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?
Compete
Lol this is so funny… its like conservatives vs liberals… I’ve read almost every comment and still I cannot find anyone explaining how you can make money by joining empower network. So I will here.
The Defense says: Empower network gives your blog more traffic for people to see, thus giving you the opportunity to make more money
So for example if you were selling bicycles, more people would see your blog and potentially more business… but that means you would have to have your own registered business for people to actually pay directly to YOU for the sale of the bicycle.
So if you are someone with no ACTUAL business, and join empower network, what are you going to blog about? An idea would be fitness, if you are a strong, passionate, and just a cool person people want to see and read about. So now you are blogging and people are looking at you… how do you make money?
That’s where the “get more people to join and do what you do” mentality comes in. The only way b u s i n e s s of Empower network makes money is by the new people coming in… Simply blogging about your ACTUAL bicycle business would make YOU money because people would be buying the bicycle from you and not empower network… So why would you even need empower network if you were someone with an actual business??? You wouldn’t!
Thus, for Empower Network to make money, and for people with no business themselves to make money, money has to come in from somewhere! This is why they pay that new person, with no business them-self, money when each person joins.
The money goes from THE BUYER –> EM NETWORK –> SELLER; they are the intermidiary… they take a portion! so how can you get 100% commission on your sale of “another person joining”, when they are not actually JOINING YOU… they are joining empower network, which then pays YOU…
Your business is to work for empower network by blogging and being intriguing, in hopes that someone will join empower network and then empower network pays you! The person joining does not pay you DIRECTLY!
I hope I have given enough examples, for more positive responses, critic, and feedback than negative
Nathaniell
[UPDATE] I guess I totally misinterpreted what you were saying, so just ignore this rant!
Please give me one example of a real business that uses Empower Network, and explain why they would invest $20 per month to pay for a subdomain they DON’T OWN, when they could by a .com for $10 per year and $6 per month for hosting. Real businesses don’t use Empower Network because their blogs are stamped with ENs logos all over the place.
So amateurs flock to EN hoping to make money from ‘viral blogging’, which is actually just a blog that you can get for free from Blogger, Blog.com, or WordPress.com. People join EN to sell EN, not to promote their own business. Also, why would you want to invest your energy into a silly system that doesn’t provide value for anyone? No one goes to Walmart to buy an Empower Network subscription. You have to dangle money in front of their face and virtually cold-call them. I don’t invest in schemes. I invest in businesses.
But thank you for taking the time to comment, and especially thank you for being respectful in your opinions 🙂
Nathaniell
I have extensive experience with online business and internet marketing. I know what is valuable, and what isn’t. I also know when people are being swindled into buying things that shouldn’t cost money. I also know that MLM is a pyramid scheme.
As it turns out, I know lots of things about Empower Network. Do you think it’s possible to express your opinion without being so rude? This is the kind of punch-drinking mentality I try to warn people away from. Double Davids use the word “Badass” and suddenly it’s OK to be rude to everyone who is not an Empower Network member.
Nathaniell
Why do you care so much? It seems to me that YOU are scared people will not buy your program for $25.
Marvin
Nathaniell thanks for the awesome post. I am not defending EN, but I am defending why I signed on. I saw their trainings as something to help me in my quest to become an internet marketer. I was familiar with the training tactics of D. Wood and T. walker from my stent in MLSP. I respected their hustle. Do I see it as a pyramid? Yes I do but what’s not a pyramid? I think their trainings can help people. But most people will not utilize the training anyway. I use it to create my brand. If you listen to a training and don’t get what is being taught then that’s not on the teacher. It’s on the individual. Maybe they need more intense training. And you said there are a lot of free training on youtube and other places and I agree but some people don’t see the value in FREE..even though some things can be learned. I always tell my recruits the real deal. And I say if this don’t make sense to you once you get in please get a refund. I am here to learn and share. By the way I also built to a top position in my MLM company. Did 6 figures part time in 2012 and I am a full time police detective. Retiring in 2014 after 20yrs to become full time internet marketer(local marketer). EN is what you make of it in my opinion. Is it a scam? That’s in the eyes of the beholder.. I don’t see it as one. If IRS can tax my money then we good…lol Please people this is my opinion , attack it if you will. But respect mine and Mr Nathaiell’s…..
Nathaniell
Thank you for taking the time to comment. Again, I have to bring up 3 points.
1) EN training does not teach you how to effectively marketing anything except for EN, and they do a poor job of that. Basically, they’re advice is to tell as many people as possible how easy it is to make money. That’s about the extent of their training.
2) Yes, some people position their high enough on the pyramid to make money, but they are few and far between. That’s just how the pyramid works. Is this where you want to invest your time and money? Most people shouldn’t.
3) EN is not a long term business strategy. Sure you might be able to snag a short term profit, but I GUARANTEE that you will be promoting a different MLM just a year or two down the road. I see it all the time. “X Person just released Y product. It’s never been done before and will never happen again!” Jumping from scheme to scheme in an effort to rope people into basically the same idea (with a different title) is not a great long term business strategy.
EN doesn’t have to be a scam for me to recommend that people avoid it. The lotto is not a scam, and I don’t recommend you use that as the basis for your business either.
Courtney Rockwell
Hey, great post. I’ve been getting approached by a lot of people from mca, empower, etc since I started trying to promote my online business. I thought about Empower because they were saying we’ll teach you how to get leads, but this video was really helpful. Do you know of any websites or can you give me any tips on internet marketing. I’m a promoter for The Limu Company. It’s similar to Herbalife. We have weight loss products, health products, energy drinks, etc. but my main target is to recruit promoters. I just need another way to get leads outside of my friends and family.
Nathaniell
The thing with MLM is that everyone always has an opportunity. “This” system is great or “That” system really works. But it’s all the same. It doesn’t matter what you promote because the products are not where the value lies. I don’t know how long you’ve been with limu, but I do know that Herbalife is touted as a ‘legit’ MLM company. Did you see when Business Insider tried Herbalife products? It wasn’t pretty. Sorry for my rant, to answer your question, sorry, I don’t know any resources for lead generation.