I know Mike, our site founder here, has some great online courses out there. I was wondering if anyone else here has created any online courses for music, composition, sequencing, or sampling. For anyone who has, how did you plan out your courses? What kinds of tools did you use? Where did you host them, and what made you pick that specific hosting? How do you advertise them?
Thanks for the kind words my fellow “Mike” 
Are you asking because you are interested in starting teaching courses yourself?
I use Udemy as my main platform as you know, but some people prefer to host them on their own website for better control.
I know that @ChrisSiuMusic teaches cinematic music composition on his own website. 
Hey @HeimburgerMusic
I haven’t but I plan. Here are some options for you…
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Load your course into YouTube and hide the link and sell through Paypal or BuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/.
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Go for Vimeo 16€/month and sell courses from there. They do offer that: https://vimeo.com/de/upgrade
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Invest in this software, and plan more than just courses, as it gives you all the automation you need to succeed online: https://groovepages.groovesell.com/a/zVVfMWAvSQZ6
I’ve already done that. This one is the future software for people like you if you want to do online business, as you won’t need anything else. You even have free lifetime access for GroovePages which is insane, as other companies charge $99 a month for that only. So all of my business will be there.
I can’t recommend Udemy. It isn’t made for creators, as they not only cut you 50%, they do sales all the time where your course is worth 6€, even if you have set it to 149€ for example. @Mikael can give you more information. In addition to that, I know that people who don’t want to invest a lot into something, never really appreciate your stuff, so you will automatically have people who will say that they saw your course somewhere on YouTube for free…mindset.
You could try out Gumroad.com. It’s a great way to not invest a lot upfront but still make some revenue.
In general when thinking about online business:
First, making a course is a great way to position yourself as an expert, however, it’s not as easy as most people think, as it takes a lot of time and effort and dedication to see nothing at the end of the day. You only have to go for it if you love to connect with others, give value, and are prepared for failure, as they are no guarantees at all that people will buy it.
Second, you have to be very clear for whom you are doing that course and why you are doing that course. There are 1000s of courses out there, why is your course so special? Does it have to be special? What do you offer? Basic knowledge people can Google, or something where people can’t get enough of it? Without knowing your audience, you will fail 100%. So make sure to gain as much information as possible from you folks who would be interested in that.
Third, marketing is not just posting something online and hoping for the best. You have to have a strategy. Otherwise, you will fail, and all your effort was for nothing. Who has to have followers who could be interested, they have to be informed. On social media, on YouTube, on your mailing-list. You have to promote your stuff all the time to see something at the end. So consider learning about marketing in general, if you feel that you never really paid attention to that before. Most people don’t know what marketing is because they think it’s not necessary to be successful with something. And that’s why most of them fail.
Most importantly, build trust with your guys who like your stuff. Ask them how many would consider investing in your course upfront (knowing the numbers can help a lot). Nothing wrong with that! If no-one wants, why wasting time?
Last, Facebook & Instagram Ads. Consider investing a lot of money there. If you want to make a couple of thousands in revenue, you have to invest four-figures upfront for a month or two, as the marge is extremely small. Meaning that if you sell your course for 99€, you could easily invest 80€+ into that sale before. So there is always a very high risk on that. Ads are not “printing money”. There are a lot of factors connected to that. Plus knowing how to copywrite your sales page is another huge component. If you can’t bring people to push that “buy me button”, you will not make money even if you have made the best course out there.
In the first place, ask yourself WHY do you want to make that course. If that’s because of money, it is the wrong approach. There are far more and better ways to make money without investing a lot of time. I believe a course should only be done after knowing who your audience is, or you just have all the time now and you want to put it online for passive income as an Evergreen. Then it’s a great idea.
I hope that helps.
Alexey
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