
Whether you’ve just created your first online course or have been working in the online course industry for a while, one thing remains in common: You want to make the biggest impact possible.
Boosting your income from online courses is dependent on a few factors, according to these five high-performing course creators — creators who make over $20k per month in revenue. Understanding your ‘why,’ thinking outside of the box, embracing imperfection, showing up consistently on social media, and gaining the confidence to charge what you’re worth are just a few things they’ve learned along the way to successfully create profitable online courses.
Here are their top tips to increase your monthly revenue by doing what you love:
Artist, coach and educator Tori Swanson uses Thinkific ( Thinkific is a software platform that enables entrepreneurs to create, market, sell, and deliver their own online courses ) to teach artists how to become profitable through online courses.
Along her business journey, she had a realization: She decided that her business had to be rooted in serving the wellbeing of others in order to be successful. “Once I understood this, everything fell into place because it was clear what was authentic and inauthentic. The more honest, vulnerable and authentic I show up in life, the more I can contribute to others,” she says.
Swanson believes that one of the main reasons she’s been successful is through developing clarity around her offers. “Being clear about why I create, paint, and serve others through coaching has helped me say no to clients and opportunities that were out of line with my values. It’s also helped me to create content that is about my audience, not about me,” she adds. “The only way to truly grow and scale is to be passionate and obsessed with what you’re doing. If you aren’t clear on why you do what you do, then it will be much more difficult.”
Kat Norton started her Microsoft Excel training business, Miss Excel, using TikTok and Instagram in June 2020. She designed creative Excel training videos — complete with Vanilla Ice and Snoop Dog background music — that quickly went viral. In less than a year, she’s grown a community of over 500,000 people across platforms, and makes a living teaching people how to secure their dream job, save hours in the day, and spend more time doing what they love by becoming Excel wizards. “I started selling my Excel courses on Thinkific in November of 2020 and was able to quit my day job in consulting by January 2021 from the passive course sales. It has been such a rewarding job being able to help so many people become more efficient at work,” she says.
According to Norton, the main factor that led to her success was her ability to make a traditionally boring subject fun by infusing it with creativity. “My students find that I bring just as much fun to my courses as I do to my social media content,” she explains.
The success of photography teacher Cassidy Lynne came from letting go of the ‘typical’ photography business marketing tactics. What started out as a hobby in college turned into a full-fledged business when she decided to leave her corporate 9-5 job in pursuit of pursuing her photography passion. During the pandemic, she realized she wanted to share what she learned from building her own business to help other photographers build theirs. Creating and selling online courses was the natural next step. “One of the biggest reasons I’ve seen so much growth within my business is because of a willingness to try new strategies. I’m not afraid to fail. As I was scaling my business, I had to grow in my confidence. If I wasn’t confident in myself as an educator and entrepreneur, how could anyone else be?” says Lynne.
Swanson echoes Lynne’s thoughts on thinking outside of the box, advising that course creators let go of what they think their business is ‘supposed’ to look like. “Become a beginner, try new things, and see what sticks. Trust your inner voice and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there,” she says.
For those who are ready to level up and begin making $20k per month, Norton stresses the importance of using a webinar course launch method. “I host a free webinar each time I launch a new course. I pack the hour full of valuable content and offer a course discount at the end to allow participants to continue learning,” she shares.
Norton believes that Thinkific is what has allowed her webinar launch method to seamlessly scale her business. “When I do webinars, hundreds of sales come in at once. The automated enrollment and payment collection process has been critical for keeping up with the volume. I also love how easy it is to create new courses on Thinkific. The platform allows me to stay creative with all the different content types available and user-friendly site-building features.”
Lynne says that one of the biggest catalysts to her success was being consistent with social media and investing in high-quality resources. “When the pandemic hit, I focused on video marketing for my photography business,” she explains. “This made my social media accounts grow a ton, which seriously slingshotted my business! The growth helped me realize that I love helping others in my industry move towards their goals.”
Norton believes that combining creativity with consistent social media use can work wonders in terms of growing your audience. “It’s incredible how fast you can grow a community when you align your content to their needs in a creative way. For example, I grew 50,000 Instagram followers in a week from one reel going viral,” she says. “The only limits we have in life are the ones we place on ourselves, and getting out of my own way was key in scaling my business so quickly. I show up authentically on social media and wholeheartedly believe in the power of my courses.”
Social media doesn’t only help to grow your audience, but it can also be a great tool to boost awareness of your courses, according to Allred. “Posting teaser videos and clips to spark people’s interest and get them excited to see the whole course has worked well for us,” he explains.
When it comes to pricing your online course, a lack of confidence can make you price your product too low, which Allred warns against. “People associate price with value. Don’t be afraid to charge more for your course if you believe in it,” he says. “Many people are willing to pay to learn from what they perceive to be among the best instructors. If your courses are priced low, it will be hard for your audience to believe that you’re the best.”
To become more confident in what you’re charging, Norton has adopted what she calls a millionaire mindset, a process that helps her tap into positive thoughts, be confident in what she’s offering, and charge what she’s worth. “I align my activities for each day with what the highest version of myself would do,” she explains.
Thinkific is a software platform that enables entrepreneurs to create, market, sell, and deliver their own online courses.
Thinkific’s powerful, all-in-one platform makes it easy for entrepreneurs to share their knowledge, grow their audience, and scale the business they already love.
Thinkific is unique in a few key ways:
Create, market and sell your expertise with a single platform that gives you total control of your brand and business.
Quickly create professional digital learning products for any kind of audience with a user-friendly course builder, no coding or technical expertise required.
Learn how you can easily and quickly create a course website or membership site to teach online and leverage online education to earn more revenue, book more clients, and scale your business from this Thinkific demo!