Got Backup Review: GVO’s cloud backup service opp
Got Backup launched about a year ago and falls under Joel Therien’s Global Virtual Opportunities (GVO) umbrella.
GVO was launched back in 2009, with BehindMLM reviewing their HostThenProfit opportunity back in 2011. A few months later we looked at 7 Minute Workout, a fitness orientated GVO offering.
The latest GVO-branded opportunity we reviewed was Pure Leverage back in 2013.
Pure Leverage rebranded GVO’s marketing tools and a blogging platform, and combined it with a “100% commissions” compensation plan.
The Pure Leverage website is still up today, but Alexa traffic statistics suggest a sharp decline in activity over the past twelve months.
Read on for a full review of the Got Backup MLM business opportunity.
Got Backup’s Products
Got Backup offer a cloud-based backup service:
- Personal Backup ($1 and then $7.99 or $8.99 a month) – unlimited cloud backup for one device
- Family Plan ($1 and then $12.99 or $14.99 a month) – unlimited cloud backup for five devices
- Backup & Share ($1 and then $11.99 or $13.99 a month) – unlimited backup for one device plus 500 GB of data syncing with other devices (100 GB of extra sync data is $6)
Not that the more expensive monthly fee is if a user pays per month. The cheaper fee is charged on a 12 month contract.
Unfortunately Got Backup’s service doesn’t appear to be available at a retail level. A promotional video on the Got Backup website advises that affiliates can “get started today for just $1”:
This ties in with the $1 fee charged on all Got Backup plans, suggesting that they are only sold bundled with the Got Backup affiliate membership.
Got Backup’s Compensation Plan
Commissions in Got Backup are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any affiliates on level 1 recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Commissions paid out are a percentage of earnings generated by an affiliate’s unilevel team, paid out at a rate of 50% scaled upwards.
At the bottom of any unilevel leg you have an affiliate at the lowest level of that leg.
They earn $x, with their upline paid a 50% match bonus of that. In turn, their upline is paid a 50% match bonus of their match.
Their upline is paid a 50% match bonus of that bonus, and so on and so forth right up to the affiliate at the top of the unilevel team.
Here’s another way of explaining it, using a simple 4 level deep unilevel leg and any given month.
The affiliate on level 4 made $100 in personal commissions. They don’t make a matching bonus because there are no affiliates below them (yet).
The affiliate on level 3 made $500 in personal sales commissions, so their total commission is $500 plus a 50% match of the level 4 affiliate’s $100.
In total, the affiliate on level 3 makes $550.
The affiliate on level 2 made $300 in personal sales commissions, so their total commission is $300 plus a 50% match of the level 3 affiliate’s $550.
In total, the affiliate on level 2 makes $575.
The affiliate on level 1 made $100 in personal sales commissions, so their total commission is $100 plus a 50% match of the level 2 affiliate’s $575.
In total the affiliate on level 1 makes $387.50.
You at the top of the unilevel team made $200 in personal sales commissions. So your total monthly earnings are $200 plus a 50% match of the level 1 affiliate’s $387.50.
For this particular month off this particular unilevel leg, you made $393.75.
Your total monthly commission is $393.75 plus a 50% match on all your other level 1 recruited affiliates.
Unfortunately Got Backup do not disclose how much of a commission is paid out per backup plan sold.
The Got Backup website does however mention “100% commission” payouts, which suggests the total fee charged for Got Backup plans is paid out.
If this is true, then commission payouts through the unilevel per backup plan sold would be as follows:
- Personal Backup Plan – $7.99 or $8.99 a month
- Family Plan – $12.99 or $14.99 a month
- Backup & Share Plan – $11.99 or $13.99 a month
Joining Got Backup
Affiliate membership with Got Backup appears to be tied to the purchase of the Got Backup cloud backup service:
- Personal Plan – $1 plus $7.99 or $8.99 a month
- Family Plan – $1 plus $12.99 or $14.99 a month
- Back & Share Plan – $1 plus $11.99 or $13.99 a month
Note that the higher monthly fee is charged if an affiliate opts to pay month to month rather than annually.
Got Backup Conclusion
A quick Google search for cloud backup services reveals multiple companies offering unlimited storage for between $50 and $69.99.
This puts Got Backup, who come in at $95.88 to $155.88, well above the industry average.
The fact that Got Backup’s service also doesn’t appear to be offered at a retail level is also pause for concern.
Cloud services are something most people are now familiar with (even if it’s just on their smartphone), so why Cloud Backup affiliates can’t market the service as a standalone is a mystery.
What you unfortunately wind up with is a product-based recruitment scheme, with the cloud backup service acting as the product.
Participants in the income opportunity are happy to pay well-above the industry average for the service, solely because of the attached income opportunity.
Purely from a service standpoint, if you’re interested in cloud-based backup then you can do much better price-wise for pretty much the same thing.
As an MLM income opportunity, the lack of an identifiable retailable product puts Got Backup in chain-recruitment territory.
I’m not seeing much to like here.
Update 1st October 2023 – BehindMLM revisited Got Backup for an updated review in October 2023.
I totally fell into this. I bought the backup service for myself–it worked fine and I thought the price was reasonable.
I thought I would be able to market it as a good product, so I signed up as an affiliate. Lots of webinars to hype it up, lots of encouragement to buy email lists to market to, etc.
What bothered me most was that if I were to sign someone up for the backup service, that person is immediately bombarded with pressure to become a seller themselves.
I probably would have stuck with it if they would have had a simple interface for customers who simply wanted to backup their files and not get involved in sales, and if they spent half as much time talking about the actual product instead of the MLM opportunity.
It took me longer than it should have to accept that Joel Therien simply switches from one product to the next, selling get-rich promises with every one.
This company deserves a review update.
Currently they offer 6TB for a family plan and a binary comp plan for a $49.95 startup fee and $9.95 per month. Other than that, not much else has changed.
If the pricing is all that’s changed I’ll edit this review rather than publish a new one.
Given this review is almost eight years old though, I’ll queue Got Backup up for a review update so I look into it properly before deciding.
Either way, thanks for the heads up.
Would like to keep abreast of the happenings of this product.
looking forward to an update – this is being heavily promoted now.
Queued up for a potential update, will report back when Got Backup comes up.
Yes pricing has changed and also the compensation plan as well. It now includes a non income capped binary that pays through infinity. Plus do a updated review on this.
Typo – please do an update on this.
WeGotFriends (Val Smyth, David Dubbs etc) has failed, no further payments being processed however linked arms with Joel Therien and is now a joint GotBackup partner.
All people who had registered with WGF (free or paid) are being bombarded with emails saying “a new member is in your downline”.
I have received over 200 emails so far and each with a link to SIGN UP NOW & PAY else miss out on commissions and downline.
This is what I am receiving many times every hour – Val Smyth is sending to all the WGF database:
Thanks for the heads up! Always scummy when a pyramid scammer sells a database of victims to another pyramid scammer.
bwahahaha!!! lol I’m rolling!