What Is Payzeno and How Does It Work? [Full Review]

I came across the Payzeno affiliate network recently and noticed a number of people asking what it’s all about. So I decided to take a closer look into what it’s about and how it operates.

In this article, I’ll show you what you need to know before you join.

What Is Payzeno?

Payzeno (payzeno.com) is an affiliate network for digital download products and memberships.

For those who aren’t sure what an affiliate network is, it’s just a platform that connects affiliates looking to promote products, with merchants who have products to sell. There are many affiliate networks/ programs out there to choose from. Common examples are ClickBank for digital products and Amazon Associates for physical products.

One of the main selling points about Payzeno, is how they give you a ‘blueprint’ to help you promote their products. They also pay out up to 90% commissions according to the website.

Another feature they boast is ‘robust tracking’. As to the extent of this ‘robustness’ though I can’t say though. Any decent affiliate network has good tracking in place though, so it’s more of a given than a feature.

The products they offer are mostly within the three big niches- health, wealth and relationships. Essentially anything ‘downloadable’ within these niches such as ebooks, audios and memberships.

How Does It Work?

Payzeno works like any other affiliate program really.

Affiliates signup for free and go about promoting products to earn commissions. As of writing they have over 500 products so you the idea is to browse through the offers to find something you like, and start promoting.

I signed up for the purpose of this review and it took me about 2 minutes. Some affiliate networks are a lot harder to get approved for than this so that’s one good aspect I guess.

Who’s Running The Show?

Funny enough the website has an ‘about’ page but says nothing about who’s running the company. I find this pretty odd and it definitely makes me wonder how legit the company is overall.

Anyways, I did some checking and the whois database shows Ankur Patel as the owner or Payzeno. With an address listed in California.

That’s about it though from what I can see.

Do You Really Get a Blueprint For Success?

The Payzeno website talks a lot about these so called “blueprints” and say they are the reason affiliates will love the platform.

To be fair, I do like the idea of it. Merchants can essentially share what is working for their campaigns with their affiliates on the ‘blueprint’ page. Stuff like the traffic sources, keywords and ad copy etc.

So I think the idea is good and it’s better than just leaving affiliates to fend for themselves.

But the execution is horrible. I mean, these are nothing like blueprints at all. In fact, the ones I found for the popular products are more like “what not to do”.

Here’s an example blueprint to show you what I mean…

How good the blueprint is depends on the merchant. So it’s not exactly Payzeno’s fault if a given blueprint sucks I guess. But either way, the ones I found were total rubbish.

The keywords are far too broad for a start. You would never target the keyword “money” in a campaign unless had rocks in your head lol. As far as the ad copy goes, it’s extremely broad and would never amount to a profitable PPC campaign.

So it’s really more like ‘a few potentially worthwhile tips you might use to some extent’ than anywhere near a blueprint.

There is also a landing page element to this though, which may be good. The idea is to set yourself up with a domain and hosting, and email them your login details. At which point they supposedly upload a landing page for you.

On one hand this could be good if the landing page is good. On the other hand, it’s more than likely a cookie cutter template that every other affiliate is using, or not using if it sucks. Not to mention, you are giving these people the login details to your hosting account. Not sure I’m keen on that idea.

Pros and Cons for Affiliates

Pros:

• Up to 90% commissions
• Easy to get approved for (there is no approval)
• You get some very basic tips on promoting (AKA blueprint)

Cons:

• Many of the offers are shady
• The vendor to process your commissions directly (no oversight)
• Most of the blueprints suck

Pros and Cons for Merchants

Pros:

• Apparently, instant PayPal payments
• You can create blueprints to help your affiliates succeed
• Low selling fees ($1 plus 6% per transaction)

Cons:

• Not attracting the best affiliates you could at other networks
• Less oversight means potentially lower quality promotions
• You have to manually pay your affiliates

Verdict – Is Payzeno Legit or Scam?

I definitely haven’t found anything to confirm that Payzeno is a scam. So labeling it a scam may not be fair based on what I’ve seen.

That being said, there’s definitely more I didn’t like than what I did like.

As an affiliate, you are working with a site that houses a lot of low-quality offers. For example, Rich Janitor and Auto Money System, which are sketchy in my opinion.

The other issue is you are relying on the merchant to pay you directly. The whole point of an affiliate network is to mediate between affiliate and vendor. In this case, the platform has nothing to do with making sure you get paid. This is a genuine concern.

So Payzeno is definitely what I would consider a lower quality affiliate network in comparison to more popular choices like ClickBank. At least, if we’re comparing digital product marketplaces that is. CB houses crap products too, as do many affiliate networks. So it’s not as if Payzeno is the only one. But it seems they do house a lot of them.

As far as merchants go, I guess instant payments and lower fees are cool. But that’s really about it. The ‘vetting’ process is non-existent and there’s no oversight in promotions. Which means reputable merchants would not choose this option since their brand could easily be hurt by spammy affiliates.

Join if you must, but I’d personally consider working with a more reputable company.