The online learning industry is booming. In the US alone, the online learning market is expected to hit $687 billion by 2030—which is a CAGR of 14% over an eight-year stretch.
There’s a significant opportunity to capitalize on this trend, and selling an online course is the easiest way to get your share of the pie.
I’ve seen plenty of articles on the web explaining how to teach an online course, but few focus on creating one that will actually sell (and sell for high profits).
This is exactly what we’ll prioritize below. I’ll show you how to create an online course that’s positioned to sell for maximum gain.
Step 1 — Choose a Topic
It’s so much easier to create an online course if it’s about a topic you really know. Not just something you’ve dabbled with once or twice. Focus on what you know best that others might be interested in learning.
Starting with a familiar topic significantly cuts down on your preparation, and it’s easier to sell something that’s coming from an “expert.”
- In-demand skills that you currently possess.
- Industry-specific knowledge based on your career.
- Problems you’ve repeatedly solved for other people.
- Credentials and certifications you have.
- Hobbies you’ve mastered.
- Life experiences and accomplishments.
All of these are good places to start brainstorming. It’s fine to keep it broad for now, as we’ll continue to refine this topic in the next steps to ensure it’s positioned for the highest possible revenue.
Step 2 — Validate Your Idea
It’s time to make sure the topic actually makes sense to pursue.
Keep an open mind here, and make sure you’re willing to admit the possibility that your course won’t work. It’s better to validate your idea now as opposed to wasting months of your life only to discover that nobody wants to buy what you’re selling.
- Use Google Trends to explore search interest in your topic over time.
- Look at similar courses on platforms like Udemy to see if they’re selling.
- Check open job boards to look for relevant skills that employers are seeking.
- Run a poll or survey users on LinkedIn, Reddit, and niche-specific Facebook groups.
- Review Amazon’s best-selling books in your topic category.
- Test interest by running a free webinar (this only works if you already have a strong following).
Don’t rush through this step.
I’m not saying you need to spend weeks running time-consuming focus groups or expensive ad campaigns. But don’t move on until you feel confident that there’s a strong demand for your course topic.
Step 3 — Narrow Down Your Target Audience
Now look for a specific niche or submarket of your broader course topic.
Selling an online course should be treated like any other product or business venture. If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll most likely end up selling to nobody.
It’s way too difficult to sell something that appeals to white-collar men in their 30s while simultaneously appealing to first-time mothers and college students. So just pick one.
For example, I have tons of experience with digital marketing and SEO.
If I create a course on this topic, I might decide to focus strictly on solopreneurs who want to grow their existing businesses and sharpen their skills. This type of course would look very different if I were targeting first-time marketers, agency owners, or corporate marketing teams.
Beyond the sales strategy challenges, trying to appeal to multiple audiences ends up diminishing the value of your course materials.
So start with one ultra-specific niche audience and build everything around that customer persona.
Step 4 — Pick a Platform to Deliver Your Materials
How exactly do you want to deliver your course to your audience? Potential options include:
- Use an existing learning management system (LMS)
- Create your own mobile app
- Live teaching
- “Locked” content on YouTube
- Membership sites
All of these approaches have pros and cons, but using a mobile app is by far the best path to success. Here’s why.
Mobile learning has a 45% higher customer retention rate than other models—and knowledge retention is 55% higher compared to traditional courses.
People are 99% more likely to continue training if courses are offered through mobile apps, and they complete these courses 45% faster than they would elsewhere.
Remember, everything we’re focusing on in this guide is about selling courses for the highest potential profit. The data proves that it’s easier to retain your students, and you can get those same people to purchase additional courses when they’re done.
That’s not all. The mobile learning market is growing at a 30.12% CAGR (compared to 14% for the overall online learning industry).
With platforms like Buildfire’s education app builder, anyone can create their own app without writing a single line of code. Plans start at less than $100 per month, and you can try it for free with a 30-day trial.
Start with a template that’s specific to online learning, and you can customize your course through Buildfire’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
Best of all, Buildfire has everything you need to create a course that sells. You can set up one-time purchases, ongoing subscriptions, and distribute the course material in any format that you want.
This also makes it really convenient for anyone who wants to purchase your online course, as they can work at their own pace without being bound to a computer or desk.
Step 5 — Select a Course Format
Next, decide how you’re going to package and format the course.
It’s totally up to you, and there’s really no right or wrong approach. This is actually the only step in which your decision won’t have a significant impact on your sales. But I’ll share some common ways you can approach this.
- Video lessons with pre-recorded lectures.
- Slideshow presentations.
- Downloadable PDF workbooks.
- Step-by-step guides.
- Screen recordings for software or technical tutorials.
- Audio-only or podcast-style lessons.
- Progress-dependent courses where a quiz must be completed after each training module.
You can mix multiple formats, but I wouldn’t go overboard by trying to apply everything at once.
For example, if you’re delivering an audio-only masterclass, it probably doesn’t make sense to ask your audience to complete a quiz after each lesson. They might be listening to this in the car, at the gym, or in places where stopping to answer questions just isn’t very practical.
Step 6 — Create the Content
To keep things simple for your first online course, I’d start by creating ten lessons at the absolute maximum. This is easier to visualize and it’s far less intimidating.
Here are some other reasons why I recommend starting small:
- It’s faster to create and should take less than 30 days to build.
- You’ll launch the course quickly so you can start selling ASAP.
- You’re forced to focus on what matters most, which eliminates fluff from your course.
- If it fails, you didn’t pour too much time into it.
- You can always expand your lessons down the road.
Remember to speak directly to the niche audience you previously identified in the third step.
Don’t be super hard on yourself right now. Your first course may not be amazing, and that’s totally fine. To draw parallels, I’ve written over 2,000+ blogs in my career. My first few weren’t great, but they drastically improved over time.
If you’re aiming for perfection, then your course will never launch. So just make a conscious effort to put out your best possible product. Set a reasonable deadline for yourself to create everything, and move on.
Step 7 — Set Up Your Pricing Structure
Now you need to set a price point and determine how you’re going to charge.
Common pricing structures include:
- One-time purchase for lifetime access.
- Monthly or annual subscription.
- Tiered pricing with different perks at each level.
- Freemium model (with paid access for premium content).
If you’re struggling to come up with a price point, you can always look at similar courses to see the cost of your competition. Then decide if you want to match them or go a different route (cheaper to stand out as a value option or more expensive as a premium alternative).
You should also consider the purchasing power of your target audience.
I recommend starting at a higher price point. It’s much easier to lower the cost of your online course than raise it.
So shoot for the moon. If you miss, you’ll still land a lot further higher than if you started at ground level.
Step 8 — Start Selling
That’s it.
Everything is officially in place for you to start selling your online course, which is the whole reason you started this venture. Too many people lose sight of this along the way. But driving sales should always be your ultimate goal.
Start marketing your course through as many channels as possible—ideally through free or low-cost methods to ensure the highest possible ROI for your efforts.
Focus on your niche audience.
Do you have a better chance of reaching them on LinkedIn or paid Facebook ads? Are there any influencers in your niche that you can partner with to promote your course?
Once the course is complete your sales potential will be limitless. All the hard work is already done. Now it’s just a matter of getting people to buy it.
Bonus Step — Rinse and Repeat
Don’t stop after your first course. Look for ways to expand and continue to increase your revenue streams.
- Sell the exact same course (with slight adjustments) to a new market.
- Create a new course for people who purchased the first one.
- Experiment with new formats (video vs. audio, etc.).
- Offer value-added materials for the same course (like a free download, new module, or lifetime access).
The sky’s the limit with how much money you can make here.
That’s because your first course isn’t going anywhere. So you can continue earning money from that course while you’re creating additional ones—and that revenue will just continue to compound on itself.
Best Practices For Creating an Online Course That Actually Makes Money
Beyond the step-by-step instructions above, I want to share some pro tips that you should keep top-of-mind as you’re going through this process. These best practices will help you squeeze even more money out of your online course.
Keep it Short
People take online courses because they want to learn something quickly. So don’t create something that takes months to complete. Keeping it short makes life easier for you and appeals to most audiences.
Think About the Money From Day One
Don’t lose sight of your primary goal—making money. While you shouldn’t be cutting corners that will come back to bite you later on, the profit-driven mindset will help shape your most important decisions.
Look For the Low-Hanging Fruit in Your Market
Find ways to dominate smaller niches. If a particular category is getting 100,000 monthly searches, it may seem like a good opportunity. But instead of competing with hundreds of other people, I’d rather market my course to 1,000 potential customers with less competition, knowing I have a better chance of selling to half of them.
Apply Mobile-First Principles
It’s no secret that we’re living in a mobile-first world, and having your own app is the best way to stand out from other online courses. It’s convenient for your students as it allows them to complete the course from anywhere—while simultaneously giving you total control over your pricing and format. The numbers don’t lie.
Start With Just One Course
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Get your first course to the market ASAP to validate your proof of concept and then expand from there. Then you can make adjustments by adding to that course or apply what you’ve learned to your next course.
Deliver Real Value
Think about all the time and effort that went into creating your course and getting someone to buy it. You have a much greater chance of getting those people to purchase additional courses if they actually learned something from you. Delivering real value to them helps lower your customer acquisition costs for future courses and maximizes your ROI.
Final Thoughts
People are going to make millions of dollars in 2025 selling online courses. Are you going to be one of them?
You don’t have to be a traditional educator to capitalize on the mobile learning trend. As long as you can position yourself or your brand as an expert on a particular subject matter, people will be willing to buy it. Creating your own app is the best way to stand out in this crowded market. So start your free trial of Buildfire today, and take the first step to creating an online course that actually sells.