Shall we make a list of conventional businesses that have been shutdown? Exactly, we’ll be here forever… Every industry has its bad apples, I think it’s unfair for you to put a bulls eye on MLM.
1. Most push products they’ve never even tried. I think that some MLMs forcing you to buy the product is actually a good thing. How can you convincingly sell something you’ve never tried yourself!?
2. I was part of an affiliate network that promoted untested, unproven health products through an affiliate link and/or landing page. I had to leave because the amount of chargebacks and schemes by using IBO’s to avoid the 5% chargeback limit given my Merchant companies were getting way to unethical.
The problem is that most people don’t realize they are involved in a “rogue” one before it is too late and by virtue of these sales schemes that are deemed illegal, you as a distributor are also participating in illegal activities (without knowing it)
Conclusion: Just like any industry AM has its good apples and bad apples. In the case of AM, I think there are actually way more bad ones. I think, you sir, have a huge beam in your eye and are trying to remove a splinter from ours. Read the Bible for some context on that one. This comment likely won’t make the cut but whatever.
Yes, I list MLM companies that have been shut down because they were deemed as being a pyramid scheme. I agree with you, there are good apples & bad apples in any industry but there is the tendency to go “unethical” when you are operating or promoting an MLM scheme, which is why there is a proliferation of companies that get taking out in the MLM space every year.
But you love pushing affiliate :
An affiliate id scheme or a ponzi scheme. There is the requirement for multiple levels for this to be the case, which is why I have pointed this out. This article isn’t about conventional business, it is about MLM and the drawbacks of being involved in such schemes.
1. Most push products they’ve never even tried. I think that some MLMs forcing you to buy the product is actually a good thing. How can you convincingly sell something you’ve never tried yourself!?
Force feeding people to try products so they can spam their social networks stating how great the products are (simply because they are trying to recruit others into their scheme) doesn’t exactly exhibit ethics. As for recommending something, or not recommending something, as an affiliate or other agency…this can be done without owning that product.
The same way as someone at an Apple Store or at Best Buy can recommend a product to you based on KNOWLEDGE and insights. They help you choose the best product, which is unlike MLM that focuses on selling you only their product and nothing else. In other words, people within MLM are naturally forced to promote an inferior product and state it as the best, which is actually incredibly unethical.
2. I was part of an affiliate network that promoted untested, unproven health products through an affiliate link and/or landing page. I had to leave because the amount of chargebacks and schemes by using IBO’s to avoid the 5% chargeback limit given my Merchant companies were getting way to unethical.
Then as an affiliate marketer 
, you shouldn’t promote that. That is the great part about affiliate marketing, you don’t have to tie yourself to products that you don’t believe in and that are low quality. Your goal is to help the greater public get the BEST products at the BEST prices. Something that cannot effectively be doing within a multi-level marketing scheme.
