I'm obsessed with online courses. First I was obsessed with taking them, now i'm obsessed with creating them. Why? They are most flexible, fun, and profitable business model with the least amount of overhead. This blog post is going to explain the 10 reasons why I think online courses are the best business model, why you need to create one in your business, and how to choose your profitable online course idea.

10 Reasons Why Online Courses are the best business model (+ why you need one)

1. You don’t necessarily need any sort of credentials or certifications to create an online course - just experience, passion, and knowledge. This means no more feeling like you don't know enough yet, or that you have to go back to school first before you get started. Your current experiences, knowledge and passions are enough!

2. Low overhead: you can start creating an online course for FREE using teachable. What I do is start with the free Teachable plan, start building out my course, and switch to the pro version once i’m ready to start selling (to save money on transaction fees). You’ll also need an email service provider and a website for the most success, (I recommend Convertkit, get a free month trial here) but Mailchimp also has free options. A website is also essential, but again, using Squarespace, this is $12-$18 a month tops. I currently spend about $199 a month to keep my online course business afloat (which still is almost nothing compared to most start ups) but you could easily get started for anywhere from 12$ a month (not bad considering the income potential of online courses).

3. Time freedom! You can work on building out and selling your course whenever you want. You can work on weekends only, a few hours a day, or an hour a week for a year, its totally up to you. When I was still working another job and building my business at the same time, I would spend 4-5 hours every morning working on creating my courses, and then go to my restaurant job at night (because I needed to be bringing in money until I launched it).

4. You're not trading time for dollars! This means, once your course is launched and you have an evergreen funnel in place, you can potentially start making money while you sleep, travel, or take a day off. You're not chained to a certain $/hr salary like you would be if you only saw 1:1 clients or were still chained to your 9-5.  

5. You can work from wherever! As long as you have decent wifi and a laptop, you can create, launch and sell your online course no matter where in the world you are. (I.E. exactly what i'm doing right now! Hello from BALI!!!!)

6.  Share your message/ teachings with the masses! There is no way you can reach thousands of people if you’re still relying on 1:1 consultations. There just isn't enough time, energy, or enough of you to go around. Online courses allow you to reach a large number of people at once, with the same amount of effort it would take to teach 1 person. 

7. An introvert's dream. Who else gets emotionally exhausted from seeing 1:1 clients all day? Don't get me wrong, I still lOVE seeing 1:1 clients because I love digging in deep with people and getting into the trenches with them on their business. This is important work. But if you are an introvert, there’s no way that you’ll be able to do this 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for the next 10, 20, 30 years.  Side note: I also think it is VITAL to have seen at least 15-20 1:1 clients before putting in the effort to make a full online course, just to make sure there is a market for it before you spend months or years creating it (but thats a topic for another day).

8. No cap on the amount of money you can make. Let that sink in for a second. NO CAP. Want to make $10,000 next year? Totally doable. $100,000? Cool. Multiple six figures? Me too! Obviously, the size of your audience and profitability of your course topic will play a huge part in this, but nonetheless, these numbers are totally achievable when you're not trading time for dollars. 

WANT TO LEARN HOW TO START YOUR ONLINE COURSE? JOIN MY FREE MASTERCLASS BELOW!

9. You never have to rely on someone else: the ultimate job security! This is why I always encourage people to create their own product or service rather than rely on things like affiliate income, freelance work, ads, etc. because although those can be great supplementally, you’re still relying on someone else for your income. You have to abide by the company rules, post when they want you to post, etc. OR you need a massive audience to make any amount of livable income (as in with ads). With online courses, you really don't need to have a massive audience -you just need to have an engaged audience full of the right people.

10. Online courses are the ultimate answer to working smarter not harder, creating flexibility in your schedule, and making the amount of money that you want to be making. Sounds simple enough right? And it is, with the right guidance :) As you might have guessed, i'm in the process of creating my next online course, all about exactly how to create and launch your first online course. 

Want to learn how to create an online course (no matter how small your audience?)

Tell me:

Have you considered creating your own online course? What topic would you choose?

 xo, Amie