I launched my first and, so far, only online course in July last year. In its first year, the course generated approximately $434,698 in revenue.
This income came without a single webinar, guest post, or formal launch period. The course is evergreen and has grown largely through word-of-mouth.
Although it was very successful, creating an online course was not easy.
I felt nervous building Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. It’s the first product I ever sold, and like many new creators, I worried no one would want it.
I knew the course would require a lot of work—and it still does—and that building a course about blogging was unfamiliar territory for me.
On top of that, many people told me that a first product often flops. I didn’t want to spend months on something that might fail.
Despite the fears, I wanted to create a comprehensive course that would help others learn and benefit from affiliate marketing. I aimed to make it the best resource possible.
Rather than teaching bloggers one-on-one, a course would allow me to reach more people, help more students, and create a new income stream built around a product of my own.
Blogging courses are valuable because they can offer more than an ebook. A course can combine lessons, workbooks, a community, and bonuses to deliver deeper learning and ongoing support.
After encouragement from other bloggers and hearing success stories, I finally decided to build my course—and it turned out to be one of the best business decisions I’ve made.
Below is a screenshot showing the income generated by the course.
Related articles:
- How To Make Extra Income
- 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
- How I Made $979,321 In 2016
- The Ultimate Guide To Making Money Blogging – How I Earn Over $50,000 A Month Online
Many students from Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing have written to tell me how much the course helped them. That kind of feedback is always rewarding. Affiliate marketing enabled the lifestyle I enjoy, and I’m thankful to share those strategies with others.
Examples of student results include:
- One student increased monthly affiliate income from $272 to $4,400.
- A blogger with 10,000 monthly page views earned over $1,000 from Amazon in a single month after the course.
- One blogger grew affiliate income from $87 a month to more than $1,700 one month after taking the course.
- A brand-new blogger earned their first affiliate sale just two days after completing the course.
- Another blogger doubled monthly affiliate income from $2,500 to $5,000.
Related: How I Successfully Built A $1,000,000+ Blog
Revenue from my online course now accounts for about one-third of my business income—and that’s from a single course. I plan to develop additional products, so this revenue stream should grow further.
I consider the course a major success. I spent less than $100 on advertising and marketing, and I didn’t run webinars or guest posts to promote it.
So how did I earn nearly half a million dollars from one course in its first year? Below are the main reasons.
First, a little background.
I launched Making Sense of Cents almost six years ago. Since then, my blogging business has generated more than $1.5 million in total revenue, including about $979,000 in 2016 alone.
Related: Learn how to start a blog with this free course
Blogging changed my life and enabled me to earn thousands of dollars a month doing work I love. I started the blog on a whim in 2011 as a personal finance journal, not knowing blogs could be monetized.
Early on, a blogging contact connected me with an advertiser and I earned $100 from that first deal. It wasn’t much, but it showed that my hobby could become profitable and motivated me to learn more about blogging as a business.
By summer 2012 I was earning around $1,000 per month; by the following summer that grew to about $10,000 per month. Income continued to climb—$320,000 in 2015 and $979,000 in 2016.
That initial success pushed me to take blogging seriously. The blog eventually led to features such as a profile in Forbes and many opportunities that followed.
Blogging gave me financial flexibility: working from home, traveling, and a flexible schedule. My course was created to help others build businesses that could provide similar freedom.
How I earned $434,698+ from an online course
I networked with others.
Networking played a large role in creating the course. If I hadn’t connected with other online business owners, I might never have launched it.
While in a mastermind group, peers such as Jessica Larrew and Abby Lawson encouraged me to develop an affiliate marketing course. They shared best practices for creating and launching products, which helped me avoid common mistakes.
I hit a specific market.
The online course market is large and growing. Affiliate marketing was a topic readers asked about daily, so I made it the focus of my course.
I narrowed the audience further by targeting bloggers and online influencers. Although other affiliate marketing courses exist, few focus solely on bloggers. Niche targeting allowed me to remove irrelevant content and deliver focused, practical strategies that matched my audience’s needs.
I had real results to prove it.
Many courses are created by people with limited experience. My course was built on strategies that produced meaningful revenue for my blog. The majority of my blogging income comes from affiliates, even without exceptionally high page views.
Affiliate marketing involves placing tracked links to products so you earn a commission when readers purchase through your referral. It can be a largely passive income source: a well-written post or email can continue earning over time as it attracts traffic.
I regularly earn around $50,000 per month from affiliate marketing through blog posts and email sequences that convert visitors into buyers with minimal ongoing effort.
Because my methods produced measurable results, readers asked me to share them—leading to the creation of the course.
I deliver tremendous value.
Students who enroll in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing receive a comprehensive course plus significant bonuses valued at over $500. I want students to feel they received far more value than they paid.
I continually add lessons and bonuses, including perspectives from affiliate marketing managers and a community group. Many students say the community alone justifies the price.
Delivering high value encourages satisfied students to become affiliates for the course, which supports ongoing growth.
I chose a reliable platform to host the course.
Based on my experience as a student, I selected Teachable. Its interface is easy to use, and it made setting up the course straightforward even though I’m not a tech expert. Many students have praised the Teachable experience, confirming it was the right choice.
I grew my email list.
When I decided to build a course, I started focusing on a professional email strategy. Before that, I had not prioritized email marketing and didn’t even have an email service provider.
Starting in April 2016, I began building the list deliberately. With minimal ongoing work, the list has grown to about 65,000 subscribers. I use an automated email sequence that introduces new bloggers to relevant content and mentions the course without hard selling.
This setup requires little maintenance and provides a steady, low-effort way to reach interested readers.
I direct traffic to the course—casually.
I don’t aggressively promote the course across every page. The approach has been low-key: word-of-mouth, occasional mentions on the blog, and targeted emails to subscribers.
Examples of subtle promotion include:
- Mentioning the course in monthly income reports where readers come specifically to learn monetization strategies.
- Using ConvertKit to add an email that introduces the course to people who sign up for my free “How To Start a Blog” course.
- Sending a series of emails when the course first launched to explain why affiliate marketing matters and how the course helps.
- Occasionally offering coupon codes and notifying subscribers, since sales can boost interest for an evergreen course.
This casual promotion fits my personality and turned course sales into a relatively passive income source. There’s still lots of room to expand—webinars, guest posting, or a focused email series could increase revenue further if desired.
I understand the value of affiliates.
A course about affiliate marketing should include affiliates. I allow any student to join the affiliate program because they’ve learned how to properly promote affiliate products through the course.
I encourage affiliates to interview me for their sites so they can create strong, authentic reviews. Many students take me up on that offer, which benefits both parties.
I offer a generous commission to course affiliates because I appreciate the effort it takes to promote a product. Affiliates account for a significant portion of monthly enrollments, which helps sustain and grow the business.
Are you interested in creating an online course? Why or why not?