There are scammy and spammy products launched into the “make money online” niche all the time. I’ve given warnings and done various product reviews over the years, but there’s so much junk out there that I couldn’t cover it all if I wanted to.
I’m also not primarily in the business of being an Internet watchdog. It’s not really all that fun. So I tend to ignore most of the scams that land in my inbox, and try to stay focused on delivering value through my own business, and making money in ethical ways online.
Once in awhile something will really catch my attention or make me mad, and that’s the situation today.
The Prelaunch Hype
Over the past week or two, I received several “JV invitations” for a product launch called Free Commissions. I get those kind of invitations all the time, and it basically just means that someone wants me to promote their product as an affiliate. Some of those invitations came from Clicksure (the payment processor), from a JV broker, and from a 2nd-tier affiliate.
According to one of the invitations, the launch is being conducted by Tim Atkinson and Zak Meftah. The JV invite page contained a video of Tim Atkinson, and was signed at the bottom by “Tim Alexander”.
I’d give you a link to the page, but frankly it’s an embarrassment to the Internet marketing community (although it is sadly typical). There is no mention of the product itself or the value that will be provided to customers. It’s only about how much money they made on their last launch (over a million), and how they’re going to make more this time. There are affiliate prizes including a BMW.
| Before I continue, I’ll give the first of a few disclaimers that I’ll offer throughout this review (to add perspective, and hopefully avoid being called a hypocrite). I’m not against product launches. They are a big part of my own business model, and I also teach how to do them. I’m also a fan of affiliate contests. I’ve participated in many of them, and held plenty of my own. |
What I’m NOT a fan of is when marketers utterly disregard their customers, and that’s the feeling I got from this launch before it even started.
The Emails
In spite of the above hype, I really didn’t give this launch a second thought. After all, I’ve seen it all before.
Then the emails started hitting my inbox. Again nothing new, but what caught me by surprise was two things…
– The number of people promoting it, including some that I’ve associated with in the past.
– The outrageous lies contained in the emails.
| OK, time for my next disclaimer. I’m an email marketer too, and I’ve pushed the envelope with my marketing at times. But I ALWAYS make sure I can substantiate the things that I write.
Unlike many of the emails I saw for Free Commissions… |
“I just saw this sick video on YouTube and it’s received already 1,539,922 views in the last 5 days.”
Really? That’s funny since it’s not on Youtube, and the sales page just went up today.
“This video was shared 189,294 times on Facebook.”
Really… the moment it was launched?
“Good news! Your application has been accepted! Please review the details of the position here:”
What application, and which position was that? LOL
“Your Payment has been approved. Set Up Your Payment Information Here”
Uh huh. I could go an and on with the variations of fake payment notifications, and I’m not even going to bother getting into all the ridiculous income claims.
The Sales Page
After receiving this barrage of emails, of course I clicked one of them to check it out for myself.
www.freecommissions.com (NOT an affiliate link)
Here we have a typical scammy sales video complete with the so-called zillionaire, the cars, the yacht, the girls, the clearly fake testimonial videos, the bank account screen shots.
But here’s what really made my blood boil. The guy, Tim Alexander, goes on and on about all the fakes and scammers. He even goes so far as to say that he’s NOT an actor!
Of course the fine print at the bottom of the page says “In some cases actors have been used.” So I guess that makes it OK for the actor to say he’s not an actor!
The worst part was the ridiculous income claims. Folks, I’m not even going to waste my time, or yours, by quoting the outrageous claims made in the sales video. I’d be typing them up for the rest of the day. The gist of it is this…
You will make hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, with ZERO work.
This is the message that is given over and over and over again throughout the video.
| Yet another disclaimer. I’ve got nothing against sales videos. In fact, I’ve been known to write very persuasive sales copy and create very persuasive sales videos. But there’s a huge difference between persuasive copy, and outright lies. These guys didn’t even use qualifiers in their script, such as “you could” (make money), or this has the “potential” (to make you rich).
They just flat out said you will make tons of money with zero work. |
The price was $49…
But when I clicked to leave the page, I was given an exit splash page with a $20 discount. As I continued to attempt to leave the site, I encountered no less than FIVE exit pages.
The final one took me directly to the shopping cart, with an offer to buy Free Commissions for only $9. At that price, I figured it was worth it just for the entertainment of seeing what was behind the curtain…
The Payment
The payment was processed by ClickSure. From what I understand, their business was birthed as a result of the scammiest of products/vendors that got kicked out of ClickBank, who needed a new way to sell.
According to ClickSure’s website, they are based in China and Mauritius. Because of this, it seems to me that they are not afraid of the FTC, or anyone else who might come against them for making false claims.
Last time I purchased something through ClickSure, my credit card company’s fraud department called me within minutes to verify the transaction. That didn’t happen this time (yet), but I was certainly surprised to see this statement on the thank-you page AFTER I paid:
“ClickSure.com is an International Company and therefore due to fluctuated Currency Exchanged Rate, the actual amount that appears on your credit card statement will be slightly different from your order amount.”
Well that’s nice to know.
The Upsells
These guys truly redefined “upsell hell”.
| Here’s my final disclaimer. I’m not against upsells. I do them and I teach them. I usually do an upsell and a downsell. On a couple of occasions I’ve used multiple upsells and downsells in a sales funnel, but I’ve always treated my customers with respect, and there’s always been an easy way out. |
After making the initial purchase, I was presented with SEVEN additional offers prior to reaching the members area.
The first One Time Offer, which purported itself to be “streaming live” was $297. There was no way to bypass the video! I had to watch it until the price button appeared until I could decline. Worse than that, it was totally insulting. It included phrases like…
“Hit the “no” link and go back to your pathetic life of struggle”
and
“You’d be a complete moron to not take this offer right now”
Upon declining I was taken to the 2nd offer, which was the same thing for $197 (but called it a 50% discount). More ridiculous claims, such as….
“$110k a month. All you have to do is copy and paste a link. Literally all the work is done for you.”
From there I was taken to another $197 offer in which Tim Alexander (along with his very busty model friend) said,
“I want to give you my exact website that makes $238,793.14”.
And no, he doesn’t say it’s a copy or a replica of the site. It’s THE site, and he even says he is going to “transfer the site to you.” Again I had to watch this video before I could decline the offer.
From there, I was taken to another video, in which the busty model friend offered to give me the same website for only $97!
From there, I was taken to yet another offer which I was forced to endure before I could decline. This one was $175, and offered…
“Free commissions for life, without ever doing any work, without even lifting a finger.”
Yes that’s a quote, as are these:
“The only thing you have to figure out is how to spend the money. This is no hype, no gimmick.”
“All you need to know is that when you wake up in the morning you’ll see commissions like this, for life, for free. The money never turns off.” (While showing a screenshot of $68k/day commissions)
When I declined that offer, I was offered the same thing for $75. As we were obviously getting toward the end of this funnel, the insults continued to get worse:
“If you’re going to say no to this, do us both a favor and just quit. Go back to your pathetic life. You don’t have what it takes. Are you the loser that most people think you are?”
Apparently I don’t have what it takes, because I said no… and was taken to yet another offer! This one was for a $1 trial. I’m not sure of the total price, as I didn’t stick around to watch the full video.
The Product
The membership area is laid out in an organized fashion. Unfortunately, it seems to be organized in such a way that its primary objective is to get more money out of you.
Here’s a screen shot:
Step #1 is to register for the member’s only webinar (Better hurry, there’s only 10 seats left). Nothing wrong with webinars, or selling via webinars for that matter, but most likely the objective in this case is to sell you something expensive. I made the mistake once of allowing someone to conduct such a webinar with my customers. I will not make that mistake again.
Step #2 is to schedule your strategy session via telephone. Hmmm, interesting that the signup form asks you how much money you have available to invest in your business training! A classic tactic, and a sure sign that they’re going to be selling you some expensive coaching. (The more credit you have available on your card, the more it’ll cost).
Step #3 is to claim your “free website”, which is actually just a video that leads to a web hosting affiliate link. The strategy itself is not a bad one. I’ve got no problem with offering incentives for web hosting referrals. But I wouldn’t exactly consider this to be something worth paying for. If it were my member’s area, I’d call it an “unadvertised bonus”, as I often do with such offers.
Beyond those three steps, most of the members area consists of advertisements. So where’s the product?
There is a web-based squeeze page builder, and a couple of plugins and videos. Those tools and information are OK, but certainly do not even begin to fulfill the claims made in the sales video.
I didn’t find ANYTHING that required zero work. For example, the squeeze page builder has templates, but you still have to write your own copy. Even if it DID do all the work for you, I don’t see any possibility of making the volume of “hands free” income that the sales video promises.
They do deliver something. I would even go so far as to say it’s “possible” to make money with these tools. Squeeze pages are a great component of a permission-based marketing model. I use them all the time, and I make money with them. But that doesn’t even BEGIN to justify the marketing.
I call this a scam. I’m very sensitive about using that word, because it is often not justified by those who use it. I’ve been called a scammer simply for being in the business of teaching others how to make money, and it never feels good.
Often what we’ll see in this industry are hyped up sales pages and products that do not meet all the expectations of those who buy them. That does not necessarily make something a scam.
In this case, the blatant lies, combined with utter disregard for the customer’s experience leads me to label it as an actual scam.
The Bottom Line
Watch out for this one, and others like it. I’ve been warning about these kind of scammy products for years, and we’ll be seeing them for years to come. They will always find another payment processor, etc.
I was really disappointed to see so many well-known marketers promoting this scam. Most of them are not scammers themselves, but in this case are guilty of blindly promoting something without checking it out first.
I thought about publishing their names here (there’s over 30 of them listed on the JV page alone), but I don’t want to muddy the waters and turn this into a hate-fest. Some of them have promoted my products in the past, and/or I’ve promoted theirs. These are guys with huge influence… the combined power to contact millions of people almost instantly. That’s partly why I felt it was important to call out this scam; since I know many of my readers are on those lists.
I do expect some flak from this review, and there will obviously be some fallout from former JV partners when it comes time for me to launch my next product (which is soon).
If you were someone who promoted Free Commissions, I’m asking you to do something brave. Send an email out to your list and retract your endorsement. I’ve avoided naming names (you know who you are), so just do the honorable thing and renounce this scam.
Like I said at the beginning of this review, these kind of things are not fun to write. I do not intend to make a habit of it. But I just couldn’t stay silent on this one today.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂
Have a great day!
Eric,
THANK YOU! It is refreshing to see someone being honest about this scam. I have unsubscribed from so many mainstream marketers BECAUSE they blindly promote products that are obvious scams or that there is no way that they could have tested the product, themselves.
Sadly, the longer that you have been around the more that you HOPE there is a product that actually does work!
Keep up the good work….I will NOT be unsubscribing from your email list.
Jack
so many times times I get crappy stuff written by excellent copywriters promotion wso’s and jvzoo offers. I wish I could immediately toss them but even worse is the time spent concluding its crap. Then there are even courses that teach you to be successful doing wso’s and evidently they at least are truthful evidenced by the smorgasborg of offers I see with same type ads that hook us old timers as often as the newbies.
thanks for expressing my thoughts about Free Commissions. I don’t take these people up on their guarantees of satisfaction as I don’t want to be seen as a serial refunder per se
Thanks Eric but I gotta say that the video for the link you provided is one of the worst sales pitches ever. This guy is so crummy looking and the way he talks is so repulsive that I wouldn’t spend a red cent with him. Anyway, it’s sad to see these things online and tarnish an industry so many of us value and cherish as way to make an honest living.
Keep up the good work
Thank you Eric for being so honest. It’s good to see an internet marketer put integrity above commissions. Even if it might ruffle a few feathers in the industry.
Hi Anne,
May I offer an observation/insight?
Words have the power to influence people emotionally. They can create emotional images in the human mind which can lift people up or
help tear them down. The WORDS you use can help UPLIFT the EMOTIONAL environment or LOWER it! In all kindness and with due respect Anne, I would like to bring it to your awareness that speaking profanity PUBLICLY to perhaps 70,000 people doesn’t elevate the emotional climate {or add respect to the readers} God Bless You.
Thanks for the feedback Eric. It’s a pleasure to be on your list and receive information like this. I hate scammers and the world need more people with your integrity. Great work!
Dear Eric,
Thanks for that information. The truth is those GUY’S in that field of SCAMMING is getting intelligent, naughty and talk active. They are now presenting idea’s (thought) couple with works (Testimony in the form of Video or Paycheck). They even use names not only names but REAL NAMES or POPULAR NAMES in which we might know them personally. I thank you Eric for continuing those work that even though you get nothing from us still your pursue your advocacy, to teach by doing it not by writing. Sorry if I’m not capable of good English but I want to tell you you’ve done a good service not only from us but also to others who believe in your ideas be it positive or negative. I do hope I can share some of my experience I already met before. May God continue to Blessed Us All.
Sincerely yours,
Joselito Mendoza
Cauayan City, Isabela,
Philippines
Thanks Eric! This confirms my suspicions about Tim.
I think I have seen 4 versions of this product since last summer, except they made their own video…sounds good…I figure it would cost $997..there was one out last month for $997…well..I will try some day..but..in the mean time..I’m still building old school-authority sites..Thanks..I was looking for a review..I wanted to know the upsells…To me upsells are a form of lying, because they assume you have $300-500 to spend…Buyers could get angry spending that if it doesn’t work..Everything is getting more sophisticated [softwares]..Soon people will be able to make $1M a day?!
I didn’t mention this in my review, as it’s not intended to be a personal attack, but since you brought it up perhaps this would be an appropriate place to post it.
Warning: foul language below… (which are his words, not mine.)
Here’s part of an email that Tim sent to his list and posted on his blog (in a post titled “I’m the shit”)
Talk about giving internet marketing a bad name, eh?
Eric
Well done!
Thanks for this review and strong warning. I was actually thinking of purchasing this! Thanks for saving me some money and disappointment, because I know how I can actually get software comparable to this for free! You really got my attention with this review and it has just shot you up to join the top marketers that I respect which are no more than a handful. I encourage you to keep up the good work. God bless.
You should have clicked leave the page once more and it would have gone from $9 to $1 for 3 days…Haha! The Cocky was a bit of a turn off…but I like to get excited about having a better life…I’m a fool for good advertisement…I use to belong to the LA Advertisding Club {where the big agencies went for lunch and previews each month]..I like to sell products where a buyer will knock me down taking it!)) But I like quality and not lies..Last summer I saw another Clicksure Britty guy with a real hypy video [may be the same guy]..I loved it..but did not have the $500-1000?! Well, I know a vendor from India who thinks it is a lot of hype to make 5 figures a month..or a day..some people have a different threshhold?!
No matter what they offer, if clicksure is the payment processor you must know it is a scam, every last one of them. Also, if the url or product name has the word commissions in it, turn around and go in the opposite direction.
I absolutely agree. The red flags went up for me when “Tim”, leaning against a balcony railing, said the video was totally unscripted and that he was not an actor. I thought, for being unscripted, it sure SOUNDS like it was scripted. And you sure got some great diction and range of emotion for not being an actor.
Evening Eric
You probably save a of of people a lot of pain
and you should be proud of what you have done.
May God Bless you as well
RICK
I do not know what I should think about making money online. Probably naive people should not
try their luck on Internet Marketing cos’ it is such an intangible business. I am not pointing my finger at Clicksure particularly; I mean I can’t judge well enough.
Thank you, it’s good to see there are people who
have limits on what they will do for money.
Thanks for looking out for the little guy.
Thank you Eric.
God bless you
Thanks for taking the time to write this honest review, don’t see enough of this from trusted marketers.
Thanks for sharing this. There are soo many scams out there. Your analysis of how to spot a scam has given me food for thought. Finally there is someone I can lend some credence to.
This topic is kind of fun to me. However thank You Eric for the review. ^^
Thanks for looking out for the little guy. I can only imagine what the upsells are(n’t).
Thanks so much Eric you Rock bro. I have also taken a mental note and placed every single one of those JV’s in a file and I will never buy anything from them again.
Just an observation Eric, but I would never use anyof those people again, it will only hurt your launches.
If you couldn’t tell this was bogus within the first minute of the video pitch, you must be new to IM product pitches. Thanx much for such a thorough review. Keep ’em coming!
….and that’s why I continue to read your articles and purchase YOUR products!!
And it’s also why I want to be like you. Seriously!
God bless
WOW! Thanks Eric, this review came just in time. I was about to buy me in on this for the $9. Thanks to God your review hit my inbox minutes before I wasted my money on this. You are awesome!
May God continue to bless you for your honest review! Thank you! We need more marketers like you!
Hi Eric- thanks so much for carving out a couple hours to make this review.
I too clicked through the exit popups to see how much they were reducing the front end offer by.
…I was mostly curious to see what the actual PRODUCT was, but I couldn’t tell.
Get this: I even signed up as a jv partner *just* to get info on the product… but nothing. Nil. Nada.
From the sucky sales videos (and especially the obvious use of actors for the testimonial videos), I figured this was one of those bad “shell” products that would blood-suck your bank account dry and then some.
Thanks again for exposing this Eric.
Dez.
Yep, have been sent this a couple of times. Thanks for the heads up Eric.
Hi, Eric,
I recently did a “cleansing” of my list of internet marketers, as I periodically do. Among those purged names was an internet marketer that I started with, one I’d been with almost as long as I’ve been part of your list. I just felt he’d moved away from dealing from a place of helping fellow marketers to doing whatever it takes to get more money.
The reason I DID NOT clear you from my list of “done with” IMers is just because of the integrity you’ve shown here, and continue to show toward your list and customers.
Thanks for an awesome review.
Excellent post Eric. Love the straight talk and run thru of their funnel. Appreciate your time and effort spent in doing this.
Cheers,
Lester
Fantastic article, Eric! I wanted to write something like this on my Blog but due to my poor English Grammar, I’ve enduring those “movie-type” promotion since 2 years back.
It never take me more than 30 second to close a promo window when I starts seeing mansion, yatch, sport car, helicopter or plane with an “actor” whether real or fake because its too hype-up!
Being a victim once to a promo such as the one above have taught me to play it safe all the way!
I rather let my intuition decides if an offer is genuine or not.
Hope lesser people got snooked as a result of this preview if it goes viral.
Cheers,
William Siong
Hi Alan,
I fully agree with your comment, however Anne’s comment caught my eye and to me every word she used was a perfect fit to what she wanted to say and I can’t agree more with her statement. I wouldn’t have said it any better 😉 may you guys have a nice day and thanks Eric, for your review. My inbox is bombarded with promotions of Free Commissions…
Unfortunately there are much more scammy make money online products recently released, I recommend you guys check out the Warriors Forum Reviews section and you’ll see more.
Also, from JV pages you always will learn something… most of the times that’s prizes, cash.,etc.. that makes the big gurus to promote and NOT the customer’s needs.
Thanks Eric.
Brilliant. When I was ‘new’ to the web I was scammed loads of times. We need folk like you.
Thank you Eric. There are those who speak about Integrity, and have something on the wall attesting to it. And there are those who simply practice it to the best of their ability. You, in my opinion, and from experience, are in the latter category. Thank you for the Post
Hi Eric,
thanks, you stand out amongst some other true giants of the industry.
I bought some of your PLR stuff and the quality and integrity of your products and service is self evident. You are qualified to comment on this rubbish.
I have seen this guy before, and the minute I see someone drive up to an obviously rented large villa and get out of their large truck I switch off.
I have in the past been suckered in and bought some of these products with as you say endless downsells and upsells, only to find a similar members area packed with more sales stuff and not delivering on the promised product.
How can they live with themselves..? Well, making money at all costs is a way of life for some, karma not withstanding.
A tip for the unwary, if it seems to good to be true…it most probably is.
And the other old adage, TANSTAAFL..
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
So, Good On You for outing this…
I am going to review the promoters list and keep an eye out for retractions. The rest will remain in a watch list, pending opt-out.
To be frank, you get to spot the guys who sell you something then swamp you with the same old WSO/JVZoo/FSO treadmill stuff, and you get to spot the value adders like yourself who believe in actually helping people and giving out first. Then promoting real stuff of value to their list.
Who do you think is going to WIN in the long run..?
Come on Karma… 🙂
All the best to you and yours…
Ok, work beckons..
Have a Good one y’all..
Thanks Eric, I knew it sound was to good to be true.
I would like to say thank you for this email. I wish that more big name internet marketers did then same.
GOOD GOING.
Have a great week.
Thanks for sitting through that to give us a heads-up Eric.I have a low tolerance for bull* and would have bailed. Thanks to you, Jess and Paul for the time and effort you put into your businesses to stay “Real”. Blessings.
Awesome Eric. Keep up the fabulous job. I have been reading your tips for a long time and you always have done a great job. I don’t see your emails as often but still, I give you credit for speaking out. Not too many people know what integrity is any more. Especially the people in our state capital which is suppose to take care of it’s people.
Okay, Im done ranting. Take it easy!
Would love to know who you have trouble with as a result of this review?
I’d make sure I wasn’t on their lists any longer. Still sticking around on yours since 2007! Not going anywhere.
Thanks for taking the time to so thoroughly do this review.
All the best for the future.
re: JV page – All The Usual Suspects
re: Tim A
Ive never seen a WSO he was involved in that didnt involve trolls (probably himself trying to generate false buzz/controversy), and that were not shut down at some point.
Even the Google Review results are worse than usual –
https://www.google.com/search?q=Free+Commissions+Review
Man that video reminds me of those old Tom Vu infomercials! Your Friends Are Losers! Drop Them! 😉
Karma (or the FTC) is gonna get these guys.
Sooner or later…
——————————————–
Surprised you bought in, but good call anyway.
Thanks a lot Eric.
Thank you so much Eric for letting us know how to stay away from scammy internet marketing products ,like “free commissions”,and it’s good to know there are good guys out there like you,on the internet,not just people trying to sell all the garbage,no matter what.I really apreciate your review,you’re very honest,thanks again!
re: Surprised you bought in, but good call anyway.
Make that – surprised you were willing to voluntarily waster your time, but it was for a Good Cause. Education for the masses. 😉
Excellent review Eric, you are awesome.
Many Thanks!
Hi Eric,
Good work indeed! We sure need more “do-gooder” like you!
Much appreciated.
Please keep up the good work…
Wishing you all the best,
John
Well said Eric. I too was surprised at the number of prominent ‘Gurus’ promoting this offer. I never even gave them the benefit of a click through, but I have Re-Tweeted this post 🙂
It’s OK, I’m used to having large ‘unfollow’ numbers on my Twitter account.
Keep up the good work Eric – Pete.
Eric sincere appreciation to you.
There is no danger I would have ever bought this offer but clearly there are loads of others who would have, and now they have been warned.
Because of my long association with you and your products I can buy from you with confidence, and with the knowledge that there is real value in what you are promoting such as the case with Jeremy Burns SCGM Retirement sale that I bought through your link.
I want to take a moment here to thank you for that link over delivering value is the key to building a lasting (knowing, liking and trusting) relationship with your list.
The scam artists could invest their time and effort in providing value based products instead of sinking to this level.
Gordon Smith