In my nearly 30 years in the network marketing industry, I've seen more compensation plans that I care to admit. From the most basic cut-and-dried single level affiliation such as Amazon.com offers, to the most bizarre double-forced-matrix-with-infinite-cycling monsters that would make a Mensa member gasp in disbelief. In the past few years, a new animal has emerged on the scene that's different from the conventional multiple-level compensation plans of yester-decade. It's known as the one-up or, in some cases, it has morphed into a two-up arrangement. I call them OUMs - One-Up-Marketing plans. The mechanism is deceptively simple. You pay your fee and you become a member. When you recruit your first member, you pass them up (hence the term, one-up) to your sponser, and continue your recruiting. The very next recruit is yours. In many programs, this second recruit yields a 100% commission, thereby canceling out your initial entry fee. Your third recruit puts you solidly in the black. In a two-up program, however, your second recruit ALSO goes to your sponsor, and you are back to the drawing board, searching for your third. Only after signing up your FOURTH recruit (first and second one go to your sponsor, 3rd one offsets your cost of joining) are you finally in the black.
Often, these two-up programs are also high-ticket opportunities. They don't come cheap. The marketing hype goes something like this: "Wouldn't YOU like to have $1,000 checks arriving in your account a few times per week?" What is rarely mentioned is the advertising budget (and/or long-term industry experience) required to achieve such results.
The appeal, particularly to the heavy hitters, is huge. When someone "passes up" their qualifying sale, that new recruit, in essence, joins the sponsor's frontline, thereby "replacing" the original member. As long as that process continues, the sponsor enjoys an endless stream of 100% commissions on that "line". In a two-up arrangement, the new recruit provides TWO replacements (presumably in case one is a dud?), thus actually expanding their sponser's frontline!
Unfortunately, for the unwitting novice, just testing their little toe in the shark-infested waters of network marketing, it's all too common that they manage to recruit one and not two, or in the case of a two-up, one or two, but never the third. And they are left holding both the entry fee bag AND the effort and expense of recruiting their "qualifying" members.
For the entry-level marketer looking at one-ups and two-ups, I recommend sticking with a one-up, and walk before you run! You can cut your teeth on a $50 one-up just as easily (maybe even MORE easily) as you can on a $1,000 two-up. And if you decide to wander away from the program, it's a MUCH cheaper education.
