“What?! Whyyy??!?!” Yeah, I thought about this long and hard. A sequence of events ..
Can you really make money blogging with “The Blog Beast”?
The release of “ENv2: The Blog Beast” back in October 2013, was an epic fail … both from a marketing as well as a technical implementation. I was glad David Wood did a webinar in December 2013 admitting huge mistakes were made. In January 2014 I was on a Monday Night Empower call that put the fire again in my belly, but ..
Why releasing new educational products?!
Vick Strizheus released new training upgrades in April 2014. Basicly recycling the Blog Beast Marketing funnel, but this time done right. I have no doubt about the educational value in Vick’s teaching (infact I heard it’s the best bar none), but the core “viral blogging” product still isn’t good enough. It’s been massively deindexed in Google (due to a lot of 404s … poorly prepared platform migration), but a lot of core blog functions are still missing. It’s improving … but those improvements did not have to take 4 months. Empower doesn’t have their priorities straight IMHO. Fix what’s broken first, before adding additional stuff. Clue; none of your big leaders are blogging at Empower …
New 3rd party tools
This what rekindled my enthusiasm in February 2014. The release of Blogl; the ability to syndicate facebook wall and fanpage posts straight to any blogging platform (WordPress based or Empower based). I chose to syndicate to my Empower Blog. Hardly an increase in visitors. 200 per month is horrible, compared to 8000 here on my WordPress Blog (without any special promotion). So I’m back at WordPress.
Empower Network’s Real Value
The real value within the Empower Network, are team tools and training. Infact most people I know have made more money reselling blogging tools, than they have with Empower’s 100% commission model in 2014. Interesting isn’t it?
Empower Network’s API
One of the best things in Empower Network, where teams like “Big Idea Mastermind” (closed group), “Prosperity Team” (open group), “Project AWOL” (open group) really excel. Turning Empower Network into a marketer’s wet dream; core products on which other teams build their own portfolio. But it’s increasing the feeling (again) that the real value is being part of the team. Need a real life example? BIM Diamond Level talks more about Vick than Empower Network. Is that bad? No, but it confuses me. If — at the end of the day — it’s about learning (to) Empower, then … hmm hmm I dunno, just doesn’t feel right. The training suite of Empower should be updated (by replacing outdated training instead of adding more OTO / up sales), so other teams wouldn’t have to add their stuff to it. What do you think?
More Thoughts
But wait … there’s more that was bothering me.
International Events
Still USA only. No clue why they didn’t do an official corporate event yet in Europe. I’m aware there are Empower UK events. We’ve even did our own in Holland. But they’ve must have plenty of new members in Russia, North Africa and Europe (as they also provided captions in videos now). C’mon Empower! You can do better than that!
Growth stagnation
Revenue is increasing, but the number of actual customers remains to be a constant. Which is interesting. Something I can relate to, as after 1 year I’ve only kept (retention) 4% of my original consumer base. Can’t blame them …
Team quarrel
Again … this is something that relates to our ‘team’ (more like a group of lost souls), but we’ve had a lot of bumps in our journey to ‘success’. An upline telling us to do XYZ, but he applied none of it himself, and yet build a frontline of 400-500 selling them the same “lies” while harvesting and using OUR personal email lists; painting a beautiful picture to the outside world, being on stage, but out of the hundreds of members? Only 2 people with immense lists were on-stage (that I’m aware about), and only once (during the first 3 months) and only because they already had big email lists. Interesting … teamwork?!
Who’s responsible for (y)our success?
We all are responsible for our own success! But it’s difficult to (re)build trust, if you’re caught into a spiral of lies, deception and “ass kissers”. I love uplifting people who deserve it, but I despise people who are just plain faking. Even worse; if part of my profits, hard work, or time are shared with them. That’s not the meaning of masterminding and creates confusion instead of loyal followers. You no longer know who’s truthful and helping you to get bigger results … or just wants you to upgrade to the higher products to get higher payouts for the sake of his/her bank balance instead of yours. But there’s more …
Delay in Processing Payments / changes in commission / losing a downline
It might just be my imagination, but there used to be a time they paid within 14 days, AND the money from the ewallet was transfered within two business days instead of five. Not a big deal maybe? But hmm. Things add up fast … also they changed the commission structure of a few new product. Bonus pools? Sure … I much rather get paid 100% on VBA. Note: it never was 100% payout ;) But we knew that already. Not a biggy … what is though; is that through my own dumbass mistake; I ‘forgot’ to pay for my inner circle subscription at the end of 2013. Instantly losing $600 in residual commissions (and the entire IC — InnerCircle — downline) … forever, cause that’s how the compensation plan works. But … was still confident I could rebuild it …
Mysterious grace or commission pass-ups / payment gateway problems in 2014
This is something that has not only been plaguing me in 2014. Products going to grace that were paid for, or going to lockdown without grace, losing commissions I was qualified for; long response times at support (high priority / urgent tickets take more than 72 hours!!). infact when I lost another $100 commission in March 2014 I had enough! We had all these problems at the end of 2012 already; there’s no need for repetition!
Too Time Consuming and High Learning Curve
It’s great you are getting so much more than you’re paying for (if payments are processed correctly ), but it’s no longer suitable for everybody IMHO. It’s only for those who are ready to take their online business to the next level, or who’ve had previous experience. Or for people who just care about making massive 100% commissions if they can afford the $7k in purchases (you can only resell what you own).
Advertising costs business overhead
How to make money fast(er)? Advertise! But we’ve just invested a couple of thousand already … not to mention tooling costs overhead.
Can Newbies Make Money?
When you have no experience whatsoever in Internet Marketing and you have to start from scratch? Then do not be surprised to make no money at all the first 12 months. It wasn’t always like this, but it has been like this for months now. I’m not a newbie, Empower didn’t make me rich, but made a couple of grand, was featured on the leaderboards I few times. But I know of people who really deserve success too, and haven’t made a dime (and keep clinching onto something that’s just not gonna work for them). Truly sad …
The Alternative to Empower Network
This is the part at other blogs that always makes me smile If you are (still) looking for an alternative to Empower Network? Then I hate to break it to you; there ain’t one. They simply have the best of the best. Actually Empower Network has turned into the same ‘trap’ as that other Personal Development on steroids: WorldVentures … too complex, too vast. Thus keeps people broke. Ssst! Okay, let’s jump to …
My Conclusion
I signed up for very specific reasons in Empower Network in November 2012. It used to be a viral blogging solution without any additional effort (nor training). They’ve re-branded it to a viral blogging system and supply a ton of training and eye candy apps, features, etc. That are nice, but the blog …
Moreover I can deal with change, but there have been too many; good and worse. And if I no longer can explain a newbie how to make a quick buck, and/or everything becomes about the ‘accessories’ and/or going “ALL-IN”? Then it’s time to move on to greener pastures. Even if I invested a couple of thousand in product purchases, tools, services, solo and others ads … AND 50% of my YouTube channel is about Empower Network, AND … exactly what I started this blog-post with; it was a tough decision (and yet a great learning experience the past 16 months).
Final thought: Who gets paid the most in a 100% commission pass-up plan? YOU DO! *IF* you make a sale & *IF* you are ‘ALL-IN’. First gonna focus on helping people make money instead of only increase their residual bills. I might come back to Empower — as I did with other companies in the past too — but they first have to get their act / stuff together. Have to wait 6 months now anyway, before I can chose a different upline, different team, that’s more aligned with my values and mission. Cause one thing is sure; I’m not coming back at the position with my current sponsor. The tools are great, but … I rest my case.
Update 10Apr14: How does that affect my outsourcing / tech support for Empower Network members through DigitalNomad.Pro ? It doesn’t. If people ask me why I left, I just share this blogpost. Not saying anybody should leave (it still is an awesome company with a great community). I just like being transparant and honest about the choices I make (as that’s what people know and praise me for; clarity), while remaining to be Tech Support Professional.
My New Projects Replacing Empower
In-fact if you’re interested to know what Rhyker is replacing his Empower income(s) with? Visit ConnectGiveShare.com (basically tools to build any business … including Empower).
- My Dutch / NL WordPress Translation contributions: October 2022 - October 9, 2022
- My Dutch / NL WordPress Translation contributions: August 2022 - August 23, 2022
- [NL] Ultra Light digital nomad Europe travel with Ryanair / Wizz Air - August 20, 2022
- My Dutch / NL WordPress Translation contributions: July 2022 - July 27, 2022
- My Dutch / NL WordPress Translation contributions: April 2022 - April 2, 2022
Communities I have been 'hanging out' regularly over the past two decades.
- Nomadlist.com since 2022-04
- Empire.Kred since 2021-07
- Karma-Lab.com since 2019-01
- Invision Community since 2018-05
- Insanely Mac since 2018-02
- eGPU.io since 2017-04
- Tech Inferno since 2016-08
- forum.VestaCP.com since 2016
- WordPress.org since 2015-12
- Couch Surfing since 2014
- BitcoinTalk.org since 2014-03
- Warrior Forum since 2013-07
- Empire Avenue since 2013
forum.OSXLatitude.comsince 2011-08- Envato (i.e. CodeCanyon) since 2011-07
- TripAdvisor since 2010-09
MoneyMakerGroup.comsince 2007-03- HardWare.info since 2003-08
- SynthForum.NL since 2001-11
- gathering.tweakers.net since 2000-11
Note: links go to my profile on those respective sites. Connect with me if you like.
- EarnWithEarnie.io since 2022
- EarnWithEarnie.net since 2018
- BestProfitsTeam.com since 2017
- CycleClubMembers.com since 2015
- BestSTIFORPteam.com 2013-2021
