Make an online course gratis: equipment and software

Sep 17, 2022

If you're looking to design your first course and don't have a budget to match you're in luck! You're able to create an online course for absolutely nothing (or at the very least with a very low price) and then increase the amount you invest in the event that your business expands.

But that's just one way to build an online course at an affordable price. We'll look at the software and other tools available to create your course with very little or no investment upfront.

The tools for making an online course for free

The tools you use in the course design process make the difference in your success. They assist you in creating a quality product that students love. They can help you automate the processes you use and help save time. They can also assist you in selling to more people, so you will earn more money.

1.  Free trial and affordable tech stack

Used by first-time course creators as well as multi-million-dollar entrepreneurs, it simplifies your company so that you can focus on what you do best: creating classes, coaching programs as well as memberships and many other digital goods which serve your clients.

Alongside its online course builder it also provides all the tools you require to create your first course, and to grow your business which includes:

  • Website builder
  • Landing page builder
  • Builder of sales funnels
  • Email marketing software
  • Course video hosting
  • Order pages
  • Payment processing

Basic Plan ($119 a month, billed annually) permits you to create three products, 3 sales funnels, infinite landing pagesand marketing emails sent to as much as 1,000 customers.

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2. Filmora, iMovie, and Davinci Resolve are free affordable video editing software and video recording

A must-have software to use that is essential for online learning is a video recorder and editor. Wondershare Filmora does not just let you make and edit your video within the same space It's also flexible and simple to utilize.

You can use it to create talking head videos as well as screen captures which is a feature isn't found in other products for creators.

If you're just beginning to learn about video editing, Filmora gives you templates which make it simple to create polished, professional videos. If you're a seasoned video editor, you'll be able to take advantage of it's more advanced features such as keyframes, split screens motion tracking, and present templates, and auto beat sync.

Filmora is compatible with desktop, iPad, and mobile devices. All three versions can be downloaded for free. However, for advanced features or to remove the watermark, you'll require an upgrade to a paid version.

The annual plan is $49.99 per month.

If you own an Apple computer, you already can access iMovie on the App Store. It's free and easy to download and editing videos. Plus, you can create audio recordings and include slides. It's great for a first-time video or online course producer looking to put together the basics of a video

If you have more advanced video editing abilities, DaVinci Resolve is another free software and is not restricted to Mac users. It supports audio post-production, color grading, as well as color correction. Due to this functionality, it may be more complicated to use.

3. Zoom: Free recordings and virtual meetings

If you are looking for an unrestricted video recorder, Zoom may be your best choice. Set up a meeting, click record, and then begin instructing. While it doesn't include a video editor but it comes with options to make it easier for teachers.

Zoom's free plan provides Unlimited meetings that can be up to 40 minutes long. The plan also includes automated captions, easy screen-sharing features, and editable whiteboards. If you prefer to host lessons in person, Zoom's free plan allows you to host as many as 100 people.

After your "meeting," your recording is saved to the cloud or your computer (your option). It gives you the audio recording (M4A) and an MP4 video file (MP4), and the text of your chat.

At $149.90 annually, you can upgrade to Pro however, the no-cost package includes all the tools you require to design a an excellent course.

4. Canva: no-cost and free graphics

screenshot-of-Canva

If it's thumbnails for videos, course handouts or social media posts that promote your course You'll have to make graphic designs. canva can be a completely free software that allows you to design easy to create stunning images that suit your brand and individual design.

Canva Free gives you more than 250,000 templates for free with more than 100 different types of photos, and five GB of storage on cloud. If you want to use graphics or components that are premium, you can use them at a cost of a modest amount.

Canva Pro unlocks unlimited access to premium components, a brand kit, groups to help you organize your projects along with a background eraser. Additionally, you'll get 1TB cloud storage. At $119.99 annually, it's an affordable option for creators.

5. Snagit: screen capture at a low cost (free trial)

screenshot-of-Snagit

Another alternative for making videos and images is the Snagit program. Free for 15 days, a lifetime license is just one time payment of $62.99. That gives you a standard single license that works with Windows as well as macOS along with the first year's Maintenance.

Though other screen capture software are available for free however none can offer the high-quality images that Snagit's captures offer. Snagit provides high-definition images as well as videos, and as well as an editor which allows you to reduce your video and mark your screen captures, and generate animated GIFs.

You can use it to create your course videos, provided that your lessons are one an hour or less. Plus, it can double as a simple editor to resize images and edit graphics as well as videos. It's an excellent low-cost investment for instructors.

6. MailerLite Hosting for email is free.

Email marketing software is another essential software for online courses. You'll use it to build lists of clients as well as potential clients who appreciate the work you're doing.

MailerLite  MailerLitehas the option of a free plan which lets you send up to 12,000 daily emails and 1,000 contacts. It comes with an automated email builder, an online site that has 10 landing pages as well as sign-up forms, pop-ups and other forms. It also has e-commerce integrations that allow you to take payment from the MailerLite site's page.

If you use MailerLite to create a site or landing pages, you'll be assigned an unspecified URL "subscribepage.com" for landing pages and "mailerpage.com" for websites. Upgrade to a paid plan for a domain that you can assign to a specific.

Although this may not be ideal however, it allows you with the ability to build your email list as well as sell your online course for free. Once you start making money it is possible to change to a premium plan or opt for one-stop system.

7. YouTube: no cost video hosting

Some course developers can offer no-cost or cheap plans, but they are not including video hosting in their platforms. Users must find another method to host their videos.

The most efficient and simplest method the simplest and fastest solution is YouTube, which gives you the option of hosting your video for free and unlimited. If you upload your video to YouTube it is important to change its status to "unlisted." This is how it won't be displayed in search results.

example-of-YouTube-account

YouTube is tied with your Google profile. Therefore, it's straightforward to begin when you sign up to YouTube, click the profile photo, then start channels.

It is possible to upload your videos via your computer, smartphone or using recording software. YouTube gives you a URL to the video that you can use to upload the video to the course builder.

YouTube is a good option for video hosting with no cost, however it has its drawbacks. Videos that are not listed can be shared out, meaning people who don't pay could still access your course material. At the conclusion each video YouTube offers other relevant videos to watch next. This may distract your students and make them click away from your course instead of advancing into the next class.

8. Veed: no-cost video and low-cost video hosting

Veed-free-video-hosting-image

If you'd like to stay clear of "watch the next" advice at the bottom of your video, Veed offers free video hosting for videos shorter than 10 minutes. Videos will come with watermarks that can be removed when you upgrade to a paid plan.

Veed lets you make, edit, and publish, collaborate, and host videos on one platform. Use the platform to record editing, upload, and share talk-head videos using one platform.

You are able to make MP4 videos in 720p resolution that can be uploaded to files with a maximum size of 250MB with the free plan. You're limited to 2GB of space for files.

For higher limits, upgrade to the Premium plan ($18 a month). This allows videos of 25 minutes and 1080p resolution. For 4k videos lasting up to two hours, you'll need to upgrade to Professional for 30 bucks per month.

9. Landingi: affordable web page builders

The Core plan of Landingi costs just $29 a month, and less if you pay annually. It gives you an unlimited number of landing pages and 1,000 visits per month. You can also have a customized domain. For integration with email marketing software or Zapier You'll have change to the Create plan ($65 per month). The plan increases your limit of traffic to 20,000 unique visitors each month, and you can use two domains.

You can try Landingi at no cost for 14 days. This could be enough time to begin selling online course for no cost!

10. PayPal: Affordable payment options

Once your course has been developed, you must sell it. With a free PayPal business account, it's simple to accept payments online without a merchant account. It is possible to set to allow one-time or regular payment and subscriptions.

PayPal is an ideal choice for taking payments as it seamlessly integrates with the majority of landing page builders and shopping carts. If you do not have a landing page there's no issue. You can accept payments via an PayPal.me hyperlink to your clients.

Unlike merchant accounts, which could cost as much as $500 a month, you only pay PayPal for sales. When a customer makes a purchase on your course using the PayPal button or integration, PayPal will take a tiny percentage of the price paid before depositing the proceeds into the account of your PayPal account.

PayPal-standard-fee-rate

11. Stripe: low-cost payments

A different popular method of payment one is Stripe. As with PayPal it is a one-time payment for Stripe when you sell something. It lets you accept debit and credit cards, and then deposits the profits directly into your account at the bank, so you don't have move funds in order to access them.

Stripe is integrated with many websites, however you are able to create your own payment pages directly with Stripe.

Stripe Checkout gives you a already-built and hosted payment site to sell one-time purchases or subscriptions. The features it offers include auto-complete addresses One-click payment, real-time card validation, identity of the card brand, as well as protection against fraud and compliance.

Other options for collecting payments using Stripe includes sharing links, flexible invoicing as well as in-person payment.

With Stripe When an individual purchases your course successfully the course, you'll be charged 2.9 percent plus $0.30.

12. Zapier: Free and cheap integrations

In the process of deciding how you can create an online course for free, you need to understand how tools integrate to each other. A lot of software used that are used for online courses work with each other. If they don't, you'll need an easy way to create an integration.

Zapier allows you to automate work with 5,000+ applications using simple workflows, conditional logic, and formatting of data. Start with no cost and then upgrade to Professional when you're prepared.

One platform does everything

The tools we've shared with you are 12 to help you get started without any initial expenditure. This is a solution to the issue of creating online courses for no cost, however it also brings some other challenges.

Utilizing different software and tools, you'll have to connect these into a single technology stack and make sure they integrate for a smooth customer experience. It's also necessary to switch from one platform to the next when building your funnels, courses, or email marketing campaigns.

The cost with this approach starts at around $200 and could go upwards to as much as $10,000 in order to develop your course. That means you have to attract a significant number of potential customers before you start turning into a profit.

All-in-one platforms like this can save you time, money and anxiety. lets you:

  • Create a mobile-responsive, user-friendly and professional-looking website without any design expertise. Simply drag and drop to design an infinite amount of pages.
     
  • Make use of your domain name to establish a brand-name web presence for your site and online courses.
     
  • Create sales and email marketing funnels. Create email campaigns, automated email flows, re-marketing campaigns along with other things using drag-and-drop simplicity. With built-in marketing pipelines and step-by-step guidance, you can build and market to your audience quickly and effectively.
     
  • Design upsells, discounts, as well as free trial offers. There's no need to deal difficult programming or clashing plugins. This makes it easier to build multiple upsells, downsells, and even free trials for your loyal followers.
     
  • Lay out and design your course in a snap.  Course Builder provides easy-to-use templates that cover the most popular types of classes. Just a few clicks you can lay out and arrange your class, with quizzes, assessments, videos and worksheets.
     
  • Accept payments online. integrates with Stripe and PayPal which makes it simple to take payments directly through your website.
     
  • Build more than just an online course. This includes paid newsletters, memberships as well as podcasts and coaching. If you think of it, you can construct it using .

Start with an investment of just a few dollars in the Basic plan. You can build three different products as well as gain 1000 active customers before you need to upgrade to the Growth plan.

The free portal for education, University, gives you detailed tutorials and guidelines which show you not only how to build a course, but how you can turn your learning into a lucrative enterprise.

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