The one-word answer: YES. They matter a lot. What I have to say in this blog is going to rub some people the wrong way – maybe even offend some. But you don’t come to my site to hear pablum and platitudes. You come to hear the unvarnished truth. So let me lay it out for you with one of my favorite sayings: MONEY is made in network marketing ONLY when products are sold, no matter how many people are in the downline. What does that imply? That your products had better be worth selling. The argument for network marketing (as opposed to the normal “middle man” connection to a retail outlet) is, the products are unique and the retail price can be marked up enough to cover the company pay plan plus make a profit for the company.

So what is “unique”? A unique product cannot be purchased (at least not anywhere close to comparable quality) in a grocery, drug store, or in most health food or nutrition stores. That criteria alone eliminates many products you see being pushed by network marketers and the companies they represent. You see, when you can purchase something anywhere, it becomes a commodity. Commodities are driven primarily by price, not quality. During times of high gas prices, I’ve seen gasoline and utilities (natural gas/electricity) promoted as network marketing products. In the current economic climate, we’re seeing silver and gold promoted. Precious metals are sometimes good investments, but they are still commodities. Oh, you say, but my silver and gold MLM is selling “collectible coins”, not bulk metals. That just means they are silver plated baseball cards. You can buy an ounce of bulk silver or a Liberty silver coin anywhere on the Internet for about $20. Yet I’ve seen two separate MLMs selling the same exact coins for as much as $125! I guess they needed that much markup to pay for the pay plan. Oh, you say, but our coins are “certified”. Really? By whom? And what does “certified” mean? In practical terms, it means nothing. Only certain “rare” coins are worth much more than the metal they contain. Commodities are simply not good network marketing products.

Information is an excellent product, provided it has value month after month and is “consumable” (in the sense that the customer gets new information every month). Services that are of value are also unique enough to qualify (like say, legal services). The “best” type of information, in my opinion, provides ways for the customer to learn how to market on the Internet or build wealth. Who doesn’t want more wealth and financial freedom? That’s why I like this program:

Another common nutritional product ingredient is acai juice. Now don’t get me wrong. Acai is a great nutrient, but you can now buy it in any grocery store, like cranberry, blueberry, pomegranate, and other nutritional juices. I won’t deny that the quality may be higher in your network marketing company, but the appeal of an acai-based product has been diminished by the fact that it is now commonly available. The more exotic juices, like goji, noni and mangosteen, can be found in most health food stores, but the price is close to what you’d pay in the network marketing companies that sell them, and the quality isn’t even close. My company brought goji juice to the world of network marketing. They got “first right of refusal” in the critically important goji fields of Western China. They pioneered the use of near infrared spectroscopy to assure the quantity of Lyceum barbarum polysaccharides (the active ingredient in goji) to guarantee product potency. So what you see in the health food store is the watered-down version of what we rejected, for almost the same price. We also introduced Jiaogulan (known as the Immortality Herb in China) to the world. I have not been able to find Jiaogulan in any health food or nutrition store. And we recently introduced a killer weight loss product called TAIslim SKINNYs. I’ve used it myself and found it to be very effective (highly unusual for most weight loss products promoted by network marketing companies). You can find all these products at our website:

Now, am I claiming that the products my company has are the only ones that are unique? Or that we have the only weight loss product that is effective? Of course not. I’m simply making the following point: if the products you’re promoting aren’t truly unique, then you’re operating at a severe disadvantage to those who are. There are lots of good companies out there with unique products. I don’t even claim to know about all of them. But what your product is, IS IMPORTANT. Don’t miss that critical point.

Dr. Dick