Thanks Lena.

If I am a free affiliate, and I sell one Karatbar to someone via the website, what's the commission percentage for that sale?

Thanks again for posting such specific answers. It was refreshing.

if you are a free member and only have one costumer buying one goldbar you earn 0.5% of the amount your costumer paid

1/2 of 1 percent? So on a $60.00 gold purchase I earn thirty cents? 

Unless I purchase one of the marketing packages, with all of the materials, which was my original point. In that case, I earn a higher percentage of sales, but I have to make a substantial capital outlay for marketing materials that have no resale value.

Hi Watchdog

I have to admit after reading all the posts in this thread I did get a chuckle how it got to this point. Now I am pretty new to Karatbars so I don't have all the answers but I think I can clear a few things up. First off your last post is exactly right. If a person signs up as a free affiliate and sells only 1 gram of gold that's all they make period. But lets say I signed you up as a free affiliate as well and you signed up another as well. The combination of sales from all 3 of us will effect my income percentage. In other words once I accumulate a total $ value in sales of $1,000. from me alone or from the 3 of us together I will move up to 1%. From there I can continue to climb up to as high as 6% although most will never get near that high. Look here as this is direct from the company:

http://gold.jedde.com/karatbars-5.html

That shows whats needed to achieve each commission level.

Now as paid members (package holders) you are not just buying/paying for advertising material. As a paid member I also get units (points) for all sales in my organization. So lets just say I sign up a bunch of free affiliates in each of my 2 legs in the program and over time they sell a bunch of gold among them. Each gram sold create 1 unit for me. So once there are 50 units on one leg and 25 on the other I receive a cycle payment of $11. as a bronze member, to $88. as a VIP member.

The difference between free and paid is free you earn only from you and your direct referrals work whereas paid you will earn from the combined work of everyone in your organization. Whether you sponsored them or someone above or below you did.

I look at karatbars a little different than you for sure haha. With most MLM and/or network marketing companies you have to make purchases/sales every month to retain your position, often having to buy stuff you don't need or want. With karatbars you only pay for this position once. There are no more monthly payments and the only time you are required to purchase anything is if your earnings per month reach a certain level then you part of those earnings purchase another gram of gold. That is more than $200. 1 gram of gold and more than $1,000. 2 grams up to a max of 4 grams per month. But it's not like we are getting stuff we don't need as most are joining to sock away a little gold anyway.

As for the onetime payments I look at it the same way as paying a franchise fee or business license fee etc in order to operate. And hey, even franchises still charge you monthly fees just for the brand.