Traffic Authority

You may have missed the boat on Facebook and Google but it’s not too late to start building your own “online empire,” and recruit others to do the same, according to Traffic Authority, a Florida-based Multilevel Marketing – a way of distributing products or services in which the distributors earn income from their own retail sales and from retail sales made by their direct and indirect recruits. that advertises huge weekly commissions for affiliates selling its vaguely defined line of web traffic-boosting products.

“I wake up every morning to the sound of cha-ching,” says one affiliate in a video on the company’s website, in reference to morning email notifications about incoming commission payments in the thousands. Another affiliate, Mack, flashes a gold Rolex from a waterfront resort while he tells the camera that he earned nearly $200,000 in “six, seven months.” But such earnings are a pipe dream. In fact, affiliates in a year would be lucky to make one-hundredth of what Mack said he made in half that time. An income disclaimer on Traffic Authority’s website spills the beans that:

The average participant in this business earns between $500 and $2,000 per year. Some earn less while some earn much more.

The case for earning less than $500 per year (or nothing at all): A couple reasons. First, the earnings are projections because Traffic Authority, which launched in August, admits it “lacks enough statistical data to prepare reliable income disclosures.” Second, in order to qualify to receive commissions, affiliates must purchase the product they hope to sell. A transcript of another video on the company’s site discloses:

The easiest way to get qualified to sell each product, is to purchase it yourself.

And of course there’s this catch-all disclaimer that tells potential recruits that success is only limited by their own dedication and hard work. But it could be that the business structure itself doesn’t allow for success.

Perhaps Traffic Authority should pump the brakes on its income claims.

Find more of our coverage on the MLM industry here.