When you’re working from home and starting a business, it’s vital that you have the right tools to do do the job right.
But which tools do you need?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about ClickFunnels and which tool you need to use for your website these days.
Between Russell Brunson declaring a while back that “websites are dead” and the passion of the funnel hacker community, it’s easy to get sucked in without knowing the truth.
So when it comes to building out your website online which one do you need – WordPress or ClickFunnels?
Here’s the deal:
So let’s not get caught up in the hype.
Don’t drink the kool-aid.
Let’s talk about when you need to choose creating your site with WordPress and when you need to use ClickFunnels because there are very clearly defined times when you will need to use one tool over the other.
Just a quick note before we get started here – If you get stuck or need help at any point join me over in my free private Facebook group Home Office Hacks so you can get the help you need.
ClickFunnels vs. WordPress: which one do I need?
Let’s cut through all the hype and get straight to the point:
Both WordPress and ClickFunnels are amazing tools that empower entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and businesses of all shapes and sizes to step into the online world and make a difference.
That’s why most people get involved in trying to start an online business, right?
Tell me if any of these sound familiar:
- You need to build an alternative stream of income to help pay your bills that seem to never stop growing.
- You want to take that family vacation that you’ve always dreamed of taking your family on.
- You want to earn extra money to pay off your debt faster.
- You’ve got a message you want to share, and you know you can help people with your knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- You’re trying to move beyond just surviving and you want to thrive.
The list goes on, but if you’re like most people getting into online business, there’s something deeper driving you.
I get it.
I’m the same way.
All the things I mentioned above are true of me.
And that’s why I got into doing what I do.
And when I first started I didn’t know which path to take.
I didn’t know how I should build a website.
There weren’t platforms like ClickFunnels then and WordPress was so young that most people hadn’t even heard of it at that point.
But I knew that I wanted to do something, and I knew that I wanted build an online business so I set out on my path to figure out what I could.
There were so many false starts for me, I can’t even hardly remember them all.
I struggled with finding the information I needed that would make a real difference.
So with this post, I’m speaking to people who are at where I was at myself 15 years ago.
People that are confused about tools and what tool they need to follow the path they want to take.
I’m interested in your success above all and want you to find the right tool for the job, and not just hop on board with this tool or that tool because someone else said you should use it.
So let’s talk about WordPress vs. ClickFunnels and figure out which tool is the right tool for the job for the project that you are working on.
When should I use WordPress?
The whole “websites are dead” campaign that the ClickFunnels people ran its intended effect.
People really started questioning whether or not they should use anything but ClickFunnels.
But the reality that hit a lot of those people was that ClickFunnels wasn’t quite the all-in-one tool they thought it was.
But in all sensational claims, like “websites are are dead,” there’s a thread of truth.
In this case, the point was that WordPress wasn’t a great fit for building out online sales funnels the way that Russell Brunson envisioned it.
In fact, it could be a real barrier!
But there’s a time and place for both tools and that’s what we’re going to figure out.
And despite whatever hype you may have bought into, WordPress is not only alive, but it’s still thriving and it’s still the go-to platform with more than 28 million websites using WordPress!
You see, there’s more to an online business than simply an online sales funnel.
ClickFunnels really is the best solution for online sales funnels, and we’ll talk more about that in a minute.
But WordPress maintains its place as a pillar of a successful online business too because it does all the things that an online sales funnel built with ClickFunnels can’t do.
One of the core concepts in the online business & sales funnel methodology is to get traffic – and lots of it – by publishing something every day.
Bloggers, podcasters, vloggers and creators of all kinds have known this for years, but funnel hackers are beginning to recognize the importance of having a place online that you can call home where your best stuff lives.
- WordPress as a content management system is still the best available tool to build out your personal brand and to amplify your content.
- WordPress is a great platform for SEO, while ClickFunnels is not.
- WordPress is great at making content management easy, ClickFunnels is not.
- WordPress is great for blogging, podcasting, and all kinds of other creative publishing, ClickFunnels most assuredly is not.
So when it comes time to build your own personal brand, which you should be doing whether you’re brand new to the online world or a veteran, there really isn’t anything that’s better than WordPress for building it.
In fact, even Russell Brunson has changed his thinking on this because he’s now using WordPress for his own personal brand by using it to build what he calls a “funnel hub” in his Traffic Secrets book.
If you’re new here, I’ve talked about funnel hubs and platform funnels a lot – there’s nothing new about that.
I’ll tell you more about what a funnel hub is in just a minute.
When should I use ClickFunnels?
Just as good as WordPress is for building out your funnel hub, blog, or your site for your podcast, ClickFunnels excels in its ability to build out your online sales funnels.
(By the way – you should have an online sales funnel no matter where you’re at in your online business journey.)
Here’s the thing:
There are new platforms that you can use with WordPress to build online sales funnels.
In fact, I use one of them myself for one of my sites.
But there isn’t a better platform for building out your online sales funnels than ClickFunnels.
You have to remember that ClickFunnels was designed and built by people who’ve spent their entire career building out online sales funnels.
- They know what works.
- They know what doesn’t work.
- They know what trips people up.
- They know where people get stuck.
And they’ve created a tool that anyone can use to build out their online sales funnels fast and easy.
The best part is that ClickFunnels comes with every tool you’ll need to build it out even if you’ve got zero tech knowledge.
That was a big focus for Russell – he wanted it to be useable by the non-techie people like him.
He wanted the the tool get funnels done and then get out of the way.
Anything that would slow you down when you’re building out your online sales funnel has been streamlined to make things as easy and efficient as it can possibly be made inside the ClickFunnels platform.
So while there are alternatives to choose from when it comes to your funnel building software, just remember who’s been the most successful with their own funnels and who it was designed for, and you’ll be reminded tha ClickFunnels is the best online sales funnel building tool.
Which one is right for the job?
Here’s the one question I always go over with my web design clients when we’re getting started:
What do you want people to do when they hit your site?
The answer to that question makes all the difference in the world, and quite frankly, most people don’t have a good answer for it.
But if you’ve figured out who your dream customer is, and you know how you can solve their problems, then that answer should be a lot more clear.
Because that answer changes everything about how you build your website.
When I’m going over this with my clients and we’ve figured out what we want people to do, then we start to put together a workflow for what the site is going to look like and how we’re going to build it around meeting the needs for the goal they want to accomplish.
Sometimes WordPress works best by itself.
Sometimes they want to add onlines sales funnels to their existing website.
Here’s the deal:
If you’re going to be creating content you need a WordPress website.
And you do need to be creating content – every single day.
And you need to be posting that content to your WordPress website to establish your credibility, authority and elevate your presence so your dream customers can find you.
If you need an online sales funnel then you need to sign up for ClickFunnels.
Don’t try to make WordPress fit where it doesn’t.
And the same thing goes for ClickFunnels.
Asking either of those tools to do things they weren’t designed to do is only going to make things harder for you and keep you from doing your thing. And that is the LAST thing you want.
Use the right tool for the job.
What does ClickFunnels do that WordPress doesn’t do?
I like to use Legos as an analogy for web tools.
Think about it this way:
If you’ve ever been to any kind of toy store, or you’re a Legos fan of any kind, you know that you can get all kinds of different kits to build different things.
- You can get a kit to build a fire station.
- You can get a kit to build the Death Star.
- You can get a kit to build a sports car.
- You can get kits to build just about anything.
Here’s the point:
ClickFunnels is like one of those kits: it gives you everything you need to have in one place with one tool to build out your online sales funnels, and nothing you don’t need.
Just like the Legos kits I mentioned above, you get it all.
In those Legos kits you’re going to use every single piece they provide in order to build out whatever it is that you’re building.
It’s precise and focused on creating a specific outcome: a fire station, or the Death Star, or a sports car.
ClickFunnels is the same way – it’s precise and tightly focused on giving you the tools you need to build out your online sales funnels.
There isn’t a content management system included in ClickFunnels, but it has a very powerful page builder.
And it gives you “funnel recipes” to create very specific kinds of online sales funnels.
The only thing they’ve not done is create your product for you (but you can learn how to do that too within the ClickFunnels platform).
What does WordPress do that ClickFunnels doesn’t do?
WordPress started out as a simple blogging tool but it’s evolved to become so much more. It’s now a full featured content management powerhouse that you can use to create everything from a simple blog to a university website.
With WordPress you can create and manage a blog.
You can build a WordPress site to distribute your podcast.
You can use it to feature your videos from your YouTube channel like so many people have done.
When it comes to being a creator WordPress is still the industry standard for your website, and for good reason.
It’s also highly extensible as well.
There are literally thousands of plugins you can choose from to extend the functionality of your site, whether it’s adding in simple SEO features, or building out a fully featured corporate website, it can be done with WordPress.
Can I start a blog with ClickFunnels?
There are some really huge ClickFunnels fans out there that will try to get the platform to do anything they can think of.
I’ve seen people try to create a blog using ClickFunnels and it’s rough to say the least.
ClickFunnels is great at a lot of things, but being a place where you’re posting your content isn’t one of them.
Can I build a sales funnel with WordPress?
It may surprise you to hear me say it, but yes, you can actually build out a sales funnel using WordPress.
But it’s not quite as straightforward as you might think.
It requires a few different plugins to make this happen.
I use an e-commerce platform called WooCommerce for one of my sites, and we use a plugin called
Cartflows.
There are some very specific features we needed to build for what we needed to do on that site, and ClickFunnels would’ve worked, but I wanted to do two things:
- I wanted to test out Cartflows because I’d heard so much about it
- The site and all its products and customers has been around since long before ClickFunnels was a mature platform
The point is that yes – now by using Cartflows you can create online sales funnels using WordPress. It’s just not quite as streamlined and hyper-focused on online sales funnels like ClickFunnels is.
What is a funnel hub?
Remember above I mentioned the “funnel hub”?
You may be asking yourself “what is a funnel hub, and what does this have to do with WordPress or ClickFunnels”?
A funnel hub is an essential part of the serious funnel hacker’s online arsenal.
I build the funnel hubs I build using WordPress, but it’s so much more than a “traditiona” WordPress site.
I’ve been calling them ‘platform funnels” and they’re similar, but not exactly the same.
A funnel hub as I create them is a central place online where all of your different points connect.
All your social media points back to your funnel hub.
All your funnels are all collected in one place on your funnel hub.
These are what some might consider a “traditional” website, but nothing could be further from the truth.
They’re kind of like a blog, but they’re so much more.
Just like an online sales funnel built using ClickFunnels is simply at its core just another kind of website, so a funnel hub is a different kind of website too.
A funnel hub is designed to elevate your authority, make you visible by your dream customers in search engines and raise your voice above the din of noise that is the internet in 2021.
If you’d like to learn more about what a funnel hub is and what you need to do to build your own go here.
Next Steps
The choice you make is based on what your objective is.
If you’re publishing content you need a WordPress site.
If you’re looking to build an online sales funnel, then you need to sign up for ClickFunnels – there simply isn’t a better platform out there.
If you want to learn more about digital marketing and this whole online business thing I want you to come join me in my private Facebook group, Home Office Hacks. This is a new, small group of other business owners and entrepreneurs of all kinds, who are working hard to build their businesses online.
Join my brand new free private Facebook group, Home Office Hacks!
