If you heard about Affiliate Marketing Dude and are wondering if buying this service is worth the price, let me break down my personal opinion on it in this review and frankly, I do not think it is (but I will show you what is).
Quick report on Affiliate Marketing Dude:
Creator: Affiliate Marketing Dude by Marcus Campbell.
Price: Ok so there’s several. For the custom website business website…
- It’s either $997 one time or 3 payments of $397 a month.
- There is also a starter package (to try out the system) for $175.
Overall Rating: 1 out of 10 stars.
In my personal opinion. websites that cost this much to get made are not worth the price. I’ve also reviewed a product of Marcus’s before and also had the same opinion.
Bottom line is, I will show you how you can produce your own online business website, for free, without having to risk this much money and I am proof this works.
Here’s a quick spoiler (alternative):
Let’s discuss Affiliate Marketing Dude in depth. What is it?
It’s a program and basically service created by Marcus Campbell where for a pretty large price in my opinion, him and his team will create you a website that supposedly targets high ticket niches.
High ticket niches are topics a specific group of people are interested in, where the products being sold to that group are very expensive. By promoting those expensive items, commissions are thus very high, meaning you can make a lot of money by promoting within said high ticket niches.
For example: If I set up a website and promote $5,000 cameras and one person buys it and I get a 10% commission, that would earn me $500. Multiplied many times over, this can really become a profitable venture.
Now as an added disclaimer: I’ve got to come clean about this.
I had not purchased Marcus’s services, and the main reasons why aren’t just the price, but because as I said earlier, I actually do affiliate marketing full time, for myself and help others with, so Marcus’s program has no uses for me, but I can tell you that my approach to this business would 100% cost you FAR less and give you more in benefits.
I have and make websites that make money through affiliate marketing and my approach is very different than what Marcus offers. Here’s some differences:
1) I suggest to people a great, free to try program where they can do the same, but for themselves.
2) I never suggest people get started in affiliate marketing by paying a high price there is charged in Marcus’s program because the incentive is very different and the risk factor is high.
3) Many people, without the proper training and support end up buying highly expensive websites but not knowing what to do with them.
Buying Marcus’s product is just the first step of the “adventure”, but it’s not like it’s guaranteed to make you money for life afterwards, you’ll have to work on it.
In fact, Marcus’s own checkout page where he sells you his service says this:
I recommend you read that whole disclaimer, not just the parts I underlined, but the main point is that the price you initially pay doesn’t guarantee success (nor should it, so he’s being honest here). But you are taking a big risk paying so much.
You do get training post purchase, but let’s face it, you still invested a lot by this time when what I will show you will literally be RISK FREE, because it won’t cost anything.
Let’s analyze the price points + what you learn from Marcus vs what I will show you:
Ok so first off, I have to mention that there is a confusion I ran into when looking over Marcus’s website and the prices he set for his services, training and bonuses. It seems like in many areas, he offers the same bonuses, but depending on what page you’re viewing, the price estimate of it will be different.
So which is the real price and what’s the truth? Let me show you what I mean:
Weird stuff right? For the screenshot on the left, this is Marcus’s starter package and the price point there is $175, while the image on the right is for his other services which is either nearly $1,000 one time or 3 monthly payments of $397. I don’t understand which is the better…they’re both too expensive though.
But I do want to make a quick note:
I did mention I reviewed one of Marcus’s products before.
In fact, it is called Simple Sites Big Profits, the very same image you see on the left in the screenshot above. And when I last looked at that program, it was not the current $175 price point it’s at now, it was much more expensive.
Maybe he changed prices, maybe there’s some misunderstanding, I don’t know, but it is absolutely confusing to me and further pushes me away from ever recommending or buying his stuff.
Here’s a quick comparison look at what Marcus offers vs what I offer:
Those are honestly some big prices and comparisons, but like I said, what I do for a living, I learned to do for the same free, optional prices I showed above:
Let me break down his bonuses and training and explain the better option more in-depth:
Basically he offers you a website creation service, plus content on it, targeting a specific niche for various, expensive price points ($175, $997, or broken down into 3 month payments of $397).
What I am recommending is a free service that will create a website for you, but you will have to put content on it and pick your niche. This is better not just because it’s risk free financially, but also because when you pick your own niche, you have better chances of making a website you love, vs one that is in theory popular, but on a topic you may not like.
Next, Marcus offers training. Let’s break it down (on the surface) and I will explain why I still have the better option to offer you:
1) He offers a niche selection option and the price ranges from $227 to $1,227.
This is ABSURD, no one should have to pay to PICK a subject they want a website on. The price should be FREE, completely free and I will give that to you.
2) He is going to give you a website (domain) for $97 or the other price point of $297.
Again, this is an absurdly large price. My alternative is again free. You can make a free domain through my recommended option and if you wish to upgrade, it’s $13.99 a YEAR.
3) An affiliate “offer”, which I assume is training. The price: $77 or $277.
And again, I call nonsense on this price tag. My alternative gives you free training and lessons.
4) A custom logo and blog theme for your site (sort of like a banner). Price: $127.
I honestly don’t recommend people get custom blog themes until they are ready. You can start with perfectly good free ones and make money that way. Custom themes do indeed cost around $100 so this price point in that aspect is fair, but still, start with a free one. I’ve made websites with free themes that have made great money.
Heck, you can make your own logo very easily and for free these days. It’s really not difficult and at best, spending about $10 on a custom one is probably how far I’d go for them. So $127 is ridiculous for a custom logo in my opinion…
5) He gives you “profitable plugins”. Price: $77.
Plugins are accessories you add to your website and I can tell you right now, there is no automatic plugin that will make you money, they simply add to your website’s speed, organization and look.
At best, the ones I use are FREE as well, so again, my alternative is free plugins that work just fine. Again, I see no reason for this particular thing…
6) A custom look for your site. Price: $77.
I don’t see why you need this unless your site becomes really profitable and you can afford to experiment with it, but for the most part, free blog themes look great as it is and you can always edit up certain parts of it through very basic customization, without having to pay anything. Again, what I am proposing is free.
7) He says he’ll load your site up with content (4x was the mention).
I assume this means you’ll get 4 pages worth of content? Ladies and gentlemen, here’s where I have to call nonsense. 4 pages (if that’s the case) is nowhere near the amount of pages you actually need to have in order to have a high traffic generating blog, it’s more like 50.
That’s why I said you should do this yourself and not pay extravagant money…so again, the offer here is free but you have to work at it. But it’s not like you get a ton for 4 pages. I can write up 4 pages in under an hour in my cases and if you like a niche topic, you can too, more likely in a few hours.
8) 3 months of coaching from him (90 days).
Coaching is always a good thing to have, especially from vets. I will assume Marcus is indeed that but in my case, I think my offer would be better and let me explain:
You can literally ask me questions on this site, as I am myself a vet at this here.
I literally provide my own, and free affiliate marketing coaching here.
9) A traffic training guide (plan). $77.
They offer videos there, but so does my alternative and there’s over 10,000 training tutorials and 1,000’s of videos. I am going to ahead and say what I offer, provides more valuable content.
After looking over these deals Marcus offers, I have to say this:
My top rated program, Wealthy Affiliate with my coaching included with it, can get you this and more and you won’t have to spend so much.
Final Rating: Affiliate Marketing Dude
Red Flag
1 out of 10 stars. I just can’t recommend this stuff for such prices. I wish he at least showed me some sample websites or happy customer reviews, I’d then be happy to add a star, but it still wouldn’t justify a recommendation from me. I know that you can make it in affiliate marketing without spending so much, because I’ve done it.
My final thoughts:
Within this whole review, I made it a point not to judge Marcus’s program too negatively. I won’t even call it a scam, but I’ve been around this business for so long, witnessed and tried a lot of different programs so I know a lot about how this stuff works.
I have to reiterate the same point again:
You can make an entire affiliate marketing business for WAY less than what Marcus is charging, that is an absolute guarantee on my end.
It absolutely will require you work hard on it (and even Marcus says the same thing on his page), but the price doesn’t have to so big, which is why I am telling you guys again and again about Wealthy Affiliate alternative, because in the end, it was the ONE program that brought me to succeed in affiliate marketing and I know if you try it, and work hard, it’ll do the same for you.
His course says $1,200 bucks but when I joined on the payment plan it was supposed to be $377 for 5 months and when the first payment went in, it showed $628 dollars and a price of over $1,800 dollars so yeah he’s a scammer for real. When they do that it’s because their system doesn’t work anymore so they sell it to us like they don’t know any better…
Hi Chris, even with programs that I negatively review, I have to distinguish when they’re doing something truly bad or something that perhaps isn’t as bad as we think. While I absolutely do not recommend Affiliate Marketing Dude, I have to say that it is common for businesses to offer payment options for people where paying the whole price, all at once is cheaper than paying it in installments.
Maybe I didn’t fully understand the checkout process you went through but if you multiply $377 by 5 (for 5 months), it is indeed over $1,800 in total, so in that sense, I’m not surprised by the number.
Now as for the $377 turning into $628, yeah that doesn’t make any sense at all and I would indeed investigate this had I seen this charge.
Waited 3 months for my high ticket niche. His simple sites course are missing over 1/2 the videos. Customer service is the worst and they close out tickets without the issue being resolved. He’s too busy making videos every day instead of fixing his course. How can he sell a course that is missing half of the tutorial videos.
Hi Marty, there was another person who posted a similar experience as yours regarding Affiliate Marketing Dude and it’s starting to paint an unfortunate picture I had hoped wasn’t true. But in any case, this 3 month lag in getting you a site is suspicious in that it may also potentially be a tactic to get over the money back guarantee period to avoid disputes. I REALLY hope that’s not the case though.
Either way, I’m sorry to hear you spend a lot of money for this program and weren’t happy. As I suggested to the person who also had a similar experience before you, dispute it. Do everything you can and let me know how it works.
Also be sure to try Wealthy Affiliate instead. Within that 3 months time you waited for a bad site to be produced for such large investments, you could have already had your own, cheap niche site that could be on it’s way to making way more than you put into Affiliate Marketing Dude.
Hi V,
I am one of those people who spent the money on a high ticket niche then I had to wait 60 days before they delivered what I paid for. Then the content was horrible so I had to spend a day rewriting all 4 pages.
As for help, it’s nonexistent and the forums are no longer used. Instead, everyone now uses Facebook which is problematic. Everyone, including people outside of the system answer your questions and then try to get you into their personal coaching programs. Marcus, when asked for help, I have found, is dismissive.
The videos Marcus gives you to start on your own are several years out of date. He keeps pushing more and more videos and webinars on a weekly basis but he seems not to care about updating older videos. In closing, thanks for your money, sorry (not really) for the wait, here’s your junky site, you are on your own.
This has been my personal experience.
Hi Joseph, that’s a horrible experience man…I would attempt to get everything refunded as soon as you can and you need to cite these same things you just told me. For the sake of fairness, I know Marcus probably has his own position on this matter, but I will say that I had my suspicions about this program, but your experience just makes it seem even worse than I thought. Here’s just some of the things I found shocking:
1) 4 PAGES!? That’s all you get for such a huge investment!? That’s nowhere near enough to get good SEO results!
2) Then you seem to be treated as prey for a piranha when asking for help on FB groups (when their own support isn’t even helpful).
3) Then from Marcus himself, you said he doesn’t seem to give you enough help.
These 3 things alone just made me reduce the rating of this program down to 1 star from 2. I would seriously do everything to get that refund back. If you’re still looking to get into this stuff, join Wealthy Affiliate man, you’ll find it’s a lot better there (support is great, you can make your own 4 pages and not re-correct anything and you actually get help, not solicitations!). Keep me posted on how things go with Affiliate Marketing Dude and if you were able to get the money back.
On signing myself up for his junky program, there’s a check mark box that says there’s no refund. Basically, it’s a one way purchase and legally he’s right. It’s slick, greasy and completely underhanded. I was on a chat with Marcus during my first week (about 2 weeks ago) and he excused himself and left the chat for 20 minutes. Yes, 20 minutes. I guess he was hoping I would disconnect. No chance. He has my money and he said he would help me. Well, I believed it then but not anymore. This whole situation is sad, at best.
I would still try to dispute. I had a similar situation with a different company many years ago which also had a no refund policy, but by proving that they falsely sold me stuff that didn’t work for me, I was able to nullify the purchase and get my money back.
Great blog, I haven’t yet checked out what you have to offer but I agree it’s way too expensive. I will definitely be checking out your program (Wealthy Affiliate) or just go for what I know now and get a bluehost site and start my website business on my own.
The actual fun is that all the information is on YouTube and other sources on the internet already, it’s not that hard to find. Thanks for the helpful insight, I don’t want to spend that much on learning affiliate marketing but I will continue listening and the YouTube content Marcus has out to gain knowledge though. I figured that’s best thing for me to do for now.
Hi Ray, so while you can totally get knowledge and information on internet marketing from YouTube, I recommend trying the Wealthy Affiliate program, at least the starter option and here is why:
1) You can try it for free.
2) You can get a great foundational start to this business.
3) A lot of free material on internet marketing isn’t always reliable or updated.
4) You still need to get tools for your business when you start it online, but in Wealthy Affiliate, they actually provide you with a good hosting and domain deal, as well as other awesome tools to compliment your business.
Overall, I think you’ll save a lot of time and energy with WA than seeking out that type of info elsewhere and having to filter through what works and what doesn’t, but it’s totally up to you.
Vitaliy
I’m still waiting for a High Ticket Niche. Not sure if it’s ever coming, might ask for a refund. Bad customer service. Save your money, don’t buy Affiliate Marketing Dude.
Hi Frank, how long has it been since you made the order with this company? Just curious. Either way, you already know what I think of it and your personal review of this company makes me feel I made the right choice. I hope you are able to either get your high ticket niche site and/or a refund. If you want my alternatives, I have said I love Wealthy Affiliate instead.
The prices for this program are absurd! I have to commend you for giving an honest review and not giving a glowing review to make a buck. With the prices this guy is charging you could of made a small fortune in commissions. Thanks for the review and I’m sure you will save many people money.
I appreciate that but there’s no need to commend me. It’s just a matter of providing people with alternatives in this industry and letting them choose. But in all honesty, they need not pay this much to have a good, working, profitable website.
Hi Mr V –
I totally agree with you. Online people are more savvy these days and look for courses and training programs that teach them what they need to know at a fair price.
I’ve been scammed a few times out of thousands of pounds when I thought if I threw money at the net – it will spit out bucket loads more money to me in return.
I am now wiser and with reviews like yours, can make an informed decision before going after shiny buttons which a lot of internet marketing newbies do…
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Hi Stella, people do indeed use the internet and research stuff a lot, but there’s always going to be a “lottery” type mindset for as long as people exist in that they will always want to believe there is some get rich quick scheme out there and will be ready to pay any amount of money to get it. The illusion of a “safe” purchase is why they are ready to risk any amount of money they have and places that preach that they’ll give you a turnkey system are good at exploiting this as a tactic to make the sale.