Empower Network Review
Product Name: Empower Network
Product Owner: David Wood & David Sharpe
Advertised Price: $25/month
Upsells: $19.99/month, $100/month, $500, $1,000, $3500
Rating: 0/100
Update 2019: Dave Sharp, one of the founders of Empower Network, is now running a new product called Legendary Marketer. From other reviews, it seems to be a more “legit” venture, with actual training, but the cost is pretty freakin’ sky high, and based on his previous affiliation with this garbage product Empower Network, it’s not something I recommend you invest your money in.
Are You Ready To Work Your Ass Off to Earn Your Lifestyle?
Are you tired of the daily grind? With a laptop and an internet connection I built a small website to generate income, and my life completely changed. Let me show you exactly how I’ve been doing it for more than 13 years.
Oh yeah, remember when Dave charged you ten grand then shut down the company? Yeah. That’s the same guy. Now you want to give him more money because he “went legit”? No way man.
Update 2017: Empower Network has shut down officially, and now the ex owner is asking people to join his new program. It took 4 years to come to fruition, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
UPDATE 2015: Notice that all “Ex” Top 1% Empower Network have now jumped ship. This is very common in MLMs where people ride the wave of euphoria while everyone signs up, then exits the room before the thing collapses.
What is EN?
Make money by blogging on their network and referring other people to join Empower Network.
Short Review:
Blogging is just a facade for their MLM/network marketing/pyramid scheme, and this program should be avoided at all costs.
Before You Buy:
There is a lot of hype around Empower Network because they give “100% commissions”, and you “make money by blogging”. This is not the whole truth.
The truth is that you make 100% of only some of the commissions, and much of what you earn goes to your upline, ie the people that referred you. After joining, you are then strongly encouraged to ‘go all in’, and ‘upgrade’, which are buzzwords for ‘pay more money’. Remember, in order to make big commissions, you need to actually own the packages.
In typical MLM fashion you pay a minimum fee to enter, and they slowly reveal higher levels of membership that supposedly unlock bigger commissions.
Remember! that to make money with Empower Network, you must refer more people to Empower Network. You are essentially a door to door salesman selling an “amazing” product.
It is an unsustainable business model where eventually, there are more sellers than there are buyers.
Anything Positive?
I’m sure it’s great to be at the top of the pyramid. Too bad there are so many sitting at the bottom.
What You Need To Know:
Not only is MLM one of the worst types of programs to make money with because of the extremely low success rate, they are tarnishing the reputation of real internet marketers like myself. Many of their members spam forums and social media networks trying to refer more members to their downline, so I see this EN crap posted all over the place. EN does not provide sufficient training to actually teach you how to promote your blog, drive organic traffic to it via search engines, or sell real products and services.
The #1 Goal of Empower Network Is To Get More People Into Empower Network
Even though their product is a ‘blogging platform’, this is still a pyramid scheme at heart. Remember, you do not OWN the blog that you write for on Empower Network. EN owns it. They can block your access at any time, and have done it to many people (see video below). There are many free or cheap ways to start out online with a blog that you own 100% of.
The #1 thing you need to be looking for is training. Good training and a quality support community will help you get started online. The next thing you need to look at is sustainability. Will you still be doing this in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years?
One more thing you need to know is that if you do not buy their upgrades for hundreds & thousands of dollars, you will never get those commissions from your downline. If you stay with the $25 monthly fee (plus monthly ewallet fee), you can only make that amount from your referrals.
If someone in your downline pays $500 for the Costa Rica Intensive or $3500 for The Master’s Course, you make $0
Is This Program For You?
I get so many comments from people trying to “correct my mistakes” or “clear up confusion”. Whatever your opinion on MLM or EN is, you need to ask yourself, can I afford this? Remove yourself from all the amazing stories of rags to riches, and pictures of people holding big checks and bigger smiles.
Can you afford to risk $5000 or more on a business opportunity that’s receiving so much criticism from legitimate online business owners? Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3 These are real people with real businesses, not just guys that blog about how cool EN is.
So, take a long, hard look at your wallet and think – would you take this money to Vegas? Would you give it to a friend to invest for you or would you put all of it down in the stock market today? Can you afford to hand it over to “viral blogging system” even though you are not 100% clear how it works?
Update
Empower is still around, though it’s unclear in what form. They ran a few promos with company names in the sales front but eventually led you to EN in the back end, but I don’t see that so much any more. More recently, they launched their so-called “revolutionary” blogging platform Kalatu, but that hit the ground with a thud (as with their previous attempts outlined in that post).
So some folks are still promoting it, but the hype has clearly died off so I’ve renamed this post “Last Year’s Hottest Scam”. I would just like to indulge a bit and take a moment to say “I told you so” to all the commenters below who spent hours and hours hating my opinion which turned out to be right.
Final Review
It’s become very clear from the comments that this review makes a lot of folks mad. Let’s make a few things clear so I we can avoid some issues down the road.
- I don’t like MLM and you cannot convince me to like it
- I review lots of products, not just EN
- I promote other, legitimate services on this blog
- It is not a secret that Wealthy Affiliate is my #1 rated product
- If you are rude, I will not approve your comments
What is One More Cup of Coffee about? Surprisingly, my goal in life is NOT to talk argue about my Empower Network review! I create websites about various topics like software, homebrewing, health & fitness, and traveling. Then I find companies to partner with, and promote their products on my blog. It’s that simple. There is no secret system.
My online businesses are based on my own personal interests.
I do not have a degree in marketing or computer science. When I started, I couldn’t even build a website. I learned everything I know from an online business training center that specializes in teaching newbies how to start their own online business. I’m still a member today, and continue to generate income from many other websites not related to ‘make money online’, including websites about computer software, health & wellness, and others 🙂
Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
Can You Really Make Money Posting Ads Online?
KDee
Hi! Thanks for being an honest reviewer of this sometimes-not-so-obvious (b/c of the lying adverts) scammy pyramid scheme. The advert I saw was totally sketch when the seller told me he was not selling an MLM or pyramid scheme, then later said, “It’s set up like an MLM” …. wait, what!? and then he said they sold products, but wouldn’t say what they were before I was supposed to shell out money to purchase them. But the marketing was so good and my hopes so high and the benefit of the doubt so available that I almost bought it, literally. So, thank you for clearing the air on EN.
The only thing I would tweak about your review is that you don’t differentiate between legitimate MLMs and these scammy pyramid schemes, because they look so similar in build, but the key is that a legitimate business always has a legitimate product that IS NOT the business itself. MickyD’s sells burgers and franchises, so it also is built like an MLM, and there are a lot of legitimate MLM companies out there, like AVON and MaryKay, all those companies that do home parties, etc. It’s still okay if you don’t like them, but they are legit.
But EN sells EN.. no product = SCAM!!! = pyramid scheme. :[
Nathaniell
I can’t comment on MaryKay or AVON. It sounds like they’re pretty legit, but haven’t done the research. McDonalds is definitely not an MLM. It’s a franchise. An owner of a McDonalds cannot sell other McDonalds franchises. And buyers of hamburgers come to McD for a product, they do not have to be approached by people that ask, “do you want a hamburger?”.
But you are right. One of EN’s biggest scams is the advertising they do.
Bo Bosworth
Nathaniell,
Also look at Vick Strizehues. He is one of the biggest pimps of EN. He has been convicted of scamming before. he got a slap on the wrist and is continuing the same stuff.
Lots of people have signed up under him. Please expose him and report him to the authorities so he stops this crap.
Nathaniell
I haven’t heard of him, but I know that lots of these guys hop from hot offer to hot offer. I try not to make my site a “scam exposer” site because most of my work is teaching people how to make niche websites and do (real) online marketing, but I’m sure if you make the effort to get the word out about your own experiences with this company, your efforts will be appreciated!
Bo Bosworth
Thanks for the review Nathaniell.
I would suggest everyone who has lost money in the Empower Network to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau and their state’s attorney general.
I unfortunately talked with several people who not only lost money by joining EN but went in major debt by doing so. The authorities need to know so the two David and their minions at the top of the pyramid can stop bragging about all of their riches and that another person won’t lose a penny from this obvious scam.
Nathaniell
I’m sorry to hear this Bo. You know, people in the US and Europe got mad at the banks for “predatory lending” practices, and this is exactly what EN does. I watched a video the other day where a promote of EN was saying that if you won’t take on credit card debt then you are simply not serious about your business. It’s guys like this that put people in a financially sticky situation.
Bo Bosworth
Exactly right. I am doing everything I can to direct those scammed by the wussies at the EN to report them to the proper authorities so this stuff stops!
I am tired of it and it is time for David Wood, David Sharpe and all of those at the top of the pyramid are punished.
carmine
your opinion on pure leverage/7 minute workout
Nathaniell
My Pure Leverage revew is not positive and I have never heard of the 7 minute workout. As a previously fat person, I know that a 7 minute workout is a gimmick.
Jonathan Platts
Wow 0/100! I could never trust a review that’s so blatantly biased. You’re just as bad as all those people who say “empower network will make you a millionaire over night”. Neither of you are offering a balanced or informed opinion. 🙁
Nathaniell
The review is here for you to make up your own mind. Whether it’s 0 or 10 or 25, the point still stands. Empower Network is one of the most unethical companies out there right now. To tell you the truth, I have seen worse since my original review, and if I reviewed Empower today, I might give it a higher score. But I have received so much flack for this review, that at this point, I’m pretty callous to the whole thing.
Jozef
How he could give better score? The product(s) sucks, the advertising is lying to you, the upsells are so expensive that you will drain your bank accounts to death and almost everybody there will join with their heads in the clouds and then come to a rude awakening later. It is all said there. And also there are some links to other reviews giving the same very negative reviews so it definitely does not look that he sucked that 0/100 rating out of his small finger.