This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Today's listener has a unique question about course creation. We've talked about making online courses many times from different angles and such. You may have heard me talk about platforms such as Teachable, Skillshare, Udemy, and others. There are a lot of these these days where anybody can go on and make a course for sale. In some cases, there's a bit of gatekeeping. In some
cases, you have to go through an application process. In some cases, it's invitation only. In some cases, it's just wide open. So if you want to teach something, there are lots of ways to do it. That's the point. But this listener wants to do things a little bit differently. She wants to
make an online course. She wants it to go on a third-party platform. But specifically, she wants to partner with a small business that offers trainings either to their employees or to the general public. I'm not sure about that part. But the point is, she doesn't want to work with one of these really large platforms. She wants to work with a small business that offers a specific type
of training. So as part of navigating this plan, she's trying to figure out revenue share. How much should she expect to receive? Because typically, in these situations, the third-party platform takes some of the money. And you, the course creator, takes the other part of the money. But how much
are we talking about? Because it can vary quite a bit. In my answer, in fact, I'll give you some of the specific percentages from those bigger third-party platforms. We'll talk about how it might be different in this case or it might not. What is a good revenue share to expect? Also,
what factors do you need to consider in making that decision? So really important here because this affects how much money you can make. We're going to talk about it in this question from Nicole, our listener. It's coming up in just 30 seconds. Stay tuned. Hey, Chris, this is Nicole from
Washington, DC. I'm calling with a question as a potential future course creator. I'd like to make some courses to leverage my professional experience. As an alternative to a platform like Teachable or Udemy, I would like to partner with a small business that already hosts similar trainings in order to sell the course. If I find a partner who's interested in adding my content to their course library, what should I suggest in terms of a profit sharing agreement? I'd appreciate
a 6535 split, given that I'll do all the work of creating the course as well as spearheading marketing efforts. However, my gut says that the business partner will push back, suggesting that they have all the leverage given their content distribution network. Any tips for negotiating? And what seems like a fair starting point to you? Thanks for your help and for making such a valuable resource for this community. Nicole, what's up? Thank you so much for listening. Excited to hear
about your online course plans. Now, as for this question, very specific question, I love it. What is the best revenue share percentage? Well, my first thought here is it may not be up to you, right? Because if this platform you're talking about, I don't know if it's just one platform or multiple small businesses, whatever it is, if they already host similar trainings, and if any of those trainings are produced by somebody outside the company, then they have already kind of been down this road. They have thought it through. They have an idea of their own. So perhaps there could be
some room for negotiation, but it's probably over a relatively small percentage, right? You won't be able to completely reinvent the wheel. Like if they're like, we keep 90% of the money, you keep 10%. You probably can't go in and say, well, how about 65% for me and 35% for you? So let's just say though, for the purpose of the question, let's say you're starting from scratch. You can also
think of this question as what's a fair percentage, whether I'm starting from scratch or not. And that way, if they already have a process of their own, you can decide for yourself if you think it's equitable. By comparison sake, most of those other platforms like Teachable, Udemy, et cetera, they are going to offer much less than a 65-35 split in your favor. It really is like an 80-20 or sometimes 90-10 split in their favor, right? So they actually are keeping 80% to 90% of the money, you know? And it's very easy to look at that and say, well, that's outrageous. And it
may be outrageous. But at the same time, their argument is we have the content distribution network. We have a network of, you know, a very large number of active students, participants, people who are going to buy these courses, et cetera. So there really is a wide range there. One key point, you know, when you're thinking about this, whether it is the Udemy situation or the other platform and deciding if something is equitable, it really helps a lot to have some estimate, even though it's not going to be precise, but some estimate or some idea of the potential number of courses that you might sell. Because, you know, in the case of that 90-10 split,
where you think, oh, it's outrageous, well, if Udemy or whoever it was really did sell a ton of courses to people that you wouldn't otherwise have access to, well, maybe that small revenue split is fair, right? Because you're going to do well. You know, in book publishing, the revenue split is quite small. It's like 7% to 14% depending on different factors and such. Still, I like the idea of saying, well, I'm doing all the work. You know, so Nicole is trying to essentially flip that
model. Instead of getting the 10% to 20% to 30%, she's trying to get the majority. It's just a question of whether you can find a partner that agrees. So to go back to the original thinking, and without having more information, I would say in this situation that if Nicole can get 50% or more, then that's great. So if the partner pushes back on 65, 35, or 60, 40, whatever it is, I think if you can get 50% or more, you're doing quite well. All right, a lot of detail there,
I realized, but it's an important thing because, as I said, it affects your money, right? It affects how much you're going to profit, not just in the short term, but in the long term. So it is important to think that stuff through well. Good luck, Nicole. Let us know what happens. And listeners,
if you have a question of your own, if you're trying to figure out what to do, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. I'm very fortunate to have an amazing community of people out there. If I don't have the answer, you know, we'll find somebody who does. All right, so thank you so much for listening. Be sure you're subscribed. Much more is coming up.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
