8 Online Courses Business Success Stories [2024]
If you're a mechanical engineer, you can share your knowledge and make money by creating an online course.
Start by picking a specific area in mechanical engineering that you know well, like designing cars or understanding how engines work. Make your course interesting with videos, assignments, and helpful materials. Create a user-friendly website where people can access your course, and use social media and emails to tell others about it.
When people enjoy your course and find it helpful, they'll spread the word, and your business will grow. As you gain experience, you can even add more courses or explore other engineering topics to expand your online teaching business.
Here are some real life success stories of starting a online courses business:
1. Afford Anything ($126K/year)
How much they make: $126K/year
Current team size: 14
How Paula left behind a high-powered, high-stress job to become a self-employed writer, built a six-figure income, then invested in real estate, allowing her to travel the world while her properties earn her money.
Learn more about starting an online courses business:
Where to start?
-> How much does it cost to start an online courses business?
-> Pros and cons of an online courses business
Need inspiration?
-> Examples of established online courses business
-> Marketing ideas for an online courses business
Other resources
2. Just Ninety ($54K/year)
Andrew Lawson, founder of Just Ninety, came up with the idea for his business after realizing the need for professional trainers to reclaim their time and generate more revenue in the virtual training space. After beating cancer for a third time, Andrew decided to use the online courses he had created during COVID as the foundation for Just Ninety, helping trainers around the globe shorten their design process and deliver engaging corporate training materials in a 90-minute format. Since launching, Andrew has made $4,500 in just over 4 weeks and is focused on increasing web traffic and generating more leads through targeted campaigns.
How much they make: $54K/year
How much did it cost to start: $17.2K
Current team size: 1
Founder Andrew Lawson launched Just Ninety, a platform that offers ready-to-go corporate training materials to professional trainers to shorten development time for virtual courses, and has made $4,500 in revenue within the first month of launch.
3. Oki Doki Digital Inc ($480K/year)
Marie Poulin came up with the idea for her course, Notion Mastery, after discovering the software tool Notion in 2018. She found that Notion helped her with organization and productivity, and she began sharing her tips and tricks on YouTube. After receiving requests for a course, she launched Notion Mastery, which now generates an average of $40k/month in revenue.
How much they make: $480K/year
Current team size: 2
Marie Poulin built a digital strategy and design company, Oki Doki, with her husband and pivoted the niche to course creators, culminating in their signature course, Notion Mastery, which generates an average of about $40k/month for the company.
4. Justin Welsh ($2.1M/year)
After handling loads of stress as an SVP of sales, Justin decided to step down from his job and start a consulting business. He started creating digital content from there on, and have been moving forward ever since, releasing courses, building a massive following, and double down on his solopreneurship efforts.
How much they make: $2.1M/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
Current team size: 0
Solopreneur Justin Welsh built a knowledge business through social media with over $2M in annual revenue and no full-time employees, offering flagship digital courses with a monthly revenue of $80K and $45K respectively, through LinkedIn and Twitter growth as well as organic and affiliate marketing.
5. Publishing.com ($1.44M/year)
Christian and Rasmus Mikkelsen, also known as the Mikkelsen Twins, started their online education company after finding success in book publishing. They initially enrolled in community college to redirect their energy and prove their ambition. After finding success in publishing and growing their businesses, they started a YouTube channel and eventually launched their online course, Audiobook Income Academy, which generated $43,865.62 in pure profit in just 24 hours.
How much they make: $1.44M/year
Current team size: 2
Mikkelsen Twins grew an online education company from scratch with over 800 students, making over 6-figures in profit every month thanks to their successful program, Audiobook Income Academy 2.0.
6. PyImageSearch ($2M/year)
How much they make: $2M/year
Current team size: 9
This case study follows the journey of an entrepreneur who successfully sold his digital courses company, PyImageSearch, after focusing on marketing and customer communication skills through social media, a blog, and a small email list.
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- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
