The new, non-negotiable rules for selling online courses

It’s not a secret — digital courses are trickier to sell than they used to be. But some folks are still doing incredibly well with them.

Is there a new set of rules for this complex model? Not really.

But the rules we've always followed have become a lot stricter.

2024 audiences are more budget-conscious, more distracted, and more overwhelmed than they were when I started teaching online. And learners have a lot less tolerance for fluff and hype.

I built my first online course about 16 years ago, and I’ve learned a thing or two — particularly from designing, building, and running our signature educational programs at Copyblogger.

So let’s dive in to how the rules work today — and where i think you should put your time and resources.

Rule 1: Obsess over product to market fit

In 2024, you can’t get away with a course that people “kind of” want.

This rule isn't new. (None of what I'm talking about today is new, to be honest.) But it matters more than it used to.

It’s time to zero in very specifically on the outcomes your students want to get — then match that to a focused, well-designed curriculum.

This sometimes means building a collection of smaller courses that focus on specific needs and desires, instead of one big, baggy course that makes a general — and vague — promise.

Designing and launching smaller courses also lets you experiment with sub-topics and more specific skills, so you can really pinpoint what your specific audience wants to learn.

Rule 2: Understand learning styles vs. preferences

When I started building courses, we believed that different people learned according to their innate learning styles.

We divided the world into visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, and built course content accordingly.

That model of learning styles has been thoroughly debunked by a large volume of research — even though the model is still taught in teaching certification programs.

As William Furey said on Education Now,

"There is no evidence that designing lessons that appeal to different learning styles accelerates student learning."

(Note: This is different from designing content for neurodiverse learners, which is a topic all its own.)

But when you’re building educational content to sell, you still want to think about what your learners prefer.

Catering to learning preferences may not result in better learning — but it can result in better sales.

If your audience is made of avid readers, like our Copyblogger audience was, it makes sense provide well-edited transcripts, even though they're a ton of work.

Lots of learners enjoy having downloadable audio, so they can learn while walking the dog or making dinner. This makes your material feel like content they already use and enjoy — podcasts and audiobooks.

(If you’ll provide audio-only versions of your course content, make sure you design it to work well without visuals.)

You’ll probably find that live sessions are energizing for some of your audience, and a complete non-starter for others.

And I’ve found that nearly everyone likes having access to downloadable “cheat sheets” and worksheets — even though not everyone actually refers back to them.

Match your media formats to your audience’s specific preferences — keeping in mind that it also has to make business sense for you to produce.

Rule 3: Tighten it up

Learners used to have a lot more patience for long educational content.

Today, between stress, distraction, and post-pandemic brain fog, people need their education in smaller, tighter bites.

Many of your learners are overwhelmed just getting around and living their lives. So keep things tight and easy to consume.

That means breaking long modules into smaller, more focused bites.

It means sweating over designing a curriculum that has everything your students need to reach their goals — and nothing they don't need.

And it means creating reference materials like summaries and diagrams, to make it easy for learners to review your most important points.

Also, if you teach live, edit out the inevitable few minutes of “how’s everybody doing today?” for your replays.?

A little sociable time is comfortable live, but it can be unbearably boring to sit through on a replay.

Rule (Suggestion) 4: Lose “lifetime”

Back in the day, it was fairly common to offer “lifetime” access to a course.

There was often a question of what that even meant.

Lifetime of the student? Lifetime of the business? Lifetime of the Internet?

If that’s not spelled out and your buyer’s idea is different from yours, it can be a recipe for ill will.

“Lifetime” also creates a long-term support commitment, when a customer is trying to reset their password for a program they bought eight years ago.

Also, it can be downright humbling to go back to a lesson you taught five years ago and realize how differently you would teach it today.

Finally, lifetime access reduces the urgency for your learners to bring their focus to the work and get it done.?

Which actually makes them less likely to get all the benefits from what they’ve paid for.

As a rule of thumb, I now prefer to offer lifetime access to a small set of downloadable resources, but set a limit on access to the full multimedia course.?

My goal is always to give people the right amount of time — not too little, but also not too much — to get the most out of their purchase.

Rule 5: Consider making it less scaleable

We’re competing with some fantastic free and cheap education out there.

Coursera, Codeacademy, and a number of others — including prestigious universities — offer in-depth online education for free.?

And companies like Skillshare ofter thousands of well-produced courses for a very moderate fee.?

When you offer education as a business, it’s smart to build in an element that free or cheap mass courses can’t replicate.

To turn to a less fun topic, nearly any digital course creator will tell you that eventually, some scumbag may steal your material and resell it, or put it on a bootleg site.

While you’re planning your course, consider what you can offer that can’t be scraped or bootlegged.

I love the certification model, and we had tremendous success with it at Copyblogger.?

We started by building a very robust — and very specific — course around content marketing strategy for freelance copywriters.

Then, we conducted detailed application reviews to certify the students who had mastered the material.

Once we had a solid process, we were able to handle those certifications efficiently — and we knew that everyone we certified was genuinely excellent.

Critiques, individual feedback, and coaching calls (group or one-on-one) are some other ways you can make your course less “scrapeable,” and give students a great reason to pay you.?

Offering a community is another tried-and-true way to provide value that can’t be cloned. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that community is, in any way, “passive income.” Communities can be tremendously satisfying, but they’re also a lot of work.?

I like a shorter-term cohort-based structure for live courses. It's a terrific way to bring in a community element — without the long-term drain on your energy and resources.

Fortune favors the brave — so step up

This may not be the easiest time to launch a digital course. But there’s still plenty of room for those willing to commit to an excellent student experience.

If you’re a proven expert in your field (or you’re working with someone who is), and you’re willing to do the work, online education is still a wonderfully rewarding way to? make more revenue — and empower people to put your ideas into practice.

Looking for a hand?

If you’d like some help translating your expertise into a powerful and marketable course, workshop, or other program, drop me a line here on LinkedIn.?

(You can also comment COURSE if you’d rather, and I’ll send you a DM.)

I work with recognized experts to translate their brilliant insights and ideas into an exceptional learner experience. We go from the sales cycle through designing and delivering the program — and beyond to encouraging repeat and referral students.

Working with students online has given me some of the most rewarding experiences of my career. And, as it happens, it's also brought me a lot of revenue.

My Coursera course on content marketing strategy has taught more than 500,000 students since we launched it in partnership with U.C. Davis. Even cooler, the reviews have consistently let us know that students found the course helped them further their careers.

If you’d like to explore getting your own high-value course into the world — or to optimize something you've already developed — get in touch and let's talk about options that make sense for your business!

Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash