Why sell courses online
We’ve consistently observed three common reasons individuals sell courses online, though people have various motivations for doing so.
- To share your expertise, experience, or passion. If there’s something that moves you—whether it’s your personal history or your encyclopedic knowledge of ‘90s sitcoms—there’s something to potentially build your course around. And there are plenty of people out there who share your same passions or motivations and who would be stoked to join you.
- To launch a new revenue stream. Let’s be honest. Figuring out where to sell online courses is also about bringing in income. Whether you’re targeting an existing audience or you’re starting from scratch, you can build an experience that’s so valuable, potential members will pay to be a part of it.
- To re-zhuzh or monetize content you’ve already produced. That’s right! You can also monetize older content that you created in the past. There’s a good chance that people will be willing to pay a premium for access, especially if it helps them change a habit, navigate a challenge, or accomplish something they wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve on their own.
What to look for in an online course-selling platform
When considering an online course platform, it is important to identify key features that can enhance your chances of success. While certain features may hold more significance to you personally, the following points are worth considering:
An effective LMS is essential for a course platform as it allows the delivery of course material. To create comprehensive courses, it is necessary to have an LMS that offers features such as live or pre-recorded teaching options, content dripping, evaluations, and more.
When it comes to branding, certain course platforms allow you the flexibility to customize your course to align with your brand. However, platforms like Skillshare and Udemy offer very limited opportunities for branding. In fact, some platforms even enable you to provide your course through a branded app of your own.
Course communities, virtual events, livestreaming, member profiles, chat and messaging, polls and questions, content delivery options, and even virtual conferences are the integrated features that can make a course stand out. Be on the lookout for these features in a course platform.
If you value cutting-edge AI features such as automatic course outlines, text improvement, and question generators, keep an eye out for course platforms that utilize them to enhance your effectiveness as a teacher, rather than to replace you.
Do the monetization options allow you to earn money from your course? Will you receive fair payment for your efforts? Different platforms have different methods of monetization. Additionally, explore opportunities to incorporate additional revenue streams such as selling private coaching, memberships, masterminds, premium groups, events, and bundles. Make sure to also consider currency options if you are not selling in USD, or other ways to generate income such as token-gating.
If a platform does not provide a mobile app for every device, it is already disadvantaged, considering that 60% of web use is mobile. Moreover, offering courses through your own branded app, particularly as your brand expands, is highly beneficial.
Where can you sell online courses
Now that we’ve discussed how to structure an online course for success and the key features to consider in an online course selling platform, let’s delve further into some of the top platforms for selling courses online.
1. Mighty networks
If you are trying to determine where to sell your online courses, a great place to begin is Mighty.
Mighty Networks offers creators the ability to consolidate their community, online courses, and membership subscriptions into a single, branded platform that is accessible instantly on the web, iOS, and Android. It features a robust course-building engine that effortlessly creates sleek, user-friendly online courses, as well as an exceptional built-in community.
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- With Mighty, you can use the powerful course LMS to easily create a pre-recorded course.
- Add audio, video, text, PDFs, etc., plus discussions and questions under each module.
- Or, if you prefer a cohort course, you can teach live with the livestreaming and events features and connect it to the LMS.
- OR, you can teach live and spin it into an asynchronous course after.
Mighty’s course engine is powered by G2’s highly regarded community management software, enabling you to link your course with community functionalities such as discussion boards, polls, live-event integrations, and others. Additionally, members have the opportunity to establish deeper connections through member profiles, a comprehensive activity feed, and private direct messaging.
You can easily personalize the course to match your brand, creating a customized course that reflects your desired style. Additionally, with Mighty’s AI engine, Mighty Co-Host™, you have access to various tools that enhance your creativity, including automated course outlines, the “make it better” text editor, instant landing pages, one-click member profiles, and other features.
In conclusion, with Mighty, you have the opportunity to monetize in a unique way by combining courses, live events, private groups, group coaching, and additional courses. You can customize and sell these offerings in 135 different currencies.
Mighty is considered one of the best platforms to sell courses online because it is connected to the world’s best community software and offers an elegant responsive app for every device.
2. Teachable
Teachable is an all-in-one platform for building, hosting, and selling online courses and coaching that has supported more than 100k creators in generating over $1 billion in sales.
With the power editor, you have the ability to create engaging multimedia lectures, videos, coaching sessions, and optimized sales pages. The user-friendly and intuitive drag-and-drop builder ensures that even first-time users can effectively utilize it.
Teachable not only emphasizes improving student interactions through various means such as one-on-one sessions, calls, quizzes, and collecting feedback, but also offers the opportunity to encourage current students to refer your course to others, effectively expanding your influence and popularity.
Teachable is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that handles all aspects of creating and selling online courses. With its user-friendly interface, individuals can effortlessly build a website and sell courses, even without technical expertise.
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- Track students and sales insights via the dashboard
- Unlimited video bandwidth
- Offer subscriptions, one-time payments, bundles, etc
- Access to built-in affiliate marketing tools
- Accept international payments with over 130+ currencies
- Takes care of EU VAT procedures
- 24×7 monitoring and instant upgrades
Teachable offers a free plan that includes unlimited students, courses, coaching services, basic quizzes, course design templates, instant payouts, product support, and a transaction fee of $1 + 10%. The breakdown of the Paid plans is as follows –
- Basic plan – $39/month
- Pro plan – $119/month
- Business plan – $299/month
The Basic plan involves a transaction fee of 5%. Nevertheless, both the Pro and Business plans allow for no charges.
3. LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is an online course platform that is both robust and powerful. It has enabled educators, online trainers, and entrepreneurs to create exceptional and distinctive learning experiences. With LearnWorlds, you have complete control over the design, making it a fully customizable platform that is perfectly suited to your requirements.
With its vast selection of templates, widgets, and layouts, LearnWorlds offers the ability to create a wide variety of pages, such as landing pages, 1-click sales pages, about us pages, affiliate pages, and payment and policy pages, in just minutes. What sets LearnWorlds apart is its mobile app developer, which requires no coding and allows you to transform your online course website into an app compatible with Android and iOS devices.
Learnworlds offers a comprehensive course management system when compared to other course platforms. It encompasses numerous built-in features, ranging from title creation to the issuance of digital certificates. Moreover, it allows you to administer exams for assessing your students’ knowledge and providing a certificate of proficiency.
If you want to learn more about the features and functionalities of Learnworlds, you can read our comprehensive review. It goes beyond being just a basic online course platform.
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- SEO-friendly
- Customizable course player
- Branded Digital Certificates
- Add interactions without post-production
- Robust mobile app builder
- Built-in affiliate marketing system
- Detailed Analytics reports and insights
- Excellent Customer support
LearnWorlds offers four pricing plans as outlined below –
- Starter plan – $24/month
- Pro Trainer plan – $79/month
- Learning Center plan – $249/month
- High volume & corporate plan – Custom
If you choose the Starter Plan, you will be required to pay a $5 fee for each course sale. However, if you upgrade to higher plans, you will not have to pay any fees. Learnworlds provides a 30-day free trial for all plans and also offers a money-back guarantee. Therefore, sign up and explore the platform to test its unique features.
4. SendOwl
SendOwl is a remarkable platform that streamlines the process of selling online courses. It allows you to sell courses directly from your current website, blog, social media, or API. Its objective is to enhance the learning experience by enabling students to access their content more quickly rather than spending time on manual procedures.
Each file you upload to Sendowl is converted into a unique SendOwl product, allowing you to sell these files as part of a course or separately to increase sales and overall return on investment.
After processing the text thoughtfully, you have the option to arrange the content for publication within a designated period. Furthermore, you have the capability to generate personalized codes and license keys for tracking purchases and automatically delivering product updates.
In addition to secure storage and distribution of your course content, SendOwl offers additional features such as setting download limits, implementing 2-factor authentication, adding watermarks, and streaming videos/audio to safeguard against unauthorized downloads.
Features that are significant or essential
- Faster content delivery
- Modern & responsive checkout
- Support for multi-language & multi-currency
- Custom email templates
- Automate your marketing flows
- Built-in affiliate marketing
- Offer 1-click upsells, discounts, promo codes
- “Pay what you want” pricing is available
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting
SendOwl offers four paid pricing plans that are determined by factors such as the quantity of products, storage restrictions, and additional features.
- Basic plan – $9/month – 10 products, 1GB storage
- Standard plan – $15/month – 30 products, 3GB storage
- Premium plan – $24/month – 100 products, 5GB storage
- Business plan – $39/month – 250 products, 15GB storage
If you prefer to self-host or sell subscriptions, SendOwl has different pricing plans specifically designed for each option. All pricing plans offered by SendOwl come with a 30-day free trial, and no credit card is required. If you believe it suits your needs perfectly, you can sign up and experience all the essential features.
