About Andrew Wee
Andrew Wee | Blogging | Affiliate Marketing | Social Traffic Generation | Internet Marketing

BizExcellerated Internet Marketing: Achieve mastery in blogging, affiliate marketing, social traffic generation at Andrew Wee

Mike Filsaime’s Affiliate Jump and the Facts About CPA Marketing

Mike Filsaime and partner Joe Holland have recently launched a new “CPA affiliate network” to mixed reviews. But has it lived up to it’s hype? Let’s take a look.

After reading Ian Fernando’s scathing review last week, I wanted to take a close look at Affiliate Jump for myself.

Filsaime is an experienced internet marketer and has created products like Butterfly Marketing, Viral Friend Generator, 7Figure Income and Affiliate Conspirary. Given that Mike already owns affiliate network PayDotCom (where he’s still president and CEO), why has he launched another “affiliate network” Affiliate Jump?

Besides the obvious make money angle (for Filasaime), the jury is still out on the value the new “network” provides. Here’s my take.

“CPA Affiliate network” – I think the term is used loosely here. For one, there’s a $200 entry fee. Affiliate Jump ranks as one of the few (and possibly only) affiliate networks that requires affiliates to PAY to join.

The real world equivalent might be if you wanted to sell your house, you engage a realtor to market your property. You then CHARGE the realtor for the right to market your property. On top of that, you levy a monthly recurring charge to the realtor for the right to market your property. That’s what Affiliate Jump is doing. Does anyone else see anything wrong with the picture here?

Of course, you might be discounting the fact that Filsaime has kindly thrown in $5,000 worth of his old products like Butterfly Marketing, 7Figure Income and Traffic Fusion. On top of that, he’ll be conducting webinars and providing AdWords training (I hope he covers YSM and Bing too) and providing free CPA offers templates and free webhosting (I assume your monthly subscription goes towards offsetting these costs). There’s also “free” tracking.

So, putting aside the marketing pitch for the moment, Affiliate Jump looks like and smells like a membership site trying to provide CPA affiliate marketing training. In that case, why not call a spade, a space, and call Affiliate Jump a CPA affiliate training site?

Because it doesn’t seem to make sense for a CPA affiliate network (like one of the other 300+ existing CPA networks) to start charging for something which has already been free.

So even if you get over the mixed messages about the “Affiliate Network” that Filsaime has presented in his videos, let’s look at some of the messages that are being put across in the video.

Filsaime says CPA marketing is:

  • A “big boy’s network, (it’s) hard to get in.” Citing that he’s applied to CPA networks, waited 7 days and got declined.

I don’t think I’m a “big boy”, yet I’ve applied to numerous CPA networks and haven’t had difficulty getting in. Some as early as 2006.

Even if you get rejected from a CPA network, did you try calling in? In the rare instance I’ve been rejected, there’s almost always a contact email or number to get your application manually reviewed or to speak to a compliance manager. It’d be pretty foolish and doesn’t make sense for affiliate networks to turn away experienced and skilled affiliates.

Filsaime also says “Many CPA networks will not approve you unless you live in the US”

I’ve lived in Singapore and applied to the networks and have been accepted. Again, did you list “hotchick4you@gmail.com” as your contact email? Or otherwise make it difficult for the compliance manager to review your application?

It’d be foolish for any affiliate network who wants to be in business to turn away experienced affiliates. Many of the top affiliates live in the UK, Australia/New Zealand, Asia and Israel. I don’t see how any affiliate network owner would make decisions that limit their business’ growth.

I have an issue with the fact that all offers are unlocked for all members. Just because you paid a $200 entry fee at the door and a monthly charge doesn’t mean you won’t do something silly that will lead to fraud leads being generated. Without due diligence and a screening process, advertisers could be paying for leads which don’t convert, and ultimately pull their offer. This affects all affiliates promoting that particular offer.

With the industry trend moving towards refining lead quality, it looks like Affiliate Jump is running headlong in the opposite direction.

Some other “features” that Filsaime mentions “You don’t need to learn how to build a website” –

I won’t claim to be a skilled designer or programmer, but the bread-and-butter of successful CPA marketing is being able to analyze and optimize a campaign. This involves split testing, adjusting landing page/pre-sales page elements. It isn’t a sin to come into the industry not knowing how to build a website. But if you’ve been here longer than 6 months and can’t tell your HTML from your FTP, you’re going to be FUBARed.

The other problem I have with working with a network that is hosting my pages is that there’s no firewall. You’re hosting your pages at the place where someone has a vested interest and can analyze your data? No comments, but I wouldn’t do it myself.

It looks like Affiliate Jump has a library of landing page templates – if you’re an aspiring affiliate, think about this. If you’re using the same template that hundreds of other affiliate have access to, how will that affect your conversions?

Personal support: With the CPA networks I work with, I’m assigned an affiliate manager, who’s experienced in the industry. A number of them end up teaching me and giving me tips about platforms that I’m new to, such as PPV (pay per view) or Facebook Ads. This is one of the key criteria that helps me decide which networks to work with. Unless there’s scope for personal attention during the Affiliate Jump webinars, I doubt you’ll get very far with your campaigns.

Conclusion: While there seem to be an overwhelming number of negatives against Affiliate Jump, there is the possibility that some new affiliates will be benefit from it. With an entry fee of $200 and monthly charges starting at $39.95, you should have a budget of $680 for the first year (excluding PPC costs and other costs involved in getting your CPA business up).

My recommendation though if you are new to CPA marketing is to look at the networks listed in my Affiliate Network Review section, and apply to them. At every one of them I have an experienced affiliate manager who’s a sounding board and gives good tips on my campaigns (they’re not there to teach you everything about affiliate marketing though).

If you’d like some free affiliate marketing education, you might want to check out my Affiliate Marketing Tips series.

25 comments on Mike Filsaime’s Affiliate Jump and the Facts About CPA Marketing

  1. Ian Fernando
    August 19, 2009 at 12:05 am (15 years ago)

    thanks – looks like u dug deeper than my first reaction towards it =P

    your post is more unique since your in singapore! great point on that, I didnt even think about that one.

    great write up!

  2. Woodrow J. Jones
    August 19, 2009 at 8:14 am (15 years ago)

    Thank you for explaining more about CPA MArketing. This post is very informative.Keep it up!

  3. bisnis internet
    August 19, 2009 at 12:35 pm (15 years ago)

    Thanks about your review, i am looking for good cpa to join.

    Thanks

    david

  4. Fistuk
    August 19, 2009 at 3:55 pm (15 years ago)

    You put in words my thought exactly, although I would have put it much more bluntly

    Filsaime is an artist, he would squeeze a buck wherever he can, most of (not all of course) his products are either rip offs of others better packaged and leveraged with huge launches because of his friends or new creative ways on how to squeeze more $ from your customer.

    In this case he just bank on n00bes that probably got rejected once or twice by the CPA networks.
    He will be making money both with the entry & recurring fee and with the offers.

    If you ask me he’s a genius but don’t get into the jump BS

  5. Jack
    August 20, 2009 at 4:05 am (15 years ago)

    Thanks for the info and the review. I’m looking for an affiliate network, so I appreciate the link at the bottom

  6. ann
    August 20, 2009 at 4:52 am (15 years ago)

    Thanks for your insightful comments, refreshing for a change… not with a vested interest in making a fast buck on gullible people like me 🙂

  7. Francis
    August 21, 2009 at 2:11 pm (15 years ago)

    Very insightful! Unfortunately I fell for it, thinking that it’s a genuine CPA network with at least some support, affiliate managers etc.

    I can’t even login… and support is almost non-existent.

    Just chanced upon your blog. Enjoy reading your posts!
    From Singapore too 🙂

  8. Phebe
    August 22, 2009 at 2:03 am (15 years ago)

    @ Francis : ask for a refund ! I did, so do lots of customers

    Google closes your account when you offer CPA products through Adwords (TOS)
    Affiliatejump has only 2 people working at “support dept”

    Thank you Andrew ; you’re completely right !

  9. Sick of Internet Marketer's Crap
    August 25, 2009 at 12:19 pm (15 years ago)

    Thank you for posting your HONEST review. All the other reviews on the internet are from Mike’s own JV partners and affiliates. I am so tired of the claims that all of these internet marketing gurus seem to make, yet every single product that I buy is a bunch of regurgitated crap from the last guru. Honestly the only one’s I’ve enjoyed are the truly genuine teachers such as stompernet, eben pagen and frank kern.

    I’m SO disappointed that I actually spent money on this affiliatejump.com membership… it should be called affiliatejunk.com. I hate being a bad-mouther about products, but I’m totally frustrated at the rate that these gurus are selling out their integrity to make money off of people that have been duped many times before thinking that they will finally catch a break. Their “review sites” are total crap and the editing that they allow is very minimal. You cannot direct link any offers… and they hord all of the subscribers to each niche on “your” website and you never get to see them. Today I logged onto my affiliatejump.com membership and noticed a huge drop in commissions on several of the offers. On the first day eharmony.com and itsjustlunch.com was offering $30 per lead and now they are $4 and $3 per lead. What happened there? I’m sorry, but something isn’t right about this, I paid $40 for monthly membership, $200 to ‘sign up’ and an extra $100 to get the upgraded membership. I was duped. Do yourself a favor and save your money… its junk.

  10. Alexis Jamenson
    August 25, 2009 at 8:39 pm (15 years ago)

    Thank you for giving me additonal idea about CPA marketing!I appreciate this a lot! Thanks

  11. Josh Todd
    August 26, 2009 at 12:21 am (15 years ago)

    Affiliate Jump is a joke. This is so far removed from an actual CPA Network that Filsaime should be sued for misrepresentation. How much do you want to bet that when Net 30 rolls around the forums will be filled with people who aren’t getting paid…

  12. Frank
    August 28, 2009 at 1:36 am (15 years ago)

    Thanks Andy,
    You have saved me $239.95 Right From The Git-Go!

    Have A Good One

    Frank

  13. lou
    August 29, 2009 at 6:32 pm (15 years ago)

    I got my money back…AJ is a joke, believe it…if you still think it might be worth buying then before you do go to Warrior forum and check out reviews first! I got my money back thank goodness!

  14. Andre Ocean
    August 30, 2009 at 3:17 am (15 years ago)

    I have been through Affiliate Jump and I feel that gives us a lot of info in regards to CPA network. It is a very good source of extra income provided the information we provide is authentic.

  15. Andrew Wee
    August 30, 2009 at 6:42 pm (15 years ago)

    Hi Andre,
    Good to hear your opinion, though you seem to be in the minority here.

    Just wondering, did you go read other affiliate and CPA blogs and were in different forums before joining affiliate jump?

    If you actually learned something, I’d be pretty surprised……

    PS: Not to rain on your parade, but your sentence “it is a very good source of extra income provided the information we provide is authentic” – make no sense whatsoever.

    Are you informing on human rights abuses in exchange for some type of reward?

  16. Mikko
    September 3, 2009 at 11:55 pm (15 years ago)

    Hey Andrew, great post! I actually signed in Affiliate Jump couple weeks ago. I don’t like the fact that I have very little control over my sites, stats and list building. Well, this is my first step in CPA.

  17. Loong Zi
    September 7, 2009 at 9:36 am (15 years ago)

    Hi Andrew,

    Thanks for your insightful expert opinion. As you mentioned that an affiliate will be assigned with a dedicated affiliate manager, thus most CPA networks tend to be selective on who they would like to work with. It is pretty hard for any newbies with no proven records to be accepted easily. And I can see that Affiliate Jump is trying to market itself as a costly solution to the newbies.

    Hi Mikko,

    Would you like to share more info about the control, stats an list building as well as other features from Affiliate Jump?

  18. Mikko
    September 7, 2009 at 5:41 pm (15 years ago)

    Hi,
    In AJ it’s very easy to pick CPA offers and build websites, but you have no control over websites, email lists or stats. It’s not good that AJ keeps track of your stats. They basicly hand all valuable keyword information to merchants. Not good.

    They say that build email for you, but when I subscribed my own email list, I just got confirmation post and then nothing.

    At the time you can’t run PPC campaigns, at least Adwords, because websites are very thin and there isn’t posible to add pages like privacy policy, contact us, about us etc. Adwords quality score would be terrible.

    Al in all, I’m not very convinced about AJ. I’m considering to request refund.

    Mikko

  19. Phebe
    September 8, 2009 at 1:44 am (15 years ago)

    Finally got my money back.
    All my posts on Warriorforum are removed + my account has been deleted …

  20. Saladin
    September 10, 2009 at 3:48 am (15 years ago)

    Hello
    I’d like to thank everyone for their comments on Affiliate Jump. I have to say, the product looked soooo convincing. I’ve been involved with internet marketing for about a year now, and have only made a few hundred bucks, and was looking forward to something that might be lucrative. I am so disappointed. I was going to sign up this week for AJ. Thanks for reminding us about the issue with quality score with Google. I initially thought that with a landing page, Google might accept it and assign it a reasonable CPC rate. Is it true what Phoebe said regarding Google closing your account (“Google closes your account when you offer CPA products through Adwords”) when using Adwords? That does seem a bit drastic. Thanks for your comments. You’ve saved me some money.

  21. Phebe
    September 12, 2009 at 8:40 pm (15 years ago)

    Saladin : that’s what a fellow marketer told me…
    He works with Yahoo and other companies now, and still earns 200$ a day (He lives in the US).
    I must also admit that in my country Adwords for CPA offers like Acai are still shown.
    But according to Google’s TOS it is not allowed
    Check it for your country, maybe it’s worth trying.
    I have only 1 account, I don’t take the risk

  22. Arre Arre
    September 23, 2009 at 1:24 am (15 years ago)

    I think this guy (MF) is a complete i___t. Go and make a separate “education course” apart if you want. Besides, the products he has are a complete crap. Even paydotcom is full of crappy products and vendors who cheat other stupid affiliates. Just my 3 cents.

  23. Vic
    October 2, 2009 at 10:49 am (14 years ago)

    Can you suggest how I should go about getting my monies back cos I also got duped. Any advice would be appreciated.

  24. rene
    December 16, 2009 at 2:00 pm (14 years ago)

    hi andrew,

    im also from singapore and have been doing CPA for while. Haven’t made lot of money but im definitely not a novice to internet marketing and CPA offers. Im looking for like minded people to partner or brainstorm. Anyone keen can also contact me.

    cheers,
    rene ng

  25. prada ??? ??
    December 15, 2013 at 8:43 am (10 years ago)

    prada ??? ?? It’s very effortless to find out any topic
    on net as compared to books, as I found this article at this site.
    ??? ?? ????

Leave a reply