56 creators made over $1,000,000
823 creators made over $100,000
What do the top course creators have in common? π§΅π
π£ They share what they know for free.
They spend countless hours creating free content and demonstrating value to establish domain authority, credibility, and earn trust.
π They focus relentlessly on the student experience.
They create raving fans who won't shut up about their course. Satisfied students don't recommend courses, transformed ones do. Student referrals become one of their best marketing channels.
π They build communities.
Building an audience is table stakes, but an audience is not a community. Top creators build groups of super fans who engage with and support each other.
πΈ They figure out their marketing machine.
They test channels and formats, know their numbers, figure out what works, and create ROI positive marketing funnels.
π³ They create a portfolio of products.
They capture more revenue from their customers by offering multiple complementary products and pricing tiers.
βΉοΈββοΈ They leverage a team.
At this level, almost no one is operating alone. They scale through help from assistants, course managers, contractors, coaches, partners, and even alumni students.
They persist.
Establishing credibility, iterating on course content, building community, developing effective marketing strategies, creating new products, hiring a team. All this takes a ton of time and effort, but it compounds. They've been at it for years.
Most of all, they're more passionate about WHAT they're doing and WHO they're doing it for than anyone else.
β’ β’ β’
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Common sentiment is that "audience-first" is the correct approach:
Create content, gain attention, build something for your new audience, sell it, and celebrate your new found success.
But if you're starting from scratch today, is that your only path? π§΅π
Audience-first: Build an audience before building a product.
Product-first: Build a product before building an audience.
But there's another option that can give you even better results:
At @teachable, we help creators measure completion rates.
But completion rates are a proxy metric at best. Track them if you want, but don't let them trick you into thinking students are getting value π§΅π
Hypothetical 1:
As a student, would you rather consume 100% of a course, or complete 30% of it but find an idea that helps you achieve your goal faster?
Hypothetical 2:
As a course creator, would you rather have 100% of your students complete your course, or have 100% of students actually apply the learnings they got from the course, regardless of their completion rate?
I'm confident you'd pick the latter in both cases.
If youβre building products for creators, youβll eventually need to generate revenue. VC money or not.
Get familiar with the most common monetization models π§΅π
π€ Share of earnings
β Aligns incentives between creator & platform.
β Harder to monetize creators with low sales.
β Creates a graduation problem (successful creators are incentivized to leave).
β Platforms negotiate special contracts for top earners to solve this.
- "Running a live course is like organizing a music tour, but having to develop the music before every single new show."
- Curriculums aren't set in stone. The advantage of live classes is you can adjust the curriculum to cater to students needs.
- A day or two before every session, they typically spend between seven to nine hours preparing the next lecture.
- How? They have existing building blocks and assets, adjust based on where students are getting confused, and reassembling the blocks into the next lecture.
"I really want to start a side hustle / become a creator / earn income online... But first I need to learn more about [topic]... Then I need to research the best tools... And I'm really busy right now, so I'll start later when things calm down."
Sound familiar? π§΅π
There's a good chance this is you. And if so, you've probably been telling yourself this same story on repeat for years.
The only thing you're creating is excuses.
But don't worry, you're not actually that far from your dream. You already have the skills, knowledge, and tools you need to make your first dollar online. You just need to take action.
So if you want to stop dreaming, follow this plan:
With a good pre-sale you can validate audience/idea fit with real money in the bank... Before you even create the product.
The secret to a good pre-sale? Treat it like a Kickstarter.
4 examples in the thread π§΅π
π― Set a goal
How many customers / much revenue will you need to continue working on your product? How long will you give it to hit that target? 1-2 weeks at most. Donβt drag it out.
π Create a lean sales page
Don't focus on the design or layout too much. Messaging is what's important. Include:
β What the pain point is
β Why your product is the solution
β What's included. Be specific, e.g. chapter outlines.