What does MLM mean?

A way of organizing people for the objective of selling goods and services to members and to the public. When operated correctly the business structure is similar to most corporate sales organizations which have sales people earning commissions and sales managers receiving a commission or bonuses based on the collective team's sales. All large corporations tend to have multiple levels of sales management with incentives and bonuses paid for hitting sales targets.

In some cases the same MLM structure can be used to create an illegal business where most of the actual sales activity is produced by signing up new members who then try to sign up more new members. Maybe better known as pyramid selling or a Ponzi scheme.

There are clear distinctions between a legal operation and an illegal operation. Those operating illegally are generally closed down or implode while those operating legally continue to sell and deliver goods and services to the broader marketplace.

The sale of real goods and services to the public was used as a litmus test in a court ruling where MLM was judged to be a valid and legal way of organizing a business.

This answer is closed to changes. This is done in rare cases when questions are being vandalized or answers have become debates. Email WikiAnswers @ Answers.com if you would like it to be reopened.

First answer by Macky. Last edit by Bbabic1. Contributor trust: 4 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 277 [recommend question]