Secret Affiliate Machine Review – Effectively A Pyramid Scheme

Surprise. The Secret Affiliate Machine is not a product. It's a free affiliate marketing how-to guide. You don't pay for the Secret Affiliate Machine because it's not really a product, which may seem good. However not so good because the concept is purely focused on recruiting others, meaning it's essentially a pyramid scheme. And if you're involved, you'll be spending a lot of money.

Okay, in my Secret Affiliate Machine review today, I'll discuss what the whole make-money-online niche is about and the idea of making money "out of nothing" that many affiliate marketers trying to achieve.

Overview

The Secret Affiliate Machine is a series of videos and affiliate links created by Jordan Mederich. In his video, Jordan explains what affiliate marketing means. He talks about his version of '3Ps of Marketing Mix - Platform, Product, People. If you are totally new to this business at least you'll get an idea.

He recommends ClickFunnels and TrafficForMe, both of which could cost you a lot. Jordan himself is an affiliate marketer, so if you click his button links and join either of these programs, you'll let him earn commission. Which I think is fair enough - that's how affiliates make money. But for you as a user, there's a great chance to lose out.

So what's the idea of making money by using the Secret Affiliate Machine (SAM)?

You'll advertise ClickFunnels to people, and hopefully make affiliate commissions too.

How do you advertise it?

You'll be provided with a ClickFunnels sales funnel template, which is SAM.

Who do you advertise it to?

By using solo ads. Jordan recommends TrafficForMe.com.

How much do you have to spend before you make your first commission, i.e. approx. $40?

It really depends on luck. If you're lucky, "hundreds" of dollars, say $300. If not, you could end up spending thousands of dollars. That's in addition to the ClickFunnels monthly fee of $97 that you'll be paying.

What Is ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels is an expensive sales funnel builder/MLM that pays 40% affiliate commission rates.
The usage fee varies from $97 - $297 per month, plus $47 optional extra per month. So each time your referral joins ClickFunnels, you'll receive approx $40 - $140, and thereafter every month as long as that person stays active and pays their fee. If that person refers to someone else, you'll also receive an extra 5% every month.

Plus, ClickFunnels will reward you with a car (yes, a sports car) if you get 100 people to join and pay at least $97 per month. In the past few years, a lot of affiliate marketers promote ClickFunnels using their own sales funnel template just like SAM. Purely because the payout rates are good.

"Never mind what ClickFunnels actually do, but it pays you 40% referral commission. So join now, and refer it to all your friends, colleagues, social followers, anyone!"

...which is effectively, a 2-tier pyramid (a trapezoidal prism) scheme!

The Traffic!

Listen, whatever you promote, and no matter how fabulous your webpage template is, you need the 'traffic' to make a commission. You need to get as many people to visit your page. And there are only 3 ways to drive traffic;

1. Learn SEO technique and rank in Google ("organic traffic", includes blogging and publishing YouTube videos),
2. Use paid advertisements (Facebook ads, Google/YouTube ads), and
3. Use solo ad service (traffic providers).

Secret Affiliate Machine recommends you to use the No. 3 option, solo ads.

Jordan recommends TrafficForMe, and he says this company is trustworthy. I respect that. He also says there are so many solo ad sellers out there who sell fake traffic, i.e. robots. That's so true too, you know.

Unfortunately from my own experience, I don't particularly recommend TrafficForMe. The optin rate I received wasn't great compared to others, and the leads weren't responsive at all. But there's always a stroke of luck involved when using a traffic service provider. What it means is that maybe TrafficForMe didn't have good potential leads at the time I used it.

TrafficForMe is also expensive, charging somewhere between $0.60 - $0.70 per click.

If you ever use a traffic service, I would suggest that you try solo ad marketplaces such as Udimi where hundreds of individual solo ad vendors advertise themselves. Filter out the vendors by (a) user review and (b) price - the price starts from $0.40 per click. Some power sellers charge higher rates, but you don't necessarily receive better service from them. "Pay more to get more quality leads" - never the case! So check the user reviews and decide.

What I'm trying to say here is that there is no magic. Whether you use SAM or not, you need traffic to earn commissions. There are only 3 ways as explained above. Option 1 takes a lot of time and patience. Option 2 will cost you and requires you some advertising technique. Option 3 will also cost you and will always be hit & miss. Keep that in mind!

You're Not Learning Anything

What I'm really negative about it is this. You join ClickFunnels and pay $97 (after initial 14-days trial period). A SAM template and your unique affiliate link will be provided. So you just follow the steps, give your link to TrafficForMe, pay them a few more hundred dollars, and see what happens.

You see, you don't have to know anything about ClickFunnels itself. You're not going to promote it because you think it's a good business tool. You're going to promote it purely because it can pay a good commission. All done-for-you, means you're not learning anything productive. Just pay and wait. Pay some more. Then what is it that you do?

Make Money 'Out Of Nothing'

Imagine you join SAM today and refer it to someone else. And that person asks you what it's all about. How would you describe the whole thing? How would you explain? All you say to that person would be "This is so awesome! It pays out a great commission...$40 each... If you refer it to 100 people, you can receive $4,000! And it also pays..."

That is effectively a pyramid scheme. And that's what everyone in this loop is doing. Essentially selling a fake magic lamp. You don't have to know what kind of magic the lamp does, but your job is to tell others that it's magic, and tell them to tell others it's magic. Pass it on.

It's An Old Trick!

It's only fair to say that I'm not singling out SAM because the trick is nothing new. For many years, many affiliate marketers have been running similar pyramid schemes but by way of promoting third party MLM products such as ClickFunnels, so that they're not breaking the law.

I often receive invitations from new affiliates via the Messenger and email swipes - "a new awesome way of receiving commissions every month FOR LIFE!" - yep, ClickFunnels again. Not new, it's pretty old.

Looks like the ClickFunnels MLM market may be saturated. Because in the Secret Affiliate Machine video, Jordan repeatedly tells you to use a NEW email address when you sign up with ClickFunnels. He even shows you how to create a new Gmail address. CF has been promoted by thousands of affiliates over the years, many users knowingly or unknowingly already have an account with CF. (So Jordan quite rightly needs to make sure that the users create a fresh account, otherwise the commission will be paid out to the original referrer, not to him!)

Conclusion

If you are serious about succeeding with an affiliate marketing business - just like any other businesses - firstly and foremostly you need to think about how you can help others. ClickFunnels is a good sales funnel builder. You should be promoting it only if you know the product, believe that it will help users, and why/how it will help them. Not in the way that the Secret Affiliate Machine promotes it.

If you want to learn a 'legitimate' way to promote affiliate products, how to build your own WordPress website, all about SEO to drive organic traffic and find the right audience, join me from the link below.