A lot of people wonder if Empower Network is really a pyramid scheme. I believe it is and in this review, not only will I explain why but also will reveal exactly how this organization operates and help you save tons of money.
So if you’re contemplating joining this program and forking over the $25 they “initially” ask for, I’m about to tell you why this is a BAD idea. I’m also going to provide you with real complaints from former Empower Network (EN) members. Their stories will shock you.
What Empower Network Is:
Empower Network claims to be an organization that offers you training and blogging tools to help you through the unnecessary hassles of making it through the online marketing world.
What sort of tools? Well if you join their network for the initial $25 a month, you get your own “personal” Empower Network authority blog which supposedly helps you earn high rankings in search engines, attract visitors and make money promoting EN and other affiliate type products. The idea is that the blog does all the work in the sense that it ranks high and you just fill in the blanks, reel in the visitors and make money. This is how they sell it to you.
What sort of training? Well you basically learn ONLY to promote EN to other people and if they sign up through you, you’ll get 100% commissions from them. This is why you see tons of EN blogs saying how they made $10,000, $20,000, ect… through EN and then lure you to join it in promises you TOO will receive it.
If this program were legitimate I wouldn’t have issues with it, but I don’t believe it is. And with that in mind, it’s time to blow the cover on this organization and it starts right after you join them. Here’s what happens:
Empower Network: Understanding What it REALLY is:
To understand the whole scam EN is about, I’m going to go through the entire list of things it consists of and why each of them is a chain of scams that you ONLY find out about once you join (or unless you read this page first). As it’ll become more and more evident, you’ll find out one VERY important fact about EN:
All it does is lures you into buying further offers, charges you outrageous prices for them, really only offers you training that’s basically an opportunity to promote EN to others. However one statistic I found through EN itself is that less than 1% of all it’s members actually make a profit in this business and these are people who invest anywhere from $25-$5,000+ (as you’re about to find out).
This means even if you are successfully referring others into this program, most of them will NOT be able to profit and will end up losing money. So in essence what ends up happening is your job will be to refer people into the same problem to got yourself into. I believe this is unethical, illegitimate and a downright pyramid scheme.
Some make the argument that in any type of money making “opportunity”, the very smallest minority will always end up being successful. While this is true in most cases, when it comes to Empower Network, what we’re talking about is completely different. You are promised one thing and then are revealed a whole other story. That is disingenuous.
What really happens when you join: The initial $25 you spend will eventually lead to massive up-sells that if you purchase will total over $5,000 dollars worth of what I consider worthless products that they claim you’ll need to make money. Let’s start from the very beginning:
1. You join the network for $25 a month either on your own, through a friend and get your own Empower Network “Authority Blog” which is connected to their “Viral Blogging System”.
First off, the EN blog you get has NO authority anymore. It once had them, until people started spamming EN in efforts to promote it which caused places like Facebook, Youtube & Google to de-list EN blogs and even ban them. So what authority is there? None. The only way to earn authority with your blog is through these legitimate methods.
Secondly the blog/s you make through EN are NOT YOURS. Even if you choose to quit EN, your blog will forever belong to them which means your hard work becomes their property. Nothing you do through EN’s blogging platform is ever really yours. How’s that for BS?
Thirdly, you’ll quickly find out that the $25 isn’t what it really costs to access EN fully and promote it. You do get 100% commissions, but this is a hook to get you. The lowest price it’ll cost you to promote EN will be $45. This is because you’ll have to pay an additional $19.99 a month to receive checks from them through their “e-wallet” service.
Fourthly, (and this is the most important) there are higher level memberships which you CANNOT promote unless you join them first. I will be going over each and every one of them below.
Additionally IF you join EN through what’s known as a sponsor (basically an affiliate), you may get the short end of the stick in regards to some sponsors and groups called prosperity teams bullying you and trying to get you to sign up to the higher level memberships.
Why do they do this? Because they will make money of you buying the products, plain and simple. I’ve heard of some sponsors flat out ignoring the people under them unless they would upgrade to additional packages (shown below). Others would harass you or do things such as call you a “wussy” for not joining. Some however are nice about it but even they have their motives.
Note: I’m going to be providing some REAL complaints from former members at the bottom of this post who have gone through this ordeal with EN at the very bottom of this review.
But going back to the main point, joining the $25 membership is nothing more than a gateway to the upsells. You don’t get access to all of the training at EN & as you already know the “authority blog” doesn’t really have much authority.
And if you want to potentially make more money through the system, you need to join the higher level memberships. This leads into the next part of the EN scam which is it’s upsells (Further offers once you join):
Empower Network’s Upsells:
1. The “Inner Circle”: $100 a month.
Though you now get the opportunity to promote the $100 level membership and get commissions from that, the problem is that this new membership offers you pretty much nothing. You get some audios which give you training on guess what? How to promote EN. This is the ONLY training you get.
I want to make one point very clear about this membership level: You’re really only paying to promote a higher level membership. You are forced into the system to promote the system. And the system only shows you ways to promote itself and NOT how to make money online through other markets. There is no actual product but video training and the value for this training is BEYOND absurd. This is a typical characteristic of a pyramid scheme.
But what if you want to promote another niche/market? Can the same teachings you get from these audios help you? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’ll be difficult because different niches/markets require different approaches so you’ll basically be stuck only promoting EN itself.
And most people who join EN are complete beginners to online marketing which means they will not know anything else but how to promote EN to other, which in many cases may involve using the same shady tactics EN’s affiliates are well known for. And so the downwards spiral continues…
But it doesn’t stop with the Inner Circle. You’ll also be pushed into buying the other upsells EN “offers” which are in total pretty much nothing more than…more audios that continue to teach you how to promote EN. Here is the next phase of the scam:
Costa Rica Intensive for $500 (One time payment):
This is a long term business plan which teaches you how to make a long term living through promoting EN. Again like I said, there is NOTHING this program teaches you but how to promote itself. But it gets even worse…
The 15k A Month Formula which costs $1,000 (One time payment)
This is the final upsell they offer you. In it you are given MORE training to promote EN, but through places like Youtube and Facebook through 9 videos which amount of hours of training. But hold on a second, didn’t I mention above that Youtube & Facebook banned the promotion of EN? Yes they did, which means this payment is rendered pretty much useless!
And even if those places DID allow for EN, you can learn how to promote niches for MUCH less than EN charges. Furthermore why would you want to promote a totally unethical scam to other people? This is where the ethical dilemma comes into play. If you consider yourself someone who wants to earn honest money online without screwing people over, here is my #1 recommendation for just that.
There’s also another one for $3,500.
More training videos and really the only perk this up-sell has is that you can re-sell it and earn $3,500 for most of the sales. Good luck with that. I’d never purchase a product that expensive, nor the other up-sells. And I’d never shamelessly sell this to anyone either. I hope you wouldn’t either.
Final Rating: Empower Network
Red Flag
1 Out of 10 Stars: Scam & pyramid scheme. I would not recommend this program to anyone. See #1 recommendation.
All programs on Howtomakehonestmoneyonline.com are rated on a 1-10 star scale, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Empower Network gets 1 star (worst score) because it really offers you NOTHING, but how to promote itself which you can learn to do in other places for less & even free. Furthermore, based on research, I believe this company’s tactics are completely unethical & disingenuous.
This is a downright scam which pulls people in for $25 a month promising big and then ends up “persuading” them to buy the higher offers which only teach you to promote the company itself, not how to make honest money online and once you’re in the trap, to get out of it, you’ll need to refer others into the scam to get yourself out of it. That’s just wrong and I said before, it’s a downright pyramid scheme.
Final conclusion: Should you join Empower Network?
The only people who really make money with this program are those who possess internet marketing knowledge and an email list of people who trust them. It’s safe to say that 99.9% of all people who join Empower Network do not possess either of those 2 components. I’ve been in online marketing for 8 years and I know this.
You do get audio training. But support? Good luck. Furthermore the training you get only talks about how to promote EN and in essence only make the owners richer. Who really gets the short of the stick here? Pretty much the 99% of people who are in the lower parts of this pyramid.
Unless you wish to potentially drop $1,000’s for “training” you can get for free and try to promote a disingenuous program to others, join Empower Network. I will not even link to their site from here due to the sheer disgust this program brings me and how it scams people out of money. Even if EN was a good place to learn online marketing, the fact that Google doesn’t like EN blogs and the fact that Facebook & Youtube have already banned promoting them cuts off a huge chunk of the marketing pie. Keep that fact in mind.
Again, you are only taught how to market EN itself. And if you try to promote other niches through their training, you’ll often find the same tactics do not work. And that’s when you’ll realize to get out of the hole you put yourself in, you’ll have to get others into it. And that’s what it was designed to do. And yet they go on, like a sinking ship trying to attract more clients, even as it takes on more water.
One additional argument some Empower Network fans (who I expect will be commenting here) will say is that I’m only promoting another program at the expense of Empower Network. While I am promoting another program (Wealthy Affiliate), unlike this one, it’s legitimate, there are NO hidden costs, you get actual support, it’s literally free to join and most importantly they teach you the REAL deal when it comes to making honest money online. You be the judge:
Empower Network Complaints:
I promised to provide you with real stories of former EN members and their complaints against this company. Well here they are. The same place I recommend as an alternative has former EN members. Here are their experiences:
Complaint 1: A not so favorable review of Empower Network from a former member.
Complaint 2: An EN review. Scratch that. WARNING!
Complaint 3: A chart of EN complaints on the rise.
Complaint 4: Former EN member spends $8,500 on them and his results.
2 questions that will decide if Empower Network is for you:
Imagine for a moment that you did join this program, without prior knowledge of the up-sells. You though $25 was all it took get started. After all that’s what was said. Then you find out the $25 aren’t enough and you need to invest more. Furthermore in order to make any real money through Empower Network, you’ll have no choice but to buy the higher level memberships/products.
Let me ask you this: Would you feel that you were lied to? Would you feel like you were played for a fool? I would. If your answer is yes. Here’s my follow up question:
Would you feel comfortable promoting this same program to others knowing they would go through the same experiences, monetarily and emotionally? I personally wouldn’t. And if you answered no to this question, then I don’t believe you should be involved with Empower Network.
My bottom line is this: I don’t think it’s ethical to promote something you personally have issues with.
I’d love to hear your take on this, especially if you already had experiences with this organization. Share your experiences below in the comments section!
The same guys have done a few ponzi’s since this one and are now doing 1 called usi-tech a bitcoin investment.
Hi Mark, I just briefly looked over the USI site. I didn’t see either of the Empower Network names being used. Are you sure it’s the same guys?
i have been asking for a refund since Dec 4th and I’ve been getting a run around can you have someone call me for a refund?
No I cannot because I have no association with Empower Network, you need to get in touch with someone else like this, if directly speaking to them doesn’t work.
What online business would you suggest isn’t a scam and you can actually make profit from without being bias?
Thank you a lot for your extensive overview! I believe and hope that you will prevent many people from joining this sort of scam, although it is officially legal so far.
My question to you is whether there are any legal means to stop Empower Network? Is there any agencies to report the company? Because many people don´t go beyond stating that EN is a scam, and it keeps going on, recruiting more and more people.
Maybe we should take actions.
Best reagards!
I don’t think this program is based in the states Jessica and that’s why it’s so hard to do this. While I am for pyramid scheme like companies being taken down, I also worry about over regulation of the entire industry which could take good ones down too or make them difficult to operate.
Your best weapon against these companies is complaining to your bank/cc.
Jessica, you probably have never made any money online or if you have you probably scammed it from people, make sure to check your facts before believing in this guy because he is also trying to sell you something, obviously, or this guy wouldn’t be using SEO to capture people’s emails from his blog which is ranked in the top 10 of the scam pages about Empower Network, think about it he’s like everyone else that’s trying to make money in this world.
Tony, while many people try to make a living online, you said many things which aren’t true. It’s not right to criticize Jessica when you don’t know her and you haven’t actually seen what I recommend to people…
I have had several thoughts on forming a MLM company. Thanks by letting me know what not to do by the examples and testimonies of the negatives committed by EN. Wow! Maybe their idea was good at the start but they definitely need to reconstruct their company.
I know it’s much easier to form an online MLM than an offline one David, but to form one that’s legitimate is the hard part. If you can create a really high quality product that is priced fairly, then you probably won’t even need to set up a referral program of the MLM kind, just stick to making a regular affiliate program where people can sell whatever it is you offer and only get paid for the actual sale.
If you have some kind of membership program, you can also do that same thing. A great example of that is Wealthy Affiliate. You may want to see how they do it and maybe get some ideas.
And finally, concerning EN, the only good idea they may have had was their high authority blog that they gave out to members, but that was a content farm that in my opinion was ready to get taken down sooner or later since major search engines do not favor those types of websites. As we later saw with the cracking down on EN blogs, it happened…
Everything else which is their high priced items is what made it a pyramid scheme.
You don’t have to preach to the choir with me. I detest EN. I am super happy that they cant use the social media like youtube or facebook for their authority blogs. I feel bad for the underlings who are stuck trying to promote in order to recoup their investments. I heard some of David Wood’s strategic webinars. He virtually says that not to get all in would be stupid or foolish. You need to get all in. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, he wont help or take your phone call until you have gone thru the 15 k formula or Costa Rica intensive. Did you get that program? Let me know when you see it. He knows that it cost the individual money to see it. He does not care. The only ones that make the real money are the top tier leaders. Most of the programs are just videos of some of strategies that the leaders claim to use to recruit people for empower network. At least that is what they were doing. The last time I got into my 15 k formula(which I got for $250), it was mostly his videos of himself at some of the past live events. I was lucky not to get heavily invested. I did not pay the $20 a month to be able to promote and make commissions from my down line. Also, you don’t get every sale. You have to give like the second, fourth and fifth to your up line. Heck no!!!!!!
Thank you for sharing your experience with EN Michele. I am glad on one hand that you agree with me but on the other hand it’s unfortunate you had to see the true colors of this pyramid scheme. I never invested into any of their “bonuses” because I saw them for what they were right away.
I have not always been wise enought to follow my intuition but now and again, I have and shying off from EN was one. I had several people doing their damndest to get me enrolled but something about it gave me the heebie geebies.
Another good intuitive follow was when I did join WA. This is legit!
See you around the community!
Carolann (leaningwest)
Nice to have you in WA Carolann! It’s good that you followed your intuition on EN. It’s doing worse and worse these days (which is usually how pyramid schemes end up eventually). Plus we both know when people try so hard to get us to join something, it’s natural to feel uncomfortable about it.
Hey,
They also offer ‘The Masters Retreat’ which is a bunch of 40 motivational videos which are of no use at all. Thanks for sharing this review. WA is far better than EN!
-Nishkarsh
I wonder what kind of price tag they put on that? I did miss one more up-sell for $3,500.
I followed a ‘friend’ into EN only to discover that with all the guru worship and cult-like thinking I was turned right off. The ‘Products’ are just designed to comply with the legal requirements – otherwise it would be more honest to gift the high ticket amounts. Unless you have a huge list (and you don’t mind conning them) or you can afford to advertise massively I would advise to stay away. I think EN may well be ENding sometime soon- unless they come up with a Binary OPtions Trading offer! That should get the punters in.
Couldn’t agree more! I have made the argument before that those who “succeed” in EN are those who have large lists, but at the same time, I quoted the word success because you are coning people like you said. It’s not an honest way to do business in my view.
I ditched EN after being underwhelmed by the Inner Circle BS and realizing that I could never look someone in the eye and promote it. The groupthink and peer pressure were also major turnoffs.
Coincidentally, I found WA around the same time and was relieved that an honest alternative exists.
Yeah their group think can be very questionable Arp. I’m glad you found WA and like it. It’s truly one of the only honest places available these days.
EVERYBODY needs to be reporting this pyramid schemes, I mean business opportunities to the FTC. This isn’t the only one they are like the plaque. There is Six Figure Mentors, My Top Tier Business, Wake Up Now, Motor Club of America, the one through GVO (I forgot the name) and the worse one of them all Empower Network. I have a feeling this bubble is just going to erupt, there is only so many dupes that can get conned doing this the whole program is destined to erupt and these filthy people at the top making money sucking everybody into this scam might be living good but not for long. Stay FAR away from these guys, this is NOT the place to learn REAL internet marketing.
Thank you for sharing this Matt. I’m going to be doing reviews on the other companies you mentioned. Obviously there is a need for transparent and unbias reporting. As for the bubble bursting, it’s been a long time coming from EN, but I doubt we’ll ever be able to pinpoint when it’ll happen. And even it does, a lot of people, even the pro EN members are going to be VERY angry and surprised. It’s like a volcano waiting to erupt.
Unfortunately I joined this scam as well but got out once I realized that it was more of a cult then a real opportunity. The “buy now”, “get all in” attitude was a really high preasure sales pitch. I took my time, listened to the audio’s and really didn’t learn anything. I hate programs that just talk about how great it is once you make it but never actually give you details on what it takes to get there…I mean the truth not hype. You can’t even post to Facebook or Twitter since they were banned. There are also a ton of upsells and your sponsor tries to sell their own program…it’s criminal!
It’s SO important to keep a clear head during all these pitches they throw at you and stay calm to make a rational decision. Sadly a lot of their members did NOT make the same choices you did David and are now suffering for it and worse getting others into this same mess to get themselves out of it. Thank you for posting your experience with this organization. I’ve heard from a lot of former EN members and almost always the story is the same.
So true I like what you’ve done here explained it all very clearly. Empower is an absolute scam, I joined few months back but was lucky enough to only spend the $25, but if I’m honest was thinking how I could pay for the $5000 inner circle BS. The only way would have been on the credit card. So glad I came I didn’t and after a bit of research closed my account with them straight away. Great info love what you’ve done, gonna add a review of empower onto my site in the next few weeks when I can fit it in lol. Need to get this info out and stop this blatant exploitation dead!!
I’m glad you were able to get out of there before it was too late Marge! Too many people end up going “all in” and sinking into the hole EN creates for them. Thank you for reinforcing my points in the posts.
It is one thing to spend $25 per month on a blogging platform. It is another thing to spend this money, only to realize that this is just the start of the mess that you have gotten yourself into.
What happens, is yes, you do get a blog for $25 per month (which is inferior to free ones by the way), but this is just the start. As soon as you get inside, you are going to be promoted product after product….to the tune of $5,000+ as well as $145 per month is outgoing fees to be part of the inner circle and to retain the blog that you don’t actually own.
Now, this is bad but this hardly covers the reality of what you could end up paying. If you get one of the MANY ruthless sponsors in this pyramid, they are going to try to sell you on their OWN garbage as well. This includes like the post your referenced, some people paying up to $8,500 in addition to all of these other expenses.
Then how do YOU make money? You have to do this same, unethical and shameful thing to others to make your money back (if you are lucky).
My recommendation is to “be a wussy” and save your money from this program because once they get their teeth sunk into your wallet, you are going to be in a lot of trouble.
Thanks for your comment Kyle. You basically summarized what’s ethically wrong with this company’s business model. I hope people who read your comment who are thinking of joining EN will turn the other way.
This is the absolute truth and I was a member (one of the links above is mine). The training is atrocious and leads you to make bad mistakes in internet marketing. These include being banned from Google adsense and even posting duplicate content…both so wrong.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope a lot of people do their due diligence and read reviews like this one before they give a nickel…this is a scam!
I’m read about your past experiences with EN Rick. I’m sorry you had to go through all of this. I didn’t know about the duplicate content and banning from Google adsense as additional side effects of promoting this business, but it only adds to my points. I’m glad you’ve been able to find a better place to truly help you in recovering from this horrible experience. I hope others reading this post also read your comment. It’s one of the reasons I linked to your post on WA.