Welcome to my review of Four Percent, will this company help you build an online business or is it just another over-hyped program that talks a big game but delivers little? As someone who has been following the company since it was launched, I have witnessed its evolution throughout the past couple of years and hope to bring an unbiased review.
The Four Percent has been around a couple of years and has constantly gone through various changes. This is never a good look for a company, especially one that purports to show you how to start an online business.
To be transparent, I was once a member of this company when it first opened its doors to the public. It had a free membership and I signed up just to see what it was about.
I made the silly mistake of telling them that I had no intention of promoting this company and really was there to see if I could learn anything new, and for that my free membership was revoked.
However, I recently decided to become a free member again and see what changes they have made and if the training and products had improved.
I hope after you have read this review, you have a better understanding of what the Four Percent Group offers and if it is right for you.
Four Percent Review
Before I go on with the actual review, I want to briefly touch upon the founder, a person by the name of Vick Strizheus.
If you have been around the digital MLM industry a while, you will recognise that name. He has been involved in a few business opportunities that no longer exist (big red flag), one of them was the infamous Empower Network.
Despite being one of the top earners for Empower Network, he left for reasons I cannot really be sure of. Some say he left because of management, there are also suggestions that he couldn’t properly promote Empower Network because of the state that he lived in.
Anyway, while at Empower Network, he had the largest downline under the branding of ‘Big Idea Mastermind’.
After he left, he continued with Big Idea Mastermind, which now had its own set of products, but that didn’t last long, and he opened up another venture called High Traffic Academy.
High Traffic Academy was a video training course designed to teach people how to get high converting paid traffic to their affiliate offers. The course was decent, but the price tag was never justified and that to went down the drain.
This leads us to his current venture which is the 4 Percent Group.
What is Four Percent?
The group describes itself as providing a place for entrepreneurs and business owners to receive an online education that will help them build an online business.
The 4 Percent Group opened its doors around the middle of 2016 and initially, it was a sales funnel to another MLM program called Tecademics.
Tecademics is an internet marketing college that was founded by Chris Record, who was also a top earner with Empower Network and is a good friend of Vick. However, after Chris left Tecademics, the Four Percent stopped promoting it and concentrated more on its own products.
Four Percent Members Area
I must admit the member’s area has vastly improved from what I remember and looks professional, it’s easy to navigate and very user-friendly.
There is a lot of training covering a variety of subjects including topics like SEO, eCommerce and affiliate marketing. There are both free and paid courses, the free stuff is decent and the paid products are way overpriced.
There are four main core products in the 4 Percent Group, they are;
The Four Percent Challenge
As of writing my review, this product is closed to all new members, however, my understanding is that Vick is giving the program a makeover and will be open to the public soon.
The main goal of the program was to take people from zero to 10k and then to 100k and finally to 1 million.
The program was delivered through video, after each video, there was a task which you had to complete.
The goal was that after finishing each task you would be closer to achieving financial freedom. Of course, we all know that building a business isn’t as straightforward as following some video courses and completing internet challenges.
I am hoping whatever changes that are being made will be for the better and not seem like a get rich quick scheme.
Internet Traffic Mastery – $1997
Learning how to generate traffic for your online business is a must, without traffic, you have no business. However, paying nearly $2k for a course on traffic generation is just ridiculous when there are blogs and forums that will teach you this stuff for free.
E-Stage – $497
I initially thought this was their own website builder but apparently, it is their custom-made WordPress theme.
I wonder if they did any research before they priced this product, some of the most advanced and popular WordPress themes cost nowhere near as much as this.
I watched the video presentation for this product and it was full of fluff, at one point they say that building a professional WordPress site will cost you $7-$15k.
This is utter rubbish, you can get one made for less than $500 on places like Fiverr and UpWork. This is another paid product I would never consider purchasing.
E- Stage Academy – $297
This is a course on creating WordPress websites, it has over 40 hours of video tutorials, but honestly speaking, when most of the stuff on WordPress is free on YouTube or cost way less on platforms like Udemy, there is no point to purchase a course like this.
Other Products
Within the membership area, you get access to some of the presentations made at one of their annual conferences.
Some of the videos are interesting and they cover a lot of topics. Speakers include well-known marketers like Adrian and Anthony Morrison, Chris Record, Forbes Riley and Les Brown.
- Topics include the following
- Traffic Generation
- List Building
- Sales and Conversions
- eCommerce
- Outsourcing
I was really hoping to learn something new from the Traffic Generation and eCommerce videos but there was nothing that I hadn’t already heard before.
Plus, since all the free stuff is from one of their conferences, there was a lot of fluff and not much actionable material.
What I found sad was the fact people actually paid good money to attend this conference to hear this stuff when most of it can be found online for free.
There are two paid products, one is regarding Instagram marketing and the other teaches SEO strategies.
Both cost $497, which I believe is way too much, especially when there are cheaper options available.
For example, I am currently learning Instagram Marketing, I purchased an eBook from Blackhatworld (fantastic forum) and it has over 200 pages full of valuable content plus free upgrades for life and access to one of the most active forums for Instagram Marketers.
All of this just cost me $15!!
If you are interested in Instagram Marketing, you should definitely check it out.
Instagram is huge right now and learning how to market on that platform can be very useful, however, there is no reason to pay someone $497 just to learn how to become an Instagram marketer.
Same goes for SEO, don’t pay for an SEO course when most of the stuff can be found on popular blogs and YouTube.
Final Thoughts
I was actually quite surprised by what is offered by the Four Percent Group, they have had a complete makeover from when I first became a free member.
Back then, the Four Percent Group was a Clickbank product and all it did was get you to sign up for other products like Clickfunnels, Aweber, Click Magick, and then start promoting them through the Four Percent membership program.
That has been discontinued and the program seems to be heading towards promoting more paid courses as well as provide free content.
One other thing I noticed is that there seems to be less focus on recruiting others to the Four Percent Membership.
I think this is a good development as it will require them to produce high-quality material and actually provide value instead of just paying affiliates to recruit others into the system
I personally would not buy any of the core products as I believe you can get better value elsewhere, however, some of the free stuff is decent and is worth checking out.
One other thing you must be aware of is that Vick has made multiple changes to the Four Percent Group. It’s not the same program when it was first released and most of the reviews of the Four Percent Group do not reflect this.
The updates are still ongoing, and I expect to update this review a few more times within the coming months.
This is one of the reasons why I do not recommend this program, it is in a state of flux now and there is no way of knowing which direction they are taking the company.
Companies that change their business model multiple times during the first couple of years clearly has no business plan in place and are just making it up as they go along.
So, What Do I Recommend?
I personally make money through affiliate marketing, and although the 4 Percent Group claims to teach you how to become an affiliate marketer, there is a far superior company that has a higher standard of training and lots of real success stories.
Wealthy Affiliate is my no.1 recommendation for affiliate marketing training, while other systems come and go or have to change their business models (or even get shut down!!), Wealthy Affiliate remains because they honestly care about you and want you to succeed.
They are constantly improving the platform and training and have the price has remained more or less the same for the 13+ years they have been in operation.
Click on the button below and sign up for free and get access to 10 free video lessons to see for yourself the quality of the training and services available.
These are way overpriced! I understand that there is so much work that goes into creating programs such as these, but still, there are way more cost-effective programs on the internet, such as Wealthy Affiliate. There definitely needs to be investments when starting a business anywhere, whether online or offline, but as we all know, starting an online business costs lower. I only paid around $14 for my domain and I pay a monthly fee of $49 to Wealthy Affiliate for the training, the support, all my tools, hosting, SSL certificate and all the other good stuff. I can’t imagine having to pay upto $2000 in one go.
Paying such a high fee is NOT an indication of your commitment.
It doesn’t seem to me that Vick Strizheus has learned any real lessons from his long string of failures seeing that all the products in the 4 Percent Group are way too expensive.
Looks like the 4 Percent Group will have to change from being an MLM to avoid the FTC and maybe Vick will wise up someday and provide some real value.
I also read your excellent intro to Dropshipping article. I have heard dropshipping thrown around a little, but your article is the first with some real honest details I have seen. I will consider dropshipping for my gadgetsforkitchens domain.
Thank you for a thorough review and a great intro article to Dropshipping, I will be back to read more.
Hi Alex
Thanks for your comment and Yes I agree that Vick will have to change his strategy if he wants 4 Percent Group to survive, it does look like he is doing that.
I am glad you found my article on dropshipping helpful and I hope all the best for your business.
Hmm, this MLM doesn’t appeal to me at all. I mean, those prices are off the grid! Even if I was new to this I don’t think I would fall for this. Maybe it’s because they’re struggling as of late?
Thanks for the tip on the Instagram e-book. Although that blackhatworld forum does have that typical OMG vibe which I’m not fond of, I bought myself a copy! I’ll let you know what I think about it.
Cheers!
Hi Jurgen
Thanks for your comment, I believe you will enjoy the Instagram guide plus do not forget to join the forum where there are many more case studies and guides on how to win with Instagram.
All the best
Hey Minhaj,
I finally found what I was looking for. I have heard about the 4 percent group quite a few times, and every time I found a review, it was from one of the actual member promoting it as heck.
This unbiased review has shed a lot of light to my questions. I knew that they were very similar to an MLM and you have just confirmed it. To top it off they got scared when they saw what the FTC did to MOBE and Digital Attitude and are now revamping their way of doing business. Which is probably good, but like you say, everything is way overpriced and can be found either free or a lot cheaper!
I will definitely stay away from this one!
Thanks
Denis
Hi Denis
Thanks for your comment and I am glad that you found this article helpful
All the best
Dear Minhaj,
I had heard about the Four Percent Group and I was desperately looking for a good review.
The Four Percent Group is way too expensive for my taste. I mean come on! 2K on traffic generation? That’s ridiculous, especially when on Wealthy Affiliate you can get yearly access to an infinite amount of resources + weekly live webinars which cover the subject in depth for less than 1/4 of those money.
Deep down I knew that the Four Percent Group isn’t worth my money but I needed some confirmation as well. Thank you for taking the time to write this!
Xaric!
Hi Xaric
Thanks for your comment and yes, despite making some decent updates to the system, the prices for many of these courses are ridiculous. I agree that Wealthy Affiliate is far superior and at a fraction of the price.
I can see from the tone of your review that this 4 Percent Group have managed to turn a corner in the marketing world and are now offering decent training to anyone that signs up….
But there is one huge downside that seems to stand out like a beacon to me – the price!
In this day and age, who in their right mind would be able to afford splashing out $1997 on a Internet Traffic Mastery course?
This course must be absolute dynamite to cost that much (I could get a decent car with that price!).
Do you feel that these sort of ‘hidden’ prices within the module are slightly scammy in nature?
Hi Chris
I agree with you, I don’t understand why they need to price it so high when the knowledge is available for cheaper or free.
I wouldn’t say they are scammy but surely very unethical.
All the best
Dear Minhaj,
Thanks for the very thorough and comprehensive review.
Although you said there are a lot of updates going on and they are not focusing on recruiting people and adding more value to their course etc., Still I am scared to get into the product I believe you might be aware of the reason why… I hear few complaints about Mr. Vick Strizheus online which stopped me to get into the product (Hope you might be aware of those).
I do agree with your top two recommendation and in my experience those are the very best to earn money online in the longer term. Thanks again for the post.
Wishing you much success!
Your Friend,
Paul
Hi Paul
I am aware of Vick and his background, however, I didn’t want to mention this as I really do believe people have the power to change for the better. I do hope he takes the 4 Percent group in the right direction.
All the best
Hi Minhaj. Thank you for you informative review on the 4 Percent Group. I agree with you that the red flags should be out for a business like this. It sounds like they are simply adjusting there model to stay in business, I have been conned in the past by affiliate marketing groups that wanted thousands for courses that I later found out were freely available on the internet. I decided some time back that I wouldn’t allow that to happen again. I’m definitely interested in Dropshipping and affiliate marketing and will definitely have a closer look at these. Thank you also for the link to the Instagram ebook. I will return with my credit card to buy it. I have just started on Instagram and am loving it. Jim
Hi Jim
Thanks for your comment and I am glad that you found this article helpful.
All the best
These products are overpriced and having to buy products to become an affiliate is not what affiliate marketing is about. That is more MLM and that is not a business model that I am fond of at all.
I’m not surprised that MOBE got shut down, that really is good news. I just wish that the FTC would move a little faster with shutting down these rubbish sites.
So besides from offering the two (very expensive) courses that offer nothing much new there is not much else to The 4 Percent Group?
Hi Lynn
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, they do have some free training videos which are not terrible, however, like I stated, Vick is updating this platform, so lets see what it looks like when he is done.
All the best
First of all thank you so much for your unbiased review on Four Percent Group company. It was really hard for me to find an honest review about this company and I’m happy I found it right here. It was good to know about all the aspects of this company and how they have changed over the course of time.
It is great how the offer free membership which is good for me so I can give it a try without spending any money on this.
Thank you so much for sharing this article with me.
Hi Sujandar
Appreciate your comment.
All the best
Hi Minhaj, thanks for sharing your experiences and take on ‘Four Percent Group’ in this review. I agree with you that building an online business is not just watching some video training and completing tasks, it takes far much more. Going by your review, it seems the founders of this platform are only looking to make money for themselves rather than actually delivering value. Even if I were to buy in to become an affiliate, I don’t think I would be happy promoting such an expensive setup with so little value, well the value there is exorbitantly over-priced. I will however check out their free training as you have advised.
Best regards
Hi Victor
Thanks for your comment, yeah do check out the free training but I would advise against purchasing any of their paid products. Just not worth it in my opinion.
All the best
Thank you for sharing with us this great review on the 4 percent group.I am not surprised by the services of this program because we are experiencing the same problems with many online programs .
Even if 4 percent group has a free membership but what they offer is not of high quality to succeed online business.
I will not try it because I have met my real platform which is helping me to earn money and get real training to succeed in my business.
The 4 Percent Group – 96% scam (actually, probably more like 104% scam). It is so easy to get confused by all of the offers out there…so glad there are sites like yours that do the research and cut through all of the crap. You saved me the time of having to see if these guys are legit.
Not only are they not legit, they are extremely expensive! Two minutes of searching on Google and anyone could learn that a WP site can be build for way less than $1000…let alone $7-$15k!!! yikes (If folks have that kind of money to spend on a WP site…I sure would like to meet them)
The best value in the post…for me personally…the reference to the Ascend Viral Instagram eBook! Thanks for that. I’m just getting into Instagram now and this was just what I have been looking for.
Have a great 2019!
I KMV
Thanks for your comment, I wouldn’t say that the 4 Percent Group is a scam but it will never be a system that I can be comfortable promoting ( not in its current form).
All the best
The Internet has an endless opportunity but many people will fail to venture into it if greedy people like Vick Strizheus are still haunting online newbies. Almost $2000 plus other upsells in order to learn online business? This is absolutely unbelievable and ridiculous. I am just imagining myself fetching that amount of money just to pay one program, it’s too much.
Thank you so much for writing an eye opener article like this, I love reading reviews like these because They have helped me so many times in the past
I already had a red flag when you said they revoked your first free membership. Then just the mention of the “empower network” made me shudder.
The price tags on Vick Strizheus’ “products” made me sick to my stomach! This was one of the guys who ripped me off in another life before I finally wised up.
I really appreciate your efforts to dig deep into yet another manifestation of utter BS. I’ll never be paid back for the hit I took buying a non-existent product from empower network but, I’ll do anything I can and, I will support people like you who protect others from going down the same wallet-draining path!
Stellar detective work Minhaj!
Hi Fyre
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, I am sorry about your experience with empower network, systems like those will never last and they give the whole internet marketing industry a bad name. The 4 Percent Group is trying to do something different but as I have seen its so hard for these people to change when they know it is so easy to make ridiculous claims and fleece people of their hard earned money.
All the best
This is a great review of The Four Percent. The free stuff looks good but I do wonder why they have to make the paid products so expensive. I am glad I came across your review because I have been looking to get into marketing on Instagram but wasn’t sure where to start but your suggestion for the ebook that is selling on Blackhateworld looks really interesting and will definitely check it out.
I have been looking for a legitimate review of the Four Percent Group and I am glad I clicked through to your site. I was really interested in joining the Four Percent challenge, but after reading this review, I will not be purchasing any products from them. I may sign up and try the free stuff, but you are right about the paid products being overpriced. There are better alternatives at a cheaper price.
To be really honest with you, I’m that kind of person not willing to spend $500 in stuff like this, I can say, I agree 100% with you about WA because it’s affordable and super accurate. Some gurus sell their stuff for overpriced values, and the content in the course is legit! Yes, but still overpriced, it’s like you grabbed all the knowledge or webinars from WA and sell them for a very crazy and stupid price. Also, most of them don’t even have a live support so that can rest a lot less money in the value of the course, if you know what I mean?
Hi Maria
Totally agree you, I too am not willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for stuff I can finder cheaper and of better quality. Especially from people who have a history of dodgy products, this is why I always recommend Wealthy Affiliate, an established business with a proven track record of success.
All the best
I have been tricked by Vick Strizheus when he was promoting Big Idea Mastermind and although he has a way with words, the MLM business model is very recruitment orientated and that is not really my cup of tea.
Guess I should have known better than to fall for schemes like these. Although 4 Percent seems decent, I find it hard to have faith when people like Vick are involved. Great review Minhaj, I hope you can save a lot of people their time and money for something way better. Cheers
Hi Riaz
I Appreciate your comment
All the best,
Well as soon as you mentioned Vick Strizheus I knew we were on dodgy ground (and that’s probably an understatement). He should never be allowed to be involved with any sort of online business after that Empower Network mess.
I find it strange that he had chosen to be so high up in this new venture but you have pointed out that the program does have some educational qualities. Maybe this is why?
Do you still feel it leans a little too strongly on recruitment?
Hi Chris
Thanks for your comment, yes Vick does have a dodgy background but I like to think that people can learn from their mistakes and move forward in a positive way. Four Percent does focus a lot of its effort on recruiting but is trying to improve and move away from the MLM business model.
So glad I found your post online. I was looking into the Four Percent Group. I’m so happy I decided to research until I actually paid for this program. Furthermore, I am even happier that I found Wealthy Affiliate for a reasonable price. Thank you so much for your review and for recommending WA.
The price of these products in four percent is way too high. I don’t think that will ever encourage a newbie to join, it’s a red flag with an immediate bad impression. I just don’t see myself coughing out 2000 dollars to learn how to generate traffic through paid ads, you can get good courses for cheaper on places like Udemy. Thanks for this thorough review of the Four Percent Group, I may join and try out their free products but the paid ones I will stay away from.
Hi
Thanks for your comment and I agree that you can find better and cheaper courses elsewhere and Udemy definitely is one place you can find good digital marketing courses.
Thanks for writing this review on The Four Percent Group And all it has to offer and I must commend you for taking your time to register on the platform and have some experience of it. It is cool and there are something to learn for free like you said in which I will like to explore later in the day. I agree with what you stated about wealthy affiliate, this is the best program to learn how to become a successful affiliate marketer and I love that they are always improving the platform.
Whenever a program is introduced to me, one of the most important thing I usually check for is the credibility and the antecedence of the founders. If previous platforms they were championing was a scam, there’s high probability that the current one may also fall into that category, although this is not true in all cases.
I’ll be be checking back on four percent to know when the site is fully functional so I can check it out by myself
Hi Sammy
Thanks for your comment, you are absolutely correct about checking the credibility of the owners of any new system, especially one in the make money online niche. In the case of Four Percent, the owner does not have a good track record and that is why I do not recommend anyone purchase any of the paid products.
All the best
I have heard about the 4 percent group quite a few times, and this is the first unbiased review I have ever read. This is way over price, there are many platform that do what they are doing what 4 percent do and doing it better. Wealthy affiliate take $19 for premium membership upgrade and subsequently takes $49 with all the services render! I will rather pay wealthy affiliate $100 a week than take this!
I will not go near this one!
Thanks for sharing
Hi Jaykay
I agree with you about Wealthy Affiliate, the monthly fee is a bargain for what you get and it is the superior option to the Four Percent Group.
All the best
Interesting review of the Four Percent Group, I’d like to know… what do you get if you join as a free member? Is the free membership still available today? I’d like to sign up as a free member like you did and see for myself what it would be like being there. However, seeing that the founder has been involved in so many other systems that no longer exist, I can’t trust it enough to purchase any of their paid programs. Thanks for this review
Hi
Yes the free membership for the Four Percent is still available.
All the best
I appreciate your review on the four percent group. It’s it packages are quite interesting, however, I wouldn’t be comfortable buying into any of their paid products, like you stated, they are way too expensive and their description is very vague, so you cannot be really certain what you are purchasing. I may check out the free stuff, seems like I may learn something useful but the paid stuff I will stay away from.
Hi Barry
Thanks for your comment, agree with you, the free stuff may prove useful for some people but I definitely advise everyone to stay clear of the paid products.
All the best
Hello,
I got emailed about this program and wanted to find out a bit more about it, thanks for your thorough review of Four Percent, really opened my eyes and I am glad that I found out about the many business opportunities the founder has been involved, definitely going to stay away from this system.
Hi Louis
Thanks for your comment, when a person has been involved in multiple business opportunities that have all been closed down, you should definitely be wary of joining any of their programs.
All the best