So you’re ready to go all in on your online course and *finally* unlock that passive income stream for your business. 

There’s just one doubt stopping you: should you go for a live cohort launch, or go down the evergreen funnel (or passive funnel) route?

In this article, I’ll share the pros and cons of both strategies that you probably haven’t heard about — and help you decide which type would be more profitable for YOUR business. 

📝 Table Of Contents

What Is An Evergreen Funnel?

Ok, that was a mouthful. 

But don’t worry – it’s not as complex as it sounds. 

Evergreen Funnel (or Passive Funnel — which is the exact same thing) – is the type of funnel where a big chunk of your marketing is automated and is running 24/7 in the background.

So new potential clients can find you online, discover your offer, and move from having no idea you existed to buying your course  – without you *actively* having to do anything. 

What Does an Evergreen Funnel Look Like?

So, how does it all look in action? 

Let’s say you’re selling your online course through a webinar.

You would…

1. Film the webinar ahead of time

2. Create an email sequence that all your webinar attendees would get after to help nudge them towards purchase

3. Drive traffic to the funnel

💡 And since all these parts are automated, meaning you don’t need to manually send out emails or run your webinar live every day – your potential clients can find you 24/7, and go through the funnel at their own times. So you can make sales 24/7. 

Yes, this is how the notorious “making sales in your sleep” happens.

Pros of Passive Funnels for Online Courses

Evergreen funnels are the key to passive income 

After you do the initial setup of your funnel, there’s very little manual work you’ll need to do. 

No manual email blasts, no live webinars, no live cohort you need to guide through the course curriculum. 

And since your systems are running automatically in the background 24/7 – you don’t need to be glued to your desk to make sales. So yes — you could be out having fun, on vacation, sleeping, enjoying a massage – and still making sales. 

Evergreen funnels are less stressful

Now if this scenario sounds chill… it’s because it is!

While it does take time to initially set up your evergreen funnel, once the setup is complete, passive funnels are a lot less stressful compared to live launches.

With passive funnels, you won’t need to do your webinar over and over again each time you want to sell your course to a new client. You won’t need to re-create the sales pages or re-run the course material.  

Your only task by this point is driving traffic (aka audience) into your funnel – which is considerably less complicated then doing that PLUS all the funnel work.

Cons of Evergreen launches

It's harder to build a community

When you’re selling your online course with an evergreen funnel, people will be joining your course 24/7.

Which is nice for your sales (because who wouldn't love sales happening at all hours?!), but is not very conducive to a community feeling, as participants are joining at different times throughout the year.

Some may not even dive into the course content and instead just linger in your Facebook group or wherever you host your community.

This makes it harder to get everyone on the same page, excited, and engaged. To build a vibrant community, you'll need to invest extra time and effort into cultivating that connection among your participants.

It's harder to manage students’ learning experience

When people purchase your course at different times, they'll naturally go through the content at their own pace, meaning different students will be in different parts of the course at any given moment.

If you offer coaching calls as a bonus, you'll end up with a mix of questions from all stages, which can be a bit of a juggling act.

It’s tricky to have one-on-one calls because each student’s needs will be so different, making it tough to manage everyone's transformation together and keep everyone on the same page.

Risky for first-time course creators

Having an evergreen funnel implies that your course is already fully recorded, and ready for people to buy. Sounds logical, right?

However, this approach comes with risks, especially if it's your first launch, or you're tackling a new topic.

Unless you have validated your course idea and are absolutely sure your audience WANTS it, investing all that time and effort into recording an entire course is risky business.

I've seen too many course creators go all out, professionally record their course, investing in expensive studio sessions with top-notch equipment, only to have their course flop.

P.S. The good news is, there’s a way to validate your course idea BEFORE you jump head-first into making your course. I show how in detail in y Million Dollar Course Idea freebie. Grab it for free here.

Higher student drop-out rates

Students who join your evergreen course are often less likely to finish it. This is because they’re joining at different times, and with lifetime access, the urgency to complete the course diminishes.

They might forget about it, get caught up in a thousand other things, and never even start or finish the course. Evergreen courses are more of an individual journey, making it harder to keep people motivated.

Think back to when you were in school or university—everyone hit certain milestones together, faced the same deadlines, and had exams at the same time, which pushed you to get ready and stay on track.

In contrast, when you’re studying on your own with arbitrary deadlines, it’s easy to drag things out, taking more time to complete each step and fully grasp the material.

What Is Live Launching?

A live launch is when you set a specific window of time during which students can join your program, similar to how universities have admission deadlines before classes begin.

In a live cohort launch, where the course is taught in real-time, there’s usually a one- to three-week period for enrollment. After this period, the doors close, and no new students can join.

Every time you open enrollment for your program, you have to go through the entire launch process all over again.

Pros of Live Launches

Live launches have higher urgency than evergreen launches

Urgency is a psychological trigger used to get people to act quickly by creating a sense of time pressure.

It taps into the fear of missing out (FOMO) and nudges your audience to make their decision faster before the opportunity is gone. You see this with limited-time offers, countdowns, or in live launches where after cart closes people are not able to join the program or course any longer.

Urgency is a potent buying trigger and is a must in any launch. And live launches just so happen to have it already built into them by design.

When potential students realize that the doors to your program will close on a specific date, they’re much quicker to make a decision, rather than endlessly postponing it if they know they can join at any time. 

P.S: urgency is not the only buying trigger you can use in your online course marketing. Learn more about what buying triggers are and how to use them in this article.

Easier to manage students

Since most of your students will progress through the modules and lessons of your course at the same pace, you’ll be able to spot which parts are easy and which ones are more challenging.

If you include coaching calls or extra webinars in your program, the questions you get will likely be similar and focused on the same topics.

With live launches, you create a group transformation process, where everyone is moving forward together, making it easier to address common challenges and keep everyone on track.

Easier to build a tight-knit community

Expanding on the point above, it’s easier to connect with your students and build a sense of community when everyone is moving through the course together.

It’s similar to being in school or university, where a group of people are all studying the same things at the same time.

And building a strong community is one of the most crucial aspects of launching your course.

P.S. Check out my video below to learn more about why community is so important.

Higher course completion rate 

There’s something powerful about experiencing a transformation as a group.

When you have set deadlines, it pushes people to take action. And for course creators, action, and results are everything.

Because guess what? If your online course doesn’t help your students achieve results, you won’t get glowing testimonials–and it will be that much harder to sell your course.

Live launches make this process a bit easier by fostering that collective momentum.

You don’t need to create your course ahead of time

If you’re live launching a cohort-based course, you don’t need to record your entire course in advance (as opposed to evergreen system).

In fact, you only need to record the first couple of modules in advance only, and can film the rest after your launch.

This approach saves you money because if fewer students sign up than you expected, you can adjust your budget and scale down on equipment costs.

Plus, live launches give you the flexibility to tailor your course to your students' needs by gathering feedback and making improvements as you go.

Cons of Live Launches 

Live launches are more intense 

Live launches are a lot more intense compared to evergreen ones. If you launch a course every three to four months, you’ll have to go through the entire process each time, which can be really time-consuming and exhausting.

You need to be present and full of energy when launching a course, so if you have other commitments, this might not be the best fit for you. Live launches can be a bit stressful if you’re juggling multiple responsibilities.

You may need to hire additional help

You may need to hire a community manager to help you take care of all of your students, especially if your program is big and there are hundreds if not thousands of students joining all at once.

Live launches are more hands-on

You need to be way more present during the course than you would be with an evergreen launch. You need to be present to give presentations, record modules and collect feedback from your students.

This is not necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy it. But if you have other responsibilities, or simply don’t enjoy being, on 100% of the time, this might not be a good option for you. 

Conclusion

Is one system of launching better than the other? Well, not really.

It all really depends on what you want and what your starting point is.

If you’re just starting out, and aren’t sure if your course idea is profitable, or what your audience really needs in a course – go for live launching.

And if you’ve validated your idea, have your curriculum perfected and are ready to make passive income–opt for evergreen!

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