Method Stats:
- Setup time: a few days to a few weeks – you will need to plan your courses, produce and publish them, and submit them for quality review
- Age threshold: 16+ to 18+, varies across different sites
- Time of payment: two days or a month after the sale, every month, or based on the chosen payment schedule – varies between sites
The global eLearning market is projected to reach almost $400 billion by 2026. If you excel in a particular subject and enjoy curating learning material, it’s an excellent time to start selling online courses.
Digital courses come in different formats, from simple PDF downloads to videos. Popular online course topics include computer skills, digital marketing, health and wellness, business and entrepreneurship, finance and investing, and personal development.
There are two main ways to make money online by selling digital courses – by joining an eLearning platform or creating an eLearning website. The former is easier to do, but the latter provides more opportunities to experiment with different formats and monetization methods.
You can create an eLearning website with a WordPress LMS plugin. Then, sell courses as digital products or create a membership system to lock them behind a paywall.
If you want to try out a few eLearning platforms first, consider the following:
- Udemy. Provides courses, quizzes, coding exercises, and discussion forums on various topics.
- Skillshare. Excellent for selling courses on digital art and creative skills.
- Teachable. Creators can have their courses and live events featured on Spotlight, an eLearning marketplace powered by Teachable and Hotmart.
- Podia. A platform for selling online courses, digital downloads, and membership subscriptions. Users can create standalone or drip courses. They can also group similar courses and market them as a bundle.
- Pathwright. A design, teaching, and learning platform. Its courses emphasize active learning through actionable steps.
