I Heard Multi Level Marketing (MLM) is an illegal pyramid scheme. Is this true?

This is utter nonsense. Amway is perhaps the most well known, long term respected MLM company. There are countless others, including Avon, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Tupperware.

People often confuse MLM with "pyramid schemes - a form of multi-level marketing - involves paying commissions to distributors, only for recruiting new distributors. Pyramid schemes are illegal in most states, because the plans inevitably collapse when no new distributors can be recruited. When a plan collapses, most people - except those at the top of the pyramid - lose their money.

MLMs should pay commissions for the retail sales of goods or services, not for recruiting new distributors." - ftc.gov

Yes. Membership programs can be run as a 1 tier A.K.A. single tier affiliate programs, which compensate affiliates on direct sales only. If you prefer, you may run a membership site without any affiliate program attached.

No, powerlines are technically not MLM, since all qualifying sales are "passed up" to the first level of the receiver, and qualified members keep all direct sales.

Both Multi Level Marketing, and Powerline compensation plan programs, allow each member (and the admin) the opportunity to leverage their downline, by earning a portion of their downline's sales, and / or having complete sales pass up to them. MLM has made millionaires out of thousands of people, and supports many countless others with very comfortable lifestyles.

Some do, and some do not. You should check with your provider.

You do. You control and maintain your members and program. You own your business. We simply provide you with a software license, in the same way you might license Microsoft's Windows.

We will host your web site and database, or it you purchase the multi site / private label license, you may host your membership program(s) anywhere you wish.

Yes. See our order page for prices and details.

Absolutely. The server is managed for you.

Yes. You can use any html wysiwyg editor, and upload html files to edit and maintain the site. We can do this by "including" the html page inside a php page, which is the actual affiliate replicated website. If this sounds confusing, don't worry. We'll set it up for you, and show you the ropes.

The only catch is you cannot use php inside the html pages, which means if you want to add links, the links will not automatically have the sponsor ID dynamically inserted into them, as the base template does now. This is ok, since the session and 10 year cookie will still carry the sponsor's data page to page, The dynamic links are simply another measure of protection for the affiliate, in the event a visitor should bookmark a page within the site, delete their cookies, and return from their bookmark, the bookmark (if saved as a dynamic link) has the sponsor's username ID encoded into the link. Dynamic links offer maximum protect to the affiliate, however many sites run without dynamic links altogether, and still work just fine.

Yes. If you can use a text editor, such as wordpad or notepad to edit files and follow our simple instructions to work with headers and footers (using our templates) you will learn how to integrate your html pages quickly. You can always use Frontpage (or ANY html editor) to do your meat and potatoes design, and then do simple edits in a text editor, to make it compatible for use with our script on your web site.

Only if you are using the tracking system (our script cookie) on that page, which credits your affiliates. You may elect to have some static html pages, for such purposes as listings your terms, or help files, etc.. These should be somewhat limited, like for use as pop up windows.

Yes. We have a member self removal system. Members can remove themselves from any subscription programs, or from the entire database. In addition, removal links are sent in all mass membership emails (sent from the admin), all member to member downline emails (sent to members from their upline sponsors), and nag autoresponder emails, which are only sent out to members who are unpaid in all programs.

We have been advised, that if you simply define your affiliates as independent contractors (as we do in our terms template page, which members must agree to, before joining), you can easily avoid that extra paperwork. Nonetheless, we are not an attorneys, and this should not be considered legal council.

If your are using the member to member payment option, the affiliate member payment options will be decided by the payment processors they have chosen to list within their member profile. If they have only one payment option listed in their profile, only that one payment option will be shown on the site, to pay that member. The same holds true for the admin.

NOTE: If you are using the admin takes payment option (and makes payments to affiliates manually), then this does not apply, since affiliates will not need to supply any payment processors.

The admin and each member simply adds their username for the payment processor within their profile, and all payment links are created automatically for each member, in each program. Authorize.net requires an ARB Login Key and ARB Transaction Key. LinkPoint requires your LinkPoint Store Number and LinkPoint Account PEM File. Any of these options can be set up in less than 5 minutes. We can set these up for you, if desired. 

Yes. We do custom jobs upon request.

Yes. when you manually mark a member as paid, you mark them paid per period. The pay plans work the same way - our software will track and remove paid status in subscription based programs if the member remains unpaid after the subscription period ends, and the subsequent grace period expires.

If you're using payment processors supported by the software, it is fully automated. If you are accepting payments outside the program, you will need to mark those payments as paid. You should not attempt to run anything manually, besides support tickets and promotion, or you're setting yourself up for a difficult time. Support tickets can be set up to go to the sponsor.

No. FREE members (unless they upgrade to paid status), will simply "pass up" all sales to infinity. You may choose to allow free members or not. 

Allowing free members is a great lead generator. It gives people a chance to see your members area, and get on your members mailing list. This way, you have an instant opt in list, you can warm up over time. You can mass email your members anytime.

Yes, you may personalize your member's emails with their first and last names, and username in the affiliate links, may be inserted into their emails. All these fields are performed with custom tags, which may even be used in the subject line of your email. 

No. We have a special code you may use, at the top of each download page, that will only allow access to paid members. Unpaid members trying to access the download, will get redirected to the payment page.

Yes, you can easily change the number of qualifiers that are passed up, when the program is set up. We will gladly do this for you, and assist you with any help you may need in creating your program's compensation plan.

You get what you pay for. We have spent years designing our very unique model, and invested well over $200,000 in development time and money of Automatic Web Software. You won't find it anywhere else. 

Unlike a lot of cheap, outdated, or unsupported scripts out there, this one has been carefully upgraded again and again over time, to perform with great ease of use for the administrator, as well as the members. We are constantly developing and adding new features.

Most programmers never administer programs with the scripts they create, so often times things are left to chance, or are just plain USER UN-FRIENDLY. And support is usually nonexistent.

We stand behind our software 100%. If you ever have questions, you can email or even call us - and yes, we answer the phone.

For questions or order information, please call Jim at (207) 774-1293 9am-5pm EST, or email.

Contact Form Email Link

See you at the bank!

Jim Symonds
Software Developer / Creator / Owner, Automatic Web Software

P.S. Not sure what type of site to run? See our Membership Ideas.

P.P.S. Don't forget that this is a business expense, so it's TAX DEDUCTIBLE!