Michael Cheney makes some bold claims with his Commission Machine system, but we ask the question is the commission machine a scam or can you really earn $2k a day through it??
Michael’s claims of earning $2642.60 per day, even if you are a complete newbie with no money, experience and no email list.
But here is the flaw, you are expecting people with no money to pay for your program? That is a big contradiction, and it is just the start of the problems with this program.
There is also the issue with all the hype around this product, it can easily just assume the Commission machine is just another scam. But we have dug deep into the product to check it out.
Commission Machine Overview & Rankings
Product Name: Commission Machine
Owners: Michael Cheney
Website URL: commissionmachine.com
Product Type: Affiliate Marketing & Email Marketing Video Course
Price: $47 + Upsells & Recurring Fees
Best For: Affiliate Marketers with a little more experience
BestAffiliateMarketingTools.org Rating: 2.5/5
A Quick Commission Machine Summary
The Commission Machine is a video course teaching people how to write effective emails and how to promote affiliate products on JVZoo. But without any training on how to generate any traffic or tools to create your own landing page or funnel, it will not benefit a beginner looking for a way of making money online. Only those who already know how to generate traffic, etc will benefit from this video course.
Recommended: No
What Exactly is Commission Machine & How Does it Work?
Commission Machine is a 7-module video training course with a focus on teaching effective email marketing and how to monetise your email list using Affiliate Marketing. Commission Machine tends to target affiliate products through JVZoo, which is an affiliate network.
How Does Email Marketing Work?
If you are a little unsure how email marketing works, email marketing works through the following:
- Drive Traffic to Your Landing Page
- Offer a Free Gift & Collect an Email Address
- Follow-up Emails & Build a Relationship
- Monetise Your List by Promoting Relevant Products
You will need to create a landing page to collect email addresses from your visitors, but whilst Michael touches on this subject. It is very brief, and he doesn’t provide you with the tools to create a landing page.
Once you have your landing page, you need to drive traffic to your landing page.
But again, Michael only touches on the subject about driving free traffic using Facebook, but this is not as reliable as you might think.
Michael also misses out key information about other forms of free or paid traffic too.
The third step, all around the following emails and converting emails is where Michael has put a lot of his focus, and the Commission Machine does offer a lot of value in this area.
But, know that you will need to invest in a 3rd
party autoresponder, like Aweber in order to be able to send these automated emails.
The last step is where you send promotional emails to your subscribers with affiliate products from JVZoo, with the aim that they make a purchase and you earn commission from the sale.
Michael does teach you how to find profitable affiliate products to promote, he also offers email templates to sell them to your email list too.
That is the basics of how Commission Machine Works.
The 7-Module Course looks like this, with how long each module is too:
Module 1 – Introduction (3:11)
Module 2 – Research (28:28)
Module 3 – Angle (24:10)
Module 4 – Providing Incentives (23:24)
Module 5 – Messages (46:53)
Module 6 – Deploy (28:43)
Module 7 – No List Method (13:38)
I am not sure how much content you were expecting for $47, but I am certain you were not expecting a course that only lasted less than 3 hours?
If I compare this to our No.1 Recommended Training platform, Wealthy Affiliate offers over 50 core training lessons, which takes weeks to complete along with the tasks that are set out to complete – I know which a more comprehensive training for a beginner is.
Michael’s method for making money is called the R.A.P.I.D method, which stands for
Research
Angle
Provide Incentive
Deploy
Step One – Research
Michael teaches you how to choose profitable affiliate products from JVZoo to promote, but the thing I do not like about his training is that he recommends you promote Internet marketing & Make Money Online products, because he says they are the most profitable…
The reason I say that I don’t really agree is, that you should only promote products that you know are genuine and right for people and not base it solely on profitability.
There is also the fact he only promotes products available on JVZoo and doesn’t talk about any other affiliate networks either.
Step Two – Angle
This step is all about your positioning, how to position yourself and your offers to grab the attention and hook them into buying your offer. He will show you case studies and the email templates he uses.
Step Three – Provide Incentive
This step entails how to make your affiliate offer irresistible to stop them going elsewhere to but the products.
This is about getting them to follow your offers and not anyone else’s. Typically, with bonuses or incentives when they buy from you.
This is one of the good things about the Commission Machine.
Step Four – Deploy
This stage is all around taking actions and creating your own sales funnel.
This is also when you need to get your own tools such as your autoresponder. Michael recommends you get the autoresponder from GetResponse.
When you consider the concepts behind the Commission Machine, you will find these are very basic. More advanced marketers will find this very basic and not worth their time, they will not learn anything really from this training.
Beginners will get lost without a more detailed training in the overall affiliate marketing world.
Who Will Benefit from the Commission Machine?
This is the conundrum, who will benefit from this…
On a simple level, it seems like it is aimed at beginners as he offers a step-by-step training that is suitable for beginners.
But if you lack knowledge in some of the basics of internet marketing, you will not find this training course very beneficial.
The more experience marketers will already know much of what Michael is talking about, so again it is not really a benefit to them.
But there are the upsells to consider, and I think that is where the benefit is, but again an extra cost.
How Much Does Commission Machine Cost?
On the surface it looks like the Commission Machine is $47, but there are immediate upsells when you sign up and there are hidden costs that are not mentioned.
The Commission Machine Upsells
IN the Commission Machine they are sold as One-Time-Offers:
The Golden Ticket
This is a membership product which will cost you $27/month or a one-time lifetime access price of $197.
This grants you access to Michael’s monthly LIVE websinar, where you can see how Michael creates his commission machine live. This refers to his sales funnel setup for email marketing and affiliate marketing campaigns.
You will also receive a monthly done-for-you sales funnel, created by Michael.
This actually seems like a better deal than the main product, if I am honest.
If you pass this up, you will actually get what is called a downsell and it is again for the Golden ticket, but this time is only $17/month or $124 for lifetime access. The difference is you receive a recording of the webinar, and it is not live.
Regardless of whether you pass these up or not, you will then see their second upsell:
Commissionology
At this point you have not got to the members area, and you will need to see all of these upsells before proceeding and commissionology is a $97 done-for-you service.
These are 7 DFY sales funnels that are ready for you to put into action. You will also receive messages and email templates as well as some other bonuses.
Hidden Costs of Commission Machine
The hidden costs come from the fact Commission Machine does not provide you with an autoresponder, a tool to manage your email campaigns. They also do not provide you with the tools necessary to create landing pages or sales funnels.
What is Good About Commission Machine (PROS)
Here is what we liked about it:
Step-by-Step Training
The step-by-step training provided within Commission Machine is good and the concepts are really clear, so a beginner can understand them.
The video quality is surprisingly good, and Michaels presents himself well too.
Michael Does Know His Stuff
If you have taken a look at the Commission Machine Sales page, you will see Michael has bragged a lot about how he has won all the contests with well-known internet Marketers such as Anik Singal, Omar Martin and John Thornhill.
From what he teaches, he does show he knows his stuff about email marketing and affiliate marketing in general.
The thing that lets him down is the way he is selling it as a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme. Neither of these routes are going to earn money quickly like Michael says it is.
Truly, if you feel Email Marketing is right for you Anik Singal’s Inbox Blueprint is by far a better product, check out my Inbox Blueprint review.
30-Day Money Back Guarantee
As Commission Machine is a JVZoo product, you get backed by a 30-day money back guarantee
What Could Commission Machine Improve on? (CONS)
Here is what we didn’t like:
Too Much Hype & Testimonials
It is annoying when a sales page is constantly going on about how good it is, with testimonials coming out of our ears without a singly insight into how the program actually works.
He misses out the key ingredients about how his method works, and how you can benefit from it.
Michael uses this to his advantage to sell this product to people who are not entirely sure but believe the hype.
You Will Still Need a List!
From the start Michael mentions that even a complete newbie without an email list can still benefit from his course.
But, the sole focus of the Commission Machine is Email marketing. Michael teaches a little about how to start building your own list, but the training is too basic to really benefit a beginner.
Whilst his last module is called the No-List Method, it is only a 13-minute video. The focus of those 13 minutes is to utilise Facebook to get leads and sale. But I have found Facebook is not that reliable.
Hidden Costs
Commission Machine does not provide you with an autoresponder, so you will need to invest in one to utilise the training.
You will also require tools to be able to build a landing page and sales funnel.
You will also come up against upsells as soon as you pay the initial $47.
No Traffic = No Sales
Michael does not go into any kind of detail when it comes to driving traffic to your sales funnels. But traffic is the most important part of any online business.
If you have no traffic, you have no business or sales.
No Website?
Whilst email marketing is effective, it is much better to have your own website, you can utilise email marketing into your website. But to have just a single landing page is a huge gamble for a beginner. If it doesn’t work, you are out of pocket.
Having a website, allows you to go down all kinds of routes to monetising your business.
High Refund Rate
The refund rate through JVZoo for the Commission Machine is surprisingly high and shows how this does not benefit the beginner. They are finding that out by paying for it and having to go and ask for a refund.
JVZoo does make this easier to facilitate, but either way shows this is not a quality training for a beginner.
My Honest Opinion of Commission Machine? Is Commission Machine a Scam?
Commission Machine is definitely not a scam, it offers some quality training and the strategies do work – List Building, Email Marketing and Affiliate Marketing.
The biggest problem with this product is that it is not detailed enough. It doesn’t cover some very important aspects of these strategies. You cannot miss out traffic generation and building landing pages, and say this product is comprehensive enough.
You will only really benefit from CM, if you purchase the upsells. But then there is still no guarantee it will work for you.
Michael only seems to teach you the theory and misses out the practical aspects that are so important for a beginner.
A more experienced marketer will know the elements required that Michael only touches on, but Michael treats it like everyone will know this stuff and that is clearly the mistake he makes with this product.
Commission Machine at a Glance
Product Name: Commission Machine
Owners: Michael Cheney
Website URL: commissionmachine.com
Product Type: Affiliate Marketing & Email Marketing Video Course
Price: $47 + Upsells & Recurring Fees
Best For: Affiliate Marketers with a little more experience
Recommended: No
BestAffiliateMarketingTools.org Rating: 2.5/5
Verdict: Not Comprehensive Enough to Benefit Beginners
If you really want to make money online, affiliate marketing and email marketing are really effective but not with this training. You could really benefit from a comprehensive training platform like Wealthy Affiliate. Within a few lessons, you could have your very own affiliate marketing website ready to drive traffic to your sales funnels and make some real money.
Wealthy Affiliate has helped thousands of beginners become affiliate marketers, and you can really benefit from their tuition.
Check out my comprehensive Wealthy Affiliate review and see what they have to offer.
Thanks for reading my review, if you have any questions or want to share your experiences, please write them in the comments and I will come back to you as soon as I can.