What’s The Best Way To Monetize Your Knowledge?
Why You Should Not Start Selling Online Courses
Nope — It Ain’t Passive (and It Certainly Ain’t Easy).
Let me tell you a disturbing truth.
Many creators get caught in the “selling your online course” hype.
It’s supposed to be easy.
It’s supposed to be passive.
It’s supposed to be the best way to monetize your knowledge.
But there’s a problem: it’s supposed to be so.
Because let me tell you this: After being in the trenches for more than eight years, here’s what I can say: It ain’t easy. And no, it ain’t that passive either.
The Problem Ain’t Creating the Course
Newcomers look for the perfect tools to create and sell a course.
Which software to use? Where to host the course? How to set up an autoresponder? Yada, yada, yada…
While many get bogged down by the technical aspect of things the democratization of simple to use software, microphones, and other recording gear has made the barrier of entry ridiculously low.
Everyone and their dog can create an online course today.
Create slides on Google Docs, record your screen with your built-in screen capture software, throw them on a WordPress site, and voila.
And if you want to make it even easier? Put them on e-learning platforms.
And let’s be honest:
As a content creator and creative who has a lot of ideas, coming up with an online course idea ain’t that hard.
(You probably already know what you want to sell, right?).
But here’s the thing:
Nobody cares about what you want to sell. It’s all about what the market wants to buy.
Re-read this sentence carefully.
So while coming up with an online course idea is fairly easy, coming up with an online course idea that people truly want to buy is totally different.
If you really think about it, selling the courses is the hardest part.
What does selling an online course imply?
It’s not that much about what tools you use. But what desires you’re going to appeal. What problems you’re going to solve.
In other words, it requires getting your marketing game right. It requires knowing how to market the course.
And here lies the problem:
Most course creators aren’t marketers. Most of them are “only” passionate about their stuff.
Doing the Math
Another issue is that if you want to sustain yourself from selling online courses, is that you have to get the arithmetics right.
In other words: you need to know your numbers.
“Good math can save mediocre persuasion, but bad math will sink the best sales pitch every time.” Perry Marshall
Shall you sell a course for cheap (~100ish dollars) or at a premium ($500 and up?). It depends.
Selling courses at a premium requires marketing skills. It requires testimonials. It requires persuading people that you are the person who can solve their problems. It requires anticipating their questions, their fears, and their doubts.
But more than that, it requires tapping into a powerful desire your market has.
Again, this brings us back to the basics.
While a ~100ish dollar course may seem easier to sell, you need to sell more if you want to make a living out of it and ditch your 9 to 5. Which means: you need more people. More people who sign up to your list. More people who see your sales page, etc.
And let me tell you this:
All numbers tend to converge to one single marketing truth. This truth is that you won’t necessarily convert more people at a lower price point.
Which brings us back to… leveling up your marketing skills to sell your course at a premium.
The Better Way To Monetize Your Knowledge (Especially When You’re Starting Out)
I argue that coaching is the easier path to go. When selling a personalized coaching plan, you don’t need to get all your marketing game tight up from scratch.
You can start with a vague promise, listen to the prospect’s problems, and craft a personalized offer based on the prospect’s needs. (Not what you want to sell.)
Plus, since it’s a personalized offer, you can charge a premium for it, too.
And since the client has your undivided attention, it’s way easier to get him results, which will result in getting social proof (testimonials) coming in.
It will also help you understand your market better.
All this can be utilized to finally craft a premium online course that you can sell later down the road.
Plus, you only need a handful of clients to make a living out of it.
Sounds like a virtuous circle?
Ditching the Past of Least Resistance
If you think about it, creating an online course seems an easy thing to do. You record and throw it out there. Money flows on autopilot.
Well, that ain’t true. To make an online course truly “evergreen” you still have to work: get more leads into your funnel, keep the course up to date, etc.
But beyond that, selling your course is the hardest part.
It requires getting your marketing-game right. That’s easier said than done.
This is why you see so many content and course creators struggle to make a truly sustainable living out of it.
But no matter which option you choose: coaching or course, there’s still one part of the equation you have to get right.
You need to get noticed. You need to stand out. You need to position yourself as somebody who has something to say that your market didn’t see before.
As you already know: Content is king. Of course, creating great content is not the only part of the equation, but… it’s the first step to getting noticed and start selling something.
Because let me tell you this:
If your content sucks, nobody will ever reach out to you to ask for coaching or to buy your online course.
But if you can grab their attention with great content, you’ve already done half of the heavy lifting.
This is why I’ve created a free 7 day email course to show you exactly how to create content that will make you stand out, even in a crowded market. Click here to learn more.
