Are Online Courses Actually the Path to Financial Freedom?

The world of online courses is a popular and profitable industry, and it's a favorite business and offer model among digital entrepreneurs. Often marketed as the key to passive, scalable income, many have aspired to become course creators - but is this really the path to your financial freedom? Let's discuss five important considerations about online course creation.

Interesting Fact: “The global elearning market is expected to quadruple in size from around $250 billion in 2020 to $1 trillion in 2027.” (LearningNews.com)

My Experience With Online Courses

First of all, what is a money management dork doing talking about online courses? While I am a financial educator here at More With Money, a fun fact about me is that I’m also a full-time Instructional Designer who develops courses with, and for, online business owners on a daily basis.

Yes, this makes my multi-passionate heart sing.

(If you understand this gif’s relevance here, let’s be friends.)

So today, I’m writing this list of considerations from the perspective of someone who is passionate about both financial wellness for entrepreneurs AND quality, transformational online courses. Let’s get started!

#1: Online Courses Aren’t as Passive as You Think

If you’ve been in the online business world for any amount of time (or even just Pinterest for about 8 seconds), you’ve probably been told that online courses are the secret to making money in your sleep - otherwise known as “passive income.”

This is because online courses often involve pre-recorded content, templated workbooks, and the tech and automations that make it easy to productize your expertise and sell it to a mass audience. Compared to trading time for money working 1:1 with single clients/customers, I can see the appeal.

But it’s important to be realistic. Online courses aren’t as easy to create and maintain as they’re often sold to be (typically by people selling you a course about courses).

Did you know that the average course creator can spend well over 100 hours making their course? And that’s if they’re trying to do it right.

In addition, not all course topics are meant to be entirely self-paced. In a flooded market with countless shallow or over-fluffed courses, learners are craving support and accountability. Whether this is offered through private communities, group coaching programs, 1:1 support from you, or some other means - it won’t be completely passive. But it’ll be better for your students! This leads us to our next consideration…

#2: Online Courses Need to Create a Transformation

No online program will last if you’re not generating proven results for your students. You might get the sales initially, but without proof that what you teach works, you will struggle to continue to sell it. And sales aside, what’s the point if your course isn’t helping people?

It could be that your content is good, but it isn’t packaged well into lessons and activities that help foster that transformation for your learners. It’s not just about WHAT you teach. You also need to be thoughtful about HOW you teach it.

Some Instructional Design quick tips to demonstrate what I mean:

Your course doesn’t need to include everything you know in one program - nor should it! Specific, tangible, digestible takeaways create better results.
Identify the learning objectives you want your students to achieve or do FIRST, then decide what content and resources will get them there.
No one has time for your 45-90 minute videos. Lessons should be well organized and succinct, usually averaging under 15 minutes (though this can vary widely).

Visuals matter. Most learners won’t be able to focus if your videos are just you talking at your camera. This is where thoughtful slides and screenshares make a major impact to reinforce and support what they’re hearing verbally.

Your course needs to be accessible. This means going the extra mile to ensure your colors contrast well and are considerate of color-blind learners, your fonts are legible to both the eye and screen readers for the visually impaired, your videos are captioned accurately, etc.

Types of Color Blindness. Source: MedicalNewsToday

Courses and coaches that try to tell you that you can create a course in a matter of days (or even weeks) are not factoring in these details, and your students will suffer for it.

#3: Online Courses Aren’t for New Businesses

This may be a hot take, but I don’t believe most entrepreneurs who are brand new to the business space or what they do should be creating courses yet.

Again, courses need to provide a real transformation. You are going to invest time and energy creating this course, and your students are going to invest time and money taking it - without a real transformation, all of that is wasted.

The truth of the matter is that you need to have real experience and a proven framework to be able to promise a transformation. If you don’t feel comfortable saying “I know that if you do the work and follow my guidance, you WILL get results,” your course isn’t ready.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a perfect expert. While I’m not a fan of the teaching that “you only have to be one step ahead of your audience” to run your business, I also don’t want you second-guessing yourself out of a business just because you don’t know everything about everything. However, there is a difference between being an absolute authority on a topic and having a provable methodology that you know works.

That doesn’t mean you can’t run your business. It just means that you need to TEST it with real experience. You can do this by offering smaller products or services, beta testing your methods and offers, etc.

#4: Online Courses Need to Be Sold

The other reason courses aren’t great for brand new businesses is that you need an existing market of people who trust you to buy it. You want to generate an ROI on the time, energy, and money spend creating this program. But the online course industry is so saturated that people only buy from those they trust. They won’t buy your course just because you made it.

This also means that you need to have a proper marketing ecosystem or sales strategy to help you sell your programs.

Do you have a public presence that allows new ideal clients/customers to discover you?
Do you create content or build relationships that position you as an expert on this topic and nurture your audience? Are you educating them about the problem you solve and nurturing their journey towards the solution?
Do you have a sales process that helps your leads make an informed decision about whether or not your offers are truly right for them?

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with and talked to who focus on making the product only to realize they have no idea who to sell it to and how to sell it.

…I’ve been that person. 🙋🏻‍♀️ (More than once.)

#5: There Is No Guaranteed Path to Financial Freedom

I understand why online courses are so appealing. New entrepreneurs, especially in this online space, have a tendency to shift a lot between ideas and suffer from shiny object syndrome.

And courses are very, very shiny.

But that’s just led to a lot of people creating courses when they either (A) are not ready or (B) don’t even need them.

Online courses have made a lot of people a lot of money. But they are not the ONLY key to financial success as a business owner.

In my years working with six and seven-figure entrepreneurs, I’ve learned that the key to building a successful business is largely commitment. It’s in the follow-through.

Highly successful entrepreneurs are still people. And you’d be shocked to see just how messy many aspects of their business can be even at their level. But the difference between them and the person still pivoting business plans every quarter is that they committed to their ideas.

When the time comes to let them go, they do so strategically so they’re replacing them with something they know will be better. Otherwise, they identify the best way to serve their people and they simply continue to do it. As they master it, their business grows.

Maybe this looks like selling physical products, or consulting, or group coaching, or public speaking. Maybe it’s online courses.

Identify what is right for YOUR business, then commit to that. You don’t have to follow the trends just because they look good or someone (likely someone who is selling to you) told you that it’s necessary for your business’ survival.

Where to Start

I wrote this post because the way that you make money is an important component of how well you’ll be able to manage it later. That’s why I love diving into business strategy at More With Money. So I hope these considerations have helped you to think more clearly about where online courses fit into your business.

While I had a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t create an online course, I don’t want that to be the takeaway. Online courses are an incredible way to serve people, and if it’s right for your business then I encourage you to go for it!

Start thinking about the transformation you’re wanting to provide for your people, and then plot out what the most important steps are to get them from where they are to where you’re trying to help them be. Then, commit to this plan. Block the time you’ll need to do it right, not just from an instructional design perspective, but also a marketing perspective!

Online courses aren’t just a shiny add-on to your business. They are a strategic part of your business model and offer suite, and they should be taken seriously.

Are you ready to take your financial journey to the next level? Then you may be ready to check out the More With Money Academy!

This ever-growing collection of online courses and trainings are specially designed to support entrepreneurs like you on your path to financial wellness. The Academy contains carefully designed courses that are easy to understand and implement so that you can be empowered with the practical concepts, streamlined systems, and powerful mindset to transform your business and personal finances.

Click here to explore what the More With Money Academy has to offer!