Thinkific Sales Page Redirect [for ConvertKit]

AAAAANNNNDDD, I’m BACK with another fun tip for using ConvertKit to build out your Evergreen funnels.

Last week I talked about how to actually set-up ConvertKit for an evergreen funnel but I wanted to address the elephant, or rather, affiliate in the room.

Affiliates can be a GAME CHANGER for your business and are something that a lot of well-known influencers use to promote their products, programs or services but, when you’re not ready to use advanced affiliate programs and you’re trying to accomplish it with the tools you have on hand, it can be a little confusing.

I build all of my courses out with Thinkific and then I build all of my evergreen funnels out with ConvertKit so, today, I’m explaining how to run a successful affiliate promotion where your affiliates get commission and you get people in your funnel.

You may think that setting up an affiliate program is as easy as:

Someone asks to be an affiliate.
You set up their affiliate account.
Done.

But, strategically, that’s definitely NOT the best way.

Let’s dissect someone’s affiliate launch, shall we?

How about looking at Denise Duffield Thomas’s most recent launch of her Lucky Bitch Bootcamp. This launch consisted of LOTS of affiliates such as Nikki Elledge Brown, Natalie MacNeil, Amber McCue (and more), where those affiliates sent their audiences to DDT’s webinar sign-up page.

Then, from the webinar, DENISE sold to all of the attendees and the affiliate followed up with bonuses and other sign-up links.

If they just used a regular link (like http://luckybitch.com/webinar), DDT’s system wouldn’t know that that specific affiliate had sent that person and if they bought, no affiliate would get credit.

So, here’s what happened, in it’s most basic form:

Affiliate had unique URL (example: luckybitch.com/nikki).
That unique URL went to the webinar signup page and the affiliate’s “cookies” were left on the LuckyBitch.com site.
If someone purchased from the webinar who was sent to register for the webinar from the affiliate, that affiliate was given credit because they initially sent that person to the webinar/free content.

Now, if we’re looking at this in terms of Thinkific with ConvertKit.

Your Evergreen funnel is built on ConvertKit, right?

So, you just need to send people to the top level of that funnel (your freebie).

But when you’re using Thinkific it’s not that simple because you cannot change the link Thinkific gives each affiliate and you can’t change where it directs the visitor – it’s defaulted to the landing page in that specific Thinkific course.

Guess what though? I found a way to redirect the Thinkific affiliate link to whatever free content you want people signing up for to go through your ConvertKit funnel.

This fun hack lets your affiliates share their Thinkific-given links, earn their affiliate income, AND lets the link redirect to the page of your choice.

Here’s how it actually works:

You insert a piece of script code in Thinkific that tells the landing page to redirect to another URL.
Your affiliate shares their normal affiliate link.
Your Thinkific landing page redirects anyone using that affiliate link to your designated other URL.
Your affiliates “cookies” are still left on Thinkific’s site (aka, it’s still trackable) because the redirect DOES take them to the standard Thinkific landing page if even for just a second before redirecting on.
You get people where you want them and your affiliate makes some moolah.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Well it is!

Here’s what you need to do:

Sign in to Thinkific and find the course that you want to work with; click on it in your courses dashboard.
On the “landing page” editing section, click on “page code”.
Insert this code

<script>window.location.href = “http://www.coursesbyjessica.com/ads/“;</script>

And change ONLY the URL (highlighted in green above) to the URL you want people to redirect to. So, again, this could be your off-Thinkific sales page, a webinar signup page, a freebie signup, whatever.
Hit “save changes”.
Test it out.

Find one of your affiliates who is an affiliate for that specific course, grab their Thinkific affiliate link and insert it into your browser. You’ll see the magic happen before your eyes as the link automagically redirects to the place you want it to go.