Cognigen-Commission River merger
As a Cognigen agent for almost 7 years(start date 03/19/2001), I’ve seen a number of reps concerned about the recent merger/acquisition with Commission River.
IMHO, I think this deal has a lot more potential upside than downside.
As the owner of the Work At Home Network Discussion Forums, I see nearly every “hot” home based business that hits the market.
While I love the fact that Cognigen has always been a no hype, honest home based business opportunity, the simple fact is that their free business model was not a good fit for the traditional style MLM/Network Marketing model.
Because Cognigen was not a pay to play scheme that required us to actually make sales to earn money as opposed to paying recruiting overrides on overpriced startup fees with little focus on sales, Cognigen simply could not compete with the other MLM structured businesses out there.
With the entrance of Commission River into the picture, Cognigen is essentially changing to a model that I believe is a much better fit for the business.
Gone is the 6 level MLM override structure for a much simpler 2 tier pay structure that is much more like the traditional affiliate networks like Commission Junction, ShareASale, LinkShare, etc.
This will allow agents to earn higher commissions on the own sales and also those of their downline agents. Since we only have one level of downline overrides, it will also those interested in recruiting sales agents to focus directly on just their front line as opposed to needing to worry if an agent 4 levels down is getting the appropriate help from a dormant sponsor.
Gone is the $100 sales paypoint. Although I thought this was a very reasonable paypoint that I haven’t had trouble meeting over the last few years, it’s another obstacle removed to gathering agents and keeping them interested. Now all sales commissions accumulate until you earn enough to get a check.
The owners and primary staff of Commission River are all familiar with the great history of Cognigen and what they have to work with in the agent base. This should give them an edge in keeping the program attractive to established agents and making the necessary tweaks to help bring back some dormant agents.
I think Cognigen was getting stale and headed towards serious problems. I hope that the deal with Commission River will help to reinvigorate the program and keep it going for many years to come.
I’ve always been proud to be affiliated with Cognigen and I’m happy to see an effort to stimulate growth.
Dear Chris Baily,
I have been with cognigen off and on for a few years. I was excited with the new merger when I heard about it. I spent time on conference calls and have pushed my business. I have also been successful with selling some products.
I am having some concern though. Sales seem to be untracked - no notifying info ever sent to myself or my customers. Nothing shows in the back office regarding sales. After reading the BBS in the back office for the last few weeks, I am getting the feeling that the Reps. are getting restless. I have also seen several rants from longtime cog agent Joseph Kennedy on the posts.
Do you really think that Commission River is taking care of business up to cognigen standards? If they do not correct these issues soon - People will walk away and label it a scam. This I really do not want to happen, as someone who loves the products and uses them for my own use.
Giving the shiny side of the street all the time - does no good.
Thanks for your time,
Steven
Ryan,
Thanks for the comment.
The best answer I can give is that I simply don’t know how things will end up.
The merger/acquisition is still relatively new and it is an immense undertaking. They may have bit off more than they can chew, so to speak.
I would expect some tracking issues for at least a few months as they try to get everything working together. I know we’re all used to seeing certain products posted at certain times of the month, but I have a feeling for now the best we can expect is to see things updated by the end of each month. And hopefully, they’ll get any errors or omissions corrected ASAP.
It will be sad if it doesn’t work out, but the old Cognigen seemed to be dying a slow death. If the Commission River/Telarus guys can turn things around and make it into a successful, more traditional affiliate type program, I’ll be very happy.