10K Challenge – Is This Worth Joining?

I recently came across the10K Challenge and have found a lot of people promoting this. So either it is working or everyone in it are having success that they want to share around or the third scenario is that they are competing for sign up. So I decided to take a look and see what 10K challenge was all about.

I signed up about a month ago and did nothing. I had a quick look around the site and wasn’t totally impressed with the introduction video which felt like it was aimed at kids trying something new out. But then I guess that is what it is like for new comers trying out new internet marketing programs. Kids trying out a new game or lambs to the slaughter – you decide which.

The system is set up in Phases with  levels 1-4. Each phases has about six steps that you need to complete and work through and Debbie Penner, the creator, stresses the importance of doing everything as they have it laid out.  At the end of each step you are given an assessment to complete before you can move on to the next phase.

All the training videos are about 5 minutes long which is refreshing. I have been other internet marketing training which can last anything from an hour or more. When you are building a business time is your most valuable asset and therefore lengthy training sessions at the start,are in my view, one of the biggest causes that make people give up.

They invest alot of time trying to learn the program. When they try to put their learning into action, they often don’t see instant results and they give up.

So getting back to the 5 minute training at the 10K Challenge, they are short and to the point. You are encouraged not to skip any of the steps and not to move on until you have the required number of people in your down line. If you are able to recruit one person then it follows that you will be able to turn that into two and so on and so forth. As you move to the next stage it will follow that these people will continue to buy from you.

 Here’s what I did with the 10K challenge

I listened to phase one, step one. The system is free to join and focuses on free marketing methods to start off with. You are encouraged to join several safe lists. Part of your efforts are going to be in surfing and gaining credits in order to advertise your own 10K challenge business.

I have been at this stage before and have gone through the surfing stage of viewing ads for a set period of time in order to earn my credits. I don’t mind spending a set period of time to build this up. But is surfing really going to be the best use of your time and will you be spending way more than the recommended hour per day to build this business?

What is good about the 10K Challenge program

It’s free to get started and dip your toe in the water.

It gives you the chance to see whether internet marketing is for you

If you are serious about building a business, then the next phase will require you to join an infinity membership program which will cost $25 per month. Still a low entry level program compared to most.

The 10K challenge aim is  to help you build up slowly, first by getting you to $1500 per month  then you reach phase two training and to continue from there on.

Does the 10K challenge work?

I had a search around for some reviews of the 10K Challenge and here are some that I feel add value.

This one is by Adam Waller - 10K Challenge Review.

He gives a clear account of the nine months that he invested into making this program work for him. Despite signing up and following all the steps, it seems that the 10K challenge did not deliver. As always any program that you invest in will only return what you put into it. From Adam’s review, it seems that he followed the program step by step and his reviews gives an honest account but the 10K challenge didn’t work for him.

Another review I came across was from Rick Roberts who started the challenge on 2 May 2012. This was taken from his first blog post at start up were as follows:-

“Lets wrap this up now – The good and bad

The Good: 

• The program truly is ad advertised completely free for the first 30 days.
• The program has an excellently laid out daily task list.
• The program’s daily task lists are easy to complete and anyone even those with no Internet Marketing experience.
• Totally affordable to everyone, I mean everyone has $25 they can invest into themselves.

The Bad:

• Not really a bad thing, but the program does require work. You CANNOT succeed if you don’t take action.
• Attracts a lot of lookie-loo non-action takers. You know they type – the ones looking for a pie-in-the-sky one button solution to overnight wealth.
• Totally dependent on having an active and communicative upline for the times you need help or have questions.
• Lack of accountability, currently there is no built in checks and balances to be able to tell if your downline referrals are actually working the system.
• No reward system for keeping you motivated during the first 30 days.”

His post on Day 12, highlights a key flaw with many of these programs. I could rephrase it but he actually put is across very clearly so I will quote from his post here

“You will never make it in this program if you follow it to the “T” and only use the recommended ad sources.

Now let me qualify that statement and please hear me out.

The other day we got a system wide email from the program originator Debbie Penner that stated that the 10K Challenge membership count is now beyond 7000 members. Now think about that… if all of the members are using the same ad sources then you know they are getting saturated big time with the same ads over and over causing people to get ad blindness to 10K Challenge ads.

But we all know that there aren’t 7000 active members, in fact I’d place my bet on roughly 10% of that or 700 members being actually active in this program.

Still that’s a huge amount of people using the same ad sources.

Now anyone that uses the recommended ad sources has to admit that right now you are seeing tons of ads for 10K Challenge. You can spot them a mile away because people are such copy cats they use each others subject lines like sheep jumping a log.

Okay, I hope you’re still with me as I’m going to bring this all back home for you now.

If you haven’t figured it out here is what the real goal is in having the daily tasks and why we were given a straight set of ad sources…

…it’s to get you used to doing a daily routine of promoting – plain and simple!

Had we not of been given a list of places to place our ad promos 99 out of 100 people who joined this program would never have even gotten started because they would not know where to start. Being as such they would never get into a daily routine of promoting their links everyday.

So the moral of the story is this first 30 days you are being trained to think like a marketer and develop a daily routine of promoting yourself. However I hope you catch on to the saturation problem quickly and start thinking a little for yourself and using your own ad sources.”

So it seems that the 10K Challenge is a great place to start to learn some free marketing strategies, develop good daily marketing routines but unless you are creative and know how to market differently from others promoting it, then your chances of success do not bode well.

Seems that those that are having success are using paid marketing strategies and also developing their own systems. So they are not using the 10K Challenge as devised and to the T.

Similar problems can be encountered with any system you are promoting and that is the problem of saturation.

One way I have found to overcome the Empower Network saturation is to find alternative ways of promoting it.

Simple 2 Advertise provides a marketing method to Empower Network affiliate’s using new landing pages which provide a fresh look to your marketing and allows you to stand out from the many.

The last post to the 10K Challenge review blog was on Day 22 back in May 2012. It seems that Rick Roberts had some success with safe lists and getting clicks and did get 5 referrals . But after Day 22, Rick Roberts has stopped posting. It’s not clear whether he got through the 30 day stage to progress to the next phase or whether he has had such success that he’s off celebrating?

So it is in the balance about whether the 10K challenge can live up to it’s name.

As with any program your marketing efforts will be the indicator of your success.

You can follow the system but at the end of the day it comes down to how you promote and what you do.
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