How Do Online Teaching Instructors Make Millions With Online Courses?

How You Can Break The Rat Race Cycle With Passive Income Generation

Arman Eker
Sep 4, 2018 · 6 min read

The majority of the world’s population is stuck in a never-ending financial lifestyle called the rat race, which is a term coined by Robert Kiyosaki in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The term is used to describe an individual who proudly works a time-consuming job from nine in the morning to five at night, lives in a paycheck to paycheck cycle, and has a life that is hallmarked by the accumulation of debt and the consumption of materialistic items.

Unfortunately, most individuals are unaware that they are in this cycle, as the consumption style of life is often pitched to us as “normal” which makes it very difficult to get out of once you are in it. The difficulty in getting out resides in the financial mentality that individuals hold as most believe that more money is the answer and therefore work harder and longer. In reality, those who earn more end up spending more and the cycle continues.

“Everything the working class has been told to do, the rich do not do. That is my message.” — Robert Kiyosaki

The best way to escape the rat race is by creating an income stream that is passive. This is done by either owning an online business, making investments that work for you, or by selling a product you make once, over and over again. In today’s article, we are going to look at the third option for generating passive income, creating and selling a product like courses through the online teaching platform Udemy.


How Do Online Teaching Instructors Make Millions With Udemy Courses?

Udemy is an online learning platform aimed at professional adults who want to study and learn actionable skills. These skills can then be transferred over and applied to career settings, hobbies, and personal development. The platform is one of the world’s largest, with over 80,000 online courses across fields like marketing, photography, health and fitness, personal development, design, business, and computer development. Specifically speaking, a Udemy course will be primarily video-based, meaning the majority of instruction is given via on-demand video. These videos can range anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours, with the secondary or supplemental material being delivered through real-world examples, hands-on practical activities, and academic projects. For students of these courses, access will be given to additional downloadable resources, lifetime access to the course, and a certificate of completion. For instructors, Udemy gives you the opportunity to earn hundreds of thousands, if not millions in passive income and the best part about it, it is free to sign up.

Top instructors eclipse $17 million in earnings

According to , the top ten instructors earned a combined total of 17 million dollars back in 2015, with the top three having 47,000, 52,000, and 120,000 students respectively. So, how did they do this?

  • They sold an outcome and the potential results that people desire. When an individual goes looking for a course, it’s not necessarily a course that they want to buy, but rather the outcome or the result that the course can provide them with. The idea here is to mold your course around a specific and achievable outcome that everyone can succeed with after listening to your course. An example of an achievable income would be launching a podcast with subscribers on the same day. For students who want to start their own podcast and make money doing it, your course would deliver actionable and realistic results and thereby earn you passive money.
  • Selling an online course is not necessarily easy as you need to show individuals that your course works. This can be difficult if you are trying to teach students about software applications, SEO methods, or marketing techniques. Instead, build and show trust to those who are considering buying your course. You can do this by setting up ads, webinars, or by sharing testimonials or success stories of other students.
  • A course provides individuals with a convenient and accountable way to learn what you are teaching them. Yes, they could go out and find all the information themselves, but it is easier to go through structured content with a framework than it is to try and make results happen with scattered information. Collect, compress, and structure your course so that individuals can take action and get results right away.

Now that you understand the three principles behind how to sell an online course, let’s take a look at how you can start creating one.


Start Creating Courses In Three Simple Steps

1. Plan Out Your Entire Course: the first step is to determine what area you have a lot of knowledge in and what you are passionate about. You do this by brainstorming and identifying what your audience’s pains are, what their problems are, and what you can provide to them to give them the results they need. The key thing with brainstorming is organizing and prioritizing the ideas you come up with. You can do this by using post-it notes, Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, or an old notebook.

The second step you want to take is to organize these thoughts out in an order. The easiest way to do this is to find your core topic and create clusters of modules that can be arranged as sub-topics. Take your time with this step and ask yourself whether each idea’s position makes sense. In this stage, you will re-order multiple times and may even take some ideas out.

The third step here is to share your course content with friends and relatives to get some feedback. You can use this feedback to make the necessary tweaks before going ahead and recording it. If individuals are willing to buy your course off of what you have pitched (the outline), then you are headed in the right direction. If you are having trouble figuring out how to plan your course, there are real-world examples, worksheets, and an instructor dashboard on the Udemy website.

2. Record The Video Segments: the next step is to record your course videos. You will need a microphone, camera (DSLR) or smartphone and a set amount of time put aside. If you are new to video recording or course building in general, give yourself tons of time to record and create your videos. If you are camera shy, you can always use screencasting software to create some demos to help you through.

3. Build Up Your Community: once you have your course up and running, don’t just set it and leave it. Make sure to reach out to the students that buy the course and create exercises, assignments, and quizzes for them. Not only does this build interactivity but it creates a more genuine experience when you welcome them into your lessons. Make sure to answer any questions you get and generally keep up to date by posting announcements and messages. Yes, this does take time, but the more engaged you are, the greater the likelihood that others will get a positive impression and buy your course.


The number one thing to keep in mind when creating, building, and selling your online course is to be confident in what you are giving individuals. Be proud of the content that you have created and remember that you are building an online business through your course. Not only will it help individuals in solving a problem, increasing their skills, or helping them achieve their dream but it will bring you a passive income stream that is sustainable.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can earn passive income with online teaching and Udemy courses, please comment below and if you enjoyed the article don’t forget to clap ;)

Arman Eker

Written by

just living in the moment — www.armaneker.com

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