What: Thinkific helps you set up your own website aimed at teaching and selling online courses, allowing you to set the price and terms
(This post may include affiliate links. You can read about our affiliate policy here.)
Expected pay: varies
Husl$core: $$$$$
Commissions & fees: Free – $500 a month, depending on the plan you choose.
Where: Nationwide
Requirements: Have a course to teach and the legal right to teach it
Want to try Thinkific?
Thinkific Review:
Thinkific allows individuals to design and publish an online course. It can be anything from “How to Master Excel,” to “How to Improve Your Abs.” And the company offers a host of free tutorials to help you through the process, making it easy to design, create and market your course.
However, Thinkific doesn’t dictate how much you charge for your course, nor does it limit your ability to communicate directly with your clients.
“You have total control over your clients, your marketing, your brand, your price,” said Patrick McGill, Thinkific’s business development manager. In fact, Thinkific often runs silently in the background of well-known teaching sites, such as HootSuite, McGill says.
The fact that the course was prepared with Thinkific software would only be disclosed if you happened to choose the company’s free plan. In that case, Thinkific places its logo on your site (much like Mail Chimp does with its free email service).
You do the marketing
What Thinkific does not do, however, is help you sell your course. McGill suggests establishing a following elsewhere — Facebook, Instagram, or even at competing teaching site Udemy — before launching on the Thinkific platform.
Why does SideHusl rate Thinkific so much more highly than Udemy? Because it will not discount your class. Udemy will. And you can use the platform for free, if you’re willing to go without some bells and whistles. Udemy charges sometimes astounding commissions on your course sales. And while Teachable has a free option, it does charge commissions on course sales. Thinkific’s free plan is truly free.
If you want to offer multiple classes or have several members have administrative access, you’ll need to pay for a monthly subscription. These subscriptions cost between $74 and $499 per month. However, they give you access to a variety of teaching, course and community-building tools and can supercharge your sales, too. So, when you’re ready to push your course to the next level of sales, we think these are products worth paying for. You can sign up for Thinkific here.
What their users say (from SoftwareAdvice).
“Thinkific won’t host all your marketing needs, but it will nail your online course, and I’m a big fan of that. They also offer GREAT webinars and opportunities for professional development, which I really appreciate. I really do feel like they want me to succeed.”
“I really like how simple it was to create an online course. All I had to do was create the content and Thinkific supplied the platform to present it in a clarified and seamless way. Also, the customer support has been outstanding.”
“This software is quite flexible and enabled me to take over 200 students through 15 learning modules. Each module has multiple videos and pictures. Thinkific enabled me to include assignments, which I used Airtable to integrate with. The progress bar has been confusing for some of our students. Replaying courses can be slightly confusing for them too.”
“Many other free plans try to give you a taste of the software and then nudge to upgrade. Not Thinkific . They give you all the tools you need even on a free plan and then when you decide to upgrade , they add awesome value to your investment.”
Suggested Options.
Blogging as a side hustle
Larry Ludwig may well be the poster child for why people recommend blogging as a side hustle. He…
Side hustle success stories: Selling on Etsy
Helen Spallas has worn many hats--investigator, janitor, tax preparer --but she didn't make six…
Great holiday gift experiences
Want to give someone something unique this holiday season? Consider holiday gift experiences.
Jobs for military spouses
The typical military family moves every two or three years. And with all that moving around, jobs…
3 Best tutoring sites
The best places to find a tutor are also the sites that are the best places for freelancers to…
Holiday hustles
One-quarter of Americans are looking for a holiday hustle to help defray the high cost of seasonal…
Learn to teach for free
Have a skill? You can make money teaching it online. And this month two of the best teaching…
5 New hustles — good, promising and pretty bad
We've reviewed 5 new hustles this week, which provide good opportunities for designers, notaries…
Strategies to survive inflation
Basic strategies to survive inflation involve spending (or saving) less or earning more. Or, if…
No college? No problem
No college? No problem. A wide array of jobs -- many of them well-paid -- don't require a degree.…
[…] audience than just the students at your school — there are several sites, including Udemy and Thinkific, that could potentially publish your course and allow you to earn recurring income for years to […]