The prevalence of distance learning during the current COVID-19 pandemic is helping to drive staggering growth in the edtech industry worldwide. According to Global Market Insights, as of 2020, the e-learning market was said to be valued at $250 billion. This figure is expected to grow to a mind-boggling $1 trillion by 2027. This includes academic, corporate and government usage of e-learning services. Online education platforms are gaining constant momentum proving that you can now teach and earn online by creating your own online academy more effectively.Â
If you are considering to start your online academy, don’t hesitate. Now is the right time to start. The ed-tech market is welcoming tutors with fresh content and a penchant for teaching and impacting the lives of learners worldwide, with open arms.Â
There are many benefits to online education for both learners and tutors. For learners, it gives them an opportunity to improve their skills and knowledge without boundaries. It gives them convenience and flexibility of time and geographical location. It is more personalised, accessible and lets learners focus on the bigger picture. It helps them get conversant with new technologies and in building connections globally. It gives them opportunities to learn a skill that they are simply passionate about.Â
As for tutors, teaching online is very rewarding in terms of the mental satisfaction of being able to impact the lives of learners across the globe and with respect to the earnings that can be made through the process.Â
There are many online teaching platforms readily available in the market, but you should consider teaching & selling courses online by creating your own online academy to reap maximum benefits.Â
Here are some of the benefits of launching your own online academy:Â
- Finding students is easierÂ
- You don’t need to worry about developing your website from scratch with the help of the right LMSÂ
- You will find new opportunities coming your wayÂ
- You will learn the technicalities of running an educational websiteÂ
- You can save yourself from sharing the profits of your successful online coursesÂ
And many many more…Â
You do not require any formal training or educational qualifications and certifications in order to start a teaching platform to sell courses online. Here is a blog on how to create an online course: Who, When and Why.Â
Grow your academy online by investing in a good learning management system. It will help you in creating, selling, managing and marketing your courses efficiently. Â
To know how to start an online tutoring business and create online courses to sell, read on..
Table of Contents
STEP 1: Make sure you have the right teaching equipment
The equipment you require will depend on what courses you create online and the platform used for selling online courses. To start out creating online courses, you will need the basic essentials in the best conditions possible.Â
Your equipment can be updated as and when you grow. Make sure that all your equipment is working properly before you start the process of creating your online courses.Â
Here is everything you need in terms of hardware and software equipment, to start creating and selling courses online. You can pick what would work best for you initially and then keep updating later.Â
1. Hardware
- A stable internet connection
You need a stable internet connection in a quiet, well-lit space to conduct your online courses in peace. Remember to always keep an internet backup plan ready for emergencies.Â
- Range of devices like computer system, laptop, tablet and/or smartphoneÂ
To start out, you only require a smartphone and internet connection to do the bare minimum. It is advised to do all your classes on a desktop computer, which gives you maximum potential to multi-task. Big screens will also provide you with comfortable and easy access to your course and the platform for selling online courses.Â
- Headphones and microphonesÂ
It is always good to invest in additional microphones and speakers since built-in ones can be quite unreliable. They can pick up background noise and can be distracting for your learners while creating online courses. For live sessions and classes, communication runs both ways and it is important to have a good pair of headphones that will allow you to listen to them and answer efficiently. Avoid using earphones with mics dangling halfway down the lead, as it can rub against your clothing and make it difficult to hear.Â
- WebcamÂ
Although most devices may have an adequate built-in webcam, the desktop computer may not have one that is sufficient. Unlike attention given to sound quality, the video quality of webcams have to be sufficient for students to see you clearly. If you are on a tight budget, you don’t have to worry about going top notch with webcam quality. You can make test calls with the webcam to know how clear your learner can see you, its movements and angles, when uploaded to sell online courses from your own website.Â
- Mouse and keyboardÂ
If you are using a laptop or tablet, you can invest in a good mouse and keyboard. They make you more adept in terms of switching between tabs, doing tasks like copy and pasting, and highlighting errors.Â
- CD/DVD driveÂ
Usage of listening material requires preparation. Most video conferencing software enables sound-sharing, so you shouldn’t have a problem playing audio to your learners, but consider where you are playing it from. When you are trying to share relatively old listening material that comes out in the form of CD’s, it is highly unlikely that your device might have the built-in capability to play them. Therefore, investing in a CD/DVD drive is a good idea. Also, remember to share audio from a CD drive during class uploaded to a white labelled e-learning platform, and not during a live session.Â
- Video camera
This is not a priority unless you make your own video content for teaching online. You can send video instructions to students for homework and record video intros for your website profile. A conventional good quality camera is better than a webcam for this purpose. Investing in a good video camera will increase the quality of your classes too.Â
- Lighting equipment
Having good lighting is an important part of online teaching. Lighting enables students to see your mouth movements, gestures and actions clearly, allowing them to understand concepts clearer. Good lighting is essential for every online tutor. Make sure that your room has ample natural lighting and if not, invest in some good lighting.Â
You can invest in selfie-ring lights and professional lighting equipment, according to your budget and requirements. With the options available online, you can go as simple as or as complex as you want with these. If you are on a limited budget, you can use lampshades or overhead lights to do the trick. Place them behind your desktop and facing your face, this will prevent shadows from falling onto your face and your video will have good lighting.Â
- Classroom backgroundsÂ
No matter what, you want your background to look clean and professional in your online courses. Avoid keeping any distractions in your background as it should enhance the learning experience and not detract from it. You can have a teaching board or screen behind you to demonstrate or present live notes. You can also place the name of your online coaching business in a non-distracting manner to promote your online academy. This will help you earn more money while teaching online.Â
- Laptop StandsÂ
If you are using laptops or tablets, make sure you have the right supporting equipment for them. Posture is very important while you teach online since you may have to sit for long hours. Therefore, check and adjust the height of your laptop or mobile phone prior to your class and make sure everything is in a comfortable position.Â
2. Software
- Video conferencing softwareÂ
There are different video conferencing software available in the market for online tutors and learners. If you are considering to build your own branded website and platform with the support of an LMS, you wouldn’t need to worry too much about finding the best video conferencing software. Good LMS platforms will have software integration that will help you conduct online classes smoothly.Â
Check out Mykademy! The best platform to sell courses online!Â
- Â Cloud accountÂ
An easy way to have a white board shared between your online class is to keep a shared document open, where learners and tutors can both have access to the content being shared and which can be used by learners for future reference. It is a useful tool while working with groups. Get a GoogleDrive or OneDrive account for this purpose.Â
- Sound editing softwareÂ
To be more versatile or to work on sub-skills like dictation, you can record them separately and extract clips. It is quite easy to work with this once you get the hang of it. There are many free sound editing software available online. You can use them to add effects, make changes and corrections wherever needed.Â
- Video editing softwareÂ
The slicker your videos look, the more hits you will get. You can make your online course videos more engaging and interesting by using bite-sized video content. You can start by making some simple material by combining video instructions on how to do it, adding graphics, images and other multimedia. A quick Google search will give you endless lists of free video editing software. Once you have established yourself, you can look towards investing in a simple and effective paid video editing software.Â
STEP 2: Choose your general teaching niche
Next, you should choose your teaching niche.Â
- What is your teaching niche?Â
When it comes to businesses, a niche is a specific target in the market, for which you will bring out products and services. It is about targeting particular groups of people with particular interests or needs. Your teaching niche is the target learners you should be focussing on to create and sell online courses. This decision has to be made based on your knowledge or skills in a particular field and your target audience. It will help you in how you can start a tutoring company that is well organised.Â
- Why is it important to find a teaching niche?Â
When you choose a niche, you are marketing yourself as an expert in a specific subject area. This will help you to stand out from the crowded market of online tutors. When you teach a niche, it will look like you know more about the subject, whereas when you teach more subjects, your learners may think that you know less about these subjects. It will help you solve questions like how you can start a tutoring business in an area that you are passionate about.Â
- How do you find your niche?Â
You need to answer three questions in order to easily understand your general teaching niche.Â
- What is in demand right now?Â
- What subjects are you most skilled at?Â
- What subjects are you passionate about?Â
As you answer these questions you will find patterns and trends regarding your learners and what you have been teaching them. This will give you an insight into your teaching abilities and the options available to you to create online courses to sell. Do thorough research to find out areas of opportunities. Â
You can choose language training, yoga training, music, dance, gardening or anything under the sun as your general teaching niche and sell online courses from your own website for maximum profits.Â
Here are nine steps to starting your successful online yoga course  Â
STEP 3: Build a teaching platform
To create and sell courses effectively you need to have an online teaching platform. Choose an all-in-one LMS platform to make work easier for you.Â
Here’s what you can do:Â
- Get a white labelled platformÂ
With the many options of online education platforms available in the market, it is easy to create and sell courses to earn money online. Choose the best platform to sell courses. Most white labelled platforms offer you free trials to get an idea of how they work. You can go ahead and try each platform available in the market or you can simply check out this comparative study done on the best white label LMS platforms.Â
- Choose an LMS platformÂ
A learning management system, commonly known as LMS, is a SaaS product that functions like an online classroom. LMS enables you to create, sell, manage and market your online courses. LMS allows you to incorporate different media and resources to make your courses more engaging and interesting, such as video, audio, presentations, multimedia and more. One of the major advantages of opting for an LMS is that you can enrol unlimited learners and teach them at the same time. Compare different LMS platforms and choose one that is best for you. Do you want to know more about what is Learning Management System? – all you need to know.  Â
- Create own web and mobile application
The most effective and simple way to create your own branded web and mobile application, hassle free is to choose good LMS platforms like Mykademy to do it for you. Most of the time the lack of technical knowledge is what stops us from creating our own branded website and mobile app. With Mykademy, you don’t need any tech knowledge or expertise whatsoever. It saves you time, money and also enables you to market and sell courses online. Create your own white label LMS platform with Mykademy today!
- Sell courses through your own website and mobile applicationÂ
After creating your unique website and mobile application to teach and earn, you can start selling your online courses. With Mykademy, you can create online courses and sell them easily. Mykademy’s white labelled LMS platform will give you wider reach in the global edtech industry. You can create and record content multiple times. Selling through your own platform has many benefits. It increases profits, you get control over the administration of your online academy and can decide how your courses should be marketed and sold.Â
- Choose the right platform for you Â
Choose the right platform to help you achieve your online tutoring dreams. Teach and earn a good income by launching through a white label teaching platform. Compare and weigh in pros and cons of options available to you. Don’t settle for something ordinary when you can experience extraordinary, state-of-the-art technology in the easiest possible way. Mykademy offers robust features that you can bank on.Â
- Mykademy and its benefits!Â
Mykademy is one of the best LMS platforms in the UK, India, Ireland and Canada. Stealing the hearts of both tutors and learners alike comes easy when they give numerous features such as customisation, personalisation, device compliance and more, which enables you to enhance the potential of your personal brand and make high profits.Â
Mykademy lets you differentiate the design and delivery of your course content. With the digital training platform provided by Mykademy you can generate tutoring content that works on multiple devices for a great on-the-go learning experience. You can add interactive content in various formats like visuals, pdfs, ppts and lots more. Mykademy’s tracking system gives rich data analytics, insights on the consumption of your content and measures the progress of your learners. It also helps you create a virtual learning environment and reduce your printing and distribution costs.
STEP 4: Course Creation
The next influential step which will determine the success of your online teaching business is to create online courses that are designed to engage and motivate existing learners and has the ability to adapt to future trends that can lure in potential learners.Â
Let’s begin this process, shall we?Â
Here’s how you can effectively build your own online course in 10 steps:Â
- Choose a course topicÂ
- Identify your learner baseÂ
- Organise your subject knowledgeÂ
- Create and map a course outlineÂ
- Choose the right course delivery platformÂ
- Create course contentÂ
- Ensure course content is engagingÂ
- Build a community for your online courseÂ
- Collect valuable feedbackÂ
- Adapt and refreshÂ
Now let’s look at each step more closely.Â
1. Choose a course topic
One of the first steps to creating an online course should begin with the decision of choosing a course subject and topic to focus on. The course subject chosen by you will influence your learner base, the method of teaching to be adopted, the content to be taught, activities and tests to be included and so on.Â
Unless you are an expert in a subject area and you are totally sure about improvising your course as you go along, don’t do it. Plan your topic ahead of time to structure your course content accordingly. In doing so, you will have better chances to create and sell online courses more systematically, resulting in achieving anticipated profits.Â
Here are some questions you can ask yourself before making a course topic selection:Â
- Does the topic have ample demand?Â
This is a very important question to ask. If your intention is to encourage maximum learners to enrol onto your course and increase your profits, then you must choose a topic that they want to learn and not just what you are interested in teaching.Â
You can make use of tools like Google Trends to get an idea of what courses people are searching for. You can also check the best course selling platforms in the market and other competition, to see what courses are already popular amongst learners.Â
- Do you have the right knowledge and/ or skill to teach it?Â
In order to do a good job at teaching and sharing your knowledge with your learners, you must be aware of the subject beforehand. You should possess some degree of skill or knowledge that is attained through formal education, training or expertise in order to teach well.Â
A point to note is that having real qualifications will increase the value of your courses by creating trust and dependability on your course. If you do not have formal educational qualifications on the subject but have ample expertise or knowledge to know what will and will not work, then don’t be discouraged. Many successful online tutors make profits by creating courses online and teaching areas that they know very little about. It’s all in the ability and willingness to research, study and update your knowledge.Â
- How deep should you delve into the topic?Â
The answer to this question should depend on the type of learners you are curating a course for. It is advisable to avoid diving deep into topics that can’t be kept short and simple. Decide if your course topic can fall into introductory, intermediate or advanced and select accordingly. It is also advisable to stick to introductory and easy course topics when you start building your own online course.
2. Identify your learner base
Your learner base is one of the most important parts of your online course. Knowing your learner base, their needs and wants will help you to create and sell online courses.
Be specific while collecting information regarding your learner base. Collecting the information of the following demographics will help you in understanding how to create a course and sell it online better.
Age: Find out the average age of learners opting for the same or similar online courses.Â
Gender: Knowing this can help you in adjusting your writing style, usage of examples, usage of tests and activities.Â
Educational background: This information will help you to create courses that match their level of education and can further add value to their knowledge or skill. This will also help you in setting clear learning goals and outcomes.Â
Status of Employment: This will help you in making content choices. Find out if your learner base consists of already employed professionals looking for further training or skill development, or whether they are job seekers wanting to start out in a new industry.Â
To research your target learners you can use various methods. One particularly strong medium to use is social media. It is a powerful tool to gather information regarding your learner base. Follow these points to know who your target learners are and what they want to learn:
– Find and join Facebook groups in the subject area you have chosen.
– Post about your idea to introduce a new course through group posts.
– Collect data through surveys and personal interviews done through the people who interact with your posts. This can be used to gather data about learner’s wants, needs, aspirations and opinions.
– Analyse the data collected thoroughly and find similarities and pain points. Group data, find the strong sets of data and decide your target group of learners.Â
3. Organise your subject knowledge
Possessing knowledge or skills might not be sufficient. As a good online tutor, you must know how to package it the best way in order to create and sell courses online. You must also know how to present it to your learner base, in a way that can be grasped easily. Each learner will have a different level of knowledge and understanding of the subject and you should make sure they all get the opportunity to understand comfortably.Â
You should be able to weigh your subject knowledge and see whether it is adequate to teach or train your learners. Read this blog to know who can create an online course.Â
With your subject knowledge, you should be able to make decisions about how a course should be taught, the information to be shared and at what intervals and how content can be connected. Organising your knowledge will help save time and effort while you create your course content.Â
4. Create and map a course outline
Benjamin Franklin once wisely stated that if you fail to plan then you are planning to fail. Course outline is an efficient way to plan your course ahead and to keep a tab of where you are or what is to be done next.Â
Organising your subject knowledge allows you to understand what you are going to teach and creating a course outline will allow you to plan in detail how you are going to go about it.Â
Create an outline for your course by following the steps below:Â
- Identify main learning outcomes and list them down so that you and your students know the direction in which the course is going to take off and end.Â
- Create a skills checklist with the required skills needed in order to achieve learning outcomes.Â
- Group these skills together according to similarities and use this to create modules for your course. Pick out only what is needed and let go of unnecessary skill groups. This will help in keeping your course modules and course content compact and easily understandable.Â
- Further, decide what goes inside each module. Think of the time that needs to be invested in each module by learners.Â
- Set realistic learning goals for your course modules. Every module can have subsections with individual learning objectives and goals. Each section of your course should be made to add value to and transform your learner’s learning experience.Â
If you are stuck at any of these steps while building your own online course outline, you can always brainstorm for more ideas. You can brainstorm by trying to answer the following questions:Â
- What is the most important part of your course?Â
- What should be an introductory lesson that can help shape the rest of the course?Â
- What are the learning materials and resources that should be provided?Â
- What are the activities or tests you should include?Â
- Where and how should your course end?Â
5. Choose the right course delivery platform
Choosing the platform to deliver your online course can have major effects on the success of your course. You can decide to build a platform from scratch or you can go for already existing online teaching platforms like Udemy.Â
Another option is to build your own online teaching platform easily without the technical knowledge required to start from nothing. How? The answer is a Learning Management System.Â
To know more about learning management systems, check out: what is a Learning Management System? – all you need to know  Â
There are various options available to you in the market. To make things simple for you, we have already prepared a comparative study on Best White Label Platforms for your online coaching business. Check it out!
In short, we would recommend you to go for the best and the best alone- Mykademy!Â
Mykademy enables tutors and trainers to create a fully white-labelled course platform to create and sell online courses.Â
6. Create course content
Phew! Now that you have a solid course outline and have decided on your online course delivery platform, you can move on to the next part which comes easy to you – Teaching the world!Â
The first thing you need to do is to finalise a title for your course. Want to know how to craft a catchy title for your online course? Read the blog to find out!Â
To know in detail how to create a course, check out this complete guide to creating and selling courses online!
While creating content for online education platforms, you need to focus on choosing the type of content you will be using, how to write, record and edit your content, assessments methods and establishing grading criteria.Â
- Types of online course contentÂ
There is a wealth of options at your disposal when it comes to types of online course content. You can use a combination of the following to make engaging, interesting and adaptable course content:Â
- Text Content: through books, e-books, other reading materials through PDF’s.Â
- Videos and Images: Usage of PowerPoint presentations, images and bite-sized video content. Add your voice to videos for a more personal touch.Â
- Screencasting: This is still video, but instead of a video of you or other elements, it’s the video sharing of your screen. This can be used in courses where demonstrations have to be shown in real-time. Example: a course on how to get more Instagram followers.Â
- Writing, recording and editing your course contentÂ
As mentioned earlier, it is advisable to create a complete course plan while you build your online course. This is not always possible when it comes to creating content for your course. Tutors sometimes finish creating courses while the first set of content is out for the first batch of learners. This can be tricky if you are not confident in which direction the course is to go.Â
A good way to create online course content is to make it in small batches. This will help you to send out courses and get valuable feedback from learners, which can be used to make consecutive content.Â
Too often, we see tutors struggling to keep up with the course outline because of difficulties faced in recording or editing course content. Your course content can make or break your course. Therefore, keep in mind to start off small, and make improvements as you grow.Â
- Assessment methods and grading criteriaÂ
Assessments are a great way to motivate students to perform better and to create a course to sell. It can be done in many different ways. What assignments you need to prepare and how you choose to hand it out depends on the subject you are teaching, your learner base, and your online course’s learning outcomes.Â
You can choose a combination of multiple choice quiz, essays, spot tests and sentence answers. Assessments are also optional. It all depends on a tutor’s teaching style and ideas in creating courses online.Â
7. Ensure course content is engaging
You can create engaging content by:Â
- Focussing on what’s important by gathering knowledge from various sources and delivering it in a concise and structured way to learners so that they can grasp it easily.Â
- Providing a return on investment right from the start. Give your learners a sense of confidence in your ability to add value to their knowledge or skill by providing them quality content from the start. This will help in retaining learning and successful completion of the courses.Â
Check out: strategies to boost learner retention rate in online education  Â
- Setting measurable goals by breaking down content into individual, learnable pieces, which, once completed will bring in a sense of accomplishment in learners.Â
8. Build a community for your online course
Establish a community for your learners where they can interact with peers and tutors to help them share opinions and feedback, overcome gaps in learning, discuss the subject and course content.Â
This will help you understand your learners’ performance better, gaps in your course and how you can rectify them, which will help you in promoting your courses effectively.Â
You can use various social media platforms like Facebook for this purpose or can create a live community through your own website and mobile application.Â
9. Collect valuable feedback
To thoroughly measure the effectiveness of your online course, feedback from your learners is necessary. Good feedback can help transform an online course into success.Â
Before you send out the course to students, you can ask your peers to check your course content. After this, you can ask someone that fits your target learner’s demographics to check it for you. Then, you can go ahead and send it to students to get their feedback as well. Take note of criticisms and suggestions and try to make changes wherever necessary.Â
10. Adapt and refresh
As an online tutor, you should be ready to adjust your online course content and method teaching depending on ever evolving needs. Creating and selling courses online is a great way to dive into the world of teaching. It is rewarding and motivating in many ways.Â
Getting started perfectly while creating courses online is next to impossible always, but if you take the time to make the necessary changes required, your online course can become very efficient. Consider all feedback, negative and positive. Try not to take them personally and make the best of it all.Â
Another thing to keep in mind is that your course needs to be updated regularly on the online teaching platform, and refreshed in order for it to stay relevant. Don’t expect a well made, well performing course to reap high profits even after a couple of years. Build an attitude where you are ready to let go of obsolete courses without wasting much time or energy on them.Â
Until then, improving, adapting and refreshing your online courses is a great way to stay in the lead in the industry.
Once your course is ready, you can set a price accordingly and launch it to the world!
To help you sail your online course forward we have here – a handy checklist for your online course launch! Check it out!
Create and sell courses online with Mykademy for a smooth online academy experience!Â
STEP 5: Determine your pricing
Next, you need to determine your pricing strategies. This can be challenging and confusing, especially when you are just starting out.Â
Here is a list of things you can keep in mind while strategising your pricing:Â
- Consider location: The location of your target learners will have a significant impact on their paying capabilities. Try to gain information regarding their backgrounds before selling online courses.Â
- Consider demand: People will not be willing to pay even considerably lower amounts if there is no sufficient demand. To create an online course and sell it effectively, there needs to be a demand. If the demand is high, then people will be more than willing to pay for your online course.
- Complexity of the subject: People who deal with complex subjects that require special and unique teaching skills can take the liberty to charge higher prices.Â
- Qualifications: You don’t require qualifications to start tutoring online, but if you do have a fancy degree or educational certifications from prestigious institutions, the chances are high that your learners will be willing to pay more. This is because it creates trust in the minds of learners that you are the real deal and you will see more enrollments as you launch an online course.Â
- Experience: You may be well aware that professional experience in your subject field has high significance in buying decisions of learners. Relevant certifications can also add to your credibility and experience as a tutor.Â
- Grade of students: Pricing should also depend on the grade of a student’s academic knowledge or expertise in a particular subject. Students preparing for particular exams will have higher urgency to take a course and would be willing to pay higher.Â
- The rates of your competitors: Even if you consider all the above factors and leave out this one, you may not get the results you expected. Competitor’s pricing is an important factor to consider while you make pricing decisions. Researching your competitor’s white label coaching apps and their rates will give you a fair idea of the acceptable rates in the market.Â
How to sell online courses?Â
Other points to keep in mind include your costs incurred to create the course, value of your efforts, value and cost of materials used and needed to create the course, marketing and other costs.Â
How much can you make selling online courses?Â
There is a huge market for online courses that is growing rapidly every day. If your courses are unique and engaging, they will sell quickly and bring you profits.Â
Charge a fair price for your courses by including a profit margin, adding a discount buffer, including offers, discounts and group packages. While starting out, consider charging a lower amount in order to penetrate the market to teach and earn online effectively.Â
STEP 6: Choose your payment gateway
Setting up a payment gateway is essential to sell online courses successfully. An important factor that measures the success of your white label learning platform is its ability to monetise your courses.Â
Payment gateway is a third-party application, which will help you to create an online store to sell courses. They will ensure all payment transactions run securely in the background and transfer payments to your registered bank account. They will also provide refund options. You must ensure to select a highly secure payment gateway service provider.
Here’s how to choose the perfect payment gateway for your online academy:Â
- Make sure it accepts all major payment types: Ideally, it is best to go for a payment gateway that accepts as many forms of payments as possible. It is okay if you don’t sign up for them all in the first place, as you can always add them at a later stage when customers request additional payment methods.Â
- Enquire about the fee structure: Every payment gateway has its own payment structure. Some may charge a one time set-up fee while registering or ask for a monthly maintenance fee of transactions made. Fees can also be collected as a batch fee charged on a batch of credit card transactions you have processed. Make sure there are no hidden costs or fees that may come up later.Â
- Customer data security: Ultimately, you will want a payment gateway provider that is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. This would mean that they have a security system in place and is evaluated by a third party, up-to-date with industry regulations and standards.Â
- Quick payment turnaround time: Choose a payment gateway that has rapid payment turnaround time, rather than one that holds your money for a longer period of time. You can find information regarding this by looking up reviews given by previous or existing customers.Â
- Importance of chargeback support: Sometimes a customer can request a chargeback, wherein they dispute the purchase that has been made. While some payment gateways offer complete chargeback support and others may automatically credit a customer’s account without investigation. Make sure you know about all chargeback policies before signing up.Â
- Level of customer support: Some payment gateways offer 24/7 customer support, while others provide email support. Find out how efficient the customer service is and if they have an FAQ that you can visit in cases of questions to be answered. There might be instances where you need ready and effective customer support. Choose one with trustable customer support.Â
- Time taken to integrate the gateway: Look at the average time taken to integrate the payment gateway into your own online teaching platform. Often, the best choice is a payment gateway that will redirect your customers to the provider site when it’s time to enter payment details and information, and return them to your site when the transaction is completed.
Now that you have understood what to keep in mind while choosing a payment gateway, let’s look at some of the best payment gateway options available in the market.
International Payment Processors
Some of the best international payment gateways include:Â
PayPalÂ
It is one of the most trusted payment processors in the world. It charges a monthly fee for pro and advanced users. It offers great customer support and is easy to use.Â
StripeÂ
Stripe offers services similar to PayPal. Through its API’s developers can integrate this payment gateway to their website for free. Its rates are also cheaper than PayPal.Â
Indian Payment Gateways
The most popular Indian payment gateways are:
RazorPay: Offers netbanking, all cards and wallets. This is one of the fastest growing payment gateway services.Â
PayUBiz: Offers customisations to medium-to-large businesses. They are one of the most trusted brands whose merchant on-boarding process is fast and where user experience is given top priority.Â
EBS: Is the first Indian payment gateway to be PCI-DSS compliant.Â
CCAvenue: Is one of the longest-serving payment gateways. Customer trust is a fundamental quality in the payment processor industry and CCAvenue has it.Â
InstaMojo: Offers the cheapest option amongst payment gateways. There are no installation costs. It is recommended to small and medium businesses that offer physical goods. Their transaction discount rate is 1.9% for the sale of physical goods while it is 5% for digital goods sales. The service does not offer support for retail payment processors.Â
How to sell online courses through payment gateways? Integrating a payment gateway to your page:
Payment from another site: The simplest process is one where the user gets directed to the payment gateway site to enter card details. The user is then redirected to the merchant’s website after the transaction is completed.Â
Learning management systems should be integrated closely with payment gateways so that all transactions can be done automatically.Â
Mykademy’s robust platform enables tutors, trainers and corporates to create and sell online courses through its fully white-label platform. It facilitates the smooth and safe selling of your online courses through multiple payment integration options available. This makes the purchase of online courses through Mykademy, accessible for all.Â
Administrators can choose and integrate preferred payment gateway options, allowing learners to purchase courses with ease.Â
Check out Mykademy’s payment gateway integration options here: <link>Â
STEP 7: Plan your schedule based on your convenience
Plan a schedule to create and sell courses based on your convenience. The best part of running your own branded, online tutoring website and mobile application is that you get to be your own boss!Â
Plan on creating your own online course by incorporating a mix of class presentation methods like pre-recorded classes, online course videos and live sessions.Â
How to create an online course that sells?
Conduct Live sessions and classes
One way to promote and sell courses through your online platform is to conduct live sessions and classes. You can schedule monthly or weekly live classes.Â
Importance of Live Streaming:Â
- There are many benefits to teaching in live streaming classrooms as opposed to traditional teaching methods. One of the advantages is that remote learning makes education accessible to all, even in the face of a natural disaster.Â
- Virtual classroom learning provides flexibility to students wanting to learn without geographical barriers. This creates opportunities for learners to follow their dreams and passions.Â
- It is a great way for students who learn better without the distraction of other students in the same classroom setting.Â
- It saves time for all parties involved and requires less effort. Travelling time is cut down, promoting conservation, which shows the combined effort is significant in change.Â
Here are the basic steps to follow in order to live-stream a class:
- Collect proper equipmentÂ
- Choose an LMS platformÂ
- Check your internet connectionÂ
- Prepare course content to create an online course that sells.Â
- Start your live stream class
If you follow the above steps diligently, you can add value to your online academy and create virtual live streaming experiences that trump live lectures.Â
When you conduct your live classes, make sure that they are engaging and interesting! Here’s how you can do that – 7 ways to improve learner engagement in virtual classroom.
Tips for successful live-stream classes:
- Plan ahead and outline the points you want to cover.Â
- Incorporate pre-recorded content to keep your learners engaged.Â
- Do a test run 24 hours before you plan to go live to check lighting and posture.Â
For an efficient and reliable experience, you can choose Mykademy as your LMS platform to create and sell courses, conduct live sessions/classes, manage your own online education platform and be your own boss!Â
Mykademy lets you integrate third party live streaming platforms which enable you to sell your live classes as an online course. You get 100% of your course sales credited to your bank account with integrated payment gateways! Now that’s the kind of motivation one needs.
STEP 8: Market and promote your online academy
Sometimes, creating a fabulous online course will not do the trick in helping you get attention and sell your own courses online. Marketing and promotion play a very important role in deciding the success of your online academy. In order to earn by teaching online courses, one must adapt to the different marketing strategies adopted in the industry.Â
Take a look at the top tips to successfully market your online courses and grow your academy online!Â
Get a detailed overview of how to stay above the game: How to promote your online academy. Market and sell your courses on your online education platform by following the methods mentioned.
Meanwhile, here are few ways to promote your online academy:Â
- Talk about your courses and academy on social media. It is the most used tool to promote online tutoring businesses.Â
- Offer promotions, discounts and offers to your learner base.Â
- Make use of coupon codes to attract new learners.Â
- Create course bundles. Sell your courses by creating course bundles and offering discounts to attract a lot of potential learners to your online teaching platform. Â
- Offer course preview to your learners. This will give them a snippet of what you have to offer. It will give them an idea as to why and how your course can add value to them. You can make a video explaining what to expect and give detailed descriptions about the course and how it will be conducted on your online teaching platform.Â
- Send emails, push notifications and flash messages to learners to gain maximum attention. Sending these notifications diligently and timely will help promote your online classes and bring in potential learners to your platform to sell online courses.
With good LMS platforms, you can easily promote your courses. Mykademy is one of the best platforms to sell courses online.Â
Conclusion
Teach the world with Mykademy!
Starting an online business and selling online courses from your own website is not a very difficult task if you have the support of an all-in-one LMS like Mykademy!
Mykademy is the best white label platform to help tutors, trainers and corporates to manage, promote, create and sell online courses through a branded platform.
Make sure to start your own 14-day free trial with Mykademy today and start creating valuable, engaging and amazing learning experiences. Feel the joy in selling online courses from your own website!
#ForwardTogether with #TheBestLMSÂ