Pure Leverage is an MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing) company targeting Internet Marketers. This program offers a full marketing suite and “high” commissions. Does Pure Leverage really live up to its promises or is it another MLM scam?
The company is a part of Global Venture Opportunities (GVO) and Joel Therien is the man who owns it. PureLeverage makes itself very attractive because of its low entry fee of $24.95 per month. It appears Pure Leverage found a good niche: frustrated Empower Network customers who realize that almost $6k price tag (+monthly fees) of EN is a little too high for them. To be honest, Pure Leverage actually does offer more than EN, at a fraction of the cost.
Pure Leverage is basically an all-in-one suite of products and services for Internet Marketers. PL offers a a website and a blog, lead capture system, auto responder, video e-mail service and a live conference room. Sound like a lot of stuff so let’s review this services and how you will or will not benefit from them.
First of all website and blog are initially the same thing. They are both websites, just in a different formats. You don’t need to pay to create a website these days by using a WordPress, Blogger or SiteRubix for free. You can set up a site or a blog with SiteRubix in 20 seconds! I actually did the test. Now “setting up the site” is easy, building the site is a bit harder. Regardless of which platform you chose, you will have to create content for the site and that’s what truly matters. The choice of free themes for your site or blog is not great and I usually suggest against using free themes.
PureLeverage promotes it’s lead capture system as something unique and out of this world. In reality it’s a simple lead capture template. You can find far superior lead capture forms and templates as free plugins for WordPress. Highly customizable ones are usually paid but very cheap. PL says these templates will save the site visitor’s name and e-mail address and add it to your Auto Responder. Grounbreaking? Not really. Most free lead capture plugins and themes are compatible with several auto responders.
Auto responder is a software which allows you to e-mail your subscribers whenever you want to and even create a series of broadcast messages. Broadcast messages are automated e-mails and you can set these e-mails to be sent out at specific intervals. Auto responder is actually one of the greatest marketing tools since it helps you build a list of customers (potential and existing). One of the most popular sayings in the world of Internet Marketing claims “The Money Is In The List”. PureLeverage offers you such software however many people who used it claim that the e-mails sent out from PL’s auto responder often end up in spam/junk folder. This creates a huge issue since you subscribers won’t ever get to read the information you are sending them. Also if you get over 10,000 subscribers to PL’s auto responder you’ll have to pay extra (worth mentioning).
Most serious marketers will pay for a dedicated auto-responder because the deliverability is the most important part of it all. I have used Aweber for many years and highly recommend them. Aweber is quite pricey but they are the leader in the game of e-mails. There are many other alternatives such as GetResponse, MailChimp and many others which perform a lot better than Pure Leverage auto responder.
Ok, this one has to be a joke. It sounds very intriguing however it’s another “made-up” feature. PL says that you could record a video on your computer and then simply add it to your PL auto responder. They advertize it as an innovation and an amazing feature. In the previous paragraph I mentioned Aweber auto responder. Guess what, Aweber had this feature years ago. Most other auto responders have this feature as well. Unfortunately video e-mail is not something rare and of high value as most services have this feature.
Online video conference sounds cool and could be very useful. Pure Leverage offers a kind of webinar service so you could do conferences “with your growing team” (more on the team later). I’ve got news for you though: Google Hangout. That’s the first free alternative that comes to mind. Many online live conferences are also offered for free or for a very low cost.
The truth is, you’ll probably never use all of these products. You might tackle the auto responder or the blog but not all of these products, so you don’t really need them. You can have a site/blog for free, lead capture for free, live conference for free, video e-mail is integrated with most auto responders at no extra cost. So you’re mostly paying the $24.95 for an auto responder, a mediocre one at that. You can actually find FREE auto-responders that offer the same quality as the one from PL.
Multi-Level-Marketing is frowned upon by many marketers and entrepreneurs. Many MLM schemes have been sued, fined and shut down. I admit, I am biased when it comes to MLM because I simply hate this model. I have quite a few acquaintances who lost tremendous amount of money with Empower Network, Herbalife, Amways and some others. Besides losing money they also lost friends who got fed up with constant tries of recruitment.
When I talked about “Life Conference Room” feature from Pure Leverage, I mentioned that they call it a great way to connect with your team. Wait, what team? Isn’t PL about internet marketing products and services?
Although they sell products reviewed above, their main goal is to get you to recruit new members into Pure Leverage downline. If you recruit new paying members you’ll make a commission and THAT is the actual business of Pure Leverage. Now, you need a team because when one of your recruits sign a new customer – you also get a commission. In other words – it’s a pyramid scheme.
Joel Therien offers a 100% commission on all sales that you make. I thought 100% compensation plan was pretty incredible and didn’t understand how he makes money off of it, then I noticed that this commission is only available for your first month as an affiliate (reseller). After the first month it drops down to 50% – which is actually the average commission for digital products/services. However, you need to know that you will be required to pay a monthly fee of $20 in order to be a reseller of Pure Leverage Products. At this point you are paying your members fee + reseller fee, totaling $45 per month (hey, it’s still cheaper than Empire Network!).
These guys will do everything they can to turn you into a reseller. They know that selling such products is hard, this is why they charge you for doing so. Even if you won’t make any sales, they will make an extra $20 off of you, every single month.
So you’ve been spending the $24.95 per month as a member and another $19.95 per month as a reseller but you’re still struggling to make money? No problem, Joel will try sign you up for his Elite coaching program for $97 per month. That’s on top of the other fees. At this point you are paying $142 per month. Getting pretty steep… Of course you don’t have to upgrade to a VIP or even to a reseller but get ready to receive dozens of e-mails from PL trying to push these offers on you.
I cannot call Pure Leverage a Scam because it is not. However, their products are of low quality and you can find similar products/services for free. They should not charge you a monthly fee in order to be an affiliate. This is unheard of in proper business practice. They concentrate in recruiting new resellers who will recruit new resellers who will recruit more resellers… concentrating on creating better products should be their main goal, not creating a bigger “network”. Once again, it is not a scam but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Making money online is possible but it requires knowledge. Instead of wasting your time with MLMs and other ineffective programs you should aim for detailed training and support. I have been a member of Wealthy Affiliate (full review here) since 2007, that’s when I started earning a full time income online. Step-by-step training and a helpful community were just a few reasons why I never left that place. Best part? You can become a member for free – NO credit card required. See why 100,000+ members joined this famous online marketing training center.
– Alex
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I been there and I quit, because Joel spread fear on his workers and most of them are afraid of him. Also threat for you to pay on time. From the support you never know who has send you a message. they use Joel and sometimes it is him self that write you the letter. You don't know who you are dealing with. They never guide you with anything. You never hear nothing from them (Support). you are in hands of JOEL!! Your question or advice never they reply back. They are not in freedom with them self. I could say this is scam! Eithel
Hi, Eithel.
Thanks for your comment, I am sure many others will find your feedback helpful.
It is very unfortunate that such companies can't even offer proper support to their paying customers.
- Alex