Skybiz

When I first decided to do a review of Skybiz, the first thing that I had to do was decide if I was going to place the review in my 'internet' area, my 'scams' area or my ‘not recommended’ area. Why? Because Skybiz is really all of the above.

If you haven’t heard of them over the past two years, don’t feel that you are missing out. Skybiz was one of the fastest growing MLM’s all time during late 1999 and early 2000. Why do I use the word "was"? Good question.

Skybiz was permanently shut down by the FTC in 2001 for being an illegal pyramid scheme. People that had already paid for sites were able to keep them but only for one year and no one has been able to sign up since early 2002.

You see, MLM is a very legal way of marketing but there are a lot of companies out there that do it in an illegal way. The government has said that companies that offer real products and services have a right to be in business and pay people with an MLM pay plan. The only caveat to this is that the company has to have a real product or service. If they don’t, then they are toast.

People (including reps) in Skybiz know this but their argument has always been that Skybiz does have a product: Their web site and training. This may sound like a "case closed" situation but it gets a bit more complicated. The government also says that the company must not only have a real product as part of the company but that people would really buy that product without a compensation plan. This is where Skybiz really gets into trouble.

Would people buy the Skybiz product if it weren’t for the compensation plan? Not the sites that they first sold and not the sites that they sold when they were closed. This is where good companies don’t get into trouble. Most nutritional or telecomm companies have 50% or more of their customers as just product users anyway. That way there is no question that people are buying the product for the sake of the product, because they are!

I have gotten some emails from people claiming that Skybiz is going to make a come back but I say "Bull". They are gone and lost forever. Quite a few spin-offs have come and gone as well. I think the days of the Internet MLM offering web sites are hopefully over.

Matt Gagnon