How to Start an Online Teaching Business (Picking a Platform)
Update for Summer of 2020: Here is a step by step, crash course on creating your first course, and selling your content, classes, courses and community….even on a bootstrap budget. (works on Podia, Gumroad, Teachable or any other online LMS you choose to use :)
What is the best online LMS for starting an online teaching business? Are all online learning platforms the same? Should I build my own content and courses community…..or, should I build my classes on a popular site like Udemy or otherwise?
In this short introduction, we’ll look at some of the very best options for starting an online teaching business in 2018 and beyond, leveraging some amazing tools and tech available to all entrepreneurs, regardless of budget.
The 5 most popular online course platforms, in my experience, (and with our audience) are:
- Teachable.com
- Thinkific.com
- Podia.com
- Gumroad.com
- Pathwright.com
Teachable and Thinkific are very similar in form and function. Both work well for both individual entrepreneurs and teachers, as well as more “marketplace” style communities, with multiple teachers, many courses and a myriad of options for both.
Both have free options (with limited feature sets) and both are good, solid options with many thousands of active schools and online teachers.
Podia.com is a super slick online content and course delivery platform — with the added benefit of a “Patreon” style membership site (VIP “level” based subscription content available to select members you set in the back end) and comes with a super sexy affiliate management module (turn your subscribers and students into partners for your brand and business) + robust email marketing tools as well. Podia is more affordable than all of the other options, and has the most robust feature set. (and the smoothest UX as well)
Pathwright.com is an amazing platform for BIG schools — with full LMS features ideal for large organizations, bigger brands and the budgets to match!
I love Pathwright for their immersive learner experiences, but they are pricier that the options above, and for a fully deployed school with everything you’ll need to really scale you’ll be spending considerably more (potentially $499 per month and up) and you’ll still need to integrate with Zapier to integrate apps (affiliates/email marketing/etc) to take full advantage of the monetization options an online course platform ought to offer. That said — of all the options on this page, Pathwright is my favorite for the actual learning ecosystem and student experience.
Gumroad is a really simple solution for selling content and courses as well. It’s ideal for bootstrap budgets and solopreneurs who are starting small. Gumroad is easy to use, affordable to set up (With a free option) and a great way of setting up a simple class or digital download to test, before you dive in and REALLY begin.
(note: Gumroad is not a good choice for multiple teachers, nor for a real “learner” experience, but excels at delivering content via email — and by dint of download, which is more than enough for many.
If you want to launch a kick ass online teaching business in 2018 and are stuck picking the right platform?
I’d recommend PODIA.com. It has everything you need to blow your audience away, and to build a real brand and a real business, teaching what you know, doing what you love…and waking up the world with your work! (and on a bootstrap budget to boot!)
Try Podia.com here for free (30 day free trial)
