Is an online course or online membership better suited to your offering? Find out here.
When it comes to delivering online content to your audience, knowing the best delivery method is a key step before you even start. With so many differing digital platforms and processes to choose from, how do you know which is best?
Many content creators weigh up the pros and cons of both online courses and online memberships and decide on one that best suits the needs of their community. Of course, many then go on to add both options down the track too and courses and memberships certainly have the potential to complement each other.
Our editable legal templates for online courses, programs and memberships here:
So, which is better for you and your audience, an online course or membership? Let’s examine both options so that you can narrow down the most beneficial choice. Then we will look at the legal aspects which can crop up with both options.
Online Courses
Online courses have grown tremendously in popularity over recent years. Did you know that the global online course industry is worth $165 billion each year?
Courses provide a structured, easy-to-follow educational platform for your online students to work through their studies systematically.
They can either be delivered live, drip fed over a set number of weeks or months, or self-paced. Both the content of your course and the needs of your customer need to be considered when deciding which of these options are best.
As the online course industry has grown, platforms such as Teachable and Kajabi have been developed and refined to make the user experience for both teachers and students seamless and easy. But remember you don’t own that platform so if you do go down this avenue, you need terms and conditions to protect you and your course if all of a sudden your online learning platform (and your course!) disappears in a puff of smoke overnight (and yes, this can happen).
Any cons to selling online courses?
Well, many are sold as a one-time fee and the lack of recurring revenue can see business profits spike throughout the year, depending on when courses are launched and if they are evergreen (available all the time) or live (available only when the course creator physically runs the course).
If you are hoping for a steadier revenue stream, this should be factored in.
And while it is not a con, if you are going to sell an online course you must make sure you are covered. And by covered I mean legally. Making sure you are protected with disclaimers and ensuring you get paid are critical to the success of an online course creator. Online Course Terms and Conditions achieve this.
Online Memberships
Digital memberships, and subscriptions have soared in recent years too with the biggest benefit being the steady, recurring revenue that most businesses crave, making your bank balance (and your bank manager) happier with that steady cashflow.
You can choose to deliver content via a similar platform to courses, live via a Facebook group, direct to an email address or on a multitude of other platforms, such as Simplero.
From a member perspective, they benefit from knowing that new educational content is always being sent and depending on the nature of the membership, they will always find new ways to grow and learn as the months go by.
Many memberships have no set end point, but membership providers must work hard to ensure that members are happy and want to stay.
As the fee is paid weekly, monthly, or annually, they can certainly be more admin-heavy to manage and you’ll need to be delivering new and helpful content on a regular basis and showing up in your Facebook group or providing value for your members so they stay in your membership.
Whereas courses can be a one-off ‘set and forget’ product for your customers to purchase, a membership is a long-term relationship between you and your customers.
A community, such as a Facebook group, often forms a large part of an online membership and may require the hire of a community manager to ensure all runs smoothly.
Online members often join for the content but stay for the community – so nurturing them and the relationships between your online members is key for retention.
As with online courses, an online membership also requires a set of terms and conditions regulating when the membership contract is formed, how the payment will be made and how either party can end the membership. It also needs to consider the various third party platforms like facebook and any online membership provider and how this impacts you and your members.
Similarly, Facebook group rules regulating your liability and the rules of the membership for any associated community are critical. There have been court cases where people in facebook groups make nasty and rude comments and the owner of the facebook group has been made to pay damages, even though they didn’t make the nasty comment. You need to not only monitor your membership community but ensure you act decisively to end any bad behaviour.
What about the legals?
Whether you choose an online course or online membership, ensure you have the right course or membership terms, conditions, and rules in place to protect both you and your students.
