Four Percent Group Review: Who’s Telling The Truth?

Over the past few years, I have spoken to many beginners who have tried the Four Percent Group and quit. It seems there is a problem. But is it with them or with this make-money-online program? I decided to take a look into it and was able to gather some good information in this Four Percent Group review.  

You cannot underestimate the amount you should learn from any business course. Marketing techniques such as traffic and conversion, website building, social media management, entrepreneurial mindset, and so on. But does Four Percent Group provide all the materials within a reasonable time frame?

On the other hand, it’s easy for the quitters to scream “scam” just because they couldn’t keep up with the course fee before they made any profits. But did they have a willingness to put in as much effort? 

So this unbiased review will cover all the things you need to know - what this program is about, pros and cons, whether it’s fair to call it legit or scam, and more importantly, whether it will help you make a sustainable full-time income and beyond through online marketing or not. Here it is.

What Is the Four Percent Group?

Four Percent Group (FPG) is an online business mastermind program created by Vick “Vitaliy” Strizheus. Since it first appeared in 2016, it has been quite severely criticized for its high cost and the heavy focus on its affiliate program. The content and the structure has been revamped a few times since, and the platform seems a lot more user-friendly than I expected. 

When I look at the content closely, I can see some good and bad. The program is definitely created for beginners. 25 sets of courses are included, covering most of the marketing techniques. But the courses teach different business models which I think is confusing. Multiple similar resources are recommended, which I also think will confuse the beginner students.

The founder Vick is very friendly, I think he sounds really friendly. But I find a lot of content he teaches is theoretical, not practical. Too many networking event replays - they’re certainly motivational for some, but I often find myself thinking, what’s this trying to tell me?

I’ll elaborate on these points one by one in a little while, but there’s one thing I noticed and bothered me…

The Authenticity of User Reviews

One of the first things you may have noticed on the Four Percent website is the 5-star “Trustpilot approval” badge. You click on that, you’ll be directed to the Trustpilot page and find it marked 5-stars (“Excellent”) by 90% of users.

But the majority of them merely spare one or two lines to say “it’s great” or “I’m impressed”. None of them actually says how the program has helped them achieve financial freedom (using past or present-perfect tense).

They can’t be fake because there are literally thousands of them.

It turns out that Vick encourages users to leave a review during the first free introduction stage, “7 Steps To Freedom”. It’s a set of 7 motivational videos where Vick tells you what it is to run a business other than to work for someone else. After each video, users can click to leave a star rating and leave a comment in the box. Ah, this is clever. This screen is linked to Trustpilot, so users can contribute a review without opening a new browser and logging on to Trustpilot. There are 7 videos, so users can actually leave positive reviews up to 7 times.

Can they leave negative reviews? Yes, but there’s a good reason they’re unlikely to. 

Because just before they dive into this first set of videos, they’re required to sign the “Four Percent Pledge”. They’re told to pledge to focus on success, not any kind of negativity. Solutions instead of problems. Opportunities instead of obstacles. It reads, “even a small amount of negativity can kill your chance of success.”

First, you’re told to keep a positive attitude. Next, you watch a motivational video. Then you’re encouraged to write a review - at this point, you wouldn’t say anything bad about this program, would you?

So to summarize, the Trustpilot reviews of Four Percent Group are indeed left by real users. But,

1. They may be psychologically manipulated into writing positive reviews.
2. Their positive experience is based on the free introduction videos, not on the results they achieved after completing the program.

I mean, it’s Trustpilot’s integrity issue, allowing businesses to collect positive reviews this way. I wouldn’t blame Four Percent Group for that. They’re doing what they’re allowed to do. I guess!

The Founder - Vick Strizheus

When people talk about Vick/Vitaliy Strizheus, they all seem to come up with his dark past - convicted for making false insurance claims and jailed for stealing some $30k over a decade ago. It’s hard, isn’t it, either to or not to judge the Four Percent Group scheme based on his past? One part of me says it’s not fair on the guy, everyone has one or two dark secrets. But then, excuse me, I don’t have a criminal record like him. I’d be happy to be his work colleague in the office but I wouldn’t do business with him personally.

What I struggle to understand is his previous “make money” schemes that all kept shutting down one after another. Vick created “Big Idea Mastermind” in 2013, a system to drive traffic to Empower Network, but the collaboration dissolved shortly thereafter. Then he created Internet Traffic Formula, a mastermind course to teach traffic generations. Then there was High Traffic Academy.

Four Percent Group has been going on for a while now, but he’s collaborating with others to promote each other’s products. So my concern is there’s a good chance that the Four Percent scheme may fall through again just like the previous ones at some point in the near future. 

The Membership Types

So there are 3 membership types;

• Free - Anyone can join and watch a few webinar clips, which will help you decide whether you want to follow the entire program or not.
• Silver - Not available (whaaat?) $25 per month or $225 per year. Originally, it would only allow you to learn ½ of what you’re supposed to learn by the looks of it. That wouldn’t have made sense, so it’s good that Silver membership is no longer available!
• Gold - $297 per month or $2,250 per year. This is the standard membership.
• Platinum - $1,000 per month or $9,000 per year. It’s private coaching and you’ll only be invited to join once you become a Gold member.

So here’s a summary of what you’re getting;

Free Membership

• Full Onboarding and Set Up - You just sign the pledge to start motivating yourself. No negativity, be determined, etc.
• 7 Steps to Freedom - 7 steps to achieve “freedom”. Clear target, money plan, game plan, become the best, etc.
• Success Mindset - More motivational webinars to develop the mindset.
• Marketing 101 - Marketing overview, including how traffic works.

Gold Membership

When you upgrade your membership, other areas of the program will be unlocked.

• Weekly Live Events / Events Replay - Interactive events so you can connect and be more motivated.
• Mass Traffic Blueprint - How you can generate traffic in detail.
• CEO Interviews - Top CEOs of companies (more motivation!)
• Resources - Introducing web tools such as autoresponder, link tracker, e-commerce platforms, other course programs like Morrison Publishing (I think it’s confusing and misleading!)
• Interactive Community - Connect with other members.
• 24/7/365 Priority Support.
• Business Launch Blueprint - “A-Z Blueprint” to start an online business.
• eStage Website Builder - allowing you to create sales funnels and blog pages.
• “Mastery” Courses - include traffic, list building, copywriting, conversion, tribe building, affiliate marketing. Facebook PPC ads, Instagram, SEO, e-commerce, 
• Beyond Results - How to outsource
• Taxes & Biz Structures

Platinum Membership

• Proprietary Apps - To boost your performance and results.
• Four Percent Fitness - Fitness coaching program.
• Product Licensing Network - Sell PLR products to make extra money.
• $1,000 Per Day Challenge
• Platinum Group Mastermind - Private meetings.

Some Confusion...

It’s good to know most of the marketing techniques are covered in the course for Gold members. But there are a couple of points that I find confusing, and I certainly think they’ll confuse the students.

Multiple Business Models

Most other good online business courses focus on one area of marketing method, e.g. YouTube marketing, or Facebook ads marketing, because that's what the tutor is specialized in.

Whereas FPG teaches multiple business models; affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and even day trading (for a separate tuition fee). 

Ok, there would be multiple sources of income if you could manage to learn & earn simultaneously. But this is like teaching you how to become a taxi driver AND a delivery driver because you seem to like driving. Would you start two jobs for two sources of income? Surely, what you would want is help & advice to decide either to go for taxi or delivery in the first place, not to learn both then decide.

Beginners who take a hybrid course often fail because they end up suffering shiny object syndrome instead of mastering one business model. So here, I get the impression that the course content may be a little blown up unnecessarily. 

Multiple Resources

Similarly, the resource page simply lists up multiple similar tools. For example, 10 different autoresponder companies are listed there. Every one of these links contains Vick's affiliate link, so if you click one and sign up, Vick will receive a commission. But which one should you choose? Why so many are listed?

Again, good course tutors usually recommend one particular tool for one job, because they believe it’s the best one for their students. And they explain the reason for the recommendation.

For example, GetResponse as a recommended autoresponder, and say, “because GetResponse is one of the cheapest, one of the most reliable, and suitable for affiliate marketing.”

The resource page is supposed to be part of the course, not advertising space. Students need to know which resource is best for whom if more than one of the same services is listed. Simply listing up whatever services are available, and leaving it up to the students to choose any one of them they like… I feel it’s confusing, and I also feel it’s unhelpful for beginners. Don’t you?

Where Does The Number 4% Come From?

The 4% is based on the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. He said 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Something like that. So there’s an unequal relationship between a cause and its consequences. This principle’s often been applied to business and economy, for example;

• 80% of a company's revenue is generated by 20% of its customers.
• 20% of affiliate marketers earn 80% of all the affiliate sales generated worldwide. Etc.

Vick Strizheus extends the theory to say, a further 80/20 rule applies within the remaining 20%. (20% x 20% = 4%.) Basically, if you work really, really, really hard, you can become the top 4% earner who shares 96% of the total income generated in the world.

They say that the richest 1% of people own 99% of the world’s wealth - have you ever heard of that? Whereas The Beatles used to say, the taxman would take 95% of your income. 

Well, I can’t find this 4%/96% theory as I google it, and I’m not keen on the theories not backed up with proper stats. But if you like that kind of thing, you can access FPG and listen to what Vick has to say for free. You may be entertained or even motivated by the story.

Weekly Live Events

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Whatever the training program you’re considering enrolling in…don't be fooled by "Weekly" event/webinar offers. 

You may simply think, “Wow, I’ll be learning something every week!” Then ask yourself, what do you really mean by that? Do you know exactly what you’ll be learning every 7 days?

You may think live events could give you the chance to connect with others, motivate one another, develop each other’s business ethos as a team.

…In other words, you like to chat endlessly?

I have attended a lot of live webinars and watched a lot of replays in the past 6-7 years, and I only find them useful if;

• Topics to discuss are narrow, or
• They are selected Q&A sessions.

Otherwise, you often end up listening to an endless mish-mash chat session, you see. Topics should be clear and specific. Not just “3 steps to make $5k per week” for example. Because those 3 steps may be just conceptual. 

You’ll be scheduling your time to join each live session. You should be told exactly what you would have learned at the end of each session, and you should be clear about what to work on the moment the session ends. 

I have watched some of the Four Percent live event replays, but unfortunately, the topics are so vague like;

• “How To Create Financial Abundance”
• “Special Wealth Autopilot Meeting!”

They really are chat sessions, so I find the content theoretical and over-stretched (take so long before getting to the center of the topic). As I said, nothing’s wrong if you like chatting or listening to others chat, and you find it valuable. But I’m not really a fan of that kind of style. I hope you understand what I mean.

“Success Mindset” Videos

The “Success Mindset” section is hugely misleading. The introduction says it’s important to know “how to turn cold visitors into subscribers”, “how to get unlimited traffic”, etc. So you need to develop a winning mindset to condition yourself for success. 

It doesn’t quite make sense…

Yes, mindset is important. But mindset on its own will not get you unlimited traffic (obviously!) And the content is actually the biggest letdown for me. Because it’s the total of over 5 hours of motivational chats by 4 speakers;

• “Creating Legacy” by Les Brown
• “Your Enough” by Forbes Riley
• “Unstoppable Momentum” by Dave Seymore
• “The 5 Laws” by Tony Horton

Again, each video is labeled wrongly (such as “unlimited traffic”) but they are rather self-development talks. The last one, Tony Horton is a fitness instructor and he talks about how to keep fit for 80 minutes. 

So it really depends on how you feel about it. You are an online marketing beginner, desperate to start learning relevant techniques. Now you know that life coaching is such a major part of Four Percent Group, would you still be interested in continuing?

Is Four Percent Group a Scam?

You know the answer by now - no, Four Percent Group is not a scam. It’s a legitimate “let’s make money” course program that allows you to join free, get you to watch hours' worth of videos for free. As I've explained so far, there are quite a few reasons that I don't like about this program. But it’s up to you to decide what you can actually take away from it before you spend any money.

Recommended Alternative

Okay, as if you didn’t see this coming…

I recommend Wealthy Affiliate instead. It’s been in the business since 2005, with 1.4 million members from across 193 countries, and it helps 10,000 new affiliate marketers every single month. I joined in 2015 and have been making a full-time income for the past 6 years. 

The reason for the recommendation is;

• Purely focused on niche affiliate marketing as a legitimate business model.
• You can join free and receive the actual techniques from the first 10 free lessons. (Actionable, not theoretical.)
• The paid membership is a lot, lot cheaper than the Four Percent Group. (From $49 per month, more discounts apply for yearly membership)
• The membership includes WordPress site builder and secure web hosting with turbo/extreme speed.

I believe that the platform and community are genuinely there to help affiliate marketing beginners make good success. So join me from the link below and see which one’s better for you. Once again, the decision is all up to you.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Good luck!