March 25, 2021
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So someone has introduced Herbalife to you as this great "opportunity to work from home".
But you're probably still wondering... can you really make money selling Herbalife? And is Herbalife just another pyramid scheme or scam?
First of all, I want to congratulate you on taking your time to do your research.
A big reason why 99% of MLM members lose money is because most of them jump in blindly without knowing what they will actually need to do. It often prevents them from finding a legit way to make money from home.
This honest Herbalife MLM review, with videos, will expose the true pros and cons of working inside the company. This will help you to make an informed decision if Herbalife is right for you or not.
Name: Herbalife
Founder: Mark Hughes in 1980
Website URL: herbalife.com
Type: Health and Wellness, Skin Care MLM
Products (Including Pricing): 40 out of 100
Success Stories: 1 out of 100
Price To Join MLM: $94.10 or $124.10 (80 out of 100)
Summary: Herbalife does sell legitimate health and wellness products but they are pretty expensive compared to alternatives on the market.
Some very good sales people and active social media users can make money selling Herbalife.
However, their income disclosure proves that only 1 in 250 Herbalife distributors make more than $15k a year.
The only real way to make a good income from Herbalife is by recruiting people into your "downline". This makes the company very similar to a pyramid scheme in disguise, where the majority of people lose money to benefit the ones at the top.
Make Time Online Rating: 40 out of 100
Recommended: No (health and fitness bloggers or "influencers" can make money from selling Herbalife but normally at the expense of the people they "recruit")
Herbalife is a health and wellness Multi-Level-Marketing company that mainly sells weight loss & nutrition products. They also have some skincare products too.
It was founded in 1980 by the late Mark Hughes, who tragically died from alcohol poisoning and an overdose of an antidepressant at the age of 44.
In the year 2000, the company dropped by 43% in stock price just after this happened.
But it has continued to grow, especially in Latino America, since this with the help from celebrity endorsements (such as Cristiano Ronaldo) and big advertising deals (such as sponsoring the football team LA Galaxy)
The 2 minute video below explains more about the Herbalife MLM "opportunity"...
So it looks like a pretty exciting opportunity, right?
But you're smart enough to realise this is just a Herbalife sales video.
So you're probably still wondering...
No Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme because distributors can earn money from selling products.
However, Herbalife is a "pyramid scheme in disguise".
The reason is that you can only earn good money from selling Herbalife if you recruit more people into your "downline" and make money from their purchases or sales.
Confused?
Let's explain this a bit more clearly...
A company that promises payment to its members for recruiting more people into the company rather than selling any product or service.
Pyramid schemes are totally illegal in most countries because it is impossible for everyone to earn money from this "business model".
Just check out the Wikipedia diagram below to see why...
Now, most MLM companies, like Herbalife, do offer legit products that their distributors can sell and earn a commission on.
However, it is impossible to earn any good money from these 25% commissions by selling face to face to friends and family. The only way distributors can "move up the ranks" and realistically earn more than $1,000 a month is by recruiting.
That makes Herbalife very much like a "pyramid scheme in disguise".
Just watch the 5 minute video below, which explains this a bit better...
In fact, success is hard to find in any MLM company.
Did you know that between 73% and 99% of all MLM representatives lose money?
Herbalife has released income disclaimers in the past to show how much their representatives have earnt. They seem to have removed this from the public eye now, but I did some digging to find an old copy.
You'll find out more about this later on in this Herbalife MLM review.
For now all you need to be aware of is that 95.5% of distributors earnt less than $200 income for the year.
Does that sound like you can really earn money selling Herbalife?
Herbalife produces a range of health and wellness & personal care products.
They save a lot of money on advertising or marketing by getting everyday people to help them sell these products.
In return these "distributors" can earn commission for any sales they make and "work from home" to "be their own boss".
In theory it sounds like a win-win. So let's dig into the company a bit more...
If you really want to join an MLM, then it's crucial to understand their product line.
Herbalife offers hundreds of products under one of the following categories:
There are far too many products to go into detail about them all here (that would be a whole article by itself!) But you can find all of these products inside the Herbalife shop.
It is important to be aware that there are hundreds of MLMs that exist that sell a very similar range of products to Herbalife, such as:
So the only way to see what makes one MLM company different to another is to learn more about their main products...
Herbalife has a big focus on their "F1, F2 and F3" product line...
The whole point of the F1 is to help people lose weight easily.
The stand out benefits of the Herbalife F1 products are:
However, there are also some downsides to be aware of:
You can learn more about the products in the 5 minute video below...
Very good sales people and those that can recruit a big team under them can make money selling Herbalife.
However, it will have to be done knowing that the majority of people you recruit will likely lose money from Herbalife. If you're OK with that then that's your call.
Like most MLM companies, there are 2 ways you can earn money as a Herbalife representative:
I really want to hammer this home as Herbalife has been burnt from this before...
You cannot earn money just by recruiting people.
You only earn bonuses from the purchases that your downline personally make or sell on.
This is how Herbalife avoids being an outright pyramid scheme and lets them stay in business...
The price to join Herbalife is either $94.10 or $124.10 depending on which package you get...
You can also become a "preferred member" for $34.95 to get the discount of the products. Later on you can then choose to convert to a distributor for an additional $59.95 if you want.
The business pack comes with a range of marketing materials, a protein shake and supplement for you to try as you can see below...
So you're probably asking yourself what are the...
There are no monthly sales quotas at Herbalife. This is a great sign for any MLM as so many of them have these "quotas" that sales reps need to hit every month to stay active.
This can be one of the main reasons that reps lose money as they often buy products themselves just to remain active.
However, if you are serious about promoting Herbalife products then you are probably going to need to use them yourself. People can see right through those "sales reps" who just preach their products but you never actually see them using the stuff themselves.
And you can even see what Healthline suggests about the price...
If you are going to take it seriously and try to make money selling Herbalife then you will need to become a consumer yourself.
So you're looking at spending at least $80 a month on the shakes.
This obviously isn't necessary, but if you don't like or use the products yourself, then you probably shouldn't consider trying to sell them!
There has been a lot of change to this since Herbalife were sued for $200 million by the FTC in 2016.
There isn't yet an official compensation plan that Herbalife has released for the public.
But you can find YouTube videos from current distributors and work it out. Luckily for you, I've done this for you...
There are 4 main ways Herbalife reps can get paid:
For some reason, most MLM companies love to make these compensation plans with complicated diagrams like the above. These are usually harder to understand than solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded!
To be honest, the only thing you need to know is what you have to do to make money. And remember that is:
And do you notice that 3 out of 4 ways you get paid requires you to recruit people?
If you want to get your head around the Herbalife compensation plan a bit more then you can watch the 11 minute video below...
Or see the shortened concise compensation plan here.
No Herbalife is technically not a scam.
They sell legit products and pay their representatives like they say they will.
Some people argue that any MLM that is a "pyramid scheme in disguise" is a scam. But technically, if you could sell hundreds of Herbalife products every month then you could make decent money without recruiting. In reality, that's pretty tough for most people!
It's always your decision on what route you take but the rest of this Herbalife MLM review will help you to make an informed decision...
Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse Herbalife 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.
Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!
There are a few things that I genuinely like about the Herbalife MLM.
Some of these things make it better than other MLM companies, but at the end of the day, it's still an MLM!
Key Terms:
Did you know that 50% of MLMs disappear within 5 years of starting.
Herbalife's long history proves it's not a scam.
This helps because if you do dedicate a lot of time to it and start earning a monthly income (by recruiting lots of people) then at least you know the company isn't likely to disappear tomorrow with all of your income.
There are so many positive reviews of Herbalife's products just like the one below...
You can tell that real people have used Herbalife products and genuinely have lost weight and like the products.
This is so important for any MLM company.
If there are real people using the products (not just the distributors) then at least you know you could make money from sales rather than just recruiting!
If you ask someone if they have heard of Isagenix they will likely look at you with a blank expression on their face.
If you ask them about Herbalife most people will at least recognise the name.
That's because Herbalife has put a lot of effort into getting themselves out there through sponsorships and celebrity endorsements...
Yeah even big Cris is an "endorser"!
The company name does come with some downsides though as many people have heard of some of the negative sides to it. Just check out the popular documentary "Betting on Zero" if you haven't heard of it before. You can see the 2 minute trailer below...
This is the BEST thing about Herbalife for me.
The really good news is that if you become a representative you don't need to sell a certain amount to "remain active" and earn commission from any sales you do make.
This means you don't need to keep paying for these expensive products every month just to stay part of the company.
They even use a clever marketing badge & slogan to help you talk to people about what you do...
This is a great sign that Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme and they do focus on selling the products rather than just recruiting.
And just so you know they've put a LOT of effort into trying to make themselves seem like they are not a pyramid scheme!
So there are a few things that many distributors find out the hard way once they've joined.
I've done some serious digging to uncover these hidden truths so you are aware of them before diving in...
Herbalife's products are stupidly expensive!
This is always the first thing I check out in any MLM company as it can be a sign that Herbalife is a "pyramid scheme in disguise".
Herbalife is 300% more expensive that other very highly rated protein shakes.
Now, I can almost hear you thinking... well surely Herbalife's shakes are better.
Check this out...
There is more protein, less sugar and less additives in the MyProtein shake.
Sure you may get some other vitamins in the Herbalife shakes. But less processed shakes are far better for you in the long run. However, Herbalife's shakes are highly processed.
The expensive products means that many of the distributors will encourage people to join Herbalife with the potential to make some "pocket money" from it. This is far more attractive to people than offering them overpriced protein shakes that they don't want.
But that is also a sign that Herbalife promotes recruitment aka a pyramid scheme in disguise!
You can see what happened in the FTC lawsuit below...
It's becoming more and more common to hear about MLM companies getting sued for being a "pyramid scheme in disguise" or falsely marketing themselves.
However, Herbalife had to "restructure their business from top to bottom" because of their misleading claims. That suggests to me that Herbalife has always operated like a pyramid scheme in disguise...
So it seems like Herbalife has made an effort to make it seem like it is not a pyramid scheme. However, there are still far to many signs that Herbalife is just a pyramid scheme in disguise still.
You can watch 5 minutes or so of the pretty funny and eye opening video below (it starts at 12:53) to see what I mean...
There are also numerous negative reviews online trying to warn people, such as this one...
But when you take into account that their compensation plan pays you in 3 out of 4 ways for recruiting people and continuously mentions "building a team" you can work out what their true intentions are!
Can you and your family live off $15k a year?
Well, check out the Herbalife income disclosure below...
They try to make it sound like loads of people join as a Herbalife distributor because they just want a discount.
Even though this may be true for some people, the vast majority will like the idea of making money from the company... otherwise they'd just buy the better more affordable shakes elsewhere!
This means once you do the maths you can see that only 1 in 250 members earns over $15k a year.
The final nail in the coffin for me is found on Google Trends.
You can see that Herbalife has been searched for less and less since 2013.
When you see some other customers reviews like this, you may understand why...
You probably know that the MLM members that join before the companies "early momentum phase" can benefit the most from the increasing interest in the company and sell products or recruit people because of this.
When you compare Herbalife to newer MLMs like Farmasi you can see that Herbalife is simply going the wrong way!
So Herbalife does sell some legit protein shakes and supplements that have helped some people lose weight.
But what do I think about the Herbalife MLM opportunity to make money from home?...
Unless you are a seasoned sales person with an online business and a lot of connections to people in the health and fitness space, you will really struggle to make any decent money from the Herbalife MLM.
And now you know how expensive the products are in comparison to others, can you really ethically promote Herbalife to people knowing they are getting ripped off?
MLMs are not all 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:
In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.
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