Is doTERRA a Scam? – Another Pyramid Scheme Revealed?!

Welcome to my doTERRA review!

Chances are, one of your friends or relatives has just introduced to you this amazing Essential Oil company called doTERRA, which could help you improve your health and bring you wealth at the same time.

First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" product or business opportunity.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!

To be completely transparent with you, I'm not associated with doTERRA is any form.

So, I'm not here to pitch you any products or to lure you into any business opportunities.

You can expect an unbiased 3rd party review which I'll be revealing to you some of the ugly truths you need to know before joining doTERRA.

Is doTERRA a scam? Or is it a pyramid scheme?

Here's the truth...

Some Background Info...

doTERRA is a Utah-based Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company selling Essential Oils.

The name “doTerra” comes from Latin and simply means – Gift Of The Earth.

doTERRA's major direct competitor is another Essential Oil MLM company called Young Living.

Young Living was founded back in 1993 while doTERRA only came in existence in 2008.

Interestingly, doTERRA was founded by David Stirling and former executives, employees & distributors of Young Living.

So, in essence, doTERRA is like a copycat, adopting what's already working with Young Living and use that to form doTERRA.

I'm not saying being a copycat is bad, as long as they can make it even better than the existing ones, right?

There's also no guarantee that older companies are definitely better.

So, in this doTERRA review, I'll be discussing the standard 2 main aspects of an MLM company - its product line & the business opportunity...

doTERRA Product Line

doTERRA started out as an Essential Oil company.

Essential Oils are still their main products but they've since expanded their product line to include other areas like personal care products, supplements, weight loss products, etc.

So, let me just list down some of their products in each category to give you an idea because they have simply too many of them:

• Essential Oils - Include both Single Oils & Proprietary Blends (Some Single oils include lavender, peppermint & lemon. Proprietary blends include peace, elevation & serenity)
• doTERRA On Guard Series - Hand wash, laundry detergent, toothpaste, etc...
• doTERRA Breathe Series - Respiratory drops, vapor stick (Things that help with your breathing & respiratory issues)
• DigestZen - Essential oils and supplements for people with digestive issues
• Personal Care - Skincare, body care, hair care products
• Supplements - Daily fruits & vegetables, daily vitality, children's supplements, women's supplements, etc...
• Weight Loss - Meal replacement shakes, metabolic gum, soft gels, etc...
• Other products include essential oil diffusers and other relevant gadgets/accessories.

doTERRA claimed that their products are CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade.

And they always use this as the proof to show customers that their essential oils are not just pure but they actually have therapeutic effects to our body.

However, the problem is that this "CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade" is actually not accredited or backed by any authorities or associations.

As you can see from this post, the therapeutic effect of essential oils is just a lie and marketing strategy. There's no such thing as real  therapeutic essential oils that is certified by FDA.

It's just a trademark doTERRA registered themselves for their own distillation and purification process of their oils.

I'm not saying doTERRA's essential oils are totally useless.

Yes, they do have their own positive health effects.

However, they're definitely not as magical as their distributors/advocates claim when they simply want to sell you their products and make money.

Just like any other traditional MLM company, there are 2 main ways for you to make money with doTERRA:

• Sell their products and earn retail commissions
• Recruit people and build your downline teams to earn various bonuses

However, in order for you to get started with this business, you have to first pay a $35 registration fee, which is pretty reasonable when compare to many other MLM companies that charge hundreds of dollar for beginners just to get started.

After that, you're officially known as their "Wellness Advocates", the term they use to describe distributors.

On top of that, doTERRA requires its distributors to spend at least $100 per month on the company's product in order to qualify for sales commissions.

Although this is one of the reasons I don't like MLM, it's pretty common in this business.

doTERRA Compensation Plan

There are 4 main ways for you to get paid with doTERRA's compensation plan:

1. Retail Bonus - You earn 25% commission from all the retail sales you make (pretty straight forward)
2. Fast Start Bonus - Within the first 60 days, this Fast Start Bonus allows new distributors to earn higher percentage commissions from their first 3 levels of downlines (Level 1: 20%, Level 2: 10%, Level 3: 5%)
3. Power of Three Bonus - Additional cash bonuses when you and/or your downlines successfully recruit 3 downlines and meet the requirements (Cash bonus include $50, $250, $1,500)
4. Unilevel Bonus - This is where true residual income happens in your doTERRA MLM business. You'll earn a percentage of your downlines' overrides down 7 levels deep. (The difference between doTERRA and other companies is that in doTERRA, the deeper you go, the higher the percentage of your unilevel commission)

As many of you know, MLM's compensation plan is often very complicated.

I've just given you a brief explanation. For more detailed explanation, please watch the video below:

1. Growing Market

Studies have shown that Essential Oil is a growing market because of 3 main reasons:

1. An increase in awareness/understanding of Essential Oils due to the growth of Direct Selling companies like doTERRA & Young Living
2. Digital marketing helps to boost this awareness even more
3. At the same time, there's an increase in health & wellness trend all over the world

This is a good reason for you to get involved in such business because of this booming market.

Due to the rising trend, there are many more companies start to sell essential oils.

For example, other MLM companies like Melaleuca, Essante Organics, Arbonne & Youngevity are all selling essential oils.

However, the problem with these companies is that they are selling a wide range of other product and essential oil is just a small part.

Many of low quality essential oils in the market are not 100% pure. Many of them simply use chemicals to produce the synthetic aroma.

So, the advantage of companies like doTERRA and Young Living is that Essential Oils is their main focus and they definitely have higher quality essential oils for their customers.

2. Accredited by BBB

Also, doTERRA has just been accredited by Better Business Bureau (BBB) in 2017 with an A+ rating:

However, one thing is take note is that they have quite a lot of customer complaints as you can see from the screenshot above!

1. Don't Have Their Own Farms

Despite doTERRA and Young Living are both legitimate Essential Oil companies, there's a huge difference between them and that is...

doTERRA does not own any of their own farms while Young Living is the ONLY essential oil company today that has their own farms located all over the world.

Owning their farms ensure the quality of their plants and the oils they distill.

I'm not saying doTERRA has lousy oils just because they partner with other farms.

But logically speaking, you can better ensure the quality of your own products if you have your own farms, right?

Seeing from this perspective, I would recommend Young Living more than doTERRA because they're the ONLY company that has their own essential oil farms.

2. Recruit, Recruit, Recruit...

Yes, just like any other MLM, you're expected to recruit other salespeople in order to increase your own profits.

doTERRA is definitely not a pyramid scheme because they have their own products to sell and they do not solely rely on recruiting people.

But the truth is this...

You can only make a certain amount of money by retailing and selling doTERRA products. Yo can't even earn residual income from retail sales.

All the big checks and residual/passive income comes from recruiting.

Again, I'm also not saying recruiting is a bad thing because if you know how to recruit appropriately, you can still make a lot of money.

However, the problem is that majority of the people don't know how to recruit in the right way.

Traditional MLMs always teach people to come up with a list of 100 people who are your friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors, etc. Then contact them one by one and try to sell them either the products or the business opportunity.

This is the fastest way for many people to join the "NFL Club", also known as the "No Friend Left Club".

Just take a look at companies like Now Lifestyle, they're moving towards combining internet marketing with MLM.

If there are ways for you to attract leads & customers and let them come to you automatically, would you still go out their and try to pitch your friends and family?

Internet is the future and it is happening now. So, why do you still want to follow the traditional way of doing things and make yourself miserable?

3. Inappropriate Marketing Tactics

Since recruiting is the lifeblood of this business, many distributors tend to exaggerate the effectiveness of their products and the profitability of the business.

In 2014, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) sent a warning letter to doTERRA for marketing its products as possible treatments or cures for Ebola, cancer, autism and other conditions in violation of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act.

Although this kind of thing doesn't just happen to doTERRA, it's another sign which shows people are desperate to make sales and recruit people into the business.

4. Low Earning Potential

Last but not least, this is the shocking evidence that I want to show you...

Below is the screenshot from doTERRA's income disclosure statement:

At first, I was surprised...

Wow, 62% of the people have an average annual earnings of $27,557?!

WRONG!!

This is the first time I see such a misleading income disclosure from a MLM company.

The screenshot above is only for the "Leaders" in doTERRA. (As you can see the ranks start from Silver to Presidential Diamond)

The sad truth is that ONLY 1% of the entire distributor network made it to one of these leadership ranks!

And as you can see from the screenshot below, there are 6 different ranks below Silver: Wellness Advocate, Manager, Director, Executive, Elite and Premier.

I didn't made up all these. They clearly stated that ONLY 1% of the distributors made it to the leadership rank (Silver and above).

In other words, at least more than 95% of the distributors failed to make a sustainable income to even pay their bills.

No, doTERRA is not a scam. I'm also not saying you can't make money with doTERRA.

But just looking at the income disclosure above, it's true that most people who join doTERRA failed.

A lot of them failed miserably and got themselves further into debt due to the monthly order requirement.

Some people can even lose their friends if they fail to learn the appropriate way to recruit.

Can you see why I don't recommend this opportunity despite it's a legit business?

I'm not a fan of MLM, not because it's illegal or not profitable, but because of all the restrictions and the expensive costs involved.

Instead, Affiliate Marketing is my top recommended business model for anyone to make money online.

The reason is simple...

• You don't have to recruit anyone to make money
• You have the freedom to promote any products you want and not being restricted to only promote the products from one MLM company
• It's Free to get started

In fact, with affiliate marketing...