
If you’ve been flirting with the idea of selling an online course, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most powerful ways to monetize your expertise.
According to Global Market Insights, the global e-learning market will be worth $1 trillion by 2032.
That’s a ton of money. It’s also a ton of opportunity.
The catch? There’s a lot to consider.
If you want to learn how to build an online course that sells, read on.
Originally published on December 20th, 2018, this article was updated and republished on June 24th, 2024.
Step 1: Identify Your Audience’s Challenges
The first hurdle you need to overcome is figuring out what to teach.
Here’s a nugget of wisdom: the best way to make money selling online courses is by solving a problem for the intended audience. That’s why it’s one of our favorite online business models.
So, instead of wondering, what’s a good idea for my online course? Ask: what challenges does my audience face that I can help them with?
When framed this way, you’ll spend less time judging potential course ideas and more time focusing on the real goal: delivering something of value.
For example, when I go to Google and type in “how to make a WordPress store”, I get four questions that the majority of people are asking. These four questions represent problems that 1000s–probably tens of 1,000s–of people have searched to find an answer to.

This information is gold for a course creator and works in any market. Not to mention, it’s a free, simple, and effective way to start the brainstorming process.
Here are some examples of successful, real-world online courses that help their audiences find solutions for their problems:
- How to use Microsoft Excel: from beginner to advanced
- How to think like an entrepreneur
- How to declutter and organize any space
- How to shoot expert video on any camera
As you can see from the above, you can create an online course for almost anything. As long as you’re helping people overcome an obstacle, you’ll attract learners.
How Profitable is Selling Online Courses?
Of course, you probably have aspirations beyond attracting “some learners.” You want your online course to be a resounding success–one that enables you to quit your day job or grow your online business.
This begs the question: “Are online courses still selling?”
In a word, yes. In fact, Coursera research found that 92 million new learners took up online learning in 2021–and the reasons are fascinating.
As World Economic Forum (WEF) research shows, 23% of global jobs will completely change in the next five years due to technology and industrialization. Basically, people will need to learn new skills to remain employable.
More than that, WEF predicts that “adult lifelong learning” will become the norm within the next ten years. The majority of people will continually re-skill and upskill throughout their lives–and you can bet many will use online courses to help them do just that.
Leveraging Your Expertise: Identifying Marketable Skills for Online Courses
Online courses are going to be a profitable, smart way to make money for years to come. You already know that you need to hone in on a challenge. The next step is deciding which exact challenge you’re going to solve.
Thankfully, that’s pretty easy–just look at what work you’re already getting paid for.
Whether working full-time on your business or part-time on a side hustle, you have plenty of knowledge and experience solving a specific problem. And that’s direct earning potential!
Take, for instance, Seth Godin’s inspirational spin on librarians:
“The librarian isn’t a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.”
– Seth Godin
Looking at your own life, where do you act as the interface? Start there to uncover your valuable areas of expertise.
Uncover Demand for Your Online Courses with Forums

Some of the most viable online course ideas will come from your audience. This is why social networks like Reddit and Quora are a great source for market research.
The beauty of these forums comes from the fact that they give you unfiltered access to people’s authentic challenges, thoughts, and opinions.
Not only will you discover ready-to-go course title ideas, but you’ll also uncover plenty of insights about who your target audience is, potential market gaps, and specific content topics that can shape your course framework.
This kind of market research is invaluable. Once you understand your audience’s challenges, you’ll stand a better chance at identifying meaningful ways to help. Take a look at how we used a Facebook group to position our SiteGround Review.
Survey Your Audience
If you have an audience, don’t neglect to get their take. There are a few ways to approach asking your audience for their opinion:
- Include a question at the end of your next email blast.
- Post in your community forum.
- Ask for input on your social media feeds.
Use your industry knowledge as well as what you discover while trawling Reddit to ask the right questions.
For example, armed with a bit of research from the WordPress subreddit, I might ask my email list:
Hey, I’m thinking about creating a course to help you with the biggest frustrations you have around your website.
I know people are struggling with:
- Using WordPress plugins
- Setting up payment and checkout systems in WordPress
- Monetizing blog traffic
Hit reply and let me know what’s causing your website headaches.
I listed a few ideas to make it easy for people to send a quick response. But I also made it clear that I want to hear any other topics my readers are struggling with.
Step 2: Choose a Course Topic
Research courses that already exist to gain a deeper understanding of which topic ideas have merit.
If you discover several courses around a topic, that means you’re onto something. Or, if there are plenty of books, apps, or services devoted to an area of interest for your audience, that’s also promising.
Saying that, you definitely don’t want to develop a course that already exists. Otherwise, it’ll be impossible to stand out–especially if you’re trying to break into a saturated marketplace.
So, in addition to researching popular courses, you’ll also need to consider how you’ll weave your own unique spin into your course. This is about figuring out why someone should choose your course over the hundreds of others out there.
Again, research will be critical. Conduct a competitive analysis of existing courses, looking at factors like price, positioning, quality, and overall strengths and weaknesses. Once you do this, ask yourself: what can I offer that’s better and/or different from the competition?
To validate your idea further, you can use social media and your website to see what resonates most with your audience.
For example, if you have a decent amount of website traffic, it’s worth creating lead magnets on one specific aspect of your course idea, using the opt-in rate as a barometer of interest in the topic.
Similarly, Instagram, X, and WhatsApp all have poll features that you can use to gain feedback from your audience.
As you conduct this research, remember the importance of framing your course topic in the right way. Successful online courses are always results-oriented and unambiguous.
They promise to:
- Solve a specific problem
- For a specific audience
- To achieve a specific result
When finalizing potential titles, always ask yourself: What should my students be able to accomplish when they’re done?
Step 3: Craft Result-Oriented Content for Your Online Course
If you want your course to sell, you’ll need to grab your audience’s attention, create a digestible and engaging course, and make the whole process feel rewarding.
Here’s what to keep in mind.
Clarify the End Goal
Potential course-takers will look through tens of courses before they make their decision. To encourage them to choose you, you need to put the onus on results from the get-go, and then emphasize the course outcome throughout your content.
In essence, you need to consistently reinforce the benefit of taking your course–be it getting on the first page of Google, how to start a blog, or how to become a freelancer.
Whether you plan to help your audience grow their subscriber list or brew the perfect cup of coffee, weave the end goal throughout your course content to keep people engaged.
Detail the Journey
Another thing all best-selling online courses have in common is clarity: Their audience easily grasps the journey through the course content, including the length, key milestones, format, and any quizzes.
This is where your course outline comes in, offering a step-by-step overview of your course. For example, consider this course by SoulSalt – Believing in Yourself: Overcome Self-Doubt and Take Action (in ONE week)

The clear step-by-step path through the course content ensures each module directly contributes to the end goal.
Tap into Their “Why”
Just because someone signs up for your course doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily complete it. To maximize engagement and ensure course buyers rate your offering highly, you need to build an emotional connection with your audience. And that happens when you empower your students to connect with your course material emotionally.
Instead of delivering learning as a one-way street, weave in exercises and prompts that remind your readers why they’re doing this course.
For example, you could include a goal-setting module at the start of your course, asking course-takers to write down what they hope to achieve by the end.
Adding a personal touch can also be inspirational. If applicable, explain how the learnings in your course helped you overcome challenges and get to where you are today.
Step 4: Write With Radical Empathy
You’ll be doing a ton of writing to create and sell online courses. There’s the actual course content, which can include video scripts, slideshows, and PDFs. Then there’s marketing content: promotional emails, social media ads, and ultimately, writing a sale page that converts.
For any of it to be effective, your words need to channel empathy. They need to echo your prospects’ reality enough to persuade them to purchase.
Here’s how to channel empathy:
A) Ask Yourself Why You Care
For most entrepreneurs, selling online courses is about much more than money. Part of becoming an entrepreneur is knowing your “why” – not just for your own motivation, but to create a better product and sell it more effectively.
Why do you care about your prospects’ problem?
Why does it bother you on a personal level?
B) Look for Language
One of the best ways to engage an audience is using their own words. Find book and course reviews on your topic to unearth those gems. Reviews are flush with opinions about what worked and what didn’t.
Market research from Reddit or Quora can also help here.
C) Identify Shared “Villains”
This could refer to actual bad guys (like mediocre course creators who make big claims), but it can also refer to any obstacle, limitation, or struggle your audience encounters. Bonus points if it’s a shared obstacle.
D) Try Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)
This classic copywriting formula does well selling online courses. The genius lies in its simplicity.
- Problem: Describe the problem your course will solve
- Agitate: Rub salt in the wound –– what pains does the problem cause?
Solve: Present your solution
Step 5: Selecting the Best Platform to Sell Your Online Course
So, what’s the best place to sell online courses? While plenty of online tools are available, our favorite is Podia–a platform built by a small, hardworking team we admire. Plus, they have built a beautiful, intuitive platform for independent course creators like you and me.
That said, look at all the options in this section and choose the best fit.
Here’s the pros and cons of three of the most popular online course platforms.
Teachable

Pros
- Easy to use
- Great for beginners
- Features enable you to build a customized sales page
- Enable 1-step checkout, 1-click upsells, and an affiliate system
- Send course updates and announcements
Cons
- Lacks enhanced customization options
- You can’t use your sales page to collect leads out-of-the-box
- You can’t send drip campaigns without additional third-party software
- Live chat support only available with Professional plan
- Teachable charges transaction fees and has a complicated payment scheme that involves waiting 30 days for course revenue.
Bottom Line
Teachable is great for anyone who wants an online course sales page without built-in marketing. It’s also fine for someone who doesn’t mind pasting code snippets from various marketing tools (and having that data spread across systems).
For those who’d prefer native email marketing, centralized data, and design and product flexibility, pass on Teachable for an all-in-one platform.
If Teachable sounds like a good fit for you, you can click here to sign up and get started.
Kajabi

Pros
- Robust, customizable platform
- Enhanced features for marketing including purpose-built landing page and automated course marketing
- Perfect for boosting sales thanks to digital product selling features, membership site feature, and option to gate course content
- No transaction fees
- 24/7 customer support
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Enhanced features come at an extra cost
Bottom Line
Kajabi positions itself as a toolkit for building your online business for a reason. If you want to do more than sell online courses, it’s a solid option –– but its useful features don’t come cheap.
Podia

Pros
- Super intuitive to use
- 24/7 live chat support
- Zero transaction fees and instant payments
- Built-in email marketing and sales features
- Very affordable
Cons
- Limited customization options
Bottom Line
Podia is more affordable than Kajabi, and possibly more specialized. This is a great option for anyone on a Teachable budget who needs more than a simple sales page.
Step 6: Setting the Right Price For Your Online Course: Goal-Oriented Approach
Forget about finding the “perfect” number. It doesn’t exist. And fretting over price will delay progress. After all, you can’t launch without it.
First things first, use your previous competitor research to understand the premium and affordable pricing points relative to your industry.
From there, define your sales goal, and let that inform your strategy.
Here’s what to consider:
- If you want to maximize the total number of sales, make your course so affordable the right people won’t be able to resist. Research similar courses in your niche to find the sweet spot.
- If you want to maximize revenue, don’t hedge. Pack your course with enough value to warrant premium pricing and prepare to deliver first-class treatment. People who spend upwards of $1,000 for an online course expect one-on-one time (and courses that sell include it).
- If you want to generate leads, give it away for free. It doesn’t have to be about how much you can make selling online courses. You can market other products to your students once they’ve completed the course.
As we’ve mentioned, pricing will vary somewhat depending on your niche, so note the costs of similar courses to confirm what constitutes high and low.
Step 7: Market Your Course
With so many online courses out there, you can’t afford to wait for people to come to you. It’s a much better idea to create a multi-pronged marketing campaign: one for pre-launch and then ongoing, iterative campaigns to attract more and more people to sign up.
How you market your course will depend on a few factors. For example, if you’ve already got a solid online following–either website-based or social media-based–then posting organic content like social media posts, blogs, and sending emails to subscribers about your upcoming course is a must.
To sweeten the deal, you could even offer discounts or the chance to win a prize to people who sign up before a certain date.
If you’re launching your course with a small following, there’s still plenty of great marketing mechanisms you can use, including:
- Using targeted social media ads to sell a free mini course or highlight engaging testimonials that drum up interest
- Writing guest blogs on relevant websites, signposting to your course
- Focus on SEO content writing to improve your course’s searchability
Step 8: Refine Your Course Based on Feedback
Congratulations! You’ve successfully launched your course, and the reviews will hopefully be pouring in.
But the work isn’t done. You’ll want to listen and iterate based on what your customers say to ensure your course is as good as possible. Here’s how:
- Reviews: Analyze student reviews for common themes about what works well and doesn’t, and make improvements based on this feedback.
- Surveys: Not everyone reads reviews, so it’s worth sending surveys to people who have completed the course. Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions to ensure you get actionable feedback.
- Beta testing: Once you’ve identified a potential improvement, it can be helpful to beta test your new and improved course on 10-20 people. We recommend reaching out to people on your email list and offering them the course for free in exchange for detailed feedback.
Once you’ve completed these steps, start the whole process again. Refining and improving your course is an always-on endeavor, and is invaluable for ensuring you reach the highest student satisfaction scores.
Step 9: Scale Your Course Offerings
Creating an online course is a great ambition, but to truly embrace the entrepreneurial mindset, you’ll want to have a grand vision: scaling your online course business.
Whether you offer a whole new course on another topic you’ve got expertise in, create a “beginner” or “advanced” version of your course or start offering online coaching sessions, there are plenty of ways to diversify your course offering and make even more money.
Better still, you can leverage the success of your first course as a springboard, building a comprehensive curriculum in the process.
For example, you could bundle your original course with a new course offering to increase the likelihood of sign-ups. Alternatively, you could create ‘tiered’ pricing packs around your original course, offering extra like 1:1 coaching and exclusive content the more learners pay.
Step 10: Leverage Analytics for Course Growth
Using data in both your online course design and management is crucial to success. In addition to analyzing learner feedback to improve your course over time, you can harness analytics to help with marketing and strategic direction.
For example, social media and email marketing campaigns provide you with a wealth of data-backed insights about which campaign tactics perform well, and which don’t. Try to find patterns in these insights, and repeat what worked well.
Similarly, before you launch new course material, be sure to lean on user surveys and beta testing to make sure that any investments you plan to make are what your audience actually wants.
Bonus Step: Legal and Financial Considerations
Last but certainly not least, don’t forget the legal and financial aspects of launching an online course. These will depend greatly on which country you’re in, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Taxes: Will you operate as a sole trader or a limited company? Whichever you choose, you’ll have certain tax obligations. You’ll need to ensure you meet tax requirements, such as income tax, sales tax, and VAT, depending on where you’re based.
- Data protection: If you collect personal information about your users, you may need to adhere to regulations like the GDPR and CCPA.
- Terms of service: Always include a terms of service with an intellectual property clause, disclaimer, and refund policy to protect yourself from all eventualities.
- Payment processing: Choose your payment processor carefully. Go for a trusted provider that you and your customers can count on.
Don’t underestimate the importance of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s regarding legal and tax considerations. If you’re unsure of something, consulting an accountant or lawyer is always worth it. They can help you navigate confusing terminology and advise you on the most cost-effective way to run a thriving online course business.
Take the Next Step Towards Selling Your Online Course
There’s never been a better time to transition from selling your time to selling your knowledge, and starting to make money online from home. An online course is a great way to do it. And getting started is just a simple matter of answering the right questions.
Want to learn even more about pricing and marketing your online course for success? Check out this step-by-step guide from Podia.