Where to sell online courses, and how? If you’ve ever tried creating or selling courses online, you’ve likely come across this question.
Despite the high demand for online course content, some course creators are still struggling to find suitable buyers for their content. That’s attributed to the fact that some course creators use the wrong channels to sell their services and products. There are various high-reputed and user-friendly platforms, which allows for streamlined course creation and selling.
Want to sell your online courses, but don’t know where to do it? Read along to learn about the best places to sell online courses.
Is It Profitable to Sell Online Courses?
Online courses are a hot commodity today. The adoption of advanced e-learning technologies has aided the success of online courses selling businesses. According to Global Market Insights, five years from now, the E-learning industry will be more than 325 billion in profits. It’s also predicted that the industry will be enjoying a 5% yearly growth. Average online instructors are earning several hundred dollars yearly, while experienced tutors are earning a six-figure annual income.
Anyone thinking of casting their net into online courses selling as a business should understand that the profits don’t come in a golden platter. You must toil hard, creating the best courses, and marketing them effectively to your target audience. The amount you can earn from selling courses online will depend on your experience level, competition, market size, level of experience, personal brand recognition., training content, and of course, your sales and making skills.
Ingredients of a Good Online Course
We all can collectively agree that not all online courses are created equal. Some courses are outstandingly incredible, while others are a bunch of poorly sourced and amalgamated data. The recipe for a good online course must include the right ingredients.
Impartial in All Aspects
Good online courses are socially, politically, and culturally unbiased. They’re designed taking into account every student’s socioeconomic needs and backgrounds. In other words, these courses are characterized by a diverse and intersectional collection of materials that don’t shame, degrade, or stereotype anyone based on their social, cultural, or political orientation.
Highly interactive
Incredibly superb online courses are interactive in nature. The courses don’t just approach the teaching process from an unbiased perspective. They provide interactive learning where students and teachers connect to each other with minimal hassle. They also provide a portal where students can collaborate, debate issues, or even solve queries as a group.
Engages and Challenges
The best online courses encourage students to participate and grab their attention. These courses are created with the student in mind, so the challenge and engage them fully, advancing their knowledge base, skills, and abilities.
They also motivate students to act. They practically address issues, offering feasible solutions to different issues. For instance, an excellent online course on electronics repair and maintenance will give detailed instructions on how to troubleshoot the problems with different types of electronics.
Active and Visible Instructors
Watching and reading online course content online can be quite boring, especially if it’s about a complex issue. However, if you are leaning in the presence of an active and visible instructor, the study and content absorption becomes easier. It is fun and more intriguing to study in the presence of a virtual instructor.
Where to Sell Online Courses: The Best Platforms Recommended for You
1. Udemy—The Largest Online Course Marketplace Ever
Udemy is the largest online marketplace for students and instructors. Over the last four years, Udemy has experienced high-growth and success. Udemy allows online course creators to upload their courses on the Udemy marketplace, ensuring for brand growth and monetary gains.
Udemy enables content creators to host their online courses on their domains, which provides better control over the content you create and email to your students. You can set up Udemy in minutes, thanks to its user-friendly design. This online marketplace also providers content creators with a vast range of tools for creating online courses alongside a video player for creating quality video course content.
Udemy doesn’t charge you for selling paid courses. However, they charge you 50% for the students who find your online course through organic searches, and 3% for courses you sell via your marketing links.
What We Like
- Best online course selling platform for non-technical content creators
- The biggest marketplace ever
- Quality support for instructors
- New instructor instruction manual
What We Don’t Like
- You don’t get optimal value for time and money
- They may retarget and email your students
2. Teachable—The Best Platform for Creating and Selling Online Courses
Teachable comes second in our list of the best places where to sell online courses. Teachable allows teachers to import online course content from other online course creation and selling platforms. Teachable’s support may not be the best, but they do try the level best to attend to every client’s needs promptly.
Teachable is a bit limiting when it comes to customizations and control over the online courses you create. It’s, however, the best platform for teachers who use content management systems and want to host it on a subdomain.
However, when it comes to marketing efficiency and reliability, no other platform can compare with teachable. They have incredibly great email marketing tools that ensure you can customize the type of content you share with your students. Teachable’s basic plan comes at $39 a month.
What We Like
- It has a great tracking system for managing students and tracking progress
- It has a solid reputation
- Quite easy to set up and use
- Creating and selling courses is fun
What we Don’t Like
- The sales page isn’t that great
- The integrated payment gateways are quite expensive
3. Thinkific—The Most Affordable Online Course Software Solution
Thinkific is beginner’s favorite online course creation and selling platform. It works great for everyone, but it’s strongly recommended for teachers who know very little about web analytics and digital marketing.
Thinkific offers a cost-free basic play that lets you create and sell online courses without paying anything. That gives those on a low-budget an opportunity to get started selling online courses without needing to pay anything upfront.
Thinkific has a strong and solid reputation for having one of the best support representatives. They provide premium and timely customer care services. Thinkific’s basic plan sells at $49 a month and offers you basic features and functions. You can sign up and enjoy the 30-day free trial to weigh the value of the services you will get once you pay.
What We Like
- You can sign up for free
- Signing up takes minutes
- Has the best video player ever
- Integrates with most third-party sites
What We Don’t Like
- The marketing automation features are few
- You have to pay a 10% processing fee if you settle for the free plan
4. GumRoad—A Good Platform for Skilled and New Tutors
Gumroad was originally used for selling digital copies, such as books and artwork. Recently, they started offering course creators the chance to publish and sell their content. Gumroad allows you to sell online courses in the form of text, video, or audio, depending on your target audience. One thing making Gumroad a great choice is a fact that it enables customers to rent content to pay later.
And the best part is that you choose how much you want to charge the customers for the rented content. Gumroad is quite a budget-friendly platform for anyone who wants to publish and sell content online. They offer pricing packages starting at $10 per month and a 14-day trial.
What We Like
- They allow for content rental
- They allow for the sale of different types of online courses
- They are affordable and reliable
- Allows for pricing adjustment
What We Don’t Like
- They deduct $.30 + 3.5% transaction fee
- No content creation system
5. Creative Live—A Unique Platform
The last best place to sell online courses is Creative Live. Creative Live has a huge student base of more than 10 million and more than 650-credible instructors operating in different disciplines. The cost of the courses offered in this online course marketplace is a bit costly. That’s an advantage to the instructors but a disadvantage to the students.
What we don’t know is how one can sign up or create an account as an instructor. It is possible instructors are invited or asked to apply for accounts through their emails.
What We Like
- It has an extensive student base
- Offers reasonable payments for instructors
- Doesn’t experience downtimes every often
What we Don’t Like
- There is no tutor sign up portal
- Deals with creative content mostly
Conclusion
We’ve just outlined all you should know about the best places to sell online courses. You may have heard or used any other platform that’s not on our list. That doesn’t make it less of an excellent online platform for selling online courses.
Whichever platform you’ve decided to work with, make sure it does deliver value for your time and money. You shouldn’t waste time registering an account with an online course marketplace that takes advantage of instructors.
Hi there,
Excellent article, I really loved the reading!
I was looking for the best platform on the net to sell my courses online, and that’s how I found your website. I want to create classes to teach French and sell them online. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Udemy market place, but never about the other platforms. I’ll check these further now, and I will have to choose. What I like about Udemy though, is that they don’t charge for selling my courses.
Thanks a lot for this list!
Thanks leaving us a comment Daniella! If you don’t have an existing audience, leveraging a marketplace like Udemy is probably the best path to go down.
A very interesting article on the selling of online training courses. I must say, this opened a whole new world for me. I myself was thinking of teaching English in the region where I live (Thailand), which is in huge demand. Now I know how I can make a start and where.
Udemy looks to be the best platform, however, the 50% for the students seems a bit steep. But, still I am going to explore that one in depth and see how it can fit in my plans. Thanks very much!
Hi Jerry, I think you should definitely give it a go. Udemy is great for people who don’t have an active audience built from social media or from a previous business. But yeah I hear you on the 50% thing – that’s a significant chunk.
But we have to understand that just building the course doesn’t guarantee students – I’ll be unveiling a lot of articles this month on the subject of marketing your course.
Nice one, I must say you really did a nice job on this awesome article as I know it would be of great help to the public as it has been of help to me..I just got some new music courses and I have been looking for more place to place them for sale, although I already have them one some website….I think these ideas would be nice too…thanks a lot for sharing.
Awesome Jerry, great article and I enjoyed reading it.
I have been looking for best place on the internet to sell online courses from click-bank. I want to create list of programs to share with new online marketers how to do the same too. I’ve heard good things about Udemy market place. I will check it further now on. What I like about Udemy though is that they don’t charge for selling courses on their platform; is that right?
Thank you very much for the information
Juma
They collection commission on sales, so you only pay out when you’re making money,
Finding your article on selling online courses was a huge benefit. As we are currently in the process of laying out our first online course, Finding Your Freedom, the information you provide gave us some much-needed insight on what is to come and some of the things we would want to know and consider once our course is complete. Thank you so much.
Thats so awesome Jason, please do check around the site at our in depth platform reviews and tips for marketing your online course. Best of luck!
I’ve always wondered where to begin selling online courses! I’ve taken numerous online training courses myself and was always curious to what type of platform the coach or teacher used to put their interactive material together. I’m sure they used one of the popular platforms you mentioned.
My husband has been in the real estate industry investing in properties since 2012. He and his partner are in the beginning phases of researching and learning how to launch an interactive online course for students interested in growing a real estate portfolio. I have bookmarked your site to share this information with him.
This is such valuable information you shared with your readers! Very detailed and well written. Thank you, wonderful post!
Thank you Lindsey! Really appreciate you taking the time to read the article an also leave me such a wonderful comment. I think now more then ever is a great time to begin developing and selling online courses.