How to Create and Sell Online Courses with WordPress (Step by Step)

Creating and selling an online course can be a great way to establish your authority, share your expertise, build an audience, and generate passive income. With WordPress and some powerful plugins, you can easily create a fully-featured online course website.

In this comprehensive guide from a webmaster with over 15 years of experience, I will walk you through the entire process of building, marketing, and selling online courses with WordPress.

The Surging Online Course Industry

Before we dive in, let‘s look at a few stats that highlight the massive opportunity with online courses:

• The online course market is projected to grow from $189 billion in 2022 to over $350 billion by 2028 (Source).

• 44% of people have taken an online course, with professional development and hobbies being the most popular topics (Source).

• 67% of students say online education is as good as or better than face-to-face education (Source).

Clearly there is massive demand for online education. By sharing your knowledge as an online course, you can tap into this demand while making a positive impact.

Now let‘s dive into the step-by-step process for making this happen on WordPress.

Step 1 – Get Reliable WordPress Hosting

The first step in any WordPress project is getting the proper web hosting. I always recommend using a managed WordPress host for online course projects.

Some well-known managed hosts include WPEngine, Kinsta, and Pagely.

The key benefits of managed WordPress hosting include:

• Speed – Optimized web servers and caching for fast performance. This improves student experience.

• Security – Hardened server configurations, firewalls, and scans to protect your site.

• Support – Access to WordPress technical experts in case any issues come up.

• Reliability – Enterprise-grade infrastructure and uptime guarantees. Students can access courses anytime.

I suggest starting with WPEngine or Kinsta. Prices start around $35-$65 per month for managed hosts.

The investment is well worth it for the speed, security, and support you gain. Slow or buggy hosting leads to bad student experiences.

Once you have hosting, you‘ll also need to purchase a custom domain name for your course platform (e.g. johnscourses.com).

Step 2 – Install WordPress and Pick a Theme

With hosting ready, installing WordPress only takes a few minutes. Your host usually provides a simple auto-installer.

When going through the installation, be sure to pick a secure password for your admin account. Never use simple passwords like "password123" or reuse other passwords you have.

Next, you‘ll want to pick a professional theme to control the design of your course site. Two great theme options to consider are:

• Education WP – Designed specifically for course sites. Includes many built-in customization options. Priced around $69.

• Astra – Super fast and lightweight theme. Works well for course sites. Priced around $59.

Take your time previewing different themes. Pick one that aligns with your brand and has the layout options you need.

Step 3 – Install MemberPress to Manage Payments

To charge for courses, you need a membership plugin that can handle subscriptions and content restrictions.

By far the best plugin for this is MemberPress. Top course creators like Marie Forleo use MemberPress for their million dollar course businesses.

Some key things MemberPress enables you to do:

• Create unlimited subscription plans
• Integrate with payment gateways
• Limit course access to paying members
• Automate renewals
• Manage members and licenses

The basic MemberPress plan costs $129 per year. They also have Plus and Pro plans if you need additional features.

After installing MemberPress, connect it to your payment processor like Stripe. This will let you collect payments online.

Now you can create multiple subscription plans like "Basic Access" and "Premium Access" to sell access to your online courses.

Step 4 – Build Your Online Course Content

Now for the fun part…creating your actual online courses!

You have two excellent options for building online courses with WordPress:

1. Use MemberPress Courses

MemberPress has its own courses plugin that provides an easy course creation process directly within MemberPress.

With MemberPress Courses you can:

• Quickly create courses
• Add lessons and multimedia
• Track student progress

It‘s a great starting point if you don‘t need a full-blown LMS platform yet.

2. Use a Dedicated LMS Plugin

For more advanced courses, a dedicated LMS plugin like LearnDash or LifterLMS is a better option.

These plugins give you more robust course building tools like:

• Quizzes and assessments
• Gradebooks
• Student reporting
• Certificates of completion

The downside is they can have a steeper learning curve. Expect to invest more time when getting started.

Either option will let you create courses with lectures, lessons, multimedia, assignments, quizzes, and supplemental downloads.

Step 5 – Set Up Your Payment Gateway

With your courses ready and subscription plans configured, it‘s time to set up payments.

For the widest audience reach, I recommend offering both PayPal and Stripe. This gives students multiple options at checkout.

For Stripe, install the Stripe for WordPress plugin. Follow their step-by-step instructions to activate your Stripe account.

For PayPal, enable it directly within your MemberPress settings. PayPal also lets you accept monthly installment plans which is great for higher priced courses.

You can even let students pay offline by generating invoice links from MemberPress.

Step 6 – Use Trust Badges to Establish Credibility

As an online course creator, establishing credibility and trust should be a top priority.

Students need to know you and your course can actually deliver on your promises before they‘ll buy.

A great way to do this is by adding trust badges and certifications on your site. For example:

• BBB seal
• Trustpilot reviews
• Norton Secured badge
• McAfee SECURE trustmark
• SSL trust seals

Social proof like testimonials and student results is equally important.

The more you can demonstrate expertise and real student success, the more trust you will establish.

Step 7 – Market Your Courses Effectively

You could have the best courses in the world, but without effective marketing they won‘t attract many students.

Here are my top marketing tips for promoting online courses:

Leverage SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) should be the foundation of your online course marketing.

With good SEO, you can get highly qualified students finding your courses through Google for free.

• Publish in-depth blog tutorials related to your course topics. These will drive organic traffic from search.

• Include your most important keywords in page titles, headers, content, URLs, alt text, etc. Read my complete WordPress SEO guide for more tips.

Run Targeted Ads

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google ads are great ways to get your courses in front of interested audiences.

You can target people by interests, demographics, behaviors and more to keep ad costs low. I recommend starting with Facebook and Google.

Send Broadcast Emails

Use broadcast emails to notify your list about your latest course launches and promotions.

Just be sure to segment your list so you send targeted emails about topics they care about. Don‘t spam everyone about every launch.

Tap into Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is incredibly powerful. Recruit others with influence to promote your courses in exchange for a 30-50% commission on sales.

Micro-influencers are often most effective for affiliate promotions. Look for bloggers, YouTubers, and social media personalities in your niche.

Host Free Webinars

Webinars are amazing for generating leads. Offer free value-packed webinars around your course topics.

You can promote your webinars through your blog, email lists, and social media. Then during the webinar make offers for your paid courses.

Retarget Website Visitors

Retargeting helps you reconnect with people after they leave your website. It works incredibly well.

Use a retargeting ad platform like AdRoll or AdWords to display relevant ads to visitors after they leave. I‘ve generated thousands in sales through retargeting.

The right marketing mix will depend on your niche, target audience, and budget. Test different tactics to see what provides the best ROI.

Step 8 – Continually Optimize Your Online Courses

Selling online courses isn‘t a set-it-and-forget-it type of business. You need to continually optimize your course content and marketing.

Here are some key metrics and data to analyze:

• Student completion rates – How many students finish your full curriculum?
• Student satisfaction – Feedback, reviews, survey data
• Page conversion rates – Optimize sales pages for higher conversions
• Traffic sources – Which bring highest quality students? Double down on what works.
• Affiliate conversions – Track top performing affiliates
• Ad ROI – Kill underperforming ads and scale up winners

There is always room for improvement. Use data to refine your courses and marketing for better results.

Keep testing new tactics and technologies too. Like any online business, staying ahead of changes is key to thriving long-term.

Final Thoughts

Building a profitable online course business takes consistent time and effort. But by following the steps in this guide, you can create a rewarding course platform that lets you share your knowledge with the world.

If you have any other questions as you build your online courses, feel free to reach out. I‘ve helped dozens of entrepreneurs successfully launch their online course businesses. I‘m always happy to offer feedback or suggestions!

Best of luck as you take the leap to turn your expertise into an online course. The impact you make is worth the effort.