Create and Sell Online Courses - The Step-By-Step Ultimate Guide

Create and sell online courses:
The step-by-step guide

Everything you need to know to build a business and generate
revenue by creating and selling online courses
thinkific.com
Contents
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 6
P05 Why create online courses P29 Price your online course
CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 7
P10 Choose a topic for your online course P35 Create a course sales page
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 8
P13 Pre-sell and validate your course P38 Market your online course
CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 9
P17 Create your course content P49 Help your students succeed
CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 10
P25 Host your online course P54 Conclusion
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 2

Create and sell online courses:
The step-by-step guide
Everything you need to know to build a business and generate
revenue by creating and selling online courses
In the year 1440, Johannes Gutenberg, a German education. They learned from books and in turn
blacksmith, invented the printing press, and the codified their knowledge into new books to be
world changed forever. passed on to the next generation. As you can
imagine, it paid to be an author back in those days!
Prior to his invention, education was expensive
and accessible mostly to the nobles and upper Today, the Internet is our printing press and we
crust of society. The press heralded an age of produce new content at an exponential rate. Like
mass communication and ended their monopoly in the Renaissance, many people are learning new
over knowledge. skills online, outside of their formal education.
From coding to painting to entrepreneurship, it
Within a few years, printing houses had opened pays to be teaching your skills online.
up all across Europe, spreading education to the
masses as the price of books plummeted. Indeed, Given that you’re reading this guide right now,
the Renaissance happened in large part due to you’ve probably already realized this. While books
this. have traditionally been a great way to pass on
information, online courses are more engaging
Many of the famous Renaissance artists, Leonardo and interactive, making it a far more effective
da Vinci included, did not have access to formal method of education.

Projected value of the global e-learning market At Thinkific, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands
of people, just like you, create and sell more than
$100 million in online courses. With our platform,
you can create a website, upload your course, and
$275 bn distribute it to people around the world with just
a few clicks. We’ve revolutionized how individuals
earn and learn online by building an all-in one
platform designed for both course creators AND
their audience.
$165 bn And having helped those people create their

online courses, we know exactly what it takes.
From coming up with a topic to teach, to creating
the actual course content, to marketing it and
attracting students, we’re documenting the exact
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
step-by-step process in this guide.
According to Stratistics MRC, the Global E-Learning Market is accounted for $165.21 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach As for how to read this guide, I suggest a quick
$275.10 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period.
skim right now and then come back and go
through one section at a time. When you finish a
section, put it into action and return to the next
section when you’re ready.
Let’s begin.
Sign up for Thinkific through this link, you'll get

access to a 1-month free trial!

CHAPTER 1
Why create
online courses
At the height of the 2008 recession, Lewis Howes found himself
broke and living on his sister’s couch. His fledgling football career
had come to an end because of a fracture the year before. It was not
a great time for him to be jobless and without any professional job
skills.
But Lewis was driven. He wanted to become successful so he spent

all day on LinkedIn, connecting with other people and diligently
growing his network.
In time he got so good networking using LinkedIn that he launched

his own LinkedIn group and grew it to over 10,000 members. People
were writing to him asking him how they could use LinkedIn for their
business. Instead of helping them one at a time, Lewis held an online
group training and, when they wanted more, he asked them to pay in
advance for an online course.
The next day he woke up to $6,300 in his account.

Before we start creating and selling our course, Online courses as an income source Once Lewis tasted success with that first online
let’s have a look at why we should even bother. Generating revenue and an income is the course, there was no stopping him. Today he’s
The most obvious reason is to generate revenue, number one reason people create online courses. built a multi-million dollar business selling online
and indeed there are people who earn their This is the simplest use case - you create an courses, books, and other digital assets.
livelihoods purely through their course sales. online course once, and people buy it over and
over again. Of course, there’s a lot more that goes Many other entrepreneurs are transitioning into
However, there are additional benefits to creating into it, which we’ll cover in detail, but that’s the online courses in a similar fashion -
online courses beyond making money. And, allure of creating a course. As a digital asset, it
depending on what your reasons are, there are doesn’t cost much to produce, and it’s cheap to Youtubers have historically depended on ad
different ways to go about creating it. distribute. No shipping costs! revenue. However, with all the video content
“I think now is a perfect time to start a

business by sharing your knowledge.”
- LEWIS HOWES, SCHOOL OF GREATNESS.

YOUTUBERS BLOGGERS PODCASTERS AUTHORS SPEAKERS CONSULTANTS
they create, packaging it into an online course is John Lee Dumas had built one of the most focus on making a bigger impact via his online
easy. This allows them to generate a much higher popular business podcasts and was earning courses.
income than what they get from ads. six-figures through sponsorships. Recently he
created a course on podcasting because of all the Coaches and consultants who have reached
Sunny Lenarduzzi is an expert in YouTube questions he kept getting. capacity and can’t trade more time for money
marketing. As a consultant, she helped are scaling up by creating courses as digital
companies grow their YouTube channel. Today, Authors are augmenting their diminishing book complements to their coaching.
she teaches others to do the same in her YouTube revenues by creating follow-on courses. These
for Bosses course. courses are a natural extension of the concepts Mari Smith is the leading expert on Facebook
they cover in their books. marketing, consulting for countless companies.
Bloggers publish posts that are free to read on To scale up she shares her knowledge of
their sites. They previously monetized their blog Dorie Clark is a best-selling author and personal marketing via her online courses.
with banner ads and affiliate links. Now they’re branding expert. After the success of her books,
realizing that creating an in-depth course is a she took it to the next level with her Recognized You’ll meet these people and more, including
more natural and lucrative way to monetize. Expert course. fitness experts, athletes, dancers, artists,
engineers, and others who share their skills and
Danny Iny started the popular Firepole Marketing Speakers who have hit a ceiling with the number knowledge online, as you progress through this
blog to share his knowledge of marketing. After of speaking gigs they can take on are creating guide.
rebranding to Mirasee, he started creating and courses to scale past that barrier. Many of them
selling online course to monetize his audience. actually speak for free because they can make it So if you have a skill, or a passion, or an audience,
back and more with the resulting course sales. or some content that people want, then selling
Podcasters are eschewing the sponsorship it as an online course is a great way to generate
model in favour of selling their own courses. This Michael Port has been giving keynotes across revenue.
allows them to monetize their audience without the world for the last 15 years. Now he’s taken
interrupting their shows with advertorials. traditional keynoting off his plate so that he can

Awareness and Customer Acquisition
Some businesses invert the model, and use online

courses as a way to build an audience who then go
on to purchase other products.
Hootsuite, a social media management software,

for example, offers free social media marketing
courses on Hootsuite Academy. Millions of people
have taken these courses, and many end up
paying for their software.
We’ve done this ourselves at Thinkific. We created

a course called Profitable Course Creator by
interviewing dozens of top online entrepreneurs.
The course had a nominal fee that we donated
to Pencils of Promise, a non-profit dedicated to
building schools in developing countries.
We ended up raising money for a great cause, but

we also created a lot of brand awareness around
Thinkific, while teaching would-be entrepreneurs
who to create profitable courses. A win for
everyone!
If you already have a product, like a software,

creating a course will help you attract potential
For Moz, educational content and helping marketers
customers. In this case, you’d want to give the succeed has been at the forefront of our mission and
course away for free or sell it at a nominal price the best way we’ve found to grow our community and
because your real revenue will come from your our customer base.”
existing products.
-RAND FISHKIN, FOUNDER, MOZ

Customer Success and Retention Take Later, for example. Their software helps you The course was a huge success, helping them
manage and schedule your social media posts. increase customer retention by a whopping 320%!
In this scenario, businesses use courses as While the software itself is easy to use, most Most of the examples we will be referencing
a way to train their customers on how to use people don’t know how to be successful with throughout this guide will relate to the first use
their products and ensure they don’t leave to social media. case (generating revenue), although the concepts
a competitor. This is pretty popular amongst are the same regardless of why you’re creating a
companies whose products have a bit of They found that people would sign up for their course.
a learning curve. software, use it without much success on social
media, and then leave. To solve this, they created Whatever your reason for creating an online
The logic behind this approach is simple: When a course that taught customers how to grow their course, you’ll notice a common thread - online
you help your customers achieve success with social media following and the best way to use the courses are a vehicle for transformation. Your
your product, they tend to have higher lifetime software to do that. students are not coming to you for information
values, lower churn rates, and are more likely to they can find online. They’re looking to improve
refer other customers to your business. their lives in a certain way, and your online course
is the key to that.
Nothing embodies this more than Lewis’ most

ambitious course, Legacy, where he helps a
320% limited group of entrepreneurs completely

transform their businesses and build a legacy.
increase in You in turn build your own legacy when you

customer retention create an online course that brings about
transformation. And it all starts with figuring out
what you’re going to teach.
“Stop banking on information to attract clients, customers

and sales. Start looking at how you can create powerful,
dynamic experiences that people can remember and
cherish for the rest of their lives. Experiences that spark
transformations…”
MARISA MURGATROYD, LIVE YOUR MESSAGE

CHAPTER 2
Choose a topic for

your online course
In 2012, John Lee Dumas had just finished a stint in the US Army and
was looking for the next thing. He started listening to podcasts for
inspiration but his favorite podcasts would only come out once a
week.
Realizing there was an opportunity, John decided to create a daily

podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. Today, Entrepreneur on
Fire is one of the most popular business podcasts out there with
thousands of interviews with top entrepreneurs. It’s a treasure trove
of business information.
John initially generated revenue from sponsorships but he soon

moved to online courses to scale up. He could have created a course
on any business topic but, instead of guessing, he listened to his
audience and his audience wanted a course on creating podcasts.
In October 2013, John launched Podcasters’ Paradise. In the month

“Know your audience and stay on topic.
of January 2018 alone, it generated over $43,000.
Get rid of the fluff. Once you know your
Like John, you want to be strategic about your online course topic purpose with your content (which should
because it could mean the difference between generating $0 and be to generate a specific result for those
generating $43,000 in a month. consuming it), stick to teaching how they
can achieve that result.”
Topic Sweet Spot + Specific Target Audience = Winning Course
– JOHN LEE DUMAS, EOFIRE.COM

If you already have an audience, it should be fairly
easy to narrow down on your first course topic.
Just ask! One way to do this is to email your list
with a survey. Use Typeform to quickly create one
that asks them to fill out what they’d like to learn.
You can also ask your followers on social media.

Facebook and Instagram have features to create
polls. If there’s a clear winner from the responses,
that will be a good topic to start with.
If you don’t have a large audience but you do

produce content in the form of blog posts,
YouTube videos, podcast episodes, or the other
types, that’s a good place to start. Your course will
ideally be around the same topic that your content
covers.
If you cover multiple topics, pick the most popular

one and start there. You can always create
additional online courses on other topics in the
future.
Simon Sinek, the popular author of Start With

Why, created a course that was an extension of
the topics covered in the book. The course goes
into more detail around how to find your why. It’s
natural that people interested in the book would
also be interested in taking the course to learn
more.
If you don’t have content either, that doesn’t mean

all hope is lost. You probably have a skill that
others might want to learn. Think about the things
that people have asked for your help on in the past.

Deanne Love, of Hooplovers, is the perfect
example. Deanne was an English teacher in
Japan and she had a passion for hula-hooping. On
weekends, she’d dance in the park and practice
her hoop moves. It wasn’t long before onlookers
approached her to teach them those moves.
Deanne realized that she could potentially teach

people around the world if she created an online
course. And so, Hooplovers was born. Today,
thousands of people buy her courses and she
even has a team of hoop coaches who host
workshops around the world.
“Stay laser-focused on the results your

clients will invest in achieving. Get
focused by narrowing your audience,
narrowing your result, and narrowing your
content, and your course will instantly
stand out.”
JEANINE BLACKWELL,
CREATE 6-FIGURE COURSESCOURSES

CHAPTER 3
Pre-Sell and validate

your course
In 2015, Dorie Clark had just published her second people who had a great topic and started creating
book, Stand Out. The book was a huge success the course but stopped. They were not sure if
and became one of the top leaderships books of their course would generate income. The fear of
the year. failure held them back.
But Dorie had always wanted to create an online And that’s a valid fear because there are also
course. She knew it would help her increase dozens of people who have created courses only
her impact, reach more people, and earn more to find that no one wanted to pay for them. Instead
revenue without constantly jumping on planes. of letting the fear hold her back, Dorie decided to
validate her idea and pre-sell it.
The logical step was to create a course that went
deeper into the concepts she touched upon in This does three things -
her book. However, Dorie had experienced failure
with a previous book topic because she had made 1. It shows you if there’s actually any demand for
assumptions about what people wanted. She your course.
didn’t want to make the same mistake with her 2. If you pre-sell it, you have proof that it can
online course. generate revenue.
3. It builds a list of people likely to purchase
For every entrepreneur out there with a when you launch.
successful course, there are probably dozens of

Validate By Asking
A simple way to validate a course is to survey your

existing audience. With a software like Typeform,
you can create a really engaging survey. In the
survey, ask your audience to tell you what topics
they’re interested in. And if you have a topic in
mind, ask them if it’s a course they’d buy.
In December 2015, Dorie sent an email to her list.

The survey began with a critical question: “What’s
your single biggest professional challenge right
now?”
A question like that allows respondents to

answer in any way they’d like, unbiased by your
subsequent line of questioning.
She then asked some basic demographic

questions (age, gender, etc.) and asked them to
rate which topics that she wrote about were most
appealing to them. It turned out that becoming a
recognized expert in any industry was the most
popular answer by far.
Don’t forget to lean on your social and offline

networks here too if you don’t have a large email
list. You can drop your survey into facebook
groups you’re a part of or ask your current
customers when they’re buying some of your
other product offerings.

“People will vote with their credit card. If
they don’t actually put money down, the
idea isn’t validated yet.”
– MICHAEL O’NEAL
Pre-selling Your Course Fifteen people responded, and five said yes. People are now very comfortable with this model
That’s a hit rate of 33%, more than enough to of pre-purchasing after the major success of
You may also want to consider pre-selling validate it. crowdfunding companies like Kickstarter and
your course. Not only does it prove that there Indiegogo. To incentivize your first few buyers,
is demand, it also helps you build up a list of Like Dorie, you need to come up with a one-page you can offer your course at a early bird price
potential customers who would then buy at description first. Use Thinkific to quickly create and quickly change it later on Thinkific, with our
launch. the sales page and collect payments. Just make it flexible one click pricing feature.
clear that the course has not yet been created.
Though Dorie had enough data, she wanted to Thinkific customer and digital marketing agency
make sure people would actually pay for her Then, send your audience to this page. You don’t owner Matt Kohn generated $30,000 in sales
course. She reached out to fifty people who had need to promote it to everyone. Pick a small before he created his course (watch our interview
filled out her survey and asked them if they’d be subset of your audience that’s highly engaged and with him to learn how he did it here). With the
willing to look at a one-page description of the release it to them. If you hit a certain goal, say 10 demand for online course idea validated, he
course and provide feedback. She also asked if sales, consider it validated and go to the next step proceeded to create the training for his first
they’d be interested in signing up for the course to create the course. If not, refund the money and round of customers.
if it cost $500 and their reasons why or why not. go back to Step One.

Launching A Pilot Course
After her pre-sale experiment, Dorie sent out The purpose of creating a pilot course is to prove
another email to her broader audience. She was that people are willing to pay for a course about
opening up forty spots in a special pilot course on your chosen topic, and to obtain feedback and
becoming a recognized expert that would consist testimonials from your students. As you collect
of six live webinars over a five-week period. questions and feedback from your students, you
can improve your course by refining your content
In exchange for sharing frequent feedback about or adding additional training and resources to it.
the course (and providing testimonials if they
enjoyed it), participants would get more personal Remember, your pilot course is your minimum
access to her and at a much lower price: $500, viable online course, so it’s fair to offer your first
instead of the $2,000 that the course would cost group of students a reduced price to enroll in it,
when it officially launched. just like Dorie did. As you improve your course
and/or add more content to it based on feedback,
Launching a pilot course like this is a way to put in you can increase the price.
minimum effort into creating your online course,
before you invest more time expanding it once If you’re thinking of skipping this step you should
it has been validated. Notice that Dorie’s pilot know that less than an hour after she sent that
course was a series of live webinars. She hadn’t email, Dorie had earned $22,500.
actually created the course yet.

CHAPTER 4
Create your
course content
Once you’ve validated your topic and you know that there’s demand,
it’s time to create the actual course!
In most cases, an online course is just a sequence of videos. You can

throw in other types of media, like images, sound bites, and PDFs.
To make things interesting, you can also add in quizzes and tests,
which we’ll cover later in this guide.
The core of your course will be those videos where you’ll explain
the topic you’re teaching in a step-by-step manner. You can either
record yourself in front of a camera, or you can record a screencast,
where you’re sharing what’s on your computer screen, and talking
over your actions.
Pick the type of video based on what you’re teaching. If you teach
yoga, you’ll need to record yourself in front of a camera. If you teach
people how to use Excel, you’ll need to share your screen.

Tools of the trade
With that in mind, let’s start by ensuring we have

the right tools. The most important tool is your
computer. Technically, if your laptop or computer
has a built-in camera and a microphone, you have
what you need to create a course. For better
production quality, we suggest the following
tools.
Screenflow – This is the best screen-sharing

software out there. If your course is mostly
screencasts, get Screenflow. It will capture your
screen and voice as you navigate your computer
and explain your actions. You can also edit the
resulting video if you make mistakes.
Audio Technica ATR 2100 – The ATR 2100

microphone is a popular microphone amongst
online course creators. There are many other
options but this one is affordable and produces
extremely crisp sound.
Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 – This is an

extremely affordable yet high-quality video
camera. Just clip it on to your computer and start
recording HD videos.

Additional Tools
The three tools listed above are more than enough to get started.
If you’re looking for additional production value, check these out.
Canon EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera – If you need AmazonBasics Lightweight Tripod – This tripod LimeStudio Photo Video Studio – The better your
a camera that you can take outdoors, look no goes well with the Canon if you need to perch the lighting, the crisper your videos look. This studio
further than this DSLR by Canon. camera somewhere. in a box is a very affordable kit that has everything
you need.

Create a course outline
Before you jump into creating your videos,

it’s worth spending some time planning out
the structure of your course and creating a
curriculum. You may also want to script out the
full course, or at least note down talking points.
This could save you hours of retakes and editing
later.
It’s best to start with the end in mind and work

backwards. Think about the outcome you wish for
your students after they’ve finished your course.
Write down what a student would have had to

learn or do right before they complete your when completing the course. You can treat these students. Take a really critical look at your
course. What was the last step or lesson towards Milestones as the Chapters of your online course proposed curriculum. Try and get rid of any extras
finishing this course? Then, continue moving in Thinkific. or unnecessary steps.
backwards until you reach a natural starting
position. Don’t worry too much about structure at Next, start sorting your Steps under your Ask yourself things like:
this point. Milestones. Remember to treat your Steps like
Lessons in Thinkific. • Is this Step crucial to getting to this Milestone?
Next, organize your brainstorm into a two level • Is my student actually learning anything here?
hierarchy of Chapters and Lessons. An easy way This stage can get a little tricky, and should • Can these Steps be combined?
to do this is to determine which parts of your start to illuminate any problems with how you’ve • Would my audience already know this going into
learning experience are Milestones and which are already structured your course. If you ever get the course?
Steps. stuck, go back to your own learning experience • Is this Chapter too long? Too short? Can I
with the subject matter. What did you end up combine it with another?
Milestones are major accomplishments and doing first? What did you wish you had done first • Would I have taken this course when I was
Steps are the small wins required to get to each afterwards? getting started?
major accomplishment. Determine the major
accomplishments your student will achieve Finally, we need to make sure that we’re not At the end of this exercise, you should have a solid
creating any extra work for us, or our future structure for your course.

Create Engaging Lessons
Now you have the tools, and you know what

content you want to create, down to the individual
lessons. It’s time to start shooting!
At this point, you want to keep your student’s

success in mind. People often purchase online
courses but never finish them for a number of
reasons. We’ll cover ways to tackle this later,
but you should know that making your content
engaging and exciting will go a long way to
keeping students interested.
So for each video you create, make sure it is all

three of the following -
1. Highly useful or educational so that students

learn something.
2. Entertaining so that students don’t get
distracted.
3. Inspires action so that students convert
theory into results.
“Epic content is any type of content that’ll ultimately

change the game for those consuming it. It should
always be at least educational, inspiring or entertaining –
and if possible, all three rolled into one.”
CHRIS DUCKER, CHRISDUCKER.COM

Make Your Lessons Educational
Your goal when creating course content should

be to create the best piece of content about your
specific topic. In order to accomplish this, you’ll
need to do some research to find out what you’re
competing against.
As you research competing pieces of content,

look for gaps to fill or an opportunity to cover the
same topic but from a difficult angle. Your content
needs to be better, more detailed, or different in
some way in order to stand out.
Clarify the big idea for your content, and then

organize all of your supporting insights and ideas
(your “raw material”) into themes and/or steps that
support your big idea. Your goal is to present your
ideas in a methodical and logical sequence that
guides your audience from Point A (their current
reality) to Point B (their desired reality).
Share as much information about your topic as

you can, to the extent that it is still useful and
relevant to your topic, but don’t overwhelm your “Start with the key insight that, if internalized, will
audience with too much information. If your video change everything for the reader. Then build on that until
gets too long, break it up to help your audience
everything that needs to go with it for coherence and
process your information effectively.
clarity are included.”
DANNY INY, MIRASEE.COM

Make Your Lessons Entertaining Evoke an emotional response - Most people
Start with a hook - Most TV shows start with an won’t remember what you say, but they will
You don’t need to produce a Netflix show here but interesting scene that makes you want to watch always remember how you made them feel. For
there are some principles that you can borrow all the way through to find out what happens next. your content to be memorable, it must evoke an
from them to keep your students engaged. In the same way, you can start your lessons with a emotional response. If your content doesn’t make
hook or a bold promise of what’s to come. your audience feel something, they will soon
forget it.
Challenge your audience’s assumptions - Don’t be

afraid to challenge your audience’s assumptions
about your topic. If the current trend in your
industry is to do things a certain way, don’t
hesitate to go against the trend and recommend a
different solution. Telling people what not to do is
often just as valuable as telling them what to do.
Tell a story - The best TV shows are really just

great stories. In the book Building a StoryBrand,
author Donald Miller emphasizes the importance
(and effectiveness!) of using storytelling in your
content as well. The more you tell stories that
your customers can relate to, the more likely they
are to engage with your content.
Finally, the best piece of advice we can give you is

to just be yourself. If you’re naturally funny, don’t
curb those instincts because your topic is serious.
Conversely, don’t force yourself to be funny. By
being authentic on camera, your students will
connect with you more.

viewer to actually apply what they’ve
learned, and to do that, you must make it
a must for them. Make whatever it is you
want them to do be irresistible. That often
is done by explaining the benefits (the
pleasure), as well as the consequences
(the pain) of not taking action.”
STEFAN JAMES, PROJECTLIFEMASTERY.COM
The way you do this is through social proof.

Show your audience examples of other people
just like them that have followed the steps you
are teaching and achieved the result you are
promising. The vast majority of your audience
needs to see social proof before they will take any
Make your lessons inspirational of each video lesson. It could be an assignment, a action.
quiz, or simply that they should move to the next
At the end of the day, no matter how educational video. Alright, that’s enough theory. Go shoot your
or entertaining your content is, if your students videos and finish creating your course!
don’t actually do anything with it, they won’t get Finally, it’s not enough to just tell students what
results. to do. You also need to help them believe in their One final piece of advice, don’t get caught up in
ability to do it. This concept is known as self- trying to make it perfect. That’s another reason
To inspire your audience to change and/or take efficacy, which is defined as a person’s belief in why most people don’t actually launch their
action, your content should address the problem their ability to succeed. courses.
they want to solve (their pain/current reality) as
well as the benefits of your proposed solution If your audience doesn’t believe they can do The beauty of online courses, unlike a book, is
(their pleasure/desired reality). something, it doesn’t matter how clearly you that you can always update it. Create your videos
articulate the required steps to them, they won’t now, no matter how unpolished you may think
You should also always include a clear next step (a take action. They need to believe that the new they are, put them online, and then refine them
call to action) for your audience to take at the end reality you’re promising them is possible for them. over time as your students give you feedback.

CHAPTER 5
Host your
online course
Chris Newman is a professional drone pilot
who specializes in remote controlled aerial
videography and photography. In April 2014, Chris
published a short video on his YouTube channel
to announce that he was going to create a course
about drone flying.
Chris already had a large library of videos from his

drone. With the addition of some how-to content,
he had a great starting point for his online course.
He was already using YouTube to share many of
these videos but he needed something where
people couldn’t access his course without paying
for it.
He needed to create a site with a sales page,

the ability to upload and host his videos, collect
payments through an online credit card form, and
instantly let his customers stream said videos.
There are 3 ways to do this.

Option 1: Self-hosting
As the name suggests, you host the videos on

your own with this option. This means renting
a server, setting up a website on it, setting up a
payment processing system, and so on.
There are softwares like WordPress for creating

the site, and plugins for the rest, but at the
end of the day it still requires a lot of technical
knowledge and is very time-consuming to set up.
Not to mention that if things break down, you’re
on your own to fix it.
When Chris created his online course, he used his

WordPress website with an e-learning theme to
host it. With his course up and running, he started
running ads and hosting webinars to promote his
course. One time, after spending about $1,500
on ads, he drove so much traffic to his course
website that it crashed.
When the same thing happened a second time, he

knew he needed to find a better system to host his
course.

Option 2: Online Course Marketplaces
Chris had heard of marketplaces like Udemy,

where you simply upload your videos and let them
do the rest. They promote it to their database of
students, they collect the payments, they ensure
that students can access the videos.
It sounds great but at the end of the day, they

control everything. You have to comply with
their terms and conditions, and you’ll often
have restrictions like how much you can price
your course at or how many times you can email
students. They also take a massive cut of your
sales.
It was important for Chris to have complete

control and flexibility when it came to pricing his
course. He wanted to be able to create discount
codes for his online course so that he could offer
a special price for certain people (such as people
who attend his webinars, for example). He also
wanted to give his students the option to pay for
his course in a series of monthly payments rather
than pay the full price upfront.

“Thinkific is a very full-featured online
course package. For us here at DottoTech,
we’ve really rebuilt our business around
using Thinkific to deliver much of our
content.”
STEVE DOTTO, DOTTOTECH
Option 3: Learning management The learning experience for your students will also
aystems be a lot better. Your course content is delivered
to them in an intuitive interface, and they can
Online course platforms, or Learning even access it on their phones. You can also add
Management Systems (LMS), are the best of both interactive elements like quizzes and surveys.
worlds. They give you full control over everything
and they’re very easy to set up. Having tried other options, Chris decided that
Thinkific met all his criteria. He opted for our
Thinkific is one example. To sell your online Business Plan, where in exchange for a fixed
courses on Thinkific, all you have to do is sign up monthly fee, he keeps all the revenue from his
for an account and upload your course content. course sales.
Thinkific has all the features you need to then sell
and deliver that course. And thanks to our Bulk Upload feature, Chris was
able to upload all of his course content in just a
Payment systems are already built in so all you few minutes.
have to do is set your price. With a few clicks you
can change the branding and design of your entire
site. You can create powerful sales pages for your
courses with our drag-and-drop builder.

CHAPTER 6
Price Your
Online Course
Before we launch our course to the public and start generating
revenue, there’s a little question we need to answer first. How much
are we going to charge?
This bears more than a few minutes of thought because mis-pricing

your online course might lead to lost revenue. Price it too high and
people may not buy. Price it low and you’re leaving money on the
table.
Additionally, the price of your course has a direct impact on virtually

every aspect of your online course business – from the marketing,
to the type of students you attract, to how much support and
attention you can provide to your students.
The question of online course pricing also comes up a lot in our

Facebook Group, and among online instructors in general. There
isn’t a one-size-fits-all response but there are some guidelines
you can follow to arrive at your unique price point. We’ve included
the salient points in this guide, but you can also read this guide to
online course pricing if you want to dig deeper.

Choose A Business Model that Chris Newman uses. terms of the learning objectives. The average
With the membership model, students pay you membership site has regular ongoing content.
We need to start by picking a business model. on a regular basis, usually monthly. This works if Usually there’s a a community element to it,
There are two broad categories – one-time and you always have something new for them every sometimes there’s a coaching element.” – Mike
recurring, also known as a membership model. month. If they cancel their subscription, they lose Morrison, The Membership Guys
access to your program.
With a one-time model, students pay you upfront, Mimi G uses the membership model for her Sew
or in installments, to access your online course. “Your membership site is going to involve the It Academy where she teaches people how to
Typically, once payment is complete, they have addition and delivery of fresh, new content over sew their own clothes. The reason Mimi charges
unlimited access to your course. This is the model time as opposed to being something that’s a a monthly subscription fee instead of a higher
finished article that is static and is complete in one-time purchase price is because she didn’t
want her students to have to invest a lot of money
up front to learn a new hobby. She also wanted
people to be able to join whenever they want, do
as much or as little as they want, and move at their
own pace.
You can also combine the two models to form a

hybrid where people pay a lump-sum for the core
online course and then join a membership for
ongoing coaching or mentoring.
The simplest way to figure out which model works

for you is to ask yourself if you’re going to keep
churning out new content every month, or if your
course can just be consumed in one go. If it’s the
former, use a membership model. If it’s the latter,
use a one-time model.
The following guidelines are based on the one-

time model, but they apply to memberships too.

Avoid Low Prices
The first guideline is to avoid selling your online

course for a low price point, no matter how
tempting it may be. There are a few reasons for
that –
It degrades your course’s perceived value.

I may get into trouble for saying this but a purse
is a purse, whether you buy it from Burberry or a
street vendor. However, Burberry gets away with
astronomical prices because of the perceived
value that a higher price point lends to its
products. Conversely, when a product is priced
cheaply, it’s often seen as lower quality.
Your margins on marketing will be too low.

This is especially true if you’re running ads to your
course. You may find that spending $500 in ads
It makes it difficult to attract affiliates through to buy a high priced one. We’ll explore
results in 5 sales. So if your course is priced at
and partners. this more in the next section on launching and
less than $100, you’re actually losing money.
A really effective way to market your course is marketing your course.
via Joint Venture Partnerships, where you get
Competing on price is a race to the bottom.
someone with a large audience to promote your Of course, that doesn’t mean you should never
No matter what price you set for your online
course for an affiliate commission. But, if your have a low-priced course. There are times when
course, someone out there will always be able to
course has a low price, the commissions will be it makes sense to give it away free or at low cost
beat it. Customers that are loyal to the seller with
too small for anyone to be interested. to attract leads, like Hootsuite and Later, or if
the lowest price are not the kind of customers
you’re doing a pilot course, like we covered in the
you would want anyway. Focus on marketing
It takes just as much effort to sell a low priced previous chapter.
your online course to people who will respect the
course as it does to sell a high priced one.
value of it, and who aren’t going to cancel their
This might surprise you but it’s true. The sales However, if your main aim is to generate revenue,
purchase and ask for a refund the moment they
process you guide someone through in order to and your online course provides a lot of value,
find a similar course that is cheaper.
sell a lower priced online course probably won’t be then price it higher.
much different from the process you guide them

When The Price Is Right people, that’s $14,000 in revenue. So we’re better did with his first online course. Starting with a
off selling it at $2,000 even though fewer people price of $29, he gradually increased his price
So higher is generally better when it comes to bought it. over time. After several increases, he eventually
pricing. As we know from our Economics classes, determined that $389 was the optimal selling
demand falls as we raise our prices. The rate at But, if only 4 people buy at $2,000, then our price for his course.
which demand falls helps us determine a sweet revenue is $8,000. The earlier price of $1,000
spot where we can maximize revenue. would have been better. Here’s a graph to show you what testing different
price points until you experience resistance could
Let’s say we start by selling our online course Ideally, we want to test out different price points look like:
at $1,000 and 10 people buy it. That’s $10,000 in so that we can figure out where that sweet spot
revenue. If we double our price to $2,000 and 7 is. That’s exactly what Greg, our CEO and Founder,

Greg started with a really low price, which we paying for the results that your course promises would be willing to pay $1,000 if it helps them get a
don’t recommend for reasons already covered. them. Think about how much your students value $10,000 raise.
It’s best to start at a higher price in the ballpark those results and what they’d be willing to pay to
of the sweet spot and then go from there. To get that result. Consider the cost of your customer’s alternatives.
determine what that starting price is, follow these How else would someone learn to achieve the
guidelines – If possible, try to actually quantify the value of outcome your online course helps them achieve?
the outcome your students can achieve. If taking How many months or years of trial and error would
Price based on value, not length. Your students your online course is going to help someone it take? How much money would they have to
aren’t paying you for the number of hours of earn a promotion at work, for example, that is an spend to hire a coach or consultant to help them?
content you have in your online course. They’re outcome that can definitely be quantified. They Price your course as a more affordable option.

Add value to increase prices Include downloadable resources such as student engagement because the reward of
worksheets, templates, checklists, and resource receiving a certificate helps give your students an
You may find that when you first start out, your guides. This gives your students more control and additional incentive for completing your course.
sweet spot price point is pretty low. The market enhances their learning experience.
has decided that they don’t want to pay above a Create pricing tiers
certain price for your course, based on the value Offer a payment plan. Buyers love to have different options (it’s a
it delivers. This is a proven way to increase sales of an online psychological thing). If you only offer one specific
course with a higher price point. Many people price for your online course, then they’re most
That doesn’t mean your course is a failure. As prefer to spread the cost of a course over an likely going to look at competing courses as their
mentioned earlier, the beauty of an online course extended period of time rather than pay for it in other options. When you create different price
is that you can always improve it. If you take your full up front. tiers for the same course, you satisfy your buyer’s
students’ feedback into account and continuously need to compare different options.
add more value, you can start to increase the Form partnerships to offer software, resources,
pricing. Here are some methods to do that – or other courses. While it’s worth spending time thinking of your
If your course recommends specific resources, course price, you don’t want to get stuck on this
Offer one-on-one or group coaching. tools, or software to your students, then a great step for too long. If you’re still unsure, just pick
Both of these methods are great for holding your way to increase the value of your course is to a price that you feel is affordable but not too
students accountable for completing your course partner up with the sellers of those resources to low, and start with that. You can even ask a few
and providing personalized feedback to them. create a special offer for your students. people what they’d be willing to pay for your online
course.
Host a monthly live call with students. Offer a completion certificate
You can use that time with them to answer Course completion certificates are an effective The point is to just start and then updated the
specific questions, delve into a specific topic in value-add because they give your students prices later as you enhance the course.
greater detail, or even invite a guest speaker to something to “show off” once they’ve completed
share their insights with your students. your course. They can also be great for increasing

CHAPTER 7
Create a course
sales page
The final piece before you hit publish is to create Excel, then your target audience could be finance
the sales page of your online course (also known students.
as your course description, landing page, or
sales letter). This is the page that describes What does it help them do? This is where you
your course, but more importantly, persuades need to articulate what results your online
someone to enrol in it. It’s the page that people course helps your target audience achieve. The
visit before they decide to sign up – or not sign up more specific you are, the better. With the Excel
– for your course. course, you could be making them 3 times more
productive.
Step 7 on launching and marketing your course
will be all about driving traffic to this page, so it’s Why is that beneficial to them? Try to translate
important to have this in place first. the results they get into real world benefits. If
your Excel course makes them more productive,
Before we go into what makes a good sales page, then the benefit could be that they earn a better
you need to know the answers to these three salary, or get a high-profile finance job.
questions –
Once you’ve answered these questions, tie them
Who is this course for? No one buys a course, together in a single sentence using the framework
they buy solutions to their problems. That means below. This is your Unique Value Proposition, and
your online course solves a specific problem it forms the core of your sales page.
for a specific group of people. If you’re teaching

The Anatomy Of A Sales Page “Amplify the consequences of not solving
the problem, and the aspirations they
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just paste our hold for the future. This is really the key to
Value Proposition on our sales page and call it a making sales, and it is probably the most
day? If only it were that simple!
neglected step in the process.”
However, you need to do a little bit more to
RAY EDWARDS
convince people to shell out the fat stacks. You’ll
need to unpack your Value Proposition in your
sales page using the following 10 elements in
order.
A Compelling Headline presenting your course as the solution should be

The purpose of this headline is to grab your the natural next step. This is where you explain
reader’s attention and make them want to keep what exactly your course teaches and how it can
reading. Think of it as the ad for your sales page. save your students a lot of pain and frustration.
If all your target audience sees is your headline,
would it make them want to keep reading? The Benefits
Like we did with the value proposition exercise,
The Opening Story we want to clearly state the benefits that our
Next, present the problem that they are course brings to our students. If you have a
experiencing and remind them of the cost of not number of different benefits, separate it out into
solving it. Show your reader that you understand bullet points so that it’s readable.
their current pain or frustration by explaining how
you too experienced it in the past. This serves as a Bonuses
build up to the solution (your course) which comes List out the bonus materials and resources that
next. are included in your course. We covered some
of these in the section on adding value to your
The Solution (Your Online Course) course. These are meant to supplement your
If you’ve described the problem well enough, course material and enhance the overall learning
and demonstrated the costs of not solving it, experience for your students.

Testimonials reader to sign up for your course. Never assume
If readers are still not convinced that your course that you reader knows what to do next.
can do what you promise, you need to show them
proof. Include testimonials from past students Risk Reversal
and describe how your course helped them. It’s all well and good to promise readers you can
With Thinkific, you also have the option to collect solve their problems and that you’re the best
reviews from your students, and display those person to do so. But there will always be that
reviews on your course sales page. nagging thought – what if your course doesn’t live
up to the promise? The risk reversal is the answer
Credibility to that.
This is where you tell readers who you are and why
they should trust you to teach them. You wouldn’t A common risk reversal technique is to offer a
take fitness advice from someone who has never 100% money back guarantee within a specific
been to the gym, would you? Feel free to boast period of time, such as 30 days. This takes all of
about your achievements and showcase your the risk of buying your course off their shoulders.
expertise here. You’re basically saying, “I’m so confident that you
will like my course that I’m willing to give you all
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) your money back if you don’t.”
The FAQ section should overcome any last
minute objections and concerns that your If you include all these elements in your course
reader may have. If you were giving a 1-on-1 sales sales page, you should have something that’s
presentation of your course to a potential student, really compelling and leads to a high conversion
what questions would they likely ask you before rate. If you need more help with this page, check
they decide to buy your course? out our detailed guide here.
Pricing Creating a sales page like this for your online

Technically this part is taken care of for you by the course is pretty simple in Thinkific. Our page
Purchase Buttons that are automatically added builder allows you to create the sections
to the bottom of your Thinkific course page. That mentioned above and add any content you want
being said, it is still a good idea to actually tell your to it.

CHAPTER 8
Market Your Online

Course
Thinkific makes it extremely easy to design your course site, upload
your content, set a price, and publish it. But your journey really only
starts when you hit that publish button. Now it’s time for you to
start promoting your online course and generating revenue.
Let’s look at the journeys of two successful Thinkific course

creators to see how they did it.
Nine years ago, Elizabeth Rider started a blog out of her passion for
health and wellness. Her blog began as a way to share her insights,
nutrition tips, and healthy recipes for anyone interested.
As her readership grew, she realized the blog was something she
could potentially monetize. She started by offering 1-1 coaching to
her readers and subscribers. When she realized that she couldn’t
scale it, she switched to selling online courses. Having already built
an audience, her course was an instant success.
Today, Elizabeth’s courses generate hundred of thousands of

dollars in revenue for her. And it all started with a small blog years
ago.

Today, his course generates over $20,000 per
month in income for him, allowing him to leave his
job and focus on selling more online courses.
Chances are your journey is similar to one of these

two. You may be a blogger, author, YouTuber, or
someone with an audience, like Elizabeth, and
you’re looking to monetize that audience with your
online course. You have a head start here because
you can promote your online course to your email
list and make sales as soon as you hit Publish.
But, if you’re like John, those sales won’t come

right away. You’ll need to constantly promote your
online course and it may take months before you
start to earn life-changing income.
Either way, you’ll need a sales funnel before you

actually dive into marketing tactics. A marketing
tactic is a method for spreading the word about
your online course. Running ads on Facebook, for
example, is a marketing tactic.
A sales funnel, on the other hand, is the entire

process that you guide your potential students
through, and that ends with them making the
John Michaloudis, on the other hand, didn’t start Without the advantages of having a large
decision to enroll (or not enroll) in your course.
with a blog. As an accountant, John was a master readership or email list, John’s course only made
at using Excel. He found himself helping others a handful of sales in the early days. But that didn’t
In this post we’ll cover setting up a sales funnel for
use it and realized that there was an opportunity deter him. Day by day, week by week, John kept
your online course. As for the actual marketing
to package his knowledge into an online course. promoting his course and slowly increasing sales.
tactics that drive traffic to your sales funnel,
head over here and pick one of the many we’ve
described!

The Customer Journey and then sell her online course at the end of the what’s called an ‘Awareness’ stage, where they
boot camp. are aware that they have a problem that needs
Sunny Lenarduzzi is an award-winning video, solving.
social media and online business strategist. “The marketing of it was super fun because we
She built a successful business helping other did not do paid advertising. We did 10 days of As they start to explore possible solutions to that
companies utilize video marketing and social live training, and every day we were teaching a problem, they move into the ‘Consideration’ stage.
media effectively. As she started taking on more different tip about YouTube. For the first week, And finally, when they’re ready to pick a solution,
clients, she created YouTube videos for questions it was just straight value. And then on the sixth they move to the ‘Decision’ stage.
that she commonly received from them. day we pitched the program, and we had a 90%
conversion rate.” So telling people to buy your course by posting it
Over time, her YouTube channel started gaining online or putting it in an ad won’t work, because
popularity and Sunny realized that she could A 90% conversion rate is virtually unheard of most people are not yet in the ‘Decision’ stage.
create an online course around this. That’s how but Sunny did this because she understood why Some are still considering solutions, other are
her YouTube for Bosses course was born. people buy. only just aware that they have a problem, or not
even.
To launch her course, Sunny set up a live stream Every customer goes through a journey that
boot camp within her Facebook Group. Her plan culminates in buying your online course and That means you need to be reaching them at every
was to provide a series of free training sessions achieving that transformation. They start in stage of the journey, not just right at the end.

How customers decide to buy an online course incorporate video into their marketing, she Now Sunny primarily used video, but you can use
The reason Sunny was so successful was because invited them to the bootcamp. By showcasing other content types – blogs, podcasts, email,
she didn’t pitch her course immediately. She her expertise, her viewers became convinced and so on. For example, when people are in the
first created YouTube videos for people in the that Sunny’s method was the solution they were Awareness stage, you could give them a free
Awareness stage. They were aware of the fact looking for. checklist in exchange for their email. Then, via
that they needed to be utilizing video marketing, email, you could invite them to a webinar. Finally,
and Sunny was their source of information on this. They were now in the Decision stage so when on the webinar, you could pitch your course and
Sunny presented her online course as the solution send them to your sales page.
As they moved into the Consideration stage, they had already decided they were going to get it.
where they considered different ways to

Building A Sales Funnel Every one of these problems would make a great
blog post that someone who is trying to train their
Now that you understand how customers decide dog would find helpful. In fact, here are some
to purchase, let’s create a sales funnel to mimic ideas for headlines that could be used for these
that journey. The first step, like Sunny did, is blog posts:
to create content that your target audience is
interested in. • How to train your dog to stop chewing furniture
• How to train your dog to stop peeing in the
So for example, if you have a course on how to house
train your dog, it would be pretty hard to write an • How to train your dog to stop pulling when
article that covers everything someone needs to walking them
know about training their dog (hence the reason • How to train your dog to stop barking at
you would create a course). But what you can do strangers
is tackle a smaller problem that is a part of the
overall dog training process. When people visit your site to read your content,
offer an incentive for them to sign up to your email
Here are a few problems that dog owners often list. Sunny had them join her Facebook Group.
face when training their dogs: The point here is that you want some way to
communicate with them.
• Their dog won’t stop chewing their furniture
• Their dog keeps peeing in the house
• Their dog pulls too hard when being walked
• Their dog barks at strangers (how rude!)

To give you an example, one of the most popular people opt-in to receive our pricing workbook. The idea is to provide a lot of value up front to
articles on our blog is called How To Price Your That’s over 1,000 potential customers for establish your expertise and build trust, before
Online Course. As you can probably guess, this Thinkific (many of whom did become customers), unveiling your online course.
article helps online course creators (our target all from a single article! Not bad right?
market) solve the problem of not knowing what to Sunny did this with a 10-day live bootcamp.
charge for their course. Again, not everyone who reads your blog post You can do this with emails or a webinar. An email
will subscribe to your email list to get the free series would just be a sequence of emails that
We created a Course Pricing Workbook (a fillable resource, but the ones that do are giving you start by talking about the problem you’re solving
PDF document), which we offer as a free resource permission to communicate with them. and then slowly build up to announcing your online
in exchange for someone’s email address. course. A webinar would follow a similar format
Once you have their email addresses or some way where you start by giving out value before talking
Since publishing that article earlier in 2016, we’ve to communicate with them, create a sequence about your online course. Have a look at our guide
had over 5,000 people read it, and over 1,000 that leads them to purchasing your course. to creating webinars for more information.

Marketing your online course
Now that you have a sales funnel, it’s time to drive

traffic to it.
In very broad terms, there are 4 sources of traffic

and sales to your course page – organic traffic from
Thinkific allows you to add these keywords to your and publish helpful videos on a regular basis.
search engines, paid traffic from ads, social media
course pages so start there. There’s a lot more to Include a link to your website or course in your
traffic, and referral traffic from affiliates, partners
SEO than this, but it’s a good starting point. video descriptions. Here’s a more detailed guide on
and students.
YouTube Marketing.
Blogging
Organic Traffic
There are only so many keywords you can optimize Quora
Organic is the holy grail of marketing because it’s
your course site for before it starts sounding Quora is a crowdsourced Question and Answer site
“free” traffic. I put free in quotations because it
robotic. Blogging allows you to continuously create where you can ask a question and have it answered
takes time and effort to get there. But when you’re
new content optimized for various keywords and by anyone else in the world. The top answers get
there, you have people visiting your site because
phrases. upvoted by the community so that the cream rises
the first search result on Google for “learn Excel
to the top.
online” was your course. Here are a few ways to
Elizabeth Rider’s journey started with blogging.
build that up –
She wrote a lot of content around nutrition and You’ll likely find questions related to the topic you
dieting, and some of her blog posts rank high for teach, which means you can answer them yourself
SEO
those keywords. They attract organic traffic, and and link back to your site. If your answer is good, it
Search engine optimization is about making sure
some of those visitors go on to look at her course will get upvoted and gain visibility. Quora questions
the search engines, like Google and Bing, know that
offerings or sign up for her email list. often rank high on Google searches too.
your site is out there and is the right site to surface
for certain searches.
Using Thinkific, you can also create a Sales Podcasting
Widget for your course and place that sales widget Podcasts have risen in popularity in recent years
You start by deciding which keywords you want
anywhere on your blog. and many of the top podcasts organically attract
to rank for. Use a tool such as Google’s Keyword
listeners and traffic from their podcast directory
Planner or BuzzSumo to identify the most popular
YouTube listings.
keywords related to your course topic.
YouTube is the second most-visited search engine
Let’s say you want people to find your site if they
in the entire world (after Google). Some videos can Think of podcasting as blogging in audio form. It’s
search for “Excel courses” or “Learn Excel online”.
even rank higher than websites in search results. another way to create content that attracts more
The first thing you need to do is make sure your site
Start a YouTube channel about your course topic customers.
has these phrases and keywords in it.

Guest Posting remember that advertising is a scientific process. based on their specific demographics, interests,
Writig posts on other blogs that already have a It’s common to lose money initially but if you behaviors, and affiliations.
readership allow you to tap into that audience. A continue refining your ads and targeting you
simple Google search will show you which blogs should reach profitability. Since people on Facebook aren’t searching
cover the topics you cover in your online course. specifically for your course, it’s better to first
Reach out to the blog editors and ask to write a It’s also not recommended to send your ad promote webinar or blog post. You can then
post for them. traffic directly to your sales page, especially if collect their email address and promote your
the people you’re targeting have never heard of course to them via email campaigns.
Guest posting is also a great way to build a you. Instead, send them to a webinar registration
backlink to your site, which in turn improves your page, and use the webinar to convert them into YouTube Ads
SEO and search rankings. students. Read our guide on webinars to learn YouTube ads operate under the banner of Google
more about this. ads but their entirely video based. YouTube allows
HARO you to use a combination of keyword targeting,
Help A Reporter Out is a great service that When your webinar is ready, try some of the like Google, and behaviour targeting, like
connects reporters with relevant experts (aka following channels to send paid traffic to it. Facebook.
news sources). By signing up as a news source, Remember to ensure you’ve set up tracking
you’ll receive an email three times per day that correctly so that you can see if your ads actually A good strategy is to start with an educational
includes media opportunities in which you could result in sales of your online course. Thinkific has or entertaining video that leads to your blog or
be quoted. fields for this built in. webinar page.
Reply quickly for the best chance of getting Google Ads Banner Ads
selected for a quote in an article, and ask for a link Google Ads lets you create ads that show up Reach out to websites and blogs that serve your
back to your site. This link helps your SEO. when someone searches for the keywords you’re target audience and offer to pay them to add
targeting in their search engine.You can specify a banner ad for your course on their website.
Paid Traffic exactly which words should trigger your ad. Before you commit to paying a website owner
Realistically, organic traffic does take time for a long period of time, ask for the opportunity
to build up. You’ll need to continuously create If you install the tracking code correctly, you’ll be to test your ad for one month to see how their
content in any or all of the formats mentioned able to see which keywords and ads lead to sales website visitors respond to your ad.
above to build up that ranking. and cut out the ones that don’t.
You can find a designer on Fiverr to create banner
So, if you’re not patient and have some money Facebook Ads ads for you. Create a unique link or coupon code
to spare, advertising is a good option. Just Unlike Google, the targeting on Facebook Ads is for each website you place banners on so you can

track how many sales come from each website. share content related to your topic with them. create two groups, one specifically for their
Hire a graphic designer to create a professional course students (see the chapter on student
Social Traffic cover image for your page, and include a link to success), and another that serves as a marketing
Like organic traffic, it takes time for your social your course in your page description. tool.
media following to build up, especially if you aren’t
using any paid promotion techniques. Yet, when Instagram The benefits of creating a group for marketing
done right, it’s a powerful channel because some Instagram is another great way to build your is that you get to be at the center and build your
of your followers will become your most vocal personal brand. Engagement on IG tends to be authority. If people are getting value from your
supporters, buying your courses and amplifying higher than in FB. With tools like Stories, it’s group, they’ll eventually pay to access additional
your content. a great way to capture attention in a world of value from your online course.
distractions.
The key to social media is to spend more time You can also join other Facebook groups related
adding value than promoting your online course. Follow Later’s Instagram marketing guide to to your topic and participate in discussions there,
Post helpful content related to your topic learn more about building your brand with it. showcasing your expertise.
frequently and interact with your followers. As you
build a following, it’s ok to occasionally promote Pinterest Other Forums and Groups
your course. Infographics are very popular on Pinterest. Create
an infographic that shares some interesting facts, Forums are essentially online communities where
Facebook Page statistics, or a step-by-step process related to people who share a common interest hang out
A Facebook Page is separate from you personal your topic and publish it on Pinterest. Include a and interact with each other. Get involved in the
profile. It’s kind of like a profile for your business. link in your post to help drive traffic from Pinterest discussions. Answer questions. Be helpful.
Some course creators use their personal name to your website or online course. You can easily
for their business page, others use the name of create attractive infographics using Piktochart. Pay attention to the questions people ask about
their course. It just depends on your preference your topic (this is also a great way to get ideas
though using your own name helps you build your Facebook Group content ideas for your course). Don’t promote
personal brand. Unlike a page, where you push out posts to your course without first adding value to the
people, a group is where people can interact with forum.
Your page will allow you to attract fans so you can each other. Successful course creators often

Referral Traffic few clicks, you can add a new user to your course, a blogger is to offer them free access to your
This is probably the most powerful traffic source designate them as an affiliate, and choose the course in exchange for a public review of your
for course creators, especially in the short commission they will receive from each sale they course on their blog. You can even offer to include
term. A referral from someone who has a large refer. them in your affiliate program.
audience can give you a large boost in sales.
Imagine if you were selling that Excel course and Joint Ventures Student Referrals
Microsoft told all their customers they should Find people who are followed by your target At some point in your course, ask your students to
check it out. Microsoft’s customers trust them, market (but are not your direct competitors) and leave you a review or testimonial for your course.
so that trust is instantly transferred over to you. offer to host a webinar for their audience. For This simple request will help to ensure you
You’re pretty much set at that point. example, a blogger who writes articles about receive an ongoing influx of positive reviews from
your topic but does not have an online course your students, which you can then use in your
You may not be able to partner up with a company would make a great joint venture partner because marketing online. Happy students are also more
as large as Microsoft but that doesn’t mean their audience would likely be interested in your likely to refer you directly to their friends.
you can’t partner up with a hundred smaller course.
influencers and companies. Here are a few ways If you receive any negative reviews from your
to do this – Spend the majority of your time on the webinar students, use that feedback to improve certain
sharing valuable tips about your topic for free, parts of your course to ensure a better learning
Affiliates and when you pitch your course at the end of the experience for all future students.
Let other people promote your course for you webinar, split the sales revenue with the joint
in exchange for a percentage of each sale by venture partner. Public Speaking
creating an affiliate program for your course. Local events and Meetup groups are a great way
Reach out to people who have audiences that Blogger Reviews to get in front of your target audience. Do some
would likely purchase your course and ask them Find bloggers in your industry and ask them to research to find local events related to your topic
if they would be interested in promoting your review your course. A good review from a popular and contact the hosts of those events. Mention
course as an affiliate. blog related to your topic can definitely help you that you have an online course, and would love to
to increase your course sales. give a presentation to their audience.
Thinkific users can easily add people (including
their students!) to their affiliate program. With a The best way to get your course reviewed by If they allow their speakers to sell their product or

service at the end of their presentation, offer to
split the sales revenue with them. Remember not
to make your entire presentation a sales pitch. As
a rule of thumb, your presentation should be 80%
valuable content and 20% sales pitch.
Podcast Interviews
Find podcasts in directories like iTunes related
to your topic with audiences that would likely
be interested in your course. Make sure you
read the description of each podcast (and even
better, listen to a few of their episodes) before
you contact the host. Send each podcast host
a personalized email, introducing yourself and
explaining why you think you would be a good fit
for your show.
Remember, the purpose of doing a podcast

interview is to add value to the listeners. Your
interview should not be one big sales pitch for
your course. At the end of your interview, tell the
listeners how they can get in touch with you and
learn more about your courses.
Regardless of what strategy you use, you’re going

to have to put in time or money or both. If you
don’t already have an email list or online following,
don’t expect to make a lot of revenue initially. At
the same time, don’t give up. Just keep at it and in
good time you’ll see success.
If you’re looking for more help on marketing,

check out our Resource page for additional
training.

CHAPTER 9
Help your
students succeed
Dr. Carrie Rose is an educator, entrepreneur, and professional
speaker. As a child, Carrie had dyslexia and struggled with learning.
This drove her to pursue a Doctorate in educational leadership
and learning strategies so that she could help others with similar
problems.
As Carrie got involved in the world of online learning, she realized

that many online courses aren’t created in adherence to proper
learning strategies. Today, her research and teachings revolve
around implementing these strategies in online courses and
increasing completion rates.
As an online course creator, your role doesn’t end when you make
a sale. It is your responsibility to ensure that your students actually
learn what you teach and succeed.
Besides, happy successful students are more likely to refer friends,

return to take future courses, provide helpful feedback, leave
positive reviews and testimonials, and are less likely to request a
refund in the case of paid courses.
In short, when your students are successful, so are you. Let’s start
by defining what success is before we talk about how to improve it.

Measuring Student Success Measure the change in percentage from question
2 before the course to question 3 after the course.
The key to measuring success is to define a clear
objective or result that happens from taking your There are lots of other iterations you can make
online course and putting it into action. So, for an on these questions, but if you only ask these
Excel course, instead of saying ‘getting better at questions you’ll have an excellent basis for
Excel’, define success as being able to create a measuring success. Thinkific has built-in features
Pivot Table or something. to survey students like this.
To properly measure success the steps are

relatively simple: “Always build your course with specific
learning objectives in mind. Know what
Before they take the course, or at the very start: you expect your students to already know,
and also know what is beyond the scope
• Ask students for their #1 goal or objective in
of the course. You can always create
taking this course
• Ask them how far towards this goal they think more courses later, on additional topics.
they currently are (1-100%) Don’t try to boil the ocean, just achieve
two or three learning outcomes WELL in
After they take the course: one course.”
Reiterate the goal they provide you with at the JOANNA SMITH, LANGUAGE FUEL ACADEMY
start of the course and ask how far towards this
goal they think they currently are (1-100%)

“Adults are selective learners. We pick
and choose. If you have your content
chopped up into bite-sized pieces,
you can ask specific questions to your
students to determine which content they
should take.”
DR. CARRIE ROSE
Ensuring Success visual learners, and they like to see images and time on our hands. We also prefer to learn in bite-
videos to grasp the concept. Others prefer audio sized pieces versus sitting down for a long period
Now that you have a way to determine if your or even text. of time.
course is making an impact on students, it’s time
to work on improving that number. In a perfect Appeal to all styles by creating content that can What Carrie suggests is that you should break
world, if your students focus, complete the be consumed in multiple ways. Instead of just your content up into smaller pieces and allow
course, and do the assignments you give them, using a video, strip out the audio and create your students to pick and choose what they want.
they should be successful. a separate audio lesson. Thinkific is mobile- Remember, we don’t measure success by how
friendly, so students can listen to your course on many hours of the course they’ve watched. It’s
In the real world, that doesn’t happen. People the go. about whether they feel they’ve made progress
have other priorities and responsibilities, they get towards their objective.
distracted easily, and unexpected things happen Have a downloadable transcript of your lesson, or
that derail even the best plans. a PDF summary for people who prefer reading. In With Thinkific, you can actually create learning
Thinkific, you can upload files like these directly paths like Carrie mentions. Typeform allows
Your role is to keep them engaged while they’re into a chapter for easy access. you to create a questionnaire with logic-based
logged into your course, and get them coming results. So depending on what students mention
back when life takes them away. Make your content consumable when you ask them what they want to learn next,
When we were in school, we had to sit in classes you can automatically suggest the appropriate
Appeal to all learning styles that lasted an hour or half an hour at the very lesson for them to navigate to.
Not everyone learns the same way. Some are least. As adults, we often don’t have that much

Create accountability also to reinforce learning, is by getting them to Feedback forms – Collect feedback from students
Back in school we’d get demerit points if we didn’t apply the concepts you teach. so that you can incorporate it into your online
do our homework. When teaching adults in an course and make it better.
online course demerits don’t really work, so we Giving them assignments or homework based
need other ways of creating that accountability. on the previous chapter is an effective way to Gamification – Award prizes to students based
do this. You can even have students upload their on progression, and show their progress through
Peer pressure is often a powerful way to do this. homework back into Thinkific for you to evaluate. your course to urge them on.
You can pair students who have similar objective
and have them hold each other accountable. To take this further, have a simple quiz at the Make your content engaging
Some course creators have Facebook Groups end of the chapter where you ask them if they We covered this in the section on content creation
where students have to post their progress complete the homework. If they answer ‘No’ then so I won’t go into much detail here. The basic idea
and everyone else in the course holds them you can stop them from proceeding to the next is that your course content should make students
accountable. section until they do. Of course, this is based on want to keep going.
an honor system.
You can also personally hold students When you watch Netflix, you’ll notice that the
accountable. Carrie actually texts her students if Add interactivity most binge-worthy shows are those that build
she sees that they are falling behind. In Thinkific, Making your online course more interactive, curiosity at the end of each episode. They tease
you can see progress reports for your whole class versus just a one-way flow of information you so that you want to keep watching. You can do
so you know who’s not keeping up. also keeps students engaged. Here are some something similar at the end of every lesson.
additional elements you can add with just a click
A more scalable way to follow up is to set up in Thinkific: Also keep your teaching style conversational.
emails. If you integrate an email marketing Often, if you’re reading out of a teleprompter, it
solution like Aweber, you can create automated Quizzes – Throw in a quiz for each chapter to test can sound robotic. Instead, just be yourself and
emails to go out on certain days based on when students. talk to the camera like you’re talking to a friend.
someone signs up for your online course. This makes it sound more natural.
Surveys – Ask students to provide long-form
Add application components answers or describe their progress.
Another way to hold students accountable, but

Bring students back • Create a student Facebook Group where is about 3-5% but this includes courses on
students can interact with you and others. other platforms like the ones we’ve mentioned
If your course takes more than a few hours to • Offer a completion certificate that students can previously.
complete, chances are your students won’t finish only receive once the entire course is complete.
it in the first sitting. When they log off, you want to This is a built-in feature in Thinkific. However, when using all the features in Thinkific
stay in their minds so that they come back. Here • Run a regular group call with students (perhaps and following some of the principles outlined
are a few things you can do: once a month) to oversee their progress. above, you’ll find that completion rates are up
• Keep track of student progress in your Thinkific above 90%. Carrie’s courses are a prime example
• Send reminder emails letting students know dashboard and personally reach out to anyone of this. Her students are extremely successful,
that they haven’t finished the course. You can who is falling behind. and that’s why she has such a strong brand in the
easily set this up with a few clicks in Thinkific. industry.
• Set up accountability groups by pairing When you come across stats for online learning,
students with a partner who will finish the you’ll often see that completion rates for online
course with them. courses are pretty low. The industry average

CONCLUSION
What will your

legacy be?
An annoying characteristic of Leonardo da Vinci was that he would
often leave things unfinished. For every work of art he produced,
like the Mona Lisa, he had dozens of paintings that were left half-
complete.
He also left behind reams of notes on art, science, and engineering,

that he’d intended to publish as books. Had he published them, he’d
have had a greater impact on future generations.
Right now there are people out there who can benefit from learning
the topic you teach. There may already be other online courses
on the same topic out there, but they do not have your unique
perspective.
By reading this post, you’ve embarked upon a journey to teach what

you know by creating an online course. You’ve already started,
even if you haven’t actually done any of the exercises yet. The only
question is, are you going to finish?
Or will you leave it unfinished and deprive the world of your

expertise?
Sign up for Thinkific through this link, you'll get access to a

1-month free trial!

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Create and sell online courses:

The step-by-step guide

P25 Host your online course P54 Conclusion

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 2

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 3

$165 bn And having helped those people create their

Sign up for Thinkific through this link, you'll get

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 4

But Lewis was driven. He wanted to become successful so he spent

In time he got so good networking using LinkedIn that he launched

The next day he woke up to $6,300 in his account.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 5

“I think now is a perfect time to start a

- LEWIS HOWES, SCHOOL OF GREATNESS.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 6

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 7

Some businesses invert the model, and use online

Hootsuite, a social media management software,

We’ve done this ourselves at Thinkific. We created

We ended up raising money for a great cause, but

If you already have a product, like a software,

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 8

Nothing embodies this more than Lewis’ most

320% limited group of entrepreneurs completely

increase in You in turn build your own legacy when you

“Stop banking on information to attract clients, customers

MARISA MURGATROYD, LIVE YOUR MESSAGE

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 9

Choose a topic for

Realizing there was an opportunity, John decided to create a daily

John initially generated revenue from sponsorships but he soon

In October 2013, John launched Podcasters’ Paradise. In the month

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 10

You can also ask your followers on social media.

If you don’t have a large audience but you do

If you cover multiple topics, pick the most popular

Simon Sinek, the popular author of Start With

If you don’t have content either, that doesn’t mean

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 11

Deanne realized that she could potentially teach

“Stay laser-focused on the results your

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 12

Pre-Sell and validate

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 13

A simple way to validate a course is to survey your

In December 2015, Dorie sent an email to her list.

A question like that allows respondents to

She then asked some basic demographic

Don’t forget to lean on your social and offline

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 14

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 15

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 16

In most cases, an online course is just a sequence of videos. You can

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 17

With that in mind, let’s start by ensuring we have

Screenflow – This is the best screen-sharing

Audio Technica ATR 2100 – The ATR 2100

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 – This is an

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 18

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 19