How to Create Your Online Course for Under $15

Need to get your online course up and running on a shoestring budget? I’ve got you! Here are 4 tool stacks ranging in price from $0-$15/month that will allow you to create, launch, and sell your online course - which means that every sale you make is almost ALL gravy (and who doesn’t love gravy??).

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If you don’t remember anything else from this article, I want you to take away this one thing:

Use. What. You. Have.

So many of you are intimidated by online course creation because you think you need all of this cool crazy expensive software, not to mention new services are being created every day and it’s getting difficult to know which is the best one.

This post walks you through the categories of software that you need to successfully create and host your course, with the categories broken down into quick/intermediate/advanced solutions and an example or two in each.

This podcast discusses what tools to use if you’re bootstrapping your course creation.

But what is missing? A specific tool stack laid out with prices so that you can see what combination of tools you can use to create a course for under $15. That’s what I’m going to give you today.

These are by no means the only tool stacks to use, they are based on tools that most people are familiar with. But again: Use what you have!

Your Budget: $15/Month

Your Website ($15/month): This one is cheating a little bit, because most of this monthly cost is simply your web hosting, which you are probably paying for anyway. But if you don’t have a website you’re going to need one, so you might as well host your online course there too! Create hidden pages for your course content. Use password protected pages if your website has them.

This covers:

• Course hosting
• Sales pages
• Checkout (if your web host includes ecommerce)

Zoom (free account): If you are doing group coaching/Q&A during your course and you keep these meetings to 40mins or less, you can totally get away with the free plan. Sign up for free here.*

This covers:

• Meetings
• Video lesson recording
• Audio lesson recording

Gmail or Outlook (free account): While having a business email that ends in @gmail.com or @outlook.com may not seem as professional, if you’re just starting out or if your potential students don’t care about things like that then go for it!

This covers:

• Email marketing (just be careful to comply with CASL/GDPR)
• Communicating with students

Google Sheets or PowerPoint (free account): you likely already have one of these (especially if you’ve got a Gmail or Outlook account).

This covers:

• Making graphics for your sales page, course/lesson pages, or other marketing materials
• Creating downloadable worksheets, resources
• Creating the presentations that go with your video lessons

PayPal (free account; processing fees vary): If you don’t have any checkout features on your website, simply sign up for a free PayPal business account and link to their checkout page or add a button to your sales page. Processing fees are percentage-based, so if you are selling a high-priced course, your fees may exceed the monthly budget I’ve laid out here, but the point is that you aren’t paying any sort of monthly subscription fee if you haven’t started selling yet!

This covers:

• Checkout page
• Payment processing

Your Budget: $7/Month

Google Workspace ($7/Month): If you have a paid Workspace account, you have access to an entire suite of tools to help you out. Sign up here*.

This covers:

• Course hosting (Google Sites)
• Sales pages (Google Sites)
• Making graphics for your sales page, course/lesson pages, or other marketing materials (Google Slides)
• Creating downloadable worksheets, resources (Google Slides)
• Creating the presentations that go with your video lessons (Google Slides)
• Email marketing (just be careful to comply with CASL/GDPR) (Gmail)
• Communicating with students (Gmail)
• Meetings (Google Meet)
• Allow students to submit homework (Google Forms)
• Student discussion forum (Google Groups)

PayPal (free account; processing fees vary): If you don’t have any checkout features on your website, simply sign up for a free PayPal business account and link to their checkout page or add a button to your sales page. Processing fees are percentage based, so if you are selling a high priced course, your fees may exceed the monthly budget I’ve laid out here, but the point is that you aren’t paying any sort of monthly subscription fee if you haven’t started selling yet!

This covers:

• Checkout page
• Payment processing

Monosnap or Bonjoro (free account): The lowest Workspace plan doesn’t include meeting recording, so you’d either need to upgrade (to $15/month plan) or find a recording tool you like. If you need to record presentations on your desktop, I’d recommend Monosnap. If you are recording face to camera videos, I’d recommend Bonjoro. Both of these options have a free plan that has no length limit on your recordings.

This covers:

• Video lesson recording

Your Budget: $0/Month 1

Facebook Group (free): You can use a group as a course platform (I discuss it in great detail right here).

This covers:

• Course hosting - video and text content, plus “docs” that students can access
• Communicating with students
• Meetings (Rooms or FB Lives)
• Student discussion forum
• Course tracking if lessons uploaded to units

Canva (free account): This is a great resource and does more than just make graphics! Get started for free here*.

This covers:

• Making graphics for your sales page, course/lesson pages, or other marketing materials
• Creating downloadable PDF worksheets, resources
• Creating the presentations that go with your video lessons

iMovie (free): any free video editing software will do, this is just the one that I know the best, and comes pre-loaded for Mac users.

This covers:

• Video & audio recording
• Video & audio editing

ConvertKit (free account): ConvertKit allows you to have up to 1,000 active subscribers for free. Get your free account here*.

This covers:

• Sales and checkout pages
• Email marketing
• Communicating with students
• Allow students to submit homework via a form

PayPal (free account; processing fees vary): If you don’t have any checkout features on your website, simply sign up for a free PayPal business account and link to their checkout page or add a button to your sales page. Processing fees are percentage-based, so if you are selling a high-priced course, your fees may exceed the monthly budget I’ve laid out here, but the point is that you aren’t paying any sort of monthly subscription fee if you haven’t started selling yet!

This covers:

• Checkout page
• Payment processing

Your Budget: $0/Month 2

MemberVault (free account): You can use MemberVault for free* if you have under 100 students.

This covers:

• Course hosting
• Your homepage acts like a course market place

Zoom (free account): If you are doing group coaching/Q&A during your course and you keep these meetings to 40mins or less, you can totally get away with the free plan. Sign up for free here.*

This covers:

• Meetings
• Video lesson recording
• Audio lesson recording

YouTube (free account): Since MemberVault does not have video hosting, you’ll need to upload your videos somewhere else and embed them. I recommend YouTube because it has an extra feature that will be very beneficial.

This covers:

• Video lesson hosting
• Closed Captions
• Transcriptions

Canva (free account): This is a great resource and does more than just make graphics! Get started for free here*.

This covers:

• Making graphics for your sales page, course/lesson pages, or other marketing materials
• Creating downloadable PDF worksheets, resources
• Creating the presentations that go with your video lessons

ConvertKit (free account): ConvertKit allows you to have up to 1,000 active subscribers for free. MemberVault doesn’t have built-in email, but easily integrates with many services, including ConvertKit. Get your free account here*.

This covers:

• Sales and checkout pages
• Email marketing
• Communicating with students
• Allow students to submit homework via a form

PayPal (free account; processing fees vary): If you don’t have any checkout features on your website, simply sign up for a free PayPal business account and link to their checkout page or add a button to your sales page. Processing fees are percentage based, so if you are selling a high priced course, your fees may exceed the monthly budget I’ve laid out here, but the point is that you aren’t paying any sort of monthly subscription fee if you haven’t started selling yet!

This covers:

• Checkout page
• Payment processing

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