The Art of Selling Online Courses

Sahara Rose DeVore, founder of The Travel Coach Network and creator of an ICF-accredited travel coach certification, turned travel and wellness expertise into a new career category. She explains creating demand for a role that did not exist, smart low-cost ad experiments including Reddit, and how a single deadline funnel and better lead magnets dramatically boosted email growth and sales.

Mark Smith, award-winning wildlife photographer and filmmaker known for ultra-slow videos of birds of prey. He built nearly a billion YouTube views by niching down and filming ospreys, eagles and hawks in hypnotic slow motion. They discuss why long-form YouTube sells courses better than short-form, how in-person workshops still pay best, and why he keeps marketing minimal to stay focused on shooting.

Trevor Dimoff, a full-time music and band teacher who creates online songwriting courses, shares how he pre-sold a course before building it. He explains running 20–50 research calls, spotting patterns to shape a course, and selling a $2,000 pilot. Trevor also talks about delivering the pilot live, what went wrong scaling too fast, and why smaller, research-driven products work better.

Jori Chisholm, world-renowned bagpiper and founder of bagpipelessons.com who has taught online since 2003. He explains how posting one short video a day drove millions of views. He shares why shorts feed awareness while email drives sales. He outlines a product mix of downloads, courses, memberships and why real human connection matters more than generic AI content.

Kerstin Cable, a language learning coach and course creator behind Fluent Language and AI Language Club. She explains why selling courses feels harder post-COVID. They discuss ethical promotion, simple marketing: talk about what you know and make an offer. Also covers low‑touch memberships, iterating products instead of always creating new ones, and practical funnel and mindset shifts.

Alison Ellis, floral designer and educator behind RealFlowerBusiness, teaches florists pricing and business skills. She shares how she turned YouTube into $9K fast and grew to $650K+ in course sales. Conversation covers why typical funnels flop with creatives, her real-time promotion approach, memberships and workshops, and how she sells higher-ticket programs to makers who avoid hard-sell tactics.

Aiko Hemingway, an English pronunciation coach who helps Japanese executives and singers, grew her YouTube from ~4K to 11K in a year after one viral video. She explains researching viral topics, why repeating hits can fail, niching to real clients, balancing broad-view content with high-converting lessons, mental blocks around selling, and how she earned a TEDx through persistent practice.

Erika Quest, founder of Level Up Movement and seasoned Pilates educator, shares her inspiring journey of transforming 167 email contacts into a six-figure business in less than a year. She emphasizes her unique approach of prioritizing high-touch customer service over automation, fostering loyalty through personal connections. Erika also discusses her innovative model of marketing and delivering other experts’ courses, achieving impressive growth organically with no paid ads. Her monthly live workshops, Claster Minds, have scaled from a handful to nearly 200 attendees, showcasing her commitment to engaging her community.

Kate Bean, founder of The Sober School, shares her journey from BBC journalist to creating a safe coaching platform for women struggling with alcohol. She reveals how her lead magnet, the Wine O'Clock Survival Guide, effectively draws in her audience. Kate discusses her impressive conversion rates and the significance of the £47 Sober Reset mini course in leading clients to her main program. Emphasizing transformation over mere information, she highlights the importance of community and trust in her methods, achieving strong retention among her students.

Send us Fan Mail🔥 Looking for predictable revenue growth? Access our FREE 7-day roadmap to increase your income without paid ads or sales calls! 👉🏼 https://datadrivenmarketing.co/roadmapAllie Bjerk made $1 million in just 10 months selling online courses. But here's what makes her story different: she did it without building a huge audience first, without relying on freebies or lead magnets, and without spending years creating content.Instead, she went straight to selling low-ticket products to complete strangers through ads.In this episode, Allie breaks down exactly how she built her "tiny offer" funnel, from her $17 front-end product all the way through to her $25,000 coaching program. She shares why she believes you can grow your audience with buyers only, how to choose a low-ticket product that doesn't cannibalise your main course, and the psychological triggers that turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.We also get into the nitty-gritty of running ads in 2025. Allie talks about how she tests new creatives, why she starts with just $25-30 a day in ad spend, and what happened when she dropped her price from $27 to $17 (spoiler: her conversion rate tripled while everything else held steady).If you've been putting off selling because you think you need a bigger audience first, this episode might change your mind.🔗 Connect with Allie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alliebjerk🔗 Visit Allie's website at http://AllieBjerk.com#OnlineCourses #SalesFunnels #CourseCreators #DigitalMarketing🤝  Get In TouchIf you'd like to talk more about how you can grow your course business, email me at john@datadrivenmarketing.