Has someone approached you with the Usborne Books MLM opportunity and you’re wondering if it’s a scam?
I’ll let you know right now that it’s not a scam. But with the changing world is this the best opportunity for you to work from home?
This honest Usborne Books MLM review, with videos, will let you know exactly what the pros and cons of joining are.
By the time you’re finished reading it, you’ll know if it’s right for you or not.
Usborne Books MLM review- The overview and rankings
Name: Usborne Books
Founder: Peter Osborne in 1973
Website URL: usborne.com
Type: Children’s books MLM
Products (Including Pricing): 60 out of 100
Success Stories: 10 out of 100
Price To Join MLM: £48/ $65 & $25 a month (60 out of 100)
Maketimeonline.com Rating: 43 out of 100 (check out my #1 recommendation, 97 out of 100)
What To Look For In An MLM:
- Low start-up fee & maintenance cost– ✅
- High-quality affordable products – ✅
- You don’t have to carry inventory – ❌
- Generous compensation plan – ✅
- An affiliate-like system – ✅
- Company is in the early momentum phase – ❌
Usborne Books MLM pros and cons
Pros
- Free personalised website
- Affordable books
- Established company
- Focus on direct sales
Cons
- Low-income potential
- 99% of MLM recruits lose money
- Low BBB rating
- Hidden monthly costs
- Outdated business due to Amazon
- Not in the early momentum phase- a downward trend
What is Usborne Books?
Usborne Books is a Multi-Level-Marketing company that sells children’s books.
There are some really cool books that they have put together with interesting puzzles and games to suit all ages of children and young adults.
You can learn more about the work from home opportunity at the company from other distributors in the 3-minute video below…
You probably know that anyone could say this on a promotional video. So you’re probably wondering…
Is Usborne Books a pyramid scheme?
No Usborne Books is not a pyramid scheme.
It’s possible for distributors to earn money from selling the books and receiving a commission.
In fact, Usborne Books is an MLM who puts an emphasis on selling rather than just recruiting.
What is a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme is when a company recruits members by promising them payment for recruiting more members.
Technically they do not offer any products or services and these are illegal in almost every country.
It’s because pyramid schemes are unsustainable as you can see below…
Some MLM companies use their products or service to disguise the fact that really they are just a pyramid scheme, where people make their money from recruiting more people.
You can learn how to avoid a pyramid scheme in this easy to follow 5-minute video…
How does Usborne Books MLM work?
They produce some cool kids books and everyday people help them sell books.
It’s kind of like a win-win.
The company saves money on advertising and normal people can earn money from home. Something that a lot of Mums are looking for!
What countries can join Usborne Books MLM?
The Usborne Books MLM opportunity is currently available in the UK, many countries in Europe, USA and Canada.
You can see the full list below:
So if you’re interested in becoming a distributor it’s important to be aware of what products are on offer…
Usborne Books MLM products
There are almost 3,000 books on offer and new books are coming out all the time.
There are 6 main categories these books fall under:
- 0-2 years
- 3-5 years
- 5-7 years
- 7-11 years
- 11-13 years
- Young adult
These books include:
- Playful baby books
- Thought-provoking young adult fiction
- Activity books
- Gift books
- Levelled reading books
- Lift-the-flap information books
- and more!
I stumbled across this book when I was searching YouTube… how cool is this!…
How to make money with Usborne Books MLM
Ah, the bit you’ve been waiting for!
There are 2 main ways you can make money as an Usborne Books distributor:
- Sell the books and get a commission
- Recruit more people into the company and earn bonuses from their sales
Here’s Sue to explain more about this in a 2-minute video…
Did you notice the emphasis on starting to think about who else you could recruit here? Hmmm… maybe it’s not as focussed on selling books as I first thought!
How much does it cost to join Usborne Books MLM?
There’s a one-time payment of £48 if you’re from the UK or $75 if you’re from the USA.
This gives you the starter kit and you’re on your way.
However, there are some sneaky monthly fees that you’ll find out later in this Usborne Books review…
Usborne Books MLM compensation plan
This one’s a bit weird. I couldn’t find an up to date compensation plan anywhere. Normally this is really easy for MLM companies as you can just Google it.
So I did some digging.
I found reviews from other distributors who shared some of the compensation plan, which used to be attached to that link (maybe it will come back?)
The first way to get paid: Commission (I found out this is 24% if you’re in the UK on the actual website)…
The second way is to recruit and get bonuses like this:
You can also get “promotions” up the company to earn more bonuses and incentives:
That tends to be pretty similar to most MLM companies and at least will give you the idea of how you can earn money.
Now, I can almost hear your mind thinking…
Is Usborne Books MLM a scam?
No, as already mentioned Usborne Books is not a scam.
There are legit books being made and sold and distributors are paid for every sale and bonus they make.
However, just because it’s a legitimate company it doesn’t mean this is the best opportunity for you to work from home.
The rest of this Usborne Books review will help you make an informed decision if it suits you or not…
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 more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Related content:
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Usborne Books MLM: The good
Here are some of the things I like about Usborne Books…
Key Terms:
- Black Hat Methods – Using lies and unethical methods to make someone buy something
- White Hat Methods – Being honest and genuine to help people make informed decisions about purchases
- 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 Free personalised website
Using internet marketing is without doubt the best way to do very well from MLM companies or most businesses these days.
The company provides you with your own website similar to the one below that people can access and buy books from. This means you get the commission for these sales without having to sell them in person all the time.
The bad thing about these websites is that you will never be able to get free traffic from ranking on Google to it as it will be duplicated content.
The only way you can get people to look on it is if you personally send them the website or pay for traffic from social media ads.
Not good unless you’re willing to take some social media adverts training!
#2 Affordable books
This is a great sign for MLM companies!
If the products are reasonably priced it generally means the focus is on selling products rather than recruiting.
It’s a good sign that Usborne Books is not a pyramid scheme.
#3 Established company (1973)
It was founded in 1973, which is another sign that the Usborne Books MLM is not a scam.
There are certain organisations that check up on companies to make sure they are running legally and any business that’s been running for over 40 years must be doing something right!
You can see it’s a real business from the 90-second video above. Real people are running it and putting their heart and soul into it!
#4 Focus on sales rather than recruiting
I really liked seeing this on their website…
It just shows this is an ethically sound business who are trying to make a living and provide other people in opportunity in a legitimate way.
Usborne Books MLM: The not so good
Here are some of the bad parts of Usborne Books that you should be aware of…
#1 Low-income potential
It still recommends that you do “home parties”.
If you’re a Mum with a lot of Mum friends then this may still make you a few quid.
But realistically this is not a scalable business model.
The income potential from these “parties” are so low that you will be lucky to make £100 for each one.
How many parties can you realistiically hold in a month?
8? Every weekend day?
That’s £800 a month if you’re lucky/ know a lot of Mums!
#2 MLM’S success rate (1%)
The FTC released a study on over 350 MLM companies.
They found that less than 1% of distributors of MLM’s make any money!
That is a crazy low stat but when you understand how MLM’s typically work and the usual monthly fees you can understand how this happens.
#3 Low BBB rating
The Better Business Bureau is an organisation that helps customers dispute problems and rank businesses accordingly.
The low ratings are a bit concerning considering how long this company has been running.
However, you need to take this with a pinch of salt as the BBB is mainly for USA companies.
#4 Hidden monthly costs & no income disclosure or up to date compensation plan
From some extra digging on the internet I found a previous distributor who claimed there were extra monthly costs for running the “business”:
- eCommerce website – $12/3 months
- I Make News Newsletter – $15/3 months
- School and Library I Make News Newsletter (intended for Educational Consultants) – $15/3 months
- OrderPro Basic – $1.30/month
- InTouch (automated email system) – $5/month
- OrderPro Point of Sale – $1.60/month
That adds up to around $25 a month!
If you sell a $9.99 book and get 24% commission that means you will need to sell 10 books a month just to break even!
I also couldn’t find any income disclosures or up to date compensation plans and I don’t seem to be the only one as this review on reddit shows…
Oh yeah, and a lot of the reviews and opinions on review sites are very similar to the ones you can see above!
#5 Outdated business model- the books can be found cheaper!
If you only take anythingone thing away from this Usborne Books review then let it be this one.
This business model won’t work in 2020 and beyond!
Why?
One word…
Amazon.
You can buy the same book for 50% cheaper than what it would cost if you went through the Usborne Books website.
I’m not saying if this is fair or right, it’s just the truth about businesses moving forwards!
#6 Not in the early momentum phase
I like to check out Google trends to see how many people search for a business each month.
It helps to get an idea of how much the business is growing or declining.
The truth is you can see Usborne Books seems to be declining each year.
The cyclical spike is in November (I’m not sure if that’s to do with a sales weekend or Black Friday or Book week).
But the truth is that the most successful distributors are ones that “get in early” and help the company grow. This is not possible at Usborne Books as you can see.
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My opinion – Usborne Books MLM
Here’s what I really think about this MLM opportunity…
If you are a Mum that know a lot of Mums that like to buy books, then it may be a nice bit of pocket money if you can convince them all to join under you.
But realistically this is not a way to make enough money to live from each month.
It doesn’t mean those opportunities don’t exist though…
Is there another way to make money from home?
In 2018 I had no idea how people make money online.
All I knew is that I didn’t want to join an MLM because I like my friends and family (I don’t want to sell to them), and you are pretty restricted by the company. MLMs can be legit and I know people that do well from them.
However, when I heard about affiliate marketing I realised this was a better opportunity because:
- You don’t need to recruit anyone
- You can control what you sell and you don’t need to create anything yourself
- It’s free to start
In September 2018 I found Wealthy Affiliate. By the end of 2019, I quit my full-time job, and I had no experience working online or marketing (I was a PE teacher).
If you’d like to learn how I did this click the button below…
Usborne Books MLM: The “MakeTimeOnline” final word
Is the Usborne Books MLM a scam?
No.
Will you be able to quit your day job or make enough money to support your family from this opportunity?
You be the judge. Everything you need to know to decide is in this review.
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program and join the form below to learn exactly how I make money online…
Hi, the idea behind this company is good. however if you are going to get involved with the company, you want to think very long term. If this has a bad rating from the BBB, and people are constantly losing money. And having bad experiences. Then it looks like it is not a good foundation to build your business on.
Too right Jake. It’s about having good foundations. You don’t really own a business from Usborne Books either it’s just a way you can sell and recruit people. If they were to go out of business or remove you tomorrow then you’d learn the hard way that you don’t actually own a business at all