Choosing the right online course platform is one of the most important decisions when you start selling courses. Learn which of the 4 platforms I recommend is the best option for you.
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What is the Purpose of a Course Platform?
An online course platform is a browser-based tool that helps you:
- to create a website for your courses or to integrate your courses into your existing site
- to host your video lectures
- to sell your courses either for a one-time payment or a monthly fee
- to create exams, quizzes and interactive content
- to organize live webinars
- to build a community
Online course platforms are so-called ’turnkey’ solutions, that is you only need to register on the website, upload your video lectures to the platform and create a store page for your course, the course platform takes care of almost everything else.
Course platforms also offer a lot of useful features, of which I think the most important are:
- Affiliate marketing (you can let others promote your courses and you get to decide what percent of sales goes to them)
- coupons (you can create discounts for Black Friday and Christmas, for example)
- bundles (you can sell multiple courses in one package and set a more favorable price for it)
- email forms (you can collect email addresses from leads, that is people who visit your site)
- popups where you can add offers
What Are the Best Course Platforms?
I compared the most affordable plans of the four course platforms I chose with each other and listed a couple pros and cons of each of them. Keep in mind that many of the cons I have listed are most likely not in the platforms’ more expensive plans.
1. FreshLearn
FreshLearn's Pro plan offers a long list of features and costs $29 per month.
Pros:
- 0% of each course sale goes to the platform
- an unlimited number of courses can be published
Cons:
- the community feature is not that extensive
2. LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds' Starter plan is another great option. This solution costs $24 per month.
Pros:
- an unlimited number of courses can be published
- many different templates to use when creating pages
Cons:
- $5 of each course sale goes to the platform
- can’t publish free courses
3. Podia
Podia's Mover plan is the first plan offered by the platform that can be used to sell online courses. This excellent option costs $33 per month.
Pros:
- an unlimited number of courses can be published
- in addition to courses, other digital products can also be sold
Cons:
- 5% of each course sale goes to the platform
- editing pages is quite limited
4. Teachable
Teachable's Basic plan offers a lot of great features. This plan costs $39 a month.
Pros:
- easy to use and beginner-friendly
- comprehensive marketing tools
Cons:
- 5% of each course sale goes to the platform
- only 5 courses can be published
Make sure to visit the Pricing page of the course platforms to see all the features of the plans.
How to Create and Sell Online Courses?
Creating an online course is relatively easy and straightforward. Although the process of making a course consists of several different steps, the skills they require can be learned quickly.
The course creation process consists of 6 steps:
- planning the content
- writing the script
- shooting the video
- recording the audio
- editing the video
- creating the store page
You don’t need to be educated to teach a skill. If you master a skill or have an interesting hobby, you can think about whether you could make an online course on that subject.
Start by reading our article on how to create your own online course.
When your first course is ready, it’s time to put it up for sale on a course platform. In case you are still not sure which course platform you should choose, I recommend you to use FreshLearn.
Selling online courses is a great business because, apart from the course platform, there are hardly any other expenses.
Related Articles
- How to Create an Online Course That Makes Money
- How to Start an Online Course Business to Earn Passive Income