Good call. Creating an online course is one of the smartest ways to scale your expertise, but most people start in the wrong place.
Online courses can scale your expertise, build authority, and create a new revenue stream. The business case is solid.
But here’s the catch.
Most courses don’t sell. And the ones that do? Completion rates are low.
So, the real question is not “should you create one?”
It’s “can you create one people will buy and finish?”
Why create an online course?
When done right, online courses are a smart move.
- One build, multiple sales
- Global reach
- Flexible delivery
- Scalable revenue
But success comes down to design, not content volume.
People don’t want more information – they want progress.
Amber at Neurospicy Collective had years of bold, sell-out workshops under her belt, and a growing queue of organisations asking how they could get their hands on it. We took everything that makes Amber’s in-room sessions crackle and built it into an eLearning program that organisations across Australia can now access any time, anywhere. Wired Differently, Working Brilliantly™️ is disability-led, unapologetically human, and proudly non-beige — and we’ve set Amber up with everything she needs to scale it without burning out.
What makes a course actually work
A successful online course does three things, and missing any one of them is enough to kill completion rates:
- Solves a specific problem
- Keeps learners engaged
- Drives real-world application
Miss one, and completion drops. Miss two, and refund requests follow.
This is where most DIY courses fall over. They focus on content. Not experience.
The difference between “watched” and “worked”?
Instructional design. Getting the structure, engagement, and application right before you open an authoring tool is the single biggest factor in course success.
What you need before you touch tech
Here’s what you need to lock in before you create an online course, before you touch any technology:
- Outcome. What will your learner be able to do at the end?
- Audience. Who is this for? Be precise.
- Structure. Break learning into short, logical steps.
- Engagement. Build interaction into the experience. Not as an afterthought.
This is instructional design. And it’s the difference between a course people watch and a course people work through.
Your course tech stack, simplified
A website with checkout. It needs to handle both individual and bulk purchases, with automatic discounts for larger orders.
Automated access codes. When a company buys in bulk, staff should get instant access without anyone manually sending anything. No fiddling around. No delays.
An LMS that integrates with your site. When someone buys your course, they should get in immediately — able to track progress, bookmark content, and download their completion certificate when they’re done.
SCORM compatibility. This one matters more than people realise. SCORM means your course can be packaged and sold to organisations so they can host it on their own LMS. Some platforms lock your content in. We make sure yours can travel.
Smart tracking. Your LMS needs to show who’s finished what, when, and flag when training needs renewal. Reports by organisation, not just individual.
Email marketing integration. Your platform should connect with your email campaigns so you can reach new customers and stay in touch with existing ones.
And the course itself. That’s our specialty. We’ve created thousands of hours of engaging, effective courses that work on any device.
This is where things get messy for most people. Too many tools. Not enough clarity.
Here are two platforms that do the job well.
LearnWorlds: built for course creators
If you want to sell courses directly to individuals, LearnWorlds is a strong choice.
What it does well
- Branded course experience with custom look and feel
- Built-in sales pages and funnels
- Interactive video and learning features
- Easy checkout and user access
- Strong marketing integrations
Watch out for
- Takes time to set up properly
- More features means more decisions upfront
Best for
- Coaches, consultants, and creators
- Businesses selling courses at scale
- Anyone serious about building a course business
TalentLMS: built for teams and training
If your focus is internal training or selling to organisations, TalentLMS is a solid option.
What it does well
- Fast setup and simple interface
- Strong reporting and tracking
- Bulk user management
- Easy course deployment
- SCORM support for portability
Watch out for
- Less custom branding than LearnWorlds
- Not as marketing-focused
Best for
- Corporate training
- Compliance programs
- Organisations managing large learner groups
LearnWorlds or TalentLMS: which platform should you choose?
Simple rule. Selling to individuals? Go LearnWorlds. Training teams? Go TalentLMS.
Still unsure? That usually means your strategy needs more work. Start there.
Disclosure: We are affiliate partners of LearnWorlds and TalentLMS. If you purchase through these links, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. We recommend these platforms because we use them and trust them.
Ursula Benstead is a psychologist and trainer with over 30 years of experience and a widely used, evidence-informed framework — The Shark Cage® — that thousands of helping professionals across Australia and internationally had already trained in face-to-face. We took that two-day Foundational Practitioner Training and converted it into a rich, 8-hour self-paced eLearning course hosted on a custom-configured LearnWorlds platform, so Ursula can reach practitioners anywhere in the world without needing to be in the room.
Common mistakes that kill courses
Avoid these and you’re already ahead.
- Building before validating demand
- Overloading content
- Ignoring learner experience
- Choosing tech too early
- Forgetting marketing entirely
- Skipping instructional design
A course is a product. Treat it like one.
Want a course without the trial and error?
You can piece this together yourself. Or you can get it done properly.
At Hungry Minds, we design and build online courses that people actually finish. We handle:
- Course strategy and structure
- Instructional design
- eLearning development
- LMS setup and integration
- Launch-ready delivery
We’ve built thousands of hours of learning across industries. We know what works and what wastes your time.
You bring the expertise. We’ll handle the rest.
Amy Nicholas is a nationally recognised specialist in vicarious trauma mitigation — a keynote speaker, Winston Churchill Fellow, and consultant whose work was already shifting how organisations think about psychosocial risk. We took that expertise and transformed it into two commercially ready eLearning programs for frontline staff and managers, complete with a fully configured LearnWorlds LMS ready for enrolments, licensing, and organisational rollout.
Want to see what it costs?
We’ve created three done-for-you course packages. Course design, eLearning build, website, LMS, and launch support. All delivered in 6 to 8 weeks.
Pricing starts from $15,000 ex. GST.
Want to talk about your course?
Get in touch or call us on 1300 162 393 for a no-obligation chat.
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