You can still make money by selling online courses but you need the right online course platform to succeed in whatever knowledge you are trying to share.
We are all equipped with some knowledge about something, maybe you are good at video editing or coding. You can always make money by creating an online course teaching people what you know.
Any skill you possess can help you make money working online.
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links that provide us with a small commission at no cost to you.
What are online course Platforms?
Online course platforms are also called learning management systems that provide users with access to digital learning.
These tools help you:
- Create an online course and integrate it within your website.
- Help you price your course and collect payments.
- Schedule your payment plan, either full pay or payment in installments.
- Create a membership community.
- Engage with your students.
- Upload videos, exercises, quizzes, and photos.
Online course platforms can be categorized into :
A standalone online course platform: it involves creating your own website/school to host and advertise other people’s courses. These types of websites grow into brands.
You have to work exclusively on your marketing technique, you not only build a business but you are also creating an empire.
Standalone online platforms include Thinkific, teachable, and podia.
Shared online course platform: This involves creating a directory that hosts thousands of courses from different creators. with such a platform, you can host thousands of online course creators for example Udemy.
WordPress-based: Before the growth of standalone sites, people would usually turn to WordPress, but WordPress is for creating blogs and websites, not online course platforms.
Examples of WordPress-based online course platforms include LearnPress, LearnDash, and LifterLMS.
If you thinking about creating a word press online course platform, check out our guide to creating a website from scratch.
What are the best online course Platforms?
The best course online platforms are those that give you an opportunity to spend more time teaching and automating sales.
In my opinion, the best online course platforms are Thinkific, Teachable, Learnworlds, Kajabi, LearnDash, and Podia.
To have a successful online course, you also have to start a blog, by giving people useful content and solving their problems, it will be easy to direct them to buy your course online.
Here are the best online course platforms to use this year.
1. Thinkific
Thinkific is the best overall online course platform around to help you get started with creating courses online.
It is a software platform that supports entrepreneurs to create, market, and sell their online courses. Its mission is to provide tools and help people earn by working online.
Thinkific has user-friendly tools to work with even for beginners, 24/7 customer support, membership site integration, and email marketing tools.
To start with Thinkific, you have to start with a 30 day free trial on their pro plan where you will create your own course. with the pro plan, you can create unlimited courses.
The plan also comes with advanced course pricing options, advanced customization, certificates, priority support, membership integration, and many more.
Thinkific can integrate with over 1500 apps using Zapier, you have all the access to send unlimited traffic to your course on Thinkific.
You can start creating your online course one with a one-month free trial at Thinkific. Try Thinkific
2. LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds might be the future of online learning because it has all you need to create an online course while interacting with your students.
You can create the course and sell it from your own website.
It is the best online course platform for interactive learning, if you are looking to have engaging and interactive training, Learnworlds is the best fit for you.
You have an option to have video interactions, interactive books, note-taking, self-assessment, and many more.
After signing up, the first step is to select your landing page, you can select the best theme that fits you because there are hundreds of themes to choose from.
You can also change the colors according to what you prefer.
The next step is to build your course, you can also use the pre-made course catalogs or you can start from scratch. These catalogs have advanced features like online tests, downloadable attachments, interactive ebooks, and interactive video players.
The dashboard is user-friendly, there are video tutorials to guide you if you are not aware of what to do next.
To market your course, you can use a full domain, Learnworlds will also create a full app that you can share with your students. You can also set discounts and use coupons to make higher sales.
They also offer a good analytic program and affiliate management tools, you can pay affiliates money to promote your course.
You also have social media integration tools, which means you can share your course on various social media platforms.
You have a 30 day trial on all plans, after 30 days, you can choose a premium plan which starts at 24$. I don’t recommend the 24$ plan because Learnworlds charge 5$ per transaction.
The best plan is thee pro-trainer at 79$Try LearnWorlds
3. Teachable
There are over 100000 other creators who have sold over 500 million in courses and coaching.
Teachable is beginner-friendly, There are three plans starting at 29$ on an annual plan but 39$ if you are paying monthly. You can have unlimited students with this plan but you have a 5% transaction fee.
I recommend the pro plan that costs 99$ if you are paying annually but 119$ if you are paying monthly. you don’t incur any transaction fees with this plan and access to advanced tools.
The pro plan also comes with graded quizzes, unbranded websites, advanced reports, integrated affiliate marketing, course completion certificates, and 5-admin level users.
Get started with teachable and get a premium bundle. Try Teachable
4. Kajabi
Kajabi is the best course platform for professionals, it has helped over 500,000 business owners start their courses.
it has good tools for creating sales funnels and landing pages that can convert all your traffic into customers. you can also manage your email marketing with Kajabi.
You can create a mobile app with Kajabi to reach your customers from anywhere.
You don’t need any plugins or integrations with Kajabi, everything starting from email marketing to building communities, Kajabi has all the tools to do so.
Their plans start at 115$ for the basic plan which is a bit expensive compared to other course online platforms. They know what they are doing with over a 1.5billion dollars processed in the last 10 years.
Their basic plan comes with :
- 3 Products
- 3 Pipelines
- Unlimited Landing Pages
- Unlimited Marketing Emails
- 10,000 Contacts
- 1,000 Active Members
- 1 Website
- 1 Admin User
- No trasactional fees
If you want an online course platform with everything in one place, kajabi is the place for you.
You can have a 14day free trial and later upgrade. Try kajabi
5. Podia
You can turn your passion into income with podia, everything you need to sell online courses, downloadables, and memberships can be done with podia.
Podia has 2 paid plans, mover at 39$ and shaker at 79$. I personally recommend the shaker plan because of its advanced tools.
On both plans, you will have access to email marketing, messaging, zero transaction fees, your own storefront, webinars, online courses, digital downloads full customer support, and free migrations.
With the shaker plan, you have access to more advanced tools like zoom integrations, blogs, memberships, offsite buy buttons, affiliate marketing, and third-party code.
with the shaker plan, you have the ability to run your own affiliate program, you can view all your affiliates in your dashboard.
You can have a free trial with podia. Try Podia
6. LearnDash
LearnDash is the best learning management system for WordPress users because it integrates well with WordPress.
Some of the popular sites using learnDash include Yoast, Problogger, WP elevation, and the University of Michigan.
One of the best features is the focus mode that blocks out all distractions and helps students focus on learning.
Learndash also allows you to create a public forum for your enrolled users. This is a powerful tool to keep your students coordinated with each other.
The grade-book technology gives students grade-based quizzes and coursework.
You can also reward points to students after completing a course and unlock new ones.
Get started today at a 40$ discount and a 30day back money guarantee.
7. Ruzuku
Ruzuku lets you develop a step-by-step online course with their learning platform, text in minutes, and PDFs.
You can create course outlines in order, create your course, and generate sales in no time.
Ruzuke integrates with infusion-soft, MailChimp, and payment gateways like PayPal, stripe and they don’t charge transaction fees.
This is an easy course creator and sometimes excellent.
When you join Ruzuku, you not just joining a tool but also a community of creators.
Ruzuku paid plans to start at 84$ per month, you can start with a 14-day trial. Try Ruzuku
What are the best online learning platform?
with social distancing becoming a norm, the online class industry has the world on the storm, many people are now learning new skills online.
You can use these websites to build a community and make more money but the downside is you won’t earn a lot of money per sale.
But you can make money by selling courses on these platforms.
Here are my picks for the best online learning platforms to join.
1. Shaw Academy
Shaw academy is a platform that allows students access to professional online courses. Students sign up at the academy and get access to the available courses.
They offer courses in 3 categories which include the hobbyists, the professionalist, and the entrepreneurs.
For example in their professionalism category, they offer a course called digital marketing with 32 videos and it can take up to 16 weeks to learn everything.
How much does shaw academy cost
when you sign up, you get 4 weeks for free, and after you pay 49.9$ to 60$ a month.
Shaw academy pros.
Their courses are globally recognized and you can get certifications, this can help you throughout your career. They have classes on Microsoft excel, web development, digital marketing, and project management.
Courses at shaw academy are flexible because you can complete them on your own time.
Although they offer very many classes, you might not find a class that fits you well, they also luck hobby classes like skillshare. Try Shaw academy
2. Skillshare
Skillshare is the best online learning platform for those who want to learn creativity, you can learn skills ranging from cooking to sewing.
There are also courses on entrepreneurship, marketing, search engine optimization, and many more. Each class takes 20 to 60 minutes.
Students can talk among themselves, this type of open discussion facilitates more development.
Skillshare is free if you are creating a premium course but they pay creators 10$ for paid membership referrals and royalties to each minute watched.
Pros of skillshare
They have a large audience of both entrepreneurs and creators. if have the knowledge you would want to share, skillshare is the platform for you.
Courses on web design, painting, personal branding, and email marketing are the most popular.
The quality of the classes is good.
skillshare cons
Earning is through the royalty system. Each month, around 50% of skillshares subscription revenues are paid to creators. It becomes hard for new instructors to earn enough revenue from skillshare.
Some classes on skillshare are not so good as we hope, they are short and brief.
They also provide customer support only via email.
All in all, skillshare is a good online learning platform despite its flows.
You get started with skillshare with the 14-day trial. Try Skillshare
3. LinkedIn Learning
Linkedin learning is another online learning platform for professionals. With over 1000 business courses on topics like digital marketing, email marketing, web development, coding, and programming.
They also offer certificates you can add to your LinkedIn profile. remember LinkedIn is a great platform for finding job opportunities.
LinkedIn learning costs 29.99dollars a month but if you pay annually, you pay 24 dollars per month.
4. Udemy.
Udemy is one of the best online course platforms with over 80000 courses, 24 million students, and 35000 instructors.
To create a course on Udemy, you have to first sign up to be a premium instructor
After you get approved, you can start creating your courses. It is best to have videos longer than 30 minutes and at least more than 5 classes.
Udemy is equipped with marketing tools that can help you promote your class inside their platform. You can also join the affiliate program to allow people to promote your course for a commission.
5. Treehouse.
Treehouse is an online course platform that only features courses on coding and development, they offer over 300 courses to those interested in learning to code.
Their platform is committed to providing education to all students of all genders, social-economic backgrounds, and races.
It partners with big companies like google developers, Alexa, IBM Watson, and Microsoft.
Treehouse offers a free trial for 7 days and after, their paid plans start from 25 to $199.TRY TREEHOUSE
Conclusion
As you see from the above, there are a number of online course platforms but Thinkific is the best. Check it out to find more information.