Is Webtalk a Scam? – Read Before Joining

What Is WebTalk?

Webtalk is a social networking website (just as Facebook is) that was started in 2011 by RJ Garbowicz, is privately held, and is headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Florida--and because of it's close resemblance to Facebook it is even being promoted as "the Facebook killer" because it is touted as making communication and networking easier than ever before.

Just like Facebook, it allows you to connect with friends, colleagues, family--share content, etc. However, one of the big differences between WebTalk and Facebook, along with many other social networking sites out there, is that WebTalk is not free. They have different plans that vary in price depending on how many contacts you have and the features you want.

Additionally they differ greatly from other social networking sites because they give 50% of their revenue back to members through their MLM referral program, which I will be going into in detail. This is often promoted as being some amazing business opportunity but it might not be as great as it seems.

You can refer to the video below for a short introduction on how this all works...

How It Works

The first step is joining and, unlike many of the other similar social networking platforms out there, you are asked for the email or Webtalk ID of the person that referred you. The reason for this is because of the referral program...

But if no one referred you don't worry, you can just enter '1234' or something like that, which is what I did.

Next you will be prompted to enter your name, email, and create a password... 

After that you will receive an email to confirm your account. Then you will set your profile picture (you can skip this at first), enter some info about your birthdate, where you live, etc., and you are good to go.

Now you are on the inside.

If you know how the basics of Facebook work then you will understand how the basics of WebTalk works.

When you login to your account this is what it will look like...

You will have a place where you can post 'news' and let different groups and subgroups of your contacts see it.

For example, you can see in this post that I had selected to share it publicly, but I also had other options such as Professional Contacts, Personal Contacts, and Custom Groups...

You can set it up so that colleagues, family, and friends only see certain types of content--so that you can easily manage all your connections through one network, but at the same time keep them separate so that things don't get awkward.

You will be able to manage your contacts based on how you know them and what they are to you. This contact management system is pretty good in my opinion--top notch.

And of course you also have the ability to create a profile so that you can connect with others and get to know each other. Not much to say about this. You can talk about yourself, add different contact info, set a cover image, etc...

I would say all-in-all that the whole platform is a bit on the dull side. It's lacking in its professional appearance and in it's social 'fun' appearance--overall lacking.

But it is what it is and the bottom line is that you are able to do all of the basics that you can do with a Facebook Account.

Pricing

You are able to join for free with the BASIC membership, but this is lacking in many of the features you have probably seen advertised online. It will give you the basics--you are able to publish posts, connect with other people and what not, but you are limited to having only 50 contacts (the equivalent to 'friends' on Facebook).

The plans range in price from $0 - $33.34/mo as I'm writing this, but they have already changed their prices once that I know of and likely will again.

Below you can see the different plans and what's included... followed by a breakdown of all the features below...

Features:

• Contact Management - As I showed briefly above, you will be able to easily organize all your contacts according to your relationships with people, whether they be family, friends, prospects, colleagues, team members, etc. Contacts will be able to be tagged and assigned subcategories so that you can easily manage them--this way you decide who sees what when you post things on your account.
  • BASIC - 50 contacts limit
  • PRO - 500 contacts limit
  • PRO Plus - 1,000 contacts limit
  • PRO Platinum - Unlimited contacts
• Messaging - For contacts you can communicate back and forth as much as you want, but what we're talking about here is messaging non-contacts. You will be able to reach out to people who are not on your WebTalk--this can be great for marketing and whatnot.
  • BASIC - Not included
  • PRO - 5 per month
  • PRO Plus - 10 per month
  • PRO Platinum - 20 per month
• Spotlight Posts - This is a feature that allows you to really blast out a post to your contacts. With a Spotlight Post your contacts will be emailed and sent a push-notification--and of course you can choose which contacts you want to see these.
  • BASIC - Not included
  • PRO - 5 per month
  • PRO Plus - 10 per month
  • PRO Platinum - 20 per month
• Removal of Banner Ads - The more expensive plans allow you to use the platform without being annoyed by banner ads.
  • BASIC - Not included
  • PRO - Included
  • PRO Plus - Included
  • PRO Platinum - Included
• Ability to See Who Viewed Your Profile - All plans offer some ability to see who viewed your profile, even the Basic (free) plan.
  • BASIC - Limited
  • PRO - Included
  • PRO Plus - Included
  • PRO Platinum - Included
• Stealth Profile Viewing - This gives members the ability to view other people's profiles without them being able to see it.
  • BASIC - Not included
  • PRO - Not included
  • PRO Plus - Not included
  • PRO Platinum - Included
• Advanced Search - This feature allows you to search for people based on gender, job title, where they live, whether or not they are seeking work, and so on. It could be useful for marketing.
  • BASIC - Not included
  • PRO - Not included
  • PRO Plus - Not included
  • PRO Platinum - Included

How to Make Money with Webtalk: The Referral Program

The referral program that they have in place, which is the reason that many people are joining Webtalk in the first place, is how people are making money here.

It is promoted as being for publishers, influencers, network marketers, digital marketers and journalists--anyone who likes the platform and wants to make some money getting other people to join.

But is it really all that great? After all, when there are opportunities like this to promote something and make money, there are always going to be people promoting such as the greatest things to ever bless this earth.

That said, there are some credible figures backing up this referral program and what it has to offer, such as Kevin Harrington from the popular TV show Shark Tank...

How The Referral Program Works

This isn't your normal referral program where you receive some fixed commission amount.

They use a revenue sharing affiliate structure where they pay out 'up to' 50% of all their revenue to their affiliates.

The MLM commission structure is uni-level and goes 5 levels deep (MLM stands for 'multi-level' marketing), meaning that you don't just earn money from the people that you personally recruit to join (level 1), but you also earn commissions from the people that they recruit to join (level 2), and the people that they recruit to join (level 3), and the people that those people recruit to join (level 4), and lastly you also earn from the people that those level 4 people recruit to join (level 5).

A uni-level commission structure works like that shown below, where there can be infinite numbers of people on each level...

Note: This diagram only shows a structure that goes 3 levels deep. The Webtalk comp plan pays 5 levels deep. So just imagine 2 more levels going down.

Where Is The Money Coming From?

Webtalk is making their money from advertising, premium upgrades (the paid plans I went over), talent solutions and transaction fees.

Advertisers are able to pay for ads to be shown on the platform, just as they can on other social networking sites like Facebook.

And of course they are making money from the paid plans, which users are forced to buy into if they want any real networking capabilities, such as if they want more than 50 contacts.

I'm not entirely sure what they mean when they say they are making money from 'talent solutions' and what all this includes, but I'm guessing they are talking about the different features offered to help improve various aspects of one's business.

As I'm writing this they have not yet brought their marketplace to the surface, but in the future the plan is for Webtalk to have a full-fledged marketplace where buyers and sellers can make easy transactions, which is supposed to be mostly for local small businesses--and they will collect fees on transactions I assume.

How Much Can You Earn?

Don't get too excited now--it's not as amazing as a lot of the promotions make it seem.

There is no way in heck you are going to be earning $100k per month like the compensation plan overview video leads one to believe, although it is potentially possible (if you are an internet marketing rockstar or celebrity that can send out a Tweet and tell millions of people to join).

In the comp plan video that Webtalk released they give the example of you making $1 off of every person that you refer in (level 1), and $1 from every person that they refer in (level 2), and every person that they refer in (level 3) and so on... all the way to level 5...

But they then take it a step further and say--well, what if everyone recruited in just 10 people each.

10 isn't that much right?

If this would happen then your downline would branch out at the bottom like a pyramid--each level having more and more referrals...

So in this example that is given...

• Everyone refers 10 people to join, down all 5 levels
• You earn $1 in commissions each month from every members, which is what they project will be the average earnings

So how much do they say you can make if this scenario plays out?

Well, you would make...

• $10 on your first level
• $100 on your second level
• $1,000 from your third level
• $10,000 from your fourth level
• $100,000 from your fifth level

...and this is all PER MONTH!

Yes, this is the actual example they give us.

Sounds incredible doesn't it? I mean, you could be a millionaire within a year just by referring people to Webtalk.

Why the heck are we still working? Oh, that's right... because this is one heck of a far-fetched example and no one is going to be making this kind of money--unless, like I said, you are a celebrity or an internet marketing rockstar.

MLM opportunities always make their compensation plans seem so amazing. And the truth is that in reality making money like this is possible--I guess. But it's also possible to win the lottery Jackpot and walk away a billionaire.

This is so misleading it's really not funny. All it's doing is luring people in with high hopes and dreams--hopes and dreams that will surely be crushed soon enough once they find out the reality of the matter.

As for how much you will realistically make, well, there are no good numbers I can give you. This depends on many variables. What I can tell you is that you certainly shouldn't quit your day job.

The Big Problem with Webtalk

There are actually quite a few problems I have with this platform, but I'm calling this the "big" problem because this is the reason, in my opinion, that Webtalk will never become a household name and will never become as large as hoped.

The problem is the referral program. That's right--the very part of this platform that is supposed to help it grow to massive proportions, by getting a bunch of people to go around and invite others in, is the reason that it is going to fail to become great.

Why?

Well because the referral program creates a situation where most of the people joining are looking to make money. Basically it is creating a big community of marketers that are just waiting to shove their product down your throat.

Now that doesn't sound very appealing does it? 

Who wants to join that? Not me.

I was experiencing sales pitches very soon after I joined. In fact, I got a comment on my very first post from a member where he was telling me to go through some training he offers...

This guy wanted to give me free training so that I could refer more people to Webtalk, which would end up with him making more money in the end.

A simple "hello", or "nice to meet you" would have been nice--not exactly looking to have a pitch thrown in my face right away.

WebTalk vs Facebook

The two platforms are very similar. You can connect with people, share posts about your life, business, etc. Advertising and targeting specific groups of people is a possibility on both, and so on.

However, Webtalk isn't all that visually appealing, it lacks networking opportunity because of its very small user-base, it lacks advertising opportunity also because of it's small user base and because advertisers don't have the vast amount of user data to work with like they do on Facebook, and of course Webtalk is filled with marketers--unlike Facebook where you can actually make good, genuine connections with people.

Will Webtalk replace Facebook?

Answer: No

Stats Don't Lie

As mentioned earlier, Kevin Harrington, the guy from the hit TV show Shark Tank, has talked about Webtalk and has said some pretty good things about it--and he is even a member himself.

This is one of their big promo points and if you have seen many promotions for this platform you have probably heard of this guy. 

However, he doesn't appear to be very active at all and it seems he might have given up on the whole thing. I checked out his profile and he has less than 100 followers, which is a much less than you would expect for someone like himself. Also, all of his posts (only 4 total) were posted at the same time--not much activity at all.

After seeing the inactivity and the low number of followers for Mr. Harrington, I decided to do a little more digging around and try to find out how active this platform actually is.

It's not like they provide statistics on how many members there are or anything like that, but I was able to find out in a roundabout way.

You see, when someone joins Webtalk they automatically follow RJ Garbowicz (the founder), just like how everyone who joins Facebook automatically follows Mark Zuckerberg.

I'm sure these stats aren't 100% accurate because members have the ability to unfollow him, but the amount of followers that RJ Garbowicz has should be fairly close to the total number of members on the platform--and at the time of me writing this there are 291.7k followers...

Likely less than 300k members total... and this has been around for years. And keep in mind that a lot of these members are probably inactive.

The stats aren't too pretty, however, the referral program hasn't been around since day 1 and is a much more recent addition to it all.

What I Like & Don't Like

What I Like

While I'm not a big fan of the platform overall, there are still some things that I like.

For one, WebTalk has the contact management feature that makes it easy to choose who sees what you post on your account. The ability to manage contacts and keep them separate in a variety of ways is definitely a plus--and is probably where I think this platform excels the most.

What I Don't Like

The main thing that I really don't care for is how this platform encourages a bunch of marketers to join who are just looking to make money, but there a few other areas I'm not too fond of as well, such as...

You Can See Who Viewed Your Profile

While this may seem like nothing but a good thing, I can see how it could actually be harmful to the platform.

The thing is that everyone knows this is a feature--so if someone knows that you will be able to see that they viewed your profile, and they don't want you to know this, then they simply aren't going to view your profile.

What this is going to do is cause less activity within WebTalk as far as I see it.

*Note: Of course you can upgrade your account to PRO Platinum to get the "stealth profile viewing" feature, but that pretty expensive and most people probably aren't going to want to do this.

Seems Overpriced

Facebook is free. Facebook is free. Facebook is free.

The free membership at Webtalk only allows up to 50 contacts, then you have to pay for their service, which is worse than Facebook's free service overall.

There is no doubt that this place is overpriced when compared to all the other social networking platforms out here and there is a reason for this. The reason is because of the referral program.

Basically what's going on here is that they are charging membership prices and these are pretty costly--just so that they can make the referral program more lucrative and attractive.

Why not just do away with the referral program, make money from advertising and provide really good service like Facebook?

Complaints/Concerns About Webtalk

#1 - Bad Business Model

So let's say for a second that WebTalk did overtake the social media behemoth Facebook. Let's say that everyone started abandoning their Facebook accounts and hopped over to Webtalk. I know this is one heck of a far-fetched idea, but bear with me for a second.

If this did happen the referral program, which is one of the main claims-to-fame that Webtalk has (and is the reason most people are joining), would go bust.

Think about it. Right now Facebook has around 2.5 billion (with a B) active monthly users (Source: Zephoria). With that amount of saturation there is no room for a referral program like this. Could you imagine trying to make money referring people to Facebook? It would be a waste of time because everyone already has an account.

This is basically one massive MLM pyramid scheme type of deal that is reliant on a limitless market--with more and more users joining all the time--which is an impossible business model because the market is not unlimited.

So then what will happen when the market becomes to saturated? The referral program would be worthless and then people would be left with a social networking platform that isn't all that great--and that they have to pay for in order to have many of the good features.

The problem is that many (probably most) people are joining for the opportunity to make money alone--and this opportunity won't last long-term. It would be a different scenario if people were actually joining to connect with other people online... but why pay for it when you have Skype, Facebook, and LinkedIn already?

And let's be real here--even if this platform were to somehow pose a threat to Facebook--Facebook would just buy out the company with ease and do away with it.

*Note: I definitely don't think it will ever come to this point in the first place. I don't think this program is going to become all that large.

#2 - Unreliable Income

Their revenue sharing business model could be good or bad. The fact of the matter is that there is no set commission amount per referral and you are reliant on how much revenue the company brings in as a whole.

#3 - Lacking Company Information

If you look for background information on LinkedIn, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, etc., you are easily going to be able to find what you are looking for--such as what the company is all about, who the founder was, and so on. But with Webtalk it's not so clear--and this is a bit concerning.

I was able to find the company information on LinkedIn, but it would have been nice if they would make it more accessible on the website.

#4 - Not BBB Accredited

This definitely isn't a deal-breaker, but it would be nice if this place was BBB accredited. 

The Better Business Bureau is a consumer protection agency and seeing an accredation from them would help ease concerns that this could be a scam an what not.

#5 - Bad History

RJ Garbowicz, the founder of Webtalk, is pretty much giving another go at a failed first attempt. What I'm talking about is that he actually founded an incredibly similar company that was gaining popularity back around 2010 called YourNight--which was also a social media MLM business opportunity type of deal.

What happened to that business?

As you can probably imagine, it went belly up and is no longer with us--and failed to even come close to attracting the number of memberships that they were estimating.

So.. Is Webtalk a Scam?

While you will find some people out there calling it a scam, in my opinion it is not. That said, this business does have a MLM business model that creates a situation where a bunch of people go around recruiting people in just to make money--and a bunch of people buy in so that they also have the chance to make money, which is not a good situation.

Pyramid Scheme Allegations

No one can deny that a MLM commission structure resembles that of a pyramid scheme, which commissions flowing up from the bottom to the top, which always results in a small percentage making a majority of the money.

But there is a difference. The difference between a legit MLM and an illegal pyramid scheme is how the money is coming in. Is the revenue coming in from people being forced to purchase products/services just to participate in the business opportunity? Or is the money coming from genuine customers?

Of course there is always a mix of the two. A legit MLM can cross the line and become an illegal pyramid scheme if it starts to lean too much towards recruitment of people who are buying in just to try to make money recruiting others in--but the lines are blurry between the two.

There is no doubt that a lot of people are buying in for the business opportunity, but as to whether or not it would be appropriate to call it a pyramid scheme, that is another question.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. Now you know exactly what this place is and what it has to offer.

In a nutshell, it is a very salesy MLM form of Facebook that is touted as being "the Facebook killer" but will never actually even come close to living up to the name.

While there are some things that I like about the platform, such as the ability you have to manage contacts, overall I'm not too much of a fan, mainly because it seems the major focus of this platform is on money, rather than providing good value--and this just leads to overpriced memberships and tons of marketers trying to sell you their stuff and refer others to join.

Advice: Stick with Facebook and LinkedIn for the time being.

And if you were someone looking into this opportunity to make money, I would highly suggest this program (same program I use to make money online and that I've been using since 2015).

Alternatively you can check out my top income ideas or this massive list of 70+ ways to make money from home.

I hope you enjoyed this review and found it helpful. Let me know in the comment section below if you have any questions. Also be sure to leave your opinion on things. I like to hear what my readers think 🙂