doTERRA is one of those well-known MLM companies that allows you to make money selling products. However, the primary way to do so is actually to recruit new independent distributors as you’d be. Since its inception, the MLM industry has seen a lot of changes. With the introduction of social media marketing strategies, search engines, and anything that is digital, it has become more tech-savvy. Hence, the need for lead generation strategies that focus on the online generation is key.
But focusing on the company alone, how do you know if doTERRA is the actual opportunity you need? For it, consider the business model or structure it follows, and we have mentioned. In addition, think about the profits and terms, and how you can work around the company.
It is also a good idea to learn the most about a company before you decide to join. Thus, going over its history, the founder, or finding as many details as possible can be great ideas.
We always recommend learning and studying about a business opportunity before taking the chance. Therefore, we will be helping you learn more about doTERRA for you to make a well-informed decision about this MLM company.
Moreover, keep in mind that we are not affiliated in any possible way, and this is pretty much an unbiased review you can rely on.
What is doTERRA? – Going Back to Its Origins
It is difficult to keep up with all the companies that are out there. Don’t feel guilty if you didn’t know about doTERRA a few years back just because of this and how overwhelmed you must be with other businesses.
We will only give you a brief but crucial overview of the company and its operations to ensure we are on the same page.
Let’s start by noting that doTERRA was founded by David Stirling, Emily Wright, and David Hill in April 2008. Young and Mark A. Wolfert were also involved in its formation.
These executives were all once employees of Young Living. This is a company that provided very similar to doTERRA’s signature products: Essential Oils.
The company had around 100 employees when it started as an MLM business. In 2013, however, this number grew to 350 at the Utah headquarters and 100 at offices in Taiwan, Japan, and Europe.
doTERRA later announced that it would construct a new headquarters at Pleasant Grove, Utah.
The company’s core products are based entirely on essential oils. These are wellness and healing products that can help with a variety of issues, including pain and aging, as well as many other things, depending on which oil is used.
You will never find out the story behind the founders’ idea for starting the company or how they came up with it.
MLM companies are not known for sharing much information about their founders. They focus solely on the sale of their products and services and the opportunities they offer.
This is why it can be a bit hard to come up with the details you must be curious about.
Also, despite the company’s operating for over a decade now, there isn’t much information about success stories or statements other than the basics.
How doTERRA works: MLM Structure & Members
We have already mentioned MLM, so you should be aware that the company uses this multilevel marketing strategy.
The structure is straightforward: After purchasing products at lower prices from the company, you sell them and generate income. However, more than selling products, you make money by recruiting new distributors to doTERRA.
Distributors are also known as wellness advocates in this MLM. They sell products for a commission and can climb up the ranks to receive more benefits depending on the scale set by the company (this is also part of your role or benefit).
According to the company, in 2015, they had more than 1,650 employees and over 3 million wellness professionals in 100 countries. They also sold therapeutic-grade essential oils.
MLM’s are often criticized since they follow a very similar (if not the same) structure of an illegal pyramid scheme. Thus, many consider doTERRA an illegal pyramid program.
Multilevel marketing is known for its aggressive recruiting practices. The prices of their products are often much higher than the price you would pay in a shop for a similar product.
To keep things simple, here’s how you can make money:
- Get involved in the MLM program, and you can become a wellness advocate.
- You can sell products and earn prizes and commissions.
- You can recruit people to get better benefits and higher earnings.
It is clear that recruiting employees is what will make you money long-term, but it can also indicate that the company’s mission may be in question. Why? Because they are the first to become rich through the hard work of others.
All businesses want to make money. The problem is in what they offer in return. In this instance, we have distributors who earn money by getting others to join the wellness advocate program, but the payment for each new person is very low (most of the time):
Commissions for selling products can be quite low, and it can be difficult to get started as well. We’ll get into it later.
What Is Essential Oil? – Before Mentioning the Company
Since doTERRA’s products are all about these, we just find it crucial to define a thing or two so you know what items you will be working with.
Essential oils are liquid extracts from various plants that have potential benefits. These plants can be extracted from the plant by manufacturing processes.
They can often be stronger than the essential oils from plants and have higher amounts of active ingredients. This is due to the fact that essential oils require a lot of plant matter.
There are many ways essential oils can be extracted by manufacturers, including:
- Water distillation or steam. This involves passing water or hot steam through plants to extract the essential compounds from their matter.
- Cold pressing. This involves mechanically pressing or sucking plant matter to release essential oils or juices. This is evident in the way you smell lemon after zesting or squeezing a lemon.
Some manufacturers add active compounds to carrier oils after extracting them from plant matter. This allows for more products with the same amount. These products will not be pure essential oils but will contain a mix of them.
But what are they used for?
Manufacturers use essential oils to make a variety of products. The cosmetic and makeup industry uses essential oils to create perfumes, add fragrance to creams and body washes.
The main use lies in helping with aging, pain, and specific benefits based on the type of the oil and how it was made.
Products & Investment: Joining & Selling in doTERRA
With the basics about what essential oils do, we can move on with the specific products the company offers besides the oils in specific as well.
You can’t deny that if you are here, that means you are interested in learning more about this business or how to become an advocate. We recommend that you carefully read the review before making a final decision.
DoTERRA’s main products include essential oils, but these are not the only options.
The company’s focus is on natural products and wellness, so you have many options if you want to sell them or join.
- Essential Oils.
- Personal Care.
- Supplements.
- Kits & Collections.
- Accessory and diffusers.
The website states that the prior ones are the most popular and account for about 70% of sales and earnings.
How can you be an advocate for the products that you are going to be working with?
To become an advocate and access products at lower prices or earn commissions, you’ll need to pay $35 to sign up for your first membership. For renewal, $25 per year is required.
This MLM company is quite affordable and cheap compared to others. The real investment comes down to the terms and conditions you must follow.
- You must sell a certain number of products each month to qualify for commissions or bonuses when you recruit people. This is called PV (personal volume).
- Your personal volume starts at 50 but increases to 100 as you progress in the ranks.
- 50 PV is the same price as $50. If you can’t sell the minimum amount in a month, you will need to pay for the products to keep your membership or avoid losing future benefits.
The issue is whether you can sell anything within the first month. This is critical for small businesses and distributors as selling just one item is not enough.
These $50 will typically be paid from your pocket.
We should also mention that doTERRA has two options for joining. You have the option to pay the $35 previous membership and then buy the products you sell or to get a starter set that already includes the fee.
Starter kits can cost anywhere from $150 to $500. We don’t recommend them.
You are the only one who can decide whether you want to join MLM or not.
DoTERRA – Getting Paid & Becoming Rich…?
We have numbers about investment and payments, but we don’t know what part of the MLM business is worth your time: Your potential earnings and commissions.
You must follow a compensation program as it is established for multilevel marketing companies.
DoTERRA offers two ways to make money.
- 25% commissions are earned by selling products. This is a retail bonus since you purchase the products at lower prices.
- Enrolment results in bonuses.
This company is different from other companies that offer the same system. It doesn’t pay a commission for you to bring in new wellness advocates. Your achievements are what will earn you the bonus.
You get a 20% commission if you enroll someone within your first 60-days.
This is the same as before, except they get 10% if they enroll another person within the same number of days and 5% if they bring another person.
Other bonuses that follow the recruitment process include:
- If you recruit three people who meet the 100 PV quota each month, you get $50. You can earn $250 if they are part of your frontline or one of the three others, and $1.5k if they help your frontline.
- The uni-level bonus you receive varies from 2 to 7 percent in commissions, depending on your rank or level according to the doTERRA scale.
It can be difficult to grasp this concept, so we will simplify it: Making money is from selling products and recruiting other people. Those members must recruit many more as well for you to earn profits.
If you are looking for compensation, it is a never-ending process since recruitments need to be done frequently, and nothing guarantees these people you bring will continue buying, selling, and recruiting. Thus, you need to keep your downline alive by bringing new ones.
The Pros and Cons of Joining
Although we could immediately give our verdict, it would not make sense if we didn’t explain a bit the part of the good and the bad. Because, yes, there is something good but bad at the same time as well.
We prefer that people can see the reasons why they should do or not do something or take advantage of an opportunity. We will certainly give our opinion, but we won’t divulge any company details that haven’t been disclosed or found out after research or experience. So, you can trust what we mention below:
Pros:
- Since it sells real products, it is not a pyramid scheme. On the other hand, schemes involve only recruiting people to make money, and you spend a lot while receiving nothing.
- Product sales can help you make more money than other MLMs with very low commissions.
- The company is legally registered and, despite being relatively new, it runs smoothly at the time we are writing this.
- Essential oils work and are rea products in terms of legal and usage.
- It follows a proven business model.
Cons:
- Although you have great commissions, your company’s products are difficult to sell due to their high prices and poor reviews.
- Your finances and income will be affected by the 50- and 100-voltage conditions.
- More than just selling products, recruiting people is the real deal.
- Even if you’re a strong advocate and recruit many members, it can be difficult to attain certain ranks or levels.
- It is not your efforts alone that will make you money. You must rely on others to make it happen.
- The MLM industry is quite saturated, and it can be hard to find new customers that usually have a bad experience with other companies.
- You can’t earn much money. Most distributors earn between $250 to $1,000 annually.
doTERRA isn’t a liar when it comes to working in an MLM company. It pays what its compensation plan says. However, it is a scam when you see that the recruitment bonuses are what will make real money.
It takes a lot to manage recruits and to build a team to earn the bonus.
We believe that businesses should be easier. Although it takes a lot of work, the rewards you’ll get in the end are worth it.
Company Investigations: Why We wouldn’t Join
DoTERRA is not an exception among those companies that have been investigated over the years.
You must know that despite multilevel marketing being a legal structure, authorities often review it, and even some countries have decided to ban it due to how much the company earns. Still, the person doing the job doesn’t. Honestly, MLM is kind of shady.
Now, going back to Young Living, an essential oil competitor, brought a lawsuit against doTERRA, and this has to do with the mention of the co-founders being part of the company.
The lawsuit claimed that doTERRA founders were ex-executive at Young Living and had stolen trade secrets. They also claimed they illegally re-created Young Living’s manufacturing process.
doTERRA counter-claimed that Young Living falsified laboratory tests by injecting doTERRA’s peppermint oils sample with a chemical ingredient. This was an interesting twist to the lawsuit.
Additionally, doTERRA claimed that Young Living had posted these falsified results on the Internet one day before doTERRA’s distributor convention.
Young Living was eventually dismissed from the lawsuit against the company. The court found Young Living to have acted in bad faith and ordered it to pay doTERRA’s attorney costs.
The Food and Drug Administration also issued a warning to doTERRA for its Wellness Advocates’ promotion of the oils as treatments for diseases like cancer and autism in 2014.
To prevent this from happening again, the company created a large compliance team. Many distributors evaded this rule and told customers their personal stories about how the oils helped them with personal health problems.
A lot is revolving around the company, and we would love to work with an option that doesn’t involve dealing with third parties in terms of getting paid, waiting for the products and system to work, and dealing with lawsuits because of previous encounters.
What We Choose Before MLM Companies
We mentioned that we would share our opinions later. However, we believe you already know our thoughts: doTERRA isn’t worth your time or money.
We don’t mean to be negative; some people make a lot of money selling products. But the income is not significant. It’s just additional cash that you get after too much work for what you could have with a more traditional, simpler job.
It is not worth calling it a business chance if it doesn’t bring you great revenue and benefits.
What about bonuses? And what about when you are able to recruit many people? It is this time that we think it would be a great option. However, it has been shown that only 5% of wellness advocates rise to higher ranks and become wealthy with the company.
This is too complex and exhausting for us even to consider the opportunity. We prefer to avoid MLM companies and other similar business opportunities.
We prefer alternatives that allow us to be flexible in terms of location and finances.
Local lead generation is what we want from a business opportunity. It doesn’t need a lot of money, nor does it have to meet certain quotas or conditions.
It doesn’t take much to convince others that it works. The best part is that you work hard at the beginning but then start to earn passive income and more freedom.
What Is the Deal with This Business Opportunity?
Local lead generation is creating or building websites for clients (that you will either contact directly or bring your own way) and ensuring that their Google rankings are high so that organic traffic (free) is generated.
This traffic can generate relevant leads and be converted into potential clients for the companies who hired you.
It is easy to see: Customers are your clients. You get paid for every lead you generate.
It is hard work, but you can relax and work wherever you want.
There are no fees for membership or royalties. Although it takes time to find clients, build websites and generate leads, there is nothing you don’t know and can learn in just a few weeks.
You don’t need to worry about ongoing maintenance because it isn’t expensive to maintain websites. Also, they are only checked once in a while.
However, it is not an easy task, which is why it is crucial to gain the skills and knowledge you need. You will need a course or program to help increase your lead generation revenue.
This #1 training was a huge success for us, and you can see the outline here!
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.