The “matrix” is one of the newer approaches to internet marketing and it differs from all the MLM hype one can find when doing business on this side of the internet. The general idea is to start a massive campaign involving a pre-launch of what is usually a service scheme that is offered to anyone who wants a free ride and maybe a free ride throughout the process. For example, a matrix plan has a fixed form that determines the size of a downline you can be paid for. If your company uses a 5×7 matrix, you can’t have more than 5 people on your “front line” and you can’t get paid more than 7 levels deep, that’s people, not a breakaway generation plan. If you already have 5 people on your first line, any future people you enroll will have to be placed somewhere below those 5 people on the first line and this is called “overflow.”
This does not mean that you can only have 5 times 7 or 35 people in your downline, no, that is not how it works at all. Instead, each of the 5 people on your front line can have 5 people on your front line, and so on. So a 5×7 matrix can actually hold up to 5+5^2+5^3+5^4… or almost 100,000 people and that’s in theory. It is actually very rare for a 5×7 matrix to be more than 2-3% full. The restricted width quickly forces the growth of active legs down and out of its womb.
Spillage, on the other hand, can be a curse or a blessing, depending on how you look at it in the wash. Proponents of Matrix beta testing and pre-launch investing say it’s a great way to force people to help your downlines, since they’ll have to put people under their downline distributors.
Spillover also tends to keep people active, because they don’t want to lose their free downline spilling over from their upline. Detractors of the Matrix argue that spillover is a form of “MLM welfare” that rewards weak and underperforming distributors. So if they’re working, they already have people below them, so they’re more likely to put people in the gaps below the non-working ones.
Matrix plans can also be punishing for the best, as they have to place new recruits lower and lower in their matrix. After a while they make so little profit from these new recruits that they lose much of their incentive to keep producing day after day.
Lots of new Matrix plans are available all the time, so be sure to learn the basic structures and plans before you dive in. Based on what you hear or read for the first time, the pre-launch Matrix plan comes in many shapes and colors. .
Newer companies are increasingly using matrix plans and this is a sure thing for any company that has a good research department. You will find 5×7, 3×9, 2×12, 3×3 matrix structures in many different shapes. Study the plan carefully to understand how it will work for you and develop a virtual game plan. Don’t assume a matrix will fill evenly, most of the time you will have an active leg growing from the bottom of your matrix long before other legs have filled the rest of the matrix. But the simplicity of matrix plans makes them very attractive to many people looking for new marketing opportunities.
Recently “unilevel” plans have become very popular. These plans are similar to a matrix with no width restrictions. So, for example, you might get paid 6 or 8 levels down, like in a fixed matrix, but you can have as many people on your front line as you want. This has the great advantage of being very simple to explain to new clients and signups and very easy to understand, and it doesn’t have the growth restrictions that limit most matrix plans. You lose the “overflow” effect of the matrix, since no one is forced to place new recruits below their own front line. This can be seen as an advantage, because time and again too many people join matrix plans in the hope that someone else will do the work for them.
Some people believe that “unilevel” plans are too narrow due to their limited depth. When in reality, it is quite possible to generate a very substantial income on a “unilevel” matrix and bonus structure designed for fast and responsive payouts. A lot of people are making a lot of money in unilevel structures, unlike any other type of matrix plan out there.
Due to the depth limitation of unilevel and matrix plans, several companies are adding an additional bonus called an “infinity” bonus that is not to be confused with “unilevel” or “matrix” plans, but to be true to these options, you could even add an “infinity” bonus to a getaway plan if desired by the company. Be on the lookout for mixing and matching with some of these structures, again I remind you to study the underlined points of the plan and always read the fine print on the last page.
The infinite bonus is so called because, in theory, you can pay out an “infinite” number of plan levels. Actually, “infinity” bonuses pay out to the next person in your downline who also qualifies for the infinity bonus. Take X, Y and Z as examples. Now position “X” earns a 1% infinity bonus and “Y” earns a 2% infinity bonus and person “Z” earns a 3% infinity bonus. When the “Z” level is reached, you are paid an additional 3% in your downline. But if someone in your downline qualifies for any infinity bonus, intercept the “infinity” bonus for that leg and you won’t get the bonus from it. So if you are a “Z” and you have a “z” on your first line, you won’t get an infinite bonus on that leg, your first “Z” line will instead. If you have a “B” on your first leg, you’ll get 1% on that leg and “Y” will get the other 2%. Only in the legs without structures X, Y and Z you would have obtained the full 3%.
This is how it has to work or the company could be responsible for an “infinite” amount of bonuses. If everyone could qualify for the full 3% bonus with no cuts, then a leg with 34 “Z’s” would mean the company would owe 102% in “infinite” bonuses. By limiting their “infinity” bonus to the next qualified person, the company in this example only has to budget a fixed maximum of 3% for all “infinity” bonuses. So actually, you can get paid all the way down your line, but only in leaderless legs, which tend to be very shallow legs. In deep legs, you will virtually always have leaders in your downline. Which can be very good! But it means you won’t get the full “infinity” bonus on any deep leg. So again pay attention to the details of any claim that a plan will pay out hundreds of levels deep because of its infinite bonus.
Recently, companies have used variants of the “binary” plan. They look a little cover a 2x? matrix plane. The main selling point of these binary plans is that they pay out at “infinite” depth. They do this by asking you to balance volume on your two “legs” and also by setting a maximum level of income, often around $2000 weekly, in each income center that is the position in the “binary” plan. The maximum income per center has the effective results of limiting the depth that the binaries will pay out. But since a maxed out center pays more than most internet marketers have ever seen and since different legs rarely grow at the same rate, balancing legs can be a real challenge.
Richard Wyckoff, SafeKlix Marketing Solutions
http://bizklix.bravhost.com