In this Article
- Ideas for tech online courses
- Ideas for arts and creativity online courses
- Ideas for business and personal development online courses
- Ideas for travel online courses
- Ideas for money and finance online courses
- Ideas for health and wellness online courses
- Ideas for marketing and sales online courses
- Ideas for cooking and baking online courses
- Ideas for home and lifestyle online courses
- How to find the best online course topic in 3 steps
Think of all the different personalities, interests, goals, hobbies, and challenges you observe in the people around you.
Now, think bigger!
There’s a whole world of people, and you can make money selling an online course in just about any niche.
Almost 80% of creators expect to make more from their creator business this year, and digital products like online courses are the most popular income stream creators plan to add to their mix. Creators are optimistic about the power of a course!
Let’s look at real examples of the courses creators use to make money online.
1. Ideas for tech online courses
Being technical is a handy skill many of us wish we had (and want to learn). If you are tech-savvy, consider teaching your audience a thing or two!
To make your tech online course a success, choose a topic, skill level, and purpose.
For example, you could create a beginner Squarespace design course for local businesses that want an online presence or an advanced programming course for engineering managers.
Online course example: CSS Advanced Beginner to Expert
Amy from SelfTeach.me teaches designers how to code and developers how to design. Their landing pages collect interest for courses like CSS Advanced Beginner to Expert and Build an App From Scratch.
Course landing pages should describe what students will achieve. Image via SelfTeach.me
Online course example: DIY Website Starter Course
The DIY Website Starter Course helps people learn to build a WordPress website by themselves.
Tell students what format the course is in and what support is available. Image via the DIY Website Starter Course
More tech online course ideas
- Website analytics set up and use
- Data analysis
- HTML/CSS
- Programming languages (Javascript, Python, C++)
- Website backup
- Website maintenance
- User experience (UX) design
- Build a plugin
- Improve website speed
- Artificial intelligence (AI) program usage
- Machine learning
2. Ideas for arts and creativity online courses
People are always searching for creative outlets. If you have a creative skill set, you have something unique to offer. Remember that arts and creativity cover digital and physical projects across all skill levels.
Online course example: Bookfox Academy
John Fox, the founder of Bookfox, is an editor and creator whose courses makeup 15% of his revenue. The Bookfox Academy course taught more than 4,000 students to write fiction books.
Social proof or stats, like the number of students or the number of lessons, help potential students trust your course offer. Image via John Fox
Online course example: Sketchbook Skool
Artist Danny Gregory has a variety of online art courses, like How to draw without talent and Be an iPad artist. Danny’s courses make up 20% of his creator revenue, along with memberships and book sales.
You can organize courses by skill level, interest, medium, or subject. Image via Sketchbook Skool. Image via Sketchbook Skool
More arts and craft online course ideas
- Instrument specific (vocal classes, flute, piano)
- Songwriting
- Musical skills (sight reading)
- Photography and photo editing
- Videography and video editing
- Graphic design
- Drawing and painting (charcoal, watercolor)
- Art techniques (shading, realism, cartoon)
- Sewing
- Knitting, crocheting, and textile arts
- Pottery
- Calligraphy and hand lettering
3. Ideas for business and personal development online courses
You’re reading this because you want to grow your business and learn new skills, so you know exactly what it feels like to be interested in business and personal development! Some creators turn their experiences into profitable online courses.
Online course example: Supercharge Your Productivity
Khe Hy left a Wall Street job to pursue a creator business, and now courses like Supercharge Your Productivity make up 34% of his income.
Online courses can have open enrollment for anytime access or open and close for registration. Image via RadReads
Online course example: Becoming a More Confident Leader
Dorie Clark has a full catalog of professional and personal development courses like Becoming a More Confident Leader and Personal Branding for Women. Dorie used client work and courses to make $100,000 in her first year.
Course titles can be straightforward statements about the topic or outcome. Image via Dorie Clark
More business and personal development digital course ideas
- Networking
- Career guidance
- Manifestation
- Achieving goals
- Overcoming burnout
- Overcoming mental barriers
- Productivity
- Meditation
- Negotiation
- Confidence
- Conflict management
- Public speaking
4. Ideas for travel online courses
Planning (and paying) for trips is a huge undertaking, so people are willing to pay for a variety of travel course topics. Lean on your experiences, perspectives, and skills to give your online course a unique twist.
Online course example: How to Take $10,000 Trips FOR FREE
Gabby Beckford launched her travel blog two weeks before the pandemic shut travel down, but that didn’t stop her from growing her business to more than 9,000 email subscribers, 20 workshops taught, and 15% of revenue coming from her courses like 10K trips for free.
Knowing your audience helps you write sales copy that catches their attention. Image via PacksLight
More travel online course ideas
- How to travel with kids
- Traveling with pets
- DIY van life
- Making money while traveling
- Travel tips for specific countries/regions
- Budget travel tips
- ‘Travel hacking’ to earn and use credit card points
- Packing strategies
- Language learning
- Cultural sensitivity and responsibility
- Travel planning
- Travel safety and preparedness
5. Ideas for money and finance online courses
Personal finances are part of everyone’s lives, and courses that teach people how to budget, invest, or manage money can help a lot of people.
Online course example: Money Mastery Mini-Class
Nick True launched his first blog in 2015, then rebranded it to Mapped Out Money. It has over 10,000 email subscribers and a YouTube channel with over 58,000 subscribers. Courses like the Money Mastery Mini-Class account for 39.9% of the revenue Nick and his wife, Hanna, generate.
The course sales page has a class outline, so students know what to expect. Image via Mapped Out Money
More finance and money digital course ideas
- Budgeting
- Investing
- Debt repayment
- Financial literacy for kids and teens
- Credit score improvement
- Real estate
- Tax optimization
- Estate planning
- Cryptocurrency
- Retirement planning
6. Ideas for health and wellness online courses
There will always be people looking to improve their health. If you are qualified to give health and wellness advice, people will be willing to pay to hear your expertise.
Online course example: Yoga for 45+
Christine Fuchs’ blog, Yoga & Wellness with Christine, has live online classes, free yoga guides, and a course for adult beginners.
Adding a unique angle to your course, like an age group, helps it stand out to the right audience. Image via Wellness & Yoga with Christine
Online course example: Starting Solids 101
The Starting Solids 101 course helps parents introduce new foods to their kids. The course form The Baby Dietician also offers chat access to a pediatric dietician and a private Facebook community.
Listing course topics gives students a sense of what to expect. Image via The Baby Dietician
More fitness, health, and wellness online course ideas
- Cooking for specific diets (celiacs, low-carb, vegan)
- Nutrition for specific demographics
- Yoga for different levels or people (beginners or post-partum)
- Different types of dance (tap, hip-hop, ballet)
- Specific fitness goals (bigger glutes, six-pack abs, toned arms)
- Sleep quality
- Injury prevention
7. Ideas for marketing and sales online courses
Marketing and selling are critical to running a business, but some people have yet to run the projects before or want a new perspective.
Online course example: Freelance Cake
Writer and creator Austin Church makes 50% of his business revenue from courses like Freelance Cake, which teaches freelancers how to get high-paying clients.
A powerful headline captures student attention on your sales page. Image via Austin L. Church
Online course example: Etsy on Autopilot
Designer Kelsey Baldwin of Paper + Oats earns 80% of her revenue from online courses like Etsy on Autopilot, alongside Etsy shop sales, ebooks, affiliate sales, and a physical book.
Sharing your personal experience with selling builds your authority on the topic. Image via Paper + Oats
More marketing and sales digital course ideas
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Cold emailing
- Content marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Video marketing
- Paid ad strategies
- Personal branding
8. Ideas for cooking and baking online courses
Everyone eats, but nobody starts as an accomplished chef or baker. Your online course can teach people any cuisine or technique at varying skill levels.
Online course example: Instant Pot 30-Day Jumpstart Course
Mother-daughter team Barbara and Jenn of Pressure Cooking Today teach absolute beginners how to use an Instant Pot.
Listing course results gets students excited about where they’ll be after your content. Image via Pressure Cooking Today
More baking and cooking online course ideas
- Cooking for families, couples, or singles
- Cooking and baking techniques
- Cake decorating
- Cookie decorating
- Simple recipes
- Bread baking
- Knife skills
- Food photography
- Cocktails and mixology
- Fermentation and pickling
9. Ideas for home and lifestyle online courses
Home and lifestyle online courses can cover everything outside of work or business, from interior design to hobbies and relationships.
Online course example: Your First Garden
Homesteader and author Deborah Niemann uses courses like, Goat Basics, and Your First Garden, to generate 70% of her creator business revenue.
Your course catalog can cover a variety of topics. Image via Thrifty Homesteader
More home and lifestyle digital course ideas
- Home decor
- Home improvement
- Makeup
- Parenting
- Plant care
- Decluttering
- Home cleaning and organization
- Sustainable and eco-friendly practices
- Pet care
- Family relationships
How to find the best online course topic for you in 3 steps
The sky’s the limit for online course ideas, but which is right for you and your audience? Because it’s not enough that you think an idea is great—your audience has to agree enough to pay for it.
Choosing a topic for your online course takes three steps:
Step #1: Brainstorm online course ideas
You can generate online course ideas with or without a big audience. Here’s where to look for inspiration and come up with at least five to ten ideas before proceeding to the next step.
Review an existing online course
With so many online courses out there, there’s a good chance someone’s already created a course (or resource) in your niche—that’s ok!
In fact, you can use that to your advantage.
Online reviews for your competitors’ products hold lots of valuable information. Often, a reviewer shares what they liked and wished they learned.
If your competition doesn’t have public reviews, head to Amazon and search for ebooks within your niche. You’ll find a plethora of reviews to read.
Look for reviews that say things like:
- “I wish I learned…”
- “I wanted to know how…”
- “This was missing…”
- “I really like how…”
- “This helped me…”
The good reviews can help you understand what your competition is teaching well, and the bad reviews will help you determine what is missing.
Generate course ideas from FAQs
If you get the same questions over and over from your subscribers, there’s a high probability others in your audience are seeking the same information. Use your FAQs to your advantage and generate potential course ideas!
Ask your audience about their struggles
If you don’t want to wait for your audience to ask questions, why not go directly to them?
Ask your audience about their biggest struggles or what they want to learn. And you don’t need a big audience to get valuable insights. After asking a handful of people what they want to learn, you’ll hopefully begin to notice patterns and trends.
Use Google Analytics to find your highest-performing content
If you have a website with incoming traffic, you’re in luck because your Google Analytics (GA) is a goldmine of useful information. You can find course ideas by looking at:
- Your most popular website pages
- The blog posts people spend the most time on
- What terms visitors enter into your website search bar
Utilize Answer the Public to unlock more ideas
Answer the Public is a great freemium tool you can use to generate tons of online course ideas in a matter of seconds. Enter your niche to get a list of popular search queries to glimpse your potential course takers’ minds.
Step #2: Narrow down your digital course ideas
Alright! You’ve generated a list of topics, and now it’s time to choose a few ideas to test.
There are three main questions you can ask yourself to knock some ideas off your list:
- Which course idea I have the most knowledge about? It goes without being said, but you know about the topic you create an online course on.
- Which course idea excites me the most? An online course can take anywhere from 25 to 500 hours. It’s a good idea to be excited about the topic so you don’t run out of gas. (PS–read our product launch timeline to map your course creation.)
- Is this course evergreen or seasonal? Evergreen content doesn’t expire. Most courses will be evergreen, but some niches (like gardening) might only be relevant to your audience during specific times of the year. This isn’t bad, but it will limit your revenue if you can’t keep your course open all year. Pinterest Trends shows you whether or not certain topic ideas fluctuate during specific times of the year.
Step #3: Validate your online course idea
After narrowing down your list, you’ll have your online course idea! But before you create your course, you need to validate your idea (so you can be positive it’ll be a hit with your audience).
Here are four easy methods to validate your idea.
Evaluate your idea’s popularity using Google Trends
Google Trends will show you whether or not your online course idea is increasing or decreasing in popularity.
For example, when we search for bodybuilding, we can see it has declined in popularity over the last five years:
A Google Trends search for “bodybuilding” shows its popularity is declining over time.
If a course is declining in popularity, you should ask yourself whether or not there will be a demand for it in the future.
Collect data with an online course survey
Surveying your audience is a simple way to get feedback on your course idea. To simplify the process, use an email to direct subscribers to a survey by clicking on a link.
Tools like Typeform and Google Forms are easy-to-use survey tools. Your survey can ask questions like:
- What do you know about topic X?
- What do you wish you knew about topic X?
- Would you take a course on topic X?
You can also use a mix of question types to get different feedback:
- Multiple-choice: for collecting more broad responses from your audience.
- Free response: for gaining qualitative feedback and prioritizing specifics.
- Rating: if you want to gauge how interested an audience member is in something.
- Yes/No: for simple questions that only require a yes or no response.
Interview your audience
While surveys are insightful on their own, the highest quality feedback you can receive comes from personal interviews.
People are often more open and transparent in interviews, giving you more insight behind their answers than what they put in a quick survey.
You can talk to your audience members, email subscribers, or those who took your survey. Since interviews are time intensive, you can offer interviewees your course for free (or at a discount).
If you’re contemplating including interviews in your online course preparation process, here are a few questions to keep in mind:
- What will you gain from an interview that you can’t from a survey?
- What do you hope to learn from the completed interviews?
- What are the most important questions to ask your audience members?
- How long will the personal interviews be?
- How will you record their responses? (written notes, audio recordings, etc.)
- Will you record the interviews one-on-one or in select groups?
- Do you have the flexibility to interview your audience around their schedule?
Conduct customer research with a live workshop or webinar
What if you could grow your email list and conduct customer research at the same time? By offering a workshop or webinar, you can teach a free mini-course and gauge the interest based on those who attend.
Plan your webinar to cover similar topics as your online course, and then ask for questions and feedback at the end to refine your idea.
Validate your online course idea with Kit
If your mind is spinning with ideas and enthusiasm—use that momentum!
Kit makes it easy to start and grow an audience to sell to, set up a landing page to collect interest for your course, and even sell your content when it’s ready with Kit Commerce.
