Other Information
Website: www.website.ws
Price: Free for 7 days, $10/$40 per month
Owners: Michael Starr & Alan Ezeir
Quick Summary
Global Domains International is a MLM platform that sells hosting packages, domain names and more. They feature their .ws domain as a main factor to sell their stuff, advertising that the .com extension is too saturated. All in all, it’s very difficult for any newbie who want to make money here due to the low margins and difficulty to start out.
Is this a scam?
This is my personal review on Global Domains International (GDI) based on my experience with it. You are on the right page if you are looking for more details about GDI to find out if it is a scam.
Started in the early 2000s, Global Domains International is a company that offers a unique domain name (websites ending with .ws) and web hosting. They claim that you do not need to sell anything at all, and they will do the selling for you. All you need to do is give them the e-mails of people you know, and GDI will do the rest.
There are two main selling points to GDI
1. Selling the unique domain name
When using GDI, you are essentially promoting their unique .ws domain name as your website is using the same extension. Your website would be set up to refer more people to signing up under you, which leads us to the second point.
2. Getting referrals
GDI offers a compensation plan $1 per referral who signs up your link, up to 5 levels deep. There is a lot of potential to make passive income from the referrals. Essentially the more sales you make, the higher chances of commission, and even more from your down line referrals.
The Pros & Cons
The Pro’s
- A unique domain name which you can use, most likely not taken up as fast as a .com domain.
- Easy to set up your website with their website builder, no need for coding or expert knowledge.
- Chance to earn a lot with many referrals up to 5 levels deep.
- Many contests and bonuses on their website to reward top affiliates.
- Proven Track record – 14 years in the industry.
The Con’s
- Not enough information for an average person to start.
- $1 per commission is really low per referral
- 100 MB of Storage space for your website, have to pay more if you want more space.
- Your website is set up only to sell their product, which is the domain name and referring people in to join.
- .com usually rank better on search engines
- Need to sign up with credit card details when signing up for trial
So what are you given when you sign up?
So far, everything that I have been seeing is referring people to join their website. So what do you actually get when you choose to sign up for the 7 days trial?
- Your own .ws domain name.
- Professionally designed website templates with a built in website builder.
- 10 custom email addresses included, 1 GB storage space each.
- Domain hosting with 100 MB
- Ability to redirect to another domain
At first this looks pretty neat, having just all these features just for $10/month. However, if you look at it, it is actually $120 per year for all the features (Not assuming you even go for the premium option).
You can really just get a custom domain name for way cheaper on places like namecheap.com as shown on the above here. For only $16.98, you can get a domain name for one year. What about all those other features that GDI has? You can still really get all the features for free including two websites at Wealthy Affiliate, and works better then Global Domains International.
Earning from GDI
Anyone who signs up with GDI are promised $1/month for every referral they bring in, up to 5 levels deep. Referring 5 people who then in turn refer 5 people up to 5 levels will you bring you $3125 a month like what is shown in this picture. This is really cool and all but most people would have one question regarding referring people
‘Can an average person with no knowledge and expertise achieve anything with GDI?’
The answer is NO sadly. Most affiliates that sign up with GDI usually lack any skills or knowledge to drive traffic to their website, leading to no views and no conversions. Most people would quit after awhile being frustrated at not getting any sales at all.
The only point of signing up with GDI is earning through their referral system pretty much. Even your website is used to promote the GDI system and referring people to it. To even start earning a decent income, you really need a huge load of referrals, and the skills to actually get you there.
How much does GDI cost?
GDI actually offers two plans, a $10 normal plan, and a $40 premium plan which is shown below
The premium plan gives you the ability to earn $15 per referral now from your first level, and $5 from your second level. You also get more benefits such as more hosting space, ability to join some contests, and more.
However, the main thing still stands. Signing up for GDI means helping them to promote and sell their domain and referring people to join under you in order to earn from this system. Assuming you go with the basic, you really need 10 referrals to break even. With virtually almost no tools to help the average user to get referrals besides your upline, it is really hard to actually get started here.
Final Thoughts
One thing I know for sure is that GDI is definitely legitimate. There are many users out there that are profiting from the system and earning from it for sure. One thing for sure is that this is a giant pyramid scheme that is aiming to make people get more people to join the system.
I also noticed quite a handful number of people did not wish to continue after their trial expires, and had to go through great lengths such as calling in just to cancel their membership. I can quote two examples from two different users right here. This does not feel right at all to me personally, letting people try a product and making it hard for them to cancel their account to avoid the payment.
Going through so much effort just to cancel that membership!
On hold for ONE WEEK!? You got to be kidding me!
The bottom line is that GDI is something that only aggressive marketers would use if you really wanted to make something out of it. Any average person who goes into this would have no idea where to start as there really isn’t any place to begin referring people except for referring people you already know.
Even though Global Domains International is a legitimate company, I personally Do Not Recommend joining it if you are totally new to Affiliate Marketing.
Final Verdict of Global Domain International
Website: http://www.website.ws
Owners: Michael Starr & Alan Ezeir
Price: 7 days trial, followed by $10/$40 monthly subscription
NOT RECOMMENDED!
So what’s next?
For me, I recommend anyone new who wishes to start online to go to Wealthy Affiliate.
Comparing to GDI, Wealthy Affiliate actually has far more superior products. It is also free to start and you can even stay free forever if you wish. Also included, you have many resources and training available immediately when you sign up.
Wealthy Affiliate actually helps and teaches users to set up their own website and monetize it. Everyone can start using it easily, ranging from the newbies to even the experienced businessman looking to expand online.
Similar to GDI, you can refer people to Wealthy Affiliate as well! In terms of earnings when you refer people to the website, you get $11.25/month per referral who choose to go premium. Double that amount to $22.50/month when you are a premium user yourself. In my opinion, it really beats the $1 per user, and even $15 per user when you sign up for their premium option.
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Russell Stewart says
Terrific article, well researched and exceptionally well written.
Keep up the great work, I love your site and your layout
Well done
Russ
Terence says
Hi Russ
Thanks! Just hoping to bring out the word so that people are more informed when making any choices when going for one of these programs. At least as far as im concerned, GDI is legit but very hard for a newbie to start out referring people.
John says
I was once a member with GDI and I have yet to run into a .ws site naturally. The .com is where it’s at and if you’re an online marketer GDI is not going to help you. Good luck trying to cancel your membership as well
Terence says
Hi John
I agree that you can’t run a .ws site without trying to promote their product, so you’re basically locked down to promoting one thing. The cancelling of membership too, really a big hassle especially for people not living in the same timezone. Imagine waking up 3 am in the morning just to wait 1 hour on hold just to get through to customer service.
rachel says
Hi i am with GdI Team Elite and i was with GDI the first time and i never had any problem for cancel it, i called them the first time i was still on my 7 free day and i did again after by Skype with no problem either and soon i dont know i would try something better because i don’t know nobody (sorry my english) for sign up below and it’s a big problem for me. But for cancel no problem for now 🙂
Terence says
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for sharing, glad it was easy to cancel your subscription! May I ask why you cancelled your subscription with GDI?
JohnV says
Informative and useful review – yet another questionable ‘opportunity’ to avoid.
Regards and good luck
Terence says
Hi JohnV,
It really depends what you want to promote in my opinion. Some people who are really into the MLM business could probably make aomething out of this. But this is definitely not for a newbie to start out with.
Young Kyu Choi says
Introducing GDI for no reason does not produce good results after all. However, if you create a situation that requires domains and hosting served by GDI, your business will explode. For example, if you provide a homepage for free, you can naturally connect people who need the homepage to the GDI service. This is a kind of idea.
Terence says
Hi Young Kyu Choi,
You’re definitely right on that. If you are able to do that then they might need the service. If that works out for you then great, but personally I prefer other solutions like Wealthy Affiliate that can do almost the same thing.