Online course ideas: how to find one that sells

Published prices, verified

Finding a course idea that sells

1. Mine what you are already asked. List the questions you answer more than once a month, the tasks people ask you to do for them, and the skills colleagues come to you for. Each is a course idea with a proven buyer. A course nobody asked about needs demand created from nothing, which is the expensive kind.
2. Check that someone already charges for it. Search for the topic with 'course', 'workshop' and 'masterclass' and look for paid offers. Paid competition means a market; none means either an open field or no buyer, and the second is far more common. Look at what the paid offers promise and where reviewers say they fall short: that gap is your angle.
3. Narrow to an outcome and a person. 'Excel for accountants preparing month-end' sells; 'Excel' does not. The narrower the buyer and the clearer the result, the higher the price and the lower the marketing cost, because the page speaks to one person about one problem.
4. Pre-sell before you record. Write the sales page, set a start date a month out, and sell to your list at a founding price. Ten sales validates; zero saves you forty hours. Build the course for the people who bought, with their questions.

Course idea categories with steady demand

Professional skills tied to a job title (software a trade uses, a certification, a workflow) sell at higher prices to buyers with a budget. Creative and craft skills sell at lower prices to larger audiences and suit platforms with volume pricing. Business skills for one kind of business (pricing for photographers, bookkeeping for contractors) sit between, and are the category where a creator with real experience is hardest to compete with.

Personal development and health topics have the largest audiences and the strictest platform and advertising rules; check the vendor's terms before building there, and never make outcome claims a regulator would read as medical or financial advice.

What hosting the idea costs

The platform cost is the entry plan plus the cut, from the verified table. For a first course selling a few copies a month, a free plan that takes a cut is usually cheapest; for a course that sells steadily, a flat plan with no cut is cheaper past a sales volume you can calculate. The idea and the price decide the platform, which is why hosting is the last step.

No figure on this page is a promise of sales. This site quotes vendor prices, not creator income.

Common questions

What kind of online course sells best?

Courses that promise a specific outcome to a specific person, in a topic where paid offers already exist. Professional and business skills command higher prices; creative skills reach larger audiences at lower ones.

How do I know if my course idea has demand?

Paid competition and a pre-sale. If others already charge for it and ten people on your list buy before it exists, it has demand. If nobody charges for it and nobody pre-orders, it does not, however good the idea sounds.

Should I make a free course first?

A free mini-course is a good list builder and a poor validation, because free downloads do not predict paid sales. Pre-sell the paid course to your list instead; the free one can follow as the top of the funnel.

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