After two years using the ClickFunnels Affiliate Program I’m finally ready to give my honest review of it…
This program is my first real taste of affiliate marketing success…
However, I’m here to keep it real and not let any biases cloud this post…
By the time you get done reading this review you’ll be able to make an informed decision on whether to join or not…
So, let me start by explaining how the ClickFunnels (CF) Affiliate Program works…
How The ClickFunnels Affiliate Program Works
This program is designed to reward affiliates generously for promoting ClickFunnels and related products…
The top of the affiliate area shows the total amount of money earned for the day…
This is represented with orange bars and the amount earned between all products for the day…
40% Commissions Anybody?
They give a 40% commission for any ClickFunnels product that is sold with your affiliate link…
With the prices of products ranging from $37 – $10,000 you can begin to see how 40% can mean a lot of money…
This is honestly one of the best paying affiliate programs out there…
Not only do you get great commissions, there is also sticky cookies…
Sticky Cookies… Nom Nom!
Most affiliate links have limitations on how sales are tracked and how long they are tracked…
Usually there are browser cookies which can be wiped out if the person clears their browser cache…
Other programs set something like a six month limit for tracking a link click…
ClickFunnels has figured out a way to have cookies that don’t go away and have no time limit…
They call them “sticky cookies” and this allows you to make commissions on any additional products that CF offers…
List Of ClickFunnels Products You Can Promote
ClickFunnels
The ClickFunnels software is the flagship product and is a monthly recurring subscription…
There are two plan levels:
- Start Up Plan – $97 /mo
- Etison Suite – $297 / mo
So when users sign up to one of those plans, you will start seeing commissions after 45 days…
The affiliate area gives you some stats such as Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Number of New Trials, those currently trialing, Life Time Value (LTV), Churn rate, Trial Stick Rate, Potential Trial LTV, and Potential Trial MRR.
These quick stats give you a general idea of where you’re at and how much recurring monthly revenue you can expect…
The problem that I have is they aren’t always up to date…
In fact, when someone cancels or there is a refund the numbers can get out of wack…
Thankfully, there is a downloadable CSV file for each product and one that can show you sales from all products…
I prefer to download a report of all sales…
You can download commissions for today, yesterday, 7 days, 30 days, two months, this year, and all time…
This is usually the most accurate way to see what you’re actually making for a given week or month…
I find that downloading reports for two months gives me the clearest picture of what I can expect…
Using a CSV file isn’t perfect and I wish the system gave better stats…
DCS 108 Split Tests (Free Book)
This product is a free give away of the 108 Split Tests book…
People get put into a sales funnel with potential earnings per book you give away is $197.60 from the upsells…
DotComSecrets Book (New)
The DotComSecrets book is Russell Brunson’s most popular book and is also a free giveaway…
Prospects are put into a large funnel that can potentially earn you $967.00…
Expert Secrets Book (NEW)
Expert secrets is the next free book from Russell Brunson and compliments the DotComSecrets book…
Affiliates can earn up to $927.00 from the upsell in this sales funnel…
Funnel Graffiti
Funnel Graffiti is a brilliant product…
It takes the little sketches from Russell’s book and makes little sticky blocks for different funnel parts…
You can map out your sales funnel on almost any surface with these…
Also, the ad for it is hilarious so I’ve embedded it below for your enjoyment…
The potential earnings from this sales funnel is $145.60 and a recurring commission of $26.80 for Funnel University…
Funnel Hackers Cookbook
This product is one of Russell’s newer offers that takes his sales funnels and turns them into recipes…
The sales funnel for this can generate up to $933.40 for ClickFunnel affiliates…
Funnel Scripts
Funnel Scripts is a copy writing software membership…
There are almost 40 scripts that will save time and money on the copywriting for a sales funnel…
It’s one of the most popular product that Russell offers…
Each Funnel Scripts sale gives commissions of $198.80 and recurring annual revenue for each year they are members…
Funnel University
Funnel U is another monthly membership product that provides funnel training and access to proven funnels you can add to your ClickFunnels account…
There is also extra scripts that you can add to your funnels that extend the power of ClickFunnels…
The affiliate commissions on this funnel is $356.40 with $237.80 annual recurring…
Or make $145.60 and a recurring monthly commission of $26.80…
Marketing In Your Car
The affiliate offer is a free MP3 player with the first 256 episodes of the “Marketing In Your Car” podcast…
The sales funnel can potentially generate $138.60 from the upsells…
Perfect Webinar (Free Offer)
The Perfect Webinar script is another very popular product from Russell Brunson…
This is a free giveaway of his sales script that leads to $137.60 in upsells from the sales funnel…
Software Secrets (New 2018)
Software Secrets is Russell’s newest book and like the other ones he is giving it away for free…
The sales funnel can potentially generate $816.40 in affiliate sales…
As you can see, there is a lot of potential money to be made with the CF Affiliate Program…
So how do you get your affiliate links?
Affiliate Links and Swipe Files
To get your affiliate links click the “Affiliate Tools – Get Your Links” button above any product…
This will take you to a separate page where you can get your link…
You can customize the URL will two different parameters which can help you see where your sales come from…
So, for instance if you put up a Facebook post with your link and have a parameter that says Facebook…
If you get a sale, you can see in the CSV file download that the post got you a sale…
This is very useful for seeing what is working and what isn’t…
Also, you can see specific stats for clicks and sales of the current product on this page too…
The Dream Car Contest
One of the biggest motivators in for any CF Affiliate is the Dream Car Contest…
Any affiliate who is able to get 100 or more ClickFunnels active members gets $500 a month towards their dream car…
This is one of the most powerful incentives I’ve ever seen…
Other affiliate programs have started copying this but ClickFunnels is the first…
However, it is extremely difficult to win a dream car…
I asked a fellow affiliate who just qualified for a dream car what they had to invest…
They told me they have spent over $40k in paid advertising…
There were other factors as well but the point is getting 100 people signed up to ClickFunnels isn’t as easy now…
My Own Experience With The Program
Funnel Scripts is the product that really gave me momentum in affiliate marketing…
My Funnel Scripts review generated my first $475 in commissions back about 2 years ago…
Almost half of my affiliate revenue has come from my review…
In total I’ve almost earned over 25k from the ClickFunnels Affiliate Program…
I wrote about some affiliate marketing lessons I’ve learned from earning over 20k so I won’t repeat them here…
A quick story about my own experience with Sticky Cookies
At the beginning of my time using the affiliate program, I ran a Facebook ad promoting ClickFunnels…
I was following the ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp training (more on that below)…
The ad was of a dog image and some cutesy text…
It bombed and it was a bit discouraging…
About a year later I’m checking out my affiliate report and see a surprise…
I find a trial with a dog-1 URL parameter I created to track trials that signed up from the ad…
So, even though I didn’t get an initial sale from the ad, the person eventually signed up…
And I got the commissions because of Sticky Cookies…
The program has definitely been good to me but I have my issues with it…
Here are the pros and cons that I find with this affiliate program…
CF Affiliate Program Pros and Cons
Pros
- ClickFunnels gives a 40% commission rate on all sales and has one of the best programs out there.
- Sticky cookies are awesome and lead to other sales naturally.
- There is a huge list of products to promote and lots of potential earnings.
- The Dream car contest is a fantastic motivator.
- The ClickFunnels community is very helpful.
Cons
- The new payout system and changes mean new affiliates will be waiting a while before receiving their first payout
- The system displays earnings that aren't always accurate especially if there is a refund.
- Downloading a CSV file to see commissions still has its limitations.
- The high price of ClickFunnels and some other products leads to higher refund or cancellation rates
- Winning a Dream Car takes A LOT of work and investment of time and money.
- Affiliate competition has become fierce and many affiliates never get very far.
- Consumers level of awareness has increased making it more difficult to attract new leads.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from signing up for the program…
But, I also want to make sure you have realistic expectations going in…
3 Ways To Become An Affiliate
There are three ways to sign up for the CF Affiliate Program…
Sign Up For ClickFunnels
When you sign up for a ClickFunnels account, you automatically become an affiliate…
I believe this is the best method because if you want people to buy a product from you then you need to be using it…
Some people are fine being unethical just to make money but that’s not how I roll…
A lot of people can smell a fake who just wants money…
The cool thing is you can get started with a 14-day free trial and begin promoting right away…
If you can just get three people signed up, you will be able to have your ClickFunnels account paid for within 45 days…
I’m not saying it will be easy but the more familiar you get with the product the easier it will be to promote…
To be 100% honest, there have been times where the only reason I kept my ClickFunnels account open is because I had enough affiliate commissions to cover the cost…
Join The ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp
So to become an affiliate you don’t have to sign up for ClickFunnels…
You can take the free route by joining the ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp program…
This is a 100 day affiliate training program that is designed to teach you how to become a ClickFunnels Super Affiliate and with the dream car…
However, I haven’t heard of anyone actually winning the dream car contest by going through the program…
I believe the reason why is the market is burned out with thousands of affiliates using these same tactics…
It’s going to be an uphill battle for sure…
But, if you can take the knowledge and do something unique with it you can see results…
If you decide to sign up for ClickFunnels your affiliate account will be automatically integrated…
Sign Up For The Dream Car Challenge
The final way to become a ClickFunnels Affiliate is to sign up directly through the What Is Your Dream Car page…
This will get you set up with a free affiliate account…
If at some point you want to sign up for ClickFunnels then your affiliate account will be integrated…
How Do You Get Paid As A ClickFunnels Affiliate?
Around December 2018 ClickFunnels has made changes to the way it pays affiliates…
They are using a new company called Tipalti…
As of January 2019, payouts are done on the 15th and 30th of the month…
Once you’ve cleared the first 45 day cancel / refund period you’ll receive your first payment on the 15th or 30th of that month…
The only thing is you will need to have at least $100 or more available to you before you can get paid…
It used to be $50 minimum so this change is very annoying to me…
I’m still adjusting to the new schedule myself…
This means new affiliates won’t see their first payment until they get one Etison Suite user or three basic users…
The plus side to using this new company is there are multiple ways to receive a payment including PayPal and direct deposit…
Should You Join The ClickFunnels Affiliate Program?
I hope I’ve given you the information you need to make an informed decision…
This affiliate program is one of the best out there but with that comes more challenges and greater investment…
People are still winning the Dream Car and making good money with CF…
If you do sign up, there is a great Facebook community for affiliates where you can get some help…
Are you already a CF affiliate?
Let me know about your experience in the comments below!