SFI (Strong Future International) Marketing Group is a successful business empire, founded by Gery Carson in 1998. It offers a free membership, MLM and affiliate opportunities.
But oh, SFI...
I've given it up after attempting the "tasks" everyday for 2 months. No, SFI is not a scam. All those "scambusters" tell you it's not. I mean it's free anyway, there's nothing to lose unless you succumb to the upsell invitations.
How To Make Money With SFI
There are roughly three ways to earn money with SFI.
#1 Referrals (SFI Pay-Per-Action)
Advertise SFI using your affiliate link or banner link, or using a traffic exchange, and you could earn $0.50 or more per signup. How much exactly? It depends how other members who joined in the same month perform the tasks. So you can't rely on the referral commission. You're supposed to receive extra $0.50 if your referral is from USA or Canada. Optimistically extra $8 if your referral climbs up the MLM ladder and eventually become a "Team Leader".
#2 TripleClicks
TripleClicks is an online shop where SFI members can buy, sell or bid. There are some simple games to play to win the TricpleClick (TC) points to be able to place a bid at the auction, otherwise you need to purchase a set of points.
How you can make money is either;
- Promote their products (in your website, social media, etc) and receive affiliate commission or
- Sell your own products - whether you have a few unwanted items, or set up your own online store at TripleClicks.
The crucial problem that I have with TripleClicks is - I don't like any of the products that they stock. I'm sorry but they sell a lot of cheap stuff... Key rings, earrings, SD cards and nicknacks... I checked & checked & checked over 2 months and sadly there wasn't one thing that made me want to buy myself.
And this is something that any online general store would suffer - no one can beat Amazon. TripleClicks feature almost 90,000 products - you think that's plenty, oh yeah... Amazon.com stocks 200 million. 200 freaking million! You can't even begin to compete, can you?
TripleClicks' search function is pretty bad too. I need a new toaster and search by the word "toaster" - it comes up with 50 pages worth of totally unrelated products. Loads of books, earrings and nicknacks... I've found one low quality toaster for a full price.
So my point is - if I don't believe in the product or merchant, I can't promote it. If I can't find anything to buy there, I wouldn't sell my stuff there either.
#3 MLM
The next "challenge" is multi level marketing. To qualify, you have to become an EA (Executive Affiliate). And to become an EA, you have to collect 1,500 VersaPoints (VP) during a month period, and keep collecting 1,500 VP's every month to maintain your EA title.
This is where the system starts to become insanely complicated. Cut the story short, you are likely to need to set up a standing order to pay at least $29 every month to cling on to the Executive Affiliate ladder.
As part of the SFI multi-level;
- When someone you referred to SFI as an affiliate purchases a product from TripleClicks, you'll receive a % of the profit margin as a commission.
- As an EA, you'll be given two or more CSA's (co-sponsored affiliates) automatically by SFI. When a CSA purchases a product from TripleClicks, you'll receive a smaller % of the profit margin as a commission.
- 5 levels of Team Leader title - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Gold. You'll receive more VP's from some of your referrals downline within up to 12 levels.
I felt none of these option was realistic to me personally, and that was ultimately the reason I decided to call it a day with SFI.
How To Collect Versapoints (VP's)
You see the screenshot below - red menu tabs (To-Do / Tips / Stream / TC / ECA...and so on)? By clicking each tab and "check out" each page, you'll collect 1VP. Scroll down each page, wait for 10 seconds and click "Yes I have read the page", then you'll receive 1VP.
You click the tabs every day to collect 10VP's a day. 300VP's per month. That's nowhere near the eligible 1,500VP's (to be an EA/Executive Affiliate - to be able to start MLM).
When you've joined, you'll receive a lot of bonus VP's for creating a profile, posting your goals etc here & there. Also for the first month only, your VP's will be carried forward to the 2nd month, so you'll be likely to become an EA during your 2nd month.
Comes the 3rd month - and every 1st day of the month thereafter - your VP counter will be reset to zero. You need to keep collecting 1,500 VP's every month to maintain your EA status.
The only way is to pay. The most economical way is to set up a standing order to pay $29 every month. This will give you;
- 1,200 VP's. Also continue to click red tabs every day of the month to earn 300 VP's, you'll reach 1,500 VP's in total.
- You can buy $15 worth of items from TripleClicks.
Equally, if you buy something from TripleClicks, you'll receive some VP's. Buy an item for $10 can give you 70+ VP's.
You can't exchange VP's to receive money - collecting VersaPoints is purely in order for you to maintain your "Executive Affiliate" or "Team Leader" titles. You need to keep collecting (purchasing) 3,000 VP's every month to keep your "Bronze Team Leader" title, for instance.
Rules and Units
To learn how SFI works and what each unit means, is as hard as learning the baseball game rules for the first time. I feel helpless just explaining about VersaPoints. There are a lot of other abbreviated units to remember such as;
- TC (TCredits) - credits to buy at TripleClicks, bid an auction or play games
- MRP (Member Rewards Points)
- CSA (co-sponsored affiliate ) and PSA (personally sponsored affiliate)
- EZ Express Tokens (tokens to play this particular game..."Eager Zebra" where you have a chance to win TC, VP, MRP or CA)
- E365 (Entrepreneur 365) - daily drawing to win prizes
- EA2 - Higher status than EA (Executive Affiliate). There are 5 different circumstances to get the EA2 status. It will give a better benefits to EA2 themselves as well as to those who referred the person as well as the Team Leader.
How I Failed With SFI
Basically I was swayed by all the hype. I should have solely judged on the compensation plan whether it was suitable for me.
The "SFI Affiliate Center" dashboard - the screenshot as shown in the middle of this page - is very inviting but busy. My full name's in a big h1 (header) font, and there are lots of different status badges in the left-side bar. Followed by a couple of animated gif banners and a daily online poll.
There are so many little tasks and different point systems where you can earn and win (competitions and stakes). While trying to keep up with all sorts of invitations, competition winner announcements and motivational messages, I was hoping at least one or two of those tasks would get me somewhere.
But sadly it didn't.
It appears many people enjoy their SFI affiliate membership. It just wasn't for me. I would probably recommend it if you think;
- You like the TripleClicks' products
- You are quick to understand the complexed point systems and commission structure
- You are able to log in daily to carry out tasks and
- Being a dynamic team leader is your thing.
Good luck, and enjoy making money online!
How I "Finally" Make Over $6,000 Monthly Income
"The most valuable thing I've ever done!"
Hi Ray
I have been working with SFI for more than 02 years 13 months month I invested more than $20 also with some PRM & PSA sales but still in my account is only $100 but this month they send me a message to order the Triple click master card to to get my commission what about the compensation plan when I am going receive that compensation please advice.
DeepalR
SFI Executive
Hi Deepal, thanks for your comment. It’s been over 5 years since I wrote this post and I do need to review it but if they’re sending out a debit card for free with no monthly usage charge, then that sounds like a good opportunity (assuming you can use your card anywhere online and it allows you to deposit by bank transfer.) When you’re going to receive your commission – if you are an SEI Executive, you should be able to find that out? I wish you all the best of success. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I don’t understand people who don´t want to invest in their own business, so how are they going to manage a business. Treat SFI as a real business and look for serious affiliates available to invest in Real business no in get rich quick schemes.
Do you know any profitable business in this world where you don’t have to invest and risk a lot of money to start-up and then to run it?
I don’t. Fortunately, SFI is totally different in the meaning that we don’t have to invest and risk “a lot of money”.
hi Dennys, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Great to know that you’re positive about SFI. Affiliate marketing in general, is a business model that requires the least amount of investment but it takes time before you can turn your effort into a profit. Content marketing turns out to be a lot more profitable for me comparing to SFI, but it doesn’t mean I’m denying SFI as a system. I wish you all the best for continuous success!
I agree with you SFI is outdated now. I use Swagbucks, I know it doesn’t pay me much but I have 10+ referrals who do a lot of work (thank god) which pays me also. If you haven’t tried I will recommend it just to earn extra pocket money.
Hi Janet, thanks for your comment. Swagbucks is fun, like you say it doesn’t pay much but if you have many referrals it will give you good passive income. I wish you all the best with continuing success!
Hi there are too many scammers in SFI. All I get is messages from people who sell scam products or motivational messages by new joiners. Good luck to them but we know they are not going very far.
Hi, thanks for your comment. You’re right, you don’t receive many messages from other members that are actually useful!
I have been promoting SFI for over 5 years on and off now but have had no referrals. There are lots of things you can do it’s just too much time consuming. The shops sell nice things but it can never beat Amazon. I wonder how much money others actually make.
Hi Jean-Paul, thanks for sharing your experience. I’m not a fan of TripleClicks, they might sell some nice goods for competitive prices but they’re non-brands and as you say, no one can beat the giant, Amazon. All the best to you though. If you need any help in other means of affiliate marketing, don’t hesitate to get back to me.
SFI is popular among African people. I think this is offering awfully outdated methods. Users are continuously motivated in an unnecessary way. I was so annoyed by the points that I was forced to earn then I decided to ignore it. It may have a history but there should be constant updates to get on top of things and compete with other systems. SFI has not done this for a long long time.
Hi, thanks for your comment. I think you’re right, I just tried to log in for the first time in a couple of years, and it doesn’t seem to be working well, unfortunately… The site’s down temporarily perhaps?
Thank you Ray for your honest review on why you failed with SFI, i agree with you that tripleclicks sells a lot of cheap and none useful products and it is very difficult to sell them for affiliates, for me i think the only way to make money with SFI is recruiting new affiliates and that need effort and investment and most of people can’t afford that, that is why they quit.I really hope everything is going well for you now and you’re making the cash you know you deserve.
Good luck
Hi Lusekelo, thanks for your comment! Yes as you say, you need to recruit new affiliates to make money on SFI which I’m not too keen on. You need to be pretty obsessively at it every day to collect VersaPoints. It’s a well-established, tried & tested scheme so I wish everyone a good success with it though. Thank you Lusekelo, best of luck to you too 🙂
This article is really helpful. I really appreciate learning about what didn’t work for you with regards to SFI. Regarding TripleClicks, do you find that it’s more lucrative to promote others’ products or to sell your own products? Also, I am curious, do they sell any higher-end items, or is it mostly the cheap merchandise you mentioned?
Hi Laura, thanks for your comment. You can create your own “store” in TripleClicks and sell products there, and you can also promote TripleClicks’ products in your website (or any media) to receive the affiliate commission. Which is more lucrative really depends on the type & size of the audience that you already have, so it’s hard to say.
Majority of the products sold in TripleClicks are cheap, small items. Occasionally you find audio & visual products for >$2,000 or hotel/vacation deals >$300 but the choices are extremely limited, anyone sensible would shop around elsewhere.