How to Make Money with an Online Course
An online course packages what you know into videos, worksheets, and quizzes that students buy and keep. You record once and sell the same product repeatedly on a platform like Teachable or Kajabi. It only works if the course solves a specific problem for people already looking for it, like busy professionals learning SEO or beginners learning Excel.
Mini-courses typically sell for around $47, full programs for $997 or more. Upsells like coaching or templates push average order value to $200-500. Reported profit margins after ad spend sit around 20-50%.
How Much Can You Earn?
Typical reported ranges, which niche, audience size, and marketing decide:
Beginner (0-6 months, first course): $0-$5,000/month. Teachable's 2023 Creator Report puts median first-year earnings at $1,000-2,000, with 70% earning under $10k in total. A typical first launch converts 5-10% of a 500-1,000 subscriber list at $97.
Intermediate (6-24 months, 2-5 courses): $5,000-$20,000/month. Thinkific reports its mid-tier creators average $94k/year. A 5,000-subscriber list and an evergreen funnel can do 50-200 enrollments a month at $197, before roughly 30% in platform fees and ads.
Advanced (2+ years, multiple offerings): $50,000+/month. Amy Porterfield reports $10M+ a year. Teachable says its top 1% earn over $500k/year, and Kajabi reports seven-figure earners among creators with 50k+ audiences. High-ticket bundles ($2k+) and memberships push margins to 70-90%.
Podia's figure is that 80% of courses flop, mostly on marketing. Aim for $300+ lifetime value per customer through upsells, and budget 20-40% for taxes if you are a U.S. solopreneur.
Getting Started
A first course takes 4-12 weeks from idea to launch.
- Choose and validate your niche (week 1): "Photoshop for real estate agents" beats generic "graphic design." Check demand on Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, or Reddit, then put up a $27 pre-sale page on Gumroad. Ten sales from 500 visitors is enough signal.
- Outline and create content (weeks 2-4): 5-15 modules of 10-20 minute lessons, plus quizzes and PDFs. Record in batches with Loom or Descript, edit with CapCut (free). 5-20 hours of content in total.
- Pick a platform and price (week 5): Teachable (free tier, 5% fee) or Kajabi ($149/mo). Test $97 for an intro course and $497 for the core one. Bonuses like templates raise perceived value.
- Build your audience (weeks 1-6): Leadpages opt-ins or a YouTube channel (aim for 1k subs), fed by two blog posts a week or TikTok clips pointing at a free lead magnet.
- Launch (weeks 7-8): Webinar (problem, agitate, solve) at a 5% conversion benchmark, $500-2k on Meta ads at 3-5x ROAS, a 7-day email sequence.
- Optimize and scale (ongoing): Track in Google Analytics, A/B test headlines, add an evergreen sales page, and repackage into a $27/mo membership.
Budget: $0-1,000 for tools and ads. First launch goal: 50 sales.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Scalable: Unlimited students; one course can earn $100k+ over the years.
- High margins: 70-95% once built.
- Authority: A course positions you to upsell coaching ($5k/client).
- Flexible: Update it from anywhere.
- No inventory or shipping.
Cons:
- Upfront time: 100+ hours to build before the first sale.
- Marketing required: Thinkific's figure is that 80% fail without an audience.
- Competition: Udemy is flooded; niche down or go premium.
- Refunds: 5-10% is normal, and bad reviews hurt.
- Tech learning curve: The platforms overwhelm beginners.
Best for patient experts who can market. Pair it with freelancing for stability.
Tools You Need
A lean stack costs under $50/mo:
- Course platforms: Teachable (free-$39/mo), Thinkific ($49/mo), Kajabi ($149/mo all-in-one).
- Video: Loom (free), OBS Studio (free), Descript ($12/mo editing).
- Design: Canva Pro ($13/mo), Placeit for mockups.
- Marketing: ConvertKit ($29/mo email), Meta Ads Manager, YouTube Analytics.
- Sales: Stripe or PayPal, Google Analytics (free).
- Productivity: Notion (free outlines), Trello for launches.
Real Examples
- Amy Porterfield: $10M+/year. List Builders Society ($1,997) sells through webinars; her first launch in 2013 did $40k.
- Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income): $100k+ months from courses like SPI Pro; his income reports show $1.4M in 2023 revenue.
- Marie Forleo: B-School ($2,000) generates millions every two years; 30k+ students since 2010.
- Ankur Nagpal (Teachable founder): Bootstrapped the platform to a $10M exit. One user, a fitness coach, is reported at $20k/mo from niche courses.
- Beginner: Reddit user u/coursehustler reported an $8k first launch in 2024 from a LinkedIn audience, validated with $97 pre-sales.
The common thread is an email list of 10k+ subscribers and a webinar funnel. See the guides on email marketing and affiliate strategies.