How to Create and Sell a Course (And Why You Should)

Why Sell a Digital Course

There are a few reasons courses are so powerful:

• Uncapped income potential: Create it once, sell it forever. Creators I’ve spoken to make anywhere from $100k-$300k/year from their courses. I’ve also seen creators with $100k launches.

• Fairly passive: If you have a good funnel, it’ll sell itself in the background without having to do a ton of promotion. And depending on what you include in the course, customer service would be the only “work” you’d need to do on an ongoing basis.

• They’re higher ticket: Other digital products like templates can’t be sold for much. Courses can be sold for thousands of dollars.

• People want the shortcut: Even if your free content is value-packed, people will still pay for it to be summed up/organized for them. Think about it.
  
  How many fitness courses/programs are on the market? And how many free workout plans are also on the market? Yet paid courses still sell like crazy.

How to Find a Course Topic

Here’s 3 ways to find a winning course topic:

• Is there a question you get asked about over and over? Create it around that.

• What’s your domain of expertise? Use a cheap SEO tool like Keysearch to see how many people are searching for courses on that.

• Plug your profile link into Gemini and ask it to generate course ideas based on your content.

No idea is too small or silly. Want proof? Here are three courses selling on Udemy:

• Emotional Horsemanship → $165k est. revenue

• How to Be Funny, Even if You Weren’t Born Funny → $10k est. revenue

• Travel Journaling → $447k est. revenue

Keep in mind, a course doesn’t need to be 27 modules, taking someone from A to Z. You can charge more for these, but they’re more intensive to produce.

A “mini course” is around 3-7 modules, taking people from A to D/F/G (you get the point). It’s a shorter transformation. You can still price these at $500+, but they’re a lot quicker to produce and a lot less in-depth.

Where to Create and Sell It

After speaking to several course creators and taking an online course myself, everyone recommended/used Kajabi. It’s an all-in-one software, allowing you to host the course, run email marketing, build a landing page, and set up funnels.

Speaking from experience, it’s got a learning curve but Kajabi has a team of experts freelancers that can help. Aside from that, it’s around $55 to $120/mo, depending on the plan you start with.

If you’re curious what a Kajabi landing page looks like, check out some examples.

Funnels 101: How to Sell the Course

I looked at several successful course creators and found they all used the same funnel: webinars. It looks like this:

Post ➡️ Prompt people to comment a certain word to get access to their free webinar ➡️ Automate sending the link with ManyChat ➡️ At the end of the webinar, they pitch the course.

It works because people love free stuff. They’ll hop on a free webinar no problem. Sending them straight to the link to buy doesn’t work so well.

Let us know if you’d like to see a newsletter issue diving deep into more of the most popular funnel options.

Why creators are returning to a corporate lifestyle

It’s a vlog you’ve seen pop up on your timeline every now and then: “Quitting my corporate job”. It’s the dream of every content creator to post that video and embark on the ultimate lifestyle of brands deals and viral videos. But what happens when financial distress becomes part of the equation? 

An article published in Business Insider showcased seven creators who are ready to leave the full-time creator lifestyle and clock back in to a 9-to-5. One creator expressed, “At the start of every month, I didn’t know how much money would be coming in, and it was very unsettling.” Another said, “I eventually realized the lack of structure and stability…I needed a safety net.”

When Karat’s own Eric Wei spoke to JedCal, a lifestyle creator who landed a six-figure job out of college, Cal recalled quitting his job in computer science to pursue his channel, which now has over 200k subscribers. However, after two years as a full-time creator, Cal is returning to the computer science scene. “The reliance of mixing my full-time income with creative work led to the burnout I was feeling.”

But while creators are returning to the benefits of health insurance and a 401(k), they aren’t ready to abandon their channels completely. Rather, they plan to establish a balance that puts them on a stronger financial path. “I enjoy being in a position where I can turn down brand deals when they don’t fully align with my beliefs or goals,” one creator told Business Insider. “The goal is making my social media income half my total income,” says JedCal.

The dream goal of creators is now finding the fine line of financial balance between creative freedom and a manageable 9-to-5. Because as Dolly Parton once said, “It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it.”

Quick Links

💸 Gypsy Rose Blanchard to sue true crime content creator for fraud.

📱 Elon Musk’s X update includes hidden likes and AI X-rated content.

🤴🏼 MrBeast crowned ‘King of YouTube’ after reaching platform milestone.

🛍️ Pinterest launches Creator Fund aimed to support small businesses.

See ya next week,

Karat