Is Nikken a Scam? Don’t Sign Up Until You Read This!

The overview and rankings

Name: Nikken

Founder: Isamu Masuda in 1975

Website URL: nikken.com

Type: Health and Wellness MLM

Products (Including Pricing): 40 out of 100

Success Stories: 10 out of 100

Price To Join MLM: $99 to start (80 out of 100)

What To Look For In An MLM:

What is Nikken?

Nikken is a health and wellness Multi-Level-Marketing company founded in 1975.

They specialise in helping people improve their "5 pillars of health":

1. Healthy body
2. Healthy finances
3. Healthy family
4. Healthy society
5. Healthy mind

You can learn more about the business and what opportunities it can provide you in the 3-minute video below...

OK, you're clever enough to know this is just a promotional Nikken video. 

So you're probably still wondering...

Is Nikken a pyramid scheme?

Technically, no.

Nikken is not a pyramid scheme because it's possible for distributors to earn money by selling their products. 

Most MLM companies, like Nikken, do offer legit products. 

However, a better question would be...

Is Nikken a pyramid scheme in disguise?

What is a pyramid scheme?

When a company promises payment to its members for recruiting more people into the company. 

Technically, pyramid schemes do not sell any products or services. Pyramid schemes are illegal in most countries because it's impossible for everyone to make money inside them. 

Just check out the diagram below from Wikipedia to see why...

So, like I mentioned already, most MLM companies do provide legit products or services. 

However, some MLM companies use these products to cover up the fact that the only way to make good money ($1,000+ a month) is by recruiting more people.

These companies operate like a "pyramid scheme in disguise" and it's often hard to seperate legit MLMs from these.

We'll dig into Nikken a bit more about this later, but for now you can watch the 5-minute video below to learn what to look out for...

Success is rare with Nikken

In fact, it's hard to make good money from any MLM company. 

Did you know that between 73% and 99% of all MLM representatives lose money?

Nikken does share an income disclosure from 2016. 

You can even see that 98.12% of Nikken members only earn $2,847.87 per year or less on average. 

The highest income from any "consultant" is $742,064 a year. Which, may sound impressive but when you consider the fact that I've spoken to numerous online business owners that make over $1 million a year on the podcast, you have to think... are the rewards really that amazing here?

...oh, and these podcast guests are all 30 or under and completely normal people without any special marketing or online skills!

How does Nikken Work?

Nikken creates a wide range of health and wellness products.

They then offer the opportunity for everyday people to sell these products and recruit more people into the company to make money. 

This means everyday people can work from home and Nikken saves money on monthly marketing and advertising expenses. 

Sounds like a win-win right?

Nikken products

If you are interested in joining any MLM company then it's important to understand what products or services they offer. 

There are a huge range of products at Nikken.

They typically fall under one of 4 categories:

1. Nutrition - Supplements, weight management, bone health
2. Personal care - Skin care, shampoos, moisturisers etc. 
3. Rest and relaxation - Sleep masks, magnetic products including jewelry, wraps, back support, insoles etc.
4. Environment - sport bottle, water filters, accessories etc. 

You can find the full list of products on offer at Nikken here.

This is quite similar to a lot of products that other MLM companies offer such as:

• Bemer Group
• Bonvera
• Globallee
• Liv International
• Enzacta
• Kyani
• Stemtech
• Tranont
• LifeWave
  
• Amare

So is there anything that makes Nikken stand out?

Nikken magnets - flagship product

Many MLM companies have some sort of flagship product or some kind of gimmicky product to make them try and stand out from the crowd. 

Nikken is no different. 

They use "magnets"...

Some of their main products that include magnets are:

• KenkoTouch ($199) - deep-tissue magnetic massage machine
• Kalki Watch ($123.75) - A watch with magnets
• Milana set ($97.50) - necklace and earrings with magnets

And some of the supposed benefits of this "magnetic technology" include:

• Improve blood pressure
• Strengthen immune system
• Increase metabolism
• Improve your sleep

This is really all up for debate. There is so much science based evidence that suggest magnets do not provide any of these benefits. 

However, there are a number of people that swear by them for health!

I've not personally tried them so all I can do is provide the research and evidence that other people suggest. But it is quite typical of MLM companies to provide some gimmicky reason as to why their products are amazing and warrant the high price tag. 

Here's a video with a bit more about their "unique magnetic technology" in action...

How to make money with Nikken

This is probably the main reason that you are reading this Nikken review.

So let's dive straight in.

There are 2 ways that you can make money as a Nikken "consultant":

1. Sell Nikken products and get a commission
2. Recruit people and make money from their sales

I want to set this straight first of all...

You do not get paid to recruit people.

You only get paid bonuses and commissions from the sales of your "downline". 

This is a clever way that MLMs avoid being accused as an outright pyramid scheme. But it doesn't deny the fact that most MLMs require you to recruit to make any decent money. 

How much does it cost to join Nikken?

This was a bit of a concern for me. 

There is no up to date compensation plan on their website or any information about how to start. 

So I had to do some digging, and I found this old Nikken compensation plan...

This plan from 1999 suggests that it costs $49 to start as a "direct distributor". 

But after checking out some videos and other websites from insiders it seems like it now costs $99 plus taxes to join and $79 a year after that.

Normally these prices just give you permission to sell Nikkens products and recruit people. 

So if you want to try the products yourself or buy some to sell to people in person, then you need to buy their products additionally. 

Nikken monthly cost

From a more up to date compensation plan you can see the screenshot below shows there are not "monthly qualification requirements" to start as a "direct distributor". 

However, I found a current Nikken distributor who explains that he recommends people use internet marketing to help sell Nikken products. 

I totally agree with him on this. 

Just think about it...

How many Nikken products could you sell face to face to friends and family?

Maybe 10 a month?

Maybe you host some "Nikken parties" and sell 100 a month.

There will alway be a limit on how much you can sell in person, because you will need to trade your time for money. 

The truth is, if you can market these products online, the internet can sell for you 24/7! There is no limit to how much you can sell. 

So this distributor suggests it will cost you about $53.95 a month to maintain...

This includes your fees for your PWP ($14.95 Nikken personal web page) and tools to your back office to follow up with your customers ($20 a month).

So realistically you are looking at somewhere around this for your first year:

• $99 joining cost
• $20 x 12 advanced Nikken fee a month
• $14.95 x 12 (PWP)
• $25 x 12 website hosting and Email 

Total year 1 cost = $818.40

This is clearly much lower than a standard bricks and mortar business, but it's certainly not just a one time $99 fee. 

You don't need to spend any of these monthly costs, but if you want to make any good money ($1,000+ a month) from Nikken you will likely need them. 

Nikken compensation plan

So like I already said, Nikken doesn't have an up to date compensation plan on their website. 

Here's the 2017 one from what I found with a bit of research though...

You can see it a bit larger here. 

Here's the thing about most MLM companies...

They seem to get a kick out of making compensation plans harder to understand than solving a rubik's cube blindfolded. 

As you can see there are 7 "ranks" that you can go up to receive more bonuses and commission. But you really don't need to worry about all the jargon stuff. 

All you need to know is to make money you have to do two things:

1. Sell Nikken products
2. Recruit people into the MLM

If you want to get promotions and make a decent income you will have to focus on recruiting people. And to get to Silver (where you can start earning some  decent money) you need to sell $12,000 worth of products every month (or your team does!)

You can learn more about the compensation plan in the long video below if you'd like. But beware this is probably pretty outdated as it was created in 2013!

Is Nikken a scam?

No Nikken is not a scam.

They sell legit products and pay their distributors like they claim they will.

However, is Nikken the right business model for you?

Only you can decide and the rest of this Nikken review will help you make an informed decision...

Common positive reviews

Here are some of the common positive reviews about its job opportunity that we have seen from Indeed...

• "My work associates were always helpful and supported me until I had learnt the job. Again when I changed departments the company made the transition easy and I was offered and took courses that were designed to help me in my work."
• "Had I not have had to leave work to care full time for my elderly disable father in law I would have never contemplated leaving Nikken. I only wish that there was still a position there for me."

Common negative reviews

And here are the not so good things about its job opportunity...

• "Staff nos. recently reduced, so workload increased. My role is Customer Service, but find company ignore service. 100% profit. Disappointing attitude."
• "Expensive parking, unprofessional towards customers."

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

What I like about Nikken

There are some things about Nikken that I genuinely really like compared to other MLM companies out there. 

Key Terms:

• Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
• Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
• Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 Proven History

It was founded in 1975. 

Only 1 in 3 MLM companies still exist after 10 years so you can tell Nikken is not some scam that will disappear tomorrow.

There is a huge executive team with all kinds of experience behind them. 

This is another way to tell that Nikken is not a scam.

#2 Positive product reviews

So here are the reviews for a Nikken product on Amazon...

5 star reviews from MLM companies are sometimes blatantly just from distributors. However, there were clearly some reviews on here that were from real customers (like the one above). 

It's a great sign that Nikken is legit when you see real people enjoying the products (whether they really do work or not!)

You can see the full list of reviews on Amazon. 

#3 No monthly sales quota at the start

One of the biggest red flags for a lot of MLM companies is that there is often this "monthly qualification" of sales you need to meet. 

When you start at Nikken it does not seem like you have any monthly sales quota to remain active. 

As you get promoted then yes, you need to hit 100PV a month (sell around $100 a month). 

This is possible once you have existing clients that love the products. 

However, some MLM companies force you to sell 100PV per month from day one.

If you can't sell that much (which most people can't) then you need to pay for the products yourself to stay active. 

This is a big tick that proves Nikken is not a scam.

What I don't like about Nikken

There are some hidden truths about the company that everyone should know before diving in...

#1 Expensive products

Their products are super expensive compared to similar comparables out there...

• Nikken bone strength supplements = $2 per day
• Amazon bone strength supplements = $0.32-$1.63 per day
• Nikken is 25% - 600% more expensive

You may be thinking... 

Well Nikken probably has better products. Well, I checked that out too...

There's actually more calcium in the Amazon products and just the same supplements in each bottle. 

This is one of the big red flags about Nikken as it will be hard to actually sell these products to people when they can buy them for a fraction of the price elsewhere.

#2 Low income potential

When you see the full Nikken income disclosure, it doesn't make you get very excited. 

Could you live off $18,322 a year?

No, I know I'd struggle too!

Well only around 1 in 180 Nikken distributors earn more than that!

#3 Is Nikken a pyramid scheme in disguise?

Let's get this straight again...

Nikken is NOT a pyramid scheme.

They sell legit products and people can make money purely by selling these products. However, if you want to make more than $1,000 a month, you absolutely will need to recruit more people into the company so you can benefit from the sales they make. 

Nikken is not a pyramid scheme, but it is very similar to a pyramid scheme in disguise.

#4 Do magents even work?

So it's been proven that there is no scientific evidence that suggests magnets have any health benefits to people. 

I'm all for trying new things and I'm always looking to improve my health to get the most energy and enjoyment out of life. 

However, it's going to be hard to sell these products when research suggests there's no evidence that it even works.

#5 Downward trend

This is the second thing I check in any MLM company after the price. 

You probably know that the most successful MLM recruits will be those who "get in early" and help the company to grow by recruiting a lot of people. 

Well, Nikken is not in this early momentum phase any more. If anything there is a downward trend for how many people Google "Nikken" each month. 

When you compare this to other MLM opportunities like Farmasi, you can see Nikken is not really growing at all.

My opinion of Nikken

OK, here's my opinion of what your chances are of making any good money from Nikken...

It's going to be tough to sell many of these products to anyone. 

They are expensive, there's no proof the magnets work and people aren't interested in Nikken any more. 

The only way to make any good money from MLM companies in a legit and ethical method is by finding a company with good products and then using online marketing to help sell these products 24/7.

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

• You can promote anything you want and truly own the business (you could even promote products from an MLM if you wanted!)
• You never need to sell to friends and family
• It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.