What are the best selling online courses?

One of the major obstacles for who’s starting out in the digital market is to select the best product to sell on the Internet.

For people who already have a talent, this decision is almost natural. But if you still don’t have any idea what the best segment to work on the Internet is, we will try to help you in this mission!

This post will help both digital Producers who are looking for an interesting niche to create an online course, and Affiliates looking for more attractive products to promote courses from other people.

So, let’s get to it:

What are the best selling online courses?

After more than 6 years working in the market of digital products, Hotmart noticed that the online courses that sell more on the Internet are, respectively, about:

1st Business and career

2nd Health and sports

3rd Education

4th Relationship

5th Personal development

Let’s analyze examples from each of these subjects, perhaps you get inspired by them:

1st: Businesses and career:

Materials about this niche help to qualify professionals who are interested in starting their own business, improving their professional performance in their current area or starting a new career.

This segment presents high performance among the best selling products due to the search for solutions to increase and diversify income and also to the competition in the job market, that makes with that the professionals look to stand out more and more.

Courses in Digital Marketing, Business Administration, Accounting, Sales, and DIY (Do It Yourself) are examples of courses that are a part of this category.

2nd Health and sports:

The search for the perfect body and concerns with the health have been more and more strong in recent years. Americans spend in average 60 billion dollars a year to try to lose weight.

Noticing this opportunity, health and physical education professionals started creating digital products that were very well received, once digital materials reduce the purchase cost to the end consumer.

Healthy snacks recipes, hypertrophy guides, guidelines to improve posture, and exercises to practice at home are some of the topics approached on the Health and Sports segment.

3rd Education:

The Distance Learning numbers speak for themselves: 107 billion dollars in 2015, including educational institutions that offer online courses.

The education segment will always offer great opportunities in the digital market, especially with the technological advancements which provide more and more resources for teachers and experts to connect with students from around the world.

Examples of educational materials: Learning techniques for the SATs and other tests, language courses and reading methods.

4th Relationships

It is very common for people to go to the Internet to find solutions to matters of the heart, whether it is in a romantic relationship or even with relatives and friends. Still, the vast majority of the courses in this segment concern romantic relationship.

In several cases, people who go through some problem in the feelings department are ashamed of exposing themselves to another person, even to a professional, like a therapist, for example.

In these cases, the best and fastest solution is to do some research on the Internet.

How-to guides to winning a heart, instructions for a solid marriage, guides to female empowerment are examples of courses on this subject.

5th Personal development

The personal development niche has the objective of developing the human potential according to each person’s behavior.

You can find courses on how to improve your self-esteem, increase productivity, set goals and find purpose and how to motivate yourself, all in the segment of “Personal development”.

What are the common characteristics of the best selling info products on the Internet?

When it comes to niches, of course, these topics are a hit in the digital world.

Speaking particularly of the courses that have good performance in sales, there are some common points of attention that should be considered, especially if you want to become a digital Producer.

Well-defined buyer persona: the digital Producer who identifies her buyer persona in details can direct all her efforts to the right audience, which is more likely to buy that product.

This is one of the first and most important steps to start selling on the Internet.

To find out who your buyer persona is, whether you’re a Producer or an Affiliate, read our full post on the subject here.

Sales page: the ideal sales page should be clear and objective, with the appropriate language for your buyer persona, handling all possible objections of your prospect client.

The page cannot divert the visitor’s attention, otherwise, you can lose a sale. It should also have a compelling Call to Action, to call the person to action, for example:

• Buy now
  
• Buy with 3 clicks
• I want to learn more
• I want to buy the course

CTAs are short, easy to understand calls that lead the visitor to perform the action you want, in this case, make a sale.

Assertive Advertising: this item might be the most complex because it requires more study, testing, and persistence. Your digital marketing strategy must be very well planned and for that, you need to understand the path you’re in.

If you’re going to work with paid advertising, your ads need to be in tune with your buyer persona. Your images must be eye-catching and the copywriting should persuade the user in such a way that she clicks to go to your page.

All this, of course, following the directives of the channels in which you will advertise, whether on websites, search engines (Google, Bing) or social media.

You need to study each of them and, above all, perform many tests to figure out which ad performs best.

If you intend to invest in organic traffic, you will have to work with a blog, email marketing, and social media plus study SEO techniques (Search Engine Optimization) to improve your positioning in search engines. That way you will attract people who are interested in your content and the fact that they are more engaged with the subject increases your chances to make sales.

The format of best selling online courses

It is also worth mentioning the formats that most convert among distance learning adepts. The most popular formats are ebooks and video lessons.

Moreover, digital Producers are also opting for the members area, which is the ideal format for people who want to create a subscription club.

The members area allows restricted access to the user and can contain different formats of content (ebook, videos, audiobook, etc). The course can be divided into several modules and the teacher can keep a close contact with students through the comments section.

Other niches that perform well on the Internet:

Following the first 5 segments, we also have other niches that are sales champions, such as Finances, Spirituality, Gastronomy, Fashion, and Beauty.

But if the niche in which you intend to work did not make the cut in our list, don’t worry! Below we will interpret that ranking and how this data can interfere with your digital business:

How can the best selling online courses ranking affect your business?

The high volume of sales means two things: high demand but also, high competition.

Doing a research on Keyword Planner, from Google Adwords can give you this answer.

For example:

Enter a common term for people who are interested in learning about Social Networking Sites:

It is possible to notice that there is a great demand for “social networking sites”, as well as a high offer.

If you decide to have paid ad campaigns to promote your online course, you know you’re going to pay a high price for each click you get.

Thinking like this, we can see that to develop a product with a lot of demand and high competition, your job will be even more difficult since you will probably have to compete with other well-established professionals and companies.

But once you work in a very targeted segment, when you begin to stand out in that field, you will also have the chance to profit with your online course.

Another suggestion for people who are just starting out is to extract sub niches from larger categories. Instead of talking about very generic topics, you limit your subject to a specific audience and has the chance to be more assertive in your delivery.

Let’s go to another example:

Instead of a course about “How to improve your self-esteem” – which is a subject searched by a more diverse audience, you can talk about “How to recover your self-esteem after being cheated on”.

In the first case, your audience could be male or female going through any kind of situation that puts them in a fragile state (undefined situation).

In the second case, you know that you’ll speak only to people who have likely just ended a relationship but who have lost faith with their love life.

This way, you know exactly WHO you’re talking to and HOW to say it.

If you’re going to start working as an Affiliate, our tip is also valid when you’re selecting your products for promotion.

Remembering that, if you use Hotmart as your Affiliates Program, the hottest product doesn’t always guarantee good sales. A course with 150 degrees already has many Affiliates and, therefore, much competition.

Products between 60 and 80 degrees are ideal if you are a beginner because they don’t have so many Affiliates but generate a good volume of sales.

Avoid switching products constantly because you think you’re not getting results fast enough. The best choice is to analyze your metrics and perform some tests in your promotion media before changing the product.

Consistency is a valuable key to people who will act in the digital market.

Did you like this post? So leave your comment or question in the section below.

If you’re just starting out in this career, check out our complete post that will teach you how to make your first sale as an Affiliate.

If you have decided to be a Producer, learn now how to create an ebook.