Affiliate Nation is a marketing company that offers high ticket affiliate marketing courses and done-for-you sales systems. The Vancouver-based company calls the service it offers "digital franchising," in which you promote a high ticket offer (Unify Travel Club membership) using their pre-set up systems. In this Affiliate Nation review, you'll find out why I do NOT recommend this done-for-you affiliate marketing service.
Affiliate marketing is a good way to make money online in 2024, especially if you have an active social media account or blog that gets regular visitors. There are free ways to promote your affiliate offer, but you need to have the skills to find success. Becoming a successful affiliate marketer requires a high selling product, marketing skills, and capital for paid ads. It's a numbers game where success comes from generating high traffic.
If passive income is your goal, local lead generation is a faster way to create a passive income stream. Compared to affiliate marketing, you don't have to run ads. You simply need to create and rank a Google site where you rent out space to local businesses. As Google is the world's largest search engine, ranking your site guarantees a flow of leads for your clients. This is done in smaller local areas, which means there is less or even non-existing competition. If long term predictable passive income is what you're looking for, I recommend local lead generation.
What Is Unify Travel Club?
Owned by Affiliate Nation co-founder Dylan Alarie, Unify Travel Club claims to be the "best travel membership club in the world," where, as a member, you'll be able to get huge travel discounts on everything from room bookings to transportation costs.
This all sounds great, but that's not all. Unify Travel Club has an affiliate program for its members. You can earn a 50% commission for every membership that you sell. This encourages members to sell memberships as affiliates. Unify Travel Club is similar to WorldVentures. WorldVentures is an MLM travel club that has a class action lawsuit against it. Affiliate Nation's co-founder Shane Carling was part of WorldVentures.
Questionable Advertisement
Unify Travel Club advertises that their members can save up to 89.4% on deals. They claim their members can find great vacation rentals that cost as little as $155 for an entire week. This is a common marketing tactic with travel clubs.
Why You Should Avoid Travel Clubs
Travel clubs are one of the top businesses being monitored by governments to prevent scams. There have been many instances of travel club scams and complaints from members of such clubs. Several governments have posted warnings about travel clubs on their websites.
Here is one example of a warning from Florida's consumer services department that appears to match the description of Unify Travel Club:
Note that this is just my opinion, as there is no proof that Unify Travel Club is a scam.
Is Affiliate Nation Legit?
Affiliate Nation is technically not a scam, as they have an actual product that they offer. They do provide a done-for-you marketing system for you. The problem might not be with Affiliate Nation itself, but with the predetermined high ticket offer (Unify Travel Club) you are to promote.
I would be wary about their promises. Affiliate Nation has been around for a few years and claims great success with their business, but seems to have little to show for it. I haven't found any real-world success stories, and many positive reviews may be from affiliates.
I've reviewed many suspicious courses, like Jim's Digital Marketing Masterclass, and they usually have some dubious practices with their marketing. I would do my due diligence before taking such courses.
What Is a Done-For-You Digital Franchise?
Co-founder Dylan Alarie explains that the service they offer is like franchising a brand (like how you would franchise a McDonald's) completely online. Basically, you would earn the resale rights to their product (in this case, the Unify Travel Club membership) in exchange for a fee.
Affiliate Nation offers a done-for-you marketing system for 6 months to a year, depending on the package you choose. They will provide you with the complete marketing system (sales funnels, marketing tools, CRMs, sales management, etc.), including a sales team that will set and close the sale for you.
Keep in mind that this is not a 100% hands free business. You need to follow the first steps to set up your lead generation system running, and the rest of the process will be done automatically.
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Nation
Pros
The free marketing training could be useful if you want to start your own affiliate marketing business.
Done-for-you sales funnels, marketing, and sales management.
2 live hands on training every week.
You get full commission even when a zero down monthly payment sale is closed.
Cons
The done-for-you business only sells one particular product, which is Unify Travel Club membership.
Travel clubs are widely known to sell the dream and not the experience. Unify Travel Club is fairly unknown. There is no evidence that they deliver what they promise.
You shoulder all the risks; the company loses nothing if you don't generate leads and make sales. Running paid ads will only increase your risks.
Price
Free organic marketing training. Price for the done-for-you system is given during the call.
Refund Policy
30-day refund that is subjected to review.
Origin
2020
Reputation
Lack of client reviews from non-affiliated sources. Travel clubs have a generally wary reputation.
Who Are the Founders of Affiliate Nation?
Affiliate Nation is founded by 6 experienced network and affiliate marketers from both Canada and the United States. They refer to their group as "the tribe".
Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Dylan Alarie is a co-founder of Affiliate Nation and often seen as the face of the company. You'll see him all over their website, and he'll be in all the training videos. Previously a carpenter by trade, Dylan got into the marketing industry after taking a marketing course from ClickFunnels' Russell Brunson.
Dylan is also the founder of Unify Marketing, under which Unify Travel Club operates. He is basically the mastermind behind Affiliate Nation's travel-related business route.
Also from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Shane Carling is a network marketing and sales trainer. Shane is the marketing director for the travel-related MLM company WorldVentures Holdings. In 2017, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company for illegal MLM practices. The company filed for bankruptcy in December 2020 and entered into an agreement in an effort to exit bankruptcy in 2021.
Shane is often seen in training videos on Affiliate Nation's YouTube channel. He is also the CEO of 7 Day Weekend Media, a marketing coaching group and program.
Another co-founder from Vancouver, Jordon Rowse, is a sales and marketing expert. Jordon worked in management positions for multiple sales and marketing companies such as iSM Sales Group, Rowse Enterprises Inc., Hypergen, and Set 2 Close, Peeple Inc. He does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work for Affiliate Nation.
He has a marketing and international business degree from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. Jordon also holds a master's degree in science specializing in logistics, supply chain management, and project management from SKEMA Business School.
Co-founder Justin Cartwright, also from British Columbia, Canada, is an IT technician, software programmer, and tech support specialist by trade. He is the managing technician of I.T. ISIN Solutions, a Canadian business consulting and IT management company. He is behind the integrated tech systems that keep Affiliate Nation running.
Justin took software programming and web development at Burnaby Arts Institute. Like Jordon, he also attended Thompson Rivers University and has a bachelor of business administration degree.
From Tampa, Florida, David Trachsel is a marketing management professional and a co-founder of Affiliate Nation. David is currently the senior marketing campaign manager for the cyber security company, Netrix Global. He was also the marketing manager for The SSL Store™, and the marketing and business development manager for iSM Sales Group.
Previously, David ran his own lead generation service and consulting company, Elite Local Leads. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in world economy and business. His experiences and expertise put him in charge of creating and launching big Affiliate Nation projects.
Michael Mossino, from Miami, Florida, is a digital marketing expert and co-founder of Affiliate Nation. He is considered the "paid ads wizard" of the company and is responsible for generating the company's leads. Michael came from a background of working in big companies; he is a management consultant for Accenture and previously worked as a digital marketing specialist for Microsoft.
Michael studied business administration at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business. He also earned his master’s degree in international business from the University of Florida with flying colors.
Who Is Affiliate Nation For?
Affiliate Nation is for anyone who wants to make money promoting travel and vacation packages. This is a big bonus for those who also love traveling, as affiliates receive the same benefits from the travel memberships they promote. For those who do not have the time to set up their own sales funnel and close sales, the done-for-you service has them covered.
What Do You Get With Affiliate Nation?
Affiliate Nation comes in 2 packages, the free marketing training course and the upsell high ticket done-for-you business. After you take the free marketing training course you will be encouraged to book a call. The done-for-you business will be offered during this call.
Organic Marketing Formula
Organic Marketing Formula is a free training course presented by Dylan Alarie and Shane Carling. The course teaches you how to use your own Facebook account to generate organic leads. There are 6 chapters/training videos:
Dylan shows you how to transform your profile into a sales tool for your affiliate marketing business. He gives tips such as using professionally taken photos and posting a call to action on your bio that links to your affiliate sales page.
A lesson on how to create a friends list that is good for your business. Shane suggests joining network marketing groups, then adding people who are actively commenting on the posts. This way, you will widen the markets you can access.
Once you have added more people to your friends list, Shane goes through the dos and don'ts on engaging with people's posts. Give a like and make genuine comments on people's posts. Like and comment on every comment on your posts. This is one way to keep your engagement high and increase your visibility on people's pages.
Shane gives tips on how to use spacing, emojis, etc. to make your posts appealing to people scrolling on their feed. Make sure your posts give value and are sincere. You have to keep actively doing this to the point that your posts are everywhere on your friend's feeds.
How to make magnetic Facebook live videos that draw people in. Shane gives his tips and methods on how to grab attention and hook your viewers.
By using the software Pepper, which is named after Tony Stark's assistant, you can automate up to 80% of your organic Facebook marketing. Affiliate Nation provides a link for the 14-day trial for Pepper. If you decide to purchase the full version after the free trial, Affiliate Nation will be informed and will give you their full Magnetic Marketing training course.
Done-For-You Marketing System
Affiliate Nation does more than just create the marketing and sales systems for you; they also handle setting and closing sales. In addition, you'll get hands on training on how to generate consistent leads for your business.
The 4 pillars of success in affiliate marketing, as highlighted by Affiliate Nation:
High ticket offers are products that give you $2,500 and above in commission. The prices of these products can range from $5,000 to well over $10,000. The reason that you should only sell high ticket products to be successful, is that you only need to make a few sales each month.
Of course, they already have a product picked for the done-for-you service. The high ticket product you'll be selling is the Unify Travel Club membership.
Affiliate Nation will create a high converting sales funnel for you. From finding and creating videos and graphics to creating good sales and email copy and using a CRM to automate the lead and sales process.
The company claims to spend over $8,000 a month on software and programs. Here are some of what they use for the businesses:
An affiliate marketer's job is to create leads and close sales in order to receive a commission. As their business partner, Affiliate Nation's sales team will take care of this for you. You don't have to worry about finding and following up with your leads or closing your sales.
There are 2 ways of generating leads: paid ads and free methods. While Affiliate Nation teaches you how to leverage free advertising through social media, it will take a lot of time and effort to create content and generate engagement to generate constant leads.
By signing up for their done-for-you marketing system, you will have access to Marketing Machine Pro, a software that will automate the lead generation process.
The length of the full service depends on which membership package you choose.
Can You Make Money Affiliate Nation?
Yes, you can make money with Affiliate Nation's done-for-you marketing system, as long as your affiliate link can actually drive leads to the sales page. Affiliate Nation takes care of all the technical parts of the business for you; all you have to worry about is promoting the product and generating leads.
Just keep in mind that advertising is king in affiliate marketing. You have to put in a lot of time and effort into creating and running effective ads. Paid ads are also very effective at generating leads if you're willing to risk spending money on them.
Unify Travel Club has multiple zero down monthly installment packages. You get full affiliate commissions for the total price when a sale is closed.
Are Clients of Affiliate Nation Successful?
There are a few client testimonials on their website. These reviews, though, lack details of real world successes. They mostly talk about the Affiliate Nation group itself and not how effective their services are. I have found no client reviews from outside their official site that aren't by affiliates.
My Verdict on Affiliate Nation
Affiliate Nation's done-for-you marketing system may sound like a good idea at first. The thing is, Affiliate Nation markets for Unify Travel Club; therefore, they would make money as long as any of their clients were making sales. This means that there is no guarantee that they will prioritize your business if you don't make sales. You take all the risk by signing up for their done-for-you program.
They do, however, have free training on generating organic leads that has some value to it. If you are willing to learn how to set up your affiliate website, you can go to an affiliate network and find high selling products to promote. If you have a niche site (such as a niche YouTube channel) where you can promote products related to your niche, the free organic lead training is extremely useful.
You might want to check out retail arbitrage, which is physically buying and reselling other people's products for a profit. There a re many coaches for this business, such as Luke Sample, who may teach you all you need to find success.
Best Passive Income Business Model of 2024
If you don't have a good product and the time and capital to spend on generating leads, I recommend local lead generation. With local lead generation, you don't need capital to run ads. You create and rank a site using free methods such as SEO, then rent it out to local businesses.
There are hundreds of niches and thousands of locations that you can choose from. By targeting smaller local areas, you don't have to worry about competition. Once your site is up and rented, you can focus your time on scaling your business. All you have to do is repeat the process as many times as you want, and each site will bring you predictable passive income.
A site can stay ranked on Google for years, which means it'll be awhile before you even need to update your sites. This makes Local Lead Generation the best online business model with the potential to create time and financial freedom for you.
