Kris Krohn’s Real Estate Course – is it a scam?

Lease Option Pro is a real estate course that teaches you how to start investing in real estate without any money or credit history.

In our Lease Option Pro review, we’ll tell you if this course lives up to these bold claims.

Real estate isn’t the easiest field to get started in because real estate properties aren’t cheap. You either need a great credit score to land mortgages so you can afford these properties or you need to have enough cash to buy them outright.

Most don’t have either of those options.

Kris Krohn, a successful real estate investor, claims that you can actually get into real estate without any money or credit history. He made a course on it called Lease Option Pro.

Real estate is a field known for scams, though, so read our full Lease Option Pro review below.

FAQ

1.) What is Lease Option Pro? Lease Option Pro is a real estate course that teaches you how to get started in real estate with no money and no credit. It was created by Kris Krohn.

2.) Who is Kris Krohn? Kris Krohn is a real estate investment specialist. He is the founder and president of a collective of real estate companies called The Strongbrook Group, usually called Strongbrook for short. He is also a published author and speaker. In addition, he sells courses in other subjects such as sales.

3.) What are the names of Kris’s books? His real estate book is called The Strait Path to Real Estate. His other two books are Limitless and Conscious Creator. Limitless is about shattering your limiting beliefs, while Conscious Creator is a parable that shows you how to understand what you truly want in life and how to live by design rather than by default.

4.) What is included in Lease Option Pro? Lease Option Pro’s main content consists of a series of videos teaching Kris’s real estate methods. They also include a manual to follow along with. Bonuses include all contracts and legal documents Chris uses in his real estate business, 2 tickets for one of Kris’s live events, and a private Facebook group for mentoring and discussion.

5.) What is Strongbrook? Strongbrook is a family of real estate companies that helps its clients manage and preserve their assets. The Strongbrook Group consists of a real estate firm, a mortgage brokerage, a life insurance firm, several property management teams, multiple property holdings, and coaching staff that help Strongbrook clients manage their wealth.

6.) When was Strongbrook founded? Strongbrook was founded in 2008 under the name The Companies LLC as a holding company for Kris’s REIC and his real estate brokerage he started soon after.

7.) What is Strongbrook Direct? Strongbrook Direct is a direct sales company within The Strongbrook Group whose aim is to sell the investing club portion of Strongbrook to potential clients.

8.) What is REIC? REIC stands for Real Estate Investors Club, which is Kris Krohn’s real estate education business and one of his first Strongbrook companies. REIC provides members with instruction and assistance with locating and purchasing properties, fixing them up, renting them out, and selling the properties for a profit. Members must pay a few thousand dollars to be part of the club.

9.) What are lease options? Lease options are a type of real estate contract. In a lease option contract, the tenant and property owner agree on giving the tenant the option to buy the property at the end of a rental period that they specify. To secure a lease option, the tenant usually pays the owner a sum of money called an option consideration. Owners collect the option consideration and in exchange, promise to keep the property off the market.

10.) What’s the advantage of lease options? For the tenant, a few things. First, they’re guaranteed a fixed price regardless of property appreciation should they exercise the right to buy. Also, they won’t need as strong of a credit history since they’ll have a working relationship with the owner. Lastly, it’s good for tenants new to the area. Tenants get some time to test their new neighborhood as a potential investment opportunity. For owners, tenants are incentivized to take care of the property if they can buy it, which reduces upkeep costs. In addition, since lease options are attractive to tenants, offering one makes filling vacancies a lot easier.

11.) What is seller-financing? Seller financing is when the owner of the property provides financing directly to the buyer so the buyer doesn’t have to seek out a mortgage from an institution such as a bank. This can help investors with a lower credit score or short credit history, as they’ll have a harder time getting a mortgage. Lease options are similar to seller financing, but they aren’t the same thing.

12.) What is Compassionate Financing? It’s Kris’s system of investing that’s based on lease options, but without any of the drawbacks. Some property owners misuse lease options to squeeze nonrefundable option considerations out of tenants without giving them enough time in the lease option to save up to buy, then they kick them out at the end, then rinse and repeat. Compassionate Financing aims for the opposite, providing financial and credit assistance for tenants. The idea is actually helping tenants afford their lease options helps everyone involved.

 

13.) What types of templates does Kris include? Kris includes templates for all his contracts and legal documents. He also throws in templates for fliers, applications, agreements, and other paperwork.

14.) What live events does Kris put on? Kris’s main events are called Limitless, Liberate, and Unleash Your Financial Destiny. Held in Provo, Utah a few times a year, Unleash Your Financial Destiny is a 4-day seminar teaching you how to build wealth and earn financial freedom with real estate. There’s mindset training as well. Tickets cost $697, although they have $997 with a red line through it on the sales page. Limitless is more oriented towards personal development and mindset training. There doesn’t seem to be any information on Liberate, though.

15.) What is the private Facebook group for? In the private Facebook group, Kris hosts weekly trainings to further your real estate knowledge. Students can discuss their experiences in real estate, as well as ask questions of Kris and each other. Kris is fairly active in the Facebook group.

16.) Do I have access to the private Facebook group forever? No. You have access for 1 year starting on the date you purchased Lease Option Pro.

17.) How much does Lease Option Pro cost? $997.

18.) Does Lease Option Pro have a free trial? No.

19.) Are there any upsells? There are no direct upsells, but Kris has various other courses on his website ranging from sales to YouTube.

20.) What is Lease Option Pro’s refund policy? 

21. ) Does Lease Option Pro have an affiliate program? Yes, but it’s for all of Kris’s courses. There are 3 tiers of affiliates. Sales Affiliates earn 33% commissions per affiliate sale. Sales Affiliate can recruit others to build a team and become a Team Leader. Team Leaders earn 33% per sale, as well as 10% of all sales their team makes. Their team still keeps their 33% cut. Once your teams start building more teams, you earn all the previous percentages plus 3% of all your team’s teams. To join, you must either apply and get through their selective process or buy Kris’s Advanced Sales and Marketing course. Their affiliate application is here.

22.) What is Kris Krohn’s BBB rating? His real estate firm Strongbrook has a B-.

23.) Is Lease Option Pro a scam? No.

24.) What controversies has Kris been involved in? A few years ago, Strongbrook (known as The Companies LLC at the time) was investigated by the SEC for fraudulent offer and sale of real estate properties in order to raise money privately. They were accused of misrepresenting information about the values of their properties, as well as obscuring or omitting other information. The courts cleared them, though.

25.) Comparable programs: Freedom Mentor, Bigger Pockets

Real Estate Course Review – Overview

Lease Option Pro is a course that teaches you how to start a real estate business with no money or credit through lease options. The course was created by Kris Krohn.

Kris Krohn went to Brigham Young University in Utah, where he earned a Psychology degree. During his time there, though, he uncovered his passion for real estate.

He took advantage of these natural talents and broke into the real estate world. By the time he had earned his degree, he owned more than a dozen investment properties, which only drove him further.

Thanks to his investing efforts, Kris became financially free at only 26 years old.

Lease options are simply a type of real estate contract. In a lease option contract, the property owner and tenant agree that after a specified rental period for a certain property, the tenant can buy the property from the owner. Kris got his start in real estate with little money or credit history using lease options.

Lease options are great deals for both the property owners and tenants in theory.

They take the pressure off owners looking to sell, as tenants are likely to exercise the buy option when their rental period ends. Tenants will be more willing to keep their rental in good condition if they’ll own it in the future, saving property owners time and money on upkeep. Owners also get to collect a fee called a lease option consideration to keep the property off the market for the tenant.

Since lease options are attractive to tenants, owners can fill their units more easily by offering these.

For tenants, they get to lock in a price regardless of property value appreciation, meaning they could snag a property at a huge discount. This further benefits the owner as the tenant will work even harder to keep the property in good shape.

Unfortunately, many property owners abuse lease options by collecting unreasonably large considerations, not giving tenants enough time to save up to exercise the buy option, then kicking them out when their lease is up. They then repeat the process with the next unlucky tenant.

Compassionate Financing takes the opposite approach.

Kris’s strategy is to help tenants with financial coaches and credit repair programs so they can be ready to buy when the time comes. The idea here is that instead of treating tenants like walking ATMs, you should invest in their success just as much as you invest in your property.

Doing this makes the tenant very likely to exercise the buy option, making you money. The investor wins, the tenant wins, and the community wins.

In Lease Option Pro, he’ll teach you about lease options and how he got rich through his Compassionate Financing method.

 

Check out the rest of our Lease Option Pro review for more details.

Products

Lease Option Pro’s main content is a series of videos teaching how to use lease options and Compassionate Financing to get into real estate without much startup capital or any credit history. Bonuses include all contracts and legal documents Chris uses in his real estate business, 2 tickets for one of Kris’s live events, and a private Facebook group for mentoring and discussion.

The videos are the bulk of the course.

Lease Option Pro is much shorter than broader courses in other fields like Ecom Success Academy, so there isn’t as much content. However, the content is much more focused.

You’ll be introduced to lease options and Compassionate Financing at first. Kris tells you what each of these is, the benefits and drawbacks of lease options, and how Compassionate Financing mitigates those drawbacks.

 

For visual learners, Lease Option Pro comes with a manual as well.

The provides a step-by-step guide on how to invest the Compassionate Financing way.

There are a few nice bonuses, starting with the templates.

Real estate is a complex field. Not only is there a lot of money moving around, but there are a lot of legal aspects to take care of. Kris makes this a bit easier by throwing in templates of all the contracts and other legal documents he uses in his deals.

There’re some marketing material templates too, such as fliers, applications, and agreements.

I’m sure you could find plenty of the same templates online, but at least you know these are coming from a guy who uses his templates every day.

Kris threw in 2 tickets to his live event, too.

His main live event is called Unleash Your Financial Destiny. Held in August, it’s a real estate conference where you learn how to build wealth and earn your financial freedom with real estate. There’s some motivation and mindset stuff too.

Unleash Your Financial Destiny only sells 500 tickets, so it could be a good deal.

Another one of Kris’s events is called Limitless. It focuses more on personal development and mindset than Unleash Your Financial Destiny.

Liberate is his alleged 3rd seminar, but there don’t seem to be any details.

And like any good online course, there’s a Facebook group.

The group is a private mentoring community for Lease Option Pro students.

Students can discuss the contents of the course and share their real estate experience. Kris is fairly active in the group, answering questions and mentoring his students.

He also hosts weekly trainings in the group to further your learning.

You only get access to the group for a year, so make use of it while you can.

Upsells

Lease Option Pro has no direct upsells, although he does push his Life Mastery University program on you.

Life Mastery University is a bundle of all his courses and live events. Once you buy it, you have access to all his courses for a year and you get tickets to all his live events.

Pricing

Lease Option Pro costs $997. Like other courses, Kris listed an “everyday” price of $16,982, crossed it out in red, and put the $997 price tag directly below if for some false urgency.

Life Mastery University costs $4,997. That’s a bargain, as you’re getting at least $5,000 of courses as well access to future courses.

Affiliate Program

Lease Option Pro doesn’t have a course-specific affiliate program, but Kris Krohn has one for all his products. There are three tiers to his program: Sales Affiliate, Team Leader, and Sales Manager. Each subsequent tier earns their respective commission on top of the previous tiers’ commission rates.

Sales Affiliate is the first tier. Sales Affiliates earn 33% commissions per affiliate sale, meaning $330 per Lease Option Pro referral. Just over a sale a day excluding weekends will earn you 6 figures.

Then, there’re Team Leaders. Team Leaders can build up teams of Sales Affiliate for more earnings by recruiting more people into the affiliate program. In addition to both you and your team’s normal 33% per sale, Team Leaders earn a 10% override on everything their team earns.

The final tier is called Sales Manager. As a Sales Manager, you earn 33% per sale, 10% overrides on the team you built, and 3% overrides on each team that your teams build.

Marianne hosts weekly virtual trainings on all of Kris’s products. During these trainings, she also gives sales closing tips and ways to maximize your leads through social media posts.

There is no clear affiliate page anywhere on the web. It takes a lot of digging, but I found the affiliate application. Yeah, its called “Pathfinder” for some reason, but it’s their affiliate program.

Now, Kris and his business partner Marianne make it quite clear in the video on that page that you need to be outgoing and comfortable with sales or you won’t succeed.

Scroll down to the actual application and they grill you some more. They even include a checkbox that when you check, you’re acknowledging you’re willing to learn how to maximize sales and networking through social media.

Alternatively, you gain automatic access to the affiliate program by buying his Advanced Sales & Marketing course. Don’t buy that course if you don’t need too, though.

Recap

Lease Option Pro isn’t a scam. And for a course that teaches how to invest in real estate without money or credit, it’s pretty cheap.

But that doesn’t mean getting into real estate without money or credit is a walk in the park.

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Course Hero Review – is it a scam?

Course Hero is an education technology website that allows students and educators to upload and share study resources with each other.

In our Course Hero review, we’ll let you know if it’s worth using.

Back before the internet, college and university students were limited to their classmates and campus resources like professors and the library. You had to leave your dorm room and seek out help from these sources.

When the internet was invented, someone decided that crowdsourcing education was a good idea, and so sites like Course Hero sprung into existence. Students share their study materials on the site and get to see other people’s study materials in exchange.

It sounds too good to be true, and some people have even lobbed scam accusations at the site.

Read the rest of our Course Hero review below to see what I think.

FAQ

1.) What is Course Hero? Course Hero is an education technology website where students and educators can upload documents and share study resources. It was founded in 2006 by a Cornell student named Andrew Grauer so he and his fellow students could share resources. Course Hero is now based in Redwood, California.

2.) How does Course Hero work? Course Hero is crowdsourced, meaning you have to contribute to Course Hero’s library of resources and/or community of students and educators to take advantage of everything on the site. Users earn unlocks and tutor questions through a variety of actions, such as rating other’s resources or sharing their own.

3.) What types of study resources/documents are on Course Hero? Course Hero has study guides, practice problems, video lessons, and class notes in basically every school subject.

4.) Does Course Hero have a mobile app? Yes. They have an app for iOS and Android.

5.) How many study resources does Course Hero have? Course Hero has over 25 million course-specific study resources.

6.) How do you earn free tutor questions? At the start, you are given 2 for creating an account, 2 for verifying your email, and 5 for logging into the mobile app for the first time. As for uploading documents, you are given 3 questions for the first 10 documents, 6 more when you upload 30 total documents, and 6 more when you reach 60 documents. After that, you are given 8 per friend you refer, 1 per tutor question you tag to a course.

7.) How do you earn free unlocks? You earn 5 per 10 documents you upload, 3 per quiz you create, 1 per 5 of your documents being unlocked by others, 1 per 5 of your documents receiving a thumbs-up, and 1 per 5 pieces of other peoples’ content you rate.

8.) Do tutor questions expire? Yes. They expire within 30 days of them being credited to your account.

9.) Can I redeem tutor questions for cash if I don’t want them? No.

10.) How long do unlocked documents stay unlocked? They stay unlocked for your entire subscription.

11.) What are Practice Problems? Practice Problems gives you additional study material. It pulls information from Course Hero’s library of resources and creates small problems sets for you to study with. Practice Problems is currently free, as it’s still in beta.

12.) How many times can I do practice problems? You can redo the same practice problems as many times as you want by clicking restart. Once you exit a problem set, the problems will change.

13.) How does tutoring work on Course Hero? All you do is type out your question, pick the subject it’s for, and submit it on the tutor screen. A tutor should have an answer for you in minutes. If their answer is sufficient, you can accept it.

14.) What if a tutor doesn’t answer my question sufficiently? You can follow up with your tutor for additional clarification. If they still don’t answer your question, you can flag the answer as “unhelpful”. Course Hero sends a Question Processor to evaluate the situation. Usually, the question will be canceled and you’ll get your tutor question back. You can follow this process if their answer is incorrect as well.

15.) How do I become a Course Hero tutor? You’ll need to fill in their application form with some basic personal information, your country of residence, your highest level of education, a brief description of your teaching or tutoring experience, and where you heard of Course Hero.

16.) How many hours do tutors work? Tutors set their own hours. You can work as much or as little as you want.

17.) How much do tutors make? Course Hero claims their top tutors make $500 per week. Your results will be a lot less at first, though, as you need to earn ratings for your tutoring. The higher your rating, the more money you can earn.

18.) What subjects can I teach as a tutor? Subjects include art/humanities, business, engineering/tech, foreign languages, history, math, science, and social studies. There are a ton of specialties within each subject you can choose from.

19.) Do I need to be a professor or certified tutor to become a Course Hero tutor? No. Course Hero does not provide strict requirements, but you need to at least be educated beyond high school in your subject of choice. The more credentials and experience you have, the more likely they’ll accept your application.

20.) How long until I hear back regarding my tutor application? They receive a high volume of applications, so they can’t guarantee you’ll get a response, let alone within a certain time frame. Again, the more credentials and experience you can display, the faster you’ll get a response.

21.) How much does Course Hero cost? Course Hero has a free subscription with limited access to Course Hero resources. However, you can earn tutor question and unlock resources by uploading your own documents and referring others to Course Hero.

22.) Does Course Hero have a free trial? No. Course Hero basic membership is free.

23.) Are there any upsells? Course Hero’s Premier subscription is the only upsell. Premier subscribers get 30 unlocks per month. You get 10 tutor questions on the monthly plan, 20 tutor questions on the 3-month plan, and 40 tutor questions on the yearly plan.

24.) How much does a Premier subscription cost? It normally costs $39.95 per month. However, you can opt to pay for 3 months at a time or a year at a time. Paying 3 months at a time costs $59.85, which is equivalent to $19.95 per month. Paying a year at a time costs $119.40, which is equivalent to $9.95 per month. You can change or pause your subscription at any time.

25.) Do Premier unlocks roll over from month to month? No. Your unlocks reset to 30 every month no matter what.

26.) What is the educator platform? Course Hero allows educators access to their library of documents so educators can customize their course materials. Educators can earn unlocks and unlock documents the same way students can.

27.) What is Course Hero’s refund policy? If your GPA for the semester in which you first subscribe to Course Hero Premier is less than your GPA from the academic term immediately prior to your subscription, Course Hero will give you a full refund. To request this, you’ll have to provide them with copies of your transcripts. Tutor answers are non-refundable. You may cancel your subscription at any time to avoid being billed for your next month, 3 months, or year.

28.) Does Course Hero have an affiliate program? Yes. Affiliates can earn 10% commissions per referral. To become an affiliate, you have to join through an affiliate network they’ve partnered with. To use Course Hero branded banners and other marketing materials, you have to create a Course Hero account and register for a developer API key. Alternatively, they have a “refer-a-friend” program. Each referral through this program earns you 8 free tutor questions.

29.) What is an affiliate network? Affiliate networks are intermediaries between affiliate marketers and companies with affiliate programs. They help companies reach a much larger audience for more sales. Examples include Clickbank and CommissionsJunction.

30.) Which affiliate networks offer Course Hero’s affiliate program? Skimlinks, VigLink, ShareASale, FlexOffers, and CommissionJunction.

31.) What is Course Hero’s BBB rating? A+

32.) Is Course Hero a scam? No. Due to its crowdsourced nature, it has to be a legit platform or it would go under because people would stop contributing in order to gain access to other documents.

33.) Isn’t using Course Hero considered cheating? No. It’s similar to having a large study group where everyone’s sharing materials and ideas. Course Hero claims they don’t tolerate cheating, plagiarism, or copyright infringement and they will permanently ban anyone who engages in any of those actions.

34.) What constitutes cheating on Course Hero? Cheating includes copying and submitting materials as your own work, uploading recordings of lectures in the same term you recorded them, using Course Hero resources when told not to use outside help, and using Course Hero in a way that violates the academic honor code of your instructor and/or school.

35.) Comparable companies: Chegg, Kahoot, Quizlet, StudyBlue

Course Hero Review – Overview

Course Hero is a crowdsourced online learning platform for students and educators to share study resources like notes and study guides.

Similar to Facebook, Course Hero started in a dorm. In 2006, a Cornell student named Andrew Grauer started Course Hero so he and his fellow students could share course materials in case people didn’t pay attention in classes.

Now, Course Hero boasts over 10 million student users contributing to and studying on its platform.

It works by incentivizing students to share their study materials through an unlock system. Students gain access to the documents they need by sharing their own study materials, allowing the platform to thrive.

As you’d expect, Course Hero has had its fair share of criticism.

There’re the accusations of scams.

Some think Course Hero’s resources cause students to care less about learning and more about grades, while others simply accuse the site of allowing mass cheating.

I can see where they’re coming from, but keep reading our Course Hero review for more info.

Product

Course Hero has both its main website and a mobile app. Course Hero’s main features are its library of crowdsourced study materials uploaded by students, its team of online tutors you can either seek help from or join, its scholarship opportunities, its educator accounts, and their new practice problems feature that is still being beta tested. Users earn unlocks and tutor questions to access the first two.

The types of study materials on Course Hero include notes, essays, homework help, study guides, and lab reports.

These documents can be viewed in full and downloaded with earnable unlocks. When you unlock a document, you have access to it for the entirety of your subscription. Earning tutor questions let you seek help from Course Hero’s online tutors.

Most documents let you see a page or two to make sure the document you’re about to unlock is relevant to what you’re looking for.

To find study materials, you can type what you’re looking for into Course Hero’s search bar.

Alternatively, you can search by school, subject, or book. Searching by subject is a great way to find specific study guides, while searching by book is useful for English or literature classes.

Further study materials are available in the form of their practice problems.

Course Hero draws on its library of study materials to create practice problems. After you complete a problem set, you can repeat the same problems as many time as you want by clicking restart. Once you exit a problem set, you can do another problem set with brand new questions.

This is currently free as Course Hero is in the middle of beta testing it, so take advantage while you can.

For personalized help, tutors are available 24/7 to answer your homework questions.

To get help from a tutor, ask your question, pick the subject you need help with, and a tutor will help you out. You can rate your tutor afterward. If you tried your best to get an answer from the tutors but they couldn’t help, you can have your tutor question given back to you.

Usually, tutors are fast about answering questions. In fact, several tutors are able to help you at the same time.

But to speed up the process, you have to be as specific as possible in your questions.

The tutors are fellow Course Hero users, meaning you can become a tutor and get paid to help others.

As a tutor, you’ll be helping your fellow Course Hero students.

Tutors get to pick their subject and set their own hours. You don’t need to show up anywhere either, so it makes for a decent side hustle.

Course Hero claims their top tutors earn $500 a week on average. That’s not bad side cash for an easy job you can do on your own time.

To become one, all you have to do is fill out their short application. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a response, though. Course Hero gets a ton of applications every day, and they can’t possibly respond to all of them.

I’d recommend listing all your relevant credentials and experience when you’re applying for a tutoring position. The more reasons you give them to hire you, the more likely you’ll get a timely response.

Unlocks can be earned a few ways.

For every 10 documents you upload, you earn 5 unlocks. Once these are uploaded, you earn 1 unlock for every 5 people that unlock a document of yours. 5 thumbs-up rating earns you another unlock.

You can even make quizzes for your uploaded study materials, which earn you 3 unlocks per quiz.

Most of your tutor questions are earned during the account creation process, while some can be earned through uploads.

Creating your account and verifying your email earn you 2 tutor questions each, while logging in with the mobile app for the first time nets you 5 more.

As for document uploads, you get 3 questions for the first 10 uploads, 6 more when you hit 30 total uploads, and another 6 questions when you hit 50 total uploads.

Sometimes, tutor questions will be relevant to a course on Course Hero. If you accept the tutor’s question, you can tag the tutor question to a course if prompted and earn back your tutor question.

Lastly, you can refer friends and earn 8 questions per referral.

Both unlocks and tutor questions take an hour or so to credit to your account once you upload a document, so don’t be alarmed if they don’t show up right away.

If you need help paying for school, they’ve got scholarships on there too.

Course Hero’s scholarships are really easy to apply for if you meet their application criteria. Most of them require a short answer, but some of the larger ones involve a bit of essay writing.

They change up the scholarships all the time, so keep your eyes peeled if you’re in school.

Educators can use Course Hero as well.

Course Hero offers accounts to educators so they can customize lesson plans using materials in Course Hero’s library. Unlocking these documents works the same for educators as it does for students.

Upsells

Course Hero’s main upsell is it’s Premier subscription. A Premier subscription gives you 30 unlocks a month, but your unlocks don’t roll over. Monthly subscribers get 10 tutor questions, quarterly (3 month) subscribers get 20 tutor questions, and yearly subscribers get 40 tutor questions.

Unfortunately, tutor questions don’t roll over. Once you use them, you’ll have to buy more or earn them as if you had a free membership.

For what you get, Premier doesn’t seem to be worth the price. If you’re a student, you probably don’t have the money or the willingness to spend the money anyways.

You might as well skip the upsell and earn your unlocks and tutor questions the free way.

Pricing

Course Hero’s basic subscription is free. The Premier subscription has 3 pricing options. You can $39.95 per month, $59.85 per 3 months, or $119.40 per year.

Opting for the 3-month option saves you $20 per month. The yearly option yields you $30 in savings.

If you’re a college student who’s always seeking out additional study resources, that yearly price might be worth it. If you simply have a hard semester, then the 3-month option might be better.

The monthly option isn’t really a great value unless you’re desperate and don’t have a lot of study documents yourself. You can always upload study materials and refer friends to earn free unlocks and questions.

Speaking of unlocks, you can only buy more of them if you have a Premier membership. Tutor questions can be bought at $3 a piece if you don’t want to earn them.

Affiliate Program

Course Hero has an affiliate program where affiliates can earn 10% commissions per referral. The affiliate program is run through various affiliate networks. These include Skimlinks, VigLink, ShareASale, Flexoffers, and CommissionJunction.

The affiliate networks Course Hero works with could change, so keep an eye out for that.

Course hero also provides you with branded icons and banners to market their site. To gain access to those, you must have an account and register for a Course Hero developer API key.

The refer a friend program isn’t exactly an affiliate program, but it does earn you a lot of tutor questions. Since tutor questions don’t roll over even for Premier subscribers, make sure to have a steady referral stream if you need a lot of tutor help.

Recap

Course Hero is definitely not a scam. In fact, it can’t be a scam or it wouldn’t exist in the first place.

Think about it.

If students didn’t benefit from Course Hero, then students wouldn’t contribute study materials to the platform. Course Hero would soon go under.

Based on their 10 million+ users, it doesn’t look too scammy to me.

I think crowdsourced education enhances the learning experience. It’s like having one large study group that’s willing to share all their resources with you and only you, as long as you give a little bit back.

Now, I can see why people equate using Course Hero with cheating. But how is browsing notes or getting tutor help online any different than sharing your notes with your classmates or visiting a tutor on campus?

Not to mention Course Hero bans anyone found violating their strict standards on cheating and copyright infringement.

Crowdsourced education is powerful, and Course Hero is a great example.

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Adrian Morrison’s Ecom Success Academy Review – is it legit?

Ecom Success Academy is a training program that teaches you how to build and scale a lucrative dropshipping business.

In our Ecom Success Academy review, we’ll tell you if it actually teaches you that or if it’s just another generic dropshipping course.

Dropshipping might have one of the lowest barriers to entry of any business model, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

You have to define your niche, build a storefront, find products, and figure out complicated ad campaign tools, and find other ways to stay profitable.

Then, you have to learn a new skillset when you want to scale your store.

Ecom Success Academy promises to teach you the entire process, from your first product sale to scaling your store and selling it for millions.

Here’s our full Ecom Success Academy review.

FAQ

1.) What is Ecom Success Academy? Ecom Success Academy is a training program that teaches you how to start, grow, and scale a successful dropshipping store. Ecom Success Academy’s main content is a series of 136 video lessons on how to start, grow, and scale a dropshipping business. There are 8 modules, but the lessons are split among the first 7. The first 7 modules cover Shopify, product sourcing, Facebook ads, email marketing, building a team, project management, and exit strategies. The 8th module is the bonus module.

2.) When was Ecom Success Academy created? The first version was released in 2016. The newest version is Ecom Success Academy 2019.

3.) Why are there multiple versions of the course? This course is re-released every year with updated information and new bonuses to stay relevant.

4.) Are there bonuses? Yes. There are actually two separate bonus areas. The first is the 8th module of the main content. This module offers 4 weeks of daily live coaching with Adrian, an in-depth look into Adrian’s email marketing strategies, further outsourcing tips, a cloud-based app that helps identify hot-selling products, and a case study of a $152k dropshipping store. The other bonuses include weekly “Profit Power Hour” webinar trainings with Adrian, a lifetime 10% Shopify discount, and a list of Shopify apps Adrian uses on his stores.

5.) What do the weekly Profit Power Hour webinars cover? In these, Adrian shares results and updates of his current campaigns, shares how he achieved those results, discusses current trends and topics in dropshipping, and answers Ecom Success Academy member questions.

6.) Why are there multiple yearly editions of Ecom Success Academy? Ecom Success Academy is a Shopify Education Partner. This program requires Adrian to update the course on a yearly basis. More on the Shopify Education Partner program in FAQ #17.

7.) Who is Adrian Morrison? Adrian Morrison is one of the planet’s top Facebook marketers. He consults on Facebook ads with multi-million dollar companies and top social media influences to drastically increase their traffic and revenue. And of course, he’s the founder of Ecom Success Academy.

8.) What is dropshipping? Dropshipping is an online business model where you sell products but hold no inventory. You build an online storefront and list products from suppliers like Aliexpress. When a customer places an order, you forward their order and shipping information to the supplier. The supplier ships the product directly to the customer.

9.) Why is dropshipping so popular? Many reasons. First, the low entry barrier. You don’t need inventory, so startup costs are minimal. Building a complete store on Shopify or a related platform takes only minutes. Also, location independence. You only need a laptop and a wifi connection to start a dropshipping business. A low entry barrier business model that you can work on from anywhere is very attractive.

10.) What is free + shipping? Free + shipping is a sales tactic that promises the customer a free product, but all they have to do is pay shipping. The idea is that customers are more likely to pay shipping on a free item than to buy an item with free shipping, even if the shipping price in the former is the same as the sale price in the latter. Works best with inexpensive products, as too high of shipping mitigates the whole effect. This tactic is emphasized in Ecom Success Academy. Many use their free + shipping product as a way to upsell customers on pricier items.

11.) Is dropshipping still a viable business model in 2019? Yes. What works in dropshipping changes quite fast, sometimes month-to-month. However, you can still succeed in dropshipping in 2019.

12.) Is dropshipping a good long-term business model? It can work long-term, but it’s not the best way.

13.) What’s the difference between dropshipping and Amazon’s Fulfillment By Amazon Program? Fulfillment By Amazon requires you to purchase the inventory up front. Amazon handles all the fulfillment. Dropshipping does not require you to purchase inventory.

14.) What’s the difference between Shopify and Amazon? Shopify is an e-commerce platform, while Amazon is a marketplace. You can build your own store on Shopify, whereas you simply sell your products with no store on Amazon. However, Amazon made Shopify their preferred platform a few years ago, meaning you can list your Shopify store’s products on Amazon.

15.) What is Shopify? Shopify is one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, run by a Canadian company with the same name. This is the platform Adrian uses and teaches you how to use in Ecom Success Academy.

16.) Does Ecom Success Academy cover any other e-commerce platforms? No.

17.) Does Shopify offer a free trial? Yes. They offer a 14-day free trial. You don’t have to put a credit card down, so no need to worry about cancelling before being charged.

18.) Does my Ecom Success Academy purchase cover a Shopify subscription? No. However, you get a 10% lifetime discount.

19.) What is the Shopify Education Partners program? It’s a program Shopify developed to highlight the best e-commerce courses. Shopify carefully reviews the content for accuracy and quality before issuing a “Shopify Education Partner Approved Course” badge. The designation has strict requirements and Partners have to resubmit their course for review every year to ensure course content is updated. Currently, there are only 7 Shopify Partner courses.

20.) Which courses are Shopify Education Partners? Ecom Success Academy, Dropship Lifestyle, Dropship Academy 2.0, The Dropship Club, E-COM Launch, Ecomkers, and Start & Scale Your Online Store.

21.) How much does Ecom Success Academy cost? Ecom Success Academy costs $2,495.

22.) Does Ecom Success Academy have a free trial? No.

23.) What is Ecom Success Academy’s refund policy? Ecom Success Academy does not offer refunds.

24.) Are there any upsells? No.

25.) Does Ecom Success Academy have an affiliate program? Yes. You can earn 40% commissions, which is $998.80 per sale. There are also contests where you have a chance at more earnings.

26.) What is Ecom Success Academy’s BBB rating? F. They’ve had a lot of complaints in the past on there.

27.) Is Ecom Success Academy a scam? No. Aside from the massive amount of course content and bonuses, Shopify themselves approved this course as part of their Shopify Education Partner program.

28.) What complaints/criticisms have been made of Ecom Success Academy? Many criticize its price and no-refund policy. The price is fair given the content amount in my opinion. They don’t make you aware of the no-refund policy until the bottom of the checkout page. It’s there, but it could be more prominent.

29.) What makes Ecom Success Academy different than similar courses? Ecom Success Academy’s main selling point is the level of content. It is extremely thorough and always up-to-date, thanks to their Shopify Partner status.

30.) Comparable programs: Drop Ship Lifestyle, Dropship Academy 2.0, The Dropship Club, Zero Up

Ecom Success Academy Review – Overview

Ecom Success Academy is a training program that teaches you how to build and scale an online store to 6, 7, or even 8 figures. It was created by Adrian Morrison.

Adrian Morrison is one of the planet’s top Facebook experts. Tai Lopez even named Adrian as one of his mentors once.

Born in Madison, Mississippi, Adrian attended the University of Mississippi with plans to pursue law.

That dream would be short-lived when his father lost his multi-million dollar retirement in the WorldCom scandal of the early 2000’s.

He then abandoned his lawyer ambitions and pursued internet marketing.

Fast forward through years of learning, and he now runs multi-million dollar e-com and affiliate marketing businesses. In addition, he gives talks on these subjects and develops e-com and affiliate marketing software.

He also gives away cash on his public Facebook.

Adrian’s compiled everything he knows about e-commerce and Facebook ads into a course called Ecom Success Academy. It’s not just dropshipping, either. There’s also print-on-demand content inside.

Each year, Adrian rereleases the course with updated information and more bonuses as part of his Shopify Partners agreement.

Is Ecom Success Academy worth a buy?

Sounds like it so far, but read the rest of our Ecom Success Academy review for the full details.

Product

Ecom Success Academy’s main content is a series of 136 video lessons split among 7 modules: 40 lessons on Shopify,12 lessons on Sourcing Products , 63 lessons on Facebook, 8 lessons on Email Marketing, 7 lessons on Building Your A-Team, 4 lessons on Project Management, and 2 lessons on Long-Term Exit Plans. For more organization, there are submodules within each module that group related lessons together.

The 8th module is the bonus section of the main content. These bonuses include 30 days of daily live coaching with Adrian, an in-depth look at Adrian’s email marketing strategies, more tips on outsourcing, an app that identifies best-selling products, and case studies of one of Adrian’s most successful product campaigns.

However, there are even more bonuses separate from the bonus module: weekly “Power Hour” webinar trainings with Adrian, a lifetime 10% Shopify discount, a list of several apps Adrian uses on his stores, and training on how to find and license art for print-on-demand products.

Module 1 is general Shopify training.

You’ll learn everything from store set up, to listing your products, to brand building and more in Shopify’s 40 lessons.

Then you learn a lot about product sourcing in Module 2.

In addition to learning content about dropshipping product sourcing and print-on-demand products, Adrian divulges his secrets for finding the best products and how he negotiates with his suppliers for great prices.

Adrian is one of the most prolific Facebook marketers in the world, and he shows it with Module 3.

At 63 lessons, this module alone makes up almost half the course. Everything you need to know about Facebook ads can be found in these lessons.

It is one of the most comprehensive Facebook ads trainings I’ve seen in a course that isn’t focused solely on Facebook ads. Everything from ad types to retargeting to split testing is covered in Module 3.

Module 4 teaches email marketing basics.

Adrian covers email setup, multiple types of email promotions, and other tips for increasing conversions with email. He included some email templates you can use for your own Shopify promotions.

By the end of Module 4, you’ve learned everything about running your store as a one-man operation.

At some point, you’ll need to offload work onto someone else, which is what Module 5 teaches.

In Module 5, you’ll learn how to build a successful team that allows you to scale your store with as little headache as possible. This is a critical step to scaling, as your hiring decisions could be the difference between successful scaling and running your store into the ground.

Adrian covers how to hire someone for product research, customer service, social media management, and overall project management. He also gives you places to find these people, such as Upwork.

You could apply these lessons to any business, really.

Then, there’s project management in Module 6.

As you grow your team and your store, you’ll shift away from “on-the-ground” tasks and towards the big picture. Management skills are essential to scale your store smoothly. In here, you’ll learn how to manage your team in order to get the most out of them.

He covers apps like Slack and Asana, both great project management tools.

Again, these lessons can be applied to business models other than dropshipping.

At the end sits Module 7.

Most dropshippers eventually want to exit the market, and they naturally want to reap the maximum profit from their store. Adrian has 2 lessons teaching you how to do so in this module.

One lesson shows you how to make a Profit & Loss statement, a critical component of demonstrating your store’s value. The other lesson teaches you about ways to add value to your store before you sell it.

I’m glad Adrian did well with Modules 5-8. Once your store hits a certain income level, it’s nearly impossible to grow your store without scaling. Most dropshippers quickly grasp the basics of running a Shopify store, but the hard part is building a team and “formalizing” your business with project management procedures.

Many dropshipping courses unfortunately don’t teach that stuff very well, but I think Ecom Success Academy did a pretty good job of it.

When you’re done with Modules 1-7, there’s the bonus module containing your coaching calls, email marketing and outsourcing tips, app list, and case study.

Unfortunately, the 4 weeks of live coaching already happened. Adrian did it for the first 30 days that the course was out, but you can access the recordings if you buy the course.

Then there’s the quick email marketing bonus.

There are a few short lessons about product launches and solo ads in this bonus.

As for the outsourcing bonus, Adrian covers the soft skills you’ll need as the boss of your business.

Things like how to hire VAs, how to structure your team, and how to create a business culture that leads to success are all covered.

Adrian dubbed his product-seeking app the Sizzle Product Sniper.

This is his personal software that identifies high-converting ads, locates the ads’ products on Aliexpress, and finds the best deals on those products so you can instantly add them to your store.

It’s useful both for swiping ad ideas and finding profitable products.

The case studies he included lets you see Adrian in action.

He shows you the products he sold, the ads he wrote, and the audiences he targeted that earned him a combined total of $1.2 million over 4 campaigns.

Time for more bonuses, starting with the “Profit Power Hour” trainings.

These are weekly, live webinars. In these Profit Power Hour webinars, Adrian covers e-com industry developments, answers member questions, and discusses his latest ad campaign results.

Power Hours happen every Tuesday at 9pm EST in his private Profit Power Hour Facebook group. If you miss one, they’re recorded and added to the member’s area in Ecom Success Academy.

This direct access to Adrian is one of the most valuable pieces of Ecom Success Academy, as you get to see his knowledge in action and ask for help on your own store.

Also, he posts an “after-party” video on his public Facebook after each Profit Power Hour. They’re only a few minutes long and he gives away a few hundred dollars cash during these videos, so they might be worth a look.

The next bonus is his list of Shopify apps.

Adrian uses every app on this list to enhance conversions, retarget ads, and recover “abandoned cart” customers.

One app you’d recognize is Mailchimp.

If you’ve ever dabbled in e-commerce, you’d also recognize Abandonment Protector, the app that helps recover sales from customers who added items to their cart then never checked out.

Then, there’re two Facebook ads app called Pixel Magic and Retargeting Made Easy. Pixel Magic lets you install your Facebook pixel onto your Shopify store, while Retargeting Made Easy helps you retarget your ads for more sale.

Better Shipping is also on there. It lets you customize everything related to your store’s shipping.

Teelaunch is another one of Adrian’s favorites. This app streamlines the print-on-demand process by letting you upload your design then choose from over 65 items to print it on.

Finally, Adrian uses the Conversion app to add a sense of urgency through the use of countdown timers. You know, the kinds you see on every online course’s sales page.

This increases conversions since people don’t want to “miss out”.

If you’re looking to try your hand at print-on-demand, he even has training on how to find and license art.

He gives you a few lessons on finding artists and using their art to create a profitable print-on-demand store without having to do a lick of design work.

Finally, the Shopify discount.

Thanks to his Shopify Partner status, Adrian is able to extend you a 10% lifetime discount on a Shopify subscription. More on Shopify here.

Ecom Success Academy has an endless amount of useful material inside the course. I have to say I’m impressed.

Upsells

Ecom Success Academy has no upsells. There isn’t much to upsell anyways, as this program has a ton in it.

That might change in future releases of Ecom Success Academy.

Pricing

Ecom Success Academy costs $2,495 up front, or you can opt for 3 monthly payments of $997.

That might be expensive, but considering the amount of content and support you get, that’s a decent price.

A basic Shopify subscription costs $29 per month. You’ll need to buy this separately, although you do get a 14-day free trial as well as Adrian’s discount.

Affiliate Program

Ecom Success Academy has an affiliate program. Affiliates can earn 40% commissions per sale, which equals $998.8 per sale. 3 sales per week would earn you almost $150,000 per year.

Not too bad.

Technically, Adrian calls it a joint venture program, but it operates largely the same as any other affiliate program.

However, you can also earn prizes as an affiliate.

There’s a Sales Contest, and Overall Leads Contest, and an “Everyone Wins” Leads Contest.

To sign up for their affiliate program, you have to go here and fill in your information.

Recap

Ecom Success Academy is not a scam. In fact, it’s the furthest thing from it. For $2,500, you’re getting an insane amount of content and weekly live updates from the course creator himself.

But if that wasn’t enough, you can’t really call this a scam if it’s 1 of only 7 dropshipping courses with the Shopify seal of approval.

Of course, Shopify’s been around forever and is starting to get some competition as other platforms move to take market share.

So does Shopify still work in 2019? I’ll tell you what I think here.

from MLM Companies

Shopify Review – Does it still work?

Shopify is an e-commerce platform run by a company of the same name.

In our Shopify review, we’ll tell you if building an e-commerce business on Shopify still works in 2019.

E-commerce is growing rapidly thanks to the internet. In particular, the dropshipping business model has exploded in popularity, evidenced by courses like Fred Lam’s Zero Up program.

Dropshipping has a very low barrier to entry, as it’s basically online retail without inventory. All you need to succeed is some market research and a few hundred dollars for advertising.

There are a lot of platforms out there that make the store-building process easier, but Shopify is perhaps the most well-known.

It offers a lot of features to help you start your own store within a day, but is it still effective as an e-commerce platform in 2019?

Read the rest of our Shopify review below to find out.

FAQ

1.) What is Shopify? Shopify is an e-commerce platform that you can start and grow an online store on. It offers tons of tools and features to simplify and automate your business. The company that runs it is also called Shopify, and they are based in Ontario, Ottawa, Canada. They’ve been around since 2004.

2.) Does Shopify itself sell any products? No. It’s simply an e-commerce platform. All it sells is subscription plans. However, you can purchase apps developed by others on Shopify to enhance your store.

3.) Do I need design/development skills to build a store? No. Shopify handles all that, you just build your business.

4.) What’s the difference between Shopify and Amazon? Shopify is a platform you can build your own store on, while Amazon is a marketplace where you can sell products alongside other sellers. Amazon doesn’t give you your own store. Amazon used to have their Amazon Webstore platform which was similar to Shopify, but they closed and let Webstore users migrate to Shopify. In addition, Shopify lets you sell your products on Amazon.

5.) Can I sell in other places besides my online storefront? Yes. Shopify lets you sell online, on mobile devices, social media, online marketplaces, and even brick-and-mortar locations. Selling in person is possible through their Shopify Point-of-Sales app.

6.) Can I use my own domain name for my store? Yes. If you have a domain name already, you can connect it to your store. If you haven’t bought a domain name yet, you can either buy a domain from Shopify or from an outside provider. I

7.) What is dropshipping? Dropshipping is a business model where you list and sell products online but hold no inventory. When a customer purchases one of your products, you buy the item from your supplier and pass along the customer’s order and shipping information. The supplier then packages the product and ships it directly to the customer. It’s just one version of e-commerce, so don’t mix those up.

8.) Do I need a lot of money to start a dropshipping business? No. Theoretically, you can start for free. However, having $500-$1,000 for ad spend is enough to get a dropshipping store off the ground in relatively little time.

9.) What kind of ads do people use to market their Shopify store? Facebook is the most common ad platform for dropshipping businesses. Many people also use Google and other search engine ads. Some try using SEO, but that rarely works unless your store is large and has a long history.

10.) Where do you find dropshipping products? Aliexpress is one of the most common places for people to find products. However, you can dropship products from any supplier that’s willing to.

11.) How many products can I sell in a Shopify dropshipping store? Shopify lets you list as many products as you want.

12.) Is dropshipping the only business you can start on Shopify? No. If you create your own products, you can sell those as well. You can even build a service business on Shopify if you get a little creative.

13.) Aren’t dropshippers just middlemen? Not exactly, although it isn’t the most value-added business model. However, you can add value by providing an excellent customer experience as well as exposing people to products they might not otherwise have known about. Some larger stores like Fred Lam’s Water Liberty partner with charities as well.

14.) Is dropshipping a scam? No. You can build a legit dropshipping business, but it takes time and effort. Dropshipping does have a scammy reputation due in part to the dropshipping courses that promise to get your rich quickly. Also, some stores do scam people with shady marketing tactics or just ripping them off, but there are many legitimate dropshippers out there too.

15.) What countries is Shopify available in? Shopify works in almost every country.

16.) Does Shopify have any educational materials? Yes. In fact, they have Shopify Academy packed with courses covering all aspects of e-commerce. Shopify also has guides, podcasts, forums, a blog, and more.

17.) How does shipping work? You can use third-party shipping services to get orders to your customers. Your supplier will pick, pack, and ship the order.

18.) How do I get paid on Shopify? Shopify has a payment gateway called Shopify Payments that you can link to your bank account. You may also opt for an outside gateway like PayPal, but Shopify charges extra fees for using outside gateways.

19.) How much does a Shopify subscription cost? The basic subscription called Basic Shopify costs $29 per month.

20.) Does Shopify offer a free trial? Yes. Shopify offers you a 14-day free trial. You don’t have to put down a credit card if you don’t pick a paid plan to subscribe to at the end of your trial, meaning you don’t have to worry about being charged when your trial ends. Your store is paused when your trial ends until buy a subscription.

21.) Can you sell products during the free trial period? No. You can set up your store and even list your products during the free trial, but you can’t sell anything without a paid subscription.

22.) What is Shopify’s refund policy? They don’t have one. A fair decision since their service is subscription-based and they give you two weeks for free.

23.) Are there any upsells? Yes. There are two direct upsells called “Shopify” and “Advanced Shopify”. There is another upsell called Shopify Plus, but it’s oriented towards larger businesses such as wholesalers. Shopify costs $79 per month, Advanced Shopify costs $299 per month, and Shopify Plus costs $2,000 per month.

24.) Are there any downsells? Yes, there is one called Shopify Lite. You can integrate it with an existing website or blog to add some e-commerce opportunities, but you don’t get a full-blown store. Shopify Lite costs $9 per month.

25.) Does Shopify have an affiliate program? Yes. It’s within their Partner program. Affiliates can earn one-time commissions of 200% of their referrals monthly subscription fees, as well as $2,000 per Shopify Plus referral.

26.) What up with their Partner program? It provides other ways to earn revenue similar to their affiliate program. Partners can earn by creating Shopify apps, themes, or referring people to Shopify like a traditional affiliate program. This program is geared towards creative agencies who want to work with Shopify, but Shopify business owners can become partners as well. It’s free to join.

27.) What is the Shopify Education Partners program? Shopify carefully evaluates e-com and dropshipping courses for accuracy and quality using a long list of criteria. Courses that make the cut are given a Shopify badge of approval they can use to enhance credibility. Shopify Partners update their courses regularly, as they must resubmit their courses to Shopify on a yearly basis to ensure the material isn’t outdated.

28.) Which courses are Shopify Partners? There are only 7 Shopify Partner courses. They are Dropship Lifestyle, Dropship Academy 2.0, The Dropship Club, E-COM Launch, Ecomkers, Ecom Success Academy, and Start & Scale Your Online Store.

29.) What is Shopify’s BBB rating? A+

30.) Is Shopify a scam? No. It is one of the leading e-commerce platforms. Given their size, they’ve had surprisingly little criticism or bad press. They’ve been criticized for allowing a controversial news outlet to have a store, but Shopify cited free speech to defend their choice to give them a store. They’ve also been accused of being a get rich quick scheme by an activist who short sells companies as part of his activism, although that accusation makes no sense.

31.) Comparable Companies: WooCommerce/Wordpress, BigCommerce, Volusion, Amazon

Shopify Review – Overview

Shopify is the name of both an e-commerce platform and the company the created it. Shopify is based in Ontario, Ottawa, Canada.

It was founded in 2004 by 3 people named Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. Before Shopify, they tried to launch an online snowboarding equipment store. After that failed, Tobias used his computer programming skills to create Shopify as he was disappointed by the e-commerce platforms of his time.

Since then, Shopify’s user base has grown to over 800,000 businesses. They’ve been so successful that Amazon closed down it’s Amazon Webstore e-commerce platform in favor of using Shopify a few years ago.

Shopify hasn’t experienced much bad press relative to similar companies like Amazon. It did get some criticism in 2017 for letting a controversial political publication create a Shopify store, but Shopify said closing the store would violate their free speech.

The other controversy was an accusation of a get-rich-quick scheme by an activist investor who short sells companies. His criticism didn’t make much sense since Shopify doesn’t sell anything but a platform for people to build businesses on.

Although you can run any sort of e-commerce business on Shopify, the most common business model is dropshipping.

To learn why so many dropshippers have chosen Shopify, keep reading our Shopify review for more details.

Product

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that focuses on making your store-building experience as streamlined as possible. The platform’s basic plan is called Basic Shopify.

Basic Shopify gives you a full-fledged, customizable online storefront. You can build your entire storefront without writing a single line of code.

All you need to do is find a theme on their intuitive theme marketplace, install the theme, and customize your newly-themed store however you like.

You can then navigate to the “Products” area to create and customize your product and collection listings.

There’s no limit to how many products you can list on your store, so you won’t feel restricted when it comes to building your business.

You’ll also need a domain name. You can get one through Shopify or another domain name provider.

The last step is payment setup. Shopify offers its own gateway called Shopify Payments, but you can choose an external payment gateway if you’d like.

Unfortunately, you’re hit with extra fees if you opt for a payment process other than Shopify Payments. You also don’t gain access to their fraud analysis feature if you pick an outside gateway.

Other than that, the whole process is painless.

Once you’ve created your store, Shopify has a suite of features for further store growth and customization.

One thing they offer is staff accounts. If your business grows large enough, you’ll need to hire a VA or customers service person to handle more mundane tasks while you look for more growth opportunities.

Other features include discount codes, discounted third-party shipping, and more recently, their abandoned cart recovery features that used to be reserved for the more expensive subscriptions.

They even have a Point-of-Sales app if you ever get the opportunity to sell in person.

When you get your store up and running, you’ll need to download apps to enhance the customer experience and increase conversions. Shopify has its own app store with new apps being developed every day.

If you’re new to the world of e-commerce, Shopify’s got you covered too. There are endless learning materials that cover almost everything related to dropshipping, like courses, guides, podcasts, and their blog.

Upsells and Downsells

Shopify’s basic plan has a few upsells. They are “Shopify”, “Advanced Shopify”, and “Shopify Plus”. There’s also a downsell called Shopify Lite.

Each upsell includes everything the preceding product has on top of its new features.

“Shopify” expands on the Basic Shopify’s offerings with many new features. The most noticeable is the fact that you can have up to 5 staff accounts. “Shopify” also lets you make gift cards for your store, generate professional store reports, and they give you some better shipping discounts. In addition, “Shopify” let you do register shifts, similar to a brick-and-mortar retail store. These shifts let you hold your staff accountable for the register’s money and balance your cash drawer.

And if you use the POS app, “Shopify” gives you unlimited staff PINs.

Advanced Shopify builds on its predecessor by adding 10 new staff accounts, an advanced report builder, shipping rate calculations from third-parties, and even more shipping discounts.

Shopify Plus is for much larger businesses, and it delivers with a whole new suite of features. For example, you can create up to 10 stores if you sell internationally, tailoring each store to its market.

Shopify Plus can process 8,000 orders per minute per store, further helping it’s high-volume e-commerce clients.

There’s also automation tools for flash sales and other special events so you can make thousands of sales with minimal effort.

Customization is improved too. In Shopify Plus, you can use JavaScript and CSS to customize your store to your heart’s content. Perhaps you could implement some features to boost conversions.

You can also customize your workflows, increasing automation in your business.

They’ve advanced the API as well, allowing for much more app integration.

If you’re interested in expanding into wholesale, Shopify Plus gives you a wholesale channel that serves as an extension of your main storefront. It only takes minutes, and you can streamline your operations by integrating your retail channel with your wholesale channel.

You have to contact Shopify if you’re interested in a Shopify Plus plan. They let agencies contact Shopify on behalf of their clients too. Something to keep in mind if you’re running a marketing agency.

Shopify Lite doesn’t give you a full store, but it integrates with existing websites, blogs, and social media to add an e-commerce element. It works great if you want to monetize or boost income from one of these sources.

For Facebook, Shopify Lite gives you a “Shop” section for your audience to buy your product. It also lets you handle customer support through Facebook Messenger.

As for websites and blogs, Shopify Lite lets you add “Buy” buttons to your site with just a few clicks. This feature works with WordPress, Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace.

Pricing

Basic Shopify costs $29 per month, Shopify costs $79 per month, and Advanced Shopify costs $300 per month. If you opt to pay for a year upfront, you get a 10% discount on whichever plan you choose, while opting to pay for two years upfront earns you a 20% discount.

As for their credit card processing fees, you’ll be charged 2.9%+$0.30 per transaction with Basic Shopify, 2.6%+$0.30 per transaction with Shopify, and 2.4%+$0.30 per transaction with Advanced Shopify.

If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, you’ll be charged 2% per transaction with Basic Shopify, 1% per transaction with Shopify, and 0.5% with Advanced Shopify. These transaction fees are charged on top of the credit card processing fees.

Shopify Lite costs only $9 per month, making it an inexpensive way to integrate an e-commerce store into your existing website, blog, or business.

Shopify Plus’s pricing structure is a little more complex than the other Shopify plans. It starts at $2,000 per month

Shopify Plus charges credit card fees of 2.15%+$0.30 per transaction, with another 0.25% fee per transaction tacked on if you use an outside payment processor.

Now you can see why Shopify Plus is meant for bigger businesses.

Affiliate Program

Shopify has an affiliate program, but it’s within their “Partner” program. To become an affiliate, you need an active website relevant to Shopify and examples of how you’d market Shopify to your audience. They also ask for your digital marketing experience, but this experience isn’t mandatory to be an affiliate.

According to Shopify, affiliates can earn a one-time payment of 200% of each referral’s monthly subscription fee after discounts and credits. Half is paid in the first month, and half in the second month so if a referral cancels, you can still earn some money. Shopify Plus referrals earn you $2,000.

But that’s just affiliates.

You can also sign up as a Shopify Partner. This program is oriented more towards creative agencies that want to work with Shopify, but I think you can become one if you just run a Shopify store.

Instead of one-time commissions, Partners can earn 20% of their referral’s monthly subscription price for Shopify Lite through Advanced Shopify, while Shopify Plus referrals earn them 10% per month.

Shopify Plus Partners get the same deal, except they now earn 20% per Shopify Plus referral.

Partners can earn additional revenue through developing apps and designing themes for Shopify. App developers earn 80% of the revenue from the apps they create, with 20% going to Shopify.

Theme designers can choose to earn either 50% or 70% of the sale price of their theme. If a designer opts for 50%, they’re responsible for any theme bugs and can only sell their theme through Shopify, but Shopify helps answer support questions.

If a designer opts for the 70% rate, they take on the responsibility of answering any support questions that come their way. They can sell their theme through personal channels like their own website, but not on any open marketplaces.

Recap

Yes, Shopify still works in 2019. In fact, it still looks like the best platform for building a dropshipping business.

There’re endless features and tons of support, not to mention the learning materials they provide. The subscription price isn’t too bad either.

Shopify’s got some competition nowadays, but it still reigns as the king of e-commerce platform.

If you want an even faster start in the dropshipping game, you should consider investing in a course to cut the learning curve. One of the best programs on the market is Ecom Success Academy by Adrian Morrison. Not only is it a course filled with bonuses, but it has automation software for your store too. Read our full review here.

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Jeff Samis’s Profit League review – is it a scam?

Profit League is a program that teaches how to build a successful lead generation business with an emphasis on Facebook ads.

In our Profit League review, I’ll give you the full rundown of Profit League and whether or not it’s worth a buy.

There are two aspects of internet marketing that, when mastered, can make you a killing in online business.

One of these aspects is copywriting, while the other is paid traffic.

But if you don’t have your own business, you can actually start a business based solely on these two skills.

This business model is called lead generation.

Lead generation is very simple. All you do is run paid ads, usually Facebook ads, for clients in order to boost their revenue.

But to run a successful lead generation business, you need both clients and Facebook ads skills.

Getting your first few clients takes some sales skills and legwork. Eventually, you’ll want to build a persuasive sales funnel that brings clients to you on autopilot.

And then there’re Facebook ads, which are hard to learn. Learning them is made even more difficult by Facebook’s constantly-shifting rules and algorithms.

Profit League, a relatively new online program, claims to teach you both how to build your own lead generation business by landing clients that pay you thousands per month to run Facebook ad campaigns.

But Profit League is shrouded in mystery, as evidenced by their barebones website that has like 20 words on their entire home page. There really aren’t many places on the web with useful information about Profit League.

Our Profit League review contains everything you need to know before you decide to buy it.

Read our full Profit League review below.

FAQ

1.) What is Profit League? Profit League is a coaching program and community that teaches you how to generate leads for businesses using paid traffic.

2.) Why is Profit League’s website so empty? It helps them maintain a mysterious image. This makes their program more alluring to potential customers and drives these prospects to schedule a phone call with Profit League.

3.) What does Profit League include? Profit League includes 5 main sections aside from the Welcome section: Strategy, Conversion, Traffic, Facebook Ads, and Operations. Profit League also includes 20 successful Facebook ad campaign templates they call their “Hall of Fame Campaigns”, sales scripts and emails to use for both landing new clients and writing ads, access to the very active private Facebook group, and two weekly coaching calls over video chat with Jeff and the entire Profit League community.

4.) Does Profit League emphasize building your agency or the actual ad campaigns? There is more emphasis on how to build an agency and get clients, but the Facebook Ads section teaches you how to run campaigns for your clients.

5.) Who is Jeff Samis? Jeff Samis is a co-founder of Profit League with his wife Jessica. They are both from Canada.

6.) How involved is Jessica in Profit League compared to Jeff? They don’t provide any information on that. Jessica appears to help with a lot of nitty-gritty stuff, while Jeff runs the show.

7.) What is lead generation? Lead generation is the act of getting customers interested in a business’s product or service. This is accomplished through either paid ads or free methods.

8.) Do Jeff and/or Jessica have lead generation experience? Yes. They run a Facebook ads agency together. Jeff and Jessica put everything they learn from running their agency into Profit League.

9.) What is organic traffic? Organic traffic is free traffic. This kind of traffic is obtained primarily through SEO, although you can also get some traffic through word-of-mouth.

10.) What is paid traffic? Running advertisements to drive traffic to a sales funnel, as opposed to getting free traffic through SEO or word-of-mouth. Examples of paid traffic include Facebook ads, Google Adwords ads, and YouTube ads. Profit League emphasizes Facebook ads.

11.) Is lead generation/paid traffic a viable business model? Yes. You can make a living generating leads for businesses online. You build the funnel, the run ads to drive traffic to that funnel. However, you need to be comfortable with selling, as most of your business involves persuading clients to pay you to run ads before you even run the ads.

12.) How long does it take to know if your ad campaign is successful? It only takes about 24-48 hours to know if your ad campaign is successful.

13.) How quickly can I get results from Profit League? You could experience success within a day if you apply the stuff you learn in Profit League.

14.) Are Jeff and Jessica active in the Facebook group? Yes. They visit the group every day and try to answer as many questions as they can.

15.) What is Clickfunnels? Clickfunnels is a beginner-friendly, drag-and-drop sales funnel builder created by internet marketer and entrepreneur Russell Brunson. You can either build sales funnels from scratch or choose a funnel template, and you can integrate a ton of other apps into your funnel. The basic subscription is simply called Clickfunnels, while the upper-level subscription is called the Etison Suite.

16.) What does each Clickfunnels subscription offer? Clickfunnels lets you build up to 20 funnels, 100 landing pages, and max out your landing page traffic at 20,000. The Etison Suite allows for an unlimited amount of funnels, landing pages, and landing page traffic. Both packages offer A/B split testing tools, email marketing integration, and affiliate program page creation.

17.) Does Profit League cover your Clickfunnels subscription? No. You need to pay for that separately.

18.) How much does Clickfunnels cost? The basic subscription costs $97 per month. The Etison Suite costs $297 per month.

19.) Does Clickfunnels offer a free trial? Yes. They offer a 14-day free trial. You must cancel your trial before the end of the trial period to avoid being charged.

20.) Comparable Programs to Clickfunnels? Unbounce, Instapage

21.) How is Profit League different than other lead gen courses? It’s less of a course and more of a community with a coaching aspect. Also, instead of just covering how to build your business or how to run Facebook ad campaigns for clients, it teaches both. Lastly, paid traffic sources like Facebook and Google are always adjusting their rules and algorithms, forcing Jeff and Jessica to constantly adapt and find out what works. This makes for better course content, as nothing is out of date.

22.) How much does Profit League cost? $4,000. However, you also need to pay $97 per month for the base-level Clickfunnels subscription.

23.) Why doesn’t Profit League list their price? Profit League’s reason for not listing their price is to make sure they only get the most quality of candidates. In order to hear the $4,000 price tag, you have to book a “strategy call” with them. Part of this strategy call is most definitely a sales pitch for the program. However, if they’ve got you on the phone, you’ve qualified yourself as “more serious” than others, which makes it easier to sell you on a $4,000 program.

24.) What is Profit League’s refund policy? Profit League has no refund policy. All sales are final.

25.) Are there any upsells? No.

26.) Does Profit League have an affiliate program? No.

27.) What is Profit League’s BBB rating? Profit League does not have one, as they are a relatively new company.

28.) Is Profit League a scam? No. It’s pricy, but the information in the program and the community will teach you what you need to know if you want to start your own lead generation business.

29.) What criticisms have been made of Profit League? It’s mostly criticized for a combination of how new it is and it’s price. Also, they have the typical scam accusations.

30.) Comparable Programs: FB Playbook, ClearHat Lead Generation

Profit League Review – Overview

Profit League is a program that teaches both how to build a lead generation business and how to run lead generation campaigns for clients with Facebook ads. The information contained within can be applied to land clients for yourself in your lead-generation business or even just to enhance your non-lead generation business as well.

Jeff Samis and his wife Jessica are the “dynamic duo” behind Profit League. Hailing from Canada, they run their own Facebook ad agency. The Samis’s teach exactly what’s working for them in Profit League.

Speaking of Profit League, their website is pretty bare. You’re given two buttons to choose from: “Proof” and “Apply”.

Clicking Apply takes you to a screen where you can book your 1-hour strategy call with a successful Profit League community member. You can’t purchase the program until you’ve had this call.

They claim that this weeds out all but the most serious of candidates, but, to me, that sounds like a clever way to rope you into a sales pitch.

The only other information they provide is found by clicking the Proof button, which takes you to the FAQ page.

Once you’re there, you’ll be dismayed to see nothing but videos. Jeff and Jessica do answer some questions in an FAQ video, but who likes spending a bunch of time skipping around videos to find one piece of information?

Plus, many of these videos are just case studies of their successful customers.

Jeff does have a video on this page where he gives a quick tour of the member’s area, but he doesn’t cover everything in it.

All the more reason to continue reading our Profit League review!

Product

Profit League’s main content is a series of videos. In addition to this video content, you get weekly live coaching calls, ad campaign templates, and some sales and email scripts.

The member’s area has six sections: Welcome, Strategy, Conversion, Traffic, Facebook Ads, and Operations. Each section has it’s own set of video lessons.

Rather than narrating over a bunch of screenshots, though, Jeff recorded himself doing everything. I think this works well because you can follow him step by step without having to make any guesses.

With the exception of the Facebook ads section, Profit League focuses more on how to build your business than how to run Facebook ads. However, you could theoretically apply the other sections to improving your client work, as you’re doing the same thing for your clients that you’re doing for yourself.

The Welcome section is very short.

There’re only 2 videos, and they provide a brief overview of lead generation and all the content you’ll learn in the other sections.

In the Strategy area, you get an overview of the strategy Jeff and his wife use to draw clients to them.

Their focus is on building a persuasive sales funnel that lands clients on autopilot. You’ll have to start out by going to clients, but the goal is to flip things around and have a stream of clients asking you to run their campaigns.

Conversions has a few lessons on how to land lucrative clients for your lead-generation business.

Here, Jeff teaches you what he’s used to persuade clients to pay him thousands a month to run Facebook ads. Most of this section revolves around sales and psychology, but there’s some stuff about pricing and payment processing as well.

This section should be run through after the Traffic section.

The Traffic section has a few videos about how to get people to your landing page.

There’s an introductory lesson called “Filling Your Funnel” that gives an overview of traffic.

The rest of the content is split between outreach methods and examples of automated sales funnels.

Four types of outreach covered in this section, each with its own video: warm outreach, cold outreach, Facebook outreach, and networking.

Cold outreach is the most difficult form of outreach. You contact prospects that have no prior working relationship with you, so strong sales skills come in handy.

Warm outreach is a little easier, as these prospects at least know of your existence. The warmer the lead, the more likely you are to convert them.

The Samises also use Facebook for outreach. Most of the time, this means running ad campaigns for your business. Since the Samises run a Facebook ad agency, this is kind of their forte.

Networking is obvious. Head over to business meetups in your niche and sell yourself as someone who can improve their revenue through Facebook ad campaigns.

Facebook ads get their own section due to the amount of material to cover.

After the “Why Facebook Ads?” introductory video, the next four videos cover the pre-campaign stuff like defining your client’s objectives and researching their target audience.

The rest of the videos show you every step of an ad campaign and how to get each part right. You’ll learn how to set everything up first, then Jeff will teach you the anatomy of an ad.

From there, you’ll watch videos about how to target the correct audience, how to use insights from your campaign, and how to track the campaign’s results. Of course, there are a few videos about building landing pages and sales funnels with Clickfunnels too.

Towards the end of this section are a few videos on email marketing creation and integration. Jeff has a whole video on Mailchimp here.

Finally, the Operations section.

All the paperwork stuff is covered in here. Jeff shares his client proposals, client agreements, and how he reports results to clients.

None of the main course material is static. The Samis’s are always discovering new techniques for acquiring clients and running more successful campaigns. Also, paid traffic sources like Facebook are always changing their rules and algorithms. The Samises constantly update the learning material to keep up with an ever-shifting marketplace.

Perhaps the coolest feature is the ad campaign templates.

They call these templates their “Hall of Fame Campaigns”. These are proven templates the Samises have used to generate millions.

Profit League has 20 campaign templates from multiple types of clients, such as gyms, chiropractors, dentists, hair salons, restaurants, and real estate businesses.

Each template has a video for their strategy, their traffic, their conversions, and their retargeting efforts. Jeff also throws in the ad’s image and some marketing emails used in the campaign for good measure.

All you need to do is fill in the information relevant to your client and their audience and you can run a full-blown ad campaign without putting in much effort.

In addition to these campaign templates, Jeff included multiple sales scripts in Profit League. These are the same scripts he uses to sign clients that pay him thousands per month.

To support the main course content, you get two weekly coaching calls where you can ask questions about your business.

These coaching calls are in webinar format, and they are done with the entire community via video chat.

Profit League has a Facebook group as well. Jeff and Jessica are active in the Facebook group, helping people where they can by answering questions and encouraging students in the community to share their successes and failures so everyone can improve.

Speaking of the community, you don’t really feel like you’re competing with other people in Profit League. Everyone is quite supportive of each other, with students openly sharing what works for them and what doesn’t. Jeff will even add techniques discovered by students to Profit League if those students can show their results.

Stuff like this is extremely important in these expensive programs, as it shows that Profit League’s material works.

Upsells

Profit League does not have any upsells. Any new content is added straight into Profit League.

Frankly, I don’t think the Samis’s have any products besides Profit League.

However, that could change in the future as Profit League grows in memberships.

Pricing

Profit League costs $4,000.

Frustratingly, Jeff doesn’t tell you the price until you book a 1-hour strategy call.

Again, it sounds like you have to listen to a sales pitch before prying the price out of them.

I can understand why you’d want to sell someone on a program before revealing the price if it’s that expensive, but that’s just deceptive.

I think they’d weed out all the non-serious candidates if they just listed their price up front anyways.

Now, Jeff justifies that price tag by calling it “tuition”. That’s kind of fair since paid traffic is a very valuable skill to have, but it’s still a high price for such a new product.

Especially since you don’t get any information about the program until you book your call.

As for Clickfunnels, the basic subscription costs $97 per month and the upper-level subscription called the Etison Suite costs $297 per month. Unfortunately, this isn’t covered by the $4,000 Profit League purchase price. You’ll need to buy a Clickfunnels subscription separately.

Affiliate Program

Profit League does not have an affiliate program.

While unfortunate, this makes complete sense. Profit League is less of a product and more of a learning community for the most dedicated. The Samis’s want to cultivate a smaller, more serious customer base. It sounds like they care less about the Profit League income and more about the learning experience for their students.

After all, they make most of their money from their ad agency.

There’s also reputation. It only takes one affiliate marketer using shady sales tactics to turn people off of a course.

Of course, if they don’t tell you the price, they won’t have an affiliate program. Since their community members do the calls for them, they can really have an affiliate program anyways.

Recap

Many other courses or coaching programs teach either how to build a business or they teach a skill. Profit League is one of the rare programs that does both and balances them fairly well.

The Samis’s seem to care less about making money from Profit League and more about helping their students, which is a breath of fresh air among tons of courses creators who’s only goals are to make money on autopilot.

Overall, I think Profit League provides a lot of useful material and a great sense of community. It just costs so much compared to other paid traffic/lead generation courses, so you need to commit to building your business if you decide to invest in Profit League.

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