Teachable

Speak Norsk CEO & Founder Huzan Raad and her business partner Nicoleta Stratan nearly went bankrupt when COVID-19 forced them to close their thriving in-person Norwegian language school.

Just two years earlier, they’d built something special. Founded in 2018 by Huzan, a former immigrant from Iraq who grew up in Norway and learned Norwegian through conversation rather than textbooks, Speak Norsk had become one of Norway’s fastest-growing Norwegian language schools.

Their innovative conversational teaching method attracted students so quickly they moved locations seven times in three years due to rapid growth. Each move was to accommodate more students who wanted to learn Norwegian the Speak Norsk way: Through real conversations, not dry grammar books.

Related: How to make money selling courses right now

Speak Norsk’s Teachable journey at a glance

When COVID hit Speak Norsk’s biggest location sat empty. Revenue dropped to zero overnight. With most of their team laid off, just Nicoleta and Huzan remained, facing a choice: shut down or find a completely new way to teach.

“At one point, we thought this might be the end for the company. But then we observed a shift — many competitors were moving their classes online and offering live lessons on Zoom..” –Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

But Speak Norsk chose a different path.

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The turning point

While competitors rushed to replicate their in-person classes on Zoom, Nicoleta and Huzan realized they needed something more scalable. With just two people left, they couldn’t teach live classes and run the entire business.

“We realized that we couldn’t do everything on our own — teaching, managing operations, and handling course delivery all at once. That’s when Teachable came into the picture. We knew we needed a platform that would allow us to easily create and deliver our courses.” –Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

They chose Teachable because it let them focus on what they did best: creating engaging, conversation-focused Norwegian lessons. The platform’s user-friendly interface meant their teachers could create and manage courses without needing technical expertise.

The decision proved transformational. Within their first year on Teachable, they earned the platform’s 1M Sales Award, and their online student count soon surpassed what they’d achieved with their physical locations.

“Learning a language should be an exciting journey for adult learners. Unlike traditional methods, we combine entertainment with proficiency—bringing modern, practical topics, engaging illustrations, and simple, clear grammar explanations. With us, learning becomes as enjoyable as reading a novel.” -Huzan Raad, CEO & Founder of Speak Norsk. 

Speak Norsk’s secret sauce to success on Teachable

Instead of simply adapting their in-person classes into an online format, Speak Norsk reimagined language learning by combining visual storytelling, personal guidance, and strategic course packaging. A prime example is the Viking Course, an all-in-one program that takes students from complete beginner to confident communicator by bundling multiple levels into one seamless learning journey serving Norwegian learners worldwide.

Here’s how they turned a near-bankruptcy into a business that exceeds their pre-COVID revenue.

Strategy 1: Use a free course as your main lead magnet

Speak Norsk’s growth engine starts with a comprehensive free Norwegian course hosted directly on Teachable. This isn’t a basic teaser, it’s substantial content that gets people familiar with both their teaching style and the platform.

“Our pre-recorded videos are created by the same highly skilled Norwegian teachers who contributed to our own-produced book series from A1 to C1. Praised by our classroom students, they make learning feel smooth and easy, keeping you motivated with clear, encouraging, and easy-to-understand explanations.”-Huzan Raad, CEO & Founder of Speak Norsk.

They promote this free course heavily on social media while keeping their paid course promotions exclusively within Teachable. This creates a natural progression: social media followers become Teachable users, then Teachable users become paying students.

“We offer a free course on Teachable to give students a chance to explore the platform and get comfortable with how it works before starting their paid courses.”– Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

The strategy works because it removes friction. Instead of asking people to pay immediately, they let the quality of their teaching do the selling.

Take action: Create a substantial free course that showcases your teaching style and gets people comfortable with your platform before asking them to buy.

Strategy 2: Add personal consultations to self-paced courses

While most online course creators focus purely on scalable, hands-off models, Speak Norsk adds a personal touch that sets them apart: free language consultations.

“We strive to make the learning experience as personal as possible and provide students with added value they wouldn’t find anywhere else.”– Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

These 15-30 minute consultations help students choose the right courses based on their specific goals. Whether someone wants to pass a citizenship test, learn business Norwegian, or prepare for immigration, Nicoleta and her team provide personalized recommendations.

The consultations serve multiple purposes: they increase conversion rates, collect valuable data about student needs, and often lead to higher-value course purchases. Students feel guided rather than abandoned to figure things out alone.

Take action: Consider adding a personal consultation layer to your self-paced courses to increase perceived value and conversion rates, even if it doesn’t scale infinitely.

Strategy 3: Create seasonal and certification-specific courses

Speak Norsk doesn’t just teach general Norwegian. They’ve built courses around specific student needs and seasonal patterns, particularly immigration and certification cycles.

Their Norwegian citizenship test preparation courses come with a bold promise: 100% pass guarantee with unlimited retakes until students succeed.

“If a student takes the course and, for any reason, doesn’t pass the test, they can retake it as many times as needed—with unlimited access until they succeed.” –Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

They also time their marketing around seasonal patterns. When Norwegian language tests approach, they promote test preparation courses. When companies are hiring, they push their business Norwegian content.

This targeted approach allows them to charge premium prices for specialized content while serving students exactly when they need help most.

Take action: Identify seasonal peaks or certification cycles in your industry and create targeted courses around those specific needs and timing.

Strategy 4: Build around company brand, not personal brand

Unlike most online educators who build around personal brands, Speak Norsk deliberately chose a company-focused approach with multiple teachers.

“We ensured a unified structure and provided the same training to all our teachers, so lessons are easy to follow even if the teacher changes. This keeps students focused and progressing at the same steady pace, as if guided by one teacher from beginning to end, while saving time, money, and making life easier by learning fast and efficiently” – Huzan Raad, CEO & Founder of Speak Norsk.

This strategy eliminates “key person risk.” If one teacher leaves, the business continues. Students trust the Speak Norsk methodology and brand rather than depending on a single instructor’s availability or personality.

The approach also allows them to scale more effectively. Different teachers can specialize in different levels and topics, creating a more comprehensive educational experience.

“It was a deliberate choice not to rely on a single central teacher. Instead, we wanted multiple instructors teaching across different levels, so that students would build trust in the brand as a whole rather than in just one individual.”–Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

Take action: If possible, build your brand around your methodology or company rather than just yourself to create a more scalable, sellable business model.

Strategy 5: Focus on visual, interactive content over traditional methods

Speak Norsk’s biggest competitive advantage comes from rejecting traditional language learning methods. Founder Huzan experienced the frustration of “open your books to page 82” teaching and was determined to create something better.

Their courses emphasize visual elements, real conversations, and interactive exercises over text-heavy traditional approaches. This methodology proved so effective that competitors have started copying their methods.

“Around 95% of our courses are self-paced, but we’ve invested so much time and effort into developing them that we know it would be difficult for competitors to match the same level of work and quality.” –Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

The extra effort creates a competitive moat. While competitors can try to copy their approach, few are willing to invest the time and resources needed to match Speak Norsk’s production quality.

Take action: Audit your course content for text-heavy sections and find ways to make them more visual, interactive, and engaging than your competitors.

Speak Norsk’s results

Speak Norsk’s transformation from near-bankruptcy to online success demonstrates the power of choosing the right platform and methodology for your audience.

Their numbers tell the story: over 14,000 students enrolled on Teachable, earning them Teachable’s 1M Sales Award in their first year. Their online student base now surpasses what they’d achieved from their multiple physical locations before COVID.

The reach extends far beyond course sales. With over 10 million Instagram reach, 100,000+ followers, and millions of TikTok views, they’ve built a global community around Norwegian language learning.

More importantly, they’ve maintained quality while scaling. Their courses consistently receive positive reviews, with students successfully passing citizenship tests, securing job offers in Norway, and achieving family reunification through their language progress.

Expert corner: How the Speak Norsk team thinks about education

Speak Norsk serves a unique and important mission: helping people achieve their dreams of living in Norway. Their students include future immigrants, professionals seeking Norwegian job opportunities, and people working toward citizenship or family reunification.

“We had a few students that actually came from the US to Norway. They knew they were going to move and they started learning with us ahead of time. And by the time they came, they already had an intermediate level and could integrate easily, apply for different jobs and so on.” – Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

The impact goes beyond language skills. Students learn from native Norwegian speakers, understanding cultural nuances and dialects that traditional methods miss. Many report feeling prepared not just for language tests, but for real conversations with Norwegian colleagues, friends, and neighbors.

The ripple effect extends to Norwegian society as well, helping immigrants integrate more successfully and contributing to more welcoming communities for newcomers.

Looking ahead

Speak Norsk’s immediate plans include launching specialized courses for healthcare vocabulary and C1-level Norwegian test preparation. Both are already built on Teachable and awaiting final design elements.

“Our vision for Speak Norsk is globally oriented, expanding our methodology to more languages and making it accessible to learners worldwide. We plan to launch a groundbreaking language app, supported by our own book series in multiple languages and e-courses across the globe. In addition, we are planning to open in-person schools in London, New York, and Dubai.” – Huzan Raad, CEO & Founder of Speak Norsk.

“We have two upcoming courses. One focuses on healthcare in Norway, covering medical vocabulary and terminology. The other, called Norskprøve C1, is a preparation course designed for the Norwegian language test at the C1 level.” –Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

Their bigger vision involves expanding beyond Norwegian through their new Speak More platform. English courses are already live, Spanish is launching soon, and Arabic is in production. They’re also developing books for all languages using the same conversation-focused methodology.

“We just want to bring a new type of learning to the market, something that’s very fun and interactive.” –Nicoleta Stratan, Managing Director & Partner at Speak Norsk

The goal is creating a comprehensive language learning ecosystem that applies Speak Norsk’s proven methods to multiple languages, always with native teachers and real-world conversation focus.

What to do next

Check out Speak Norsk’s Norwegian language courses on Teachable, including their free introductory course that has helped thousands of students start their Norwegian language journey. Whether you’re planning to visit Norway, immigrate permanently, or advance your career, their conversation-focused approach will prepare you for real-world success.

Learn more about Speak Norsk: Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Website

Try Teachable yourself: Ready to turn your teaching expertise into a scalable online business like SpeakNorsk? Start your free Teachable trial today and discover why educators worldwide choose Teachable to build and grow their online schools. With features designed for course creators, student engagement tools, and business growth capabilities, Teachable provides everything you need to create educational impact at scale.

For someone who has never worked in sales, marketing your online course and trying to get people to buy can be an intimidating process. Luckily, the first sale is the hardest. Once you’ve gotten over that hurdle, you’ll get into the selling “groove” and you should have an easier time making your next sales. But that brings us back to square one: making that very first sale.

Luckily, there are tried and true methods for selling your online course, and the important part for you is to figure out which ones will work best for you. Here are our favorite ways to make your first online course sale. We’ve ranked them from most successful to least.

In no way do you need to try and execute all of these strategies or even half of them. Choose the one or two that stand out to you and go from there.

In this blog post we’re going to go over:

• The most common and successful ways to make your first sale on Teachable
• Tips on how to get started with each method even if you’re a total beginner
• How exactly to make the first sale using each method

Make your first sale with an email list

If you’ve spent any time here on the Teachable blog, you might be sick of hearing us talk about the power of a targeted and warm email list.

In short, your email list is comprised of people who opted to follow you in exchange for the value you provide. Whether they sign up during a webinar you host, to get a free piece of content, or to get access to your valuable emails, these are your highest converting audience members.

How to grow your email list

People sign up for your email list in exchange for value. The quickest way to entice people to join is by creating a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a free download, worksheet, PDF, report, video, or whatever you choose that is informative and helpful to your audience. It should be valuable enough that your audience will be excited to sign up and glad they did even after they receive the freebie.

At Teachable we recommend that course creators use a free mini course as their lead magnet. It can be very short, but it needs to provide real value. Cassidy from Succulents and Sunshine has a great example of a mini course here.

How to keep your email list warm

One of the most important things your can do to have a high-converting email list is to keep it warm. You can’t expect people to sign up in August and not hear from you again until May and still be interested in your course. In fact, people will likely forget about who you are and what you do by then.

To keep your email list warm, send regular updates and newsletters. Now, you don’t have to be emailing 3x a week, but weekly or bi-weekly emails will keep you on your audience’s radar. Just be sure it’s consistent so your followers know when to expect to hear from you.

Make sure that you’re sending high-quality, targeted content that will help establish you as an authority and someone to turn to in your niche. When you’re deciding when to send your newsletter, consider these factors:

• When is your audience active? Are they stay-at-home moms checking their inboxes at the 3pm pick-up line or are they businesswomen not getting home from work until 6pm?
• When do you usually check your inbox? Nobody will have more in common with your audience than you do, so check your habits. Your audience likely has similar ones.
• When is your audience spending the most time online? Maybe they’re checking their emails at 3pm, but not actually spending any real time online until after their kids sleep at 9pm.

What if my list has gone cold?

Don’t fear, you can re-warm your list and turn it into a conversion machine. The first thing you should do is send an introduction email. Segment out anyone who has signed up in the last month, and send everyone else a re-introduction.

Let them know who you are, what you’ve been up to, and what your greatest resources are—and send them something that’s incredibly high value so that they stick around. From there, send regular emails so they don’t forget you.

How to sell to your email list

Selling to your email list can be a lot of fun if they’re warm, because they’ll be more engaged and excited about what you have to sell. We recommend selling in two different phases. Pre-sales and actual sales.

Pre-sales

Your pre-sale phase will come in a one-two punch.

Day 1 is the course teaser

This is when you tell your subscribers that you’ll have an exciting announcement coming out soon, and that you’ll be opening an online course. This is where you start building anticipation, which will keep readers engaged and coming back for more.

Day 2 covers the course details

In this email, you answer, “What’s in the course?” and you explain in detail what your milestones and lessons are for the entire course. You’ll end by telling them that the course is going to become available tomorrow, but you won’t share the sales page yet.

Sales

On Day 3, you’ll announce that your course is open

This email is your big moment, when you finally get to share that your course is available. You’ll link to your sales page, and you might consider including a few testimonials in your email. You’ll also need to make it clear that this is a limited-time offer.

Day 4 is your FAQ email

Using an FAQ email is the perfect opportunity for you to appeal to your subscribers’ logical side and squash any concerns they might have about your course. Tell them about your 30-day guarantee, and reassure them that they’ll have lifetime access.

Share what the course includes, and see if you can anticipate their questions. You’ll provide the questions and answers right in the body of your email. Again, the CTA for this email will be to click on your sales page link, and you’ll want to reiterate that this offer ends on X date at Y time.

Day 5 is the surprise bonus email

This is a fun opportunity for you to tell you subscribers that you’re giving them a new surprise that you haven’t mentioned on the sales page if they buy now. This should either be bonus content or an even steeper discount.

Day 6 is the thank-you & social proof email

At this point, you want to thank everyone for reading your emails and being part of your launch. Hopefully by now you may have gotten excited emails or social media posts from new customers, so you can include some anonymized screenshots where new customers are raving about your content.

By now you’re nearing the end of your launch, so now Day 7

The day before your launch ends—is the logical argument. You’ll tell everyone that your course will be closing, and you’ll build a logical argument convincing them why they need to buy right now. Remind them about your bonus, and remind them how soon the sales window closes.

Then finally you’ll arrive at Day 8, the final day in your launch

On this last day, you’ll be sending not one but two emails. It seems like a lot, but trust us on this one! It’s worked for our most successful instructors here at Teachable.

The morning email goes out at 11 AM

You’ll announce that today is the absolute last day to get the course, and that sales end at midnight.

Then the afternoon email should go out around 3 or 4 PM

This is their last chance email, when you’ll reiterate that sales close at midnight, and that they won’t want to miss out on this opportunity. Congratulations! Chances are you’ve made your first (and probably second, fifth, and tenth) sale by launching to your email list!

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Make your first sale with a YouTube channel

YouTube is a great platform for making a connection with your audience and really showing off who you are and what you’re capable of. If you can establish a high-quality YouTube channel with engaged followers, converting some of them to your paid course is pretty basic.

Making your first sale on YouTube is as simple as:

1. Making high quality content
2. Proving you have something to offer
3. Selling a product that will solve your audience’s problems

If you think that YouTube is the right platform for you, keep in mind that YouTube favors a few things:

• Regular uploads
• HD quality
• SEO optimized description boxes

If you can accomplish all three, you’ll likely find more success on the platform than someone who is sporadically uploading and not optimizing anything. Now, you don’t need any of those things to be successful on YouTube, but they will certainly help.

How to make your first sale on YouTube

Theoretically, all it takes is for one video to go viral, but you can never count on a video going viral—it’s largely up to chance. So, instead, you will need to go in with a solid strategy. Our recommendation is creating a four-part series warming your audience up to you and your online course.

Step one – establish your expertise

Create a valuable video walking your audience through some aspect of what your online course is going to cover. Don’t worry about giving away bits and pieces of what will be included in your main product, your focus here should be providing value.

For example, if you’re a gardening course creator, you can create a video walking your audience through setting up an indoor gardening space start to finish. Be detailed and clear and prove that you’re an authority when it comes to gardening.

Step two – mention your paid product

This video should also be incredibly high value. Introduce the topic by saying, “Hey, I’ve been working on creating an online course on ________ and I was so excited about ________ that I had to share this section with your right now.

At the end of the video, let your audience know when you expect the course sales page to be live.

Step three – host a Q&A

You can really establish yourself as an authority here by hosting a Q&A. Ask everyone who follows you on social or who is on your email list to submit questions to answer. No shame, if you don’t get questions have your friends and family send you some, or make some up based on what people have come to you for advice on in the past!

It doesn’t matter who is asking so long as you can host a valuable Q&A where you’re able to flex your expertise.

Step four – announce your online course or digital product

Announce your online course! If you’re okay with the clickbait game, title your video something like, “I am so excited…” for the first hour or two to get people curious and clicking, and then change the title to be optimized for SEO after your first wave of views. In this video walk your audience through what your course is, the value it provides, and what people will get from taking it. Be excited and high-energy so that your audience feels excited. Make sure to link to your sales page in the description.

Do this after you post your YouTube video

Go back into your first three videos and add an annotation at the beginning letting everyone know to check your description box for a link to your online course.

In-real-life (IRL) marketing

People love to connect with real people. Anonymous names and pictures on the internet can be stiff and uninviting and they don’t always invite trust. Whether you’re able to speak at a conference or just go to a networking event, making an in person appeal can go a long way.

Giving an impassioned talk about what you have to offer and your history in your niche can resonate with people like you wouldn’t believe. If there is a local conference happening in your niche, reach out to the coordinators to see if there is a need for speakers or panelists.

Again, people are going to feel more connected to you after seeing you in person, and having the opportunity to engage with you in a real way will build trust and make it easier to convert the audience into customers. And even if your local conference doesn’t have an opening for speakers, attending is great for networking.

Hosting in-person events

If you want to take things into your own hands, you could also host an in-person event to people interested in your area of expertise. Hosting a live training for people in your area gives you the opportunity to better connect with your potential customers and gain their trust.

You could do this by turning the first lesson in your online course into an in-person presentation and teaching it where your audience hangs out whether that’s a university, yoga studio, culinary school, or somewhere else entirely.

If you don’t have any local places that totally make sense for your live training, consider reaching out to your local library or co-working space. In my area, our co-working space will actually give anyone who hosts an event a free month membership because they’re so grateful to get people in the building and interested in the space.

How to sell at in-person events

The key here is to really connect with the people you speak with and present a solution to the problems they might be having.

Print out business cards (or DIY some) with a link to your sales page and maybe even a coupon code. If people feel like you provided value at the event, they’re more likely to feel like they can trust your paid product to provide value, too.

Use Twitter (X) to make your first sale

X is interesting because it’s a platform where people are still excited to engage. They don’t want to scroll through boring tweet after boring tweet. They want something funny or clever to retweet or respond to, so consider getting outside your comfort zone.

How to get your first sale on Twitter

The most important thing to keep in mind on Twitter is that you do not want to come across as salesy or pushy. Twitter champions authenticity, so at least 80% of your tweets should be stand alone tweets that aren’t linking to your sales page or people will be less likely to follow.

Build your following and clout on the platform by tweeting real and engaging quips that are relevant to your audience. Whether you’re a food blogger rejoicing in finding the perfect avocado or a tech blogger celebrating your first app in the app store, spend most of your time being you. You can also tweet out other people’s content to build positive relationship and your niche and provide value to your followers.

The other 20% of the time you can self-promote. Once your audience trusts that you provide value, promote the heck out of your content. Don’t just tweet a link to your sales page. Instead attach images or valuable quotes from your course so people don’t just scroll past. You can also incentivize people to retweet or share by offering a coupon in exchange for a retweet.

Also, choose your most enticing promotion tweet and pin it to the top of your profile. Your pinned tweet will be the first thing anyone sees when they go to your profile.

Leverage Instagram to make your first digital sale

Selling on Instagram is great for visual brands or people who already have a following on the platform. Instagram is a bit trickier to sell on compared to other sites because they don’t allow you to link within your posts. But, you can add a link to your bio, and if you have over 10,000 followers you can add a link to your Instagram stories.

Instagram is all about engagement. If you’re not engaging with people, you’re not going to grow and you’re not going to get on anybody’s radar. Make sure to follow others in your niche and people who might be interested in your topic. Spend time going through your feed to like and comment on pictures that catch your attention.

Beyond that, it’s important to post high-quality content. Instagram is a visual platform, so the accounts that are growing the quickest are the ones posting the most beautiful imagery.

Getting your first sale on Instagram

We recommend finding a picture that is somehow related to your course topic and editing a text overlay on top of it. Keep the text simple and clean so it doesn’t make your picture look spammy, and have it say something like “Exciting announcement!”

From there, use the caption to announce your online course and direct people to click the link in your bio. Instagram is tricky because people have a short attention span and will oftentimes just mindlessly scroll. If you don’t have an engaged Instagram audience, this might not be the right method for you.

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A student purchases your course. They’re excited, maybe a little nervous. They log into your platform for the first time.

What students see when they log in will determine whether they succeed or disappear.

Most creators think backwards about business growth.

They believe more marketing leads to more students, which leads to more revenue, which eventually leads to better student outcomes.

Wrong order. When students succeed first, everything else gets easier:

• Referral marketing happens naturally.
• Lifetime value increases dramatically.
• Premium pricing becomes sustainable.
• Testimonials write themselves.
• Refund rates drop significantly.

The outcome is clear: where students thrive, your business grows. Here’s how you can set your students up for success and grow your business with Teachable.

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How Teachable’s brand new student dashboard will help boost your course completion rates

Catch the replay of our recent webinar to see how Teachable’s student home can guide students, drive repeat sales, and connect your community, all in one place.

A good dashboard answers three questions immediately:

1. Do I belong here? It shows students exactly where they are in their journey. Progress bars, completion percentages, and “next lesson” prompts remove guesswork.
2. Can I succeed? It shows the bigger picture. Students can see their completed courses alongside other courses they’re enrolled in and new opportunities, reinforcing that they’re building real expertise over time. It also makes finding help easy: the right resources in the right place.
3. What do I do next? It suggests logical next steps. Whether that’s the next lesson, a supplementary resource, or an advanced program, students always know how to move forward.

A bad dashboard throws everything at them at once. Video library. Resource downloads. Community links. Bonus materials. No coherent order to any of it. Where do they even start? They bookmark it to “check out later” and never come back.

When students feel confident and clear about their progress, they keep coming back. When they feel lost, they quit.

But the real power comes from how it creates a home for your students. Everything they need, thoughtfully structured, in one place.

It’s a space that directs intentional learning outcomes and connects to your broader ecosystem at the same time:

• Progress tracking shows students they’re advancing even when it doesn’t feel like it
• Personalized navigation eliminates decision fatigue about what to work on next
• A hero banner to welcome students, highlight upcoming programs or events, or spotlight important information
• Community and support access connects students with the resources they need, whether that’s your community, FAQs, or ways to book a 1:1 call
• Mobile accessibility lets students learn during commutes, lunch breaks, or whenever they have time

When these elements work together, students go beyond simply completing your course—they develop genuine expertise through lived experience. 

They may also become advocates who drive sustainable business growth through referrals, testimonials, and repeat purchases.

Teachable’s new student dashboard delivered measurable results within months of launch:

• Students navigate to their lessons 6x faster
• They return to continue learning 2x more frequently after four weeks
• They go to checkout 2.8x more frequently than before

The dashboard works by organizing itself around each student’s actual needs and behavior:

• Jump Back In: Students with courses in progress see these first, with the most completed courses shown first. No creator setup required—the system identifies where students left off and surfaces it at the top.
• My Library: All enrolled products organized by your chosen sort order. Students never lose track of what they own or wonder what they have access to.
• Completed Courses: Finished courses stay visible for review, sorted by when students last opened them. This encourages revisiting valuable content and reinforces the value they received.
• Explore Additional Products: Other courses from your school appear here using your catalog sort order, driving natural discovery of your full curriculum.

This creates the cycle that separates successful education businesses from struggling content creators: student success drives business growth, which enables investment in even better learning experiences, which creates more student success.

Simple ways to customize your student experience

While the dashboard works automatically, you can customize key elements:

• Brand Colors: Set navigation background, link colors, and button colors. Pro tip: Use high contrast combinations for accessibility—dark text on light backgrounds or light text on dark backgrounds.
• One-Click Translations: 10 languages are available instantly (English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, and Turkish—Arabic coming soon). The system translates all new interface elements automatically. Custom translations available for other languages.
• Homepage Settings: Choose what logged-in or logged-out students see first—your dashboard, product catalog, or external pages.
• Product Sorting: Control how courses appear in the “Explore Additional Products” section through your catalog sort settings.

Preview your student experience like a pro on Teachable

Many creators never see what their students actually experience. Here’s how to check:

To view the course itself, from your course curriculum, click “Preview” in the top right to see your content through student eyes.

To see what it’s like when they enter your school, from Site > Navigation, use the preview button to see your homepage and catalog as students experience them.

Check both logged-in and logged-out views—students see different content depending on their login status.

This represents a shift from the old course directory that separated products by type and made discovery difficult. The new unified experience puts student needs first—showing in-progress courses prominently while making additional offerings easy to find.

Why students abandon online courses (and how to fix it)

If a student never finishes a course, how likely are they to recommend it to someone else? Even if a student does finish your course, what if they don’t apply anything they learned?

Your students are not failing because your content is bad. They’re failing because you don’t have the right tools to get them to take action.

Think about it. Students don’t come to you wanting more information. They can get that from YouTube or a $20 book or ChatGPT. 

They come to you because they want a transformational result, feedback, fresh perspective, and live experience. 

They want someone to guide them from where they are to where they want to be—and have a ball doing it.

That requires structure. Guardrails. A clear path forward. All the things that turn passive information consumption into active skill development.

Students don’t abandon courses because they’re lazy or uncommitted. They drop out because the course design works against human psychology.

Here are a few of the most common reasons students don’t complete online courses:

• They don’t know what to do next. Without clear direction, they default to doing nothing.
• They can’t see their progress. No visible momentum means no motivation to continue.
• They feel overwhelmed by choice. Too many options create decision paralysis.
• They’re learning in isolation. No accountability means it’s easy to quit when things get difficult.

These are all problems you can solve by creating a structured learning environment that guides students toward completion and application.

What makes people pay for online courses?

Students don’t mind paying more for courses that actually work. The problem is most creators think “more content” equals “more value.” It doesn’t.

Premium pricing comes from premium outcomes. And premium outcomes come from premium structure.

Here’s what students will pay extra for:

• Clear start and finish lines: They want to know exactly what they’ll be able to do when they’re done—not vague promises about “mastery” but specific skills they can point to.
• Guided progression: Instead of dumping everything on them at once, you release lessons in a sequence that builds their confidence step by step.
• Real practice opportunities: They want templates they can fill out, exercises they can complete, and projects they can actually use in their business.
• Peer support: A community of other students working through the same challenges makes the journey feel less lonely and more achievable.
• Instructor feedback: Knowing you’re actually paying attention to their progress and available when they get stuck.

Notice what’s not on that list? Hours of video content. Bonus modules. Lifetime access to a Facebook group nobody uses.

Students pay premium prices for premium experiences, not massive quantities of information.

What separates successful online courses from courses students don’t finish

The most successful online creators have figured out something important: students thrive in classroom-style environments, not digital libraries.

In a classroom, students know exactly what’s expected of them. They follow a clear sequence. They have regular check-ins. Someone notices if they fall behind.

Your online school can work the same way. Instead of giving students access to everything at once and hoping they figure it out, you create a guided experience that moves them systematically from beginner to capable.

This means:

• Sequential progression that builds skills step by step
• Clear milestones that show students they’re making progress
• Focused pathways that eliminate decision fatigue
• Built-in accountability that keeps students on track

When students feel guided rather than abandoned, completion rates soar. More importantly, they actually apply what they learn.

How to design online courses that help students succeed

Course structure determines student outcomes. Design it with intention.

Start with the specific outcome: What should students be able to do differently when they complete your course?

Then work backwards:

• What’s the minimum viable knowledge they need to achieve that outcome? Focus on essentials, not everything you know.
• Where will they practice these skills? Build application opportunities into every section, not just at the end.
• When will they get feedback? Create multiple touchpoints for questions, sharing, and course correction throughout the journey.
• How will they stay motivated through difficult parts? Design regular wins and progress markers that maintain momentum.
• What support do they need when they get stuck? Anticipate common problems and provide solutions proactively.

This outcome-focused approach transforms how you build courses. Instead of asking “What should I teach?” you ask “What do my students need to succeed?”

The resulting experience feels purposeful and supportive instead of overwhelming and scattered.

Most students can watch your entire course and still not know how to do anything practical.

Watching is not learning. Learning is changing behavior.

If your course is mostly videos students consume passively, you’re not creating transformation. You’re creating the illusion of productivity.

Real skill development happens through practice:

• Give them templates to complete. Don’t just explain how to write a sales email—provide a template and have them write one for their business using Teachable’s downloadable resources feature.
• Create mandatory practice exercises. After teaching a concept, immediately give them a way to apply it. Use Teachable’s course compliance settings to require completion before they can move forward.
• Build in reflection checkpoints. Regular assessments help students process what they’ve learned and identify knowledge gaps. Teachable’s built-in quiz tools can provide instant feedback on their understanding.
• Make peer interaction part of the curriculum. Students learn faster when they can share work and get feedback from others tackling the same challenges.
• Provide multiple ways to engage. Some students learn by watching, others by reading, others by doing. Mix video lessons with written materials, interactive exercises, and discussion prompts.

The transformation happens when students start applying your concepts to their real problems. That’s when they become practitioners, not just consumers.

What student success metrics actually matter?

Stop obsessing over completion rates. Start tracking transformation rates.

The creators who build sustainable businesses measure what matters:

• How many students apply course concepts to their real situations?
• What specific outcomes do students achieve within 30, 60, and 90 days?
• How many students feel confident enough to tackle the next level of challenges?
• What percentage of graduates recommend the course to peers?

These metrics tell you whether your course actually works. They also predict business growth better than any engagement metric.

Students who get results become your biggest advocates. They buy your next course. They refer friends. They share success stories that sell better than any marketing copy you could write.

Start creating online courses built on student success with Teachable

Do you see yourself as a course creator who packages information? Or as an educator who guides transformation?

Course creators optimize for more material. Educators optimize for better outcomes.

The creators who thrive in this economy understand that student success is their business strategy. Everything else—pricing, marketing, product development—flows from that foundation.

Your course creation platform should support this approach, not fight against it. 

When you have tools that make it easy to create structured learning experiences, track student progress, and intervene when people get stuck, you can focus on what matters most: helping students transform their capabilities.

Ready to build on the course platform where your students thrive?

Start your free 7-day trial of Teachable and experience the Student Hub dashboard that puts student success at the center of your online school.

Abagail Pumphrey didn’t plan to build one of the most durable creator businesses on the internet. After a layoff in March 2015, she gave herself 90 days to replace her income. It took just 30 days. 

“I made my first 100,000 in 8 months and then I doubled it 4 months later.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

A year later, a five-car collision and a traumatic brain injury forced hard choices. Client work no longer fit a life with unpredictable energy. She pivoted to products that could sell while she recovered.

That shift became Boss Project’s edge. She went all-in on Teachable, built a deep catalog of courses and digital products, and bundled her best work into a membership that now drives roughly half of revenue.

“Teachable is the easiest, most streamlined online course platform out there.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Abagail’s Teachable journey at a glance

The turning point

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January 2016, she stopped taking clients to build the education side. In November 2016, the accident and TBI diagnosis confirmed the move away from services. 

She needed a business that was less about her personal bandwidth and more about systems, assets, and delivery that keep working when life is messy.

The early wins were small. A $500 co-launch here, a $2,000 webinar there. 

The first offer that truly clicked was Trello for Business, priced at $29. It cleared $8,000 in the first month and kept selling. 

Now, that very same course has crossed 10,000+ student enrollments and roughly $288,000 in sales. That one product taught a lesson that still guides Abagail’s approach. Small, installable wins beat sprawling curricula. Buyers want an outcome they can use today.

Why Abagail chose Teachable

Before Teachable, Abagail sold behind passworded pages and a brittle paywall that was easy to bypass. Checkout anxiety was real. 

She moved to Teachable for secure logins, clean checkout, access controls when refunds or payments fail, and simple ways to increase average order value without bolt-ons.

“You can go from idea to selling the same day.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

She stayed because it kept working while her team focused on offers and customer success.

“It was one of the few systems that did not break during launches. Back then the fear was your checkout going down in the middle of a live push.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Related: Honest Teachable Review – Why I’m Loyal After 8 Years

Abagail’s secret sauce to success on Teachable

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Abagail’s success did not come from complex funnels or a massive ad budget. It came from a handful of repeatable moves: ship one small product that solves a narrow problem, give buyers a path into an all-access membership, keep the tech simple so you can publish more, and let owned media do the heavy lifting over time. 

When paid traffic gets expensive, she pauses. When life gets complicated, the business still runs because the systems are simple and the offers are clear.

Strategy 1: Launch an installable product under $100

Abagail’s breakout was a $29 system that delivers a same-day result. The promise is specific, the setup is fast, and the win is visible. That first month’s $8,000 did more than cover costs. It proved a pattern that Abagail would reuse across the catalog.

New buyers get a clear outcome in hours, then feel ready for deeper work.

“Smaller, faster wins beat 200 hours of content every time.” — Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Take action

• Pick one outcome your buyer can achieve in under an hour
• Ship a sub-$100 product with one focused page and a five-email welcome
• Add a short walkthrough and a checklist so the win happens today

Strategy 2: Compile your best products into a membership

Abagail’s Co-op membership bundles top courses, templates, and tools into one all-access subscription.

That single packaging decision stopped the month-to-month reset. Members get a home base. The team gets a clear rhythm to add value on schedule. 

When members asked for more depth, Abagail overhauled scope and moved many best-selling courses inside the Co-op. Join value rose. Retention improved. Revenue became more predictable. 

Today the membership carries a major share of company revenue, while sponsorships, courses, and affiliates round out the rest.

“We handle churn by staying close to what members ask for. We poll, we survey, and we ship.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Take action

• Audit your three most requested assets and put them behind one membership
• Announce one meaningful addition every month with a short demo or mini lesson
• Track join rate, 90-day retention, and refund rate before and after scope changes

Strategy 3: Make your checkout page and process work in your favor

Abagail uses Teachable to handle the parts of the sale most creators push to add-ons. The goal is simple. Lift average order value and reduce failure points. 

Every checkout includes a tightly matched order bump. Order bumps in Abagail’s business have ranged from $11 to $77 and can attach at strong rates when the fit is right. 

A one-click upsell sits on the thank-you page so buyers can add a related resource without re-entering payment details. 

Teachable’s teachable:pay unlocks Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Link out of the box, which helps on mobile. 

Payment plans and subscriptions remove friction for buyers who need flexibility. 

BackOffice takes care of collaborator and affiliate payouts and unlocks Buy Now, Pay Later when it fits the offer. 

Automated tax handling covers sales tax and VAT so the team does not need extra tools to stay compliant. The net result is a simpler stack, calmer launches, and more revenue per order.

“Most tweaks move numbers by one percent. A clean checkout and more traffic move everything.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Take action

• Add an order bump to every checkout, priced at half the main offer or less
• Place a one-click upsell on the thank-you page with a 60-second explainer
• Turn on abandoned cart and review recovered revenue after each campaign
• Use payment plans on mid-ticket offers so more buyers can start today

Strategy 4: Let owned media be the heartbeat of your funnel

The Strategy Hour podcast is the core of Boss Project’s marketing. 

Millions of downloads and a steady listener base give every launch a head start. Episodes teach ideas, share results, and send warm traffic to sales pages. 

Abagail pairs episodes with simple lead magnets and pulls the best clips into course lessons so students hear and then apply. The loop works even when ads are off. Trust builds in public, then converts inside Teachable.

“We publish at a steady clip. The podcast builds trust while the funnel does the work.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Take action

• Pick one channel Abagail can show up on weekly and block time for it
• Attach a downloadable from a top episode and deliver it through the Teachable school
• Nurture new subscribers with seven short emails that teach one result and point to a clear offer

Strategy 5: Press pause on paid ads when CAC climbs

When acquisition costs rose, Abagail turned off Facebook and Instagram ads for the Co-op. Email, partner placements, and the podcast kept demand steady. 

When Abagail re-entered paid, budgets were capped, creatives taught a small win inside the ad, and every test had written targets for CPL and CPA. Paid is now a lever, not a lifeline. The business holds steady even when platforms change.

“We do not need to spend just to spend. We spend when the numbers make sense.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Take action

• If CPMs spike, pause for two weeks and fix your first-impression assets
• Restart with capped daily spend and a teaching-first creative concept
• Hold each test to a target CPL and CPA and turn off what misses

Expert corner: How Abagail Pumphrey thinks about education

Abagail measures everything against one simple promise: fast, visible wins for real people with real constraints. The product can be small if the outcome lands big.

“Most creators overbuild. The tech simply needs to work so you can focus on serving your clients and customers.” -Abagail Pumphrey, Founder & CEO of Boss Project

Abagail is vocal about choosing reach over fiddly optimizations. Her stance is practical, not theoretical. Platform stability matters to Abagail because launch weeks are fragile. She has tested alternatives, taken the calls, and still stayed put. Abagail’s bias is toward tools that protect the student experience and reduce creator anxiety.

“I craved a place that would securely store my course and give students one login to access everything.” -Abagail Pumphrey

Under all of this is Abagail’s operating principle: keep the stack simple, keep promises small and clear, and keep shipping. The wins compound for students, and the revenue compounds for the business.

Looking ahead

Abagail plans to keep The Co-op at the center of Boss Project. 

The membership will continue to bundle the most requested courses with fresh templates and tools on a predictable cadence. Abagail will keep publishing The Strategy Hour to grow owned reach and will bring listeners into the school with practical lead magnets tied to each launch. 

On the sales side, Abagail will keep checkout simple and high converting with native bumps, upsells, and flexible payments, and will only re-test paid ads when acquisition costs line up with clear CPL and CPA targets. Most importantly, Abagail will keep shipping useful assets that help students get fast, visible wins. 

The plan is steady and specific. More small outcomes that stack into lasting results, all delivered through a Teachable school that stays reliable while the team focuses on students.

What to do next

Ready to get results like Abagail Pumphrey? Start small, ship fast, and keep your stack simple. You do not need a giant funnel to begin. You need one installable product, a clean checkout, and a weekly publishing habit. If you want to see how that looks in practice, follow Abagail’s work at Boss Project and listen to The Strategy Hour for real examples you can copy. Then put your first offer inside Teachable so the sale, the delivery, and the student experience live in one place.

Try Teachable yourself: ready to build your first offer and sell it the same day? Start your 7-day free trial and see how teachable:pay, order bumps, one-click upsells, and built-in reporting help you earn while you keep creating.

Dan George was a professional pilot and flight instructor who hit a wall.

He taught ground school theory to aspiring aviators one-on-one and in small classroom settings. 

His work covered regulations, weather theory, aircraft systems, and more. Everything pilots need on the ground to be able to fly planes safely.

There was just one problem. The aviation industry was starved for more quality training, but Dan could only reach local students who showed up in person.

At any given time, he had maybe a few dozen students. Dan needed a more scalable model to be able to reach and impact the aviation industry with his expertise.

That’s not a business model can use to serve an entire industry.

Related: How to make money selling courses right now

Dan’s Teachable journey at a glance

The turning point

Dan created his first course on Teachable in 2019, but he didn’t push it seriously for almost two years. It existed more as a side project than a real business.

The pandemic changed everything. With commercial flying disrupted and more time on his hands, Dan decided to get serious about online education in 2021.

“You could almost argue that that’s when the business started was 2021, even though the relationship with Teachable has gone back to 2019.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

Dan chose Teachable because he needed something simple that would let him focus on teaching rather than technology. He’d seen other successful creators on the platform and noticed they all followed a similar playbook: build your audience first, then convert that trust into course sales.

“The first thing that I learned about Teachable creators who have had success is that we all kind of have the same model. You build up your following and then you leverage that to start bringing people into a course.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

Dan’s secret sauce to success on Teachable

Dan didn’t reinvent online education. He just did the fundamentals really well. His approach was methodical: Build trust first, deliver real value, and never stop showing up. 

While other creators chased quick wins, Dan played the long game. Here’s how he turned consistent effort into a business that serves thousands of pilots worldwide.

Strategy 1: Build your audience before selling anything

Dan spent six months in 2021 creating valuable YouTube content without promoting his courses at all. He established a rigid publishing schedule that he’s maintained for four straight years.

Twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday, without fail.

“It’s been the same cadence for four years now. Twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

His content strategy was simple: teach what pilots actually need to know. He covered instrument approaches, aircraft setup procedures, and regulatory updates. Real instructional content that people were already searching for.

The key was consistency over perfection. Dan didn’t try to go viral or chase trending topics. He focused on being genuinely useful to his specific audience before asking them to buy anything.

“It was just a matter of just doing it, right? Just commit to two videos a week, make it very formulaic, get good at what you do and sort of stay in that box.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

Take action: Pick a content schedule you can maintain for years, not months. Dan’s success came from showing up consistently with valuable content before asking for anything in return.

Strategy 2: Use your teaching expertise to create standout content

Dan had a big advantage: he knew exactly what pilots needed to learn because aviation training requirements are standardized by the FAA. But he put his own spin on the material to make it actually stick.

He developed two main content approaches that set him apart from existing training materials. First was what he calls “advanced whiteboard” – taking dry regulatory charts and bringing them to life with animations.

“We’ll take like a figure on a publication like a chart and we’ll impose it onto either another chart or onto something that’s situational in an aircraft to say okay this is where this is coming from so that the user can track where a principle comes from point to point to point.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

His second approach used flight simulator footage to create controlled learning environments. Instead of filming in actual aircraft with all the distractions, he could control every variable in the simulator.

“Rather than actually showing people what it looks like in an aircraft and having to film in an aircraft and deal with all the distractions that that does, we control the environment by being in the simulator. You can control the weather, you can control the position, everything about the aircraft.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

Take action: If you’re teaching standardized material, find ways to make it more visual and connected. Show how different concepts link together rather than teaching them in isolation.

Strategy 3: Go deeper than your competition

Dan’s biggest frustration with existing aviation training materials became his competitive advantage: they didn’t go deep enough.

“It just didn’t go in depth enough.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

His paid courses go significantly deeper than his free content, providing comprehensive training that prepares students for real-world flying situations, not just passing tests.

When he launched his third course, something important happened that validated his approach: massive repeat business.

“One of the first sort of great little pieces of data that we got when we launched our third course was that we got so much repeat business. There are ways you can optimize that with lifetime value by giving people upgrade offers to get all our courses and things like that.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

Students who completed one course immediately enrolled in the next level, creating a natural progression path through different aviation ratings.

Take action: Don’t just create courses that check boxes. Go deeper than your competitors to create genuine expertise and transformation in your students.

Strategy 4: Choose courses over coaching for real scale

Dan considered offering one-on-one coaching but made a deliberate choice to focus on self-paced courses instead.

“I’ve toyed with doing coaching. I just don’t know that it scales like a course scales.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

His courses work around the clock without him being present. Students from different time zones can learn whenever they want. Adding more students doesn’t automatically mean more work for Dan.

This decision freed him from the time-for-money trap that had limited his in-person instruction business.

Take action: If you want true scale, design your courses to work without your constant involvement. Include everything students need to succeed independently.

Strategy 5: Let organic content do your marketing

Dan tested paid advertising but quickly discovered it wasn’t worth the effort in his specialized market.

“We turn on ads and they kind of run, maybe they break even, maybe they’re a little bit profitable, but you realize that organic is your main bread.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

This makes perfect sense for aviation. Pilots research thoroughly before investing in training. They trust instructors they’ve followed over time much more than random advertisements.

Dan’s organic approach had an unexpected bonus: it attracted flight schools who wanted to partner with him. His social media presence became a powerful business development tool.

Take action: In specialized markets, consistent valuable content often beats paid advertising. Focus on building genuine trust and authority in your field.

Dan’s results on Teachable

Dan’s transformation shows what happens when you combine deep subject matter expertise with the right online education platform and consistent execution.

Starting with just a few dozen local students, he now serves over 10,000 pilots worldwide through eight Teachable courses. His four main ground school courses cover private, instrument, commercial, and flight instructor ratings, each priced at $229 for lifetime access.

“We have eight courses. There are four what is called ground schools. So that would be private, instrument, commercial and flight instructor. Those are $229 each for lifetime access.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

The smaller ancillary courses cover specific skills like radio communications, landing techniques, and advanced avionics, ranging from $129 to $197.

His growth is particularly impressive considering aviation’s limited market size. With only 400,000 pilots in the United States, Dan’s school now serves a significant portion of the entire industry.

Expert corner: How Dan thinks as an educator

Dan’s systematic teaching approach helps pilots understand not just the “what” but the “why” behind aviation procedures. His visual methods make complex concepts finally click for students who struggled with traditional textbook-based instruction.

The ripple effect extends throughout the aviation industry. Better-prepared pilots mean safer flights, more efficient training programs, and higher success rates on official FAA examinations.

His courses particularly help international students who struggle with American aviation procedures and FAA regulations, providing clear explanations that bridge language and cultural gaps.

Looking ahead

Dan’s main focus is what he calls growing his “funnel” – continuing to build his audience and convert that trust into course enrollments.

“That’s basically what my job is now is to just kind of try to make that funnel bigger.” -Dan George, Founder and CEO at FlightInsight

As the aviation industry evolves, Dan sees opportunities to create courses on emerging topics while maintaining the depth and quality that built his reputation.

What to do next

Check out Flight Insight’s aviation ground school courses on Teachable. Dan’s systematic approach is helping create safer, more competent pilots worldwide.

Try Teachable yourself: Ready to scale your expertise like Dan? Start your free Teachable trial today and join the creators who use Teachable to build successful online education businesses.

Building and selling courses as a content creator isn’t what it used to be. The pre-COVID strategies that worked in 2019 are flopping in 2025. 

The platforms have evolved. The economics have shifted. And most creators are trapped in feast-or-famine launch cycles, watching their Google traffic disappear overnight while competing with AI.

Here’s the problem:

• Customer acquisition costs have tripled in some niches
• Many creators are seeing organic growth stagnate or slump
• AI is flooding the market with low-quality content, making it harder to stand out
• Course completion rates are at an all-time low and expectations are higher than ever

Even six-figure creators are hitting revenue ceilings, while rocky reach across platforms is creating income roller coasters that burn out entrepreneurs.

But a select group of creators are quietly conquering this chaos.

They aren’t stopping at building a single flagship course, they’re building product ecosystems.

They’ve moved past the “set it and forget it” passive income pipe dream to create sustainable businesses that bridge the creator economy with mainstream business principles.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• What’s changed for content creators selling online courses
• How to choose a creator business model that matches your personality  
• How to build a course business that scales in 2025
• Why the right platform and tools are crucial to your success

Get The Modern Course Creator Playbook

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What’s changed for content creators selling digital courses

The Wild West era has ended for online education.

What replaced it? A mature market where only the most strategic creators survive. 

According to Goldman Sachs, the creator economy is expected to roughly double to $480 billion by 2027, up from about $250 billion in 2023, but only 9% of independent creators earn more than $100k annually, with 71% earning less than $30,000 per year.

Put simply: Most creators are overworked and underpaid.

The reality of making money as a creator in 2025

You can double your subscribers, followers, or views and still see your income stay flat.

You can also have a small, highly engaged audience of 1,000 people and hit six figures (or more).

Over the past several years, savvy creators have shifted from making most of their money from brand deals, sponsorships, and ad revenue to diversifying to digital products; which, for what it’s worth, is great.

The problem is that having a large audience and providing a valuable digital product, doesn’t equal sales. Unless you have a pinpoint process for aligning product market fit.

Why the economics of running a course business have shifted irreversibly

The math that made course creation profitable during the pandemic no longer works. 

Rising ad costs, declining organic reach, and plummeting trust have created a perfect storm that’s destroyed the traditional “build it and they will come” model. 

What we’re witnessing now is a fundamental restructuring of how content creators need to run their online businesses. Here are four of the most pressing problems:

Problem 1: Customer acquisition costs have exploded beyond recognition

According to a Focus Digital 2024 analysis, uncertainty in the US economy has spared no industry from rising customer acquisition costs. 

What used to cost $20-50 per lead now costs $200-300 in many niches (a 400-600% increase) that has made traditional volume-based models financially impossible.

Problem 2: Low-priced courses now require an unsustainable amount of traffic

Average online product conversion rates typically hover around 1.5-2%, meaning to earn just $5,000/month with a $99 course, you need 4,200 unique visitors monthly to a conversion-optimized sales page.

Most creators simply don’t have that level of consistent traffic.

Problem 3: The dependability of the social and search traffic has collapsed completely

Instagram organic reach has plummeted to just 7.6% per post, while Facebook’s sits at an abysmal 1.2%.

Even worse, some creators dependent on SEO and Google search traffic have lost over half of their traffic from AI disruptions and algorithm changes.

Problem 4: Trust is at an all-time low

Social media is flooded with complaints about “courses that don’t work” and “another guru trying to get rich quick.” 

The promise of passive income through course sales has been so oversold to the point that many potential customers are now skeptical of almost any educational offer.

AI has accentuated this trend, with people no longer willing to pay premium prices for information they could find for free on YouTube or ChatGPT.

So should you give up? Not at all. But you do need to pivot.

What’s actually working for creators in 2025

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Creators that are living their best lives right now aren’t tweaking a broken model. They’ve abandoned it entirely. 

Instead of chasing passive income through high-volume, low-priced course sales, successful creators have shifted to portfolio-based business models that prioritize depth over breadth.

Pivot 1: They’ve embraced premium pricing, personalization and B2B opportunities

Instead of selling $27 courses to thousands of people, some top creators now offer $1,997-$4,997 coaching programs to smaller cohorts. 

Others use the power of their audience to land B2B deals where they can sell dozens, or even hundreds, of their courses to a single customer.

More creators combine self-study content with live calls, community access, and direct mentorship, creating an experience that justifies premium pricing for better profit margins.

Pivot 2: They’ve built product ecosystems, not single courses

Smart creators now offer multiple touchpoints: Free lead magnets, low-ticket introductory courses ($47-$197), mid-tier comprehensive programs ($497-$997), and high-ticket coaching or done-for-you services ($2,000+). 

This portfolio allows them to serve customers at different commitment levels while maximizing lifetime value (LTV) per customer.

Pivot 3: They’ve stopped selling information and become transformation catalysts

The most successful creators have shifted from “here’s what I know” to “here’s what to do next, and I’ll help you do it.” They sell outcomes and accountability, not access to content.

Pivot 4: They’ve made AI their secret weapon for deeper relationships

While AI threatens information-based courses packed with dense content, forward-thinking creators use it to scale their personal touch. 

They use AI to handle routine questions, create personalized learning paths, and generate supplementary content, freeing them to focus on high-value coaching and community building.

How to choose a creator business model that matches your personality

Not every business model works for every creator. 

Your expertise, experiences, and more importantly, personality actually determines which monetization strategies will feel natural and sustainable for you (and which ones will lead to burnout, frustration, and ultimately failure).

After analyzing successful creators across different niches and revenue levels, we’ve identified four distinct creator archetypes, each excelling with completely different approaches to building and scaling their businesses.

The most successful creators build business models that lean into their natural tendencies while addressing their inherent weaknesses.

Which type of creator are you?

Each of the four archetypes below comes with a complete business blueprint, specific product ecosystems, pricing strategies, revenue expectations, and step-by-step implementation plans.

More importantly, each taps into different natural tendencies, so you can stop forcing square pegs into round holes and start building around your authentic self.

As you read each archetype, take note of which one makes you stop and think “This is me.” The goal isn’t to force yourself into a box, but to select the business model that will feel like the most natural extension of who you already are.

A quick note before you dive in: You might see yourself in multiple archetypes; that’s completely normal! Most creators have elements of two or three types.

Ready to find your match? Let’s break down the four creator archetypes that work in 2025.

Archetype #1: The Trendsetter

If people constantly ask you for your ‘day in the life’ videos get flooded with questions about your favorite products, you might be a natural-born trendsetter.

Trendsetters win by authentically inspiring others first, then backing up their lifestyle with systems and products that help others create their own version of success.

How to know if you’re a Trendsetter

You’ve built a personal brand around your lifestyle and lived experience. Your content feels like insider access to your best friend’s perfectly curated life (the friend everyone secretly wants to be).

Your superpower is relatability at scale. You’re comfortable being vulnerable about struggles while showcasing wins, sharing both Instagram-worthy moments and 3 a.m. anxiety spirals.

You’re ready to monetize when:

• You have 10,000+ engaged followers on your primary platform
• People regularly ask about your routines, products, or lifestyle choices
• Your comment sections are packed with “me too” moments and personal stories
• Brands are reaching out for sponsorship opportunities

What products should you make?

Affiliate marketing and brand partnerships ($500-$2,000+ per post) from authentic product recommendations that align with your values.

Entry-level digital products ($7-$297) like life frameworks, habit trackers, travel templates, and productivity guides based on systems you actually use.

Transformational programs ($497-$4,997+) such as “Design Your Dream Life” or “The Intentional Living Blueprint”—positioning these as transformation partnerships with live calls, community access, and accountability.

Physical products ($5-$500+) like custom planners, wellness products, or curated subscription boxes that let your audience bring your lifestyle into their daily lives.

Real Trendsetters success stories

Whitney Freya transformed her personal creative journey into a “life as art” philosophy, she hosts multiple programs on Teachable from art instruction to Creative Frequency Coach certification, building passionate communities around living creatively.

Michael from Inspire Your Success built his business around his morning routine transformation. His “Win the Morning” course helps others take control of their days through the authentic story of his shift from chaotic mornings to structured success, supported by his podcast and community testimonials.

The trendsetter model works because people crave authentic human connection in an AI-saturated world. Your lifestyle becomes the bridge between where your audience is now and where they want to be.

Archetype #2: The Maestro

When colleagues consistently turn to you for training and expertise, you’ve found your calling as a Maestro.

Unlike creators who inspire through lifestyle or personality, Maestros build businesses around systematic knowledge transfer. You succeed by creating rigorous educational programs that develop actual competency in your students.

How to know if you’re a Maestro

Your authority comes from years of hands-on experience in a specialized field. You’ve mastered complex subject matter that others struggle with, and you have a natural ability to break it down into teachable components.

Teaching gets you excited. You get satisfaction from watching students progress from confusion to mastery, and you naturally think in curriculum terms: Prerequisites, learning objectives, skill progression.

You’re ready to monetize when:

• You have established expertise with 10+ years in your specialized field
• You have a history of mentoring, training, or educating others professionally
• You possess recognized credentials, certifications, or industry standing
• You have a natural instinct to create structure and learning sequences

What products should you make?

Comprehensive foundational courses ($197-$797) covering essential knowledge with structured modules, assessments, and progressive skill building.

Professional certification programs ($997-$2,997) that establish credentialed expertise and meet industry standards for advancement.

Intensive cohort programs ($1,497-$4,997) featuring live instruction, peer interaction, and direct mentorship throughout the learning process.

Custom corporate education ($5,000-$25,000+) developing specialized training curricula for organizations and professional development teams.

Real Maestro success stories

Speak Norsk built their Norwegian language school using systematic curriculum design and structured learning paths. With over 14,000 students on Teachable, they’ve created comprehensive programs from beginner to business-level Norwegian, helping students achieve measurable outcomes like language certification and successful relocation to Norway.

Dan George from FlightInsight draws on extensive aviation experience to educate flight professionals. His detailed courses cover complex operational procedures, regulatory compliance, and advanced flight systems that pilots need for career advancement.

Brian Kouhi from TOAnimate Academy leverages his professional animation experience from Netflix productions to create powerful education programs. After working with over 400 artists and identifying gaps in quality animation education, he built a structured curriculum that has generated nearly $300,000 in sales while helping aspiring animators develop industry-ready skills.

Maestros thrive because accessible quality education remains scarce. Organizations and individuals will pay premium prices for structured learning that builds genuine expertise rather than surface-level familiarity.

Archetype #3: The Trailblazer

Got a business that’s crushing it right now? People begging for your exact playbook? You’re probably a Trailblazer.

Trailblazers monetize by teaching the systems they’re actively using to generate results today. No theoretical frameworks or outdated strategies. Rather, they provide battle-tested processes from someone still in the trenches.

How to know if you’re a Trailblazer

Here’s the thing about Trailblazers: You’re not teaching outdated strategies that worked five years ago. You’re sharing what’s working this quarter, this month, maybe even this week. You run an active business or hold a current role where you’re implementing the exact strategies you teach.

People want your current playbook because they can see your recent results. You’re documenting the journey while you’re on it, not looking back from the finish line.

You’re ready to monetize when:

• You’re actively running the business model you want to teach
• You have fresh wins and current data to share (within the last 6-12 months)
• People specifically ask for your “exact process” or “step-by-step system”
• You naturally think in frameworks and love systematizing what works

What products should you make?

System blueprints and templates ($197-$497) featuring the exact tools, spreadsheets, and processes you’re currently using to get results.

Current method courses ($997-$2,997) walking people through your active systems with real-time case studies and behind-the-scenes documentation.

Done-with-you implementation ($2,997-$4,997) where you help others apply your current systems to their specific business while you’re still refining them.

Live corporate workshops ($10,000-$50,000+) teaching companies your proven methodologies that are generating results in today’s market.

Real Trailblazer success stories

Jack Appleby built his social media strategy business while actively growing his own accounts. He pre-sold his first course for $45,000 in 30 days by teaching the exact systems he was using to grow Future Social to 250,000+ followers. Instead of outdated tactics, Jack shares current content strategies as he implements them across LinkedIn and Twitter.

Abagail Pumphrey from Boss Project teaches business systems while running her own multi-seven-figure education company. With over 30,600 students and millions in revenue generated through Teachable, she shares the exact frameworks she’s currently using to scale Boss Project, including her 388 digital products and systematic approach to sustainable business growth.

Dara Denney launched Performance Creative Accelerator after identifying gaps in Facebook and TikTok advertising while working as a performance creative consultant. She built and launched her course in just 60 days, growing to over 325 students by teaching the current ad creative strategies she actively uses with major brands.

The Trailblazer model works because entrepreneurs want proven systems from someone who’s using them now, not yesterday. Your active implementation becomes proof that your methods work in today’s market conditions.

Archetype #4: The Lighthouse

When you naturally bring people together around a shared mission and they keep coming back for the community you’ve built, you’re operating as a Lighthouse.

Lighthouses succeed by creating spaces where people with common goals, challenges, or interests can connect, learn from each other, and grow together. Your courses become the catalyst for community, but the real value lies in the relationships and transformations that happen within your ecosystem.

How to know if you’re a Lighthouse

Community happens organically around you. People don’t consume your content and leave; they stick around, engage with each other, and form lasting connections. You’re naturally good at facilitating environments where others feel safe to share and grow.

Your mission extends beyond individual success to collective transformation. You’re driven by the impact you can create when people support each other.

You’re ready to monetize when:

• You consistently create spaces where people connect with each other
• Your audience actively engages in discussions and helps answer each other’s questions
• People tell you they’ve formed friendships or partnerships through your community
• You feel energized by facilitating group conversations and collaborative learning

What products should you make?

Community-centered courses ($297-$997) that include group components, peer feedback, and collaborative projects where learning happens through interaction.

Membership communities ($47-$197/month) offering ongoing access to a supportive network, regular events, and exclusive content designed to foster connections.

Cohort-based programs ($997-$2,997) with live sessions, group coaching, and structured peer interactions that build lasting relationships among participants.

Live events and workshops ($197-$797) that bring your community together in person or virtually for deeper connection and collaborative learning experiences.

Real Lighthouse success stories

Jenny Rushmore built Sloper School into a transformative community of nearly 3,000 women learning to sew clothes that fit their bodies perfectly. Beyond teaching technical skills, she’s created a body-positive space where students support each other through fitting challenges, celebrate successes together, and find belonging in a community that understands their struggles.

Brett Dashevsky founded Creator Economy NYC, connecting thousands of content creators through consistent in-person events and collaborative opportunities. Rather than merely teaching about the creator economy, he’s built a thriving network where creators find collaborators, mentors, and friends while growing their businesses together.

The Lighthouse model thrives because people crave authentic connection and shared growth. Your community becomes the destination, with your expertise serving as the foundation for meaningful relationships that transform lives.

How to build a course business that scales in 2025

Now that you know which creator archetype fits your natural strengths, it’s time to transform that knowledge into a thriving course business. 

The difference between creators who succeed and those who struggle isn’t just about having great content; it’s about building systematically from a foundation that aligns with how you naturally work.

Here’s your step-by-step roadmap to turn your archetype into sustainable income.

Step 1: Validate demand before you build anything

Before you build anything, confirm there’s demand for what you want to teach. You don’t need the perfect idea, you just need to prove people will pay for your product.

Start by surveying your current audience with specific questions about their biggest challenges in your area of expertise. Don’t ask “Would you buy a course about X?” Instead, dig deeper:

• For Trendsetters: “What’s the biggest lifestyle challenge you’re facing right now?”
• For Maestros: “What skills do you need to advance in your career but can’t find quality training for?”
• For Trailblazers: “What business system are you struggling to implement effectively?”
• For Lighthouses: “Where do you feel most isolated or unsupported in your journey?”

The responses will reveal exactly what your archetype should focus on. Run a simple pre-sale or waitlist to gauge real interest. If you can get at least 25 people to commit financially or join a waitlist, you’ve validated demand.

Ready to turn your idea into income with an audience validation template?

Get instant access to the free 10-day Teachable co:pilot course.

Step 2: Choose your foundation and create your minimum viable course

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Your technical foundation should match how your archetype naturally operates, and your first course should deliver one specific transformation aligned with your strengths.

Different archetypes need different platform features and course structures:

• Trendsetters: Visual appeal, lifestyle integration, community features, and personal transformation courses
• Maestros: Robust educational tools, assessments, structured learning paths, and foundational skills courses
• Trailblazers: Flexibility for quick updates, real-time analytics, business tool integration, and current systems courses
• Lighthouses: Community-building features, discussion forums, collaborative tools, and group-centered learning experiences

Teachable’s complete getting started guide walks you through the technical setup process, while Teachable’s AI course creation tools can help you structure your curriculum quickly.

Your archetype determines which features to prioritize and how to configure your school for maximum impact.

Step 3: Price your course based on your archetype’s value proposition

Your pricing strategy should reflect how your archetype creates value, not market averages. Each archetype can command different price points because they deliver different types of transformation.

Here’s how to price according to your archetype’s strengths:

• Trendsetters: Mid-tier pricing ($297-$497) for transformation experiences with multiple entry points
• Maestros: Professional education rates based on career advancement value ($997-$2,997)
• Trailblazers: ROI-based pricing for current systems that save or make money ($997-$4,997)
• Lighthouses: Recurring revenue through memberships ($47-$197/month)

Our pricing guide covers the fundamentals, but remember that your archetype’s unique value lets you price above market rates when you deliver aligned experiences.

Step 4: Establish a tech stack that works for you, not against you

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Your business model determines your tool requirements. The right tech stack amplifies your strengths while automating tasks that drain your energy.

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Different archetypes need different technical approaches, and Teachable’s flexibility lets each archetype build exactly what they need:

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• Trendsetters: Use Teachable’s AI sales page generator to create visually stunning course pages that match your aesthetic, while the mobile app lets your community learn your lifestyle frameworks on-the-go. Integrate with tools like Canva for visual content and Buffer for social scheduling to maintain your authentic presence across platforms.

• Maestros: Teachable’s AI quiz generator automatically creates assessments from your lessons, while student progress reports give you detailed analytics on learning outcomes. Connect with Zoom for live sessions and Google Analytics for advanced tracking, building the structured learning environment your students expect.

• Trailblazers: Teachable’s course builder lets you update content quickly as your methods evolve, while the API connects with tools like Zapier for automated workflows. Order bumps and upsells help you test new offerings in real-time, perfect for your data-driven approach.
• Lighthouses: Teachable’s Student Hub creates a natural community space where your students connect with each other, while the comment system under lessons facilitates peer support. Integration with email tools like Mailchimp lets you nurture your community at scale.

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The best course platforms adapt to your existing workflow rather than forcing you to learn entirely new systems. 

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Teachable connects with tools through Zapier, offers a public API for custom integrations, and includes a WordPress plugin and product embeds, letting you build a unique tech ecosystem around your teaching style.

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Your tech stack should feel like an extension of your expertise, not a barrier to sharing it. 

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When your tools work together, you spend more time creating transformations and less time managing tech.

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Step 5: Build a sustainable marketing engine that energizes you

Your marketing should feel natural and sustainable for your archetype. Fighting against your natural tendencies leads to burnout and inconsistent results.

Your marketing approach should feel natural and sustainable for your archetype. 

Fighting against your natural communication style, content creation habits, and audience engagement preferences leads to burnout and inconsistent results.

Think about it this way: If you’re someone who loves deep, detailed conversations, you’ll struggle trying to create snappy TikTok videos all day. 

If you’re energized by real-time sharing and quick updates, you’ll feel drained writing long-form thought leadership articles multiple times a week.

The good news? You don’t have to figure out all the technical marketing stuff on your own. Teachable automatically generates SEO-friendly sales pages (Product Detail Pages) from your course content, so your courses can actually rank in Google search results without you building custom websites. 

Teachable also automatically creates a professional course storefront (known as the Browse Products Page page) from your existing course content.

The most important thing is that you align your marketing with your personality:

• Trendsetters: Authentic storytelling, behind-the-scenes content, lifestyle documentation, and social proof
• Maestros: Thought leadership, detailed case studies, speaking engagements, and expertise demonstrations
• Trailblazers: Real-time results, current data sharing, active implementation documentation, and progress updates
• Lighthouses: Community building, word-of-mouth growth, peer connections, and member advocacy

Focus on the marketing methods that align with your archetype’s natural strengths. Your authentic approach will always outperform forced tactics that don’t match your working style.

Step 6: Keep your students coming back for more

Your best customers are your existing customers. Your first sale is just the beginning of a relationship that should grow more valuable over time.

Student success drives your business success. When students complete your courses and see real results, they become your best marketing assets and most reliable revenue source.

The secret is to create an experience that students can’t help but love.

Here’s how to turn one-time buyers into lifelong customers:

• Make completion irresistible: Use Teachable’s completion certificates to give students tangible proof of their achievements they can share on LinkedIn or with employers. Course compliance features ensure students actually consume your content by requiring them to watch 90% of videos and pass quizzes before moving forward.
• Keep learning accessible: With Teachable’s mobile app, students can learn during commutes, lunch breaks, or whenever inspiration strikes. Students who access content on mobile are 2x more likely to return and 3x more likely to complete courses than web-only learners.
• Build natural progression: Use drip content to release lessons on a schedule that prevents overwhelm while maintaining momentum. Create logical pathways to your next course offering through strategic content sequencing and email follow-ups.
• Foster genuine engagement: Enable course comments where students can ask questions and connect with peers. This creates the community support system that keeps students engaged long after purchase.

The goal is to produce a student transformation that leads to word-of-mouth referrals, repeat purchases, and the capacity to scale your business by increasing the amount you make per customer compared to the amount it costs you to acquire a customer (LTV:CAC).

Step 7: Scale systematically without losing what makes you unique

As you grow, the temptation is to become everything to everyone. Resist this. Your archetype is your competitive advantage, and scaling means doing more of what works, not diluting your core strengths.

Build an ecosystem that serves your archetype’s audience at multiple levels:

• Multiple price points: Develop a variety of offers including entry-level products, core courses, premium programs, and done-for-you services
• Student success focus: Happy students become repeat customers and referral sources
• Strategic automation: Use AI for logistics while preserving the human elements that make your archetype valuable
• Relevant metrics: Track engagement (Trendsetters), completion rates (Maestros), ROI (Trailblazers), or community health (Lighthouses)

Remember that each course in your portfolio becomes a discoverable asset. 

Teachable automatically creates public course pages that rank in search engines, turning your course catalog into an organic marketing engine that works while you sleep.

The creators thriving in 2025 aren’t the ones with the biggest audiences or the most courses. 

They’re the ones who’ve aligned their business model with their natural strengths and created genuine value for their specific communities. 

Your archetype gives you the framework to build that solution systematically and sustainably.

Start building a scalable course business today

You don’t need to be everything to everyone. You need to be the perfect solution for your specific audience. 

The creators thriving in 2025 are the ones who’ve aligned their business model with their natural strengths and created genuine value for their specific communities.

Your expertise matters. Your perspective is unique. Your personality gives you the roadmap to turn both into income streams while building something that energizes rather than exhausts you.

The question isn’t whether you should create courses. It’s whether you’re ready to build the business model that lets your natural strengths create maximum impact.

Ready to start building your course business the right way? Get started with Teachable’s free 7-day trial and access everything you need to create, market, and sell your first course.

Your next bestselling course might already be half-written. It’s hiding in your highest-performing posts, your most-shared podcast episodes, the reels people keep saving, and the offhand comments in your DMs that sparked entire conversations.

The money doesn’t get better every time you start from scratch. You get paid for turning your proven ideas into repeatable results.

This is your invitation to reverse engineer your next course from content that has already resonated and delivered value. And to do it faster (and smarter) using a few well-placed AI tools, especially the ones baked into Teachable’s new AI Hub.

Whether you’ve launched before or this is your first course, we’re ditching perfectionism and overplanning for a method that’s lean, strategic, and wildly effective.

I’m Abagail Pumphrey, a digital product strategist and host of the Strategy Hour Podcast. I’ve helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs turn their ideas into profitable digital products. Honestly, I wish this process existed sooner. It would’ve saved me hundreds of hours over the years.

I’ve got the whole process laid out for you, just follow along step-by-step. You’ll have a full course outline in less than 5 minutes, and could have a course 90% there in under an hour.

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Step 1: Identify your top-performing content

Before you start planning anything new, go back and dig into what you’ve already created. You’ve already shown up as the expert, now’s the time to pull together your best work. 

Pull your analytics: blog posts, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, email campaigns, IG reels, TikToks. Anything that had high engagement, shares, saves, replies, or repeat views can be a starting point.

Look for patterns:

• Which topics are people obsessed with?
• What problems did you solve that got an immediate “thank you” DM?
• What do people ask you about again and again?

This step is where Teachable’s Take Back Control of Your Content guide comes in clutch. It’s the foundation for treating your content library like an asset. You’re sitting on a catalog of ideas that are already validated. You just need to connect the dots.

You don’t need to have it all figured out. That’s what AI is here for.

From top content to course concept

Paste your high-performing content into ChatGPT using the following prompt:

​​I want to turn the following content into a course using Teachable’s AI Curriculum Generator, which has a 1,000-character input limit.
Please:

• Summarize the core idea of this content.
• Identify who this content is for and what transformation it helps them achieve.
• Write a short description (under 1,000 characters) that clearly explains the course idea, the outcome, and what it covers, formatted to paste directly into Teachable’s AI tool.

Copy ChatGPT’s response (you’ll use that in Step 2).

Step 2: Use Teachable’s AI Course Starter

Once you’ve surfaced a few promising topics, it’s time to shape the skeleton of your course.

We’re going to drop your main course idea into Teachable’s AI Course Starter inside their course builder and let it do the heavy lifting. 

In seconds, it will:

• Outline modules and lessons for you
• Ensure the structure flows logically
• Suggest learning outcomes for each section

This is a huge mental load off. Especially if you tend to spin out trying to decide what goes where, or whether your idea is “robust enough.”

Teachable’s Modern Course Creator Playbook reminds us that it’s not about cramming everything you know into a 47-lesson course. It’s about choosing what matters most, structuring it for action, and building a course that drives real transformation.

Generate a full course outline in seconds

If you haven’t already, start your free Teachable trial.

Then follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Courses > New Course
2. Provide the course title & description written by ChatGPT.
3. Add a thumbnail image (or skip this step for now).
4. Set a price (or skip this step for now).
5. Tap the“Generate with AI” button. Teachable will automatically input your description.
6. Click Finish

That’s it. In under five seconds, you’ll have a full draft of your brand new course.

Step 3: Transform the outline into engaging, actionable lessons

Now that you have the bones, let’s start putting some meat on them. Infusing each lesson with your voice, stories, and experience.

We’re going to use ChatGPT to take your high-performing content and revise Teachable’s AI-generated lesson drafts. By the end, you’ll have complete, compelling lessons that:

• Feel polished and structured
• Sound like you, not a robot
• Include real-life examples, stories, and actionable takeaways

Personalize and expand each lesson

In the same ChatGPT thread you used to generate your course description, copy/paste this prompt:

I’m building an online course and using AI to help expand my outline into fully written lessons. I’ve already provided the original content this course is based on earlier in this thread.

Now, I want to revise and expand the Teachable AI-generated lessons—one at a time—into complete, high-quality lessons that I can either read as a video script or drop directly into my course platform.

Here’s what I need from you:

• Length: Keep the core lesson between 600–900 words (enough for a 5–10 min read or video script) to ensure learner retention and minimize overwhelm.
• Content: Keep the key idea and core teaching points from the Teachable lesson. Stick to one clear objective per lesson. If a related topic comes up, note that it will be covered elsewhere.
• Expansion: Add step-by-step guidance, relatable examples, and clear explanations to reinforce understanding.
• Voice: Match my tone (ex: warm, conversational, and practical). Think trusted mentor or experienced business coach.
• Style: Use bolded subheadings, numbered lists, and bullets to improve clarity and readability.

Structure:

1. Start with a hook or relatable intro
2. Break down the lesson into clear sections with bolded subheadings
3. Include step-by-step guidance or checklists where relevant
4. Wrap up with 2–3 action steps and 1–2 reflection questions

I’ll paste the Teachable AI lesson next. Please confirm you’re ready before we start.

Simply go a lesson at a time, pasting each Teachable draft into ChatGPT and adding any other relevant content or reference materials as you go. You can even link your Google Drive to reference any past materials, blog posts, or freebies.

This combo helps you work smarter. Not harder.

And if you want to take it further, build out a companion worksheet, template, or downloadable for each lesson. You’re probably sitting on half-finished resources and buried treasure just waiting to be reused.

Step 4: Increase comprehension with Teachable’s AI Quiz Generator

Turning information into transformation means making it interactive.

Teachable’s AI Quiz Generator pulls directly from your lesson text to create:

• Knowledge checks
• Multiple-choice questions
• Reflective prompts

This not only increases student engagement, it helps your course feel complete.

Think about the last time you took a course and actually remembered what you learned.

Chances are it wasn’t because you watched a video, it’s because you took action.

Add a Quiz That Reinforces the Lesson

Here’s how to add a quiz to your course using Teachable’s AI tool:

1. Create or Select a Course and Section:
   Go to your Teachable dashboard and select the course where you want to add a quiz. Choose the section that contains the lesson the quiz will be based on.
2. Add Content:
   Click “Add Content” in that section, then select the “AI Quiz” block under Educational Tools.
3. Generate the Quiz:
   A pop-up window will appear. Click the Generate button at the bottom of the block. Teachable’s AI will scan your lesson and create the quiz automatically.
4. Review and Edit:
   Edit the questions, refine the language, and add or remove answers as needed. You can also create your own questions if you prefer.
5. Save the Quiz:
   Once you’re happy with the content, click Save Quiz. It will now be part of your course curriculum.

You now have a built-in feedback loop inside your course. One that turns passive viewers into active learners. That’s how transformation sticks.

Step 5: Deliver the Experience Your Students Need

You’re closer than you think. At this point, your content is organized, your lessons are built, and your students are waiting.

Time to ship it.

Teachable makes this part easy, too. Their platform:

• Hosts your content
• Lets you pre-sell before the full course is ready
• Offers built-in checkout (so you’re not piecing together Stripe + landing pages + 17 other tools)
• Automatically tracks student progress

And if you want to go the extra mile? Their AI Transcript + Subtitles Tool helps you:

• Generates transcripts and subtitles
• Translates into 70+ languages
• Makes your content more accessible for all learning styles

This is the point where many creators hesitate. They continue to tweak, stall out, and make excuses for why they haven’t launched yet.

Your course doesn’t need to be flawless to be transformative. Your people need your help now, not six months from now when every slide has been rebranded and re-recorded.

Get it out there. Learn from your sales process and how students respond to it. And get better every time you launch.

You’ve Got the Content, Now Let’s Get You Paid

The best course creators aren’t magicians. They’re strategists.

They know their best content shouldn’t die on Instagram. Or get buried 46 scrolls deep in their blog. They know it can become something bigger. Something scalable.

Teachable (and AI) just makes that process faster.

So don’t wait until you have a giant list or the “perfect” idea. Take what’s already working, feed it through this reverse-engineering method, and give it new life inside a course that earns every time someone presses play.

Start with your content. Let AI guide the way. And let Teachable do the heavy lifting on the backend.

You’ve already done the hard part: proving your content works.

Now let’s get paid for it.

👉 Want to shortcut this process even more? Join my One-Day Launch Challenge and build + validate this offer fast. Perfect if you want to go from idea to income in a single weekend.

Want more resources like this?

From enhanced product discovery to mobile learning upgrades, July at Teachable has been all about elevating your students’ experience and giving you more tools to grow.

Up ahead, we’ve got a first look at our brand-new student experience (plus a live webinar invite), fresh features across mobile and memberships, and exciting updates around the product catalog and product detail pages.

Let’s dive into what’s new.

Get a first look at the new student experience

We’re rolling out a redesigned student experience, built to help your students stay engaged, find what they need faster, and keep coming back for more.

And if you’re reading this before July 22, 2025, be sure to attend our free live webinar that day.

There, we’ll walk you through what’s changing, why it matters, and how you can tailor the experience to reflect your brand and business goals.

Get the details and register here.

Mobile updates, plus what’s to come

ICYMI, we recently launched some big improvements to the Teachable iOS mobile app, including:

• Push notifications that remind students to jump back in
• Improved dark mode for late-night learning
• Lock screen controls for on-the-go video playback

We’re also working on ways to help you sell from the app. But first, we need your input! Take this five-minute survey to help us understand your experiences and expectations around app-based selling.

Android users, we haven’t forgotten about you: Our Android app is still on track to launch fall 2025.

Easier product discovery and one-click translations

You asked, we delivered: You can now manually reorder your products in the Product Catalog. Want to group by learning path? Highlight your newest launch? Prioritize your bestsellers? It’s all up to you—and customizable for both logged-in and logged-out students.

We’ve also made enhancements to Product Detail Pages. Now, you can mark any one of your lessons as “Public,” and that lesson will appear on the page. It gives students the perfect chance to explore your content before they commit.

And for creators with international audiences, this one’s for you: One-click translations are live!  Now, you can now offer your school in Spanish, French, and Portuguese (with more languages coming soon) without having to manually update 1,200+ custom text fields.

Memberships just got a boost

Did you know? In 2024, coupons contributed to 27% of total GMV earned by Teachable creators.

On that note, we have good news for memberships…

Now you can use coupons on memberships across all tiers. Just like with courses, coaching, and digital downloads, this lets you run discounts and promotions to convert more students.

We also squashed a few bugs in memberships too, making the student purchases, upgrades, and downgrades smoother than ever.

Bonus: Embed a Buy Button anywhere

It’s time for our monthly installment of: Things you (maybe) didn’t know you could do on Teachable.

Looking for a quick solution to sell your Teachable products outside of your school?

We got you. You can embed a customizable Buy Button on your blog, website, or anywhere else that supports HTML. It’s a simple way to let students explore and purchase your products without being directed away from your site.

Stay in the loop

That’s it for July! As always, we’re building with your success in mind. So whether it’s more customizable experiences, better mobile tools, or fresh ways to see, we’ve got more coming soon.

Stay up to date on the latest here—and until then, we’ll see you next month!

It’s been a big month for the product team here at Teachable, and you know what that means: all sorts of exciting feature updates in store for you. These updates are designed to help you earn more, sell smarter, and deepen your impact with your audience. 

Here’s a quick overview:

Many creators are turning to B2B selling as a path to much higher earnings. So over the next few months, we’ll be testing new features that make it easier for you to sell directly to businesses.

We’re also focused on enhancements around how your students find and interact with your products. Those include the full rollout of product details pages, updates to your course catalog, and iOS mobile app improvements (plus, a sneak peek at our Android app!). 

Ready to dive in?

Beta access: B2B selling on Teachable

At our recent Collective and Connect events in New York City, we had the chance to hear from many of you about what’s next for your business. We noticed a common trend: More and more of you are selling to organizations, businesses, and other groups, not just individuals.

That’s why we’re building tools to support bulk access, corporate distribution, and team pricing. These new features are designed to help you sell your courses and other Teachable products directly to businesses and group audiences—whether it’s leadership training, corporate onboarding, or a skills development program, to name just a few examples.

And we’re giving you the chance to be a part of it! Sign up here to join the beta testing group and get early access to bulk access and B2B features. 

The student journey: From sale to success

Sell faster with product detail pages

There’s a new way to get your course in front of prospective students, faster than ever, no design skills required. Introducing product detail pages, now available for all Teachable schools.

What are product detail pages, anyway? They’re like sales pages—but a whole lot easier (and faster) to publish and use. That’s because they’re automatically generated by pulling information directly from your course content. Plus, they’re already SEO– and mobile-optimized pages.

Here’s what else to know about product detail pages:

• They’re now the default sales page for any new course you create.
• They’ll be available for bundles, digital downloads, coaching, and other products later this year.
• You can still use a traditional sales page (on or off Teachable) if you prefer more customization.

Showcase your courses your way

We’re making it easier for students to discover and navigate your products with updates to the Browse Products page (AKA your course catalog).

Coming soon, you’ll be able to choose in what order your products appear by either setting a default order or having it sorted alphabetically. With that change, you’ll have the option to highlight certain products by ordering them first.

Have ideas about future sorting methods? Let us know in this quick survey!

Go global (and save time) with one-click translations

We know that many of you are reaching global audiences, and translating your school experience is key to that growth. Now we’re making the process faster and easier.

We’re rolling out a way to translate large sections of your school with a single click, starting with Spanish, French, and Portuguese. 

More languages are on the way! Help us decide which ones to add next.

Keep students engaged with mobile app upgrades

Push notifications are here! We’ve introduced progress reminder push notifications to our iOS app. Now, if a student steps away from a course they started, they’ll get a friendly nudge to return. In just the first two weeks, more than 85% of students resumed a course after receiving a reminder.

We’re also hard at work building a Teachable app for Android. It’s slated for a Fall 2025 release, and we’re excited to give you a first look soon.

Bonus: Did you know you could do this?

Here’s a quick tip you may have missed: You can create and translate video subtitles into more than 70 languages on Teachable. It’s a simple way to make your content more accessible and expand your reach, especially for international or multilingual audiences.

Even better: Video subtitles and translations are free for anyone on the Growth and Advanced plans.

Stay in the loop

Whether you’re exploring B2B selling, optimizing for student engagement, or reaching students around the world, we’re building tools to support every step of your journey.

Stay up to date on the latest here—and until then, we’ll see you next month!

If you’re setting SMART goals for your creator business, you’re already ahead of the game. But while it’s a good start, it’s not the whole picture. Why? Because goals have an end.

You reach the milestone, check the box, and ask yourself: What now? You need to set the next goal and then the next one, and exert energy to accomplish them. It can get tiring pretty quickly.

The good news is that there is an alternative way, systems. Systems never stop. Once you set them in place, they can bring the results for years to come with minimal effort from you.

An effective business flywheel for creators combines the best of both worlds: SMART goals for direction and effective systems for scaling and growing efficiently.

If you’re not sure what a creator economy flywheel is or how to set one up for your business, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we will walk you through a proven roadmap to transform your SMART goals into SMART(ER) goals and turn them into a self-reinforcing loop of revenue, engagement, and rapid growth.

Goal-First vs. System-First

Founder and CEO of Kit, Nathan Barry, believes there are three ways to do things in any creator business:

• Scattered: You have a loose goal and direction in mind, but no solid strategy or systems in place to help you get there effectively.
• Linear: You know where you’re going and how to get there, but every time you set a new goal, you’re back to square one—no efficient systems are in place.
• Flywheel: You know where you’re going and how to get there, and you have systems in place that work for you even in your sleep.

You never want to be doing things in a scattered way, but even doing things in a linear way may not be sustainable in the long term. Let us explain why.

Imagine two creators: Jada, a wellness coach who has a goal of launching an online course, and Mateo, a productivity expert who has a YouTube channel and wants to create an online course, too.

Jada set the goal of launching an online course that brings in $10K in the first 90 days. She’s working in a linear way: set the goal and figure out the steps to achieve it. After creating the course, she promotes it to her followers on social, runs some ads for the offering, and hits her $10K goal in less than 90 days.

After the intense pre-launch and launch period, Jada is exhausted. She accomplished her goal, but without reliable systems in place to support her offer post-launch, she needs to actively invest time and effort to keep up the sales.

Mateo takes a different approach. He builds a system: he creates a free lead magnet and drives traffic to it through his YouTube channel (evergreen content) to get people into his email list, where he has set up automation to nurture every lead. At the end of the welcoming sequence, he sells his course.

After people take the course, he invites them to join his affiliate program. People who love the course rave about it to others and bring new leads to Mateo’s course without him having to lift a finger. It’s a slower approach, but his revenue grows steadily over time without needing big-time launches over and over again.

Jada has a goal-first mindset. Mateo uses system-first and builds a creator flywheel instead.

Flywheel Anatomy

The flywheel effect was first introduced by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great in 2001, but this business concept was made famous by none other than Amazon. Brad Stone explains how Amazon used this strategy to build an empire in the book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.

“Lower prices led to more customer visits. More customers increased the volume of sales and attracted more commission-paying third-party sellers to the site. That allowed Amazon to get more out of fixed costs like the fulfillment centers and the servers needed to run the website. This greater efficiency then enabled it to lower prices further. Feed any part of this flywheel, they reasoned, and it should accelerate the loop,” Stone writes.

The flywheel anatomy consists of four steps:

• Attract: Draw the attention of your ideal audience through free, valuable offers (lead magnets, blog posts, etc.)
• Convert: Turn warm leads into paying customers through optimized funnels (landing pages, low-ticket offers, etc.).
• Expand: Utilize upsells, order bumps, bundles, and other offers to increase lifetime customer value.
• Advocate: Encourage satisfied students to promote your brand via referrals, affiliate programs, user-generated content, testimonials, and community engagement.

A well-designed creator economy flywheel creates compounding course revenue without you having to chase down each individual sale.

Mapping SMART(ER) Goals to Create Effective Flywheel

We already discussed the difference between creators who are goal-oriented first versus creators who are system-focused first. However, when it comes to setting SMART goals vs systems, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Most successful creators set SMART(ER) goals and use systems to achieve them.

SMART(ER) Goals: The Framework Explained

Setting SMART(ER) goals is crucial for success. It helps you get clear and focused about what you’re trying to achieve, so you’re not just “hoping” that something works, but you have a proper strategy in place and can measure success.

SMART goals are:

• Specific: Your goal is clear and detailed.
• Measurable: Your goals are measurable, so you can track progress and asses as needed.
• Achievable: Be realistic about the goals you set, but they need to be just a little bit out of reach to entice you to push forward.
• Relevant: Your goals should align with the overall bigger business strategy and aid it.
• Timebound: Your goals need to have a deadline so you can see the finish line.

SMART(ER) goals are everything above, plus two additional steps that help improve your chances of success:

• Evaluate: Don’t set your goals and forget about them. Make sure you do regular check-ins with yourself to evaluate what’s working and what’s not.
• Recycle: After you evaluate, repurpose what worked for you in the past instead of coming up with content, offers, and strategies from scratch each time.

SMART(ER) Goals Flywheel Integration

Once you have set your SMART(ER) goals, it’s time to build the flywheel systems to help you achieve those goals. How do you do that? Let’s break it down.

Let’s say you’re a stylist who sells 1:1 styling sessions. You set a SMART(ER) business goal of gaining 1,000 newsletter subscribers in the next 90 days. Here’s how you’d achieve it by building a flywheel system:

• Attract: Create a 10-page workbook on how to build a capsule wardrobe and a landing page that captures email addresses. For the next 90 days, post Instagram Reels and TikTok styling videos that offer value and promote the freebie in the end.
• Convert: Set up an automated onboarding email sequence for people who sign up to receive your freebie that delivers the lead magnet, introduces your work as a stylist, and promotes the 1:1 styling coaching at the very end for those who want personalized help styling their wardrobe.
• Expand: As an upsell to your 1:1 styling session, offer a color analysis. Alternatively, you can offer personalized wardrobe audits as order bumps.
• Advocate: Create an automated email delivery for every customer that asks for their feedback on the session and encourages them to leave a review in written or video format. You could offer a discount code for the future as an incentive.

Building a flywheel system like this that runs by itself for every goal you have is a surefire way to growth and long-term success.

Your Creator Flywheel Blueprint

To help you map your own creator business flywheel, we have created a free, downloadable, fully customizable canvas.

Use it to:

• Identify the best ways to attract new leads
• Build effective funnels and warm-up automation to turn warm leads into paying customers
• Find additional ways to provide value and increase customer LTV
• Design a referral and advocacy loop that grows your business while you sleep

Friction Audit & Momentum Metrics

Setting goals and creating systems that help reach them is just part of the success. Another crucial component is auditing the performance, reviewing the metrics, and strategically pivoting. For the flywheel to be successful, you have to reduce friction and ensure the velocity is just right.

Run a Friction Audit

A friction audit means looking at your systems and reviewing where, in the process, you’re losing momentum. You need to know where people get confused, frustrated, or drop off before they take action, so you can adjust and improve:

• Where are people bouncing? Check your website and landing page analytics to see whether the visitors leave early without taking action. If your landing page promoting a freebie has high traffic but a low conversion rate, it’s a sign that something is off and needs improvement.
• Is the CTA clear? If someone lands on your blog post but doesn’t see a clear CTA (call-to-action) that gets them deeper into your ecosystem, they may need to email or DM you. Or they may simply leave without taking action. That’s friction that’s bad for business.
• Upsells too early or too late? Timing is everything when it comes to making a sale. If you offer something too early, people won’t buy because they may not trust you enough yet. And if you offer too late when they’re already checked out, busy with something else, you may also be losing potential sales.

Momentum Metrics

Momentum metrics are not vanity numbers. These guidelines are essential for tracking the effectiveness of your flywheel. Pay attention to:

• Monthly email list growth: Your email list is one of the most important assets, and the monthly growth (%) tells you whether your “Attract” stage is effective or if it may need to be tweaked because it doesn’t speak to your ideal audience.
• Sales velocity: Tracking the average time from acquiring the lead to them making a purchase tells you how well your “Convert” funnels are working. The faster someone makes a purchase, the more efficient your funnels are.
• LTV (lifetime value) per buyer: This metric measures how much money a customer spends over time. High LTV is what you should be aiming for, and it tells you that your “Expand” stage of the flywheel is working well.
• Referral rate: Tracking the referrals allows you to see how well your current students are advocating for your brand, which is key for long-term business success and shows you whether the “Advocate” stage is set up effectively.

Teachable Feature Stack: Fuel for Your Flywheel

Teachable Pro makes building an effective flywheel for your creator business easy in multiple ways:

• Landing pages: You can create fully customizable landing pages for every offer you have that converts visitors into paying customers. No coding or design knowledge is needed, and the whole process takes only hours and not days.
• Abandoned cart emails: Set up an automated abandoned cart email flow that triggers whenever someone adds one of your offers to the cart without checking out to entice people to finish the purchase. You can set it and forget it while knowing that you’re not losing any warm leads.
• Order bumps: Create effective order bumps to complement your high-ticket offers and grow your revenue without additional effort.
• Coaching: Expand your offerings even further by offering coaching packages as a standalone product or as a way to add extra value to existing offerings.
• Affiliates: Make advocating for your brand easy with affiliate program integration that handles the onboarding and payments for you.
• Community and memberships: Turn your audience into raving fans with the community and membership features that allow you to create a space for your students to connect and build long-lasting relationships.

Successful Creator Case Studies

Let’s take a look at three creator examples who have successfully implemented the flywheel method for their businesses.

Sahil Bloom

Sahil Bloom is an athlete-turned-investor and content creator who runs a newsletter with over 300,000 subscribers. His goal is to grow his newsletter to one million subscribers using a very effective flywheel system:

• Attract & Convert: He uses Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to engage his audience and attract new subscribers to his newsletter.
• Expand: He uses the Kit Sponsor Network to find sponsorships for his newsletter to monetize his subscribers.
• Advocate: Sahil reinvests what he earns into acquiring more subscribers using SparkLoop’s Partner Network. The platform allows him to pay to acquire high-quality subscribers who are automatically added to his list.

Ali Abdaal

Ali Abdaal is a doctor-turned-YouTuber who is known for his YouTuber Academy and productivity content. Over the years, he has built a highly effective flywheel structure that helps his creator business make millions every year. Here’s what his flywheel system looks like:

• Attract: Ali has a YouTube channel where he gives away tons of valuable content to his ideal audience for free.
• Convert: He tailors the content to speak to his ideal audience, who is interested in starting their own YouTube channel. At the end of his extensive YouTube videos, he upsells his YouTuber Academy, a premium course.
• Expand: Aside from the online course, he also has a community for entrepreneurs and a book on productivity that he promotes to his audience where relevant.
• Advocate: Ali’s very open about his students and their success stories that speak for themselves. His wife, Dr. Izzy Sealey, is a YouTuber who took his online course and started her own channel as a result, which has grown to hundreds of thousands of followers in record time. And she’s not the only success story of people who have taken Ali’s course and gone on to start successful YouTube channels.

Nathan Barry

Nathan Barry, the founder and CEO of Kit, also uses a flywheel business strategy to make money as a content creator. Here’s how he does it:

• Attract: Nathan uses the Sparkloop Partner Network to attract high-quality newsletter subscribers who are interested in joining his email list.
• Convert: He offers a high-quality free email magnet to get people onto his email list, where he has strategic automation set up to warm up any new leads he has.
• Expand: After the free content, the warm-up leads receive multiple offers for low-ticket products that are relevant to the free content people receive when signing up for their newsletter.
• Advocate: He then reinvests the money he makes to attract more subscribers to his list and grow it even further.

90-Day Flywheel Activation Plan

It’s possible to completely transform your business in 90 days. Set SMART(ER) goals, and build a flywheel system to help you achieve them in no time with this 90-day activation plan:

Week 1: Clarify Your Offer & Audience

First, define your core transformation. What’s the big outcome your course or service delivers? Then, identify your ideal buyer. What problems are they actively looking to solve? Once you know that, choose the main offer to anchor your flywheel.

Week 2: Map Your Flywheel

Download our Creator Flywheel Canvas. Using it, define your current and planned activities in each stage (Attract, Convert, Expand, Advocate) and set one SMART(ER) goal per spoke:

• Attract: 500 new leads in 30 days
• Convert: 5% sales conversion from freebie
• Expand: 30% of buyers purchase the upsell
• Advocate: 10 student testimonials

Week 3: Create Your Lead Magnet + Entry Point

The next step is to design a freebie that solves a small, urgent problem (checklist, mini-course, template). Then, build an optimized landing page on Teachable (or another platform). Next, connect an email welcome sequence that primes subscribers for your offer and introduces them to your brand.

Week 4: Set Up Your Funnel

It’s time to add your core offer (course/product) to Teachable. Then, create an order bump that complements the core offer well and helps solve an issue your audience has. Don’t forget to set up tracking and analytics to measure success.

Week 5: Publish Content to Attract

Time for action! Launch 2–3 high-value pieces of content that link to your freebie and invite people to sign up for your email list. It could be blog posts, YouTube or podcast episodes, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, or anything else you prefer.

Week 6: Warm Up Your List & Launch

You want to send a pre-launch email series (introduce yourself, tease benefits, and give tons of value for free) to your email list. Building trust is super important, and your email list is the place to do that. At the very end of the warm-up sequence, sell your offer to them.

Week 7: Collect Proof & Engage

This step is crucial for maximizing your sales! So, gather early testimonials or feedback from your students. Create a private community and invite them to join so they get added value and a place to connect with other people. If possible, ask engaged students to record a quick video. Video testimonials have a much stronger impact.

Week 8: Advocate Engine On

It’s time to turn up the heat and launch a simple referral program or affiliate link system (Teachable makes it super easy). Then, follow up post-purchase with a “Share the love” email, inviting people to join and give your brand a shout-out.

Week 9: Friction Audit

With every part in place, you want to do a friction audit to make sure everything is working well. Where are people bouncing? Review your landing page heatmaps or analytics and pay attention to all the areas that may need improvement.

Week 10: Funnel Optimization

By now, you should have enough data to help you optimize. Identify your top three highest-performing content pieces and double down with ads or cross-promotions to maximize the impact.

Tweak your email sequence or sales page based on open/click/purchase data. Improve copy clarity, visual hierarchy, or trust-building elements like testimonials.

Week 11: Evaluate & Recycle

Time to evaluate your flywheel performance. Review your SMART(ER) goals:

• What exceeded expectations?
• What flopped—and why?

You want to turn successful content into evergreen assets (automated sequences, lead gen ads) and repurpose testimonials into ads, sales page copy, or emails. Scrap what didn’t work!

Week 12: Plan the Next Loop

Congrats, you made it to the end of your 90-day experiment! With everything you’ve learned, it’s time for the next big thing. Set new 30- to 90-day goals using real data from your experiment and create a second flywheel that works for you while you sleep.

Start small. Build tight. Evaluate and pivot smarter. That’s how you grow compounding course revenue with a business flywheel that will serve you for years to come. 

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If you’re a creator on Teachable, chances are you’ve spent some time trying to get your work in front of new people. Maybe you’ve posted on Instagram until your thumbs cramped. Maybe you’ve dabbled in ads or hoped your latest email campaign would do the trick. All fair game. But there’s another strategy out there that’s smart, repeatable, and doesn’t require you to learn another algorithm. It’s called guest posting.

At its core, guest posting is writing content for someone else’s blog or website with the goal of introducing yourself to their audience. You offer value in the form of content, and in return, you get visibility, credibility, and a link back to your own site or course. 

It’s simple, it works, and it’s often overlooked in favor of trendier tactics. This article will walk you through how to do it well, why it works, and how you can get started… without burning out or sounding like everyone else. 

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Why guest posting matters

There’s a lot of noise online. Between social posts, paid ads, email newsletters, and SEO battles, it can feel like you need to be everywhere at once. 

But most creators don’t have a full-time marketing team. You’ve got limited time, limited energy, and, I’m guessing, you probably didn’t sign up to be a content machine. That’s where guest posting can be a real benefit to your marketing strategy. It lets you essentially borrow someone else’s audience, ethically, effectively, and without extra overhead.

When you write for a site that already has the attention of your ideal audience, you skip the hardest part of marketing: building trust from scratch. You get to show up in a place your audience already visits, and if you play it right, your article feels like a recommendation rather than a cold pitch. 

On top of that, guest posts often give you backlinks, which help your own website show up higher in search results over time. So you’re not just getting short-term eyeballs; you’re building a foundation that helps people find you long after you hit publish.

In short:

1. Guest posting gives you SEO & backlink benefits. When your content appears on reputable websites with a link back to your own site or course page, it builds your domain authority, which is a major factor in search engine rankings. This means you’ll get more organic traffic over time, not just a one-time spike.
2. You’ll reach new, relevant audiences. Instead of shouting into the void, guest posting puts you directly in front of an engaged audience that already trusts the platform you’re publishing on. It’s a warm introduction to thousands of potential students who may never have heard of you before.
3. You can position yourself as a thought-leader. When your content appears on respected blogs, media outlets, or community sites, it signals credibility. You’re no longer just “another creator;” you’re the expert people seek out.

All of this shows how effective guest posting is as a method to promote your content, grow your personal brand, and drive real results… and you don’t have to rely on social media to do it.

Related: Sell a course without an audience—yes, it can be done

How to pitch effectively

Let’s address the awkward part up front: yes, you’ll have to pitch yourself. But no, it doesn’t need to be uncomfortable. 

Editors are people. Most of them are juggling deadlines and inboxes just like you are. So if you’re thoughtful, clear, and genuinely trying to contribute something useful to their brand, you’re already ahead of the pack.

Here’s how to create a pitch that represents you well:

Step 1: Research thoughtfully

Start by identifying websites or blogs in your niche that accept guest contributions. Look for:

• Sites your ideal students already read
• Sites with a high domain authority (use tools like Moz or Ahrefs to find this out)
• Sites that have clear submission or “Write for us” guidelines

Even if a site doesn’t ask for guest posts, a well-written pitch can still break through.

Step 2: Personalize your pitch

Skip “Dear Sir/Madam.” Avoid generic mass emails. Refer to a specific article they’ve published; compliment their editorial voice. Show you’ve done your homework and that you “get” this website.

Step 3: Highlight the value for their audience

Your pitch should answer: “Why should their readers care?” Be sure your pitch makes clear:

• What topic you will cover
• What new angle you will bring
• Why you are the best person to write this

Avoid pitching your online course directly; instead, offer educational content to their audience that aligns with what you teach. Subtle mentions and author bio links are enough to drive interest back to additional offers you have.

Step 4: Include proof

Share previous articles, blog posts, or videos that show you can write well and provide value.

Pro Tip: Consider this pitch formula:

Hi [editor’s name], I loved your recent article on [topic], especially the part about [specific insight]. I’d love to contribute a guest post on [proposed topic], sharing [brief value pitch]. I’ve written for [other sites or your blog], and here are a couple of samples. Let me know if this would be a fit; happy to share a draft or outline!

Keep it short, and don’t try to cram your life story into one email. Share 2–3 topic ideas, a quick sentence or two on your experience, and a couple of writing samples. Your job is to make it easy for them to say yes.

Content strategy tips

Now that you’ve made the pitch and it’s been accepted, let’s talk about how you build your guest post so that it yields maximum return on investment (ROI). 

Tip #1: Align your guest post with your funnel

Not every guest post needs to be a masterpiece, but each one should have a purpose. Ideally, your post should connect to your course topic or the kind of work you want to be known for. 

If you teach email marketing on Teachable, don’t write a post about fitness routines; write something like “The top 3 Subject Lines That Increased My Open Rate by 45%.” Your guest post should be useful, specific, and aligned with what you do.

Tip #2: Connect your guest post to the buyer journey

Consider where people are in their journey when they read your content. Some readers are brand new to the problem you solve, while others are actively looking for a solution. Your guest post should speak to one of these groups. 

For example, a beginner article might explain common mistakes, while a more advanced piece might offer a unique tactic or insight. Choose one of these general stages and align your content accordingly:

• Awareness: Educational content that introduces the problem you solve
• Consideration: Strategic tips that show your method or approach
• Decision: Case studies or behind-the-scenes looks at your teaching style

And remember that the purpose of a guest post is to attract new audiences to you, not necessarily to hard sell with this particular post.

Tip #3: Include subtle promotion

Now, be sure to always follow the guest site’s guidelines… but when possible:

• Add 1–2 contextual backlinks to your site or blog
• Include a compelling author bio with a link to your course or free resource
• Suggest a lead magnet tied to the post (checklists, guides, mini-courses)

Make it easy for interested readers to enter your world and stay a while!

Tip #4: Repurpose like a pro

Unless you’ve made an exclusivity agreement, don’t let your guest post live in one place only. Consider: 

• Turning it into an email newsletter
• Recording it as a podcast or YouTube episode
• Adding it as a module inside your Teachable course or bonus content

This is how guest blogging supports your entire content promotion strategy, not just your traffic numbers.

Related: How to increase website traffic for your online business

Measuring success

One of the best things about guest posting is that it gives you trackable results. You’re not just hoping people saw your Instagram Reel; you can actually measure what happened. 

Here’s how you can track if your guest posting efforts are working:

1. Check your referral traffic metrics. Use Google Analytics or Teachable’s built-in analytics to see how many people are clicking from your guest post to your course site. Set up UTM parameters on your links so you can attribute clicks and conversions.

2. Assess the backlink quality. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush to check the domain authority (DA) of the site that published your post. A higher DA means more “link juice” for your site.

3. Check your subscriber growth. If your guest post leads to a lead magnet, track how many new email subscribers joined your list as a result. Make sure your opt-in page is simple, benefit-driven, and aligned with the guest post content.

4. Track your course enrollments. Track whether new students are coming from referral traffic. You can ask during checkout: “Where did you hear about this course?” or tag your leads based on the source. 

5. View your SEO performance. Check if your domain authority is rising or if your blog/content is ranking higher in search over time.

Track what you can, look for patterns, and don’t expect every post to be a home-run. Guest posting is a steady strategy, not a flash-in-the-pan trick.

Related: Google Analytics for beginners: How to use it for your business

How guest posting differs from sponsored posting

Guest posting and sponsored content are often confused, but they’re fundamentally different strategies. Here are the key differences.

Guest posting:

• Unpaid (no money is exchanged to create the guest post)
• You pitch the idea
• You provide educational, editorial content
• You build SEO value and trust
• Typically includes a short bio or link back to your site

Sponsored posting:

• Paid (you pay to be featured or to write advertorial content)
• More transactional and brand-driven
• May have limited SEO value (some links are marked “nofollow”)
• Can come off as self-promotional

While both types of posts have their place in a marketing plan, guest posting is better for long-term brand authority and organic traffic. You’re earning trust, not renting attention.

Make guest posting part of your content strategy 

Guest posting isn’t flashy. It won’t get you trending on social. But it works. It helps you show up in front of new people who actually care about what you’re teaching. 

Guest posting helps you:

• Get discovered by new audiences
• Establish trust and authority in your niche
• Drive traffic to your Teachable course, long after the post is live

So if you’ve been relying solely on Instagram, TikTok, or email blasts to grow your audience, guest posting may be the missing piece in your marketing strategy.

And best of all, this strategy doesn’t require dancing, trending audio, or fighting for likes. Hallelujah! Visibility doesn’t have to be exhausting. It can be intentional, strategic, and evergreen… just like the courses you’re building on Teachable.

If you’re a creator looking for more consistent traffic and a better way to grow your course, guest posting might be worth your time. You don’t need to do it every week; even one solid guest post per month can start to make a difference. 

So make a short list of blogs or newsletters that speak to your ideal students, come up with three post ideas that connect to your course, and send that first pitch. You might be surprised where it takes you.

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We don’t talk enough about how hard it is to build when you don’t have access.

Access to knowledge. Access to community. Access to big cities. Access to the playbook.

That’s why Teachable’s Business Creator Blueprint webinar series meant so much to me. 

It was the kind of deep, high-value learning experience that’s usually locked behind a multi-thousand-dollar pay wall. 

But this… it was free and intentional.  And made for creators who are trying to build with integrity and influence.

I created this Notion recap for anyone who missed the series or wants to revisit the gems. You can also watch the webinar replays using this link.

But for now, here are the three takeaways that shifted how I’ve shown up, nurtured my community, and moved as a creator ever since.

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Step 1: Make it make sense… and make it accessible

What made this session stand out wasn’t more than the insights. It was the accessibility.

These were frameworks and strategies that people charge thousands for, and Teachable made them free. No upsell, no gatekeeping, just clear, tactical wisdom creators could use today.

As someone who’s been in rooms where you have to pay to ask a single question, this hit me. It didn’t feel like content marketing. It honestly felt like care. Community care, specifically. 

Don’t get stuck in tech. Pick simple tools and get moving.

That’s the kind of reminder creators need when they’re overwhelmed, stuck, or silently burning out.

Access is also a mental health strategy. It offers relief. It reduces shame. It keeps creators from overcomplicating things out of fear.

When we’re given a clear path forward, we move with less panic and more peace.

When we’re shown the playbook, we stop guessing and start *creating…* which is the whole point.

There’s a lesson here for both creators and brands:

• Creators: Keep sharing what you know. Your transparency *is* a tool. You don’t need to be an expert to be a guide. By doing this, the right people will find you.

• Brands: Make your best resources *easier* to access. Don’t only serve your top earners or influencers with huge platforms…nurture your emerging ones. The ROI of trust is long-term loyalty.

Perfection slows you down. Action creates clarity.

This session reminded me that information goes beyond ‘power.’ It’s permission. And we all deserve more of it.

Step 2: Prioritize one platform and go all in

Elfried Samba said something during his webinar, I wish someone had told me sooner…

“Pick one platform and go all in.” – Elfried Samba

When I first started building online, I was juggling Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn. But LinkedIn always felt like home.

It’s where I found aligned collaborators, community, and actual opportunities…and in this economy! 

So yes, I committed. And since then? Game. Changed. Once I found a rhythm, everything got easier. I built a system that worked for me. Now, I’m finally ready to explore the next platform—maybe YouTube, maybe TikTok—but this time, I’m leading with clarity, not panic.

Elfried also dropped something we should probably all be living by now: bring URL to IRL.

Because, as much as I love creating online, it’s the offline relationships that have kept me grounded. Group chats turned into voice memos. Virtual cafecitos turned into real-life hugs and content collabs. 

And events like CONNECT by Teachable x Creator Economy NYC felt like the full-circle moment where I finally had the chance to meet the people who’ve been rooting for me from behind their screens.

Then Abagail Pumphrey came in with a framework that snapped it all into place. It was simple. Doable. Sustainable. A content rhythm built to help creators grow and stay grounded.

Here’s Abagail’s recommended content rotation:

• Teach → Share tips, how-tos, and insights
• Nurture → Show relatability and build connection
• Sell → Promote your offers and invite people to act

This isn’t about chasing virality. It’s about showing up in a way that reflects your values—and honors your capacity. 

Because when your content comes from a centered place, it stops feeling like a performance. And starts sounding a whole lot more like you.

You don’t need to be everywhere. You need to be present. On purpose.

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Takeaway 3: Believe in it before it exists

If there’s one thing that separates creators from the rest …it’s belief.

Abagail said something that had me SHOOK:

“If you can’t sell your offer before it exists, making it won’t magically change that.” — Abagail Pumphrey

That hit. Because creators aren’t content machines—we’re vision holders. Entrepreneurs. Possibility expanders. We believe first. That’s the assignment.

You have to sell the transformation before there’s a funnel. You have to talk about the thing before it’s built. You have to move like the version of you who already has it.

Or as we like to say: delulu is the solulu.

This isn’t about faking it. It’s about fully embodying the version of you that believes your offer, your impact, and your vision are already real. And then building from that place and energy.

And Hala broke it all the way down with one of the best analogies I’ve heard:

– Start with lower ticket offers to build trust. If it’s under $100, that’s the first date.

– If you show up consistently and they start to like you, your $297 offer becomes the ongoing relationship.

– And eventually, the $2,000+ offer is the marriage-level commitment.

It’s a reminder that you don’t jump straight to the big ask. 

You know that instant ick when someone hits your DMs asking for something before even having a conversation? 

Yeah. Don’t be that person. Build the relationship. Move people through the journey.

It’s not one or the other. You need belief to show up, and strategy to keep going. And don’t wait for permission. 

The Business Creator Blueprint webinar series recap

This series did what a lot of people say they’re doing but aren’t. It actually made the path clearer and simpler for me. Not louder. Not salesy. Simply clearer.

It reminded me that access matters. That strategy doesn’t need to be complicated. That belief is a skill. And that creators don’t need more noise, we need community and tools that help us move with intention.

Teachable showed up in a way most brands don’t. Creator-led. Rooted in community. Focused on real value, not going viral. I haven’t seen many brands nurture their audience like this, and it made me feel seen. 

They’ve got a forever customer in me. We’re locked in for life. That’s what creating access does. 

Because creators deserve information that helps them thrive, not just survive.

What do Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Steve Wozniak have in common? Apart from being extremely successful businessmen, they’re all introverts. Yes, you’ve read that right. Three men who build powerful personal brands and industry-disturbing businesses are all introverts.

While it sometimes might feel that extroverts rule the world, most recent surveys show that most of the world actually leans towards introversion. When it comes to growing a personal brand, it might seem impossible for an introvert; it’s easier than it looks. It simply requires a different approach tailored specifically to your personality.

A quiet personal brand can be just as powerful as a loud one – use your unique personality traits to your advantage. So, if you’re wondering how to build a personal brand as an introvert, we’re here to help with the best introvert branding tips.

Embracing your unique qualities as an introverted creator

As an introvert, you have a unique set of character traits. These traits can have a huge positive impact on your personal brand, so don’t shy away from leaning into them to build a strong and authentic personal brand:

• Deep thinking: Research shows that the introverted brain is more active even when relaxed compared to the extroverted brain – it turns out that introverts think more, and they’re able to think deeply about things. Strategic thinking allows you to make the right decisions when building a personal brand.
• Authenticity: Authentic self-branding is key to success, and for introverts, it might be easier to achieve because they can hone in on their authentic character traits a little easier. Extroverts are more likely to give in to social pressure, which might lead them to build a brand based on pleasing people rather than being authentically self.
• Deep connections: While socializing feels like a chore to introverts, they have an exceptional ability to create deep, meaningful connections. When building a personal brand as an introvert, this ability can become the superpower that allows you to find better ways to connect with your core audience.
• Creativity: Introvert’s abilities to focus and be in solitude often allow them to be more creative than extroverts, whose creativity goes out more toward people. It can be a huge advantage when it comes to brainstorming ideas, creative assets, and content for your personal brand.

Defining your personal brand vision

The first step to successful personal branding for introverts is to define your brand vision. Your personal brand vision is one of the fundamental pieces of building a strong personal brand. It outlines your direction and purpose and allows you to stay on track and true to your authentic self.

So, take your time to reflect on your personal brand and your business. You might want to consider journaling with prompts to help you brainstorm the right answers. Considering answering these questions:

• What are my personal brand goals?
• What do I want to achieve with my personal brand? For example, I want to increase sales, establish myself as an expert, connect with like-minded people, etc.
• What are my personal values?
• How can my values translate into my personal brand and business?
• How do I want to make my core audience feel?
• What are my strengths?
• What things I’m exceptionally good at?
• What things I’m confident in?
• What is my audience struggling with? What are their pain points?

After reflecting, you’ll have a much clearer vision for your personal brand. As an introvert, you really want to hone into things you’re good at and that bring you joy, and you should focus on developing and accentuating them when you build your personal brand.

Building a digital presence that feels true to you

Many people believe that to build a personal brand online, they have to be extroverted. However, the online world is the perfect place for introverts to build a personal brand – there is no pressure of real-life social interactions, just you and your screen.

While being an extrovert certainly makes things like interacting with people on social media and building connections easier, introverts can also successfully create content. The key to exceptional marketing for introverts is to adapt online platforms to fit your personal needs and strengths.

Blog

Written content can be a phenomenal way for introverts to build a personal brand online. Writing blog posts and articles gives you time to think and put your thoughts in the correct order. It’s often a solitary activity, and it allows you to put your deep strategic and critical thinking skills to use.

So, consider starting a blog or creating a profile on platforms like Medium. Focusing on creating quality blog content will allow you to establish yourself as the expert in your field and offer great value to your audience without the added stress of having to speak to large crowds and use up all of your social battery.

Video

You might be thinking that video content is an absolute no-go for introverts. However, we challenge you to think about it again. While impromptu videos for IG stories or trendy TikTok videos might be too exhausting for an introvert, there are ways to utilize creating videos.

First and foremost, creating videos for socials without being on a camera can be a great way to utilize video content as an introvert. You can utilize your creativity to create graphics and film content and edit it into something entertaining and informative. Use a voiceover feature, or only do subtitles – whatever feels more comfortable.

Also, certain video platforms might be easier. For example, YouTube can be a great way for introverts to create video content without too much pressure to perform. YouTube has a bit of a slower pace, and people enjoy not only trendy, fast-paced content but also slower, more authentic, and unique content like vlogs and cozy chit-chat videos.

Audio

Podcasts might or might not be challenging for introverts because they require a lot of talking. However, if podcasts are your preferred or desired way of building a personal brand, then there is a solution to make it easier for you as an introvert.

One thing that might help is writing scripts for every episode beforehand. This will help alleviate the stress and anxiety of having to come up with things to say on the spot and will help you get your point across with much more ease and clarity.

Social Media

Social media can be a great place to grow your personal brand, even as an introvert. Because social media can be all-consuming and demanding of your attention, it’s important to set boundaries and focus on creating the type of content that feels authentic to you.

Also, don’t feel pressured to reply to every single comment right away. Set specific times during the day when you dedicate your time to social media engagement. That’ll allow you to alleviate some of the pressure and anxiety that comes with having to deal with social interactions as an introvert.

Developing content and networking strategically

When it comes to building a personal brand as an introvert, you want to focus on intentionality and quality. That’s especially true for content creation, which can often lead introvert creators to burnout. Figure out what type of content your target audience wants to see, and focus on creating well-crafted, well-researched, creative content that’s unique to you.

You might create fewer posts than other people create, but that’s okay. Remember: quality over quantity. Your goal is to show up as an authentic self and share your expertise. Being intentional with content creation will allow you to stick with content creation long-term without burning out.

Networking and connecting with people in your industry and your audience is not something you can avoid. So, let’s talk about introverted networking strategies to help you achieve your goals with minimal discomfort.

Use your ability to forge deep connections with people by doing one-on-one online meetings to develop meaningful connections without the pressure of being in a group setting. Also, you might want to find forums and niche online groups in your industry that offer you an opportunity to engage and connect with others at your own pace. Prioritizing genuine connections is just as crucial as focusing on quality over quantity when creating content.  

Consistency and authenticity in your brand

Every introvert’s superpower is their ability to be true to themselves. Use that to your advantage when building a personal brand. It’s easy to compare yourself to other creators who are different from you, but try to avoid it. What works for someone who’s extroverted might not work for you, and that’s okay.

When in doubt, return to your brand vision and reflect on it before creating more content or promoting yourself. Once you establish sustainable ways to create content and show up as an expert in your field, stick to these methods. You have excellent critical thinking skills and exceptional creative abilities, so use them to create a personal brand that’s unique to you.

Examples of successful introvert brands

To prove that introverts can successfully build strong and successful personal brands, let’s look at three examples to help inspire you.

Jenna Kutcher

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Jenna Kutcher is a marketing expert, online course creator, NYT bestselling author, and, you guessed it – an introvert. Despite being an introvert, she was able to build a successful wedding photography brand that later turned into a multi-million dollar online course brand and even a successful book deal.

Lana Blakely

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A Swedish YouTuber and content creator, Lana Blakely, blew up with her video “A Real Day in the Life of an Introvert” almost five years ago, catapulting her channel to success. As an introvert, she was able to build an authentic brand on YouTube, creating valuable content that’s true to her values, which now has over 1.5 million subscribers.

Doctor Mike

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Doctor Mike is a board-certified family physician and an internet personality. And guess what? He’s also an introvert. He started his internet career by posting informative yet educational videos on YouTube and other social media platforms and managed to build a strong personal brand even as an introvert.

Common challenges and how to overcome them

Personal branding for shy people and introverts does come with a set of challenges.

Social media burnout

Social media can be exhausting for introverts because it’s ever-changing, fast-moving, and always demands constant engagement for you to stay relevant. If you’re not careful, it can be very easy to burn out from creating content on social media.

A very straightforward way to avoid social media burnout as an introvert is to set clear boundaries. Use time-batching to batch-create content once per week or per month, set daily or weekly times for social media engagement, and turn off notifications so they won’t distract you during the day. This can help you manage your energy better and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Self-promo discomfort

It can be very awkward and uncomfortable to promote yourself on social media. We get it. You might avoid sharing your achievements or even your expertise online, which are essential parts of building a personal brand. If you feel awkward and uncomfortable, you’ll probably avoid creating content at all, which can negatively impact your brand’s growth.

A quick way to remove the self-promo discomfort is to reframe it as offering value to your audience. Instead of blatantly shouting about your achievements or offers, share valuable insights, lessons learned, or mistakes made. Not only does it make for much more engaging content, but it also allows you to overcome any discomfort you might feel.

The pressure to always be “on”

As an introvert, you might feel a lot of pressure to always be “on.” You might want to always be socially interacting, engaging, and researching. You might find yourself working during weekends or after work hours, and after a while, it can lead to you feeling tired and empty.

The great news is that you don’t need to always be “on.” To build a successful personal brand, consistency over the long term is much more important than the intensity with which you show up. So, instead of posting every day, find a more sustainable schedule and stick with it. Plan content in advance and use social media scheduling tools to schedule new posts.

You can do this

Building a personal brand as an introvert is not only achievable but can also be extremely rewarding in the end. As an introvert, you want to hone in on your strengths and authentic character traits to build your personal brand online and make new connections with your audience and industry professionals.

Don’t shy away from building a personal brand just because you might feel that you’re different than someone else. That’s exactly why you want to build a personal brand: to show off your unique set of values, goals, and expert skills. No better time to start than now.  

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At Teachable, it’s always been our goal to help you create, manage, and share education products globally that deliver a best-in-class student experience. 

To keep meeting that promise, today we’re announcing updates to our pricing and plan structure. These changes allow us to continue investing in tools that fuel your growth and help your business move forward.

Those updates cover a variety of changes, mainly:

• Four new plans—Starter, Builder, Growth, and Advanced—with increased access to features that better serve the key stages of your business journey

• Lower transaction fees, so you can keep more of what you earn

• Separating memberships, community, and bundles from published product counts and transitioning to counting total products

Since we last changed our pricing and plan structure in January 2023, we’ve launched a ton of exciting new features and improvements to the Teachable platform—recently including one-time password logins, a student hub, enhancements to our top-rated mobile app, and more. We have plenty more on the way too, which you can learn all about in this webinar recording.

We know that platform changes can have a big impact on how you do business. Let’s dive in a bit deeper to see the specifics of what these updates might mean for you and your team.

‍Below is an overview of plan changes. You can also check out our Help Center article for the full details.

Introducing our new plans: Starter, Builder, Growth, and Advance

As the online learning industry has evolved, so too has the way you work in Teachable. Our new plan structure is designed to grow with you and your business from first launch to high-scale operations, with each plan serving a key phase of that journey.

These plans are available to new schools starting the week of June 2, 2025. Between June 15 and July 15, 2025, existing schools will automatically be granted the plan best fit for their current enrollment and total products published. If you’re curious about how this might impact you, check out our FAQ. 

Starter plan 

The Starter plan is where to begin exploring what’s possible on Teachable. Whether you’re testing a product idea or building your first course, Starter gives you all the tools you need to create and sell your first product at your own pace. 

Builder plan 

True to its name, the Builder plan is made to help you build out the base of your business and grow with confidence. Whether you’re validating your first digital product or thinking up ways to expand your offerings, Builder is the best place to start. 

The Builder plan has added benefits, including:

Growth plan

When you’re ready to reach more people, showcase your own branding, streamline your operation, and grow your revenue, the Growth plan is for you. Benefit from increased flexibility and selling power as you expand your product catalog and refine your sales strategy.

The Growth plan unlocks: 

• Unlimited bulk user imports, so you can easily migrate or bring your students in from other sources via CSV file.
• Custom user roles to create and manage granular permissions for your team members.
• Unlimited subtitle and translation generation, so you can share courses in up to 70 languages at no additional cost. 

Advanced plan

When you’re ready to break out of business-as-usual and grow your reach and revenue, the Advanced plan is for you. Built for experienced creators and teams who are already operating at scale and ready to go even further, the Advanced plan supports advanced automations and high sales volume with the flexibility you need to grow efficiently. 

The Advanced plan has all the features highlighted in our Builder and Growth plans as well as our highest publish-product limit, at 100 total published products

Lower transaction fees

Our new plan structure takes a more creator-friendly approach to transaction fees. In other words, you get to keep more of what you earn and won’t be penalized for selling more. 

You’ll benefit from 0% base transaction fees on the Builder, Growth, and Advanced plans. For those just getting started, the Starter plan includes a 7.5% transaction fee, designed to keep upfront subscription costs low while still offering the core tools needed to launch.

Payment processing and commerce service fees (e.g. credit card fees or PayPal charges) may still apply, but Teachable won’t take a percentage of your earnings except on the Starter plan.

Updates to published product totals

With all of our new plans, we won’t be counting bundles, memberships, and communities in your total number of published products. As such, all new plans allow you to publish and sell an unlimited number of bundles, memberships, and community spaces. 

So whether you want to spark deeper engagement with your audience through community discussions or earn ongoing income through memberships, you can now sell them without limits. These offerings are essential for building engagement and recurring revenue, and they’re now more accessible than ever.

As always, all of our new plans still allow you to create an unlimited number of courses, coaching, and digital downloads in draft mode.

Investing in a better future

These plan updates reflect our commitment to improving your workflows, building innovative features, and ensuring Teachable evolves alongside your needs and goals. Our new plans ensure you have access to the right tools at all phases of your business—and as your business grows, we’ll continue to grow with you. 

With expanded feature access, lower fees, and more flexible selling capabilities, Teachable can continue to be the top choice for businesses and creators who are serious about providing the best learning experiences possible. 

Your success drives everything we do. We’re excited to keep partnering with you—and to keep providing the tools and support you need to thrive.

PDFs. Free templates. Downloadable checklists.

These lead magnets used to convert extremely well, until everyone started using them. When we’re accustomed to seeing freebies offered left and right, it gets easy to scroll past them.

So, if you noticed that your marketing funnels are not converting as well as they used to, or you see that offering free downloadable content as a bonus for your course students doesn’t get them as engaged as before, know that it’s not just you.

Today’s audience craves novelty, interaction, and personalization. They want to feel seen, heard, and understood. Which is understandable, who doesn’t want to feel special, and be entertained?

This is where quiz marketing shines.

Interactive quizzes are one of the most effective tools in your creator’s funnel toolkit. Interactive content can help you start meaningful conversations, segment your audience, and keep your students engaged throughout their journey.

While it used to be time-consuming to build interactive quizzes in the past, with tools like Teachable AI quiz generator, building one takes minutes. Let’s break down exactly how to incorporate quizzes into your marketing funnel and make the most of this powerful tactic to grow your business.

Why quizzes convert (and outperform static lead magnets)

The average lead magnet conversion rate is anywhere between 20% and 25%, according to Leadpages. The average quiz conversion rate? 40.1% across all industries, coaching, courses, and education included. And this number has remained unchanged since 2013.

Quizzes are strategic marketing tools and, when done well, can outperform ebooks, webinars, and downloadable PDFs by a mile. Here’s why:

• Quizzes spark curiosity: Quizzes create an open loop (“Which type of X are you?”) that our brains are desperate to close. We simply must know the answer. This is why quizzes are so magnetic and highly clickable.
• Quizzes build trust faster: When we take a quiz and receive a personalized answer, we feel seen and understood. That’s a powerful first impression, one that builds credibility and trust before the pitch.
• Quizzes segment leads: Quizzes give us an opportunity to understand who someone is and what they need. This knowledge is invaluable when crafting a sales pitch and new products.
• Quizzes boost student engagement: Interactive content like quizzes is useful not only to attract leads but to keep students who are enrolled in your courses remain engaged with the course material. 

Where quizzes fit in your funnel

Are you curious to test out the quizzes for your business, but aren’t sure where to place the quizzes in your marketing strategy? Well, the good news is that quizzes are highly flexible and effective across the entire sales funnel, no matter what industry you’re in.

Here’s how to take advantage of quizzes at each stage of your funnel:

Top of funnel (TOFU): Quiz as lead magnet

At this stage, use a quiz as the gateway. It can be a fun, valuable, low-friction way to get people onto your email list. Here are some examples of potential quizzes:

• “What Type of Learner Are You?”
• “What’s Your Wellness Archetype?”
• “Which Website Template Is Right For You?”

These types of quizzes are great to promote on social media and through paid ads. It’s an effective way to get the attention of cold leads and turn them into warm ones.

Pro tip: When you craft the quiz results, make sure they are valuable to the audience. Include a tip, a resource, or an actionable next step that addresses a pain point or nudges the quiz taker in the right direction.

Middle of funnel (MOFU): Quiz for personalization

Once you have someone on your email list and you have warmed them up to your brand and offers, you may want to use a quiz to help your warm leads make a decision. A quiz can help your audience self-identify and choose the right product for them.

The keyword is “self-identify” here, you’re not making an active sales pitch to them on this one product they need to buy or a course they must join. You present your programs to them, and based on the pain points of the person taking the quiz, they’re presented with the solution, a program designed for them.

Here are a few examples:

• “Which of My Programs Is Right for You?”
• “1:1 Coaching or On-Demand Course?”
• “Ready to Scale? Take the Quiz to Find Out”

Bottom of funnel (BOFU): Quiz for engagement

Once someone is already an active customer and a student in your online course, use interactive quizzes to boost engagement and offer them the best personalized learning experience.

After someone finishes a module or the course, test them on their knowledge. A quick quiz will gamify the process and entice your students to pay attention when consuming course material so they can nail the quiz.

This is where tools like Teachable’s AI Quiz Generator come in handy.

How Teachable’s AI Quiz Generator works

Building an interactive quiz to test your students’ knowledge and boost their engagement used to take hours, you had to come up with questions, design result logic, and connect everything to your email delivery system. That’s not the case anymore.

The Teachable AI Quiz Generator tool is available to all course creators and has revolutionized the quiz creation process, it only takes a couple of clicks for the interactive content to be ready for your students.

When you have the course material ready, you can choose which section of the course you want to turn into a quiz. Our smart AI generates quiz questions based on the material, and also gives you possible answers. You can then review the questions and answers and edit them as needed. Easy as slicing a pie, yet the impact is huge.

You can repeat the process as many times as you need, within one course and for your other courses. Test different variations and see what works. You can update the quiz questions at any time with the AI generation tool.

Real creator examples: Quiz funnels that work

The best way to learn is to see quiz marketing in action. Here are a few powerful examples of creators using quizzes to grow their businesses strategically:

Jenna Kutcher

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Marketing expert and NYT bestselling author Jenna Kutcher uses quizzes to grow her email list and does it successfully. Her “What’s Your Secret Sauce?” quiz has grown her email list to over 100,000 subscribers. The number of leads is not the only benefit, she has designed this course to help her understand her audience better so she can create better offers.

Wild Fleurette

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Lynn from Wild Fleurette, a flower design boutique, offers a quiz, “What’s Your Bouquet Style?” which is the perfect type of quiz for anyone who lands on their website, looking for help with flower design for weddings.

Penguin Random House

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Even one of the biggest publishing houses in the world uses quizzes to get people onto their email list. They offer a “What type of reader are you?” quiz that speaks perfectly to their core audience, readers.

Tonic

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Tonic is a high-end website design boutique selling services and templates for online entrepreneurs. They have a quiz, “Get Matched with the Perfect Website,” which they use to get people on their email list and help them connect their target audience to the right product.

This quiz generated over 1,000 new email leads in the first month after the launch. On the results pages, they offer an exclusive discount code for people who want to make a purchase. That quiz result discount code has directly brought in over $50,000 in revenue.

Kaye Putnam

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Kaye Putnam, a psychology-driven brand strategist and online course creator, has created a quiz, “What’s your brand personality quiz?” that was taken over 100,000 times and generated over $100,000 in online course revenue. Talk about impressive!

How to create your quiz in Teachable in five easy steps

Are you ready to increase your student engagement and ensure their satisfaction with your online course is unmatched? Well, no easier way to achieve that than with Teachable’s AI Quiz Generator.

Here’s how you can take advantage of quizzes to boost student engagement:

Step 1: Find your course

In your Teachable Dashboard, go to Courses and select the course for which you want to create interactive quizzes.

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Step 2: Choose a module

In your online course curriculum, choose a module you want to create a quiz for. Click the big button Add Content. A menu will appear, in the Educational Tools section, find the Quiz button.

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Step 3: Create the quiz

A new window will open where you can manually write the questions, or click the Generate Questions button in the top right corner.

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Step 4: Use AI assistant

When you select the option to generate questions, another window will pop up. Here you can select which module you want to include in the quiz and which lessons.

Once you select that, click the button Generate Questions and watch the AI magic happen.

Step 5: Review and launch

The AI will generate questions and answers based on your course material. Review the content, and when ready, click the Save button in the bottom right corner.

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Your interactive quiz is ready to go! It will show up in your course curriculum now, and you can select to grade content or not.

Ready to take your business to the next level? Create high-converting quizzes with Teachable today. 

FAQs

1. How do I create a quiz if I don’t have time to write questions?

Teachable’s AI Quiz Generator eliminates the need to write questions from scratch. Simply select a module, hit “Generate Questions,” and the AI pulls quiz content directly from your existing course materials. You can edit or publish as-is in minutes.

2. Can I use a quiz as a lead magnet outside my course content?

Absolutely. While the AI quiz tool is ideal for in-course engagement, you can also create marketing quizzes manually and embed them on landing pages or link them from social media. Just ensure results include a clear CTA and a Teachable-powered next step.

3. Do quizzes actually increase course sales or just email subscribers?

Both. Quizzes help pre-qualify leads and direct them to the most relevant offer, which shortens the sales cycle and improves conversion rates. Case in point: creators like Kaye Putnam and Tonic have generated 100k+ in revenue using quiz funnels.

4. Can I customize the tone and questions for my niche audience?

Yes. You can edit any AI-generated quiz to reflect your brand voice or customer niche. Whether you’re a wellness coach or a business consultant, you can tailor the quiz to feel highly relevant and aligned with your ICP.

5. How does quiz engagement affect student satisfaction or completion rates?

Interactive quizzes keep learners engaged, especially when placed at the end of lessons or modules. They gamify the experience, reinforce key takeaways, and reduce drop-off, which ultimately improves satisfaction and retention.

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Competitive analysis for creators, coaches, and online entrepreneurs is just as important as it is for big businesses. In today’s creator economy, it’s not enough to just create, you need to find ways to differentiate.

Whether you’re building a course, membership site, coaching program, or digital product, chances are your audience has seen similar things before. So, how do you make your offer the number one choice?

That’s where competitive analysis comes in.

Performing market research is not about copying others. It’s about understanding your niche and space, identifying opportunities, and crafting a unique angle that helps you achieve two things: connect with your audience and set you apart from your competitors.

A strategic look at your competitors can unlock clarity in your creator strategy. Let’s dive into how to do market research for creators the right way.

What is competitive analysis?

In short, competitive analysis is the process of evaluating others in your niche to better understand how they serve your target audience, what the gaps are in their offers, and how you can use that to your advantage to serve the audience even better.

For online course creators, coaches, and online entrepreneurs, competitive analysis means:

• Analyzing other coaches, course creators, and influencers in your industry
• Looking at their product or service offerings
• Reviewing their content on various platforms to determine what’s working and what’s missing
• Finding out their pricing, positioning, and messaging
• Examining their audience’s engagement and marketing funnels

Market research for creators is essential. It helps you spot trends, surface content gaps, and refine your own niche analysis in the process. After you conduct the competitive analysis, you’re in a much stronger place to create an offer that speaks more clearly to your audience and addresses the pain points they have.

Best tools and templates to use

To perform a basic competitive analysis, you don’t need a fancy setup or expensive tools. You can get started with your laptop and a simple Google Sheet. However, using the right tools can make your process smoother and more actionable. Plus, you may be able to perform the market research much quicker.

Here’s a list of tools that are worth considering to help make your process more efficient and easier:

• Google Sheets / Notion: Helps you create databases to keep track of all the features, pricing, strengths, and gaps.
• SparkToro: This tool allows you to discover where your audience hangs out online–what podcasts they listen to, what social channels they use most frequently, and what keywords they look for.
• Ubersuggests: Uncover the best SEO keywords and strategy, find out keyword performance, and get traffic breakdowns.
• Teachable’s Course Directory: For course creators, utilize the Teachable course discovery to browse real creator offerings in various niches to analyze formats, pricing, and product structures.
• ChatGPT (or Claude): Use AI to help you quickly run analyses, summarize competitor content, identify messaging patterns and performance, and extract content themes and topics that are relevant and effective.

Steps to run a competitive analysis (with and without AI)

So, how do you run an effective competitive analysis campaign? It’s actually easier than you think. Here’s a structured step-by-step process to guide you through the whole process:

Step 1: Define your niche and goal

The very first step is to clarify your goals and unique angle:

• What’s your core offer? A course, a coaching program, or an exclusive membership?
• Who is your target audience?
• What’s your business goal? Are you trying to launch, grow, or reposition?

Answering these questions will give you a solid ground to build on. To make this step-by-step process easier to understand, let’s use an example.

Let’s say you’re a certified yoga teacher who wants to launch an online course as a way to diversify income and scale your business. Here’s how your answers to the questions above might look:

• Your core offer: An online course on practicing yoga.
• Your target audience: Millennial moms who want to invest in their wellness and health, but have limited time.
• Your business goal: Launch a new offer to expand your business and make it scalable (because in-person yoga classes are not).

Step 2: Identify 3–7 relevant competitors

The next step in the process is to look for creators who serve a similar audience to your target audience and do something similar to what you want to do. That includes:

• Direct competitors: People in the same niche with the same offers.
• Adjacent competitors: People in a different niche who have a similar format or marketing funnel.
• Aspirational competitors: People in your niche who are at the level you’re aiming for.

How do you find these people? Well, it’s fairly simple. Use Google, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Teachable course discovery to identify your competitors.

Let’s come back to our yoga instructor example. Because you want to create an online course, let’s go to Teachable’s course discovery to see what’s available.

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And here’s your first competitor—Rachel Jesien, who already has multiple courses on yoga. If you Google her name, you can find her Instagram.

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After reviewing the posts, you may see that while you’re in the same niche (yoga), your audience and business approach may not align. So, you put Rachel into the “adjacent competitor” list.

While you’re on Instagram, utilize it to search for direct competitors. In the Search bar, type in “yoga for moms” and see what comes up.

While Instagram search is not the most refined, you can still see what some accounts pop up, like this one that offers yoga for toddler moms:

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This account offers yoga practice tips for busy moms with small kids, you have a very clear audience overlap. So, add this account to your “direct competitors” list.

Next, let’s see what YouTube has to offer. It’s a good place to do your competitive market research because there are a ton of yoga teachers posting their classes online.

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After searching for “yoga for moms” on YouTube, you can find tons of channels. Not all will target your target audience, but some might. Like this channel, “Boho Beautiful Yoga.”

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This is a large channel with millions of subscribers that has offers you want to sell, too, and a very clear target audience overlap. You can save this competitor to your “aspirational competitors” list.

Using this method, go through various platforms to compile a solid list of relevant competitors.

Step 3: Evaluate their offers

All right, the third step is to take a better look at the competitor list you made and evaluate their offers. For each competitor, answer these questions:

• What’s their main product or service?
• What’s the promise or transformation they sell?
• What’s included in their offer?
• How are their offers priced and positioned?

This is where having a running Google Sheet or Notion database comes in handy to keep track of all the different competitor analyses at a glance.

Circling back to our yoga instructor example—let’s analyze the offer of one of the direct competitors we found while doing research earlier, the “Yoga for Toddler Moms” Instagram account.

The creator has a link in their Instagram bio that leads to a professional-looking Linktr page, which tells us they have two offers:

• 1:1 coaching
• Membership site

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Let’s run a quick analysis of what appears to be the main offer:

• Main product/service: A monthly membership for moms of toddlers.
• The promise/transformation they sell: Finding calm and time for yourself in the chaos of being a mom is possible, here’s how.
• What’s included: Yoga classes designed to fit into a busy schedule, a range of tailored meditations, sound healing classes, a community of moms, and printable materials.
• Pricing and positioning: It’s $6/month or $50/year for the subscription. They offer a 25% discount for those who choose the yearly subscription. Very well-priced offer that’s appealing even to moms on a budget.

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Step 4: Analyze their messaging and content strategy

Once you have a solid breakdown of your competitor’s offers, it’s time to take a look at their messaging and content strategy to see what works and what doesn’t.

Break down their brand voice, values, and key differentiators:

• What tone of voice do they use?
• What’s their unique point of view?
• What topics do they cover the most?
• What content drives the most engagement?

This is where you can use tools to help you perform an in-depth social media content analysis.

Let’s get back to our previous yoga instructor example and examine the Instagram account of the hypothetical direct competitor “Yoga for Toddler Moms”:

• What tone of voice do they use: Empathetic, friendly, uplifting, and genuine.
• What’s their unique point of view: Motherhood is beautiful, but exhausting, and you’re not alone in going through it.
• What topics do they cover the most: Gentle parenting, navigating motherhood, getting back into routines after kids, and how to emotionally regulate.
• What content drives the most engagement: Sharing relatable motherhood insights on Reels.

Step 5: Deconstruct their funnel

Once you’ve analyzed everything there’s to analyze in terms of their content strategy, it’s time to take a deeper dive into your competitor’s marketing funnels.

Consider going through the buyer’s journey when possible:

• Sign up for their lead magnets and free webinars
• Review their welcome emails and automated email sequences
• Track how they make a sale once you’re in their ecosystem

As you go through these funnels, take notes on which elements feel polished, generic, pushy, or helpful. What resonates with you and entices you to purchase? What’s missing? What would you do differently?

Let’s return to our yoga example. Our hypothetical competitor for yoga practice courses, “Yoga for Toddler Moms,” has a pretty good funnel set up. They offer a free bundle for stressed moms that offers valuable tools for their target audience in exchange for an email address:

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The landing page is designed professionally, and the offer is clear and communicates the value people will receive if they choose to sign up.

Step 6: Spot the gaps and opportunities

The last and final step in your competitor analysis journey is to review all the research you’ve done so far, spot the gaps, and identify opportunities in those gaps. Ask yourself these questions:

• What pain points are the competitors solving?
• Which audience segment are they overlooking?
• Are their offers too generic or too advanced?
• How can you differentiate with your delivery format, community, support, or storytelling?

This is the step where your creator strategy takes shape. Use all the research you’ve done to sharpen your angle, not copy someone else’s.

Let’s see what gaps and opportunities we can spot in our hypothetical yoga practice competitor, “Yoga for Toddler Moms”:

• What pain points are the competitors solving: Offer a manageable way for new moms to find time to invest in their well-being even when life is busy and hectic, and help find a supportive community of people who are going through the same thing.
• Which audience segment are they overlooking: The competitor focuses on toddler moms only, which may overlook moms with infants and older kids who need the same support.
• Are their offers too generic or too advanced: Their offer is too niche, and it may be leaving out a large portion of the target audience (an issue that can be fixed with a simple copy adjustment).
• How can you differentiate with your delivery format, community, support, or storytelling: Make it more personal (share your own experience of being a mother, and how you handle being a mom while still finding time for yourself), expand your audience to more than toddler moms (include infant moms, and moms of pre-school age kid who are navigating the same landscape), create an online course on post-natal yoga to recovery.

Bonus: Use AI to speed up analysis

Manual competitor analysis can be time-consuming. The good news is that current AI tools can help you speed up the process and analyze a lot of content quickly. Here are some prompts to try:

• “Summarize the unique positioning of these 3 online courses.”
• “What audience segments are these creators targeting?”
• “List content themes and topics from the last 10 blog posts/newsletters of [X].”

Pro tip: If you use the Pro version of ChatGPT, make sure to take advantage of their “Deep research” feature, which performs a much more in-depth research and can offer much more insights into your competitor analysis.

Teachable’s advantage: Built-In differentiation

Competitive research helps you identify gaps and opportunities in the market, and Teachable gives you the tools to fill those gaps and take advantage of those opportunities quickly and efficiently.

Here’s how Teachable can help you stand out:

• All-in-one platform: You can host courses, offer coaching, and sell digital downloads all from a single dashboard.
• Custom branding: You can create landing pages to sell products and your online courses that reflect your unique personality and match the rest of your brand.
• Easy upsells: Teachable allows you to offer upsells and order bumps with ease to offer extra value to your audience and increase your revenue.
• Taxes handled for you: You don’t have to worry about handling payments or taxes—Teachable does it for you, so you can focus on other parts of your business.

Action plan: Run your first competitive analysis in five days

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? While competitive analysis may look intimidating, it doesn’t have to be a hard process. Don’t believe us? Well, here’s the plan of action on how to run a competitive analysis for creators in the next five days to help you see what’s possible:

Day 1: Define your niche + pick your competitors

Dedicate one hour to:

• Clarify your products, audience, and goals
• Choose 307 creators, coaches, and entrepreneurs to analyze in your niche

Day 2: Collect data on their offers

Spend two to three hours (use AI tools to help you save time) to:

• Review competitor products, pricing, and bonuses
• Note what transformation they’re selling
• Create a spreadsheet or database with side-to-side comparison

Day 3: Analyze messaging and content

Dedicate two hours to:

• Analyze landing pages, read emails, and review social captions
• Utilize AI to help you find repeated phrases and branded frameworks
• Identify their tone of voice and who it is attracting

Day 4: Deconstruct their funnel

Two hours is all you need to:

• Sign up for the email newsletter via the freebie
• Map their delivery journey from the landing page to the freebie delivery and sale
• Screenshot inspiring content and things you would change (make a note on how)

Day 5: Identify your edge

Dedicate one hour to brainstorm:

• What’s missing in your competitor’s approach?
• How can you take advantage of the neglected pain point?
• Draft a quick mission statement that highlights your unique edge

In five days and less than ten hours of work, you’ll have a solid content strategy to help launch or boost your online business. Now, it’s time to start building.

Level up your strategy and use Teachable to deliver offers your competitors can’t match.

The average business-focused creator is part strategist, part production crew, part accountant and more, and it shows. In a 2024 survey, 79 percent of YouTube creators said they’d grappled with burnout  according to Tasty Edits.

If you’ve felt the same strain, the solution isn’t “work harder.” It’s choosing work that multiplies itself AND accomplishes your goals. The seven plays below build compounding reach and preserve the energy that makes your work magnetic while also helping you live the life you desired when you started this, with more ease.

1. Start with a “less-but-better” channel strategy

Chasing every platform feels productive until the analytics tell another story. Instagram’s average reach rate fell 18 percent year-over-year between January 2023 and August 2024 according to the Social Insider, which means spreading yourself thin often delivers shrinking returns.

Pick the single channel where your audience already converts best, YouTube for tutorials, LinkedIn for B2B, a niche newsletter for deep dives, and double your creative hours there. You’ll gain data clarity (what works, what doesn’t) and reclaim time you can reinvest in products that scale.

2. Repurpose what already works

Instead of ideating from scratch, think “one masterpiece, many miniatures.” Ninety percent of marketers repurpose content across multiple platforms, and 67 percent say turning high-performing posts into new formats lifts results.

Try the waterfall: record a flagship lesson → clip short reels → pull quote cards → rewrite the core insight as a LinkedIn post. For Teachable creators, the one video can live as a course module, an email teaser, and a gated digital download. 

The message: squeeze every drop from your best ideas before chasing new ones.

3. Automate and outsource the admin

Creative momentum stalls when invoicing or tax paperwork hijacks your calendar. Marketers who embrace automation save an average of 25 hours every week. 

Teachable bakes those gains in: native sales-tax handling, automated collaborator payouts, and an AI course starter that can spin up an outline, lesson copy, and sales page in minutes. 

Layer Zapier or Make on top to auto-tag new students in your CRM or drop purchase data straight into your P&L. Every hour you reclaim is an hour you can spend refining product or taking a genuine break, both grow reach faster than wrestling spreadsheets.

4. Double down on owned media – email and community

Algorithms wobble; subscribers stick. Email still returns a median $36 for every $1 invested Pair that with a private community, and you control the experience end-to-end.

Teachable’s Community product lives inside the same dashboard as your courses, so a student can move from lesson to discussion thread without ever bouncing to another app. 

Start simple with a weekly newsletter, monthly live Q&A, and a members-only forum where wins are celebrated. As engagement compounds, you’ll see course referrals rise organically.

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5. Co-create and cross-pollinate

When the content market crowds (and half of businesses plan to increase content-marketing budgets this year, according to Enterprise Apps Today. A partnership can become your shortcut to fresh eyes.

Host a guest expert workshop inside your Teachable school, bundle your course with a peer’s complementary template, or swap newsletters for a week. Because each creator promotes to their own list, both sides tap audiences who already trust a human, much warmer than an ad click.

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6. Set data-driven boundaries (and actually stick to them)

Growth at the cost of wellness eventually reverses itself. Choose one simple metric, hours worked per subscriber gained, or content pieces published per revenue dollar, and track it weekly. When the ratio slips, schedule a “no-post” day, block vacation into your calendar, or rotate off a channel that isn’t delivering.

A creator who rests will statistically outlast competitors who don’t. Your fans feel the difference in voice and velocity, and the algorithm rewards consistency over sporadic flame-outs.

7. Productize Once, Sell on Repeat

Creating fresh content on demand is exhausting; letting your best ideas sell themselves is freedom. When you convert a proven live workshop, consulting framework, or coaching curriculum into an evergreen course or digital download, you build a 24-hour lead-gen engine that works while you rest.

• Why it prevents burnout:
  
  • Replaces hourly effort with scalable revenue.
  • Lets you focus future creative energy on high-leverage updates (a new bonus module or community AMA) instead of starting from zero.
• Quick win on Teachable:
  
  • Use the AI Course Outline generator to turn a live session’s transcript into chapter lessons.
  • Add a companion digital download (checklist, template) at checkout to lift average order value instantly.

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Next steps

1. Pick your play. Scan the seven strategies and choose the one that would reclaim the most hours this week. Momentum loves focus.
2. Ship an asset that scales. Draft the first module of a course, record the Q&A you’ll send to your list, or set up that Zap that removes a repetitive task.
3. Let Teachable do the heavy lifting. From AI course outlines to friction-free checkout, the platform is designed to help creators reach further without adding manual effort. Explore the Pro plan and see how quickly you can trade busywork for audience growth.

Being in business doesn’t have to equal burnout. Avoiding burnout is really a systems game. Build the right systems, and every new student and business opportunity becomes an advocate while you preserve the creative spark they signed up for in the first place.

FAQs

How can I manage audience expectations if I need to take a break?

Transparency is key. If you’ve built a genuine connection with your audience, they will likely understand your need for a break. Communicate in advance if possible, explaining that you’re taking some time off to recharge and when they can expect you back. You can also schedule some content in advance to maintain a presence while you’re away. Prioritizing your well-being ultimately allows you to create better content in the long run, which benefits your audience too.

What are some early signs of creator burnout I should watch out for?

Early signs can include persistent fatigue, lack of motivation or enthusiasm for topics you usually enjoy, decreased creativity, feeling overwhelmed by your content schedule, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and noticing a decline in the quality of your work. Physically, it might manifest as headaches or changes in sleep patterns. Recognizing these signs early allows you to adjust your workload, take breaks, and implement self-care strategies before it becomes severe.

How often should I post new content to grow without burning out? 

There’s no magic number. Consistency is more important than frequency. Focus on a schedule you can realistically maintain long-term, whether it’s daily, weekly, or bi-weekly. Prioritize quality over quantity. It’s better to post one high-value piece of content per week consistently than to post mediocre content daily and burn out. Use analytics to see when your audience is most engaged and experiment to find a rhythm that works for both you and them. Batching content can help maintain consistency without daily pressure.

Is it better to focus on one platform or be on multiple platforms?

For sustainable growth, start by mastering one or two platforms where your target audience spends the most time. Trying to be active everywhere can quickly lead to burnout. Once you have a strong footing and efficient workflow, you can strategically expand to other platforms. When diversifying, repurpose content effectively rather than creating unique material for every channel from scratch. The key is strategic presence, not ubiquitous presence.

Why is owned media better for creator longevity?

Owned channels like email and community offer stable, algorithm-proof engagement. They also drive better conversions and deeper relationships than social platforms alone.

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Are you tired of chasing the algorithm and constantly scrambling to create new content? If you answered “yes,” know that you’re not alone. For many creators, the never-ending content mill is real, and it’s exhausting.

The good news is there’s a way out! Imagine this: you have a content system that works for you 24/7. One that brings in new leads, nurtures them over time, and drives sales, even while you sleep.

It’s not a dream, it’s a reality. That’s the power of having an evergreen content strategy.

You need to have a sustainable approach to marketing your business. In this post, we’ll explore what evergreen content is, why it can be game-changing for your business, and how to create an evergreen marketing strategy in a matter of minutes.

What Is evergreen content?

In simple terms, evergreen content is content that stays relevant long after it’s published. Unlike time-sensitive pieces like trendy social media videos, news reactions, or limited-time launches, evergreen marketing assets never stop bringing in new traffic and leads to your business.

Think of evergreen content like planting an apple tree, you put in the work upfront to plant the tree, and as it grows over time, it bears fruit over and over again without much daily attention from you. When done right, evergreen content can keep bringing value to your audience and bring new leads to your business for months and even years to come.

So, what makes content evergreen? Well, here are some common forms of evergreen content you can create:

• How-to blog posts
• Ultimate guides
• Tutorials and step-by-step walkthroughs
• Educational videos
• Downloadable resources
• Pre-recorded webinars
• Signature online courses

Because this type of content is not tied to news and trends, it remains relevant over time, which makes it extremely efficient. This type of content has higher chances of ranking in search engines and getting repeated shares, and it’s the backbone of a long-term content strategy for creators who want to scale.

Why an evergreen content strategy is essential for creators

The truth is, if you rely on social media alone to promote your business, you’re building a business on rented land. Platforms change. Algorithms shift when we least expect it. Because of it, your reach can be throttled overnight.

Having a strong evergreen content strategy gives you more stability and control over your business and growth. Here’s how it helps:

Stops the burnout cycle

Many creators and online entrepreneurs feel like they need to be everywhere, at all times. It’s hard to sustain, and honestly, it’s not even the best use of your time.

When you shift your mindset from trends to building more sustainable, evergreen content, you become strategic about your efforts and where you expend your energy. Instead of creating non-stop, you create once and reap the benefits.

With evergreen marketing, burnout will be a thing of the past.

Drive traffic and leads over time

While utilizing trends on social platforms like TikTok and getting a viral TikTok hit once in a while is useful (and feels great!), relying on virality and trends is not the most sustainable way to long-term growth.

You see, a viral, trendy post gives you a boost that eventually will fizzle out. A piece of evergreen content, like a well-optimized blog post, YouTube video, or a lead magnet, offers a slower but steady trickle of traffic and new leads over a long period of time without additional effort from your side.

That means you continue to gain email subscribers, students, customers, and a new audience over time without the hustle and bustle of trying to create the next big viral social media post. Slow and steady wins the race.

Supports a scalable business model

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want a source of passive income from their online business that grows over time? That’s the goal for many online course creators.

Whether you’re selling 1:1 services or digital products, evergreen content works perfectly with a passive content approach. Evergreen content warms up your audience for you and nudges them towards your well-priced offers naturally over time.

You don’t need to create more content to scale your business and grow your revenue with evergreen marketing. All you need is a high-quality library of evergreen content that does it for you — even if you’re on vacation or focused on other parts of your business.

Examples of evergreen content that drive results

Now that you know what evergreen content is, and why it’s essential for online entrepreneurs like you, let’s look at some practical ways you can apply an evergreen content strategy to your business:

Educational blog posts

If you have a blog, investing time and effort into writing high-quality, value-packed blog posts is essential. This form of evergreen content helps build authority and improve SEO. It provides tons of value to your audience and helps you build trust. Also, if you optimize them right with keywords and internal links, these pieces will bring organic traffic from search engines.

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Pre-recorded video trainings

Pre-recorded video workshops, masterclasses, or mini-courses are another form of evergreen content that can reap great results for your business. Upload these to YouTube, have them on your website, or better yet, have them as lead magnets to get people on your email list.

Video is a highly engaging format that builds trust quickly and provides tons of value for people. Marketing expert and author Jenna Kutcher has been using the same pre-recorder workshops to build her email list for years, and it works like a charm:

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Downloadable guides & templates

Another type of evergreen content that’s easy to create once and can bring value for years to come. Think checklists, scripts, digital planners, workbooks, and everything in between. You can use these as lead magnets to get people on your email list and to upsell related products from your business.

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Signature courses and digital products

A signature online course or a selection of digital products that offer value to your audience can be a goldmine. You only create these once, and they can live on your website for years to come.

Kutcher has been selling the same four courses for close to a decade, which has made her millions (if not tens of millions) of dollars:

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Also, this is where Teachable shines! With our platform, you can host courses, mini-trainings, and digital downloads with ease. You create it once, and it can be sold indefinitely, we handle everything from delivery to payments for you.

Automated quizzes and lead magnets

Quizzes are a powerful, evergreen content asset that can help you engage your current audience and attract a new audience. You can use them as a lead magnet to get people on your email list. Once they’re in your list, you can segment your audience and deliver tailored emails to them. The best part? All of it requires set up only once!

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How Teachable supports your evergreen content strategy

Teachable is much more than a simple course hosting platform. It’s a toolkit for creating and scaling your creative business. The tools we offer are built to support the use of passive content to build your business.

Here’s how Teachable empowers your evergreen marketing approach:

Signature evergreen products

Teachable gives you an easy way to create signature evergreen products like courses and digital downloads. You can create sales pages, upload and edit content, and set up payment processing right on the platform, so no more headaches about how to handle it all.

Once it’s set up on the platform, it’s there for however long you want it to be, generating passive income while you work on other parts of your business.

Capture new leads

If you’re not ready to sell an online course or sell digital downloads, you can use Teachable to capture new leads in your email list. Teachable makes it super easy to create a sales page and a course that you can sell for $0. It’s perfect for delivering things like:

• Video lessons
• Mini trainings
• Resource libraries

Alternatively, you can choose to use the digital download feature to create sales pages for freebies that you sell for $0. It’s perfect for things like:

• PDF downloads
• Checklists
• Ebooks
• Worksheets
• Templates

When people get through the checkout, they don’t have to pay, but you’ll get their email list in exchange for delivering a freebie, which allows you to onboard them into your ecosystem and nurture all the new leads in automated email sequences.

Next Steps: build smarter, not harder

You may be thinking: Evergreen content strategy sounds great, but what’s next? How do you go from zero to an evergreen content hero?

It’s easier than you think! Let’s break it down into practical steps you can start today. Remember, “evergreen content” doesn’t mean set-it-and-forget-it. The goal is to create content that lasts and stays relevant over time. Here’s where to begin:

Step 1: Identify timeless topics

Your first step is to brainstorm subjects in your niche that are relevant today and that will remain just as relevant a year from now. What are some persistent challenges your audience faces? What are the common questions beginners are asking over and over again?

For example: If you’re a nutrition coach, you may want to choose to create “healthy meal plan for busy moms” rather than “meal plan for [insert whatever diet is hot at the moment]. Busy moms have been looking for healthy meal plan ideas for years, and they’ll always need help with that in the future.

Next, conduct a keyword search to validate your ideas. Look for long-tail keywords with steady search volume, not just trendy spikes (use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Moz).

The sweet spot for you is to find content that solves a lasting problem your target audience has. And remember, you’re providing real value and help.

Step 2: Choose your evergreen formats

Once you know the topics, the next step is to decide which format you want to use for your evergreen content. Is it going to be YouTube videos? Or would you rather write SEO-optimized blog posts? Maybe you’re ready to create a digital product or even a signature course?

For example: If you’re a B2B content creator, consider creating a free PDF downloadable “client onboarding checklist” that you offer to your target audience year-round. It’s always useful, and your audience will find tons of value from a freebie like that.

If you’re a fitness coach, why not create a course “full-body workout at home for beginners” that you can sell continuously, onboarding new students who are just getting into working out every month.

You can double (or triple) down on it and combine multiple formats — write SEO-optimized evergreen content blog posts that offer an evergreen content freebie, which upsells your evergreen signature course. Once you have a strong evergreen content ecosystem up and running, you’ll see how much easier marketing your business becomes.

Step 3: Plan distribution and repurposing

Once your evergreen content is ready, it’s time to tell the world it exists. To maximise your content’s reach, make sure you optimize it for search and promote it on all of your social channels. Don’t shy away from cross-promoting the same content on various platforms, or resharing the same content after a while, not all followers see all of your posts.

It’s also useful to consider repurposing content into different formats. For example, turn an evergreen blog post into an infographic, a short-form video for socials, and a podcast episode.

Instead of creating a new piece of content for every platform, find ways to turn your evergreen piece of content into different types of content to save yourself time and effort. This strategy also allows you to remain consistent with your messaging without additional effort.

Step 4: Measure and maintain over time

While evergreen content is always relevant, you still need to keep an eye on it to make sure it’s up-to-date. This is especially true if you feature the latest statistics or if there were any major unexpected changes in the world that may have changed something you talk about in your evergreen content.

Updating references, statistics, and maybe swapping old examples for newer, more relevant ones don’t cost too much time (and may even be outsourced if you have the budget), but can have a positive impact on the performance of your content. Up-to-date evergreen content offers more value to your audience.

Also, it’s smart to update your CTAs! This way, when your audience chooses to take action inspired by your content, they are doing exactly what you want them to do in the present moment.

Ready to grow with evergreen content strategy?

The sooner you start planting evergreen seeds, the sooner they’ll bear fruit. As a creator, coach, or consultant, your time is valuable, and you have knowledge that has no expiration date. Respect your time and your knowledge, package it into evergreen content and products that can serve you for years to come.

Teachable makes it easy to turn your expertise into long-lasting assets with ease, from self-paced courses to digital downloads. Get started today by creating your first evergreen online course. 

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FAQs

1. What is evergreen content, and why is it important?

Evergreen content refers to content that remains relevant and valuable over time, such as how-to guides, tutorials, and FAQs. It’s important because it continuously attracts traffic, builds authority, and generates leads without the need for constant updates.

2. How does evergreen content benefit online business owners?

Evergreen content benefits online business owners by providing a steady stream of traffic and leads, reducing the need for constant content creation. It supports long-term SEO efforts and helps establish authority in your niche.

3. What are some examples of evergreen content formats?

Examples include comprehensive how-to guides, educational blog posts, pre-recorded webinars, downloadable resources like checklists or templates, and signature online courses. These formats provide lasting value and can be reused or repurposed over time.

4. How can Teachable support my evergreen content strategy?

Teachable offers tools to create and sell online courses, digital downloads, and coaching services. Its platform allows for automated lead capture, seamless content delivery, and integration with marketing tools, making it easier to implement and manage an evergreen content strategy.

5. What steps should I take to create an evergreen content strategy?

Start by identifying timeless topics relevant to your audience. Choose the right content formats, such as blog posts or courses. Optimize your content for SEO, plan for regular updates, and use platforms like Teachable to host and distribute your content effectively.

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The days of quietly uploading a course and watching students are behind us. 

In 2025, successful creators understand a powerful truth:

Every lesson, interaction, and student outcome represents an opportunity to expand your reach in an increasingly crowded market. 

Amid economic uncertainty and the advancement of AI, learners seek more than information. They want guidance through disruption, skills that remain valuable despite technological change, and authentic human connection that technology can’t replace. 

This creates a huge opportunity for creators who position their expertise and wisdom in a more strategic way. The creators who thrive now design with intention. They craft experiences that naturally encourage sharing, create visible transformations worth talking about, and build community connections that outlast the curriculum. They know that in a world where attention is precious and options are endless, exceptional educational experiences travel further than ever before.

When your courses generate genuine enthusiasm, authentic testimonials, and tangible results, your audience growth becomes self-perpetuating rather than constantly requiring new marketing efforts.

The global e-learning services market is projected to reach $843 billion by 2030. So, the difference between struggle and success increasingly comes down to how you position each educational offering as a gateway to your broader professional creator ecosystem.

The following ten course business ideas represent proven models for audience growth in 2025. Each combines educational excellence with built-in discovery mechanisms. These approaches offer a blueprint for expanding your course reach without compromising your unique value or vision.

1. AI integration for creative professionals

What it is

A specialized educational program designed to bridge the gap between traditional creative skills and emerging AI technologies.

These courses specifically address the unique concerns of photographers, designers, illustrators, writers, and other creative professionals who need to incorporate AI tools into their workflows while preserving their artistic voice. Rather than generic AI instruction, these courses focus on the creative process itself, teaching professionals how to maintain control, enhance their distinctive style, and increase productivity through strategic AI adoption.

Implementation strategy

Develop a course, coaching packaging, membership, or digital product series that teaches photographers, designers, writers, and other creatives how to use AI tools to enhance their process while maintaining their unique style. Include modules on prompt engineering, output refinement, and ethical considerations. Feature case studies of successful creators who balance AI assistance with human creativity.

Audience growth potential

This niche targets an established audience of creative professionals concerned about AI disruption while attracting newcomers eager to enter creative fields with technological advantages. Position yourself as a bridge between traditional creative skills and emerging technologies.

Example use case

A professional photographer creates a course showing other photographers how to use AI for image editing, background removal, and style transfer while preserving their artistic signature and workflow efficiency.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Teachable AI, customizable learning paths, and online community spaces for sharing AI experiments and techniques

2. Financial literacy for the gig economy (for finance-focused creators)

What it is

A financial education system specifically developed for independent workers operating outside traditional employment structures.

These courses address the complex reality of variable income, self-employment taxes, business expenses, and personal financial planning within the gig economy context.

Implementation strategy

Create a comprehensive financial course covering tax planning, business entity selection, retirement options, healthcare considerations, and income stability techniques specifically for independent workers. Partner with accountants or financial advisors to add credibility and technical accuracy to your content, if necessary.

Audience growth potential

This evergreen topic addresses a growing segment of the workforce with specific pain points traditional financial advice doesn’t adequately cover. The course solves immediate problems while building long-term financial competence.

Example use case

A financial planner develops a specialized curriculum for freelance designers and programmers, addressing quarterly taxes, retirement planning, business deductions, and even tax audit issues specific to digital professionals.

Teachable Pay complimentary features

Integrated payment plans, downloadable templates for financial tracking, quiz components to confirm understanding of tax concepts.

3. Niche certification programs

What it is

A structured educational experience that culminates in a formal credential, distinguishing the learner as proficient in a specific methodology, framework, or skill set.

Unlike broadly recognized certifications from major institutions, these programs focus on specialized knowledge areas where formal credentials may not yet exist but carry significant professional value.

The certification serves multiple functions: validating the learner’s expertise, enhancing their professional credibility, creating shareable accomplishments, and establishing the course creator as a recognized authority in a defined domain. These programs typically include assessment components, practice opportunities, and clear standards for achievement before certification is granted.

Implementation strategy

Design a comprehensive curriculum with clear learning outcomes and assessment methods. Create professional certificate templates and verification systems. Consider industry partnerships to enhance credential recognition.

Audience growth potential

Certification creates a clear incentive to complete the course and a natural reason for learners to share their results. It also signals authority for the creator and elevates the perceived value of the content.

Example use case

A social media strategist teaches a proprietary client onboarding framework and offers a certification badge students can display on LinkedIn.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Built-in completion certificates, quiz gating, and course compliance tracking.

4. Cohort-based learning experiences

What it is

A temporally defined learning model where a group of students progresses through educational material together according to a fixed schedule, combining independent study with synchronous interaction.  

Cohort-based experiences create social accountability, peer learning opportunities, and community connection through shared progress. These programs typically feature live instruction sessions, structured group activities, facilitated discussions, and collaborative projects. The cohort model resembles traditional educational experiences while leveraging digital capabilities for enhanced flexibility, personalization, and ongoing community development beyond the formal course period.

Implementation strategy

Develop a structured curriculum with clear milestones and accountability mechanisms. Create systems for peer feedback and collaborative assignments. Schedule synchronous learning sessions to build community and address questions.

Audience growth potential

Limited enrollment and time-bound access create urgency. Learners feel more accountability and often refer others due to the group dynamic, if properly executed.

Example use case

A leadership coach offers a 6-week cohort program for mid-career professionals, with weekly workshops and facilitated breakout groups.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Drip content scheduling, integrated community, coaching product, and Zoom/live event integrations.

5. Data literacy for non-technical professionals

“Data literacy is set to be the most in-demand skill by 2030” – The Data Literacy Project

What it is

Educational programs specifically designed to democratize data skills across professional disciplines that traditionally lack technical training.

These courses translate complex data concepts into accessible frameworks using industry-relevant language and examples, allowing professionals in marketing, healthcare, education, law, and other sectors to confidently interpret data, assess analytics reports, make evidence-based decisions, and communicate effectively with technical specialists. The focus remains practical rather than theoretical, emphasizing immediately applicable skills that enhance career performance without requiring coding proficiency or advanced statistical knowledge.

Implementation strategy

Create a course that breaks down the complexity of data analysis for non-technical professionals. Focus on real-world applications that provide immediate benefit like interpreting reports, identifying meaningful metrics, visualizing information effectively, and making data-informed decisions. Use relevant industry examples tailored to specific professional groups.

Audience growth potential

This course addresses a significant skills gap affecting professionals across industries who feel left behind by data transformation. Position your content as the bridge between technical complexity and workplace application.

Example use case

A business analyst creates a consulting program specifically for marketing teams, teaching them to interpret analytics reports, conduct basic A/B testing, and create compelling data visualizations without coding.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Multimedia content, downloadable tools, knowledge checks, and regular curriculum updates.

6. Challenge courses (7-day, 14-day, etc.)

What it is

Time-bound learning experiences structured around daily micro-commitments that build toward a significant skill acquisition or habit formation goal.

Challenge courses break complex behavioral or skill changes into manageable daily actions, creating momentum through quick wins and incremental progress. The important thing to remember is to keep it short. Longer challenges may dissuade some participants from signing up or completing.

Implementation strategy

Structure content into small, achievable daily tasks with clear outcomes. Build accountability systems and progress tracking. Consider community components to enhance motivation and completion rates.

Audience growth potential

Challenges have built-in momentum. They work well as lead magnets and are often shared among peer groups. Many convert participants into long-term customers.

Example use case

A nutritionist launches a 7-day clean eating challenge that includes daily videos, checklists, and a private group.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Drip content, excellent mobile app student experience, downloadable checklists, and course start date customization.

7. Community building for content creators

What it is

Strategic educational programs focused on helping content creators develop sustainable audience relationships through community development rather than algorithmic dependence.

These courses teach creators to transform passive followers into active community participants by establishing dedicated spaces for deeper engagement, implementing effective moderation systems, designing community rituals, and creating valuable member experiences.

The curriculum typically addresses both technical platform considerations and human psychology elements of community building, with emphasis on creating owned spaces that protect creators from platform volatility while enhancing audience loyalty and monetization opportunities. If you are a current or former community manager, this is for you.

Implementation strategy

Create a comprehensive course on building, nurturing, and monetizing audience communities across platforms. Include sections on community structure, engagement strategies, moderation approaches, and transitioning followers from social platforms to owned spaces.

Audience growth potential

This meta-topic appeals directly to other course creators and content professionals seeking to strengthen their audience relationships. Success stories from your community-building approach serve as built-in case studies.

Example use case

A successful community manager creates a comprehensive playbook showing other creators how to transition from social media followers to engaged, paying community members.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Teachable Community, and discussion threads

8. Creator playbooks (teach what you’ve done)

What it is

Detailed, transparent educational products that document a creator’s actual processes, strategies, and systems that produced measurable results in their business or creative practice.

These courses typically combine behind-the-scenes access, concrete examples, adaptable frameworks, and authentic reflection on both successes and failures.

The playbook approach establishes credibility through demonstrated outcomes and positioning the creator as both practitioner and mentor.

Implementation strategy

Document and teach your actual workflows, decision-making processes, and results. Include templates, swipe files, and other  tools that helped you succeed. Be transparent about both successes and failures.

Audience growth potential

These courses showcase credibility and build connection. They position the creator as both a practitioner and teacher.

Example use case

A YouTube creator releases a monetization playbook showing how they grew to 100,000 subscribers using affiliate marketing and course bundles.

Teachable’s complimentary features

Multimedia support, private coaching add-ons, and content reuse for future products.

9. Skill-based upskilling courses for specific roles

What it is

Highly specialized educational programs targeting defined professional roles that support other businesses or creators, such as executive assistants, project managers, editors, virtual assistants, or operations specialists.

These courses address specific skill gaps and competency requirements that traditional education often overlooks, focusing on  tools, workflows, and techniques that enhance performance in supporting roles.

The curriculum emphasizes both technical capabilities and interpersonal skills required for these positions, providing clear paths to increased responsibility, compensation, and career advancement.

These role-specific courses often include industry-standard templates, software training, communication protocols, and productivity systems tailored to the unique challenges of each professional function.

Implementation strategy

Identify specific skill gaps in professional roles and create focused training to address them. Include exercises, templates, and real-world scenarios. Consider certifications or badges to document skill acquisition.

Audience growth potential

These audiences are often underserved and highly motivated. They share resources within their professional communities.

Example use case

A creative agency founder builds a course to train executive assistants in client communication systems used in their agency.

Teachable’s complimentary features

LMS features, tiered pricing, and integrations for business use cases.

10. Re-skilling for career pivots

What it is

Comprehensive educational programs designed specifically for professionals seeking to change career directions, industries, or business models.

These courses address both the technical skills and psychological aspects of career transition, combining practical training with strategies for leveraging transferable skills, navigating identity shifts, and building confidence during professional reinvention. They also tend to include components addressing mindset challenges, imposter syndrome, professional positioning, and logistics of career transformation alongside requisite skill development.

Implementation strategy

Create a well-thought out roadmap for career transition, including skills assessment, market research, and strategic networking. Include case studies of successful pivots and exercises to build confidence.

Audience growth potential

Career pivots are deeply personal. These courses often address pain points with clarity and compassion, which drives word-of-mouth.

Example use case

A former HR director teaches professionals how to transition into fractional consulting, with modules on pricing, positioning, and lead generation.

Teachable’s complimentary features

High-ticket pricing support, payment plans, and custom onboarding email integrations

How to identify your course opportunity

When evaluating these potential course directions, consider where your expertise naturally intersects with these growing needs. Successful course creators combine:

1. Demonstrable expertise in the subject matter
2. Personal connection to the challenges being addressed
3. Unique perspective or methodology within the broader topic
4. Ability to communicate complex concepts accessibly

The most sustainable course businesses address persistent challenges with evolving solutions rather than temporary trends. Your course should solve problems your audience consistently encounters while adapting to changing implementation contexts.

Strategic course development for 2025

The most effective course business models in 2025 are audience-first by design. They do more than transfer knowledge. They generate trust, promote connection, and create multiple paths for discovery.

As learner expectations rise, and the market grows more sophisticated, especially with AI capabilities increasing by the day, creators must build with intent. Each idea on this list can scale reach without sacrificing depth, especially when supported by a platform that allows flexible product delivery, automation, and community growth.

After identifying your course direction, begin market validation through:

1. Creating preliminary content pieces addressing aspects of your chosen topic
2. Engaging directly with your target audience about specific challenges
3. Developing a minimum viable course module to test engagement
4. Gathering testimonials from early students to refine your approach

Final recommendations

Teachable provides the technical infrastructure to bring your course to market efficiently, allowing you to focus on content development and audience building. Our course analytics help you identify which topics resonate most strongly with your audience. This makes continous improvement easier.

What expertise could you transform into a valuable learning experience for others in 2025?