Is Herbalife a scam. Is it merely a pyramid scheme cleverly disguised as a genuine business opportunity? Or can you make awesome money as a distributor of their products?
Let’s take a closer look…
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Company Name: Herbalife
Founder: Mark R. Hughes
Price To Join: $49.95
My Rating: 1/10
~ The “Herbalife” Review ~
Recent Events
In 2016 the FTC cracked down on Herbalife, labelling the company a pyramid scheme disguised as a business opportunity. However, Herbalife managed to get around officially being called a pyramid scheme by agreeing to pay a USD $200 million dollar fine for dodgy business practices over the years. In fact, 350,000 distributors in Herbalife were given their money back. Really the settlement should have been much greater.
What Is The “Herbalife” Opportunity?
Herbalife is an MLM company and it really does operate of the “pyramid” formation, where founding members and members closest to the peak of the mountain make the bulk of the cash while those unfortunates left at the bottom basically just get to spend their money and earn f**k all.
Herbalife kind of works a bit like Amway. Friends, relatives and others apply high pressure sales tactics with the promises of riches if you simply join their down line. You are encouraged to attend hyped up meetings where slick salespeople dazzle you with figures earned when you reach certain (mostly unattainable) levels within the business.
Along the way you’ll alienate all your friends and relatives, as they fear interaction with you will simply amount to further pressure to become a Herbalife distributor and potentially live the high life.
Nutrient products (hence the name Herbalife) are what this company promotes and sells. As with just about all MLM and network marketing schemes, the products are exorbitantly over-priced to offset all the levels of commissions that need to be paid out down the line for every single sale that takes place.
The company has actually been in existence since way back in 1980, but really skyrocketed globally with the advent of the internet.
It’s not impossible to make money with MLM, but man it’s a tough way to earn some coin. Affiliate marketing is so much quicker and easier, especially if you follow some awesome training.
How It Works
Pretty much like any other MLM system. In order to join you agree to purchase a minimum amount of Herbalife product for yourself, and continue to make purchases every single month. In the meantime your main role is not so much to sell Herbalife products, but actively recruit others into the Herbalife opportunity.
The products are promoted as wonder herbal substances that can alleviate the systems of many ailments and perhaps even help cure various conditions. At the very least they are a health supplement like taking vitamins.
The products themselves are okay, just way over-priced for what they are, and the Herbalife business system is dodgy.
Basically you purchase products at a 25% discount and then on sell them for the full retail price, making your money on the mark up. When your downline either purchases products or makes sales, you receive a smaller commission off their efforts. You also receive greater discounts as you move up the levels in the company.
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Why It Likely Won’t Work For Most People
Unless you joined early enough and are somewhere near the top of the pyramid, all you will find yourself doing is annoying the hell out of everyone, trying to get them to join so you can establish some sort of downline and actually earn an income.
This is very hard to do, takes a tremendous amount of willpower and effort, amazing persistence and a hide of steel. Most people will simply give up before they’ve made any profit whatsoever.
To really make money from these pyramid schemes, you either have to be the creator of the scheme, or be one of the first ones to get involved, enabling you to create massive downlines long before everyone is tired of hearing about it (just try selling someone on the idea of Amway these days).
Who Is The Target Audience?
People looking to escape the 9 to 5 grind of everyday life and set up a future that involves lifestyle freedom of time and money. There’s nothing wrong with this aspiration whatsoever. It’s what I’ve always chased and actually do live now in reality, but it’s almost impossible to attain this desired lifestyle freedom by getting involved (years down the line) in an MLM or pyramid scheme such as Herbalife.
The Pros
- The products themselves are okay
- The sales meetings and videos are very motivating
The Cons
- It’s a pyramid scheme
- Almost impossible to get rich unless you get in very early
- All the hype about riches and lifestyle freedom is BS
- They fail to tell you just how difficult it is (if not impossible) to reach the levels of success the slick salespeople preach when on stage in front of an eager audience
- Herbalife has been proven to be dodgy
- You just end up spending money and have a hell of a time trying to make any real profit for yourself
- Herbalife target people who are financially desperate
- You will annoy everyone you know
Tools and Training
Generally the person who recruits you will train you. You will also receive further training via their website and if you attend the sales meetings. However, these meetings are more about hype to get you excited rather than about training you up.
How Much Does The “Herbalife” Really Cost?
Even though there’s only a small minimum purchase to buy into it, to really have any chance of making profits, you need to spend thousands of dollars on product and push really, really hard to get those products sold at over-inflated prices.
The hardest part is actually trying to convince someone on why they should buy your Herbalife product at 5 times the cost they could buy a very similar product somewhere else. I mean, what do you say? “Oh, buy the Herbalife one because it’s better. Just trust me on that”.
It’s a hard sell.
Is The “Herbalife” A Scam?
I think it legally has been proven to be a dodgy scam, despite the fact they managed to get around the official pyramid scheme label. Most MLM systems effectively work on the pyramid structure, whether they admit to it or not. Herbalife is far from being the only MLM scheme guilty of using the pyramid system.
If you just want to purchase Herbalife products for your own use, then maybe it’s okay, but if you truly want to make genuine money – without annoying the hell out of everyone you know – live the dream lifestyle and escape the 9 to 5 grind, then seek out a different opportunity to Herbalife.
A Better Alternative To Herbalife
Making money online – good money – is no mystery and certainly very possible if you know how and follow a proven blueprint. That’s what I did and these days I can work from anywhere in the world I desire, choose my own hours and really live the dream of money and time freedom – the same dream that companies like Herbalife promise, but can’t deliver.
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Darren Burton
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Hey there
I have always wondered if Herbalife is a scam! I see so many people on social media posting about this and trying to get people to sign up!
And not to mention, that if you have that one friend trying to sell stuff to you and harass everyone you know!
Just like most of the party plan stuff!
Thanks for the information it was a great read
Regards Hailey
Hi Hailey,
Yes, many of these MLM, party plan type systems are a bit of the dodgy side, and just about all require you to harass the hell out of everybody. Not my thing, that’s for sure.
Your website is overwhelming, a lot of scam artists out there. It is written and set up very well, since you are a pro blogger, the site is very good. Everyone should read the blogs on Herbalife and Amway. These 2 giants are not everything they appear to be. Thanks for your insights on all the dodgy money making systems out there. It helps us steer clear of them.
Thnaks Bill. Yes, there are lots of scams and rather questionable programs out there when it comes to making money online, and that’s because I think so many people have a dream of making a living off the internet and having freedom. It’s definitely possible, if you go the right direction. Check out my recommendation of Wealthy Affilate for some really good training and guidance. Cheers.