#282 - 3 Ways to Make Your DIY Course Sell Again in 2026

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Doing It Online podcast. I'm Kate, and if you've been trying to sell your DIY course lately and it's feeling harder than ever, I need you to know you are not imagining it. Over the last 12 months, we've seen a massive shift in what's selling and what's just not. And the part of the market that's been hit the hardest are those mid ticket DIY courses. You know the ones, they usually price between 300 to $2,000, depending on your niche. But the real defining factor is that for the people buying them, the investment, it feels like a bit of a stretch financially, but the support isn't really there. It's very much a come in, learn it and then figure it out yourself kind of vibe with maybe a Facebook group or a few bonus calls thrown in. And look, if that sounds like your course and it's still flying off the shelves, wonderful. You have an 11 out of 10 course. Do not change a thing. But if you have a course like this and it's been getting harder and harder to move, it's not just you, it's not your marketing, it's not your sales page. The model itself has shifted for the majority of niches, and you need to shift with it. But here's the good news. Your course isn't dead. It's just having a title change. And today I'm going to walk you through three ways that you can pivot your existing DIY course so it sells better than ever in 2026, but without having to start all over again. So let's dive right on in. Okay, so first, let's talk about why this is happening. Because if you understand the problem, the solutions are going to make a lot more sense. So the main two reasons that DIY courses are struggling right now, number one, is economic shifts coupled with buyer caution. So whether or not your audience has actually been financially impacted recently, they're definitely more aware that it could happen. People are being more cautious with their spending. And when something feels like a stretch, which most of these courses do, as we already said, you know, that 500, that $1,000 course they want to make, they're going to get value out of that investment. They're not just throwing their money around. Here's the thing. They're not buying the learning. What they're buying is the outcome. And courses have been around long enough now that people realize that just learning stuff doesn't guarantee that they'll actually implement it. Or worse, there's just a chance that what they learn might not even be any good or might not actually apply to them. So they're having to invest in an uncomfortable level, but the risk of that investment actually working is all on them. And that makes it a lot harder for people to say yes. Reason number two is AI. So when you've created a product where you're essentially asking people to do it on themselves, they've got to listen to the modules, they've got to learn it, they've got to understand it, they've got to apply it, they've got to customize it to them. Well, the thing that happens now is that they can actually whip out ChatGPT or Claude or any other AI tool. And instead of having to sit down and watch 12 hours of videos and take countless notes and then sit back and create their own plan, they now get a customized personalized plan. They can now get instant feedback, they can get a summary and just the top line of what they actually need to know. They get step by step guidance and it can be completely customized to them, it can be done completely privately, being done at any time of day, and it can be essentially free. So your DIY course is competing with that, which means it is being hit from both sides. You've got the economic caution coming on one side, which makes them less likely to want to go and invest that higher amount unless they have such a high level of certainty that it's going to be a worthwhile investment. And then on the other side, they're looking and they're going, well, if it's not guaranteed, I'm going to have to do the work anyway. Look what I can get over here. It's faster, it's cheaper. You know, it may not be as good at quality, but the for them, the pros outweigh the cons. Now, does that mean online courses are dead? Absolutely not. I still personally am selling a lot of online courses. I have a lot of clients who are selling a lot of online courses. But the key is to be able to continue to sell online courses. Programs and coaching is you need to understand that for this particular type of model, the purpose and their role in your business has shifted. And you need to understand that and shift it too. And I know that can feel tough. I've got clients who've been trying to get their course that they've poured their heart and soul into. They've been trying to get it to sell well, or at least better for the last, you know, 18 months or two years. And unfortunately those years have been the hardest times to try and sell a course. So you've got to get to a point where you actually stop and ask yourself, is it the way that I'm selling it or is it what I'm selling? And I'm going to tell you right now, nine times out of 10, it's what you're selling. Because if your offer feels like exactly what your audience wants, exactly how they want to learn, and it becomes just an incredibly easy yes for them, and where they can clearly see the value they're getting back is going to be way more than what they're paying. It doesn't matter if you're terrible at selling it, you will still be able to sell it and sell it well. But if you're spending all your time trying to perfect your webinar, rewriting your sales page, tweaking your launch strategies, and it's still not moving, it's probably not that. It's probably not the way you're selling it or messaging it, or marketing it. It's the offer itself that needs to change. And this is the time to do it. No more sticking your head in the sand. Rip off the band aid. I know it's not fun, but you're going to much prefer the outcome when you do. And I'm not saying you need to scrap it. I'm just saying that the way that it's delivered, the way people perceive it, the way that you position it, probably needs to be radically changed. And if you do this right, you can actually make it way easier to sell and more profitable too. And there are three main ways to do that. So let's get into each of them. All right, Strategy number one is you're going to take your DIY course and you're going to break it up into parts. I know sounds rough, but trust me, do this right, you'll make way more sales and way more profit. So what this looks like is you are going to break down your course into individual pieces and you're going to pull out the juiciest single piece, the thing that solves the most immediate, urgent and clearest problem. And you're going to make that a standalone low ticket gateway offer. So instead of trying to sell one, say $300 course, you're going to create maybe five or six individual pieces. One or two of those can become your entry level. Low ticket offers something you price between 27, 47, 67. And then the rest become order bumps, upsells or cross sells. Now here's the cool part. Some people will just buy one piece, but that's still a new customer, not just a new lead. That is still someone who gets to have that experience working with you, that taste test, and someone who is still incrementally more likely to buy any of your follow up offers. But if you're smart, you'll include a cross sell strategy. You'll have an in curriculum sales strategy. So more and more people will buy more of those pieces over time, even if they didn't take them up in the initial offer. And here's a little tip. If you had a $300 program and you break it into say six pieces just for easy maths, don't make them all $50 each. Because some of those pieces, as you well know, are way more valuable than that. Before they were getting them for basically for free or that were maybe a bonus or they were getting them at a reduced rate because they were essentially buying in bulk. They're buying a whole lot of stuff together now that people are buying them individually. So each piece gets its own value, its own price point based on its individual value. And sometimes that actually adds up to more than if they bought them all together. But the thing is, not everyone's going to buy all of them. In fact, most people won't. So to make the math work, you need to start with one or maybe two things to get as many people in as possible that are going to tick all of these boxes. So this is how you know which of the pieces is going to be your entry point or your gateway offer. So number one, it is solving a gateway problem, it is solving an entry level problem. So this is a problem that people are aware of, they're actively trying to solve, one that they value solving, one they believe that something quick and easy could potentially solve, but one that they're really kind of secretly hoping that this quick and easy thing is going to make a big difference. So number two, this is a problem that applies to a wide range of people and yes, a wider range of people than potentially your ideal client is. And the reason why we want to do that is because if you're planning on running ads to this, you really want to have as big an audience as possible now with, because that allows for you to be able to scale your ads easier and to be able to grow them more profitably. And within that wider net you will still catch and still get your ideal clients who you will still then be able to bring into your other office. But you're also going to have a bunch of people who are maybe not ideal clients. That's another Story for another day, what to do with those. But just know that those people and those sales are all contributing to making your ecosystem work. Next really important thing is you need to make sure that this problem that this little gateway offer is solving is something that people are actively trying to solve right now. It's not something they think they want to do later. It's something that they know needs to get fixed. It's high priority. And it needs to be something that doesn't need a ton of explanation. People need to just get what it is, get why it's valuable, because again, they're seeing an ad and they need to go from an ad to a page and that's it. You don't have the time to explain or convince. They need to just go, I'm looking for that problem that looks like a cool way to solve that problem. I believe this person can solve this problem and get me a great result. Let's go. And hopefully now this is the sprinkles on top that are going to make this wildly successful for you. But hopefully you have your own kind of unique twist on it, your own unique way of doing it, which again, people can immediately understand and see that this is different, something they haven't tried before, and understand why this would be something that might get them better results than they have in the past. And I'm sure as you're going through all your stuff, there will be something in there amongst all of the stuff you're teaching inside your course. You just need to sift through and find it, pull it out, and that becomes your gateway problem. Those lessons, those workbooks, whatever it is that you are currently using to solve that particular problem in your course, you're going to bundle them up and that becomes your standalone low ticket offer. And you can run ads directly to this. You can put it in a funnel, you can sell it on autopilot, there's loads of great things you can do with it. And then all the other pieces of your program, these become your order bumps, your upsells, your cross sells once people are already in the curriculum. And this can bring you a lot more sales and a lot easier sales because you don't need to do a webinar or a big launch to sell this thing. You don't need to convince people on something that seems like it's going to take a lot of time or a lot of effort. You're just solving a single valuable, juicy problem. People understand it, it's clear, it's specific, and then you are offering them additional tools to help them to get a better result, solving that problem with your upsells and cross sells. And this is especially powerful if you have what I call a kitchen sink course, where you are kind of trying to fix everything and you weren't really laser focused on one specific, really valuable thing. Those kind of courses have always been harder to sell because it's very hard to message what the clear value is. So if you can sift through that and pull out the single gold nuggets and make them their own offer and then let them shine, you're going to find it's just easier to sell across the board. And for a lot of you being able to sell more of them, even a slightly lower average order value is still going to add up to a lot more profit than what you're getting currently. So that's strategy number one. All right? Strategy number two is to actually go the other way and you're going to turn it into a more premium offer. So keep the process, keep the training, keep the resources, but I want you to step back and think about who your ideal client is and think about the people within that group who don't actually want to DIY it, because most people don't. They still want the outcome, but they'd really value you making it a more pleasant experience or an easier experience or just a more certain experience. They want you, or at least someone to do some of the heavy lifting for them. They want customization, they want accountability, they want feedback. Not necessarily all these things, but if you understand your market, you should be able to see the ones which are really valuable to them. And you can't do these things at a $300 price point when you're trying to serve hundreds of people at a time. But you can do it with when you've got a small number of people coming through and a bigger budget to play with. So this is where you have the opportunity to look at the problem you're solving and ask, firstly, is this still a problem people actually care about? Is it what I call a top three problem? Because if someone sat down and mentally listed out all their problems, would this sit in the top three things that they're actively trying to solve? If it's not, then they're not going to invest in it, full stop. I wouldn't then try and make it more premium because it's just going to be harder, but if it is, keep going. So if the problem you're still solving is still relevant, if people care about it, if they're actively trying to solve it, Then you have a brilliant opportunity. So now it's up to you to know your audience so well that you can put together an offer that's maybe 10 times the price of your original offer. But it gives them way more certainty. It's so much more desirable because the way you're now helping them solve that problem doesn't put all the heavy lifting and all the uncertainty onto them. And the right people will pay for that. And that's where something becomes really valuable. Again, it doesn't even need to be that plex, it just needs to be what they want. And there are so many ways to do this. But the core shift is you're no longer just handing them the information, you're going to guide them to the outcome. And that is worth 10 times more. So that is strategy number two. All right, strategy number three. You are going to demote your course, but that doesn't mean get rid of it. Now, if you've been listening to these other two options and you're like, that doesn't sound right. That doesn't sound right. Before you even consider doing this third one, I want you to do one final sense check, and that is I want you to be honest with yourself and say, look, if your course isn't solving a top three problem like we talked about before, and if you don't care about it anymore, so your audience doesn't care about it and you don't care about it, maybe it might be time to let it go. Like economy aside, AI aside, even in the best scenarios, this would be something that would be hard to sell and it's not going to bring you any joy. So let it go. There's a thing called the sunk cost fallacy where we just hold on to things and we are convinced that we have to make them work because we spent so much time and effort and resources on them when actually letting them go. Freeing up your resources, freeing up your brain space, freeing up your marketing calendar to create a better solution and focus on that is going to give you such better results. But it feels like failure to let it go. If you're in that situation, I know it sucks, but I give you permission to let it go because there are better options out there if you're not in that situation, if you do still care about this course, if it is a top three problem, but you don't want to go down the low ticket offer route because you know you don't have to, that's a strategy that has its pros and cons. And maybe you also don't want to go down the premium route or maybe already have a premium program. There is still a third option for you. And what does that look like? It means you're going to take this course and like I said, you're just going to demote it. You're just going to remove its importance from where it sits inside your business. What that looks like is means that you're going to take it. And rather than it being the destination, it might become a downsell, something that sits behind your evergreen funnels or your live launches. Or maybe it becomes a bonus or it becomes an A bundle or it becomes an incentive to get people to pay in full or join at a certain time. This is actually what I've done with our DIY programs. We have our premium programs. They are our signature offers. We also have low ticket offers. They are our gateway. That's how we attract and build our audience. Give people their taste test. And when people come through and maybe they're not ready for the premium offer just yet, we offer them our DIY course. It gives them a chance to still work with us, to still implement our strategies. Maybe they can't afford the premium offer just yet, but also gives them a further taste test beyond the low ticket offer. It's further proof, if they need it, another chance to get some ground covered themselves before they really invest. And then when they're ready, they can upgrade to premium. The difference is, I think a lot of people used to call their DIY course their signature program. It was the thing that brought in the most profit, the thing they sold the most, the thing they promoted the most. Everything led to it. When you put it in your funnel, that's when things really popped off profit wise. And that's no longer the case. It is now a supporting player. So we've got to stop treating it like the main character. And that doesn't mean it can't still be valuable. Where maybe it used to bring in 60% of your revenue, now it might bring in 50 or 20%. And that's fine. If you can accept that, put it in its right place, treat it the right way and allow it to have that supporting role, then you can refocus your resources and your energy on finding something to fill that gap and beyond. And that's where we've been talking about creating things like leverage, live experiences, more premium offers. That's where most people are going to see the biggest shifts in 2026. But that doesn't mean that you have to abandon your DIY course at all. Okay? So let's recap. If your DIY course isn't selling like it used to, you've got three options to get it selling again. Number one, slice it and dice it. Put pull out the best bits, make it a low ticket gateway offer, use it to grow your audience and fill up your list with buyers and then upsell the rest. Step number two, upgrade it to premium, add support, accountability, certainty and charge 10 times more. Or number three, demote its importance strategically turn it into a downsell, a bonus or a supporting offer behind your main programs. Your course isn't dead, its role has just changed. And once you accept that and reposition it and stop trying to force something which is going to be very difficult to make happen, you will start seeing sales again. Now, if you're wondering how DIY courses actually fit into funnels in 2026, I've got a free guide for you. It's called the three Funnels we're using to sell our offers in our seven figure business. It's totally free. The link is in the show notes below. And if you want to chat about your offer, your funnels or how any of this applies to your business, come and find me on Instagram at hellofunnels and let's talk. Alrighty, that's it for today guys. I'll see you all next week.