Passive Income Machine Review:
Could It Really Help You
Earn a Stable Recurring Income Online?
[Maybe...]

Passive Income Machine Logo

Passive Income Machine…

A course which teaches how to make a recurring monthly income online by creating and maintaining paid membership groups and websites.

That’s actually a unique approach to earning money online than what the majority of MMO (Make Money Online) courses usually teach…

The downside is that the course is unlikely to deliver the substantial results it promises by itself, especially if you are a complete beginner, having no digital marketing skills whatsoever.

Don’t worry, you are about to understand what I am talking about in this review.

However, before I move on, I want to let you know that if you are in need of a high-quality course which is proven to make people succeed in earning their living online, and you don’t want to keep wasting your time, effort, and money researching and joining useless program after program which take you nowhere near your monetary goals, I would strongly suggest that you do yourself a favor, ditch this review, and go ahead and take a look at my #1 Suggestion right below.

Believe me, you won’t regret it 😉

Or you could just keep on reading this Passive Income Machine review.

Best Affiliate Marketing Courses

1.

The Affiliate Lab ($200 OFF)

4.7/5

(Review)

2.

Wealthy Affiliate (Free to join)

4.5/5

(Review)

3.

4.3/5

(Review)

Best Affiliate Courses

1.

4.7/5

$200 OFF

(Review)

2.

4.5/5

Free to Join

(Review)

3.

4.2/5

(Review)

Passive Income Machine Overview

Name of Product:

Passive Income Machine

Owners:

Paul Nicholls & Trevor Carr

Price:

12.95$ + upsells (prices may vary from time to time due to split-testing)

Official Website:

www.phlos.net/pim-sales-preview

Suggested?

I wouldn’t purchase it…

Alternate, Better Suggestion:

Best Affiliate Marketing Training Courses 

2/5

The membership model it teaches is legit and has potential. However, it’s not as easy as described and PIM’s training is kind of limited to help you earn your living online.

maintenance

Resources

2/5

Limited training in terms of quantity and depth. Quality is not that bad but it could and should be better. No additional resources and tools provided.

dollar symbol

Value for Money

3.5/5

Its overall value matches its cost (12.95$). Offers 3 optional upsells. Claims to have a 30-day, money-back guarantee which is probably a lie.

faq

Support

2/5

No support or community dedicated to this course. You could contact its creators through their personal blogs.

team success

Success Stories

2/5

Some success stories on PIM’s main sales page. After conducting research, I concluded that they must be fabricated.

Overall Rating

2.5/5
  • The recurring membership model this course teaches is legit, very profitable, and passive
  • Real owners who run blogs and a YouTube channel
  • Very affordable price
  • Comprehensive, easy-to-follow training for beginners
  • There are chances that you might make some money by following its training down the road but I really don’t think that it has the potential to teach you how to earn your living online…
  • Training is limited in terms of quantity
  • Not so high in quality either
  • Somewhat unrealistic claims on its main sales page
  • Its creators don’t seem to be successful marketers
  • Not as easy to succeed as they make it sound
  • Some success stories I came across seem fabricated
  • Probably won’t earn much with this course alone
  • No control over your business if you take the website-less approach
  • Lying about having a money-back guarantee

Suggested?

I woudn't go for it...

What is Passive Income Machine?

Passive Income Machine is a training course, created by digital marketers Paul Nicholls and Trevor Carr, which will teach you how to earn a recurring passive income online by building and maintaining paid membership Facebook groups and websites.

Within the main training of the course, you will learn stuff such as

  • Choosing your niche
  • Creating a private FB group around your niche
  • Using blogger.com as a medium to attract visitors
  • Build a membership website
  • Set your prices
  • Email marketing
  • Etc

You will also learn how to use PLR content (lame), as well as how to hire writers to produce content for you (also a bad choice if you don’t have the slightest experience writing yourself).

While earning recurring commissions through memberships is every digital marketer’s dream, practically, the whole model is not as simple and beginner-friendly as its the creators of Passive Income Machine claim. To build a membership website requires a lot of hard work and to maintain and manage it requires even more.

Nonetheless, Passive Income Machine can shed some light on how to get started and scale such business to some point.

Who is Passive Income Machine for?

Passive Income Machine is for people who want to earn some extra cash per month online, and maybe, along with some additional research and digital marketing training, end up earning their living online.

Such people might be those who 

  • Work a part-time job and are in need of a stable supplementary income
  • Already have a full-time job and want some extra money per month to buy stuff, have fun, put aside for their retirement or in case of an emergency
  • Are still students and want to experiment with earning money online
  • Don’t have an income at all so they have nothing to lose
  • Are compelled to the idea of starting an online business but don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars to do so
  • Have failed earning money online with other business models and want to try something new

*Note: I really don’t believe that someone who has never been involved in digital marketing before could end up earning any real amount of money with the training PIM provides. 

However, if you have some online marketing experience and you are willing to spend some additional time and effort researching and maybe even purchase another MMO course down the road, then you might actually end up earning some money with the membership model laid down within PIM.

Who is Passive Income Machine NOT for?

Passive Income Machine is NOT for those who are serious about successfully creating a sustainable, long-term source of income online.

Such people might be those who

  • Want to create another sustainable source of full-time income in order to quit a job they hate
  • Would rather be their own boss than having a boss, bossing them around (LOL)
  • Would just love the idea of earning their living online working from the comfort of their own home or wherever else they want
  • Are in need of earning a full-time income online to be flexible enough to travel around the world
  • Long to escape the 9-5 rat race and instead live a unique life on their own terms
  • Are unemployed, can’t land a job, or are getting constantly fired from jobs
  • etc

If you are one of those people, then you should probably go ahead and check out my #1 Suggestion below because Passive Income Machine might not be the right choice for you…

What's Inside Passive Income Machine?

Once you purchase Passive Income Machine, you gain access to 16 training videos.

Those 16 videos are split into 2 sections…

The first section contains 7 videos.

Within those videos, Trevor teaches you how to start earning money without having a website or a list by creating content on blogger.com and getting your readers to pay for a membership to a Facebook group that you will have created.

*Note: Whenever you hear stuff about earning money online without building a website or a list, be careful because whoever makes such claims is most probably trying to scam you.

I am not saying it’s not possible to earn money that way, but it will probably not work for someone who doesn’t know his way around and doesn’t have somehow already built an audience or have a following.

The second section is comprised of 9 videos where Paul reveals every step of building a monthly membership website on WordPress by using a membership building plugin.

In my opinion, this is a much more sustainable and organic model if done the right way.

Below you can find an outline of those 16 lessons

A no-website approach by Trevor Carr

  1. Introduction
  2. Group creation
  3. using Blogger.com
  4. Creating content
  5. Traffic
  6. Building a squeeze page (optional)
  7. Conclusion

Website membership model by Paul Nicholls

  1. Introduction
  2. Tools and software
  3. types of membership models
  4. Building your membership site
  5. creating content
  6. Retaining your clients
  7. Pricing
  8. Traffic
  9. Email marketing

The videos range from 5 minutes the shortest to 40 minutes the longest. Most of them such as creating content and attracting traffic could and should be longer and more in-depth.

Also, to be truthful, I highly doubt that you can end up earning your living with any of those models just by watching anything less than 70 extremely in-depth videos for each approach.

But hey, that’s just my opinion!

Maybe I’m wrong. Who knows…

Do People Actually Succeed With Passive Income Machine?

The first thing I usually look for to determine if a course or program works is if there are testimonials and success stories of people who have already purchased and used it.

For the majority of similar courses I’ve reviewed, if there are any success stories in the first place, they are usually fake, recorded by paid freelance actors.

Here’s what I found out about some of PIM’s success stories and testimonials…

The first success story is of a guy called Anthony Mancuso (see video below).

According to this first video testimonial, Anthony is supposed to be a top internet marketer.

After looking around for a bit, I managed to find his blog anthonymancuso.net and YouTube channel.

Truthfully, I’ve never heard of this guy before but as it seems in his website he mentions several times that he has created some courses along with Paul Nicholls (creator of PIM).

So yeah, Paul could have asked him to record a “fake” positive testimonial for PIM because why not?

Also, this guy doesn’t seem like a top internet marketer at all. If you take a look at his YouTube channel, it has been created since 2017 and is more desolate than a desert town…

That’s definitely not a sign of a successful internet marketer.

He is still posting product reviews several times a week though.

The second video has been recorded by a guy named Lance Groom (here it is below).

This guy doesn’t have a blog but as he claims in one of his YouTube videos (also below), he is also partnering with Trevor Carr (the other creator of PIM).

Again, if you take a look at his YouTube channel, it has been created back in 2016 and is emptier than empty space, at least in terms of views and subscribers because he is also posting product reviews weekly.

The third and last PIM success story is recorded by JayKay Dowdall (video below).

Jay is supposed to be a top internet marketer as well.

But is he?

His blog jaykaydowdall.com is very low quality. He is posting an article once per 8-12 months…

Way to go Jay!

His YouTube channel is also dead. He has no subscribers, no views and he doesn’t even post videos anymore. Oh, and the PIM testimonial he has recorded is actually not listed on his channel.

I don’t know what to conclude with all this stuff…

The course might not be that bad but those testimonials are suspicious for sure and compromise its credibility and trustworthiness.

The silver lining is that all those success stories are not recorded by paid actors but from people who might have actually purchased and used PIM (I still have my doubts though)…

So, will you succeed if you purchase Passive Income Machine?

According to my opinion, you won’t be able to earn much with PIM’s training alone. You might learn some basics about membership websites but you’ll have to further search either for free info through other blogs or YouTube channels or pay for another more dedicated course which can teach you how to attract visitors to your private groups and membership websites as PIM doesn’t cover that much on traffic generation, especially organic traffic generation.

How Much Does Passive Income Machine Cost?

Passive Income Machine costs $12.95 one time payment on the frontend.

Once you purchase it, you’ll be presented with 3 additional, optional upsells.

The first upsell costs $97 and it contains 12 done-for-you courses to include in your membership website to provide value to your members and make them maintain their memberships.

If you’ve come across other Passive Income Machine reviews, you’ve probably come across some of them which will offer you some “bonuses” if you buy the course. Those people have actually purchased this upsell and those bonuses they offer are some of those 12 courses this upsell contains.

Chances are that they have purchased the third upsell as well in order to gain 100% of the profits when someone joins it.

This upsell actually has a downsell where you only 6 courses out of all 12 for just $47.

The second upsell costs $27 and it contains some more training modules along with some case studies which include a 1-hour case study of a very successful membership website.

This upsell also has a downsell at $17 where you get everything but the 1-hour case study.

The third upsell is actually the most ridiculous of all.

It costs $47 and it allows you to get the license rights to sell PIM as your own and keep 100% of the profits.

Downsell at $27 but you get to keep 80% of the profits.

None of those upsells are suggested

What I Like About Passive Income Machine

1 • The Membership Model it Teaches

As stated earlier, the business model Passive Income Machine teaches is legit and can be extremely profitable if employed the right way.

Here’s an example of how it could successfully work:

Let’s say that after creating your membership website and working on it for a while, you start getting people to pay for a membership which will give them access to some “premium” content and recurs on a monthly basis.

If 5 people pay for your membership this month and your membership costs 10$ per month, you will earn $50 for the month.

Not that much huh?

However, if next month 5 more new people pay for your membership and the 5 people who joined last month remain members, you will earn $100 for that month.

If 10 more people join next month, your earnings for that month rise up to $200.

With a paid membership website, your earnings could keep increasing exponentially each month.

If you end up having 300 people loyally renewing their $10 membership each month, you’ll be earning $3000 per month almost passively.

But to reach that point requires a lot of work, a lot of visitors to your website and providing tons of value to them for free in order to give them that something to make them want to pay for your premium content.

2 • Its Creators Are Real Marketers

Could they be fake?

Well, of course!

The majority of MMO programs I’ve reviewed until now, such as Autopilot Profits and Profit Genesis 2.0, are have used made up names as their creators.

Maybe they want to avoid lawsuits due to the illegitimacy of their training and claims or maybe one or more companies are behind actually creating all of them and are employing actual human names in order to increase their credibility, trustworthiness, and thus conversions.

However, as it seems, Paul Nicholls and Trevor Carr, creators of PIM, have been trying online marketing for a while.

If you search around, you can easily find their blogs and YouTube channels, although judging from them, they don’t seem that successful after all…

3 • Very Affordable Price

As we’ve seen right above, Passive Income Machine costs $12.95 one time payment on the frontend.

This is extremely affordable but be aware that you always get what you pay for.

Truth is, I’d prefer paying some dollars more to get a very high-quality course which could teach me everything about earning money online rather than having to do guesswork and search around the internet for additional information which is not provided within the course.

And it won’t be much more expensive either. You can join high-quality, forum-like online training platforms with just $20-$30 per month.

It goes without question that following the right training can dramatically increase your chances of earning your living online.

4 • Comprehensive Training

PIM’s training might be limited in terms of quantity and depth but it is comprehensive nonetheless.

Paul and Trevor use simple language in order to ensure that even those who have no clue about technology, social media, websites, etc will be able to understand and follow their instructions.

What I Don't Like About Passive Income Machine

1 • Kind of Unrealistic Claims

Truth is, I’ve seen way worse…

But still, PIM’s page is full of unrealistic claims about the results the course could bring.

Some of them are

  • Earning $2000 per month fast and easy without much effort
  • The course reveals the “secret formula” to earning money on autopilot (just like thousands of others do)
  • You just need 2 new subscribers per day (which is actually much harder than it sounds)
  • You can set the whole thing up in just a few minutes (that might actually be true as building a website is a piece of cake nowadays)
  • You need no website or email list
  • The system has never been revealed before
  • etc

While all those claims are not that unrealistic, I highly doubt that Passive Income Machine will be able to deliver them.

The thing is that no system can ever earn money for you automatically in no time and with no effort.

I am not saying that you could not end up earning thousands a week on autopilot but it will definitely take as much time, effort, and patience as it would take for any other substantial and long-lasting achievement.

Unfortunately for most, there’s no fast, easy, and effortless success.

2 • Limited Training

PIM’s training is very limited both in terms of quality and quantity.

16 videos with a 15-minute average running time are supposed to teach you how to build an online business which brings in $2000 per month?

I really don’t think so.

And building, maintaining, and scaling a membership website or platform is going to be even harder than running let’s say an online affiliate marketing business.

Not to mention that even with the best online marketing training, the chances of ending up with a failed online business are still pretty high (according to many sources, 90% of online businesses will fail within their first 120 days).

With low-quality training, the chances of failure easily rise up to 99%.

I doubt that you can succeed with PIM alone. If you don’t give up halfway to success, you’ll probably end up purchasing additional training at some point.

3 • Success Stories Seem Fabricated

As we’ve seen right above, the success stories displayed within PIM’s main sales page are most likely fabricated.

This shows that PIM’s creators are not confident that they’ll ever manage to get authentic positive testimonies from random people who have purchased and tried their course.

So, they decided to lie about it…

Really classy!

4 • No Audience

Besides creating mediocre courses, Paul Nicholls and Trevor Carr are running their own blogs and YouTube channels.

However, both their blogs and YouTube channels show no engagement from other people whatsoever.

Also, they are full of spammy reviews of their own low-quality products.

Their YouTube channels have the least total views that I have ever seen on any YouTube channel.

Those are definitely not signs of successful internet marketers which can teach people how to earn their living online.

5 • Lying About The Money-Back Guarantee

Last but not least, at the bottom of PIM’s main sales page, you’ll find out that the course actually has a money-back guarantee (see image below).

Passive Income Machine Money-Back Guarantee

However, once you hit the “Add to Cart” button and get redirected to the checkout page, it says that there are no refunds on this product (see image below).

Passive Income Machine Money-Back Guarantee Lie

So, is or isn’t there a money-back guarantee?

I really, REALLY don’t think so…

And taking into account the unrealistic claims and the fake success stories, this is hit #3.

Summing up

Passive Income Machine Review Featured Image

Your Call

There’s really nothing more to say about Passive Income Machine.

I really got EVERYTHING covered!

The verdict is that you probably won’t end up earning any money with PIM. Its training is very limited and besides those 3 success stories within its main sales page which are likely to be staged, there are no more online.

That’s why before I close this Passive Income Machine review, I have a counter-suggestion for you…

A much better course/platform/community, according to my opinion, that is 100% proven to help people build a source of sustainable, full-time, passive income online. 

It’s called Wealthy Affiliate and for me, it is one of the best affiliate marketing training platforms that currently exist. I’ve actually been a premium Wealthy Affiliate member for almost 3 years now and I couldn’t be more satisfied with it. 

Wealthy Affiliate is also completely FREE to join!

As a free member, you have access to some basic affiliate marketing training, you can get your very first online business up and running, use the keyword research tool, as well as contact other members through a live chat.

12 Quick, Fun Facts About Wealthy Affiliate:

  1. Free to join and get started
  2. Cheap premium membership
  3. Almost 1 million active members
  4. Has been around since 2005
  5. One-click website builder
  6. Dedicated tech support
  7. Hundreds of hours of high-quality, step-by-step, affiliate marketing training
  8. Weekly live webinars
  9. Instant support through a live chat
  10. Tons of real-life success stories
  11. 1 on 1 mentoring
  12. Perfect for absolute beginners

If you still think that Passive Income Machine is the right choice for you, then, by all means, go ahead and join it. 

Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you though… 

Comments

10 Responses

  1. Dear Harry,

    Thanks a lot for the very thorough and comprehensive review post.

    One of my mentor advised me to promote the products which offers “Recurring Income” and explained the benefits of passive income, it’s an eye-opener for me. When ever I come across a passive income opportunity I will take time to do some research.

    The name “Passive Income Machine” itself caught my interest. Because of my previous bad experiences I always prefer to read some reviews before purchasing any make money online products. Your review is a timer saver for me.

    Building a paid membership site is on my “To Do List” but maybe after couple of years because I am just a beginner for now.

    You have provided valid reasons and proof why you won’t buy PIM and I will go with the same decision.

    Wishing you Great Success!

    Paul

    1. Yeah, truth is that successfully promoting products with recurring memberships is the holy grail of online marketing. However, I wouldn’t promote PIM if I were you (except if you are one of those marketers who oversell every single crappy product that moves).

      I wouldn’t purchase it either.

      I am happy that my review helped you in some way.

      Harry

  2. It seems like a quite a limited way to do a form of internet marketing, especially when you take into account the fact that they are advising you to use PLR articles for your content. I’m also put off somewhat by the fake testimonials yet again and the lack of a refund (lying about that is a big red flag!). 

    Did you actually put their education into practice and did it offer you anything ‘new’ in respects to marketing online?

    1. Hey Chris,

      That’s an awesome question!

      My best friend actually purchased PIM out of curiosity and I got to test it out for a while. Truthfully, if you search around the internet for a while you’ll be able to find much better information on building a successful online business for free.

      There are also much better courses to go for and although they might cost a bit more, you’ll definitely get a better bang for your buck.

      To answer your question, I wouldn’t purchase PIM.

      Harry

  3. I think this is another scam. Because, you can not make a sustainable income with this methods. My personal goal when I join such platform is to be able to make revenues for the long run. I can put all the work necessary and the money, as long as I Know my business will carry me for long.

    That is why, I will go with your number one suggestion. I have seen the classes and the community support is awesome. I am going premium very soon and start building my websites.

    Thanks for sharing.

    1. Well, you can really make money (and we are talking about good money) with membership websites and platforms.

      However, I believe that PIM’s training is not enough to do so.

      I wish you much success with your online endeavors…

      Harry!

  4. Way to shed some light Harry,

    I was quite curious about whether or not Passive Income Machine is the real deal but something about those testimonials shouts fake not to mention those fairly basic lessons. I went to take a closer look at Jaykaydowdall dot com and his last post was on March! That’s a long time from now and it doesn’t look very SEO-healthy though. Good thing I came across your review, you just helped me confirm my suspicions 😀

  5. Very Interesting!

    I very much appreciate finding this review, it is detailed and extremely useful to have the research done for yourself. Reading the article makes me think that finding a trustworthy program to invest, time, money and hard work into is becoming increasingly difficult as there are so many different ones out there. Who can you Trust?

    I particularly approve of you looking deeper into the so called experienced bloggers and sharing with your readers that they are in fact not that experienced. They possibly are not that genuine either.

    Thank you, this post is definitely food for thought.

Affiliate marketing FAQs

(Click each question to expand)

Affiliate marketing is an online business model that involves promoting products or services created and distributed by third-party online merchants in exchange for getting paid a commission for each sale you refer.

In layman’s terms, affiliate marketing is the process of being compensated for helping businesses sell to more customers.

Read more…

Here’s a bird’s eye view of how affiliate marketing works.

  1. You join a merchant’s affiliate program
  2. The merchant gives you a unique affiliate link that points to their e-shop
  3. You promote your unique affiliate link online (blog, forums, social media, paid ads, etc.)
  4. Every time someone clicks on your unique affiliate link and makes a purchase on the merchant’s e-shop, the merchant pays you a commission

The Affiliate Marketing Process Overview

Read more…

There are thousands of successful affiliate marketers all around the world. Some of the most well-known ones are:

  • Pat Flynn
  • Matt Diggity
  • Matthew Woodward
  • Doug Cunnington
  • & more

You can check out a roundup of my 17 favorite examples of affiliate success and their backstories right here.

  1. Billion-dollar industry
  2. Very low startup & operational expenses
  3. Huge income potential
  4. Flexible & versatile
  5. Passive income
  6. Simple to implement
  7. No technical background
  8. No customer support
  9. No physical setup

Read more…

Affiliate marketers can be divided into five main income groups:

  1. Total beginners: $0 – $20,000 per year
  2. Low-level affiliates: $20,000 – $50,000 per year
  3. Intermediate affiliates: $50,000 – $100,000 per year
  4. High-level affiliates: $100,000 – $500,000 per year
  5. Super affiliates: $500,000+ per year

According to PayScale, the average annual income for affiliate marketers in the US is over $54,000 per year. Statistics reveal that 13% of affiliates earn more than $75,000 per year.

Some of the factors that influence how much you earn as an affiliate marketer include:

  • seniority
  • target niche
  • available resources
  • previous experience
  • marketing efforts
  • & overall mindset

Read more…

Here’s a rough income growth timeline of a typical affiliate marketing business:

  • months (0-3): no earnings
  • months (3-6): first affiliate sale
  • months (6-12): $100-$500 monthly
  • months (12-18): $1000 monthly
  • months (18-24): $3000+ monthly

This timeline isn’t a guarantee of future performance but rather a mere approximation of the income growth of an average affiliate business. Your own timeline could be shorter or longer than projected.

Over the years, I’ve seen aspiring affiliates striking a gold vein just a few months into the industry. On the other hand, I personally know people who’ve been struggling to grow their affiliate revenue to $1000 per month for several years.

Read more…

Affiliate marketing is one of the most affordable money-making models out there.

Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to get started as an affiliate marketer along with their associated costs:

  • web hosting & domain name: $2.95/month (Bluehost)
  • keyword research tool: $49/month (Jaaxy)
  • expert guidance: $49/month (Wealthy Affiliate)
  • email autoresponder: Free for up to 1000 subs (MailerLite)

Please note that on top of expert guidance, Wealthy Affiliate also provides free access to hosting and a keyword research tool so you don’t have to purchase them separately.

Yes, you can do affiliate marketing without a website by promoting your affiliate links on other marketing channels, such as:

  • Social Media
  • Paid Ads
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • etc.

Read more…

The process of getting started with affiliate marketing can be broken down into the following four simple steps:

  1. Pick a niche
  2. Launch a blog
  3. Build an audience
  4. Promote affiliate products

Read more…

No, you don’t.

Affiliate marketing is very simple to get started with by virtually anyone regardless of age, education, background, available capital, tech-savviness, professional network, etc.

In fact, most 6-figure affiliate marketers were no more experienced than you currently are when they first ventured into the affiliate marketing industry.

Nonetheless, being knowledgeable in fields like marketing, sales, content production, business management, etc., could help you reach your financial goals somewhat faster.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill in your name and email right below to

Download Your FREE Guide!

The Best Ways to Make a Full-Time Income Online Cover

*The guide will be sent to your email address so make sure that you don’t submit a fake or inaccurate one!