Sharing our passions with others is an enjoyable experience. Everyone has a hobby or area of expertise that may lend itself well as the subject of an online course. Often I hear people say that they feel they wouldn’t have anything useful to teach others and that simply isn’t true. Add to that the amount of money you can make by selling online courses and it really is a missed opportunity for anyone with that attitude.
I have seen courses based around topics like gardening and cooking earn people thousands. Their recipe for success was simple. All they had to do was decide to act, and not be held back by a fear of failure. Sitting back and thinking you have nothing to offer the world is a self defeating attitude, and I encourage every one of you to pick a passion or hobby and create an online course to teach others about it.
Once you have decided on a topic for your online course you will need a platform to create and publish it so that interested people can enroll.
Lets take a look at 5 websites that allow you to create, publish, promote, and sell your online courses.
Teachable
Why I like Teachable
Teachable offers its instructors a lot of value. It is priced modestly and with that low price comes a lot of flexible tools you can utilize to ensure the success of your online course. It offers instructors everything they need to create, edit, promote, and sell online courses for a low price without sacrificing quality. Add to that it is one of the larger online course platforms and you have everything you need to succeed in one convenient place.
Teachable builds on the successful forumala other online course platforms have used while adding its own unique touch. The ability to create stunning online courses with a powerful set of marketing tools is what seperates it from other online course publishing platforms. It is my personal favorite due to its low price, easy to use interface, beautiful and professional looking themes, and multi language support. It is great for beginners or seasoned professionals and you wont be starved for features as everything you need to build successful online courses is included.
Pricing
Teachable offers 3 competitively priced plans to choose from. I would have liked to see the basic plan include more theme customization options, and throw out the 6% transaction fee. Aside from that you will be hard pressed to find a better priced online course publishing platform.
Udemy
Why I like Udemy
Udemy offers a lot of different ways for its instructors to create online courses. You have the option to utilize video, slides, text or even interactive based lesson plans. It is a powerful course building platform aimed at intermediate users looking to find a larger audience for their courses. The amount of online courses offered by their large group of instructors covers almost every subject imaginable. It is for this reason I prefer Udemy more as a student than an instructor at the moment. It lands itself on this list because it is a very reputable platform that has seen many of its instructors finding success. They claim the average instructor earns roughly $7,000. This number has likely been inflated due to the large amount the more prominent instructors on their platform earn each month, but it is encouraging to see such success.
Pricing
Udemy uses revenue sharing and takes 50% of every sale you make. This has both positive and negative benefits. The main knock against this pricing structure is that if you find yourself with an extremely successful course on your hands Udemy will be taking a very large chunk of those sales. It makes you feel as if you do not fully own your course and can be discouraging to see 50% of your hard work go to Udemy. The benefit is a risk free course creation platform. If your course is not successful the only thing you lost was the time you invested.
WizIQ
Why I like WizIQ
Interested in creating online courses but also want to interact with your students in real time? If that’s the case, WizIQ might just be the online course platform you are looking for. They have a virtual classroom feature that will let you do just this. Since teaching courses in real time requires more of a commitment, you will often be able to charge more for these types of online courses. This is the main draw with WizIQ, and why it is included on this list. It is the best option right now for instructors who want real time interaction within a virtual classroom setting.
If you want to create and publish online courses without interacting in real time you can do this through their online academy. However, their online academy is not as functional as Teachable or Udemy. It is for this reason I would only recommend WizIQ to those looking for a platform that allows them to teach in real time.
Pricing
WizIQ plans start at $25 per month. However, they bill annually which means the upfront cost is a lot more when compared to platforms like Teachable or Udemy.
Academy of Mine
Why I like Academy of Mine
Academy of Mine gives you all the tools you need to fully brand your business. This is the best option for those who are looking to create a fully functional online learning campus. However, the price reflects the sheer amount of tools and customization you get access to with Academy of Mine and you can expect to pay $499 per month for their cheapest plan. Basically, if you are serious about creating and selling online courses full time this is the platform for you. They give you every tool you need to succeed in a big way, and crank out high earning professional looking online courses.
Pricing
As I already stated, Academy of Mine is not cheap. The most modestly priced plan starts at $499 per month. This is a platform created for serious users who want to build a full time income selling online courses. The tools included with each plan reflect this, and you can easily scale your business as it grows. I recommend this platform for users who may be looking at selling online courses as a long term or full time endeavor.
Ruzuku
Why I like Ruzuku
Ruzuku is a good choice for those who want to build a student community around their online courses. There is an abundance of chat and forum features you can add to your class room in order to encourage social engagement with your students.
They have a lot of great features that integrate nicely with MalChimp and give you the ability to automate notifications for when your courses go live. Course management is intuitive and you can sell courses to your customers using a wide variety of media formats. The ability to create courses with PDF files is a nice touch and something you wont find on a lot of other online course learning platforms. Overall Ruzuku is a stable course creation option. It doesn’t do anything to wow you but it always works and is reliable. Teachable and Udemy are still better options in my opinion but Ruzuku is not far behind.
Pricing
Ruzuku plans start at $75 a month and are billed annually. It is hard to recommend Rozuku when Teachable plans start at $29 a month and offer just as many features.
Final Thoughts
Online education is only going to grow in populairty. It is expected to cross the 220 billion mark within the next 2 years, and the rising cost of college tuition will only cause more people to search for alternatives. There is a lot of money to be made in this market, and a lot of great platforms that will give you the tools you need to succeed. In closing I would recommend any beginner or intermediate user to try Teachable first. You can’t beat the price point of their plans, and the themes allow you to create beautiful one of a kind courses. Udemy is great for intermediate to advcnaced users looking to get more customoziation and automony. Finally if you are looking to create a long term business that can generate full time income I would recommend Academy of Mine. While the monthly price tag is steep there is literally no way you can be disappointed with the features you get. Everything you could possibly need to build a full time online course business is included.