Creating an online course is a great way to share your valuable knowledge and skills with others. If done correctly, it can also be a way to earn a good income online.
We started selling online courses in 2016 and have sold thousands since then. However, success did not come overnight. It took time to learn what it takes to make and sell online courses, people are willing to buy.
This guide will share tips and tricks we’ve picked up over the years. The first section will explain how to create an online course, and the second will explain how to sell courses by marketing to the right audience.
How To Make Online Courses
- Choose a Course Topic
- Validate Your Idea
- Choose a Course Creation Platform
- Create Course Content
- Decide On Your Course Pricing
- Build a Course Sales Page
1. Choose a Course Topic
The first step is to decide what your course should be about. Demand and expertise should be among the criteria you evaluate when choosing a topic.
The reason is simple. If there is a high demand for your course, selling it will be easier. Besides popularity, finding a subject in which you have some expertise is essential.
This will allow you to create a high-quality learning resource. If you are passionate about the topic, all the better.
In most cases, the more specific the subject matter of your course, the more you can charge for it.
Here are some practical ways to find popular course topics:
Keyword Research
Start with keyword research. By performing keyword research, you will learn what topics people search for, how often they search for them, and how this trend changes over time. Once you find a good topic to cover, you can research related keywords for ideas on what to include in your lesson plan.
Best Selling Courses on Popular Platforms
Next, you should see which courses get the most sales on popular learning platforms. This will give you a clear indicator of the topics learners are interested in. Some good learning platforms worth checking out are Udemy and Coursera.
YouTube
Another way to find in-demand course ideas is to find popular videos. Go to YouTube and see what topics people are engaging with the most. When you find an interesting topic, analyze it further to see if it is a good fit for making a course.
Competitor Analysis
If you have any existing business competitors, you can spy on the topics they cover in their content to find new course ideas. Look for a subject where their content could be improved. Then, you can create a more comprehensive resource to offer your audience.
If they sell courses, do some in-depth analysis to find out as much as you can, like:
- Check their website traffic to see how many people visit their course sales pages.
- Find out how many students they have.
- Search for course reviews.
- Buy their course to get a good understanding of their offering and sales process.
Popular Topics You Already Rank For
Lastly, check your Google Analytics and keyword ranking reports, to see which subjects you already rank for in search engines. If you were to create courses in these areas, you could benefit immediately from a source of organic traffic.
2. Validate Your Idea
It is important to validate any course idea before fully committing to it. Research is helpful, but you never know how your audience will respond to a particular topic.
By validating your idea, you can get confirmation that it is a good fit for your audience before you invest the time and resources into creating the course.
Below are some ways you can validate your online course idea:
Survey Your Audience
Surveys are a simple way to validate a course idea. You can use a survey to ask your audience directly if they would find value in a particular topic.
With a survey, you can also open the floor to your audience, allowing them to suggest their own ideas.
Create a Pre-Sales Page and Send it to Your Newsletter
Before launching your course, you can create a sales page to test how customers respond. The sales page should include all necessary information for users to make a buying decision.
Since you already know what the course would cover, you can easily create a copy for your sales page.
If a high percentage of your audience engages with the page or signs up to join, you can feel confident that it is a good course idea.
Instead of offering immediate access to the course, you can display a call-to-action (CTA) for visitors to pre-purchase a seat in your online class. Or, you could use a CTA asking them to subscribe to updates.
After you build the pre-sales page, send it to your email list to see what your audience thinks.
Test Your Idea With Facebook Ads
Pre-sales pages give you the ability to run test advertising campaigns.
How well a topic performs in a test campaign can be a good indicator of the viability of the course idea.
In the early stages of selling online courses, you will likely need to rely on paid marketing to attract customers. If a topic doesn’t work with advertising, it will be hard for the course to gain traction.
Start by testing your pre-sales page using Facebook Ads. Select a target audience that best matches the topic and measure how well they respond to your page.
Look for a high number of conversions from your visitors. If the page receives strong engagement, the course topic should be suitable for selling as a course.
3. Choose a Course Creation Platform
After you validate your course idea, the next step is to choose your course creation platform.
You will use that software to create, host, and sell your course.
You should have a good idea of how you want to structure the course before choosing a platform. That way, you can select a platform with all the necessary features.
Many good platforms have the core features to create and sell an online course. Some of the top online course-building platforms include:
- Learndash
- LearnWorlds
- Thinkific
- Teachable
4. Create Course Content
With a course platform in place, you can begin building your online course.
The bulk of your work will involve planning and writing the course content.
Recording the material will also take some time, but it should not be overly difficult. With some simple equipment, you can film a high-quality course video.
After you record your videos, you will need to edit them to make them suitable for your audience.
From there, you can create any additional resources you want to offer students and begin adding them to your course platform.
Having created several online courses, I can tell you it is not as hard as you may think. It will take some practice to become a master, but you can make a good course even if you are a beginner.
Here are some tips you should follow:
Create an Outline First - Starting with an outline, you can decide everything your course will cover to ensure it is presented in the most insightful order.
Break Content Into Multiple Lessons - Segmenting your course material into different lessons helps keep things organized. Try breaking the lessons into small, digestible topics, as this makes it easier for students to retain the information.
Combine Video and Text - The best online courses teach readers using a combination of text and video, creating a great learning experience for users.
Include Downloadable Material - Downloadable material provides your users with more actionable resources. This could be a template, checklist, spreadsheet, or other tool that helps students apply what they’ve learned.
Add Checklists For Each Lesson - Adding a checklist to the end of each lesson helps wrap up the section, giving students a quick summary of the key points to remember.
5. Decide On Your Course Pricing
Choosing how to price your course is a key step in making a successful course.
Here are the most common pricing structures:
Once-Off Payment
This is the simplest pricing structure for online courses. Customers pay a one-time fee before gaining access to the material. How much you can charge for the course depends on the length of your course and the subject matter.
This can range anywhere from $29 to a few hundred dollars. You could price it higher, but this tends to put it out of most people's price range.
Avoid pricing your course too low as it will make it hard to generate significant profits.
Subscription Based
With a subscription-based pricing structure, you charge customers a recurring payment for access to the course material. Subscriptions generally recur monthly.
A subscription-based pricing model is a good choice if you are planning to deliver more course material. Instead of charging a hefty one-time fee, you can allow customers to spread out the cost over an extended period.
Plus, users can always unsubscribe if they are no longer interested.
Subscriptions also let you monetize post-course benefits. For example, you could have a private community that students need an active membership to access.
Course Bundles
With a bundle, you sell courses at a discounted price. Bundles are a great way to increase the value of each sale. Customers who may have only purchased a single course instead pay for multiple.
Customers benefit from bundles and access multiple resources at a more affordable price. We’re big fans of course bundles and use them for our digital marketing courses.
If you have multiple courses to sell, consider this pricing model.
Free Content, Paid Certifications
Another way to sell online classes is to offer the course for free but require students to pay to receive a certification. Certifications are valuable to students as they provide a way to validate their skills.
6. Build a Course Sales Page
After choosing your course pricing structure, you must refine your course sales page. You can take your pre-sales page created in Step 2 and improve it using the following best practices:
Easy to Navigate: Your sales page should be easy for visitors to find what they need. Name each page section and add links to crucial areas like pricing.
Mobile Friendly: Most of today’s web traffic comes from mobile devices. As such, it is important to have a page optimized for mobile users. You want to stack elements vertically to prevent customers from having to scroll from side to side.
The easiest way to do this is to use a responsive web design for your site to adapt your pages based on the user’s device automatically.
Show What People Will Get: Your course sales page should clarify what students will get when enrolling. List out any resources, certifications, or other benefits that will receive.
Learning Objectives: This is the core of your course sales page. You should list out each topic and subject area that your course will cover.
Easy Checkout Process: You don’t want to make it difficult for customers to complete their orders. Your checkout should be quick and straightforward. Only include necessary fields and limit the steps to as few as possible.
Student Reviews - Social proof is a great way to showcase the benefits of your courses to your visitors. Consider providing a course sample to a few in your audience and collecting their feedback. You can then add these reviews to your sales page to further boost the credibility of your course.
Pro Tip: Check out our course sales page to get an idea of how to create a high-converting course landing page.
How To Sell Online Courses
- Start Blogging on Topics Related To Your Course
- Publish "Best of" Articles
- Create a YouTube Channel
- Use Facebook Ads
- Run Google Ads Campaigns
- Create a Coupon Code
- Offer a Free Mini-Course
- Guest Post on Related Websites
- Appear on Podcasts
- Create Partnerships With Other Course Creators
- Create an Affiliate Program
- Join Discussion Groups on Facebook and Reddit
- Add Internal Ads To Your Website
- Host a Webinar
- Add a Link to Your Course in Your Newsletter
- Create Lead Magnets
- Add Links to Your Homepage and Menu
- Add Links On Your Social Media Profiles
- Create a Reviews Page
1. Start Blogging on Topics Related To Your Course
People want to learn from industry experts and thought leaders. One of the best ways to prove you know what you’re talking about is to start blogging.
Your blog is a powerful tool for strengthening your reputation and attracting potential students to your course. A blog highlights your industry expertise and gives you an excellent opportunity to improve your search engine rankings by strategically using keywords.
Research trending keywords related to your course topic. For instance, if you’re sharing courses on digital marketing, you might type “digital marketing” into Google to see what shows up in the “People also ask” and “related” sections.
You can also use keyword research tools, like Google keyword planner.
Once you have your keywords, create insightful, well-optimized blog content for each focus keyword. Concentrate on delivering value by answering student questions, sharing unique insights, and speaking to your audience in a language they can understand.
2. Publish "Best of" Articles
Content marketing is one of the best ways to generate awareness when marketing an online school or course.
Most people don’t realize there’s much more to content marketing than blogging. You can create eBooks to accompany your courses or publish helpful infographics.
One particularly valuable strategy is to publish “best of” articles. This is a great way to draw focus to your course and highlight its value, without being overly promotional.
For example, if you’re promoting your Facebook Ads Course, write an article on the “best Facebook ads courses” and include your course on the list. It doesn’t have to be the first item on the list and you don’t have to promote it too much. Just explain to your readers the benefits of enrolling in your course without exaggeration.
Try this technique, and you’ll be surprised by the results. You'll find that it is one of the best ways to sell online courses.
3. Create a YouTube Channel
Video content is excellent for generating engagement – particularly on channels like YouTube.
YouTube has billions of monthly active users and is one of the most popular search engines in the world, just behind Google.
When you create a YouTube channel you can:
- Demonstrate thought leadership: Share information and insights valuable to your target audience, focusing on your subject niche.
- Share snippets of courses: Provide insights into what people might get from your courses with small, sample videos.
- Create customer relationships: Build deeper, human relationships with audiences through face-to-face interactions and live-streaming.
4. Use Facebook Ads
While many social media channels can help you grow attention for your online course, Facebook is the most effective.
One of the great things about Facebook Ads is how targeted they can be. Through your Facebook ad account, you can focus specifically on the people most likely to be interested in your course, filtering by location, age, and interests.
When creating your Facebook ads, concentrate on generating excitement for your course through discounts and deals, social proof (reviews from previous customers), and insights into what your course will entail.
If you want to learn more, our Facebook Course explains how to use Facebook Ads to promote your online course or digital product.
5. Run Google Ads Campaigns
Paid advertising campaigns shouldn’t stop with Facebook. When you’re wondering how to market online courses, you must also consider Google Ads.
Much of your work to improve your course’s position online with Google will involve organic content creation and SEO. But adding a little PPC to the mix can significantly boost your reach.
Google Ads Search Campaigns and pay-per-click advertising help attract specific people to your course subscription pages. Using a careful selection of keywords, your Google Ads will position your learning experiences in front of your target audience.
Remember, monitoring the results of your Google Search campaigns and updating your strategy as you go can help you save money on advertising efforts.
6. Create a Coupon Code
Everyone loves a great deal. Offering coupons and discounts is a very effective method for selling online courses. When deciding whether to take your course, your students will weigh the education's costs with the potential benefits.
A discount code makes your would-be customers feel like they’re taking less risk with your offer.
You can also use the initial customers you earn through coupon codes to collect feedback about your course – perfect for both product optimization and attracting future clients via social proof.
Offer discounts for:
- Early birds: people who sign up for your course first
- Loyal customers: people who take multiple courses with you
- Advocates: early customers willing to share reviews
7. Offer a Free Mini-Course
Perhaps the only thing more exciting than getting something valuable at a discounted price is getting something for free.
When designing your marketing plan for an online course, consider whether a free “mini-course” could give you the initial boost you need. While giving something away for free might seem counterproductive, it’s an excellent way to generate customer trust and make a name for yourself in your niche.
Just look at how the most popular online learning platforms regularly offer free trials of their products.
A mini online course also allows you to collect customer contact details, you can use Facebook retargeting and email marketing to nurture leads into paying customers.
Try not to give away too much in your free course, or your students might not think the paid version is worth it.
8. Guest Post on Related Websites
Producing content for your website and social media pages is crucial when marketing a course. However, you also want to develop a presence in the overall community.
Guest blogging on websites closely related to the topics you want to cover can help raise brand awareness too.
Guest posting helps to connect you with other well-known entities in the niche you’re selling your courses in, which makes you more trustworthy to students.
Guest blogging is also excellent for SEO, as it helps create backlinks from related companies to your website. Search for well-respected (but not competing) companies, podcasts, and websites in your space and reach out to them.
These days, most websites are keen to get their hands on as much quality content as possible, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding someone willing to work with you.
9. Appear on Podcasts
Today’s consumers don’t just read articles and watch videos; they also listen to podcasts.
78% of Americans are now familiar with “podcasting”, and more than 5 in 10 have listened to a podcast. Appearing on a podcast is a great way to reach people who might not have time to consume other kinds of digital content.
Appearing on a podcast with a well-known content creator in your industry has a similar impact as guest posting, as it helps to position you as an expert in your field.
Since podcasting is growing rapidly, there are many podcasters looking for people to interview these days. Try searching for your topic on Google or Apple podcasts to find experts to reach out to.
10. Create Partnerships With Other Course Creators
Partnering with other course providers can be an excellent strategy for marketing online classes if done correctly.
Notably, you’ll need to be particularly cautious here to ensure you’re not contacting course creators who may become competitors in your niche.
The best partnerships are the ones you create with course creators who operate in a complementary niche to you.
For instance, if you sell courses related to graphic design, you might partner up with content creation or marketing course creators who can also help your students.
Other professionals in your industry can give you new ways of building “course packages” to attract a broader range of customers.
Plus, partnering with other content creators means you can have another team of professionals selling your courses (for a commission), to increase sales.
11. Create an Affiliate Program
Speaking of leveraging other companies and professionals to help sell your courses, an affiliate program can be a powerful tool, too.
About 81% of brands have an affiliate program that involves paying a commission to a group of people for promoting and selling your courses.
Affiliate strategies can involve asking people to post about your course in their blogs or talk about your courses on social media. You could even place ads on popular websites.
It’s essential to research your affiliate marketing options to ensure you’re offering your affiliates a decent amount of payment for their time.
12. Join Discussion Groups on Facebook and Reddit
One of the easiest ways to boost your reach and improve your reputation as a course creator, is to join discussion groups on Reddit and Facebook.
These groups are excellent for tracking down specific students interested in the topics you want to cover.
You can use your position in groups to answer questions, and (occasionally) link back to your courses as a source of information. Focus on genuinely offering values to other groups, rather than just promoting your course.
13. Add Internal Ads To Your Website
There are various ways to make your website more “conversion-friendly” as a course creator. When visitors browse your blog, check out your latest reviews, or learn about you as an industry expert, remind them they can purchase your courses.
Adding internal ads to your blog posts, which people can easily click on to visit your latest course offers, is a great way to get started with boosting conversions.
Another option is to create eye-catching pop-ups for your site. Pop-ups can be annoying when used too regularly, but they’re also a good way to convince people to convert, mainly when they offer special deals, highlight the value of your course, and appear at the right time for users.
14. Host a Webinar
Another fantastic way to enhance your marketing plan for an online course is to strengthen your position as a leading educator with a webinar. Short, focused webinars can be as simple as a YouTube video or podcast.
Webinars can be much easier to create than most educators realize. You can follow a specific structured formula, and even use the content published elsewhere on your site to help guide your narrative. You only need to create and distribute a few webinar scripts over time.
To promote your class with a webinar, create a presentation that is 30 to 45 minutes long and concerns a broad topic you discuss in your course.
Touch on your audience’s pain points and offer some simple solutions. Then, ask them to sign up for the course for more assistance.
15. Add a Link to Your Course in Your Newsletter
Your email list is one of the most valuable assets you’ll have as a course creator.
The people you convince to sign up for email newsletters with your blog posts, special offers, and even dedicated landing pages are more likely to convert into paying customers over time.
With your newsletter, you can regularly keep your would-be students up-to-date about the course experiences you’re currently offering and even share case studies from successful students.
Including a link to your course in your newsletter is also a good idea, with a CTA.
16. Create Lead Magnets
As mentioned above, marketing a course will be much easier if you already have an email list full of potentially interesting prospects.
You can collect email addresses in many different ways, but lead magnets are among the most effective options.
A lead magnet is something of value you can offer your would-be subscriber to convince them to sign up for your newsletter. You can create lead magnets like:
- A free eBook for people who sign up
- Discounts on your courses for subscribers
- Free access to your webinar
Once you have your list of email subscribers, you can gently nurture them into conversions with regular emails showing your expertise, social proof, and the value of your courses.
17. Add Links to Your Homepage and Menu
Simplicity is an important part of conversion rate optimization.
Today’s digital natives want easy, fast, and convenient access to products and services. They shouldn’t have to search for your offers.
When you begin promoting your online course, add links to your homepage and website menu, so your customers can immediately visit your course landing page.
18. Add Links On Your Social Media Profiles
To make it easier for customers to access your courses, make sure a link to your course is also available on all of your social media profiles.
Not everyone will decide to sign up for your course when browsing your website.
If someone encounters you on social media and decides they want to learn more about your course, they should have instant access to the sales page at a click of a button.
19. Create a Reviews Page
As mentioned above, a big part of marketing an online class is convincing your audience that your course is worth their time and money.
An online course isn’t just a financial investment; it requires genuine effort from a student. To show your audience they’ll get a return on investment, it’s important to have plenty of social proof. This means creating a course review page.
A course review page shares testimonials and insights from other students who have already achieved excellent things with the help of your course. You can even include links to case studies where you explore student stories in-depth.
Here is an example of what our course reviews page looks like:
Hopefully, this guide helped you understand how to use online courses to create a passive income stream for your business. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
