Is Young Living a scam or a legit product and a great money making opportunity? That is the question being asked. Can people really make money with this MLM company or not?
Let’s take a look and find out….
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Company Name: Young Living
Founders: Donald Gary Young
Price To Join: $149.95
My Rating: 5/10
~ Young Living Reviews ~
What Is Young Living?
Started by Donald Gary Young back in 1993, Young Living is a MLM company that deals in essential oils, health and wellness products and skincare products. This is a very saturated niche regardless, but even more so when it comes to the world of network marketing. There are literally hundreds of companies out there peddling similar products via the MLM distribution model.
I prefer the affiliate marketing model of doing business, as taught by the team at Wealthy Affiliate. Way easier and way cheaper.
Their main focus is on essential oils, as it was based on these oils that the company began. However they have since expanded their products range to include health supplements and skincare.
The company is based in Utah (as so many MLM companies are), with offices and distributorships spread throughout the world.
Young Living Products
I won’t go deep into the product range, as this review is more focused on the business side of Young Living, but we’ll take a brief look at what’s on offer here.
- Essential Oils – A comprehensive range of essential oils and blends, all harvested from the Young Living farms.
- Home – This range combines aromatherapy and all-natural ingredients in your home cleaning products.
- Wellness – Mostly this is nutritious drinks combining multivitamins, minerals and essential oil supplements.
- Beauty – An essential oil-based range of skincare, body and bath products for youthful looking and rejuvenated skin.
- Savvy Minerals – This is make up comprised of all-natural, mineral-based ingredients and is low allergenic.
Overall, Young Living’s products have been well-received even by those not associated with the business.
One thing that all MLM businesses have in common is extremely high prices for their products. This is due to the way the compensation plan is devised, paying commissions all the way along downlines.
Unfortunately, Young Living is certainly no exception to this rule. Let’s look at the prices of just 2 of their household cleaning products and see what they’re worth.
- Thieves Laundry Liquid (946ml) = $49
- Thieves Dish Soap (355ml) = $25
Pretty damn expensive when compared to retail versions.
The Young Living Compensation Plan
Anyway, let’s look at the compensation plan attached to the Young Living business opportunity and see if it’s worthwhile.
When you join Young Living as a distributor, you will be known as a “Brand Ambassador”. That’s getting to be a very common term in MLM circles these days. It’s trendy.
Generally the main ways to earn with MLM is first by selling products at a retail level and earning commissions. The second is to recruit people into your downline and take advantage of the MLM compensation structure.
Recruiting is a very tough process, though, but it’s really the only true way to get ahead in a MLM setup.
Some ways you can earn at Young Living include:
- Direct sales
- Fast start bonus
- Start living bonus
- Rising start team bonus pool
- Generation leadership bonus
- Uni-level commission
- Diamond profit sharing pool
There are also quite a number of different ranks you can achieve within this company, and it’s by recruiting, earning bonuses through group volume sales as well as your own sales that elevates you up those ranks. Once you rise up the ranks you can earn more money.
- Distributor
- Star
- Senior Star
- Executive
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond Crown Diamond
- Royal Crown Diamond
Young Living works on a uni-level compensation plan rather than the ever-popular binary model. This means you can spread your downlines as wide as you like rather than simply have a left a right leg to your downline as is the case in the binary model.
Click here to read the official compensation plan PDF.
The MLM Business Opportunity
MLM is so popular with distributors because everything is already set up to go. The reason it’s popular with the companies running the show is altogether different.
When a company opts to distribute its products via the network marketing method, they save money on wages and advertising. The distributors buy most of the product, do all the selling, promote the business and grow the business through essential recruiting.
Although companies like Young Living like to sell the lifestyle dream of owning your own business and living the good life, very few people in any MLM venture ever reach that level of success. You also don’t actually own a business. You are merely paying the company for the right to be a sales rep for them. That’s all you are when you join a MLM business opportunity.
It’s an awesome deal for Young Living, but a terrible deal for distributors. People really need to think about that more before getting involved in these gigs, as their compensation plans are a rort to get distributors doing all the work for no pay, making them buy most of the products, and promising the good life down the track.
Dangling the carrot much?
This isn’t exclusive to Young Living alone. Just about all MLM structures work this way, rewarding those at the very top while the vast majority struggle to get by. And they’re the ones doing nearly all the work. It’s like government.
There are far easier ways to make decent money. Click here to find out more.
Is Young Living An Illegal Pyramid Scheme?
It’s not an illegal pyramid scheme because Young Living has a range of products. Illegal pyramid schemes rely totally on new investor money via recruitment and have no products of any real value.
What I Like
- Their compensation plan is a little fairer than some others
- The company has been around for a long time
- The products have a fairly decent reputation
What I Don’t Like
- Only about 3% of members make a liveable income from Young Living
- Nearly everyone who tries MLM fails
- Recruiting is the secret to MLM success, and this is where the vast majority come unstuck and quit
- MLM is one of the hardest ways to make real money
- The compensation plans for MLM businesses favour the company and not the distributors
- The products are ridiculously expensive
- This is a super saturated niche
How Much Does Young Living Cost?
To get started as a distributor for Young Living you are required to purchase one of their business Starter Kits. The cheapest is $149.95 (as of this writing). This kit gives you your basic business stationery as well as a selection of product samples to show customers and potential recruits.
Is Young Living a Scam?
It’s not a scam. It’s typical MLM, with an unfair compensation plan and products with prices that are through the roof. To be fair their compensation plan is a little better than some other MLM companies operating in this niche, but it still basically sucks for distributors.
Unless you can recruit like crazy, can find new members who will be in it for the long haul and be very active, and keep on recruiting, then you will fail to make a consistent, decent income with this.
There are far easier ways to make good money. MLM is one of the hardest there is.
Forget MLM – Try Affiliate Marketing Instead
I’ve done MLM in the past, and man it’s hard. These days I focus all my attention on my affiliate marketing business. It’s so much simpler and far less stressful than doing any MLM gig. I don’t need to buy products or recruit people constantly to earn decent commissions and regular income as an affiliate.
Anyone can do this business and make good money if you are shown the right way to go about it. I did some training that kicks off with a completely free trial, and that played a huge part in my success with affiliate marketing.
I’ve written a guide on what it’s all about and how to get started. You can read it by clicking the banner below. It only takes 5 minutes to read and is well worth your time.
Darren Burton
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