Someone introduced you to some LifeVantage products and business opportunities, but Is LifeVantage A Pyramid Scheme? If yes, you’ve come to the right place.
In my LifeVantage review, I’ll walk you through the below topics to help you make up your mind.
- What Is LifeVantage About?
- How to Make Money with LifeVantage?
- LifeVantage Compensation Plan
- LifeVantage 2021 Income Disclosure
- Can You Make Money Selling LifeVantage?
- Is LifeVantage A Pyramid Scheme?
- Is LifeVantage A Scam?
Before we start exploring this seemingly good opportunity, I like to promise you something first.
I am not associated with LifeVantage, so you won’t see me pitching or pushing to click a “JOIN NOW” button.
This review is my approach to examine whether it delivers or keeps things under promise. If yes, I’ll take a shot; if not, I will steer clear. Without further ado, let’s dive deep.
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is LifeVantage About?
-Summary of LifeVantage-
Product Name: LifeVantage
Founders: Darren Jensen in 1988
Product Type: A Health and Wellness MLM(Multi-Level Marketing)
Price: $50 Starter Kit+ $299-$999 Enrollment Packs + $50-130 Monthly Requirement
Recommend: No
LifeVantage is a health and wellness MLM company that sells various products and offers a chance to start your own business. You can also become its distributor to make money by promoting the products.
Darren Jensen built LifeVantage in 1988 as a retail store, which used to be called LifeLine Therapeutics, LifeLine Nutraceuticals, and Yaak River Resources, Inc. In 2009, they adopted a direct sales business model and became LifeVantage.
The flagship product is the famous Protandim which claims to reduce oxidative stress by 40% in just 30 days and which got proven to work by scientists.
However, is this an excellent opportunity to work from home & be your own boss? Let me show you more details right below, so you’ll get more information to be the judge yourself.
Inside LifeVantage
They have a wide range of health and wellness products and a business plan. Let’s start with products first.
Product Lines
LifeVantage products fall into the below categories:
- Nutrition: Protandim, omega 3, probiotics, energy mix, etc
- Beauty: Facial/body wash, lotion, deodorant, soothing balm, hair care products
- Fitness: Whey protein, fat-burn capsules, and prebiotic
- Pets: Petandim for dogs
- Donation: $1-$100 of donation to LifeVantage Legacy
The flagship product is the famous Protandim Nrf2 Synergizer, and some of you might hear of it before reading this review. It was proven to work for reducing oxidative stress by 40% in just 30 days, and it also gets the below health benefits:
- Helps the body detoxify genes, keeping the master blueprint of the cell’s function intact *
- Significantly reduces cellular stress through Nrf2 activation *
- Helps to regulate survival genes *
- Supports the body’s natural ability to repair and rejuvenate its own cells *
Do you notice tiny asterisks at the end of all the benefits mentioned above? This means The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.
So, you can’t use those wordings to promote the products. Otherwise, you’ll get yourself into trouble and face legal issues.
Do LifeVantage Products Work?
I don’t use LifeVantage products myself, so I cannot give you my firsthand experiences. I found what others said about Protandim on Amazon, both positive and negative. I hope they help you well.
Before joining any MLM business, knowing what products you are getting yourself into is vital.
You better try the products yourself beforehand. If the products work on you to make you feel a huge difference, you gain more confidence to sell the products to your customers.
-The Positive Reviews-
-The Negative Reviews-
How To Make Money With LifeVantage?
There are two ways to make money with LIfeVantage, and it’s the same for every MLM company.
- Selling products to make commissions
- Recruiting people to become your downlines to hit group sales targets for extra bonuses and incentives
Getting Started
To start your LifeVantage journey, you must purchase the $50 starter kit with the LifeVantage product guide, quick start guide, welcome letter, personalized referral site, personalized back-office reporting site, and access LifeVantage mobile app.
The second step is to purchase one of the enrollment packs, and here are the options:
- Premier Pack $299
- Essential Glow Pack $375
- Elite Pack $999
The cost doesn’t stop here! (What?)
To stay active with LifeVantage, there is a minimum monthly requirement. For every distributor, it’s 100PV in 49 calendar days, around $130 worth of products. At least 40 PV($50) must come from personal product purchases, with the remaining PV coming from purchases made by personally enrolled Customers.
Now, we can try to calculate the total cost to become a LifeVantage distributor in the first year:
- Starter Kit $50
- Enrollment Packs $299-$999
- Monthly Requirement $130*12=$1,560
The best case is to spend $1,909, while the worst case is $2,609. Compared to a brick-and-mortar business, it’s far less, but it’s still a huge investment for everyday people like you and me.
Other costs, such as additional training, travel, gas, food, or miscellaneous expenses, are not included, so the total cost must be higher than my calculation here.
LifeVantage Compensation Plan
Like other MLM companies, the compensation plan is the hardest thing to understand. I have migraines every time I read them. Don’t worry here. I’ve tried my best to make things easier for you.
- Retail Sales Profit: Earn commissions between distributor price and retail price
- Smart Start Bonus: Earn 30-40% of the sales made by you and your downlines in your first 30 days of enrollment
- Launch Bonus: Earn 1-5% of CV when you hit the rank of pro 3 with 200PV
- Unilevel Commissions: See chart below
- Generational Matching Bonus: Earn 5-10% of all personally enrolled distributors’ unilevel commissions when you hit the rank of pro 3 with 200PV in a given month
- Global Elite Bonus Pool: Earn 4% of the total global product volume when you are Elite Pro 7 and above
- One-time Rank Achievement Bonus: Earn a one-time bonus from $100,000-$500,000 when you hit Master Pro 10 or above
- Multiple Business Centers: Build additional legs to earn extra bonuses and sales commissions for when you hit Premier Pro 5
Having a headache now? Just remember to sell as many LifeVantage products as possible and, recruit people & teach them to do the same. You’ll start receiving commissions, bonuses, and incentives.
How Much Do You Need to Sell to Stay Active?
To stay active, you need to have a 100PV($130) product volume and 40PV($50) personal purchases. The higher the ranks, the more product volume you need to achieve.
Ugly Truth About LifeVantage
TOP#1 Expensive Products
Like other health & wellness MLMs, LifeVantage’s products are more expensive than those you can find online. It’s the same for every health & wellness MLM company so they can pay their distributors commissions to save the marketing costs.
I’ve reviewed some MLMs that offer similar products as LifeVantage. Name a few here:
Taking the LifeVantage Probiotics as an instance, it costs $50.99 for 90 capsules, while the other Amazon’s highest-rated products only cost $5.5-10.
They share the same health benefits, and every product has similar ingredients. If people can get 5 times cheaper products, what is the point people buy LifeVantage products? What makes LifeVantage products stand out from the crowd?
TOP#2 LifeVantage 2021 Income Disclosure
I found some interesting numbers from Lifevatage 2021 income disclosure.
- 97.58% of paid distributors make less than $1,000 per month
- The average annual earnings of a typical LifeVantage Distributor for 2021 is $704
- Only 0.19% of paid distributors make decent money with LifeVantage
This list only shows the gross earnings instead of the net earnings, so the real average earnings must be lower than what we saw today.
I don’t think it’s really a “work from home and be your boss” opportunity, so think twice before making the final decision.
TOP#3 Hidden Monthly Cost
Besides the expensive products and the low-income potential, there is another pain in the head, the monthly required product volume(100PV, $130) and personal volume(40PV, $50.)
If you cannot sell the products to anyone around you, you probably purchase the products yourself to keep active. After a few months, your storeroom will be full of unused products, and your debt is also stockpiling.
You and other distributors who try to stay active become LifeVantage’s most loyal customers, and that’s probably why people fail to make money with any MLM companies.
What I Liked About LifeVantage
TOP#1 The Longevity
It’s often said that more than half of new businesses fail during the first year, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years.
LifeVantage started its operation in 1988, and it’s a legitimate MLM company that offers health and wellness products for people living a healthier life. It’s a good sign that they won’t disappear tomorrow.
TOP#2 A 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Based on the refund and return policy, any unopened products and marketing materials could be returned within thirty (30) days of purchase, and you’ll receive a 100% refund.
Can You Make Money Selling LifeVantage?
Yes, I am sure you can make money with LifeVantage, especially those extroverts who like to meet different people and talk about the same products repeatedly. If you were this type of person, any MLM business opportunity like LifeVantage is a MUST-GO.
Based on the income disclosure, only 0.19% of LIfeVantage distributors make decent money per year. So, it’s obviously not a “work from home and be your own boss” opportunity.
I don’t recommend you quit your 9-5 jobs and make this your primary income in the beginning since it’s far from enough to pay your bills.
Is LifeVantage A Pyramid Scheme?
Let’s read Wikipedia’s definition of a pyramid scheme. “A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products.”
LifeVantage offers health and wellness products that help people live healthier, so we cannot call it a pyramid scheme.
However, some people call it a pyramid scheme because most compensation plans mainly focus on recruitment instead of products sales.
Is LifeVantage A Scam?
No, it’s not a scam either. Normally, a scam or a pyramid scheme cannot survive the first year once people complain and report to the authority.
LifeVantage also operates for three decades so far. If they were a scam, they couldn’t survive this long and keep growing for the next decade.
When it comes to making money online, there are plenty of options on the internet, such as freelancing, dropshipping, GPT sites, drop services, or affiliate marketing. Wanna know my top pick?
My Alternative Way to Make Money Online
My alternative way to make money online is through affiliate marketing instead of promoting LifeVantage products in person.
Imagine you sell LifeVantage products to your friends, family, or anyone you know. Don’t you feel embarrassed or blushed? They might avoid you ever since.
Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:
- It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
- You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
- There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
- You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
- You are not restricted to promoting one product. You can promote anything you like!
- Work on your schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!
You only need to start a blog with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your product reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value.
If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here come your earning potentials.
The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.
You are more than welcome to check my full Wealthy Affiliate review HERE, or click the button right below to start your online journey with us.
Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof
Here are some of the most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.
- I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
- Can someone make a full-time income promoting WA? You bet they can!
- What Does $1000 Per Day Look Like?$
- 40,000 In One Weekend
- A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month – August Progress Report
- It’s Getting Better: $500+ in 2 Days
- Newbies Pay Attention! $5,195.20 Affiliate Check for June: Thanks, WA!
- Joined the 10K Per Month Club. January Earnings $13,481.39
- New Record: $1,300+ Per DAY! Affiliate Marketing Works & Rocks!
- Made $7,395 in a WEEK: First Black Friday Results!
I hope you enjoy this review, and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
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I have my own experience with an MLM network similar to this way back. Although I did earn money whilst I’m a member, I didn’t like it.
These are my reasons, first, you need to invest hundreds of dollars upfront, the products are really expensive. Second, you’ll feel greedy to level up your earnings, so you’ll need to invest more. Last but not the least, which I really hate is, getting all your family members, relatives, & friends to join.
There’s a need to recruit people continuously.
Even though you can make money from MLM networks such as LifeVantage, it’s not the only way to make money online these days. I would prefer affiliate marketing online rather than this.
Hi Mina,
It’s good to see you back on my blog again, and I hope this review helps you well. 🙂
To keep your success with MLM, you need to do consistent recruitment to have people underneath your team so that you and your downlines can hit target sales for more bonuses & incentives. And, many people fail to make money because they jump into the business without considering this. But, you did a good job of recouping your investment since many people lose money in the end.
I agree with you that there are many ways to make money, and MLM isn’t the only method. I recommend that people start a blog to run an affiliate marketing business like what I do here on my humble blog, which starts generating a passive income stream after 19 months. If I can do this, everyone could do this. 🙂
Matt
It’s really expensive to become a distributor for them. You need to invest a lot of money first and then work hard to recover that money first and then maybe make some commissions … this puts unnecessary pressure on anyone starting out. No wonder the people at the top make all the money. I think that it is possible to make money with this but I wouldn’t pay so much to sign up.
The product isn’t proven to work either. It may work for some people but not for everyone as I can see in the reviews. In order to sell a product you must be confident of its effectiveness and if you can’t be confident about it, then how can you sell it, right?
Hi Christine,
Yes, you totally get my points. It’s good to know we are on the same boat about joining an MLM business or not. I am glad to connect with another likely-minded person here on my blog. I love it!
The start-up cost with LifeVantage is $2,560 to $3,460. It is too high to cover for most everyday people like you and me. To recoup your cost to start this business, you need to consistently sell tons of products to others and recruit people to become your downlines. Let’s not forget about the overpriced products, which make it really hard to sell…
That’s why I don’t suggest people try MLM in the first place. For me, the best way to make money is through affiliate marketing. It doesn’t take you much to start a blog to run your online business. This particular platform will teach you how to build it from scratch.
Cheers,
Matt