Digital Skills Library · Sales & Marketing
How to become a funnel builder
What freelance funnel and course builders (also called Kajabi experts) charge in 2026, the tech work clients hire for, and the beginner’s path from no coding experience to your first paying client.
Difficulty
2 of 5
Drag-and-drop tools, no coding, no degree. The platforms are the whole learning curve
First dollar
A few weeks
Build one practice funnel free first, then you’re ready to apply
Startup cost
Near-zero
A free-plan tool is all it takes to build a full practice funnel
AI-friendliness
Medium
AI helps with funnel copy and troubleshooting; the platform setup is the core skill
Demand
High
Every course creator, coach, and marketing agency eventually needs this work done
Start here
Go from curious to freelance-ready
This page shows you what freelance funnel and course building work is like: the pay, the services, and whether it fits you. The full guide inside the Digital Skills Library walks you through getting started: what to learn first, where to learn it, and how to practice until you’re ready to offer it as a freelance service. Here’s what unlocks for this skill:
- 🔒 A 4-week course and funnel builder learning plan: what to learn, in order
- 🔒 Hand-picked free certifications and communities, with the why behind every pick
- 🔒 The funnel-building tools to practice with on day one, for free
- 🔒 3 work samples you can build before you have a single client
- 🔒 Ready-to-use AI prompts for everyday funnel and course-setup tasks
- 🔒 Which skill to add next, and why it raises your freelance rate
- 🔒 The big-picture map: first Upwork job, then better rates, then steady monthly clients
- 🔒 Updates whenever the platforms and the market change
The skill, straight
What does a funnel builder do?
A funnel builder sets up the tech behind a course, a coaching offer, or a sales funnel: the checkout, the pages, the emails, and the automations that hold them together. Clients hire you so everything works the moment a buyer clicks, because every broken link is a lost sale (and a small heart attack).
01
Make the tech work while the creator sleeps
The creator has the course, the coaching offer, the knowledge. They don’t have the patience to figure out why the checkout button breaks at 11pm the night before a launch. That’s the job.
02
Wire the pieces together so nothing quietly breaks
The checkout, the email that delivers the login, the automation that tags a buyer. Most creators’ setups are broken somewhere, and nobody’s told them yet.
03
Sit in the chair on launch day
Cart opens, something breaks, you fix it in ten minutes. The creator never loses three hours and four sales. This part is often billed separately, and paid well.
Is funnel building right for you?
Yes
You like a checklist and a genuine “done” state. If you’ve ever set up your own Wi-Fi mesh, built a Notion system nobody asked for, or figured out what a weird setting does, that curiosity is the whole aptitude.
Maybe
You want creative ownership. You’re building someone else’s course, in someone else’s brand colors, every time. If “make it mine” is the whole point for you, this is a stretch, builders who add copywriting or design later charge more for exactly that.
No
You freeze when something breaks, or you need everything scheduled in advance. The job is things breaking, often without warning, the night before a launch.
Best for detail people who reread the receipt, calm-in-a-crisis types, and anyone who likes being the reliable one a business owner texts when the button stops working. If you’ve ever been the one who figured out why the Wi-Fi wasn’t working, this is the freelance version of that.
Pick a lane
Funnel builder services you can sell
Clients hire for a specific outcome, so it pays to pick a lane and get known for it. "I upload courses and build checkouts in Kajabi" wins against "I can help with funnels."
Your Free Unlock
Get the full member version of this guide, free
Everything on this page is the short version. The member guide goes all the way: the step-by-step learning plan, the tools, the AI prompts, and the practice projects that build real skill. Every person gets one guide free, and it can be this one.
Unlock This Guide Free → One Free Guide Per PersonAlready unlocked a guide, or already a member? Log in here.
How the money grows
The funnel builder service ladder
Four steps from your first course upload to steady monthly income. These prices are market averages, and premium builders charge well beyond them. (I could easily charge $10K for one funnel build.)
Starter
One course upload
$250–600+
Load one course into a platform the client already pays for. Bounded, low-risk, and proves you deliver.
Core
Full funnel build
$900–2.5K+
Opt-in, sales page, checkout, upsell, and the emails behind it, wired end to end. The complete package.
Premium
Platform migration
$800–3K+
Move a creator’s whole business from one platform to another without losing a student. Fewer people can do this, so it pays more.
Retainer
Tech VA retainer
$300–800+ /mo
New lessons, broken links, price updates, the next promo page, every month. Everyone starts hourly. Retainers come once your rate and portfolio are built (I teach them in my final course).
Who hires funnel builders?
Anyone with a course, a coaching offer, or a launch coming up, and no patience for why the checkout is broken. You’ve heard every one of these:
Businesses hire a funnel builder the moment a broken setup starts costing them sales, students, or peace of mind. Usually right before a launch, or right after one goes wrong.
The numbers
How much do funnel builders make?
Okay, money talk. Fair warning: you’re going to see Kajabi setup jobs posted for $10. Ten dollars! For a whole funnel! 🙃 Those clients get what they pay for, and you’re allowed to scroll right past them. The ranges below are an example of what average freelancers charge on Upwork in 2026, and they’re a good reference while you’re starting out. Inside FREELANCE with ERICA, you’ll learn how to position your services for premium pricing and move toward the top of these ranges over time.
Beginner
$15–25/hr+
No reviews yet, so you compete on a bounded, well-defined first project. A course upload or one landing page proves you deliver.
Intermediate
$25–45/hr+
Five good reviews and one named platform on your profile. This is where most steady freelance funnel work lives.
Advanced
$50–100/hr+
A niche, a portfolio, and a platform migration or two behind you. Specialists who own launch day are trusted with bigger builds.
Premium
$100–250/hr+
Experts whose funnels make their clients money. Work that drives revenue pays premium rates.
So how do you skip the $10 mess? Keep it simple: choose one platform and learn it well. Grab a free course or certification if one’s available, and start practicing: practice funnels, opt-in pages, course setups. When you’re ready for the step-by-step version, the four-week plan and practice projects in the member guide walk you through it.
One more thing, and I want you to really hear this: those ranges are averages, and averages have zero say over what you get to charge someday. As you work through my courses, you’ll learn how to stack skills and position your services, so you can become a premium freelancer who charges above the market. Here’s my own example: I’m a sales copywriter. Look up copywriters on Upwork and you’ll see averages between $10 and $75 an hour. I regularly charge over $200 an hour for the same skill, because there are clients who happily pay for real expertise, and you only need a handful of them.
Free guide
Not sure this is your lane?
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Level up later
Skills that stack with this work
The highest-earning freelancers combine two or three skills, so one small project turns into steady monthly work.
Email Marketing
Every funnel needs the automations behind it. Add deliverability and nurture flows and you’re the one running the whole system.
Read the Guide →Virtual Assistance
Tech VA retainers ARE funnel-builder work: new lessons, broken links, monthly upkeep. Same reliability, a bigger toolkit.
Read the Guide →Copywriting
Clients hand you their sales page copy and ask why it isn’t converting. Learn to fix the structure and now you’re the one making their words work too.
Read the Guide →Funnel builder FAQ
How much do freelance funnel builders make?+
Beginners with no reviews yet typically start around $15-25 an hour or take small fixed-price jobs. Once you have five good reviews and one named platform on your profile, $25-45 an hour is normal. Specialists with a niche and a portfolio reach $50-100+ an hour, and premium experts whose funnels make their clients money charge $100-250+. You’ll also see Kajabi and course-setup jobs posted at $10 flat. Skip those; they’re the bottom of the market.
Can I become a funnel builder with no coding experience?+
Yes. Every platform in this skill, Kajabi, ClickFunnels, GoHighLevel, Teachable, is drag-and-drop. If you’ve built a wedding website, a Shopify store, or a fantasy-league page, you already have the muscle.
Is funnel building a good skill for a beginner with no tech background?+
Yes, if you like a checklist and a “done” state. The whole value of this job is catching the broken link before the client’s customer does, and you can absolutely learn that habit.
What’s the difference between Kajabi, ClickFunnels, and GoHighLevel?+
Kajabi is the all-in-one course platform: courses, website, email, and checkout in one login. ClickFunnels is built for the funnel itself: drag-and-drop sales pages, checkout, and upsells, plus a course feature. GoHighLevel is the agency tool: CRM, funnels, texting, and booking, mostly for local businesses through an agency. Most beginners pick one lane and learn it deeply first; spreading across all three can wait.
Is there a free funnel builder certification?+
Yes, several. HubSpot Academy’s marketing certifications are free and put a real badge on an empty Upwork profile. GoHighLevel’s Academy has free foundational courses, though its official Certified Admin credential is paid. Kajabi has no certification at all. You apply to be a listed “Kajabi Expert” instead.
How do I get my first funnel builder client?+
Upwork is the fastest on-ramp: look for bounded jobs like “upload my course to Kajabi” or “set up my checkout and order bump.” Build one practice funnel on a free plan first, screen-record yourself doing it, and that recording becomes your portfolio when you have zero clients yet.
Get started, $9/mo
Ready to learn the how?
The full guide is one piece of the starting tier. Everything on the right comes with it.
- The full Digital Skills Library, all 90+ guides
- The Find Your Freelance Ready Skills training
- The FWE community chat forum
- Weekly co-working calls
- Five monthly contests for cash
- The monthly accountability challenge
- The proposal tracker that comes with it
- Live guest trainings