At Teachable, we recommend that course creators should charge at least $100 for a standard online course. But I get it, you're still skeptical. Here are some of the common objections we hear when it comes to course pricing.

• The first objection is, "I'm not an expert." This might come as a surprise, but you don't actually need to be an expert to teach and sell an online course. You only need to be one step ahead of your students to be an effective teacher. In fact, we've often seen that teachers tend to be more successful when they're not too far ahead of their students because it's easier to remember being in their shoes. Your audience will feel understood, and they'll see that if you could do it, so can they.
• The second objection we hear is, "I'm not teaching a profitable topic." This comes up most frequently for instructors in more creative fields, who feel like they can't charge as much as instructors teaching programming courses or something more technical. The truth is that your course is a shortcut to an outcome, no matter what topic you're covering, and students are more than willing to pay for you to teach them the fastest, easiest way to reach their goal. It's true that not everyone would pay $100 for your online course, but the right students will be happy to pay you to teach them new skills.
• The next objection we hear is, "Students could learn this on their own." A lot of knowledgeable people put off making online courses because they think that if they could learn it on their own, so could anyone. And sure, it's true that anyone can search online, research different methods, try a few things out, and eventually reach the same outcome as your course provides. But no one wants to spend hours sifting through information. We want a shortcut, and we're willing to pay good money to have you tell us exactly what to do to reach our goals. So although you're right that students could learn it on their own, they probably won't, or don't want to.
• Here's another big objection. "Someone is already teaching my course topic for less." If someone else is teaching your course topic, that's probably a good sign. It means there's demand for your course topic! But there's no course that will outline your transformation quite like you will, and that perspective is incredibly valuable. What you offer is your unique voice and perspective, often called your unique selling proposition. Everyone learns differently, and everyone has different preferences, so the way you'll teach will speak to a unique audience in need of your expertise and approach.

I want to leave you with this quote. Tommy Griffith of Clickminded SEO Training says, "The single biggest optimization I've found, in the 4 years I've been running my course, is increasing price. The first four times I increased my price, sales went up. Increasing prices also increases completion rates, as well as the overall quality of your students. In chatting with other course creators, I've found that most people get their initial pricing wrong by about 50%. When in doubt - 2x your price!" I hope this inspires you to use premium pricing and increase your own course price ASAP.