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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.