10 Best Practices To Create and Sell a Profitable Online Courses For New Course Creators

Are you an online course creator or edupreneur looking to create an online course or a seasoned course creator looking to grow your students?

Growing at 20% per year, offering online education by creating and selling an online courses help educators earn a living while sharing their expertise globally. However there are a few challenges you must overcome:

• Knowing how to create an online course
• Knowing how to launch an online course
• Knowing how to get people to purchase your course

With our decades of online learning experience, we’ve compiled the best practices from successful course creators on the topic of creating and selling online courses, providing practical insights, actionable steps to ensure success and avoid costly mistakes in this rapidly growing market.

1. Understanding the Online Course Market

The online course market is witnessing exponential growth, driven by the increasing demand for accessible and flexible education, more people are looking for online learning over traditional education.

To effectively tap into this market, it’s essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of its dynamics and potential. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Growth of the e-learning industry: The e-learning industry has experienced substantial growth (438%) in recent years, with projections indicating continued expansion. This growth is fueled by advancements in technology, increased internet access, and the rising need for lifelong learning.
2. Benefits of creating and selling online courses: Online courses offer numerous advantages, including the potential for profitability and global reach. They provide flexibility for both instructors and learners, enabling them to access educational content anytime, anywhere.
3. Conducting customer research: Before developing your course, it’s crucial to identify the market demand for your chosen topic. Through customer research, you can gain insights into your target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points, allowing you to tailor your course to their requirements.
4. Identifying popular online course ideas: Analyzing popular course topics and identifying niche markets can help you create a course that stands out and appeals to a specific audience. This strategy enhances your chances of success by catering to the unique needs of a target market.
5. Know the best online course platforms: Understand and explore the different online course platforms, each platforms have its own set of advantages and drawbacks, selecting one which fulfil your need is key in creating a profitable online course business.

2. Planning Your Online Course

Proper planning is the foundation for a successful online course.

Knowing how your course will look like before you even start investing your time and money into creating your first course is key and here are some considerations for effective course planning:

1. Choosing the right course topic: Select a topic that aligns with your expertise and passion. Do take note that it is both your expertise and your passion, and not just one of these 2 criteria.
2. Determine the demand: Conduct market research to ensure there is demand for your chosen topic and validate its viability, you can do this by inviting your friends who are in the field and ask them if they will be interested in such a course.
3. Know your course format: Decide on the format of your course based on the content and learning objectives. Course can be in the form of a single format, or a combination of a different format. Here are some format where it can be delivered; Video lessons, quizzes, downloadable resources, and interactive elements can enhance engagement and knowledge retention.
4. Outlining the course content: Create a detailed course outline that organizes the course material in a logical and progressive manner. Start with an introduction and break the content into modules or lessons. Each lesson should have specific learning objectives.
5. Setting learning objectives and goals: Clearly define the learning outcomes you want your students to achieve. Well-defined objectives help students understand what they will gain from the course and enable you to assess their progress effectively.

3. Creating Engaging Course Content

Compelling and engaging course content is essential for learner satisfaction and success. This is even more important when it is taught online.

Consider the following when developing your course materials:

1. Focus on quality not quantity: Create content that is well-researched, accurate, and presented professionally. Use a combination of multimedia elements such as videos, slides, infographics, and written content to cater to different learning styles.
2. Utilizing interactive technology: Incorporate interactive elements like quizzes, assessments, and discussion forums to encourage active participation and reinforce learning. Create online community and learning groups, these elements promote engagement and help learners apply knowledge in practical scenarios.
3. Structuring content with the help of DRIP: Organize your content into easily digestible modules or lessons. Use clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points to enhance readability and facilitate understanding. Chunking information improves knowledge retention. Personalize the learning experience of each of your learners with DRIP feature offered by most online course platform. 

4. Building an Effective Online Course Platform

Selecting the right online course platform with the best LMS is crucial for delivering a seamless learning experience with all the required features for you to create online courses that engage with your learners.

• Best online course platforms for course creators to host your course

If you really want to make your course a success and have people buy your course, you need to choose an online course platform that is designed for your business. Consider the following factors when choosing a platform:

1. Ease of use and customization options: Look for a platform that is user-friendly and allows full customization to reflect your brand identity and white-labeling of the course. Intuitive navigation, responsive design for both desktop and mobile, and the ability to add your logo and color scheme contribute to a positive user experience.
2. Course management and analytics features: A robust platform should provide features for managing enrollments to help automate most of your process, tracking student progress, and generating detailed analytics. These insights help you understand learner behavior and optimize your course accordingly.
3. Support and customer service: Always choose a platform that offers reliable customer support that helps you address technical issues, provide guidance, and resolve queries. As an course creator, setting up your online course on  a platform where it provided prompt and efficient support is essential for maintaining a positive learning environment.

5. Marketing and Selling Your Online Course

Effectively marketing and selling your online course is vital to attract students and maximize your revenue potential.

Your course sales and how much you can make creating your online course is highly dependent on your online course sales funnel, your marketing effort and capabilities. Thus when you want to market your course, consider the following strategies:

1. Building a compelling sales page: A sales page is also call a landing page, the sole goal of the sales page is to convert audience into paying customers. Studies shows that direct traffic audience have an conversion rate of over 3.3%, and knowing how to create a persuasive sales page that highlights the value and benefits of your course can increase the conversion rate even further. Include engaging visuals, testimonials, and a clear call-to-action to encourage conversions.
2. Use social media: While the conversion rate for social media is kind of low with a conversion rate of just over 1.5%, however social media platforms are free. Share engaging content, collaborate with influencers, and participate in relevant communities to build your online presence by promoting your course on social is a free and great way to market and reach a wider audience.
3. Leverage on email marketing campaigns: Build an email list of interested prospects and create targeted email campaigns to nurture leads and drive conversions. It was found that email marketing give a whooping 2.6% conversion rate which is 70% higher in conversion than on social. In your email communication, share valuable content, offer exclusive discounts, and communicate the benefits of your course to potential customers.
4. Form partnership with affiliates and influencers: Collaborate with influencers and affiliates in your niche to expand your reach. Offer them incentives such as a commission for each referral, and provide them with promotional materials to support their marketing efforts. Popular online course platform offers you an automated way to do this.
5. Craft engaging course description: Writing engaging and information course description helps you in increasing your conversion rate. A course description hasty written offers no depth and give a bad impression to your potential learners, while a well crafter course creation tells your student exactly what they can expect from taking up this course.

As you can see, most mentioned here is about helping you increasing your conversion rate, it is because a slight change in the conversion rate can mean a huge difference in how much you can earn as a course creator.

6. Engaging with Learners

Building a strong connection with your learners is crucial, this is where it makes your platform “sticky” keeps your learners from coming back for more. Influencers are the best people to learn from in this field, but in case you aren’t one or will just like to know more, consider the following best practices:

1. Foster a sense of community: Create opportunities for learners to interact with each other through discussion forums, group projects, or live webinars. Build a sense of community in your platform. Try to include features that can help encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing, and peer feedback to enhance the learning experience.
2. Provide timely and personalized feedback: Your learners want to engage with you, and as the course creator priorities in actively engage with your learners by providing constructive feedback on their assignments, assessments, or questions. And if you want to bring that connection up a level, offer personalized feedback to demonstrate your commitment to your student’s progress and encourages them to stay motivated.
3. Offer additional support: No one mind too much support, and if you are able, supplement your course materials with additional resources such as cheat sheets, downloadable templates, or recommended readings. These resources can enhance understanding and provide learners with practical tools to apply their knowledge.

There is actually one last one which I think can be in this list, “Provide Coaching”.

Coaching is probably the best way to engage your learners, and not only that it is some of the best ways to further monetize your online course and gain an additional income.

Some professional coaches are reported to earn more than $250,000 per month, and the average coaches earns approx. $75 per hour.

7. Continuous Improvement and Updating

Regardless if you are building an online school or just building an online course to sell, to stay competitive and relevant in the online course market, continuous improvement and updating of your course content are essential. Consider the following practices:

1. Collect and incorporate feedback: Encourage learners to provide feedback on the course content, structure, and delivery. Analyze their suggestions and incorporate relevant improvements to enhance the learning experience.
2. Stay updated with industry trends: Continuously monitor industry trends, new research, and technological advancements related to your course topic. Update your content periodically to ensure it remains current and valuable.
3. Offer lifetime access and updates: Providing lifetime access to your course and offering updates to existing students demonstrates your commitment to their ongoing learning. This practice also encourages students to recommend your course to others.

Continuous improvement and updating of your course content is implementing a feedback loop to always keep your course relevant and can provide value to benefit your students.

8. Enhancing Course Completion Rates

Improving course completion rates contributes to the success of your online course. Not only it helps your students in meeting their learning goals, they are more likely to recommend their friends for the course, bringing you free marketing through the word of mouth. Consider the following best practices:

1. Set clear expectations: Clearly communicate the course duration, time commitments, and any prerequisites to potential learners. Setting realistic expectations helps learners assess their readiness and commit to completing the course.
2. Break down content: Divide your course content into manageable sections or modules. This approach helps learners perceive progress, reduces overwhelm, and increases their motivation to continue.
3. Gamify the learning experience: Incorporate gamification elements such as badges, rewards, or leaderboards to motivate learners and make the learning process more enjoyable. Gamification can create a sense of achievement and healthy competition.
4. Implement drip content: Rather than providing all course materials upfront, consider releasing content gradually over time. Drip-feeding content keeps learners engaged, reduces overwhelm, and encourages consistent progress.
5. Send completion reports: Periodically send notification to your students and remind them of their current completion rates, prompting them to come back to complete the course.

9. Creating Effective Assessments and Certifications

Assessments and certifications are great way to increase the value of your course. Consider the following best practices:

1. Use diverse assessment methods: Incorporate a variety of assessment methods such as quizzes, assignments, case studies, or practical projects. Diverse assessments cater to different learning styles and provide a holistic evaluation of learners’ understanding.
2. Provide timely and constructive feedback: The key here is “Timely”, giving timely feedback on assessments is crucial for learners to track their progress and identify areas for improvement. Offer constructive feedback can help learners understand their strengths and areas requiring further development.
3. Issue certificates of completion: Offer learners a certificate of completion or achievement upon successfully finishing the course. Certificates add value to their learning experience and can be used for professional development or career advancement.

Giving a certificate of completion is great, it let your student have something to show their peers about what they’ve achieved, by including assessments and certifications of different levels provide even more value to learners and increase the credibility of your course.

10. Ensuring Accessibility and Inclusivity

Make your online course accessible to a wide range of learners by considering the following best practices:

1. Provide closed captions and transcripts: Include closed captions for videos and provide transcripts for audio content to ensure learners with hearing impairments can access the course materials. This practice also benefits learners who prefer reading or have language-related challenges.
2. Design for visual clarity: Use clear and legible fonts, appropriate color contrast, and organized layouts in your course materials. This approach helps learners with visual impairments or reading difficulties navigate and comprehend the content easily.
3. Consider different learning preferences: Accommodate diverse learning preferences by providing a combination of visual, auditory, and interactive learning materials. This approach caters to learners with different learning styles and preferences.

Ready To Start Creating And Selling Your Online Course Now?

Creating and selling online courses is getting more popular and the best day to start is yesterday, the next best day to start is today. It is never too late to start creating your first online course to sell.

While learning how to create your first online course can be daunting, building your course business and selling new courses can be a very rewarding experience.

As an course creator, it allows you to share your knowledge while generating income.

With the best practices outlined in this guide, you can create engaging and impactful courses that resonate with your target audience.