The Commission League is a "3-step, 20-minute workday system" to make passive income. It claims to make $200-$1,000 per day as an affiliate without using any conventional methods such as building a website or using paid ads. I've had an opportunity to watch the introduction webinar and unfortunately, the webinar convinced me NOT to join. Some of the things that are being said don't make sense (sorry) and the numbers are inconsistent.
Okay, my Commission League review is not an actual user review but based on an assumption that "this can't be happening...!" But I hope you'll see my point, and it is up to you to decide whether it's worth investing money on this product.
The Commission League Review | ||
|---|---|---|
Product Name: | The Commission League | |
Website URL: | thecommissionleague.com | |
Type: | Affiliate Marketing | |
Owner: | Mike Balmaceda | |
Launch Date: | May 2019 | |
Price: | $997 | |
Rating: | ||
What Is The Commission League?
The Commission League is about promoting affiliate products from ClickBank and how you promote it. The method is nice and simple - pay influencers a fee and ask them to promote on your behalf.
...Which doesn't make sense to me.
Because that's the last thing any reputable influencer would do - promote someone else's affiliate products for a fee.
Unless what they mean is "solo ad sellers" but then the potential income and other related numbers that are shown in the webinar would be too unrealistic. I'll explain what I mean in a little while.
Free Webinar
The webinar is over 2 hours long, but the actual seminar is less than half an hour. There's a long introduction in the beginning, so if you're interested to watch the webinar but don't have much time, you can join in after 30 minutes. The latter half is a sales presentation.
The webinar is presented by Mike Balmaceda, the main creator of the Commission League. If you are completely new to online business and have no idea, the first part (around 30 minutes in) may be useful to you. Mike explains what affiliate marketing is, and why it's one of the best business models for an online marketing newbie. He also explains how to find the best-selling products on ClickBank - if you don't know it, it'll be useful for sure.
The '3-Step' formula that's referred to is just the solid basic rule that every new affiliate marketer needs to know;
- Step 1 - Identify users' problems and their needs.
- Step 2 - Find a product that delivers a solution to their problems.
- Step 3 - Tell them about the solution and recommend the product.
Any affiliate marketing training courses usually teach you this in the beginning, so I think it's good the basic principle is covered by the Commission League.
I was a little bothered to be told large amounts of potential commission income repeatedly throughout the webinar, other than being told a little more tips and advice. But the product itself is an "all-done-for-you" system, claiming that you don't have to do much work at all, so I guess this is not really a webinar, but much more like a sales video.
The Method
"Instead of building our own email list, we get someone else to do the hard work."
The Commission League's unique method is to get "influencers who leverage email to communicate with their audience" to do the work for you.
The idea is to pay some influential people a small fee (as little as $50) and ask them to promote your affiliate products on your behalf.
They send out a promotional email to their subscribers. The email will contain your affiliate link to a product page, some of the subscribers will click the link and make a purchase, so you'll receive a commission up to $1,000 per day.
You see something's awfully wrong with this plot? Because (a) influencers would never do that kind of thing for you, and (b) online business is not a charity. Here's what I mean;
(a) Influencers
Influencers have earned the status by building a trust relationship over a long period, on their own terms. They don't - daren't - promote some ClickBank products for someone else for money. Promote some random products that they don't truly believe in, and they'll simply jeopardize their reputation as an influencer.
(b) This is not a charity
Again, they didn't become influencers overnight - it would have taken all the talent, efforts and persistence to get where they are now. And they continuously work hard to 'influence' others. And what have YOU done? This is not a charity - no one's going to let you earn such a large amount of money for barely working "20 minutes a day" as it claims.
Put it this way. Why would any business owner accept a payment of $50 to do "all the hard work for you", if you were to make thousands of dollars from it?
I mean, I would never promote some random products to my own subscribers using someone else's affiliate link...no matter how much they paid me! That would be unethical and irresponsible. I would lose my loyal subscribers by running campaigns that are not my intention. I can only promote products that I genuinely recommend, and affiliate commissions that I earn are the reflection of my responsibility. You see what I mean?
Why Deny Proven Methods?
I really cannot agree with the way the Commission League 'denies' other marketing methods and introduces its own method in this webinar. I personally think it's misleading, or rather wrongly guiding new online business hopefuls.
Mike says in the webinar that other marketing methods don't work, such as;
- Building your own website or blog
- Creating review videos on YouTube
- Sales videos
- Creating review articles
- PPC Ads (Facebook, Google) and Instagram ads
He says that most people mess up using these methods, but he also says specifically, "These ways do not work and are designed for you to fail. We want to avoid these at all costs."
That's grossly misleading. Because these are the most popular online marketing methods and every single one of them is proven to work! We all take at least one of these ways to make a full-time income online. If you are brand new, you don't have to learn all of them but at least you need to know how each one works.
People might "mess up" because they're not doing it right, NOT because the methods are designed to fail!
Numbers Don't Make Sense
Notice the list of conventional online marketing methods that The Commission League advises you not to take, does not include solo ad traffic services. I wonder the 'influencers' they're referring to are simply solo ad sellers...?
Even if that's the case, some of the numbers - potential income claim - don't make up as they should. It suggests a very unrealistic scenario;
- You pay an 'influencer' $50 fee.
- The influencer will send out an email to a list of 30,000 leads.
- 300 people may click your affiliate link.
The 1% click-through rate suggests that the list is likely to be a solo ad vendor's. But...NO solo ad vendor or any traffic seller will charge it so cheap. $50 is normally a price for 100 clicks, not 300. Then it goes on to suggest that;
- Of 300 people who clicked the link, 30 people may buy your affiliate product.
Now this is WAY too ambitious - you'll be lucky if one person buys something on the spot! And lastly it suggests that;
- Your revenue can be $1,500. Less $50 fee = $1,000 profit.
1,500 - 50 = 1,000???
Importance of a 'Sandwich Page'
Mike explains that there's an even better way; instead of placing your affiliate link in the influencer's email, place a link to a "sandwich page" (opt-in page, or squeeze page), so that you can build your own list.
Sandwich (opt-in) page
I can agree and disagree on this one because frankly, it's not a 'better' way, it's the ONLY way. I've repeatedly said it in the past, and any affiliate marketing tutors will tell you this; if you ever use a PPC (pay-per-click) traffic service, NEVER send your visitors directly to your affiliate site. Because virtually no one buys anything on the spot.
They may be interested in your affiliate product, but the chance of them getting a credit card out to actually buy it right away is close to zero. That's why it's important - crucial - to build your own list.
Now, what's confusing is that, we've just been told that building your own website doesn't work... But without a website, you can't have a sandwich page...
The good thing is, The Commission League will teach you how to run email marketing/autoresponder.
Then again, we're told a statistic that doesn't have any proof or logic to back up. It says, "For every 1 person on your email list, you can make an average of $1 per month. Given that information, if you have 1,000 leads, you can earn up to $1,000 per month extra!"
It implies that on top of whatever your affiliate income, you'll make $1,000 month after month just by keeping a list of 1,000 leads. That doesn't make sense or whatsoever!
The Actual Product
Here's what you'll get from The Commission League.
Pillar #1 - Commission League Blueprint
- "Our exact 7-figure+ system"
- How to start without experience
- Push-button software
- Make your first sales in 24 hours
- 20-minute workday system: work less than 20 minutes per day!
- How to get to $10k per month quickly
Pillar #2 - How to find $1k opportunities
- How to identify $1k per day topics/problems
- "The 5 most profitable topics that have made us 6 figures+"
- How to virtually guarantee sales every time
- Only need to do this one time!
Pillar #3 - How to find profitable products
- The exact websites we use to find profitable products
- Advanced BURN protocol to profit right away
- "The 11 products we've made over $10k in 1 week with"
- Ready to generate income in 3 clicks! (within 8 minutes)
Pillar #4 - Push-button influencer solutions
- Our exact influencers $4,738/day
- Free traffic solutions: $0 start
- Never write one email OR create an ad account, ads, images, etc...
- Done-for-you 1st influencer
- You make money!
Pillar #5 - Done-for-you setup from us
- 24 hr VIP support & community access
- The Commission League Done-for-you
- Done-for-you product setup
- Done-for-you technical support setup
- "You're not thrown into the deep end! You put in the work. We'll guide you through it."
- Lifetime access to the training, done-for-you coaches
I personally like the sound of Pillar #2 and #3 "How To...". Sounds like you will get to learn the profitable topics and profitable products to promote. However I don't like the sound of "done-for-you", "push-button system" "only 20 minutes per day" - because all of these phrases typically appear in the sales video of scam products. We've heard these phrases too many times, too often and we know there are no such things exist.
I may be being too pedantic but the webinar tells you about the "11 products we've made over $10k in a week" that you'll get to know if you join The Commission League. It tells you that it's part of Pillar #3, the value of which is $597, then moments later it tells you the value is $1,997. The number's inconsistent here again.
30-Day "Success Guarantee"
The Commission League promises that, if you don't generate $3,000 within 30 days of joining, it will coach you until you do. So you might want to consider carefully here - the product does NOT offer you to claim a refund within 30 days of purchase.
"Generate $3,000" may mean the total of gross revenue - you might have to fork out a lot to pay for the traffic. Also the timescale is not promised; if it takes 10 years to generate $3,000, is it a guaranteed success?
The Commission League Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
The Commission League Review: Conclusion
I hope my review based on the webinar clarifies that I'm not keen on the idea of "getting someone else to do all the hard work" to make so much money as an affiliate. Relying on influencers to promote your affiliate products seems unrealistic to me.
You can easily identify the bestselling products from ClickBank, but every single bestseller is already promoted by thousands of other affiliates. So you might want to learn the technique to become an expert in the long run, rather than to rely on a system that's created by someone else. The decision is up to you.
(Real Time) Affiliate Income Report Last Month
September 2024: $8,550.00
Hi Ray
Thanks for your review of the Commission League program. I was considering it but had some doubts especial when it came to their projected financial claims. Thanks for addressing that and sharing your advice. I found the link to CLP from an email from John Crestani. I also had considered his program “The 6-Week Super Affiliate System” – I just wondered if you had reviewed this system or were aware of it? I like the idea behind being an affiliate and making commissions from Clickbank products. However when I look at affiliate system online there is more emphasis on promising huge financial returns rather than the substance of the product on offer. My aim is to try and generate $200 a day as an affiliate marketer – have you any advice for me. Or possibly point me in a direction where these financial goals are possible. Thanks again for your review – much appreciated Niall.
Hi Niall, thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts. My guest writer TJ has reviewed the Super Affiliate System by John Crestani, he says he makes good/enough money using this method to live in Thailand 🙂
At the end of the day there are only 2 ways;
(1) Spend money continuously on traffic or ads – disadvantage is constantly monitoring your cost.
My recommendation is Commission Hero because it’s simple, straightforward and Facebook ads are Less riskier than using solo ad traffic services.
or
(2) content marketing – blogging or YouTubing – disadvantage is it will take time.
My recommendation is Wealthy Affiliate, because not only will you get to learn all the techniques but the price – you just cannot get the tools (hosting up to 50 websites + security, keyword research tool) for this price elsewhere.
Yes, you can make $200 per day especially by promoting ClickBank products, the combination of (1) & (2) methods, that’s what I do! I hope the information helps. I wish you all the best of every success, Niall, thank you for your comment!
Fantastic Ray! – thanks so much for sharing your opinions and advice.
I’ll certainly look into options 1 and 2. I’ll keep you posted when I receive my first commission (here’s hoping!!) All the best with your ventures Cheers N.
Thanks to you too Niall, I appreciate your comment! Look forward to hearing your success!
Hi Ray:
I just watched the webinar and decided to look for reviews and found yours.
Everything you said makes sense. I also thought right away on solo ads. And you right, the numbers sound very unrealistic.
I mean if you could pay for a solo ad $50 and make $1,000 or even $200, it would be fantastic, and everybody would do it. However, as you said, which influencer would be crazy enough to charge only $50 to email their 30k subscribers????
I wonder if their students are making real money.
As per this statement:
Your revenue can be $1,500. Less $50 fee = $1,000 profit.
1,500 – 50 = 1,000???
I believe they are considering that you don’t make 100% of the commission, but only 50% to 70% or so. That is why you don’t make 1,450 (which it would be 1,500 – 50).
So 70% of 1,500 = 1,050
1,050 – 50 (your investment) = 1,000
Thanks so much, Ray for writing this review.
Hi Carina, oh yes, I see! I missed that, that makes sense (70% commission) – thank you!
Many solo ad vendors easily have 30k+ subscribers and they may charge you $50, but they also charge other customers $50 each and send an email to their 30k subscribers. The link destination of their email rotates. As I said in the post, $50 is a price of 100 clicks (it may be less, 50 clicks…some solo ad vendors charge a lot more). So it’s not like all the 30k subscribers will actually view your offer but only 100 of them will. So this part definitely misleading and the income projection is very unrealistic in my opinion…
Thank you for your comment Carina, I appreciate it.
Its a scame, check fb some ppl are compalning about it.
Hi Matt, thanks for the info. Though I can’t seem to find any complaints! The Commission League is created and run by real people.
Hi, Ray, thanks for the great review. I have also checked the webinar and my opinion is pretty much the same as you. Everything seems so scammy to me. Webinar, I couldn’t watch through. It’s intended to mislead internet marketing novice.
Hardly anything to teach but it’s no different from other scam sales videos like Website ATM. Your attention to detail is impeccable. I didn’t notice any of the miscalculations. Good job. One to avoid, I say.
Hi Tomasz, I’m glad you agree with me because my findings were pretty negative and I just cannot find definitive reasons to recommend this product. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.