Clickbank With Clickfunnels: How To Make Money Online With Clickbank and Clickfunnels

Most people who try affiliate marketing run into the same wall. They find a product on Clickbank, paste a hop link into a YouTube description or Facebook post, and then wait. Sometimes a sale comes in. Usually it does not. And they have no way to follow up, no way to retarget, and no way to tell which traffic source is actually working. That is the gap Clickbank paired with ClickFunnels fills.

In this walkthrough, Alston breaks down the entire system step by step. Part one is the explanation: what Clickbank is, what ClickFunnels does, and why combining them is the move that separates affiliates who make consistent money from those who chase one-off sales. Part two is the live demo, where he builds the actual funnel inside ClickFunnels and connects it to a real Clickbank product with tracking IDs, an email list, a landing page, a thank-you page, and a follow-up email sequence. Here is everything he covers.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear understanding of what Clickbank and ClickFunnels each do and why they work better together than apart
A process for finding high-gravity products in your niche that are not already oversaturated
A method for vetting a product before you promote it so you are not putting your name behind something that embarrasses your brand
Tracking ID setup so you can see which platforms are driving sales
A landing page and thank-you page build inside ClickFunnels, including the congruence principle that keeps conversion rates from falling off
An email list integration so every opt-in goes straight into your follow-up sequence
A follow-up email sequence structure, from lead magnet delivery to day-one nurture emails
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What Clickbank Actually Is

Alston describes Clickbank as a clearinghouse for affiliate marketers. You go to clickbank.com, browse a marketplace of digital products, and find something you want to promote. Once you pick a product, Clickbank gives you a unique hop link. Every sale that comes through that link gets tracked, and your commission gets recorded in the dashboard. That is the whole loop: find product, get link, drive traffic, collect commission.

The marketplace covers a wide range of categories. Alston points to the four biggest niches: health, wealth, relationships, and technology. Any niche can work, but these four have the most buyers and the most products with proven sales history. When you are first getting started, picking one of these four gives you a bigger pool of tested offers to choose from.

What ClickFunnels Does and Why You Need It

ClickFunnels is a platform that lets you build landing pages, collect email addresses, create thank-you pages, and run email marketing campaigns, all in one place. In this walkthrough, Alston uses it primarily for email marketing. The goal is simple: instead of sending people directly from your content to an affiliate sales page and hoping they buy on the first visit, you collect their email address first. That puts them in a sequence where you can follow up repeatedly over time.

Alston makes the case clearly. The primary difference between an affiliate marketer who makes consistent money and someone who struggles is email marketing. When someone leaves your YouTube video or blog post, you have no guarantee they will ever come back. An email address means you can reach them again. That one shift changes the entire math of your affiliate business.

Step 1: Pick a Niche on Clickbank

Once you have a free Clickbank account, head to the marketplace. On the left side you will see a list of categories. These categories are essentially your niche options. Alston navigates to e-business and marketing, then drills into the affiliate marketing subcategory as his example. The dropdown reveals a set of sub-niches, and from there he can browse products that fit that space.

The advice here is practical: start in a niche that is relevant to the content you are already creating or planning to create. If you have a YouTube channel about personal finance, the wealth category is a natural fit. If you have a fitness audience, health is the obvious choice. The niche you pick shapes everything downstream, from what products you promote to what you write in your emails, so choose one you can speak about with some genuine knowledge.

Step 2: Create Content With a Real Call to Action

Before you ever think about funnels, you need traffic. That traffic comes from content. Alston keeps this step format-agnostic: it can be YouTube videos, blog posts, social media, or any combination. What matters is not the format but the call to action inside the content. Your content needs to give someone a clear reason to click a link.

A generic “click the link in the description” is weak. A specific call to action tied to a real outcome is much stronger. Alston uses an example: “If you want to lose ten pounds in eight days, click the link in the description.” The specificity of the outcome is what motivates someone to act. Your job as an affiliate is not just to present information but to give people a compelling next step that feels relevant to their situation right now.

Step 3: Find and Vet a Product on Clickbank

Inside the marketplace, the first thing Alston recommends doing is sorting by gravity. Gravity is Clickbank’s metric for the number of sales a product has made over a given period of time. A high gravity number means affiliates are actively selling it and buyers are actively buying it. Low gravity could mean a newer product or one that simply does not convert well.

The common advice is to pick one of the top three results after sorting by gravity. Alston pushes back on that slightly. He recommends scrolling down to find something with high gravity that is not sitting in the top three. His reasoning: the top three products have the most competition, meaning more affiliates are already running traffic to the same pages your audience might have already seen. Scrolling down a bit can surface solid products that are still converting well but have a less crowded affiliate pool.

He uses CB Passive Income as a live example during the demo. Before clicking Promote, he visits the affiliate page for the product. This page is not the sales page your customers see. It is a page the seller creates specifically for affiliates, with resources like email swipes, banner images, and promotional materials. Alston looks for email swipes specifically because their presence tells him the seller has invested time in the business side of the product. A bare affiliate page with no resources suggests a seller who has not thought carefully about helping their affiliates succeed.

The deeper point he makes is about brand ownership. Even though you are an affiliate, your audience sees you as the one recommending the product. If the product is spammy or gives people a bad feeling, that feeling attaches to you. Alston says to make sure you are one hundred percent comfortable with a product before promoting it, because you are building a brand, not just chasing a commission.

Step 4: Generate Your Hop Link With Tracking IDs

When you click Promote on a product, Clickbank shows you a hop link generator. Most people just hit Generate Hop Link and call it done. Alston’s approach is different. Before generating the link, he adds a tracking ID that matches the platform where he plans to promote the product. For YouTube, he types YouTube. For Facebook, he types Facebook. For Instagram, he would type Instagram.

The reason this matters is simple: when you log into your Clickbank dashboard later and see sales, you want to know which campaign drove them. Without tracking IDs, all your sales show up as one undifferentiated pile. With tracking IDs, you can see that YouTube drove most of your sales and Facebook drove almost none, and you can shift your effort accordingly. It takes thirty seconds to set up and saves you from flying blind on where to focus.

Step 5: Build a Funnel in ClickFunnels

With a hop link in hand, it is time to build the funnel. Inside ClickFunnels, Alston goes to the Funnels section and adds a new funnel. He selects “Collect Emails” as the funnel type and gives it a name. ClickFunnels then generates a template that already includes two pages: an opt-in page and a thank-you page. The structure is ready; you just need to customize it.

ClickFunnels is fully drag-and-drop. You click on any element, change colors, swap out text, adjust font sizes, and add or remove sections without touching code. Alston keeps the customization focused: he changes the background color, updates the headline to match what he is offering, adds an email input field, and removes extra elements that might distract visitors. His philosophy on landing page design is that less is more. Every additional element on a landing page is another opportunity for the visitor to get confused or lose focus before they enter their email address.

Step 6: Create Congruence Between Your Landing Page and the Sales Page

One of the most specific and practical points in the entire video is the concept of congruence. When someone clicks your landing page link and then clicks through to the affiliate sales page, those two pages should feel like they belong together. If your landing page is bright red with large white text and the sales page is dark blue and minimalist, the visitor might wonder if they clicked something wrong. That moment of hesitation costs you conversions.

During the demo, Alston looks at the CB Passive Income sales page and notes its color scheme: blue, white, black, and a touch of orange. He then goes into his ClickFunnels landing page and adjusts the colors to match. He changes the background to white, makes the headline dark, and uses orange and red accents to visually echo what the customer will see after they opt in. The goal is to make the transition feel like a natural next step rather than a jarring jump to an unrelated page.

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Step 7: Connect ClickFunnels to Your Email List

A landing page that collects emails but does not connect them to a list is just a form with nowhere to send the data. Inside ClickFunnels, Alston creates a new email list for this funnel, then goes into the landing page settings, selects Integrations, and connects the landing page to that list. From that point on, every email address someone enters on that page gets added automatically to the list and triggers the follow-up sequence.

He also recommends adding metadata to the page. Metadata is the title and description information that shows up when the page appears in search results or gets shared on social media. It takes a minute to fill out and can help people who discover the page organically understand what they are clicking into.

Step 8: Set Up the Thank-You Page

The thank-you page is the page a visitor sees immediately after submitting their email address. Most affiliates treat it as an afterthought. Alston uses it strategically. On the thank-you page, he places a button that links directly to the affiliate product using the hop link generated earlier. This gives the buyer a clear next step right after they have already committed to engaging by giving you their email address. The buyer is warmed up; now is the moment to send them toward the product.

He also shows how to embed a YouTube video on the thank-you page. This could be a webinar replay, a product overview, or a short explainer video that bridges the gap between opting in and clicking through to buy. The video adds warmth and trust at a moment when the visitor is already interested. To link the button to the hop link, he clicks the button widget, selects “Set Action,” and chooses “Go to URL,” then pastes in the hop link. Testing that it works before publishing is essential.

Step 9: Build Your Email Follow-Up Sequence

The final piece of the system is the follow-up sequence. Inside ClickFunnels, Alston goes to Follow-Up Funnels and creates what the platform calls an Action Funnel. He names it to match the campaign, connects it to the email list he created earlier, and starts adding steps.

The first step is always the lead magnet delivery. If you promised a free guide, a PDF, or access to something in exchange for the email address, this first email delivers it. Alston shows how to use one of the built-in email templates inside ClickFunnels, customize it with a logo or image, and add a button that links to the lead magnet. If the lead magnet is a PDF, you can upload it directly into ClickFunnels and the button will serve it automatically.

After the lead magnet email, you add additional steps. Alston labels his second step “Day One” and places a one-day delay before it sends. Inside that email, he writes an engaging subject line and adds a clear call to action: “Click here to learn my secret to living free today,” with a link out to the affiliate product page. The sequence can continue for as many days as you want. Each email is another touchpoint, another chance to add value and remind the subscriber why they opted in.

Why Email Marketing Is the Real Multiplier

Alston wraps up the video by laying out three specific reasons why email marketing is the part of this system that most beginners underestimate.

First, retargeting across multiple products. Once someone buys your first affiliate product, they become a buyer. Buyers are easier to sell to again. If your first product is an affiliate marketing course and your subscriber buys it, you can follow up with a recommendation for a microphone, because someone planning to do YouTube is going to need one. Your email list lets you sell to the same person multiple times across multiple products without rebuilding trust from scratch each time.

Second, the touchpoint reality. Research in sales has long pointed to the fact that it typically takes between five and twelve interactions with a brand before someone becomes a buyer. Most affiliate marketers give up after one or two. A follow-up sequence handles this automatically. You do not have to manually reach out to each subscriber. The sequence does the follow-up work on your behalf every single day while you focus on creating more content or finding more products to promote.

Third, traffic you control. When someone watches your YouTube video or reads your blog post and leaves without buying, you have no way to reach them again. They might come back. Probably they will not. An email address changes that dynamic completely. The subscriber has given you permission to show up in their inbox, which means the traffic you built with all that content-creation effort does not vanish the moment someone clicks away.

Honest Drawbacks to Know Before You Start

This system works, but there are real costs and real limitations to understand before you commit.

ClickFunnels is not free. After the two-week trial Alston mentions, the platform runs on a monthly subscription. If you are just starting out and have no income yet, that recurring cost adds pressure. You need to weigh whether the email list and funnel infrastructure is worth the monthly spend given your current traffic levels.

Building this funnel takes real time. The demo in the video covers the core steps but Alston acknowledges he skipped several backend setup steps that would add roughly an hour of work. Getting a domain name connected, configuring email deliverability settings, and testing the whole chain from opt-in to follow-up email takes several hours the first time. Budget that time before launch day.

Gravity is a useful signal but not a perfect one. The average dollar amount per sale Clickbank shows includes upsells, not just the front-end commission. The number you see in the marketplace is often higher than what you will actually earn on a first conversion. Look at the affiliate page for specific commission rates and understand the full product structure before deciding how much paid traffic you can afford to run at it.

Finally, congruence requires ongoing attention. If the product owner redesigns their sales page and changes the color scheme, your landing page may no longer match. Check your funnels periodically so they stay aligned with whatever is on the other end of your hop link.

The System at a Glance

Create a free Clickbank account and choose a niche in health, wealth, relationships, or technology
Start creating content on YouTube, a blog, or social media with specific calls to action tied to real outcomes
In the Clickbank marketplace, sort by gravity and look for high-performing products that are not already in the top three results
Visit the affiliate page of any product you are considering and check for email swipes and promotional materials as a sign of seller investment
Generate a hop link with tracking IDs for each platform you plan to promote on (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram)
Inside ClickFunnels, create a new funnel set to Collect Emails, choose a template, and customize the landing page to match the colors and feel of the sales page you are promoting
Keep the landing page simple: a headline, an email input, and a submit button. Remove anything that might distract the visitor before they opt in
Create an email list in ClickFunnels and integrate it with the landing page so every opt-in goes directly into the list
On the thank-you page, place a button linked to your hop link so buyers can click through to the affiliate product immediately after opting in
Build an action funnel with a lead magnet delivery email as step zero, then add nurture emails for day one and beyond with clear calls to action in each

Find Your X

Clickbank plus ClickFunnels is one specific path in affiliate marketing, and it suits certain people better than others. If you already have an audience and content going out consistently, this system can turn that traffic into an email list that compounds over time. If you are still figuring out which online business model makes sense for your situation, start there first. At finder.platformproof.com, answer seven questions about your schedule, skills, and income goal and get a specific recommendation for where to focus your effort.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to pay for ClickFunnels to use this system?

ClickFunnels offers a two-week free trial. After that it runs on a paid subscription. Alston mentions the free trial in the video as a way to get started and test the platform before committing. Whether the ongoing cost makes sense depends on how much traffic you are generating and how many email subscribers you are adding each month. If the funnel is producing commissions that exceed the subscription cost, it pays for itself.

What does gravity mean on Clickbank and how high should it be?

Gravity reflects how many unique affiliates have made at least one sale of a product over a recent period. A higher number means more affiliates are actively selling it and buyers are converting. There is no single cutoff number that makes a product worth promoting, but Alston recommends looking for products with solid gravity that are not sitting in the very top results, where competition from other affiliates is highest.

Can I use Clickbank without building a funnel?

Yes, you can promote a Clickbank hop link directly in content without building any funnel. But as Alston explains, doing so means you capture no email addresses and have no way to follow up with people who clicked but did not buy. Direct linking can produce sales, especially if you have high-trust content with a specific audience. It will not produce the kind of scalable, compounding results that a funnel with an email sequence can produce over time.

What is a hop link and why does it have tracking IDs?

A hop link is a unique URL that Clickbank generates for you when you choose to promote a product. It tells Clickbank which affiliate sent the buyer so commissions are credited correctly. Tracking IDs are an optional addition you can include before generating the link. They let you label the link by platform or campaign so that when you look at your Clickbank dashboard later, you can see which specific traffic source drove each sale.

Why does landing page congruence matter so much?

When a visitor moves from your landing page to the affiliate sales page, any visual or tonal disconnect can trigger hesitation. They may feel like they have been redirected to an unrelated site or worry they are being scammed. Matching colors, similar fonts, and a consistent emotional tone across both pages makes the transition feel like a natural next step rather than a jarring handoff. That continuity protects your conversion rate at the most critical moment in the buyer journey.

How long should my email follow-up sequence be?

Alston does not give a specific number in the video, but the principle he applies is that the sequence should run long enough to give each subscriber multiple opportunities to buy. Given that research points to five to twelve touchpoints before a sale, a sequence of at least seven to ten emails spaced over two to three weeks gives you a reasonable number of chances to convert a subscriber. The sequence should deliver value in each email, not just repeat the same promotional message every day.

What is a lead magnet and why does the system rely on one?

A lead magnet is something free you offer in exchange for a visitor’s email address. It could be a PDF guide, a checklist, a short video course, or access to a webinar. The lead magnet gives the visitor a clear reason to opt in rather than clicking away. Without one, your landing page is asking people to give you their email with no immediate return, which is a harder sell. With a specific, relevant freebie, the value exchange is clear and the opt-in rate goes up.

Is the average dollar per sale number on Clickbank accurate?

Not always. Alston flags this in the video. The number Clickbank shows as the average dollar amount per sale includes upsells, meaning the total value of a buyer who purchases additional products after the initial one. Your first-sale commission may be lower than that number suggests. Before deciding how much to invest in driving traffic to a product, look at the affiliate page for specific commission rates on the front-end offer rather than relying on the aggregate average in the marketplace listing.

Sources

Clickbank marketplace and affiliate program information: clickbank.com
ClickFunnels platform features and funnel builder: clickfunnels.com
CB Passive Income product referenced in the demo walkthrough
Original YouTube tutorial by Alston Godbolt: Clickbank With Clickfunnels: How To Make Money Online