ACN Reviews: Introduction
Another approach to making money is to assist others to sell their expensive product bundles by selling a membership. Almost every distributor promotes it to attract new customers and profit from your sales. Yes, you heard me correctly…
They want you to join so you can help make them more money.
It’s supposed to show you how to become a “6 figure network marketer” but most members don’t make money promoting other products.
That’s just the truth…you won’t get rich off a small $6 commission
And while we have to be honest for this review…
MLMs like ACN are a bit of a mixed bag. They CAN be a legitimate way to make money, but some have a reputation for literally ruining people’s lives – so it’s important to know what you’re getting, since each one is unique.
Like most of my readers, you were probably introduced to this one via a friend or some influencer you trust online.
And it makes sense why so many people recommend them:
Making money outside of a 9-5 can be… life-changing, to say the least.
So in this article, I want to help you explore two things:
- If MLMs are actually a worthwhile business to pursue
- If ACN is a worthwhile MLM
Before that, I want to clear the air on something.
There are A LOT of people out there who bash all MLMs in any form. I am not one of those people.
Instead, I want to genuinely educate you about them so that you can make an informed decision on how to proceed.
If you’re unfamiliar with what MLMs actually do:
They’re businesses in which you pay money to a company for the ability to sell their products.
Sometimes the products are actually kind of decent (I still remember my mom throwing pampered-chef parties when I was younger).
Other times the products are really poorly made and come with a high price tag.
Typically, the only way to really make money is to get people (mostly friends & family) to sign up with you for a recurring subscription.
If the product is 100% legitimate & valuable, it’s entirely possible to get people to sign-up and continue paying you.
If the product is subpar, you’ll usually burn those bridges kinda quickly and end up with $0 coming in each month.
The biggest issue I’ve seen is that this puts significant stress on your personal relationships, as you’re reliant on selling to your “network.”
Think about it: if you KNEW that every time your friend Sally called, she’d be trying to sell you on one of her products… you’d eventually stop answering Sally’s calls.
Now, this doesn’t mean MLMs are outright bad… it means you need to know what type of MLM you’re getting yourself into before you sign up.
Again, some MLMs provide real value to people, but MOST don’t – and so in this article we’re going to explore what the case is with ACN.
But before that, I want to ask you a question: what if there was a way to build actual recurring, semi-passive income?
Income that:
- Doesn’t have inventory
- Doesn’t make you sell to your friends & family
- Doesn’t force you to recruit people onto your “team”
Something that you could make anywhere from $2,000 – $10,000 with consistently, month after month?
A stream of income that you can build as high (or low) as you feel like building it?
If that sounds interesting, you might want to think about using the Digital Rental Method.
If you wanna see what ACN looks like on the inside, keep reading.
What Is ACN?
ACN (American Communication Network) was founded in 1993 by a group of young entrepreneurs in Concord, North Carolina, who had a total direct sales experience of many years.
- Tony Cupisz
- Mike Cupisz
- Greg Provenzano
- Robert Stevanovski
For additional information, go to their site at www.acninc.com.
They decided to start their own MLM company due to their own training dissatisfaction (mainly trial and error) with other companies.
ACN is now an international company with Independent Business Owners promoting telecom services using network marketing.
As of now, ACN is the largest distributor of telecommunication services world-wide. The 2nd largest was a company called Excel Communications but is defunct.
What Products Does ACN Offer?
ACN’s services include both residential and commercial options. These services are divided as follows:
Residential Services:
Home phone services:
For $24.99 per month you can use your high-speed internet connections to make unlimited calls from your home to over 80 mobile and landline destinations.
High-speed Internet:
ACN offers nationwide high-speed internet services with :
- Frontier
- Verizon
- Centurylink
- AT&T
Based upon the service provider you decide upon, the pricing will range anywhere from $20 – $100/month.
Wireless service:
On a contract or no contract basis, you may take advantage of this phone plan program, which has three price levels (purple, green, and yellow). As a bonus, you can sign up friends and family members.
Purple pricing plan range: $23-$64 per month
Green pricing plan range: $23-$79 per month
Yellow pricing plan range: $23-$69 per month
XOOM energy:
Xoom energy is a natural gas service by ACN that provides two plans:
SureLock – The price of your service is guaranteed to never fluctuate
SimpleFlex – With this plan your monthly rate will go up or down depending on your usage, but you can cancel or switch whenever you need to
Television:
ACN is also a provider of satellite television through DirecTv and Dish. Their packages start at $39.99.
Home security and automation:
Vivint, leading home protection and automation provider, is another option for ACN customers. Using this service, you may monitor your smart home from anywhere in the world and get alerts when anything goes wrong.
You can get these services for a down payment of $50 and no activation costs.
Business Services:
Everything in the Residential Services package is included in the Business Services package, plus the following additions:
Anovia payment and processing:
ACN offers payment and credit card processing through Anovia offering the following:
- Credit
- Debit
- Gift Card
- e-Checks
- e-Commerce
You have three options:
- No upfront cost for mobile card reader – $25 / month
- No contract plan – $20 / month
- Purchase a Swipe terminal with low-cost transaction rates – $15 / month
How Does The ACN Compensation Plan Work?
There are three methods by which independent company owners make money.
Monthly Residual Commissions
One of the most important sources of an ACN IBO’s residual revenue will be the commissions they get from their team as they grow their business.
Basically, you start making money from the efforts of the people you recruited in your team. And as your teams start growing, the system that you earn residual income from will continue to grow.
These are pretty hard to come by though, and you’ll have to work your ASS off for them.
Personal Commissions
To earn a personal commission, you must have directly signed up many consumers to ACN service plans and gained significant revenue.
The percentage that you receive from ACN will be 2-8% of the total monthly bill of your customer.
So, let’s say you have a personal base of 39 customers that uses about $1,000 per month of ACN Services; you will get paid 2% of that total. This is a residual income of $20 / month from those customers.
Consequently, the more customers you have signed up, the more money you make.
I actually like this about ACN as they make it a point to incentivize their reps in the area of retail sales. This is something that more MLMs should do.
With that said, I doubt that most people would even bother trying to sign up 39 customers just to earn 1-3% of their total bill.
Personal commissions are a little bit easier to get…but you still have to work SUPER HARD. Odds are you’ll likely work harder at this than that 9-5 you decided to quit.
BUT YOU WON’T HAVE MORE MONEY TO SHOW FOR IT!
Team Residual Commissions
There are two types of team residuals: those generated by the individuals you join up with and those caused by the people you sign up with.
Ahhhh, the worst payment method of all. In my opinion it’s SELLOUT money. You have to sell people on the dream you were sold into just so you can have a chance at more money.
I’m sure by now you realize how (not so clean) MLM money like this can be, and you’re probably put off by it.
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But if you want to keep chasing after shrimpy commissions and selling people left and right…check out the ACN payment plan below:
Although this diagram doesn’t offer much information, it does show that you earn 23% commissions going as deep as 7 levels.
Now this may seem like a killer compensation plan, this is only 23% of the profits from ACN.
So, no matter what service you sign up customers to use, about 1/4 of your ACN billings will be going to people above you.
As a result, ACN really has a hard to with offering services to your customers at competitive prices.
Of course, they still want to make some money on their end, so they’ll need to pay out these commissions over and above their overhead.
So how much money are you able to make on each level?
In order to answer that question, I had to look at the ACN compensation plan from 2019. This will show you everything that ACN IBOs do to earn their commissions.
ACN provided the diagram below to help us better understand:
It’s pretty clear from this diagram that if you want to make it big with ACN, you have to build a strong downline. The more money your downline spends with ACN, the more money you make.
And, of course, the best way to grow your downline is for your members to recruit other ACN IBOs… and on and on. The is the MLM way.
Customer Acquisition Bonuses
The bonuses you receive for customer acquisition are up-front and one-time only for recruiting new ACN customers.
Next, when one of your personal recruits become team trainers, you’ll get paid anywhere from $90-275 base on your rank.
And to become a team trainer, your recruit has to sign up for the $499 initiation package and then turn around and sign up 6-8 customers within a certain amount of time.
I know what you’re thinking… “this is getting paid for signing customers up”, but it’s not. These bonuses will be paid out only when the people you recruit ‘level up’ within 30 days.
This is what most MLMs call their ‘quick start bonus’. It’s simply an incentive to get people up and running ASAP.
In ACN, this tactic is called ‘tap-rooting’.
The goal here is to get ACN IBOs to recruit as much as they can while they’re brand new to the program and still excited. We’ve discovered that an IBO that has to sign up at least one member into their downline, the chances are they will stay with the MLM.
An explanation of the points system for all the services is laid out in the full compensation plan, but that’s only relevant to your specific area.
How To Join ACN As An Independent Business Owner?
If you wish to become an ACN IBO, the first step is to sign an ACN business owner agreement.
You’ll need to pay a $499 ‘application fee’ which must be submitted with the letter of intent and is basically just a business startup fee.
After becoming IBO you’ll be able to start selling ACN’s services to your customers through your own website.
Just keep in mind that you are an independent business owner of ACN and not an employee.
Which is great because you can set your own hours and run your business the way you want. You’re actually paying to be in business for yourself and not paying to be an employee.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is It Hard To Make Money With ACN?
The MLM business model has inherent problems, so making money is pretty hard across the board, not just with ACN.
In 2014, Jon Taylor mentioned in his book, Multi-level Marketing Unmasked, that 99.7% of the people who sign up with MLM companies typically lose money.
So what are you waiting for? Check out something that ACTUALLY works instead!
So, the chances that you will make money are virtually zero, no matter what you are told by a company.
If you’re a good salesperson, then you might be in the .03% of people that can sell products. And MLM companies rely on this so that they don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising.
What they do instead is create a huge network of loyal people to buy their products who wouldn’t buy them otherwise unless there was a promise of financial freedom attached.
As I mentioned earlier, the compensation plan looks great, but you’re also paying for commissions. Remember that 23% of your ACN service bill will be paid out in commissions to the people above you.
From what we’ve seen in ACN customer reviews, they feel that the services offered are too expensive and very low quality.
On top of that, many other customers don’t like the fact that they couldn’t cancel services leading them to believe ACN to be a scam.
Is ACN A Pyramid Scheme?
When the issue of this business model being a pyramid scheme comes up, it’s usually because people question whether it’s legal or not to make money by signing people up to the business.
Legally, this is not the case since the business also makes money from the selling of actual services that people want or need. Only when you make money by recruiting people would it be considered a pyramid scheme.
In 1979, the FTC brought a case against Amway claiming it to be an illegal pyramid scheme even though they sold actual products.
The court case went on for nearly 4 years after which it was decided that Amway was not a pyramid scam, but that they offered a business opportunity.
This may sound like semantics, but in their contracts members are told that they need to make sales.
This ruling opened the flood gates for other MLMs (such as the ACN opportunity) to join the fray provided that their goal is customer acquisition and not just ‘sign up bonuses’.
But, even though something is technically legal, doesn’t mean it’s ethical.
As a matter of fact, in 2005 ACN was accused of being a pyramid scheme in Australia. Today, ACN still operates in Australia, so I’m guessing they either changed some things up or they won their case.
Is The ACN Legit Or A Scam?
So, time for the $1,000,000 question: is ACN a scam?
No, not technically. They aren’t going to run off with your money and not give you what you paid for. It’s 100% possible to make money with this program.
That being said, it’s not nearly as simple as they want you to think it is.
There’s A LOT of work to be done up front, and no guarantee that you’ll be successful. The commissions are also fairly small.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for doing hard work now, so that I can reap the benefits later.
But if you’re going to work really hard for 3 months, and your reward is a $100 check… it’s not really a great opportunity.
If I’m gonna do that, I want the rewards to be HIGH and virtually guaranteed.
I’d rather put in that same 3 months of work (in my spare time) & build a handful of Digital Rental Properties that each produce $500-$2,000 checks every single month afterward (AKA recurring income).
And the cool part is that you can do it in a lot less time than 3-months (I personally did it in my first 2 weeks of using the Digital Rental Method).
Unlike with MLMs, you can do it from anywhere in the world, so it’s a genuine “laptop-lifestyle” business.
All you need is an internet connection.
Some of my friends are Digital Rental Method that run their 6-figure businesses from:
- Camping trips at national parks
- Beachfront in Hawaii
- On the road in a camper-van (with a pet pig!)
They focus on living an enjoyable life first, and focus on income second. All thanks to this program.
They can take weeks or months off, and money keeps rolling in.
Living happily is the top priority.
Read Our In Depth Breakdown Of The Top 5 MLMOpp Courses For 2024
If the thought of living perpetually at your dream vacation spot interests you, using the Digital Rental Method might be for you
Are There Any Alternatives To ACN?
At the end of the day, it’s possible to make money with ACN… so long as you’re ok with being a salesperson and can persuade other people to sign up with ACN services.
But don’t forget that in order to earn residual income, you’ll need to recruit people into your downline. This is where the real money is.
So, given that, this may not be right for everyone, and there are other MLM options out there for you.
There are even many different alternatives to Multi Level Marketing, such as:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Dropshipping
- Amazon FBA
- Blogging
- Freelancing
…all of which you can make a decent amount of money to a great deal of money.
However, these business models are often too reliant on outside influences, so you frequently find yourself willing to work without a safety net.
What if you could have all the upside potential of an e-commerce business, none of the headaches of dealing with your Network Marketing downline, and all the passive income potential of Real Estate Investing?
What I mean is that there is one business model that allows you all these things.
It’s called Digital Real Estate.
What Is My #1 Recommended Business Model In 2024?
I’ve personally tried all of the major online business models:
- I’ve sold fidget spinners through Amazon FBA
- I’ve drop-shipped a toilet-bowl putting green on Shopify
- I’ve sold women’s health supplements via Clickbank affiliate marketing
And I made money with all of them, so trust me when I say: there is no “perfect” business model.
I’ve also been on the other side of old friends trying to sell me their fancy new MLM products.
That being said, my #1 recommendation for making real money online is, hands-down: being a Digital Landlord.
Whether you’re a complete newbie, or you’ve been around the block before but have never had that “big win” to propel you forward, using the Digital Rental Method is for you.
Why?
Time: If you’ve got a spare hour-or-two each day, you can do this. If you want to drop everything and go all-in, you can do this. More time obviously means faster results, but even putting in a few hours per day is enough to see real success.
And because of that flexibility, you don’t need to trade your time for money. Once the income starts, it’s recurring.
That means you can take a month off, travel the country, pursue a passion project, chill on the beach, or charter a boat across the world.
But you can only do that once you’ve created an income stream that doesn’t require YOU to be there all day, every day.
Ownership & Control: With MLMs, you don’t really “own” anything – everything belongs to the MLM.
If you read the contracts, they can kick you out at any time, or change your commission at any time (it’s happened in a few high-profile MLM cases recently).
Why pour your soul into a business that could be taken away from you at the drop of a dime?
With the Digital Rental Method, you literally own all of the assets, which means you have ultimate control.
Big Margins: With MLMs, you’re often going to have really slim margins. That means you need to have a VERY large network to make serious money. This usually entails spending A LOT of money on ads and other methods for recruiting members.
using the Digital Rental Method, your profit margin is nearly 100%. Watch here to learn how.
Just a reminder: these Digital Rental Properties are worth (at a minimum) $500/mo in semi-passive income. And each time you create another one, your income increases, and the effort put into creating the next property decreases.
Best case scenario, you have properties bringing in over $3,000+/mo on auto-pilot.
It’s Effectively Copy-Paste: Here’s my favorite part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up, you can literally copy-paste another version of it and find another willing “renter” in a few days. DOUBLING your income doesn’t get much easier than that…
If you wanted to double your income with an MLM, you would need to sell twice as much inventory. And I can guarantee you, that’s a lot harder than a few clicks & a phone call.
You’re Helping REAL People: My biggest gripe with MLMs is that you’re likely going to ruin your personal relationships.
The MLM may have convinced you that you’re actually helping people, but it’s often not really true.
But With the Digital Rental Method, you’re helping solve REAL problems that people are ASKING for help with:
Small local businesses around the world need one thing: customers. Without them, their business would fall apart. If we can provide those customers, they’re going to be really happy – and they’re going to pay you for it.
You’re helping a struggling mother or father put FOOD on the table for their families, put their kids through college, or simply live life a little bit more comfortably.
Having this type of impact on the world is what will help you sleep soundly at night.
So, the rest is up to you. You could keep looking at other MLM programs like ACN, which might make you money 12 months from now.
You could keep researching and researching for the next few months (or few years), never making a concrete decision.
OR, you can look deep inside, think about those dreams, hopes, & desires, and make the decision to ACTUALLY make it happen, just like it has for thousands of other students before you.
Making a fortune while actually helping real people that need it.
If this sounds like you, click here to see how it all works.
