How Erika Got Her First Evergreen Sale in 24 Hours After Years of No Sales
Erika got her first evergreen sale within 24 hours of relaunching her course on a low-ticket funnel, after years of that same course not selling. Then the sales kept coming, daily, for months.
Erika is a leadership consultant with real expertise, and her course wasn’t the problem. The path buyers took to reach it was. I’m sharing her story because I hear a version of it on sales calls constantly: “I built the course, it’s sitting there, and nobody’s buying.” If that’s you, this post walks through what a low-ticket funnel is, why it worked for Erika, and how to think about one for your own course.
Why wasn’t Erika’s course selling?
Erika’s course sat for years without selling because there was no reliable way for new people to find it and say yes. That’s the most common reason I see good courses go quiet. The course exists, but the only way to buy it is to stumble onto a sales page, read it cold, and commit to the full price on the spot.
Most people don’t buy that way. They want a smaller first step. When a course is the first and only thing someone can buy from you, you’re asking a stranger for a big leap of trust. Some will take it. Most won’t, and the course looks like it “doesn’t sell” when the real issue is the missing on-ramp.
If your course is in this spot right now, I wrote about the other reasons your course is sitting in Kajabi doing nothing. A missing funnel is usually near the top of the list.
What is a low-ticket funnel?
A low-ticket funnel is a simple sales path that starts with an inexpensive first offer and then gives buyers a clear next step toward your bigger course or program. The first offer is small on purpose. It solves one specific problem fast, so saying yes feels easy.
Here’s the general shape I use, in plain order:
- A small first offer that solves one narrow, real problem for your ideal buyer
- A short sales page that explains that one problem and that one fix
- A next step for buyers who want more, which is often your core course
- Email follow-up that keeps the conversation going after the first purchase
- A steady source of traffic, which can be ads, content, or both
That’s it. A funnel doesn’t need twelve pages or a fancy builder to work. It needs a reason to say yes today and a reason to come back for more.
Why does a low-ticket offer help a course that isn’t selling?
A low-ticket offer helps because it turns strangers into buyers before you ask them for the bigger purchase. Someone who has already paid you, even a small amount, behaves very differently from someone who just downloaded a freebie. They’ve trusted you with their card. They’ve seen how you teach. The jump to your course is much shorter from there.
Taylor is a great example. She used Dreampro’s funnel template and got her first sale on day one. One of her $30 buyers upgraded to her $1,997 membership in 90 minutes. That buyer didn’t need a long nurture sequence or a launch. They needed a small first yes and a clear next step.
This is also why I don’t treat a course as a downsell. Your course can be the entry point to everything else you offer. I go deeper on that in why your course shouldn’t be a downsell to your services.
What does “evergreen” mean, and why does it matter?
An evergreen course sells every day, without a launch. There’s no cart opening and closing and no countdown. The funnel runs in the background and buyers come in on their own schedule.
For Erika, that’s what changed. A course that hadn’t sold in years started selling on ordinary weekdays. Her first evergreen sale came within 24 hours, and she kept getting daily sales for months.
I’m a big believer that courses should sell every day. Launches can work, but they’re exhausting, and when they end, so does the revenue. If you want the longer version of how I set this up, read how to sell a course every day without launching.
How fast can a low-ticket funnel start working?
It can start working quickly, and Erika’s first sale within 24 hours shows how fast that can happen. I won’t promise you that timeline, because traffic, offer, and audience all matter. But I can tell you what happened with my own funnel.
I built mine in about 2 weeks, during my kid’s naptimes. It was pretty ugly. I launched it on March 12, 2025, with a $7 front-end offer. It brought in $7,241 in the first 30 days. Now it takes about an hour a week of upkeep. I ran ads at $40/day, and I only kept ads on because they were profitable.
The lesson I’d take from it: a simple funnel with a clear first offer can get to revenue fast, even when it’s built in scraps of time and looks nothing like a polished launch.
Does my funnel need to look polished?
No. Ugly is fine if the structure is there. My naptime funnel is proof of that. What makes a funnel work is the offer, the order, and the follow-up. Design matters, but it’s rarely the reason a funnel fails.
If you’re waiting to launch until everything looks perfect, I’d gently push back. Waiting is just deferred revenue. Start small. Launch scrappy. Let it work. Then scale smart.
How do I pick the right low-ticket offer for my course?
Pick an offer that solves one small, specific problem your course buyers have right before they need your course. It should feel like a natural first step, so that finishing it makes the next step obvious.
Here’s how I’d think it through:
| Question to ask | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|
| What’s the first thing my buyer struggles with? | A narrow problem they can name in their own words |
| Can I solve it in a short format? | A workshop, a template, a short training, or a kit |
| Does solving it lead to my course? | Yes. The win creates appetite for the bigger result. |
| Is it easy to say yes to? | A low price and a clear promise |
| Will it make buyers trust my teaching? | It gives them a real result fast, in my voice and method |
Our own products range from $17 up to services that range to multiple five figures, and the small ones do a lot of the heavy lifting. About 25% of our 2025 revenue came from our own courses and digital products.
What mistakes keep a low-ticket funnel from working?
The biggest mistake is a first offer that’s too broad. If your small offer tries to teach everything, it competes with your course instead of leading to it. A few others I see often:
- No clear next step after the first purchase, so buyers get their win and leave
- No email follow-up, so the conversation ends at checkout
- No consistent traffic, so the funnel sits there the same way the course did
- Rebuilding the funnel every week instead of letting it run long enough to learn from it
- Waiting for a perfect design before turning it on
Frequently asked questions
What is a low-ticket offer for an online course?
It’s an inexpensive first product, like a short workshop or a kit, that solves one specific problem and leads buyers toward your full course. Mine started at $7.
Can a course that hasn’t sold in years still sell?
Yes. Erika’s course wasn’t selling for years. After it was rebuilt on a low-ticket funnel, her first evergreen sale came within 24 hours, followed by daily sales for months.
Do I need ads to run a low-ticket funnel?
Ads help with steady traffic, but they aren’t the only option. I ran mine at $40/day and only kept them on because they were profitable. Content and email can bring traffic too.
How much work does an evergreen funnel take once it’s running?
Mine takes about an hour a week of upkeep. Most of the work happens up front, when you’re choosing the offer and setting up the path.
Want to build a funnel like this for your course?
Passive AF is my course on marketing funnel strategy and running ads, and it’s exactly how I’d teach you to build a funnel that sells your course every day. It’s $397, and it walks you through funnel strategy and running ads, so your course can stop sitting there and start getting bought.
Ariel Schiffer is the founder of Dreampro and an instructional designer with 15+ years of experience designing learning programs for Fortune 50 companies and nonprofits. She holds an M.A. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
