Let’s talk about the expectations versus reality when it comes to online courses being used as passive income.
You can also listen to this in a podcast episode instead –
Often people start working on a course project or get inspired by this idea with the dream of making money while doing nothing at least once the course is done.
By now, we all already know that you have to do something to get that product out there.
And I’m saying by now because 10 years ago, as I was getting started in this whole business, the course industry, and the way people approached courses and thought about courses was very different from how it is now.
By now, it’s already been talked a lot that courses are not maybe easy, per se, and you have to put in the work to actually get to a good product, right? But it’s more than just that.
It’s not that you’re expected to create a course and then you can make the money. There’s a lot that goes behind the scenes, and often it takes a lot longer than you would expect before you can actually get to the point, or even close to the point of, like, somewhat making passive income.
Courses as passive income: is it really possible these days?
Is it actually possible to make passive income with online courses?
Yes, it IS possible.
Will it be fast? Or will it be easy? Will it be, by any means, the most profitable decision you can ever make?
Probably, no.
It really, really depends.
It will definitely not be fast or easy, because there really is no like one simple just do this kind of a way to create a profitable course.
And of course, keep in mind that many different things play a role here, right?
It really depends on where you are in your business, whether or not you already have your audience, whether or not you already have your mailing list, maybe you already have sold something, not a course, per se, but you have a good track record of selling you’re good at marketing, that’ll be a different story, obviously.
But if you’re in the starting position of any kind where you don’t really have that many people in your audience, maybe you haven’t even started with email marketing like you are still finding your way.
It will not be fast or easy, but it can absolutely be worth it, and I hope that you will embrace this journey, but embrace it with an open mind, an open heart to the possibilities that are just so many different things that can happen along the way.
And I mean, even as you create a product, you can be inspired to change the way you’re presenting it, change the way that you thought about it at first, right as you start working on a course, maybe along the way, you realize that a different approach might be better. Be open to this.
How to make sure your course succeeds?
It’s important to not let yourself drift off. Don’t just follow every single idea that comes your way.
There will always, always, always be so many different options. Whatever you feel is right – go for it, and then work on that idea.
And as you’re in the process, the right decisions will find you. But don’t just jump from place to place, idea to idea, because that’s how you’re gonna waste time.
I know because I have wasted a ton of time myself, especially in the early stages of my business, where I had no clue what I want to focus on, and I was literally just trying so many different things, learning so many different things.
And ultimately, I wasted a few years without any clear focus, and when I decided that courses is what I’m gonna focus on – that’s when I started selling my own courses as well.
So can you expect for a course to generate passive income? YES.
And there are also some ways that will help you to do it more easily and faster, and like right now, for example, you can do that more easily with ads.
You can do that more easily if you already have well established online presence like Instagram or anything else where people already know you, recognize you, they love you. They’re excited to buy whatever you’re going to put out there.
And you also can have funnels that drive leads via Pinterest, Google, social media, or any other sources.
How to make passive course income as a starter?
Is possible to do generate passive income when you are just starting? What will it take to actually get there?
Let’s say you don’t have any existing audience or much of an online presence, you’re uncertain about marketing strategies to use and offers to create. And you’re now about to create a course.
Here will be some of the things to expect and to think about.
Be mindful about the time investment
So in most cases, it really will take more time to get to the port point where you can, like, comfortably say, like “yes, I’m making passive income with my course” and even then, you’ll still be doing the work to make that income happening.
I’m not saying this to scare you off from course creation, not at all, courses and digital products in general can be an amazing way to scale your business and earn extra money, or even refocus your whole business on the products in general.
But it’s important to go into the process with realistic expectations.
- You have to be open to always learning something new
- You have to embrace the process as an experiment.
- You will have to be ready to learn new platforms, new strategies, new ways of showing up.
If you’re thinking about setting up and launching your course on your own, you will be first of all discovering different platforms to use, ways to set up funnels. What are the back end systems you will need? How to write emails, how to write good copy, general sales page copy and so on. So many different things to learn.
Embrace the trial and error
You will also need to be ready to go through trial and error, and actually, that itself can take some time, right?
So if you’re currently working on a course, or planning to work on a course, and you’re like, oh, in a month or three months, I’m launching a course, and that’s when the money will start coming in, most likely that will not be the case…
For example, if you’re doing evergreen course launch, let’s say you will have a seven day launch period that alone will be your first evaluation process of like, what is working, what is not working, which emails did the best, which ones didn’t? Did you even get any sales?
And if you didn’t, what is the leading reason why you didn’t make the sales, just because your lounge potentially didn’t work out doesn’t mean anything.
It just means that now you have even more information to work with, and that’s how we go back to the thought that you have to be open to the idea of going through trial and error, and that can take time.
It’s about exploring what funnels will work, what works for your audience, what works for your budget works what works for the ways you want to be showing up.
You have to be present in your business
You have to be present and your audience must know who you are.
You will need to put the proof out there. You will need to let your audience know what it is that you know about, what it is that you have the experience in they need to see you. They need to hear from you.
And just because you create a good product doesn’t really mean a thing, as harsh as that might sound.
Work on your course if you see the benefit beyond the profit
Course creation will be a good fit for you if that not doing it for the profit only.
Yes, we want the money. We love the money, but it shouldn’t be the key motivator.
Creating a course CAN be a great way to scale. If your audience is asking you questions, and you will now have a place to bring them.
If you’re creating a course for only monetary reasons or only passive income, or you have heard it’s the thing to do – it probably is not the best fit for you.
And hear me out. You can always throw pasta on the wall and see what sticks.
But my goal is to help you to evaluate if this decision is going to be a good fit for you, and if the money and time investment that might go into this will be worthy.
So if you are not really ready to do the work, it might be a waste of your time.
You don’t want to waste your time or money with the faulty expectations. There are other ways. You can do other things you can get started with before you go into courses, before you start feeling more confident about it, and before you’re actually ready to give the process attention that it needs.
Go into it with clear expectations
Because again, course creation is not only about the courses, there’s a lot that will come along with actually making those sales happen.
Do not expect to just create a course, put out the link, and the sales will come.
Even if you’re active on Instagram, you have like 500 followers, and you post some stories one day, when you post that link to the course, maybe you will get a sale.
But that alone will not cut it, and it will definitely not bring you to the point of making passive income with that.
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