Name: Covert Commissions
Owners: Soren Jordansen, Cindy Battye, John Merrick from IM Wealth Builders
Price: $37
Covert Commissions operates on a platform that I haven’t seen before in a system like this. Is it just another scam? Read this full Covert Commissions review to find out!
Program Overview
Covert Commissions (CC) has been getting a lot of attention lately, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why. The program is pretty unique but you really don’t get a lot out of it. Ultimately, it just seems like an unnecessary middleman to me.
How is that?
Well, CC hosts sales pages and provides content for email campaigns. Essentially, you are given a central place to monitor your promotions by tracking clicks and sales.
However, these are all things that you could do for yourself with the right training. By adding an unnecessary middleman to the mix, you are losing something very important (more on that later).
What is a Sales Page?
It’s pretty self-explanatory but…
A sales page is the page on your website that you drive traffic to in order to close a sale.
When to use a sales page…
An affiliate marketer can set-up a website that is intended to sell only ONE product. In order to bring in organic traffic, they need to create articles that rank well (on the Search Engine Result Pages) and involve the product they are trying to sell. Google frowns on people that overuse affiliate links (they see it as spam). Instead of including affiliate links on every post, savvy affiliate marketers create a sales page. At the end of each post they include an internal link to their sales page. This makes Google happy and it allows the affiliate marketer to keep their business coming.
A sales page does not need to rank well in the SERPs, because you will just be directing your traffic to the sales page after they are on your site.
It’s safe to assume that the “done for you” sales pages, provided by Covert Commissions, are all identical. Duplicated content is penalized by Google, so I wouldn’t be surprised if these pages started getting pulled.
Why Host a Sales Page with Covert Commissions?
Good question! Let me know if you think of an answer…
All joking aside, an affiliate marketing beginner could definitely benefit from having a sales page hosted somewhere else. This route is definitely more like buying a fish instead of learning to fish (great if your lazy, OR inexperienced ;-)). A beginner can use the tools within Covert Commissions to see how traffic converts and why.
I would not recommend it to anyone but a beginner, because when you’re hosting your sales page with Covert Commissions you are losing your most valuable acquisition… your customers.
The Worst thing about Covert Commissions:
By hosting your sales page with Covert Commissions, you are relinquishing control of your customer’s information. Every successful affiliate marketer knows the value of their customers and the importance of gaining trust with them.
When you have the trust of your viewers, you can set-up your own lead capture page to collect their emails. With a list of your customers email addresses you can sell different things to them indefinitely (So long as you retain their trust. Do not spam, I repeat, DO NOT SPAM).
By directing your traffic to a Covert Commission sales page, you will not collect this valuable information. CC knows how valuable this information is, that is why they are willing to provide free hosting for sales pages.
The Products Available to Promote
The best thing about being an affiliate marketer is the ability to promote whatever you want to. Whatever passion you may have, you can find an affiliate program that can allow you to monetize it. Covert Commissions does not allow you to promote whatever you want. You will only be allowed to promote products from Clickbank or JVZoo.
These are two very popular affiliate networks. However, I don’t personally like Clickbank. Clickbank allows it’s members to upload their own products. This means a lot of the products available for you to promote aren’t great. Clickbank offers a 100% return policy. Combine that return policy with sub-par products and you aren’t looking at much money.
Covert Commissions trying to control what you are promoting is ridiculous. As an affiliate marketer you have the right to promote whatever you want! Don’t intentionally limit yourself.
You’ll have to pay additional funds in order to promote more products…
When you start with CC you are given 5 credits. These 5 credits buy you the right to promote 5 different products (from their list of preselected products).
What if you want to promote more than 5 products?
Well 5 products isn’t a lot, you are definitely going to need to promote more in order to make full-time income with affiliate marketing. Unfortunately, CC charges you for additional credits.
Ten bucks for the right to promote a product? Okay I see it now…
Covert Commissions is a scam!
As an affiliate marketer you make money from promoting products, you do not have to pay money to promote products. That is the most backwards thing I have ever heard! You can find all of the products, available to promote with Covert Commissions, at Clickbank or JVZoo and you can promote them for free. Just said up your own sales page. There are a lot of better programs that can teach you how.
The Final Word…
Covert Commissions is a scam. It is entirely unnecessary. I really can’t think of who to recommend it to. It seems best suited for beginners, because it takes some work away, but at the same time a beginner needs to learn how to perform this work for themselves.
One thing I wanted to add, with this type of affiliate marketing you do not actually need your own website. You could just post links directed at the sales page. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done. Most links are easily recognized as scam and they won’t be clicked. Forums will actually delete posts with links in them (if they approve them in the first place). If you think you can make that work, go for it!
Here is the deal…
If you are serious about learning affiliate marketing and starting your own online business, there is only one place that I recommend. They provide you with all of the tools you will need and they offer a free trial so that you can “try before you buy.” They also allow you to promote whatever you want! Click here for my full review of Wealthy Affiliate.
Do you have any personal experience with Covert Commissions? Any questions or feedback? Leave it in a comment below! I’d love to hear from you!
