TLDR – What’s The Verdict On INF Method?
I know some of you are the type who wants to get to the bottom line of an issue ASAP, so if there is any part of this review that you should focus on it’s this verdict.
Let me say first that I don’t think that Mike Gandia is out to scam anyone or that his INF Method course training and approach to affiliate marketing, although unproven, can’t make money for you.
I’m just saying that the affiliate marketing business model will be an uphill battle from day one.
Let’s look at a few numbers… 95% of affiliate marketers fail or quit.
Why is this?
There are many reasons:
- You’re new to the industry and don’t have anyone with expertise to show you the ropes.
- You don’t have a proven and actionable marketing plan before starting your business.
- You’re not familiar with the product or how they connect with potential customers.
- You’re more focused on selling a product rather than fulfilling a need.
- You have to deal with too much competition in the industry.
In addition to all these issues, you could spend thousands of dollars and a lot of time on affiliate campaigns before you see a single cent in profit. Since affiliate marketing first began, at least online, the amount of money spent has grown 10% every year, with retailers (who have deeper pockets) spending 25%.
Now, if you’re thinking that the answer is finding an influencer to do all the marketing for you, you may want to think again – because these influencers are expected to increase their marketing budgets by 68%, and who do you think they’ll be passing that bill to?
Exactly right, you.
| Area | Score | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Time Investment | 3/5 | There isn’t much indicated about the time you’ll need to invest with the INF Method, but usually with affiliate marketing programs it takes a consistent amount of time and effort finding products and influencers to promote them for you. |
| Level of Control | 2.5/5 | You do have a certain amount of control of the products and influencers you choose, but not so much over the effectiveness of the influencer or their audience’s response to the product. |
| Ease of Implementation | 2.7/5 | This form of affiliate marketing might not be easy for beginners to grasp. You’ll need a fair amount of marketing knowledge, communication skills and relationship management. |
| Profit Potential | 2.9/5 | There’s decent potential for making money with this type of marketing, but your income depends heavily on picking the right product, the amount of people following your influencer and market trends. |
So, rather than dealing with all the expenses, hassles and roadblocks that you’ll be facing with affiliate marketing, why not take a look at a business model like Digital Leasing which offers you all of the upside potential of making passive income online without all the downside risks?
I know that some of you might still be sitting on the fence regarding affiliate marketing, so let’s take a look at the type of people that would benefit the most from it…
Who Should Consider The INF Method For Affiliate Marketing And Who Should Pass
In this INF Method review, I want to help you decide if Affiliate Marketing is the right path for you to choose – and I believe the best way for this isn’t by me saying “Yes” or “No”, but by providing you with some examples.
This way, if you can relate to certain examples, then whatever decision you make will typically be the right one.
So, if you can relate to any of these scenarios, then the INF Method for affiliate Marketing might be for you:
- You’re a little shy about getting in front of a camera and like the idea of someone else doing it for you.
- You have a website with affiliate products that you’re promoting, but none of them are getting any traction. This Reddit user says the best way to make sales is to promote products that you like.
- You’re determined to make affiliate marketing work even though over half of affiliate marketers make less than $10,000 per year.
If you can sympathize with any of the following, you should look for something else:
- Maybe you have a bad history with some affiliate or ad networks. This Reddit user says he’s “failed miserably” at affiliate marketing, being banned by ad platforms like Google and Adsense, rejected by affiliate companies, and those that do accept him have extremely low commission rates.
- You’ve recently looked at the underbelly of affiliate marketing and don’t like what you saw. This Quora user lists off some of the more common issues like very low conversions and sales, working hard to get a customer but losing that customer to the vendor, failing to follow a plan.
- You’re afraid of coming across as a “scumbag” promoting products that no one wants. This Reddit user made money selling weight loss products when he was younger but was having a hard time just three years ago finding good offers to promote.
Now, let’s look at the INF Method and Affiliate Marketing in general.
INF Method: A 1,000 Ft View
What I’d like to do next is take a few steps back and look at the INF Method and how he uses it to make money with affiliate marketing.
How Do You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
If you’ve been a visitor to my site before, then you probably have a good understanding of what affiliate marketing is – but if you’re new to the concept, here’s a quick overview.
The idea behind affiliate marketing is that you’ll have a company with a product to sell and they offer a commission (usually 25% to 50%) to individuals with online assets (websites, YouTube channels, email lists) to promote their products.
For example, if you have a website geared towards a specific niche like baby clothes, you could put a link on your site for a product from Gerber Childrenswear and if someone makes a purchase through that link, you get paid a commission.
Of course, you’re not limited to baby clothes – you can find affiliate programs for all types of products today.
The INF Method Business Model
The premise behind the INF Method is to use Social Media Influencers to help you build and promote your brand online. The goal of this approach is to:
- Target a larger audience
- Acquire social proof
- Get more engagement
This approach to affiliate marketing has been so successful that now over 81% of popular brands have an affiliate program.
So, what is an influencer?
Influencers are simply people who have a considerable number of online followers, usually on platforms like YouTube, and monetize their followers by promoting courses, books, video games, etc.
You can typically shop for influencers on platforms like:
- Grin
- Upfluence
- YouTube BrandConnect
Over the last several years, the influencer industry has grown to over $21 Billion and with 69% of the general consumer base trusting influencers, it’s not a bad way to spend your market dollars.
Who Is Mike Gandia (aka Mike Xave)?
About 4 years ago, Mike Gandia did a video with Anik Singal where he claimed to make $18,000 in 13 days with bookings through AirBnB, saying he did this without owning any real estate.
Since then he’s come out with a variety of different AirBnB courses showing people how to be successful doing what he’s done.
Shortly after, Mike decided to change his name to Mike Xave (my spidey-sense is tingling) for unknown reasons and started CMF Marketing, a digital marketing company specializing in sales data analysis and customer purchasing psychology.
Since then Mike Gandia/Xave has been involved with multiple business ventures like property management and email marketing.
He went incognito for three years later, but then came out of hiding with the INF Method.
What he did during those three years is anyone’s guess.
How Much Does INF Method Cost?
| Cost | $147 with an optional $19 monthly subscription. |
| Refund Policy | Mike offers a 30 day refund policy so long as specific requirements are met. |
| Course Material | Mike’s training teaches you how to make money selling affiliate products online and getting influencers to promote them for you. |
Is INF Method Legit Or A Scam?
I won’t go so far as to say that the INF Method is a scam, even though Mike Gandia (Xave) still has me scratching my head. I mean, It kinda sounds like he’s a big fan of The X-Men with Professor Xavier being his favorite, who knows?
I’ll just say that the jury is still out on Affiliate Marketing being a good way to make money online in 2024.
The reason being that there are so many gurus talking about how they made $100,000 on this campaign, and $200,000 that one, but from what I’ve seen online, there aren’t very many people making that kind of money unless they’re selling a course on how to do it.
On top of that, when you take a look at everything you need to learn to make that kind of money…
- Website Development
- Content Publisher
- Google Ads
- SEO
- Video Creation
- Conversion Optimization
- Data Analysis
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
…who has that kind of time?
Wouldn’t your time be better spent on a business model that could make you more money – in a shorter period of time – with just a fraction of the skills I just mentioned and without all the inherent monetary risk?
That’s what I’ve been doing Digital Leasing for the last few years and making money online like clockwork.
Imagine creating a simple five-page website in your spare time that makes you $500-$2,000 per month in passive income.
How would that change your perspective?
Now imagine easily duplicating that one website to 10, 20, or even 50 more?
How would that change your future?
Now, I don’t want to get to far ahead of myself, because there’s still some more information I’d like to cover, so let’s take a look at how the INF Method compares to other similar programs.
How Is INF Method Different From Other Similar Programs?
I’m sure you know that there’s no shortage of affiliate marketing courses that you can purchase if affiliate marketing is what you choose to do.
Here are a few that you can research:
Legendary Marketer
In my Legendary Marketer review, I talk about how Dave Sharpe goes over just about everything you could possibly learn about Affiliate Marketing. However, his course comes at a price tag of over $20,000 when all is said and done.
Invincible Marketer
In my Invincible Marketer review, I go over how Aaron Chen gives you a decent overview of affiliate marketing touching on the basics, which will cost you as much as $217 per month.
Wealthy Affiliate
In my Wealthy Affiliate review, I point out that it’s a subscription program much like Invincible Marketer, but goes into more detail costing only $99 per month for its Premium Plus Membership.
My Personal Opinion About INF Method
As we start wrapping up this INF Method review, I’d like to work our way back to Mike Gandia (Xave) and affiliate marketing.
When researching affiliate marketing courses, you’re going to come across people who have had good experiences and bad experiences. This probably isn’t a reflection on the course itself, but more of a reflection on the business model.
Like I’ve said before, affiliate marketing is a tough and competitive industry, so those people who bloody their nose tend to want to blame the course.
However, rather than judging a course from the perspective of those on Reddit and Quora, I have five specific criteria that I use to decide if a course is worth the investment.
- Experience: Does Mike have actual, real-world experience in affiliate marketing?
- Mentorship: Does Mike offer private coaching and mentorship?
- Value: Does the value of the training justify the price tag?
- Honesty: Are there any hidden fees or upsells in Mike’s course?
- Student Successes: Is their social proof of success with Mike’s students?
Would I Recommend INF Method?
So, with this outline, let’s see how The INF Method stands up.
First, the positives:
I like Mike’s idea about using influencers to help you sell your affiliate products, but honestly that just adds cost to an ongoing list of expenses that you’ll have with affiliate marketing.
I’ll assume for the time being that Mike has actual experience with this, but I’m not so sure.
Now, the negatives:
This is the most glaring of them all, who exactly is Mike Gandia and why did he change his name? I wish I could answer that question, because it’s been bugging me throughout this review.
What about his students, surely there would be someone who’s had success with his program that we can find online, but I couldn’t find any.
I think you know where this is going, but first let’s look at what’s inside his course.
What’s Inside INF Method?
It’s hard to determine what’s in the training just from the video, mainly because the video is no long available:
But this is what I was able to pull off the sales page:
- The Influencer Income: Video Training
The Influencer Income: PDF Training Influencer Stampede: Advanced Training Automated Money Machine: More Advanced Training The Influencer Income Blueprint & Video Guide
I also signed up for his e-mail list to see what other information I could find, but to date, I haven’t received a follow up. I’m guessing maybe he canceled his auto-responder.
My Conclusion: Should You Join INF Method?
I’ll keep this short and sweet… No, I wouldn’t recommend this course – for two main reasons.
First, I won’t say that Mike Gandia is a shady character out to rip people off. If I had to guess, he’s probably in the process of creating a different course similar to this one, but he hasn’t worked out the bugs just yet.
I’m sure that once he does, we’ll see him on another podcast with Anik Singal.
Second, as I’ve tried to hammer home, affiliate marketing is a tough way to make money online in 2024.
It’s just not my #1 choice.
My #1 Pick For Making Money Online In 2024
When we look at the Affiliate Marketing business, it’s clear that you can make money with it – the biggest issue that I have is that it’s an uphill battle especially given all the competition.
Which I expect is why Mike Gandia (Xave) has come up with this hybrid of affiliate and influence marketing. That said, there is no “perfect” business model, but Digital Leasing comes close to being the MOST perfect business model especially for the beginner.
Let me explain why…
- It’s Flexible: We’re all busy, which is why I suspect most people tend to avoid starting a business, but if you can set aside just an hour out of your day, then you can do this.
- You Call The Shots: If you look closely at affiliate marketing, you’ll see that you’re not in as much control as you might think.You don’t own the products, you don’t own the platforms, and you don’t own the customers. On top of that, with the INF Method, you don’t even own your marketing methods.
- Little Startup Costs: As I mentioned earlier, to do affiliate marketing effectively, you’ll need hundreds if not thousands of dollars to build your infrastructure, and there’s still no guarantee that you’ll be successful.With Digital Leasing you can get started with as little as $100 and be making money 30 days later.
- Duplication: With Digital Leasing, you can take a digital asset that’s making your $500 to $2,000 per month and easily create a duplicate site in a matter of minutes with just a few mouse clicks.With affiliate marketing, if you wanted to double your income, you would have to increase the traffic to your site, increase your commissions, or find more influencers. Trust me, all that is much more difficult and time consuming than a few mouse clicks.
- Helping Others Make Money: Digital Leasing gives you a unique opportunity to help local small business owners make money. I’m not talking about some huge company like Wal-Mart or Amazon. I’m talking about the little Mom & Pop shop down the street who’s struggling to stay afloat.
The life’s blood of any small business is the constant flow of new customers. If you can provide that to them, you’ll not only be increasing their bottom line, but you’ll be helping put food on the table for their families.
Now, you can keep looking for other ways to make this kind of impact on others, or you could join a community of like-minded students who are already doing this in their neighborhoods with Digital Leasing.
