What the ladder looks like
Amy Porterfield teaches people to build online courses, and she climbed this ladder herself. In her podcast episode on three types of course, she says a first course should help students produce:
"...small, but valuable, results that can lead to bigger results if they keep going." Amy Porterfield
That's the whole plan. Give people a small win first. Then offer a bigger win to those who want to keep going.
Her own steps show how it looks in dollars. She started with a $97 course on getting started with Facebook marketing. Next came a course on Facebook ads for about $397. Then she found out her audience wanted a plan for their Facebook marketing, so she built that as a $997 program.
Each step went further on the same topic. That's what you're copying, more than the prices.
Three checks before you offer anything
Before you build any of this, you need something worth moving up to. A ladder with one step is a stool. If you're still working out how to sell online courses, start there.
If you have both courses, check these three things.
1. Is it the same person with the same goal? Picture someone who just bought the small course. Would they say, "Yes, that's what I want next"? A course on baking your first sourdough loaf leads well to a course on baking and selling bread from home. It leads badly to a course on cake decorating, even if the cake course sells better.
2. Does the small course end in a win? "Bake your first loaf" ends with bread on the table. If your small course is only the opening lessons of the big one, it ends with nothing to show for it. People pay more to the teacher who already got them somewhere.
3. Does the big course repeat the small one? Open your flagship's outline. Find every lesson the small course already covers, and mark them "skip these if you took the mini-course." Nobody likes paying twice for the same video.
Mind the price gap
A rough rule is to price the small course at a tenth to a fifth of the big one. Porterfield's $97 and $997 sit right at a tenth. So a $497 flagship pairs well with a mini-course around $49 to $97.
If the gap is huge, add a step. Someone who paid $47 may not jump to $2,000 because of an email. Put a live workshop or a deeper course in the middle, or offer a call with you. Porterfield's course at about $397 did that job.
This is plain sales psychology. The second yes gets easier when the first yes turned out well. So the first sale has to turn out well.
When to offer it
Each moment suits a different size of offer.
| When | What to offer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| On the checkout page | A small add-on, like a template pack | They're already buying, and one click is an easy yes |
| Right after they pay | A small next step | Their card details are often saved, but they haven't seen your teaching yet |
| Inside the course, after the first win | One short mention of the flagship | They've just seen that your method works |
| In the last lesson | The full offer | They have the result in their hands |
| By email after they finish | The full offer, over about two weeks | They've had time to use what they learned |
Some people will be ready for the flagship right after they pay. It's fine to test that offer on the thank-you page. Just don't let it be your only one.
If you only have time for one thing, write the last lesson.
Write the last lesson first
Your last lesson should do four things. It names the win. It names the next problem. It says what the big course does about that problem. It also says who should skip it.
Here's how that could sound for our bread course:
"You just baked your first loaf. Well done. Save me a slice. Here's what usually happens next. You'll want to bake every week, and some loaves will come out flat. Friends will start asking if they can buy one. My full course covers both. You'll learn to get the same loaf every time, and you'll learn to sell from home. It's a good fit if you want to sell bread this year. Skip it if you just want good toast on Sundays. That's a fine place to stop. You've already paid $47, so I'll take that off the price. Use this link by [date]."
Telling people who should skip it makes the rest easier to believe.
Take what they paid off the price
Offer to take the mini-course price off the flagship, as a credit. It's a simple deal, and it answers the thought "Why did I buy the small one first?" The small course now costs them nothing if they keep going.
On a $497 flagship, a $47 credit costs you about a tenth of the price. A coupon code is usually the easiest way to do it.
Give the credit a real end date, such as 14 or 30 days after they finish. When the date comes, end it. The FTC, the US government office that protects shoppers, lists fake countdown timers among the tricks it warns about. Those are timers on offers that aren't really time-limited. A real date works fine, and you never have to explain a clock that reset itself.
The emails
Start these when someone finishes the last lesson. Five emails over two weeks is plenty.
- Day 1: Well done. Ask how it went and invite a reply. Don't sell anything. The replies give you stories and your students' own words.
- Day 3: One useful tip. Help them use what they learned. Mention the next problem they're about to hit.
- Day 6: A story. Tell how a real student moved from the small course to the big one. If you don't have one yet, tell how you solved that next problem yourself.
- Day 10: The offer. Say what the flagship is, what it costs, what comes off and when the credit ends.
- Day 14: The last day. Say the credit ends tonight. Answer the biggest doubt people have sent you.
You will spend four hours on these emails. The first reply will be an out-of-office.
Send them anyway. Once this is running, it's one of the cheapest ways to increase course sales, since you've already done the work of finding these people. It also helps your online course marketing, because you can show new people the path from the small course to the big one.
People who never finish
Some buyers stop at lesson 2. Leave them out of the offer, since they haven't had the win yet. Send them one email instead:
"Where did you get stuck? Reply with one line and I'll help you get to the end."
If they finish, they join the five emails above. If they don't, you've still been kind, and you've learned which lesson needs fixing.
Set it up on your platform
Menu names change, so search your platform's help center if something has moved.
Teachable. These steps are for Teachable Payments. To put an offer inside the last lesson, open the lesson editor and look under Marketing Tools for the Upsell block. Pick the product and pricing plan, then save. For a checkout add-on, go to the product's Upsells tab and click Create checkout upsell. On Teachable's older payment setup, look for the Upsell funnel tab and Create order bumps.
Kajabi. To show an offer right after checkout, go to Sales, then Pricing, then the Upsells tab, and click New Upsell. Then attach it. Go to Sales, then Pricing, then Offers, open your offer, and find Upsell Funnel on the Purchase Flow tab. You can add a second upsell there as a cheaper offer for people who say no to the first.
To start your emails on Kajabi, build an automation. Set When to "Lesson is completed" on your last lesson, and Then to "Subscribe to an email sequence." That's one step, and the Basic plan allows one step per automation.
Thinkific. Go to Products, then Courses, hover over your course and click Manage. Open the Settings tab, choose Progress and completion, then check Custom completion page. Add your offer there and save. This only works in the Classic Course Builder. The page also shows just once, so put the offer in your emails too.
Ask the people who say no
When the credit ends, ask everyone who didn't buy one question:
What stopped you from joining?
Give them answers they can click, because many people won't type. Then act on what you hear.
| They say | What to do |
|---|---|
| It costs too much right now | Offer a payment plan or a smaller middle step |
| I don't have the time | Show the real hours per week, and tell them when they can join later |
| I'm not sure it's for someone like me | Show a student like them, or offer a short call |
| I haven't used the mini-course yet | Help them finish it first |
| I got what I needed | Good. Ask for a review, and don't chase them |
| Something else | Read these first. They're the reasons you didn't think of |
When they need an answer while they're still reading
A survey tells you why someone said no, but by then they've gone. If people keep saying "I'm not sure it's for me," they needed a conversation while they were still on your sales page. That's what we built Possible to do, so take this with the obvious pinch of salt. Possible is an AI built on real sales psychology. It asks each visitor the right question at the right moment, remembers the answers and guides them toward a sale, sign-up or booking. It's free to start, and here's more on our AI sales assistant for course creators. Sort out your ladder first, because a good question can't rescue a flagship that's the wrong next step.
The one number to watch
Out of every 100 people who buy your mini-course, how many buy the flagship within 90 days? Write that down each month.
Here's an example with made-up numbers. Say 200 people buy a $47 mini-course and 6 of them go on to a $497 flagship. That's 3 out of every 100. After the credit, those 6 people pay $450 each. That's $2,700 on top of the $9,400 the mini-course brought in.
There's no honest answer to what a good number is, because it depends on your prices and your students. Just watch whether yours goes up. If it's stuck, this table tells you where to look.
| What you see | Likely problem | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Few people finish the mini-course | It's too long, or the win is too far away | Cut it down to the one win |
| They finish but don't click the offer | The flagship doesn't look like the next step | Rewrite the last lesson. If that fails, rethink the ladder |
| They click but don't buy | The sales page or the price | Ask the question above and read the answers |
| They love the mini-course and want nothing more | It solved the whole problem | Teach a smaller first step, or change what the flagship promises |
Your next week
- Today: Write down the next problem your mini-course buyers hit. Check that your flagship solves it.
- Tomorrow: Mark the flagship lessons they can skip. Decide on the credit and its end date.
- Day 3: Write and record the new last lesson.
- Days 4 and 5: Write the five emails, and set them to start when someone finishes.
- Day 6: Add the small add-on at checkout, and send the "where did you get stuck?" email.
- Day 7: Start your monthly count.
Questions about course upsells
What is a course upsell?
It's an offer of a bigger next step to someone who's buying or has bought from you. Someone who bought a $47 mini-course and gets offered your $497 full course is seeing an upsell.
What is an example of a course upsell?
Someone finishes a short course on baking their first sourdough loaf. The last lesson offers the full course on baking and selling bread from home, with the $47 they paid taken off. It works because it's the next thing they want.
What's the difference between an upsell and an order bump?
An order bump is a small extra that people add with one click on the checkout page, like a template pack. An upsell is usually a bigger step, offered after they've paid or finished. Platforms use these names differently. Teachable now calls its order bump a "checkout upsell."
When is the best time to upsell a course?
For a big course, it's when the student finishes the small one and has a result in hand. Follow up by email over the next two weeks. Use the moments around checkout for small add-ons.
Should I build the mini-course or the flagship first?
You can start small. Porterfield did. Just sketch out the next step before you sell the first one, even if it's only a live workshop. A small course with nothing behind it brings in small money and leaves you with one more thing to look after.
Can you upsell from a free course?
Yes, but put the offer inside the course and in your emails. Free courses on Teachable have no checkout page, so they can't show a checkout add-on. A paid mini-course also tells you who's willing to buy, and that's a big help when you offer the next thing.
Can you actually make money selling courses?
Yes, but it isn't automatic, and what you teach matters a lot. Writer Sinem Günel says her co-founder made about $2,000 from a course on morning routines, a topic he loved. He then asked his audience what they struggled with and built a short course on procrastination. She says that one made over $60,000 from the same audience.
What is the best platform for course upsells?
It's probably the one you're already on. Teachable, Kajabi and Thinkific each give you a way to show students an offer. Check what your plan includes before you move. A new platform won't fix a next step that doesn't fit.
Go deeper on conversion tactics.