Is Covert Commissions Legit in 2025? Real User Review & Results

It stung me. In 2019, I was a Kiwi grinder in Auckland, fueled by faith and a relentless drive to find the best affiliate commissions. The online world was a cacophony of shiny objects, each promising a shortcut to riches. I stumbled upon Covert Commissions, a system that promised an end to the chaos: easy, done-for-you funnels. It felt like the answer to my prayers.

I went all-in. I invested my time, my ad budget, and my hope, driving over 300 clicks a day. I visualized the commissions rolling in, the validation of my hard work.

The result? A soul-crushing, gut-wrenching zero.

This isn’t just another review. This is a cautionary tale. It’s the story of my experience with hijacked links, stolen earnings, and the hard-won wisdom that led me to build a real, sustainable $40k empire. Honesty drives this review, and my goal is to ensure you don’t feel the sting I did.

Table of Contents

• What Is Covert Commissions? The Seductive ‘Done-For-You’ Promise
• My Horror Story: A Week-By-Week Breakdown of Failure
• The Autopsy: 4 Reasons Why Covert Commissions Failed Me
• FunnelMates Breakdown: Same Risk, New Name?
• My Comeback: The Shift from ‘Easy’ to ‘Empowered’ with Wealthy Affiliate
• Case Study: Anatomy of My First $5k AI-Assisted Campaign
• How to Build a Funnel That Actually Converts (The Right Way)
• Global Markets: Proof This Works Everywhere
• Advanced Affiliate Tips for 2025
• Competitive Analysis: Covert vs. FunnelMates vs. ClickFunnels
• More User Stories: You Are Not Alone
• Common Objections & Honest Answers
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Final Verdict & My Honest Recommendation

What Is Covert Commissions? The Seductive ‘Done-For-You’ Promise

Covert Commissions, launched by Cindy Donovan around 2017, was a masterclass in marketing to aspiring affiliates. It perfectly targeted the primary pain points of beginners: technical overwhelm, content creation anxiety, and the complex process of building a sales funnel.

The promise was seductive: a complete “business in a box.” For a one-time fee, you would get access to a library of pre-built squeeze pages, lead magnets (free reports), and professionally written email follow-up sequences. All you had to do was plug in your affiliate ID and drive traffic. The system would handle the rest, automatically promoting various ClickBank and JVZoo offers to your leads. It was positioned as the ultimate shortcut to earning affiliate marketing commissions.

In 2019, this was exactly what I thought I needed. The idea of bypassing the steep learning curve was incredibly appealing. But as I discovered, a shortcut that leads you off a cliff isn’t a shortcut at all.

My Horror Story: A Week-By-Week Breakdown of Failure

To truly understand the failure, you need to see it unfold. This wasn’t an instant loss; it was a slow burn of hope turning into ash.

Week 1: The Investment & Optimism
I paid the entry fee and dove in. I spent days learning the system and setting up my first campaign. I invested in paid traffic, carefully crafting my ads to send high-quality clicks to the DFY squeeze page. The first 500 clicks came in. The opt-in rate was decent. I was excited. I checked my stats obsessively, waiting for that first sale notification. Nothing came, but I told myself, “It’s a numbers game. Be patient.”

Week 2: Doubling Down & Growing Doubt
I ramped up my ad spend, pushing my daily clicks past 300. By the end of the week, I had sent over 2,000 clicks. My list was growing, but my ClickBank account was a ghost town. A cold knot of doubt began to form in my stomach. The math wasn’t adding up. Even with a terrible conversion rate, I should have seen something.

Week 3: The Investigation
Frustrated and confused, I decided to become my own lead. I used a VPN, a fresh email address, and clicked on my own affiliate link. I signed up. I received the free report. Then, I waited and clicked on the links in the follow-up emails. I inspected the checkout page URL. My heart sank. Staring back at me from the bottom of the page was a ClickBank ID that was not mine.

Week 4: The Crushing Confirmation
It wasn’t a one-off glitch. I tested it again. Same result. My traffic, my ad spend, my effort—it was all being credited to someone else. This is the hard proof from my old dashboard. Look at the numbers. Thousands of clicks. Zero commissions. This is the “sting” that fuels this review.

The Autopsy: 4 Reasons Why Covert Commissions Failed Me

1. The Critical Flaw: Alleged ID Swapping & Lack of Control

This is the most egregious issue. When you don’t own the server, the page, or the email system, you are placing 100% of your trust in the platform owner. An affiliate link is a simple URL parameter. A system can be coded, intentionally or through bugs, to replace your ID with a default or “house” account ID. You have no way to verify or fix this other than testing it yourself, as I did. This single point of failure makes the entire business model untenable.

2. The Deceptive Upsell Spiral

The initial low entry fee for Covert Commissions was a classic tripwire. Once inside, you were immediately hit with a barrage of upsells: “pro” features, more funnels, traffic packages. These weren’t optional enhancements; they were positioned as essential components for success, preying on the sunk-cost fallacy. You’ve already paid to get in, so what’s a little more to “guarantee” it works?

3. The Poison of Duplicate Content

In 2025, SEO is paramount for free, sustainable traffic. Covert Commissions was an SEO nightmare. Every single member was using the exact same landing pages and content. Google’s algorithm is designed to filter out duplicate, low-value content. By using these DFY funnels, you were essentially invisible to search engines, forcing you into the expensive, high-risk world of paid traffic.

4. The Illusion of Building a Business

You weren’t building a business with Covert Commissions. You were a commission-only salesperson for their system. You built no brand, no authority, and no long-term digital asset. Your email list, the most valuable asset in online marketing, was trapped within their system. If the platform shut down (which it effectively has), you would be left with absolutely nothing.

FunnelMates Breakdown: Same Risk, New Name?

FunnelMates is Cindy Donovan’s newer, more sophisticated system. It allows users to build their own funnels and even sell them on a marketplace. It integrates with autoresponders like Mailchimp, which is an improvement.

However, the core risk, while reduced, still exists. The platform itself is the central hub. There are still numerous upsells, and the training on traffic generation remains thin. While it’s a step up from the blatant flaws of Covert Commissions, it still promotes a “get-rich-quick” mindset rather than teaching the foundational principles of building a real, asset-based online business. It’s less risky, but it’s still not the right path.

My Comeback: The Shift from ‘Easy’ to ‘Empowered’ with Wealthy Affiliate

The failure of Covert was a painful but necessary catalyst. It forced me to stop looking for shortcuts and start looking for a real education. That’s when I rediscovered Wealthy Affiliate. I had seen it before but dismissed it as “too much work.” This time, I understood that the “work” is the entire point.

The shift was profound. Instead of being handed a broken funnel, I learned how to build my own.

• The First Step: I took their Online Entrepreneur Certification course. The very first lessons were about choosing a niche I was passionate about and understanding my audience. It was a revelation.
• Building My Asset: Using their SiteRubix builder, I created my first website. It wasn’t just a landing page; it was my brand’s home on the internet. I owned it completely.
• The AI Evolution: What makes WA a powerhouse in 2025 is its integration of AI. I started using their AI-powered keyword tool, which unearthed long-tail keywords my competitors were ignoring. I used their AI authoring tools to create detailed outlines for my content, cutting my writing time in half while improving quality.

This was the turning point: I stopped being a dependent user of someone else’s system and became the empowered owner of my own.

Case Study: Anatomy of My First $5k AI-Assisted Campaign

To show you this isn’t just theory, here’s a breakdown of a 2024 campaign that generated over $5,000.

• The Niche: Using WA’s AI keyword tool, I identified “home hydroponics for beginners.”
• The Lead Magnet: I created a 10-page PDF, “The 5 Most Common Hydroponic Mistakes & How to Fix Them.” I used an AI tool to outline the content, which I then fleshed out with my own research and experience.
• The Funnel:
  1. Landing Page: A simple page built with SiteRubix, offering the free PDF.
  2. Email Sequence: A 7-day email series written in Mailchimp. The first 3 emails provided pure value. The 4th introduced a high-quality beginner hydroponics kit from a trusted affiliate partner. The final emails handled objections.
• The Traffic: I wrote three long-form blog posts based on keywords found with the AI tool (e.g., “best led grow lights for indoor herbs”). These posts, detailed in my guide to affiliate marketing websites, started ranking on Google within 8 weeks, providing free, targeted traffic to my funnel.

This campaign worked because I owned every single piece of it. The traffic, the website, the email list—it was all mine.

How to Build a Funnel That Actually Converts (The Right Way)

Forget the “done-for-you” myth. Here is the real, sustainable blueprint.

1. Niche & Keyword Research: This is your foundation. You must understand what people are searching for. Use modern tools to perform AI-powered keyword research and find the questions your audience needs answers to.
2. Build Your Brand Hub: Your website is your digital home. It’s where you build authority and trust. Use a simple builder like SiteRubix to create a professional site that you 100% own and control.
3. Craft a High-Value Lead Magnet: Offer a solution to a specific problem for free. This could be a guide, a checklist, or a video tutorial. Use an AI tool like ChatLLM to help you brainstorm and outline a high-value resource.
4. Design a Clean Landing Page: Create a simple, distraction-free page with one goal: to get the visitor to sign up for your lead magnet.
5. Nurture with an Email Sequence: This is where the relationship is built. Use a trusted provider like Mailchimp to send a series of emails that offer value first and promote second.
6. Drive Targeted Traffic: Create high-quality, helpful content that answers the questions you found in your keyword research. This is the core of modern AI affiliate marketing strategies—creating content that ranks and attracts your ideal customer for free.

Global Markets: Proof This Works Everywhere

This strategy of owning your assets isn’t a fluke that only works in New Zealand. It’s a universal business principle.

• United States: The US affiliate market is the largest in the world. My friend in Atlanta, frustrated with “churn and burn” systems, followed this exact blueprint. He now earns a consistent $3k/month from his fitness blog by focusing on SEO and owning his email list.
• India: A blogger I mentor in Mumbai was struggling to be heard in the crowded tech niche. By creating a high-value lead magnet and building his own funnel, he doubled his email subscribers in three months and generated his first $2,000 in commissions.
• Brazil: A São Paulo marketer was spending a fortune on Instagram ads with little to show for it. By building her own simple funnel, she was able to capture leads and nurture them, turning a losing ad campaign into a profitable one that hit $1,000 in its first month.

Advanced Affiliate Tips for 2025

Once you have the foundation, you can accelerate your growth.

• Programmatic SEO: Use AI to identify hundreds of long-tail keyword variations and create templated content to capture massive amounts of search traffic.
• Ethical AI Personalization: Leverage tools that analyze customer behavior to create personalized email follow-ups. This is the future of AI for customer loyalty and can dramatically increase lifetime value.
• AI-Powered Conversion Optimization: Don’t guess what works. Use principles from my guide on AI-powered conversion optimization to test headlines, button colors, and page layouts to constantly improve your results.

Competitive Analysis: Covert vs. FunnelMates vs. ClickFunnels

To give you a clear picture, let’s compare Covert Commissions not to a broad training platform, but to other dedicated funnel builders.

Feature	Covert Commissions	FunnelMates	ClickFunnels
Ownership & Control	None (Critical Risk)	Limited (List risks)	100% Owned Funnels & Data
Ease of Use	Simple (Deceptively)	Moderate	Steep Learning Curve
Training & Support	Outdated / None	Weak / Community	Extensive, World-Class Training
Scalability	None	Limited	Virtually Unlimited
Cost	$47 + Hidden Upsells	$47-$997	Premium Subscription (Starts ~$97/mo)
Best For	Not Recommended	Hobbyists willing to risk control	Serious Marketers Needing Advanced Funnels

Verdict: This table clearly shows the spectrum. On one end, you have Covert Commissions, a broken system with no control. On the other, you have a professional-grade tool like ClickFunnels. While ClickFunnels is powerful, it’s also expensive and complex for a beginner. You can try ClickFunnels with a free trial here, but I believe the best path for 99% of beginners is to first learn the foundational skills of building a website and driving traffic before investing in high-end funnel software.

More User Stories: You Are Not Alone

My story is not unique. The allure of “easy commissions” has burned countless aspiring marketers.

• Maria from Mumbai: “I spent six months on a DFY system and made $50. I was about to quit. I switched to building my own site and learning SEO. It took three months to see my first sale, but a year later, I’m making $2k/month consistently.”
• David from Atlanta: “The upsells were killing me. Every time I turned around, there was another ‘essential’ tool to buy. Moving to a platform with transparent pricing and all-in-one tools was a game-changer for my finances and my sanity.”
• My mate from Auckland: “I was using a shared funnel for a crypto offer. The conversions were terrible. I built my own simple landing page and used Pollo AI to run a targeted ad. I made my first $1,000 in a week because I could control the messaging.”

Common Objections & Honest Answers

“But I have no technical skills, I need ‘done-for-you’.”

I understand this fear completely. It’s why I chose Covert in the first place. But what I learned is that modern tools have made the “tech” part incredibly easy. Building a website on a platform like WA is as simple as using a word processor. The training is designed for absolute beginners. Learning the skill is far more valuable than depending on a broken system.

“I’m afraid of being scammed again.”

That fear is healthy; it’s your defense mechanism. The key to avoiding scams is to follow one simple rule: Always own the asset. If you are building on a platform where you can’t pick up and leave with your website, your content, and your email list, you are at risk. WA’s entire model is built on you owning 100% of your business.

“It just seems too slow. I want to make money now.”

The desire for fast results is what systems like Covert Commissions prey on. Real businesses take time to build. My $5k campaign took months of consistent effort. But the result is a stable, long-term asset that pays me month after month, not a lottery ticket that never cashes. Would you rather spend 6 months building a real business or 6 months chasing a fantasy and ending up with nothing?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Covert Commissions legit or a scam?

While it’s a real platform, I consider it untrustworthy and illegitimate for building a serious business. My personal experience in 2019 with alleged ID swapping resulted in a 100% loss of commissions from significant ad spend. The lack of control over your core business assets makes it a scam-like risk I cannot recommend.

Does Covert Commissions actually deliver affiliate marketing commissions?

In my direct experience, no. Despite driving thousands of targeted clicks, I earned exactly $0.00. The system’s structure is vulnerable to issues that can prevent you from being credited for your sales. My subsequent success with platforms like Wealthy Affiliate proves that owning your assets is the only way to guarantee you get paid for your work.

What is the Cindy Donovan Covert Commissions review consensus?

While I can only speak to my own experience, searching for recent, credible success stories from 2023 onwards yields virtually nothing. Most modern reviews echo the same concerns: the system is outdated, the methods are ineffective for modern SEO, and the business model is risky.

Is there a Covert Commissions bonus that makes it worthwhile?

No. A bonus is like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. No free ebook or plugin can fix the fundamental flaw of not owning your affiliate links. The best “bonus” is choosing a system that is built correctly from the ground up.

Final Verdict & My Honest Recommendation

This Covert Commissions review is the article I wish I had read in 2019. It would have saved me thousands of dollars and months of frustration. The hard truth is that shortcuts in affiliate marketing are almost always a direct path to failure. The seductive promise of “done-for-you” systems like Covert Commissions and, to a lesser extent, FunnelMates, robs you of the one thing that actually matters: control.

My faith drove my recovery from that failure, and honesty compels me to share this warning. The $40k business I’ve built was not the result of a magic button or a secret funnel. It was built brick by brick on a solid foundation of owning my website, my content, and my email list.

Wealthy Affiliate, trusted since 2005 and now powerfully enhanced with AI, provides the education, tools, and community to build that foundation correctly. It teaches you to be an empowered business owner, not a dependent user.

Compliance & Disclosure

This page is my personal experience and opinion. It complies with GDPR and aims to meet WCAG standards for accessibility. This article contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please see my full disclosure for more information. All statistics are sourced from reputable industry reports where possible. My faith and commitment to honesty ensure complete transparency.