iWowWe Compensation Plan v3.0 Review
Back when I first reviewed iWowWe in September 2011, the company offered two primary products, video email and “video meeting” (conferencing).
This was initially offered as a package at $69.95 upfront and then $20 a month recurring.
This was the only way to buy iWowWe’s products and provided access to the compensation plan. As such there was no option to be a true retail customer of the company.
Coupled with a matrix-based compensation plan, this effectively led to affiliates being only able to recruit affiliates and being paid commissions out of their monthly membership fees.
In September 2011 I noted several changes to iWowWe’s compensation plan. iWowWe split their product package into a Basic ($75 upfront and $20 a month) and Premium ($195 upfront and $20 a month) offering, increased the compensation matrix from 3×7 to 3×9 (with additional legs possible) and introduced membership ranks.
Once again there was no separation of retail customers and affiliates, with both the Basic and Premium Packages offering access to the compensation plan. The membership ranks introduced used recruitment criteria and given the strong impact they had on an affiliates commissions, were at the core of the new plan.
For whatever reason, the matrix based compensation plan hasn’t worked out for iWowWe and as of March 2013 they’ve ditched it altogether.
Introducing the third re-incarnation of the iWowWe compensation plan since I’ve been tracking the business, today we look iWowWe’s new binary-based compensation plan.
Differentiation between retail customers and affiliates
A red flag present in iWowWe’s previous two compensation plans has finally been addressed with the introduction of a $20 a year affiliate fee.
What affiliates get other than the ability to earn commissions via the iWowWe compensation plan isn’t clear, however the introduction of the fee will hopefully provide a clearer picture as to how many actual customers the company has vs. affiliates.
iWowWe product changes
Abolishing the Basic Package, iWowWe now only offer the one product package coming in at $195 upfront and $25 a month recurring.
Included in the package is access to iWowWe’s “entire suite”, including video email and video conferencing.
Direct Referral Commission
If an affiliate or customer purchases a product pack from an iWowWe affiliate, they are paid a 25% commission on the upfront cost of the package, which iWowWe round up to $50.
Eagle Club Commissions
For every four new product packages sold by an iWowWe affiliate (either to affiliates or customers) in any given month, an affiliate is paid $100.
Introduction of binary-based compensation plan
iWowWe have ditched their matrix-based compensation model and adopted a binary pairing system.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of structure with two legs branching out from under them. These two legs form the start of two teams, a left team and a right team:
iWowWe track all product sales using this structure, including the sales made by an affiliates downline. Commissions are paid out per 1:1 paired ratio of new product sales.
For every 1:1 paired ratio of a product sale on an affiliate’s left team and their right team, iWowWe pay out $25. Note that these sales can be made directly or by an affiliate’s downline.
Monthly residual commissions
iWowWe’s monthly residual commissions use the same binary structure as above, but instead is paired at a 5:5 ratio.
For every 5 product subscriptions matched on both the left and right side of an affiliate’s binary structure, they are paid $25.
This is a monthly residual commission, paid out of product subscription fees paid by both retail customers and affiliates.
Earnings via iWowWe’s monthly residual commissions are capped according to an affiliate’s membership rank:
- Super affiliate – $500 a month
- Director – $1000 a month
- National Director – $2000 a month
- International Director – $10,000 a month
- Field Vice-President – $50,000 a month
- Presidential Director – $500,000 a month
- Global Leadership Council – $1,000,000 a month
Note that iWowWe don’t specify complete membership qualification rank in their compensation material, only mentioning that it is tied into the amount of “cycles” an affiliate generates through their binary structure.
Director rank qualification is revealed as an affiliate being required to recruit two Super affiliates.
Recruitment Commissions
If an iWowWe affiliate recruits two new affiliates within their first 30 days of joining the company, iWowWe will pay the affiliate a $100 “Director Fast Start Bonus”.
Matching Bonus
A Matching Bonus is offered to iWowWe affiliates, starting at the International Director membership rank. The bonus is paid out on the residual monthly commissions of directly recruited affiliates and their downlines:
- International Director – 10%
- Field Vice-President – 20%
- Presidential Director – 30%
Note that once an affiliate has been found in any downline leg that is of the same membership rank as the original affiliate, the matching bonus then stops at that ranked member.
Eg. You recruit affiliate B who goes on to build their own downline. Eventually affiliate C in that downline does so well that they match your own affiliate membership rank. At this point you would only get paid a matching bonus on affiliate B’s downline, up until affiliate C.
Note that this is generational bonus, so if we’re talking Field-Vice President in the above example, the 20% matching bonus would cease but then continue on at 10% until an International Director was found further along the downline.
The system searches for the first equally ranked affiliate in each downline leg, and is of course subject to change if an earlier match ranked affiliate is found.
Car and Home Bonuses
A Car Bonus has also been introduced, offering International Director or higher ranked affiliates a monthly bonus:
- International Director – $500
- Field Vice-President – $1000
- Presidential Director – $3000
The Elite Leadership membership level expands this to a Home Bonus. iWowWe state the Home Bonus will ‘pay off a home… valued at up to 2.5 million dollars‘.
Conclusion
The biggest change (apart from switching over to a binary) in iWowWe’s v3.0 compensation plan is the introduction of true retail. This was a much needed introduction and eliminates a glaring red flag that was present in the last two plans.
With that said I am a bit skeptical as to the new membership rank requirements. The first level, Director, introduces recruitment requirements and one would assume this follows up the rest of the ranks.
If true, that would mean that non-recruiting affiliates would always be capped at earning $500 residual income, regardless of their retail sales volume. I sincerely hope there are some retail sales qualification criteria included with the membership ranks past Director.
One would also hope that a Super Affiliate can join the company for $25 and not be required to purchase the product subscription themselves to qualify for commissions.
Product wise you’re not looking at anything much different to iWowWe’s staple offering of video email and conferencing, with instead changes being made to the way it’s marketed and how iWowWe affiliates are compensated.
The potential has been created for the company to rely on retail sales to stay afloat, now it’s up to the affiliates to decide whether that’s what they’re going to focus on, or whether recruitment of new affiliates is more important.
As a prospective iWowWe affiliate a good place to start would be asking your upline what their retail customer to affiliate ratio was within their downline. More affiliates than customers is probably an indication that you’re going to be recruiting new affiliates and a lack of retail interest in the video package.
And if that’s the case company wide, then unfortunately despite the compensation plan changes we’re still back at square 1, with iWowWe having more affiliates than retail customers.
Good luck!