Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2018; Udemy’s revenue shares (about 97% for the instructor on sales through their own link, 50% on platform sales), the best-selling course topics and the WordPress tools listed reflect that year. Udemy has changed these terms since.
Making your own online course (an info product) has become one of the most profitable business ideas on the internet in 2018, though not without controversy. How do you create an online course, protect it and sell it online? Which platforms should you use? We will answer these questions over the following lines.
Can anyone create an online course and sell it, even without being an expert? For better or worse, the answer is yes.
The good news is that we are all experts in something, or at least there is some subject in which our knowledge is above average.
Is buying an online course really worth it when all the information is free online?
The truth is that everything you will find in an online course is available for free on the internet today, in thousands of articles or YouTube videos, whether we are talking about learning to invest in the stock market, learning to start a business or picking up sales skills.
Even so, in most cases it is worth paying for a course when you consider that its creator has summarised and organised all the useful information we need. That is why you will often see people say: “What rubbish. There’s nothing in this course you can’t find on the internet for free.” And they are right, because there is no subject you will find in an info product that is not covered by thousands of hours of video and thousands of articles.
But if the creator has done a good job and also has communication skills, it is definitely worth paying for something that can save us a great deal of searching.
Which online course topics sell best as info products?
The truth is that even the topic you least expect has its own niche. As in other businesses, the more demand there is for a topic, the more supply you will also find. In other words, more competition.
That said, the advice is to make an online course that solves a problem or question you have had in the past: create the course you would have liked to find when you were starting out in something.
With that in mind, today’s best-selling online courses are as varied as:
- Photography
- Video editing
- Investing
- Finance
- Entrepreneurship
- Personal development
- Seduction
- Overcoming shyness
- Public speaking
- And many more…
See also: James Altucher’s 32 rules for becoming a successful entrepreneur
Ironically, one of the best-selling topics lately is courses on how to make an online course. And all the topics listed above are making money from course sales.
See also: Ideas for earning extra money from home online: the complete guide
Steps to make your own online course (info product)
1. Choose a topic in which, ideally, you are already an expert
The truth is that however good the course you have created, ideally you should already have some kind of visibility online, whether that is a YouTube channel, a blog, articles for the media or something else.
Bear in mind that people won’t see the content of the course until they buy it. But at the same time, they won’t buy if they don’t know you. If you are a reference point, or simply brilliant in your field, you have already done half the work of selling your course.
Basically, the advice is to have already given people free content that encourages them to buy the course.
2. Condense and summarise the content for everyone
Some people are very tempted to use highly technical language in their courses to look more expert. That is not a good idea: technical language can be understood by someone with advanced knowledge, whereas plain language is understood by everyone, including people with advanced knowledge.
You are going to sell something that is already free on the internet. Make sure you summarise and explain that content in a way that even a seven-year-old could understand. That will make you good, and people will recommend your course.
3. Keep the course content focused on a specific goal
What do you want people to achieve when they buy your course? Are you going to teach them something concrete, something specific? You need to set a clear goal for what you want to achieve, so that you don’t swamp people with information but give them knowledge ready to apply.
4. Why should they buy your course?
It seems obvious. You are going to teach them lots of things with your content. Shall I tell you a secret? Most people couldn’t care less about that. They will buy your course only if you have known how to sell it and reach the emotional side of the person, not the rational side.
It is essential to make an attractive sales page that encourages people to buy. These pages and videos, often standardised, are made that way because they really work.
“I used to be just like you. Women didn’t like me, and I felt sad whenever I saw other men manage to seduce a woman. I always went home alone. I felt frustrated. And that is how I spent ten years of my life… blah blah blah… Today I have the woman I want. I snap my fingers and five or six appear. Sometimes eight. I discovered the secret. A secret I want to share with you, just as Casanova shared it with me. But I can only share it with 1,000 people. Do you want to be one of them? For just €200 I will give you all the information you need to put an end to your lonely nights, and you’ll have to switch off your phone because so many women will be calling you.
But wait, I like you. If you buy within the next 30 minutes, it will only cost you 125 euros. And on top of that, I’ll throw in the video course ‘How to turn down all the women who will be hitting on you without hurting their feelings’.”
The text is much the same for money, shyness, haemorrhoids…
Which platforms can you use to create and upload your info product?
This is probably the most important step: creating your video and uploading it to the internet so that people can buy it. We will name two ways you can upload your online course to sell it.
1. Udemy
Probably the most widely used platform for selling your online course.
How much does Udemy keep from course sales?
For the courses you sell directly, or that people buy through a link you have created, you keep roughly 97% of the course price. In other words, Udemy charges only a 3% commission on your sales.
However, for courses bought on the platform itself, recommended by other people or promoted by Udemy, Udemy keeps 50%. It is free to start creating your course and upload it to the internet, which is why the terms are excellent.
2. Doing it yourself
If you don’t want to complicate your life, Udemy is definitely an excellent option. However, if you want to sell the course yourself and keep 100% of the profits, these are the ways to do it.
The easy way, but not a very advisable one
The buying process should not be complicated. People should be able to buy the online course in a few clicks and receive it without any intervention on your part. For all this, we need to turn to WordPress plugins.
You record your videos, compress them and upload them to your own server. Google Drive or Dropbox could also work. You install the WooCommerce or SendOwl plugin, and once payment has been made, either of these services sends the file to the person who bought the course.
Why is this way of selling your online course not very advisable?
The moment the buyer unzips the file, nothing stops them from uploading your content to the internet for everyone to see.
The more professional way: membership plugins
With membership or subscription plugins, we can upload our video to a platform such as Vimeo and make it viewable only on a specific page of our website, a page that stays closed to the public unless people have paid for the subscription.
Which membership plugins should you use, and what do they do?
These plugins can be adjusted to our needs. We can set a one-off payment for a subscription of three months, six months or whatever period we choose, or we can set a monthly subscription. In short, we can configure them to suit our needs.
The most widely used subscription plugins are:
- MemberPress
- MemberMouse
- Paid Member Subscriptions
Only the third has a free version, which in some cases may be enough to get started, at least to protect your online course and manage payment through PayPal. But if you are going to take selling courses more seriously, the first is definitely the most advisable.
As a final tip, and although it is very obvious, try to make sure your video has good picture and sound quality. The more professional it looks, the more likely you are to sell.
And with that, I think you now have more or less the basics you need to know and the steps to follow to make money selling your own online courses.
See also: How to make money with your own podcast
Featured image: Intel Free Press, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
