How Developers Can earn a Side Income by Online Courses and Coaching

As a mentor and author of a programming blog, I often receive queries like should programmers and software engineers create an alternative source of income?, or should developer create their own blog or website?

Both are very common questions and mostly asked by senior developers
who are interested in startups and doing a side hustle. There was a time when I advise programmers to create their own blog, not just to learn and improve their understanding of the technology they know, but also to earn money while doing things you love, but time has changed.

Now I advise Programmers and Software Developers to create and sell online courses on Teachable, Udemy, Thinkific, Podia, Skillshare and other platforms.

The reasons are still the same, you learn and earn, but the method has been changed.

A blog is always an excellent way to establish yourself online, but
it requires a lot more effort and time to earn something meaningful.

On the other hand, an online course will create an alternative course
of income very quickly. I know many people who are making a decent
income by creating and selling an online course like my dear friend
Eugen Paraschiv, whose Spring Courses have helped many of you to learn Spring Framework better in the past.

He is not alone, a couple of fellow bloggers like Ranga Karnan is
also one of the most popular instructors on Udemy and has hundreds of
students on the platform. His Spring Boot Microserve courses are one of the best sellers on Udemy.

In short, creating and selling online courses are the best thing a 
programmer can do to earn money online, earn a side income, learn something valuable, and 
make an impact on peoples life. 

Yeah, you need a bit of passion for teaching, but most of the
Programmers are generally good at that because of constant mentoring and training they do on the job.

Now, some of you might be thinking about why I have not created an
online course yet. Well, that's on the card sometimes, and I did
research a lot about Process and Equipment like which USB Microphone
should I buy ( I bought Blue-Yeti Aztec Copper) and which platform should I join like Teachable or Udemy but somehow I didn't get enough time to prepare the course I wanted to teach.

If you guys would love to see me create an online course on Java or
any other topic, let me know in comments, and that would probably help
me to launch a course soon.

Anyway, today is not about me, but you, I want all of my readers who are interested in creating an alternative income stream and have a passion for teaching to develop online courses.

Maybe you're exceptionally knowledgeable about a topic like Java,
Python, Programming, Algorithms then you should create a course on that
topic and launch it on a platform like Udemy or Teachable.

The best part of this strategy is that once you do the initial work of creating the course, you continue to get paid for each new student that enrolls.

Which is the best platform to create Online Course?

Teachable/Thinkific and Udemy are two of my favorite platforms, they're both intuitive and user-friendly. With Teachable and Thinkific you have more control over your pricing and the look and feel of your course, but you don't get a built-in audience, which is one of the most important things for the success of your course.

Instead, you have to do all the marketing yourself. While Teachable
did provide a lot of guidance and tried and tested email templates,
which can help you a lot. Eugen's Spring Framework courses are built on Teachable, and so is Heinz Kabutz's Java Concurrency Course and both are very successful.

On the other hand, Udemy has a built-in base of students, but you don't have as much control, and they take most of your revenue because they are selling your course. Ranga has chosen Udemy, and his Spring and Java course is a huge success over there, so Yes, Udemy is also another essential platform.

The good thing is that you are not limited to one of these if you
like you can use both of them. Though, I recommend Udemy if you are
starting afresh and don't have an online presence and Teachable if you
have a blog and some sort of online presence, this will make you sale
courses at higher price easier.

How to Create an Online Course?

Well, creating a course is super easy these days, You can create a
course almost free of cost, all you need is an email address, time,
knowledge, and passion for doing the teaching.

Both Udemy and Teachable/Thinkific allows you to create your course and provides a lot of tools upload your content like course videos, audio,
presentations, images, and text.

Teachable also allows you to customize your school with your brand, colors, logos, etc. They also run Teachable Live Conference
where you get to meet successful online course creators and learn from
the strategies they have adopted to create awesome online courses.

They also guide you in every step like creating an outline of your
course, filming, editing, launch, and delivery. So, you not only create
an alternative income stream but also learn a new skill and improve your
existing expertise and knowledge by teaching to new students.

Here is a screenshot from a Teachable website, which roughly outlines what you need to do to create a successful online course for free:

There is no doubt that creating an online course requires a lot of motivation and passion and it's not easy. Being a part of community like Teachable help. You constantly get motivation and push like they did a Teachable Creator Challenge last summer.

Now they are doing Teachable Live, a 3-day free event, where you'll get a chance to learn from 20+ speakers who have already created a successful course. If you are serious, I suggest you join that event, you will make a lot of friends and an expert community, which will help you later on course creation and marketing.

This is such an awesome thing that I can't recommend it enough. It's a
win-win situation for everyone involved, you get money for teaching,
but you also improve your programming skill and learn a new skill for
creating videos and doing online business. Students learn from your
real-life experience and make their careers.

All the best, with your learning and course creation. If you create an online course and need any help from me, I am always ready to help, just drop me a note.

I will also help you to promote your classes online, after all, you are my reader and community has given so muchlove to me. I just try to do my bit.

Other Technical articles you may like:

1. The Web Developer RoadMap
2. A Complete Guide to become a React Developer
3. 10 Things Java Developer should learn
   

P.S. - This is not just true for Programmers, bloggers, and Software
developers, but for anyone who wants to earn some money online. It not
only create an alternative source of income for programmers but also
makes you happy and brings more energy because you will be doing things
which you love and passionate about.

P. P. S. - Btw, Teachable and Udemy is not the only platform
which is available for hosting online courses and selling them. There
are many more options like Thinkific, Podia, Kajabi, Skillshare, and many others. You can even post your courses to multiple platforms to get the benefit of both world.

All the best with your online course journey and if you need any help feel free to contact me.