Cashing in on Online Learning

It has never been easier to access information. As long as you have a computer or a phone with internet access you can access bits of information produced and shared by people from across the world.

It is no wonder that online learning is not only a convenient way to learn new skills but is also lucrative for those who produce the training materials and courses. Anyone who has a skill and wants to share their knowledge can do so and there are people who will be willing to pay a fee for that online course.

Online Course  – A Passive Income

Time is money. In a traditional training environment, you are only able to teach a class or a workshop to X number of students in one location. However, with online platforms such as Udemy, you are able to create your course materials once and then sell the online course to many students around the world.  

Beyond the intial course creation, no more time is required to continously teach and all efforts could be focused on marketing the course.

Creating your own course

Now, in terms of you cashing in on the online learning scene, the best way to do that is to create your own online course.

Creating a course doesn’t have to cost much money at all – just a little time and preparation, plus the prerequisite knowledge to teach.  You can easily shoot a video from your smartphone of suitable quality or do a screen capture with a voiceover if you’re feeling a little camera shy.  

Then, there are simple programs such as iMovie or Adobe Rush that can help you piece together your content in no time.

Even Universities are doing it

This method has become so sucessfuly that even large universities are cashing in on the popularity of online learning. Today you can study specialist courses such as a supply chain management masters at a decent university for a fraction of the price you would pay for physical attendance.

The level of education is much the same, yet, the benefits are that you can go at your own pace and learn from the comfort of your own home (or a hammock on a tropical island) meaning you have total flexibility, and the cost benefits exist because the educator does not have the same expenses associated with hosting lectures and the like.

Furthermore, you can save on peripheral aspects such as accomodation and travel costs, making it appealing to students that are financially challenged.

So in summary:

Creating courses might be the “easy bit” but many teachers find that trying to sell their course is more difficult as one needs to understand how to use social media effectively and how Facebook ads and Google ads work.

Finding students can be tough which is why using a platform such as Udemy allows you to access an expansive audience of students who are actively looking for courses but yes, you do have to pay a commision to Udemy fo this service.

This is a numbers game.

Earning just $10 from your course doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you sell 100 courses each month that’s $1,000 in passive income and you can do it all from the comfort of your favorite beach/ armchair/ campfire or another exotic place you wish to “work” from.