The Rise of the Online Course Economy
In recent years, a unique trend has emerged in the digital landscape. Individuals from various backgrounds—fitness trainers, copywriters, former middle managers, and even sourdough bakers—have started offering their own courses. These are not traditional degrees or certificates from established institutions. Instead, they are self-created courses, often priced between $97 and $997, sold through landing pages. The pitch is usually consistent: "I figured something out, and now you can too."
This phenomenon is far from niche. The global e-learning market was valued at approximately $342 billion in 2024 and is expected to surpass $1 trillion by 2032. Platforms like Kajabi, which specialize in selling digital knowledge products, have enabled creators to earn over $9 billion since its launch in 2010. Udemy, another major player, hosts more than 220,000 courses taught by over 75,000 instructors. It's not uncommon for someone to launch a course about how to launch a course.
The Economics Behind the Trend
The appeal of selling an online course is straightforward. Once created, it can be sold repeatedly without the need for inventory, manufacturing, or shipping. Platforms such as Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi manage the infrastructure, making it easy for anyone to start selling. Kajabi reports that its creators earn an average of $37,000 annually from their digital products, with 70% of six-figure earners attributing their success to course sales.
What sets this era apart from previous information-selling trends is the collapse of traditional gatekeeping mechanisms. In the past, publishing houses and universities determined whether someone’s knowledge was worth sharing. These decisions were slow, expensive, and often inaccurate. With the weakening of these gatekeepers, individuals can now directly connect their knowledge to an audience, making it technically simple to build a business around sharing expertise.
This shift also reflects changes in the labor market. Following the 2008 financial crisis, gig work expanded significantly. A 2025 analysis found that around 70 million Americans now engage in some form of freelance work. Income diversification has moved from being a choice to a necessity for many. Selling a course can appear as entrepreneurship, but it can also represent a practical response to the decline of employer loyalty.
The Completion Rate Nobody Mentions
While the growth of online courses is widely discussed, less attention is given to what happens after a purchase. Research on MOOC completion rates shows that fewer than 5% of people who enroll in a free massive open online course actually finish it. A University of Pennsylvania study found the rate at 4%, while MIT and Harvard’s joint edX analysis revealed similar figures. These are free courses from elite institutions, raising questions about completion rates when the course costs $297 and is created by someone with 40,000 Instagram followers.
There are two perspectives on this issue. The honest one acknowledges that most people buy courses for access and optionality rather than transformation. They seek the feeling that they could learn something if they wanted to, which holds its own value. The dishonest perspective involves marketing that promises specific outcomes without disclosing actual results. While the FTC requires that earnings testimonials reflect typical results, enforcement in the creator economy is inconsistent, leading to a gap between exceptional case studies and median buyer experiences.
What the Course Is Actually Selling
Courses continue to thrive because they offer something the market has always valued: the perception of an accelerated path. The premise of every course, whether stated or implied, is that the creator spent years learning something, and you can shortcut that timeline for a fee. Some courses deliver on this promise, while others provide motivation, community, or a framework for thinking about a problem.
The demand for reskilling is growing rapidly. A recent report indicates that 44% of workers’ core skills will need to change within five years due to automation and economic shifts. Whether online courses are the best vehicle for this reskilling is debatable. However, the anxiety about falling behind professionally, being replaced by technology, or lacking the right credentials is real and widespread. Courses effectively address this anxiety.
The person selling a sourdough course is rarely running a scam. They learned something, found an audience interested in learning it, and built a small business around the transaction. The creator economy has made this possible on a scale that previous generations never experienced. What has changed is not the existence of knowledgeable individuals, but the infrastructure that turned sharing into selling and the economic pressures that turned side projects into survival strategies.
Created by humans, assisted by AI.
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