Thinking of becoming a course creator? Either to help scale your coaching business or to create a new stream of passive income.
Whatever your reasons for signing up as a course creator, in this post, I’ll break down the real cost of becoming a course creator, and the answer might shock you because it’s cheaper than you think.
First we have the tech side of things and the course tools you’ll need to set up your online course.
Hosting platform for the course
If you are wondering which course platform to choose to host your course, there are a plethora of options to choose from. I even reviewed some of the best course platforms in a recent blog post.
Budget option: Teachable
Teachable is a great option if you want to become a course creator on a budget. There is a free option available, however, even if you are new to creating courses, I recommend upgrading to the paid option as one of the
Their basic plan is just $59 and gives you everything you could possibly need to host your online course.
Advanced option: Kartra
Kartra is an all-in-one course platform that not only allows you to host online courses but also create beautiful websites and sales pages and integrate email marketing funnels. Kartra is priced from $99-$299/month
Designing your online course:
There are a few options available to you when creating your course assets (such as slides/workbooks etc.
Budget option: Canva Pro
Yes, Canva has a free version, but I strongly believe Canva Pro is one of the best investments you’ll make for your business, and if you have a team, you can add up to five members at no extra cost using Canva for Teams.
Canva Pro costs $12.99 per month, but it’s worth it considering the number of design tools and templates at your disposal. The background remover for images is so good and so much easier than trying to use Photoshop.
Advanced option: Hiring a graphic designer
A more advanced option could be to hire a graphic designer to create your course slides. As a middle of the road alternative, you could also hire a Virtual Assistant to create your course slides in Canva. Most VAs are skilled at using Canva, and this can be a cheaper alternative to hiring a professional designer to create custom slides.
Recording your online course
You have a bunch of different options for recording your online course. You may want to record yourself speaking or use a visual aid such as slides. Depending on how you want to record your run will depend on the equipment/software you want to invest in.
Budget options: Using your laptop
If you’re filming yourself instead of using slides, but still want an affordable option for recording your ride, most laptops have a built-in webcam and microphone.
However, it may not be the best quality. I’ve found that cameras on Macs are usually pretty good compared to some Windows laptops, but you may want to upgrade your camera and microphone. You could also use your smartphone if it has an HD camera.
If you want a budget option or slideshow maker, you can use the free version of Canva, or if you’ve invested in Canva Pro, you’ll have more template options
Advanced options: Loom and camera equipment
Loom is a software that allows you to record your videos by recording your screen. If you want to save money, Canva has that option, but I think Loom is a much more versatile tool and has more options. It’s also great if you have a team and need to show them how to do something without having to jump on a Zoom call with them.
Related: Course Creator Checklist
Want to become an online course creator but not sure where to start?
For any course sections where I speak directly into the camera, I personally use the Sony ZV1 and love it. It’s so compact, quite affordable, and I use it to create videos for my YouTube channel as well as general content creation.
Sales and marketing costs to become a course creator
Once you’ve created your online course, you need to start thinking about how you can promote your course organically and get people to sign up.
Email Marketing
One of my favorite ways to do this is through email marketing. The people on your email list are literally your VIPs. Email marketing alone has generated over £150,000 in revenue for my online business.
Plus, email marketing is how you’ll be able to passively sell your online course down the line and make sales in your sleep…talk about a one-way ticket to freedom.
If you haven’t started an email list yet, you can start for free.
My favorite email marketing provider right now is ConvertKit and it’s free for your first 1,000 subscribers.
ConvertKit is a pretty advanced email marketing tool, so even if you have over 1,000 subscribers and have to pay for the service, it’s worth it.
You can set up automations, segment groups, add specific tags to people who click on specific links on your sales page and retarget them, it’s an incredibly powerful tool to increase your conversions.
Channels and webinars
Your email marketing platform will help you nurture your leads once they sign up for a free offer, however if you want to create a lead magnet like a webinar (which I highly recommend), then you’ll need some kind of webinar software.
Budget Option: Webinar Kit
WebinarKit seems like a great budget option for course creators who only want to pay a one-time fee to promote their online course. It’s only $97
Advanced option: EasyWebinar
The webinar software I use is EasyWebinar and I highly recommend it if you want to passively launch your webinar. It starts at $83/month, is super easy to use, and integrates seamlessly with ConvertKit
Other marketing tools to promote your online course
If you are on a budget, I honestly think you don’t need to pay for anything else at first and everything I have talked about in this post will be enough and you can use the free social media platforms to promote your online course like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
If you want to invest in some more advanced marketing tools, Repurpose.io is it. I recently discovered this and it helps me repost my content to multiple platforms automatically without uploading a video. Repurpose.io costs $25/month, but when you think about the time you save, it’s unbelievable.
Another great marketing tool I recommend is Flick.
Flick is a hashtag tool for Instagram and has been massively improved in terms of functionality recently. It analyzes and helps you find the best hashtags for your content and saves you a lot of time in the process. Flick costs about $10/month
Total cost to become a course creator
So we have everything you need to get started as an online course creator.
For convenience here, I have gathered all the above information in one place so that you can see which option you want to choose.
Cost to create a course
Budget: $79 one time
Advanced: $1700 one time (this includes buying new equipment and paying for a graphic designer)
Monthly course creation cost
Budget: $38.99/month
Advanced: $452/month
How much do I spend per month as an online course creator?
Want to know how much it costs me to become a course creator?
I currently spend $380 a month on my course creation tools, which to me is TOTALLY worth it and I earn more from my online courses.
This does not include what I spend on my team per month.
Let me know in the comments below what you think of these costs and whether they were more or less than you thought.
Claudia xx
