Online Courses vs. Digital Products: Which One is Right for Your Business?
I’ve gotta be real with you….there’s no such thing as passive income. At least not technically. So many people talk about how to offer passive income products and paint the picture that once you have one, it’s a “one-and-done” type deal. That you can just put that product for sale and call it a day.
But that’s not true! There’s still a lot of work involved with things like online courses and digital products. Neither one is perfect because what it really comes down to is what’s right for your business — what’s the fastest and most efficient way for YOU to hit $10K months!
So, how do you know the answer to that question? Should you be offering online courses or digital products? Let’s find out!
Are online courses right for your business?
Online courses may take more work to create than digital products (because there’s more information included), but they’re still a great way to make that “passive income.” Let’s look at some of the pros of adding them to your offer stack!
They’re a high-value product
Value here doesn’t mean value for you — it’s about your audience! Having a high-value product means you can provide in-depth education, no matter the topic or industry. It means they’re getting a lot of information for the money they pay for the course. And it’s still beneficial for your time and energy spent creating it because you can usually charge a few hundred bucks per course.
It gives you recurring revenue
Online courses can generate recurring revenue through subscription-based models or payment plans, letting you have a more predictable income stream, depending on how you decide to set YOURS up. What’s right for you will depend on what you offer, but either way, when you pair these courses with an evergreen strategy to promote them, they can be a great way to make a consistent income.
You don’t need as much traffic for online courses
I will add the disclaimer that this depends on the revenue goals you have for your own business in general, or for this course specifically, but let’s look at an example. I don’t believe you should depend on one type of offer to bring in revenue, but if you’re looking at having a course as a part of your offer stack, this example will be gold.
It doesn’t take up as much time as 1:1 services
Once you set it up, online courses pretty much run on autopilot. They’re a great way to bring in that high-value information without needing to be everywhere at once for multiple people (what you’d have to do if you just offered 1:1 services).
It helps warm people up to your higher-ticket offers
High-ticket offers like masterminds, coaching groups, and 1:1 services need a warm audience to pitch to. There aren’t many people (if any!) that are willing to spend thousands of dollars working with someone they don’t know much about.
This is exactly where an online course can be helpful! They can get a taste of what it would be like to work with you without making an intimidating investment. And then when they hear about those higher-ticket offers, they’re more likely to want to work with you!
When an online course isn’t the right offer for you
No offer is perfect — online courses included! Let’s talk about some of the cons that come with this offer.
They’re competitive
Let’s not sugarcoat it — there are a lot of online courses out there. That market is highly competitive, and it can be hard for new business owners to establish themselves.
And course fatigue is real right now. For the last few years, people have been buying them left and right, only to get burnt out and jaded by some of the crappier ones available.
They can be expensive to set up
If you offer an online course, you need to make a decent investment in the software/resources you use to keep them running. There has to be a platform for people to access it, right?
And you want to automate things so you don’t manually have to send a welcome email to each newbie. That’ll cost you too — even if email is included in your plan (because you may have to upgrade yours to have this feature).
They do require some attention
Like I said before, passive income isn’t truly passive! Yes, they can be less time-consuming than 1:1 services, but that doesn’t mean there is no time involved. It takes a lot of time to create and launch an online course, especially if you need to do additional research or add bonuses like guest features.
And you do have a level of customer support there that you wouldn’t have with digital products. You still need to reach out and make sure people feel supported as they work through the course — whether that’s being available to answer questions or setting up an email automation to invite them to let you know what they need/are having trouble working through.
Are digital products right for your business?
Digital products are the hottest thing on the market right now. You’ve probably heard a lot about them from a bunch of different people, but let’s take a look at the benefits, and the cons, to see if they’re right for you.
First up…the pros!
They have low production costs
Digital products are relatively easy and inexpensive. Software needed for them is pretty low cost, and you don’t need a lot of time to create them either. You aren’t needing to fully flesh out larger concepts like you need to in online courses — you can just take bits and pieces from them (like a checklist) and turn it into a digital product!
They’re a great way to bring new people into the mix
While online courses can help warm up your audience to those higher-ticket offers, digital products can help you bring in the coldest leads — aka people who have never worked with you or have a limited understanding of your biz.
Digital products are as close to passive income as you can get
No source of income is exactly “passive,” but digital products are about as close as you can get. You create them once, and sell them multiple times, all without much more effort or expense on your end.
You have options
Digital products come in many forms, including e-books, templates, swipe copy, etc. This helps you diversify your product offerings and keeps things exciting and helpful for your audience.
When digital products aren’t the right offer
Digital products aren’t always a walk in the park though. There might be a few cons you haven’t yet considered.
They have a lower perceived value
Digital products are often seen as low-value products because of their price point. That’s not always true, but because they do provide less information than online courses, many people feel this way. This can make it challenging to sell to people, especially if they’re a fresh lead.
Digital products have limited scalability
Yes, you can have passive income and sell digital products multiple times, but there are limits to their scalability. There’s not a lot of room for ongoing updates or support because the product is pretty straightforward.
The market is saturated
Just like online courses, the market for digital products is saturated, but even more so because they are so much easier to make! It’s harder to stand out to your audience, so you really have to make sure that even this low-ticket offer is providing the right value for your clients.
You need more traffic to make money
Remember the example of traffic and money I referenced earlier? I’m linking it here again so you can see the numbers! Basically, because it’s a lower ticket offer, you need more eyes on it to convert for it to pull its weight around your biz.
So, which one is going to get you to $10K months faster?
Truthfully, I haven’t seen either on their own get anyone to $10K months. The reason is, there’s limited scalability, or time, included with each one — that’s why I always say you need a little bit of each to complement the other.
You want to build your digital product to feed people into your courses, then use those courses to funnel people into that high-ticket offer. It all feeds into your goals when you allow them to work together and provide their own portion of your revenue goals.
Understanding your total business ladder, your customer journey, and having a traffic plan to constantly send leads to your course or digital show is the formula for it all. All of this helps you have a clearer customer journey — which is critical for hitting $10K months!
Need help getting to 10K months? Then I invite you to join me inside of $10K on Replay where I’ll show you how to do just that.
This is my coaching group where you’ll learn how to tell if your marketing strategy, and offer stack, are working for your business as a whole. You’ll get expert advice, coaching from me, and a whole lot more. Sound like your thing? Join me here!
