Free Course Revenues Calculator

Simple hacks on how to earn 7 figure revenue by selling online courses

Understanding the difference and meaning of revenue and profit is the first step to calculating how much money you can make selling online courses. Revenue is the overall amount of money that a business gets from selling courses. While Profit is the total amount of money after paying all business expenses.

It can go like this:

Monthly Revenue - Monthly Expenses = Monthly Profit

Example: $100,000 - $34,000 = $66,000

Digital creators could earn six to seven figures annually just by selling their online courses. How do they do it? I will tell you the simple hacks on how course creators make their high-quality courses plus the formula of calculating the revenue through our free online course earnings calculator.

This article will cover:

• Success stories of course creators who have earned six to seven-figure incomes from selling online courses
• Simple strategies to make money selling online courses
• Formula to calculate your potential monthly and yearly course creation revenue

We have everything you need to make selling online courses work and earning six to seven-figure revenues. Ready? Let's get started!

Case studies of successful online course creators from selling online courses

Before anything else, let's take a look at the real examples of successful online course creators who make it possible to earn six to seven figures course sales just by creating and selling online courses.

Rob Percival, Self-paced courses (MOOCs)

Rob Percival is one of the most successful one, teaching web development to a total of 2 million students, with over 500,000 reviews across all his courses on Udemy. This success has enabled him to make upwards of $1 milion earnings every year from his online course business.

Ship30for30, Cohort-based courses

Ship30for30 is one of the most successful cohort-based courses you can find on the internet. Founded by two highly proficient digital writers, Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole, Ship30for30 is a course for aspiring digital writers that teaches the fundamentals of writing online. With a total of 6,000 alumni who have completed the course & written 30 atomic essays over 30 days, this online course not only earned a seven-figure revenue, but it has also gained hundreds of positive reviews from students.

Nesslabs. Community-based courses

Nesslabs is a learning community for ambitious knowledge workers with 50,000 newsletter subscribers and 2,000 community members. Inside its private community, members learn together through new courses, masterclasses, and remote workshops. Although Nesslabs needs time to grow to fully earn a seven-figure revenue from its community, it is a great example of community-based learning where everyone in the community learns with each other, together, with or without a specific timeframe.

Simple hacks to make online courses profitable

If your goal is to increase your course revenue, then you need to know how to increase the value of your online course. Revenue is equal to the value of the course. If no one is joining and buying your course, then you should wonder how much value you are giving to your students.

Here are the hacks to increase your course value. They are simple yet crucial to increase the potential revenue and profit of your online course.

Course Quality.

Having a high-quality course can get you tenfolds of earnings from your course. But wait, what do I mean by high quality? Experts measure that their courses are high-quality when…

• your course completion rate is never less than 80%. Students complete your course up until the last module because they liked it and it transformed them.
  
• your course is transformative. Students are giving you positive feedback and they can't wait to share their success stories. You’ve reached what students expect from an online course. Organic marketing such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from former students are good indications that you're doing a great job.
  
• your course is well-structured and each student can easily understand and apply what they've learned in the world. The course has an overall high quality in activities, group work, tech, sounds, graphics, and presentation.
  
• Your course is set for improvement and excellence, not perfection. It only means that it is already of high quality course, but there is still much more to improve. Your content materials are striving to be up-to-date and keep pace with the fast-moving industry.
  

How to create a high-quality course?

After describing what a high-quality course looks like nowadays, I will share with you how you can create an online course using simple methods.

• Choose Your Course Format. Learning evolves with technology, and so there are several type of course you create that match how students are learning effectively today.
  
  These formats include self-paced courses (MOOCs), community-based courses (continuous learning with a community), and cohort-based courses (learning with a group at a specific time). The good thing about these course formats is that they can be effective when combined.
  
  Choosing the right course format to create a high-quality evergreen course depends on your topic, resources, and target students. However, most of the time, the cohort-based course format is the best format for a great course.
  
• Familiarize yourself with online teaching methods. For beginners, creating a well-structured first course can be challenging. It is important to become familiar with online teaching methods to help you assemble the pieces of your lessons. It is also important to select methods that work for your students and that are effective in teaching online, as not all popular teaching methods are suitable for all types of students.
  
• Use a Learning Platform. We are in the era of automation and, as a solo entrepreneur, you have the capacity to create your own live academy in just minutes. Don't miss out on the opportunity to use a learning platform that can help you save up to 80% of your time.
  
  Teachfloor is the best learning platform to build your live academy and sell your course at scale. It has several unique automation features that create personalized learning experiences for your students. In short, you can scale your course with a small team while maintaining a high-quality product.
  
• Offering a Certificate of Completion. Skill-based hiring is buzzing up in the recruitment industry. Hiring managers tend to hire based on skills, rather than degrees. This is why certificates are an important factor for your students. They provide proof that they have completed a course, making them knowledgeable for the job they are applying for.
  
  Offering a certificate of completion can increase the price of your course and its value especially if you add badges, levels, etc.
  

Course Packaging.

Have you collected multiple content materials related to your course topic? If so, you should consider packaging them. This will give your potential students the option to choose which type of content materials will best help them succeed.

For example, you could create course packages based on course levels, such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Alternatively, you could package it with a part-time or full-time program depending on the availability of your students.

It’s a chance for you to increase the value of your course, have additional courses, and increase the price of your online course by demonstrating flexibility and variety of materials that students will receive from the packages.

Conversion Funnel.

Conversion funnels are critical to increasing your revenue and course value. Have you mapped out the journey of your ideal persona?

In the marketing concept, you should guide every visitor that lands on your website. That's why UX and copywriting are very important in landing pages, as they can convert potential customers into paying students. But of course, content and social proof are also crucial.

To increase your revenue, create or review your conversion funnel to guide your website visitors on a journey of where they want to pay for a course.

Personal Branding.

Building your personal brand has never been easy through the power of the internet. You can build your brand by using social media platforms, sharing your knowledge with a wide audience for free, and helping them generously to gain their trust.

Some of the successful creators who earn seven figures annually only from selling an online course started by building their personal brand online before they create a course. People buy and join their courses because of the expertise they have shown in the subject. If they can do it, you can too.

So, start building your brand and convert fans into paying customers.

How to Calculate Your Course Revenue using our Free Online Course Revenue Calculator

Being able to predict how much money can you make selling online courses is a great motivator. Knowing this can help you focus on what goals to reach with your course.

So, how do we calculate your course revenue? Here's a simple formula to do it:

Revenue = Audience Size x Conversion Rate x Course Price.

We also provide a free calculator that will help see the results automatically.

Audience Size

Analyzing how many visitors you have per month on your landing page can be a good indicator to estimate how much can you make selling online courses.

If you don't have a website and you are promoting your online courses on your social media, then count all your social media subscribers, followers, and connections to know the estimated size of your audience. It's true that not everyone is the right audience. We will talk more about this in the conversion rate.

And if you don't have an audience yet, you can make a hypothesis and start from 100 to 300 audience size. As you build your audience, you will gain traction and you can look back to this article to calculate the revenue of your online course.

Conversion Rate

Based on the size of your audience, how many people do you think will convert to a paying customer? Conversion rates for online courses vary on the course topic, demand, length of the course, and your marketing efforts. As a guide, the average conversion rates for starters are:

• Low conversions: 0.1% to 1%
• Medium conversions: 2-5%
• High conversions: 6-10%

If you are already selling a course, then try to calculate your conversion rate based on the actual numbers you get from your course sales. For instance, if you get at least a 20% conversion rate, then enter 20% or 30%.

Course Price

There's no one-size-fits-all to price your course; however, let yourself be guided by the creator's average price point to price your online course:

• $1-$50 for a first online course or mini-course
• $100+ for a full-length, mostly self-paced online course
• $200+ for a premium price, high-value online course
• Mastermind, a high-price membership course, starts at $1000 per month
• Cohort-based courses, where students learn with a cohort and community, start at $500

If you still doubt if your pricing is the right one, then try to re-strategize with this guide and you can also calculate it with our free online course pricing calculator to know a good estimate of how much you’ll make from an online course per month and year.

To Sum Up!

The free online course revenue calculator will show you how much revenue you can earn potentially. I hope all this information, tips, and hacks help you to create a profitable online course and strategize your marketing plan.

Lastly, if you want to calculate your profit, don't forget the formula mentioned in the first section of this article: Monthly Revenue - Monthly Expenses = Monthly Profit. 

To conclude, earning a six to seven-figure revenue from selling courses is possible with hard work, determination, and right strategies. 

Additional Questions on Increasing Course Revenue

How can I build and grow my audience?

Many course creators hang out in places where their target audience is hanging out. For example, if they spend most of their time on Reddit, then go to Reddit too. Create conversations, help them generously, attend virtual events, learn from their questions, comments, and reactions. Then post, comment, and interact with your audience regularly.

As you build your audience, you should also build your credibility and gain their trust. Don't forget to stay connected with them through a newsletter subscription so you can directly message them your product offers when it's ready.

How can I increase my conversion rate?

It can be done by reviewing and creating your conversion funnels. Creating a journey for your ideal persona to reach the desired destination and perform the desired actions is essential to increase your conversion rate. Decide what strategies you have for your funnel: TOFU (top of the funnel), MOFU (middle of the funnel), and BOFU (bottom of the funnel).

Ultimately, it boils down to nurturing your leads and guiding them through the persona journey.

Where can I find valuable resources to improve my course design?

In Teachfloor, we have free online learning resources for anyone who wants to create online courses and improve the way they design them.

There are a bunch of informative articles such as Course Curriculum: An Ultimate Guide to Design Effectively. We also have a free ebook to help you scale your cohort-based courses from 50 to 500 students.

What are the major benefits of selling online courses?

Selling online courses has several major benefits. Due to its potential scalability, course creators are able to earn as much money as they would from their full-time jobs. They can earn passive income while sharing their knowledge with students.

Another benefit is that course creators can do the job they are passionate about without over-stressing themselves while earning five, six, or even seven figures in a year.

It's true that the ‘new rich of this generation’ are those knowledge workers who are sharing their knowledge with the world.

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