SFI Affiliate Program: Did Upgrading Pay Off?
By admin on Aug 3, 2007 in Blog Money
Affiliate Programs are a fantastic way to monetize a blog. On My old blog I wrote extensively about the SFI affiliate program and acquired a fair number of referrals. I decided to upgrade to EA (executive affiliate) status to set an example to my referrals. It cost me $30 to upgrade. As an EA I was guaranteed earnings from the ‘executive bonus’ but did not know whether it would pay off over all.
Achievements
- I had a number of referrals upgrade to EA status, which contributed to the executive bonus, which ended up being $10.
- I also made a single sale, earning $15 despite not actively promoting any SFI products. I simply threw in an affiliate link during 1 blog post and it paid off handsomely.
- Total earnings were $25, so an overall loss of $5.
While this is a small loss I consider it a very successful experiment. SFI were deliberately unclear about how much would be earned from the executive bonus, and as I suspected, it is an amount worth taking into account but doesn’t overtake the cost to upgrade. If it did SFI would not be a viable business.
Conclusion:
I decided not to upgrade to EA status again this month (you have to do it each month) because I’m busy with other projects. However, it will be interesting to see if the referrals I made previously pay off or make a profit with out me doing anything. They would only have to generate about $5 this month to break even which shouldn’t be too hard for over 50 referrals.
If they do make a reasonable amount of money all by themselves I will start promoting SFI again, as it would have proved itself to be a great affiliate program. It will also be much easier to make referrals in the future because I will have this whole experience giving me valuable information about the earnings potential of becoming an SFI EA affiliate.
Technorati Tags: Affiliate Programs, monetize, EA status, SFI
[…] See original here: Matt Jones […]
It’s too bad they just don’t say that stuff up front - I mean, they may be good and such, but if I knew exactly how much I could make up front, then I could decide what would be good for me with all the information. Instead, signing up with them, I’ve wasted my time and their time - because they didn’t make any money off of me. That’s what I dislike most about these MLM type of affiliate programs - they just don’t disclose all the information upfront (one program did, but they turned out to be a scam after all - - adraker, I’m still smarting from that…grrrrr….those bastards.) Guess you can’t have it all.
You know, Matt, with all your experience in affiliate programs and such, you should start one that actually has all of the good qualities from above. I bet it would successful since it would have a solid basis for its foundation - instead of just trying to scam money off people.
Let me know if you do, I’ll join for sure.
I wish they were more open too. I like the idea of starting my own affiliate program… I just need my own product to sell!
LOL I think this is one of the very first affiliate programs I tried years ago. I had no idea they were still around!
Yes they seem to be going strong. How much did you make with them?
Hi Matt, I’ve been with SFI for almost three years now and have seen a lot of growth with them. At first I held off but after a couple of months I decided to go EA and it has been pretty decent.
I don’t make a lot with them but I do get a fairly decent check from them each month now.
I believe you have to constantly keep growing your business to see any decnt returns.
I never make anything..I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong…I spend the time, I don’t spend the money..All I want is to make a little bit so I can parlet it into paid advertising and get a pretty decent second Income..I’m not looking to get rich just get by…I feel like SFI and everyone else just lies
I have been with SFI since February ‘08 , it is part of 5 programs that have been built into 1. I have over 60 referrals and thats without advertising SFI heavily.
It’s a slow burner program that will make you money over time. I make more money in the other 4 programs but SFI brings in a nice monthly check. I hope to build on it.
SFI is a decent program - but if you try and build an income by qualifying as an EA by paying the IAHBE memberhsip fee - which is $30 - and then hoping other affiliates in your downline will do the same - then you are in for what could be a frustrating time, simply because you will need alot of affiliates and most of them wont upgrade. Those that do upgrade will only do so for a month or two, because of course they want to make money, not just shell out $30 every month
The point is if it doesnt work for you it probably wont work for them either
Most people that follow this method make either nothing at all, or just a small profit even with quite a few EA’s in their downline - so it’s a lot of work for very little. There will also be many as above who make a small loss overall even with all the bonuses
The only way you will succeed trying to make money via the upgrade fee is if you recruit a seriously large number of people. I would say you need 50 affiliates for every upgrade, so to earn $1000 a month, you would need to be recruiting maybe as many as 100 affiliates a day - something really huge like that, and there are some people that manage to do this
The real point of SFI however - which many people don’t seem to have got - is that its an affiliate program - not mainly an mlm program. The difference is that affiliates get a commission for SELLING the products. So in SFI you will make much more money - even without any downline at all - by getting sales for the products, which then automatically makes you EA. If you can start moving the products then you will be onto a much better income because you will have few costs, and no $30 upgrade fees
This is a better option long term because people in your downline wont continue to upgrade if they cant make money from their downline and they have to pay the IAHBE fee of $30 pm. What no one in mlm tells you is that in an upgrade system its impossible for everyone to get paid, as the total money is fixed e.g. 100 members paying $10 is $1000 to distribute. As a result what happens is that most people get ZERO while a few pick up the money of all the people that are losing - you actually need a lot of people to lose to have a few that will win - thats simple reality and actually simple math as well!
So what happens in mlm is that people are “enticed” to pay the membership fee - usually soon after they have joined. They don’t realize that it wont work, so they just pay the cash, and “try it”. When they find out it didnt work they cancel their subscription and go and try another program
On the other hand if everyone in your downline is a free member, but learns to sell the products - or you show them how to get sales from advertising their affiliate links etc, then everyone is a winner. Now everyone can earn as a free member, and as the sales increase so the income will bring back 100% profit
This is the way to succeed with SFI - just remember its an affiliate program and that means you have to sell the products and you will do just fine