The very first blog I created was based on the adult coloring book craze. A new subject that sat within the health and wellbeing niche – specifically “Mindfulness“.
Whilst I thought my niche was good, it wasn’t quite the affiliate goldmine I should have been seeking.
Earning 1-3% Amazon commissions on products that sell for $5-10. This was NOT get rich quick!
In terms of niche choice – mindfulness and coping with stress were becoming more popular, and everyday awareness of these issues were gaining momentum.
But my product choice let me down…..in hindsight.
I had to improve my affiliate marketing skills, regroup, and go again. This time, using high ticket affiliate marketing, in order to make money with clickfunnels.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
The business model around affiliate marketing is a revenue share system.
Recommend a product or service, if someone buys through your special link then you get a commission.That is affiliate marketing simplified. It is more complicated than that and due to the low barrier of entry to get started with affiliate marketing, it can be very competitive.
However, the model is simple.
Anyone has the potential to be successful with affiliate marketing if they follow the right guidelines.
When I first started with affiliate marketing I made a lot of mistakes. I still do – but now I have the right guidance to at least kick me back into line when I need it.
It is all part of the learning process. We don’t fail, we learn.
One aspect that has helped me massively is the use of funnels. Yep….i said funnels. For many of you that will make no sense so bear with me.
What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is the process of guiding a visitor to your site, and transition them to as a customer. It is the set of steps required to acquire that lead.
In many cases we can refer to the funnel as a landing page or webpage that is designed to convert traffic to leads and then to customers, however, it’s bigger than that.
It often involves the whole customer journey.
Why is it called a funnel (Marketing funnel, sales funnel, lead funnel etc)?
Think of this as a numbers game.
The top of the funnel – the wide-open bit, is the traffic. This is the Awareness stage. It could be that people are seeing your Facebook ads, blog content, YouTube videos and then clicking on your link back to your website / landing page.
The visitor will then move along and down the funnel.
A smaller % of this traffic will see your lead magnet (something you give away for free – cheatsheet, template, training course) and they will enter their details and sign up.
READ MORE: ClickFunnels Lead Funnels Swipe Book – All you need to know about Lead Funnels
You can then follow up on these leads with a thankyou video, retargeting ads, email marketing, phone calls.
An even smaller % of people will then take value from your lead magnet and start to build trust in you and your brand. They may move on to the next stage where they follow your recommendation and buy your product or someone else’s product (affiliate marketing).
For Example:
If 10,000 people saw your Blog Post in the google results then it’s unrealistic to expect 10,000 people to click on your link at the end of the funnel and buy your recommendation.
That 10,000 slowly narrows down as the journey progresses. Like a “funnel”. This is how to approach affiliate marketing with Clickfunnels.
Sales Funnels can be excellent for affiliate marketing and surprisingly simple to create using the right funnel building software, such as ClickFunnels.
What is ClickFunnels?
Clickfunnels is software you can subscribe too (at a monthly cost) that allows you to easily build many different types of funnels for your business marketing.
These simple but powerful little websites usually have one outcome – instead of bouncing around your website they want to drive traffic into a sale, registration, email lead.
It is an easy to use – drag and drop builder, that integrates nicely with many 3rd party components such as your email autoresponder (I use GetResponse). There are tonnes of people that make money with Clickfunnels – businesses of all shapes and sizes.
If you want to read my ClickFunnels Platinum review then check out this link
Other funnel builders are available however Clickfunnels is my preferred choice and that’s largely down to the training they provide.
Russell Brunson, ClickFunnels owner, is an absolute legend when it comes to teaching proven Sales and Marketing strategies – even to amateurs like me.
I fix computers for a living. I know very little about marketing, but that doesn’t stop me following Russell.
As part of the subscription to ClickFunnels they also provide FunnelFlix – “Netflix for Entrepreneurs”.
It is a library of high-level training that they have previously sold separately for thousands of dollars. Whilst the premium stuff is only available to ClickFunnels Platinum subscribers there is still a vast amount of training available to standard subscribers too.
This commitment to help people learn is one of the biggest reasons I use Clickfunnels myself.
The software is great, the training is great.
But how does it all fit together?
7 Step Example: Affiliate Marketing with ClickFunnels
Let me show you an example of high ticket affiliate marketing, and how you can make money with ClickFunnels (promoting anything)
I have used this example before on my YouTube channel (watch below). Mainly because this guy is damn good and has created ridiculous success for himself.
Nathan Lucas, Freedom Influencer is brilliant at this kind of thing. This is to show you what he does but don’t underestimate the crazy work ethic he has to get to this point.
He started his YouTube channel in 2014 and at the time of writing his videos have had 13,270,066 views…. Even when you reduce the funnel and start decreasing those numbers, thats a HUGE AMOUNT of potential leads.
Imagine if each one of those leads could earn you $500 or $1000.
High ticket affiliate marketing – t’is the future 🙂
Step 1 – Choose Your Core Niche and Core Product
First let’s assume you have an idea of your brand and niche. What you are trying to achieve and who you are looking to help.
The most profitable niches are Health, Wealth and Relationships, however, you’re going to want to narrow it down and find some sub-niches of those areas.
Once you understand who you wish to help, look at the best products available to them (and you).
Personally, I like:
- High ticket items (larger commissions)
- Recurring commissions (monthly subscription)
- More importantly, I like to promote products that are good!
Products that you have no issue recommending and happily pay for yourself out of your OWN MONEY.
This is how I chose my main products – ClickFunnels and Zach Crawfords Secret Affiliate Marketing Hacks Course (Both are awesome).
Nathan has gone for an ultra-competitive niche (wait a minute – so have i ?! Eeeeek). He is looking at people that want freedom – location, money, time.
9-5 escapees, digital nomads, skint parents.
Step 2 – Create Content Around Your Chosen Niche.
I would recommend choosing one platform and mastering it. Don’t go made like I have in the past – trying to create content for blog, youtube, pinterest, instagram and facebook all at the same time absolutely ruins you.
Your a one-person show not a team of 25.
Focus on your content and platform and get creating like there is no tomorrow. Create as much as possible and widen the net.
Create content that helps people. Offer value.
Give them information that helps them and answers their pain points.
Look at these stats that show how long Nathan Lucas has been creating YouTube content. Eventually, his channel took off and his back catalog of quality content then gained momentum too.
He delivered constant value.
Step 3 – Direct that traffic to a landing page.
Whilst your content is busy developing and growing and worming its way through the mucky algorithms of Google and YouTube, make sure you have a single point to send people too.
Blogs – Use banners, Call To Actions (CTA’s), Pop Ups and more to direct people to your Sales Funnel.
Facebook – Add a “Profile Funnel” and send people to a link, get creative with your Facebook profile photo and main banner. Add CTA’s to your posts.
YouTube – Use your Channel Links, Descriptions, About Page and send those subscribers back to your landing page.
Take a look at Nathan Lucas description. Every video has a CTA. He is using pretty links so that if he had to change that link to a different product he can.
Step 4 – Create an Affiliate Marketing Landing Page & Lead Magnet
Keep it simple. Don’t over complicate and create too many choices for your visitor. Think about what they need?
If you are targeting people escaping their 9-5 then give them a free guide to creating a blog, starting with affiliate marketing etc.
As a secondary benefit, you can earn off the products you recommend in that “FREE” Guide, such as commissions on hosting with WPX (Yes it’s an affiliate link! Remember, recommend products you use and recommend yourself – keep it ethical)
Let’s look at Nathan’s link, it takes us to a FREE Book – Affiliate Marketing Guide.
Add your email and it’s yours to download, but wait……
You may not have realized but you’re now in the sales funnel. You are a qualified lead.
Nathan Lucas shows exactly how to make money with clickfunnels (or any sales funnel builder).
This is what you want to do to your own traffic. Why?
⭐️ We now have a relationship. I have provided something of value to you – built your trust and given you something that may help you. That sounds a little sleezy but its not meant to be.
Affiliate marketing can be the best mutually beneficial system to make money. I help you, you help me.
⭐️ I have your email. Muhahahahahaha. Now I can kickstart my email campaign and once again offer value, build trust, promote new products (my own or affiliate).
The power is in the email list. Many companies will take a loss with their products just to get you on their email list and make money further down the line.
⭐️ Instant Sale. Once they hit that submit button and enter their details into the system – you can redirect to page 2 of the funnel. The Bridge Page.
Step 5 – The Bridge Page.
“I hope you enjoy your free download…..” but whilst you are here, are you interested in finding out more about how to get rich, work less, and live the dream life?
Of course you do!!
Again, keep it simple.
Nathan uses a short video. He plays in your pains and offers hope of a better life. Now he is going to tell you all about that solution….
This is an extremely effective Bridge Page. You can use Video (recommended), long-form copywriting, or whatever else convinces the lead to click that button and “Learn More”.
Video is great as its a personal touch.
Are they hard to record – at first yes, but you will get used to it. It will be worth it as those that commit to the next step are doing so and showing that they resonate with you and want to know more.
Step 6 – Go Buy The Product Please…..
You have done your part. You took that traffic and converted them to leads, you’ve told them all about the next opportunity.
For those that click on the next button, as an affiliate, this is where you hand them over to the vendor and product owner. Let them do what they are good at. Let them sell their own product – which they may have invested millions in perfecting.
Your special link to the vendor was on that “Submit” button. Anyone who goes through that button and buys from the vendor will generate you a commission.
This is what Nathan does and what great affiliate marketers do. This is one way to succeed and make money with clickfunnel using hig ticket affiliate marketing.
In Nathans case he promotes Legendary Marketer, who sell a host of online training packages around building your own business. If you want to know more then check out my review here.
Legendary Marketer offer expensive products and have a great sales funnel themselves, they use a sales team to close their commissions and get above-average conversion rates.
Nathan can sit back and know that he is promoting a high ticket affiliate product, good quality, with a proven team behind it.
If he falls out of love with Legendary, or they go bust, will he have to go back and edit thousands of YouTube videos and blog posts?
No.
He used a link. A pretty link. (It’s sooo pretty)
For example, I promote Zach Crawfords Affiliate Marketing Course by using this link https://jon100.com/secret
I manage the destination through a plugin called Pretty Links.
If I found a course that was even better than Zach Crawfords course then i can change the destination and no one would know. I can repoint that URL in one single place.
This is why it pays to have a good system in place before you create all your content.
Step 7 – Nurture your Leads
Remember that email list you started building?
Don’t forget them! Send them the odd email. Provide value and let them know you care.
There are many ways you can do this and that’s probably another blog post but this is covered in depth in Zach Crawfords Secret Affiliate Marketing Hacks (of which I am a member).
Do it the right way and offer value.
Why I love Affiliate Marketing and how I make money with ClickFunnels
As I said earlier.
Affiliate marketing can be mutually beneficial.
- The lead gets a purchase that solves a problem they have.
- The affiliate gets a commission (you!)
- The vendor sells a product
It is a great business model and anyone can do it. I am trying to demonstrate this by documenting my own journey and pass on some of the things I have learnt.
You don’t have to be a marketer – I’m not.
You don’t have to be an expert – I’m not.
You don’t have to know everything to get started – I didn’t.
Promote whatever you are interested in – dogs, sports, software, cars. Whatever you can build content around that preferably has a suitable product (high ticket, recurring, quality).
I spent 2 years learning the ropes and failing constantly. I only started making progress when I signed up with Zach.
His affiliate marketing course is great for beginners but also shows how someone who knows the main principles can scale and try and emulate the great success he has had.
I wanted to learn everything for free.
I didn’t want to take money out of my 9-5 salary.
In the end I made a big decision and committed financially. I got some skin in the game. I hustled and raised the money.
I sold my camera gear (my beautiful lenses and dslr). I bought pallets of overstock art supplies and sold them on ebay.
Hustle, hustle, hustle.
I made enough money to pay for ClickFunnels for 12 months and buy Zach Crawfords Secret Affiliate Marketing Course (known as Top Earner Mentor back then).
One of the biggest takeaways I have had is how sales funnels can be used for affiliate marketing. How ClickFunnels is the perfect tool to take your affiliate marketing to the next level.
I hope you found this post on how to make money with ClickFunnels useful.
As with anything, there are many ways to cook an egg. There are alternatives to ClickFunnels, there are alternatives to Zach Crawford Secret Affiliate Marketing Hacks.
But these are the two products I pay for, out of my own money, and I cannot fault their quality so they get the thumbs up from me.
Thanks for reading
Jon