Make Money Selling Young Living Oils Online – Is It a Good Business Opportunity?

There are many MLM distributors entering the online space to promote their products. One of the most popular companies is Young Living and you can see their names on blogs, Facebook and also YouTube videos. Looks like the brand is coming out from the conventional one-to-one approach and leveraging the internet for more exposure.

Does this mean you can finally make money selling Young Living oils without having to push-sell or recruit members? In a way, yes and this is made possible because of a technology called referral linking. But before I get into that, let’s look at what makes this company thrive in the first place.

The Appeal Factors

1 – A Booming Industry – Some may think of it as a fad, but the inclination towards aromatherapy has been quite obvious for the past few years. Many people are using it as an alternative therapy for chronic illnesses or just a simple booster for their daily lifestyle. The internet has since become a great medium for providing resources on this topic as well as making the products more accessible to consumers.

Based on the trend since 2014, the search term also tends to peak in December, suggesting that this range of products is quite popular during the shopping/festive seasons.

2 – Good Quality Assurance – The company seems to practice good standards in every aspect from sourcing to production to packaging so it gives a lot of assurance in terms of quality. Apparently, one can also visit their certified farms to find out and get to know their products better.

3 – Professional eCommerce Site – Unlike other MLM companies, they actually have a good online store setup that is country-specific and accessible by anyone within that region. The only main difference is the pricing between retail and wholesale and that would depend on whether you have a membership or not.

4 – Affordable Starter Kit – Any MLM is bound to come with starter kits to help new customers use their products collectively and Young Living is no exception. They have a few sets ranging from $165 to $265 and purchasing any of these will entitle one to join as a member.

5 – Membership Advantages – As a member, you can make purchases at a 24% discount, qualify for the rewards program and most importantly, earn commissions from referring sales or through their compensation plan – if you are into that kind of thing.

For each direct referral that orders a Premium Starter Kit, you get to make a one-time $25 cash bonus, which is a very generous commission for physical products in my opinion. And if they order any new products within the first 3 calendar months, you’ll make an additional 25% from the value of those purchases.

The membership is also flexible in a way that you don’t need to worry about meeting a minimum sales quota or monthly purchase to maintain it so people won’t feel the pressure to buy stuff all the time.

The Deterring Factors

In spite of the popularity, it’s not all colors and rosy when it comes to running a Young Living business. There are many aspects to consider in terms of the niche itself and also the marketing strategies.

1 – Firstly, the company is required by the law to submit a Social Security Number (SSN) in order to receive commissions of more than $600. Some people might not be comfortable with sharing this personal information, but without it, a member’s subsequent earnings will be subjected to a 24% income tax.

2 – When compared to other brands, especially from non-MLM companies, Young Living’s products are relatively more pricey. For example, their 15ml Lavender Essential Oil is about $6 dollar more expensive than the ones sold at Rocky Mountain Oils, whom by the way, also practice good quality standards.

There are other retailers (who by the way have their own referral programs) are equally as reputable and highly rated, without a need for membership. In other words, these sites are more price-friendly for general consumers, which gives Young Living a disadvantage.

• Plant Therapy
• Rocky Mountain
• Edens Garden
• Mountain Rose Herbs
• Aura Carcia
• Lisse Essentials
• The Ananda Apothecary

3 – The referral link that comes with the membership is meant for the Premium Starter Kit to sign up and that seems to be the only thing you can promote directly. For individual products, you could use the personal distributor website created by Young Living, but I hardly see anyone using that online.

That means, your targeted audience will be those who are interested to buy in large volume, NOT individual items. If you want to promote single aromatherapy products, you may have better chances through the Amazon Associate Program whereby you could also earn from other types of purchases made by the customers.

4 – As it is, there are already many people doing this Young Living business stuff online. You can see them in different Facebook groups and a whole lot of others in YouTube videos. Hence, the competition is expected to be quite stiff and you may want to do things differently in order to stand out.

How To Promote Young Living Oils Online?

The first thing to do is to sign-up as a member yourself by purchasing one of those starter kits from a sponsor. This will give you access to your own virtual office and a member ID number. Under the Member Resources tab, you can create the referral link which will be tagged with this unique ID.

According to the company, you are permitted to use this link on your website, email, social media, and even advertising. Of all these methods, I highly recommend starting with a blog first because it will give a good foundation for your online presence and also attract free traffic from the search engines.

Having said that, there are special services that provide pre-made websites for Young Living distributors. Just select a plan and they will take care of the hosting and web technicalities for you. The YLDist costs between $10 to $15 per month and the My Oil Marketing cost between $8 to $28 per month.

These selections aren’t bad for those with a limited budget and want to get started quickly, but if you want a solid platform that can scale, I highly recommend using a personal WordPress blog. They are great for design/function customization and rank better on the search engines. If you like to have a backend tour of what WordPress looks like, simply create one for free using the tool below.

The next thing to do after setting up a blog is to create content, one that is targeted towards people who are interested in aromatherapy but have not tried the Young Living oils yet. This context is relevant because your referral link is all about getting new members to purchase a starter kit.

Your content can be anything that is helpful within the essential oil niche, except that;

1. Don’t just focus only on promoting Young Living products. You’d appear very biased and pushy in the eyes of the online readers.
2. Don’t pepper spray your blog with third party advertisements. It’s distracting and tends to drive the audience away from your main offers.
3. Don’t just copy-and-paste the link as is – use it with an anchor text within the content, like so;

Do more of these instead to capture more audience.

1. Teach people how to use and apply essential oils in their daily lives.
2. Show them the benefits of using high grade vs low-grade essential oil products.
3. Share your positive experiences frequently.
4. Show them where they can buy oils online – in packages or individually.  
5. Write thorough product reviews, outlining the pros and cons of specific oil brands.
6. Create unboxing videos to show people what’s inside a Young Living Premium Starter Kit (you may also use your referral link below the video description area).
7. Share your posts on Pinterest (great for targeting the female audiences) and Facebook regularly.

So, Is Young Living a Good Online Business Opportunity?

If you are into aromatherapy and like their products, using the referral link is a good opportunity to make money selling Young Living oils online WITHOUT having to do recruitment, home parties or physical product demonstration. You don’t need to build a network if you don’t want to and since it’s your blog, you aren’t just limited to one monetizing method.

This method will not work, of course, if you aren’t keen to research more about the niche, explore new content ideas or just trying to spam everyone with your referral link. It doesn’t work that way – at least in the online space. Consumers nowadays are very savvy – they will read reviews and make comparisons before deciding on a purchase. If you don’t understand the behaviors of this audience, earning from Young Living, or any other brands for that matter, is going to be an uphill battle.

I hope this review has shed some light on your quest to start an online business. If you need more guidance in this area, feel free to check out my recommended training platform or leave me a comment below and I’ll do my best to respond.