Why is the ClickFunnels affiliate program so popular among experienced affiliate marketers?
Is it because its CEO, Russell Brunson, is a successful marketer himself? Or because it has endorsements from entrepreneurs like Robert Kiyosaki and Tony Robbins?
Affiliate and niche marketers like you and I are quite familiar with the movie-quality ClickFunnels advertisements on YouTube and Facebook.
But is it a legit company with an affiliate program that's as good as it claims to be?
These are just some of the questions that kept bugging me about the ClickFunnels affiliate program over the last few months.
And this is why I decided to jump right in, find the answers, and share everything with you.
By the end of this article, you'll know exactly what the ClickFunnels affiliate program offers and whether you should become a part of it or not.
Sounds interesting?
Keep reading.
What You'll Learn In This Article
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Why ClickFunnels is such a popular product
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How the ClickFunnels affiliate program works
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The main reasons why you should consider joining this program
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How to sign up as a ClickFunnels affiliate
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How long it takes to get paid for your successful referrals
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What is the affiliate cookie period of this program
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What is the cooling-off period and how it impacts your earnings
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The main drawbacks and flaws of the ClickFunnels affiliate program
ClickFunnels – A Powerful Marketing Automation & Sales Tool
An affiliate program is as good as its core product offer.
A genuinely useful product is not only easier to sell but also strengthens your image as an affiliate and helps you grow your influence.
On the flip side, promoting a crappy product will hurt your credibility and ultimately damage your affiliate marketing business even if it offers better commission rates.
With this in mind, let's quickly evaluate ClickFunnels as a product before discussing its affiliate program in more detail.
ClickFunnels is a marketing-automation and lead generation software with more than 100K active paying customers around the world.
ClickFunnels gives users the tools and features required to create highly optimized sales landing pages and marketing funnels.
In just a few years, ClickFunnels has become a $400+ million company that has processed billions of dollars for its clients and helped more than 700 of them to become millionaires (you can find their names on The 2 Comma Club).
What's a funnel?
Unlike a direct sales pitch in which you ask customers to buy a product, a sales funnel consists of a series of marketing messages communicated using a combination of emails, landing pages, and video/text content.
The objective of a funnel is to establish an initial point of contact with your prospects through which they can be regularly approached with different marketing messages that gradually persuade them to buy your offer.
Here's an example of a sales funnel.
The funnel approach is much more effective than direct sales pitches, especially for higher-priced products, because it allows you to build a relationship with your audience and qualify them from one buying stage to another based on their responses to your marketing messages.
Marketers mostly use ClickFunnels for lead generation, event signup, and sales campaigns
Here's a practical demonstration of how an online sales funnel works.
This is a typical funnel in which cold traffic is turned into email subscribers using a lead magnet squeeze page/pop-up, from there the subscribers are redirected to a cheap trip-wire offer to turn them into buyers.
If they take the offer, they're redirected to another sales page with the core offer (a much higher-priced product). Those who purchase the core offer are redirected to another sales page with a special upsell offer.
In case the subscribers decline an offer at any stage of the funnel, they're added to a custom-designed email sequence that keeps them engaged and prepares them for another sales pitch.
ClickFunnels lets you create such funnels within minutes thanks to its huge library of funnel recipes and ready-to-use funnel templates.
You can choose a template and then customize each step of the funnel according to your needs.
You can make all the changes you want using the simple drag & drop interface of the ClickFunnels funnel builder.
The tool also comes with a wide range of free and premium landing page templates for different objectives like free giveaways, product launches, tripwire sales, product sales, etc. that can be used to execute different funnels.
This is the core ClickFunnels product but there are many other powerful features like email marketing, affiliate management, analytics, payment integration, etc. that come with it.
All of this is available for $97/month and $297month in two different subscription plans (both come with a 14-day free trial)
This is the product package that you'll be promoting as a ClickFunnels affiliate.
It does most of the selling itself because of its great features and the kind of sales funnels their team has developed for it.
This makes your job as an affiliate much easier.
Let's now explore the ClickFunnels affiliate program in much more detail and decide if you should join it.
ClickFunnels Affiliate Program – A Complete Affiliate Marketing Program
ClickFunnels has a comprehensive affiliate program that's designed to reward entrepreneurs, affiliate marketers, and the existing ClickFunnels users for bringing new customers.
It's among the most popular SaaS affiliate programs in the world and has paid over $70 million in affiliate commissions since its inception.
In 2018 alone, the total ClickFunnels affiliate payouts exceeded $22 million.
The program is full of incentives for affiliates.
First of all, it's a recurring commission program that keeps earning you money as long as your referrals are subscribed to a paid ClickFunnels plan. I'll cover the commission rates in the next section.
The most successful ClickFunnels affiliate, Spencer Mecham, has earned well over $1 million in commissions from the program.
As an affiliate, you can even win your dream car if you have more than 100 referrals that are active ClickFunnels users.
Till now, they've given away dozens of dream cars to their affiliates.
Russell Brunson, the CEO of ClickFunnels, is a major force behind the success of this affiliate program.
He's a multi-million dollar entrepreneur and digital marketer himself and understands exactly how to attract, motivate, and engage affiliates.
Russell's books, Dot Com Secrets, and Expert Secrets are among the most popular digital marketing books and have sold thousands of copies in the last few years on Amazon and other platforms.
This is why his program is so popular in the tech industry and is endorsed by celebrity entrepreneurs like Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki who're ClickFunnels users themselves.
Social proof is a major strength of the ClickFunnels affiliate program.
The product is so widely used and endorsed that persuading other marketers to buy it becomes much easier.
The annual Funnel Hacking Live Summit by ClickFunnels also demonstrates the product's demand and showcases dozens of success stories.
The 2020 event that was held in March had a star-studded speaker line-up and more than 5000 people attended it.
All of this helps ClickFunnels affiliates market the product more convincingly and drive higher sales.
Let's now take a look at the commission structure and other financial incentives the program offers.
ClickFunnels Affiliate Tiers, Commission Structure, And Payout Cycle
ClickFunnels offers up to 40% recurring commission for every referral that turns into a paid ClickFunnels user.
This means that every month you'll keep getting paid 40% of your referral's ClickFunnels monthly fee as long as they remain paying members.
For the $97/month plan, this means a monthly recurring commission of $38.8 ($465/yr)
If you refer just 10 users for this plan, you'll be earning almost $5000/yr on autopilot.
Cool, isn't it?
But a 40% recurring commission is just the headline.
There's more detail.
ClickFunnels Affiliate Commission Tiers
ClickFunnels offers 40% recurring commissions for every premium referral.
But that's only for the top-tier affiliates.
For Tier 1 Affiliates (complete newbies) the commission rate is 20% on the premium ClickFunnels subscription plans. This means you'll get a recurring commission of $19.4/month for the regular ClickFunnels subscription and $59.4 for the Platinum subscription plan.
How do you move to tier 2?
By earning at least $1000 in affiliate commissions in a single month AND completing the free ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp training program.
For Tier 2 Affiliates, the commission rate is 30% on the premium plans which translates into recurring commissions of $29.1/month and $89.1/month for the regular and platinum plans respectively.
How do you move to tier 3?
By having at least 40 active premium ClickFunnels users, who've signed up with your affiliate link, for at least 30 days.
For Tier 3 Affiliates, the commission rate is indeed 40% which results in recurring payments of $38.8/month and $118.8/month as long as your referrals remain ClickFunnels customers.
It's still a pretty good deal but not as attractive as you first thought, right?
Let me cheer you up.
On top of its main membership programs, ClickFunnels has a number of front-end offers that can not only make it easier to attract leads but also help you earn additional commissions.
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DotCom Secrets
This is Russell's best-selling book that you can use to attract leads to ClickFunnels. It earns you $1/sale in commission but has the potential to make you as much as $997 as a result of the different backend offers that are pitched to anyone who purchases this book.
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Expert Secrets
Another one of Russell's best selling books that people can get for free just by paying the shipping costs. It earns you $1/sale in commission but can help you make up to $927 as a result of the different backend offers in the funnel.
Again, you just need to sell the free book once after which your referral will be added to a sales funnel that pitches multiple products over a certain period of time.
Here's a list of the different products in this funnel and their potential value.
Almost a thousand bucks for promoting a free product? not a bad offer at all.
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Traffic Secrets
This is the latest book by Russell and like the previous two, it will earn you $1/sale in commission, plus up to $248.6 in total commissions from backend offers.
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One Funnel Away
This a training program that your referrals can join for a one-time fee of $100.
And guess what? You get all of it as an affiliate commission ($100).
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30-Day Summit
This is a completely free workshop but if you bring sign-ups for it, ClickFunnels will pay you $100.
When you look at the whole picture now, the ClickFunnels affiliate program looks pretty attractive, right?
And these are just the front-end offers that I've mentioned here.
There are several other products within the ClickFunnels ecosystem that you can promote for a healthy commission (more on that later).
Let's have a look at the program's payout details.
ClickFunnels Affiliate Commission Payout Threshold And Schedule
You need to have at least $100 in your ClickFunnels affiliate account to qualify for payment. The payments are made on the 1st and 15th of every month.
This was the easy part.
How you get the commission in your account in the first place is slightly more complex.
First of all, when you refer leads to ClickFunnels, they sign up for a free 14-Dy Trial. If a referral chooses not to continue with ClickFunnels after the trial period, you don't earn any commission.
But if a user you've referred does continue and sign up for a paid ClickFunnels plan, it enters a "cooling off" period of 30 days. During this time if the customer asks for a refund and stops using ClickFunnels, you don't earn any commission.
So when do you actually earn a commission? 45 days AFTER the 30-day cooling-off period.
In total, this makes it 75 days from the time your referral signs-up for a paid account.
This is when the affiliate commission is credited to your account.
When it reaches $100, you can initiate a withdrawal request that will be processed on the 1st or the 15th of the month (whichever comes first).
You can receive your payments via PayPal or Check.
75 days does seem like a long time and unless you're regularly generating sales, the gap between your commission payments can be frustrating.
However, the overall financial incentives still outweigh this inconvenience.
Plus, there are several other benefits of joining the ClickFunnels affiliate program.
Let's have a quick look at them.
6 Reasons For Becoming A ClickFunnels Affiliate
As you've already seen, the ClickFunnels affiliate program offers several attractive benefits to anyone who can drive regular sales.
But apart from the direct financial incentives, here are a few more reasons why promoting ClickFunnels as an affiliate is a great idea.
01 – ClickFunnels Is A Powerful Product For Any Industry
ClickFunnels is not an industry-specific product.
Businesses, entrepreneurs, and service providers in any niche can use it to generate leads and convert cold traffic into paying customers.
This is why influencers and affiliates from all industries can sign-up for this affiliate program and make money by referring customers to ClickFunnels.
Weight loss experts, fitness coaches, yoga trainers, relationship experts, marriage counselors, or any other type of service provider or consultant can use different ClickFunnels templates to generate leads.
As an affiliate, you can promote ClickFunnels to marketers with zero technical skills and they'll still be able to generate sales in their industries with it.
In fact, some of the top ClickFunnels success stories and millionaires from The 2 Comma Club are from outside the digital marketing, affiliate, and make money online industries.
In short, as an influencer or affiliate in any industry, you can promote ClickFunnels as long as your audience is interested in making more money.
02 – You Can Promote Multiple Products To Make Money
ClickFunnels affiliates can make money in several ways.
I've already shown you their front-end products that are much easier to promote and have a very high chance of generating leads for you.
For example, if you're new to affiliate marketing and don't have a huge audience, you still have a great chance of generating leads by promoting DotCom Secrets, Russell's best selling book that people can get for free just by paying the shipping costs.
The moment they use your referral link to sign up, they're added to the larger sales funnel which is designed to generate maximum value from them.
You only need to make the initial sale but you'll be rewarded for every penny that your referral spends in this funnel.
If you're an experienced affiliate with a strong relationship with your audience who have previously purchased products on your recommendation, you can promote a higher-priced product like Funnel Scripts, a $797 product that offers $318.8 (40%) in affiliate commission.
Or if someone from your audience wants to become a ClickFunnels affiliate, you can refer them to the Affiliate Bootcamp Training and earn a commission from backend offers.
ShareFunnels is another great way to make money as a ClickFunnels affiliate.
The idea is simple.
If you've created a sales funnel for your business that's working really well, you can offer it to your audience via a public URL.
If an existing ClickFunnels user clicks on your link, your funnel will be added to their account. If someone who's not a ClickFunnels user clicks on your link, they'll be given access to the funnel where they can see it in action. But to use it, they'll be asked to sign up for the free 14-day trial.
If they continue using ClickFunnels beyond the trial period, you'll get rewarded with the referral commission.
You can view all the products you can promote in your ClickFunnels affiliate dashboard.
This wide product range gives you lots of flexibility to promote any products that match the needs of your target audience.
Here's another big reason to become a ClickFunnels affiliate.
Every affiliate program has a cookie period which is the time limit in which the purchases made by your referrals are credited to your account.
For example, Amazon's affiliate program has a cookie period of just 24 hours.
ClickFunnels, on the other hand, offers a "sticky cookie" that does not have any time limit.
What does this mean?
If a user clicks on your affiliate link and is added to any of the front-end or backend product funnels, you'll be rewarded with a commission no matter how long they take to purchase the product.
I'm not aware of any other leading affiliate program which offers an unlimited cookie duration.
ClickFunnels gives you all the promotional and marketing material you need to reach out to your audience and drive sales to the different ClickFunnels products.
This includes banners for your website and social media accounts, email scripts and swipe files, social media posts, and other promotional material.
For example here are a couple of images for promoting the Affiliate Bootcamp training on Instagram.
And here are some images you can use for promoting the 30 Day Challenge on Facebook
Need to run an email marketing campaign? No need to spend hours writing new emails, use these tested and optimized email templates.
Every offer listed in your affiliate dashboard has its own set of banners, email scripts, and social media posts.
Use them as needed and keep checking for new updates because new material is often shared in the affiliate section.
The great thing about using this material is that it's written by world-class copywriters and tested by conversion experts.
If you use them the right way, they have a much higher chance of driving sales as compared to your own marketing content.
The best strategy, however, is to use this material in combination with your own content (more on this later)
05 – Your Referrals Are Added To The World's Most Optimized Sales Funnels
Another reason why ClickFunnels affiliates are so successful is that all the front-end and back-end product funnels they promote are designed by Russell Brunson himself.
That's right.
The moment you refer a lead to ClickFunnels, it's added to some of the world's best performing sales and conversion funnels.
They make sure that every lead that enters their funnel turns into a paying subscriber.
If you hire Russell to design a funnel for you, this is how much he'd charge
You and I won't pay him that kind of money but many businesses do.
As a ClickFunnels affiliate, however, you're getting his best funnels working for you.
As a result, your chances of making a sale are bright.
06 – ClickFunnels Has A World-Class Affiliate Marketing Training Program
This is where ClickFunnels has gone a step ahead of many other affiliate programs.
They have created a comprehensive affiliate training program called the Affiliate Bootcamp Training which is completely free to access.
The program gives you access to three video interviews (each 30-min long) of the most successful ClickFunnels affiliates in which they share the tips and lessons they've learned promoting the program.
It's actually a front-end product for their "One Funnel Away Challenge" but it has some great advice particularly for new affiliates (even if you don't buy the funnel challenge).
The program also has its own dedicated Facebook group with more than 75K members.
This is such a great platform for new affiliates in particular because here you can pick the brains of some of the most successful ClickFunnels affiliates, build new connections, and become a part of different discussions about ClickFunnels.
There's also an eBook in your ClickFunnels affiliate section that shares several ways you can become a more successful affiliate marketer.
And then, of course, you have the official YouTube channel of ClickFunnels
There's a lot of needless hype in their sales content but in between, there are some really valuable free training videos that you can watch and apply to your affiliate strategy.
If you add their official blog to this equation, you have some of the best free resources to learn affiliate marketing even if you're just starting out.
That's it for the benefits of the program.
If you think it's worth trying, here's how you can sign up.
How To Setup A ClickFunnels Affiliate Account
The ClickFunnels affiliate program works independently from the product which means you don't necessarily need to be a ClickFunnels user to become an affiliate.
If you are an existing ClickFunnels user, you're automatically an affiliate as well.
You can access the affiliate section from your main user dashboard.
If you're not a ClickFunnels paid user, you can still sign up as an affiliate from the Affiliate Sign Up page.
Once your application is approved as an affiliate you're taken to your affiliate dashboard that shows you a summary of your earning and other important details of your account.
If you scroll down, you'll get a further breakdown of your earnings for each ClickFunnels product. Every product also has a link to the affiliate tools section where you can find your affiliate link for that product plus all the necessary promotional material.
Copy your affiliate link from the affiliate tools page and start promoting it on your website, social media accounts, and email lists.
When your total affiliate commissions reach $100, you qualify for payment on the 1st and 15h of every month via PayPal or Check (whichever you choose from your account settings section)
How To Promote ClickFunnels As An Affiliate Marketer
So what's the best way to promote ClickFunnels as an affiliate?
Here are a few quick tips.
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ShareFunnels: Create your own unique funnels and share them with your audience via a public link. As I've already mentioned in this article, it is one of the best ways to give your prospects a taste of the product and persuade them to sign up for it.
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Blog Content: Create useful, actionable, and high-quality blog content that showcases the different benefits of ClickFunnels. Don't limit yourself to product reviews. Write How-To posts that teach different things you can do with the product, publish list posts with tips and tricks, publish interview and success stories, and mention ClickFunnels on your blog content generally whenever it's relevant.
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Email Marketing: There's no better way to promote a product than email marketing especially if your subscribers trust you and like hearing from you. If you haven't started using email marketing for affiliate promotions, read this article.
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YouTube: Create video tutorials of the product and share different tips to help your audience
Here's a detailed article on several other ways you can promote products as an affiliate.
The Pros And Cons of ClickFunnels Affiliate Program
As you've already seen, there's a lot to like about the ClickFunnels Affiliate Program. However, it does have a few weaknesses.
Here's a quick look at its major pros and cons
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It's a popular and proven affiliate program
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Signing up as a ClickFunnels affiliate is really easy
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There's a huge community of ClickFunnels affiliates to help you
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ClickFunnels is a popular product with very strong social proof which makes it easy to sell
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The commission structure and overall incentives are very attractive
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High-quality training material and affiliate support
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Lifetime sticky cookie is a real bonus
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The 75-day waiting time for payments is a real turn off for new affiliates
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The commission rates aren't as attractive for tier 1 affiliates
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The qualification criteria from tier 1 to tier 2 is quite hard for new affiliates
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The affiliate dashboard offers limited information and insights on your referrals
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Limited payment methods available for affiliate payouts
Are You Ready To Become The Next Elite ClickFunnels Affiliate?
If you've read this far, you must have already made up your mind on whether to become a ClickFunnels affiliate or not.
If you ask me, this is one of the most attractive affiliate programs I've seen in the SaaS and digital marketing industry.
It gives you everything from training and learning resources to promotional material and networking opportunities.
The front-end promotional offers are the real game-changers because they make it much easier to attract leads that can turn into customers after the trial period.
Despite a few drawbacks, the overall program is pretty good.
Whether you're a newbie or an experienced affiliate marketer, it gives the ClickFunnels affiliate program has the potential to turn into one of your major revenue sources in the long run.
If you're convinced you're ready to become a ClickFunnels affiliate, join the affiliate program now!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Need quick answers about the ClickFunmels affiliate program? Here are some of the most most common questions people have about it.
Does ClickFunnels have an affiliate program?
Yes, ClickFunnels has one of the most popular affiliate programs in the online marketing industry.
Is the ClickFunnels affiliate program free to join?
Yes, you can become a ClickFunnels affiliate for free.
How much affiliate commission does ClickFunnels offer?
ClickFunnels offers up to 40% recurring commission on every successful referral.
What is ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp?
ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp is a completely free affiliate marketing training program by ClickFunnels to equip its affiliates for optimum performance.
What are the different affiliate tiers in the ClickFunnels affiliate program?
There are three affiliate tiers in the ClickFunnels affiliate program.
Tier 1 Affiliates get 40% commission on all front-end ClickFunnels products and 20% recurring commission for all ClickFunnel subscription referrals.
To qualify for tier 2, you need to earn $1000 within a period of 30 days AND complete the Affiliate Bootcamp training.
Tier 2 Affiliates earn a 30% recurring commission on every ClickFunnels subscription referral.
To qualify for tier 3, you need to have at least 40 successful ClickFunnels subscription referrals who have been active for at least 30 days
Tier 3 Affiliates earn a 40% recurring commission on every successful ClickFunnels subscription referral.
How can I become a ClickFunnels affiliate?
You automatically become a ClickFunnels affiliate if you're its premium customer. You can also become an affiliate by signing up for the Affiliate Bootcamp training. Or you can become an affiliate for free by signing up on the ClickFunnels affiliate page.
What is ClickFunnels Dream Car Contest and is it still open?
ClickFunnels used to offer a sports car a reward to its top affiliates through a contest. The program is inactive for now.
What are the ClickFunnels products I can promote as an affiliate?
There are several front-end and back-end ClickFunnels products you can promote to earn a commission.
– DotCom Secrets (book)
– Traffic Secrets (book)
– Expert Secrets (book)
– 108 Split Tests (free eBook)
– Funnel Graffiti (product)
– Funnel Hacker's Cookbook (free eBook)
– Funnel Scripts (software)
– One Funnel Away (training)
– 30 Days (training)
– Ready to use funnels
– ClickFunnels Paid Monthly subscription (any plan)
ClickFunnels has a "sticky cookie" which is valid for the lifetime.
What is the affiliate commission payout duration?
Affiliate commissions are credited to your account 45 days AFTER the "cooling off" period of a successful referral. The "cooling off" period is 30 days from the time a customer makes the payment.
What is the minimum payout threshold of the ClickFunnels affiliate program?
You need to have at least $100 in your account to withdraw the funds.
How do I get paid as a ClickFunnels affiliate?
You can get paid via Tipalti, PayPal, and Check.
What are the main benefits of the ClickFunnels affiliate program?
– ClickFunnels is a popular product with a very strong brand image and a cult-like following
– Very attractive affiliate commissions
– A very strong affiliate community
– Multiple front-end and back-end products you can promote
– Very high conversion rates on ClickFunnels landing pages
Who is Russell Brunson?
Russell Brunson is the founder and CEO of ClickFunnels, author of multiple best-selling books, a hugely successful entrepreneur, and a popular motivational speaker.
What is the total market value of ClickFunnels?
The estimated worth of ClickFunnels is around $400 million.
