your "business".

Do they provide you with any leads?

I'm a SAHM with a bub under 1 and have been tracking the Working From Home threads as a guest for months now as, like a lot of parents, I want to remain at home to look after my baby but would love to be able to do something from home to help contribute to the household expenses.

As I understand it, this thread is supposed to be a place where mums and dads can support each other while exploring genuine work from home ideas and opportunities, NOT a place for phishing for potential recruits for MLM or pyramid schemes! And while you are walking a very fine line, workathomedad, thats exactly what you're doing. Your innocent act doesn't wash with me. Go back over this thread - how many times have you ingored pointed questions, supplying only the fluff that reeks of a sales pitch?

I don't know you, if this is a career path you intend to carve for yourself then I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the way you're using this thread and these boards to generate interest in your scam under the guise of a friendly 'what-do-you-think?' chat.

Niliac, please PLEASE delete this thread. This kind of phishing doesn't belong here. This whole approach leaves a sick feeling in my stomach. This is not the kind of 'support' that I as a mum need or can afford.

Oh settle down, we are all clever enough to work out what is right for us and what isn't.

ETA - the way I see it, there is a little bit of a fine line here, but surely the OP has a right to investigate what he thinks is a genuine opportunity just the way we all do. MLM is dressed up in 100 different forms and I think its a good idea to nut it all out and possibly expose the massive hole in the MLM plan, and the realities as opposed to the spiel.
The OP has in fact noted a problem or two on his own and not glossed over it

Op - I am waiting to here the answers to a few questions though!

just one big scam :rolleyes:

Workathomedad... if your intentions on this site are true.. then please explain to us why you have only come on this site to discuss this work at home idea? It just seems strange that you suddenly appear, on a site that is mostly full of mums, and, I dont know for sure, but, i imagine a vast majority of SAHM's. Can you explain yourself in that regards?

Sadly I will admit I have been following this thread for a laugh. Gotta love a roundabout sales pitch lol

I have been reading this and chuckling away to my self. I am not sure whether I will get into trouble for saying the Company name that I believe it to be "Amway" or one of the other 12 names it is known as here in Australia alone.

As someone else said earlier, it really makes me wonder why you have joined up as a member on this site. If I am infact correct about the company - perhaps Google it and you will see many many many sites about the company that give u a lot more information about all the things wrong with it and the amount of law suits that have been taken out against the company and its "Diamonds"

Mods, I am sorry if I have overstepped the mark and I am happy for my post to be deleted if it does breach our rules

I think rather than just coming in and saying its a crap scam, you should say WHY ok?

Op hasn't mentioned the company, and is asking us what we think or know. Heaps of people still get caught up in Nigerian Email fraud etc all the time. This thread could be valuable for lots of people.

See someone does well out of MLM, and I'm sure OP is probably thinking, "well why not me?". I'm pretty sure its another Amway branch too.......hey Amway has some pretty great products (well ok one or two!), but it does leave a trail of broken hearts and wallets.

I don't see the fact he is male should be an issue - we need more around here anyway.

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I don't see the fact he is male should be an issue - we need more around here anyway.

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i am not making a point that he is male, just that its strange that his only posts on a 'mostly female, sahm site' is about working from home.. and i am interested in his response to that.

I do agree, i have meet people that have done amazingly well out of MLM, and, if the guy had used the site for other purposes other then to discuss working from home, then, it wouldnt seem as strange. If you, or even I had of started this thread, or, many of the other regular users, it probably would of gone a completly different direction.

I think most people that you talk to have tried, or know someone that has tried a MLM type gig, and most people will tell you same story. I have tried 2, but, its not for me, i am not the pushy person that i need to be, in order to make it work.

To answer you question in the title of the post - just another scam.

If it smells like a dog, looks like a dog, sounds like a dog, , well, it's a dog. A dog that starts with 'A' :lol:

Do you really have a 2yo son? Because later on in your post you speak like one who has no children, saying you admire mums and dads raising the future generations.

Anyway, best of luck recruiting your 10-20 members.

And yep, in pyramid schemes, sorry MLM's, the only person that gets rich is the one at the very tip of the top.