Melaleuca is an MLM company that sells green home and personal care products. The products are not bad, and I’ve used them before! However, the company and its advocates have a weird obsession about not wanting to be called an MLM.
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In my opinion, it definitely is a multi-level marketing company, but before you fire up your keyboard for the comment section please read my whole Melaleuca review to see why I’m saying, “Yeah, it’s actually MLM guys.”
The main reason people say it’s not an MLM is because you “don’t sell products”. What they don’t understand, is that the membership you sell is the product.
Melaleuca 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 independent business 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 affiliate products instead.
What Are Melaleuca Products?
Melaleuca sells natural and eco-friendly cleaning, skincare, and health products. They have a wide range of products, including:
- shower cleaner
- tooth paste
- furniture polish
- laundry stain remover
- tea tree oil
- shampoo
- lip balm
- vitamins
- fiber
- tub & tile cleaner
- …many more!
You can purchase Melaleuca products on Amazon (not affiliate link) from their Amazon store. I’d love to show you some of these products, but Melaleuca has attempted to take down this page multiple times with copyright claims, so I won’t be able to show you their products.
According to their website, they have over 400 products, but you can’t actually read about the products on their website.
Join The Melaleuca Shopping Club Instead!
What is featured very prominently on their website is that you should become a member of the shopping club. The only problem is, you can only become a member if someone refers you to the company.
Thank you for your interest in Melaleuca. Every Melaleuca Member is referred by another member. To learn how you can become a Melaleuca Preferred Member, contact the person who referred you to this site.
In other words, you cannot join unless you have a sponsor, referrer, team leader, whatever you want to call it.
I find it strange that they claim to focus on the products (not recruiting), yet at the same time, they seem to be paying much more attention to the team building aspect, just like MLM companies! As a potential customer, I’d like to know whats inside the products and how much they cost! How can I compare them with other brands?
How Does Melaleuca Work?
Since you can just purchase Melaleuca products on Amazon or Ebay, if you’re wondering how Melaleuca works, you’re probably wondering about the business building aspect. In other words, how do you make money with Melaleuca?
There are some details about how to earn money with Melaleuca on their income statistics disclosure. However, the stats haven’t been updated since 2018, so it’s unclear if they are still accurate.
Typical of multi-level marketing companies, there are many “levels” of selling Melaleuca products.
- Product Advocates
- Business Builder (Director 1-2)
- Director 3-9
- Senior Director
- Executive Director
- National Director
- Corporate Director
As a product advocate, you are simply selling a couple products to people you know. As a business builder, you are still just selling products, but doing it more seriously.
Once you get into Director level 3+, the multi-level aspect kicks in. You will be required to recruit team leaders who will then have their own teams which operate under your team.
Those who have reached these leadership statuses have not only invested enough time to refer several customers, but they have also helped some of those customers start a business and become Marketing Executives. Those Marketing Executives have, in turn, referred additional customers who purchase Melaleuca products each month.
How Much Money Can You Make With Melaleuca?
According to their income disclosure from 2018, Directors level 1-2 earn an average of about $2,000 per year with 8 customers. As far as I understand it, that means, to add $160 to your monthly household income, you’d need to be selling Melaleuca products to eight people.
However, the average earnings of a company might not give you the entire picture of what’s going on. Median income is much more revealing, but they don’t tell us that.
Why use median income instead of average income?
The classic example is that there are ten people in a room who each earn $1 per day. Bill Gates walks in, and he earns $1,000,000 per day. The average income of the group jumps to $91,000. The median is still $1.
Regardless, it does appear that you can make up to $39,987 (according to their report) as a Director level 1 or 2, without any recruiting at all. They do not say how many customers you’d need to achieve that kind of income, but they do say it’s done with 8-16 Personal Customers, and 8-75 Active Customers. They don’t tell us the difference between Active and Personal customers, so there may be some kind of auto-ship involved there, but that’s just a guess.
Is Melaleuca An MLM?
There seems to be some controversy as to whether or not Melaleuca is an MLM. Honestly, I don’t really understand how it could not be considered one. There are so many similarities, it’s indistinguishable.
You get paid commissions based on recruiting people who want to build their teams, and so on. 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.
Note: They are also part of the DSA (along with Amway and other network marketing companies)! The DSA is an organization that many network marketing companies rely on to (often unsuccessfully) distance themselves from pyramid schemes.
Though people use different terms, and like to be pedantic about the differences, as far as I’m concerned, direct sales, network marketing, and multi-level marketing are all the same thing. Pyramid schemes are a little different, in that they are strictly defined as “having no product”, but there are plenty of similarities, which is why MLM companies often get accused of being pyramids schemes.
Even big, well-know MLMs like herbalife and Mary Kay are regularly accused of this.
The idea that Melaleuca is not an MLM seems to be rooted in how the products are sold. Apparently, you pay to join the Shopping Club, but do not purchase products from the person who invited you. You purchase from the manufacturer. In other words, you are paying to be part of a club, like Costco. This was the same pitch from Wake Up Now, which is a now defunct MLM company.
My response to this is:
- I can go to Costco and become a member any time I want without a referral.
- Nobody is paid to recruit for Costco memberships
- If I think Costco is a scam, there’s no army of Costco advocates who get pissed off at me
I’m not even kidding with number 3. 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. Full post from The MLM Attorney, with comments included!
- Product doesn’t work? You’re using it wrong.
- Company is MLM? You are an idiot.
- Didn’t make money? Don’t blame us for your failure
- Products not green enough? You have wrong information
A sure sign that Melaleuca is an MLM is that the members are rabid advocates, and have almost a cult-like mentality, where they just can’t let it go.
Melaleuca published a little PDF called Here’s Where We Draw The Line. In my opinion, they conflate. a few different concepts. They emphasize that customers are not required to “invest” (With Melaleuca there is no “investment.” ), but what they fail to distinguish is that buying the products is not part of the money making aspect of the company. The folks who make the money are the ones selling the membership.
Sure, you can purchase products without being a distributor yourself. That part I completely understand. But the top sellers and income earners of the company are managing teams of people who are also selling memberships. The MLM aspect isn’t about the products, it’s about the memberships they’re selling and the downline building you must do to be successful.
Melaleuca Reviews
Melaleuca reviews are all over the place. Some are amazing, some are terrible. They currently have an A+ rating with the BBB, but they also have a lot list of complaints.
Some people love it, some people hate it. Whether or not you choose to join the company will depend on your goals. If you would like to be able to purchase green cleaning and health products as part of a membership club, then this could be a good company to join.
If you would like to earn money, then this is not a company that I would personally recommend.
How To Turn Green Living Into An Online Business
Melaleuca Review
Products
Business Opportunity
Final Review
If you love green products and want to live an eco-friendly, healthy lifestyle, that’s awesome. If you want to share that passion with other people and make money doing it, you can definitely do that.
Personally, I think you'd be better off starting an online business so that you can reach millions of people, instead of just your local friends and family.
By starting an independent website and linking to products, you can get paid for each one sold. Publish reviews of the products you love, and get paid to help people live green and healthy! You can recommend products from Target, Walmart, and many small companies that have affiliate programs. In fact, you could even recommend Melaleuca products which are sold on Amazon.com.
This strategy makes much more sense long term because you'll have full control over your website, instead of being locked in as a member of a single company, and limiting yourself to what type of products or services you can promote.
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 though. I'm not a big fan of MLM. Tried it. Hated it.
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Anonymous
I’m currently a preferred member at Melaleuca and I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve just joined and I’ve yet to develop the cult like mentality I’ve seen with some members, but I do agree it is MLM. Although it isn’t something you can touch, see, feel, “have a pile of them in your car,” the membership is indeed the product. This is the second time I join an MLM, though this time I joined because I just find it more convenient to buy all of my essentials from the same place and the pocket money is nice.
MLM never seemed to work for me. The first MLM company I joined, I joined when I was homeless. They reeled me in with the promise of all these wonderful gifts and trips, a “family” who would be there every step of the way, and most importantly, financial stability. I worked so hard, I began to lose weight at a faster rate than before, my mental health deteriorated, and the relationships I had left became strained. Long story short, it didn’t work out and I was left with a handful of money, burned bridges, but I at least had a kit of their product, which I only had to pay half price for. How generous, am I right?
Melaleuca is MLM, the only difference between this company and the others is that you can’t touch what you’re selling, therefore you feel as though you’re not selling anything at all, just referring someone to a company you like. Melaleuca makes you feel as though you’re family now that you’re a part of their company and that by shopping with them and referring other people, you’re doing good. Their videos are strategic, especially the one of the CEO. For those of you who know what I’m talking about and who swear by the company, if I say anything negative about that video, I bet you’d be ready to jump down my throat and that was the point. To make you more loyal than you already were, but I won’t get into all of the manipulation involved when it comes to most MLM, or at least the ones that I’ve seen.
On another note, I am glad I came across your article. I’ve wanted to get into affiliate sales, but wasn’t sure what to do, but the way you’ve explained in thus far, it is understandable and broken down clearly. I appreciate you for making this information public so that other’s are able to start in affiliate sales if they chose to.
I wish you well and many more successful years to come. I hope things only get better from now on and you and your family stay safe and healthy during these trying times.
Nathaniell
“Melaleuca is MLM, the only difference between this company and the others is that you can’t touch what you’re selling, therefore you feel as though you’re not selling anything at all”.
Exactly what I’ve been saying.
Jim Ellis
I appreciate the fact that you aren’t rude in your non recommendation of Melaleuca. Thank you for that.
I must respectfully submit however that you have so many things wrong here about Melaleuca as a company. First and foremost that to be MLM you have to have a product to market. Sure, you can call the membership that “product.” But you won’t see a pile of memberships in the trunk of my car or in my garage. That’s the definition of an MLM.
Even the government doesn’t classify Melaleuca as an MLM. But please, go ahead and tell the world we’re wrong. (Forgive the sarcasm)
Second, you talk about Melaleuca products being sold on Amazon. I’ve never researched that but I know it cannot be sanctioned by the company, which means it’s against policy and, with the nature of business, has to cost more buying direct so they can make their money back. Why would anyone support that?
And why would I want to start an affiliate marketing SCHEME that I have to do all the leg work for… when for a very small ($20ish) yearly fee I can have an entire team of people working for me at the home office putting together everything I need to build a business?
Melaleuca is about people helping people. Yes, those people tend to get testy when they accused of being a scam. Wouldn’t you?
I admit it’s not for everyone. Though it can be done by anyone. And it never has to be limited to my local friends and family.
There’s more… but I’ll “let it go.”
Again, thanks for your respectfulness. I hope I’ve been respectful in your eyes as well.
Keep up the good work.
Nathaniell
The product is the membership. That’s the pyramid part. You are making money from levels by recruting other MLM sellers. You’re not selling the cleaning products, but you are selling SOMETHING. That something is the PRODUCT.
I don’t know how else to explain it. Just because you can’t touch a membership doesn’t mean it’s not a product.
Melaleuca is also part of the DSA. Same as other MLM companies like Mary Kay (MLM), and Herbalife (MLM).
You also misunderstand affiliate marketing. You do not have to “start” an affiliate scheme (program). You JOIN the program and promote the products. Maybe semantics here, but starting an affiliate program would mean that you actually help a company recruit affiliates. That’s not what I”m suggesting. What I’m suggesting is to become an affiliate of multiple companies who already have established affiliate programs. You build a website, promote the products you want.
John
Definitely not MLM,
Nathaniell
Haha. OK
Jim Ellis
IKR?
Jessica Hinnen
Reviews are just opinions and not factual information. Here is the legal analysis and what the experts say about Melaleuca The Wellness Company. http://cdnus.melaleuca.com/PDF/BusinessCenter/enus/drawing-the-line-enus.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1eR9IDfzoLHpAA82cQkNJplS7NE4_J7R4YfahZOkXBYzrMGxJ2oQMBtZk
Nathaniell
So Melaleuca puts out a study of itself and I’m supposed to trust that?
What the geniuses at Melaleuca forget is that “product” doesn’t have to mean a thing you can touch. What do Melaleuca reps sell…. a membership. The membership is the product!
Mary Vogt
Thank you, Jessica Hinnen for that link. Nathaniel really hasn’t done his homework regarding Melaleuca; so much of what he wrote is incorrect. I‘ve been a customer for 18 years and have referred a number of others to try the Melaleuca wellness products. The retention rate for those I referred is over 96% month to month because the products and the value of those products is great! There’s never been any issue if someone I referred decides not to continue their account and my experience with customer service has been exemplary.
Julian
Not my experience with Melaleuca at all. I got to compare prices and had no cult like behaviour from anyone. Affiliate marketing has its issues too right? What are you “selling?” Your blog post sounds rather cynical and now we have COVID-19 it seems like companies like this are more relevant. You don’t have to buy inventory and resell in Melaleuca so it doesn’t have the same MLM smell to me. I’m very happy with them
Marie White
Hi Julian, I don’t understand why these websites exist bashing every company they can conjure up? I’ve just re-enrolled as a preferred member with Melaleuca on March 1st! Was a prior happy preferred customer back in 2002. Right now I’m weighing my options of whether or not to become a marketing executive? Alot of these sights go into explicit details about how much expences or ‘start-up-costs’ etc. are involved that ‘aren’t disclosed’ that are unaccounted for to determine the majority of incomes.. but I pd $1.00 for my annual membership due? Then, I placed a 35 point order within 2 days of my re-enrollment. my order cost >$81.00 and I earned $20.00 Loyalty Dollars & spent $18.00 & received a FREE Sei Bella Make-Up Finishing Spray (Limited-Time product.) I was told should I decided to market Melaleuca that I can “designate” for my very first member to be my “personal production customer”. It is optional. If I choose not to, I can continue my membership & have agreed to order a minimum of 35 points worth of products per month. Over the course of 5 months, I can earn up to $100 in FREE Loyalty Dollars purchases. Then, in month 5, I can earn 15% LD if order placed by te 20th or $10 LD by EOM to use as credits towards future purchases. BUT I DO NOT HAVE TO ORDER ANYTHING AT ALL IF I SIMPLY WANT TO MARKET MELALUECA GOING FORWARD should I elect a “personal production customer”. Once I get a customer who WANTS to order going forward, I can have THEIR ORDERS count for mine! This is especially good for me because I want to try the marketing plan until I get into profit-mode & from there earn enough commissions that can afford me to purchased the products for myself! I don’t know of any other company that doesn’t require any inventory & offers a sweet option like Melaleuca? Sounds like a WIN-WIN to me?
Christine Fender
You are so wrong!!! Buy from the products Amazon or other places and pay 4 times what they actually cost. And we do not sell any products. NONE!!
I PAY $9 A YEAR MEMBERSHIP!
Cotsco has nothing close to products of Melaleuca Wellness.
Been in business since 1985 and retain 96% of their customers simply because they keep coming back for the products. I should know.
You want to make money? Like everything else you get out what you put in. But i assure you it is not an MLM.