This training breaks down two ways to make money in online education: build your own course business as the expert, or partner with an educational creator as the operator behind the business.
The online course play is not “make videos and hope.” The play is to turn attention into trust, trust into calls, calls into pre-sales, and pre-sales into a course people actually want. Simple? Yes. Easy? No. That is where operators win.
Both models use the same business engine. The difference is who owns the audience and expertise.
| Path | Who it is for | Your responsibility | How you get paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Creator | You have knowledge, expertise, a skill, or a point of view people want to learn. | You build the audience, offer, course, funnel, sales process, and customer experience. | You own 100%. More control, more responsibility, more front-facing work. |
| Course Operator | You do not want to be the face, but you can build systems for someone who already has an audience. | You set up the tech, funnel, offer, traffic system, sales process, course structure, and backend operations. | Setup fee plus revenue share. The training mentions 20% to 50% revenue share as the target structure. |
The training is built around this order. Break the order and you create expensive confusion. Follow the order and you create useful pressure.
Set up Skool, HighLevel, domain, email, calendar, funnel, and automations.
Create the offer and sell it before the course is fully built.
Use organic content and warm retargeting to build attention.
Turn attention into leads through VSSLs, webinars, email, and DMs.
Use calls to diagnose, clarify, and enroll the right people.
Build the course after demand is proven.
Partner with creators and run the machine for revenue share.
The platform holds the experience. The backend converts the attention.
Use Skool for the community, classroom, calendar, members, leaderboard, and the student journey. This is where buyers consume the course and stay connected.
Use HighLevel for funnels, forms, CRM, calendar booking, email, automation, pipeline tracking, and follow-up.
Use this as the clean version of the massive tech section.
Sell the transformation first. Build the course second. The buyer knows the product is in progress, gets a better deal for trusting early, and you get real proof before investing weeks into content creation.
Make the promise clear enough that the buyer knows exactly what changes after joining.
Use a small number of early spots so scarcity is real and delivery stays manageable.
The discount is not random. It is the reward for buying before the full product is complete.
Release module one after the promised build window, then release the next modules on a clear schedule.
Do not start from a blank page. Find what is already selling, then improve the positioning, product, delivery, and buyer experience.
If people are already buying a similar promise, that is a signal. Competitors are not the enemy. They are market research with a business model attached.
Review their website, lead magnets, YouTube, Instagram, emails, ads, webinars, sales pages, intake forms, and sales process.
Use the gaps in reviews, unclear promises, weak delivery, or ignored sub-niches to create a better version for a more specific buyer.
Organic content builds trust. Retargeting ads bring warm people back to the funnel. That combination beats asking strangers to buy before they know you.
Each channel has a different job. Confuse the job and your funnel turns into spaghetti. Delicious, but a mess.
| Channel | Primary job | Best use | Operator note |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Build deep trust through searchable education. | Long-form videos that point to one central free training or VSSL. | Map the creator's best content into a YouTube flywheel. |
| Create frequent touchpoints and DM conversions. | Reels with keyword comments that trigger a ManyChat DM. | Turn best-performing posts into retargeting angles. | |
| Own the audience and drive repeat action. | Send value, stories, video links, webinar invites, and call prompts. | Clean list management matters. Do not abuse the inbox. | |
| Retargeting ads | Bring warm viewers back to the offer. | Show ads to people who already engaged with the creator. | This is often the fastest win for creators with an existing audience. |
| Webinar or VSSL | Convert trust into booked calls. | Teach, build belief, make the problem clear, then invite the call. | The webinar sells the call. The call sells the program. |
The training leans on SPIN selling. The goal is not to pressure people. The goal is to help the right buyer clearly see the cost of staying stuck and the payoff of solving it.
Where are they now? Keep this short. You are gathering context, not hosting a documentary.
What is not working? What have they tried? Where are they stuck?
What happens if this stays unsolved? What does it cost them in time, money, confidence, or opportunity?
What changes when it is solved? Let them describe the future they want in their own words.
Build a transformation, not a video library. Your customer should never wonder what to watch next.
Define where the student starts and where they should finish.
Each module should represent one major step in the transformation.
Each video should teach one specific action, not seventeen half-connected ideas wearing a trench coat.
Use community, Q&A calls, workbooks, checklists, and templates to turn information into implementation.
Use this to turn the video into movement. Watching the training is not the win. Building the machine is the win.
Source credit: Based on the YouTube video How To Make Money With Online Courses in 2026, covering creator and operator models, Skool, HighLevel, pre-selling, traffic, sales, course building, and operator partnerships.