I know it is possible to make money through some of these methods. Heck, there is a gal who lives a block away who is a top Mary Kay salesperson.

I don’t think that it is impossible by any means, but they are the type of things that you have to get in on early.

I don’t know if you have seen those free ipod promotions or not. For the first people to sign up it is a great deal. But soon the market gets saturated everyone is at a serious disadvantage do to competition.

Not that I am saying that you are too low in the juice food chain to actually make money, but it can be rough. I wouldn’t be involved in it, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t work.

I also think it’s naive to make such generalized judgments about an industry without first looking at the compensation plans for Xango, Mary Kay, and other companies. Only after you have educated yourselves will you be able to have an educated opinion. Anyone who just jumps to conclusions is making stereotypes about something they don’t know anything about.

To Alex:

Excellent question. As with any business, it takes TIME to build a MLM business and the stereotype that only people high up in the company earn money isn’t true. It’s just that they are earning commissions on a larger number of cases of Xango because they have been in the company longer and have had more time to build their organization.

Xango pays its distributors on nine levels. Anyone who sells a case of Xango earns commission regardless of how high they are in the MLM hierarchy. You start out as a Member, similar to joining a wholesale club like Costco. Then, as you get more people to sign up to sell the product under you (everyone sells the product for the same amount of $) you earn commission on their sales as well. So eventually you can earn 10% of a bottle of Xango that was sold by someone who just started out. But the person who just started out will ALSO earn 10%. The growth is exponential.

Does that answer your question?

My MLM company is not taking advantage of me and here is why:

There is a difference between MLM and pyramid schemes. Pyramid schemes are illegal and MLM is not. The Federal Trade Commission lists MLM as a legal business. It does not list Pyramid schemes. What Todd described is an illegal scenario and unfortunately it happens all the time.

Also, Xango distributors, just like Mary Kay for instance, only earn commissions based on the sales of the product itself and our product is not overpriced when you consider that it is a health supplement and most vitamins at Whole Foods cost as much as my product. Each Xango distributor has an equal opportunity to rise to the top as long as he/she is good at selling. However, in pyramid schemes, Todd is right-only a few people rise to the top.

Also, Xango only sells one product. We don’t sell “lemonade” and also sell brochures on how to make more “lemonade.” We have one product which has been scientifcally proven to help people and I know enough people it has significantly helped to justify selling it.

I think conversations like this are fun! I respect Todd’s and Katie’s points of view and hope they respect mine! I’m curious to see what our readers have to say.

Just wait until I am rolling in the money… then you’ll see! :)

To Danielle who is worried that I feel she’s taking advantage of her customers… I think your MLM company is taking advantage of YOU, Danielle.