Making money selling online courses is becoming increasingly tough. Because of the high level of competition in the market. Many novices to the market are unsure whether this is possible or not.
Here are seven tried-and-tested methods for making money selling courses online:
1. Payment In Advance
A one-time payment for a course before it starts is the most common and familiar way for students.
It also corresponds to the tuition fee model that the majority of us use. Payment for courses in advance is something we are accustomed to. When compared to the concept of recurring payments it is more familiar and less daunting.
Paying in advance also makes it easy to sell future add-on courses. Because the money is already in your account.
When your students are already paying a monthly subscription. They may be hesitant to pay more because they feel like they’ve already paid for everything. The ability to pay in full makes it easy to establish expectations for what students are paying for.
2. Provide Training For Free, Then Charge a Fee For Obtaining Certification
Coursera has used this technique to earn more than $1 million in revenue in its first year of operation. This appears to be counter-intuitive. Given that you are delivering the “useful” part of the course (training) for no cost.
However, it may work to your advantage for a variety of reasons:
- This helps to create trust. Interested students can enroll in your course without having to be concerned.
- You may get a list of email addresses of people who want your product or service. Which you can, later on, sell to them.
- Certification has a monetary worth in the professional world. And people are willing to pay for it.
- Given these advantages. Paying for certification proves to be the most straightforward method of marketing.
3. Sell a Subscription
The fact that people are accustomed to paying for training. But, most people are willing to make regular payments for current lessons. Whether they be music lessons, private lessons, or sports. As long as they believe they will continue to enjoy them.
This holds for online learning as well. The majority of students are wary of enrolling in a training subscription. If they believe that the course will be a one-time program in which they will learn “once and for all.”
However, developing a learning program requires a significant investment of time and effort. So that your students keep coming back for more.
4. Make Use of a Multi-Tiered Payment Structure
If you provide multiple services, you are not required to charge the same rate for each one. If you’re using a subscription model, you may charge for “premium” features. While still offering free tiers.
In a similar vein, you can provide free basic courses at a discount. Then charge a premium for more advanced courses.
5. Pre-sales of The Course
It isn’t nearly as complicated as it appears. In fact, this method is employed by a large number of internet projects.
The idea of pre-selling is a good one for a variety of reasons:
- You don’t have to guess what your audience keeps interest in.
- You are less likely to fall victim to the undervalued fallacy. Since you are not tempted to pour more resources into a course that is not intended for sale.
- You can use the free test lesson to put your idea through its paces and compile a preliminary list of potential participants.
- You will have enough drive to complete your course without wasting time and energy. Worrying about whether or not it will be successful.
This means you don’t have to worry about selling the course before it even starts. If you have an audience, you should ask them which course they think would be the most beneficial to them. Then attempt to sell that course in advance.
If you don’t achieve your goal, don’t bother creating a course. You will save a great deal of time and effort on something that your clients will not show interest in if you do this.
6. Make Your Online Course Available For Free to Market Your Goods or Service
Consider this option of making money from “free” content. Use your course as part of a funnel to sell something else. Perhaps you have a side business where you sell a particular product line. Create a course that teaches people how to use them. Or, if you’ve published a self-development book. You may give your course as a free bonus to anyone who purchases the book.
Better yet, you may use your online course to generate revenue by selling consulting services to others. Individual training sessions can be arranged for people who need one-on-one attention.
Creating an online course is also a natural extension of your business strategy. If you’re already well known online (as a blogger or a successful product salesperson). Then the sale of an online course through your website will increase. An online marketplace is a simple method to earn money from what you currently do.
7. Developing Courses and Charging a Fee For The Right to Use Them
Finally, you can sell some courses or content to other professionals or businesses. Who doesn’t want to generate it themselves but would like to buy it from you. They are in charge of the technical aspects, marketing, and customer support. Nothing more than creating a course and collecting the annual license fee.
Despite this, you will still be responsible for selling your course to corporations and organizations that may need it. and your sales cycle will be lengthier. While this is true, you will also gain extra income from sales. Which will free up your time from a lot of time-consuming and pointless activities.
People are eager to learn new things, so don’t be scared to offer your expertise.
It’s natural to question, “Would anyone be willing to pay for what I know?” Of course, you might also wonder.
To assess the worth of your course idea, consider the following question. How often do people ask you to share this content with them? You should pay close attention to the amount of interest in the audience. If you have ever given a presentation on any topic. Did you receive a large number of questions from the audience? Have you ever had to respond to these questions in a different context?
Or, consider this question. how many other people are offering courses like this? If there are enough offers on the market. This indicates that there is considerable demand.
Can I Expect to Make a Significant Amount of Money by Selling an Online Course?
It is highly dependent on the expert’s knowledge and experience. Numerous aspects must be taken into consideration when determining your earning potential.
Course Price
Do you charge 300 dollars for the course or 30,000 dollars for the course? This will define how many people you will need to sell. In order to achieve your financial objectives.
Your Audience
What kind of database do you have with the e-mail addresses of potential customers? Do you have a following on social media such as YouTube? Do you collaborate with partners on comparable themes and have access to their subscriber base? If so, please consider your collaboration and try to milk it as well. The greater the size and activity of this base, the greater the number of clients you may attract.
The first step towards your new course business is to establish a mailing list.
Experience in Marketing and Sales
Do you have any previous experience in the online course selling industry? If you already have an online business and have sold things in the past. Then you will have an advantage over your competition. You’ll see higher conversion rates from your audience as a result.
Current Customer Loyalty
What is the level of client loyalty among your customers? Do they come back for your new offerings or do they vanish without a trace? Do you have a clientele who is into your services?
If you are a novice, it is feasible to learn and master all the aforementioned skills. But you should expect a more gradual start than an experienced entrepreneur.
Also Read: 10 Quick Start Passive Income Ideas
What is The Best Way to Estimate Your Potential Income?
Following is the formula that we will use to compute our results:
Revenue = Number of people who see your ad x Conversion rate x The cost of the course
If you don’t yet have a target audience. You can make educated guesses based on the number of individuals you expect to reach. Is it going to be 100, 200, or 1,000 people who subscribe?
The conversion rate of an online course is evaluated by the topic and its pricing. Also your ability to reach and sell to the appropriate audience members.
Approximate conversions:
- Low conversions: 0.1% to 1%.
- Average conversions: 2-5%.
- High conversions: 6-10 percent.
To see many scenarios and set your sales objectives based on them. You may perform calculations for all three conversion rates (1 percent, 5 percent, and 10%).
If you want to know how much money you made, the next step is to subtract the expenses from the total. There aren’t many of them available online. These are costs associated with production and marketing.
Profit = Total Revenue – Total Expenses (production costs – marketing – other expenses).
Now you can determine whether your course will be profitable or not. How much labor you will have to put in, and how much money you will be able to make by selling online courses.