How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Funnel (Complete Guide)

So, you’ve been trying to make money with affiliate marketing, but you’ve had no luck? Well, I’m about to teach, step-by-step, you how to build an affiliate marketing funnel that will make you money while you sleep. Sound good? Let’s get started.

Why Affiliate Marketing?

I’ve tested many ways to make money online. By far, affiliate marketing is the easiest and, in my opinion, the best way to generate an income online. Here’s why:

You don’t have to create a product!

One of the awesome things about selling someone else’s product is the fact you don’t have to spend your own time, money and effort into creating a product from scratch.

You don’t deal with the after-sales customer support.

If a customer has a problem or question after they’ve purchased the product, they go directly to the seller. Not to you!

Recurring Passive Income!

If you find the right products to promote (we’ll discuss how to do this in more detail later), not only will you be earning a high commission, you’ll also keep getting paid every month for the same sale. Once you have your affiliate marketing funnel in set in place, you can passive income, with less than 1-hour work per month.

What is a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel also referred to as a sales funnel, is the process of converting cold traffic, or leads, into a buying customer. Some funnels are simple, some are more complex.

In this example we’re using funnels to sell affiliate products (I’ve explained why above), however, if done correctly, marketing funnels can be created to sell anything! That’s why many fortune 500 companies use the same marketing funnels tactics. I bet you have been ‘funneled’ by a business or brand, I know I have!

The whole funnel process can seem confusing at first, but once you understand how it works, it’s pretty easy.

There are three simple steps to the Affiliate Marketing Profit Cycle Funnel:

1. Drive Traffic
2. Get People to Opt-In
3. Promote Your Product

Suggested Reads:

• How To Make a Full-Time Income With Affiliate Marketing
• 9 Role Model Affiliate Marketing Examples

When do you make money?

In the profit cycle funnel, you have the opportunity to make money at specific two points.

1. The thank you page.

2. The email list

I’ve put together a FREE 7-day email course, that will teach you everything you need to about setting up and successfully launching your own profit cycle funnel. I will even share the exact Click Funnels template I use; which is already proven to generate income every month! Here’s what you will learn:

1. How to Build a Kick-Ass Email List
2. What Affiliate Offers Should You Promote?
3. Creating Email Marketing Automation That Actually Converts
4. Where & When Do You Make Money?
5. Best Way to Drive High-Quality Traffic to Your Funnel
6. TOP SECRET]
7. [TOP SECRET]

How to Set-Up Your Marketing Funnel

First-things-first you’ll need to set-up the front-end of your funnel. This is the first place traffic will be sent, and it’s your golden opportunity to get them to opt-in to your list. For this, I use a funnel building program called ClickFunnels. It’s easy to use and has awesome support and training tutorials.

To make things EVEN easier for you, I’m giving you free access to my proven 7-figure ClickFunnels template.

How to Activate Your 14-day Trial of Click Funnels

Step One: Click here to sign-up for your FREE 14-day trial.

Step Two: Sign-up to my free profit-cycle course above to download my proven ClickFunnels Template.

Once you’ve downloaded the template, your funnel is ready! We’ll tweak the text and put in your affiliate links later.

And don’t worry about knowing your way around ClickFunnels, they have the most awesome training tutorial series. You’ll be a pro before you know it!

Setting Up Your Email List

Building a high-quality email list is fundamental to the success of your profit cycle funnel. I started generating money with only 5 people on my email list. The more people you have on your list, the more money you can potentially make. Not starting an email list, in the beginning, is one of the biggest, yet most common, mistakes you can make.

We’ll talk about how to get people to subscribe to your list later on; but for now, let get you started.

If you don’t already have an email marketing provider, you’re going to need to sign up to one. I highly recommend using GetResponse as your chosen email marketing platform; here’s why:

1. This is what I use to collect emails. I know it works well and I only promote what I use myself.
2. It includes Autoresponders and Automation. Two tools you will need.
3. The live chat support is amazing and instant!
4. I’ve negotiated a free 30-day trial for you! You’re welcome.

Click here to activate your 30-day free trial of GetResponse

Now that we have that sorted, you can begin to set up your email list.

Step One: Go to Manage Account > Email Addresses. Here you can register an email address that your emails will be sent from. You can use a Gmail account, but I strongly recommend using a custom domain email address i.e. yourname@yourbusiness.com.

Step Two: Next you’ll need to do is create a contact list. This is where your opt-in emails will be stored.

Step 3: You’ll need to generate an API Key. This is a specific code that will allow you to integrate your GetResponse contact link with your ClickFunnels account.

You can find your API Key by going to  Profile > Integrations & API > API.  Once you have generated your key, it should be kept as secret Don’t share it with anybody (treat it as a password).

Your email list is ready to go! We’ll integrate your API Key with ClickFunnels later.

How to Pick The RIGHT Affiliate Products?

For me, number 3 is the most important; and it should be for you too. Personally, I will only promote something I would use or buy myself. Not only is it ethically right, but it’s also so much easier to sell something you’re passionate about.

This email list will be your main communication with your audience and it’s how you’re going to introduce your affiliate products.

Suggested Reads:

• How to Make Money on Instagram With Clickbank in 7 Easy Steps
• 7 Unique Ways You Can Make Money Blogging on Squarespace