Month: January 2016

How to Make Money Live Streaming in 2021

Steve Razinski
Written By:
Last Updated:

Live streaming is wildly popular nowadays. You might have even watched a live stream or two today!

New technology and faster internet connections are allowing people to easily stream their lives, their thoughts, and even the video games they’re playing right from their computers and mobile devices.

But did you know that you can earn some side cash by simply broadcasting your daily life and your opinions?

In today’s blog post, you’ll learn how to make money live streaming: how live streaming works, where to live stream, and how to earn from it.

What is Live Streaming?

First, what exactly is live streaming?

Live streaming is the broadcasting of live video over the internet to an individual or to an audience.

In a nutshell, it’s just you, on camera, talking to the world. Think PBS on the go, with limited start-up costs!

Unlike pre-recorded videos that can be edited, from which scenes can be added or cut, or filters can be applied, live streaming is real-time, uncensored, and often unscripted.

You can stream from your phone, tablet, or laptop from a broadcasting platform. You can be as raw or as polished as you want.

What Can You Live Stream?

You can stream your everyday life, your random thoughts, and your virtual and actual interactions with people in your life.

You can show the world your singing, dancing, and even your jokes.

Show your audience the sports game you’re watching, along with your running commentary.

If you have opinions on politics, religion, or any other controversial subject, you can stream that too.

Love cooking? Stream it!

Love playing video games? There’s a huge audience who just love watching other people play!

Bottom line: Pretty much anything you want!

The possibilities are almost endless, and it leaves a lot of room for anyone to take advantage of the boom and make money from live streaming.

Live Stream Platforms

There are numerous sites and apps available that can help you to live stream instantly.

When choosing one, always keep in mind how simple it is for you to use, how easy it is for your audience to engage with you, and how straightforward it would be to monetize your live streams.

Here are some of the live stream platforms you can choose from

1. YouTube Live

The daddy of online video, YouTube now offers its own live streaming platform, YouTube Live, to secure its video dominance.

you tube live

Being on YouTube Live allows you to broadcast your live streams, record these live streams, and allow audiences these recorded live streams as searchable, on-demand videos, all on the same platform.

YouTube’s incredibly large audience is also a considerable advantage. Your viewers are already familiar with YouTube, and placing your videos in an already-popular platform increases the chances of attracting new fans of your live stream.

2. Facebook Live

If you already have a following on Facebook, simply going on Facebook Live is a good way to broadcast your live stream right on your followers’ News Feed.

Simply go to your Facebook app on your mobile, tap the Live button on your post composer, and you’re good to go.

3. Instagram Live

Another social media platform that provides users the ability to live stream is Instagram.

You can share a live video on Instagram and connect with your Instagram followers for an hour.

Once that hour is over, you can share a replay of your live video on your Instagram stories.

The usual people on Instagram Live are celebrities and high-profile influencers.

4. Twitter Live

Yet another social media platform that has moved into the live streaming space is Twitter.

Twitter Live is usually for breaking news, but if you have enough interested Twitter followers, live streaming on Twitter can be lucrative for you.

Another great thing about going live on Twitter is that it can be viewed on another platform called Periscope.

5. Periscope

Periscope is primarily used through a mobile app for both iOS and Android that’s perfect for more personal or spontaneous live streams.

It does have a web version that you can use for viewing live streams from Periscope users all over the world, but you can only broadcast from the app.

periscope

Periscope is owned by Twitter, and as I’ve mentioned, you can view live streams both from Twitter and other Periscope users in the same app.

6. YouNow

YouNow is also a mobile app for both iOS and Android that’s mostly used by a younger crowd.

younow

A few years ago, YouNow was one of the most popular live streaming platforms, but recently, a part of its audience share has been taken by Twitch.

7. Twitch

Known particularly for streaming video games and e-sports being played by popular gamers, Twitch has a huge user base and is therefore one of the most popular platforms around.

twitch

If you’re a gamer, it’s unlikely you’ll need any other live streaming platform.

Making Money from Live Streaming

Now that we know what live stream platforms are out there, the next thing is to learn how to monetize your live streams.

There are several ways to earn money from live streaming, but bear in mind that not all of these revenue streams will work with all platforms.

Also, to truly make decent money, you will need to make use of several revenue streams (ain’t that always the way!).

Here are some of the ways that you can make money from live streaming.

1. Ads

Joining the right live streaming platform with the right advertising network allows you to earn a commission for each view or click, depending on how the advertising network sets its metrics.

Like with any advertising network, the earnings per view/click are usually pennies, but with a large enough audience you can easily pull in $1,000 or more a month purely from ads.

YouTube Live and Facebook Live are capable of showing ads during live streams.

The problem is that ads can be annoying, and so viewers can install ad-blocking software, which reduces your commissions.

So if this is your sole source of revenue from live streaming, you’ll want to rethink your strategy and get another source.

2. Donations/Tips

That first tip you’ll ever receive from your fans is something special.

It’s validation for your live streaming endeavor that someone appreciated your material enough to send you something, even if it’s just a couple of bucks.

Most people think that donations and tips aren’t going to earn you much money, and they’re right.

However, having it as a side revenue stream can help you at least earn some change for coffee.

In addition, most major live streaming platforms allow you to receive donations and tips, either from their own integrated services or currencies, or by allowing you to advertise your accounts with third-party services, such as PayPal or Venmo.

For instance, YouTube’s main tip tool is Super Chat, which YouTube viewers can buy to highlight their messages to you during your live stream. Twitch, on the other hand, allows viewers to buy Bits and use them to Cheer for you. You get a cent for each Cheer you get from your viewers.

3. Subscription/Regular Tips

How can getting tips from your fans get better?

Why, getting regular tips and payments, of course.

This is closer to earning a recurring income, no matter how small, while being able to give your viewers more of what they want in return.

Most of the above live streaming platforms support subscription plans and allow viewers to subscribe to a live stream right on the platform.

For instance, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch have channel or page membership programs allowing viewers to have a weekly or monthly payment to creators on these platforms in exchange for exclusive content and perks for subscribers.

However, to be eligible to incorporate this feature on your live stream, your account needs to meet certain requirements.

If your account isn’t eligible for a subscription program, or the platform you’re using doesn’t have one, consider using third-party providers to allow viewers to make regular weekly or monthly payments to you in exchange for your content.

Patreon allows people to sponsor you on a weekly or monthly basis and in return for providing them with something: such as regular live streaming and exclusive access and perks.

4. Brand Partnerships and Sponsorships

When you’ve made a name for yourself, you can start reaching out to brands and propose partnerships with them. They can sponsor one or more of your live streams in exchange for featuring their products or services, either by displaying them as a banner or on your background, mentioning them to your viewers, or actually using and reviewing them on your live stream.

To build a successful partnership, you’ll need to be intimately familiar with your audience. You need to know their ages, genders, interests, and problems they need solutions to.

At the same time, you need to be a genuine fan of the brand you want to partner with and feel comfortable enough to promote their products and services to your audience. Remember, your viewers trust you, and if you break that trust, they won’t be back to watch any of your content.

5. Affiliate Programs

Memberships to affiliate programs enable you to share affiliate links, promo codes, or coupon codes to your viewers so that when they purchase something from your affiliate.

The way this usually works is that you post the affiliate link or code somewhere on the stream description.

An important thing to remember is that not all live stream platforms allow affiliate marketing on live stream videos that they host, so be very careful to read up on their terms and conditions.

Also, make sure to recommend products and services that are relevant to your content, and not create content solely to promote. The quality of your videos should always go before making money from live streaming.

6. Your Own Products or Services

Instead of, or in addition to promoting other companies’ products, why not try your hand at selling your own products?

Selling your “merch,” as it’s often called, is common enough that live stream platforms offer plenty of advice and tools to help live streamers boost their sales.

The most important aspects of selling your merch are still up to you: concept, design, production, and shipping for physical goods, or hosting and delivery for digital products.

Make sure that the products you’re selling are related to your live stream content, especially if you have a particular theme.

For instance, if you have been doing workout-themed live streams, and your viewers are really digging the different exercises you’re doing, you can sell merch like activewear and exercise equipment, or digital goods like an ebook on fitness or an entire workout program with instructional videos, cookbooks, and food and exercise charts.

7. Mentoring

Maybe doing an entire video course is too overwhelming for you, or you might think you’re not “academic” enough or knowledgeable enough to be an online instructor or lecturer.

But if you are able to give valuable advice, tips, and guidelines about a certain topic, you might want to be somebody’s mentor.

The idea is to offer your viewers one-on-one time with you (for a fee) so you can help them achieve specific goals.

Your success here is largely dependent on the quality of your mentorship and how dedicated you are to helping your viewers solve their problems.

Do You Need Your Own Website?

Using any one of these live streaming services is great, but it’s very likely that you’ll eventually need to have your own website to make the most out of your live streams.

Having your own website is like having your own home base where you can direct your audience to know more about you and what you’re all about.

You can host replays of your live streams here, as well as additional resources that are useful for your viewers, such as blog posts, images, videos, or any other media that complement your live stream content.

You can also promote your own products there, too, without fear of treading on any terms and conditions or having to sound like an annoying salesman in your streams.

Another thing you can implement on your own website is a membership system. Users pay to gain access to exclusive member-only content, one-on-one sessions, badges and trophies, a community discussion area, and so on.

Bottom line? I highly recommend building your own website.

Downsides of Live Streaming for Money

The main hurdle in making money from live streaming is building a fan base. Some services like Periscope, won’t even consider you for their partner system (ad revenue sharing) unless you have a decent number of regular views on Periscope, or a substantial YouTube user base.

Of course, if you’re a lady you will likely get a larger following sooner, but with the added disadvantage of having to handle more, ahem, “difficult” followers.

Aside from these, you’ll need to make sure you stream consistently, as people prefer knowing when to expect your live stream. Depending on your niche, you may stream for an hour a day, or end up streaming for 10 hours every day (very common with gamers who stream).

Another downside to consider is that nothing dies on the Internet. This may sound good; that is, until you make your first mistake.

Because live streams are spontaneous and “in the moment,” it’s only a matter of time before you make a blunder live. It can range from simply mispronouncing words to Freudian slips, from wardrobe mishaps to highly offensive remarks.

Worse, with very few exceptions, there’s nothing to stop viewers from taking screenshots or recording snippets or even entire sessions of your live stream, which can then become viral.

Mistakes are inevitable, but just remember to sincerely apologize and learn from them.

Final Thoughts on Live Streaming

There’s no quick and easy way to make money with live streaming, as you need to build up a user base. That being said, there’s a great potential for making thousands a month via live streaming, especially if you make sure you have various revenue options.

While the initial costs of this marketing angle are low (a smartphone and an internet connection), the time cost can mount up quite quickly.

Other ways to make money from videos

If making or watching videos is your jam, and you’re wondering if you can ever turn that into a paying gig, the following articles from our site may help:

Get Paid to Do ASMR Videos: How to Turn Sounds into Cash
13 Ways to Get Paid to Watch Movies in 2020
8 Ways You Can Get Paid to Watch TV in 2020

Have you ever broadcast live from any of the above platforms? Did you manage to make any money from live streaming? Let me know in the comments!

20 Ways to Get Paid to Write Reviews

Steve Razinski
Written By:
Last Updated:

In this world where you can get paid to do the simplest tasks or weirdest things, it isn’t surprising to know that you can also get paid to write reviews.

Many review writing jobs are legit, but some are in the gray area, especially when it comes to product reviews. But these side hustle opportunities do exist. And if you’re up for the challenge, you can even turn this gig into a lucrative career.

The concept behind this is the same with surveys—companies pay people to share feedback about their products or services in order to improve, learn what their target market is looking for, and gain loyal customers.

4 Ways to Write Reviews for Money

There are probably more ways you can earn cash for writing reviews, but these have been the most popular.

  • Write reviews on user testing sites — The reviews you write will include user-friendliness of phone apps, websites, and other programs. Virtually anyone can become a tester and no requirements that are too difficult are needed.
  • Write Amazon reviews — Those who have a knack for writing are hired to write reviews for Amazon stores. In some cases, products are actually sent over for you to try, but this is very rare. Most of the time, reviewers are hired to write positive reviews in order to encourage real buyers to actually buy. As you can imagine, there’s an ethical dilemma involved in this kind of gig (I’ll talk more about this later).
  • Influencer-type deals — If you already have a following on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media platforms, companies may give you products to try out and review and share to your followers in return for a fee.
  • Affiliate marketing on your own site — With affiliate marketing, you choose a product on Amazon, Clickbank, or other affiliate marketing networks, write your feedback about that product, add your affiliate link from your blog going to the marketplace, and earn commissions whenever someone clicks through this link and buy anything on the store within a certain period of time.

Note that very few of these methods pay big money. They can never replace your day job, but these are no-brainer ways of earning some cash on the side.

Visit these Sites to Get Paid to Write Reviews

1. Vindale Research

Earn: Up to $100 per review.

There are daily surveys to take that mostly pay minimally, but depending on the relevant topic, you might earn up to $100 for a survey.

You can also earn just by opening your email by opting into Reward Mail, and even by watching videos.

Plus you can also earn money for everyone you refer to them.

2. Capterra

Earn: $10 per review via gift card

With Capterra, you’ll be reviewing different types of computer software, from CRM software, eCommerce software, web conferencing software, and other popular types of software.

There’s a list of guidelines to follow and only reviews that pass approval will be paid, so better stick to the rules.

Sometimes, you’ll need screenshots of the software while in use as proof that you actually took the time to test the program.

3. Kirkus Reviews

Earn: $50 per review

Launched in 1933, Kirkus began as a magazine and has since turned into an author resource and provider of editing and marketing services.

The company is constantly looking for book reviewers for their English and Spanish books.

They require reviews that are 350 words in length, but with a 2-week deadline.

4. UserTesting.com

Earn: $10 per review completed

The products that you test or review here are either websites or apps.

You visit a website or download an app, look around the pages, check links, and follow the task instructions. You’re likely to be asked to pay attention to the ease of use of the website or app and your overall experience.

There are 12+ other companies that pay people to test websites.

5. G2

Earn: $10 to $25 per review via gift card

With G2, you have to review business software and submit your feedback complete with screenshots.

You’ll be paid via Starbucks or Amazon gift cards when your review is approved.

6. Gartner Peer Insights

Earn: $5 per verified review

Gartner is also exclusive to technology and software reviews and you can only write a maximum of 10 reviews per year.

If you have a knack for writing tech, that’s still $50 in extra money each year if you successfully write all 10 reviews allowable to you.

7. Pinecone Research

Earn: $3 per survey

Pinecone Research is one of my favorite survey companies, but they not only pay for your finished surveys; they may also send brand-new products that may not even be out yet in the market.

8. Publishers Weekly

Earn: $25 per book review

Publishers Weekly is a bit different from the others in this list in that you might get a regular job from this job board.

There are openings for freelance book reviewers periodically available on this job board, but they are quickly snatched up so you need to be quick.

Get Paid to Write Reviews on Amazon

Amazon is the biggest online marketplace for everything under the sun. From clothes to home improvement tools, it is very rare to not find an item you’re looking for on Amazon.

Consumers have welcomed online shopping on Amazon wholeheartedly. Manufacturers and resellers know this, and some even pay to get their products reviewed to rig the system.

Why are paid reviews so in demand?

Well, Amazon ranks products based on the number of positive reviews. Buyers usually look at reviews when buying items on the site, too! So if a seller is new to the marketplace, some of them pay to “get the ball rolling.”

I know it sounds sketchy, but these writing gigs do exist. And even if Amazon has been trying to catch review mills and fake review writers, there are still people doing it (and companies paying them cash in exchange for these reviews.)

Note that some people are willing to accept products in exchange for writing a review, so they’re actually reviewing the item/s and the review isn’t technically fake.

So where do you go for gigs like these?

  • Internet Marketing forums – Warriorforum, Blackhat World, and other internet marketing forums all have job sections where paid one-off tasks like Amazon reviews are posted.

The problem with transactions from forums is that gigs there are a big mix, so you’d have to dig through them if you’re looking to get paid for Amazon reviews exclusively. This is the same issue with Craigslist and other online job sites.

  • Facebook groups – Your best bet in finding Amazon review writing gigs is by searching through FB groups. They’re not even hiding; just one search and you’ll find several groups with over 10k members.

These Facebook groups have thousands of people who exchange products (or cash) to review stuff on Amazon.

Getting paid to write reviews for Amazon products is definitely an underground writing gig, but those who work as a web content writer consider this just like any ordinary writing assignment.

Of course, there’s an ethical dilemma when choosing this kind of work: are you okay with faking a 5-star review in exchange for cash, even if you didn’t spend a cent on that item (or at least tried it out first)?

As for Amazon, the company knows this is going on. In fact, in 2015, the company went after over 1,100 Fiverr users with a lawsuit for promoting their “Amazon review” offers. Fiverr eventually banned users who were selling Amazon review services on the site, but there are still review offers that get through the cracks.

Ultimately, it’s up to you if you’d like to give this gig a try. Or better yet, start a blog and get paid to write reviews legitimately with potential for passive income as icing on the cake.

Review Sites for Bloggers, YouTuber, and Influencers

If you have a blog or YouTube channel that is getting decent traffic, you can join the following sites and be paid to write a review.

Each site has a different method of doing things: some contact bloggers to match the product that needs reviewing, others let bloggers choose which brand to review, and some require bloggers to submit an application to be able to review stuff.

  1. PayPerPost – Advertisers go to the site and post a project that includes the item to review, the amount of blog traffic required, and the price of the review. Bloggers claim the review project, write about it on their own blogs, submit the link to Payperpost, and wait for the payment to arrive a couple of days later.
  2. Famebit – Blogs with 5,000 followers on YouTube or their other social media pages can join Famebit. From there, you’ll be able to access paid sponsorships from companies. If you find something interesting, submit a proposal with your rate included, and if hired, work on the review. You’ll receive 90% of the payment via PayPal with Famebit taking 10% for their services. November 2020 Update: Famebit.com is now closed; instead, YouTube creators with more than 25K subscribers can sign up to FameBit Full Service on YouTube Studio.
  3. Socialix– The team at Socialix matches bloggers/YouTubers/influencers with more than 5,000 followers to various sponsors. When you are paired with a sponsor, you begin creating content that reviews the sponsor’s products. You’ll then be paid via PayPal or ACH.
  4. Best Buy Influencer Network – Best Buy has followed the footsteps of Amazon in more ways than one. With this in-house influencer network, the company has taken control of how big brands partner with influencers.
  5. Blogsvertise – One of the oldest sites that serve as a middleman for bloggers and advertisers, Blogsvertise is open to all kinds of bloggers. What’s interesting with Blogsvertise is there is no specific product to write a review about. Instead, Blogsvertise assigns bloggers with a writing task that includes keywords or topics to be mentioned within a post. From there, you’d be adding affiliate links, ads, etc. as required by the advertiser. Your earnings are sent via PayPal.
  6. Influence Central – Join the site, Influence Central connects you with a brand to review, post the review on your blog, and then get paid through PayPal.
  7. Cooperatize –  Earn somewhere from $150 to $800 per sponsored content you post on your blog. Of course, this amount will depend on the brands paired to your blog, the traffic/popularity of your blog, and your social media base.
  8. Get Reviewed – This site also helps brands find suitable bloggers to review their products or services. The best thing about Get Reviewed is that bloggers aren’t limited to the number of reviews allowed to be written, but PayPal payment does come in a bit late (around 14 days after approval).
  9. Modern Mom –  Geared towards mom bloggers, this site works with companies offering products for babies, families, and moms. It was originally a mom blog (it still is), but has offered its own influencer program to get other mommy blogs started with paid reviews.
  10. ValuedVoice – You don’t have to own a blog for this one, as long as you have enough following on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or other platforms. Influencers are chosen by a brand, the influencer then shares information about a product or service, then the influencer gets paid.
  11. SeedingUp – SeedingUp is yet another site to monetize your website, blog, YouTube channel, and social media profiles. It’s free to join and you’ll have the chance to be invited to test products and write sponsored reviews.
  12. SponsoredTweets – SponsoredTweets helps influencers monetize their social media content and resonate with the audience of top brands.

Blogging and Affiliate Marketing

If you really want to get paid to review products AND DO IT LEGALLY, you’ve got to try affiliate marketing. For many people and those who have been writing for cash, this is the next step because maintaining a blog that earns money consistently is the dream.

In affiliate marketing, you blog about something you like, find some way to mention a particular product, get the link (from Amazon or other marketplaces with affiliate programs), add this link to your post, and earn at least 10% commission whenever another person buy something from the same site.

If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, you can start reading up here.

Ready to Get Paid to Write Reviews?

I’ve written a lot about writing as a source of income, from being a legal writer to an online ghostwriter, writing poems to sell, or participating in any of these 150+ freelance writing jobs you can do from home, so getting paid to write reviews shouldn’t be such a shock.

I hope this list gives you an idea of the earning potential of writing reviews, whether you decide to just join sites and earn by the post, or create a blog that would generate passive income.

How would you like to get paid to write reviews? Tell us in the comments!

Make Money By Teaching Your Passion

Dean Robinson
Written By:
Published On:

The internet has many uses, but perhaps the most important thing you can do with the internet is watch cat videos, watch videos of people getting hurt, learn something!

That’s right; the internet is a huge resource for anyone wanting to learn practically anything.

How then, can you turn this to your advantage and make money off of the internet? In a word, teach!

You might be thinking, “but I don’t know anything” or “I can’t teach” or even “I don’t have the qualifications”.

Well, you’re wrong on all counts.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
― William Arthur Ward

Knowing Things

Everyone knows something or is good at something even if you don’t realise it.

You don’t need to teach things like physics or history (unless you’re good at them of course!) as there are many other skills and subjects that not everyone knows.

Here are some examples of things you can teach that fall way outside your school curriculum.

Cleaning

Everyone has a friend who is messy and cluttered, and sometimes it’s not down to laziness. In our modern age some life skills are simply not passed down from parent.

Beer Brewing

With craft beer having a resurgence, if you know how to make your own beer, people would love to learn from you.

Cooking & Baking

If an 8 year old can make $127,00 a month just from YouTube, imagine what you could do with YouTube and a course!

Life Skills

As with cleaning, life skills need to be imparted and often they aren’t. You can teach people a wide variety of tricks and tips that make life easier and better.

Knitting & Crochet

From scarves to jumpers, knitting is not as easy to learn so teaching people is the way to go.

Applying Makeup

There is a huge market for tips, tricks and techniques for applying makeup, from every day wear and party makeup to film standard makeup.

Being Thrifty

It’s amazing how much money people waste! If you are a penny pincher and know a great deal from a bad one, you can teach people how to save money.

Fishing

Yup, fishing. If you know your fly from your worm (I don’t obviously) then people will be willing to learn from you.

Making cloths and costumes

If you have made your own clothes or costumes before, then you have a wide market to target. You could focus on actual everyday wear, or party clothes or costumes for LARP or Cosplay.

Maintaining cars/equipment

If like me you are not engineering minded and want to fix something like a broken tail light without incurring the cost of a mechanic, the only way to do it is to learn from the internet. You could teach this!

The above list is far, far from complete, but it should give you an idea that there are a million and one topics you can teach about.

Your own life skills and experience will obviously push you in a certain direction with these, but as you can see, people want to know things that they can’t find in any academic book, and you can easily profit from teaching people things like this.

No such thing as can’t

Being a teacher on the internet isn’t like being a classroom teacher, and anyone can do it. All you need is a solid understanding of what you are going to teach and the willingness to get on camera to do it (depending on the niche you might get away with just your voice).

Qualifications are (mostly) meaningless

Unless you’re planning on teaching something like law or medicine, qualifications are really not needed.

I mean, who has a qualification in knitting? You might have 15 years’ experience with fixing cars but no qualifications: that’s fine!

As long as your teachings show that you have the experience and knowledge no one is going to care whether or not you have a slip of paper.

Teaching Methods

As with any form of making money online there are a few ways to actually teach, such as in written form, audio and video.

Honestly though if you’re going to focus on teaching as a method of making money then you will need to mainly use video.

By all means back this up with written articles where necessary, but for most topics and most students a visual way of learning is better: they see and then do.

The most straightforward way of earning from learning is to use a service like YouTube and offer out interesting and useful short videos, and link back to your website where people can gain access to your full course on whatever it is you are teaching.

For example, if you are a costumer you could post videos on creating small pieces or how to correctly hide a seam or a review/study on a material type. In your actual course you could walk people through creating a full costume from scratch and add in even more tips and tricks.

WordPress Makes it Easy

Actually selling courses might sound like a difficult procedure, but if you’re a WordPress user then there are numerous plugins you could be using to make it simple to sell your teachings:

Course Specific plugins

Obviously a plugin that is purely for selling courses is usually the best option. There are several options, but Sensei by Woothemes is very popular. Other than that there is the excellent WPCourseware, and the free CoursePress.

E-commerce plugins

This type of plugin isn’t the best for selling courses but you can do it. I recommend either Woocommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. Both offer free core plugins.

Membership plugins

Membership plugins are probably better for selling courses than e-commerce plugins, but their setup up can be more complicated especially if you want to sell more than one course separately. S2Member and Members by Justin Tadlock are both solid membership plugins for WordPress.

Training Marketplaces

Depending on your niche, you don’t even need your own website or marketing (though both are still recommended). Instead you could leverage the power of existing sites that sell course.

There are dozens of places you can sell your training:

This is not an exhaustive list so be sure to do your research.

As with anything, make sure you read through the site’s terms and payment options.

Make sure that your niche is a good fit for their audience, you can do this by seeing if anything in your niche or similar is already listed or not.

The Bottom Line

We all have skills and knowledge that we can leverage to make a buck online, and selling your skills in a training course is a very profitable way to do it.

Remember that in order to sell a course you need to give away enough value to prove that you and your course are worthy!

I’ve Tried That Reviews Self-Publishing School by Chandler Bolt

Steve Razinski
Written By:
Last Updated:

Chandler has granted me access to the program in order for me to provide you with my review. I was not paid to write this review, but I do receive compensation if you buy Chandler’s product through one of the links in the article below.

If you have a book ready to self-publish or still in the works, then the Self-Publishing School (SPS) program may be the perfect program for you. This program, developed by Chandler Bolt, is intended for first-time authors who may or may not have a book in the works and who want to self-publish their work.

SPS is geared more towards non-fiction authors, but fiction authors can also use the course to learn the finer points of launching and marketing a self-published novel or other work. The optimal goal of the program is to have the author write and publish a book that becomes an Amazon Kindle bestseller; other goals include building a following/network, generating sales leads, and becoming a recognized niche expert.

The six-phase program, which is designed to run for 90 days, promises to help you take the following steps in your self-publishing plan:

1. Positioning and Outlining

Phase 1 involves going from having no book idea or plan of action to having a book outline with a completed introduction.  To this end, you go through the steps of finding an “accountabilibuddy,’ finding the purpose and subject of your book, creating a mindmap for your book, and finally, creating an outline of your book from your mindmap.

Other areas covered in phase 1 include writing your book’s introduction and learning how to write fast. Chandler narrates many of the videos that are presented in this section as well as others:

Phase 1 - Positioning & Outlining

Incidentally, the accountabilibuddy is located by perusing through a list of the program’s members, as well as their proposed books. Once you select an accountabilibuddy, you are expected to set up weekly calls with this person and use the program’s provided accountability document to hold both yourself and the buddy accountable.

Such accountability systems have proven their worth in many other programs, including those designed for weight loss, physical training, etc. Obviously, when you have another person to answer to, you’re less likely to slack off and not complete your tasks or achieve your goals.

2. Writing

This section focuses exclusively on rapidly writing at least 50% of your book during a 2-week portion of the course. To this end, you are taught how to successfully start and finish your book’s rough draft and how to write faster and for at least 30 minutes each day.

You’re also provided with videos and tutorials such as these:

The Key To Getting Your Rough Draft Finished Faster

The Lazy Author’s 3­-Step Short-­Cut To Creating Your First World­-Class Book

How To Easily Bulk Up Your Book

The biggest hurdle that this section focuses on is having you get over writer’s block, which can originate from a number of sources including fear, procrastination, and not having a clear picture of the book’s subject matter.

3. Editing

Phase 3 involves hiring an editor. To help you in this task, you are provided tutorials on how to recognize a good editor and locate one through sites like Upwork (formerly Odesk and Elance). You are also provided with documents and videos explaining how to craft a great book title, subtitle and book cover. Several resources are provided to you, including the following:

How to Find An Editor Using Elance (An Upwork Company)

How to Keep Your Editor On Budget (and avoid hiring a bad editor)

7 Steps To Crafting A Best Selling Book Title

How to Get a Book Cover created with Fiverr

Because editing your book and crafting its elements are critical components to garnering interest in it and placing it on the bestseller list, there is a lot of information packed into this segment of the program. For example, there is a video that discusses how you can use 99Designs to create several different versions of your book cover instead of just one:

Phase 3_ Editing Made Easy

4. Book Launch

Building an email list, formatting, reaching out to influencers/reviewers, creating landing pages, writing your book description, and social media marketing are all addressed in this section of the program. Many different resources are provided, including videos teaching you how to create a landing page and then connect it with an email service like MailChimp, and how to use Scrivener to format your book. There are also PDFs that explain how to reach out to reviewers, for example.

The main goal of this section is to have you clean up and prepare your book for publication through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

5. Publishing

In this section, the goal is to have you finally publish your book using KDP, which involves creating a KDP author account, selecting keywords and categories, and uploading and publishing your book. For the first few days post-publication, you promote your book by .finding free e-book Facebook groups, for example, and putting your book out there. Once the promotion period ends, you switch to KDP paid mode.

There are several resources provided to help you complete these tasks, including the following:

How To Use Your Book To Get a Ton of Leads  

 3 Ways to Drive More Book Sales

How to Easily Create A Simple Book Website In Less Than 10 Minutes With No Tech Skills

6. Maintenance

Once your book is published, it’s easy to get sidetracked by other projects…or just forget about your book altogether. To not have this happen, SPS presents a Phase 6 plan for sustaining your book sales long-term and even creating and releasing new books. This involves tasks such as creating a book website, having periodic promos, and engaging in a marketing sand sales strategies that go beyond just promoting your book on your blog or Facebook.

One of the resources provided towards this effort is a recorded webinar by marketing expert Nick Stephenson:

Webinar Replay Register (Chandler)

Other Self-Publishing School resources

Self-Publishing School does more than just throw a bunch of videos and PDFs at you. Once you sign up to the program, you access a private Facebook community where other students and program coaches chime in with questions and answers about various book writing and publishing topics.

Should you choose to purchase the Master version of SPS, you also gain access to monthly group calls with Chandler. You also get 30-minute one-on-one coaching calls each week.

The Bottom Line

I think that SPS offers some major benefits for the unpublished or even previously published author who is looking to launch a book online, build a network, and generate book sales. Chandler goes in-depth about creating a finished product that has the look-and-feel of a bestseller, an audience and influencers to carry it, and actually makes money for its author.

While SPS isn’t the cheapest training program around, its emphasis on accountability and community can help a reluctant author finally publish that back-burner book he or she has been thinking about for the last few months/years, and that in itself makes this program a worthwhile investment.

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