What to Do With Your Online Course When It's Not Selling

As a matter of fact, online course sales declined 23% in 2025 alone. Online courses launch, big mega programs launch, evergreen courses slowly start to die, but nobody told you unless you had those courses and you were seeing them from the inside out like we were. Or the marketing dollar to actually qualify people to get into your funnel to buy it is just astronomical. Or people aren't getting the results. We can actually— so this is solution number 1— we can actually take the course that you've already created and license it to another business. That's where we literally take the content, the outline, the training materials, and allow another organization to rent it from you. Now, we want to make sure that your clients are not uploading your courses to AI because that's instantly giving the internet all of your IP for free. So you're here and you were told to launch an online course, or you were sold to launch an online course and maybe it isn't selling, or maybe you're seeing this decline, or maybe you're in this space where there's so much marketing that's needed to push people into taking this course that you're just burned out. You probably maybe hate marketing like I do. I don't feel like I'm a marketer. I'd rather do anything than hang out on social media. So if that's you and you did what you were told or you were sold, but you're in this space where you're not really sure, what you're gonna do now with this course that you built, this model of this business, because it's not working for you, people aren't getting results, then let me take you into history and explain to you what's happened. I am a business strategist. I consult leaders just like you. Part of doing that is me helping to fill in the blanks of some of the history of business modeling based on my area of expertise, because of the fact that that's gonna help you to see trends moving forward. So if you're stuck in this space and you're thinking, oh my gosh, what do I do? Understanding and knowing trends is going to give you more wisdom and insight to be able to see and predict other areas of your business as you move forward. So that's what I'm going to do and start kind of filling in some of the dirt underneath what we're going to grow here together. So back in 2008, my company was actually teaching entrepreneurs how to launch online courses. We created a class called How to Launch Your Curriculum or some boring name like that. I hired a curriculum engineer. She came in and did it and she taught coaches. Based on this curriculum, how to launch their own classes. And at the time, I didn't know anybody else who was doing that. And again, not being marketers, I'm not the Marie Forleo or Amy Porterfield out there. We had just started doing it in the beginning and our clients were very successful. So there was this launch of on-demand evergreen online courses that we saw. And I'm sure there were other people. We were just the only ones that we knew who were doing that at the time. We saw this launch of these evergreen on-demand courses go from 2008 and then around 2012, up to 2014, we saw mega programs launch. Think of B-School. Think of these big programs where people would go through and they would take on-demand or live education, and then there would be some side of sort of live coaching. And then around 2015, people started catching on and realizing, wow, I can scale by launching evergreen courses. And so more experts started doing this, and courses were the way to go. You saw this through leaders like Amy Porterfield having her online course academy, and so many experts understanding how to actually package and launch their online courses. And so we started seeing this infusion of massive information in the coaching and consulting space, and it was on demand, and it was amazing for you, the leader. It was amazing for me, the leader. I had 56 online courses at the time, and then so many people started going through them, and it was amazing. And then around 2018 We saw the deterioration of people completing them because people realize that they want a human to talk to. So actually, online courses started deteriorating around 2018, but everybody was still— well, the coaches that were out there selling that you should launch online courses were still out there, and they were making a lot of money, and you guys were buying them. And so why would they stop selling something that is making them money when in fact the model of the courses, of evergreen courses themselves, were not continuing to offer results? So what we in 2018 is we actually pulled all of our 56 online courses and went back to more of a boutique hybrid method. More on that later. That— I'm not going to digress and explain that. Online courses launch, big mega programs launch, evergreen courses slowly start to die, but nobody told you unless you had those courses and you were seeing them from the inside out like we were. And then 2020 COVID and this surge again in people wanting to take online education. So it was like this rebirth of the idea of the model of evergreen on-demand online courses. But that only lasted so long because also shortly after 2020, what came out? AI. And AI started giving people more instant information, instant answers. So why would they sit through your 7, 25, or 45-minute video when they could ask AI a question and It's never going to be as great as you, but if they could get even 50% of the way through in 90 seconds, they would prefer that over sitting and waiting through your training and actually having to learn it for themselves. We, as a race, love to have the answer. We don't love to work hard to dig for the answer. Again, that's a whole nother podcast episode. We got to stop doing that so we can preserve the human race. But what happened is people started getting faster results in shorter time. Even though the results weren't as great as if they were learning from you. Fast, like speed wins. Have you ever heard that? Money loves speed. So now we're into like 2023 going into 2024, and huge announcements are starting to be made, like Amy Porterfield and rightfully so, stopping her online course academy because that model itself had ran its course. No pun intended. Actually, pun intended. It works perfectly here. And so now you're in this place where you were probably sold to launch an online course and it might not be making money, Or the marketing dollar to actually qualify people to get into your funnel to buy it is just astronomical, or people aren't getting the results. And so really the question is, and I want to give you some solutions here, what do you do with it? And that's what I want to help you choose what you're going to do moving forward with. So where we are now is that people want faster results and they want it in shorter time. So fast results, shorter time doesn't always give the right solution. We've identified that. But how can you modify your model to fit today's and tomorrow's business? One of the biggest things we talk to you about, our clients, is the future of work. And we actually compare the models that we're launching with our clients to the Future of Jobs Report. If you haven't ever grabbed that before, I want you to go Google the Future of Jobs Report, download it, and I want you to cross-reference if what you're selling and what you're doing is going to hold up in 2030 and in 2035? That's the first thing to identify. Sometimes we just like to create things, and it's a founder's fault where we know we can provide a solution to something, and so we want to solve it regardless if people are going to buy it 2 years from now. The difference between a successful business owner and a creator is the one that pays attention to the future of work, and I want you to be able to be a creator and a successful future business owner. So please pay attention to that. So when we are looking at your content from your course, let's say you had a 3-module course that you have built, you recorded the videos, the worksheets are amazing. The question here is what can you do with it next? So first I'm going to introduce the concept of licensing because it's what I'm known for and I want you to be aware of it if you've never heard of licensing before. We can actually— so this is solution number 1— we can actually take the course that you've already created and license it to another business. That's where we literally take the content, the outline, the training materials, and allow another organization to rent it from you. But the question you're probably saying is, April, if it's not selling for me, why would another company rent it? Because these companies that are the right companies to rent or license your content from you have a different use case. They're usually not a small independent consultant that is selling it one person at a time. The companies I want you to think about are larger organizations or nonprofits or even educational institutions, particularly companies that don't know your area of expertise. So let's pause for a minute. You being you, being the expert that you are, you probably have a lot of education, a lot of time and hours in the trenches learning the skill that you have learned over the years to be able to create the course that you created. Companies don't always have that. Employees are employees. They fit into a role that is assigned by that organization. They don't necessarily always have the IP solutions creators. So if your course solves a problem that they can actually deploy to their employees, not even as a forward-facing course, but maybe you teach communications or sales or marketing or how to have great listening skills. Let's say maybe you teach how to eat better so you can have a good night's sleep. An organization can take that course and deploy it to their employees for either an employee health or wellness benefit or leveling up their employees' skills. So that course is not lost. It might be something that isn't selling like it was 10 years ago through funnels and Thousands of dollars in ad spend, but doesn't mean— it doesn't mean your IP is not still very, very valuable. So I first want you to identify that your IP can be deployed as it is within other companies to people that don't know what you are teaching in organizations that value leveling up their employees' skills. Or the second part of that is an organization can use it as forward-facing, but they have a larger audience. They have a well-established audience. They already have the buyers. They just don't have the product. They don't have the teaching. So that is model number one. Now, licensing for sure is the fastest way to scale. It's what, like I said, we're known for. If you're interested in diving more into whether or not that would work for you, go to our website at aprilbeach.com and access my free licensing starter guide. Inside there, I'm going to unpack the most popular models of licensing and give you different ways where you can think about who you can license your current course to. It is absolutely designed for you because don't forget, I was you. And so I want you to go grab that again, aprilbeach.com. Go grab that. So let's say, all right, you're going to pause, you're going to grab that, or you can get it here in the notes below. Now let's talk about what else you can do. Maybe licensing isn't the right fit for you. Maybe that is not something that you're interested in doing. No worries. I want you to think of your current content and how can you speed up your students' results. So this is when we get into the conversation of AI. A big part of what we're doing and what we're teaching to our clients are the different models where we can stack up on top of trainings or workshops or courses and, uh, even like a one-on-one process. How can we stack different AI models on top of it to give your clients greater results? Now we want to make sure that your clients are not uploading your courses to AI because that's instantly giving the internet all of your IP for free. But when we strategically decide on different AI stacking tools that can help them improve and speed up their results by going through your course, you have just become absolutely the hottest take on the market, and everybody wants that. If you're delivering a course and you build an AI tool on top of it— that could be a bot, that could be AI where somebody calls in on the phone, and this is what I have, it's It's a little freaky. On one of my courses that we do still have, the only one, the licensing course, that's the self-directed one, people can call me up on the phone. And we have literally uploaded every single Q&A I've ever done and my answers into AI April. And they can call me on the phone and they can— it sounds like me. It freaks out my sons because they tried to call AI April once and they're like, Holy cow, this is— there's something wrong with this. Sounds just like you, Mom. But my clients love it. And that is calling AI April on the phone and asking AI April questions for what they would normally ask me in a live setting that they just can't do in that case. So there are numerous different ways that you can look into stacking with your current courses an AI tool on top of it. And it doesn't have to be something as robust as calling AI April. And you don't have to be a developer. There are multiple different software solutions out there that already do this, including the one that we use. And I'm not going to drop any names here, not because I want to withhold it from you, because I don't necessarily want it to come across like I endorse one or two kinds. But overall, if you were just to search out there, how can I add an AI bot on top of my course, you're going to get a list of tons of different software that you can make the best choice for you. And so adding some sort of an AI tool on top of it is going to be important. Another idea for you is maybe it's just a calculator. It doesn't have to be an actual full bot. If you have any sort of pricing that you teach or any sort of number crunching or analysis that you do, build a calculator. Use something like Claude Code where you still don't have to be a developer and you can actually create a tool and put it into your training program. And then the other thing that is also an easier solution for you to do yourself, or certainly hire this out if you have somebody that you love and trust, is you can literally create a custom skill. It's like a custom GPT that you can add on top of your training as well. So I want you to see that your IP is not obsolete. What you teach is still very, very valuable. But how can we get people faster results in a way that they're already looking to buy those results. I don't want to get trapped in the way that you were sold to sell something. Instead, we need to rework our mind and saying, but how are people actually buying things and what are they looking for when they're buying it? And you can start by asking yourself, what would you be looking for if you were to say, I want to learn how to be a better investor, or I want to learn how to hire a top-notch team to delegate to? Whatever it is that you actually want to learn how to do right now, you're still being shown ads on your phone. There you go. My son's Snapchatting me. You're still being shown ads on your phone that are the funnels, and those are people selling things the old way. Imagine if you were able to access something. Maybe you still did discover it through a funnel on your phone, but when you access this, you're learning, I'm not only getting all the materials, I'm getting my own private AI coach. Or a calculator that goes with it to help me have faster and greater results and more clarity in a shorter period of time. And so as we talk about the evolution of online courses, this is literally an episode, a video that I could do for you every single year. And I have done these episodes in the past because we're continuing to see this model morph and this model evolve. But I want you to know that there is value in your IP, your intellectual property. What you do is very valuable, but we definitely need to upgrade the model. I have taught leaders how to launch and scale with online courses again since 2008. We're going on 18 years I've been teaching leaders how to do this, and I want you to trust me. I'm telling you this because I want you to stay the tip of the sword. I want you to stay ahead of the curve. So if you find yourself in this place where you were told or sold to launch online courses, maybe when you were told or sold that they were selling and they were a great model, but the reality is, is they are no longer selling the way they used to. As a matter of fact, online worse, sales declined 23% in 2025 alone. So that is a factual number. It's not just coming from me. And I know if you're in this space, you're feeling it, you're wondering what to do next, and you might be a little worried about it. And so this episode is for you. So again, I want you to take this and understand that you still have valuable IP, but we do need to level up and evolve your IP into a model that's going to stand up to the future of work. So let's recap what I shared with you. Number 1, download or search for the Future of Work report. It's a free report. Download it, upload it to your AI, have a conversation with your AI with the learning model turned off so your AI isn't taking your IP— all these acronyms— your artificial intelligence isn't taking your intellectual property— and say, hey, listen, I want to have a conversation. This is what I teach. Here's the future of jobs report. How valuable is what I actually teach in 2030 and 2035? And that's going to give you some insights in if we do have to upgrade or evolve your actual IP itself. But that core IP is almost always more valuable than anything generic out there. And then how can you level that up? Number one, of course, licensing. That's what I help our clients do. Number 2, evolving your current IP with AI. That's also what we help our clients do, whether you're licensing or not. And I hope you found this helpful. I'm April Beach. I am an advocate for creators, for leaders, for people that think outside the box, for entrepreneurs, for people like us that just don't want to live inside a box, and that we're just breaking molds and breaking molds. And in order for me to be able to do this my entire life and lead other leaders for 30 years, I always have to be thinking about tomorrow. And so, that's what I hope you gained insight into today. I'm here. I'm your advocate. You can just tap into me any point in time. Cruise over to aprilbeach.com. And if you haven't subscribed to this, I would really appreciate it because a lot of the things that I share here are more of like mission-related like this. I care about you. I know what it took to build those courses. And I want to advocate for you to continue to scale through your genius moving forward. Thank you so much for being here. And I hope you catch another video soon. Again, visit me at aprilbeach.com for ways to apply to work with us or to tap into our free resources.