Is Pure Leverage a Scam? (Beware of their 100% Commission!)
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Is Pure Leverage a Scam? (Beware of their 100% Commission!)

Welcome to my Pure Leverage review!

Chances are, you came to know about Pure Leverage because you've heard of their 100% commission rate and you want to find out if it's legit.

So, is Pure Leverage a scam? Or is it a legitimate make money online opportunity?

Let me reveal the truth to you in this review...

Pure Leverage Review Summary

Product Name: Pure Leverage

Founder: Joel Therien

Product Type: Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Company Selling Internet Marketing Services

Price: $24.97/month + $19.97/month (Resell right)

Best For: Network Marketers, Internet Marketers

Pure leverage review

Summary: Pure Leverage is a seemingly good platform that offers you various internet marketing services at an affordable price. However, I would say it's a pyramid scheme in disguise because it is all about promoting themselves and recruiting people to make money.

Rating: 20/100

Recommended: No

More...

What is Pure Leverage?

Pure Leverage is a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company selling Internet Marketing Tools, such as website builder, autoresponder, lead generation, etc. (I'll go into the details of all the products in just a moment.)

For your information, Pure Leverage is backed by a multi million dollar Internet Marketing Company called GVO (Global Virtual Opportunities) which offers web hosting. Both company are founded by the same person - Joel Therien.

In Pure Leverage, you can be either a customer who uses their products or be a re-seller at the same time promoting their products to earn commission.

They promise you that you can earn 100% commission by promoting Pure Leverage. This is very attractive but is it real? And what's the catch?

is pure leverage a scam

After all, if they pay everyone 100% commission, they won't be able to make any money to sustain, right?

So, that's what we want to figure out in this review. Stay tuned!

Pure Leverage Product Line

Pure Leverage offers 6 main tools...

1. Customizable Website Software

This is just a fancy name for a simple PLR blogging system that uses “pre-written and article spinned” material.

In fact, Empower Network blogs, similar to the Pure Leverage blog, were flagged by Google as “spammy”, which resulted in serious ranking hits.

Basically, Pure Leverage is just offering you a website builder to build a done-for-you cookie cutter website to promote themselves.

You're not going to learn how to build a website for your own business in a niche of your choice. Instead, you're given a duplicated website and some training on how to promote Pure Leverage.

2. Lead Capture System

This is a tool to help you create your own list building landing pages to collect your subscriber Email.

They have a library of landing page templates for you to choose from. All you need to do is to change the texts and images.

To be honest, there are lots of similar services out there in the market, such as Thrive Leads & Inbox Blueprint. This particular lead capture system from Pure Leverage doesn't stand out from the crowd.

The templates are nothing unique as well. They're all very basic.

3. Autoresponder

Autoresponder is simply an Email Service Provider (ESP) to help you follow-up with your subscribers.

It's good that Pure Leverage is trying to combine all the necessary tools in one place but their services are pretty average, or even below average when comparing to the leading providers such as Aweber & ConvertKit.

Also, ESP usually charge based on the number of subscribers you have. For example, they quote a price for 1K subscribers and below, a price for 1K to 3K, a price for 3K to 5K, something like that.

Pure Leverage not only charges you one single price, but it charges one single price for 6 different services.

I don't know about you. But I believe the saying, "You get what you paid for."

4 figure monthly passive income
Jerry Huang, Founder of Smart Affiliate Success

I'm Jerry!

I Created My Own 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income at just 21 Years Old!

4. Video Email Service

This is a relatively more unique tool because not many companies out there are providing Video Email service. The only competitor I know is Talk Fusion, which is another tech-based MLM company.

To be honest, video email can be unique and seemingly attractive. But majority of the people just don't used to send video Email. Sometimes it's just unnecessary and too time-consuming.

5. Live Conference Room

Pure Leverage's Live Conference Room is not a real physical room. It's an online tool for you to host your webinars, online presentations/discussions/meetings.

However, I don't feel that this feature worth any value. Simply because there are already a lot of Free tools like Google Hangout.

Pure Leverage's Live Conference Room is a decent tool but it has nothing special. People can just use Google Hangout for free. Why would they pay a monthly fee for a tool like this?

So I feel that they're just adding this in to make their program seem more valuable.

6. Elite Coaching

Elite Coaching has training that include a weekly live webinar to teach you things like setting up your WordPress blog, your autoresponder, email marketing tips, etc.

Basically, it's just a training to teach you how to use their services plus some additional tips.

However, what I've found is that their training is actually more towards teaching you how to promote Pure Leverage.

If you want to leverage their tools and build your own business, you have to figure that out yourself or learn from somewhere else. (Check out my top recommended training here!)

There are no step-by-step training to guide you how to build your own business and make money online.

If you're a beginner who knows nothing or very little about internet marketing, I would recommend you to start with this training, instead of investing in a bunch of tools without knowing how to use them to make money.

Pure Leverage Comparisons

Below is a comparison table I found on Pure Leverage's website:

pure leverage comparison

Pure Leverage VS Competitors

To be honest, I feel that this table is extremely biased!

Pure Leverage is trying to compare with companies specializing in different services.

For example, AWeber specializes in Email Marketing. That's why they only have autoresponder. You can't expect an autoresponder company to offer a website builder, right?

LeadPages specializes in building landing pages to capture leads. You can't ask a landing page company to offer you webinar service, right?

Pure Leverage can be good in terms of combining all the tools together but this is just too biased when they try to compare themselves with these specialized companies.

After all, Pure Leverage's individual services still fall short when competing side-by-side with these companies.

For example, LeadPages has its own 'drag & drop' tool to create your own customized landing page while Pure Leverage simply provides you with a bunch of default templates.

With LeadPages, you can create any type of landing page in any design you want. This cannot be done with Pure Leverage.

That's the difference between companies trying to combine everything all in one place and companies specialize in different areas.

There's always this trade-off.

Pure Leverage Compensation Plan

Pure Leverage has a pretty "weird", or should I say "unique", compensation plan. It doesn't adopt all those common types of plans, such as Binary Compensation Plan or Unilevel Compensation Plan.

Let's take a look at this video to see the visual explanation of Pure Leverage's unique compensation plan:

So, 100% commission is real but it's only for your first level downlines' first month commission. Afterwards, you only get 50% of what they pay monthly.

If your first level downline is also actively recruiting people, you can earn a 50% Matching Check Bonus from all the commissions they make.

But take note! In order for you to re-sell Pure Leverage to others and earn commission, you have to pay an additional $19.97 per month. So your total basic membership fee will be $24.97+$19.97 which equals to $44.94.

With $45 dollars per month, I can get a much better training platform and commission structure in places like Wealthy Affiliate.

P.S. This program that has enabled me to generate a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income at just 21 years old is FREE to get started and only cost $49/month fee to go full-time!

Pros & Cons

The Good

1. Affordable Front-End Membership

$24.97 per month for 6 different services is actually a pretty good deal, despite these services are just average tools.

That's why I would say its "front-end membership" is affordable.

Take note! There are definitely upsells. If not, how are they going to survive if the membership is so cheap and they're still offering 100% commission? That's crazy!

Like I've mentioned earlier on, if you want to become a re-seller and earn commission, you have to pay another $19.97 per month to get the resell right.

2. Supported by Russell Brunson

I was really surprised that Russell Brunson, the founder of ClickFunnels actually did a video testimonial for Pure Leverage.

russell brunson testimonial

Russell Brunson, Founder of ClickFunnels

Not only that, Russell Brunson actually spoke at Pure Leverage's Live Event before:

Russell Brunson does give Pure Leverage a certain level of credibility. So it's definitely a legit platform.

But whether is it a good platform for you to build and scale your online business, it's a different story.

Personally, I don't think so.

3. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

You're covered by a 30-day refund period. You have nothing much to lose. So you can definitely check out their individual services yourself to see if they help you.


The Bad

1. Pyramid Scheme in Disguise

No, Pure Leverage is not a pyramid scheme because they have legitimate products and services to offer.

However, they are operating like a pyramid scheme because the main goal of this program is to "recruit" more people into the system.

The more you can recruit, the more you can make. Not only that, the more your downlines can recruit, the more you can make as well.

I know this may sound similar to many MLM. But I don't like the fact that even Pure Leverage's tools & training are centered around promoting themselves.

This is unacceptable. It reminds me of another similar program called Digital Altitude. They have legitimate internet marketing training and tools. But everything they teach is all about how to promote DA and recruit more people. They've now been sued by FTC.

Like I've said earlier on, it's impossible for you to build your own successful online business by following Pure Leverage's training if you're a beginner.

Yes you can learn how to build a simple website for yourself. But if you want to build the website in any niche of your choice and make money, I would recommend you to follow my top recommended training.

2. Cookie Cutter Website

You can build WordPress website. It seems amazing.

But if you look closer, the website you're going to have is actually a cookie cutter website, which means it's just a duplicated Done-For-You website.

The problem with such websites is that you'll be challenged with duplicate content issue.

This leads us to the next problem... Traffic!

3. No Traffic = No Business

Having duplicate content issue means that it's impossible for your website/content to rank in Google. So you won't have free targeted traffic from Google.

This means you're left with paid traffic methods. And paid traffic requires you to have a large capital in order for you to see results.

If you're a beginner, you're definitely going to lose quite a lot of money.

So how are you going to grow your business and make money if you can't get traffic?

That's why I don't recommend Pure Leverage. 

If you're struggling with traffic generation, Wealthy Affiliate has one of the best training to help you get free targeted traffic from Google through content marketing.

4. Pure Leverage SPAMS!

A lot of people have complained about Pure Leverage's follow-up emails. 

There are people even receive more than 50 emails per month and most of them is all about upselling.

pure leverage spam

This is definitely not the right way to do email marketing. Once again, it shows that Pure Leverage just want more signups and more money.

5. 'Pay-to-Play'

This is very obvious. Pure Leverage requires you to pay $19.97 per month just to get the re-sell right.

So basically, you need to pay in order to be qualified for commission. I don't believe in such 'pay-to-play' programs.

In affiliate marketing, you don't have to pay anything in order for you to make money. This is not franchise. Why should I pay a monthly fee just to be able to re-sell products?

6. Lousy Training

Yes, Pure Leverage has this thing called "Elite Coaching". But you really shouldn't expect much from it.

Like I've said, the main purpose of this training is still to help you promote themselves.

You can learn the basic stuffs like setting up your WordPress blog and your Email autoresponder. But the truth is that all these can be learnt online for FREE.

The only good thing is that it has a good name which sounds cool.

7. No Income Disclosure

MLM company will usually have an Income Disclosure Statement showing the average amount of money people are making at different ranks.

This is for people to have a good gauge of the income potential of the company.

However, Pure Leverage doesn't have any form of such disclosure. It just makes the system even more shady in my opinion.

Tired of MLM? Check out my #1 Recommendation Here!

Is Pure Leverage a Scam?

No, Pure Leverage is not a scam. Nor is it a pyramid scheme.

It has decent services, that's why it's legit. However, their services still cannot compete with companies specializing in different services.

This reminds me of another platform called Builderall. Both Builderall and Pure Leverage are trying to combine everything under one roof, which can be a good thing.

But it's definitely harder to execute or even compete on the same level as those specialized services.

Another important thing is take note is this...

Those big and successful marketers out there are NOT using Pure Leverage despite it has so many services under one roof. Why?

Because specialized tools are still more reliable. And none of them wants to get involved in a MLM company make money simply by promoting their "average" services.

So do you want to go for cheap tools or do you want to go for more expensive tools which are more specialized and reliable? It's your own decision.

I would definitely trust the tools that big marketers out there are also using so that I can compete on the same level as them.

How I Make a Living Online...

I'm not a fan of MLM, not because it's illegal or not profitable, but because of all the restrictions and the expensive costs involved.

Instead, Affiliate Marketing is my top recommended business model for anyone to make money online.

The reason is simple...

  • You don't have to recruit anyone to make money
  • You have the freedom to promote any products you want and not being restricted to only promote the products from one MLM company
  • It's Free to get started

In fact, with affiliate marketing...

I've personally created a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income Stream and become financially independent at just 21 years old without any College degree or working experience!

Through my own hard work, I went from a broke restaurant waiter to living my dream laptop lifestyle in less than a year's time...


If you want to discover the secrets of how I did it at such a young age, click here!

Jerry Huang
 

Jerry is a young aspiring Internet Entrepreneur who started his online business at the age of 18. He is currently a Full-time Affiliate Marketer at Wealthy Affiliate, a community to help anyone start their own online business without prior experience. He actually achieved Financial Independence at the young age of 21. Read more about his story here!

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 23 comments
Nick Bestwick - August 31, 2019

Hi Jerry,

I agree totally with your review of PureLevarage. Whilst not technically a scam or a pyramid scheme, in effect it really is. They’re just playing by the rules so the FTC don’t get on their case. To be honest I was surprised to see that PL has survived for this long, it’s been around for a few years now!

The reality is that there is a huge demand for this kind of site/business and PL at least appears professional, so who’s going to know any different especially if you’re a beginner?

The thing that shocked me the most was Russell Brunson promoting it! He is a seriously talented, big-time marketer with a very high quality lead generation program. No doubt PL’s Joel Therien paid him a massive wedge for that service!

All the best,
Nick

Reply
Diana - April 27, 2018

Hi Jerry,

Products like Pure Leverage are misleading for no reason. Comparing themselves to Aweber and what Aweber provides is useless.

I don’t like the fact that you have to pay an additional fee in order to resell the product. The beauty of affiliate marketing is that it’s supposed to be free.

Duplicate content sounds like pure laziness and the lack of training means I’m staying away from this one.

Thanks for the review.

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 27, 2018

    Hey Diana,

    Thanks for stopping by! You got my points. I’m glad you agree with me.

    Reply
brad - April 24, 2018

Hey Jerry, this is one of the best and most thorough reviews I’ve ever read. Every angle aspect is covered. 

The internet is littered with companies like Pure Leverage, who makes big promises to newbie internet entrepreneurs (like myself). While they do provide some of the tools, their vision is focused on selling their own product and not helping their customers. This is what makes Wealthy Affiliate different. 

Like you’ve said in your review, they teach you how to acquire traffic from Google through content marketing. This is the best way to build your own, long term online business. Thanks Jerry!

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 25, 2018

    Hey Brad,

    I agree with you that these types of companies focus more on selling their own product rather than providing value. If you want to be truly successful in any business, we should always focus on helping people and solving people’s problems.

    The more problems you can solve, the more money you can make. Simple as that! I’m glad you’re now following Wealthy Affiliate’s training. You’ve definitely found the right place 🙂

    Reply
Dallas McCalister - April 23, 2018

Hi Jerry, this is an exceptional review on Pure Leverage. You really did your homework!

I was a board member of the MLMIA (Multi Level Marketing International Association) and owned my own network marketing company for ten years.

I say this not to brag, but to let you know that programs like this are the reason I have switched to affiliate marketing and to learning how to build my own website and online business.

The program you have targeted in this review starts off with a misleading statement of earning 100% commissions which regulators will be all over.

I would run from this program immediately because of my experience within this industry and his ad that included the fancy sports car and 100% commission payout statement.

You also included Russell Brunson, whom I do not know however, these folks can be fooled too and get paid to speak so buyers beware is to be exercised here as well.

Love your site! Keep up the good work Jerry.

Dallas McCalister

(Serial Entrepreneur / eBook author)

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 23, 2018

    Hey Dallas,

    Thanks for your insights about MLM and sharing your views on Pure Leverage. I’m glad that you’re now focusing on affiliate marketing. I’m sure you can utilize the knowledge and experience you had with MLM and excel in affiliate marketing.

    All the best Dallas 🙂

    Reply
Wayne Killins - April 23, 2018

Hey, what a great article and nice layout by the way!

I haven’t heard of Pure Leverage but after reading your post I wouldn’t want to look into it anyway.

Great way to break it all down and I wasn’t even annoyed by your pop up… 🙂

Keep on keepin’ on my friend…
All the best to your success!

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 23, 2018

    Thank you Wayne! I’m glad you like it 🙂

    Reply
Stefan Vogt - April 23, 2018

Hey Jerry, and thanks again for the warning.

It looks to me like the Yoonla program I reviewed the other day. They build a narrowed niche (only self-promoting) website and sign up for many tool programs on which the owner of Pure Leverage gets affiliate commissions.

Also, I really don’t understand how an MLM can pay 100% commissions if you normally pay a part to people higher on the lather.

Not for me, Pure Leverage is not what I want, thanks.

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 23, 2018

    Hey Stefan,

    I’ve just taken a look at Yoonla. It doesn’t look promising as well. But at least its website is much better than Pure Leverage.

    Anyway, the compensation plan of Pure Leverage just sounds too good to be true!

    Reply
Reyhana - April 23, 2018

I have read about them before, when I was looking for ways to make money online. And at first, I believed their promises were one of the best in the industry. 100% commission! But the fact that they don’t even have a free membership, at least for a trial, was the real turn-off for me.

Since I was just starting off and knew absolutely nothing about the online industry, it would be best to sign up with a company that offers a free trial, to see if online business was for me to begin with.

To be honest, I am happy that I didn’t sign up with Pure Leverage because now that I am so much more knowledgeable about the online industry. I can see the flaws in their promotion, such as the cookie cutter website that’s done for you. I know now that this never work and if you really want to build a business of your own, you have to work at it from the ground up.

And the fact that the training offered can only be used within the program to promote the program itself! It’s very restricting. If someone does not have a passion for it, and want to promote something else, then they cannot use the cookie cutter websites and the tools provided. Some of the training can be used while you build your own website somewhere else, but it is not worth the monthly fee.

From my standpoint, I wholeheartedly agree with you, that it is best to stay away from this company over-all.

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 24, 2018

    Hey Reyhana,

    Thanks for sharing with us your experience. I’m really glad that you didn’t fall into this shady program and eventually found the right way to do online marketing. Congratulations!

    And yes, I agree with you that whenever we’re buying into something new, make sure there’s some form of free trial. This is very important especially there are so many scams out there.

    Reply
Christine - April 22, 2018

Hi Jerry,
Very comprehensive look at Pure Leverage. The one thing that would be the deciding factor for me, is paying to be an affiliate for them. This is something that should never be required to sign up as an affiliate.
You hit the nail on the head when you asked why aren’t more people using such a complete platform!
Good article, thanks!

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 23, 2018

    Hi Christine,

    Thanks for your comment!

    They’re not paying to be an affiliate as it’s not affiliate marketing. It’s paying to become a re-seller.

    Anyway, if they’re that good, I believe many people especially those influencers will be using it and heavily promoting it.

    Reply
norman richards - April 22, 2018

Anyone who hears about 100% commission will really question what this is all about because it sounds all too good to be true.

And I was equally surprised to see Mr. Brunson also promoting this system. I guess he sees some good in it like it is not a scam. But the cons really will have person second-guessing.

A much better way to earn money online is through the training of Wealthy Affiliate which is making a huge difference in the lives of so many people. Wealthy Affiliate is the better way to go to have online success.

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 23, 2018

    Hey Norman,

    One golden principle is that if it’s too good to be true, it most probably is. Like you, I’m also surprised to see Russell Brunson’s face on their website.

    Anyway, thanks for your support Norman! Wealthy Affiliate is definitely the way to go 🙂

    Reply
Lorri - April 22, 2018

I hadn’t heard of Pure Leverage but I’m with you…where’s the profit, and how do you decide I’ll take this cookie cutter website versus getting the help I need to build my own personal website for the same price. Selling THEIR stuff vs talking about and selling what I want? No thanks!! Thanks for the breakdown of the differences.

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 22, 2018

    Haha, I’m glad you’re with me Lorri!

    Reply
Si "Archie" Watta - April 22, 2018

What an awesome review my friend. You outline exactly what you get for the money that you pay. NOTHING. At least, nothing new and a whole load of rubbish. I particularly agree with your part “How can they compare with companies who specialize…”

I was THINKING about reading and researching more on this company, but now, I do not think that I will bother!

Thanks for your review

Archie

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 22, 2018

    Hey Archie,

    Thanks for the comment. And I’m glad you agree with me!

    Anyway, I firmly believe that “you get what you paid for”. Definitely there are scams around but that’s our job to identify the scams for protect ourselves. Other than that, all the high quality legitimate programs/products are impossible to be cheap.

    Reply
Melissa - April 22, 2018

Oh dear! I’ll be staying well away from this one. It certainly does have many red flags despite they at least have real products underneath. I can’t stand being hassled with emails about upsells. That makes me want to switch off instantly.

And paying for the right to re-sell? No thank you very much. Duplicate content – well anyone who is serious should stay far away from this! Thanks for the heads up.

Reply
    Jerry Huang - April 24, 2018

    Hey Melissa,

    Thanks for stopping by. Yup, this program does have lots of red flags. Glad you agree with me 🙂

    Reply

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