Connection to multi-level marketing (unedited)
editI will be adding this table to this section because I want people to visualize the difference of a Pyramid Scheme and a multi-level-marketing side by side, and their actual differences. (my work and the table below as well)
| Multi-Level-Marketing | Pyramid Scheme |
|---|---|
| Provides products and or services of real value | No obvious product |
| Low startup costs that often include tools to help sell
company products and/or services |
Encourages a large initial investment and
continual reinvestments |
| Ability to out earn anyone above you | Inability to out earn anyone above |
| Is upfront that earnings are generated from direct sales
or from others you have recruited and that earnings are ultimately based on your effort |
Promises large earnings with little effort |
| Comprehensive training and support on products,
recruiting and sales communication |
Poor or non-existent training |
| Presents the opportunity and explains how it works
allowing people time to ability to make a well informed decision. |
Often aggressive in its approach and may use
false information, deadlines to urge people to join quickly. |
Main article: Multi-level marketing
Some multi-level marketing (MLM) companies operate as pyramid schemes and consumers often confuse legitimate multi-level marketing with pyramid schemes.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission legitimate MLM, unlike pyramid schemes:
- "have a real product to sell." "Not all multi-level marketing plans are legitimate. If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan. If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s probably not. It could be a pyramid scheme."
Pyramid schemes however "may purport to sell a product, but they often simply use the product to hide their pyramid structure". While some people call MLMs in general "pyramid selling", others use the term to denote an illegal pyramid scheme masquerading as an MLM.
The Federal Trade Commission warns, "It’s best not to get involved in plans where the money you make is based primarily on the number of distributors you recruit and your sales to them, rather than on your sales to people outside the plan who intend to use the products." It states that research is your best tool and gives eight steps to follow:
- Find—and study—the company's track record.
- Learn about the product.
- Ask questions.
- Understand any restrictions.
- Talk to other distributors. Beware of shills.
- Consider using a friend or adviser as a neutral sounding board, or for a gut check.
- Take your time.
- Think about whether this plan suits your talents and goals.
- Ask about future expenses (my work) [2]
- Check if the company has been sued previously (my work) [3]
Some commentators contend that MLMs in general are nothing more than legalized pyramid schemes. A pyramid scheme will ask their recruiters to sign up to the business with a big front-up cost. [4][5] These are different laws in every state, and they take different actions toward pyramid schemes, but multi-level-marketing is legal. [6] (my work)
concept and basic models
editThe people working for pyramid schemes try to promote the actual company instead of the product they are selling. Eventually all the lower levels make no money, only the people at the top. [7] (my work)
Article Evaluation
edit
The article I picked for the "article evaluation" is called "Talk:Cha-cha-cha (dance)" and it is very unorganized which is the reason why I found it on the page that has all the "C-class articles." The article is about the ballroom dance called cha-cha-cha. There seems to be two articles on Wikipedia that speak about the style of dance, so what's happening is that those two articles should be merged together instead of being two different ones that don't have enough information. The only information the article has on cha-cha-cha is in the beginning which is less than a paragraph and there is a lot of incorrect grammar. The rest of the article are comments made by people saying what the article needs work on. For example there are no citations in the article, the view points have run-on sentences as well as misspelled words. If there is any information given there are no citations for it. The article could improve on a lot of things but the main thing it should focus on is giving information about the actual dance, as the origin of it and where the dance is today. There is lack of information on the dance which is why people read Wikipedia articles, to find factual information on a topic. The article is rated as a Wikipedia level-5 vital articles in Art, as well as a low importance dance articles. ~~~
 | This is a user sandbox of Cgome166. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
- ^ Ward, Susan. "Learn to Distinguish Between Multilevel Marketing (MLM) and Pyramid Schemes". The Balance Small Business. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ "Multi-Level Marketing vs Pyramid Schemes - South Dakota Consumer Protection". consumer.sd.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ "Multi-Level Marketing vs Pyramid Schemes - South Dakota Consumer Protection". consumer.sd.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ Seth, Shobhit. "What is a Pyramid Scheme?". Investopedia. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ Commission, Australian Competition and Consumer (2015-05-14). "Pyramid schemes". Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ "Pyramid Schemes". Findlaw. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ "Attracting talent at all levels", Make Your People Before You Make Your Products, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 161–183, 2015-10-02, ISBN 9781119208068, retrieved 2019-04-18
- ^ "Cha-cha-cha (dance)", Wikipedia, 2019-01-29, retrieved 2019-03-28