Is Melaleuca A Scam? The Truth [Revealed!]

You have probably heard of this company and opportunity many times as they are one of the longest running network marketing businesses alongside Herbalife and Amway. 

The company Melaleuca has around 850 employees and generates over $1.7 Bn a year in revenue. Rather smartly  the unique sounding name "Melaleuca" comes from a genre of tea trees!. 

The market that they operate in is health, wellness, nutrition and personal care with a very extensive range of over 400 products. The unique selling point of the business is being clean and green, protecting the environment and being environmentally friendly. 

If you are the kind of person that is environmentally conscious and fully aware of protecting our world for future generations then I do think that you will like their products. 

The very fact that we are talking about a near 2Bn USD a year business is proof of the success of the company and its longevity - been in operation since 1985!.

However having so many products some 400+ does have a slight downside - some (like me) are a little over whelmed and just unsure of what product is idea for me. This is actually where a distributor would be very helpful and I do mean helpful and not salesy/pushy.

The problem with most MLM distributors - they frighten off potential prospects by thinking first of their needs and their pockets and not the clients needs. 

Melaleuca does provide a home based business opportunity for you and with a lucrative compensation plan but sadly very few people succeed in any MLM opportunity (and not just Melaleuca). 

The sad truth - an MLM opportunity is easy to join but difficult to make a living from. 

It is, as I like to joke, the religion of MLM's to make compensation plans complicated and difficult to understand. Melaleuca is no different. I have studied quite a few - a couple of hundred in fact, compensation plans and still found this one complicated to follow. 

Do bare with me as I give you a basic overview of how the Melaleuca compensation plan works.

3 way of you to earn a living with this company:

• Retail sale of products: This earns you a 7% commission of the sales amount. Given that you buy the products at a 30%-40% thus in reality your profit margin is 37% to 47% for each item sold. 

• Recruitment: Bringing others into your downlines and earning a commission on you downlines sales. With Melaleuca you don't make money enrolling others - you earn from their sales (this is a really good thing!). 

• Bonuses: You earn money for mentoring bonuses, advancement bonuses, leadership and so on. 

There is nothing strange or untoward here, these are very straight forward and common ways of being compensated plus I really do like that fact that as a distributor you DO NOT get paid for recruit others, but to earn a percentage of what they sell. 

This is actually very good, it ensures that products and moving, getting sold, money changing hands in exchange for goods - good old fashioned business and capitalism.

When you earn for recruiting others (which I don't like to see in a MLM) people focus more on that than the sale of products and end up chasing their own tails with no actual products getting sold, which is pretty bad for the business and it WILL eventually collapse! (hey - zero products getting sold!). 

It is this latter compensation model (paying to recruit) that resembles a Pyramid Scheme.

In all essence the amount of money that you can make with Melaleuca can be determined by a few key factors - namely: 

• The size of your downline and the number of customer that you have. 
• How much your customers and your downline customers buy each month. 
• Your ability to build and maintain a downline that know how to generate sales.

The following video explains the Melaleuca compensation plan very well. 

When you are interested in any business - be it part time run from home or an online business or full on your own bricks and mortar business in the traditional sense you have to ask yourself if you fully believe in the products or service that you are selling. 

The second question is are you passionate about the product or service?. Thirdly, have you benefited from the product or service?.

If you answer no to any of those questions you are going to face an uphill battle to get sales - the life blood of all businesses. 

Imagine trying to convince someone to try a service or buy a product that you don't fully believe in or are passionate about yourself? 

If you are only in "a business" (any business) for the financial aspect you WILL end up flat on your face eventually!

If you do fully believe in Melaleuca and their products, are passionate about them and you have benefited from their products then sure go right ahead and join their business opportunity. 

Keep in mind two key Caveats. 

• Join the right team. Don't just join under anyone - pre-select, screen and interview a few times several "prospects" and contact their team members and find out how they have benefited NOT from Melaleuca but from your potential "sponsors" help and training. You want the one that you feel will help you best to both get sales, recruit and get your recruits to sell. 

• The Google Medic Update!. This is HUGE!. The google medic update of August 2018 has smashed to smithereens the possibility of any non-health professional (read: Doctor) of ranking well in search engines for anything health related. Even new Doctors or ones with little established background in the digital world will find it difficult to rank organically in search engines. 

In addition the last point I fully believe that social media (and YouTube) will follow suit and start cutting the reach of those that are non-professionals and in in the health field. 

It is not in their (or Google's) best interest that their users are getting potentially harmful or incorrect advice (even dangerous advice) by means of their sites/service. 

You also have to keep in mind the legal aspect of complying with FDA regulations of what you can and can't say in regards to certain products. Have a look at Dr Axe site (he got hit badly by the Medic update - He is not a certified MD but a Dr of Natural medicine) see the language used. 

You can't just write anything you feel like in regards to what a product in the health and wellness field may be able to do - unless you want the attention of the FDA!. 

This said, I do believe that it is possible for you to make money with Melaleuca, Just not a lot of it. If you look at that chart above, the income stats of Melaleuca members you find that on average a business owner earns $2093/years. 

Not much at all. So, yes, you can make money with Melaleuca but it is not very likely that you will earn a full time income. 

No!. 

Melaleuca is NOT Accredited by the Better Business Bureau, they do however enjoy an A+ rating. 

The Pros

What I liked about Melaleuca:

• Perfect A+ rating with the BBB.
• Established business since 1985!.  
• Their products are well reviewed and liked by verified users and buyers. 
• Not expensive to join.

The Cons

What I Did not like about Melaleuca:

• Far Too Many Products! 400+ is too much a for MLM opportunity. No specialisation at all. Too much for distributors to learn about. 

• Not easy to cancel with Melaleuca. Lot of admin and paper work to do, printout and send off. Very easy to join and take your money but not when it comes down to the opposite. It's they want it and ant to keep it! 

• The Company founder is a bit misleading!. A spade is a spade and not "an implement for excavatory purposes". Melaleuca is an MLM opportunity and not Direct selling as claimed by the company founder Frank L. Vandersloot

• Saldy most people fail to make a significant income with Melaleuca

Yes, 

Quite clearly and evidently going by the commission structure MLM is a Multilevel marketing business. 

No. Melaleuca is not a Pyramid scheme. Not even close. They are a network marketing company with a solid product base behind the business opportunity. 

On top of this, the company is focused on product sales not recruitment. Although you can recruit people into Melaleuca you are not financially compensated for doing so. You are compensated based upon the sales that your recruits make.

A Pyramid scheme has either no product attached to the opportunity or one that is difficult to sell and then company pays the members for recruiting. 

For help identifying a Pyramid Scheme watch the following Video. 

No, Melaleuca is not A Scam. They are a 100% genuine business and legitimate business opportunity that is long established (since 1985) and holding an A+ rating with the BBB. 

It might be increasingly difficult to make money with them, particularly online given algorithm changes but they are not a scam. 

Yes, and completely so. Melaleuca is a legit business opportunity with some pretty well thought out environmentally friendly products behind them. 

Good products and good sound businesses and solid compensation plans and structures don't always make for good business opportunities. 

Around 90% of business owners fail to make more than $2,100 USD on an annual basis. 

Enough for me to advise you to stay away from Melaleuca. 

Further reasons being recent changes in Google algorithm and the problems you WILL face trying to get a website in the health and wellness field to rank reasonable well in search engines. 

There is no reason at all for you to complicate your life or to make it any more complicated that is needs to be!.