Is 5Linx a Pyramid Scheme or Scam? Let’s Find Out.

I know a ton about MLM programs and which ones to stay away from and in this review, I’ll be covering the one known as 5linx, and explaining if it’s a scam, pyramid scheme or if it’s actually legitimate.

Quick Report on 5Linx:

Price: $249 base price to join. Added and optional $49.95/monthly charge for getting an extra service.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 10 stars.

Like most MLM and direct marketing programs, this company has the same things I honestly dislike about such places. The only good thing about it is that you can sell rather good priced/high quality products. 

The main problem though is their starting price for doing that and even worse is the MLM side of things, which while optional is not the type of opportunity I’d recommend to anyone because I feel like it’s a waste of time based on what I saw. I will explain all of these things in details but…

In the meantime, do note that my final opinion will not be very favorable of this company and if you’re looking for alternatives, I have one that is levels superior/easier and more legitimate than 5Linx:

What is 5Linx? The nutshell explanation:

Basically it’s direct sales (network marketing) and MLM combo company that offers people an “opportunity” to make money 2 ways:

1) You can sell “their” products and services.

There’s currently a bunch of them and they sell anything from coffee/tea to health products, security services, credit repair options, TV services and a bunch of other things from a wide range of topics.

The idea is that by selling in demand products, you can make “easy money”. 

2) There is an MLM side of things.

Where if you refer a certain amount of people, you can make money from each and their earnings also make you money. Basically a pyramid type structure, but is it a scheme? We’ll examine that shortly.

Basically, you can earn money as a single business owner or together with your team (referrals) in bulk and earn points/money. 

The pros and cons of selling the products and services of 5Linx:

Since you can make money with 5Linx via 2 different ways, and there are pros and cons to each method, for now, I’m just going to isolate the pros and cons of the first method:

Pros:

1) You’re selling generally highly reviewed products/services. I’ve looked through the reviews of several of the products and services and they get pretty high ratings, so at the very least, the options you have to sell here are good quality things people like. 

2) You get a website/store as far as I know with a shopping cart to help you sell these products.

Cons:

1) You can buy and even sell these products on your own without having to register with 5Linx itself. This saves you money and time.

Normally direct/network marketing companies have their own products they sell for higher prices, which makes them a rip off.

In the case of 5Linx, they sell third party programs/services that are priced well and have high quality, but when you have to pay $249 to become a member of this program, its not a good solution.

So here’s a question you may ask:

How can you promote these products if you’re not a member of 5LinX? Easy: 

You can join places like Amazon.com (which sell a lot of these products), or directly Google the product name, find the official site, join their affiliate program and then sell it. Here’s more information on affiliate marketing and why it’s a better option than buying an expensive membership in 5Linx.

The commissions you’d earn from doing this vs being a member of 5Linx and selling them there are nearly identical in math, except when you include the fact that you pay an upfront fee of $249, it’s not worth it…

Now for the pros/cons of the MLM side 5linx (Is it a pyramid scheme!?):

So now we’ll examine the pros and cons of the other opportunity of making money with 5Linx which involves recruiting people into this program (the one I don’t like).

Pros:

You get a good commission for signing up people initially.

Basically for 2 people, you can make $250, for 3 people, $400, for 5, $1,000, but it has to be in the first 30 days of joining. I don’t know if this compensation continues after the 30 days though, but it is quite a commission.

Now when I say signing up people, I mean that you get them to register, PAY the company the $249 or whatever else to become a member, then you earn the money.

Cons:

I don’t like the compensation program and here’s why:

1) Though you get paid decent commissions initially, there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to remain a member in my opinion, because it gets tougher and tougher to get other people to join.

2) A lot of their compensation model revolves around you getting new referrals, those referrals getting others and they all have to basically continue to pay for services/refer new members to help you continue to make money.

3) Even if a lot of your referrals buy the services (such as the TV package they offer), they payout is extremely minuscule, at least this is the impression I got from their own presentation video:

So let me break it down:

Look at where it shows 5 people at the top. If they EACH (this is an important word here) refer 10 people and they all pay for one of the products sold in 5Linx (The TV service called TeeVee), you get $25/month for this.

This is a BAD deal in my opinion because you have to basically get 50 people to buy a package and for 50 people, you only get $25 and that’s considering ALL 50 people remain.

This is horrible compensation in my opinion and that first level is hard enough to reach, let alone the others beneath it which become even less likely to get to, and even if you do, the payout is still going to be ridiculously hard to reach and even harder to maintain if somehow you make it. 

The bottom line about the compensation model:

The only good thing about the compensation model is that you initially get good commissions for signups. In my opinion, the other offers (which can get to good levels) are almost impossible to reach, so there’s no point in even examining it…

So if you look at their presentation, study their compensation model/opportunity, all this common talk within MLM programs about “if you refer so and so people” is worthless. Look at the REALITY of getting that many people and you’ll see how hard/impossible it can be and once you realize that, then those POTENTIAL earnings mean nothing.

Final Rating: 5Linx.

Red Flag

2 out of 10 stars. There’s SOME minor opportunities I like, but overall, you have to work a lot hard with the program in my opinion to make bank VS working on your own without the program to sell the same products and you can earn way more that way in my opinion.

And with the latter option (if that’s what you want to do), the training program alternative I suggested would teach you to do this legitimately, without paying so much to get the “opportunity” like you would need to buy into from 5Linx.

Here’s what I really think is going on inside 5Linx:

I’m going to make a few, very controversial points right now and if you’re a member of this place and disagree with me, let’s have a civil debate in the comments section below, so here goes:

1) First:

I believe the products/services sold inside 5Linx are not created by them. It looks like they partnered with them, very similar to how other programs in the MLM industry do things.

This basically means the company doesn’t really create anything of it’s own and if that’s the case, you have an empty company offering inflated prices…(a case to be made for a potential scam/pyramid scheme).

2) Second:

You can find and sell these same products and services on your own by individually registering with each company, so this freelance approach is cheaper, although you need good sales training to sell these things.

The Wealthy Affiliate program in my opinion happens to be one of the best for this goal and there are some incredible results and success stories other members of Wealthy Affiliate have as well.

3) Third:

Most of their sales will come from people buying their expensive membership, not exactly people who recruit others/make sales for the company. This means a lot of people fail in these companies.

4) Fourth:

I HIGHLY doubt that even 1% of all the people who join their program will be able to recruit many others, and even less likely those people being able to recruit others. It usually never happens that way and most people usually don’t get far (sometimes it’s their own fault, but in this case, the system here and the sales quotas they have to make bank are ridiculously tough.

5) Fifth:

Their recruitment formula is OK for the first 30 days, but after that it doesn’t seem worth it. You’re referring people into a system where they have to re-refer others to make bank. And what is offered is nothing but opportunity. That’s why there’s an argument to be made about this being a pyramid scheme. I am learning on the yes side as of now…

The final word:

So overall, in my opinion, this is a program that sells other company’s products as though it’s their own (maybe it’s not their intent to look like that, but I see it that way) and on top of it offers a empty referral program where recruitment IN MASS amounts makes you little money in the end and only a good amount in the first 30 days. 

I don’t think paying $249 for this is worth it.

You can totally become more successful on your own without this company’s “help”.

A better option:

I have mentioned several times throughout this review that I do sales through a company that doesn’t operate like 5Linx. The company I work with is completely legitimate and teaches you ways to market/sell ANYTHING.

I work from home at my computer whenever I want and have build a whole business out of it (about me). The company which taught me that is here and I highly recommend it above 5Linx:

1) It’s legitimate.

2) It’s NOT constricting like 5Linx. 

3) You can do it for free (instead of paying a crazy $249!).

4) You get more commissions per sale vs having to make MASSES of sales for little.

Overall, I do not like MLM programs and stay away from them for their deceptive nature (my personal opinion). I have looked at 5Linx from an unbiased perspective and the only thing I have seen that makes it OK is the initial money you can make from referring people. But that appears to end quickly.

Everything else they sell/offer is either hard to make money with in my opinion, or you can sell them without being part of this company.