Is the Digital Affiliates a scam? Created by James Star and Bob Becket, these two are not strangers to affiliate marketing, but Digital Affiliates (TDA) is kind of new. But is there anything different here, and most important, is it going to help you earn passive income like it claims? At least, they say that they have so-called “secret formula”.
What is The Digital Affiliates and How Does It Work?
The Digital Affiliates is a marketing training program, and it focuses on affiliate product promotion and building websites. There is a $7 14 day trial available and membership starts at $37 a month.
Using a combination of tutorials and videos, the program includes creation of landing pages, product promotions and how to collect leads. Other topics covered are:
- Module 1: Start Building Your 1st Cash Machine: the focus is on landing page creation
- Module 2: Get Your Machine Online: tips on how to get the best hosting and domain
- Module 3: Simple Installation: how to set up Site5 and the Click Funnels plugin
- Module 4: Start Collecting Leads: how to use an auto responder
- Module 5: Find Product to Sell Online: here you’ll learn how to well products made by other people / companies so you don’t have to make your own
If you apply for the $37 membership package, you get the following:
- The 14 day trial
- A video welcoming you to The Digital Affiliates
- Videos to get started
- Case studies every week
Who is The Digital Affiliates For?
TDA is aimed at anyone who wants to earn money from affiliate marketing. According to TDA, their methods are simple enough for non-marketing experts to use, and the free trial is there to provide assurance for those new to affiliate marketing.
Those who have spent years in affiliate marketing will also find the service useful, as James Star says they use a far more efficient method for attracting buyers and thereby increasing your commissions.
The Good
- The 14 day trial has a no questions asked, money back guarantee.
- The weekly cases are detailed and offer useful information for those new to affiliate marketing.
- The people behind TDA are real, not made up like those in other affiliate marketing programs.
- The welcome videos do a good job explaining how affiliate marketing works and how you can profit from it.
- The tutorials for creating landing pages are good.
As you can see, there are certain areas that the Digital Affiliates is good at, but there are a lot of drawbacks that will arise from using it. We will look at them next and as you’ll see, these issues are hard to overcome.
The Bad
The biggest problem I have with the Digital Affiliates is how much money you have to spend just to get started. Yes, the membership is $37 a month, but as you watch the videos, you’ll those expenses will go up.
- In module 1 for instance, James Star says Click Funnel is required for TDA, and that costs $97 a month. Even though he says you can use others, the fact that his examples use Click Funnel leaves you no choice.
- In the next video you’re asked to sign up with Site5 to get a domain name. Why they chose Site5 I can only guess, but I do know there are cheaper hosting services, and some are even free.
- The third video offers instructions on how to use Click Funnels on a Site5 website. This only proves my point that in spite of their claims you can use other programs, you have no option but to use these if you want to get the most out of your membership.
- In module 4, they tell you to buy yet another program, Get Response. Just like the other videos before, the focus is on Get Response so it’s difficult to use other auto responders. Another thing I noticed in this video is the emphasis on gathering leads without explaining how to drive traffic to your site.
=> Try the Best Affiliate Program Online! (No Upsells)
The weekly case studies have some interesting content, but again the emphasis is on using Click Funnels. This isn’t meant as a knock against Click Funnels or any of the programs they recommend, but it would have been better if the guides were for general services.
The more advanced methods in Digital Affiliates requires you to spend more money, again. Their Digital Traffic Club for instance, costs $20. You also learn they have packages so you can purchase clicks ranging from 60 to 85 cents. You’ll have to spend around $270 for the cheaper packages.
One of the weekly case studies suggests that you use Click Magic to increase your chances of raking in the profits. To be fair, Click Magic looks like a solid program that can help, but it costs $12 at least.
It doesn’t end there though, because the Digital Affiliates also has a Pro Content for $97 a month. Here you get a couple of hours of webinars every month. The webinars also explain how you can make money online, and TDA is going to promote your link to help generate sales.
There is also the $198 Automated Profits package, where you will learn the “secrets” how rich people make tons of money every day. There’s also the 100k Accelerator, available for $600. With the 100k Accelerator, Digital Affiliates says you will learn the secret how to create a nonstop series of buyer leads on social media.
My Final Opinion of The Digital Affiliates
The Digital Affiliates is not 100% scam, but it’s going to cost a lot of money to start the program, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to make any of it back. The methods used are suspect and the costs just aren’t acceptable. Is there a way to make money from affiliate online marketing? Yes there are, but it’s not with Digital Affiliates.
One digital marketing program that I find effective is Wealthy Affiliate. Now I have to say this won’t make you millions of dollars overnight, but you will discover how to build websites, how to use interactive classrooms, top marketing techniques, and more.
After learning a few new skills in Wealthy Affiliate, you can even make a living online. I know personally many people who started in WA without almost any knowledge and nowadays they are making +$10,000/month. But I want to remind that it didn’t happen overnight. They went through the step-by-step training, put their skills into action and little by little their business grew like a snowball.
Have you tried the Digital Affiliates, Wealthy Affiliate or some other affiliate marketing training? What did you like? Leave a comment below!
Well while I don’t think $37 is too much to invest in your learning, the up sells are the killer. It drives the value down. I agree with you that Wealthy Affiliate is the best program out there. The value you get as a premium member with WA is bind boggling. Not to mention you can try the entire platform out for FREE. It’s a confusing world online with all the different places claiming to be able to teach you this and make you this income. Give WA a try and you won’t be disappointed you did!
Hi Scott,
powerful thoughts, my friend! $37 is a pocket money for most of us and people easily spend that money on something useless. Investing to our own education is almost always useful. If we concentrate on building our character, our life will change.
Wealthy Affiliate is definitely worth checking out. It’s totally free to get started and their “all-in-one” online business is just great.
-Roope
Hey Roope,
$37 is not bad for an online business course but those upsells are the ones that’s really bringing everything down especially their value.
Get Response on the other hand, is an auto responder and I think that should be the last thing on anyone’s mind when starting up because you’ll add unnecessary burden to your coins as there will hardly be any subscribers to your blog on the first 2 months. My personal opinion though, great review man!
Hi Riaz,
$37 is not a big investment for starting an online business. Many times it takes thousands of dollars to start a real brick-and-mortar business but one can launch an online business almost for free.
I agree with you that Get Response is definitely not necessary in the beginning. There are many ways to build traffic and Get Response could useful if somebody start by building a list. But how to build a list without initial traffic? One very common strategy to start building traffic is through search engines. It takes time to get great rankings on Google but once the website establishes the authority in Google’s eyes, there is no way back 😉
-Roope