Empower Network – A Scam for the Ages?
Name: Empower Network
Website: www.empowernetwork.com
Price: $25/mth basic, $100/mth inner circle, $19 payment, $500 Costa Rica Intensive, $1,000 15K Formula, $3,500 Master’s Retreat
Owners: David Wood & David Sharpe
Overall Rank: 30 out of 100 points
**UPDATE: Empower Network Collapsed. The Company and Domain No Longer Exist.
The Product
Empower Network (EN) has been often times confused as being a REAL opportunity because of the relentless marketing taking place by the people pushing the product. However, there are many folks with real experience with Empower Network that are not happy and I am going to uncover some of the reasons why within. In this review I am going to be walking you through what EN is and help you decide whether or not it might be your path to Internet success.
Before I get started though I just want to clarify one thing. Empower Network is one of the lowest ranked products that I have ever reviewed and you are going to get a good idea why. If you are reading this, chances are you have been subject to someone “shamelessly” promoting EN to you and that is a normalcy. They can be very slimy, they promote slimy promotions, and if you become a member you are going to unfortunately be required to pass on the “slimy” tradition.
To put things into perspective, take a look at how Empower Network compares (or doesn’t) to other programs in the industry, you can get free websites (the foundation of your business) online. This can be accomplished through platforms like wordpress.com as well as many other hosts. There is a low price point to get started and a low price point to keep going, you won’t be subject to high ticket purchases in the same way that you are going to be within Empower Network. Plain and simple, you do not have to spend $1,000’s + monthly fees to create and grow a business online.
Pros vs. Cons
There are few pros and a lot of cons with Empower Network. The problem is that there is no real product behind the program, rather YOU are the product. The goal of the program is getting you to promote the very same scheme to other people and building a downline. Unlike other MLM products where there is actually a product that you are selling to customers (ex. Avon, Melaluca, etc), Empower completely lacks this element.
Here is a breakdown of the Pros & Cons of the Empower Network program:
Pros:
- Get your own empowernetwork.com blog
Cons:
- Has all of the common attributes of a PYRAMID Scheme
- No clear description of what the business is about, what you will be doing or what kind of interests you need for success.
- If you join, you have to become a ruthless sales person promoting Empower Network to others
- Riddled with “upsells”
- If you want to succeed, you are going to want to invest minimum $140/mth
- You have to PAY $20 per month just so you can get paid
- Widespread COMPLAINTS online about Empower Network
- No free trial
Who is Empower Network Intended for?
They claim everyone is going to earn money, with little money, with little work, on autopilot! Sounds like the DREAM we are all envisioning doesn’t it. However, that is not the reality of this program. Although anyone can join this product, it is intended for people that are willing to work very hard to build a downline and in many cases, do so in an unethical way because you are not actually “selling” anything to people, you are selling the fact that they will be able to sell what you are selling.
Here is a breakdown of how the compensation model works:
Confused? Well, that is because the more you dig into this apparent product, the more confusing it becomes as to what it actually is. It is reminiscent of “pen mail” where you send 5 people, they send another 5 people…and then so on and so forth. The person at the top of the pyramid (or triangle) gets paid the most, just like any other ponzi-like scheme the Empower has unlimited levels and payouts are always going to be “passed up” to the people at the top.
Guess who is not at the top. YOU. Guess who is at the top? The owners and the first few folks that got in at the starting point.
If you are not good at aggressive recruitment and hard selling people on the idea of a scheme like the one above, Empower Network is not going to be for you.
Tired of Ruthless Schemes Like Empower? Get REAL Help.
Empower Network Tools & Training
There are several different layers to the training offered at Empower, each have an additional price point. The training provided is really dependent on “whom” you sign-up through in this scheme. Some “upline” affiliates will offer you wonderful support and help (in attempt to build more success by having a successful downline). The actual materials within Empower very weak in nature because they are centered entirely around “how to promote empower network to others”.
There is also A LOT of emphasis on upgrading once you get into the system. This is called going “All In” and your sponsors will likely encourage you to go all in by calling you a “wussy” and other derogatory terms. Why? Because if you don’t buy all the training modules within Empower, then you are not going to be making others money.
That is what it is all about. You buy all the stuff (over $5,000 in total, which I will get to) and this money is going directly to your uplines and their uplines. If you don’t buy, then nobody is going to make money off of you and you can expect to be shunned by those “above” you.
If you are looking to earn money online and do it in a way that is ethical and can be applied to any niche, Empower will not be the community for you. Their primary focus is going to be training you how to promote Empower to other people. You have to look no further than the top affiliates, they are showcased within the program…but they are promoting the program itself versus earning money through other affiliate programs/niches.
Does Empower Network Offer ANY Support?
If you want a personal support system, EN is not going to be your program. There is no training or support offered without an extra cost (Inner Circle which is $100 per month for videos), and even at that, it is not personal training it a series of audios and videos. I never recommend any program that does not offer personal support and in which you do not have direct access or help from the owners. You will likely never have any meaningful contact with the owners directly. The owners are active in the promotion of their product and motivating the “crowd” to promote EN, but you will not see them selflessly helping folks within the bottom tiers.
Also, many folks complain that they are belittled within Empower Network by their so called “team leaders” if they don’t go all in. Going all in means that you buy all of their low grade products (which make your team leaders money) and if you don’t buy into the up to $5,000+ in products over the course of a year, be prepared to be called some really vulgar names (Read REAL customer comments below this review if you don’t believe me).
**In comparison, you can get started and get full support for completely FREE from experts…this includes FULL 1-on-1 mentoring and support and the owners are actively involved.
There are weekly calls from the David’s which is more of a “rah rah” session than anything else, aiming to recruit more people into their scheme.
How Much Does it Cost to Join Empower Network?
The pricing of Empower is complex and much more than it initially appears.
Blog Beast – Blogging System ($25 per month) / ENV2 – The fee just to take part of empower and to get your own blog (that every other member gets). There is nothing unique about this blog and you are tied to the EmpowerNetwork.com domain which is starting to get caught as SPAM by many search engines (not good!). And you can get much better blogs, in fact, your own FREE WordPress blogs where you are not tied into promote EN (you can promote your own niche).
You also do not own the content you create on your blog. I have received many complaints from folks that have quit Empower and have not been able to delete their websites because when you join, you sign a disclaimer stating that you don’t own any of the content you create. In essence, you basically get nothing for this $25 per month fee other than fact that you are creating content for someone else on a blog that looks the same as everyone else.
Important Update: These “paid” blogs have recently lost a lot of their “mojo” within the search engines (late May, 2013). In fact, EN no longer holds the #1 ranking under their own keywords (you can check for yourself if you like). This is because Google has deemed a good portion of the website as SPAM within their latest Penguin update. You can get much superior blogs for free elsewhere, so if you are buying into this program just for the blog, then I would suggest you save your money.
Also, if want to get the full scoop on Empower Network 2.0 (ENV2), you can get that here.
See a full comparison of Empower Networks PAID blogs vs. free websites here.
e-wallet ($19.99 per month) – In order to get paid, you need to pay for their payment processor. This is unheard of and the only reason that Empower Network has to do this is because they are working on the fringes of what is legal. There is absolutely no way a company like this would ever get approved by a reputable credit card processing company. Paypal or a normal Merchant account (Mastercard, Visa, Amex) would never allow payments to a company like Empower because they deem it as ILLEGAL or too high risk!
Inner Circle ($100 per month ) – This is hardly an inner circle. Other than giving you access to a some inner circle audios, becoming part of this program allows you to get paid even higher commissions ($100 residuals). So again, you are not paying for an actual product, you are paying to further promote the product that doesn’t really exist. It is like having a bag of air that you are selling for $25 and then paying $100 more to be able to sell you bag of air for more. But the EN pricing structure gets even more ridiculous than this!
Costa Rica Intensive ($500 one time payment) – This is a video sequence that focuses on building a business for the longer term…a business that again revolves around promoting Empower Network to others. I think you are probably getting the hint by now that the EN product is promoting the same product to others
The $15K Formula ($1,000 one time payment) – This is another video series that includes 9 videos in total, each video being a couple of hours in length. This covers a variety of topics outlining how to promote Empower network online. An example of this is using Youtube or Facebook…HOWEVER, Empower Network can no longer be promoted via these channels. This should throw up the red flags for you, the fact that Empower has been completely banned from Facebook and Youtube!!! This is the first product or service I have ever heard of that has been banned.
The Masters Retreat ($3,500 one time payment) – This is a series of 41 videos (mostly motivation) that were recorded at the Empower Network masters retreat. To me, spending $3,500 on motivational videos seems absolutely outrageous considering that most of this information has little to do with creating your own business and more to do with motivation (plus you could get a 10 YEAR membership at an all inclusive online business platform for the same price as well as get access to any of my other recommended top services (see The Good within the top menu)!). This is a high ticket product and the only reason you will see others attempting to get you to buy this product within the EN system is because they earn commissions off of you when they do.
So in totality, you are looking at $5,000+ $140 per month if you want the full suite of products offered within Empower Network. That is a far cry from the $25 price point that everyone seems to be promoting out there. Be forewarned, Empower Network is expensive, is overpriced, and you are looking at $1,000’s if you want all of their included training (going all in).
My Final Word on Empower Network (EN)
The product is YOU promoting the product to others. There surely are different things you can purchase within Empower after you buy into the initial blog, but that is there to drive the compensation model. You are shamed into buying it because your “sponsors” will not give you any additional help if you are not active within Empower and if you ever say anything negative about this network, be prepared to be jumped on.
The product is based around YOU promoting the Empower Network system to other folks (ahem…can you say pyramid scheme?). Need I say more? There are VERY few folks that are part of this program that have their own website, understand the proper way of creating a business online, or that are promoting different products other than EN itself.
You will see a lot of people “excitedly” promoting Empower Network to you and that is ONLY because they are going to earn money if you sign-up through them, not because they believe in the product itself (although they think they do).
I would stay as far away as you can from Empower Network and don’t look back if you are looking to create a real niche, business. One that you are passionate about and one that doesn’t require you to sell the very same system to others to recoup your costs. It may be convincing and people may be “begging” you to join underneath them, but it is not a real opportunity and the promotional module naturally encourages you to promote the very sam program to others. The system is centered around you selling it to others and around you going be forcefully pushed towards going “all in”…which means spending well over $5,000 and going into debt in many cases. Not exactly a $25 product after all.
Again, MY Overview…
Name: Empower Network
Website: www.empowernetwork.com
Price: $25/mth basic, $100/mth inner circle, $19.99/mth e-wallet, $500 Costa Rica Intensive, $1,000 $15K formula
Owners: David Wood & David Sharpe
Overall Rank: 30 out of 100 points (YES, 30…read the comments below to see real user feedback)
Just a Few (of the many) Empower Network Complaints Found Online…
Empower Network Complaint #1: Empower Network – A Not So Favorable Review
Empower Network Warning #2: Empower Network Review…Scratch That…WARNING!
Empower Network Bullying Complaint #3: Empower Network Bullies!
VERDICT: Pyramid-style scheme, VERY expensive, no support if you aren’t willing to SPEND
** Get the TRUTH About Building a Business Online! **
Do you have a personal review or complaint that you would like to share about Empower Network? If you do, I would appreciate it if you could leave your comments/experiences below! Thanks!
Kyle
Owner, WaysToAvoidScamsOnline.com
Hi Kyle
Hope you are well.
I actually have a WA starter account at the mo and was looking at others before I considered upgradeing to the pay monthly for you. I was so close to being sucked in by EN but after doing a google search for EN i see there primary domain isnt even on pages 1. Some pretty shameless marketing on there part. Think ill write a review myself!
Cheers 🙂
Yeah, it appears that everyone’s paid “blogs” at Empower Network (which by the way nobody that has one has no ownership of) have been completely de-ranked from Google due to spam. There is a reason Google, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook have all banned this program. I have never seen this happen across so many networks for a particular product and there is absolutely a reason why this is happening. Thanks for stopping by Andy. 😉
You’re all a bunch of wussies, all this false litigation makes me sick. Who the hell cares, it’s your money and you should be free to do what you will with it. It’s people exchanging cash for cash + products. Not all information is free and neither should it be. There is value behind selling information.
This is the exact attitude of folks over at Empower that has turned so many people away. If you don’t go “all in” and make your upline money, you are treated horribly…called a wussy and in many other cases, called much more defamatory names.
And where you lie “fooled”, you are getting money from someone that wants access to the opportunity in which they have to go on and promote to someone else to keep the pyramid style structure alive. Can you honestly say that Empower Network would work without a downline and would work if nobody NEW joined? It wouldn’t. It would collapse because it relies on YOU hustling to sign-up new people in your downline and them signing up more people in their downline. Then they are forced to go “all in” and spend way too much for a sub par education. Then they are called “wussies” if they don’t. That is not business to me and that is not business to many others.
If all you care about is making money, then keep doing what you are doing. If you think you are creating something of substance and something long term, you absolutely are not. This is earning money…don’t confuse that for creating a business. It is a pure displacement of money from one individual to the next.
EN has plenty of support, each team has their own facebook groups, weekly mastermind intensive hangouts, youtube channels, daily assignments..the list goes on and on and if you had to pay out of pocket for your own merchant account, etc you’d still be paying way more than an EN membership (btw GVO is a hell of a lot cheaper than most other quality auto responders). It’s aimed at the regular person, to help them get started, and the wealthy marketer looking for freedom. You need to have a big list to make the huge profits; but they show you how. My buddy Paulo Barrosa just made 150,000 in the past four months. I have another friend Vick Strizheus who made 720,000 in 28 days.
Bottom line? Don’t be a wussy
Dude you should do your homework.
Sounds like you have a lot of “buddies” that are making a lot of dough, but perhaps you may want to choose your company better. You may be asking what I mean by this Paul, and I will tell you what I am talking about.
If you do a bit of research, you will find that one of the people you mentioned, Vick Strizheus was sentenced to 90 days for insurance fraud. If you want to check out the news clip from 2009, I encourage you to do so here.
http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/index.cfm?VideoFile=082409insurance
Or to read the entire story, you can go here:
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/insurance-agent-sentenced-on-grand-theft/?id=89083
I also encourage any avid followers of Empower Network that think they are part of something that is “so legit” to have a look at the video. These are the types of folks you are rolling with and these are the people you “look up to”. Top earners or scam artists? I will let you be the judge.
To be honest, your baseless banter gave you no credibility coming into this conversation Paul, and you are leaving it with even less.
I hope no more folks get scammed by you and your circle of “buddies”.
PS. You are selling EN yourself, you are hustling others into the program with the intention of getting them to do the same thing. There is nothing even remotely “business” about this, it is an MLM without the product, the MLM itself IS the product. You are selling polluted air to folks that are already breathing clean air.
Very informative. I love the idea that EN gives to people. But I feel funny promoting something like it. So I have had to avoid it.
I would be open to links of other programs people think are more ethical and educational.
You can check out my “legit” programs within my site (see in the right hand menu), but you can also check out Wealthy Affiliate. It is ethical and instead of me telling you this, I would rather show you. Set-up a free account via the Starter membership and you are quickly going to find that this is real, it is ethical, and goes above and beyond expectations. You will get 2 free websites, training, a website builder, support, and access to the community within your Starter (no CC required).
Empower Network was just taken off Twitter, hope this will serve as a very strong message to scams.
They have also been removed entirely from Google. If that isn’t the strongest message that you are working within a scam, I don’t know what is.
Really…I am replying to this on may 31, 2013 and just did a google search for top 10 free blogging and empower network comes up fifth on the list…quit spewing shit
First off, I have no idea why all the EN folks find it necessary to swear within anything they write, but that is distasteful and unattractive. Perhaps you might want to consider this if you are trying to start a business Daniel, because it can have an impact. Not everyone appreciates finds this sort of thing “cool”.
Anyways, I will give you a little lesson on SEO here although I don’t think you really deserve it.
(1) Your blog you pay for at Empower Network is hosted within a directory of the actual domain. You don’t own the content, you simply get to create it. The problem with this is that you are also sharing this domain with 1,000’s of others. When your friend over at a different URL starts creating crap content, it adversely impacts the rankings of your site.
(2) EN was not removed from Google, they were de-ranked. This means they lost rankings. Yes, some pages are still floating around in there, but for the most part they have been adversely impacted from Penguin 2.0. If you are unaware, this took place in the 3rd week of May and impacted a sizable chunk of sites online that Google deemed to be spam.
(3) Guess how many people type in “top 10 free blogging”? ZERO. So whoever wrote this was targeting a search term that is deemed useless in the keyword research world. Also, if you understand how to find competition, this fragment of a search term only has 60 competing pages in ALL OF THE WORLD. Very low and easy to rank under. I could get ranked under this in the next 5 minutes, but again I won’t because it is a useless search term.
(4) Under their own branded keyword “empower network” they do not even rank #1. This is very unusual as this is their EMD, which Google usually rewards because it is the branded search term. Perhaps this is way over your head, but this should set off immediate red flags. In position #7 the login page is ranked, but the real domain homepage is much, much further down in the results (pages deep).
I don’t want to get into much more detail, but this lesson could go on about the inefficiencies within the website that you are paying for, something that is completely out of your control…because you don’t own the website. I hope this has clarified how rankings work and maybe next time when you step up to the plate, you will have a better base of knowledge to work from.
Cheers 😉
LOL wtf is this BS? you only wrote this to get more eyes on your blog and your product. Second you talk about pyramid scheme. what do you call a job with the ceo is at the top and the little guys are at the bottom?? that is a pyramid scam bro,except with that pyramid and our so called pyramid scam, i have seen people make more then the ceo owners so what would be said about that?? and no products? what do you call audios? what do you call videos that give you the how to? would it be more concidered more of a product if they took the videos/audios and shipped it to your house? I love how you also say it does not offer support? they have a customer service number, Most teams have facebook groups for support so wtf are you talking about no support? will you get in touch with the owners yes you can actually get to the events and they will be there.
Lastly you talk about the ownwers live in costa rica to avoid the ftc right? ok thats where u r wrong only david wood lives out there, david sharp lives in florida and our corporate office as well.My Grammer sucks at typing i already know that so here is a video i made the other day for people and there stupid remarks kyle
Tommy, thanks for your feedback. It sounds like you are very passionate about what you are promoting and I can’t fault you for that. What I would like to discuss is the actual opportunity within the online world and how it actually works. I know you are familiar with the EN one, but let me introduce you to the outside world which I think you will find much more ethical.
Your intention is solely to promote EN correct? What if you didn’t want to do that, say you were interested in body building as it appears that you enjoy doing. Cool, good niche and one that you could earn some hefty profits within. How is EN going to benefit me in that respect? I mean, I am starting an online business so I should be given the adequate tools and services (and support) that I need to promote that right.
Instead what is happening is that everyone is coming into EN and being trained on how to get others into EN and how help them continue the flow of levels into the pyramid. I am calling it a pyramid because that is the shape of the structure, people could argue whether or not it is a true pyramid because of the fact there is not tangible products or services outside of those that are intended to teach folks to continue to promote EN. You will find all MLM’s and the most lucrative ones actually have a tangible product and the focus is selling that product, not selling their downlines on buying into the system and going “all in”.
My goal has always been to help folks achieve success online and do so in any way in which they like, regardless of the niche and the business model. There are many ways in which you can earn money online but one of the fundamentals is having a website, something that is not even provide within the EN system. Yes, you get a blog, but you don’t have rights to that content and this is something that has stifled many folks success because the folks over at EN refused to delete their content when they decide to leave the system. To me, that is unethical and unfair to the customer.
Life is not a pyramid either as you mention. Yes a job has a hierarchy, but going into business for yourself should not. You should be able to earn just as much as the next guy and your success should not be the result of you having to get other people into a “system” and displacing money directly from their bank account. You should be able to create a business that is independent of others, that does not rely on other people to buy the same products as you bought into just so you can be paid, and you should not have to pay for a merchant account just so you can get paid. Those are ethics things to me that cross the line and that are being done within the environment that you are well aware of.
I do appreciate your feedback man and I do wish you all the success in the world. I know with your passion it is going to take you places but unfortunately I don’t think you are working within a business that is going to offer you your full potential and capabilities. Once the downline stops, so does your business and like many of the other programs of this nature (ZeekRewards was another one), they usually fall rather quickly.
If you ever need a hand following your passion and not money (they do differ), I would be more than happy to help you out. Hope I have clarified where I am coming from within my insights and you will see that many others have voiced their concerns and opinions within the reviews below. Just because others are doing something and believe in something does not make it a good idea.
Actually eN does tell you you can promote any business you want and apply the training to any business you want. Paying the 20 bucks to be an affiliate is optional. Of course they encourage you to buy their training programs it hardly makes them a scam. I have been told only positives… that I am capable, that I need to push myself and develop useful products to help others they pay affiliates with a tiered downline yep, but its optional.
Hi Victoria,
Sure you can promote any business, but you are not…because you are not taught how to promote any business. You are taught only how to promote EN and you are shunned by your upline if you do not work towards getting new “recruits” into the program. You said it yourself, your gaol is the help others pay affiliate with a tiered downline and in order to receive these commissions, you have to pay (unlike any other program I have ever seen).
There are a few things that you should be aware of.
(1) The blog you are trying to get people to sign-up and are rip-off. You can get superior websites elsewhere for FREE, ones that you have control of and that you can promote anything you like. It is is NOT GOOD to have a blog that is the same as everyone else, in fact this hurts your rankings in Google…so right from the get go having the same EN blog as your neighbour is actually doing more harm that good. That is SEO 101. You are essentially ripping people off by promoting people to buy this blog for $25 per month.
(2) In order to get paid from the program, you have to pay another $20. No other affiliate program does this that I have heard of and over the years I have been involved with 100’s. This is unethical and the training at EN shows you how to promote EN, so it is a requirement to buy into this after the fact. Also, after people join under you, you encourage them to buy more stuff (like the Inner Circle). The only reason you are doing this is so you can earn more money.
(3) The product is showing you how to promote the product. That is a ponzi and you are completely reliant on getting other people (that are unaware what this product teaches) to join underneath you, or you don’t get paid. Then the cycle continues by you help them get more unsuspecting folks to join. It is a cycle of hope that relies on hustling people into a system that is a pure money exchange from one level to the next.
Basically everything you are “forcing” folks to buy is free…and in fact, superior elsewhere.
Kyle thanks for writing this. You’ve said a lot of what I’ve thought about EN for a very long time, I was one of the early set of people to join at the $25 level when they had the payment issues.
I had a hard time promoting it because I didn’t believe in the ‘product’ nor did I actually have a product to promote. I’ve read other reviews but this is the most direct one.
I also was very turned off by the language used to promote it by the people at the top….wussy…
Again thank you for writing this.
Hey Angeline,
There is a lot of opportunity for you out there “promoting actual products”. You need to get your hands on an education that will teach you how to promote any products or services online, one that will teach you how to get your “own” website up and running, and one that will give you the skills and strategy to build a business from scratch in any niche that you want.
The problem with EN is that you are encouraged (and pushed) to promote EN once you join. If you don’t, then you are not fulfilling your obligations and the nature of the “uplines” collapse of you don’t continue the promotions. This is also known as a ponzi.
If you rever need a hand or any suggestions in respect to creating an online business (a real tangible one), let me know and I will give you a hand. You should also check out the following post as it will off you some insight.
I really feel sorry for you blokes thinking EN is a Scam. It’s the best and most honest online business I’ve every been involved with.
Continue picking faults in mlm or affiliate business my friends and you’ll continue to stay broke.
For those that have not tried EN how can you say it’s a scam? Just because you found out some stuff through the internet? Now that would be more of a scam than I’ve ever seen.
Anyway got to go I won’t waste any more of my time on people that continue to complain and are to lazy to get of there ass and make something of themselves.
See ya
Marty, you actually did not respond to how you are ethically earning money online. I can tell from your profile that you are “promoting” EN just like everyone else. You don’t have a tangible business, you in fact are promoting EN from a blog that they own, you don’t have any ownership of any of the content you are creating.
In fact, the company you are promoting has tricked you into paying for a blog that should be free (you don’t even own the content you are creating), you shouldn’t have to pay to receive money (no other company charges for this), and you should not have to force people to buy stuff and go “all in” or call them wussies in order for you to continue earning money. I hope you realize what you are doing is unethical, but chances are you are so lost in what you are doing at the moment that you can’t even comprehend the fact that what you are doing is a scam.
Hopefully one day you will come to your senses Marty and when you do I will be more than happy to give you some direction.
You have no idea what real business is about
Go ahead and keep feeding all the people that see this negative information
The reason why I say this for all those that think for themselves is you obviously don’t know the first thing about business cause every business is a pyramid since there is always one or two guys(the owners) sitting at the top making a bunch of money off the workers for example walmart, target, rona, etc.
This is the first non pyramid I have actually seen as the founders earn their income the same way everyone else does.
As far as no access to the owners you have no idea how easy it really is to contact them, why cause you have not tried and all you do is go around finding good ways people are making money and tear TRY to tear it down.
As far as bad reviews are concerned you can find those on pretty much any business out there, they are easy to find, look it up, the best restaurant in whatever town you are in will have negative reviews.
Another way you prove you have no idea what you are talking about is you don’t even realize that there are two owners one does live on costa rica because he chooses to, and the other lives in florida, not trying to hide from anything which is what you are trying yo accuse them of right, and there is a corporate head office in florida.
You know what buds you really need to check your facts a whole lot better before going off on a rant, just because something does not make sense to you does not mean it is bad or a scam or a rip off, I have personally met the owners and they are genuine people with good intentions. All the best to your poor broke wussie ass.
Quite the contrary, the problem is that I DO know what this business is about and so do many others within the online world. You don’t have to look far (see the comments within this thread) to see how many people are jaded by the EN experience and the sheer number of people that are coming to terms that it is a ponzi.
You used the example that “every” business is a pyramid, including the likes of Walmart, Target and Rona. Unfortunately the examples you use are “public” companies, companies that are OWNED by the public. And no these are not ponzis, they have employees, not downlines. Nobody has to pay to join their job…you are mistaking jobs for business. Walmart, Rona and Target exist because they sell products to the public, the employees serve roles within the company and at no time are they told they have to buy from that company…nor are they shamed into spending their life savings by going “all in”.
That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Well that is exactly what you are doing to people Daniel.
And you actually validated that this is a pyramid because you tried to group REAL companies with being a pyramid “as well”. So shame on you for being involved knowingly in a pyramid and even worse, trying to hustle others into the same scheme you are in.
So I think we have gotten how REAL businesses run, unfortunately you are not involved in one because as you said, you are in a pyramid and everything you know about business looks like one of the great wonders of the world.
You stated:
First, this contradicts what you said earlier that all companies are pyramids, secondly all pyramids operate in the same way that the “higher up” you are, the more you get paid. Yes, the founders are the highest up and everyone below that is their “lessers”. The make money in the same way because they are part of the pyramid…but they make more because your recruitments are making them money. It is logic.
Yes, there are negative reviews about every company. I am not arguing that. I am arguing the fact that the company you are involved with is not a legitimate one. It is called a company, but that actual architecture is one that is reflects a pyrmaid as you say, it is reliant on “newcomers” coming into the program to succeed, not the sale of actual product, and in order for YOU to make money you have to recruit others and they have recruit others. That is a ponzi dude, I have provided the definition within many of my comments here in the thread.
Just so you know, Costa Rica is a tax haven. You have to become a non-resident to leverage a tax haven. Put 1 + 1 together here and you will probably get 3, but the rest of us that are not brainwashed get 2. I am not getting into tax code, but running arms of your company in other countries is a quick way to dodge taxes and to dodge litigation.
And lastly, calling me a poor, broke wussie ass really defines the sort of person I am dealing with. You are defending a system that you believe in because it is making you money and anyone that states otherwise you are on the immediate offensive. Not once you did you refute the actual logic of the business model or validate that this was not a ponzi. You are selling air to folks that are already getting it for free. Your $25 blogs are limited and there are much better alternatives out there. From the get go you should feel bad about charging people for this.
Ethics before pride. If you follow this you would have never gotten yourself so involved with EN and you definitely would not be trying to force it upon others. Thanks for your feedback, but I am going to take my broke, wussie ass and go back to running a business.
I was very close to joining EN just to see what it was about. $25 to set up a high-ranking blog to advertise with sounded real good at first. However, I was skeptical and I had other bills I had to take care of first so I decided to wait a while. I was on a newsletter of some sort so I go regular emails from 2 people “Lorina & Nikki” from EN enticing me to join. After 6 weeks went by, I got an email from these two females that headlined “What’s your damn problem”. They were obviously frustrated with me not signing up in 6 weeks. I can’t remember every detail of the email, but the headline was enough to decline their offer. I mean, if you are going to solicit and harass people at least be polite about it or don’t do it. I sense the desperation for people signing up for EN after that point. Pretty sad if you ask me.
That is pretty “tame” compared to some of the ways some of the people are recruiting others. Belittling appears to be commonplace and making people feel horrible about themselves has become a common technique of promoting EN by their affiliates. I am sorry you were subject to this but please do know that there are legitimate opportunities out there online and that Internet business is real and can be achieve by you Earsell.
I can tell you that these $25 high ranking blogs are no longer high ranking (they lost most of their rankings with the latest Google update that hit hard on spam sites) and they also are readily free everywhere else. In fact, we offer free websites at Wealthy Affiliate (you can get 2 full WordPress websites for free), you can use sites like blogger.com or weebly.com to get free sites, or you can use content submission directories as well. The fact they are charging you for a place to submit content that you don’t own should set off red flags for anyone and you are better for it staying away from EN.
Thanks for your feedback and insights, it is really appreciated and I think it will help other readers of the blog here. 🙂
Wow. Didn’t know they got hit by the update. I know I’m not the only one who saw that coming. What are the sheep going to say now lol?
Yeah, I think most of us saw this coming. Anyone that has an understanding of SEO will know exactly why.
Looks like theyre doin pretty good to me
Alexa Traffic Rank Reputation 44,870
Global Rank
415
Rank in US
178
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/empowernetwork.com
A few things you should understand here Paul about Alexa. I know that EN folks love to tout Alexa, but is and will always be a meaningless metric for:
(1) Defining traffic
(2) Defining credibility
(3) Determining SEO viability
(4) Determining success
By nature, Alexa has very little data to work with. If you don’t know how Alexa works, let me know give you a quick overview. Alexa relies on data they accrue through their own “browser” plugin that people install. Guess who installs these plugins? People that think Alexa is important, or Internet marketers without a clue.
That is why the traffic numbers of websites that are unrelated to Alexa or so wildly inaccurate, is because not many people within that niche even know what Alexa is so they don’t have the toolbar installed. It is also very easy to manipulate Alexa rankings, I am not going to get into how to do this, but it is easily possible (if you are creative, you will come up with the idea in 10 minutes or less).
Over the years, I have had many sites with 100x the traffic of another site, yet had fractional rankings within Alexa. A site getting 10,000-20,000 clicks per day was ranking 50,000 in Alexa where one only getting 1,000-2,000 was under 10K alexa.
Why is that? Because Alexa is a useless metric. It always has and always will be and I have no idea to this day why people tout Alexa data. Maybe you were told this proves “worth” to a company, but I can tell you that it shows nothing more than a misunderstanding of what Alexa is and what their data is actually worth in terms of credibility.
I too bought in to the EN hype, fortunately for only about a week. I was able to get a refund on the 1000.00 I invested by
1. Filing a complaint with my bank stating that the company mis informed me about their business dealings.
2. Filing a ticket through EN stating that I had filed a complaint through my bank and using the same reason, mis information.
I am an expert in self defense and many of the EN terminology I found offensive i.e. Don’t be a Wussy! We kick Wussies asses.
They now use a Badass button to get around what they call the FB Nazi’s.The Fb Nazi’s? What? The whole promotional platform they use is about being a wussie if you don’t go “All In” I woke up as if from a nightmare literally. The dream itself caused me to cancel any dealings that I had with EN.
I saw people with the same dreams as I losing thousands of dollars on yet another dead end MLM. I believe in Network marketing, many companies are very much in integrity in the way they set-up the business, and residual income is a gret way to retire. Most life insurance companies use a compensation plan that pays their sales people months even years down the line for an ongoing policy. Stay away from EN, you will sleep better at night. Aloha from Kauai Bam Voorhies
Thanks for you feedback Bam and I am glad you were able to get the money you spent on these continuous upsells back. People get “guilted” into going all in and your story is becoming a more and more common one. You are told to go “all in” and when you don’t, you are called a wussy (if you are lucky, I have heard much worse).
This is bullying and this is not ethical in any sense of the word and hopefully posts like yours can bring the reality of EN to unsuspecting customers and hopefully get some of the folks that are doing these sort of bullying activities the negative press they deserve. It is things like this that give the internet in general and creating an online business a bad name!
If you ever want to work on something real and something tangible and learn the real process of creating a business online, I would love to work with you Bam. No costs associated and you can get started here. 🙂
Thanks for your honest insights Bam.
I thought you said there was no cost at Wealthy Affiliate…I’ve been getting e-mails that are offering a Premium membership?
There is a lock on the tools until I upgrade right?
Mary
Yeah, no problem Mary I can definitely help clarify for you here. As a Starter member of Wealthy Affiliate you get complete access to the following:
(1) 2 complete WordPress websites (full functionality, choose between 1,400 themes & 10,000 plugins). These are far more powerful than Empower as it does not include any branding, you can promote these within any niche and we provide you with training on how to do so, and these rank in Google quite well. If you have recently been aware of Google’s latest update, Empower Network has lost almost all of it’s rankings as result of classifying the entire website as “spam”
(2) Getting Started training (10 lessons) – This walks you through the entire process of getting your business up and running online…from choosing the niche, the process of earning money, building your website and content and getting ranked in the search engines
(3) Access to Premium support for first 7 days – This includes Live 24/7 support, access to experts and the CEO’s of the coming, the ability to create discussion on anything you need help with, communication within all the training
(4) Access to 100’s of training modules. You can search and find many of the training modules available to the Starter members (completely free) within our search function inside WA. This also grants you access to 10,000’s of discussion and blog posts on almost every topic imaginable
(5) Affiliate Bootcamp – If you like video training and walk-through training this is going to be for you. Phase 1 of the bootcamp is 10 lessons in length and is going to serve as a huge foundation builder for your business. This includes 10 daily video lessons.
(6) Access to the WA Affiliate Program. You can get paid without having to pay a penny. Imagine that?
And this just brushes the surface of the Starter membership, which is a lifetime membership (not cut off period other than the premium support). Not bad for free right?
And yes, we do have a Premium membership at Wealthy Affiliate that includes all of this, plus live video classes (weekly), premium support and 1-on-1 mentoring, unlimited websites, hosting, monitoring and hosting support, over 1,000 training modules, 120 hours of video classes on every topic, 13 complete classrooms that cover completely different online business models, unlimited access to our keyword research platform, a content creation and management tool, 5 additional phases of Affiliate Bootcamp (50 lessons) with new phase added every month, monthly low competition keyword/niche lists, and access to a community that cares….and community that is built off of helping others success.
I hope this offers some clarity into what Wealthy Affiliate is and I think you are going to see that there really is no comparison between Empower Network and WA. Wealthy Affiliate is in the business of help people create a real business online and there are many ways in which this can be accomplished. More is offered within the FREE starter membership than people are paying “all in” over at EN for.
Glad to see there are some good posts debunking the idea that Empower Network is selling a product other than the blog that people aren’t even being taught to use effectively. People aren’t even getting tips to optimize their blogs until they’re in the $1,000 15k Formula program. It’s a massive cult following that doesn’t teach anything that you couldn’t find on your own for free or get at a much lower price.
At one point I thought Empower Network was legit, boy was I fooled. They are definitely running a deceitful marketing practice that preys on people’s desire to make money during tough times.
The blog by itself might be okay, but they advertise it to the average person saying “oh you’ll get 100% commission on selling this blogging platform after you pay for it.”
Wait, there’s a merchant account fee in order for me to start making money on this that I wasn’t told about until I already put in 25 dollars, wow. On top of that I get 8 core commitments that don’t teach me how to market a blog so then I’ll have to pay for the monthly inner circle that still won’t teach me how to market this blog. Wait, my sponsor won’t help me until “I’m all in” so I need to stop being a wuss and go all in. It’s just ridiculous. They need to be shut down. This is parasitic, helping the few and harming many.
The problem is that in order for people to make money within EN, others have to spend money within EN. It ends up being an effort en masse to get folks that have no idea what they are doing promoting a product they have no idea what it is (other than the fact that it makes them money). People will do just about anything for money, including take money from others which is the premise of the Empower Network system. You join, I get money from you. You do the same to others, you get money from them…and I might get some of this money because you are in my downline. But you better sign-up for the “all in programs” or you are a wussy (plus I want to make more money).
There is nothing ethical about this and the folks that are scurrying around to promote Empower are lost in the fact that their activities are unethical by nature and theya are feeding the ponzi beast.
Blogs like the one that Empower give you are 100% free everywhere else and you can get much more powerful blogs (full WordPress blogs) at places like Wealthy Affiliate where you have full control of the content and full control over the design and niche you are promoting. I have also noticed that these blogs have been “deranked” from Google for spamming reasons, I wonder what the angle will be now considering the fact these blogs that folks don’t even own, have become totally useless.
You clearly only wrote this review so you could get attention to your blog to sell your own program by bashing another one. This is the lowest form of unethical marketing.
Virtually NOTHING in your review is accurate. This is a cheap ploy to promote your own product at the expense of others. Grow up dude, and learn how to market with some ethics.
Info products ARE products. Last time I checked a lot of them were sold online. The sad part is that some people actually believe you without doing their own research.
You are welcome to rip into my comment, as I’m sure you will, but honestly people like you aren’t worth my time. I wish my friend hadn’t shown me this link and wasted 5 minutes of my day.
Actually, I wrote my review with the intention of accuracy. Every one of the EN brainwashed say it isn’t accurate but cannot rebut a single statement that is made.
And my intention is to warn folks of programs that are not legit online, so I think I am doing a dutiful job here. Yes, you may think you are doing something ethical, but I can assure you that you are promoting EN just like everyone else at EN. If I gave you a website and $100, would you know what to do with it to earn a full time income? I can tell you that looking at your website you are doing a lot wrong, in fact, you have been taught techniques that are absolutely incorrect in the REAL WORLD of Internet business.
You also mention ethics. If you can tell me how this system is ethical, then I will be happy to carry on a meaningful conversation about it. Actually, I will outline exactly what you are doing.
(1) You joined the program through an upline. They told you to go all in (or maybe not), but if you do, they get more money.
(2) In order to earn money, you have to do the same to others. Get them to join the “system”. If they join, you get paid.
(3) If this doesn’t work, you have no money coming in. In order for the pyramid to remain healthy, you need a constant flow of folks coming in from your downline. Simple as that. This is known as a ponzi. The product you are buying is on “how to promote the product”…and trust me, there is very good reason that almost all merchant accounts will not touch this, which is why there was a shut down period in March.
So if you can explain to me how the revenue you are earning is not the displacement of money from one person to another to join in your dowline and the sole purpose of a downline, then I will be happy to have a discussion.
And no, this is not an info product it is an invisible product. You have been completely fooled into thinking you are doing something ethical from the rah rah sessions you are involved with. Quite the contrary Aki, I hope you come to terms and your senses in respect to this one day. Info products are a real business yes, but they do not require a downline to continue. They are an exchange between one person to a company for information. Here you are exchanging money between two entities to further create a tail for the system you are involved with. When that tail stops wagging, your Jenga tower collapses. Simple math, simple logic.
If you can honestly show me that you are NOT promoting EN and you are doing well within a niche, I will give you an ounce of credibility here.
PS. I like your website, Empower Network Pimp…keep it classy…keep pimpin’ man.
It was nice of David Woods brother to comment. lol At least he didn’t call you a wussy.
Yeah, I think they are moving on to more absurd language. Wussy is no longer working, they are coming up with new expletives.
Aint it just sad? People who never joined En have their mouths full about it being a scam.
Then there are those who joined and treated EN as if it were a hobby, thus being paid by a Hobby.
Building an online business is no different than brick-and-mortar!
Dedication, Consistency, ACTION! But I guess at the end of the day, Drones will call anything that breaks their frame a scam.
LOL they dream about living in exotic places, but bash those who do! It’s just insane!
The problem is that if you are promoting EN, you are not building a business. You are building a downline of a greater “pyramid” style structured business. In order for your business to continue, you need to continue getting people to join EN. If the vicious cycle doesn’t continue, then you are out of luck and your business will collapse. If you do a bit of research, you will realize that what you are doing is a “ponzi”. You can look up the definition of the term online and I think you are going to find you fall into the grey area.
If you are truly learning how to create a niche business online or learning how to create a business outside of “sucking people into EN”, then I will have a legitimate conversation with you about online business. If you are simply another one of those folks that are spamming social networks and forums with your EN “Earn Easy Money” pitches, then you really need to sit down and reconsider what you are doing and where your ethics lie.
Also, if you need a lesson on how money is really earned online, you should read this post.
http://waystoavoidscamsonline.com/how-does-the-process-of-making-money-online-work
This is the ethical approach to earning money online and the way that we have been teaching people for years.
Thanks for posting this Kyle. I know of two guys on Fcebook that are promoting EN. Simon Sepsys and Justin Verrengia are openly on Facebook so I was confused when you said EN were taken off of there. Glad I read this first though
They had halted promotions over there and people posting there, I think this has been more periodic than anything. I do know that Youtube has also put a halt to EN promotions but it seems that there are still holes in their algo and there are usually ways to game the system. If you ever need a hand with anything or need help creating a business, let me know.
Hi Kyle…. Well seem’s like I am one of those….that’s right I fell for it…not all in but partially, 25./100./19.95…that’s as far as I got. Every time I watched the next vid they wanted more money. Thing is I watched review after review, and wasn’t hearing nything bad, till I signed up…what a joke I’m out 145. and feeling like an idiot. Thank you for taking the time to make this review, wish I had seen it first.
Sorry to hear about your experience Christine. If there is anything I can help you out with going forward in respect with your business please do let me know.
I want to thank you Kyle for the review and for all those who shared comments about Empower Network. Today I spoke with one of the PBA (Professional Business Assitant) who walked me through the different levels of getting in. After I listened, I told him that I will call him back the next day. I prayed for guidance for I am clueless on conducting business on line. I felt strongly to just google reviews on EN and I felt very blessed to come across this very first review. You are an answer to my prayer. Your review was sent for me to be guided away from this company. I will check out WA and see if I can get educated about online stuff. Thank you so much. God bless you.
No problem, I am glad I could help you out. It is always a good idea to do your due diligence before getting rolling online and you are going to get an awesome look at what is offered at WA and get your business and OWN website up and running before you even consider spending a dime. Make sure you stop by and say hi when you are inside of the community 😉
Huge ponzi who the heck would want a blog on a sub-domain on their domain driving them all your traffic and sign up and on top of that your getting less than 50% commission they advertise 100% and that is total crap.
Google is giving away free domain spend 20 minutes and load wordpress free and you have a better blog
I have gotten MANY complaints from folks that have requested their content to be removed from Empower after they quit (as they didn’t want to be tied to the brand), but they would not take it down as they wanted to get 100% credit for it. The thing about the “blog” that you are getting is that you own ZERO of the content you create on it. It is not like a real website, not even close. You can’t delete your content and if they want, they can use the content you spend your time and energy creating in any way you like.
Sounds like a great deal for $25 per month…lol. You can get a website (in fact two) for FREE at Wealthy Affiliate, you have full control over the content, the domain name, and the products and services you promote on that. I hate people trying to make these blogs out to be some sort of amazing deal, they are brainwashed.
Hi Kyle, I signed up with Empower at the $25 level to check it out (haven’t promoted it and not sure if I will), and I agree that is not the best IM platform I have seen. I do believe it is an IM platform though. I was also a member of your wealthy affiliate program a few years back, and I find it odd that you do not disclose here that you are a founder and owner of that site (at least when I was a member). Especially when you are obviously taking advantage of negative traffic from empower to promote your own IM product. I don’t disagree with the marketing angle I just think that is something you should think about disclosing so you don’t come off as smarmy as the people you are knocking.
That said I believe that wealthy affiliate is a superior platform compared to empower. When I was a member at WA you had quite a lot of training on how to promote the WA affiliate program, and a lot of really good training on how to promote other products as an affiliate. So in my opinion your companies are similar. The main differences being platform quality and especially affiliate compensation plan. If you switched to their comp plan your site would inevitably be blasted by people, just like you are doing here, because you would have a lot of people signing up for wa to promote wa.
Then again maybe you should switch to their comp plan cause you do actually have a good product, and we could all make boatloads of money! Especially you at the top 😉
Andy, yes I am owner of WA and this is indicated throughout this site. Our goal has always been to help people online succeed in an ethical way and that is what we will continue pushing, hence the reason why we don’t support what much of the industry is doing including EN and most of the “acclaimed” gurus. What we offer at WA is unmatched in the industry and you can compare any product or service beside ours and I do encourage anyone with some time to try out WA and any other service to try.
We have spent the last 8 years evolving our service and we are the most helpful community online, provide the most value, provide the most elaborate and sophisticated training, and we allow people to check it out (including the support) for free. That is what I stand behind, helping people help themselves in the wild west we call the Internet.
People that fall for EN are there for the compensation and that is it. Sure they may have uplines and downlines to mingle with, but the focus is taking money from others. 99% of the people in Empower promote Empower because that is their business model. It is an MLM but people are taking money from others to make more money, then they try to get them to do the same. It is like me going to you, stealing money out of your wallet and then telling you that if you want to earn money like me, you have to find more people and steal money out of their wallets. There is no difference.
We have no plans to switch the comp plan as we are an ethical company. We would not dip into the grey area, we would rather sacrifice earnings for the benefit of our members and we have always approached business in this way.
I got snagged! It was interesting but expensive. I joined and upgraded to Inner Circle. I had been watching the team leader for months and she was copying her earnings everyday. When I joined, the “coaching” stopped and I never received any additional help. The audios are nothing but hype and Yes there are people making money but they just get others to join with their hype. There is no product.
Of course there are people making money, there are also people making money robbing banks and stealing from other. People somehow are convinced that something is ethical just because others are making money at it. This is a complete brainwash and any defense I have seen of programs like this (there are many of them popping up out there) are very weak in nature and prove how little the “driving mentors” really know about Internet business. You give me money, I teach you how to do get others to give you money..then you do the same. Before long, the business model likes very much like a, well, Pyramid.
I have been working with EN for a while, and I in no way support your review. I have been able to market my own products using their system eith great results. You do not have to promote EN to make money with the system. As far as support… I have received tremendous support from many differant individuals who are involved with the company. They don’t just “want your money”, they simply want to help you succeed in whatever it is your doing. You DO NOT have to pay $20 just to get payed, that’s only if you want to be an affiliate.
So you have to “Pay” just to be an affiliate, that is wrong in so many ways. There are 10,000’s of affiliate programs online, all of which are FREE. To have to pay to get paid is instantly setting of some red flags for me.
Next, 99% of people within Empower are promoting Empower…because that is what they are taught. You don’t want to be the one to break the chain of downlines by promoting something else or not “recruiting” new folks into Empower. I would love to see your niche websites that you are building and succeeding with inside of EN Katrina. I would even be more than happy to give you some insight as to how you can improve your sites to get more traffic, rankings and conversions.
The people want you to succeed because if you don’t, they don’t. That is the reason. If I got paid $100 for every person that did X, Y, Z naturally I would want to help people accomplish this. Unfortunately in the case of EN the X, Y, Z is sucking new and unsuspecting folks into the system.
Thank you for this review. I know someone, through Facebook, who has a team for Empower and posts screenshots of her payouts and I’ve seen the webinar’s and everything. But since they never say exactly how you’ll be making your money, I was wary. Now I know that I’d be promoting the same thing I was just looking at. It’s probably a good thing I never had the $25 start up earlier because I was just considering signing up as soon as I was able to.
I’ll tell you exactly how you HAVE to earn money, you sign-up other people into the program under you. It is like Mary Kay, but without the cosmetics…just people you are signing up and getting you to pay for nothing…well actually, for a blog that should be free because you actually don’t own the content or have control of it after you quit the company (one of the major complaints I have been hearing amongst former EN members). You have to pay $20 additionally if you want to get paid, but you don’t “have to do this” says the folks there, however I would think it would be an essential that you want to get paid.
Follow your intuition Julie, if it doesn’t feel right then there is a reason for this. 🙂
I was doing my daily marketing and I ran up on your review about EN…and you can voice your opinion about whatever you wish, but you need to know that facts about a business. I only jumped in when you mentioned Mary Kay..I’m a consultant and this business has been around since Sept 13, 1963 and it was build on Enriching Women’s lives because of the dog eat dog world that you are in right now. So you can complain and discourage people from doing what they want to do, just to get them on your side and in your pocket. If your business was that great then you would not have to try destroy another and put fear into the hearts of others to make yourself superior. Stop throwing stones and take care of your own store front. Spend more time on reviewing your own company and you will see that you need help. Now I’ll go back to my daily to do list…have a great day!
Mary if you read my response you will realize I WAS NOT criticizing Mary Kay. I was clearly stating that this is a real, tangible MLM opportunity where folks are actually offering a quality product to customers. I was using that in stark comparison to what is offered at Empower Network. I was in no way intending to offend anyone within the MLM industry as I know there are some really awesome programs out there. 🙂 Hope this clarifies I absolutely wish you all the success going forward!
Julie,
you’re so misinformed… Empower is a solid blogging platform where you can host your blog… about anything… as well you can remove all branding and customize the blog..
When you promote Empower you’re promoting a hosted blog service as well as 4 highly relevant training modules that are similar to the modules sold at MLSP.. or any of the other various online marketing companies. This Kyle guy is just grabbing traffic by planting negative seeds.
I have never seen anyone with an Empower blog promoting anything other than Empower. And you have only ONE design choice whereas frameworks like WordPress have 1,000’s. I am not planting negative seeds, I am showing people how they can get MORE than you are getting within Empower Network for completely free. TWO FREE blogs that are far superior to the ONE paid blog you get at EN.
Please do not call EN an MLM outfit, it is a Ponzi scheme, period. I am involved with a legitimate MLM health nutrition company with reasonably priced consumable products at “walmart prices”. Not the usual overpriced garage-qualified mlm junk. I should know, as I have had a lot of MLM experience, most of which has been negative.
Full disclosure – I had the misfortune of being briefly involved with the EN Ponzi scam, but jumped ship when I realized that I was a “wussy” who would not “go all in”.
Thanks Kyle, being a premium WA member is the way to go.
Thanks for your feedback Ed and I will definitely use that language more within my reviews. You being in MLM understand that an ethical MLM will have a product that people are selling outside of recruiting others into MLM.
Yes, all MLM’s have downlines…but any ethical MLM will also have a quality product they are selling and something that people can feel good about promoting. Mary Kay folks don’t just promote other people into Mary Kay, they sell cosmetics. Tupperware folks sell Tupperware, not just the MLM. Then you have Empower, where you are only selling the opportunity to sell Empower. People are brainwashed into somehow thinking that this is ethical as they are not selling any other products, they are selling EN and forcing others to go “all in” or they don’t get paid as much as they could. And the ponzi cycle continues…
I’ve never liked MLM at time. What I am wondering is: Why did an accomplished marketer like Vick Strizheus choose, of all places, Empower Network? He has nice marketing strategies, it seems, (from the BIM prelaunch videos) but the mere mention of Empower Network pushed me away..
Sorry, never heard of Vick and I have no idea why someone would choose to go this route other than a pure fascination of money and a lack of ethics. One thing that I have always learned within the business world is that you will become what you believe in and whom you follow. It is completely up to you whether or not you want to live in the gray area of marketing or if you want to succeed using techniques that are above the board ethical. Anyone can steal money from people, but only those that are willing to learn the “proper” techniques of business will be able to earn revenue in exchange for offering a quality product/service and this usually through the way they can help someone.
Well Samuel.. that’s fine that you were pushed away. That’s polarization~ it’s good because you obviously don’t have synergy with the company and you wouldn’t do well. So move on and face it, you are a wussy. We don’t want losers like you within Empower.
Samuel, this is the exact reason why you don’t want to be involved with the “crowd” over there.
Hi Kyle thanks for the review of empower. It is very hard to find honesty when seeking information about this service. The way they take up all the google results by posting the same rubbish over and over is tad amount to brainwashing and fraud.
Why doesn’t google do something about them?
If I type in empower network scam most of the first 5 pages are articles written by empower trying to debunk the scam.
I have a family member who has been caught up in there indoctrination and literally spouts the rubbish from there website word for word.
He is a person who hates his job and has underachieved in life and desperately wants to make easy money. He was literally targeted by them and has fallen hook line and sinker. I think they are genius empower they have marketed this at the venerable and made big dollars doing so. But they are inherently wrong in there practices for
Whatever I say I am ” not understanding of the empower principles” ” I am inherently negative and don’t know what I am talking about” . He is even talking about quitting his job in 18 months. This could see him loose everything.
Our family want the best for him and have no objections to online businesses but we object to the way he has been recruited and brain washed. These are not the practices of a moral business.
So I have a few questions.
Is this a pyramid scheme?
Are these practices mentioned above common empower methods?
Is there any materials, evidences you could recommend that might convince my relative the honest truth and break the hold they have on him?
I am very technically literate myself. I know you can do blogging work hard at it and make money without empower.
Any help or advice would be appreciated
It is hard to find honesty because everyone writing about the product is promoting that product and more often than not, don’t really have a sound comprehension as to why. Unlike other MLM’s, you are forced to promote the same product that you pay to join…yes, you get a blog, but it is riddled with Empower Network promotions. You can get these blogs for free elsewhere, in fact you can get superior blogs to the ones that they are charging $25 per month for FREE.
The first 5 pages are pure promotions of the product simply because that is how EVERYONE in the program is forced to earn money. Either they promote it to others and create their “downline”…which is followed by them trying to get their downline to spend over $5,000 on other programs within Empower (so they can further fatten their pockets). A ponzi by definition relies on people coming in the program to survive (an ongoing downline) and this program definitely fits that criteria. It is not like tupperware, visalus or amway that all have tangible products that people are promoting and that will survive (and can actually grow) without newcomers at the bottom level coming in.
I would not be too hard on your family member though, they are just doing what they are told within Empower. When you join the cult, you are told to fearlessly promote the product, promote it every chance you get, and do it ruthlessly. There is a reason why Facebook and Youtube have already cut off this program and there will be many more to follow. The problem is that people are sold on “easy money” coming into the course, force to buy expensive programs (or are called a sissy), and then have to repeat this cycle by getting others to do the same or they will not earn money.
The Empower principles are don’t ask about the Empower principles…because they are unethical and most people in the program are so brainwashed they have absolutely no idea what they hell they are doing. The fact that your family member is relying on you to join under him in order to keep his business growing should say a lot about the business. IN fact it is not a business, it is a ruthless attempt at them trying to take money from your bank account and put it directly into theirs to give you the opportunity to do the same to others.
Here are some articles you can read about Empower Network (outside of the ones that I have provided) that give a real, non promotion look into the program.
http://alexwhalley.com/startingout/fuckoffmlmandempowernetwork-please/
http://adventurepaul.com/beware-of-the-empower-network-scam/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/empower-network/internet-florida-/empower-network-primo-med-tours-yet-another-fred-siller-and-lorena-siller-online-scam-i-995007
http://www.contentstrategyhub.com/empower-network-scam
These are just a few, there are many else out there if you can get past all of the fluff promotions. Hope this helps you out Greg and good luck. Let me know if you need anything else going forward.
Oh yeah, I forgot to thank you for putting these sites up. They really helped me form my own post about Empower Network.
No problem Malik, I appreciate your insightful feedback as well.
Kyle,
So I guess where I’m confused is that you say Empower Network doesn’t have a product. Well after looking into it, there is a product…and the product is internet marketing education. The 15K formula is a step by step system to learn internet marketing, and they do a masters retreat which is education on building your business. I’m confused when you say it’s taking money from others. I see internet marketers every single day selling their ‘how-to’ products. How is Empower any different from that? People pay for the education and someone makes a cut. Sounds like a typical affiliate program. I’m not saying that you’re wrong but if you can please elaborate.
You also mention Wealthy Affiliate. Again there are a ton of internet marketing courses out there. What is the success rate of a Wealthy Affiliate student? And what makes it different that any other ‘show you how to make money online’ course out there? Most courses out there show the same EXACT things but when it comes down to it, most courses will show you what is most important, and that is drive traffic.
Hey Juan,
Thanks for dropping by. The issue that most folks have with Empower (other than the ones promoting it) is that the product itself is promoting the product. You build a business by getting more people into a product, that will then teach them how to get more people in the business. Unlike a conventional MLM like Amway, it is not based on a model of people promoting a tangible product, they are promoting a product on how to promote the product itself. In order for the model to continue, it relies on people at the bottom joining up, the true definition of a Ponzi (you can check the definition here). MLM’s do not rely on this in the same sense, because the model is based on people getting others to buy a product or service…that will continue regardless of whether or not the bottom is supported.
Being called a wussy (a popular tactic by your upline) if you don’t buy all of the courses (because they make money when you do) is an appalling marketing tactic, one that is frowned upon with anyone with an inch of ethics. Also, promote the idea of instant success is ridiculous as well. IN order to achieve success within that program, you are directly taking money out of someones bank account and putting it into your own, expecting them to do the same to other people they know….and the viscous and unethical cycle continues.
In regards to Wealthy Affiliate, it is not a course or an Internet marketing product. It is an entire platform, a community and it is an all inclusive experience. By this I mean that EVERYTHING you need is included and we have a 100% free Starter membership that you can use to check it out. The Starter membership includes 100’s of training modules/videos, access to the community and help, along with two different “step by step courses”, includes your very own fully functional wordpress site (you can use within any niche), keyword tools….access to experts in the industry. I think you will quickly realize it is different than anything else in the industry.
Thanks for the feedback and for clearing that up.
I am going to give the WA a shot. It looks like you are pretty passionate about it.
Thanks again.
Do it. I know you will find it to be more than “legit”. My passion stems from helping others and you will find this evident within the community at WA. Report back if you get a chance here and let me know what you think. 🙂
hi i just have to say i came across this page and im fascinated in this rilvary between both companies.seems like ones putting the other one down cuz hes jealoous and wants the old clients lol. classic human behavior.with every service and every business theres always gonna be ppl that like it and ppl that dont. seems to me ur just trying to talk down to ur competition kyle lol how do u sleep at nite.clearly this is all an advertisement for your company clearly u r manipulating ppl that are hurt by their own laziness.it clearly says on the website that money is not guaranteed if u ppl knew how to read. everyone knows with business u need to purchase something to get it started and the fact that the comapny has no real product besides internet sites is awesome. i actually like that part internet works blogs work ppl get paid better than selling something that u dont believe in. honestly haters b hatin i think kyle just wants to b where they are.
You have not said a single word of substance within your comment, but I will still respond to you anyways.
The reason I created this review is because SO MANY people were getting in touch with us about this product and had been scammed by it and wanted attention brought to it. You can read the reviews on this page and you don’t have to do much research to realize that the program is built off one person selling hot air to the next person, it is a true displacement of money and it isn’t in exchange for a service.
Have a read through these reviews and you will see how jaded folks are. I am just bringing attention to the obvious and if you are involved in the program yourself, I hope you consider apologize to anyone that you have referred to as a wussy and all of your friends that you took money from when you got them to join the program in your downline. It is folks like you that convince others that ponzi scams of this nature are OK and if you can convince me as to how you are making money within Empower without promoting Empower, that would be wonderful. It’s simple, like any other pyramid or ponzi, the folks at the top earn the money, and it is a requirement for an ongoing influx of “wussies” below in order to keep the system running.
I personally like to help folks live in a flat world where everyone has equal opportunity.
And if you would like to read another spot on EN review, head over here:
http://alexwhalley.com/startingout/fuckoffmlmandempowernetwork-please/
I never cared for anything MLM related however last year someone really encouraged me to join EN and I decided to give it a chance. I figured for $25, how can you go wrong?
Well then like you said there is that $20 e-wallet charge and then if you want the training you have to pay extra. I did join, and paid for the e-wallet (live and learn right?) and was told that I would get a tonne of traffic if I blogged everyday. Well I did that and got very tired of it.
Then I thought to myself “what am I doing? I could be using my OWN blog to do this, for FREE!”. I was not getting sign ups by blogging, I was not getting anything. It was a waste and then I cancelled. Thankfully I was able to cancel the membership and e-wallet and did not lose too much. That is when I would say I became officially anti-MLM. And it amazes me how many people who are part of this cult (and yes it is a cult!) do everything they can to get me back into it.
Never again!! They seriously are brainwashed and it is scary.. or maybe not, maybe I am just too much of a wussy and not badass enough LOL.
I think you nailed it there Miriam, folks are getting brainwashed into thinking that it is an actual opportunity, whereas it is a network of one person selling hot air to the next person. People are not buying a service, they are buying into an idea.
You can get a much better blog then the ones offered, for free…and they are not tied with the EN brand all over it. For FREE! People are paying $25 per month + another $20 per month for something that is offered for free other places. You made the right move and your business is going to benefit as a result.
Sometimes it is a good idea to be a wussy… 🙂
As a friend of Miriam’s I have to agree with both her and you Kyle, while this Empower Network looks good on the surface much as does any similar type thing.. to really see something for it’s true light as you have shed on this Kyle is wonderful!
I’d rather do my own networking and build my business on my own strengths and not rely on this.
Thanks to Miriam one day I will..
I am honestly glad that you were able to see through this. You are going to be better off for it and you are going to be able to build a business doing something that you are passionate about and be able to help a lot of people in the process, something that would not have been possible within EN.
Build your foundation of knowledge, then take action on what you learn within WA (assuming you are a member). Absolutely everything you need can be found there, including the personal support if you ever need a hand. I wish you all the success in the world going forward Kimberley!
Kyle, I just wanted to thank you for the honest review. I stayed up late listening to his beach party webinar and decided this morning to buy it. I was at the Rob Fore page since I got an email from him and had heard of high remarks from Michelle Pescosolido. I was on the sign up page and ready to enter my credit card number, when something hit me and decided to check the reviews. I came across your page and decided to read it. Boy am I glad I did. Everything you said was right on the money. I have since decided to close my browser and not purchase. I will continue researching another company by the name of PMI education. They give you a one on one mentor.
You made the right decision…and all you have to do is look at the feedback from others that have been part of this program in the comments below. You were about to be sold on the idea that you need to sell other people on the idea, continuing the ponzi like cycle of the EN program.
Thanks for stopping by Martha.
Ok I am glad I found this website. The reason I’m intrigued by empower network is because I recently was contacted by a friend’s sistet who was sucked into an mlm called “legal shield” which in my research has shown that the marketing system is identitcal to empower and even is promoted in their site! Do a search for legal shield and find out. Empower was not created by the Dave’s, in fact it is a reincarnation of a scam called “the hand of heaven” http://www.handofheaven.com/ run by Fred Siller and Lorena Ortiz Siller from Florida. Note that empower network is run from Florida offices as well. The scam is deeper than you know. Fred and Lorena are known for creating multiple mlm scams, some of which have them traveling to various parts of the country to hide out.
Dave and Dave are actors, they are not millionaires, they are actors. They may have made some money here or there but they are also responsible for the tax liability created by empower and once audited may be in some very serious legal trouble.
Here’s a list of related scams on rip off report
http://www.ripoffreport.com/primo-travel-fred-si/resorts/primo-travel-fred-siller-lor-bee1c.htm
Not only is empower not what it seems but it’s not even run by the people you think. This is all a big show. I have experience as an investigative filmmaker and documentary background, so I did some sleuthing.
Thanks for your additional research on this program NW…it sounds like you know what you are doing when it comes to research. Based on everything that has been said, the David’s have lead others to believe that they are in fact the owners and originators of this program.
I hope that this can bring some clarity to those folks that are looking to get involved in Empower Network. If one can’t be forthcoming about the origin of a program, then you know they aren’t going to be about the actual substance of the program itself.
Empower Network is a Online Cult Scam run by a guy David Wood who is a member of a illuminati religious Scam based down in Costa Rica. He hides down there in that haven because he does not want to pay Income Tax to the US and he hates America.
He uses the Empower Network to Scam people out of their Hard earn Money so that he has the funding to keep the Cult going down in Costa Rica.
In time the Empower Network will fall apart after all the Suckers who pay their Monies to flow to the top finally wake up and see that it’s a Online Scam!
We are in the process of filing papers with the FTC and the SEC to get this Scam Shut down for Good!
It sounds like you have had a very bad experience with EN Sal. Perhaps you could elaborate and help other folks that may be considering Empower or currently involved. Thanks.
Yes I was totally Scammed and F**K*D over with this program the guy told me that I would earn 7% on my Money if I got all in at the top level.
I’m 83 years old and I took my Grandsons College Education Money to fund this program and I never even got the product in fact they double charged me.
I sent in a support ticket and after 2 weeks they got back to me and said sorry no refunds and that guy David Sharpe is a true Ass Hole I e-mailed him and he block me on Facebook if I ever see him in person I will stick my Cane up his Ass!
This Online Scam needs to go and get Shut down before more people get completely scammed like I did!
Sorry to hear about your experience Sal. There is hope for you still and I would encourage to invite you to Wealthy Affiliate, you can get rolling for 100% free. See if you think it would be a good fit for you and what you want to do online, and then make a decision about the Premium aspect of that program (which is much better and much more affordable). You will also see me there if you ever need a hand with any of your campaigns.
Either way, I wish you all the best going forward.
You could not be more wrong about Empower Network.
Perhaps you could elaborate Chris. I would love to hear your refute on what has been said by many ex Empower Network folks here within this post.
Your information and review is not accurate. How can you honestly review something when you CLEARLY don’t own all of the products??? EN is very real, and there is step by step, how-to training, which starts at the Costa Rica.
Anyone who owns the 15k can attest that the training in there is nothing short of phenomenal and worth more than $1k. The training is the product and the product is the training.
All too often I come across so-called ‘reviewers’ who review something they they don’t completely own outright, and have the nerve to actually claim they have an honest review.
If you believe EN’s payment structure resembles that of a pyramid, maybe you are familiar with normal business. You know, the one that includes an Inventor/creator/entrepreneur, Manufacturer, Distributor, and Retailer. All of whom receive a percentage usually the one at the top earning the most.
Anyhow, EN offers great training and valuable information. It also provides a structure to anyone serious about learning internet marketing. However, if you seriously expect to get an education at $25, than you’re a fool.
If anyone applies the skills acquired from the 15k, whether you use it to build your EN business or not, you’ll make money for yourself. I used the training within EN to rank several fitness-related articles #1 on Google. I also consult local businesses and help them market their business online. All of which happened because I am in EN.
That said, I have paid more for education (i.e. college) that has not returned nor has the potential to return the amount of money I’ve already earned with EN part-time.
The information is sound. The training is VERY good. And your review is flawed since you can’t actually provide a fair and honest review; you don’t own all of the products.
I’m ALL IN. And I haven’t met a single person who purchases the 15k Formula who regrets it. The only people who have many negative tings to say are those who seemingly never surpass the Inner Circle.
So if someone doesn’t surpass the inner circle, which is $100 + $25 + $19.99, their chances are limited. Why should those folks be saying negative things and if you wouldn’t mind, how much success have you created without promoting the actual EN system to others. Do you have any success to show other than building your downline in the pyramid style hierarchy?
The system is based on others coming into the system.
Here is a direct quote from wikipedia and I think you will find it quite relevant to what you are involved in Hayden:
It sounds like you are one of those “town bullies” that folks seem to be talking about a lot these days within EN that clearly belittle folks that don’t go all in. I propose you to ask yourself one very simple question and I think it will be quite conclusive:
“Have you every asked yourself WHY you are doing what you are doing?”
You’re answer is probably “to make money” and to that…I have proven my point. Financial displacement is not the only way to make money, you can earn money in a lot of ways including offering a quality service, product, or simply helping others out. 🙂
Kyle, thank you for the research you did and your assessment of EN is bang on I just got out a few weeks ago after being in for almost 2 months with nothing. The training is practically non existent and if you go to your sponsor to ask or on the face book page it could be months before you get an answer. Until then you are flogging like a fish out of water.
The inner circle audios are nothing but repeats of the EN Monday night phone call. You always have to have an upbeat attitude, they won’t tolerate anything about you questioning them. They will label you as being to negative. You are always being talked down to. They tell you that you have to get all in almost as a show of confidence in them, which set off red flags, also all the “success stories” you hear from the big money makers, all sound the same, oh they will change a few things here and there but basically everyone is saying the same thing. This goes for Webinars you have every week. People from other “teams” aren’t really encouraged to associate with each other. You are told that you have to attend the events…that it is life changing. If you happen to mention that you don’t have the money for airfare and hotel…they start on this rant of if you want this badly enough you will do anything to get there. And if you don’t you are called a wussy.
All this started sending up red flags to me, everyone has to talk the same, think the same, act the same… gave me the impression that it sounded cultish. I always had an uneasy feeling and one day I just faced those red flags and yes they are in a sense a cult. You may not voice you opinion, only if it is in agreement with everyone else. They are very arrogant I find and quite negative and almost insulting to any one who says no to them. They sure use the word “brainwash” quite a lot, about those who have not joined, brainwashed into continuing in their 9-5 grind, almost like what they were doing in EN was real work and that it was the only thing that mattered. Making money, big money is always, in the conversation on every post it has become engrained in them.
By the way, the must have found some way around youtube and face book, because face book is saturated with plugs here and there, all over. They leave their links everywhere. A lot of them are now into video promotion, with which they inundate face book and youtube.
So in a nutshell not a positive even though everyone you talk to seems to be on some happy pill and can’t say enough about EN and that everyone has to join…if not then you are a brainwashed idiot…that what they were doing was the real world and real life.
I believe they are a cult and try to keep everyone in line. They say that soon they will get 1000 members a day. If they do that may be their undoing, because they won’t be able to train that many “newbies” without something going wrong, or being revealed. I told all of this to my so called “sponsor” and I received a very stern email telling me I wasn’t working hard enough I wasn’t following instructions and that I was making a big mistake. I obviously touched on a nerve and did not reply to his email.
Thank you Kyle, I wish there was a way to expose them!
Johanne Gauthier
Ouch, it sounds like at every corner you were hit with attitude, negativity and belittled…your story sounds exactly the same as the many others that have left their comments here. At a certain point I think that any folks that are “pushing” this scheme on others are going to wake up and realize how ruthless they really are, but perhaps they had very little ethics to begin with.
MLM’s start the same typically. They search out some “big fish” with big following. These folks then suck their followings into the program, then go onto flont their huge success as a result of getting their “trusting” followings to join a worthless program. Then they force their followings into the scheme because in order to earn more money, their downline needs to start hustling. The cycle continues until there is industry backlash and people start waking up to the fact that the program is nothing more than an unsophisticated Ponzi.
A red flag should go up right away when you realize that they are not allowed to use a “normal” payment processor and folks are struggling to get paid through lower end payment gateways. There is a reason for this, companies like Paypal, Stripe, 2checkout, and straight up merchant accounts would never approve or condone a business like this. Why? I will let you fill in the blanks…
The reason people are on the “happy pill” and speak highly of a program is because they defend their purchases by behaving in this way. If you took any one of these folks aside, got them to step back for a moment and realize what they were actually doing, what they promoting (hot air), I think a lot of them would grow some ethics in a real hurry. I can honestly say that if I ever see a friend trying to promote this program to another friend, they are not going to be a friend for long. That is how unethical I think the nature of this program is.
Thanks again for your insight, it is going to prove very helpful to others that are on the fence or currently involved in EN. It is YOUR way of exposing them!
I just attended EN’s ‘conventions’ held in Rosemont, Illinois. I received a free ticket and left thinking that I would join-BUT-during this show extravanga I did think Pyramid. I also didn’t get a good vibe from the people in attendance-not even from the person who invited me. They treated their top earners like movie stars and their earning stories were great, but I was expecting to get real concrete information, but the convention was more like a party. It was all about who made how much money-nothing else. I knew I had to google the company to get comments from others. When people are making $50,000 a month-life is not that easy. Thanks Kyle.
Gerri, your intuition was aboslutely correct. This is a pyramid in every sense of the word and guess who the folks are that are “bragging” about their success, the ones at the very top of the ponzi. In order for them to continue to succeed it is required that folks like yourself go and buy into their program, which you are correct, isn’t really a program. Your #1 job after getting sucked into Empower is to continue promoting Empower and get more people under you…so you can take money directly from their bank accounts and put it in yours…with their recurring sales going to the top of the pyramid.
Sounds nice doesn’t it (do you sense the sarcasm)!
You made the right choice and I can assure you that if you take the recommendations on my site, you will never be sucked into another scam again. Take advantage of the WA Starter membership, I can assure you that you will be a happy camper. Also, if you need a hand with anything else going forward, just let me know and I will be more than happy to help you out.
Hey Kyle interesting take on EN. One I do know is that every multi-marketing or direct sales that I have ever been a part of there is always someone saying that it’s a scam.Some say Church is a scam, some say the government is a scam. I guess we are all scammers. Fact is no one forces you or I to join anything. We make our own decision live and learn from them some people will succeed and some will not that is just life. The say and do just about everything to turn you off or on before you pull out your credit card out. You sound a bit angry and I would like to know how much you made before you decide to quit EN. Peace….
People tend to defend what they buy, especially when they are not aware of better alternatives out there. It sounds like you are involved in EN, so you are in the relentless pursuit to recruit others into the program, but before you do so going forward you should be aware that there are much better programs out there. My review is calling a spade a spade, an I explain in detail my reasons why David. You an also see the abundance of feedback from others, many whom have had many experiences online (positive and negative) and definitely categorically put EN in the less legit side of things.
There are much more powerful. Let’s take a quick comparison to the service that I recommend on my site here (as my #1).
EN blog = $25 per month
WA websites (get 2) = FREE, fully functional WordPress blogs not tied to promoting anything.
EN Inner Circle = $100 per month
Wealthy Affiliate Support = 100% free for first 30 days, full LIVE support, access to experts
EN Other Intensives “All In” Progams = Several $1,000’s, access to some rudimentary training
WA Starter Member Training = Over 500 training modules within the FREE Starter membership
What you can promote within these programs?
EN = Mostly EN (you would be lying if you said that was not the goal of your efforts within EN)
WA = ANYTHING YOU WANT
You see where I am heading with this, for FREE, someone can get a much better service and much more access to expert help than paying $150+ per month + $1,000’s in extra “all in” programs. That to me is a big difference and I hope that this is a “wake up” call to the fact that you are promoting a program that makes you money only if you can recruit MORE unsuspecting folks into the program.
I have also noticed on many occasions (from personal experience) that Empower promoters are by far are the most ruthless I have seen (and most unwilling to help others in “outside of the all in” out). They typically lack industry knowledge because they are part of a ‘system’ that relies on the recruiting others at a “whatever it takes” sort of attitude. By ruthless I mean, they “force” others to join with unrealistic marketing angles (12 year old boy makes $10,000 from empower…) and from every run in I have had (and others have had), you are treated like garbage of you “don’t join” and if you don’t go all in, you are ridiculed. Nice culture…
Some fail, some succeed. Yes, this is true. But some programs teach people business, don’t force downlines. Perhaps one day you will realize that when you rely on recruiting a downline, your success will end when people realize that the ponzi is nothing more than that. The model of success should not rely on a product where you have to sell that very same product in order to succeed.
And yes, I have been at this for some time. You can check my about me page if you want some info on my experience.
I am reading your reviews and I thought I did research but I guess I did not do good enough. I went through EN because I thought it was a great opportunity for a way for me to work from home and to enjoy life with my family. I put my trust in a mother w/child who is well known on Facebook, but she is one of the top 106 affliates. I love to blog and I am good at it and now that I am reading this, I am having second thoughts. Now I am believing that it is no company to trust because this will be the second burn and I cannot do the three times a charm. I am not stupid though before I cancelled my membership, yes I was erasing everything!!!!
Earning Money DOES NOT always equal an opportunity. Just because someone is making money from something does not mean that it is a legitimate way to earn money nor is it a way to earn a long term income. It sounds like you have all the skills you need to do very well online Denise, and you just need some direction. Unfortunately EN is not going to be that direction simply because it is going to require you to not only invest a good deal of your money on the EN products, you are going to have to turn around and ruthlessly convince people to by into the system you have bought into.
And then for those people to earn money…they have to do the same thing. There is no real product and people are earning money by getting other people to buy into the same program that they are. I can assure you that if you heading in the direction of WA, you are going to learn about creating a LEGIT business online in whatever niche you like (you can even leverage your existing blog!). And I can also tell you that I am here for you if you ever have any questions or need some insight into whether or not something is a scam or not before trying it. You need to be careful out there these days, there are a lot of vultures!
As a “former” member of Empower, I can safely say that it is one of the most illegitimate scams I have ever been involved with. Not only do I find the owners to be complete cowards selling a dream, not a product, the entire community is centered around the aspect of going ALL IN. The long and the short of it is that people make your feel like you are inadequate if you are not going all in, spending the $100’s per month and the $1000’s for their additional upsells.
You nailed it when you said this is like a pyramid or a ponzi Kyle. I don’t think it will be long before Empower Network is caught by the FTC and that all the scammers within the network pushing their downlines to buy everything so they can make more will crumble. This is ruthless in every sense of the word and I recommend that anyone reading this stay the hell away from this shit program.
Thanks for your personal insights. You are not the first or the last that has voiced their strong “frustration” for this program. Hopefully honest reviews like this will stop people before they fall into this trap.
Sorry to hear you succumb to this one Jon and if there is anything I can help you out with to restore your “faith” in the Internet and the fact that you can create an honest business online (and a very successful one at that), just let me know.
I once was with EN just 2 months ago and I left due to me reading about their scams all across the internet. I was actually trying to use EN to promote more of my own business while trying to make money with EN as well. It’s funny how if i had someone wanting to buy into the 15k formula for $500. I would not get that commission because you have to purchase it yourself in order to make that money. They also hype up the 100% commissions to get you involved. I think I am just going to promote my business the old fashion way. Free Blog and Free Website.
Exactly Rik, in order to get paid the full commissions for all of the products that you are promoting with Empower Network, you are looking at close to $5,000 for your first year and $140+ per month ongoing. Just to get people into your downline and continue the vicious cycle.
While I do agree with you that with Empower Network, there is no actual product, and their selling tactics are completely slimy at best…what does trouble me somewhat is that it almost sounds like network marketing or MLM are all thrown into the same basket…as scams.
I’m afraid I personally wouldn’t agree with that. There are many legit network marketing companies, and it’s also been a proven business building model many times over. There’s also a LOT of people involved with network marketing and MLM, that are highly ethical and very caring individuals with the downlines they build.
Yes, Empower Network gives that part of the industry a bad name, however, the industry as a whole…shouldn’t be labeled as “scammy”. Some people may not understand it that well, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it should be ridiculed.
Hope I’m not giving off a negative vibe, as that’s not my intention. But I do know many successful network marketers, and the ethics and integrity they carry with them..far outweighs many of the “so called” gurus of the IM niche.
My two cents worth…
Don’t worry, I agree with you. There are a lot of ethical MLM programs out there and at one point, I was involved in a MLM (way back in 2000)…although it be for a short period of time. I know that many MLM’s are not only beneficial to the people involved with them, they are beneficial to customers. Mary Kay, Amway, Tupperware are all forms of MLM’s and they are some of the most popular brands running to this day.
I would in fact find it hard to even classify Empower Network as a MLM as it fits the definition of a Ponzi scheme or an “illegal” pyramid scheme very accurately. From the encyclopedia of Fraud:
Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it!
So again, while I do think that some MLM’s play very close to the “out of bounds” area in terms of ethics and in some cases something defined as an MLM is not in fact, an MLM, it is being masked as this when in fact it is a Ponzi.
Wish you all the best with your promotions Davinator, MLM or otherwise.
I just joined Empower Network, a little skeptical but had several friends in this and promoting this.
After reading this and wondering about things myself from slowly getting into it, I now see what is going on.
Thanks for writing this. It was an eye opener.
Glad you found this quite revealing and if your friends are promoting this to you, I would be careful whom you choose as friends. By getting you to join under them they are essentially taking money out of your bank account and putting it into theirs…just short of stealing in my opinion.
So since you signed up, have you made any money?
I have been doing this full time online since 2002 Rhonda. My goal is to help you out and I do recommend if you are looking for a starting point, that you do check out the Wealthy Affiliate Starter membership ($0 to get started, no credit card required). You will get a free website, training, support, etc. My other goal, to help folks avoid programs like the ones above that are very unethical in nature.
If you have any further questions, do let me know.
I enjoyed this wonderful review Kyle, simply because I never thought of it like that, but then again you have a way with words:-)
Actually, I’m very embarrassed to even say that I joined Empower. At first, I really loved it simply because of the paying structure and even though I believe the audios are very helpful, I was literally struggling to stay in because I got tired of fb, youtube and even google blocking their stuff. I even got a few videos taken off because of them.(this was the last straw) Don’t get me wrong, I was making money (more money than I’ve ever made in an Affiliate program and very fast), but the money is not that important to me when I feel some type of way about the company.
As much as I hate to say it, Empower is a scam, even though people are making thousands, even hundreds of dollars. I finally canceled my membership after some major thinking. It was so hard because I was getting hundreds of dollars recurring commissions.
Anyways, just thought I put my 2 cent:-)
Thanks for your feedback Saytue. I remember when you were promoting this product and were doing so in a way that is not to dissimilar from how others are promoting it. I was hoping that at some point you would come to your senses and to work towards creating a real tangible business online, not flogging a product without substance in order to build your downline. It is great to see you are doing well and that you have moved on.
I always say that just because a few people are making money with something does not mean it is OK. People make money robbing banks and stealing from the elderly, that doesn’t mean it is a legit business opportunity. However, when people buy into a system like “Empower” they are quick initially to defend their purchases. It is like buying a new phone and your friend telling you that it is a piece of junk, you are going to defend your decision to buy it, regardless of whether or not your phone is actually a low quality, piece of garbage.
There is a reason companies like Google and Facebook are blocking this program and there is a definite reason that companies are dropping the merchant accounts (how the Empower members get paid) without warning. A pyramid always makes a few people money, but they end up being very short-lived in nature and the bulk of the people end up earning nothing at all. I see this as being no different.
Hey Kyle,
I never joined the Empower Network, but I did have a friend try to get me to join and that experience left an extremely bad taste in my mouth.
I was on facebook and an old friend hit me up. He asked how my IM business was going and what I was up to. He said he doing the exact same thing and said I should check out this site.
He sent me a link I took a look at it and it was a squeeze page. Sensing something fishy was going on, I did a whois on the domain and found out it was in fact his domain, since he’s too cheap too purchase the privacy registration service.
At this point I knew what the game was(him trying to sign me up for something), but I decided to check out what he was promoting. I put my email address in the box and submitted the form. This redirected me to their salesvideo.
I watched the salesvideo which ended up being 45 minutes long, I was told it was only 20 minutes. The sales video is one of those classic videos where they tell an emotional story to get you emotionally pumped.
I think a good 40 minutes is dedicated to telling this emotional story and getting you pumped about how great your life is going to be once you sign up. You have to listen very closely to actually find out what it is they are trying to sell you.
Their product is a “viral blogging system” which I’m assuming is the blog you get on the empower domain. You are completely right when you say that is borderline illegal and definitely way in the gray area.
My buddy was telling me he makes all this money with it, I have no reason to think he’s lying about the money he makes. However, I am for certain he doesn’t make his money through the “viral blogging system” that people are pitched on when they watch the video.
He makes his money posting screenshots of the emails he gets when he gets a new commission to his facebook wall. Invariably, people ask how he’s making his money he sends them to the video, they sign up.
That’s pretty shady. Telling people you are making a bunch of money and then getting them to buy something that has absolutely nothing to do with the way you are making your money. He doesn’t make his money using their “viral blogging system” he makes money posting commission screenshots to his facebook wall.
Another issue I have with sales video is how they take advantage of people who are not technology saavy. They make it seem in their sales video that if you don’t have $20,000/month for lawyers, $50,000 for hosting, $100,000 for designers then you can’t have a successful blog. Those aren’t the exact figures, but all the figures were 5 digit figures.
This is a totally unfair comparison. Even empower network didn’t start out with that level of expenses. They grew to that level of expenses as their income supported it. If you know nothing about websites you might actually believe it.
I politely declined joining and went about my day. Then a few days later I noticed my friend was tagging me in his income screenshots on facebook. I thought it might be a one time thing so I didn’t say anything about it. Then it happened a second and third time at which point I asked him to quit facebook spamming me.
He said he wasn’t spamming me, at which point I said that if I there is not a picture of me that you’re tagging me in and it’s to try to get me to join the empower network which I’ve already politely told you that I’m not interested in, then it is spam.
At this point he resorted to name calling. Needless, to say I didn’t join and I will never join.
Great Post!
Thomas
It sounds like you need to make some new friends, anyone that would invite you to Empower Network is basically trying to take money directly from your bank account and put it into theirs. It honestly is no different. Every single person that I have seen involved in promoting this program has been very “shady” in the way they are promoting it. Sure, some folks are making money but that it is because they are sucking more people into the program…a form of pyramid trickery.
Thankfully you saw through the relentless and RUDE promotions your friend assaulted you with. This is no different from what I have heard from 100’s of others in the program where you are called every name in the book if you don’t join or you don’t go all-in, which means spending $1,000’s more on top of your $25 on their upsell products.
In regards for the start-up costs for a business, those numbers are absolutely ridiculous.
(1) There is no need for lawyers unless you are doing shady stuff like Empower (they actually run their business as an offshore company, don’t ask them why)
(2) Hosting is cheap. In fact, I can get you a blog up and running for free…a professional one, one much more professional than the ones at Empower. Head over to WealthyAffiliate.com and set up a FREE account and you get 2 FULL WordPress blogs. Yes, free.
(3) I wouldn’t pay a company $10 to design me a blog that looks like the Empower network ones, let alone $100,000. Website templates are $100 max for a sophisticated and very powerful one. Anyone spending more than this on a website is a complete idiot.
All in all, you made the smartest decision and there will be a time when your friend comes to you and apologizes for trying to get you to join the Empower Network Scam.
These people founds like he worst of all time. That is outrageous prices. At least Wealthy affiliate basic is free and premium is only $47 per month thanks got the info Kyle I just hope a lot of people read this before they loose out on there hard earned money.
Hey Kyle,
I love this honest review over Empower Network. I actually have an interesting story to share with you, because I’ve talked to some of the top affiliates through private messaging. Tracey Walker (a while back ago) & Paul Gardener just a few weeks ago along with another affiliate who’s apparently made a total sum of $30,000 in 3 months (much of which was probably passed up the ladder to higher up affiliates – which I believe is a total of 50% instead of 100% like they say).
This girl who I must say is somewhat attractive, has apparently made 30k in 3 months starting out as a complete newb, I have added on Facebook. I probably sent her about 1,000 words of content explaining what I believed in & many other people’s thoughts about empower network. She said she spent like 2 months looking up information about them, and joined them after doing that research. Then she went onto giving me these points (these are all from the Facebook message she sent me):
#1 Empower Network is not based in Costa Rica, that is simply where the creator of the company lives… The corporate office is actually in FL
#2 FB blocked links for Empower Network, just as they have blocked many, for the simple fact that fb users began flagging the links as spam, and the same goes for YouTube… Bad marketing techniques by threatened marketers.
#3 PayPal decided not to allow Empower Network affiliates to use their system for 2 reasons: #1 because EN affiliates were generating income faster than PayPal could keep up with the transactions and #2 PayPal could not understand how EN affiliates were earning the income without pushing actual “tangible” products.
#4 Empower Network is ranked around 400 out of every site on google world wide and in the top 200 in the US. So using a site like the ones you mentioned could drive traffic to your blog you would just have to work much harder to get there…
#5 In regards to the “Up Sales”. When an affiliate purchases the “Inner Circle” for $100 they have direct resale rights to that product. So they make a $100 commission for each product they sell, the same goes for the other training products within the company. This payment of $100 does not go to Empower Network, this is a 100% commission paid directly to the affiliate. Empower network does not make ANY MONEY AT ALL from product sales, those commissions are paid DIRECTLY to each affiliate.
#6 You are over reaching your $5000 product assumption, Every training product within the system combined costs about $5000, that is 5 different extensive training products. Which means that each affiliate has the ability to earn $5000 from just 1 person plus instant residual
#7 The training inside of Empower Network is not from just “1 Perspective” the training is from a Large collection of Affiliate/Network marketing Industry Leaders and Top Earners from All different companies and backgrounds. There are literally hrs of training that is the equivalent to taking a course on marketing in general, not just for online, and which can be applied to ANY online business…
source: https://www.facebook.com/angela.james.798
~~~
I sent more replies to Angela (just to mainly see what she’d say more out of amusement than anything) and what not, then I got a message from Paul saying, that I’m ignorant & that Angela was one of her top affiliates (which clarifies right there it’s built like a pyramid scheme where higher up affiliates get money).
She apoligized for his rudeness & used the excuse he was in a tight spot for 2 months before he ran to Empower Network to make money for himself due to him not having a job with a baby on the way… but I’m not surprised he has this type of attitude towards others, because if he has the capability of taking money away from innocent people, he has very little heart for others.
I actually did a little more research into whom they were, and found out they have a payout bank account based in London, they have a “foreign entity based business” based in Florida, and then the owner lives in Costa Rica. I feel there is no need to go into further detail about everything that was said above, because everything you said within this article clearly outlines what Empower Network is about.
I know exactly what SPAM tactics they use. They post these exact words below on there Facebook wall, they ask for people’s emails through private messaging, and then they send you the direct link to there E.N. landing page.
“ATTENTION!!!!! If you are STILL Struggling In Your Business and You Have Not Figured How to Generate $1000 DAYS! I Want to help YOU!! I am Ready to Help 1 More Person Discover and Apply the $1000 Pre/Day Formula to To Their Lives and Bank Accounts!! Inbox me for Details!!!”
It’s a hyped up Ponzi scheme that uses hypnotic advertising techniques to sucker people into selling there soul to the devil.
Wow Seth, you have really gone out of your way and done some digging. I am also to hear about your negative run in with one of the “top affiliates” over there that is closely protecting his downline from the reality of the product. Perhaps if you asked any more questions, Angela may have come to here senses and put some ethics before greed (thus losing her referrer some hefty commissions).
I do have some responses to your points though that I would like to touch on.
#1 Empower Network is based in Florida as a foreign entity business, meaning it is a shelter. There are very good reasons for them doing this and this is likely as a shelter of future litigation. I couldn’t see a company doing this if they weren’t working within some serious gray area.
#2 FB blocked links for Empower Network and so does Youtube. This is not common by any stretch of the means and when a Google entity starts completely “blanket” blocking a program…and FB, there are some serious issues as to how the program is being promoted and they obviously do not trust the program. If Google and Facebook don’t trust it, why should someone else?
#3 Paypal processes MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars per day. They could most definitely handle Empower Network and then some, but they wouldn’t touch this program with a 10 foot pole because they have no tangible or intangible product. The product is their commission structure and charging people to promote the very same product to others. Paypal has ethics rules and they would never allow a program like this because it would hurt their merchant ratings.
#4 Empower Network is ranked high on Alexa because it has a lot of people peddling it. This has nothing to do with their blog network. They are trying to push the idea that you are better off not owning your website because of the $10 per year charge, when in reality they are charging your $25/mth for a free website…which is about 1/10th as good as the free websites offered at WA which are true wordpress websites.
#5 Inner Circle…perfect. $100 per month to make more commissions and to get more out of the downline in your pyramid. If this wouldn’t make Bernie Madoff happy, I am not sure what would.
#6 “You are over reaching your $5000 product assumption…” Thankfully I took Calculus in Uni so I could do a little bit of math on this here, although simple addition would be fine. $3,500 (Master) + $500 (Costa Rica Retreat) + $1,000 ($15K program) = $5,000, tack on another $100 per month (Inner Circle), $20 per month (e-wallet), and $25 per month (base fee) for a year, and we are looking at another $1740.
According to my calculations if you wanted to go ALL IN at Empower Network, you would be looking at $6,740 for the year. A good chunk of change and one that I think most folks would find shocking and perhaps dissuade them from joining EN at all.
#7 The training is for other purposes. I have never once heard of an EN member earning money promoting another product other than EN…or even attempting to do so. I would need some validation to prove that point because I simply do not believe it.
Thanks again for the due diligence done on part here and I hope all my responses make sense. 🙂
Hi Kyle,
I genuinely liked your review. I myself don’t have any ‘inside’ experience with Empower Network, however, I recently heard about it through being on someone’s e-mail list. I must admit, I even briefly thought about buying into it. Instead, I decided to spend my hard-earned money on joining Wealthy Affiliate, the ‘#1 ranked product’ you suggest in your review. For less money than what I’d be paying Empower Network every month, I’ve stepped into a community of open arms in Wealthy Affiliate, where a member has every possible opportunity to succeed. On a final note, it didn’t take long to get that sinking feeling in my gut from Empower Network when they’re calling people ‘wussies’ in their sales video. Really? How could insulting people be a selling tactic? And since then, I’ve received e-mail trying to lure me into EM, with subject lines like ‘Come on, don’t be a wussy, just get in’. I personally find that disturbing & unsubscribed from the list. Thanks again for exposing this kind of stuff. 🙂
I suppose nobody wants to be a wussy…well it works on those folks that don’t like being called a wussy (or a fraction thereof I suppose). If you are still on this persons “list” and they continue trying to convince you that Empower is the only way, perhaps you may want to part ways. It sounds like that relationship will be one of shiny objects and one of little substance.
Great to have you on board within WA and I look forward to working with you going forward! If you ever need a hand with anything, do let me know.
Hi Kyle. You have done an excellent job on reviewing this very suspect company. I was involved with EN at the beginning of my online journey last year and it was not a good way to start. I received no training, unless I went looking for it, I spent considerable time trying to understand what it was I was selling, and I got burned by Google Adwords and StumbleUpon because I didn’t know what I was doing and before I knew it I got spanked for spamming.
Fortunately, I only went up to the 100.00 per month for 4 months because, regardless of all the pressure I was put under, family comes first and that was where my money needed to go. Should you challenge them in any way or not be “all in”, meaning you spent the $5,000, you were called a wussy and other names; in fact, when I did my own review on EN I was truly surprised with how much further the vulgarity had progressed. This is not supportive nor useful when the folks that want your money name-call all those who “oppose” them…childish! BTW, I gave EN a 3 out of 10 on my review.
Finally, I fully agree with you where you state that you have to become “a ruthless sales person”. That’s the push and you would need to “check your values at the door”. The only good thing I learned was that I was very interested in learning about online marketing and blogging. That’s how I wound up at WA.
Folks, if you’re considering signing up…DON’T! Nuff said cuz I still get a little testy when I think about them. Thanks for this Kyle.
So either you pay money (which goes directly to your upline) or you are completely useless in their eyes. Sounds like a system that will only encourage you to do well if you are paying them, exactly what I am strongly against. You didn’t deserve to be treated the way you were and I am sure that anyone that says anything negative about Empower to people within Empower are likely going to get strong backlash. This types of behavior will only adversely affect the pyramid profits.
I do thank you for your feedback Rick and I am glad you found a safe home. Your family definitely comes before going all in and it sounds like you are not going to have to worry about going all in (or being a wussy) going forward. Wonderful to have you as part of the community at WA!
Hey Kyle, like I said on my review page for WA, I almost joined EN. I can be a member here for 15 years for the same price they charge for all their products and that’s not including all the monthly ones either. I am still on their e-mail list and found out that just over 10,000 people signed up for them in one month. There’s gonna be a lot of people dissappointed when they find out that it’s gonna be more than the $25 they promote. Will be a nice little niche to target now and down the road.
Exactly Brian, 15 years at a community that actually teaches online business (and provides you with the tools)…and has been in the business of helping people for the last 8 years. When companies brag about their success it is typically in hopes of keeping the momentum alive…and it is unfortunate that this many people (if that is an accurate number) have bought into a product that actually isn’t a product.
Hey Kyle,
This is a great write up on EN. This program is a total scam and gives online marketing and honest MLM companies a black eye. You hit the nail right on the head with your review and I hope it finds the eyes of as many folks as possible that are considering joining. I personally love how you incorporate the word slimy in this review, because that is exactly how the folks in EN operate.
WA is a much better option for folks looking to educate themselves and learn how to market online the right way.
Take care bud. Hope you and the other good folks at WA are doing great!
Thanks for you feedback Josh and I do agree with you that Empower puts such a bad spin on the entire MLM industry because of its popularity right now. People associate a scam like this with the MLM industry in general and it may take some time to recover from the Pyramid scheme that EN has set-up.
I do hope as well that this review and the associated thread reaches many folks because if we can help one person avoid one of the many scams out there we have done our job.
I was a member of the Empower Network for a brief while and found the program to be overpoweringly focused around the marketing hype alone.
The entire program is focused around “Getting all In”, which winds-up being really all about, buying the entire suite of offerings. In fact, if you have not paid for one of the specific programs mentioned and a sales comes in through your marketing efforts, the commission gets passed to your upline.
Now I recognize that is a common problem with many MLM or Network Marketing programs, but that doesn’t necessarily make it ethical in my mind.
As you’ve mentioned, the sales are focused around the program itself and purchasing the various and sundry upgrade offerings along the way. Your commissions are earned by obviously getting others to purchase them also.
You do get a relatively bare bones WordPress blog already set-up for you, however it is really not all that customizable afterwards. In fact there are some very dire warnings, not to customize the blog instance, outside of what is already there.
The entire support structure and training is centered on the “core commitments”. Blog Daily, Market Daily, New Member Coaching, Listen To An Audio Daily, Read Daily and Attend All Events. That’s the extent of it.
So nothing new or revolutionary and certainly nothing in my mind to get “All In” over.Especially, given the price points to get all in.
In fairness, several of the Leaders have their own training programs to assist their downline in making money. So while there isn’t a ton of value in the program in my mind, many of the Leaders do take it very seriously and offer some significant training resources.
There is also a great review on the program written by Anna Hoffman at the Traffic Generation Cafe, that also clearly outlines many challenges with the Empower. It also makes for a great read. The article is at:
http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/empower-network-thumbs-down/
You are spot on with your review. The folks over at Empower Network make your feel “small” if you don’t got all in, which means purchasing their entire suite of upsells (which total well over $5,000). When all is said and done people are left promoting a product with zero substance and they have invested all of their savings into this scam.
I do believe that once the negative feedback around this product gains some traction (as much as the people relentlessly pushing their downlines sales), it is going to lose it’s mojo. At the end of the day there is no product you are buying other than the fact that you pay to promote the product.
Thanks for the feedback Kyle. I guess the part that still puzzles me today as I continue to grow in this marketplace, is that there are a number of significant names in this industry attached to this program.
In fact these are folks, who for the most part, I have a ton of respect.
I’m not sure if they got in early and weren’t completely aware or if this is just another “tool in the bag” so to speak for the them. If it’s the latter, then I guess I’m getting terribly jaded.
The power of the marketing engine behind the Empower Network is staggering. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given the amount of money flowing through the program at the top.
However, I can’t help but feel disappointed that some otherwise ethical folks are involved with the Program and asking other ethical folks who just aren’t aware what they are “getting all into” to join them, based on their reputations in the marketplace.
Sorry…That’s my rant for the morning 🙂 Great review and thanks again for writing it.
Brian, it is a matter of being careful who you trust. I would find it hard to believe that you could carry a lot of respect for anyone promoting this product knowing what the program actaully is. It comes down to the money and there are many folks, even the ones you deemed as reputable, that are acting out of desparation.
They promote the product (build their downline), then try to get you to build your downline (as they are going to get paid as a result of this). But, again, there is NO REAL PRODUCT. I think through time you are going to lose a lot of respect for folks in this industry as time goes on, I know I have. Trust actions, not what they say and when someone is promoting a program such as Empower you perhaps need to reconsider whom you are following and taking advice from.
I’ve made millions in the industry selling what people call “ real products” all those “real products” require servers, websites, reps, knowledge, action and a niche market consumer, or you have nothing and by the way; servers and websites are technology products that every real product needs to be sold.
When you have the technology combined with world-class training that will provide a platform to learn how to promote, market and sell anything better online in 174 countries…it’s “the most applicable product on earth” because I don’t have to find the tiny market niche consumer, how many millions of people have a message, a passion, a product, an invention, an unpublished book or intellectual property they want to monetize? It’s 100 times the people of any real product niche. So what you have is a product more need with a much higher profit margin without all the qualification crap where you have to call friends and recruit a certain number of people or produce a certain amount of volume or points to be eligible to earn every month. With Empower if you’re on the product, you can’t miss any payout. It’s the most ethical system I’ve seen in 20 years. I find it hard to believe how many people really do not get the power or Empower.
Tim Edwards
I do agree with you on ONE thing here Tim, that in order to succeed online (and do so in an ethical way) you need a website and yes, this is technology. Yes, there are some strategies that don’t require a website, but their longevity will typically be short lived and they won’t operate in a way that provides cumulative growth.
Where you are wrong is in your statement that Empower is “the most ethical system”. There is nothing ethical about it. Here are my reasons why:
(1) It is a pure financial displacement. Money goes from ONE person to another person within the pyramid style structure. Money goes from one person to another within Empower so the structure is based on the exact same principle that any Ponzi is based off of.
(2) The product is the product. Yes, exactly how it sounds. There is no product itself, you are selling people into a system that they are required to sell others into the system and then so on. Blogs like the ones handed out for $25 per month can be gotten free elsewhere (in fact, much better ones are offered for free elsewhere), so the initial entrance price is a complete rip-off.
(3) People are ridiculed if the don’t go “all in”. Yes, if people don’t upgrade from their $25 to the extra $100 membership…and then continue upgrading (close to $6,000 over the course of one year), then they are called wussies or much worse. Name calling happens because if the people aren’t upgrading, the people on top are not making their money, thus the pyramid does not steam along.
(4) People within the network spam. No matter where you go, where you look, you see folks from the EN ruthlessly promoting the service, link dropping, spamming, and frankly, be dishonest by claiming “instant riches” no matter where they go.
I could go on, but this is my short list of reason why Empower is not as ethical as you think it may be.
Well, some of it you hit right on, but there is one thing that you missed….this blog really does NOT belong to you! I “cancelled” back in October 2012 and they still have not killed my site and I am not allowed to kill it…it belongs to them and they will tell you that real quick if you ask them to. It still has MY name on it and I hate that. They don’t want those that I brought in to know I have left. It never was mine. When you join they tell you you can change the entire site, but you cannot…the Empower Network stuff stays right there on the sidebar. They get the benefit of you doing work for them.
Believe me, I know, I spent hours trying to figure out how to put my own stuff there. What you are doing is promoting for David and David. You are building their brand, not your brand. So your rating should probably drop 20 points on that alone. Give them 10 points because they do actually allow you to post there. So I guess that could be work about minus 10 points…maybe.
So now their rating is a 20.
The next thing is this, David Wood’s language is what some would call colorful. I don’t call it colorful, I call it insulting and name calling. Almost to the point of bullying at times. He curses, which I realize is supposed to be cool, but professionals do not curse. To me that loses another 20 points. Ten for the cursing and ten for the insulting and name calling.
Now they are ZERO!
Yes, they have their inner circle all right…it’s the ones with the huge email lists that brought 1000s in and made hundreds of thousands of dollars off those that believed it was a real opportunity. And it just keeps happening. I say another minus 10 points on this. It should be more because those that recruit you know what they are doing…they knew it from the beginning…they are the inner circle.
We are to minus ten or -10.
Now, as for advertising. Honestly, they do say you are going to have to work for a while, but then you are on easy street. Well, obviously, that is not true. I am thinking I was a member there for many months…can’t say the exact number but I could look it up if it is really important. I worked every day on this for months, and I did make some money, however, it was about impossible to get any of it.
You can read about that on my blog which is linked here. I think if you click on my picture it will take you there.
I will tell you this, I didn’t get much back after they took their fees, gave me the runaround about setting up my bank account, they wanted me to buy their debit card. I had already been paying the 19.95 a month for many months and couldn’t even get out what I had in there.
And they tell you you make 100 percent commission…a downright lie…but you don’t know that until you have already joined and you start losing people you have brought it. It is hard to find that part of the puzzle. Okay, I’ve got to give it another minus ten points here…sorry Kyle, I’ve been there, done that.
For $25 a month I probably would still have my blog there if it was really MY blog and I could do what I wanted with it. But you can’t.
And some of the training when you first start is valuable to newbies…but not to folks like me that have been around for a long time. But they make is sound like they are going to tell you some real secrets…they don’t, because there are no real secrets.
I happened to have joined under a group that did help with marketing and such. We also had other affiliate tools that we would promote, so it was not all EN. That being said, a lot of their training was old stuff and does not apply to IM now. I’m going to stop putting a minus point value because I think at this point you get the idea.
So I think my “review” is as long as Kyle’s here so I will shut up…but please, please, please, be careful. If you want to cheat people, you can as long as you have a huge mailing list. That’s how all the Guru’s make their money — I didn’t say professional Internet Marketers…I said those that call themselves gurus! Be very, very careful. If you get into something and within a month you don’t have a good direction, either talk to those that are running it to find out what the problem is — Or if they won’t talk with you and counsel you included in your membership, GET OUT!
Of course, this is my humble opinion, I have not been asked to write this, nor have I been paid to write this. I wrote my blog post long before I saw this.
To your success!
Joyce aka Nana
Joyce, thanks for your detailed responses and I am sorry to hear about your negative experience with Empower. In fact, I have not heard a positive review yet…the only people that LOVE EN, are those that are heavily promoting it (which would be an obvious reason to appear to love a product).
“I “cancelled” back in October 2012 and they still have not killed my site and I am not allowed to kill it…it belongs to them and they will tell you that real quick if you ask them to.”
That is because they do own it and this is something that most people disregard when joining. They do have control and they could be ethical and delete it, but they are not an ethical company by any stretch. They want to continue benefiting from the content you have created.
I might have to readjust my rating of this program after the ABSOLUTE FLOOD of negative feedback about this product. I knew I would get some poor reviews, but I didn’t think I would get this much hatred for the Empower Network and hear so many stories about folks being ridiculed for not going all in. Pathetic really….
And cursing, that is not cool. I don’t know what you accomplish by cursing as this is definitely not needed to get any point across, it simply states the sort of class one wants to exhibit in public. So I guess between those two items there, the overall ranking gets moved down to ZERO. LOL.
To anyone promoting this scheme, it really shows who they are and whether or not they can be trusted. They are exchanging their brand to make some quick money. It is only going to hurt them in the long run when their list realizes what the opportunity is they have just been subjected to.
And sorry to hear they LIE about payment, that is another reason to RUN form this company. I am sure on the business ethics scale they are nearing the -100 within my review. It is definitely going to need an adjustment after your feedback!
You are absolutely correct in stating there are no secrets and I have spent the last 8 years teaching others this. I have been teaching the “so called” secrets which really comes down to knowing what to do and applying it, which are all techniques and strategies outlined within WA (as you are definitely aware of) and can be applied to absolutely any niche.
I am sorry to hear about your horrendous experience within Empower Network and I am definitely going to be re-evaluating my review after your thorough outline and personal complaints about the product.
Before people cancel, they need to go in and delete ALL their posts and put the WordPress template back to the bare bones state that it was in when they signed up. Remove your profile pic and put it back to the pic of Dave and his wife.
If you don’t do this before canceling, then ALL the blog post belong to them and when people find those posts and sign up, the commissions go to that persons upline.
I would never leave my posts up on a third party site if I was leaving.
Thanks for that Lynn. Will be sure to incorporate this so that people know to do this as well.
I was intrigued with the EmpowerNetwork and signed up only to realize with my vast experience in mlm. That it was a mistake because they do not offer a product of value.
What happens is you sign up for a monthly x dollar amount which is minimal but they really don’t tell you anything else until you’re in the funnel and all they talk about is wealth. They do not tell you about their tactic to lure you in deeper once they get you all excited and hyped up!
You see at one time I did mlm fulltime and understand all kinds of comp plans and the simplest ones to do are the matrix type plans because everybody has an opportunity to make some cash. Then when you personally sponsor/sign up folks from a list or whatever, this enables to to receive extra bonuses which is fair, everybody wins.
But with the Empower Network where the downline below you haven’t made the commitment of buying the $3900 dollar package, then anybody that does buy it rolls up to you next qualifying $3900 package purchaser and so on and that’s where the commissions go.
The commissions are high and so these guys make lots of cash from luring in these unsuspecting business opportunists that are looking for an honest home based business and were pitched the dream.
It’s a shame that the high ticket purchases is what drives this business with no real corporate office but just a product which you can charge as much as you want just to get the stories of wealth to lure more unsuspecting victims in!
The type of people that would do well in this program are the ones that only care about money and want to sell high ticket items to others that think going to a convention and getting the early bird discount is going to teach them something.
Not cool
Unsuspecting folks. Exactly spot on there Kal. The reason people are promoting Empower so relentlessly is to make money from unsuspecting people that have no idea what they are getting into. Then they will leave them feeling belittled until they go all in and buy the all of the high ticket items. They are putting a huge price tag on nothing just to keep the pyramid ticking along.
With time, I do hope people are going to wake up to their senses and realize what is going on. It is going to be hard for many folks (some which others thought were reputable) to recover from the harm that promoting an unethical product like Empower is going to do to their brand. I can only hope that people do their due dilligence before considering Empower and realize that it is not an MLM because their really is no product. There is the exchange of money in the same way that any Ponzi scheme works.
You forgot to include $3500 for the Masters program
Thanks for the reminder Lynn, totally forgot about that part. I will update the review to included that.
It is crazy how all of these “payments” pile up and how people promoting it lose sight of what it is they are actually promoting. With all of the “fees” included you are looking at the same amount of money in the first year it is to go to an “ivy league” University, however you actually don’t get any real education from Empower Network other than “how to promote Empower Network”.
30 out of 100 is too much. I think it should be highlighted to everyone thinking about joining EN that for their monthly fee of $25, they still would not own anything because they’re writing content on a domain that they do not own.
Better to get your own domain and write content. You would be getting the same results (in fact much better results) as any EN member.
When I saw on the sales page that they were saying you eont need to pay $20 bucks for a domain (lol), I knew these guys were on some slimy wool-over-your-eyes type sh**.
They’re definitely targeting people who do not know the first thing about online business which is soooo messed up because now you can’t blame them for promoting EN – they won’t know better because tbis is what they’ve been taught.
I’m sure the people eho have escaped the clutches of EN are the ones who later got a better understanding of how things are supposed to work.
If someone does know how things are supposed to work and continue to promote EN then they’re a predator worst than a child molester.
My 2 cents.
Absolutely, everything about the way they promote empower network is slimy.
“You don’t have to pay for a domain that is $20 because you get their blogging system!”. That is complete BS as you and I know because you are actually giving them $25 per month for access to post on a domain that they don’t even own. And a domain is only $10 per year, $15 if you buy it from a place that is expensive.
I would completely agree with you that the people getting involved in Empower are truly the sheep of the industry as they don’t know the first thing about online marketing, if they did they would realize that promoting Empower Network is highly unethical because there is really no product there. The people that promote EN are some of the most relentless, spammy, and frankly, scammy folks I have seen and often times they are not aware of this.
Thanks for your feedback Jay, you tell it like it is!
Thanks for this post Kyle. I too was suckered into believing I could make big time money by using their system. But, there is NO system, no support and no product.
I do not like any sort of MLM system. The majority of them are a road to nowhere.
Here is a link (non affiliate) that will explain MLM in clearer detail. http://mlm-thetruth.com/
I hope it will open the eyes to those who are contemplating any MLM program.
Kyle I hope you retain the link because it is a wealth of information. They have researched over 500 offline and online MLM programs that are legitimate and many that are downright scams.
Paul
Thanks for your feedback Paul. I am sorry to hear that you fell victim (like many others do) to Empower Network, it is a good thing that you did understand that this was a scam before it was too late though. MLM’s, in particular online based ones are for the most part complete scams and the people promoting them are ruthless in their promotions of them. It is unfortunate that so many people get sucked into this crap!
I will leave the link there for others to read, don’t worry. Thanks again for your insight into your negative experience with EN and I hope others will benefit and stay away as a result from the imperial evidence that it is a product that EVERYONE should stay clear from.
I found the people there to be arrogant and frankly unsophisticated.
WA is a breath of fresh air!
Johnny
You are not alone Johnny, that is how most people feel within Empower Network. They are bullied into buying by their upline and called a wussy (and other names) if they don’t go all in and buy the high ticket stuff. It is hard to believe that the people promoting this product can go to bed at night feeling good about themselves…maybe they just don’t care.