Selling Your Online Course

Payment Setup to Sell Courses Online - All You Need to Know with Tips & More

Table of Contents

Setting up a payment mechanism for selling online courses can impact your business in more ways than you might think. It can help you in creating a strong community.

But you might be thinking, how can I create a platform to attract more people and turn them into customers? Don’t worry, we have all the answers to your questions. 

Quick Summary

In this article, we will discuss the following things.

  • Why do payments features matter?
  • What payments methods do creators use?
  • What to use and what not to use?
  • Important Tips.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Selling Online Courses

It is quite easy to sell online courses. You can use different marketing strategies to attract your target audience. Offer them multiple deals on online courses and whatnot. 

But in order to convert your audience into permanent buyers, you need to pay attention to the details. One of these details is the payment mechanism on your website.

Why is it so important?

Any payment method you use to sell your online courses acts as a support beam for your entire business model. It is not as crucial at first glance but for your customers, it leaves a positive or negative image.

Another reason why it is so important is that it is often directly linked with a landing page you advertise on social media or through email marketing. 

How is it linked with new leads?

Landing pages are made to be robust and quick in their operations. A customer lands on your website, sees their desired product, and proceeds to the checkout page.

A fast payment mechanism is there to compliment the process and hence streamline the entire sales activity.

As an online course content creator, your main goal is to accommodate your customers as much as you can.

How does it impact my business?

There are two ways a payment mechanism can impact the users and your business. As an online course creator, your main target audience is students. 

Therefore, just like everyone else, if these students face difficulties in the access to a course, they will shift to another option. 

The other one is the pricing of the service you use on your website. As a business, you don’t want your revenue to be spent on expenses. 

So, an service you choose as your payment gateway should be suitable and within reasonable boundaries. 

Why should I get a high-performing payment service?

As a course content creator, all the lessons and courses available on your website are paid. They are either tied to a subscription/membership account or just a one-time purchase option.

Either way, a user has to pay for any content on your site. For such a business model, you need tools that can support and keep up with your platform.

So, what should I use for my website in order to sell and create more opportunities?

There are multiple services that you can use as a payment gateway on your website. Among these services, PayPal is the leading payment management solution. 

You can check our detailed review on the Pros and Cons of PayPal by clicking on the link. PayPal is a key element of every online course selling business due to its value to money ratio.

Alternatives to PayPal

Payment Setup to Sell Courses Online

Although PayPal is the leading service based on feedback from across the globe, it isn’t the only one. 

Creators that don’t have easy access to PayPal are switching their course creation business to other payment tools like Skrill and Payoneer. 

Is Skrill worth using?

Before we answer this question, you need to keep one thing in mind. The idea of payment services is only to streamline the process of your sales from one account to the other. 

Now to answer the question, Skrill is designed to act as a personal online wallet. Their software is made for students so they can manage their school funds and other expenses. 

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it for business purposes. Skrill is the third most used payment service in the market behind PayPal and GooglePay.

Is Skrill better than PayPal?

This debate is based on multiple factors. In some ways Skrill is exceptional while on the other hand PayPal has no match when it comes to security. 

We have compared both of these payment services in our Skrill vs PayPal post. You can check it better understand the operations and utilities of both sales services. 

PayPal is a versatile market tool with a bunch of features. One of these features allows you to make a merchant account for business purposes as well. But you have to pay a monthly fee for it.

On the other hand, Skrill enables you to conduct your business transactions free of cost. You don’t have to pay a single penny to create your account or to keep it active.

Now, let’s take a look at the things you should avoid in the process of creating a payment channel for your website.

PayPal Scams

As the online financial market grows, so do the number of scams around it. PayPal itself is free from any fraudulent actions but there are some posts going around the internet claiming you can make free money for your PayPal account. 

As a business that sells online courses, you definitely don’t want to fall prey to these sorts of scams.

What is this PayPal scam? 

There are multiple posts on different social media platforms that advertise themselves as free PayPal money generators. 

One of the leading names in such hosting services is PayPal Money Adder. We have discussed PayPal Money Adder in detail

This service asks you to sign in on their website with your credentials. But one important thing they demand is your bank details. 

How can it impact my business?

These people are experts in deploying such marketing techniques which seem tempting from the surface. But as it is with every scam, there is no truth behind generating free money for your online course selling business. 

They can steal your PayPal account details, re-route your payments to their accounts, and can potentially steal your courses as well. 

Is there any other type of scam I should be careful about?

Another type of online scam is the one that asks you to perform tasks on a certain website. These scams claim that you can automatically create money even while spending time on their site. 

One such service goes by the name of MyPayDesk. You can check our review on MyPayDesk by clicking on the link.  

This service preys on people, especially students who are looking for quick tasks to earn money in order to support themselves. 

How do I avoid these scams?

It is very easy to detect and avoid these scams. The biggest red flag is when they ask you for your bank details. Always be hesitant to provide your confidential details.

Another way to avoid these scams is by running a quick search on Google. If their site doesn’t pop up by their original name, it is most likely a scam payment service.

You should also keep an eye out for their affiliations. For example, PayPal Money Adder uses PayPal’s name but it isn’t endorsed by the original service.  

If a service isn’t officially linked with the mother service they claim to be linked with, there is a scam going on in the back end.

Important Tips

Let’s look at some important tips:

  • Always use a payment service that works separately from your online course material. Services can often breach into your courses from the back end.
  • Choose a service with mediocre subscription charges. A cheap service may seem useful but often has some security holes.
  • Teach your staff about the operation of these payment hosting services and how to deal with a customer in case a situation arises. 
  • Always keep an email list of your regular customers. This will allow you to give them discounts rather easily.

Final Thoughts

With this, we come to the finish line of our post on Payment Setup to Sell Courses.

A payment mechanism is the backbone of online businesses. Without a robust payment service, your course selling business can fall off the radar pretty quickly. You can use PayPal for starters and shift to other services once learn how these services work.

We hope this article proves to be informational for you. 

Do let us which payment service do you prefer.