Unconventional Career Spotlight: Make $100K+ With Online Courses

A hot new way for creatives to earn a living—if they do it right.

Here is a list of stuff I don’t know how to do:

• Roll my tongue

• Fix the “nf” error on my washer

• Conceal sounds from the bathroom when people are over and you REALLY need to conceal sounds from the bathroom

• Say “hi” to literally anyone without it sounding awkward in my head

• Hold babies

• Make a normal face on Zoom when someone else is talking and you’re just sitting there and are you nodding your head too much? not enough? should you smile? squint? purse your lips? is this making you look creepy? WHAT DOES A NEUTRAL FACE LOOK LIKE

• Resist pizza

• Take Baptists seriously

• Not talk during a massage, even though the last thing I want to be doing is talking during a massage

• Do my hair. I used to be phenomenal at doing my hair! And then I turned 39 and now I realize I have no skills / no patience / no amount of hair product in the world that can make me look like I didn’t just get done reading a book about North American birds (I did)

• Pack a suitcase without needing a crane

• Say “nauseous” when it’s supposed to be “nauseated”

• Measure anything in eighths of an inch without regretting my entire existence

• Order sandwiches from a deli in New York without feeling the kind of anxiety that one presumably gets when taking a space shuttle into outer space, or parallel parking your car with 3 other people in the car, or competing in the Olympics for synchronized swimming.

(Seriously though, I can’t even synchronize my calendar correctly, let alone my bodily appendages.)

Fortunately, there are two things I happen to be excellent at. They are:

• Expertly removing tendons from raw chicken breast (thank you, part-time after school school job when I was 16!)

• Making $500,000+ annually with online courses from anywhere in the world, by which I mean a mediocre hotel room that could really use more light (but hey, you’re in Paris!)

Despite how much I’m sure we would all enjoy a column from me about raw chicken breast, I wanted to write about my experience making and selling online courses for over a decade, now, because it’s an unconventional career option that I think has been grossly underestimated by “the real world.”

Let’s do this in two parts, shall we?

First, I’m going to give you the scoop on a workshop that my friend Amy is running RIGHT NOW if you’ve thinking about making an online course (a must-attend), and then I’m going to give you my top twenty best pieces of hard-earned advice, wisdom, dos, donts, and what I’ve learned from my own personal experience (including the mistakes I see people making all the time that kill your sales). I’ve been doing this longer than some Gen Zers have been alive, so hopefully this is helpful!

Okay, so ready?

Part One: The Workshop

My friend and the queen of online courses herself, Amy, is doing an AWESOME live workshop on getting started with your online course—and it begins tomorrow, Wednesday, September 13th!

Amy’s been doing this as long as I have, and now she exclusively teaches people how to create online courses…the fun way.

In this zippy, fun workshop, you’ll learn what kind of course you should create, how to price it, how to market the sh*t out of it (even if you have no audience or following), and how to create an action plan to get you from Zero to “Making Money from Dank Hotel Rooms Around the World All Thanks to My Online Course!” (Very aspirational.)

Do not miss this.

Enroll in Amy’s workshop now—it starts tomorrow, and it’s only $47!

Part Two: My Top Twenty Pieces of Advice, Big Wisdom, Dos, Don’ts, and What You Can Really Earn With an Online Course (Hint: It’s Wayyyy More Than You Think)

1. An online course will earn you significantly more money than a paid subscription—and BOTH should be offered.
   Let me be clear: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Substack and I love paid subscriptions. I offer one. It’s a game-changer for writers. BUT, it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation—it can be both! [cue cheesy angel harps] Every single creative out there should have a diversified income stream, and that means having a paid subscription and also offering an online course and also offering a digital product (like eBooks and guides). Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration all that you can do with services and coaching, but let’s pretend you don’t want to do any of that (because people!), and you’d rather write for a living (because introvert!). OKAY, THEN. These three online products are the holy trifecta, and every writer should be selling these: a paid subscription, a digital product, and an online course. Here’s why: there is a very big difference between earning $50/year from a fan, and $500/year. Let’s do a little shit math on the back of a napkin. Say you have 100 paying subscribers at $50 a year—that’s $5,000 a year. (AKA not a full-time income.) But, say you also sell a digital product, like an in-depth training guide to jump-starting your travel writing career, and that costs $100. You sell that to 100 people for another $10,000. And then, say you sell 100 courses that go even more into detail of how to become a six-figure travel writer at $500 each. That alone equals $50,000 a year—and it’s enough to finally move the needle. Combined, you now have an income of $65,000 a year—which is much bigger than just $5,000 a year. See what I mean? Therefore, having an online course should absolutely be a bigger part of your overall revenue strategy—it’s one of the most important things you can create to make a full-time income with your creative work. (This is something that more traditional journalists need to lean into. There is SO much that can be taught: how to write is the most obvious!) And last but not least, just for fun…let’s take that math and turn it up a notch. Now imagine you had 500 paying customers for each. A paid subscription at $50/year x 500 subscribers = $25,000. A digital product at $100 x 500 subscribers = $50,000. 😧 AND FINALLY, a $500 course x 500 people equals $250,000. And now the game is changed FOREVAHHHH. Now we’re looking at salary of $325,000…all from your creative work. Who wants to go skinny dipping to celebrate?!?! (Just kidding, let’s buy Teslas.)

2. The biggest upside? You make it once and sell it a million times.
   This is way, way, way more groundbreaking than it seems. For example, consider how much work is involved in making and selling your own silver skull Viking rings. (What?! Why would we use a boring example?! 😂) It’s hard because every product you sell requires you to start from scratch—which means that, if a ring costs $100, then every $100 you make requires you to start from scratch, too. Then, you’ve got to spend hours packaging each one up when it sells, and going to the post office, and spending money to ship it, and emailing with the customer to track it, and then handling returns when it doesn’t fit, and then going to drink yourself silly under a rock. It’s A LOT OF WORK. All for one sale. Now…compare that to online courses. You make an online course once, and then you can sell it over and over and over and over and over and over again…without investing more time. That’s called scale. It doesn’t matter if five people buy it or 50,000 people—the product stays the same. You don’t need to re-make the course every single time someone buys it. It’s already done—and technology means that each person can take the course from scratch, without you having to re-create the wheel every time. The implications of that alone are huge. 🪄 This gives you leverage. This gives you a real product that you can sell. While paid subscriptions ARE a strong part of your overall revenue strategy, they do require you to keep doing the work and writing the newsletter and creating the product from scratch every week. That’s what the product is. But, with online courses? You make it once, sell it a million times, and then update as necessary. And frankly, if you don’t have an online course, you are seriously leaving serious money on the table every single day.

3. A $300 price point is the easiest to sell. (Yup—it’s actually easier than a $99 course!)
   This is based on my own personal experience, of course, but anecdotally I can tell you that over the 13 years that I’ve been making online courses, a $300 price point sells with the least resistance. Anything lower, and people assume it’s not that valuable or useful. (Like, really? You’re going to teach me how to become a professional book editor for just $59? This must be fluff, a scam, or just the basics I can find online.) Anything higher, however, and it becomes a more substantial financial decision that’s going to require a more sophisticated sales approach (and may require more resources invested on your part to justify that price point). I think $300 is a decent starting point for a new online course you’re putting together, so long as the content is worth it. (You wouldn’t sell an online course called “How to Make a Turkey Sandwich” for $300. But you might sell an online course called “How to Butcher a Turkey, Grow Your Own Food, and Live off the Land” for $300.)

4. THAT SAID—a $600+ price point is where the real money’s at. (And it could change your life.)
   Forget everything I just said above. Now let’s do some more shit napkin math. Bear with me here, bear with me! But, say you were to sell 150 courses at $300 each—that’s $45,000 big ones. However, if you were to sell 150 courses at $600 each? That’s $90,000—and that’s practically a six-figure income from just one online course. That’s a BIG difference in your quality of life, just from one simple pricing decision. Therefore, your price point is really, really important, and could be the difference between you creating a real income stream from this, or not. (Take Amy’s workshop this week to learn how to create your pricing strategy.) That said, in order to be able to sell courses effectively at this level, you need four things…

5. Courses that help people clearly do something tangible will sell MUCH better than courses with vague outcomes.
   Clear & tangible outcomes include: “How to Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden for Beginners,” “The Ultimate Flower Photography Course,” “How to Start Your First Interior Design Business,” “How to Get Your Writing Featured in Magazines,” “How to Write Your First Romance Novel in 30 Days,” “Plan Your Dream Destination Wedding,” “Make Compelling Videos That Go Viral,” “How to Buy a House for People Who Have Never Bought a House,” “How to House Train a Big-Ass Dog”—you get the idea. You’ll notice something right away: most of these are all connected to a “how-to.” That’s why people take courses: to learn how to do something. On the other hand, courses that have vague & elusive outcomes—which will not sell as well—sound like: “The New Manifester’s Academy,” “The Happy Gal’s Course for Raising Your Vibrations,” “Empower Yourself to Succeed,” “Soul-Awakening 101: How to Experience Life on a Higher Plane,” “Be Your Best Self: A Course for Underachievers,” “Love the Life You Live: A Course for Single Moms.” You feel the difference there? The more obvious and tangible the outcome, the easier it will be to sell, because people can clearly connect it with something they need.

6. Snappy course titles sell courses.
   Next, you’ll really need a snappy course title. This makes a HUGE difference. The way you title something sets the tone for the entire product. The best course names feel modern and fun, a little spunky, high energy, short and snappy, and immediately memorable. For example, my biz bestie

   Jamie Varon
   and I had a course called Brandgasm 101, where we taught both DIY design and copywriting. And, omg, the name instantly felt like something you wanted to be a part of, right?! Compare and contrast that to something called “DIY Design and Copy School.” It’s missing zhush. Charisma. Emotional appeal. Brandability. Other courses that I teach right now include Meat & Hair and Selfish School. In the past, I taught one called “Six Appeal” that people really loved, and had one in production called “Unintimidated”—and plenty more! So, spend some time coming up with a jazzy name that you can own. This will make a bigger difference in your sales than you think.

7. The design of the sales page also really fucking matters. Like, a lot.
   First impressions MATTER. The way your sales page looks matters. The design matters—particularly if you intend on selling your course at a premium rate. You know how much I expect to spend on a course that has no branding and is using the basic Teachable product page template? $49. You know how much I expect to spend on a course with branding like Amy’s? Way more than the $49 she’s charging. Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest parts of selling your an online course, because most people aren’t designers. But, it’s hella well worth hiring one to get a sick-ass design that signals to the world that you’re a serious force of nature—and they should absolutely invest with you. When you show up looking like a pro, other people will treat you like one. Alternatively, you know what a GREAT happy medium is?! Buying a template from Tonic! I LOVE TONIC. I actually used one of their templates to make Selfish School, just to prove a point. They’ve JUST launched their Fall 2023 collection of new templates, and this week only you can take 20% off of a brand-new template using the code ASHAMBIRGE. Yay!!!! (Seriously though—talk about “design for non-designers.” They make it so easy. You can change anything you want with one click!)

8. Big, fat mistake: putting every single thing you know into a course. (Do this instead!)
   This is a mistake EVERYONE makes at first: you’ll want to stuff as much “value” into your course as possible, because you’ll feel nervous charging money, and you’ll try like hell to overcompensate for that with as much information as possible. But, I’m going to encourage you to pull it on back, because guess what? People aren’t buying your course because they want an encyclopedia: they are buying helpful curation. That’s right—that’s your job! To curate your topic based on your own personal experience, your wisdom, your know-how, your tips and tricks, and your own life. This is why we buy courses from individuals, rather than companies: we want THAT person’s opinion. We want to know what YOU think. Maybe you specialize in an area we’re particularly interested in. Maybe your body of work is so impressive, we’d love to learn from you. Maybe you’ve been a star on social media and people want more of you. Or maybe, you’re starting from scratch and this is a whole new venture and you can start shaping your personal brand NOW. This is all well and good! In an age where we can technically look anything up, what we’re really looking for here is experience, not knowledge. Give ‘em that—and curate, curate, curate. (And by the way? When you do this, your course becomes way less overwhelming to people and way more “yay, that’s something I want to do!” Don’t give ‘em a 19-hour lecture: give ‘em the tools to cut through the bullshit and succeed.)

9. Whatever you do: do NOT put your course for sale on your website and let it sit there. This will NOT work.
   I see this a lot: someone creates an online course—especially if they do it with something like Skillshare or Udemy—and then they pop it on their website in the navigation with something that says “Courses.” YOU KNOW THAT LINK. WE ALL KNOW THAT LINK. This assumes, however, one very important thing: that someone’s going to find you and love you and trust you and want your course, right this motherfucking second. You know what the reality of that is? Slimmer than my jeans at the height of 2014. No one buys courses from people they just randomly discovered on the internet. Not unless you’ve built up a massive library of content and you’re already known to them and they’re specifically looking for a course from you. Which means that, unless you’ve already made a name for yourself in your niche? You’re going to need a much more strategic sales strategy. You know what that sales strategy is? ⬇️