Digital Income System Review ($25K MLM Recruiting Scheme)

Digital Income System is a system that (according to the website) makes regular folks $500 to $12,500 commissions on complete autopilot. No coding, no selling, just profits.

Does it work or is it some type of scam? It’s not exactly a scam, because you do get access to a system that could make you some money. But it’s really just a high priced, MLM recruiting scheme, and most people who join these schemes end up losing money.

I don’t expect you to just take my word for it though.

So in this review, I’ll walk you through what this system is all about, how it works and explain the compensation plan, to help you decide for yourself if it’s worth joining.

What’s Digital Income System About?

The Digital Income System website looks quite nice. It’s clean, the copy is well written and it just looks professional. Which, at a glance, makes it look like it could be a legitimate company, offering you a legit way to make money online.

But the more I looked into this system, the less likely that became. And the more obvious it became as to what this was really about, under the hood.

What’s it really about?

Digital Income System is a high ticket MLM recruiting system. The whole thing is about joining, paying $10,000’s to “upgrade” and then convincing others to do the same.

The reason I call it a “high ticket system” is because the cost of joining the system ranges from $1,000 all the way up to $25,000. Which is really quite staggering when you think about it.

You might think you can just join at the lower levels and “work your way up”. But the truth is, unless you “go all in” at the very start, you seriously handicap your ability to make money with the system. Which makes it hard for people who don’t have the cash.

There’s also a multilevel marketing (MLM) component to this system. Because if you’re not positioned at the higher levels, the system automatically “passes up” your commissions, to people above you who are qualified. So there are multiple levels of payments.

Read on to see how this system works in more detail.

How Does It Work?

Here’s an overview of how the system works:

• Join at a given membership level (between $1K to $25K)
• Your “coach” will call you to ask you to upgrade to the highest level
• You promote the same system, in the hopes of recruiting others, who do the same

So the first thing you need to do is buy-in at a given membership level ($1,000 to $25,000). And from here, you follow the steps to start promoting the same system. And you do this in the hopes of recruiting as many people into the system as possible.

The higher level membership you purchase, and the more people you recruit at the highest possible membership level, the more money you can make.

It all starts with a page that looks something like this:

On this page, there’s a 20 minute video that is all about getting you excited about the concept of an easy, push button, done for you system. One that can make you $10,000’s per month.

The next step is to “request a call back” from a “coach” (AKA sales person).

If you schedule this call, a phone sales person will call you back to try to get you to make a purchase. Their main job is selling you into the highest possible membership. And since they’re trained sales people, they can be quite convincing.

If you do buy, you get access to a back office with some tools that you can use to recruit people into the system. Such as pre-made capture pages, email and SMS marketing automation software and a lead tracking CRM system for example.

You also get access to some training on stuff like running paid traffic, social media marketing and email marketing, to build your business.

All in all, you do get access to a relatively decent system. One you could potentially use to make some money. But there are some major drawbacks to consider, as I will explain.

Before we get to that though, let’s look at some of the costs involved.

How Much Does It Cost to Join?

The total cost of joining Digital Income System is between $1,000 and $25,000. The exact amount you pay, depends on which membership level you choose.

There are 5 DIS membership levels in total:

• Entrepreneur level: Costs $1,000
• Director level: Costs $3,000
• Professional level: Costs $5,000
• Ambassador level: Costs $12,000
• Executive level: Costs $25,000

As I said earlier, the higher level membership you choose, the more money you can make. And this is something your “coach” is going to emphasize when trying to get you to upgrade.

Anyway, after you’ve spoken to the coach (sales rep) over the phone, you are given instructions on how to make payment.

And the way it works is, 50% of the fee goes to “admin” and 50% goes to whoever referred you. Apparently, this is a payment you need to physically mail in the post, with cash or check.

Which to me is a little strange. I mean, this is meant to be a “digital income system”, yet they can’t even accept PayPal or credit card? This makes no sense.

What if you can’t afford it?

Well, most people probably can’t. And somehow I stumbled across a page on the DIS website that addresses this, by suggesting different financing options they have available:

On this page, they suggest that if you can’t afford to pay $25,000 for the system, you should consider getting credit. Specifically, they list three ways you can get finance:

• Credit Card Convenience Check (no idea what this is)
• In-house financing
• Personal loan

If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see that they suggest getting a loan of up to $35,000 to start the business.

That’s a huge amount of money to be paying to start a business like this. But when you factor in the joining fee of $25K and the cost of running traffic, which could easily run up to $10K within a few months or less, that’s probably what you should expect to be spending with this system.

Compensation Plan- How Much Money Can You Make?

The way the DIS compensation plan works is pretty straightforward. As an affiliate, you earn 50% commissions on whatever membership level you sell.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can earn on each membership level:

• Recruit an “Entrepreneur” level member to earn a $500 commission
• Recruit a “Director” level member to earn a $1,500 commission
• Recruit a “Professional” level member to earn a $2,500 commission
• Recruit an “Ambassador” level member to earn a $6,000 commission
• Recruit an “Executive” level member to earn a $12,500 commission

As you can see, the higher level member you recruit, the more money you can make. But you must be positioned at or above the same level you want to earn commissions on yourself. Otherwise, you will miss out on those commissions.

And this is where most be get caught out with systems like this.

See, if you’re just an “Entrepreneur” member for example, and you recruit someone who joins at the “Ambassador” level, you only get a $500 commission. Instead of $6,000.

The remaining $5,500 commission that you should have received, is passed up to the people above you, who did buy in at the higher levels.

This is why the system does have an MLM component. Because people above you receive commissions when you, or people below you, don’t “qualify” for the full commission. So affiliates are earning on multiple levels, which means it’s MLM.

In any case, this setup is not very ethical in my view.

Because you end up spending a fortune on traffic to get leads (or lots of time), and when you finally get a sale, you miss out on the bulk of the commissions unless you’ve spent lots of money upgrading. This is not how ethical, legitimate affiliate programs work.

Do You Need to Buy Traffic?

The simple answer is no, you don’t need to purchase traffic to make this system work. Or to make money online at all for that matter.

You basically have two options when it comes to traffic:

• You can “earn” it (takes time and lots of effort)
• Or you can buy it, (is instant but costs lots of money)

To earn traffic, you need to create content and offer people value in one way or another. For example, by creating a website full of helpful content, a YouTube channel with great videos or social media page with lots of great content to build a following.

Any of these methods can work to get free traffic, but it takes time and effort.

Paid traffic, on the other hand, is what DIS mostly focusses on. This is instant and can be fantastic. But it can also end up costing you a lot of money, very quickly. Especially if you’re a beginner to online marketing.

They recommend various “traffic packages” that could cost you $100’s or even $1,000’s before you even make a sale. It might be instant and easy but it’s also very risky, so you need to be putting a lot of trust in this system that it will convert.

They do have a “traffic rotator” system in place, which some affiliates promote as “done for you traffic”. But this is not going to net you many referrals at all. Because if you read the fine print, it equates to a very small number of visits.

Here’s a screenshot I took from the FAQ page to show you what I mean:

As you can see, you this gives you 1-5 visits per “cycle” depending on which membership option you choose. It’s cool that it’s free, but that cycle is going to get longer and longer as more people join. SO if this is what you’re relying on, you’re in for a shock.

You need to be getting 1,000’s (even 10,000’s) of visits each month if you want to be making the real money with this system. So be prepared to pay for that traffic with this system.

Who’s Running The Show?

There is no information on the website about who owns or runs Digital Income System. There’s no “about” page, and none of the terms pages provide any information about who’s running the show.

Also, I checked the domain (digitalincomesystem.com), and it has been registered anonymously. This doesn’t make it a scam, but it does make it hard to find out who’s behind it, when you have nothing else to go off.

Anyway, I did some more research and found a review from an affiliate. Who mentions that the people behind Digital Income System, also created GetWeeklyPaychecks and Income Shift Pro. Which was a good starting point.

… this is the third system of theirs that I’ve personally promoted. The others being GetWeeklyPaychecks, a marketing system for Motor Club of America. The second being Income Shift Pro, a marketing system for MyEcon.

Source: medium.com/@linsaymoore/digital-income-system-review-bbeca491eb0e

Turns out GetWeeklyPaychecks is a sales funnel for Motor Club of America and Income Shift Pro is a sales funnel for MyEcon, which are MLM companies. And it appears as though both of these sales funnels were created by a guy named Bill Foley.

This matches up with a Florida based company registration for Digital Income System Inc, where one of the names listed on the company registration is William (Bill) Foley.

So this could be the person behind DIS, but it’s difficult to say for sure one way or the other. Whatever the case, I think it’s a bit of a red flag that they’re not more upfront about who they are. Especially since they’re asking for such a large sum of money.

Is Everything Really Done For You?

No, despite what the sales page says, everything is not done for you. This is a sales gimmick and while there is some truth to it, it’s ultimately a bit misleading.

What do I mean?

Well, on one hand, you do get some pre-made landing pages, email swipes and access to a system that has everything you need to start making sales. It is all there.

But the problem is, you’re using the same system as everyone else. Every other affiliate is using the same sales funnels, same traffic sources, same everything. So the conversion rates are simply not going to be very high, especially over time.

So if you want to make money with this system, you’ll need to differentiate yourself from the pack. And actually build relationships with people. Which means you need to learn real internet marketing skills, and put in work.

So the whole idea of sitting back and watching the money pour in automatically, is really just a fairy tale. Yes, the system is automated to an extent, but you will still need to learn real skills if you want to be successful.

One of the other issues with done for you systems is that you’re spending a fortune to get qualified and to generate traffic, all to promote one single system. Which may or may not be around next year or the year after. You are putting all your eggs into one basket.

And it’s a very unreliable “basket” if you ask me.

You could spend a LOT less than this, learning how to build a real business, within any niche you want, that can bring you profits for a lifetime. Which I know is what I’d rather do.

For example, you could learn how to do affiliate marketing. And promote products from well known, trusted companies. Even high ticket products. Without paying anything to “qualify” and without recruiting anyone into a scheme. This is far better, more ethical, and more sustainable.

Is Digital Income System a Scam or Pyramid Scheme?

I don’t believe Digital Income System is an outright scam.

Because, unless they actually take off with your money, you are getting something in return for your money. As in, tools, training and a system you can promote. And systems like this can be profitable for experienced internet marketers with a large bank roll.

However, in my opinion, it does operate like a pyramid scheme. Because the whole thing is about recruiting people who recruit people, and there are multiple levels of payments involved.

So it’s definitely not something I recommend for that one reason alone.

But even if you didn’t care about the legitimacy of it, there’s a couple of reasons why these systems often fail the majority of people, especially newbies:

• The joining fees are way over the top.
• The business model itself is not sustainable.

First, paying $25,000 (plus more for traffic to make the system work), is outrageous. Not many people are going to be able to afford this, which makes it a hard sell. And it’s putting a huge risk burden on you, as someone who is just trying to get started online.

Second, the business model itself is not sustainable. The whole thing is about recruiting people into the same system you just joined, as oppose to selling real products to customers. And what’s worse, you have to buy whatever you want to promote.

In other words, it’s a pay to play recruitment based MLM scheme. And this business model has been proven to either fall apart (or get shutdown), time and time again.

For example, the FTC shutdown two very similar companies called MOBE and Digital Altitude. And they worked in a very similar manner. And just like DIS, affiliate who promoted these, swore they were legit and that anyone saying otherwise is just bashing the company.

Unfortunately, what often happens is that the people who get in early, at the start of the scheme, make the most money. And the people that come in towards the tail end of the scheme, end up losing money. That’s just the way it works.

The only question is whether or not you will be part of it.

What I Like

• Earning big commissions is always nice.
• The design of the website is top notch.

What I Don’t Like

• The whole “done for you” thing is a marketing gimmick.
• The cost of joining is ridiculously high, and it’s to beef up affiliate commissions.
• Secrecy surrounding who’s running the company.
• The business model it not sustainable, most people lose money.

Conclusion

Digital Income System sounds like a cool system to get on board with. I mean, it looks professional, they say it’s all done for you, and who doesn’t want to earn big commissions?

It’s not that you can’t make money with a system like this, you can, it ultimately comes down to how long it will last. Recruiting schemes simply do not last. One way or the other, they fall apart. So if you join at the wrong time, you could end up losing out big time.

But putting that aside, and pretending it’s a legit business model for a moment, it is still not something I would recommend.

Because most people don’t have $25K (plus) laying around. And this is realistically what you need. With systems like this, you need the big bucks. Because you not only need to position yourself at the higher levels, but you need money for traffic.

And even then… if all you’re doing is using the same old sales funnels as everyone else, you’re going to be hard pressed making many sales. If you want to create real success, you need to differentiate yourself in some way, which means learning real skills.

Either way, don’t expect to just sign up and watch the money pour in. Because real businesses take time, effort and persistence to get profitable. There’s no shortcut.