The Retired Affiliate

How to Sell Courses Online

Mark Apletree

How to Sell Courses Online
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Are you ready to sell courses online? This guide will show you how to sell your digital products online and make money. Why create and sell online courses?

Because people are looking for your expertise… and because there is money to be made! There is a massive opportunity for online courses and e-learning.

By 2025, the e-learning market will be worth $325 Billion.

In 2018, digital education and e-learning were worth more than $46 billion. Experts expect the global e-learning market to grow in the future.

Is selling online courses profitable? It is possible with the proper knowledge and numbers. Once you have a customer base, selling online courses can provide passive income.

You can use online courses as marketing tools to strengthen client relationships. Your online course can help you demonstrate your brand’s values. Demonstrate to them why you are better than your competitors. You will see loyalty and advocacy grow for your course when you build strong relationships.

It’s possible to create and sell courses online. You only need to have some knowledge and passion for the subject.

Kajabi has everything you need for your online business. All the information you need.

How to Sell Courses Online

Here’s a list of 9 tips to sell courses online:

1. Select a Popular Topic.

A recent study found that 42% of entrepreneurs fail due to a lack of a market for their products.

It shouldn’t surprise that career-related courses are the most popular. Here’s a list of the top-selling online courses:

  • Technology and computers
  • Entrepreneurship and business
  • Arts and crafts
  • Fitness and health
  • Education
  • Writing
  • Lifestyle/personal development
  • Entertainment
  • Social science
  • Mathematical and science

You should look for niche topics within these subjects.

You could, for example, create an online course in arts and crafts on how to use social media to promote Etsy stores. You could also teach a course in coding for beginners.

2. Create Your Online Course.

We’ll now cover the basics of creating an online course.

Focus on a particular subject. When creating an online course, you first need to decide what subject you want to teach.

Listed below are my top tips to help you pick the right topic:

Choose a narrow and focused topic over a broad one. A broad topic will usually lead to more competition. Focusing on a niche is easier to communicate expertise.

Showcase expert-level knowledge: This means that you are an expert in a particular topic. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a genius.

It is vital to understand your audience, their problems, and what you can do to help them solve them.

Once you have selected a subject for your online course, it is time to begin making it.

Production levels should be kept high. People will pay a lot for your course.

Your course should be of higher quality than a YouTube video.

You will need the following:

  • A high-quality HD camera: Both the Sony CX405 and Canon VIXIA are great choices.
  • Lighting: It shouldn’t look like you’re recording in a bunker. Look around for professional lighting. Lightning rings can be a cost-effective and inexpensive way to illuminate yourself for online courses. A studio lighting kit from Amazon is also an option. It will cost around $100 and include everything you need.
  • Final Cut Pro is a good choice if you have professional editing experience. Wevideo, however, will let you create professional-looking videos even if you don’t have any editing experience. It’s a great video editing program for novice editors, and it costs only $15.99 per month.
  • A green screen: You can swap the background for any image using the green screen. This makes it easy to add graphics and b-roll footage.
  • A script: Teleprompter Lite is an app that turns a tablet or laptop into a teleprompter. This allows you to read the script and look into the camera.

You don’t have to buy a professional set-up. Use whatever equipment is available to you. Remember that your audience will perceive a professional product as being more valuable. If you have the opportunity, invest in yourself.

You have now chosen a subject and all the gear you need. It is time to start shooting videos!

The green screen should be placed behind you. You should pull the green screen taut, so there are no wrinkles.

Next, place the tripod and the lights behind it in front of the camera. It’s high time you started recording.

To ensure that you sound and look good, do a test recording. Adjust the lights to remove shadows from your face and body.

Research has shown that recording each video at least three more times is essential. It takes three times to nail the delivery, for whatever reason.

3. Choose Where to Offer Courses Online.

Online courses must be accessible. A hosting system should make it easy for students to access the course, customize it with their branding, and look professional.

You have three options for selling and hosting your online course.

A platform for creating online courses that meet all your needs, including video hosting and marketing!

Self-hosting: You can host your online courses and sell them from your website by setting up your server with hosting companies. Self-hosting allows you complete control over your content.

An online course marketplace: The last option is hosting your course on an online learning platform like Udemy or Masterclass. Marketplace platforms allow you to customize your branding and host your course. These platforms can have strict rules and charge up to 50% of your income.

An online course platform, a web hosting solution tailored explicitly to course creators, is an ideal way to grow your business. There are three types of online course platforms.

Standalone Platforms

This is all you need to host your course and support and educational materials!

Although some platforms can be used as standalone marketing tools, it is often minimal.

It is ideal for solo entrepreneurs and small business owners.

You want an easy way to create online courses! You don’t necessarily need a platform for creating marketing/sales funnels or automation.

WordPress Plugins/Themes

WordPress plugin platforms allow you to make and sell online courses with existing WordPress sites. You may need to have higher-than-average technical abilities.

If you purchase a plugin that is not brand-named from a developer who works in a freelance environment, your entire business could be shut down.

This is the best option for course creators with a WordPress site that receives a lot of traffic.

All-in-One platforms

You can create and sell courses right from your website. Website builders, marketing automation, and course hosting are some of the features available.

While some all-in-one platforms, such as Kajabi, won’t take any of your revenue at all, others will. Do your research!.

4. How much should you fix for your online course?

A calculator is used by someone to calculate how much they should charge for an online course

What should my course cost?

Pricing can be tricky. You will need to make some mistakes before you find the right price.

You won’t know your lifetime customer value until you have created and sold online courses. You’ll need to do some testing and calculation for now.

Online courses cost between $5 and $2,000. The cost of your first online course will likely be between $50 and $200. This will depend on the topic you choose, your audience, and your expertise.

Consider the following when deciding the cost of your online course:

How much do you spend to market, host, or create the course?

Pricing

How much do you feel your audience will spend?

When selling online courses, there are three basic ways to structure your payments. These are:

For lifetime access, one lump sum payment

Lower recurring membership fees are lower (e.g., Monthly payments)

Multiple payments or a payment plan where an audience can spread out a single cost over several payments!

To determine the best way to structure your payment, you need to assess your target market. Is it possible to afford high prices? Are they more likely to purchase if they don’t have to pay too much upfront?

5. Your Online Course will Increase in Value and Price

Adding value to your online course can increase its price. This is possible by:

  • Bonus materials
  • Upsells
  • Incorporate bonuses into your digital course
  • Creating your supplements, such as reports, case studies, and templates.
  • Referring a colleague and receiving a referral bonus

These bonuses should have a high cash value. This will enable you to promote a course with high added value.

Incorporate Upsells into Your Digital Course

Offering additional products with your course purchase is one of the best ways to make more money. These are known as upsells.

Upsells offer another opportunity to purchase after the initial transaction is complete. These are two simple upsells that almost everyone can offer along with their first course.

  • Coaching: Coaching can be offered via phone, email, webinars, and even face-to-face. Coaching can be expensive.
  • Group training: Group training is offered with in-depth instruction and discussion topics.

These products are relevant for your online course and should appeal to your market.

Kajabi provides a “one-click upsell,” where you can add a second product to your order by clicking a button. The most crucial part is that users don’t need to enter their credit card details once again.

6. Seed Launch Your Online Course.

It’s time now for you to test your online course before it goes live. To help you identify any issues before launching your course, you should test them out.

Jeff Walker, an online entrepreneur, likes to talk about “seed launches.” This is a minor soft release to verify a market for your product. This type of launch works best if you have a small number (30-100 names) or none at all.

You can launch your seedlings in the following ways:

  • Refine your target market by speaking with them
  • Find the answers to your most important questions and requirements
  • Identify the market’s real needs and wants. Determine what they are willing to pay.

A seed launch doesn’t require you to make a marketing plan.

Sending a trial offer to a select group of students could be a way to launch a seed program. You won’t sell many courses after the seed launch. It’s okay to gauge interest and test if your idea is valuable and viable.

Learn from your seed launch and integrate it into your overall marketing strategy.

7. Promote and Sell Your Online Courses.

It doesn’t matter how well you make it, and they won’t come. To make your online course successful, you will need to market it. Marketing is about building relationships with customers with the ultimate goal to get them to buy or engage with your business.

These are a few ways to market and sell your courses online:

  • Optimize your website: You should create a sales page for your online course to inform potential customers and persuade them to sign up.
  • Build a website using the Kajabi platform.
  • Make helpful marketing content: Create marketing videos or start your blog.
  • Boost your social media presence. Every day, there are billions of people using social media. Engage wherever your audience is on Social Media.
  • Create an email list: Email remains a powerful marketing tool. You can explore social media to build your email list.
  • Get along with other entrepreneurs: This is not a solo venture. You can partner with an influencer to sell your course. Look for people you admire to see if you can work together in a mutually beneficial partnership.

Kajabi is a tool that automates your online course marketing.

How to Select the Right Market to Sell Online Courses

Without a strong market, even the best online course will fail. It doesn’t matter what product you have, and if nobody wants it, it doesn’t matter.

It is essential to identify the audience for your digital product. This means you must identify the people most likely to purchase your online course.

It is tempting to be the biggest market. You only need 1% to succeed if your market is 300,000,000 people.

Large markets can be competitive and crowded. You should start with your core audience, even negligible, and then serve them well. To expand your target audience, you can always create additional courses.

Your brand may grow, and your digital courses might be more popular than you thought. You should be flexible to adapt to changes in your market. Include data and learning in your approach.

8. For Your Online Course, Create a Buyer’s Journey.

The buyer’s journey describes the choices made by your target audience while searching for a purchase.

The buyer’s journey consists of three stages:

  • Awareness: Your market is aware that there is a problem. They are looking for solutions.
  • Take into account: The market begins to look for solutions.
  • Decision: A purchase is made by people in your market.

Your marketing efforts should guide potential customers along the customer journey. Each step requires a different content strategy.

Here’s an example of how you might explore video and social media in your buyer’s journey.

Awareness: Make an educational video that addresses the most pressing issues of your target audience. For the most incredible reach, publish and share it on social media.

You might consider creating a testimonial video in which a former student discusses the benefits of your course. It can be shared with your social followers.

To make it easy for customers to purchase your online course, create a FAQ video. Answer the questions yourself to show your expertise and allow viewers to get to know you better.

9. Encourage People to Recommend and Purchase Your Courses.

It’s now time to ensure that your students have as much success as you can. Your students will be more inclined to buy other courses if they feel they have gained something from your course.

A happy student will tell their family and friends about your course. It is cost-effective and almost free to market online courses through word-of-mouth.

These tips will help ensure that your students succeed and are happy.

Customer experience is the main focus.

How can you make customers feel good about their business interactions? Is your business creating a memorable and positive experience for customers?

After you have launched your course, start the marketing process. How does it feel? What’s it lacking?

Conclusion to How to Sell Courses Online

Map out your student journey. You want to understand your students’ struggles as you create and market your online course. Your student’s experience will be shared more widely if you understand it and provide support.

Fullstory software allows you to see how students interact with your course. You can map their journey from beginning to end. Note down the milestones, small victories, and setbacks.

Did you find this article useful? Feel free to share your thoughts. We would be happy to hear from you!

Stay tuned for more Work from Home Business ideas.

Any/all links on this site may be affiliate links, and if you make a purchase through one of them, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full affiliate disclosure here.

Mark

CEO and Founder of The Retired Affiliates

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6 thoughts on “How to Sell Courses Online”

  1. This is a great idea but something is telling me that you need to pay some sort of membership fee before you can start selling courses online or am I wrong? I actually know of a friend who wants to do something along this line so I will be sure to share this article with him. 

  2. This is an excellent article. It’s very informative. I’ve always wanted to make a course and sell it online. However, I’m at a loss for where to begin. Do you have any recommendations for a legitimate program where I could start? That way, I could read this article about how to sell a course online. I like the idea of selling my knowledge to help those who truly need it. However, I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. When it comes to creating a course, I get completely stumped. I believe that selling a course is a great way to make money.

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The Retired Affiliates

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