The internet is home to a plethora of mastermind programs, all of which have their own way of telling you how to become financially successful in life. One, in particular, called Four Percent has the mission to transform you into a world-class human being, or so it says on the tagline.
Sounds like an exciting opportunity, BUT is four percent another scam to watch out for? I’m glad you asked because this review is about to show you what’s on the tip of the iceberg and expose the bulk that’s beneath. The facts may take you by surprise.
What Exactly Is Four Percent?
Four Percent claims to be the fastest-growing online community/training platform that teaches aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers to elevate their business performance on the internet. The domain was created in 2002 but only became official sometime in the year 2017.
Founded by an internet marketer named Vick Strizheus (the guy in the video), the site engages with so-called industry experts to teach topics related to traffic generation, affiliate marketing, money/finance, as well as personal development.
While facilitating some of the courses himself, he also roped in big names in specific industries such as Les Brown, a renowned motivational speaker, Anthony Morrison from Digital Marketing Mastermind, and Tony Horton from Beachbody coaching.
At zero cost, you can access pre-recorded videos that discuss all things marketing at your own convenience. There is also a list of book titles to refer to if you’re interested to pick his brain on how to run a successful online business.
The educational side of the training however are all paid courses offered at different price points. Most of them come in combination with video training, live coaching, private community access, technical support bundled with some bonuses here and there to make the value worthwhile.
What Are The Attractions of Four Percent?
Like most mastermind groups, Four Percent sells itself as a platform that is capable of transforming your life for the better through online entrepreneurship coaching. The video presentations are professionally stunning and the courses cover a broad range of topics, aiming to assist you in building long term income online.
Each course is packed with detailed information and actionable tasks to systematically guide you through the learning process. Those that are result-driven have features you can unlock to achieve higher income potentials and the chance to engage in a one-to-one mentorship with the experts.
There is plenty of social proof to show that Four Percent is alive and kicking. For example, the official channel has about 19K subscribers, The Four Percent Entrepreneur Show discusses in length about income generation ideas and Vick frequently shares motivational talks on his YouTube videos.
Trustpilot even rates the platform a perfect 5/5 based on all the glossy customer reviews it receives.
From a price point perspective, the courses seem like a good bargain with slashed offers ranging between 50% to 80% discounts off the original prices. And if you’re not a happy customer, they will refund your money back – no questions asked.
However, these are just one side of the story. Behind those pump-up videos and raving reviews, lies a few uneasy facts that may be foreign to most newcomers.
4 Things You Didn’t Know About Four Percent
(1) Vick’s (Shady) Background
Long before Four Percent, Vick founded several high ticket marketing systems like 7 Figure Marketing School, Global Success Club, High Traffic Academy, and Big Idea Mastermind. Most of these are promoted through Clickbank affiliates and targeted at people who are new to the idea of making money online. For a short period of time, he was also one of the top leaders of Empower Network, recruiting members into his own programs.
Long story short, none of his programs existed anymore and in case you haven’t heard, Empower Network got in trouble with the law for scamming hundreds of people of their investment. It was officially shut down in 2017, coincidently the same year Vick went live with Four Percent.
While he didn’t initiate the scheme, Vick sure was riding along with the program and the opportunities it presented during its glory days. A smart person as he is, I’m pretty sure he knew in full consciousness what was happening but probably got out just in time before the company went down.
(2) All About Paid Traffic
Vick is a well-known paid internet traffic guru and most of his teaching revolves around this concept. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with this method of traffic generation; it’s used by many companies to get targeted customers and increase sales conversion.
But it’s also a very costly strategy to maintain, especially for those who are just starting out. You’ll be told inside the training that in order to run a successful online business, an autoresponder, hosting, tracking, and funnel software are necessary tools.
Interestingly, most of these services (which Vick happened to be affiliated with) can be purchased easily through your membership. In other words, he will benefit when you subscribe to any of the courses AND the software he recommends.
That’s not a big deal either, but before investing in all this stuff, have you tried getting organic traffic before? It does require some extra work but this method is mostly free and can bring long term results to your offers. What I’m saying is, you don’t always need fancy tools to drive traffic.
(3) Pricey Courses
There are currently 23 courses inside the membership program and despite the huge discounts, there’s a hefty price to pay to access every single training, if you plan to do so. For example, learning SEO strategy alone will cost you $497. Over at the popular e-learning Udemy marketplace, the price for a similar course is only about $15 during the promotion period.
If you want to learn affiliate marketing, get ready to fork out $997. Even though this is just a one-time fee, the value pales in comparison to Wealthy Affiliate’s training that costs half the price but includes weekly live webinars, super-fast web hosting, an easy-to-use keyword tool, a free .com domain, and an active community to boost traffic engagement. All the stuff you need to get free traffic from Google, right at your fingertips.
(4) Does The Program Really Work?
That’s what I’ve been trying to find out. No doubts there are many raving reviews on Trustpilot but what we want to know is this – are members seeing solid results by following the courses? Can people actually make money using these strategies in other types of niches too?
I found a few positive reviews online, but couldn’t get a convincing answer. Those who claimed to make money do so by promoting the Four Percent membership itself so that can be somewhat biased. With others, there were no further income updates and their affiliate links appeared to be inactive which led me to believe they’re no longer with the platform.
There is only a handful who appear to be quite successful and these are the people who’re actually featured on the program. Clearly, they are affiliates but they also went on to create their own digital products such as business coaching, online membership programs, and so forth.
Maybe they were the only 4% (pun intended) who made it through. Who knows?
So, Is Four Percent a Scam?
Despite the founder’s past history, I wouldn’t call Four Percent a total scam though the expensive price points are something to watch out for. It does have a legit program in place and Vick is fairly transparent with his teachings and recommendations.
It’s obvious he wants to hone long term marketing skills and I think that’s a good mindset to have in running any type of online business. But if he’s well known as a traffic guru, why didn’t any of his previous ventures survive to this day? Will Four Percent fizzle out after a few years as well?
Why focus so much on paid traffic generation when he knows full well that in combination with organic SEO, one can yield more sustainable traffic? And lastly, if his methods are so effective, why aren’t we seeing more people getting stellar results?
These questions raised food for thought so don’t just sign up without knowing what you’re getting into. Unless you’re loaded with a ton of money OR at least have some basic experience with internet marketing, I wouldn’t recommend joining Four Percent immediately.
Instead, check out how I kickstart my online business – without breaking the bank – using a platform that has been around for more than 10 years. Join here for free and I’ll show you what’s inside.
If you’ve anything to comment about this review, just drop them in the box below.
Anthony Beatrice says
Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend this program. It is pricey and doesn’t seem to bring results for most people. Like you said, maybe only 4% of the people will benefit from it? Doesn’t sound like a lot of success rate. The fact that he started in 2017 while his other businesses fizzled out doesn’t instill confidence in me.
Sj says
This is a good read. I know it sounds like this guy is kind of scammy, but if you really think about it, he seems to keep plugging away until he reaches success in what he’s trying to teach. Looks like he practices what he preaches. Personally, though, I’m not ready to pay such a high price to learn affiliate marketing. I don’t think this is the right program for a beginner like me.
Mithra says
Nice write up.
The Everyday Price ‘ $9988’ and ‘Now Only $997’ to just learn affiliate marketing, cracked me up :D. But jokes aside, I think the courses are way too overpriced. ‘$997’ – seriously? Unless he provides all the basic tools for free, paying such an amount is not justified.
And I like to believe that the Everyday Price is a marketing ploy to make people buy in a hurry. It feels like he’s taking advantage of people who are absolute newbies into the online marketing scene and then ripping them off from their savings.