This post is a bit off-beat for this blog. It’s a bit of a rant…and definitely a warning. But I recently watched a video from one of the Empower Network’s “top players” that put me over the edge. And now I feel that it has to be said: The Empower Network is a Scam.
If this prevents one person from joining the network then I feel I’ve done my job. And that is why I’m writing this.
But first, let me clarify a few things…
The Empower Network is basically an MLM (muli-level marketing) network.
Many people take issue with the model itself. But I have absolutely no problem with the MLM model.
Many people equate MLM to pyramid schemes. And although there certainly are pyramid schemes, I’m not going to generalize and stick all the programs into one category. It’s just a pricing model.
MLM is basically a membership with an affiliate program that goes deeper than just one level. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
In fact, plenty of people that are great at networking might benefit from this type of system. I personally wouldn’t choose to join in, but it doesn’t mean that my preferences are right for everyone.
To be fair, I’ve known about the Empower Network’s “practices” for quite some time.
I’ve been getting SPAM trackbacks from David Wood’s (the founder of Empower Network) blog for long enough to know their practices aren’t very “white hat.”
But that wasn’t enough for me to be outspoken about it. Plenty of people use methods that work for a little while, but eventually get punished by search engine updates.
Then there’s the “pricing model”…they claim to pay out 100% commission.
Of course…that’s for every-other sale. Most people would call that 50% commissions.
But even that wasn’t enough for me to be outspoken about it. Because quite frankly, if you can’t see that its a flat out lie then you’re on your own.
The Empower Network claims to teach people how to market their businesses. So you should be able to to use their methods to market something other than the network itself.
And this is where I have a serious issue. Because if you’re paying money, you should get quality information and training in return.
If you can’t see that their “100% commissions” are really only 50%…that’s on you. It’s pretty clear.
But people that are new to marketing, and online marketing especially, don’t know right from wrong in many cases. They may not know what works and what doesn’t.
And after the Empower Network pulls at your heart-strings with their videos and spews off a bunch of crap that sounds legitimate, you might be convinced.
But be warned: what you will learn is flat out WRONG.
So as I mentioned, this blog post was spurred by a video from one of the “top performers” in the Empower Network.
During his pitch to get people to join the network, he claimed that joining would give a huge SEO benefit due to the Alexa Rank of the network site.
Because…as he claimed…the Alexa Rank of a website plays a huge part in its search engine rankings. And since their network has such a great Alexa Rank, you can easily rank in search engines.
I could write an entire blog post about this, but let me just say this…
The Alexa Rank of a website has as much to do with search engine rankings as the eggs I ate this morning.
Albeit they were delicious and satisfying. But they’re not going to help me rank in the search engines.
You know what really matters?
Keyword research. On-page optimization. Social signals. Authorship.
But sure as hell isn’t Alexa Rank.
It’s one thing to not know what you’re doing. It’s another to make silly claims…and then sell garbage information.
The saddest part of all this is that there are tens of thousands of members in the network. That’s based on their claims, of course. I haven’t checked this for accuracy…although everything they claim should undergo a fair amount of scrutiny.
That is tens of thousands of people being fooled by charlatans who call themselves marketers. And in turn, these tens of thousands of people are going to try their hardest to spread the same inaccuracies - because that is how they get paid.
And worse…these are the types of people that give marketing a bad name.
There is plenty of great information, plenty of great courses, being sold online by reputable marketers and business people. But an encounter with the Empower Network is likely to turn people off from making an investment in information that can actually help their business.
Anyone who needs to market a real business should stay away from the Empower Network.
In my opinion it is worse than a pyramid scheme because the information it provides is just plain false. No information at all would likely be better.
I’d like to extend a search engine ranking challenge to anyone that is a part of the Empower Network.
Comparing Alexa Ranks, I shouldn’t stand a chance. So let’s see how much much Alexa Rank really matters.
And that concludes my rant for the day. Hopefully it plays at least a tiny part in putting an end to the Empower Network Scam.
Well, I DO hate MLM, but … yeah, anyone who claims Alexa rank has jack-all to do with your SERPs is just not to be believed on anything digitally-related. Thanks for this – will share.
Well, I think MLM has just been taken to a point where every “MLM” company is basically a pyramid scheme.
There are a few that sell real, physical goods, of course. Some people do well with that, I suppose. To each their own.
But programs like this one are just an insult to humanity
I wonder why no one from The Empower Network has chimed in here, Eugene. I’m sure someone in their organization has set up a Google “Alert” for their name. Hmmmm …
I’m not a fan of MLM at all. Truth be told, I lost my shirt and my entire life savings by getting involved in MLM some years ago. Allow me to say … NEVER AGAIN!!
I’m getting offers, right and left, to view their promo videos but I’m ignoring them.
Revisiting this post now. Looks like a few people are chiming in now. Although no one has taken me up on my challenge
.
Hey Eugene, and thank you so much for shedding some light on the darkness of Empower Nutwork. A year ago, I recieved an email from a ” Friend ? ‘ who was “ONLY ” puttimg in about 45 minutes a day w/ this DiSEmbowel Nutjobs, but was traveling ” The Beaches of the World ” after only 2 months! Imagine my surprise to find out he spent everything he had, and was now sleeping on his folks couch, after paying over 5 grand for B.S.
Like you say, the info IS out there, and most is free, you just have to look. Oh,,sorry I digressed. I now recieve 20-40 emails PER DAY from people begging to join ” Team Doucebagistan” or Team whatever. I promptly unsubscribe, but now they have my email address ( Which I think they put into a hat so every other fool in EN can have it.
Sorry about the rave, but you spoke the truth so eloquiently, I just had to subscribe to your blog.
Peace, my friend!
Funny thing is they are meant to be “Fighting the forces of Evil” a bit strong when they in so many cases are causing a lot of it themselves, by ignoring people that don’t go “all in” and spending money that they don’t have. They themselves to simplify are the Forces of Evil. Not Good.
Thanks for this post…enjoyed it tremendously as there was always something about it that just did not fit well with me and I have to admit I paid a small amount and joined for a month and quickly cancelled on the strength that anything that sent THAT many emails EVERYDAY…something is wrong…it’s like they bombard you with information and I honestly had no time to even spend listening to videos, jumping on calls, none of that…I really just wanted the blogging info which I never did get…it was all too much so something had to be wrong…You just confirmed my suspicions..THANKS!
I think the people that join and stick with it just don’t know any better
you are a smart woman. I wish so many others could understand that this is a scam and they only make money by recruiting other gullible people.
I’m not a member of Emmpower Network but I am part of a another network marketing business. I just wanted to confirm what he said about network marketing. It does work for the RIGHT person. Let’s face it. Most people in this country want everything now and are not willing to put the effort into a business to see it grow. And if they lose a little bit of money of course it’s not because of them and not following the system it’s because the system is a scam. We see it all the time. I personally don’t know anything about Empower Network other than I get emails from people I don’t know begging me to join. I would personally never join anything where I’m not meeting someone face to face and learning about them first; but don’t lump all network marketing businesses into “pyramids.” There are some very good ones out there that can pay you a lot of money if you have the right attitude and mindset.
Thanks for the comment Ron. I do have to clarify that I’m not saying that there is no money to be made with the Empower Network. But then again, there’s plenty of ways to make money that are less than commendable. I’m honestly not even sure that I would lump this in with a “pyramid” scheme or not. I just know that the information they provide is absolutely awful.
Hi Eugene,
Yes, I also received a barrage of trackback spam from David Wood (or the ill-informed people doing his SEO for him) and I was amused to see the posts on his blog talking about the power of white hat SEO…
Right!
The fact is that Google does not want “get rich quick schemes” in their results so most network marketing companies have either had to veer further into grey hat or have had to return to the home meetings/hard sell days of old.
It’s absolutely amazing to me that these people want to teach SEO when they clearly don’t know the first thing about it.
It’s pretty offensive honestly. If you’re going to be taking people’s money, why not teach them actual, valuable information?
I don’t get it…
Beware of Empower Network
Big Ideal Mastermind is part of Empower Network. This pure hype and BS They get you join for $45. Then they tell you that this is the basic level and the training and money you make at this level is not very good and need to upgrade good to the $500 level. or $1000 or all in at $3500. They don’t tell you that up front..
Read this.
The hard work will be based on where you’re positioned. For so…meone positioned at the bottom it would take 200 sales in a month to get to $5000 per month residual. *NOT taking into account passups* Someone at the $125 silver level it would take only 40 sales. Gold level – 10 sales Platinum level – 5 sales and Diamond level – 2 sales is $6000 a month. It’s much less “work” to do 2,5 or 10 sales in a month than it is to do 200. That’s why Vick is always talking about how important positioning is.
Wish They told me all this before joining that you needed to up grade or go all in at $3500. They don’t tell that to get you to join.
Be very careful joining Empower network and a lot of hype for their training was the biggest disappointment. Charging an arm and a leg for a few hours of recorded webinars of “this is how you publish a blog post” kind of training is… well, it’s outrageous.
Of course, Empower Network is more than happy to point fingers rather than addressing the real concerns from both their members and people who are “thinking about it”.
P.S. Just found out you have to pay $145 month for training on blogging and using a blog that is $1800 a year. I don’t feel right about this. See how David Woods and David sharp are getting rich on a overprice hyped crap and very expensive training on blogging Oh my god. People are falling for this? Help me lord.
I can’t push stuff like that and lie to people. I need your opinion people please. $145 month fee for what? Over hyped training and a over priced blog $1800 a month.
Gurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Oh yes and have use there autoresponder, Aweber and getresonse and there not cheap. I am kind of pissed off. Not free more expense.
They never told me this.
need go to my bank before it i to late.
Michael Ladd
I feel I just got scammed
Thanks for the comment Michael, I think this pretty much sums up exactly what you get into when you join.
I am so glad all of you have posted that EN is a scam! That just means you have not tried it or didn’t know how to work it. I am in EN and I make money every day. If you choose to dis something you need to have all the facts!!! I had never made money online before I got into EN. I would hope you all would just do a little research before you turn everyone off of something that is working. I was on welfare when I started and now I am not. So If you think for 1 second I would pull out you are crazy! I love the family I have a EN and would enjoy my life on the beaches of the world.
All audio is downloadable and you put it on your mp3 and work while you listen. If you blog and are not making $10,000 or more a month then I would rethink the way you look at things. Dave Wood is a hyper but Great man and knows what he is talking about. I would never go back to the old ways of a 9-5 JOB. I love life and my children now have a future they can look forward to.
I hope you people have a wonderful life. Enjoy Life, Enjoy The Beaches!
Elizabeth, I never made the claim that you can not make money with EN.
I knew that someone would come here and throw into the argument.
There are plenty of ways to make money in this world. I would hope that most people wouldn’t choose the option where you peddle information that just ISN’T ACCURATE.
I would have no problem with EN (like I said, MLM doesn’t bother me) if they taught information that actually helped you build a real, HONEST, business…
But they don’t…
The SEO information I came across is pure garbage and will get you penalized before it helps you rank.
In essence, the information is worthless…essentially making this a pyramid scheme.
HI
my one very dear friend is doing this, and he makes something like $7240 in two months, which i agree is great, but the thing is, after reading all these costs and seeing that it actually costs so much money to join and stuff, im really wondering if its worth it…
Thanks for the input John. That’s the thing…I never said that you can’t make money with EN. And that’s the only argument that members of EN will ever be able to throw at me.
But there are plenty of ways to make money online and off. I just hope that most people would chose more “honest” ways to do it.
Brilliant! But if you had eaten those eggs for breakfast… On a beach… In Costa Rica …. On a horse then that changes everything!?! (WTF indeed)
I did enjoy that you kept saying Alex rank instead of Alexa. I am the master of Alex rank
For me the biggest gripe (like yours) is the marketing methods they employ. Reminds of the Catholic Church in that its all based on guilt and making you feel stupid if you don’t do what they say – that being to go all in.
I won’t go on because you’ve seen my rant, hell half the douche bags in EN have now seen my post lol.
And re: SEO – you don’t even need to set a challenge, just ask ANY EN bottom feeder to find their blog on Google? They won’t plain and simple. All they’re doing is bolstering David Woods main blog with their sub pages … Morons.
Side note, is it a prerequisite to have bad hair to be a top level member of EN!?
David Wood looks like a drowned sloth crawled on his head and died. Seriously!
Haha…fixed the typos. I was in the rant zone. And there is definitely no one better at Alex rank than you.
I noticed the hair thing too…WTF?!
Although I think it’s either crazy bad hair or no hair at all…
I almost got roped into it; but when I seen how much it cost, something made me change my mind. My credit card information didn’t go through; maybe it was GOD telling me not to; saving me from the hell of it.
I don’t like it because you can’t see the marketing before you join; leading to getting ripped off and no way to get the money back. I’m not that stupid and I know search engine optimization and I hope they get found out. Plus, they want you to hurry up and spend another $500 before you make any money.
lol Alex. It’s amazing how how I tend to find some of my friends commenting on other expertly written blogs. I read the whole thing. Great stuff. I could’ve told you the same thing about SEO. on page optimization, Authorship, submitting your .xml sitemap to search engines, and picking a smart h1 tag is basically the main thing. H2 tags are more of a treat for hard work in my opinion.
Love your post. Keep up the good work Eugene. I will now go hunt for where I can follow you.
Hi Eugene,
Another well executed post regarding EN. I do think you’ve made your point really well.
I do have friends and people that do MLM marketing (not EN, other companies) for physical products in the health and beauty niches and they do OK – I don’t like that style of marketing and I do genuinely believe it breeds a cult mentality (you should listen / read some of my friends stuff)
What I don’t get is WHY nobody in EN can tell me what they are selling how they are blogging in the green living niche (example) yet ALL of their CTA’s on their substandard sites are for EN.
Yes these people make money, not a doubt about that (not all of them do, we know that) but I make money too! The difference is I know what I am selling, I can break it down penny by penny and i don’t make money because of a long trail below me who are selling a glitz and glam “ideal”
If these people left EN would they have the skillset and tools to carve their own way like WE could – i doubt it. IF i joined EN or any other MLM marketing company, would I make a LOT of money, Probably, because I have the skills to pitch and market …….
It’s not ethical, I believe the cult members are rude (which isn’t surprising when their Mentors are cyber bullies) it just SCREAMS wrong from the outset – and i’m talking the company not the MLM stuff – Arbonne is another MLM scheme – do i have the same view of them as a company …. HELL NO!
Great post, i’m sharing it now
Clair
They’re not telling you what they’re selling because they’re not selling anything.
.
A few of the commenters here already stated that you get pretty much nothing at certain levels of membership. And based on some of the actions I’ve witnessed from David Wood I would assume that what you DO get when you pay an arm and a leg for the higher levels of membership is a complete waste of money (and you’re better off actually getting nothing in return).
Hi Eugene,
Think the face palm picture says it all!
Never been a fan of EN and think you summed it up quite nicely. They don’t offer any quality information on their site and as far as I’m concerned they are just ripping people off.
You could find more quality info by spending 2 minutes on Google rather than on EN.
I have to admit though, I kind of feel sorry for the people that get conned into joining. Most of these people probably don’t know anything about internet marketing, SEO, SM marketing, etc.
Having said that though, despite our best efforts to open their eyes to what EN is about, some still feel the need to pitch to us. Grrr
Anyway, great post. Will share
After reading a few of the comments here I’m on the fence. There are obviously people that don’t know any better that join the network, but soon wise up and quit.
What about the people that stay in for a LONG time and don’t really find any success. There needs to be some personal responsibility there.
On the fence about feeling bad that is
. It’s still garbage of a network.
Great post Eugene, there is definitely some fundamental SEO training missing from the Basic level that should be included for $25. I realize that is doesn’t make sense business wise to “give away” the training but for a newbie that just got hypnotized by the sales video just trying to make it online, the basic membership won’t help them make any money at all.
When people pay $25/month for membership it’s not really giving the information away
. I sell an optimization guide for more or less the same price point – and you only have to get it once. The fact that you’re paying for a membership and basically getting nothing in return is a real shame.
Thanks for posting this Eugene. I joined EN about a month ago thinking it would be oh so great. Wow. In fact it was the total opposite. I paid the $45 a month and realized they set you up and you’re pretty much on your own from there. I have cancelled everything!!! I really want my $45 back but oh well.
That doesn’t surprise me one bit. And the information that you’d be paying an arm and a leg for isn’t very valuable either. So it’s probably a good thing you cancelled on them.
Hey Eugene, I want to make a blog post about Empower Network being a scam and I was wondering if I could quote your bit about the alexa rank and link to your post.
Be my guest
Well that is missleading post and you miss few important and key elements. This text here is only to rank for empower network scam keyword, but review is not honest or in place. You simply said some things that are not true. You get SEO tools inside for onsite seo, you get 100% commissions, and not 50% as you say. I get 100% commissions from for example second or 35th member, not 50%. Nobody said Alexa was for SEO, just you said it. It is true that blogging on EN could give you nice SEO boost – plenty of people never ranked in top google searches.
Davor, you are absolutely right. The text here IS to rank for that keyword…and I did. That’s because I know how real SEO works. How long have you been in the network? To be honest I’m not sure if they changed their payout structure lately…I’m only basing this on what I saw when I initially did my research a long time ago. And it was exactly as I described (this is also supported by several other HONEST reviews of the network).
I didn’t say that Alexa is for SEO. I would never say that…because I know SEO – as evidenced by your first statement. It was stated by the “leader” one of the larger groups within EN. And it prompted me to write this blog post.
That being said, I have gotten plenty of notifications from David Wood’s blog for spam links. And he’s the founder of the network. So I can only imagine what other kind of crap he teaches.
There are absolutely no SEO benefits for creating your blog on the empower network. In fact, you are really putting in a lot of investment in terms of time and money in order to build up SOMEONE ELSE’S brand. In fact, being a part of the network has more negatives than positives. Companies like Facebook and Google are recognizing that the network is a scam and taking that into account.
And this is highest percentage pay in network marketing industry. More than 50% of people earns more than 100$ per month. So somebody says it costs like 145$, yes, and you have 0 – zero cost with just one customer. And all your uplines are just adding to number of people who earns good money.
As I stated in the post, I am in now way saying that people can’t make money with this network. But there are better (and more honest) ways to make a living online, while building up your OWN brand and actually providing real value to people that will last them over the long haul.
I was with EN for a month, had dithered and sat on the fence for a couple of months before joining, once a member I worked hard on my blogging, and I changed my blog design as much as I could even managed to change it to my favourite colour purple. Tried to promote and market as much as possible without coming across as a spammer, this was about the time that facebook had put the block on EN and G+ were grumbling about them as well. So things were a bit rocky, I must admit my sponsers were good they provided a lot of extra training and support, and I upgraded to the inner circle which was a extra 100, but by the time it came round to the next months payment I was getting a bit fed up and the glamour had worn off. Or to put it more bluntly I had came to my senses, what the hell was I doing forking out all this money every month which I could not afford with no return, all I was doing was promoting someone else and not branding myself, I could have kicked myself all the way into the following week. But I got out before I had lost any more money. The one thing that really pissed me off was the long rambling videos, the insulting way that David Wood talks and the fact that they completely ignore those that don’t go “All In” its a bloody disgrace, and no way to run a business. I got out in time, I sincerely hope others do as well, some good people are in there, and I dread to think what EN is going to do to their reputations.
That’s the thing with David and the other guys at the top. They don’t have any real value to offer, so the only thing they can resort to is tugging at people’s heart strings and bullying them into coughing up more money. On the one hand they are using marketing methods that actually influence people…good for them. But there is no excuse for using those methods into getting people to give up their hard-earned money in exchange…well…more or less nothing.
I wanted to ask your opinion on EZMoneyNetwork this is another system that the EN crowd seem to run along with their system, and by the looks of it, it is just the same old horse getting flogged to a different tune. One guy was even questioning what he was selling and he was getting the runaround from the marketer I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
So we have EZMoneyNetwork, EmpowerNetwork, and GVO and there is something else that they use as well can’t quite remember what it is, something to do with a anti-virus software or computer backup stuff, that they try to get folk to buy, anyways they have all this crap that they are fobbing off on unsuspecting people, plus they spread all their advertising through IBO Toolbox, when is this mad charade going to stop.
Oh and by the way even though I left Empower last August my blogs were still live, I actually managed to get into the wordpress site and delete them all, so at least that’s gone, big sigh of relief.
Sorry about the rant, I’m just getting madder and madder now.
Sorry just to add the computer thing is MY PC BackUp and its rubbish by the way has a load of really bad reviews and some very unhappy customers.
I have been involved with EN for 6 months and got sucked into the “All In” mindset before they came out with the most recent “Mastermind” product that sells for $3500. Thank goodness I came to my senses before I bought that too! Their point is that if you make the decision to fork out that much money, you will do everything humanly possible to recoup that investment. Therefore the idea is if you do exactly as they tell you in the 8 core commitments you will recoup your investment and achieve your initial monthly income goal within 30-90 days. Which to a degree does make sense because there’s a shift in one’s commitment level when you spend out $5000 versus $25. But it won’t guarantee success. I simply didn’t get the results I thought I would and although I would say that is partly my own fault, I still thought I would have seen better results than what I got after 6 months. I cancelled my $100 a month inner circle membership a couple of months ago and will be cancelling the blog and ewallet account as well once I actually receive the measly commission coming to me after all the extra fees are deducted. That’s something else they DON’T tell you. Even on the sales you do get a 100% on, after paying the $19.95 a month for the ewallet account, they still take an additional fee of around $4.00 on a 24.95 sale and if you want to actually GET what’s left will cost you another fee. So on a $24.95 sale, I only get $13..hows that for 100% commissions? Honestly though, I will say that I did get some good marketing tips and strategies from the 15K Formula that most definitely can be applied to any business but I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to saying that the “15K Formula” and the “Costa Rica intensive” was worth $1500. I know a lot of people are having success with EN, but then again many more that are not. But like you said EN is just not for everyone as some would like you to believe.
I just started with EN. I am sticking to the BASIC $25 (PLUS the extra $19.95 you need for a merchant account). I am doing pretty well! I did not get sucked into the OTHER high cost products that they sell. THEY even MENTION to worry about it LATER!! There is USEFUL videos to watch. It’s only for people who WANT to follow the step by step instructions.
Hello KPrice,
You said you are ” Doing pretty weel with EN “. Would you mind a screencast of your earnings to show us all the definition of ” Pretty well? ” Just curious.
Eagerly awaiting your response.
Dave Bond
The only thing is Dave screencast shots can be faked so we don’t really know if what we are seeing is real or not.
Maybe I am just being a dreadful cynic and I don’t like being like this, but what I have seen on the internet is making me become more and more cynical and it is a horrible way to be.
One of these days there might not be any con artists that like ripping off people, yes there is a few good guys and girls out there but not many.
Lets hope Dave, KPrice is doing ok and making something just with the blogging platform
Regards Fiona
Hi Fiona, and thank you for the very well said response to my post. Yes, you are truly correct in saying screencasts can be faked, and from what I have seen a vast majority of them are.
In my 1st. post, I spoke of a ” Friend ” who ” Went ALL In ” as this was an unspoken rule for him to join a certain Team in EN. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. No support, no promised 1 on 1 coaching..I could go on forever. Factually, he DID get 3600 responses to his marketing efforts, but not one of them signed up under him..Not a single one. This I do as a fact, and even if you consider only 1-3% conversion rate, he would still be behind the 8 ball.
When he asked what he was doing wrong, I replied ” Get out while you can “, as this is 1 of the fastest oversaturated schemes I have ever seen.
The ONLY people who do make the money in EN are freinds of Dave Wood & Dave Sharp, and that is just the way it is.
Thank you, Fiona, for enlightening me furthur!
Dave Bond
I was with EN for a month because I saw people in there that I knew, good people so saying to myself this must be good. So after a good deal of fence sitting I took the plunge and got as far as the inner circle, I worked hard for a month on blogging and advertising this was just after fb had done the blocking of all EN links, but I managed to do some advertising without spamming because I don’t believe in conning people. After a month I had nothing not even a sniff of a opt in, as I could not afford another monthly payment I cancelled and got out. By this time I had come to my senses anyway, lifted my head out of the trenches so to speak and seen what was going on, and didn’t like it.
One of my friends is still in Empower and I don’t like what he is becoming when I dared to challenge what the two Dave’s were saying ie how they call people Woosies if they don’t go all in,or failed in Empower he got annoyed and said they were only telling the truth. This got me really angry because I know how hard I had worked and some others as well and some people have spent so much money just to end up with nothing. So to be called a woosie and a failure is insulting and hurtful. It is like a some sort of mesmerising filter comes down across their eyes that blinds them to the facts that there is something really wrong with Empower and the two Daves are actually quite creepy. Sorry about the rant but people are getting sucked into this nightmare and I just wish it would stop now.
Regards
Fiona
can you recommend any legit MLM’s that teach you real SEO strategy?
Domenico, why do you need an MLM to learn SEO?
Hey Domenico! Check out Level One Network. They offer really good SEO training.
***Editor Note: I’ve deleted the link because I don’t want this post becoming a platform for MLM promotions. -Eugene***
Can you not send a Capture Page with a fake car and house?
Really good SEO, why hide behind the Capture? SEO isn’t some secret because there are articles everywhere on the Net showing people how to do it. Go to YouTube.
I’ve been reading through all these comments and this post and I don’t think there is one person here who understands what a pyramid scheme is. A pyramid scheme is where ONLY money is exchanged and there are no products sold. There are products sold and just because there are two people at the top doesn’t mean it’s a pyramid just by the shape of the organization. Wake up people, that’s the damn shape of every organization in the world! Ignorance…
And comments such as “They don’t offer any quality information on their site and as far as I’m concerned they are just ripping people off.” Never joined or joined and quit because they figured out they have to work at it because it’s not a lottery or government hand out! Probably never spent a lousy $25 or $100 to find out themselves. That isn’t a lot of money…what do you mean “excludes people?”
The 22 months of weekly audio trainings are worth that much and more. They are full of strong content and information.
I have been in the internet marketing, mlm, and affiliate industry since the mid 1990′s and know whether something is a scam, pyramid scheme, crappy information/training etc. and I have say the EN is not one of them. There is more to a business than SEO. EN provides a complete marketing and training system.
The information, products, and training they are giving help the newest person and even the old timers who are used to using the 3 foot rule and doing business the old fashioned way.
People who work at anything for 1 or 2 months and quit, should not even join…no business is a lottery. Who says you have to promote EN just because you are in EN? They are a tool to use to help you in any business you have. In fact, you better have something else to promote! Just promoting the business and not giving any additional value is doomed to failure.
Sorry for the rant, but I hate to see negativity and I see a lot of ignorance about what it really takes to build a business online. SEO is a small piece….there is so much more. Is EN the ‘Cat’s Meow’ to everything?? NO! That’s the point! It’s just a small piece and it if helps you with a good mental attitude, marketing, sales, and conversions…then that is where you are helped and in a big way.
Brad you’re right. I never bought into the EN. But I’ve been bombarded with a ton of SPAM from David Wood himself on this blog. And I’ve seen some of the “free” information some of the top tier guys offer.
I put “free” in quotes because it’s not free. It’s costly. It was absolutely horrendous what they were teaching here (like the SEO EXAMPLE I explain here). The guy I’m talking about here has one of the biggest downlines in EN. So I’m making him synonymous with the network. That’s just the way it is – because if you care about your reputation you care about what people are spreading and sharing in your name. I can understand a few things slipping by here and there. But not one of the biggest guys in the network.
And again, I’m not saying you can’t make money with this. I’m sure people do. I didn’t call it a pyramid scheme. And I flat out said I have no problem with the MLM model (although it seems to be even more ripe for scammers than IM already generally is).
I haven’t bought into the network because I know better. Based on my experience from the free stuff I would never buy from them. I have a feeling that a lot of people DON’T know better. It’s buying into a program to build someone else’s brand. A program, which on top of everything else, promises certain things where the math just doesn’t add up. If it’s not dishonest, at best it’s deceiving.
As Henry Ford stated and I’ll summarize, “There is a way that is right to a man and there is another way that is right to another man and they are both right.
You first talk about SEO issues, then Dave Wood spam, then the math where it doesn’t add up, and then dishonesty and deceitfulness. It appears you are all over the map yet you have not joined because you know better.
To me, opinions without first hand knowledge is a slippery slope to arrogance and omission is even a greater lie.
Name me one President, one CEO, one Entrepreneur, one company who sells products or services that has people working for them who have NOT failed in some way either in word or deed. Everyone would have a fault.
However, even though I joined EN, I still clearly see there are both sides of the fence regarding ANY business, topic, and training that is posted which is EN or otherwise. There is not 100% agreement on anything.
Yes, Alexa ranking is not an SEO factor nor has anything to do with SEO. I do agree with you. I can see you would have a problem with that and I know better as well. And I wouldn’t put it past any program that has flesh and blood in it to not be flawless when it comes to marketing. We all have tried some stupid marketing tactics that backfired and many people saw their rankings tumble when Google changed their algorithm.
EN’s focus point is blogging and blogging about anything daily. Understanding article SEO right away is not pushed to new people…too much information causes paralysis. Some will agree with that and some won’t. I don’t have the time everyday to blog so you can say I’m a rebel and bucking the system they are promoting. That’s on me.
What I do care about is good article SEO and writing content that is helpful and my opinions are based on first hand knowledge or from people who have from their experiences.
Yes, there probably are some dishonest people in EN, but there are far more honest people in EN with good intentions. There are many analogies which could be given, but I think people get the picture if they have gotten this far.
Cheers,
Brad
Hi Eugene,
First and foremost, I have reviewed 1000s of blogs, forums, threads, you name it, and I want to personally let you know that in my opinion YOU are the only person that I have come across who really tells it like is with an unbiased outlook on everything Internet.
I have forwarded your blog to people that I know who have been burned in EN, and every single person has said they wish they had come across your insight before they joined EN. The common denominator is ” This is the most honest forthright person who really understands what IM people deal with, and he should be given an award “! So Eugene, as soon as we can devise an award for you, we will forward it on to you.
I will keep you ” Posted ” !
Respectfully,
Dave Bond
Wow…thanks for the feedback Dave. I’m seriously honored. Feedback like this, and the several emails I’ve received from people thanking me for preventing them from joining the network, are reward enough.
I was accused by a commenter here for just writing a post that was optimized for the term “empower network scam.” And he’s absolutely right.
I wanted to rank some truthful information among all the crap on Google right now. And it’s ranking pretty well right now with zero off-page SEO. So maybe that points to the fact that I might know what I’m doing here
.
The sad part is, when i comment on youtube videos and say that there is no product to sell and it teaches you nothing about Business, nor do you learn any skills. I get blocked from comments.
The thing is the only way they are paid is by recuitment, and they have no issues with learning, as long as they get a check.
There are websites who do reviews of Affiliate Products who will give Empower Network a 5 Star rating, because they want a check.
Affiliate Marketing reviews suck for this product because all of the people who write on it, are affiliates looking to cash in.
Glad you do not follow along and give genuine review.
To be honest the people being recruited to do this are lazy people who do not care about the online marketing, just money.
Phobe, what do you mean by NO PRODUCT? Do you not see the blogging system product and the four information products?
What do you mean “it teaches nothing about business?” What business are you talking about? I don’t think you even looked at any of their products.
What do you mean you have to recruit to make money? You don’t have to recruit anyone to make money…the information products can be sold on their own.
What do you mean there is NOTHING to LEARN? That is completely false.
What do you mean “Glad you do not follow along and give genuine review?” to Eugene. You are saying he is not genuine by the context of your sentence.
What do you mean, “the people being recruited are lazy people who do not care about online marketing, just money?” You are another person generalizing everybody and I can’t believe I’m wasting my time on your ignorance.
Yes, I’m an affiliate of the company, but I wasn’t born yesterday and I know a scam when I see it. This isn’t one of them. No I’m not making thousands a month either…I have their training products which are excellent. Those that say they are not have not purchased any of them or heard it from some other person who hasn’t purchased.
Regarding YouTube…people can set preferences to not have comments on and they can delete stupid general comments that have no significance to the thread.
Ignorance is not a reason to bash something. Have some balls or ovaries, join, and find out for yourself.
Their blogging system where you need a huge fat banner with “Empower Network” splashed above your website? You mean this one. Not only that they can make money without having a blog on their servers… We can chat about that one later.
To take a look at any info products it looks like I would need to pay first and then slither inside to look at the box of goods.
If you wanted to tell me that they teach anything about business, you could have easily slapped me by giving an example here. They can learn more about business by going to a local Small Business Association in their city and reading on their own.
The people who recruit, will drop u like a hot potatoes as soon as you join their downline and when you expect to hear something, damn anything, they will give u a message like ” I am not here to teach”. They yelled from the mountain top they were there to help , but once you get on the “conga line”, these rogue affiliates do not want any part of you.
How would you make money if not one person can be recruited under you? Explain in detail and i will run and shout if from the Mountain Tops. I will be the new and improves SEO optimized Martin Luther King 2.0
I am actually Thanking Eugene for giving an honest review. Why would I say all of this and then in the same sentence say no EN is good? WTH? Maybe i worded that sentence wrong, or you are looking for a way to pit one person against the other, to score some points here? I personally do not care. I found this website looking for reviews on empire network and I found it. I also made another comment to a potential buyer into this high-tech ponzy scheme.
You said you cannot believe you are wasting time on me. Well it’s ok. I am used to angry people from Empire Network… They think they found Jesus and cannot let him go.. because there is a big bad world out there and to make it, you need to get off your bum and do the work.
You cannot live in Costa Rica and spend other people’s money and promise them a dream. I have been in this Industry since 2005. you cannot preach to me about anything.
If there is training why can’t there be one website online that will speak about how Empire Network gave then the tools needed to start their own Business. It’s all about “signup” “click on the link”
NOT ONE ONLINE BUSINESS CREATED with the tools provided by Empire Network… The Business is in RECRUITS ONLY…when the FTC is hot on your heels, you will remember this.
I thank the website owner for giving a review. He also stated in closing his article that this Empire Network is a SCAM
Yes, that blogging system with the banner, sidebar and lower footer with your content in the middle is a product. It’s all setup for the beginner or anyone should they choose to blog on that platform It is a legitimate product that is sold for $25 a month. Whether it’s a high price or low price is determined by how much time and knowledge you have where you can start your own.
All the INFO products are explained in detail on each of there sales pages. Those can be sold to anyone without them joining EN. That sale is an affiliate commission to you. That is legitimate.
I’m sorry, but Eugene does not really know. I believe to understand, he needs to join something, analyze it, then write by comparing and contrasting or some other form or analysis. That is not here. He has never joined or physically looked at any of the material besides sales material. It’s a cursory based review at best based upon one person and an incorrect SEO statement.
An analysis of something is not cursory nor is it based upon bias. I see that here all over the place.
Just because I an an affiliate of EN, I can still call a spade a spade. I have been in business online since 2005, but involved with home based businesses since the mid 1990′s. I am able to set aside my bias and generalization.
Do not confuse frustration with anger…I’m not angry only tired of ignorance and generalizations by people who bash something without first-hand knowledge. Can people have a bad experience in any company including EN? YES, they can.
There are people online who only care about the dollar and not the person, and if that has happened to you, I am sorry. I have been a victim of that as well. We all have bad experiences, but we can’t drive forward only using the rear view mirror.
I will give you a big tip where you can call up and listen over the phone to the weekly training call for EN. It’s open to anyone.
The answer to your question regarding how you make money with EN – Viral Blogging. Blog, blog, blog, and promote your blog posts. Do it for EN, or do it for your weight loss products, or do it for your niche. I don’t care what it is.
All the training teaches you how to do that. There is no secret formula. There are solo ads, PPC, Social Networks, Ezines, Forum postings, blog postings, and many other means such as outsourcing phone work to make calls for you to build your credibility.
There are tens of thousands of businesses online using the very methods EN uses, but they have packaged it and are selling it. The FTC can’t touch them because it’s a legal US business out of Florida.
If I wanted to jump in and write about Hyperpigmentation , I don’t need a empower network banner for anyone to be distracted with. It takes away from my niche.
Having to pay 25.00 a month is not like paying 2.50 usd for hosting for one website. That is an insane price to pay for a blog and not only this, your message is being drowned out and watered down by Empower Network , being attached to everything you write.
My ovaries are doing well without it, but many balls are being busted after they find out that it is not what they expected it to be.
People join expecting to learn.
Keeping someone in a call to hear what others are doing is not learning. How many affiliates are giving away secrets to make money, and it doesn’t hurt them and create competition?
People who are familiar with pitches, promotions and promises do not fall for it. I can speak for myself when I say. The people whom I have seen who have joined, are ghetto and look hungry. They are the same type of people JIM JONES gave KOOL-AID to and they all died…
There are too many other peoples posts out on the internet. That will tell you the same. Look around…
I thought seriously about making a documentary on this Network, and use real people.
Then take this directly to local newspapers and any news and radio station in urban areas.
The whole thing is a joke and scam. Lets’s say you make 5k next month. That doesn’t man that you made it from a blog post or product u promoted on that en blog…. you made it from getting others to buy IN !!!
First-hand knowledge does not always = credibility. I see people a part of EN using confirmation bias as a form of reasoning. “You do not know you never tried it” isn’t a logical argument either. Do I have to try enslaving people, rape, or murder to know that doing these things is wrong from an ethical standpoint?
You’re right there is a blog and that’s an actual product whether it is a product of value is another question entirely, but there is a product in the blog.
Lets think about how EN works realistically. In order for EN to be successful it has to constantly recruit new blood into the system to feed the upline. Is it a product for the average consumer? realistically no, but I suppose it is for the aspiring internet marketer that it is being advertised to.
My problem with Empower Network is that it’s being advertised as something that’s helping people, but the income disclosure tells you a different story.
Fact: For the annual income for all members 91% of people make less than $100 dollars using a system that’s being marketed as something that helps the average joe when that isn’t the case. Even if you consider active affiliates 45% make under 100.
You can’t sell this thing ethically because it isn’t ethical. If you consider the annual report for everyone (active and inactive) then it’s pretty obvious you are helping a small few at the expense of many.
A dream is being sold to people. Realistically this is being sold to the average person looking to make money and they just can’t make money with it (decent income).
Taking into consideration EN’s primary market target, very few would pay for 1,000 dollar training if there wasn’t a way to make money selling this same training. What you are paying for is the ability to pass this training onto the next person and get money from it.
People that are a part of EN just have their blinders on and don’t take the time to realize and care that they are ripping people off. They keep trying to justify this garbage.
Like you say, you advertise with other methods, but a person new to marketing will expect blogging to be enough when it clearly isn’t and you clearly can’t just blog about anything without saying “I’m making money blogging about nothing” when the truth is “I’m going to make money convincing you that I’m making money blogging”
That’s where the upsales come in. You have to get the Costa Rica intensive so you’ll finally learn something about promoting the blog if you are inexperienced.
The blog is getting if it hasn’t already gotten a penalty from Google anyway. Banned from facebook, videos removed from YouTube. Red Flags are raised for me.
It is a SCAM to you because you are experienced and didn’t think of it first! lol
Before money is made anywhere…something has to be sold. How does anyone know you are alive online if it wasn’t from a posting you made online or put in an offline media???
Euguene is loving this thread! Google is loving this thread! Why, it’s building traffic and viralness (I don’t think that’s a word). Anyway…it is helping him. Someone will buy from him. Great…good for him, that is exactly my point! How long has he had this site? I’ll tell you – 1 year and 281 days and it’s a PR3 site. I don’t know when he first made money with it, but he could tell you…but he had to do a lot of marketing to get there.
I agree, EN is not needed if you know how to blog by setting up your own hosting account, getting your domain, setting up the blog, installing about 25 good plugins for the WordPress blog, getting your site traffic, and making it an authoritative site. For some, that could be a year before they make a dime.
EN just breaks through all that by providing the platform for less than a buck a day for you to start blogging, use their system to start making money the very next day…it’s all in place for the beginner.
Not everybody will become a WordPress or content genius! People are hurting and they just want to start making money. They don’t want to take 12 months to make their first dime by learning it all. Is EN really that bad…no, it’s not, it’s perfect for anyone who doesn’t want the headache running all the issues that come with a site.
Brad, Brad, Brad….are you sure you are no relation to D & D Con Job, Inc. ?
I have been following your posts lately, i.e. reading between the lines, which tells me that YOU MUST BE DRINKING THE KOOLAID to be trying so hard to subtly convince ( Or Conive )people into joining EN..( Enemas Now )as in my previous posts I, like Eugene, can see right thru the charade that is called Empower Nutwork.
It’s like Dave & Dave have always said, and you will find it on their FB training, ” Join groups, but do so slyly ” that means make friends, hang for a while, then get them to drink the Kool aid…Correct me if I am wrong, but I have saved so much of their garbage onto a CD that when I see someone down on their luck, I give them a copy, and tell them things could be worse.
Wake up & smell something other than GAR BAAAAAGE Bradley.
Dave, Dave, Dave…aren’t you such a cool and smart guy? You have me pegged and are saving the world? Really? Are you a ‘right’ now since you stated that you have reviewed ‘thousands of blogs’ (that appears to be an embellishment I had to laugh at that outright lie) and Eugene is your only truth?
I will say it again…if you know how to do affiliate marketing and sales, then you don’t need EN. If you want to go through all the hassles of setting up everything when it comes to an online business…go ahead…people have that right. Have fun with it and good luck. But to bash something and call it a scam when it is a viable business (whether you like it or not) that is ignorance!
Dave, can I ask you how much you are making online because if you are making over 1K a month online, maybe we should all follow you. Or are you making over 100K a month? I don’t know…why should anyone listen to you and your banter?
I have read this blog with great interest – there are many fascinating points on both sides.
I joined EN about 2 weeks ago.
I am enjoying find a subject matter and writing the blogs every day. I am enjoying making little videos for YouTube. I haven’t made any money, but it has only been 2 weeks.
I am at a crossroads. Warning signals are going off in my head when I cannot post a link back to my EN site on Facebook, nor can I add Google Adsense.
However, I know about seo, my new site already has grown to about 25 visitors a day. Not massive volumes – but not bad for a site of that age. I also realise that I could probably write a blog everyday on my own site and make money.
My question is HOW?
If I want to blog about the news or events of the day and not ‘weight loss’ and all the other over populated niche – how can I make serious money?
If you want to ‘save’ or convert back an EN member – tell me how blogging everyday can make me a living?
My first question is .1 How much money have you spent in total so far?
I know the cost to have a blog with EN is 25 a month.
Question 2. Do you know you can have spent 1 penny for what you are getting now.
3. They claim to have “tools” to teach you how to make money. Have you used them?
4. There are too many legitimate websites online to teach you about niche marketing and cost nothing.
5. Did you actually believe by writing some blog posts that you would have checks coming in ?
I ask all of these questions because you seem like a person would would be a great target for a scammer. I would hope that you are smarter than they are.
Your links for EN will not work on Facebook ever, because it is deemed nasty and scammy by Facebook.
Google doesn’t want EN in their house or near the family pets, and you cannot be a good publisher promoting scam products. Go ahead and try, you will only loose your Adsense Account.
Google Niche Marketing and read websites on people who create a business making niche websites. The market is not saturated if you would not make copycat websites and actually research on what people are looking for.
How to really make money online:
1.Stop thinking about a check with your name on it.
2.Create something people need, provide information that is good and has value for the readers.
3.Stop buying products to make you rich and save your money for Hosting Unlimited websites online for under 10.00 a month.
4.Look up the video Scamworld