What is Visalus? – My Review
Company: Visalus
Website: www.vi.com
Rating: 6/10
Visalus is an mlm company that promotes weight loss products. The products range from weight loss shakes, breakfast cereals, energy drinks, snacks and supplements. They also have a compensation plan that will allow you to make money through selling their products in an mlm fashion. I have reviewed several mlm’s in my life and I can tell that Visalus is one of the better companies.
Is Visalus a Scam?
Before I start with my statement, I would just like to clarify that I am not affiliated with this company because I am not a big fan of mlm. I tried to do it a couple of times, but trying to recruit people into becoming part of my downline is not my style.
In short Vicalus is not a scam. Their products are legit and so is their compensation plan. Most people will think that the company is a pyramid scheme because of their compensation plan. The difference between an mlm and a pyramid scheme is that an mlm has physical products to sell, while a pyramid has none.
The compensation plan
1) Customer Sales commission
If you promote their products, you will earn from 0% up to 25% commissions. The reason why I say that you start with 0% is that you need to sell at least $200 worth of product or bonus volume before you can qualify to be an Associate. Your bonus volume will add up in a cumulative fashion and your commission rate will increase as your sales or BV increases.
2) Build your own group
This is always the most confusing part of any mlm. There will always be a long list of levels that you have to reach in order to make more money within a group. You only need to be an active promoter that builds a down line in order to get paid.
Remember that you have different levels within your referral tree and that your referrals can also get their own referrals into the program. As an Associate you can only earn 5% from your first level of commissions from the sales that your referrals make and 5% from your second lines sales.
You can only earn commissions from 2 levels as an Associate, but you can earn more if you reach the level of director. As a Director you can earn 5% commissions from all the sales made 4 levels deep, but your team needs to be at least 3 active lines and your group needs to at least make $2000 in sales.
The level of Regional Director comes right after Director. As a Regional Director you will earn a commission from sales made from referrals 6 levels deep. To qualify for this level, you need to have at least 3 active legs, your group needs to make at least $12 500 commissions per month and no more 60% from the sales should come from 1 line.
More levels
Now there are 11 higher levels that you can reach where you can earn up to 8 levels deep once reach the level of Ambassador. For more information on the other levels and more ways to make money you can check out their full compensation plan.
Do I recommend MLM?
I have tried it before and I stopped it because I did not make a lot of money with it. This reason for this was not that I did not work hard or could not enroll any people, but that I had to spend more time teaching my referrals how to get their own referrals.
This made me dependent upon them to make money. Surely I could go out and create a website about something and get referrals, but that is not to say that my referrals can do the same. So in order to make good money with mlm, you need to have a system created that will teach them how to promote “The Challenge”.
Another flaw of mlm is that you are only limited to 1 niche. A Niche is a group of people that has the same interest. In this case you can only target people that wants to lose weight or who wants to earn money. These 2 are 2 of the biggest and also the hardest niches to make money from because of all the competition that you need to face.
If the weightloss is not your passion, then you will not come far with this company. I like the products of this mlm, but otherwise I do not recommend trying to make money with mlm. In the end it will only be the people on top that will be the fat cats.
A Much better way to make money online
This method is one of the most flexible and easiest ways to build yourself a decent income for yourself and this method is called affiliate marketing. You also promote other people’s products to earn a commission and the sky is the limit to what products you want to promote.
There are millions of products that you can promote and all that you have to do is to join affiliate companies such as Amazon or Clickbank (These 2 are only the tip of the iceberg) and build a website around a niche to promote their products.
There is also no limit to the size or the amount of websites that you can build, which will result in an unlimited amount of passive income.
Learn how to build your own passive earning website the easy way!!
Hi there,
Forewarned is foretold as they say! But this one appears to be legit.
I am not a fan of MLM myself, even though the business model of MLM is recommended by Harvard Business School, Personally network marketing is just not for me.
Affiliate marketing yes, network no, simply I like to work alone and not to have to do skype team meetings, motivate team members, help or train them.
It really depend on what type of person you are. I like to write and let my websites do the work for me. I am not a great sales person in front of people that can sell sand in the desert but I do not need to be.
If you can provide the right information to people then you will love affiliate marketing.
Hi, Viljoen, again!
I got one more your article for review)
Nice that you start your article with statement that you are not affiliated by vi but you share your experience with them in the past. Good that you propose the alternative method to get money online.
Good job, again, Viljoen!
Keep going this direction!
Sincerely,
Zhanna
I am not a big fan of mlm but Visalus is not that bad. I do not think that I will ever try mlm again after I discovered affiliate marketing. You simply cannot compare the 2.
Good article Viljoen, and I agree with your analysis of Visalus on many points! This is highly subjective, but to say it kindly, mlm is not for me. I mean, if you want to work for someone, or a company who’s product you believe in, all well and good, someone’s gotta do it. The thing is, I think that most people seeking passive incomes are aspiring entrepreneurs. They really want to be their own bosses. This group includes me. Mlm is not a road to financial independence, it’s just another way of working for someone else! Now for those who wish to, that’s great, but my advice would then be to seek a boss who pays well. According to your information, and my experience with mlm, you may not get paid at all! If you work for a local fast food joint, your security would be greater. Sure, you probably will never each the highs of mlm, but you know you’ll be paid for your hard work, or you can take it to court. There are no comfortable guarantees here. Your endorsement of Wealthy Affiliate is so correct. With Wealthy Affiliate, you will be instructed on how to form your own online business. Success will be your responsibility, but you are supplied with the knowledge and tools to succeed! Affiliate marketing is just by far a better idea for those who wish to take responsibility for their own lives, and achieve the success they deserve.
I agree with you Sam
When you partake in mlm then you are making other people rich and there is really no guarantee because it does not matter if you put in large amount of effort because you are so dependent on your team to grow your business.
Thanks for your insightful comment 🙂
Thanks for this interesting article. MLM compensation plans have always confused me. They are always slightly different in all the programs I have looked at, and I can’t see the wood for the trees sometimes.
Why is it that most MLMs are in the health food, weight loss niche do you think?
The health and food niche is a very large niche where there is a lot of demand. It is also a very competitive niche and if an mlm company does not have a great and unique product, then it will be very hard for you to sell it to any customers.
Hi Viljoen, Actually I never wanted to be a part of multi level marketing but the way you put light on each and every aspect of Visalus on your post, it really sounds cool and I think, I can think about this option in my future as a secondary income. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Sangeeta
I always like to dissect an mlm company to the bone. You will be surprised at what you can pick up while investigating a company. Some mlm’s are good while others are just hopeless.
Good review of another mlm program. Like you I’m not a big fan of mlm type of business. MLMs require from you specific skill such as direct selling. Not everyone can be a good sales person. I agree with you verdict that Visalus is not a scam. Many people try to call every mlm program a scam which is wrong in my opinion. But I checked their website and it looks like it’s no longer functioning. I think Visalus is by far not the best company to join and it would better to look for some other more reliable program.
Thanks for this review man.
I am not a big fan of MLM either if I am honest. This model only favors those people at the top, who may yet have the resources upfront to get this thing going.
There’s not really any progress or significant profit in the long term if you ask me.
I have seen many MLM companies being shut down and this is not anything new. so yes I have to agree that most of them cannot be considered a long term profit.