How To Make Money Online Selling Courses 2022 ($0 to $200 Strategy)

Most people who want to make money selling courses get stuck before they start. They picture expensive cameras, lighting rigs, and editing software they can’t afford. Or they list out everything they know and tell themselves it’s not good enough to charge for. Alston walks through a four-step process in this video that flips both of those assumptions on their head, starting with what you already know and what you already own.

The four steps are: find your idea, create the course, drive traffic to it, and price it to maximize what you actually take home. Along the way, Alston also covers a fifth income layer most course creators ignore entirely, which is affiliate revenue stacked on top of course sales. Here is everything covered, with the real numbers from the video so you can decide if this path makes sense for where you are right now.

What You’ll Walk Out With

Three reliable ways to find a profitable course idea starting from scratch
The minimum equipment setup to record a sellable course today (total cost: about $20)
Three platforms to host and deliver your course to students
The paid traffic channels Alston ranks for course sellers and why YouTube ads top the list
Two free platforms driving real views in niche topics right now, with actual view counts from the video
How to add affiliate income on top of every course sale without extra work
A pricing test strategy using real price points ($97, $197, and $297) to find where you earn the most
Not sure which online path fits your specific situation? Find out at finder.platformproof.com

Step 1: Finding Your Course Idea

Alston’s first recommendation is deceptively simple: think about things you are good at, or even just okay at. The key insight is that you only need to be one or two steps ahead of the person you are teaching. You do not need to be the world’s foremost expert. You need to have walked a path that someone else is still trying to figure out.

One example from the video: Alston’s next door neighbor is an accountant. That neighbor could easily build a course on cost accounting for small, medium, or large corporations. The knowledge that feels routine in a day job is often exactly what someone else would pay to learn on their own schedule.

If you draw a blank on your own skills, the second method is to open Udemy and browse the category list. These are not random categories. They represent niches where people have already paid real money for video instruction. Within the sports section alone there are dozens of sub-niches. Alston pulls up a tennis course as a live example and shows 5,000+ reviews on a single listing. When he clicks through to that course, there are 19,000 enrolled students. At a price point of $9.99, that course has generated over $189,000 in gross revenue. After Udemy takes its cut, the creator probably kept somewhere around $65,000 to $70,000 from a course built one time.

The third research method is Amazon books. If you search your topic and find books on it, that confirms people want to learn about it. The practical move is to open those books and read the table of contents. That table of contents is essentially a ready-made course outline. Alston also mentions Etsy as a fourth spot to scan. A search for “wedding” on Etsy surfaces the idea of a course on how to save money for a wedding, just as one example of the kind of niche content that sells. The point of all three platforms is the same: demand has already been proven. You are not inventing a market. You are entering one that exists.

Step 2: Creating the Course

The equipment barrier is lower than most people think. Alston is direct about this: you can record an entire course on your smartphone. A $20 phone stand from Amazon is the only piece of gear you strictly need. You do not have to show your face. You can record b-roll footage, use PowerPoint, or build it entirely in Google Slides. The product is the information, not the production value.

The one upgrade worth making is a better microphone. The built-in mic on most smartphones is functional, but a low-cost external mic from Amazon improves audio quality noticeably, and audio quality matters more than video quality to most learners. If you have a laptop or desktop with a webcam, that gives you more flexibility, but it is not a requirement to start.

For the content itself, Alston’s process starts with a Google Doc. Spend 10 to 15 minutes writing down everything you know about the topic. Turn those points into headings and subheadings. Then go back to Udemy and look at what existing courses in your space include, not to copy anyone’s content, but to check whether you have missed anything important. A tennis course description that covers forehand, backhand, serve, return, and volley tells you what students expect to find in a complete course on that topic.

One of the most useful pieces of advice in the video is about the minimum viable product. Alston says he has personally gotten stuck in the loop of wanting to keep adding material and never releasing a course as a result. His recommendation is to put out something that is genuinely useful and solves a real problem, then add to it after launch. Releasing a finished-enough course and starting to market it is more valuable than sitting on an unfinished one.

When you sell the course yourself rather than through Udemy, you need a full funnel around it. That means a sales page explaining the benefits and outcome, an order bump (a complementary add-on offered at checkout to lift your average sale), an upsell page offering extended features or one-on-one components, and possibly a downsell page for people who decline the upsell. Then you need somewhere to actually deliver the course content.

Alston names three delivery options. Thinkific is a dedicated course hosting platform with a free tier. ClickFunnels is his personal tool of choice because it lets him build the full funnel and deliver the course inside the same membership structure. For people who want to spend nothing to start, Google Drive works too: you organize video files into labeled folders and email the link after purchase. It is not polished, but it gets a product to market. You can always upgrade the delivery later once revenue is coming in.

Step 3: Driving Traffic to Your Course

Alston is clear that traffic is where most course creators fall short. Building the course is the easy part. Getting people to see it is the actual job. He breaks traffic into paid and free, and gives specific channel recommendations for each.

Paid Traffic: Three Channels

Alston’s ranked list for paid traffic is: first YouTube ads, second Pinterest ads, third Facebook ads. His case for YouTube ads leading the list comes down to two things. One, the people on YouTube are already in a video-watching mindset, so promoting a video course to them is a natural fit. Two, the billing model works in your favor early on: you only pay when someone watches 30 seconds or more of your ad. If they skip after five seconds, you owe nothing. That makes testing cheaper.

Targeting on YouTube ads (run through ads.google.com) is granular. You can filter by income bracket, by interests, and even by specific channels. If your course targets people who follow tennis instruction content, you can serve your ad specifically to the audience of those channels. For anyone who has never run a Google or YouTube ad before, the platform was offering a $500 credit at the time of the video to get started. Running a small test campaign is how you validate whether your sales page is converting before you scale up spend.

Free Traffic: YouTube Organic and TikTok

For free traffic, Alston calls out YouTube organic and TikTok as his two favorites right now. On YouTube, the approach is to create three to five short-form or tutorial videos per week that answer questions your ideal buyer is already searching. He pulls two real examples for the tennis niche. A video titled “how to swing a tennis racket” has 680,000 views as of the recording. “Best tennis drills for beginners” has 25,000 views on a channel with only 6,000 subscribers, which shows that small channels can still reach a large audience when the keyword demand is there. The call to action at the end of each video points viewers to the course for deeper training.

TikTok works differently. Instead of keyword-driven tutorials, the format is story-driven content that connects with a specific problem. For tennis, that might be “here is why you are losing speed on your serve” or “this is why your backhand has no spin.” The goal is not to close a sale directly from TikTok but to pull interested viewers to a landing page where you collect their email address. That email list becomes your sales channel.

Once you are creating video content on either platform, Alston recommends repurposing it across Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Every platform has people looking for the same information. They just have different preferences about where they find it. The practical advice is to start on one platform and build the repurposing habit from there, rather than trying to be everywhere simultaneously from day one.

Step 4: Pricing and Maximizing Revenue

Pricing is the part of course selling that most people get wrong because they either charge too little out of uncertainty or pick a number and never test whether a higher one would perform better. Alston’s framework starts with a simple question: what is the buyer going to be able to do after completing this course, and what is that outcome worth to them?

A course that takes someone from recreational player to tournament-level tennis should command more than a course on a low-stakes hobby because the outcome is more valuable and more in demand. On the other hand, if the total audience for your topic is a few hundred people rather than millions, a lower price makes more sense to capture as much of that small market as possible.

In terms of actual price points, Alston mentions the range from $97 at the low end to $3,000 at the high end for intensive programs. His recommendation for testing is to run one price for a full month, then switch to another and compare. He gives the example of charging $97 one month and $197 the next. You might find that $297 sells fewer units than $197 but still generates more total revenue because each sale is worth more. Or you might find the opposite. The only way to know is to test with real traffic.

Adding Affiliate Revenue on Top of Course Sales

This is the part of the video Alston positions as a way to make even more money from the same audience you are already building. Affiliate marketing means recommending products and earning a commission when someone buys through your link. In the context of a course, it is as simple as including a module or a resource page that lists the tools, equipment, or products your students will need.

For a tennis course, those recommendations might be specific rackets, balls, or training aids available on Amazon. Amazon Associates is the largest affiliate program in the world, and almost any physical product your students need will be available there. But Amazon is not the only option. Alston shows how to search “[your niche] affiliate program” to find dedicated programs that may pay higher commissions than Amazon’s standard rates. A search for “tennis affiliate program” returns a list of specialty programs in that space.

His preferred placement for these links is at the very start of the course: a short video listing his 10 best product recommendations, with affiliate links listed below the video. Students who are serious enough to buy your course are the most likely people to also buy the tools you recommend. The commission from those purchases adds to your revenue without requiring any additional marketing.

Not sure if selling courses is the right online income path for where you are right now?

Answer a few questions and get a personalized recommendation at finder.platformproof.com.

Honest Drawbacks to Selling Courses on Your Own

The video is energizing, but a few realities are worth spelling out so you go in with clear expectations.

Traffic is the real work. Alston says this explicitly: “this is where our job is just getting started.” Creating the course takes a few days or weeks. Building enough traffic to generate consistent sales takes months. Most people who fail at course selling spend all their energy on the product and almost none on distribution.

Udemy keeps a significant share. That tennis course with 19,000 students grossed over $189,000. After the revenue split, the creator likely took home around $65,000 to $70,000. That is still strong for a one-time creation, but selling independently via ClickFunnels or Thinkific lets you keep far more of each sale. The trade-off is that Udemy’s marketplace brings built-in traffic. Selling independently requires you to generate all your own.

Perfectionism is a real trap. Alston admits he has personally built courses he never launched because he kept wanting to add more. The minimum viable product principle exists specifically to break that pattern. A course that is live and slightly incomplete is worth more than a course that is perfect but invisible.

Paid ads require a test budget. YouTube ads are efficient, but you still need to spend money to validate your funnel before you know whether it converts. If you have no budget at all, the free traffic path through YouTube organic and TikTok is viable, but it requires more time before you see results.

A Step-by-Step Action Plan to Go From Zero to First Sale

Open a Google Doc and spend 15 minutes listing everything you know about one subject you are at least competent in, whether from work, a hobby, or personal experience.
Go to Udemy and search your topic. Look at student counts, reviews, and course descriptions to confirm there is demand and to see what complete coverage looks like in your niche.
Search Amazon for books on your topic and skim their tables of contents to fill any gaps in your outline.
Record your first module using your smartphone and a $20 phone stand. Aim for clear audio above everything else.
Set up a free Thinkific account or a ClickFunnels trial and upload your first set of lessons. Build a basic sales page describing the outcome students will get.
Set your starting price at $97 and run it for 30 days. Track how many people buy.
Start creating one piece of content per week on YouTube or TikTok that answers a question your ideal buyer is searching for. Add a call to action pointing to your course.
Build a resource page or opening video in your course with your 10 best affiliate product recommendations in your niche. Add your affiliate links below.
After 30 days, raise your price to $197 and run another 30-day test. Compare total revenue, not just unit count.
Add an order bump at checkout and test one upsell offer (such as personalized feedback on student work) to increase your average transaction value.

Find Your X

Selling a course works well for people who have something teachable and are willing to invest time in building traffic. But it is one path among many. If you are not sure whether course creation is the right fit for your skills, your schedule, and your financial starting point, the fastest way to find out is to go through the free tool at finder.platformproof.com. It matches your current situation to the online income methods most likely to work for you specifically, rather than the one that gets the most airtime on YouTube this month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be a certified expert to sell a course?

No. Alston’s framing in the video is that you only need to be one or two steps ahead of the person you are teaching. His neighbor the accountant does not need a teaching credential to build a course on cost accounting. Practical, real-world experience in a topic is enough to create value for someone earlier in that journey than you are.

Should I sell on Udemy or build my own funnel?

Both have trade-offs. Udemy brings an existing audience and takes care of payment processing, but it keeps a significant share of revenue. The tennis course example in the video grossed over $189,000 and the creator likely took home around $65,000 to $70,000 after the revenue split. Selling independently through ClickFunnels or Thinkific lets you keep more per sale and build your own customer list, but you are responsible for generating all your own traffic.

What equipment do I actually need to start?

A smartphone, a $20 phone stand from Amazon, and a better-than-built-in microphone. That is the minimum setup Alston outlines. You do not need to show your face. You can record b-roll footage, use Google Slides, or do screen capture. A laptop with a webcam makes things easier but is not required.

How much should I charge for my first course?

Alston recommends starting at a price you are comfortable with, testing it for a full month, then testing a higher price the next month. Common starting points mentioned in the video are $97, $197, and $297. Think about what the outcome of the course is worth to the buyer. A course that helps someone develop a professional-level skill in a well-paying field should be priced accordingly. A low-demand niche warrants a lower price to capture as large a share of that smaller audience as possible.

What is an order bump and why does it matter?

An order bump is an add-on product offered on the checkout page itself, before the customer completes their purchase. It is distinct from an upsell, which comes after the purchase. An order bump might be a supplementary guide, a template pack, or an extra module that enhances the main course. Because the buyer is already in a purchase mindset when they see it, conversion rates on order bumps tend to be high. Adding one increases your average order value without requiring you to find new customers.

How does affiliate marketing work alongside a course?

You add a section near the beginning of your course that recommends the tools, products, or resources students will need. Each recommendation includes your affiliate link. When a student buys through that link, you earn a commission. Amazon Associates covers most physical products. For digital tools or niche-specific programs, search “[your topic] affiliate program” to find programs that may offer higher commissions. This is passive revenue layered on top of your course sales.

Which free traffic method should I start with?

Alston’s two favorites are YouTube organic and TikTok. YouTube works well if your course covers a topic people search for tutorials on: a video titled “how to swing a tennis racket” has 680,000 views. TikTok works well for story-driven content that addresses a pain point and directs viewers to a landing page. His advice is to pick one platform and focus there before repurposing to Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

What if I build the course and nobody buys?

That is a traffic problem, not necessarily a product problem. If you validated your idea by confirming demand on Udemy, Amazon, or Etsy before building, the topic has an audience. The gap is usually in how consistently and specifically you are targeting that audience with content and ads. Start with paid traffic (even a small YouTube ads test) to get fast feedback on whether your sales page is converting. If clicks are not converting, the sales page needs work. If traffic is not reaching the page, the targeting or content strategy needs adjustment.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “How To Make Money Online Selling Courses 2022 ($0 to $200 Strategy)”, YouTube: youtu.be/WLkvwrAhDVs
Udemy course browsing tool, udemy.com (used to validate course demand by category)
Amazon Books (used to validate niche demand and build course outlines from tables of contents)
Thinkific, thinkific.com (course hosting and delivery platform)
ClickFunnels, clickfunnels.com (full funnel builder and course delivery, Alston’s personal tool)
Google Ads / YouTube Ads, ads.google.com (paid traffic platform referenced in the video)