Making courses is a one of the best ways to earning steady income.
You make the course once and keep earning from it for 1 to 10 years.
Many people earn over $5,000 monthly by selling their courses.
Thanks to AI tools, creating them is now easier and faster. Follow these practical steps to get started:
1. Get ideas
I suggest picking a subject you love or know a lot about. Look up hot trends on explodingtopics.com and make a course on a trendy topic. The more popular the topic the more people will want it.
2. Come up with a specific topic
Stay away from broad topics since there’s a lot of competition, making it tough to sell. Focus on being as specific as possible. Here are some great examples:
- WordPress for Beginners: Create a Website Step by Step.
- Photography – The Ultimate Guide to Using Off-Camera Flash.
- 14-Day Yoga Detox and Empowerment Course.
3. Create the course
Courseau is a fantastic tool for building a online courses.
This tool can mix information from different places like YouTube videos, audio files, websites, and PDFs, and make a course using all these sources. This will save you so much time from researching and summarizing the information.
However, the free version is limited to using just one source. For accessing multiple sources, Courseau provides a subscription service with plans at $39 and $99 per month. The premium plan, priced at $99, leverages GPT-4 technology to facilitate the creation of detailed, long-form courses.
Check out the tutorial:
- Go to Courseau and sign-up.
- Build a course using YouTube videos, files, and websites.
- Outline what learners will gain by explaining the skills or knowledge your audience will have by the end of the course.
- Choose the webpage colors. Stick with the default colors if you’re unsure.
- Refine your course. Courseau drafts a basic structure and content for you. Dedicate time to enhancing it as much as possible.
- Quality matters. A comprehensive and easy to follow course brings better outcomes. Remember, people are paying for it, so make it valuable.
4. Set the right price for your course
A high price might scare off people because it seems too costly, but setting it too low won’t bring in much money. Finding the right price is crucial. Here’s how:
Look at prices for similar courses
Visit Udemy to see what others charge for courses like yours. Prices can vary, for instance, from $10 to $69 for online marketing courses.
Set a price depending on the length of your course.
If your course is shorter than others, consider pricing it around $10. For longer courses, you might go up to $69.
For newcomers without a reputation, it’s wise to start with lower prices to draw in customers and refine your course. As your course improves and proves its worth, you can then raise the price.
Add a discount
Offering a discount is a highly effective strategy to boost the likelihood of someone enrolling in your course. It leverages a psychological tactic that has proven successful.
5. Add explainer videos
Videos make it easier to understand information. That’s why it’s good to record explainer videos where you give examples or talk directly to the camera.
If you prefer not to be on camera, you can use tools like Veed.io or HeyGen. They let you turn a written script into a video.
6. Profit
1. Put your course on an online learning site.
These sites have lots of users, so your course gets seen without paying for ads. But, they keep a cut of your sales. For instance, if your course sells for $10 on Udemy, they take 50%, leaving you $5.
1.1 Udemy
Sell your course on Udemy even without any followers or your own site. It’ll be seen by many of Udemy’s users. The drawback is Udemy’s high fee, taking more than half of what you earn from your course.
1.2 Teachable
Teachable is an alternative to Udemy. It has less users, but it takes only 10% to 0% of your revenue.
2. Publish a gig on Fiverr
Using Fiverr is a smart way to sell your online course if you don’t already have an audience. Just set up a gig offering your course, and you could start getting purchases from Fiverr’s users.
Fiverr gets 5.5% + $2.5 of the sale.
3. Sell on GumRoad
Gumroad is a platform where you can offer your course in PDF form or as a webpage, granting access once it’s purchased. Gumroad keeps a 10% flat fee on each course sale.
4. Create you own website
By doing this, you keep all the earnings and manage every aspect of your course. Platforms such as Wix or Bubble let you create websites without coding. They work with payment systems like Stripe and PayPal to unlock the course once it’s paid for.
However, the downside is that you would need to invest time and money to create the site and attract users to it. One way is through organic SEO, which takes a lot of time, and the other way is through paid online advertising.
How to get traffic to your course?
Here are two key methods to bring potential customers to your online course:
Paid online ads
- Google Ads: one of the highest return on investment platforms. Google can deliver ads specifically to your target audience.
- Bing ads: Bing is a bit cheaper alternative to Google ads with great return on investment
- Twitter Ads: Promote your course on Twitter (X)
- LinkedIn ads: Ads specific to professionals
- BuySellAds: Advertise directly on websites
- Pay influencers to promote your course using sites like Influence.co or Izea: Hire influencers to promote the course
Social media traffic
The best scenario is having followers already. Just share your course with them to gain customers. Any platform is good, but YouTube is especially effective for drawing traffic, though it takes effort to make engaging content.
Growing a social media following is complex and beyond this guide’s scope. Focus on creating content that engages and helps your audience.
Video tutorials
Here are some YouTube tutorials to help you in your online course creation journey:
- How to Sell Online Courses With No Audience (2024)
- How to Create an Online Course in 2024
- These Websites Generate Online Courses in Minutes!
Summary
To create a successful paid online course, you must ensure it’s of the highest quality. The AI tools mentioned here can kick-start your process. Take the time needed to gather valuable information. Spending 1-3 weeks on creation is okay. Since it’s a paid course, its quality must be world-class to draw in customers and secure a steady income.
