I generally like Pat Flynn and most of what he brings to the table of helping people succeed online, but in this Smart Passive Income review, I want to share why there’s 1 major problem holding me back from recommending his courses, and simply put, it’s the prices.
I’ve always had a deep seeded respect for the guy but as time has gone on, he has released many courses through his Smart Passive Income program and while each one covers segments of important online business information that will work if you apply it, there’s just so much money to spend and if you consider there being alternatives where you can get it all in one place, in my opinion it makes Smart Passive Income less valuable.
In fact, I know most of the stuff Pat teaches because I also run an online business and I can tell you that there’s no need to spend so much and I’ll show you something in this review that will actually teach you just as much if not more than all of Pat’s courses (combined). Let’s begin:
Product information:
- Name: Smart Passive Income (SPI).
- Creator: Pat Flynn.
- Costs: Depends on which course you buy (some are free, most are not).
- What is it? Mainly a site showing people how to create an online business.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (legit)
- Recommended? Yes but in my opinion, there are better alternatives to most of Pat’s courses and you won’t have to spend so much.
In this review of Smart Passive Income, I want to give you my objective take on it and why for the most part, I think if you’re looking to start an online business, there’s better options out there (which cost way less).
Alternatives (a quick mention):
What is Smart Passive Income? The details:
Smart Passive Income was created by Pat Flynn, a successful online businessman. On this site, Pat provides his visitors with information on how to start their own online businesses, and in many different fields such as:
- Podcasing.
- Affiliate marketing.
- Creating courses.
- Collecting emails.
- Traffic generating (getting more leads).
- Ect…
Pat does provide a lot of free content on his site, mainly through his podcast show, and a few free courses in addition to it but the bulk of information he provides and teaches can be accessed through one or more of the SPI courses, and most of them cost a lot of money in my opinion.
Pros:
- Pat Flynn is an established marketer with a good reputation.
- Smart Passive Income provides good content/training on making online businesses.
- Pat provides training on many different ways to create an online business.
- Summaries for each course are provided on Pat’s site (no unpleasant surprises).
Cons:
- Most of Smart Passive Income’s courses are pretty expensive.
- There is a lot of information that I personally think could be bulked together vs sold in parts.
- Some of SPI’s courses in my opinion are not complete enough and may require buying more courses to “fill in the gaps”.
- I honestly think for online business, 90% of what Pat offers across Smart Passive Income, you can get for way less (and all included too) within programs like Wealthy Affiliate.
My biggest issue with Pat’s Smart Passive Income (the prices):
Again, Pat is legitimate and so is Smart Passive Income and if you’re someone who is serious about online business, there is a good chance that one or more of Pat’s courses will offer you what you need in order to succeed.
However, I did mention that Pat’s courses are pretty expensive and I wasn’t joking. Here is a sample of some of his top courses and their costs:
- Traffic Booster Workshop ($99).
- Smart From Scratch ($199).
- 123 Affiliate Marketing ($599).
- A-Z Webinars ($499).
- Email marketing magic ($499).
- Amp’d up Podcasting ($999).
- Power Up Podcasting ($799).
- Heoric Online Courses Bootcamp ($1,299).
- Video Podcasting Playbook ($99).
- There’s more, but you can find them here.
In my personal opinion, multiple courses in Pat’s lineup cover similar subjects but are divided into different courses so you end up having to spend more.
Furthermore, what if you’re someone who is just getting into online business but doesn’t know where to start, or perhaps you have an idea of what you want to do, but as you get into it (like Podcasting for instance), you decide it’s not for you and want to go with affiliate marketing.
You would need to end up spending a lot of money whether for 1 course or multiple ones and I really wish Pat would spend less time making expensive courses and possibly make more free or even cheap courses to offer more free value to people. It’s just that all this stuff costs SO MUCH MONEY.
In fact, let me give you some examples of people who run similar businesses like SPI but in my opinion offer more free value and thus make people like me recommend their courses way more:
- Ivan Mana.
- Miles Beckler.
- Sites like Niche Pursuits.
- Kyle and Carson from Wealthy Affiliate (most value).
More questions about Smart Passive Income before the alternatives are explained:
What is Pay Flynn salary?
Pat Flynn runs a business (one of which is Smart Passive Income) and has earned several million from it and other online businesses.
What is SPI pro?
Its the private community of the Smart Passive Income website.
Alternatives? Yep! Here’s the best one:
There are a bunch of alternative programs that I recommend where you can find similar subject matter on online business that Smart Passive Income teaches, but there’s only 1 where I’d say you can get most if not more than what Pat’s program teaches all in one place and that’s Wealthy Affiliate.
My knowledge in online business and pretty much the fact that I know most of what Pat teaches across his courses has actually come from learning that inside the Wealthy Affiliate program and I didn’t have to spend so much money elsewhere to learn this. Let me explain:
Wealthy Affiliate mainly teaches people to blog and do affiliate marketing to make money online, but it also offers courses on other online business topics that you will also find inside Smart Passive Income. Here’s just some examples:
1) Traffic generation, paid ads: Yep Wealthy Affiliate offers this.
2) Training on blogging, niches and affiliate marketing: You can get ALL of this inside Wealthy Affiliate. In Smart Passive Income, you would need to buy 123 Affiliate Marketing and/or other courses to learn this (Like Smart From Scratch which teaches you about niches).
3) Wealthy Affiliate also offers training on other things such as: Social media marketing, local marketing, email marketing and much more.
There’s even courses on Podcasting in their top membership (more details on this in a moment), but the point is, there’s a good chance that what Smart Passive Income teaches (separately throughout it’s different courses), you can find ALL IN ONE inside Wealthy Affiliate.
Pricing: Here’s another reason Wealthy Affiliate beats Smart Passive Income. Why?
Because there’s 3 memberships. 1 is free and the other 2 are paid. And each one offers massive value for people looking to build an online business. Here are details:
Starter membership. It’s free to check out and you get basic, beginner friendly training on niches, blogging and affiliate marketing (more benefits of Starter explained here). I always tell people to try this specific membership if they are doubtful about Wealthy Affiliate because most people simply can’t believe a program can offer so much for so little (but this membership will prove that to you, and it’s risk free to test drive).
Premium ($49/month). Basically the full training of Wealthy Affiliate. Here you will get all of the blogging, social media, affiliate marketing, local marketing and webinar training. I would argue that the value of this membership is more than most of what Smart Passive Income offers combined.
Premium Plus ($99/month): This is where you’ll get the full value of Wealthy Affiliate and I’d only buy this if you’re ready to do just that. For most people, regular Premium might be more than enough, but either way, this is where you get all the training, and also expert classes on everything in online business (including Podcasting).
Additional benefits offered with each membership:
- You get tremendous support and help from the 2+ million community in WA.
- Expert coaching from people like myself and the owners of WA.
- Tools and extra perks offered to help you build your online business included with your membership (more savings).
- And much more.
You can see an entire review of Wealthy Affiliate here to know what to expect, but in all honesty, there is no program, including Smart Passive Income in my opinion that matches the value for the price Wealthy Affiliate holds. And I honestly don’t think it ever will. It continually raises and gives more value to it’s customers and students while keeping their prices lower than any other program out there, which is why as far as I’m concerned, it’s #1.
In any case, if you’re still looking to join Smart Passive Income, it’s a good choice no doubt, but keep in mind the costs of learning everything you want and make your own independent conclusions on that. If you’re not really in a good financial spot to start with, perhaps Wealthy Affiliate would be a better choice to begin with (and you can start for free).