Having read a lot of ClickFunnels review & complaints posts online, one thing I have noticed is that there are many people who signed up for ClickFunnels believing it was a quick way to make themselves rich.
As they found out, it isn’t, which has lead many of them to ask is ClickFunnels a pyramid scheme?
Well, the answer is no, ClickFunnels is not a pyramid scheme.
ClickFunnels is one the biggest names in the world of online marketing automation tools. It is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform used for building landing pages, sales funnels, small websites, and marketing campaigns for entrepreneurs to sell their products and services.
While ClickFunnels does have an excellent affiliate program, that is not its main purpose. But, before we get into that I’ll explain what a pyramid scheme is.
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What Is A Pyramid Scheme
Pyramid schemes, or Ponzi schemes to give them their correct name, are a way of fraudulently making money.
This is usually done by way of asking someone for a sum of money in exchange for a huge far too good to be true profit in a short space of time.
The only way these schemes can deliver this type of profit is to keep getting more and more new members to join, a robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario:
- The con artist running the scheme takes money from a bunch of investors, then gets a second bunch of investors to join in
- The money from the second bunch of investors is then given out to the first bunch of investors
- The only way he/she can now deliver profits to the second bunch of investors is to get a third bunch to invest in the scheme
and so on, and so on.
These schemes are totally unsustainable as there is never actually any product or service involved in the first place, and most people who join in towards the end of the scheme’s operation end up losing everything. Sometimes these people have invested their life savings or remortgaged their homes so they can invest.
Ponzi schemes date back to the 1920s and are named after an Italian man, Charles Ponzi, who set up a scam that was based around purchasing IRC’s (international reply coupons) from Europe and selling them for profit in the USA.
It was quite expensive to send a letter from the US to Europe, and many companies based in Europe could purchase IRC’s for a cheaper price than the actual cost of snail mail stamps.
If a company in Europe wanted something from a company in the US, they enclosed an IRC for the company in America along with their request. The American company could then redeem this IRC at the post office instead of paying the cost of postage to Europe.
Ponzi never actually bought any of these coupons as it was illegal to sell them for cash. All you could do was redeem them against those costs of postage at the Post Office.
At the height of his scam, Ponzi was raking in up to $1,000,000 per day, the equivalent of $12,023,700 per day in 2021!
One of, if not the, most notorious Ponzi schemes ever was the Madoff Investment Scandal which resulted in Bernie Madoff being sentenced to 150 years in prison for a multi-billion dollar fraud.
What Is ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a comprehensive online marketing automation software service based in Eagle, Idaho, USA, founded in 2014 by Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson.
It is used for building high converting sales funnels which enables your business to sell more products and services, therefore making you more money.
It works on an intuitive drag & drop system saving you a ton of money hiring a tech guru, or having to learn loads of complicated coding.
Let ClickFunnels co-founder Russell Brunson tell you all about ClickFunnels:
What Does ClickFunnels Do
ClickFunnels offers you a ton of features for your business including:
- Sales funnel builder
- Landing page builder
- Sales pages
- Sales cart
- Email autoresponder
- Email integrations
- Members area content
- Affiliate program
- Webinar funnels
- Hangout funnels
- Opt-in funnels
- A/B split tests
- Order pages
- Upsell pages
- Downsell pages
- Funnel share
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. For more information, you read my What is ClickFunnels article here: What Is ClickFunnels?
How Much Does ClickFunnels Cost
ClickFunnels has 2 monthly pricing plans:
- ClickFunnels Basic
- ClickFunnels Platinum
When you sign up for whichever plan you choose, you start with the ClickFunnels 14 day free trial.
You are free to cancel the trial at any time before it ends. As long as you cancel the trial before it ends, you will not be charged a single cent.
After the 14-day free trial ends, ClickFunnels pricing is:
- ClickFunnels Basic $97 per month
- ClickFunnels Platinum $297 per month
You can read my in-depth comparison of the Basic and Platinum plans here: ClickFunnels Pricing 2021
There is a great 6 months ClickFunnels discount bundle available which will save you $785, all backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
I’ll leave details for this further down this post.
ClickFunnels Pros And Cons
Pros:
- Simple to use – No tech know-how required. No major expense on hiring a tech guru
- Share a funnel feature making the platform even simpler to use if you’re not a tech-nerd
- Simple to follow ready-made funnel plans available
- All in one system – funnel builder, with landing pages, shopping cart, etc. No need for multiple accounts for various services
- Clear data tracking system – Makes it easy to see where your leads have come from so you know which areas you need to improve on
- No distractions – What your lead sees is entirely up to you. No unwanted pop-ups on your landing page taking your leads attention away and stopping them from completing the sale. They get one page, one offer, and one opportunity to complete the sale
- Value for money – At just $97 per month (for the Basic plan) think how much money this will save you when compared to hiring a tech team, web designer, copywriter, sales manager, etc
- Great affiliate program which pays up to a 40% monthly recurring commission
- Very easy to cancel ClickFunnels if you’re not happy with it
Cons:
- No page ownership – Everything you build within ClickFunnels belongs to them. If you close your account, you can’t take your funnels with you. You will have to start from scratch if you change your funnel building service provider.
- No blog builder – A blog is a great way to drive traffic to your funnel. You will have to pay for this service from another provider. I recommend Bluehost for this service.
- ClickFunnels does have an email autoresponder feature available to you, however, you have to be on their $297 per month Platinum plan for that. I therefore highly recommend either AWeber or GetResponse for this service.
Was There A ClickFunnels Pyramid Scheme
Some unscrupulous ClickFunnels affiliate marketers discovered a way to manipulate the ClickFunnels affiliate program and start raking in a huge amount of commissions by offering people a “ClickFunnels Business in a Box” if they signed up for the ClickFunnels 14 day free trial through their affiliate link.
The “ClickFunnels Business in a Box” worked like this:
- You signed up for a ClickFunnels free trial and received a free share funnel from that affiliate
- After the trial ended you became a subscriber to ClickFunnels at a cost of $97 per month, earning the affiliate who referred you a monthly recurring commission of $38.80
- You gave other people that free share funnel in exchange for them signing up to ClickFunnels through your affiliate link, thus earning you the same $38.80 monthly recurring commission for every person you got to sign up
- In turn, those people then repeated the same process, and so on.
The main attraction to this was that you “only” needed to get 3 people to sign up under your link to cover the cost of paying for ClickFunnels. But, like all too good to be true schemes, it wasn’t that simple and most people ended up paying $97 per month and getting nothing in return.
This is what I believe a lot of those people who had left ClickFunnels complaints and negative reviews using terms like “ClickFunnels scam” had signed up for.
I know what you’re probably thinking about now “Hey, that is actually a pyramid scheme! Is ClickFunnels a scam?” No, ClickFunnels is not a scam.
However, full credit to Russell Brunson here. By August 2019 he realized this was happening, banned this practice immediately, and changed the terms & conditions of the affiliate program, which I’ll go over further down this post.
He wants ClickFunnels to be used for its intended purpose, legitimate business growth, and development. He also fully expects any affiliate marketing for ClickFunnels to be done in an ethical manner, and any affiliates found to be partaking in unethical practices are banned from the ClickFunnels affiliate program.
MLM ClickFunnels
MLM, Multi-Level Marketing, is a controversial business practice where you have multiple levels of people earning money, with people at the top level earning a lot more than people at the lower level earning a lot less.
According to a report that studied the business models of 350 MLMs in the United States, published on the Federal Trade Commission’s website, at least 99% of people who join MLM companies lose money.
No, ClickFunnels is not an MLM business.
ClickFunnels can be used very effectively by network marketing companies.
ClickFunnels For Network Marketing
Russell Brunson has a free book (you just pay shipping) called Network Marketing Secrets.
This 104-page book will teach exactly how you can use sales funnels to grow your network marketing team.
The book is free, you just cover the cost of shipping:
- $7.95 USA
- $16.04 International
No catch, no mandatory ClickFunnels subscription.
The principles taught in this book can be applied to any sales funnel building platform, not just ClickFunnels.
ClickFunnels Affiliate Program Changes
Previously you could sign up as a new affiliate and promote everything ClickFunnels had to offer for a 40% commission. Naturally, this lead to the free share funnel scheme that I mentioned previously which is now banned.
When you sign up as a new member of the ClickFunnels affiliate program, you are now classed as a Tier 1 Affiliate.
As a Tier 1 Affiliate you can only promote the following products and services:
- DotCom Secrets Book
- Expert Secrets Book
- Traffic Secrets Book
- One Funnel Away
- Funnel Challenge
- Brick & Mortar Summit
- Funnel Hacking Secrets Webinar
- Perfect Webinar Secrets Script
- 5 Day Lead Challenge
The above products range from free to $997 and you receive a 20% commission as a Tier 1 affiliate.
Once you make $1,000 of commissions in one month you can apply to become a Tier 2 affiliate. As a Tier 2 affiliate, you can promote the ClickFunnels 14 day free trial and earn a 30% monthly recurring commission.
Once you have got and retained 30 referrals (subscribers) to ClickFunnels you can apply to become a Tier 3 affiliate and start earning the 40% monthly recurring commission. This is monitored constantly and if you drop below 30 referrals you immediately drop back to the 30% commission rate.
That isn’t multi-level marketing, that’s Russell quite rightly forcing his affiliate marketers to work ethically for their money and not misrepresent the business he has worked so hard to build.
Funnel Hacking Secrets ClickFunnels Discount
Now you know the truth about ClickFunnels, you’re probably wondering is ClickFunnels worth it? Personally, I think it’s great value for the features you’re offered.
Here’s the discount bundle I mentioned previously, it’s called Funnel Hacking Secrets.
Before I tell you how much this is going to cost you, you need to bear in mind that this is a 6-month subscription to the ClickFunnels Platinum Plan plus a ton of other ClickFunnels products included.
The Platinum Plan is usually $297 per month, so 6 months x $297 = $1,782.
The Funnel Hacker Secrets bundle will cost you $997.
That’s a saving of $785, plus there are all the other products included.
The get the Funnel Hacking Secrets bundle you need to join the free Funnel Hacking Secrets Webinar:
By joining this free webinar you will learn what type of funnel will work best for your type of business, and what hundreds (if not thousands) of entrepreneurs just like you are doing to increase boost their online sales by using sales funnels.
In the Funnel Hacking Secrets Weblass, you will learn the three main reasons why funnel hacking works so well:
- Secret 1: How to ethically steal over $1,000,000 worth of funnel hacks from your competitor for less than $100
- Secret 2: How to clone their proven funnel inside of ClickFunnels in less than 10 minutes
- Secret 3: How to get the exact same customers who are going to your competitor’s websites to come to your funnel instead
Funnel Hacking Secrets Bundle will cost you $997 which is an amazing deal when you consider what you get:
- 6 months ClickFunnels Platinum subscription – A saving of $785 off the cost of subscribing monthly
- Free Funnel Hacking Secrets Masterclass (includes over 100 funnel templates)
- Free Traffic Secrets training course
- Free unlimited access to virtual hack-a-thons
- Free ClickFunnels Unlimited bonus
All that fully backed by a 30-day no-quibble money-back guarantee.
Click the image below to get this amazing ClickFunnels discount and get the Funnel Hacking Secrets bundle today:
Is ClickFunnels A Pyramid Scheme Conclusion – Are ClickFunnels Legit
No, ClickFunnels is definitely not a pyramid scheme.
Pyramid schemes are always short-term and they soon fall apart as there is never an actual product or service. ClickFunnels is a high-quality service that you can use to either start or grow your business, they have been around since 2014 and continue to grow year on year.
Whilst ClickFunnels does have an affiliate program, becoming a ClickFunnels affiliate doesn’t require any form of financial investment from yourself.
When selling ClickFunnels you are referring people to an actual product that has real value that they can actually use for business purposes.
Unlike some companies, ClickFunnels does not pay their affiliates a big bounty fee just for getting new members to sign up. Click Funnels affiliates make their money from a monthly recurring commission. As long as their referrals stay signed up to ClickFunnels, they will earn referral payments for that subscriber. As subscribers can easily cancel their ClickFunnels account and leave at any time, affiliates have no incentive just to get new members to sign up.
Russell Brunson quickly shut down the affiliates attempting to manipulate the affiliate program for their own gains and changed the structure of the ClickFunnels affiliate program so new affiliate marketers have to actually work hard in order to earn their commissions.
Related article: Is ClickFunnels Safe
Thank you for taking the time to read this is ClickFunnels a pyramid scheme article, I hope you have found it helpful.
Disclaimer: I am an independent ClickFunnels Affiliate, not an employee. All views expressed on this blog are my own based on my own experience of using the ClickFunnels software and are not official statements of ClickFunnels or its parent company Etison LLC. I use affiliate links on my blog and may receive referral payments from any links you click on and make a purchase.