Have you been looking into Yoli and now maybe you’re wondering if they’re a legit business opportunity or if they’re a scam? Maybe you’ve even heard they’re a pyramid scheme?
Just to put it out there, I’m not involved with Yoli in any way. I’m just doing research on this company because I write posts about different opportunities where you can earn a living from home. I try to determine if they’re a good idea or not.
To give you a quick little background on me, I was involved in Young Living not too long ago.
And now I’m anti-MLM.
You can read about that here if you’d like.
So I’m not going to be recommending that you join Yoli.
Read on to find out exactly why.
What Is Yoli?
Yoli is just one more health and wellness MLM based out of Utah, USA. I’m convinced there are about 4,367 of such companies there.
Anyway, Yoli was founded in 2009 by Robby Fender (President & CEO), Corey Citron (Chief Marketing Officer), Daren Falter (Executive Vice President) and Bobby Jones (Executive Vice President of Strategy).
Their products include protein powders, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other supplements.
Here are some product prices:
- Yes Protein Powder Canister – Retail = $80, Wholesale = $75.97
- Dream Capsules (30 servings) – Retail = $40, Wholesale = $32.97
- Lean Greens Canister (90 servings) – Retail = $77, Wholesale = $71.97
- Therma Burn (30 servings) – Retail = $40, Wholesale = $34.97
There’s also a transformation kit:
This will cost you $340 retail or $284.95 wholesale. The transformation kits are what they call the “Better Body System”. There are 4 of these kits:
- Alkalinity Kit
- Weight Management Kit
- Energy Kit
- Create Your Own Kit
How Much Does it Cost to Join Yoli?
There are a few different ways to join with Yoli (this information is coming from the video I posted in the next section. You can learn in that video.)
Membership Fee – $39.99
You can become a member with just this, but it’s not recommended because there are no products to try.
Low-Entry Packages
There are a few different low-entry packages, and their costs are $60+, $150+ and $286+. From my understanding, (which is limited, keep in mind!) it seems these are based on CV (commissionable volume) and there aren’t actually packages. You choose products with a certain CV amount that qualifies you to get in.
Business Packages
(Note: Your membership fee is waived if you buy a business package.)
There are four business packages:
- Diamond Elite Pack = $3,788
- Party Pack = $1,000
- Sample Pack = $550
- Sample Pack Plus = $1098
In order to be active, you’ll also need to generate 50PV (personal volume) every four weeks. This can be personal orders that you make, or you can sell this amount. Some commissions also require you to be
There is also a $9.95 per month fee.
Yoli Compensation Plan
Yoli has its full compensation plan for viewing here. Every time I see a compensation plan, I think that it must be the most confusing one ever. Now we have Yoli’s plan and it takes the cake. It’s 17 pages long and includes things like a binary plan, an unilevel plan and a binary and unilevel plan. This is the binary and unilevel plan:
Plus, there’s a color-coded calendar that is supposed to help you understand when you joined and when you can start earning certain bonuses.
I’m not even going to try to pretend I understand this compensation plan. Instead, you can check out this video:
https://youtu.be/JHq9zbuI83w
I also like BehindMLM’s breakdown.
I do know that some commissions require you to be active and some require you to be active and qualified. As mentioned above, being active means you generate a 50PV per month. To be qualified, you need to have 2 active recruits, each on separate legs.
Yoli Income Disclosure
Yoli does not have an income disclosure. As far as I know, any distributors that make any claims of earnings need to show an income disclosure. But, not all MLMs have them for some reason.
It’s probably because the income disclosures show the truth behind MLM business opportunities.
All the income disclosures I have seen so far show basically the same thing – only about the top 1-2% of people in the company earn enough to live on.
We really only need to see these couple of paragraphs from this report posted on the FTC’s website:
“Failure and loss rates for MLMs are not comparable with legitimate small businesses, which have been found to be profitable for 39% over the lifetime of the business; whereas less than 1% of MLM participants profit. MLM makes even gambling look like a safe bet in comparison. ”
“MLM as a business model is the epitome of an ‘unfair or deceptive acts or practice’ that the FTC is pledged to protect
against. It is even worse than classic, no product pyramid schemes (for which the loss rate is only about 90%) and ‘pay to play’ chain letters. For promoters to present MLM as a “business opportunity” or ‘income opportunity’ is a misrepresentation.”
Yoli Complaints
Yoli has an A+ rating from the BBB, but they’re not accredited with them:
The Yoli complaints on the BBB website are a mix of customer service issues (not getting refunded the correct amount, for example) or having problems with the product itself (a product batch tasted bad for one and it made another one sick).
If we go to Amazon, we can see the products get fairly good ratings:
Some positive reviews say things like:
- I lost 15 pounds in a month
- I feel totally satisfied when I have the shake
- It’s easy to follow
- I am pleased with my results so far
The negative reviewers said things like:
- I can’t believe I fell into this scam
- This is overrated
- Yoli’s notion of an alkaline diet is pseudoscience
- This was a big waste of money
Here’s a video by a former Yoli member, and she has a lot to say about the company and its products:
https://youtu.be/PqKprh2bx4U
Related Articles:
- Selling Essential Oils Online [MLM vs Affiliate Marketing]
- MLM vs Affiliate Marketing – Why Affiliate Marketing is 100x Better
- Why I Quit Young Living [Any Why I’m Now Anti-MLM]
Is Yoli a Scam or a Pyramid Scheme?
So, is Yoli a scam? It’s not a scam. It’s just a typical MLM where you’re likely going to end up spending more money than you can make back. Whether or not it’s a pyramid scheme is up for debate. If a distributor is making more money selling the products retail versus by recruiting others, then it’s a legitimate MLM and not a pyramid scheme.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case for Yoli. As you can see from the price of the products, they are EXPENSIVE. What sane person outside of the company wants to buy those products? You can get protein powder for much less other places. Therefore, my guess is that distributors will make much more money via recruiting.
Pros
- Overall, people seem to be pretty happy with the products
- Compared to other types of businesses, you don’t have to spend a lot to get started
Cons
- The prices of the products are very expensive
- MLMs are extremely hard to make a good living from
- Over 99% of people lose money in MLMs
- Most MLMs are on the border of being pyramid schemes because you can make more money from recruiting than from retail sales (I don’t think Yoli is an exception here – in my opinion.)
- If you don’t already have a big following, how will you find enough people to recruit?
There are endless problems with the way most MLMs are set up. I’m only listing a couple here. Obviously, you’re free to do what you like, but why make it hard on yourself by signing up for any MLM?
Even if Yoli isn’t a scam or a pyramid scheme, people are extremely skeptical. There’s even a whole (and rapidly growing) movement of anti-MLM’ers out there that are spreading awareness about these companies.
Why get involved when there’s much better ways to do things?
An Alternative to Yoli
Do you like the idea of promoting health and wellness products online for a commission? Why go to an MLM which will likely just rob you of your time and money, when you can do the same thing through affiliate marketing instead?
Except with affiliate marketing, there’s no:
- Bothering your friends and family
- Contacting anyone in your warm market
- Contacting anyone in your cold market
- Contacting anyone at all because there’s no recruiting
- Buying inventory
- Autoships
- Starter Packs
- Monthly PV amounts
Or anything else that makes MLMs almost impossible to conquer.
Instead, you create a website (which is very easy to do now) and you create content around your topic of choice. Then you can promote products on that topic, sign up for affiliate programs (which are free) and when someone buys a product from your site, you get a commission.
The customer doesn’t pay any more for the product than if they used a non-affiliate link, so this is a win for everyone.
I walk you through the affiliate marketing process even more here.
Conclusion
Is Yoli a scam? Technically it’s not a scam. It’s just one of many health-based multi-level marketing companies based out of Utah, USA. They have overpriced products that will likely be very hard to sell retail. Therefore, recruiting is pretty much the only way you even have a chance at making money with this.
If you don’t like the idea of recruiting, but you like the idea of making a living online promoting things that you’re interested in, then I highly suggest checking out affiliate marketing. This is my #1 recommendation for affiliate marketing training. They have a free membership option so you can check it out, and you don’t even need your credit card.
Other related content:
- Best Programs to Make Money Online
- This training program can teach you how to make a website that pays you over and over again