Company Name: Melaleuca
Costs: Free?
Industry: Green Home & Personal Care Products
What Is It
Melaleuca is an MLM company that sells green home and personal care products. Before you argue with me to say itās not an MLM, please read the whole review.
Short Review
Melaleuca is a very secretive organization. Product prices not listed on the website, a full compensation plan is not linked, and they deny being an MLM company. Their customer representatives attitudes give the company a bad name.
There are many green product companies out there which have much more transparent policies, and are not associated with the negativity stereotypes of direct sales and MLM. That's why I prefer to promote products through affiliate marketing.
Product Breakdown
Honestly, thereās not a lot I can say about the products. I found just one on Amazon which got stellar reviews.
I was quite surprised to find a number of comments saying that they do not like MLM organizations, so were happy to find this particular product available on Amazon because the quality was so good. This is quite unusual!
I usually do some price comparison, but couldnāt find any information on how much Melaleucaās products actually cost. This is a very strange move on their part. For all the focus they claim to have on selling products and not recruiting, they sure seem to be paying much more attention to the business opportunity than the actual online store. As a consumer, I'd like to know how much these products cost so I can compare them with other brands. As a potential distributor, I'd like to know what I will be promoting…wouldn't you?
Actually, you can make money online selling green products from almost any brand, not just Malaleuca. Many companies from around the world offer what's called an “affiliate program”. It basically means that you are a freelance advertiser, and get paid on commission. All you need is a website, and you can promote multiple companies under one roof.
This is a great alternative to being an exclusive distributor for just one company because you can provide independent, unbiased reviews. You are not reliant on one company for earnings, and can diversify! Best of all, your earnings are not reliant on building a downline or how your ‘team' performs!
Opportunity Breakdown
Apparently, joining and selling for Melaleuca is free, however, Iāve seen in comments on other blogs that fees are charged in some countries. The intro video also says that we do no have to pay to pre-order items or have anything on autoship. That's great, and this is a real positive aspect of this company.
Still, I would not be surprised if those statements to do not show us the full picture of what weāre getting involved in. However without a full compensation plan to look at, we have to take Melaleuca at face value.
Here is a list of people that supposedly can benefit from this company.
- Stay at Home Moms
- Business Professionals
- People wanting a secure retirement
- People looking to get out of debt
- People who want total financial freedom
Personally, the only people I would ever recommend a company like this to would be the Stay at Home Moms. I think everyone else on that list is putting their time, money, or reputation on the line.
The reason is that it takes time and money to build a business. Moms have the time, business professionals don't. People looking to create a retirement are better off doing something more conservative with their money, and people in debt just don't have the money, even if you are just talking about having enough gas to go around town and sell products every day.
Denial of Being MLM
There seems to be some controversy as to whether or not Melaleuca is an MLM. Honestly, I donāt really understand how it could NOT be considered one. There are so many similarities, itās indistinguishable.
You get paid commissions several levels is the one that really defines it. You market products, and get paid on multiple levels.
Multi. Level. Marketing.
There are also many other similarities as explained in this video from an actual ATTORNEY that has tons of experience and knowledge about MLMs.
I will also add two of my own observations.
- You are paid bonuses when your recruits ālevel upā.
- Members have a cult-like mentality for defending the company
Iām not even kidding with number 2. It was shocking to see the level of rudeness and from Melaleuca members on ANY blog post or video that say anything negative about the company.
Product doesnāt work? Youāre using it wrong.
Company is MLM? You are an idiot.
Didnāt make money? Donāt blame us for your failure
Products not green enough? You have wrong information
You can see more cult members spouting their rhetoric on the full post from The MLM Attorney.
individual ripoff reports and scam complaints may reflect the individual distributor, not the company as whole. But being associated with this kind of company is a risk
Other Comments
This company has made it extremely difficult to find out any real information about the products they sell and how affiliates get paid. If a company cannot be straightforward about this stuff, thereās no reason to join.
It's very possible that you are familiar with how the system works, how people get paid, and everything that's involved in the business. But what about the average guy who just wants to buy some environmentally friendly mouth wash or start selling some stuff in his spare time? They're out of luck! Imagine if Amazon made it this difficult to buy stuff.
Selling ‘green' products could be a really interesting business venture, and if healthy living or protecting the planet is a passion of yours, you can definitely turn this into a profitable business. However, Malaleuca is not the company I would choose to work with based on their lack of transparency. You may not like my recommendation for affiliate marketing to build a business, so be sure and check out my list of all home and garden network marketing companies to prefer to stick with direct sales.
How To Turn Green Living Into A Business
If you love green products, thatās awesome. This is a very hot topic, and people are just getting greener every year.
By starting an independent website and linking to products, you can get paid for each one sold. The process is called affiliate marketing. No need to bug family and friends to buy your junk, and no need to sell you wares at networking parties. Create a real online business and find customers that share the same passion as yourself.
You can learn how the process works and start your first website with my help. I started a business 5 years ago promoting computer software, and now I work full time from home. My second business is this website, which teaches people how to start their own website about things they care about.
What's your favorite part about green living? Are you thinking of starting a business to help promote a healthy environment? Let us know in the comments!
Still Selling Junk To Your Friends?
What is this - the 1950's selling Tupperware? Gimme a break. It's 2019. If you want to build a business, you NEED to be online or your business will be dead in less than 10 years.
Plus, those MLM parties boring as hell, and you know it. Nobody wants to buy that overpriced junk. Sorry to be so straightforward, but I really want to see you succeed.
You can start an affiliate website, you can promote ANY products you want from ANY company, so why are you selling such a limited range of products? Affiliate commissions range from 5% to 75%, and include Amazon products, digital products, and recurring services.
Last year I generated multiple six figures with my affiliate sites, and I can show you how to make them using the same templates. You get to promte whatever you want of course, and YOU keep all the profits (no upline!).
MLM Critic & Author: Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. I have to be honest with you. MLM sucks. I've tried it. The fees. The recruiting. The parties. The cold calling. Bleh.
Affiliate marketing is cheaper, faster, and easier for someone with no experience creating a business. See for yourself and join millions of other successful affiliate generating income from their websites!
No inventory. No fees. No recruiting. 3 BILLION potential customers online.
It’s ironic that you are bashing Melaleuca to promote your business. Melaleuca fits more into the Affiliate Marketing model than the MLM model. Both Melaleuca and Wealth Affiliates pay you to refer people to join your team. That’s called “building your business”. Melaleuca does not hide any information. You can Google their catalogs, pricing (internationally) and compensation plan. The only astronomical prices I’ve seen are people who purchase Melaleuca as a member, then turn around and sell on ebay or Amazon. Those of us who are passionate about Melaleuca have not been brainwashed. We have simply replaced the products in our homes to protect our family with plant-based, eco-friendly versions of the same types of products we’ve purchased month after month at retail stores. The choice was a no-brainer when we realized that the store brands we grew up using had so many toxins, chemicals, and preservatives in them. We are sharing with others the ability to get non-toxic, safe and healthy versions of the same products at wholesale pricing (instead of astronomically inflated prices from organic labels or from Amazon). There really is no cost of doing business when you look at the savings that Melaleuca offers on everyday shopping for a higher quality of products from their store plus additional savings when you purchase online at 670+ retail stores and services (including health care savings). When I last looked at Wealth Affiliates, they only offered basic services and everything else was an upsell. With Melaleuca, any customer has the option to build a business with free tools and training. Out of pocket cost? $19 annual membership + minimum purchase requirements (which for most people is less than what they previously spent on their shopping budget).
According to the BBB, Melaleuca is not an MLM, as they don’t require people to purchase product to then resell – i.e. you don’t need to make an initial investment in inventory. BBB’s about the only place that gives an actual definition, though. And yes, you do still need to make an initial investment in purchases, but the amount that you can then make off of other people is not dependent on how much you buy.
For example, you can get in for one of those $1 premium membership fees they do, and then purchase the absolute minimum amount of product to retain premium membership and avoid autoship. So long as you’re qualified, you make money – as opposed to other MLMs where you have to purchase product *to sell*, as in, you need to have your own inventory, turning you into a retail store.
I’d still stay the hell away from it, though. The commission and bonus pay is ugly, the tiered level marketing is gross, the stress it puts people under is similar to any other MLM, and the products aren’t worth it when you’re a regular (non-paying, not-premium) customer. The cleaning products, at least, aren’t green in the slightest.
Tl;dr, I still think Melaleuca is an awful company and functions on immoral sales principles, despite everything they say they do to support morality. However, it is most certainly not an MLM by all official definitions of the word. It can still be awful without being an MLM, guys.
Watched my mom get suckered into this shit and I’m still worried about how much she’s spending. But no, it’s a good Christian company…
The only part of this article that rings false to me is the part where you say that stay at home moms “have time ” to run a time intensive business. This absolutely cracked me up and shows that you have NO CLUE how much work raising children is. It’s far more time intensive than any other full time job I’ve ever had. Just thought I’d let you know that it’s not only false, but offensive.
Haha. Man, moms have such a hard time with this statement. “Don’t ANYONE DARE THINK I HAVE TIME”.
There’s a difference between being and a place where you literally cannot leave or your’ll be fired, versus taking care of kids at home where you have SOME freedom. Oh, and what about when the kids are in school?
WHY DO YOU THINK NETWORK MARKETING IS TARGETED AT WOMEN?!?!?!?!??!??!? (70% or more, in fact)
Come on, this is so frustrating to explain over and over again. You can take your kid to a “party”, or have a couple friends over while they’re at school. You cannot leave a job or sell MLM at “the office”.
I been a customer with melaleuca 8 yrs and I highly recommend it . It’s a incredible company.
Old thread, but I’m new to Melaleuca…and it’s making me crazy that they and MANY of their reps say it’s not MLMā¦crazy. (Iāll end up sounding like a brainwashed zombie one way or another!)
I do purchase Melaleuca as a customer and I have just signed up for the business (I actually love the products and it lines up with my mission to improve my own health as well as lining up with another non MLM related business venture I am pursuing, as well as affiliate marketing, amazon being my first thought, so Iāll keep this site in my bookmarks)ā¦and Melaleuca IS MLM. There are people below people and the people above are compensated based on the people below them. And they do the āmarketingā for the company. Iām not sure what people donāt understand about that.
Now, for them to say they are not like other MLMās is fineā¦subjective, seems possibly true, but fine. As someone else said belowā¦just own it! āWe are the best MLM company out thereā.
IMO the biggest battle that MLMās have is the fact that they use people to do the āmarketingā who do not have the skills or experience in sales & marketing ā and the friends and family approach is a poor model to break away from that reputation (but I also understand that if people werenāt using that approach then the company might as well have a traditional sales and marketing structure, which also includes mass production, warehousing, distribution, shelf space, etc. All of these things cost money and end up covered in the purchase price ā a for profit company is not going to eat these costs, people!). I appreciate that some companies do allow their ācustomersā to also profit, it gives many people who may not be able/want to be in the workforce another option.
I think one of the biggest things with Melaleuca in particular is that itās cloaked in some secrecy ā some of it under āproprietary ingredient/blend/scienceā and some of it to help not āburn the fieldsā ā but many of their policies around these things do make sense.
Overall I think their products are a quality, healthier option and while I will stay within their policies for marketing Iām not targeting my friends and family from a list of 100ā¦or even 10. There are ways to have people come to you who want what you are selling vs. hounding people to āsign upā. That IMO is the difference.
All of the product reviews and the compensation plan are clearly available on the Melaleuca website. I wish people would get their facts straight before doing articles like this. Its obvious your only trying to promote your own Affiliate program.
Maybe they are now, but they were not when I wrote this review.
Iām in a different MLM and yes, Melaleuca is absolutely an MLM even though they call it a shopping club. Honestly I have seen people who recently became reps for them become very deceptive and that I donāt like. I love MLM, itās changed my life, but I work with integrity. I donāt see a reason to lie and say things ānope itās not an MLMā and āIām not selling anything.ā
Lots of people love MLM. I don’t, but many people do. Exactly as you say – why not just own it?