Business

  • Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Gumroad vs Payhip: Fees Compared (Keep More of Your Money)

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: On fees, Payhip wins at every sales volume I ran the numbers for: its free plan takes 5% per sale against Gumroad’s 10% + $0.50, and paid Payhip plans push your fee to 2% or 0%. Start on Payhip’s free plan here if keeping more per sale is the goal. Gumroad still earns its cut if you want marketplace exposure through Discover and completely hands-off sales tax.

    Gumroad and Payhip solve the same problem: sell a digital product without building a store. Both let you start with no monthly fee, both handle file delivery and checkout, and both take a slice when you sell. The slices are very different sizes, and since fees quietly decide how much of your work you keep, this comparison is mostly math. I’ll show my numbers so you can check them against your own products.

    The fee structures, side by side

      Gumroad Payhip
    Monthly cost $0 $0 (Free), $29 (Plus), $99 (Pro)
    Fee per direct sale 10% + $0.50 5% (Free), 2% (Plus), 0% (Pro)
    Marketplace sales 30% via Gumroad Discover No marketplace
    Payment processing No separate line on their pricing page Stripe/PayPal standard rates on top
    Tax handling Merchant of record since January 2025; handles sales tax worldwide Collects and remits EU and UK VAT on digital sales

    One honest wrinkle before the math: Payhip’s percentages exclude payment processing (in the US, Stripe’s standard card rate is 2.9% + $0.30), while Gumroad’s pricing page lists no separate processing line. To keep the comparison fair, I’ve added full Stripe processing to Payhip’s side in every scenario below. Payhip still comes out cheaper each time.

    The math at three revenue levels

    Assume a $20 product. Here’s what each platform takes per month, with Stripe processing added on top of Payhip’s cut.

    Monthly sales Gumroad (10% + $0.50) Payhip Free (5% + processing) Payhip Plus ($29 + 2% + processing)
    25 sales ($500) $62.50 $47 $61
    100 sales ($2,000) $250 $188 $157
    250 sales ($5,000) $625 $470 $349

    At $5,000 a month, Payhip’s Pro plan ($99, 0% platform fee) beats everything: $99 plus roughly $220 of processing is $319, half of Gumroad’s $625. The gap widens as you grow, because a flat 10% scales with your success and a flat $99 doesn’t.

    The upgrade points are worth memorizing. Payhip Plus starts beating the Free plan just under $1,000 a month in sales, and Pro overtakes Plus around $3,500 a month. Below those lines, stay on the cheaper plan; the beauty of Payhip’s pricing is that every feature is included at every level, so upgrading is purely a fee decision.

    What the fee table doesn’t tell you

    If fees were the whole story, this post would be over. Three things genuinely favor Gumroad.

    Sales tax, handled completely. Since January 2025, Gumroad acts as merchant of record: it collects and remits sales tax worldwide, and legally it is the seller. For creators with buyers in many countries, that removes a real administrative burden. Payhip handles the biggest chunk (EU and UK VAT on digital products) but other jurisdictions remain your homework.

    Discover, the built-in marketplace. Gumroad can send you buyers you didn’t earn through its Discover feed, at a steep 30% fee on those sales. Thirty percent of a sale you’d never have made is a fine deal; just don’t build a business plan on marketplace traffic, because for most sellers it stays a trickle.

    Familiarity. Buyers have seen Gumroad checkouts for years. It’s a small trust advantage, and smaller every year.

    On the other side, Payhip’s structural advantage beyond fees: your money lands directly in your own Stripe or PayPal account at the moment of sale, rather than flowing through a platform payout schedule, and every feature (coupons, your own affiliate program, memberships, courses) is available on the $0 plan.

    Verdict: who should pick what

    • You have an audience (blog, list, socials) and sell direct: Payhip, no contest. The 5% free plan keeps the most money in your pocket at the start, and the paid tiers scale cheaper than 10% + $0.50 ever will.
    • You have zero audience and hope the platform brings buyers: Gumroad’s Discover is the only marketplace option here, but temper expectations and mind the 30%. Building your own audience remains the real fix; my ultimate guide to blogging is where I’d start.
    • You sell globally and dread tax admin: Gumroad’s merchant-of-record setup is genuinely valuable, and for some sellers worth the higher fee.
    • You’re scaling past a few thousand a month: Payhip Pro turns your platform fee into a flat $99, which is where serious margins live.

    Whichever you pick, sell through an email list rather than hoping for passing traffic; my ultimate guide to email marketing covers building the asset that makes any store work.

    FAQ

    What fees does Gumroad charge?

    Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 per sale made through your own links or profile, with no monthly cost. Sales that come through its Discover marketplace carry a 30% fee instead. Since January 2025, Gumroad is merchant of record and handles sales tax worldwide.

    What fees does Payhip charge?

    Payhip’s Free Forever plan charges 5% per sale with no monthly cost. Plus is $29 a month with a 2% fee, and Pro is $99 a month with 0%. Stripe or PayPal processing fees apply on top of every plan.

    Is Payhip cheaper than Gumroad?

    For direct sales, yes, at every volume I’ve modeled, even after adding full Stripe processing to Payhip’s side. The gap grows with revenue: at $5,000 a month on a $20 product, Payhip Pro costs roughly half of what Gumroad’s 10% + $0.50 works out to.

    Do I pay Stripe or PayPal fees on both platforms?

    On Payhip, yes: the processors charge their standard rates on top of Payhip’s percentage. Gumroad’s pricing page doesn’t list a separate processing fee alongside its 10% + $0.50. The comparison table above adds processing to Payhip’s side, so the totals stay honest.

    Who handles VAT and sales tax?

    Gumroad handles it all as merchant of record. Payhip automatically collects and remits EU and UK VAT on digital products, and leaves other jurisdictions to you. If most of your buyers are in the EU, UK or US, Payhip covers the hard part; a truly global audience tilts this point toward Gumroad.

    Run the numbers on your own product price and volume, but the pattern holds: the platform fee is the biggest lever on your margins, and it’s the one you control today. Open a free Payhip store, keep 95% instead of roughly 87%, and let the difference compound with every sale.

  • Payhip Review- The Underrated Gumroad Alternative
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Payhip Review: The Underrated Gumroad Alternative

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: Payhip is the lowest-risk way I know to start selling digital products: every feature on every plan, unlimited products, and a free plan that only takes 5% when you actually sell something. You can open a free Payhip store here and have an ebook listed tonight. Skip it if you need a designer storefront or built-in marketplace traffic.

    Gumroad gets the headlines, Shopify gets the conference talks, and Payhip quietly does the job for creators who just want to sell a PDF, a course or a template pack without monthly overhead. I keep recommending it to bloggers with a first product idea, and this review explains why, along with the parts that might make you choose something else.

    What is Payhip?

    Payhip is an e-commerce platform for creators. You upload a product, set a price, and Payhip gives you a checkout link, a simple storefront and embeddable buy buttons for your own site. Money goes straight into your PayPal or Stripe account rather than sitting in a platform wallet.

    You can sell digital downloads, online courses, coaching, memberships and physical goods. For digital products in particular it handles the annoying parts: file delivery, download limits, license keys for software, and EU and UK VAT on checkout.

    Payhip pricing

    Plan Monthly price Transaction fee
    Free Forever $0 5% per sale
    Plus $29 2% per sale
    Pro $99 0%

    Every plan includes all features, unlimited products and unlimited revenue. You are paying purely to lower the transaction fee. PayPal and Stripe charge their standard processing rates on top, on every plan.

    That structure is the quiet genius of Payhip: you can validate a product at zero fixed cost, then upgrade only when the math favors it. Around $1,000 a month in sales, Plus starts costing less than Free’s 5%; around $3,500 a month, Pro overtakes Plus. Until then, stay free and spend nothing.

    What Payhip does well

    No feature gates. Coupons, affiliate programs for your own products, upgrade pricing, pay-what-you-want, customer messaging: it’s all there on the $0 plan. Most competitors save something essential for the expensive tier.

    VAT without tears. Payhip collects and remits EU and UK VAT on digital sales for you. If you’ve ever read a VAT-on-digital-goods explainer and closed the tab in despair, this alone justifies the platform.

    It works with a blog instead of replacing it. Embed buy buttons in posts, link a product from your newsletter, done. Pair it with a proper list from day one; my ultimate guide to email marketing covers that side.

    Fast to learn. The dashboard is plain and shallow in the good sense. Upload, price, publish takes minutes, not a weekend of settings.

    Where Payhip falls short (and who shouldn’t buy)

    Storefront design is basic. You get clean but generic pages with limited customization. If brand aesthetics are central to your product, you’ll feel boxed in compared with a custom Shopify or WordPress shop.

    No marketplace traffic. Etsy and Gumroad’s Discover feed send buyers to listings; Payhip sends you nobody. You bring the audience, or nobody comes. If you have no blog, list or social following yet, fix that first.

    Marketing tools are thin. The built-in email and analytics features are serviceable at best. You’ll want a real email platform and your own tracking alongside it.

    Stripe and PayPal only. If neither processor operates properly in your country, Payhip is a non-starter. Check that before anything else.

    Who shouldn’t buy: sellers who want discovery traffic built in, full website-builder control, or deep funnel features like order bumps everywhere and complex upsell chains.

    How Payhip compares to the alternatives

    Against Gumroad, the trade is fees versus reach. Payhip is cheaper per sale at every plan level, while Gumroad offers its Discover marketplace and handles global sales tax as merchant of record. If you already own your audience, cheaper wins; if you own nothing yet, reach is tempting, though marketplace traffic is rarely as big as people hope.

    Against Etsy, the difference is dependence. Etsy brings shoppers but takes listing fees, transaction fees and total control of the relationship; your customers are Etsy’s customers. On Payhip, you keep the email address and the customer, which matters more with every product you launch.

    Against course platforms like Teachable or Podia, Payhip is simpler and much cheaper, but lighter. Its course builder covers videos, files and quizzes without the polish of a dedicated platform. For a first mini-course it’s plenty; for a flagship $500 program with communities and certificates, you’ll outgrow it.

    Who is Payhip for? My verdict

    Payhip fits bloggers and creators who already have (or are building) an audience and want to sell their first digital products without betting money on the outcome. The free plan means a failed product costs you nothing but the time it took to make.

    It’s the platform I suggest when someone tells me they’ve been sitting on an ebook draft for six months. Put it on a free Payhip store, price it honestly, and let real buyers vote. If you’re still building the audience half of that equation, start with my ultimate guide to blogging.

    A realistic first launch looks like this: one small product at a modest price, a product page written in your own voice, buy buttons embedded in your two or three most-visited blog posts, and one honest email to your list. No countdown timers, no webinar. Payhip handles checkout and delivery; your only job is sending people to the page and reading what they say afterwards.

    FAQ

    Is Payhip really free?

    Yes. The Free Forever plan has no monthly cost, no product limits and no revenue caps. Payhip takes 5% of each sale, and PayPal or Stripe take their standard processing fees. If you sell nothing, you pay nothing.

    What fees does Payhip charge?

    5% per sale on the free plan, 2% on Plus ($29/month) and 0% on Pro ($99/month). Payment processing by Stripe or PayPal comes on top of every plan, at their normal rates.

    Is Payhip better than Gumroad?

    On fees, usually: Payhip’s free plan takes 5% per sale where Gumroad takes 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale. Gumroad counters with its Discover marketplace and merchant-of-record tax handling, so sellers who want discovery traffic may still prefer it.

    Does Payhip handle VAT?

    Payhip collects and remits EU and UK VAT on digital product sales automatically at checkout. Other sales taxes remain your responsibility, so check your local rules or ask an accountant once revenue becomes meaningful.

    What can you sell on Payhip?

    Digital downloads (ebooks, templates, printables, software with license keys), online courses, coaching sessions, memberships and physical products. Most creators start with a simple digital download because delivery is instant and support is minimal.

    If you’ve been waiting for a sign to finally sell that ebook, template or mini-course, this is it. Open a free Payhip store, list one product this week, and let the 5% fee be the only thing you owe until real money comes in.

  • Payhip Tutorial: Sell Digital Downloads With Zero Monthly Fees
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Payhip Tutorial: Sell Digital Downloads With Zero Monthly Fees

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    Selling your first digital product should not require a monthly subscription before you have earned a cent. That is the whole reason Payhip keeps coming up in my recommendations: the free plan is free forever, every feature is included, and Payhip only earns when you do.

    In this tutorial I will walk you through the entire setup — account, payments, your first product, VAT, and the launch — in about an hour of actual work. By the end you will have a working store selling an ebook, template, printable, or any other file you can dream up.

    One expectation to set honestly upfront: Payhip is a storefront, not a marketplace. Nobody browses Payhip looking for products the way they browse Etsy. You bring the audience; Payhip handles the selling. Keep that in mind and you will not be disappointed.

    What you need before you start

    A finished digital file (PDF, template bundle, audio, video — anything downloadable), a Stripe or PayPal account to receive money, and something to sell to: a blog, a social following, or an email list, however small. That is the complete list.

    Step-by-step: your Payhip store

    Step 1: Create your free account

    Sign up at Payhip — the Free Forever plan needs no card details. At the time of writing, free means a 5% transaction fee on sales; the paid plans (Plus at $29 a month with a 2% fee, Pro at $99 with no fee) only make sense later, and I will show you the math for when.

    Refreshingly, all three plans include every feature and unlimited products. You are not being squeezed toward an upgrade to unlock basics — the only difference is the fee.

    Step 2: Connect Stripe or PayPal

    In your account settings, connect Stripe, PayPal, or both. Payments from customers land directly in these accounts — Payhip never holds your money. Both processors charge their own standard processing fees on top of Payhip’s cut, which is normal everywhere. Offering both options is worth the five minutes: some buyers simply will not use one or the other.

    Step 3: Upload your first product

    Click to add a new product, choose digital download, and upload your file. Give it a clear, benefit-driven name — “Budget Planner for Freelancers (Google Sheets + PDF)” beats “My Planner v2”. If your product is a bundle, zip the files and mention exactly what is inside. Buyers get a secure download link automatically after checkout, and you can push updated files to past buyers later — handy for templates you improve over time.

    Step 4: Write a product page that actually sells

    The description does the selling, so structure it: one sentence on the problem, a short list of what is included, who it is for (and who it is not for), and what changes after using it. Add real previews — a mockup, sample pages, a short video if you have one. Vague pages do not convert, and no platform can fix that for you.

    Step 5: Price it and let Payhip handle VAT

    Pick a price you can defend, not the lowest one you dare to ask. Digital products are judged on the outcome they deliver, not their file size.

    Then the unglamorous part that Payhip quietly does well: tax. If you sell to EU customers, digital products fall under EU VAT rules, and Payhip calculates, collects, and remits that VAT for you. If the phrase “VAT MOSS” has ever scared you away from selling digital products, this feature alone justifies the platform.

    Step 6: Put the store where your audience is

    You get a hosted storefront out of the box, which is fine, though design customization is fairly basic — this is not the platform for pixel-perfect branding. The stronger move for bloggers: embed Payhip buy buttons or checkout directly into your own blog posts, so readers buy without leaving your site. If your blog is not ready for that yet, my ultimate guide to blogging covers building the audience half of this equation.

    Step 7: Launch with a coupon and your email list

    Create a launch coupon — Payhip supports discount codes on every plan — and give your audience a reason to buy this week instead of someday. Email beats social here, every time. If you do not have a list yet, start one before your next product; my ultimate guide to email marketing walks you through it from zero.

    Pro tips and common mistakes

    The upgrade math: Plus at $29 a month (2% fee) beats the free plan’s 5% fee once you sell roughly $1,000 a month. Below that, the free plan is genuinely the better deal — upgrading early is donating margin. Run the numbers on your real revenue, not your hoped-for revenue.

    Common mistakes I see: launching with no traffic plan and blaming the platform; skipping the mockup images; pricing at $3 because impostor syndrome said so; and forgetting to test the full checkout yourself before announcing. Buy your own product with a 100% coupon and check the emails a customer receives.

    FAQ

    Is Payhip really free?

    Yes. The Free Forever plan costs $0 a month with unlimited products and all features; Payhip takes a 5% cut of each sale instead (plus normal Stripe or PayPal processing fees). No sales, no costs.

    What can you sell on Payhip?

    Digital downloads, online courses, coaching, memberships, and even physical products. For bloggers, downloads are the natural start: ebooks, templates, printables, presets, spreadsheets.

    When should I upgrade from the free plan?

    When 3% of your monthly revenue exceeds $29 — around $1,000 a month in sales — the Plus plan starts paying for itself. Before that point, the free plan’s 5% fee is cheaper than any subscription.

    Do I need my own website to sell on Payhip?

    No — every account includes a hosted storefront with its own link you can share anywhere. That said, sellers with their own blog or audience consistently do better, because Payhip brings the checkout, not the customers.

    How does Payhip handle EU VAT?

    Payhip calculates the correct VAT at checkout based on the buyer’s country, collects it, and remits it for digital product sales in the EU and UK. You price your product; the tax handling happens behind the scenes.

    You could keep polishing that ebook for another month, or it could be for sale by tonight. Head over to Payhip and open your free store, upload the file, and let the first real sale tell you what to improve.

  • How to Presell Your Course Before You Build It
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Presell Your Course Before You Build It

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    The saddest thing in the creator world is a finished course nobody buys. Months of recording, editing, and building — launched to silence. The fix is almost embarrassingly simple: sell the course before you build it.

    Preselling means offering a founding-member version of your course, taking real payments, and only then producing the content. If enough people buy, you build it with their feedback. If nobody buys, you just saved yourself three months. All you need is a sales page with a checkout — I recommend Podia for this because the landing page, checkout, and course area live in one place — plus an email list, even a small one.

    Here is the exact process, step by step.

    What you need before you start

    Three things. First, an audience you can reach: an email list, a warm social following, or a community you are active in. It does not need to be big, but it cannot be zero. Second, a course idea tied to a problem people already ask you about. Third, a platform to take payments — Podia has a 30-day free trial with no card required, so you can run the whole presell before paying anything.

    Step-by-step: preselling your course

    Step 1: Define the transformation, not the topic

    Nobody buys “a course about Pinterest”. People buy “get your first 10,000 monthly blog visitors from Pinterest in 90 days”. Write one sentence: who it is for, what changes for them, and how long it takes. If you cannot write that sentence, you are not ready to sell — or build.

    Step 2: Sanity-check demand in real conversations

    Before building a sales page, talk to five to ten people who match your audience. Ask what they have already tried and what they would pay to fix. You are listening for the words they use — those words become your sales copy. If the conversations feel lukewarm, adjust the promise now, not after launch.

    Step 3: Design the founding-member offer

    A presell offer trades a lower price and extra access for patience and feedback. The classic shape: a meaningful founding discount off the planned price, direct access to you (a group call or Q&A thread), and a clearly stated delivery schedule — for example, one module per week starting on a specific date.

    Be explicit that the course is being built. Hiding that is where preselling turns sleazy; stating it plainly is what makes founding members feel like insiders instead of guinea pigs.

    Step 4: Build a one-page sales page with checkout

    You need one page: the promise, who it is for, the module outline, the delivery date, the founding price, and a buy button. In Podia you can build this page, connect the checkout, and set up the course area it will eventually live in, all inside the same account. No stitching together a page builder, a cart, and a course platform.

    Add a plain-language guarantee: if the course does not go ahead, everyone gets a full refund. This single line removes most of the risk your buyers feel.

    Step 5: Put a real deadline on the offer

    Open the founding offer for a fixed window — five to seven days works well — and close it visibly. A deadline is what turns “interesting, maybe later” into a decision. For a first presell, a simple stated close date is enough.

    When you later rerun the offer evergreen, use a tool like Deadline Funnel to give every subscriber an authentic personal deadline that actually expires. Fake countdown timers that reset on refresh train people to ignore you; real ones train people to decide.

    Step 6: Launch it to your email list

    Email beats social for selling, every time. A simple sequence works: an announcement, a story or objection email, a straight what-you-get email, and two emails on the final day. If your list is tiny or rusty, spend two weeks warming it up first — my ultimate guide to email marketing covers that groundwork.

    Step 7: Count the sales and decide honestly

    Set your go/no-go number before launch — many creators use five to ten founding sales as the minimum worth building for. Hit it? Build, delivering module by module and folding in feedback. Miss it? Refund everyone with a gracious email, ask the non-buyers what held them back, and either rework the offer or move on. A refunded presell is a cheap lesson; a built course nobody wanted is an expensive one.

    Common mistakes and pro tips

    The mistakes I see most often: preselling to a completely cold audience (validation needs warmth), promising a delivery date you cannot hit (pad your estimate), and writing a vague promise because a specific one feels scary. Specific sells.

    Two pro tips. Deliver the first module quickly — buyers who receive value in week one rarely refund. And record your founding members’ questions as you go; they become your course improvements and your future sales page copy. Course platforms run launch events on this exact model constantly — I saw it up close at the Teachable summit, where creator after creator credited their first income to a presell, not a polished launch.

    FAQ

    Is it ethical to sell a course that does not exist yet?

    Yes, if you are transparent. State clearly that it is a founding-member presale, give a delivery schedule, and offer full refunds if you do not deliver. What is not ethical is pretending a half-built course is finished.

    How many email subscribers do I need to presell a course?

    Less than you think, but more than zero. With a few hundred engaged subscribers you can realistically test a small founding cohort. What matters is engagement: 300 people who open your emails beat 5,000 who forgot you exist.

    What should I charge for a presell?

    A meaningful discount off the planned full price — commonly somewhere between 30% and 50% — in exchange for buying early and giving feedback. Do not go so cheap that the sale proves nothing; a $10 yes does not validate a $300 course.

    What if people buy and I realize I cannot deliver?

    Refund everyone, promptly and personally. It stings, but it costs you a little pride instead of your reputation. This is exactly why you set a minimum sales threshold and a realistic delivery schedule before opening the cart.

    Which platform is best for preselling an online course?

    Anything that combines a landing page with checkout will work, but it is simplest when the sales page, payments, and the eventual course live in one system. Podia does exactly that, and the free trial covers a full presell window.

    If you already have a checkout or email tool you like and just want a dedicated page to turn visitors into founding members, I’d also look at Leadpages, a tool built specifically for landing and opt-in pages. It won’t handle your checkout or course delivery, but for the one page doing the convincing, it gives you more templates and built-in split-testing than an all-in-one platform typically offers.

    You do not need a finished course to start earning from one — you need a specific promise, a small warm audience, and a page that takes payments. Head over to Podia and start your free 30-day trial, put your founding offer on a page this week, and let real buyers tell you whether to build.

  • How to Price an Online Course (Psychology + Math)
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Price an Online Course (Psychology + Math)

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    Ask ten course creators how they picked their price and at least eight will admit some version of “I guessed, then felt weird about it.” Pricing an online course sits exactly where psychology and math collide, and most advice only covers one half.

    This guide covers both: the numbers that tell you what your price needs to be, and the buyer psychology that tells you what your price is allowed to be. I will use simple worked examples throughout, and where platform costs matter I will use Podia as the reference, since its fees are easy to reason about and I recommend it often for first courses.

    By the end you will have an actual number — not a shrug.

    Why most creators underprice their course

    Underpricing feels safe. A low price seems easier to defend, easier to sell, and kinder to your audience. In practice it backfires three ways.

    First, price is information. Buyers read $19 as “a PDF with ambitions” and $190 as “a structured path to a result.” Same course, different expectations — and people commit harder to things they paid real money for, which means better completion, better results, better testimonials.

    Second, cheap prices attract refund-prone, support-heavy customers more often than premium prices do. Every experienced creator I have compared notes with confirms this pattern, uncomfortable as it sounds.

    Third, the math rarely works, as you are about to see.

    The math: work backwards from your goal

    Start at the end. Say you want your course to add $2,000 a month to your income. Two honest routes get you there:

    • At $50, you need 40 sales every month.
    • At $200, you need 10.

    Now apply a common rule of thumb: on a typical launch or evergreen funnel, somewhere around 1-2% of engaged email subscribers buy. Forty monthly sales at 1.5% conversion implies roughly 2,700 fresh, engaged subscribers a month — a serious traffic operation. Ten sales implies about 700. Which audience do you actually have? That question alone disqualifies most low prices.

    Then subtract costs, because your price is not your profit:

    • Platform fees. On Podia’s Mover plan ($42/month at the time of writing) you also pay a 5% transaction fee; the Shaker plan ($84/month) drops that to 0%. Sell $2,000 a month and Shaker’s higher subscription already beats Mover’s fee — run that comparison for your own numbers on Podia’s pricing page.
    • Payment processing. Roughly 2.9% + 30 cents per card transaction, on any platform.
    • Refunds and ad spend, if applicable. Budget a margin so one refund week does not sink the month.

    The lesson from the math is almost always the same: fewer sales at a higher price is the more achievable business for a small audience.

    The psychology: what your price says before your sales page loads

    Anchor against the alternative, not against other courses. Your course does not compete with a $12 ebook; it competes with the cost of the problem. If your course saves someone three months of trial and error, or replaces $600 of one-on-one help, say so — then your $190 price has a context in which it looks small.

    Tiers change the question. Offering two or three versions (course only / course plus templates / course plus a call) moves the buyer from “yes or no?” to “which one?” Most pick the middle. Keep it to three tiers at most; choice overload kills checkouts.

    Round numbers versus charm prices. $197-style pricing signals “deal,” round numbers like $200 signal calm confidence. Both work; premium positioning usually leans round. What matters more is not changing your price weekly — buyers notice, and trust erodes.

    Cheap creates doubt. Below a certain floor — for most transformation-focused courses, somewhere around $50 — a low price stops being attractive and starts being suspicious. If you want an entry product, make it deliberately small (a workshop, a template pack) instead of discounting the flagship.

    Payment plans, launch discounts, and raising prices

    Payment plans widen access without lowering the anchor. Three payments of $79 keeps the $200-ish value signal while fitting more budgets. Expect slightly higher failed-payment admin; platforms handle the retries, but factor in the noise.

    Founding-member pricing is the honest discount. For a first launch, a reduced price in exchange for feedback and testimonials is fair to everyone — as long as you say the price will rise, and then actually raise it. Deadlines only work when they are real.

    Raise prices on evidence. Once students get results, each launch can step the price up; early buyers keep what they paid, which rewards trust. Listening to how experienced creators handle this taught me a lot — I shared my notes from the Teachable Summit, where pricing came up in nearly every session.

    A worked example, start to finish

    Imagine a course teaching freelancers to write proposals that win clients. The creator has 1,500 engaged subscribers, built through the kind of list-first approach I describe in my ultimate guide to email marketing.

    • Value anchor: one won client is worth $1,000+, so a price up to a few hundred dollars is defensible.
    • Audience math: 1,500 subscribers at 1.5% conversion suggests roughly 20-25 sales on a good launch.
    • Goal: $4,000 from the first launch. $4,000 divided by 22 expected sales lands near $180.
    • Decision: founding price $149, public price $199 afterwards, with a 3 x $55 payment plan. Tier two at $299 adds a proposal review.

    Every number there came from a goal, an audience size, and an anchor — not a feeling. That is the whole method. And practically: on Podia you can set all of this up — tiers, payment plans, coupons for the founding launch — inside the 30-day free trial, before you have paid the platform anything.

    FAQ

    How much should I charge for an online course?

    Work backwards: income goal, divided by realistic sales from your audience size (1-2% of engaged subscribers is a common launch benchmark), sense-checked against the value of the outcome. For transformation-focused courses that lands between $100 and $500 far more often than under $50.

    Is $200 too much for an online course?

    Not if the outcome is worth multiples of that and the course delivers a clear path to it. Buyers judge price against the problem, not against cheaper courses. Under-explained value is the usual problem — not the number itself.

    How should a beginner price their first course?

    Use founding-member pricing: a genuinely reduced first-launch price in exchange for feedback and testimonials, with a stated plan to raise it. You get proof and momentum; early students get a fair deal for taking a chance on you.

    Should I offer a payment plan?

    Usually yes, for anything over about $150. Plans widen access while keeping your anchor price intact. Expect a little extra admin from failed payments, and price the plan slightly above the pay-in-full total.

    When should I raise my course price?

    After evidence: student results, testimonials, a smoother course experience. Raising the price at each launch — while letting existing students keep their deal — is the most trust-preserving way to grow revenue from the same course.

    Price is a decision you can make with a calculator and defend with a straight face: goal, audience math, value anchor, then commit. When you are ready to put a real price on a real checkout page, start your free 30-day Podia trial and build the tiers and payment plan from this guide today — the number gets much less scary once it is live.

  • Teachable Review: Still the Course Platform to Beat?
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Teachable Review: Still the Course Platform to Beat?

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: Teachable is still one of the strongest platforms for people whose business is courses. The course player, graded quizzes, and certificates outclass most simpler rivals, and higher plans drop transaction fees to zero. But the entry plan double-dips ($39/month plus a 7.5% fee), there is no free tier anymore, and email marketing is barely there. If structured courses at scale are your plan, Teachable’s free trial is worth your week; casual creators should look at friendlier options first.

    What is Teachable?

    Teachable is one of the original hosted course platforms, and after all these years it still carries that identity: it is a school builder more than a storefront. You create courses with sections and lectures, students get a clean learning environment with progress tracking, and you get the machinery around it — checkout, quizzes, completion certificates, student management.

    It has broadened over time. Coaching products and digital downloads are options now, and I have written before about creative ways to use Teachable beyond hosting courses. But make no mistake about the center of gravity: this platform is optimized for people teaching structured material to enrolled students.

    This teachable review is written for the person deciding whether that focus is a feature or a limitation. It is genuinely both, depending on your business.

    Teachable pricing in 2026

    These prices come straight from Teachable’s pricing page at the time of writing. Annual billing runs about 22% cheaper; monthly prices shown first.

    Plan Monthly Annual (per month) Transaction fee Limits
    Starter $39 $29 7.5% 5 products, 1 admin, 100 active students
    Builder $89 $69 0% via teachable:pay 10 products, 1 admin, 1,000 active students
    Growth $189 $139 0% via teachable:pay 50 products, 5 admins, 5,000 active students
    Advanced $399 $309 0% via teachable:pay 100 products, 5 admins, 10,000 active students

    There is a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee. Standard card processing (2.9% + 30 cents for US cards, more for international) applies on top, and the 0% platform fee assumes you process payments through teachable:pay.

    Read that Starter row twice. Thirty-nine dollars a month and 7.5% of every sale is a real cost for a beginner — sell $1,000 of courses and you have paid over $110 that month before card fees. Builder is where the economics start making sense.

    If you do commit, annual billing is the sensible default. The discount brings Builder down to $69/month, and a year is a realistic horizon for a course business anyway — nobody builds a profitable school in six weeks, and switching platforms mid-launch is misery you can avoid by deciding properly once.

    What Teachable does well

    The learning experience. The course player is polished and familiar to students, progress tracking works, and graded quizzes plus completion certificates are built in. If your course needs to feel like a course — not a folder of videos — this is what you are paying for.

    Room to grow. The plan ladder up to 10,000 active students, multiple admin seats on higher tiers, and pricing tools like payment plans mean you will not outgrow the platform quickly. Larger course businesses stay on Teachable for a reason.

    Zero platform fees where it counts. From Builder up, Teachable takes nothing per sale when you use its payment system. For a business doing steady volume, that beats percentage-based pricing by a wide margin.

    Selling machinery. Order bumps, coupons, and the option to run your own affiliate program for your courses give you real levers once you are past your first launch. Combined with the assessment features, Teachable covers the full serious-course-business checklist better than most.

    Where Teachable falls short (and who shouldn’t buy it)

    • No free plan. The old free tier is gone; the 7-day trial is short for evaluating something this central to your business. Plan your trial week before starting it.
    • The Starter squeeze. $39/month plus 7.5% per sale plus a 100-student cap makes the entry plan hard to recommend for anyone who expects actual sales.
    • Email marketing is minimal. You can send basic emails to students, but list-building, sequences, and automation need a dedicated tool — my ultimate guide to email marketing covers what to pair with it. Budget for that second subscription.
    • One admin seat until Growth. If you work with a VA or co-creator, you hit this wall at $189/month (or $139 annually).
    • It is course-shaped. Downloads, communities, and mixed product catalogs feel bolted on. Creators selling a bit of everything usually find all-in-one platforms more comfortable.

    Skip Teachable if you are testing your very first $29 product, if community is your core offer, or if you want website, email, and products under one roof. It rewards commitment, not experiments.

    My verdict: still the one to beat — for one kind of creator

    Is Teachable still the course platform to beat? For structured, scaling course businesses: yes. Nothing in the simpler all-in-one category matches its learning experience, assessments, and student capacity. For everyone else, the answer has genuinely changed over the years — beginners and mixed-product creators now have friendlier, cheaper homes.

    If you recognize yourself in the first group, do it properly: start the Teachable trial, build one complete module with a quiz and certificate, and test-run checkout in the same week. Seven days is enough if you arrive prepared.

    FAQ

    Is Teachable worth it in 2026?

    For course-first businesses that will use the quizzes, certificates, and student capacity, yes — especially from the Builder plan up, where transaction fees drop to zero. For casual or mixed-product sellers, the entry costs outweigh the benefits.

    Does Teachable have a free plan?

    Not anymore at the time of writing. Plans start at $39/month (or $29/month billed annually), with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee instead of a permanent free tier.

    What are Teachable’s transaction fees?

    The Starter plan charges 7.5% per sale. Builder, Growth, and Advanced charge 0% when payments run through teachable:pay. Card processing fees — roughly 2.9% + 30 cents for US cards — apply on every plan.

    Can you sell more than courses on Teachable?

    Yes: coaching products and digital downloads are supported, and each counts toward your plan’s product limit. The tools are functional, but platforms built around mixed catalogs handle non-course products more gracefully.

    Is Teachable good for beginners?

    It is easy enough to learn, but the pricing punishes small scale — the 7.5% Starter fee and 100-student cap bite exactly when you are starting. Beginners with a serious course plan should consider jumping straight to Builder on annual billing.

    If your ambition is a real course business — enrolled students, graded progress, certificates, growing cohorts — Teachable remains the benchmark the others get measured against. Head over to Teachable and start your free trial with one module ready to upload, and you will know by Friday whether it is your platform.

  • Podia vs Teachable: Which Course Platform in 2026?
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Podia vs Teachable: Which Course Platform in 2026?

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: In the podia vs teachable question, the honest answer depends on what you sell. Choose Podia if you are a solo creator selling a mix of courses, downloads, coaching, or webinars and want your storefront, checkout, community spaces, and email in one simple dashboard — Podia’s 30-day free trial gives you a full month to test that. Choose Teachable if courses are the core of your business and you want the stronger course player with graded quizzes and certificates. Neither is bad; they are built for different creators.

    The two platforms in one minute

    Podia is an all-in-one selling platform. Courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, community spaces, a website builder, and built-in email marketing live under one roof. Its whole personality is “keep it simple” — fewer settings, calmer interface, faster from idea to checkout page.

    Teachable is a course platform first. It has been one of the biggest names in online courses for years, and it shows in the learning experience: a polished course player, quizzes, certificates, and tools designed for structured curriculum. You can sell coaching and downloads there too, but courses are clearly the main act — you can start with Teachable’s free trial to see that focus for yourself.

    Podia vs Teachable: comparison table

    Prices below are what I verified on both pricing pages at the time of writing (July 2026). Both companies adjust pricing now and then, so double-check before buying.

    Podia Teachable
    Entry price Mover, $42/month Starter, $39/month (or $29/month billed annually)
    Mid-tier price Shaker, $84/month Builder, $89/month (or $69/month billed annually)
    Transaction fees 5% on Mover, 0% from Shaker up 7.5% on Starter, 0% on higher plans via teachable:pay
    Free trial 30 days, no card 7 days, plus a 30-day guarantee
    Product types Courses, downloads, coaching, webinars, bundles Courses, coaching, digital downloads
    Email marketing Built in (subscriber allowance per plan) Minimal — you will need a separate email tool
    Quizzes and certificates Basic quizzes Graded quizzes, certificates, stronger course player
    Best for Solo creators selling a product mix Course-first businesses that plan to scale

    Pricing and fees: which one actually costs less?

    On paper Teachable’s Starter plan is the cheapest way in, especially billed annually. But entry plans are where both platforms hide their compromises: Teachable Starter takes a 7.5% cut of every sale and caps you at 5 products and 100 active students, while Podia’s Mover takes 5% and limits your included email list to 100 subscribers.

    The real comparison happens at mid-tier, where the transaction fees drop to zero: Podia Shaker at $84/month versus Teachable Builder at $89/month (or $69 annually). At that level Podia includes its email tool and more product flexibility, while Teachable includes room for 1,000 active students and its stronger course machinery.

    My rule of thumb: if you will use the built-in email, Podia’s mid-tier is the better deal because it replaces a second subscription. If you already pay for a proper email platform anyway, the gap narrows to almost nothing.

    Course experience: Teachable is still ahead

    If your students expect a school, Teachable feels more like one. The course player is polished, quizzes can be graded, and certificates of completion are built in. For structured programs — cohorts, curriculums, anything where progress and proof matter — this is Teachable’s home turf.

    Podia’s courses look clean and are easy to build, but assessments are basic. There is no serious grading machinery, and if certificates or compliance-style features are on your requirements list, Podia will feel thin. Plenty of creators never need any of that; be honest about whether you do.

    Beyond courses: Podia wins almost everything else

    This is where the two philosophies split. Podia treats downloads, coaching, webinars, bundles, and community spaces as first-class products, and its built-in email means a beginner can run their entire business — content, list, sales — from one login. If email strategy is new to you, my ultimate guide to email marketing explains what you will actually need from whichever tool you pick.

    Teachable can sell coaching and downloads, but they feel like extras around the course core, and its email features are too limited to replace a real email platform. Most Teachable creators end up paying for a separate email service on day one — which is fine, just budget for it.

    Worth knowing: if what you really want is courses plus funnels plus email in one modern system, there is a third road. I wrote about a ConvertKit, ClickFunnels and Teachable alternative that bundles those jobs for less.

    Ease of use: how much software do you want to manage?

    Podia is the calmer tool. Fewer menus, fewer decisions, and a storefront you can genuinely set up in an afternoon. The trade-off is fewer knobs to turn later.

    Teachable gives you more control — over pricing structures, course behavior, student management — and correspondingly more settings to understand. It is not hard, but it is more. If tech friction is what has kept you from launching, that difference is not trivial.

    Verdict: who should pick what

    • First-time creator with a small audience: Podia. The 30-day trial, one-dashboard setup, and included email make it the gentlest serious option.
    • Course-first business that will scale: Teachable. The course player, graded quizzes, certificates, and student capacity are built for exactly this — take Teachable for a spin if that is your road.
    • Selling a mix — downloads, coaching, a course, a community: Podia, without much hesitation.
    • Already paying for a good email tool and wanting maximum course features per dollar: Teachable on annual billing.

    If I had to hand one platform to a blogger launching a first digital product this year, it would be Podia — not because it does the most, but because it removes the most reasons to procrastinate.

    FAQ

    Is Podia cheaper than Teachable?

    At entry level Teachable is slightly cheaper ($39/month, or $29 billed annually, versus Podia’s $42), but it charges a 7.5% transaction fee there against Podia’s 5%. At mid-tier they nearly match ($84 versus $89 monthly), where Podia’s built-in email can make it the better total deal.

    Which platform is better for beginners?

    Podia. The interface is simpler, the 30-day trial is four times longer than Teachable’s, and having website, checkout, and email in one place means fewer tools to learn before your first sale.

    Does Teachable have transaction fees?

    Yes, on the Starter plan: 7.5% per sale at the time of writing. Higher plans drop to 0% when you process payments through teachable:pay. Standard card processing fees apply on every plan, on both platforms.

    Can I switch from Teachable to Podia later?

    Yes, creators move in both directions. You re-upload content, rebuild sales pages, and redirect your links; the tedious part is moving students and existing customers, so it is worth choosing carefully now rather than migrating mid-growth.

    Do Podia and Teachable offer free trials?

    Both do. Podia gives 30 days with every feature and no credit card. Teachable offers a 7-day trial plus a 30-day guarantee. Trying both in the same week is a perfectly reasonable way to decide.

    Bottom line: Teachable builds better classrooms, Podia builds a simpler business. If an all-in-one setup is what gets your first product live, start your free 30-day Podia trial and put a real product in it this month — the platform question answers itself once something is actually for sale.

  • Podia Review: The Friendliest Way to Sell Courses & Downloads
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Podia Review: The Friendliest Way to Sell Courses & Downloads

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    TL;DR: Podia is the friendliest all-in-one platform I know for selling online courses, digital downloads, coaching, and webinars. You get your website, checkout, product hosting, and basic email marketing in one dashboard, and the learning curve is gentle enough to launch your first product in a weekend. It is not the right pick if you need advanced quizzes, deep analytics, or a big email list on a small budget — but if you want simple, Podia’s 30-day free trial makes it an easy platform to test properly.

    What is Podia?

    Podia is an all-in-one selling platform for digital creators. Instead of duct-taping together a course tool, a shopping cart, a website builder, and an email service, you run everything from one place: online courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, and email.

    That is the entire pitch, really. You pick a plan, build a simple storefront, upload your product, and Podia handles checkout, delivery, receipts, and customer accounts. There is no plugin stack to maintain and nothing to update on a Sunday night when you would rather be doing anything else.

    I mostly recommend Podia to bloggers and creators launching their first paid product. If you already have an audience — even a small one — the distance between “I have an idea” and “there is a working checkout page” is shorter here than on most platforms I have tried.

    One thing to understand before we get into this podia review properly: Podia trades power for calm. Almost every limitation I list below is the flip side of a deliberate choice to keep the tool simple. Whether that trade is worth it depends entirely on what kind of business you are running.

    Podia pricing in 2026

    Podia offers three plans and a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. These are the monthly prices I verified on Podia’s pricing page at the time of writing — check their site for current numbers before you decide.

    Plan Price Transaction fee What you get
    Mover $42/month 5% 50 products, 500 videos, email for up to 100 subscribers
    Shaker $84/month 0% 150 products, 1,000 videos, email for up to 500 subscribers, affiliate program, upsells, PayPal, Zapier
    Earthquaker $150/month 0% Unlimited products and videos, email for up to 1,000 subscribers, unlimited team assistants

    Two details deserve your attention before you pick. First, the 5% transaction fee on Mover: if you expect steady sales, Shaker often pays for itself simply because that fee disappears. Second, the email allowances are small. Every plan includes Podia’s email tool up to a set number of subscribers, and bigger lists cost extra — budget for that if you plan to grow your list inside Podia.

    Standard payment processing (around 2.9% + 30 cents through Stripe or PayPal) applies on top of everything, as it does on every platform in this category.

    My take on plan choice: start on Mover during a quiet season or the trial, but move to Shaker as soon as sales become regular. The 0% transaction fee plus the affiliate and upsell features are where Podia starts earning its monthly price back.

    What Podia does well

    Everything lives in one place. Your storefront, products, checkout, customer accounts, and email broadcasts share one dashboard. For a solo creator, that is the difference between running a business and running a small IT department.

    It is genuinely easy. Podia’s editor feels closer to filling in a form than building software. Uploading a course, setting a price, and connecting a payment processor is a same-afternoon job, not a weekend project. Support is friendly and human, which matters more than people admit when a checkout question shows up mid-launch.

    You can sell more than courses. Downloads, coaching sessions, webinars, and bundles are all first-class products. That flexibility is exactly why Podia suits bloggers: you might start with a $19 template today and add a full course next year without switching tools. If you are still building the audience half of that equation, my ultimate guide to blogging covers it in depth.

    The trial is real. Thirty days, every feature, no card. Most competitors give you seven or fourteen days, which is barely enough to upload one course. A full month is enough to build and even soft-launch a first product before paying anything.

    Where Podia falls short (and who shouldn’t buy it)

    No honest review is complete without the trade-offs, and Podia has real ones.

    • Assessments are basic. Quizzes exist, but if you need graded assignments, certification workflows, or compliance training features, a dedicated course platform will serve you better.
    • Analytics are light. You can see sales and email performance, but data-hungry marketers will miss the deeper funnel reporting that more complex tools offer.
    • The email tool is simple. Broadcasts and basic campaigns work fine, but it is not a full replacement for a dedicated email platform once your automations get serious. I explain what a grown-up setup looks like in my ultimate guide to email marketing.
    • Costs climb with your list. Between plan tiers and email subscriber allowances, Podia stops feeling cheap once you pass a few hundred subscribers and want zero transaction fees.
    • Design freedom has a ceiling. The site builder is tidy and fast, but pixel-perfectionists will bump into its limits.

    Who should skip it: established course businesses with complex curricula, teams that live in dashboards and cohort data, and anyone whose main goal is running a large email operation from one tool. Podia is built for selling simply, not for squeezing every last percentage point out of a funnel.

    Who Podia is for — my verdict

    Podia earns its reputation as the friendliest platform in this space. It is the tool I point people to when they say: I have knowledge, a small audience, and zero patience for tech.

    Choose Podia if you are a solo creator or blogger selling a mix of courses, downloads, or coaching, and you value calm software over endless settings. Skip it if you need advanced assessments, granular analytics, or plan to run a five-figure email list from inside your course platform.

    The 30-day trial removes most of the risk of a wrong decision. Set up your storefront on Podia, publish one small product, and you will know within a week whether the workflow fits you.

    FAQ

    Is Podia worth it in 2026?

    For solo creators selling courses, downloads, or coaching, yes. One subscription replaces a course tool, checkout, website builder, and basic email service. Creators who need advanced quizzes, certificates, or deep analytics will get better value from a dedicated learning platform.

    Does Podia take a cut of your sales?

    On the Mover plan, Podia charges a 5% transaction fee. Shaker and Earthquaker carry no Podia fee at all. Standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees apply on every plan, as they do on any platform.

    Does Podia have a free plan?

    Not at the time of writing. Podia offers a 30-day free trial of every feature, with no credit card required, instead of a forever-free tier. That is long enough to build and test-launch a first product before paying.

    Can I run my email list from Podia?

    Up to a point. Each plan includes email marketing for a set number of subscribers — 100 on Mover when I checked — after which email costs extra. Small lists are fine; serious email marketers usually pair Podia with a dedicated email tool.

    What is the difference between Podia and Teachable?

    Podia is an all-in-one storefront for courses, downloads, coaching, webinars, and email, optimized for simplicity. Teachable focuses more narrowly on courses, with a stronger course player and assessment options but less built in around the edges.

    If you want one calm dashboard where your courses, downloads, coaching, and checkout simply work together, this is the platform I would start with. Head over to Podia and start your free 30-day trial — build one real product during the trial and let the platform prove itself before you spend a cent.

  • How to Create and Sell Your First Online Course (Complete Guide)
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    How to Create and Sell Your First Online Course (Complete Guide)

    This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

    An online course is the classic next step for bloggers and creators: you already teach for free, so packaging that knowledge into something sellable feels obvious. It mostly is — but the way most people go about it (six months of secret building, then a launch to crickets) is backwards.

    This guide walks through creating and selling your first course in the order that actually works: validate first, build small, launch to real people. I use Teachable as the platform in the examples because it is the one I know best and the easiest place to start, but the process applies anywhere.

    Fair warning before step one: a course is a product, and products take work. If you are hoping for passive income by Friday, this is not that. If you are willing to teach something real to people who need it, keep reading.

    What you need before you start

    • Something you can genuinely teach — a result you have achieved or helped others achieve
    • An audience, even a small one — an email list, blog readers, or engaged followers
    • A phone or laptop — you do not need a camera setup or studio
    • A platform budget — Teachable starts at $29 per month billed annually ($39 monthly) with a 7-day free trial

    How to create and sell your first online course

    Step 1: Pick a topic people already pay to solve

    The best course topics sit where your knowledge overlaps with a problem people actively want fixed: get the first freelance client, set up a food blog, pass the exam, organize the small-business bookkeeping. “Introduction to…” courses feel safe and sell badly; specific outcomes sell.

    Check demand the unglamorous way: are there books, YouTube channels, and other courses on this? Competition is evidence of a market. A topic with zero competitors usually has zero buyers too.

    Step 2: Validate before you build anything

    This step saves people months. Describe the course in one paragraph — who it is for, what result it delivers — and put it in front of your audience: a blog post, an email, a story with a waitlist link. If you cannot get even a handful of people to join a free waitlist, the paid version is not ready either.

    Better still: pre-sell. Offer the course at a founding-member price before it is fully built, with an honest “starts on [date]”. Real money is the only validation that never lies. If pre-selling feels too bold for a first round, a waitlist plus a few honest conversations with potential students gets you most of the way.

    Step 3: Outline the shortest path to the result

    Your course competes with YouTube, so its value is not information — it is structure. Outline the five to eight steps between where your student starts and the result you promised, and cut everything that does not move them along that path. A tight three-hour course beats a bloated twelve-hour one, both in completion rates and in reviews.

    Step 4: Record simply

    Screen recordings with your voice, slides where they help, your phone camera for talking-head moments if you want them. Spend your upgrade budget on audio (a basic USB microphone) before video, because people forgive average visuals and abandon bad sound. Record lesson by lesson in short takes; done is the standard, not cinematic.

    Step 5: Set up your course on a platform

    You need somewhere to host lessons, take payments, and manage students. Teachable is my default recommendation for a first course: the builder is genuinely beginner-proof, it handles checkout, EU VAT, and payouts for you, and the Starter plan at $29 per month (billed annually) is enough to sell your first five products. The honest trade-off: Starter takes a 7.5% transaction fee, which disappears on the $69-per-month Builder plan — start on Starter and upgrade only when sales justify it. There is no free plan anymore, but there is a 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

    Worth knowing: the platform can earn its keep beyond hosting lessons — I wrote about four other ways to use Teachable, like hosting freebies and digital downloads. If you want something simpler that bundles courses, digital products, and email in one flat-priced tool, Podia is the alternative I suggest to people who feel overwhelmed by settings. Thinkific and Gumroad are fine too; do not spend two weeks choosing.

    Step 6: Price it like a product, not a tip jar

    First-time creators almost always underprice. A course that delivers a real outcome is rarely a $19 product — somewhere between $50 and $300 is a sane range for a first, focused course, depending on the value of the result. Underpricing does not just cost revenue; it quietly attracts students who never start the material.

    Offer a payment plan for anything over about $100, and decide your refund policy up front — a clear 14- or 30-day policy builds more trust than it costs you.

    Step 7: Launch to your list, twice

    Sales come overwhelmingly from email, not from announcing once on social media. A simple first launch: one email announcing doors open (with the founding-member price and deadline), one email answering the real questions and objections, one email on the final day. Then close or raise the price — deadlines are what turn “interested” into “enrolled”.

    No list yet? Build one first, even a small one. A hundred engaged subscribers can carry a first launch; ten thousand cold followers usually cannot.

    Step 8: Improve it with real students, then relaunch

    Your first cohort is your product development team. Watch where they get stuck, answer their questions, and fold the answers back into the lessons. Then relaunch to the next group at the regular price. Courses are not launched once; they are refined and relaunched. Platforms run their own trainings on exactly this rhythm — my notes from the Teachable summit cover what that looks like in practice.

    Pro tips and common mistakes

    • Do not build in secret. Every month of silent building is a month of validation you skipped.
    • Small and finished beats big and abandoned. You can always add a module later.
    • Watch the fee math. Transaction fees and payment processing (around 3% plus a fixed fee per card payment) come out of every sale — factor them into pricing.
    • Keep teaching free content. Your blog and emails are the top of the funnel; the course is the deep end, not a replacement.
    • Expect modest first numbers. A first launch that pays for a year of tools and proves the concept is a success, not a failure.

    FAQ

    How much does it cost to create an online course?

    You can realistically start under $100: Teachable’s Starter plan is $29 per month billed annually ($39 month-to-month) with a 7-day free trial, and a decent USB microphone costs around $50. Production quality can grow later out of revenue instead of savings.

    How long should my first online course be?

    As short as the result allows — for most first courses that is one to three hours of focused video across five to eight modules. Students buy outcomes, not hours, and shorter courses get finished, which drives reviews and referrals.

    Can I sell a course without an audience?

    Honestly: it is hard. Paid ads on a first course usually burn money, so build at least a small email list first through your blog or social channels. The list does double duty — it validates your topic before you build and buys from you when you launch.

    Which platform is best for a first online course?

    Teachable if you want the standard, beginner-friendly option with strong checkout tools; Podia if you want courses, downloads, and email in one simple bundle. Both let you start small and migrate later if you outgrow them — the platform is rarely what decides whether your course sells.

    How much should I charge for my first course?

    For a focused course that delivers a concrete result, $50 to $300 is a reasonable range — pick a point where you would feel proud, not apologetic. Launch to founding members at a discount, gather results and testimonials, then raise the price for round two.

    Your first course, honestly

    Create an online course the smart way: validate a specific outcome, build the shortest version that delivers it, and launch it to people who already trust you. The tools are the easy part — start your free Teachable trial here and put your energy where it pays: the topic, the students, and the launch.

  • Selling to manufacturers: a modern playbook for entrepreneurs
    Business, Business, blogging & Money

    Selling to manufacturers: a modern playbook for entrepreneurs

    If you sell B2B and want larger, steadier contracts, few buyers are as attractive as manufacturers. They buy in repeatable cycles, value long-term partnerships, and pay for reliability.

    The catch? They’re allergic to fluff (LOVE THIS, because, same!). Winning these deals isn’t about shouting louder; it’s about speaking the language of throughput, uptime, and risk.

    Below is a practical playbook to help entrepreneurs land (and expand) accounts in the manufacturing world without bloating your sales team.

    Lead with a line-stop problem, not a product

    Manufacturing leaders prioritize issues that halt production or drain margin. Frame your offer around a measurable pain:

    • Downtime: minutes saved per line per month
    • Yield & scrap: percentage improvement and cost recovered
    • Cycle time & throughput: units/hour gained
    • Safety & compliance risk: incidents prevented or audit time reduced

    Impact statement formula:
    “In Plant X, we reduce unplanned downtime on Line Y by Z minutes/month, worth €A in recovered capacity within 90 days.”

    Use this (everywhere): website hero, first slide, cold email, and procurement summary.

    Map the buying committee early

    Most manufacturing purchases involve a small committee:

    • Operations/plant manager: cares about uptime and labor efficiency
    • Quality/EHS: cares about defects, recalls, audits, and safety
    • Engineering/Maintenance: cares about integration, spare parts, MTTR
    • Procurement/Finance: cares about total cost, contract risk, and payback

    Book three short stakeholder huddles instead of one long demo. Your goal is to surface hidden blockers (IT security, calibration schedules, union rules) before they derail the deal.

    Make your proof stack bulletproof

    Manufacturers trust what’s documented and repeatable. Build a simple “proof stack”:

    1. 90-day pilot plan: scope, KPIs, responsibilities, and exit criteria
    2. Before/after data: real baselines, not modelled estimates
    3. Process validation: how you maintain accuracy, traceability, and change control
    4. Service plan: response times, spares, training, and preventive maintenance
    5. Risk & compliance notes: CE/UL/ISO references, data security, and liability

    Package this as a one-pager that procurement can forward without you in the room.

    Price to land, not to scare

    Large quotes die in procurement. Use a two-step model:

    • Step 1: Pilot/limited scope. Low friction, clear KPI target, fixed timeline.
    • Step 2: Scale plan. Pre-priced options to roll out by line, plant, or region.

    Add a “self-funding” clause: if pilot KPIs are hit, a portion of the savings funds the rollout. It reframes cost as risk-managed investment.

    Be integration-friendly

    Nothing earns trust faster than playing nicely with the stack they already have.

    • Offer lightweight data connectors (CSV/OPC UA/API) before pushing heavy IT work.
    • Document security posture in plain language.
    • Provide offline workflows for low-connectivity areas on the shop floor.
    • Keep your training hands-on: line-side SOPs beat long manuals.

    Speak the language of kaizen

    Manufacturing cultures embrace continuous improvement. Show how your offer fits kaizen rhythms:

    • Daily Gemba: quick win the team can see on the board
    • Weekly standup: one metric you help improve (e.g., OEE, first-pass yield)
    • Monthly review: simple Pareto chart showing where your value concentrated

    When your value shows up in their existing rituals, expansion feels inevitable.

    Use partners to shorten the trust gap

    Distributors, system integrators, and niche consultants already have plant-floor credibility. Partner with them to co-sell and implement. A single trusted introduction can replace months of cold outreach.

    (Link opportunity) If helpful for your readers, you can add one relevant resource here that curates reputable [manufacturers] for partnership research and market mapping.

    Create three assets that actually move deals

    Skip the glossy brochure. Build these instead:

    1. ROI worksheet (one page): lets a plant manager plug in downtime rates and see payback by line.
    2. Pilot success memo (template): a short internal note your champion can send to their VP with results and the scale plan.
    3. SOP card (front/back): a laminated quick-start for operators or techs that removes adoption friction on day one.

    These documents sell when you’re not in the room.

    Set expectations like a pro

    Manufacturing buyers reward honesty about constraints.

    • What you won’t do: name one thing outside scope to signal clarity.
    • What you guarantee: one KPI with a conservative floor.
    • What could go wrong: list two risks and your mitigation plan.

    Mature posture > shiny promises.

    Measure what predicts renewals

    Track a short list, weekly:

    • Pilot velocity: days from first call → signed pilot
    • Time-to-first-win: days to the first visible result on a line
    • Operator adoption: % of shifts using your SOP correctly
    • Expansion ratio: revenue from the initial plant vs. other plants in the same group
    • Support load: tickets per 100 active users (declining = product-market fit)

    These are the numbers execs care about—share them proactively.

    Email and meeting scripts you can steal

    Pilot close (email):
    “Based on last week’s walk-through, we can remove ~42 minutes of unplanned downtime/month on Line 3 within 60–90 days. Attaching a 2-page pilot plan with KPIs, roles, and a Friday start date. If we hit the goal, we roll to Lines 1–2 on the same pricing. Does anything here make this a ‘no’?”

    Expansion nudge (post-pilot):
    “We hit 47 minutes/month on Line 3, worth ~€18,600/quarter. Running the same playbook on Lines 1–2 gets you ~€41k/quarter. Want me to pencil that into the maintenance window next Wednesday?”

    Final thought

    Manufacturers don’t buy buzzwords; they buy certainty. If you anchor your message to uptime, yield, safety, and risk—then prove those gains in 90 days—you’ll build the kind of recurring revenue most entrepreneurs dream about. Keep it practical, keep it measurable, and make it easy to say yes.

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