Description
Course Overview
Creating and selling online courses can be an attractive online business model for experts, coaches, consultants, freelancers, authors, and professionals who want to monetize their knowledge.
However, having valuable knowledge is only one part of building a successful course business. You also need to identify a profitable topic, validate demand, package your expertise, set an appropriate price, create the course, build an audience, generate leads, and convert prospects into customers.
Build a Six-Figure Online Business Selling Online Courses by Eli Natoli is designed to teach the business side of creating and selling online courses. The course focuses not only on course production but also on market research, positioning, pricing, lead generation, email marketing, sales funnels, landing pages, and audience development.
What Will You Learn?
The course covers several important aspects of building an online course business, including:
- Finding profitable course ideas
- Identifying market demand
- Researching competitors
- Using Google Trends
- Keyword research
- Validating course ideas
- Identifying your target audience
- Creating a unique selling proposition
- Choosing a suitable business model
- Pricing online courses
- Creating a profit plan
- Structuring course content
- Recording online courses
- Editing course videos
- Publishing courses
- Selling courses on Udemy
- Publishing courses independently
- Building an audience
- Creating lead magnets
- Facebook groups
- Facebook communities
- Email marketing
- Lead capture forms
- Landing pages
- Email nurturing
- Re-engagement campaigns
- Sales funnels
- Tripwire offers
- Sales landing pages
- Conversion optimization
This makes the course useful for someone who wants to treat an online course as a business rather than simply an educational product.
Finding a Profitable Course Idea
One of the most important decisions in online course creation is choosing what to teach.
Many aspiring instructors make the mistake of starting with:
“What do I know?”
A better question is:
“What does my target audience urgently want to learn?”
The course emphasizes finding the intersection between your expertise and market demand.
A good course idea should ideally have:
- A clearly defined audience
- A meaningful problem
- Existing demand
- A desirable outcome
- Potential willingness to pay
This market-first approach can reduce the risk of spending months creating a course that nobody wants.
Identifying Your Skills
The course encourages students to evaluate their own strengths before selecting a niche.
Questions worth considering include:
- What am I good at?
- What professional experience do I have?
- What problems can I solve?
- What results have I achieved?
- What do people frequently ask me about?
- What skills could I teach to others?
This is particularly helpful for beginners who have expertise but don’t know how to turn it into a digital product.
Finding What You Love
Knowledge alone does not necessarily make a sustainable course business.
Creating, marketing, and supporting a course can require significant effort.
Therefore, having genuine interest in your subject can make the process easier to sustain.
The course encourages students to consider their interests alongside their skills and market demand.
Ideally, your course topic should sit at the intersection of:
Expertise + Interest + Market Demand
Market Research With Google Trends
The course introduces Google Trends as a tool for evaluating market interest.
Google Trends can help course creators compare topics and understand how search interest changes over time.
For example, if you are considering several potential course topics, you can compare them and investigate whether interest appears stable, growing, seasonal, or declining.
Market research can help answer a critical question:
Is there enough interest in this topic to justify creating a course?
Keyword Research
Search behavior can provide valuable information about what potential customers want.
The course discusses using Google research and keyword data to identify:
- Problems people search for
- Questions they ask
- Topics they care about
- Keywords associated with a niche
- Potential commercial opportunities
This approach can help transform vague course ideas into more specific, marketable topics.
For example, instead of creating a broad course about “fitness,” you might identify a more specific problem such as beginner strength training, home workouts, or meal planning.
Validating Your Course Idea
Validation is one of the strongest concepts in the course.
Creating a course can require weeks or months of work.
Therefore, validating demand before investing heavily in production is extremely valuable.
Validation can involve studying:
- Search demand
- Existing courses
- Competitors
- Communities
- Questions from potential customers
- Reviews
- Pain points
- Existing products
The goal is to determine whether there is a genuine audience for your proposed course.
Competitive Research
Competition is not necessarily a bad sign.
If other people are successfully selling courses about a topic, it may indicate that customers already exist.
The challenge is determining how you can differentiate your offering.
You might compete through:
- Better positioning
- More specific targeting
- Better examples
- Practical projects
- Stronger support
- A clearer outcome
- Different teaching methods
- A unique perspective
The course introduces competitive research as part of the validation process.
Positioning Your Course
Once you have selected a topic, you need to determine how your course will be positioned.
Positioning answers:
Why should someone choose your course instead of another course?
Your positioning might be based on:
- Target audience
- Experience
- Teaching method
- Specific outcome
- Specialized niche
- Unique framework
- Practical implementation
Strong positioning can make marketing considerably easier.
Creating a Unique Selling Proposition
The course covers the Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
A USP explains what makes your product different and why customers should care.
For example, instead of positioning a course as:
“Learn Digital Marketing”
a more specific positioning could focus on:
“Digital Marketing for Local Service Businesses”
The second positioning immediately communicates the intended audience.
A strong USP can therefore make the offer more relevant to the right customers.
Choosing a Business Model
Not every knowledge business needs to operate in exactly the same way.
The course explores different ways your expertise can be packaged and monetized.
Potential models can include:
- Online courses
- Coaching
- Consulting
- Digital products
- Memberships
- Training programs
- Multiple-product ecosystems
The important idea is to choose a business model that fits your strengths and long-term objectives.
Pricing Your Online Course
Pricing is another major component.
Many beginners choose a price based on what competitors charge without understanding their own positioning or business economics.
The course introduces principles for establishing a pricing strategy.
Pricing should consider:
- Course value
- Target audience
- Outcome
- Competition
- Positioning
- Business model
- Customer acquisition costs
- Desired revenue
A premium course should communicate a premium value proposition rather than simply carrying a higher price.
Creating a Profit Picture
The course introduces the concept of creating a financial plan for your course business.
Instead of saying:
“I want to make six figures.”
you can work backward from a revenue target.
For example, if your target is $100,000 annually, you could calculate how many customers you need based on your average selling price.
A simplified example:
$100,000 ÷ $500 = 200 customers
This type of calculation helps transform an abstract revenue goal into measurable business targets.
Planning Your Course Content
Once the business concept has been validated, the next step is creating the course.
The course explains how to plan content before recording.
This can help prevent one of the most common mistakes among new instructors:
Recording everything before deciding how the lessons fit together.
A structured curriculum should guide students toward a specific outcome.
Structuring the Course
A successful course should have a logical progression.
Instead of presenting unrelated information, lessons should build upon each other.
A typical structure might look like:
Fundamentals → Core Skills → Practical Application → Advanced Concepts → Final Project
The exact structure depends on the subject, but students should understand where they are going and why each lesson matters.
Creating Course Content
The course also discusses the actual content-production process.
The goal is not simply to provide as much information as possible.
More content does not automatically mean more value.
A better approach is to focus on:
- Relevant information
- Practical examples
- Clear explanations
- Actionable exercises
- Desired outcomes
Students should leave the course knowing what to do with what they have learned.
Recording Your Online Course
The course introduces several approaches to recording and delivering online lessons.
These include:
- Slideshows
- Talking-head videos
- Screen demonstrations
- Over-the-shoulder recordings
The best format depends on the subject.
For example:
- Programming courses often benefit from screen recording.
- Business courses can use slides and talking-head videos.
- Software training may use demonstrations.
- Practical courses may benefit from over-the-shoulder instruction.
Video Editing
The course also includes practical instruction around video editing.
It introduces tools such as ActivePresenter and Camtasia.
The focus is on making course production manageable rather than turning every instructor into a professional video editor.
For most educational content, the priorities should be:
- Clear audio
- Clear visuals
- Good structure
- Useful content
- Efficient editing
Excessive editing can consume valuable time without significantly improving learning outcomes.
Selling Courses on Udemy
The course includes a section dedicated to selling courses on Udemy.
This is useful for creators who want to take advantage of an established course marketplace rather than building an entire technology stack themselves.
The platform-based approach can reduce technical complexity.
However, instructors also have to operate within platform policies and economics.
Publishing Courses Independently
The course also discusses alternatives to selling exclusively through a marketplace.
Independent course publishing can provide greater control over:
- Branding
- Pricing
- Customer relationships
- Website
- Email list
- Sales funnel
- Product ecosystem
However, the creator becomes responsible for more of the technology, marketing, customer acquisition, and support.
Building Your Audience
Creating a great course is not enough.
You need people who are interested in buying it.
The course therefore devotes significant attention to audience development.
Audience-building strategies include:
- Content marketing
- Communities
- Free offers
- Email lists
- Facebook groups
- Authority positioning
The fundamental principle is to attract the right people rather than simply trying to maximize follower counts.
Attracting Ideal Customers
The course emphasizes identifying your ideal buyer.
An ideal customer profile might include:
- Profession
- Skill level
- Goals
- Problems
- Budget
- Interests
- Buying motivation
Knowing your audience makes it easier to create content and marketing messages that resonate.
Content Marketing
Content marketing can help establish authority before asking people to purchase.
Potential content formats include:
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Tutorials
- Case studies
- Social media posts
- Guides
- Webinars
- Email content
The goal is to provide useful information that attracts people who are likely to become customers.
Lead Magnets
One of the key marketing concepts in the course is the lead magnet.
A lead magnet is a free resource offered in exchange for a prospect’s contact information, usually an email address.
Examples include:
- Checklist
- Ebook
- Template
- Mini-course
- Worksheet
- Guide
- Webinar
- Free tutorial
A good lead magnet should solve a small but meaningful problem for the target audience.
Creating a Free Offer
A free offer can help reduce the psychological barrier to entering a relationship with a potential customer.
Instead of immediately asking someone to purchase a $100 or $500 course, you can first provide useful free content.
This allows prospects to experience your expertise.
If the free material is genuinely useful, it can help build trust.
Facebook Groups
The course discusses using Facebook groups to develop relationships with potential customers.
Groups can provide a place to:
- Answer questions
- Share educational content
- Understand customer problems
- Build authority
- Develop relationships
- Promote relevant offers
The important distinction is that communities should provide genuine value rather than becoming constant advertising channels.
Lead Magnets and Landing Pages
Once you have a lead magnet, you need a mechanism for collecting leads.
The course walks through:
- Opt-in forms
- Lead delivery
- Landing pages
- Website integration
- Pop-up forms
This gives beginners a practical introduction to building the technical side of a lead-generation system.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a major part of the course’s business strategy.
An email list gives you a direct communication channel with potential customers.
You can use email to:
- Educate subscribers
- Share valuable content
- Build trust
- Introduce products
- Announce launches
- Re-engage inactive subscribers
Unlike social-media followers, an email list can provide a more direct and controlled relationship with your audience.
Using ConvertKit
The course includes practical demonstrations using ConvertKit for email marketing and lead capture.
Students learn about:
- Creating an account
- Creating opt-in forms
- Delivering lead magnets
- Landing pages
- Pop-up forms
- Testing the opt-in process
Because software interfaces change over time, learners should treat specific interface instructions as practical examples rather than permanent procedures.
Building a Sales Funnel
The course introduces the concept of a marketing and sales funnel.
A simplified funnel might look like:
Free Content → Lead Magnet → Email List → Relationship → Offer → Purchase
The purpose is to move potential customers through a logical buying journey.
Not every visitor will purchase immediately, so the funnel gives you multiple opportunities to educate and convert them.
Nurturing Leads
A new subscriber may not be ready to purchase immediately.
Lead nurturing involves building a relationship over time.
Useful emails can:
- Solve problems
- Teach concepts
- Share stories
- Provide small wins
- Address objections
- Demonstrate expertise
- Introduce products
The objective is to build trust rather than pressure subscribers into buying.
Tripwire Offers
The course also introduces the concept of a tripwire offer.
A tripwire is a relatively low-cost offer designed to convert a prospect into a paying customer.
The underlying idea is that someone who has already purchased from you may be more likely to consider additional products later.
However, the offer still needs to provide genuine value.
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Not every subscriber will remain active.
Some people stop opening emails or interacting with your content.
A re-engagement strategy attempts to bring inactive subscribers back into the conversation.
This can involve:
- New content
- Special offers
- Questions
- Updated resources
- Useful reminders
- Preference management
Re-engagement can help improve the health of an email list.
Sales Landing Pages
A sales page is one of the most important components of an online course funnel.
The course discusses the key elements of an effective sales landing page.
A strong sales page typically communicates:
- The target audience
- The problem
- Desired outcome
- Course benefits
- What is included
- Why the course is different
- Social proof
- Pricing
- Call to action
- Objection handling
The purpose is to help qualified prospects make an informed purchasing decision.
Conversion Optimization
Traffic alone does not create a successful course business.
You also need to convert visitors into leads and customers.
Important conversion metrics can include:
- Landing-page conversion rate
- Email opt-in rate
- Email open rate
- Click-through rate
- Sales conversion rate
- Customer acquisition cost
- Average order value
Tracking these numbers allows course creators to identify bottlenecks.
Who Should Take This Course?
Aspiring Course Creators
This is the most obvious audience.
If you want to turn your expertise into a digital course business, the curriculum provides a useful roadmap.
Coaches and Consultants
Coaches and consultants can use courses to package their expertise into scalable educational products.
Freelancers
Freelancers can turn specialized skills into courses and potentially diversify their income beyond client work.
Authors
Authors with expertise in a particular subject can use courses to expand their educational product ecosystem.
Professionals
Experienced professionals may be able to monetize knowledge gained through years of work.
Existing Course Creators
The course can also be useful if you’ve already created a course but aren’t generating the sales you expected.
Who Should Skip This Course?
The course may not be ideal for experienced digital-course entrepreneurs who already have:
- A validated audience
- A sophisticated sales funnel
- Advanced email automation
- Established paid advertising campaigns
- Extensive course-production experience
Such users may benefit more from advanced training focused on specific bottlenecks.
Course Requirements
The course has a low barrier to entry.
No previous experience in teaching, training, or marketing is required.
You primarily need:
- A computer, tablet, or smartphone
- Internet access
- A willingness to learn
- A subject or expertise you can potentially teach
- Time to implement the strategies
The most important requirement is not technical knowledge but willingness to take action.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Beginner-friendly
- Covers the entire course-business lifecycle
- Focuses on market validation
- Explains course positioning
- Covers pricing
- Includes profit planning
- Covers course creation
- Discusses recording and editing
- Explains audience building
- Introduces lead magnets
- Covers landing pages
- Includes email marketing
- Discusses sales funnels
- Covers lead nurturing
- Introduces re-engagement
- Explains sales-page fundamentals
- Includes practical software demonstrations
- Useful for entrepreneurs and experts
Cons
- Six-figure results are not guaranteed
- Requires significant implementation outside the lessons
- Some marketing tactics may require updating as platforms evolve
- Facebook-focused strategies may not suit every audience
- Software demonstrations can become outdated as interfaces change
- Advanced marketers may find some concepts introductory
- Building a profitable course business still requires experimentation and market feedback
Is Build a Six-Figure Online Business Selling Online Courses Worth It?
Yes, especially for beginners who want to understand the business side of online course creation.
The course’s biggest strength is that it doesn’t treat course creation as simply a video-production exercise.
It covers the broader business model:
Research → Positioning → Pricing → Product Creation → Audience Building → Lead Generation → Email Marketing → Conversion
This is valuable because many first-time creators make the mistake of spending months creating a course before thinking seriously about how they will acquire customers.
The course encourages a more commercially minded approach.
Can You Really Build a Six-Figure Course Business?
The course title should be viewed as a business goal rather than a guaranteed outcome.
A six-figure business requires much more than completing a course.
Your results will depend on factors such as:
- Market demand
- Course quality
- Pricing
- Positioning
- Audience size
- Marketing ability
- Conversion rates
- Customer acquisition costs
- Competition
- Consistency
- Business execution
For example, a $100,000 annual revenue target could theoretically be achieved through:
1,000 sales × $100 = $100,000
or:
200 sales × $500 = $100,000
or:
100 sales × $1,000 = $100,000
The important lesson is that your revenue target needs to be connected to a realistic pricing and customer-acquisition strategy.
How to Get the Most From This Course
Don’t watch the course passively.
Create your own online course business plan while completing the lessons.
Step 1: Select a niche
Identify your strongest expertise and potential audience.
Step 2: Validate demand
Research search trends, competitors, communities, and customer problems.
Step 3: Define your offer
Determine the specific transformation your course provides.
Step 4: Create your USP
Explain why your course is different.
Step 5: Set a price
Connect your pricing to your value proposition and financial goals.
Step 6: Build the course
Create the curriculum, lessons, exercises, and resources.
Step 7: Create a lead magnet
Offer something useful for free.
Step 8: Build your email list
Use landing pages and opt-in forms to capture interested prospects.
Step 9: Nurture your audience
Provide useful content and build trust.
Step 10: Launch and measure
Track traffic, leads, conversions, revenue, and customer feedback.
This turns the course into an actionable business-building project rather than simply another online class.
Summary
Build a Six-Figure Online Business Selling Online Courses by Eli Natoli is a practical course for people who want to turn their expertise into an online education business.
Its strongest feature is the breadth of its curriculum. It covers much more than recording course videos, including market research, course validation, positioning, pricing, audience building, lead magnets, landing pages, email marketing, sales funnels, and conversion strategies.
Overview
SUPERB!
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