How To Sell Online Courses On Wordpress And Build Your Brand

Content Management Systems such as WordPress simplify the process of creating powerful websites. Even a non-coder can create an online course website in just a few hours.

WordPress plugins and website builders such as Divi and Elementor make the process even simpler. These tools create your own layout and design by simply dragging and dropping elements into place to create your very own, custom course pages, product pages, landing pages, and so on.

Being able to sell online courses on WordPress has never been easier!

Why Use Wordpress To Sell Online Courses?

WordPress first started out as a blogging platform but has since evolved into a fully featured CMS. This means that it's flexible and versatile for a wide variety of use cases. Since WordPress has surged in popularity, it has attracted many plugin developers to make new features for the platform.

Many of these are free, but even the premium paid plugins are great value! These plugins allow you to create a very impressive and feature-rich e-commerce store for your course content.

WordPress allows you to easily embed videos onto your website without needing coding knowledge. And with a video course hosting platform like StreamingVideoProvider, you can start selling immediately. Unlike popular online course platforms that operate on a profit-sharing basis, StreamingVideoProvider lets you keep 100% of your online course revenue.

StreamingVideoProvider also lets you apply your own branding so that you can stand out as a professional course creator and not just another talking head on a marketplace that’s inundated with content.

What You Will Need

Web hosting account

You need a web hosting account to be able to host your website’s content. On top of that, you will need to install WordPress to manage your website.

Select a web host that meets your requirements, preferably one offering a one-click WordPress install feature for ease of use.

Video hosting provider

This enables you to ensure smooth streaming of your video course content and processes payments directly from the video player.

Choose a video hosting platform with features like global CDN coverage, 2FA for security, flexible monetization options (pay-per-view, subscriptions), and customizable video players. StreamingVideoProvider checks all these and many other boxes and, most importantly, lets you keep 100% of your revenue. With a fixed monthly fee, it does not cut into your profits and helps you reach anyone, anywhere in the world. Read more about the platform’s online course hosting services.

WordPress theme or page builder

Research and choose a scalable, visually appealing theme that supports your content types. Think about the types of pages your website will have and draft a rough plan of the pages you want to create initially. Keep it simple.

If you need special types of content like landing pages, consider website builders like Divi, Elementor, or Thrive Themes. Explore both free and premium options for a WordPress theme. On one hand, you probably want to install a theme and use it for a long time to avoid having to redesign the website. On the other hand, you may want to start with a smaller investment and a simpler website. In the latter case, you may want to go with a free theme.

Payment Gateway Account

Necessary for processing payments. Check your video streaming provider’s integrations to be sure that your payment gateway is supported. Be sure to also check the gateway’s fine print for any transaction fees.

Can You Host Your Online Course On WordPress?

Short answer: No. If you choose to sell videos through your website and not through an online course platform, remember that your videos should be hosted externally by your chosen video provider. It’s not a good idea to host your videos on WordPress.

It’s not that building online courses for the mainstream sites is bad. There is no right or wrong, but you need to decide what’s best for your online business. Once you’ve cleared that out, the first thing to think about is video hosting.

Even though you are going to sell courses online from your website, your video content shouldn’t be hosted on your web hosting provider. These services are not built for video hosting and can cause you a ton of headaches if you decide to upload your videos there. For one, there will most likely be latency, i.e. the video player will be buffering all the time. That’s something no one wants to experience when they’ve paid for an online course.

This is where online course video hosting platforms come in handy! There are many great solutions to choose from, so take some time and figure out which one suits you best.

Here are some key features to look for when choosing your online course video provider:

Global CDN coverage — Ideally including mainland China
2FA (two-factor authentication) to stop ticket sharing
Flexible Pay-Per-View options and subscription packages
Ability to sell directly from the video player
Customizable (white-label) video players

How To Create An Online Course In Wordpress

After choosing a video provider, you should now decide which WordPress host works best for you and your requirements.

Some hosts such as Hostgator will even offer a one-click install. This means that you won’t have to upload any files yourself.

Get started with WordPress

Let’s get started and install WordPress from our chosen host’s cPanel

Install WordPress through cPanel (one-click install) or by uploading the WordPress files. This can be done via free FTP tools such as FileZilla
cPanel should have a section displaying different apps that you can install on your website.
Then, choose a theme that you will use on your website. This warrants some research because it’s an important decision. The theme will determine to a great extent what your website looks like, how it works, and how easy it is to publish articles. When choosing a theme, think in terms of scalability. Will this theme enable you to publish all the types of content you need to publish? Some of the more advanced themes include Divi, Elementor, and Thrive Themes. Before purchasing one of these, make sure you have understood what they do and you have a very good idea of how you will structure your site. Of course, you can also go with a free WordPress theme.
Take some time to use WordPress and the general interface. Make use of beginner WordPress tutorials to help you with this process.
Once you have become familiar with the interface, create a new page that you will use as your test video course page. You can do this by selecting Pages > Add New from the WordPress menu on the left of the screen.

Set up your video hosting provider

Firstly, sign up for a free StreamingVideoProvider account.
Click Add Media located at the top left of the screen and upload your video.
- Copy the embed code by clicking the button at the right of the screen
This will generate the HTML embed code that we simply paste onto our WordPress website.

Monetize your online course

You are probably asking yourself “How can I sell my online courses from my video player?”. This is also very easy with StreamingVideoProvider. Let’s take a look at the process.

With your uploaded video selected, click the Monetize tab towards the bottom of the screen. Then, click the New Paywall button.
Enter the price that you want to charge
Finally, go to Settings > Pay Per View> Payment Gateways. Select your payment gateway, fill in the data, and hit Save at the bottom right

And there you have it! You have uploaded, published, and monetized your video in just a few minutes. The best part is that you get to keep 100% of your earnings with us.

StreamingVideoProvider won’t take any of your earnings via fees or additional charges.

You can also put a playlist (your entire online course) behind a paywall and publish it with one click on your website. Let’s see how publishing is done!

Publish your online course on WordPress

After uploading your videos to StreamingVideoProvider, you can simply copy the embed code from the dashboard. You can embed a single video or an entire playlist (online course).
Then paste your embed code into WordPress that you were given. You should see Custom HTML as an option under the WordPress Blocks feature. Use this to insert your code, and save the page.

As you’ve just seen, WordPress is ideal for creating a course-selling website in no time at all!

Selling Your Online Course On WordPress

The problem with this is that you need software to accept your payments and send them to your payment provider. You basically have two options here: selling from the video player with your video provider or installing an e-commerce plugin for WordPress so that you can put the pages where you published your videos behind a paywall

Selling your online course via your video player

How To Add An Online Course To Your Website

An easy way to sell your content is to do it directly from the video player. This means that you don’t have to spend any time installing WordPress plugins.

If you choose this option, your video provider does all of the hard work. This means that all you have to do is focus on making great content!

Pros

Sell access directly from wherever your video is embedded
Doesn’t require a complicated website
Set prices and configure packages from one place
Helps you protect your course content from pirates through military-grade security, encryption, and many other security features

Cons

Limited interface compared to that of a storefront

Selling your content via WooCommerce

Sell Online Courses From Your Own Website

When you add a plugin to WordPress, you are extending the functionality of the site. Think of it as adding new features to your website.

A plugin that will allow you to sell access to your content is WooCommerce. It is typically used by storefronts that sell physical products, but it also has functionality that allows you to sell digital content.

WooCommerce is free to use and install, but setting it up might be a bit tricky. It requires more of a time investment and it may not look very professional in the end.

Pros

If your video hosting provider does not offer monetization, this can be an alternative
Bring your audience over to your website
Sell bundles containing merch and other items

Cons

Can be complicated
You still need a hosting provider to host your videos
Does not protect your content

Monetization Methods For Selling Courses Online

Here are some popular methods for selling content and online courses. It’s a good idea to make sure that your provider offers all or most of them so you can adjust your business model if you need to:

Sell one-time access to your content
Rent your content out for a set amount of time
Sell access to one video within a playlist
Create video passes that grant access to multiple videos within a playlist
Configurable subscription packages

Video monetization platforms will allow you to offer a variety of different packages. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular package types and what they offer your viewers.

	Pricing and Monetization	Offered by StreamingVideoProvider
Purchase	Sell one-time pay-per-view ticket	✓
Rental	Allow viewers to rent your content	✓
Subscription	Monthly or yearly subscription access	✓
Single Pass	Allow access to one video in a playlist	✓
Multi-Pass	Allow access to multiple videos in a playlist	✓
Unlimited Pass	Allow unlimited access to a playlist	✓

You can certainly make a good profit from selling your courses online. To maximize your profits, you should make sure that you market yourself effectively, and produce quality content. You should also make sure that your video provider has low fees. This will allow you to keep more of your income generated from your content.

You do not need any coding experience to sell courses from your website. Services such as StreamingVideoProvider allow you to sell directly from the video player. You just paste the embed code onto your WordPress website and begin selling immediately. This removes the need for a complicated check-out process on your website.

If you use WooCommerce to sell access to your videos, you will need to pay fees to your chosen payment gateway. If you choose a video provider that allows you to sell from your video player, you bypass these fees.

Yes! That’s another benefit of being able to sell directly from your video player. If your website goes down, you can still embed your content anywhere else on the internet.

Conclusion

It is very quick and easy to start selling your online courses on WordPress. Selling from your player makes things very simple, but if you can’t do it, then plugins such as WooCommerce are also a viable alternative.

In terms of payment, be sure to calculate how much you may have to pay in fees to your video and payment platforms. These fees can add up, so make sure that they don’t eat into your profits too much.

To conclude, being able to sell online courses on WordPress is very easy to do. The monetization side of things can be managed through your video platform in most cases. This frees up time for you to focus on creating high-quality courses!

You should now have a much better idea of how to sell online courses from your own website. So what are you waiting for?