The Ultimate Guide to Create Passive Income with an Online Course Website

I’m currently finishing up a new website with an online course membership portal and a funnel for a client. Working on his site got me thinking about how many more of these learning management sites I’ve been building lately for Realtors, Estheticians, Health Coaches, Mindset Coaches, Business Coaches, Energy Healers, Tutors, etc. Probably 1 out of every 3 potential clients I talk with on discovery calls has a goal to build an online course within the next year.

Everyone Seems to be Leveraging the Power of Online Courses!

So, I got curious and did a little research into the growing trend …

Online Courses Have Proven the Test of Time

Also called eCourses, online learning, digital courses, etc., online courses are a way for students to take classes from anywhere with an internet connection.

This is not a new concept.

In the 1960’s the University of Illinois created a way for students to log into an intranet system of computers to access course recordings and materials.

I was in college during the 90’s, when online courses had just started to take off. Several of my gen-ed classes were available online while earning my degree. The convenience of being able to free up my daytime hours for my studio classes was wonderful! And I liked that I could take my online classes in the evenings around my work schedule using the computer lab in my dorm.

Today students can earn their entire degree through online programs. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 college students are enrolled in an online course.

What’s changed is that online learning is now available to anyone, anywhere, for any topic imaginable. It is not just for college students anymore.

In 2017, 77% of companies were using online education to train employees.

According to Forbes, eLearning was predicted to reach $107 Billion in 2015 – and it did. The new predictions are that the eLearning industry will reach $325 Billion by 2025.

These are amazing statistics for those of us who have knowledge that can help someone else.

The Benefits of Online Courses for Students:

The industry is on the rise for many reasons which can all be summarized into one word: convenience.

Curated Content: Similar to “How-to” books, online courses are convenient for the learner because the content they are looking to learn is curated into one place, streamlining the learning process. It’s easier than trying to search for the answer online, bookmarking sites and watching YouTube videos.

No Travel Required: With an online course you don’t have to travel to a class or seminar. This saves a tremendous amount of time and money.

Self-Paced: Students can consume the content as quickly or slowly as they need. If students don’t understand something, they can review a lesson as many times as necessary. With an in-person class, this is usually not possible.

Accessibility: Anyone with a smartphone or computer, and an internet connection can take an online course.

Variety: There are online courses available on any topic you can think of.

Inexpensive: Compared to paying for college courses or continuing education, or even attending seminars and in-person workshops, online courses are super affordable.

The Benefits of Online Courses for Business Owners:

Passive Income & Leverage: For many business owners, creating a course can be a very profitable move in their business. Create it one time and get paid every time another student enrolls. This allows you to help more people, make more money, and have more time. If you tie your course to a membership program you can also create recurring revenue.

Easy to Create: Online courses are easier now more than ever to create. You can create excellent learning experiences by combining video and written/downloadable content, both of which are easy to create. You probably already have much of it created if you’re teaching your one-on-one clients the same information.

Low Initial Investment: The tools to create an online course are minimal. A webcam and a website are about all you need to create an excellent user experience for your students.

Would an Online Course be a Good Fit for Your Business?

Creating an online course is not something to step into lightly. It is a big project that involves a lot of layers, but when done right, it can be an absolute game-changer for your business.

Let’s start with the basics:

• Do you find yourself teaching the same things to each of your one-on-one clients?
• Do you have knowledge of a topic that’s in-demand?
• Can you present that information in a way that will keep your students engaged?

If you answered “yes” to all of these, creating an online course may be a good decision for you and your clients.

How to Create Your eCourse Content

If you decided that building a course is something you want to pursue in your business, you will want to go about it in an organized way.

1. Open up a spreadsheet or document and outline where your clients are before your course and where they will be (what transformation will they achieve) after taking your course.
2. Then break down the process of getting from A to Z into steps. Keep the course as simple as possible, while including the essentials your students need to get excellent results.
3. Outline each step:
   • What will you teach in step 1?
   • Outline the results your students can expect after completing step 1
   • What needs to be included to support their learning (i.e. worksheets, exercises, checklists)?
   • Do you need to create anything to teach this step, such as a presentation or graphics?
4. Once you have your steps mapped out, it’s time to record your videos and create your content.
   • I bet you have a smartphone in your pocket with a video camera or a webcam on your laptop.
   • Or you can use free video recording tools like Loom.com or Zoom.us to record your screen, face, or both.

How to Host and Sell Your Course Online

When it comes to delivering your course to your students, you have 3 main options.

Option 1: Host your course on a site like Teachable, Udemy, or Thinkific

With this option, you will use their platform and pay a monthly fee or a revenue share depending on the platform.

Sites like this are a great option if you have a basic course without a lot of bells and whistles. They’re also great for testing proof of concept to make sure your course will sell before investing in a custom platform.

There are no customization options and you are limited to the features each platform includes.

• Teachable:
  • Monthly price: Free, $39 Basic, $99 Professional, and $499 Business
  • Fees:
    • 10% of revenue + $1 on the Free plan
    • 5% of revenue on the Basic plan
    • No fees at the Professional or Business Level
• Thinkific:
  • Monthly price: Free, $49 Basic, $99 Pro, $499 Premier
  • Fees: Thinkific does not take a % of your revenue.
• Udemy:
  • Monthly price: None. Udemy takes a percentage of your revenue in exchange for using their service.
  • Fees:
    • 3% If your students use your referral link or instructors coupon
    • 50% If your students purchase through the Udemy platform
    • Approximately 25% if someone purchases a course through Udemy’s paid advertising

Option 2: Build your course site on an all-in-one-platform like Kartra, Kajabi, or ClickFunnels

These all-in-one marketing platforms provide the convenience of having everything in one place. They can be a good solution for business owners who don’t need or want custom features for their course.

There are some minor customization options but you will still be limited to the features each platform includes.

• Clickfunnels:
  • Monthly price: $97 Basic, $297 Platinum
  • Fees: I don’t believe there are transaction fees with ClickFunnels, but I couldn’t find information on their website to confirm this.
• Kajabi:
  • Monthly price: $149 Basic (up to 3 products), $199 Growth (up to 15 products), $399 Pro (up to 100 products)
  • Fees: 0 transaction fees at any level
• Kartra:
  • Monthly price: $99 Starter (1 membership site, up to 2500 leads), $199 Silver (unlimited membership sites, up to 12,500 leads),$299 Gold (unlimited membership sites, up to 25,000 leads), $499 Platinum (unlimited membership sites, up to 50,000 leads)
  • Fees: I don’t believe there are transaction fees with Kartra, but I couldn’t find information on their website to confirm this.

Option 3: Create an Online Course with WordPress

If you already have a self-hosted WordPress website you can add your own learning management to it using a plugin.

There are many WordPress LMS plugins, but the two most popular ones are LearnDash and LifterLMS. WPCrafter has an excellent review of both LMS plugins if you want to do your due diligence.

LearnDash is the plugin I chose. It is also the plugin we use when building online course sites for our clients.

Features Learndash Includes:

• Unlimited Courses
• Unlimited Users
• Course Content Protection
• Drip-Feed Lessons
• Advanced Quizzing
• Certificates & Badges
• Course Forums
• Email Notifications
• Free Integrations
• 1-Year Support & Updates
• BONUS: Demo Site Template

LearnDash gives you a very clean interface for your users and you can customize the design of any lesson to give your users the best learning experience possible.

The cost of a LearnDash site depends on if you’re doing it yourself or if you’re hiring someone to build it for you.

The Cost to DIY a Course Website on WordPress with LearnDash:

• Currently, a one-year license for the plugin sells for $159 (Normally $199) for one website
• Fees: There are no fees beyond your standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees
• Additional costs:
  • You’ll need a domain (approximately $15/year)
  • Hosting (approximately $11-35/month)

The Cost of a Custom LearnDash Course Website:

We have two different starting prices for a course website depending on if you’re adding it to a site we are building for you, or if we’re building it on a sub-domain of your website and branding it to match your existing site.

• To add a course portal to a custom website or we’re building for you, prices start at $2997
• We can also build a LearnDash course portal for you on a sub-domain starting at $3497

This includes a member’s dashboard page, different menus for logged-in, logged-out users, set-up of your course, lessons, modules, integration with your payment gateway, branding, design customization, etc.

How to Price Your Online Course

Price your course according to your goal from the course and the value your students will receive.

If your goal is to use your course to generate leads, giving it away for free or at a low price to attract more subscribers may be the perfect option.

However, if your goal is to generate passive income from your course, you’ll want to charge a higher amount.

Don’t give in to the temptation to sell your course for a low amount, thinking you will be able to can attract more buyers. It doesn’t serve you or your students.

If you price your course too low:

1. Your students are less likely to finish the course and get the results they were hoping for when they purchased. This leads to unhappy clients and poor reviews.
2. You won’t be able to afford to market your course to enroll students. If you already have a large, engaged email list and social media audience this may not be an issue for you. However, if you’re looking to use paid advertising like Facebook Ads to market your course you need to make sure it’s priced so you won’t lose money.
3. Low-priced courses will typically attract a lower level of client leading to more customer service issues and refund requests.
4. Charging too little for your course will lower the perceived value of the content they are receiving and your students will put forth less effort to implement what they are learning.

Other factors that can allow you to charge more for your course:

• Does your course solve a burning problem for your clients? You can charge more.
• Can you prove your students will achieve a return on their investment through your course (i.e. save time, money, stress, give them freedom, etc)? You can charge more.
• Is your course in a high-demand niche like Golf, Wine, Disney travel, etc. where people pay a lot of money to enjoy the hobby? You can charge more.
• Are you the premier go-to leader in your niche? You can charge more.
• Does your course include time with you, via live group calls, one-on-one sessions, or critiques? You can charge more.

If you’re not sure what to charge, look at the value your students will receive as a result of completing your course. If you are teaching people how to start a business that will earn them 6-figures a year you can charge more vs a course that teaches people how to quilt.

The more training and time your students receive with you the more they will expect to pay.

For example:

• $47 – Video training and a workbook
• $97 – Video training, workbook, and template
• $197 – Entry-level course (2-3 modules)
• $497 – Full course (3-5 hours of training)
• $997 – Full course with live group training sessions
• $1997 – Full course with one-on-one sessions

My goal when selling a custom website site or marketing funnel to a client is that I want them to achieve a 10x return on their investment within a year. I approach the same strategy when pricing a course.

The best advice I can give you on pricing your course is to be careful you’re not undervaluing yourself and test it. Split-testing your course at different price points will tell you definitively what works best for your audience and gives you the best return on your investment.

How to Market Your Online Course

Promote Your Lead Magnet with a Marketing Funnel:

I recommend creating a lead magnet, which may be one tiny piece of your course. After you’ve created your lead magnet, put up a landing page with an opt-in form to grow your email list.

• If your course is priced $200 or below, place it on the thank-you page after your leads opt-in.
• If it is a higher-ticket price, you may want to try promoting it via a webinar. Place the webinar invitation on the thank-you page after leads opt-in for your lead magnet.
• Or if your course is over $1,000, you may want to use a discovery call to enroll students. In that case, invite them to book an appointment with you on your thank-you page.

How to Get Visitors (Website Traffic) to Fill Your Online Course Funnel:

If you’ve been a reader for a while you may have heard me mention the 3 C’s you can leverage in your marketing: content, connections, and cash. These same options apply to market your course:

• Content: create blog posts, podcasts, Facebook lives, social media posts, webinars, etc. to market your course.
• Cash: use Facebook ads, Google AdWords, pay for banner ads, or create an affiliate program to get the word out.
• Connections: create a giveaway to get subscribers and social media followers to share your course with their circle of influence, ask colleagues to promote you to their list, speak at events or on podcasts, etc.

Summary

We’ve covered the history and massive growth of the online course industry. You now know the benefits of online courses to students and business owners. I also showed you how to create, deliver, price, and market your course.

If creating a course for your business is one of your business goals you have two options:

1. You can take what I’ve given you today and go DIY this yourself.
2. Or, if you’d like my help creating an online course and a way to market it to your audience, let’s talk! Click the button below to apply for your free strategy session.

Apply for a Free Strategy Session!

Happy marketing!

🙂 Heather