Rise Network Review – Unbox, InnerCircle, What Are They?

One thing I wanted to find out about the most in this Rise Network review is the "free gift card" method that was suggested. I was pretty struck (or confused) by the idea of it. Apparently you can say to your audience "Hey, I've got an Amazon gift card, go and use it!" Your audience can shop for free, and you'll get a commission.

First of all, Amazon doesn't pay an affiliate commission on the purchase of a gift card. Secondly, even if it did, who would bear the costs? Who's paying for it? And finally, an affiliate commission should be payable by the retailer when a gift card is purchased, not when someone starts to use the card. How does it really work?

It turns out that part of the information is pretty misleading. You still have to get someone to spend money to receive money - that's the rule of any affiliate marketing method! So today in my Rise Network review, I'll reveal the answer to this riddle, what the system is all about, and whether it's worth joining or not.

What Is The Rise Network?

The Rise Network is an MLM scheme that provides online marketing training. It has a training platform named "InnerCircle" which will cost you $47 per month. Rise Network ("The R.I.S.E. System") offers a 50% commission for recruiting others into InnerCircle. 

The scheme encourages members to join "UnboxPlatform" which looks like a secondary membership scheme, but this is actually the main driver of the method. The Unbox is an affiliate network that issues discount vouchers (the gift cards!) for particular retailers, and also offers a multi-level of referral commissions.

The Unbox charges a $100 joining fee plus a monthly membership fee of $39 or $99. It pays a 40% commission on direct referrals and 10% on the subsequent 3 levels of indirect referrals.

So to sum up,

• If you're willing to receive a marketing training and purely want to recruit others to the Rise Network for a commission, it will cost you $47 per month.
• If you use the Rise Network method fully and make money as an e-commerce affiliate, it will cost you $186 to start with ($47 + $100 + $39), subsequently $86 per month ($47 + $39).

The Founders

The scheme was founded by Hitesh Juneja, Kevin Hokoana, and Jason Rose. They've owned several multi-level marketing schemes since 2013, including DS Domination, Options Dominations, Infinii, and Digital Signal Forge.

The Rise Network scheme is their latest creation, launched in September 2019. 

InnerCircle Training

The training is about marketing strategies, i.e. how to drive traffic, how to be profitable quickly and scale up the level of profits, including;

• How to use paid ads (Facebook, YouTube, Bing)
• eCommerce basics
• Scale up - invite your audience to your Facebook group and sell multiple products to them. 

So the basics are covered, helpful and motivational but I got confused at times as I was watching the demo training videos. For example it talks about what kind of seller you would want to be - (a) a manufacturer whose products are sold on Amazon, (b) a seller who lists on Amazon, (c) an Amazon affiliate, or (d) Jeff Bezos. You would want to be (d). And the answer to "how to become like Jeff Bezos" is to build a network that you earn from every sale. Does that simply mean you should own an online store? I think it does...but you won't become like Mr. Bezos by dropshipping (obviously). That bit didn't quite make sense to me.

Perhaps you're not supposed to try to understand word by word, as the training is meant to be made for MLM marketers (those who prefer to speak before they think!) So anything that's being said appears to motivate you, then that may be good enough for you. Not for me personally - you might want to watch the demo video and make your own decision. It's heavily focused on referring others to the Rise Network, so it may be suitable for you if you are prepared to spend on paid ads and simply willing to earn affiliate commissions by promoting this scheme itself.

The Unbox

The UnboxPlatform (joinunbox.com) may appear to be run by an independent company but it was created at the same time as The Rise Network, and these sites actually share the same address and the T&C page, so it's run by the same owners by the looks of it.

Perhaps they decided to put the main activity aside in case they run into any legal issues. (Otherwise there's no reason why there should be two separate sites...) So what is the Unbox Platform? Like a lot of other MLM schemes, it explains the business in a way no one can understand. It says that it "provides the best mechanism for promoters, sellers, and publishers to expand their business as quickly as possible." But it's not a consultancy.

The Unbox itself is heavily focused on making money ("7 Figure Marketing Automation Suite"), it doesn't appear to be a straightforward affiliate network because it charges fees and issues "Unbox points" (gift cards) in return. And a multi-level of commission scheme. So the members will not receive anything tangible in return for the payment other than the scheme itself.

The Rise Network members are encouraged to join the Unbox's Pro plan ($100 setup charge + $39 per month) or Elite plan ($100 setup charge + $99 per month).

How The "Gift Card Scheme" Works

The mystery of the free gift card is kind of solved - what you can give away is rather discount codes. But the maximum value of the discount you can offer is not enough for anyone to "shop free". So whoever you distribute a code to will have to spend money on specified online stores or services, and apply the code to receive a little bit of discount.

The Unbox has several connected stores/services that you can earn an affiliate commission upon sale, but the niches are quite specific; CBD oil, Hemp oil, and essential oils. Legal settlement services - tort, bankruptcy, auto accident, personal injury, social security/disability, etc. Some travel and web services. So here's how it works.

1. A "Pro" member will receive a $100 allowance from the Unbox per month. So you can issue as many gift cards (discount codes) up to a total of $100 value.
2. You decide to promote, say the CBD oil shop, listed on Unbox.
3. The cheapest item this particular CBD oil shop sells is $150. But the maximum amount of the gift card for this shop you can issue is $15. Means if your prospect decides to use the gift card, they'll be spending $135 ($150 less $15) at least.
4. The CBD oil shop will pay 20% to affiliates, which means you'll receive $27 if your prospect spends $135.

You pay $139 to the Unbox the first month, so with this scenario, your first month's fee will be paid off only if you sell the oil to approx. 5 people. From the 2nd month onwards, sell it to at least people to stay in profit. (Theoretically!)

Your Commission Rate May Be Reduced

Another thing you want to consider is, if you sell these products to 6-7 people or more, that'll be great, but the Unbox will only provide $100 allowance per month towards the gift cards to a Pro member. So you might run out of the allowance. 

With the same CBD oil scenario, if 7 people buy the cheapest oil by using the $15 gift card, the total value of the gift card will be $105, exceeding the allowance of $100. $5 will be deducted from your commission. Your commission will be 20% x (7 x $135) = $189. Less $5 = $184.

Again, this is just this particular shop's example. The conditions vary depending on the shop/service that's available. As you can see from the Unbox's price plan above, if you upgrade your membership to Elite plan, the allowance will go up to $300 per month.

Facebook Group Support

The members are encouraged to join the support group, where they can ask questions and receive updates from the co-founder, Kevin. The group has over 1.4k members who can freely post updates and comments. Most of the daily posts are about recruitments and welcome messages to new members.

Refund Policies

According to the terms of services - The UnboxPlatform ($100 setup fee plus $39 or $99 per month) offers a 14-day cooling-off period. So if you're not happy with the service, you can claim for a refund, providing you haven't issued a gift card.

Whereas the Inner Circle (The Rise Network's training program, $47 per month) does not offer a refund. And it requires a cancelation notice 10 days before the next billing date, otherwise your credit card may be still charged for the following month. The policy is pretty harsh, in my opinion! In theory, you could get your credit card company (or PayPal) to unauthorize the payment instead of requesting to cancel the membership, but Rise Network could chase payments for the breach of contract. So to avoid a messy dispute you may want to remember the 10-days notice rule.