How I Chose My Affiliate Marketing Platform

Here’s where I get to be vulnerable with you: I’m embarrassed to admit it, but when all was said and done, I ended up test-driving 5 different systems, ultimately settling on the 5th one. In full transparency, I didn’t set out to test drive these platforms…. It was my intention to settle on each one I was trying at the time. I ended up changing, or jumping ship, from each one to another, each for different reasons.

In this video, I share in detail the reasons that made me change from one platform to another, and why I ultimately ended up with the one I chose.

The first platform I tried as ClickFunnels. Although I knew it was more robust than what I needed to begin my journey, I liked the idea that I could grow into the platform as my business grew, instead of changing or converting over at a later time. Upon my first experience manuevering through the platform, this was the first time I really felt that I was on another planet.. not recognizing or understanding the lingo or action steps that the platform was gearing towards. It was not intuitive and I would definitely describe this as not the system you want to choose if you are a beginner. I made the decision it was going to be too complicated for me, and the time that would be required to utilize its capabilities successfully was going to be more than what I felt I could put into it.

The second platform I tried was Builderall. Overall, Builderall was much easier to learn, and the drag-and-drop editor was moderately simple and easy to learn. I completed setting up my website, my funnel and my email sequence, but when nearing the end and I could start to see how it was all coming together, I simply wasn’t happy with it. The finished product just seemed “bleh” and it just didn’t feel as professional as I would have liked, but unfortunately I had done all I could think to do and I felt I maxed out on everything I could do to enhance the professionalism. So overall, I felt at the end, the end product seemed limiting and very basic. (Check out the video above.. I show examples of my website in the Builderall platform).

The third platform was Wordpress. Looking back on it now, this was not my brightest moment. In fact, trying to set up a professional Wordpress site was actually comical, particularly when professional web designers spend quite a long time learning and mastering all the intricacies associated with Wordpress. Even though I had hired professionals in the past to create my previous business’ Wordpress sites, I figured, “how hard could it be?” I was way in over my head and I was completely lost. I tried watching videos but I quickly realized this was going to be far too complicated. It was at this point I realized why I had hired professionals to create my past websites. Now.. If I had all the time in the world to devote to learning Wordpress, I’m sure I could have eventually created a site… however, I was already so behind on launching that I simply didn’t want to waste any more time…. And this was definitely going to require a lot of learning.

The fourth stop on my journey was GoHighLevel. My experience with GoHighLevel was a similar experience to Clickfunnels in that it was entirely too complicated and, in my opinion, not set up or intended for the beginner user. Although it contained all the components I needed, including a nice blog option, I did not find it easy to use. I certainly would not describe it as user-friendly or intuitive and I struggled to familiarize myself with the system and its capabilities. Ultimately I felt completely lost.

I spent a solid 7 full days, several hours per day, dedicated to learning GoHighLevel until I finally put my tail between my legs and gave up. Similar to what I said earlier about Clickfunnels, I feel if I was a more experienced in the affiliate marketing world, or more tech-savvy, or perhaps, had all the time in the world… maybe I could have figured it out. I feel GoHighLevel is a very good platform for the more experienced user. But I got stuck, and their customer support was very poor (actually... nonexistent) and I had taken GHL as far as I could on my own.

And last.. and by far least... here is where the story has a good ending!

In walks in Systeme.io! When I started setting everything up on Systeme, it was finally a breath of fresh are. I found everything came together quite easily. I have been NOTHING but happy since the first day I jumped feet first into this platform. Now… in all fairness…. I’m unsure if I would have found it so user-friendly had this been the first platform I tried, but either way, I was very impressed. I would describe systeme as a great platform, whether you want to keep the functionality simple, or if you want to want to make a robust website. I love the fact that the platform’s capabilities can grow with me as I continue to learn.

By far, it has had the best price point compared to the other top platforms. Not only is the cost less than the other top platforms, the tiered pricing structure allows you to grow into larger plans as your business grows. Systeme allows for a free option to start, which is all you need to get started in the beginning. You truly don’t have to use to start using the paid options until your business grows.

And for the price point, when compared to those top platforms, I feel it competes far better than those other ones, namely because the overall professionalism and abilities of the website editor have been incredible. The creation of my website and system has been relatively painless. When I’ve had questions, I have been pleased with the customer service response time, and I have been pleased at the amount of tutorials available on YouTube. I have been able to find whatever resources I was seeking as I created my system.

I don’t say this lightly, but after having used systeme.io for the better part of several weeks now, I am still very pleased with the functionality and the ease of use. I feel it is definitely user-friendly and customizable to my needs. I finally hit the jackpot!

Looking back now, I learned quite a lot about the technical side of this business. I saw many different ways that the technical side can be set up, what I liked and definitely what I didn’t like. I spent way more time than I had wanted test-driving different platforms, but that has certainly had a benefit.

Hopefully you can learn from my experience and hopefully you are luckier than I was. If you are fortunate enough and decide to stick with the first platform you try, you’ll easily save yourself several weeks (or more) in the time it takes you to set up your system and go live.