Affiliate Institute is a program that is supposed to help 1000s of people quit their 9-5 job and become financially free. But is it any good or not? In this review, I’ll reveal why you probably won’t get what you were hoping for by signing up to this program and I’ll also be talking about what is probably a better option to go for if you’re serious about finding the right opportunity for starting an online business and reaching real success.
Affiliate Institute At A Glance:
About: Affiliate Institute is a training course on affiliate marketing but it’s main focus is on getting you to be an affiliate for Enagic which is said to be an MLM business.
Costs: Level 1 membership has a 14 day free trial, then $99/month. Level 2 is priced at $2,995!
Pros: There does seem to be a 2 week money back guarantee. You are promoting a high-ticket product.
Cons: You are getting into multi-level marketing with this system even though you’re told it’s simply an affiliate marketing course. It’s a big investment and may not deliver enough bang for your buck.
Recommended? No. I think it’s too risky and that the chances are you will blow large amounts of money but see little or no return on investment. Selling high-ticket products through paid ads is no easy task.
Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars.
What is Affiliate Institute?
Affiliate Institute sells itself as an affiliate marketing training program and to an extent it is.
But the end goal is to get students signed up to a company called Enagic and get them to sell water filtration systems worth thousands of dollars.
They are called Kangen water machines:
Affiliate Institute used to be something else called Global Affiliate Zone until the creator, Julian Sherman rebranded it to comply with certain legal requirements.
The point is, this isn’t exactly an affiliate marketing training course so much as an evolved program that aims to get you to become an affiliate for a pricey MLM product.
However, I see no reason why someone can’t use what’s offered in the training and promote other offers in an entirely different niche. But the chances are that beginners will usually just follow what the course content tells them they should do.
About Julien Sherman
Julien tells us on the sales video for Affiliate Institute that he was a college drop out 23 and at the age of only 28, he had completely turned his life around by becoming a crazily successful online entrepreneur.
He says he was out at a dinner and one of the men there told him about a business model called affiliate marketing.
Julien was hooked and set himself with all his energy to study affiliate marketing, particularly by driving traffic to affiliate offers using Facebook ads.
Once he started making money, he just kept going and ‘never looked back.’
How Much Does Affiliate Institute Cost?
While there is a fair bit of free training, that only lasts for 14 days, after which you’ll need to upgrade to either of the following:
- Level 1 membership for $99 a month
- Level 2 membership for $2,995 one time fee
By investing in a Kangen water machine, you become eligible for high-ticket commissions. You’ll get some general affiliate training and some coaching as well.
You will be told that Level 2 is the best option since it is more economical in the long run. However, I would caution against making a large investment in one go like that in case you don’t end up staying with the program.
How Does Affiliate Institute Work?
They offer you some training on affiliate marketing, content creation and copywriting. After 2 weeks you need to upgrade your membership as mentioned above.
Essentially, it works by showing you how to sell Kangen water machines for high-ticket commissions.
The main way they teach you to do this is by creating and running Facebook ads. This is the strategy that Julien says made him wealthy online.
To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend teaching Facebook ads to total beginners. It’s tricky and risky. Plus Facebook is very sensitive and bans ad accounts all the time for vague reasons.
You do also get access to some over the shoulder coaching and a member’s group.
But really, I just don’t like the high price and the cost of the ads which are not easy to run successfully.
Paid traffic often comes with risk and complications even though it is a fast way to get eyes on your offers.
I actually think focusing on building up organic traffic is a much better way to go and that’s what they teach you at Wealthy Affiliate, which is also a lot more affordable and valuable than Affiliate Institute in my opinion.
Is It Possible to Make Money With Affiliate Institute?
You certainly could in theory make money by signing up to Affiliate Institute. My concern would be whether you could make a profit.
First you have to invest in the program which I’d say is very expensive by most people’s standards. (Not that it’s without value).
Secondly, you’ll have to invest in ads which means spending more money. Only if you make good, steady sales can you hope to make back the money you invested and start making a decent profit.
But this simply isn’t a fast and easy process, especially if you’re a beginner.
The Pros of Affiliate Institute
They do give you a 14 day free trail which seems generous enough but it’s limited and you can’t do a lot with this except decide whether you’re going to upgrade or not. But you do get some free affiliate marketing training.
There does seem to be a refund policy, though I haven’t seen the terms and conditions for this.
You could make good money if you decided to go all in. But it’s a big maybe.
The Cons of Affiliate Institute
Really I don’t see how the training really stands out from other courses. You can learn all that is taught for free on the internet or for cheaper in other courses. I just don’t get the high price tag thing.
While it does teach you a bit about content creation and writing emails professionally, it mostly teaches you how to run paid ads which I’ve never been a fan of teaching to beginners.
I just think that there are better options out there at more affordable rates.
I don’t like how it makes you think you’re getting affiliate marketing training but in reality you’re working for a multi-level marketing business and pressured to fork out thousands of dollars just to be able to promote high-ticket offers.
Is Affiliate Institute a Scam?
Well no, I wouldn’t go that far. You are getting some value for your money, though not nearly enough in my opinion.
There is a misleading element going on where you aren’t told about the MLM side of things or the huge price tags that come with going all in.
Be very careful if you’re coming at this as a newbie and have possibly been impressed by the sales video. It’s always wise to do diligent research before jumping into opportunities like this that require you to heavily invest in something you aren’t sure will pay off.
If you look at Trustpilot, you won’t see many glowing reviews for Affiliate Institute.
Where Should you go from Here?
Honestly, this kind of system doesn’t inspire me with trust or hope that beginners will really start making huge leaps and bounds towards success.
What I use is the Wealthy Affiliate formula which is so much more affordable and I would argue, has much better training.
You are taught how to build a business in any niche you choose and that means promoting products of your choice rather than being pressured to promote just one product.
Wealthy Affiliate teaches you to find the niche that suits you best and that is hopefully something you already love and have a passion for. It then teaches you the best ways of going about building a website. The other two major steps are to attract organic/free traffic from the internet though optomised content creation and from there, making money passively online.
Besides this core focus of the training, you will also be taught many other things including PPC, YouTube and AI techniques. Plus there are weekly live classes from expert affiliates.
The pricing system is very simple. You have a free membership which gives you access to a free website and 10 training lessons from the extensive, high-quality courses. Then there is Premium for only $49 a month.
Wealthy Affiliate also comes with expert help 24/7, a lively, supportive community and all the resources you need within the platform, to become successful.
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Read the Full Review of Wealthy Affiliate >>
I hope this has been a useful review of Julian Sherman’s course, Affiliate Institute. Let me know in the comments below what your own thoughts are.
Wishing you every success moving forward.
Dominic.