The internet has grown rapidly in the last few decades. The latest estimates show that about 62% of the worldwide population have access to the internet today. This is a 1,239% growth rate since 2000.
As the internet continues to grow, we are seeing trends toward running businesses online instead of at physical locations. With this strategy, the need for staff members and physical premises can be reduced or eliminated altogether. This means fewer expenses to run a business, resulting in higher turnovers and profit.
It is a well-known fact that education is a critical part of creating a successful career. Unfortunately, attending a college or university is not an appropriate option for many people. Becoming a student at an older age is inconvenient.
With this in mind, people are turning to the internet to adopt new skills, learn new subjects, and become educated to take on new career opportunities. This also creates business opportunities for you if you have skills to share. This is the ultimate guide that will help you learn how to sell courses online, guiding you through every step from course creation to promotion.
What Are Online Courses and Why Is This A Trending Subject?
There’s really nothing complicated about an online course – it is essentially educational materials that are presented on the internet. There are several platforms that have launched to give people access to such content. These platforms are not only for the person who wants to increase their set of skills and education but also for creators and authors who are ready to share their expertise.
An online course can be presented in various formats. A majority of courses contain video content, which provides an effective way of creating a personalized experience for the student. This, however, is not the only format used to present courses.
Depending on the type of course and the subject, some content creators also turn to digital text formats with illustrations, graphs, and other image content added as media. Audio content can also be added for students who prefer to listen in on a lesson instead of reading through long and tedious documents. These varied delivery formats are excellent for accessibility, in case some learners have disabilities or are using accessibility technology.
There are a few reasons why online courses are currently considered a highly sought-after product and trending in the last few years.
Online Course Are Convenient
First of all, the fact that universities and colleges take up too much time out of a person’s schedule makes turning to an online course more attractive. Attending a college means you need to go out to a physical location to receive the education you desire for that boost in your career. If you are already working a day job, this can be tough. While night classes are available, it can be taxing on energy levels. Lots of potential students want to spend evenings with family rather than out at school.
With an online course, the student has the ability to learn at their own pace. If they can only dedicate an hour a day for learning, then this poses no issue. They can use that hour to study on their own.
There is also no need to drive to a specific location in order to attend a classroom. With an online course, the student can learn from anywhere – at home, in the park, or even while they are traveling out of town.
Online Courses Are Affordable
By the beginning of 2020, the average tuition and fees payable by students when they attend a public in-state college is $9,687. When turning to an out-of-state public college, the average tuition and fees rise to $12,184. Among those who prefer a private college, the average annual rate for attendance is $35,087.
Universities have even higher fees associated with attendance. When a student attends a public university and enrolls in a two-year program, the average annual fee payable is $12,320. A four-year university with a public status tends to charge an average of $21,370 per year. The fees are even higher when the student enrolls at a private university.
While financial aid programs are available, these often only cover a very small amount of the funds demanded for the course. Lots of students turn to large education loans and carry that debt for decades.
These prices make education difficult to achieve for a lot of students. Many students go from high school directly to a day job, since they cannot afford the high fees charged by colleges and universities.
The solution to this problem is to turn to the online world. Online courses tend to be much more affordable and still can provide the student with quality education.
For learning basic skills like programming, nutrition, fitness, and other topics, courses often start from as little as $15 on some platforms. This is a significant reduction compared to the pricing for attending a college or a university.
Sure, many of the online platforms will not provide the person with a certificate, but there are still examinations that can be done after the student obtained adequate education from the online learning site. These exams will be much less expensive compared to university fees – and ensure the student can obtain the appropriate certificates and diplomas that showcase their skills.
Online Courses Are Easier to Access
Applying to take up a course at a college or university takes time. There is an approval process that the student needs to go through – and there is always a chance that their application will be declined. This makes it harder for the average person to gain access to the education they need.
This is yet another area where online courses thrive. These courses will often have no specific requirements, other than advising the student they need some way to access the course material.
The student will usually also gain access to a digital profile. This allows the student to keep track of the course they are busy with, see their performance, communicate with the teacher, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Can You Make Selling Online Courses?
People looking at how to sell courses online will most often ask about the earning potential of this business opportunity. You are obviously required to put effort into the course materials that will be provided to your students, so you need to know that you will get a good return.
There isn’t a single guaranteed figure to work from when asking how much you will earn when creating content and selling them as course material. The statistics between teachers and content creators on online course platforms differ a lot.
The general range goes from $0 up to about $50,000 in profit per month. This range should show you the huge potential that lies in the industry. Don’t expect to hit that $50,000 mark within your first month, but work hard, dedicate time, and create great course content and you are sure to succeed and make a substantial monthly profit from your efforts.
You can always calculate the earning potential of your courses. An online calculator can be used, or you can do the math yourself.
Start by considering the possible number of visitors you can send to your course’s landing page every month. Then take a realistic conversion rate into the equation.
Here’s something important to note at this point – the conversion rate for online courses is generally like, just like with many other types of online marketing programs – but with the right strategy and course price, you can still have a big profit at the end of the month.
Let's consider a conversion rate of 5%. This is realistic when looking at online courses. You sell your course for $14, and you get 2,450 visitors on your landing page each month.
With these statistics, you would be earning about $1,715 per month, with the potential of earning around $20,580 in a 12-month period. You still need to deduct the expenses you had to reach that 2,450 visitor threshold, but it still gives you a good idea of what is possible.
Money can be made even on a lower budget. Let’s assume your budget is only big enough to attract about 290 visitors to your landing page for the month. Your conversion rate remains at 5%, and you decide to sell your course for $50. This gives you a revenue of $725 per month or $8,700 per annum.
As you progress and grow, you increase the budget for advertising campaigns – ultimately reaching 30,000 visitors per month. Even at a conversion rate of just 2% and a course price of $32, you make $19,257.60 in revenue for the month. That’s over $230,000 per year!
While these are all only estimates and examples, you should get an idea of how much potential lies within this industry.
What Do You Need to Sell Online Courses?
To sell courses on the internet, make sure you understand what is required from your side. This ensures there will be no roadblocks down the line.
The good news is you do not need to have a doctorate degree if you want to set up and sell courses on the internet. In fact, some people selling course content do not have any degrees. Instead, they are self-taught success cases that have just worked hard to gain expertise in a specific field.
Skill and expertise are the two main ingredients in the recipe for a successful online course. If you do not have the skills to present and teach, then you are likely not going to do well by selling a course on the internet. Simultaneously, you need to have specific skills that you can teach to other people. This could be anything from IT skills, working with Microsoft Word, designing with Adobe Photoshop, or even details on how to apply makeup perfectly.
If you have a skill that you can teach, then move on to the next requirements:
- You need a device that will allow you to create content. This would preferably be a computer or laptop, although it is not impossible to start out from just a smartphone.
- You should have access to the internet. Without this it’s not possible to upload content, keep track of performance, and provide fast and efficient support for your students.
If you meet these basics, then you should be ready to proceed.
Do You Need to Invest to Make Money?
The answer is neither yes nor no because it depends on you. If you have the skills to set up everything from your side, including a landing page, learning management system, and the additional systems needed, then there might not be a need to spend any money to get started.
If you are serious about this opportunity and want to learn how to sell video e-courses online, along with other types of educational content, and your aim is to gain maximum profit, then an initial investment would certainly be useful.
There is no need to invest thousands of dollars when you get started.
A few investments you might want to make to enhance the experience of your students and help you be more productive:
- Invest in a custom domain name with hosting
- Consider paying for a good LMS system, such as the one offered by GuruCan.com, which can provide you with all the functions you need to run an online course and profit in the process.
- Get a graphic designer to set up a professional logo for your brand. You can use a local freelance designer if you have a modest budget, or look on Fiverr if you are on a low budget.
- Spend some money on advertisements to get an initial stream of traffic to your landing page.
How Do You Make an Online Course Profitable?
There is more than one way to profit from an online course; maximizing your opportunities ultimately means more profit in your pocket.
The initial profits come from the sale you made. In addition to this profit, you can also choose to include affiliate links in the content, as long as these do not come across as being spam. If you are showing your students how to create a website, for example, consider adding affiliate links to domain registration and hosting companies.
What are the Best Selling Online Courses?
Some niches do seem to do better than others when it comes to online courses. These niches are currently at the top list of best-ranked courses on the internet:
- Computer courses (software and hardware subjects)
- Web design and computer programming
- Business management
- Affiliate marketing courses
- Digital marketing courses
- Arts and crafts courses
- Health-related courses
- Fitness courses
- Content creation courses
- Personal development courses
Do Online Courses Have Any Value?
Even though a majority of online courses will not provide the student with a certificate or diploma, there is still a lot of value to gain. The student is provided with educational material that helps to learn a new skill which they can use to build their own business, gain access to a better career, or write an exam to gain a certification.
Which App Is Best For Online Teaching?
There are several apps that help you set up an online course and deliver it to your audience. GuruCan.com has a multipurpose app that allows you to have live one-on-one sessions with students, plus deliver pre-defined educational content to those who enrolled in the course you offer.
Conclusion
Learning how to sell courses online is easier than most people think. If you have skills that you can teach others, access to a mobile device or a computer, and you are connected to the internet, then there is a huge opportunity waiting for you.
This guide showed you how to make and sell your own online courses, allowing you to profit from sharing your skills and expertise with others. There are several platforms available to help you achieve your goal. GuruCan is a state-of-the-art, cloud-based platform that simplifies the process, making it faster, easier, and more profitable to share online courses with students.
