Is ClickFunnels a Pyramid Scheme? Is Russell Brunson running a Ponzi Scam? Here’s what you need to know.
The number one sales funnel builder, known as ClickFunnels, is an integral part of online business development in today’s world.
But is it that safe? Is it authentic?
In this post, I’ll answer the questions ‘is ClickFunnels a Pyramid Scheme?’ and ‘is Russell Brunson running Ponzi Scheme scams?’.
So, let’s get right into it…
Is ClickFunnels a Pyramid Scheme
Despite ClickFunnels having a successful affiliate marketing strategy to sell its software, it is not a pyramid scheme; nor is it a Ponzi scam or any form of MLM (Multi-Level Marketing).
The popular online software builds professional websites and sales funnels for entrepreneurs and business owners.
ClickFunnels offers an awesome commission structure; which attracts affiliate marketers. This is not to be confused with a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, as many modern software companies will have a similar referral program.
If used correctly, ClickFunnels can skyrocket a company’s growth.
You can sign up for a free 14-day trial, which gives you full access to their product. You can also easily cancel your ClickFunnels subscription at any time.
These are two options you don’t have to get from pyramid scams or Ponzi schemes.
I suggest taking full advantage of the free 14-day trial, as it will give you the confidence to demo the product with no long-term commitment or money lost.
A pyramid scheme is a venture which requires participants to recruit further people. The money earned from the new recruits goes towards paying the earlier participants.
The higher up the pyramid you are, the more money you’ll make. This is a concept that is illegal in certain countries, such as the UK.
Before we dive deeper into the question of “Is ClickFunnels a pyramid scheme?” it is essential to know certain things about both ClickFunnels and pyramid schemes.
Keep reading!
What is ClickFunnels?
ClickFunnels is a popular sales funnel platform that online businesses can use to develop landing pages, websites, and marketing campaigns.
The best part about this ClickFunnels is that it is automated and takes away most of your load.
This primary reason is what got ClickFunnels to be so popular so quickly. It made everything easier for people who owned businesses online.
Business owners purchased this tool at a starting price of 97 dollars, and you have to get a monthly subscription. The start a plan subscription features of these services:
- 20 funnels
- Hundred web pages
- Automated email campaigns
- Maximum of 2000 visitors
- Unlimited subscribers or contacts
- Maximum 3 customer domains
- Email integration along with other providers of email subscription
- Opt-in pages
- A/B split testing tools
- Webinar funnels
- Sales funnels
- Membership funnels
- Landing page
- Order page
- Delete method
The Etison Suite is an upgraded, higher plan that features more funnels, pages, and visitors. For this particular subscription, you will be charged 297 dollars a month.
The point to ponder is why people are willing to pay so much every month. The answer is simple; they make more than that through it.
The tool works wonders and gets them revenue that is much higher than the paying price.
Thus, paying 97 dollars a month doesn’t hurt if you earn twice or thrice as much as that, right?
What is a Pyramid Scheme?
In simple words, pyramid schemes are business models that help recruit members through offering payments or services in exchange for enrollment in the plan.
It does not include the supply of investments or selling products, which is why recruiting becomes difficult as time passes. This kind of business scheme is unsustainable, temporary, and sometimes even illegal.
Even still, the concept is not uncommon. Several multilevel business plans have shown debate pyramid schemes.
The business or organization persuades individuals who want to group for making payments. In exchange for this, the organization guarantees members a portion of the money that they take from the recruited members.
Parts of these payments are also distributed among the directors or leaders of the organization.
Because such organizations do not involve any products or services that offer value, the only profit the organization makes comes from recruiting more members and soliciting finances from the current members.
The people in the lower levels are responsible for growing the business by promoting the company instead of selling a product.
However, after a certain period, the organization runs out of recruitment options and fails to recruit more members.
As time passes, the process becomes difficult to sustain, and it becomes hard to make a profit or pay the lower members of the team. As a result, only the people who lead the organization, those who sit on the top, make any profit whatsoever.
Eventually, the organization collapses, and all members at every level of the pyramid become unemployed. If the company took depts to keep going, it is hard for them to pay it off because they are no longer making any money, let alone any profit.
Plus, if it is illegal in a particular location, you might get into legal issues that are not easy to recover.
Furthermore, it ruins your credibility as a business owner; you may lose clients, employees, and employers. Not to forget that it can damage your reputation in the market as well, which can lower your chances of generating a business again.
Overall, pyramid schemes are not sustainable and should not be trusted in the long run.
It, however, does not mean that all pyramid scheme businesses are frauds. You must understand the difference between being a scam and running an unsustainable business. The two are entirely different.
Why do people think ClickFunnels is a Pyramid Scheme?
Some people have expressed their unhappiness towards ClickFunnels and claimed that it is a pyramid scheme. What made them think that way, and do they have a valid point to back up their allegations?
Because it is an affiliate program, ClickFunnels allows its members to sell a tool or service. If you become successful in making a sale, the platform rewards you through a commission. The process is straightforward.
Many people may think that ClickFunnels is involved in a pyramid scheme because it offers an opportunity to make ‘quick money”, and the processes are faster than other platforms.
It also offers an unbelievable affiliate marketing program. I will discuss this in more detail below.
It is so smooth and sharp that it seems sketchy to some people. In other words, it seems too good to be true.
Plus, the inability to understand the platform is also a big reason why people misunderstand it.
Is ClickFunnels Affiliate Marketing a Pyramid Scheme?
As I mentioned earlier, ClicksFunnels offers an impressive affiliate program with a generous commission structure.
And, affiliates can earn up to 40% in recurring referral payments from ClickFunnels.
Once you sign up to become a ClickFunnels affiliate, you will gain access to the affiliate area.
Here you can find unique referral links to all ClickFunnels products.
This will also allow you to access future product launches, challenges, and bonuses.
There is even an opportunity for you to win your dream car!
Of course, this generosity attracts anyone interested in internet marketing.
Even myself, I am an independent ClickFunnels affiliate. I use the product, I love it, and have no problem recommending it to others.
However, not all affiliate marketers can say the same…
And, this is where I believe the ClickFunnels Pyramid Scheme accusations originate from.
Some affiliate marketers, seem to promote ClickFunnels just to earn the hefty commissions, without using or having any real experience with ClickFunnels.
This seems to be a problem with affiliate marketing in general, and it’s certainly not unique to ClickFunnels.
In fact, other Alternatives to ClickFunnels; such as LeadPages and BuilderAll, also offer attractive affiliate programs.
Is ClickFunnels an MLM?
Another frequently asked question is this one. But, no, ClickFunnels is not a multilevel marketing strategy.
MLM is a business strategy that is popular among direct selling companies. These businesses use multilevel marketing to promote existing distributors to recruit more distributors.
In such schemes, thousands of members join from around the world, but only if you can earn a reasonable income so for their efforts. Hence, multilevel marketing is also sometimes (notice that I said sometimes) a form of a pyramid scheme.
Because it promises six-figure commissions and a lot of quick wealth, ClickFunnels may sound like an MLM scheme. However, it is not.
Clickfunnels is an organization that allows users to buy digital marketing tools to improve their online businesses and websites. In no way does it rely on payments from recruiters.
Instead, it is a platform that business owners and bloggers can use to make the missions off of purchases.
It only helps users make big money through the right marketing and online business development skills. Hence, there is a clear and significant difference between multilevel marketing and the business of ClickFunnels.
Does ClickFunnels Work?
Yes, it does. And I can explain that and prove it in various ways.
As we discussed earlier, hundreds and thousands of people are spending hundreds of dollars on ClickFunnels. Why? Because it works.
It helps and earn a generous revenue and improves their conversion rate by several folds. Clients’ willingness to pay such massive amounts for the platform and tools is the first evidence of the success and popularity of ClickFunnels.
There are over 53,000 members on ClickFunnels and over 127,000 active users on the platform.
All of these people vouch for the legitimacy of the platform. The company has processed over 6.6 billion dollars up till now.
There are three primary ways of earning through ClickFunnels.
You can either recommend ClickFunnels to other business owners and earn a commission for affiliation.
Or, you can sell your separate products via ClickFunnels. Lastly, you can charge others for building funnels by being a certified partner with ClickFunnels.
ClickFunnels allows you to get the right tools for your business. As listed above, these tools help you set up high-quality and user-friendly platforms, but they also make billing and other transactions smoother.
When your landing page and your sales page are attempting and attractive, it automatically increases your conversion rate and makes sure that most of your visitors turn into paying customers.
It helps you generate leads, sell products and services, and offers you follow-up funnels as well.
Each of these tools has a positive and direct impact on your sales rate.
If an individual is visiting your page, they most probably saw relevant services. It means that the said person was a part of your target audience.
If they did not purchase for whatever reason, you can re-appear on their social media and offer them various other services that might be interested in it. Smart, right?
Generating the right leads can help you capture your visitor’s contact information to allow you to follow up with them repeatedly. You can stay in communication and hit them up even after they leave your page.
Doing this helps you and your business remain in focus and appear multiple times in front of that audience. Ultimately, they find something they want and will purchase from you.
By using follow-up funnels, you can stay in direct communication with your customers. Doing this helps increase your customer service quality and, in turn, enhances the conversion rate, makes more profit, and helps your business grow socially and financially.
The process is simple, fast, and reliable, which is why it works so quickly.
Furthermore, if you do not have enough information about ClickFunnels and how to develop an online business, it helps you with that as well.
Simply enter the type of company or activity that you want to start and click show you precisely what you need to build the start-up that will work. It will offer you the right tools and features that will maximize your chances of starting up successfully.
You can choose one from several types of businesses or services, including network marketing, blogging or affiliate marketing, non-profit company, local small business, information products, an agency or freelancer, e-commerce, and consultation or coaching.
So, you see, this is how ClickFunnels works. The whole mechanism is easy and straightforward. It is not complicated or as time-consuming as other platforms, so some people often find it “sketchy.” However, if you understand how a platform works, you get a better gist of whether or not it is reliable.
So, is ClickFunnels really a pyramid scheme?
No, it’s not, and here’s why: You sell a product or service.
A pyramid scheme’s primary feature is that such businesses do not sell products; They recruit people and promote their company instead of services. Since ClickFunnels has a product that it sells, there is no way it can be a pyramid scam.
It does not take or demand any money from recruits.
As discussed earlier, pyramid business models rely on financial input from recruits and members. New members and recruits pay a certain amount of money shared between the company and the recruiter.
However, this is not the case with ClickFunnels. The company gives you a choice of whether you want to earn a commission whenever there is a purchase.
ClickFunnels is just a tool that allows you to increase your business the way you want to. The platform only offers you facilities and services to improve the quality and smoothness of your business transactions.
You can create landing pages to attract consumers, develop a feasible and efficient way to send and receive payments, and market your products or services to improve your conversion rate.
It, however, does not mean that it cannot be misused. Scammers, frauds, and individual people who indulge in pyramid scheme business models are likely to use this platform to create unsustainable businesses.
Any business could run on a pyramid scheme regardless of it being a user of ClickFunnels.
In conclusion, ClickFunnels are only a platform and a tool for business growth. How you use the platform is still up to you.
Summary
To summarize everything and put it in a nutshell, we discussed what ClickFunnels is, what a pyramid scheme is, and whether ClickFunnels is one of these businesses.
Some people think that this platform features a quick money mechanism and helps earn more quickly; it does not necessarily mean that ClickFunnels is a pyramid scheme.
Everything has a good and bad aspect to it and how you use any tool to decide whether it’s reliable.
ClickFunnels is merely a tool for business owners. Whether or not you want to indulge in pyramid scheme business models is entirely your choice to make.
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