I am glad you take your time and do your researches online for UpCrowdMe. You must think “What Is UpCrowdMe?”, so you come across my website. Am I right?
First of all, I am not referring you to join UpCrowdMe, so you won’t see me selling “How good this opportunity is” or request you to click a “JOIN NOW” button on my website.
What I like to do today is to examine UpCrowdMe to know whether it suits my personality or not, so I will try my best to give you everything you need to know before you sign up with them. This will be an honest and unbiased review!
Secondly, I can see you are doing your homework well. Checking things online can save time and money. Congratulations, you are on the right path to keep your hard-earned money safe and secure.
Without further ado, let’s dive deep and get started.
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What is UpCrowdMe?
-Summary of UpCrowdMe-
Product Name: UpCrowdMe
Founders: Tim Bentley
Product Type: Crowdfunding-based affiliate program
Price: $5 to start + hidden costs
Rating: 1 / 100
Recommend: No
UpCrowdMe is a crowdfunding-based affiliate program that you could pay $5 to start. There are lots of recruitment involved in this program and they don’t provide you any products and services for selling purpose.
The only way to make money is to keep recruiting members into the same program as you do, and they will encourage you to buy one after one membership just to be eligible for commissions. I would suggest everyone stay away from UpCrowdMe.
Tim Bentley had changed the name to UCM Social for the interests of its 15,000 members, but somehow I feel there is a darker side behind the name changes. I will reveal more findings in one minute!
Inside UpCrowdMe(UCM Social)
Level 01 Facebook Training FREE
As a free member, you will learn how to get leads from Facebook without getting your accounts banned. They are also providing you an auto-posting software that you could manage your Facebook posts, even when you cannot post by yourself.
At this stage of membership(free member), you don’t qualify for commissions. You will need to sign up with the next training courses to make money through this system.
Affiliate Cost $10/per month
You pay $10 per month to join UCM Social, and this is the first membership that you can make commissions if someone purchases from your affiliate link. At this stage, there are no real products for your $10 each month.
What you get is to qualify for the commissions. The more members you recruit, the more earning you will generate.
Level 02 (LOGO) $40 One-Time
You need to pay a $40 one-time cost to upgrade to level 02, and UCM social will design one logo for you. Only level 02 members could earn level 02 commission. If your referrals buy level 03, the commissions will go to the next qualified sponsors above you.
UCM social will encourage you to buy the higher membership step by step, so you won’t miss a chance to make any commissions.
Level 03 (Website) $200 One-Time
At level 03, UCM social will make you a personal website, and you probably use it to promote UpCrowdMe(UCM Social) too. They build your website in WordPress and also provide you a life-long hosting service as long as you keep paying the affiliate cost every month.
But, you should understand that there are thousands of products you can promote on your site through affiliate marketing, UCM Social is not the only one you can promote. I guess you will be interested in the below two articles if you agree with me.
Level 04 (2 socials) $300 One-Time Plus $100 monthly fee
Joining level 04 & paying $300, UCM social will help you set up two social media accounts. Facebook and Twitter. You can also pay a $100 monthly fee to automate the activities, and UCM social will manage your accounts & redirect your visitors to your personal websites.
To be honest, setting up these two social media accounts only takes you less than 30 minutes each. Do you really need to spend $300 to have UCM social set up for you? There are tons of tutorials on YouTube, and they are FREE.
And, guess what posts UCM Social will promote on your Facebook & Twitter? Yes, UCM Social itself!
Level 05 (4 socials) $660 One-Time Plus $150 monthly fee
Besides Facebook & Twitter, paying $660 to join level 05, UCM Social will set up your Instagram & Linkedin accounts for you. On top of $660, you can also pay $150 per month to have UCM social to consistently post videos, images, marketing campaigns.
But seriously, don’t you think that $660 is way too much for just to set up two accounts on Instagram & Linkedin? Think about this!
Level 06 (6 socials)$1,200 One-Time Plus $200 monthly fee
Finally, here we are at the highest membership of UCM social. Besides Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin, UCM Social will set up your YouTube channel & Pinterest account. What do you think you will be promoting on YouTube & Pinterest? UCM Social!
Commissions
Once you start recruiting people, you will earn commissions. Here are the commissions you will learn if you are lucky to have recruits.
- Level 02 (LOGO) $40: You earn a $20 commission for each recruit, the commission rate is 50%.
- Level 03 (Website) $200: You earn a $100 commission for each recruit, the commission rate is 50%.
- Level 04 (2 socials) $300: You earn a $200 commission for each recruit, the commission rate is 66%.
- Level 05 (4 socials) $660: You earn a $500 commission for each recruit, the commission rate is 76%.
- Level 06 (6 socials)$1,200: You earn a $1,000 commission for each recruit, the commission rate is 83%.
2 Pass Up System
In UpCrowdMe(UCM social) compensation plan, your first and 3rd referrals’ commissions will be given to your sponsor. Meaning you will only earn the 2nd, the 4th, the 5th, and the rest of your recruits.
Let’s say you are at level 02, and you recruit 5 people. The first & the 3rd go to your sponsor, so you have the 2nd, the 4th, and the 5th.
You pay Affiliate cost $10 per month + $40 for Level 02, and the commission for three recruits is $60, which leaves you $10($60 minus $50) as your commission.
It’s safe to say that you need to have at least 5 recruits to starting making money with UCM Social.
Who Is UpCrowdMe For?
No, you will only pay for the company and still make nothing for yourself.
If you are interested in affiliate marketing, I would suggest you check other legitimate programs to guide you in the right way. Check out Project 24 or Wealthy Affiliate.
Ugly Truth About UpCrowdMe
TOP#1 Expensive Upsells
Once you finish the free Facebook training course, it’s easy to find out the following memberships are upsells. The highest cost is $1,200, and you cannot rush to buy $1,200 at first. You need to join level 01, then level 02, 03, 04, 05, and 06 in order.
Let’s do a quick calculation here if you want to get the most chances to earn commissions, how much does it cost? $10+$40+$200+$300+$660+$1,200 = $2,410. If you ask me to spend $2,410 starting my online business when I just start, I would find other programs instead.
TOP#2 Pay To Play
If you look closely for the commissions, you need to pay affiliate cost($10) and various memberships(up to $1,200) just to earn commissions. A classic “Pay To Play” system!
You cannot pay $10 to get the commission of $1,000 from level 06 membership, so it’s inevitable for people to purchase the next memberships until you reach level 06.
TOP#3 Focus on Recruitment
UCM Social’s system focuses on recruitment, and this is the only way to make lots of commissions. They don’t provide any products and services to sell to your referrals like any MLM companies, so the memberships are what you can promote.
What I Liked About UpCrowdMe
Unfortunately, there is nothing I like from UpCrowdMe/UCM Social.(Sorry, I did try my best to find something I like…)
Is UpCrowdMe A Scam?
I won’t say it’s scam, but I would say it’s a pyramid scheme in disguise.
Based on Wikipedia, “A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products.”
Does it sound familiar to you? Yes, UpCrowdMe & UCM Social, so I won’t suggest anyone who is interested in making money online to join UCM social.
I prefer to build a website with quality content for my readers. Once they find my articles are helpful and useful, they will come back more often to check new updates on my website. Eventually, they will become my fans/followers/customers and likely to try the products that I promote.
It might take longer to see positive results, but your time and effort spent on your website will worth in the long run. If this sounds nice to you, you will like my alternative as below.
Alternative Program(My Favorite)
I believe that you don’t need to spend $2,410 on UpCrowdMe/UCM Social when you can get all at a $49 membership fee per month. An alternative I do recommend is Wealthy Affiliate(WA).
- You are not restricted to only promote UCM Social memberships, and you can promote any niche you have passion for with the related products or services.
- You don’t need to pay for the upsells to qualify for commissions. You can get the same commission as other WA members, and there are no other upsells in Wealthy Affiliate.
- You can learn how to set up your social media accounts(Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, and Pinterest) inside WA without paying extra costs, or you may check online for thousands of tutorials for FREE.
- You get all the powerful tools, features, training courses, and support you need to maintain the success of your online business.
- You can try Wealthy Affiliate for FREE for 7 days with access to the platform as premium members, and there is no need to type in your credit card information. So, if you don’ like it, you won’t lose a penny I promise!
>>>Try Wealthy Affiliate Before Bed<<<
Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof
Here are some most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.
- I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
- Can someone make a full time income promoting WA? You bet they can!
- What Does $1000 Per Day Look Like?$
- 40,000 In One Weekend
- A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month – August Progress Report
- It’s Getting Better: $500+ in 2 Days
- Newbies Pay Attention! $5,195.20 Affiliate Check for June: Thanks WA!
- Joined the 10K Per Month Club. January Earnings $13,481.39
- New Record: $1,300+ Per DAY! Affiliate Marketing Works & Rocks!
- Made $7,395 in a WEEK: First Black Friday Results!
I hope you enjoy this review and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
Hello,
Well done on such an informative and in-depth article. It’s great that you aren’t afraid to give an honest opinion; it’s so refreshing as opposed to sites who endorse a terrible programme. I’ll probably steer clear of this one anyway!
Keep up the good work!
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your honest feedback for my UpCrowdMe review. I strongly recommend people avoid this program and find other legitimate platforms to proceed with an online business. You are welcome to check my review HERE & THERE, enjoy!
Matt
Well that certainly cut to the bone about that review. Glad you showed the facts there wouldn’t want to touch this program at all.
Hi Kevin,
Yes, please stay away from UpCrowdMe/UCM social, it’s like throwing money into the ocean without getting earning or profits. If you want to make money online, I do suggest you try Wealthy Affiliate.
Matt