$100 vs $500 vs $2,000 Online Courses (With Examples)

These 3 online courses were built for the same exact purpose, to help you build an online business. But one of them cost $100, one cost $500, and the last one cost $2,000. Now, at first glance, you might assume that the $2,000 product must be better. But the truth is, it's not just about the length of the course or how good the sales page design is. It's about who the product is for, what problem it solves, how much support the person needs, and how big of a transformation the online course is promising. So in this video, I'm going to walk you through real examples of online courses at each price point. And we'll cover who the online course is for, what problem the product solves, how the creator delivers value, and why they chose the price points that they did. If you've ever wondered why one online course costs as much as dinner while another one is like a mortgage payment, this video is for you. So let's get started with the $100 online course. The example I'm using is Justin Welsh's LinkedIn Operating System. Now, unfortunately, when I was creating this video and already had it planned with the thumbnail and everything, Justin had just decided to take this off the market. But the sales page is still up. Now, a quick disclaimer for this video is that I'm not I'm not going to go into every single one of these programs and show you the backend. And the reason I'm not going to do that is because one, the video would take way too long. Two, I want to protect their intellectual property. And three, showing you inside of the online course isn't really going to serve you as much as you think it will. See, a lot of people think that, oh, it's about the online course, so they put all this energy into the course. But in reality, anybody can create an online course, record some videos, and slap it behind a paywall on a tool like Kajabi. So instead, we're going to review the sales pages for each one of these online courses because that is moment when people pull out their credit card and pay you for your online course. I imagine that you don't want to just build an online course. You want to actually sell a course and make it sell while you're sleeping, traveling, or whatever it is that you want to do. The way you do that isn't by putting all this time into building an online course. It's the marketing materials, the sales page that communicates the value that this online course will bring. And that's what makes people pull out their credit cards and pay you for your online course. So all that being said, let's check out Justin Welsh's sales page for his LinkedIn Operating System. Now, right off the get-go, you're going to see his headline, Go from Undiscovered to Growing and Monetizing Your LinkedIn Account. So his big promise here is that I'm going to teach you how to grow on LinkedIn and actually make money from your LinkedIn account. Now, something about Justin Welsh and all of his programs is that Justin has built a multimillion-dollar online business, primarily selling pretty affordable online courses. I mean, this was when I bought it, $100, and then he bumped it down to $37, I think. And then he ended up taking it off the market. But this is the program that Justin Welsh really kickstarted his career on, which was helping people grow their LinkedIn accounts. And he uses so much social proof. That is like Justin Welsh's ultimate weapon. And this is such a good example of like, if you have enough social proof, you've helped enough people or have enough credibility on the thing that you're promising yourself, then that can do most of the selling for you and you don't need to have a lot of sales copy. So without even scrolling on this page, which is a key key anytime you're creating a sales page. You want to be able to communicate the outcome that people are getting from your online course without ever scrolling on the page and be able to make a buying decision ideally without ever scrolling. So going from undiscovered to growing and monetizing your LinkedIn account, that's the key that people are getting from this. And just the sheer credibility here, 47,000+ students accelerate the growth of their personal brand on LinkedIn. So if you are interested in building a personal brand on LinkedIn and you see this, you're like, wow, This must be legit. The exact framework I used to go from 2,000 to 800,000 followers and $11.4 million in business revenue. Notice what Justin's doing here. He is reinforcing the promise here. He's saying that I'm going to help you get discovered and monetize on LinkedIn. He's saying this is what I did. It's the exact framework that I used to go from 2,000 to 800,000 followers, getting undiscovered to actually growing and $11.4 million in business revenue. That's monetizing. Okay, so I haven't even scrolled and I see this and the 47,000 students, 5-star reviews. You're like, wow, I'm already convinced and I haven't even scrolled on the page. But then when we do scroll, he has a little pop-up. That's me. Learn LinkedIn from the 5x number 1 ranked global LinkedIn creator. Again, he is just oozing with credibility because he walks his talk. And he's showing you that, look, I'm not just saying it, I'm proving that I am a legitimate person you can learn from. Again, he reinforces 47,000 students. Now, this is the point where most people would go into talking about the pain and the problem and all this kind of copy that goes onto the page to sell their program. But Justin's like, I'm not going to do that. It's only $100 or $37 or whatever the price is, very affordable. And he is literally just showing you social proof. He's like, join 200+ LinkedIn top voices and 47,000 students. Again, he's hitting home that same promise. All right. And it's just a wall of love. Now, the tool he's actually using here is called testimonial.to, and you can actually embed this inside of your course. So I think it's really good for any kind of online course. But halfway through Justin's course, he has a video where he says, hey, if you're getting value from this program, I'd love to hear your opinion. I have a link. Testimonial.to, you click on that in the description of the video and then you can record a quick video or write a review. And then as soon as you hit publish, it automatically goes onto his sales page with a little piece of code that he put in here. So that's how you can create this ongoing wall of love and it just grows over time. And if you want to load more, you could do that right here. Look at this, this whole entire page. I don't brag, but my students do. That's kind of him bragging. Go through, more testimonials, more testimonials. It just goes through and then he's like, okay, here's what you're going to learn inside. He didn't do any ounce of saying, here's your problem. Oh, are you struggling with LinkedIn? Like none of that. He's just like, hey, I'm legit. I've built this massive business using LinkedIn and I've helped a bunch of other people do it too. Here's what they have to say. And they're doing the selling for him. That is the power of social proof alone. Then he has a quick segment about what you're going to learn inside. So you're going to get started figuring out your niche, like all this kind of stuff. Really simple design. And this is like the extent of his copy. And then the headline as well. More testimonials. Now, something important here in terms of like his own online course and the promise here is that Justin, in selling a lower-priced online course around $100, he explicitly tells you this is not going to be a high-production thing. It's very simple. I'm just teaching you the principles and the frameworks that are going to help you grow. And it's up to you to just do the work. Now, I personally love this because affordable online courses are great. It's a low barrier for entry for people to get into your world and actually pay you for something. And for you as a creator, because it's a lower cost, you don't need to have this massive production or crazy fancy stuff. His course is actually slide decks and then Loom videos recording the slide decks. And that's all that it is. You can complete this course in 90 short minutes, 25 actionable lessons. It is short, it is snappy, and it's obviously getting people results. It gives you a quick rundown of the full curriculum, everything you're going to learn inside so you can see what's going on in there. More testimonials and then a little FAQ section. Now, this is really important for any kind of FAQ section in an online course that you are going to sell. Frequently asked questions shouldn't just be like, hey, here's some questions. It should really be objection crushing, which is what he's doing here. The fact that his course is priced so low is an objection that people have. They're like, something's fishy here. You know, this has to be some kind of catch or whatever. Most LinkedIn courses are like $1,000 or $1,200, $800, $600. What's the deal? And his answer is, my main goal is to make LinkedIn fun, easy, and accessible. How many people can actually afford those courses? So he is differentiating himself by making this big promise and pricing it lower. So it's different from all the other options. If everybody's charging so much and then you can offer the same thing at a lower cost price, that's how you can differentiate yourself against the market. And he even says again, okay, but still, is it worth $39? I spent over 100 hours working on this and providing the best resources. I've designed this course to be actionable. It's not some book you read once and shelf. It's a video-based course with a system that you can use every day, etc. So what he's doing here and what you should do with your own online course and sales page is be crushing objections with the frequently asked questions. And then of course, he just ends it with more testimonials because he has all that social proof. Now, I know what you're probably thinking. Okay, James, like, that's cool, but what if I don't have that much social proof? Totally fine. If you're just getting into the game, starting with a lower cost program is a really good option because it's going to be easier for people to get into your world than just straight up charging $2,000. But there's a lot of variables that go into that. So let's move on to the $500 product. And then even if you don't have as much social proof, you can model what this next creator's doing on their sales page, even if you're trying to sell a $100 or so online course yourself. So our $500 online course is Matt D'Avella's Master YouTube Program. So right off the bat, again, what you're gonna notice is that we should be able to make a buying decision without even scrolling on the page just from the hero image, which is this top image. So right off the bat, the headline should be making a promise no matter what your online course is. You need to promise the outcome because what your sales page is, a promise. It's not about the online course itself. I mean, yes, that is important to deliver on the promise, but the sales page is making the promise and helping people make that buying decision. So right off the bat, he says, Master YouTube, learn to make better YouTube videos and get more views. Your roadmap to launching your channel, making great videos, and getting your first 10,000 subscribers. That is his promise. And if that is compelling to you, you are his target audience. So you can either watch a quick trailer or click here to enroll now, and that will go straight over to his checkout page where you can see it's $495 if you want to pay in full. But I didn't even have to scroll to be able to make that decision and go straight to his checkout page to buy this program. Now, the design is obviously beautiful on this page, and following something similar to what Justin Welsh had done on his sales page, is that we have that promise above the fold and then we go straight into some kind of credibility marker. So Matt is doing testimonials that he has from people. If you've been featured in major media outlets or you've worked with specific clients that are notable and reputable, you could totally put that here as well. And then what Matt's doing is different than Justin Welsh. He's just going straight into social proof basically, and letting his testimonials and social proof do the heavy lifting for him. But what Matt's doing is going into a little bit of copywriting here. There's no better time to start a YouTube channel than right now. The landscape has changed and anyone can create their own platform to share meaningful content with the world. And by the way, if you're looking to get into the space of selling online courses and coaching on the internet and you want to create beautifully designed pages like this, then Kajabi is hands down the best tool that you can use. It is the number one tool that I've used to build my entire six-figure business on. If you have knowledge, you have expertise that you want to package into something beautiful like what Matt has here, and you're not a tech wizard, that's where Kajabi comes in. You can create new landing pages, and if you want to build a sales page, you can click on any one of these templates and have a beautifully designed sales page right there for you. And you just have to plug in the promise and the copy for your sales page. You can create and host your online courses inside of Kajabi with all the videos, comment section, all that kind of stuff in here. You get to send emails, have all your contacts, website pages, landing pages, automations, checkout pages, all that stuff in one roof. Now, if you want to try out Kajabi yourself, I can get you a 30-day totally free trial of Kajabi, plus I'm going to give you an online course that I made on how you can just model what I've done to build my own 6-figure business using Kajabi. On top of that, you get a one-on-one coaching call with me and I'll answer any questions you have about your online business, turning your idea into a legitimate income stream, or if you have technical questions about Kajabi, we can totally cover that as well. I'll put a link right below this video so you can learn more about getting your 30-day trial, my exclusive Kajabi course, and some one-on-one time with me. Just click the first link in the description. Now, right off the bat, what Matt's doing and what you should do with your sales page too, unless you're just oozing with social proof like Justin Welsh is, is go into the problem and the challenge that people are facing. It's like, hey, chances are you already know that it's a good time. You've spent months, maybe years, watching your favorite creators from the sidelines, and you've started to hear a voice inside that says, hey, maybe I can do that too. So now he's getting into your head and you're like, yeah, that's exactly how I feel. You want to make great videos and get more views, but you have no idea what step to take first. You're struggling to figure out the lighting, how to edit your videos, record crystal clear audio, and more. These are all the pain points that his target audience is facing, and he's relating to them to be like, yeah, that's exactly how I feel. You're spending hours, etc., etc. He's got the cool doodle and the design, and I want you to think past the design here and just get into the psychology, because the design could totally change, but the copy is what's compelling and making that promise and relating to people and then showing them that your program is the solution to this problem because that's what selling online courses is all about. That's what business is all about. It's solving people's problems. So we scroll down, he goes into that pain. No matter how many tutorials you watch or blogs you've read, because that's what a lot of people are doing in this stage, it never seems to make a difference. Does this sound familiar? People are like, yeah, totally. Believe it or not, this is exactly how my own YouTube journey started nearly a decade ago. Now, a huge part of the success in you selling online course isn't just the sales page or how pretty it is or the copywriting, even, even though those things are important. It's also the quality of traffic that you're getting to the sales page. Now, Matt has a very legitimate YouTube channel with, I believe, over a million subscribers. I don't know, he's got a huge following, so people love his videos. And then from the videos, they come onto this page, they're like, Matt, you're one of those people that I watch, and I'm like, I wish I could be like you. You're one of those creators. And now he's relating to you being like, even though you see me as a success, I started out in the same exact position that you are right now, like he had just described. So this is where your story and your real lived experience comes in hand with helping you sell this online course. I started my YouTube channel in 2017, no clue what I was doing, etc., etc. And he goes into his whole story, and obviously every single piece of this is relating to the aspirations that you have and showing him that, look, I've been in your shoes, I get where you're at. And he had to figure things out the hard way to get to the success level that he's at right now. And then he's saying, basically, I took everything that I learned over a decade of trying to grow my audience and growing my audience to this level and then put it into one cohesive step-by-step system, which is my Master YouTube program. When you're selling an online course, especially something like helping somebody build an online business or anything that requires a lot of time on your part, the value of the course is the collapsing of timelines. If it took Matt 10 years to build his YouTube audience to whatever it is nowadays, and then he can just teach you everything that he knows now, you would grow your business and YouTube channel so much faster. So by investing in this program, you aren't just learning about YouTube, you are mastering a skill set and the different skill sets that go into growing an audience on YouTube And once you learn those things, they never go away. Like once you learn how to ride a bike, you know how to ride the bike and you just get back on the bike even if you haven't ridden in 10 years. It's not that hard for you because you picked up the skill. Goes into more social proof. Again, this is just hitting home the point that if you do not have social proof on your sales page, it's going to be harder to sell your online course. But you don't have to be like, oh, only people who've taken my course I can put on my sales page. That's not true. You can have private clients that you've worked with one-on-one and then put their testimonials on your sales page. As long as the promise for the course is the same as the outcome you got with your one-on-one clients. Goes in— this is really big— hearing from actual people that you can relate to is going to help you make a buying decision. It's one thing for Matt to say, here's how amazing my program is, I went through this, it's going to work for you. But to hear from other people who used his process and applied it and then were also able to get a really good result, that's a game changer and makes you believe that, wow, I can do this too. No secret formulas, no clickbait tactics or gimmicks. People are like, I don't want, you know, fancy like clickbaity stuff. No, you're not gonna do that. You're going to start a legitimate YouTube channel. You're gonna know how to start a YouTube channel, create original engaging content, film high-quality videos, grow your audience without clickbait because that's a huge objection that people have. I don't wanna clickbait people. I wanna build something real. So this is really cool and something worth trying. Trying on your sales page is giving people a sneak peek of your program. This is 3 minutes and 31 seconds, and you can watch this video. It could be like a portion of one of your lessons or even a full lesson that you could put on the sales page if you wanted. This is the equivalent of getting samples at Costco when they're like, hey, do you want to try this? And if you're like, wow, that's really good, then you're probably going to go buy the product. He gives you a quick roadmap, a workbook that's included to help you implement this, and then of course more social proof. If you have it, throw as much as you can on the sales page, especially when you're selling a product at a couple hundred dollars. Now, when you get down here, you have two pricing options, and this is a great option for people. It's helped me sell a lot more in my online courses that are priced around $500. $300 to $500 is just giving them a simple payment plan, 3 monthly payments. I wouldn't go more than that. I would say 2 to 3 monthly payments to break up this investment. Now, if you do the payment plan, it's $165 USD for 3 monthly payments. Now that comes out to $495. He's not charging you more if you do a payment plan. This is totally a personal preference. I preferably like to do this as well, where if it's a $300 course, then you can say 2 payments of $150, or if you pay in full, it's $297, which can be, you know, you save $3, but it's basically the same amount. So like you're paying $400 for a $300 program if you do the payment plan, only $300 if you do pay in full. but that's totally optional for you. Regardless, I think giving people a payment plan option is a really good idea, and it's definitely going to help you sell more online courses. Then we have more social proof. You kind of get the idea. And then lastly, his FAQs. Why should I pay for this when all the content is on YouTube for free? Excellent question. This is an objection that people have. Why can't I just learn on YouTube? And then he's addressing this. So with this $500 product, it is a bigger decision for people, and it's not about the design, even though Matt has a very beautifully designed sales page. It's really the copy and the psychology of what's going on on the sales page that's helping you make that buying decision. So I hope that you can see that in going over his sales page. That would make you be like, if I want to grow a YouTube channel, I'm probably going to buy this because this guy knows what he's doing. He's helped other people do it. I can see the path for myself and I trust that he's going to help me get there. But even at the $500 price point, there is no extra coaching involved. It is just video content and what you're buying is the system and the process of going from no idea on how to run YouTube to having a legitimate YouTube channel, creating really good videos and growing your audience on YouTube. So next up, let's dive in to the $2,000 online course. This is an online course by Ramit Sethi at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com, and it is his flagship program, Earnable. So the whole point of the Earnable program is to help you break the shackles of your job, your calendar, and your 9-to-5 income. Ramit is a personal finance guru, if you will, and he has a lot of different programs on finding your dream job, getting raises, like all that kind of stuff. But for his audience, he knows that a lot of people, even though they want to grow in their career, they also want to start their own online business and pursue working for theirself, which is why this is such a successful program for him. Now, one thing I want you to notice right off the bat is how long this sales page is. Look at the size of this thing. It is crazy. And you go all the way down and we'll break down not the entire thing line by line by any means, because it's crazy long and a lot of it's the same stuff that we've already been covering. When you get down to the bottom, you see the pricing points and it's $149 per month. That comes out to $1,788. But he has two options. You can either do Earnable, get the full Earnable system again with your selling. Of course, you're selling a system for people. Instead of scattered content on YouTube or your blog or social media in the internet. You're giving people a curated step-by-step system to get a desired outcome. And that's what makes an online course so valuable. You get all 15 of his playbooks, lifetime access to the playbooks, and you get a 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee. That is when you pay $1,788. Now you can upgrade to Earnable Live, and this is where you get even more bang for your buck. So it's $299. Per month, and there's a waitlist because he can only take on so many people at a time. But the do-it-yourself online course version, you can get access anytime. And that makes sense. You know, he's offering you a community. As you can see right here, you get everything that you get with the one-on-one or the do-it-yourself version, but you also get the earnable online community, bonus material, live monthly coaching hosted by Ramit, where you can ask him your own specific questions about building your online business. And a 5-week sprint with live group sessions. So $299 a month for 12 months, $3,588. So it's hovering around that $2,000 range, but basically you're paying $2,000 just for the online course in and of itself. Now again, this is a promise. Ramit is oozing with credibility and he has all of these different verified 6-figure earners who went through his program. So by using his teaching, These people have built 6-figure online businesses and they're in all these different niches. When you're selling something that's $2,000-ish, you need more copy. You need more stuff on the sales page that's going to actually help somebody make that big of a buying decision completely on their own. You see, this is a huge problem, in my opinion, in the online course space, is that a lot of people whip up this online course and they just throw a $2,000 price tag on it. And then they have this much copy, like Justin Welsh's $97 course. Even with this much social proof, like, people need more copy. They need more of an understanding, storytelling that goes into it, and that's gonna help you in selling your online course. So one thing here with a $2,000 course is that yes, the copy, there's way more copy to help you in making that buying decision here, but also it's the promise of this. This is an investment, and Ramit intentionally positions it as an investment and not just like, hey, here, pay me $2,000 or something. It's not a waste. It is by far— what if you could start— it is not a waste. It is an investment. What if you could start a business that pays you— underline— to live the life you've always wanted? Introducing Earnable, a totally new way to start and grow your business. Even if you don't have a business idea, aren't a world-famous expert, you're overwhelmed with no idea where to start, etc., etc. He goes into more social proof right off the bat, and then he goes into the copy. Years ago, did you dream of waking up every morning to a screaming alarm, hitting the snooze button, scrolling Instagram and seeing a few beach photos? That would be nice someday. And then stumbling out of bed, gulping down some coffee and rushing out the door. What an opening hook. And he even gives you a little example of what your life looks like right now working for someone else. What if your life were different? And he goes into the dream. Now notice that he's not spending so much time in the pain right off the bat. This is what a lot of people will just hound you with pain like, oh, you're, you're suffering here, you're suffering. It's like, dude, I get that I have a problem here. I don't like working for other people. Ramit has a short, punchy piece of copy that's really hitting home like, hey, I see you and I get that this is a pain. But then he goes into what if your life was different? Imagine waking up on Monday morning. You have the sun coming through your window. He's doing such a good job at painting this picture. Of helping you live into this vision instead of just being like, you could make more money. And he shows you actual examples of sales happening while he was sleeping. And notice that this whole section, he is going deep, so much deeper into the dream, into the outcome, the desired outcome that you have versus just the pain right here. And he's showing examples. These are actual sales for my business that came in while I was sleeping, showing a text message thread of him and a friend take a 2-hour lunch. On a weekday above the spontaneous weekday mid-lunch at 3 PM, him working out, taking care of his health. You spend more time on your health too, and it's showing that he does that as well. So what this is doing psychologically is making you see that this guy practices what he preaches. He's not just like making up stuff. He's showing you that like, look, I do this and I can show you how to do it as well. Goes into this. Obviously, he's a bestselling author, has a Netflix series, shows all of his credibility being featured next to Warren Buffett. Tim Ferriss, reputable people. And then he goes into his journey on how he started in the simple life, all that kind of stuff. And now he has this legitimate business and he's living his dream life. And then again, verified 6-figure earner who has gone through his program. So he's showing you again and again, like throughout this whole thing, more people right here who have built 6-figure businesses learning from Ramin. And then he goes into even more copy talking about the state of online businesses and getting a college degree and stuff and how it's not the best path for everybody. See how he's telling this whole story, telling you like, hey, like everybody's chasing this whole thing of saving and cutting money and all that kind of stuff. But he's like, what if you could earn more money? Hence the name of the program, Earnable: How I Escaped the Great Squeeze. He's educating you on what the Great Squeeze is. He's going to this whole journey. And look, we haven't even talked about the program, but he's also showing one of my mentors, actually, Graham Cochran, verified 6-figure earner. Now he's a 7-figure earner. Then he goes into the invisible scripts, holding you back. I don't know where to start, I don't have an idea. And the thing is that a lot— nobody's gonna— most people are not going to read every single bit of this copy, but he's using all this stuff with the headlines to pull you in. If you see this and you're like, yeah, this looks cool, and then you scroll down, what if your life were different? And if this first sentence can hook your attention, you're probably going to keep reading, but then you can start scrolling again, get down here, and you're like, oh, this is interesting. I call this the Great Squeeze. What's the Great Squeeze? And then you look through and you can read that And even by skimming across the page, he has all these different touchpoints that are helping you reinforce the belief that maybe I can do this too. That's what you need when you are going to be selling a $2,000 or multiple thousand dollar online course in your sleep. These invisible scripts are holding you back from starting your business. Like, oh my gosh, yeah, I don't have an idea. And then he abolishes that script. So in all this time, Ramit is rebuilding your beliefs and tearing down your old beliefs that keep you stuck. Replacing them with more strong beliefs that, wow, this is so crazy. Ramit does it. He's been able to do it from literally nothing. He's helped all these other people. Maybe he can help me too. Talks about how all the great people in the world, they all have a coach. Everybody has a coach. Now he introduces the program. So look, halfway through the page is just rebuilding those core beliefs that people have or limiting beliefs until he gets to his actual program. This is the psychology that goes into you actually selling your online course while you sleep. And also with this $2,000 online course, Ramit has a sneak peek into the program. You get to see the production value and also start learning a bit on this. And if you're like, man, I want more of that, again, the free sample idea, then you can watch another video down here and decide if this is something that you want to invest in. Verified 6-figure earners. Look, You want to get that badge, verified 6-figure earners. If you want to get fast results, you want to be a verified 6-figure earner. This is the program that's going to help you do it. You get a community of other people, business makeovers, like all this kind of stuff to help you in building your online business, more social proof. And yeah, I think you get the idea, but this is what's required from selling an online course at different price points. The commonality in all of these is that they all have social proof. They all clearly communicate the value and the outcome that people are going to get by investing in this program. And based on the price point, the length of the page is slowly getting even longer. So the higher the price point your program is, the longer the page should be. Now, I could talk literally for hours about creating really good sales copy because I've spent so much time writing copy and teaching other people copy and creating sales pages over the last 3+ years of building my own 6-figure business. I've dissected over 200 sales pages. And in this video right here, I will show you the 3 major things that you need to have on your sales page if you really want to sell your online courses. Watch that video next so you can start building a sales page that actually sells your online course. If you have any questions from this video, leave a comment below. I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions. And if this was valuable, please like this video and share it with someone that you think it would benefit. It really does help the channel grow. As always, take what you learned here, get out there, make something happen. I'll see you in the next one.