How to Sell an Online Course Like a Pro

If you’re an expert in something, the chances are that there’s someone out there who will pay to learn from you. I know it sounds crazy. You probably think, “who would buy a course from me? I’m a nobody!” But people buy courses all the time. You just have to know how to sell an online course and act like a pro to make the sale.

In this article, I’m going to teach you how the ropes on how to sell online course options.

Reasons to sell courses online

You’re probably asking yourself right now, “why would I sell an online course?” 

While I don’t have the answers for you personally, I can speak from experience that the online course industry is booming. If you want to be a part of it, the time to start is now. With more people staying home and doing “distance learning,” you can jump on the bandwagon and be profitable like the millions of others making online courses today.

Why else should you sell online courses?

Passive income, that’s why. When you create a course, you make it one time but can sell it as many times as you want. That’s the beauty of passive income. It keeps creating income for you, and you don’t have to do anything once you create the course and take the steps below to sell an online course.

Everyone can do it. You don’t have to be a pro (but you should act like one). Just have a passion for a specific niche, and you can succeed. Here’s how.

7 steps to sell an online course

1. Know what you’re selling

Don’t create a course on a subject no one cares about! That’s the number one rule. Know what you’re selling and make sure there’s a market for it.

Browse through your favorite course platforms and see what courses are already out there. You may see something that sparks an idea.

If you need ideas of what to sell, here are some top categories:

• Computers and technology
• Self-care
• Health and fitness
• Career changes
• Entertainment
• Writing

2. Find your niche

Don’t sell a course on a broad topic—instead, niche down as much as possible. The more specific you get, the easier reaching your target audience. 

When you get to know your target audience, you’ll know just what to offer too. Think of it this way. The less specific you are with your content, the more competition there is out there. Instead, get down to the nitty-gritty. 

For example, if you create a course on self-care, it would be pretty broad and pertain to just about anyone. But if you have a passion for helping women going through fertility issues, for example, you could create a course on self-care for women with fertility issues. That is a specific niche with much less competition and more rewards.

3. Choose your platform

You could create the best course known to man, but no one will see it if you don’t have a platform to host it. There are two main options to host your course.

Standalone platform

You can use a standalone platform to sell courses, like Teachable, which hosts thousands of courses on its site. It’s user-friendly and great for beginners. You get everything you need from course creation tools to payment options for your students, a storefront, the option to Zoom with your students, graded quizzes, and your own website.

All-in-one platform

Consider an all-in-one platform if you’d rather host your course on your existing website. You’ll get help with website building, course hosting, and even help with marketing.

4. Price your course

This is probably the most challenging step and is even harder than creating the course itself. Of course, you think your course is invaluable, but what is your target audience willing to pay?

Courses range from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. The average course is $50 - $100, but every course varies. You’ll get a better feel for what your customers will pay as you get up and going but, in the meantime, stalk your competitors.

See what competitors are selling online classes for and what they include with them. Then, ask yourself if you should charge more or less than what they charge. You don’t want to undercharge just to get the business, though. You want people to pay the price for your course because they see the value in it.

If you cut yourself short, you may lose business because people won’t see the value in your course if you don’t. 

Other factors your pricing should be dependent on include:

• What can your target audience afford? For example, if you’re marketing to single moms, you probably don’t want to have a course that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars.
• What are your costs? It doesn’t make sense to make a course if you aren’t going to recoup your costs. Take them into consideration and keep yourself on a budget to price your course affordably.

5. Do a soft launch

When your course is ready for takeoff, don’t make it available to the general public yet. There are two reasons for this.

• You want to create some excitement around the course. If you make it available to a limited audience, others want to know what all the fuss is about. The excitement will build, and your sales will too.
• You need to work out the kinks. Imagine releasing your course to thousands of people only to find out it has glitches. When you limit your initial audience to a select few, you can work out the kinks and not make a bad name for yourself with a course that didn’t work.

Decide how you’ll do your soft launch and who you’ll market it to. It could be social media followers, your email list, or the first X number of people that sign up for your special offer. Make it seem exciting, limited, and promising to increase the hype around your course.

6. Market your online course

Now that you’ve done all the hard work, you need to tell people about your course. Word of mouth is great, but you’ll need to use more marketing techniques to keep the students coming. This is probably the most challenging part of learning how to sell an online course. 

While an online course is passive income, the marketing component is ongoing. You should exhaust all marketing efforts, including:

• Creating your own website and utilizing SEO strategies
• Sharing your course on your personal and business social media pages
• Capturing email addresses with a lead magnet and even a free look at your course
• Network with influencers and others in the area that can share the good news about your course too

Don’t forget to ask for reviews when students finish your course too. Nothing sells a course more than real-life people talking about what they learned or what they thought of your course. You can post the reviews on your website or ask them to leave reviews on third-party sites for others to see.

7. Offer opportunities to upsell your students

Don’t sell yourself short with just your course. What can your students do once they’ve finished your course? What opportunities do you provide?

This is a great time to upsell them either with another course you’ve created or other opportunities. Here are some natural segways from your course:

• Online coaching sessions
• Group membership with sessions
• Email newsletters and/or paid a subscription

Pros and cons of selling an online course

Selling an online course has its pros and cons, just like any other business opportunity you take advantage of. Here’s the good and bad about selling an online course.

Tips on how to sell an online course like a pro

If you want your online course to stand out among the competition, here’s what you must do.

Make your students feel special

Courses can feel isolating if you don’t get to know your students. Since this is supposed to be passive income, you probably don’t want to spend time getting to know each student one by one. Still, you can set up Facebook groups or email opportunities to get to know your students and to be able to provide excellent customer service so they keep coming back.

Create online groups

Let your students join a community with other people just like them. This fosters a feeling of inclusion and makes people remember you and your courses. If you release more courses, they are an easy target for your marketing, and they may even be some of your test subjects as you learn what other pain points your audience has.

Take criticism

It can be disheartening to hear someone didn’t like your course, but you can make it better if you learn from what they say. Likewise, you can learn from your target audience whether what you're doing is amazing or if something is missing, and you should offer value-added services or even revamp your course.

Update your course

Your course is somewhat set-it-and-forget-it, but not totally. If you ignore it, your course will get outdated over time, and it will stop being the source of income you want. So continually update it (at least annually) and let your audience know that you did.

Provide a resource for troubleshooting

Online courses are going to have problems. It’s the nature of the beast. Provide a way for students to get the help they need, even if it’s just an FAQ of common issues people have with your course, so that they can find a way out. 

Final thoughts

Anyone can sell an online course like a pro. It starts with figuring out your niche, finding your target audience, and pricing it right. Whether you have a skill you want to share, you’re a professional that often consults with and helps others, or you just want to have a little fun, there is a lot of fun and money to be made in selling online courses.