3 ms·

Ask HN: Can money still be made in online courses?

12 points by hguhghuff 9y ago

I'm thinking of trying to make money via online courses. Is there still money to be made or has the ship sailed? Which is the best marketplace to develop for? Udemy?

codegeek 9y ago
Dislclaimer: I run a product in Ed Tech space. Depends on the domain and market. If you are looking to create and sell yet another "Learn how to code" course, you are going to have a hard time even though you can still get a piece of the pie. However, if you create quality online courses in domains that are still doing paper or in person but students are hungry to consume more online content, there are plenty of opportunities but it depends on your knowledge and experience in those domains.
hugo47 9y ago
I created an online course this year, which was based on a somewhat popular blog post of mine which I now use to send people to the course. So mainly yet another "learn how to code" class. Moneywise, it has not been worth it, I have so far earned < $500 in 5 months (I publish on Udemy and using the free tier of teachable). I took me 3-4 months to create the course (almost fulltime). However, I see this as a learning experience. I wanted to figure if I like creating a course. And I can say that it requires much more work than it seemed to be but I enjoy teaching and the overall satisfaction I get from creating a course. My next course I want to research much deeper upfront (building a mailing list) and also self-publish only. It would not recommend publishing on Udemy. All of my sales on Udemy have been a 10-15$ promotion, which means I earn very little on each sale. I didn't know that before, but I don't think anyone sells the course for the official price. The pricing seems to be just a marketing trick. I think making serious money online is something for the long haul and requires to have several products. You need to have your substantial list of followers that you can sell products to on your own platform OR find a lucrative niche which is getting harder to do. Also, you have to enjoy this because it is a lot of work to create quality courses.
philippz 9y ago
Online courses is "the business model" for influencers. It's a heavily content driven business model. If you already have a vibrant and following community that's the best way to earn money on top of ads and product placements. It's also repeatable and you already of ton of content you can recycle. Apart from that, sure! Search for a niche.
jmnicolas 9y ago
Udemy is the worst of the worst : you often find courses that have been stolen, they just add a 2 minutes introductory video on top of the stolen content. I wouldn't use Udemy even if it was free.

12 points by hguhghuff 9y ago

I'm thinking of trying to make money via online courses. Is there still money to be made or has the ship sailed? Which is the best marketplace to develop for? Udemy?

codegeek 9y ago

Dislclaimer: I run a product in Ed Tech space. Depends on the domain and market. If you are looking to create and sell yet another "Learn how to code" course, you are going to have a hard time even though you can still get a piece of the pie. However, if you create quality online courses in domains that are still doing paper or in person but students are hungry to consume more online content, there are plenty of opportunities but it depends on your knowledge and experience in those domains.

hugo47 9y ago

I created an online course this year, which was based on a somewhat popular blog post of mine which I now use to send people to the course. So mainly yet another "learn how to code" class. Moneywise, it has not been worth it, I have so far earned < $500 in 5 months (I publish on Udemy and using the free tier of teachable). I took me 3-4 months to create the course (almost fulltime). However, I see this as a learning experience. I wanted to figure if I like creating a course. And I can say that it requires much more work than it seemed to be but I enjoy teaching and the overall satisfaction I get from creating a course. My next course I want to research much deeper upfront (building a mailing list) and also self-publish only. It would not recommend publishing on Udemy. All of my sales on Udemy have been a 10-15$ promotion, which means I earn very little on each sale. I didn't know that before, but I don't think anyone sells the course for the official price. The pricing seems to be just a marketing trick. I think making serious money online is something for the long haul and requires to have several products. You need to have your substantial list of followers that you can sell products to on your own platform OR find a lucrative niche which is getting harder to do. Also, you have to enjoy this because it is a lot of work to create quality courses.

philippz 9y ago

Online courses is "the business model" for influencers. It's a heavily content driven business model. If you already have a vibrant and following community that's the best way to earn money on top of ads and product placements. It's also repeatable and you already of ton of content you can recycle. Apart from that, sure! Search for a niche.

jmnicolas 9y ago

Udemy is the worst of the worst : you often find courses that have been stolen, they just add a 2 minutes introductory video on top of the stolen content. I wouldn't use Udemy even if it was free.