SFI : The new, simplified SFI system is here!!

 

Hello, everyone!

Today, September 1, 2021, is a BIG, BIG day because today we are unveiling a sleek, modern, and massively-simplified new SFI system!

Let’s start with some of the highlights:

HIGHLIGHTS

 MAKE MONEY ONLINE

1. All ranks are now based simply on a personal sales quota (which can be made up of any combination of retail sales and personal purchases)! No longer will you be held back by PSA requirements or non-performing PSAs. And once a rank is attained, you’ve earned that rank permanently. No more “starting over” at the beginning of each month as an Affiliate!

2. There are now 20 rank levels and a fresh, new title. To go with our “Build Something Great!” theme, new SFI affiliates will now take on the new title, Level 1 Builder, then can advance to Level 2 Builder, Level 3 Builder, and so on…all the way up to level 20!

With each simple, step-by-step advancement, affiliates will unlock multiple additional perks and benefits. These can include higher commissions, juicier bonuses, access to valuable business resources, and more. You can review all the perks associated with each new rank level at the Benefits Chart HERE

3. We’ve drastically simplified the “front end”(what new affiliates experience when they first start at SFI) as well as the daily “to-do’s” for everyone at the Affiliate Center. To accomplish this, one of the big things we’ve done is condense the 17 “Daily Tabs” (which had become overly complex and intimidating for many) into just SIX of what we now call “Building Blocks.” Unlocking the new Building Blocks each day will be much faster, require much less reading, and yet will still be highly rewarding—thanks to each “block unlock” providing a free entry in the now MUCH BIGGER Daily Grand!

4. As one of our biggest moves to simplify SFI, VersaPoints are no longer a part of the SFI system. Learn more about why this was a needed change in the Q&A section below.


5. There will now be a much greater emphasis on simple referrals of members, affiliates, and vendors (for Rewardical.com, Flexxity.com, etc.). Not only are we coming out with great new training and marketing tools, but we’re also introducing awesome new RT referral bounties to explode our member, affiliate, and vendor numbers! Indeed, you can now earn up to 200 RT per referral, with no limits to how many RT you can earn each month! For full details, see our new REFERRAL REWARDS panel displayed on your SFI homepage.


6. We definitely now live in a mobile world. Indeed, our tracking shows that more than 70% of all SFI affiliates log in using a mobile phone or tablet, and this number is growing. Hence, we’ve made a plethora of modifications to the Affiliate Center user interface and the SFI system as a whole to better accommodate mobile users (i.e. the future!).

7. As announced a few weeks ago, you can now earn up to 10% CV commissions on all your CSAs! And your CSAs no longer have to attain any specific rank to earn you commissions. If they generate CV, you can be earning Co-Sponsor Commissions! We’ve also substantially enriched our other bonus perks! You can now earn…

- Up to 50 free bonus CSAs every month!
- Up to 30 free bonus TCredits every month!
- Up to 100 free bonus Rewardicals every month!
- Up to 10 shares of Second Home CSAs every month!

Sound good so far? Now let's dive into some more (juicy) details!..

LEVEL UP!

“Leveling up” is a big, new feature of our new system at SFI. The essence is this: We want to bring new affiliates along in a super-simple, easy, and step-by-step fashion.


When you join SFI now, you’re initially considered a Level 0 Affiliate. The first thing you will see on your SFI homepage is a panel encouraging you to “level up” and become a Level 1 Builder. Advancing to L1 qualifies you for 25% Direct Commissions, a free 10-day ECommergy subscription, a free entry in the Daily Grand, and your first badge (the Level 1 Builder badge).

What’s required to “level up” to level 1? From the Level Up panel, you’ll be able to instantly access a simple quiz. And we do mean simple! For most people, they should be able to successfully complete the brief 4-question quiz in two minutes or less. And once completed, they are instantly upgraded, their L1 badge is awarded, they are awarded a Daily Grand entry, they are provided access to the ECommergy website, etc!

As easy as that was, we believe most new affiliates completing the L1 quiz will be immediately ready to tackle the L2 quiz that is presented to them next.

By completing the likewise fast and easy L2 quiz, the new affiliate will immediately unlock 30% Direct Commissions, automatic entry in the E365 contest, the option to receive their commissions in Bitcoin, another free entry in the Daily Grand, and an upgraded Level 2 Builder badge! They’ll also gain access to the first of the six Building Blocks (which provide even more benefits for the affiliate)!

Can you guess what comes next? Of course, after completing the L2 quiz, new affiliates can choose to keep right on going and do the L3 Quiz to unlock more perks and bonuses. And after L3, they can then tackle the L4 quiz and grab even more!

Most new affiliates can easily go from Level 0 Affiliate to Level 4 Builder in ten minutes or less! Awesome, right?

After Level 4, affiliates are finished with quizzes to advance in rank. From here on, affiliates can now advance (all the way to L20) based purely on their sales volume (which can be any combination of retails sales and/or personal purchases).

Just $5 in sales qualifies an affiliate for the rank of Level 5 Builder. L6 requires $10. L7 requires $15. L8 requires $20. L9 requires $25. L10 (the approximate equivalent of our previous Executive Affiliate rank) requires $35 in sales. And so on.

NOTE: Expect to see the movers and shakers in your group advancing to the gold, platinum, and even diamond tiers of our new plan, some in their first month…some in their first DAY! Yes, we're expecting to see a lot of exciting new growth across the board!

As mentioned previously, you can review all the perks and sales quotas we’ve assigned to each of the new rank levels from the Benefits Chart.

Want to experience the L1-L4 quizzes for yourself so you can see exactly what your new affiliates will see? We’ve set them up for all existing affiliates to access and review whenever they want HERE. Check 'em out!

Note that it’s not just new affiliates who will see the new Level Up panel on their homepages. Unless you’ve already achieved Triple Diamond (L20) status—the new highest rank in SFI—there will be a Level Up panel on your homepage, too. So all of your PSAs, CSAs, and NSAs will be continually encouraged to advance in the system. We’re ALL building something together, we’re all building something great!

SYSTEM UPDATES

It goes without saying that we’re introducing some really MAJOR changes today. And just as it’s quite a feat to swap out an engine in an airplane while it’s in flight, it’s nearly impossible to update every element of our vast system overnight. Which is to say, not every page and resource of the SFI Affiliate Center is yet reflecting all the changes we’ve just announced. It will take us a few days or more to get every mention of VersaPoints, for example, removed/replaced.


So please bear with us for a few days as we take care of the numerous updates needed. But if you see something, say, in the second half of September that we’ve missed, please let us know via a ticket. Thanks in advance for your understanding and assistance!

E365

As you know, our popular E365 contest was based entirely on VersaPoints (VP). With VP now discontinued, we’ve converted the contest to CV (Commission Volume)—the formula for which is simply VP divided by 75. So, for example, if you had collected 7500 VP to date, it’s now displayed as 100 CV.

We’ve also made some other significant E365 changes:

1. Qualifying for E365 now just requires minimum level 2 status. So many more of your new PSAs and CSAs will be competing for the E365 title!

2. Primarily because qualifying for E365 is now substantially easier (just complete two simple quizzes to advance to Level 2) AND because we’ve also greatly enriched the Daily Grand drawing, we’ve discontinued the separate E365 daily drawing.

3. We’ve added a valuable new prize for winning the E365 contest. That is, if you’re an E365 champion—now, or you become one in the future—you’re getting two free bonus entries in the Daily Grand—yours automatically every day for as long as you’re an SFI affiliate! No additional action is required on your part; you’ve earned them for being one of our champions!

And there’s one more thing: For those who are currently competing for an E365 championship (you joined SFI less than one year ago), we’re ALSO giving YOU two automatic entries in the Daily Grand (minimum L10 status required)—yours until your first year in SFI is up. And you can, of course, keep receiving this benefit indefinitely by finishing your first year as your class’s champion.

BADGES

Recall all those needed updates mentioned earlier…well, one of the trickiest is the Badge Quest contest and its many, many badges. For a short time, some badges may be unavailable. Some may be temporarily paused or not updating in real time. But don’t worry, we’re working hard on this and all of your badges should be back online within a couple weeks. And some fun, NEW badges are on the way as well!

Special Note: Just as we are doing with the E365 contest, some badges based on VP will be converted to CV. Others will now be based on unlocking your Building Blocks. Watch for further details.

TIPS

Following are some fun and helpful tips for the new SFI system…

1. Click your (round) profile photo located in the top righthand corner of the website to instantly access your Rewardical and TCredit balances. It also provides you with a recap of how many Daily Grand entries you’ve qualified for each day, SFI official time, plus important information on your personal sales quota. Your rank badge is also located in this handy slide-out panel.

2. Want to see how you’re doing with your PSA, PRM, and PRV referrals for the month? Click the Referrals Rewards panel on your homepage for a count of both your qualified and pending referrals.

3. You can now get directly to the SFI Forum via the "double bubble" icon at the top of screen.

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING GIFT CERTIFICATES

Just as it was with VersaPoints, when you purchase a gift certificate, the person who gets the credit for the dollars spent depends on the recipient.


- If your recipient is an affiliate, THEY will receive the credit for THEIR sales quota when they redeem (spend) the gift certificate.
- If the recipient is a non-affiliate (e.g. a PRM), YOU will receive the sales credit when the gift certificate is redeemed (spent).

The above same rules also apply when gifting TCredits Packs, LaunchPacks, etc.


Q: Why did SFI need to be simplified?
SFI has become just way too complicated over the years. WAY. too. complicated. Support tickets and other feedback clearly indicated that new affiliates, especially, quickly lost interest in SFI because they found it so difficult to understand and get started. It’s no exaggeration to say that a complete overhaul and massive simplification was not only badly needed, but long overdue! With a clean, simple interface and message, we believe we’ll be taking SFI to a whole new level!

Q: As an existing SFI affiliate, what rank will I start at in the new system?
For all existing affiliates (joined SFI prior to September 1, 2021), we established your new rank based on your sales in August 2021. You can of course start immediately advancing your rank as desired by meeting the sales quota listed in your Level Up panel on your SFI homepage.

Q: How do the new levels equate to the old ranks?
Though some of the qualifications are somewhat different, it basically works out as follows:

Level 10 = EA (Executive Affiliate)
Level 12 = BTL (Bronze Team Leader)
Level 13 = STL (Silver Team Leader)
Level 14 = GTL (Gold Team Leader)
Level 15 = PTL (Platinum Team Leader)
Level 16 = DTL (Diamond Team Leader)

Q: Is there a reason for the four Level Up Quizzes besides providing a way to advance new affiliates in rank?
Yes, definitely! Each of the four quizzes covers key basics of the SFI program. So just by completing four simple quizzes, a new affiliate will learn what it means to be an SFI affiliate, how to get started, where to get assistance, etc.

Q: Might the quizzes change in the future?
Sure. Today’s quizzes are version 1.0. We’ll be carefully monitoring results and we may test quizzes with different topics, possibly slightly longer quizzes, easier or harder.

Q: What happened to the “Daily Tabs?”
The Daily Tabs have been replaced by six new pages we have rebranded as “Building Blocks.” Also, as part of our major simplification initiative, we’ve consolidated what was 17 tabs into a much easier-to-digest six “blocks.” Do note that the new Building Blocks will continue to be refined and improved over the weeks ahead. Consider today’s blocks to be version 1.0.

Q: How does an affiliate get access to all six Building Blocks?
Attaining Level 2 status opens the first Building Block. Level 3 opens the second and third Building Blocks. Level 4 opens the fourth Building Block. Level 5 opens the fifth, and Level 6 opens the remaining sixth Building Block.

Q: What does it mean to unlock a Building Block that I have access to…and what is my benefit for unlocking a Building Block?
Unlocking a Building Block is easy. After you’ve reviewed the information on a Block, simply click the button at the bottom of the screen to acknowledge your review. Then, correctly answer the simple 1-question quiz to grab a free entry in the Daily Grand. That’s it! Each Building Block works the same way and allows you to grab up to SIX free entries in the Daily Grand each day. Note that the Green Streak badge and other badges will now be based on your daily “Block Unlocks.” So, in short, unlock every Block…every day…for maximum benefits! Pssst...we'll be tracking your percentage of correct answers.

Q: Why did you get rid of VersaPoints?
VersaPoints (VP) have been an important component of the SFI system for several years. However, we ultimately concluded that VP, especially when we needed to separate it out into SVP (Sales VP) and AVP (Action VP), it became just too convoluted and confusing for new affiliates. Too much “connecting of dots” was required. Hence, we have now chosen to base affiliate qualifications purely on sales. We feel this is the simplest way to communicate qualifications. Moreover, generating sales is, after all, the whole point of being an affiliate. It’s where all revenues come from and it’s where all commissions come from.


Q: I’ve always thoughts VersaPoints were great. Won’t SFI be confusing without VersaPoints?
Actually, though VersaPoints (VP) were originally created to make SFI simpler, we found that, for many people, it actually created obfuscation, causing many affiliates to endlessly chase VP instead of focusing on what really matters (sales). We’re eliminating that obfuscation now by tying all ranks and earnings directly to sales.

Q: Where can I see a good overview of how the SFI compensation plan works now?
Check out our updated Comp Plan page HERE.

Q: The sales quota qualifications require retail sales or are personal purchases also allowed?
All sales quotas can be made up of any combination of retail sales and/or personal purchases.

Q: Can the entire sales quota of each level come from personal purchases?
Yes, though we of course strongly encourage every affiliate to engage in retail sales, as that’s one of the best way to maximize your Direct Commissions and residual income.

Q: Levels once attained become permanent, which is great!…but what if I don’t make the sales quota of the highest level I’ve attained?
The rule is very simple: The commissions and bonuses you receive will be based on the sales quota you DID attain for that month. Example: You qualified for level 12 in August, but in September you were able to only meet the level 10 sales quota. Hence, for the new month, you would only have access to the level 10 commissions and bonuses. Note that all other perks, however, such as access to various resources, are NOT "downgraded."

Q: Will we be able to monitor advancements (leveling up) of the affiliates in our group?
Absolutely! This information will be provided on your My Movers list, on your Genealogy, on Affiliate Snapshots, etc. Sales revenue information for all of your affiliates will also soon be at your fingertips.

Q: Both for retaining CSAs and for an affiliate to retain their spot in a Powerline, Executive Affiliate (EA) status was always required. Since that rank no longer exists, what is the requirement now?
We’ve now made it easier for retaining CSAs and Powerline spots! Effective immediately, the minimum required is Level 8 (just a $20 sales quota vs. what was approximately a $35 quota previously). We've also reduced the minimum amount to retain commissions on account to Level 8 (once every six months).

Q: If I’m, say, level 14, what’s my title I would use in my signature?
If you’ve attained level 14, your title would be “Level 14 Builder” (or “Level 14 Gold Builder” if you prefer).

Q: If level 16 equates to Diamond Team Leader, what are levels 17 to 20?
We’ve decided to put even higher levels of achievement in place to challenge our real go-getters! In addition to a new higher Platinum level at level 17, you can also now attain the ranks of Double Diamond (level 19) and Triple Diamond (level 20)!

Q: So, the title Team Leader has been discontinued?
Essentially, yes, but if you wish to continue to (informally) call yourself a team leader with your group, that’s fine. Officially, however, your title is a specific level of BUILDER (and you can you add a bronze, silver, gold, platinum, or diamond tier classification if desired). e.g. Level 12 Gold Builder.

Q: Why eliminate terms like Executive Affiliate and Team Leader?
It further simplified our system to use "small-step" levels instead. Also, going forward, we want to put SFI’s focus firmly on business-building (“Build Something Great!”). Hence, our new Building Blocks and our new rank all have the word “Builder” in them. Do note, however, that we now consider all level 10-and-up affiliates to be of executive status and will refer to said status in some texts and documents.

Q: What about the E365 contest which was based on VersaPoints?
We have refactored the E365 contest to be based on CV. And because VP is easily converted to CV, everything will essentially operate the same way. Whatever place you were in for VersaPoints, you’ll be in the same place, just now displayed in CV.

Q: What about The VersaPoints streak badge and/or other badges based on VersaPoints?
We’ll be converting some of the badges based on VP to CV. Other VP badges will be based on unlocking your Building Blocks each day.

Q: Will VersaPoints no longer we awarded as prizes in games, contests, etc.?
That is correct, though we may replace VP prizes with other items. Also remember that we’ve already substantially increased the number of prizes and winners for contests like the Daily Grand. We've also add the new Referral Rewards program.

Q: Ranks are now permanent, but what if a person opts out of SFI or doesn’t log in for a year?
You would technically have to start over if you opted out or didn’t log in for a year, as you would no longer be considered an affiliate.

Q: How fast can a new affiliate advance their level?
As fast as they want to go! Once an affiliate has completed the quizzes for levels 1-4, they can jump to any level (and all its perks) immediately by simply generating the desired level’s sales quota.

Q: What if a new affiliate doesn’t want to do all the Level Up Quizzes right away?
There’s no requirement to complete any specific number of quizzes. A new affiliate could do quiz #1, and then come back the next day to do quiz #2. Or they could do quizzes #1, #2, and #3 in their first five minutes…and then come back three weeks later to do quiz #4. It’s totally up to the new affiliate how and when to advance.

Q: Will it be possible to know who has met the sales quota for their displayed level each month?
Yes, as has been done previously, until you’ve met all the requirements for your level (in this case, the sales quota), your rank badge will indicate “pending requalification.” The sales quota for your level and any amount short will also be continually updated in real time and the amounts readily accessible (such as in the slide-out profile panel). Your Movers list will provide guidance on your PSAs and CSAs.

Q: When will Pricebenders start offering auctions for the general public (not just auctions for SFI items)?
We’re getting close on this! The fact is, today’s big reboot has required almost all of our focus for the past few months. Now that we’re finally going live with the new changes, we’ll be able to get back to completing the new infrastructure we’re building to facilitate not only a significant Pricebenders expansion but some other important program needs, too. On a related note, look for our auctions to become standalone sites—at Pricebenders.com and AstroAuctions.com respectively later this year—with EagerZebra.com becoming a standalone online gaming site in the coming months, too. We have big plans for a number of our Zing Network properties in 2022!

Q: I feel like some of the content of the old daily tabs are missing. Is that true?
Yes, in our quest to greatly simplify our system, certain elements have been removed. Note: Some of these elements will likely get refactored and brought back in the coming weeks, in some form. We LOVE the idea of goal-setting, for example, but the vast majority were not using it as intended so we’ll need to rework the Goals page, but it probably WON’T land in a Building Block, as we are going to work very hard to not let growth-killing complexity creep back in again!

Q: Is there more to come yet, or is this it?
Well because of the big changes, there is a lot of refining and polishing in the coming days. The user interface will undoubtably evolve (get better), and there’s certain to be a good number of modifications, additions, and maybe even some corrections of oversights in the coming weeks as we fine-tune the new system. But not everything we’re planning has been revealed yet either! Look for lots of fun and exciting new marketing aids, promotions, contests, and more in the coming months. We’ve started a big new chapter in SFI today and we can’t wait to optimize everything and start setting new records again!