In other words, why would someone pay for an online course when they can learn from AI or find free content online?
Information is everywhere
Finding information and educational content can not be easier. AI platforms where you get instant answers for even toughest questions, YouTube videos within a tutorial format even in niche areas, and lots of other platforms with free course materials are providing extensive content for any topic that you are motivated to learn more and get deeper.
In this paradigm though, where anyone can find quality, free resources in a matter of seconds, and importantly, how can you sell courses? The problem is that AI can reply within the context of what you ask for. You get the response that you ask for!Yet, since you want to learn new horizons that you are not aware of, it is hard for AI to predict all those things through your questions and prompts. With YouTube and other mediums, the problem is they are unstructured and you do not know which YouTube channel to trust for quality and up-to-date educational content.
Still, AI is providing easily accessible and free education material. Who can resist to proceed with those instead of paying for an online course, event it comes with a decent price?
What if you are starting to sell courses?
Selling your own courses is not so tough if your name is a “brand” as an instructor and your reputation is already widely recognized. For instance, if you want to learn more about details of filmmaking, most of us would pay for Jodie Foster’s course on Masterclass without any hesitation, where she teaches how to bring stories from page to screen with emotion and confidence. When we purchase the course, we do not get the didactic information, rather what we pay for is getting the wonderfully authentic, personal experience.
Or suppose that you have been creating free content to YouTube for many years, and you have built a brand on a specific niche. You are good at social media marketing, you became a well-regarded influencer, and you already have the prospective community base. Again, the stakes of selling courses to many people are again high.
Yet, what if you are a newbie to course sales and you do not have any established “name” on the block? Where to start as an entrepreneur, where profitable digital product will be the courses ? Or even, in the age of AI, where learners can get detailed and personalized answers regarding what they are curious about alongside other free educational content, does this make sense to create courses with the ambition of making passive income?
For us, the answer is not a direct yes or no; instead it is more about ‘how’.
Given all that upside, building even a minimal viable version of a customer education program is one of the highest-leverage investments you can make for your SaaS, product, or service.
Shifting the Focus from Information to Learner Experience
Even as the product owners of Mini Course Generator, we believe that the platform you select for course selling does not make the biggest difference. Rather, what we see as the game changer is how you shape the learning experience.
If you want to earn money from selling your expertise with on-demand courses, we believe that you should not only focus on the information you provide, instead you should prioritize how your learners interact. This is the necessity in this period that we are close to entering in 2026. No more conventional “video + text” loops are enough to sell courses unless your name has a great brand authority.
What we see as the game changer is the way you combine different educational elements with different strengths together to enrich the experience. Combining different elements in a creative way is all about making 1 + 1 bigger than 2. We suggest that if you want to develop yourself in the course selling context, this is what you should put your effort into.
Be the “Course Curator”
We think that course creators should leverage the variety of AI-based ed-tech tools to sell their courses. AI-tools like NotebookLM, etc. are not competitors, instead they are the beneficial elements that can be helpful for your course selling business. For instance, why not combine NotebookLM’s videos with Synthesia avatars alongside ThingLink’s 360 images while embedding Google Map views while preparing a course about Renaissance architecture?
As an analogy, in this new age of “knowledge business”, we think that the best course creators are the best “curators”. Curate all the relevant and interactive elements in a cohesive way to enrich the learning experience as much as you can so your courses can shine in the mass and start the engine of word-of-mouth to gain new customers. Be the “course creator” like art curators. Moderate and shape the content in such a way that the learner feels they are in the flow of the learning journey.
Leverage AI for “Short and Impactful” Experiences
Despite our biggest strength is AI Course Creator, which we started to combine AI and course creation in late 2021 (as can be seen in this nostalgic screenshot at wayback machine) and pioneer in this vertical, we do not suggest that using AI as the only source of your content. Our AI feature set (AI Course Creator, AI Interaction Builder, AI Quiz generator, AI-image maker) does the heavy lifting to prevent any creator’s block yet the make the unique course that can be sold in the market requires adding creativity and enrichment of how you provide the learning experience.
Even if your main income-generation business is not based on course selling, you can still leverage courses for lead generation that offer enriched experience for learners. You don’t have to create long courses; don’t feel as if when the course is short, it is worthless. On the contrary, creating engaging mini-courses with a micro-learning approach are more effective for starting relationship building with your audience compared to long courses where no one can proceed to complete.
We believe that the watchword to get started selling courses or successful lead generation with educational content is “short and impactful”. Like with the widely accepted design principles of user interfaces and hardwares, sometimes (perhaps frequently) “less is more”. Keep the content short but keep the learning experience sharp with interactive elements. Like in the physics principle, narrow the touch area to create more impact with the same given level of force.
In summary, we believe that making income from course selling still needs time investment since it takes time to build a brand and recognized authority takes time. Although it is not easy and fast, we believe that’s the right path.
How We Position Mini Course Generator In This Context
In this “modern times” of self-development opportunities, let us mention how we position Mini Course Generator for our community, with start-up terminology.
Problems It Solves: Revenue generation from expertise
Paradigm Shift and Challenges: Finding information and educational content can not be easier. AI platforms, YouTube, and lots of free / paid spaces. From a learner’s perspective, there are lots of opportunities.
Our Approach: If you want to earn money from selling your expertise with on-demand courses, we believe that you should not focus only on the information you provide, instead you should prioritize the learning experience.
Our Motto: Be the course curator.
Competitive Alternatives: Thinkific, Teachable, Kajabi, and similar platforms
Key Unique Attributes:
- Being Super-simple E-learning Authoring that Anyone Can Use to Create and Curate Courses
- Flexibility in Shaping & Structuring the E-learning Materials
- Comprehensive AI Assistance at the scale where other platforms can not get close
Value: Shortening and simplifying the path between expertise and income generation
Who cares: Subject Domain Experts that Sells On-Demand Courses to Individuals / Organizations
In brief, we want to enable course creators to be able to put their creativity and build courses suitable for these modern times. That’s why we’ve built Mini Course Generator.
Seeing is believing. Why don’t you sign up free and start to combine all the great educational elements and provide rich experience for your learners?
