There are so many false claims about making money online.
But is Covert Commissions a scam, or one of the legit systems?
It is definitely great that you are looking into this before joining – there are a lot of things you are not told in relation to Covert Commissions. If you are not aware of this, you will likely become disappointed and frustrated.
In this Covert Commissions review I will therefore show you all the details about this system and some aspects you need to consider carefully before joining.
Covert Commissions at a Glance
Summary
Covert Commissions is a real product, and it is promoting a real way to make money online. However, it has a lot of warning signs, and things you are not told. The system makes a lot of exaggerated claims, you will not learn any real skills, it cultures an unhealthy attitude towards making money online, and it can end up being a lot more expensive to join than you are told.
What is Covert Commissions and what does it offer?
Covert Commissions is developed by Cindy Donovan. She started a company called Wildfire Concepts in 2015 after having already been involved in internet marketing for years.
This does however not mean that the system will actually do what you expect it to. So let’s go over what you will get with the system.
Covert Commissions is a system that will supposedly help you build an email list on autopilot and through this be able to make money through affiliate marketing.
The way it works is that you join the system, then choose a niche you would like to work in. After this you will get a squeeze page, which is a page people are send to, and this contains a great offer that makes people sign up for your list.
Then all you need to do is to send people to this squeeze page. So the systems makes it all sound very simple, as it is basically only one step you need to do.
Once people have signed up to your email list, Covert Commissions will continuously promote offers to this list, and every time this will be with your affiliate links, which means you will earn commissions when people buy.
All this will happen on autopilot. In addition to this, you will also get some training videos about how to generate traffic to your sign-up page.
An extra thing you get is a Covert Commissions plugin for WordPress. This will make it easy to integrate promotions for your squeeze page on any WP website.
All in all this sounds great and as an easy way to make passive money online right? Well, as I will show you in this review, there are definitely some things you need to know about how internet marketing works, before rushing off to get this system.
But let’s first look into if this is even a real way to make money online.
Is this a real way to make money?
The steps about just promoting offers to people and then make a commission almost sound too good to be true right?
Well, let me make it clear that affiliate marketing, as this is called is a 100% real and legit way to make money online. There are A LOT of companies that offer you commissions to promote their products.
You can find products within more or less any topic you can promote, and it is possible to make really good money online like this.
However, there are a lot of different approaches to affiliate marketing, and not all people use what I would call honest affiliate marketing, where you focus on helping people making the right choice and provides quality information, and only promote products you really recommend.
Unfortunately some people just focus on promoting whatever pays commissions and do not care about the people they sell to.
So affiliate marketing and the steps Covert Commissions explain are definitely a real way to make money online. To make it work in the long run and also do it in a way, where you actually provide value and can feel good about what you are doing, you need to do it with integrity.
I do not necessarily think this is the approach Covert Commissions teaches, and I disagree with many of the methods and think they have some dangers. I will go into this a little later. Let us first go over some good things about this system.
Recommended: See My Top Recommended Approach to Make Money Online
The good
Let me reveal that there are a lot of things I do not like about Covert Commissions, and it has a lot of warnings signs in my opinion.
But there are also a couple of things that are good about this system, and I also want to recognize these. These are mainly:
Good aspect #1 – Cindy is real
Cindy Donovan is actually a real person who has made good money online herself and has been involved in internet marketing for years.
Unfortunately I often see online money making systems, where there is no info about the owner, and in many cases it is just a fictitious person behind.
Covert Commissions has a real person behind it. On JV zoo where she sells a lot of her products, you can see she has developed and is selling many products.
The above image just shows a selection of the products she is selling, and there are quite a few more.
That Cindy is real and that she has developed many products is of course not in itself a sign of quality. But it is still a positive thing about Covert Commissions that you know who is behind it, and that it is a person who has actually made money online herself.
Good aspect #2 – The product is real
You are getting an actual product/system, if you buy Covert Commissions.
You will get access to squeeze pages, you will be able to build a list, you will get a WP plugin, and the system will start promoting your affiliate links.
So you are actually getting something, and you are not just sold an idea, as you are in some other online systems.
However, I do not necessarily think that Covert Commissions is a good system to make money online and do not think it is a good long term solution to create a sustainable income. This is because it also has many more warning signs and poor aspects than it does positive aspects in my opinion.
The bad
So there are some good things about Covert Commissions. But I think it has a lot more warning signs.
This does not mean it will not be the right system for you. It is just some things you need to consider before joining, so you know what you are getting into, and what to expect.
Warning sign #1 – Earn from day one
In the presentation video of Covert Commissions, Cindy says you will start earning from day one.
In my experience it is always a big warning sign when you are told you will start making money online from day one. It is possible, but you should not expect to start making a living from day one – maybe a few dollars, but not a living or hundreds of dollars.
In most cases it however takes time to build a real online income, and many people have to work hard for months before getting any income. The reality of internet marketing is just not that you can click a few buttons and then the money start rolling in.
Warning sign #2 – You are told it is easy and can happen automatically
You are told Covert Commissions is a 100% done-for-you system.
This claim and warning sign is closely connected to the one above. This is just not how internet marketing work.
There is no system that will be able to do all the work for you. This belief feeds an unhealthy approach to make money online, because it makes you believe you can just click a few buttons and do not need to make an effort.
This lazy approach is one of the big reasons many people fail with affiliate marketing. They are simply not willing to make an effort, and keep joining and paying for systems that claim that finally a system has been developed that can do all the work for you.
My best advice is to not get involved in internet marketing, if it is because you want easy and fast money without making an effort. It is very unlikely to happen, and you can end upwasting a lot of money joining programs that claim this is possible.
Warning sign #3 – Told you need a list
In the very beginning of the presentation video of Covert Commissions, Cindy tells you it is a fact that you need an email list to make money online.
It can definitely be an effective way to make money online to build a list.
BUT in my opinion systems that claim this is a necessity to make money online have got it all backwards.
Yes, of course you can make more sales, if you have many people you can send offers to. But this whole approach is build on an old-school approach that it is all about promoting and pushing people to buy.
There is no focus on helping people and providing quality information. If you do this, people will happily sign up for your list, and you will build a quality list and build a relationship and trust with your audience.
This is worth a lot more in terms of sales in the long run, and there is also a lot more personal satisfaction in focusing on quality instead of just promoting whatever you can.
It will take time to build a quality list, but it will be worth it.
Another thing is that even though it can be effective and a great way to make extra money online to build a list, it is NOT a necessity to have a list to make money online.
I have made money online on websites without having a list, and I know many other people that have as well.
So her main claim about what you need to make money online shows an approach that is not focused on quality in my opinion and shows an out-of-date approach to online marketing.
Warning sign #4 – The plugin is not very useful
As previously mentioned, Covert Commissions has a plugin for WP.
I am honestly not impressed with what I have seen this can do. It basically just helps you to integrate your squeeze pages and pop-ups on your WP website.
This can be effective, but it is nothing special, and there are a lot of other great plugins that can do this more professionally in my opinion.
Warning sign #5 – Low quality products you will promote
To me a very big downside of Covert Commissions is that since the system will automatically choose products to promote to your list, you have no idea what kind of products you will be promoting.
This is again a sign that it is a system not focused on quality. Personally, I would never want any system or random person to choose the products to promote in my name. You have no idea what will be promoted.
On Covert Commissions’ website there are some examples of squeeze pages and the kind of products you will be promoting.
I here for example recognize Jamie Lewis, who has invented IM with Jamie and many other systems that in my opinion are very poor systems, and where the main purpose is to sell whatever and not care about, if other people lose money or not.
To me this clearly shows that Covert Commissions is just another system that is out to promote other get-rich-quick programs to earn commissions and do not focus on quality and on helping people at all.
Warning sign #6 – The Covert Commissions reviews
You have maybe seen some really positive reviews of this system online and seen websites that even offer you a Covert Commissions bonus, if you join through their link.
You have to know that Covert Commissions itself is promoted through affiliate marketing, which means people can get paid to get you to join through their link. So unless it is a review that clearly shows evidence and has a lot of in-depth information, you should be careful about believing everything they say.
Also, on Covert Commissions’ website there are some reviews from users to show you what the system can do.
On the image above you can see one of these is from Mosh Bari, who says that it was not until he used this system he really started to make money on his list.
I have however looked into enough online systems by now to recognize this guy. He is himself an affiliate marketer that uses many of the same methods as Cindy. I for example have a review of Insta-Minator, which is one of his many programs. Here he claims that his system is the magic way to make money. So his claim and recommendation here does not really make sense.
Another of the recommendations comes from Brenan Mace, who is the inventor of the Copy Paste Paydays system, which is another system that claims to help you make money on autopilot.
In general you will often see different marketers like this help each other with reviews. But can you really trust these recommendations? In my opinion it does not make sense that Mosh Bari for example claims Covert Commissions was the system that really helped him make money online, and at the same time has several systems himself that he claims is the real secret to make money online.
Warning sign #7 – Traffic claim
You are told all you need to do is to send traffic to the squeeze page, and Cindy makes it sound like this is an easy thing.
I have worked in online marketing for years, and one of the most difficult things is to get quality traffic. I know Cindy says you will also get some training about this.
But no matter how good this training is, it is a bad sign that she tries to make it sound like it is the easiest thing in the world. It is the hardest thing, and if you had the traffic, there would be no need for Covert Commissions, as there would then be plenty of ways to earn without having to use a system like this.
So to me it is a big warning sign that it sounds like traffic is the easy part of making money online – this shows a lack of understanding of how internet marketing works, or is just deliberately left out to make it sound easy to get you to buy.
Warning sign #8 – The price
When you look at the pricing section of Covert Commissions, you can see it says that this is a one-time fee and that there will be no extra fees.
This really depends on how you define it. Because it can definitely end up costing you a lot more to join. The way systems like this often work is to get you to join for a very low joining fee, and once you are a member, there will be several upsells and upgrades you are sold (and the sales pitches can be very convincing).
I decided not to invest in Covert Commissions myself for all the reasons I am mentioning in this review, but I have still been able to find info about just how expensive it can end up being.
Above you can see a screen shot of the affiliate information for Covert Commissions that shows how much people will earn to promote this system.
Here it says that this product is part of a sales funnel of up to 36 other products. That is a lot of potential upsells. This means that you can end up investing a lot more than the initial joining fee, if you want full access to the system and training.
I really dislike programs that have upsells like this, but maybe you are still willing to invest this kind of money. You just need to be aware of this and only join, if you are willing to invest a lot more than the initial joining fee.
Warning sign #9 – You are not building a business
I think a big risk of Covert Commissions is that you are too dependent on one system. Let’s say it works and you start making a lot of money on it.
You are not actually learning any skills. You have everything in one system, and you have no control of what is being promoted.
What then if Cindy one day decides to close this program? You will be left with no knowledge about how to make money online and no income.
And looking at how many programs Cindy has created over just a few years, it is very likely that she at some point will move on to create a new product.
That is a warning sign in itself. If she really had such great systems, would she then not stick with it and keep improving the systems she already has
Instead, she is often coming out with new systems to make money online. To me this is not a sign of quality, but a sign she needs something new to promote.
Final verdict – legit or scam?
Clearly I am not too excited about Covert Commissions. But let’s sum up the pros and cons, so you can get a better overview, before making your own decision.
Pros:
- It is a real product
- Affiliate marketing is a real way to make money
Cons:
- Exaggerated income claims
- Cultures lazy (and unrealistic) attitude
- You are not building a business
- The system is not focusing on promoting quality
- Many upsells after you join
Let me make it clear that Covert Commissions is not a scam in the sense that you actually do get a product. In my opinion it will however not be a very good and sustainable way to create an income online.
There are too much hype, too many things you are not told, not enough focus on quality, and then there are all the hidden upsells.
Overall, this makes it a system I do not recommend.
I agree with Cindy that affiliate marketing is definitely a great way to make money online, but I strongly disagree with her methods and many of her claims.
I know it is important to treat it as a long term business you are building, when trying to make money online, and not expect a system to do all the work for you. If you are willing to make an effort and want to learn some real internet marketing skills, you can use to eventually take your income in any direction you want to, you can check out my top recommended approach to learning affiliate marketing.
This is the approach I am using myself, and that have taught me to make money through affiliate marketing.
If you have any comments, questions, or have any experiences with Covert Commissions yourself, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
Hi,
Thanks for the review. You quote as if “Cindy” is the one speaking but the speaker is an Australian broadcaster called Jan Fran. She’s lovely and it’s a shame she got involved with this. She is currently on ABC and has been on The Feed on SBS.
So you might like to change the wording of this review.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Mikael
Thanks for your reply.
Further to my comments yesterday, I remembered the show Jan Fran is in on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) -it is called Question Everything!!!! Now that’s not only appropriate but very funny considering the topic of your review.
All the best, Anna
Thanks for the update.