Yes, I get it. When I was starting out, I asked the same burning question: how much can I realistically make on Turion as a teacher? Well, since it can be different for everyone, let’s find out yours.
Turion stands out for prioritizing community building alongside selling courses. Students get the knowledge, but also a place to connect with you (teacher) and other learners – a recipe for higher engagement and lower dropout rates, which plague many asynchronous online courses. It also helps make word-of-mouth marketing for you easier because you’re building a strong community simultaneously.
Basic vs Premium: Unveiling the Course Flavors
First, let’s understand how you can sell, before getting into how well you can sell. It is important that you understand this concept, since you’ll need it later.
Turion currently allows two types of courses being offered: Basic and Premium. Basic is your classic course structure – videos, materials, the knowledge goods. Think "solo learning adventure" for your students. Premium adds a private community forum on top of that, transforming you into their online learning guru, guiding discussions and fostering a vibrant community. The students can also start their own discussions in that community.
Here's the key difference: Basic courses are typically priced like any other online course – you set the price, that's your income. Premium allows you to charge a bit more to compensate for the extra effort of managing the forum.
Now that you understand that, let’s get into the realistic possibilities. On Turion, courses can range from $20 to $200 (or even more) depending on the niche and content depth. Let's explore some earnings scenarios based on different conversion rates, assuming a total of 1,000 people see your course offerings across all your advertising channels, paid or organic.
Scenario 1: Lower End of the Spectrum (1% Conversion Rate)
Maybe you're new to the online teaching scene, or your niche is quite specialized. In this scenario, a 1% conversion rate (10 out of 1,000 people) can be an educated guess.
- Basic Course: Let's say you price it at a competitive $30. With a 1% conversion rate, that's 10 students * $30/student = $300.
- Premium Course: You might offer Premium at $50 to account for the forum. With a lower conversion rate for the premium option (perhaps students are hesitant at first), you might get 5 students * $50/student = $250.
- Total Earnings: $300 (Basic) + $250 (Premium) = $550
Scenario 2: The Average Learner (5% Conversion Rate)
You've established some online presence, your topic has moderate interest, and you're a decent marketer. A 5% conversion rate (50 students out of 1,000) is a good starting point.
- Basic Course: With a higher conversion rate, you might bump the price to $40. This translates to 50 students * $40/student = $2000.
- Premium Course: You can offer Premium at $60. With a slightly lower conversion for Premium (around 3%), you might get 30 students * $60/student = $1800.
- Total Earnings: $2000 (Basic) + $1800 (Premium) = $3800
Scenario 3: The Rockstar Instructor (10% Conversion Rate)
You're a renowned expert, your course topic is in high demand, and you've mastered the art of online marketing. A 10% conversion rate (100 students out of 1,000) is a possibility.
- Basic Course: You can confidently price your Basic course at $50. This translates to 100 students * $50/student = $5000.
- Premium Course: With your reputation, you can offer Premium at $75. Assuming a 7% conversion rate (lower than Basic because it’s more expensive), you might get 70 students * $75/student = $5250.
- Total Earnings: $5000 (Basic) + $5250 (Premium) = $10,250
Now, given those scenarios, you can plug in some numbers based on your situation. The variables for it will be:
- The number of people that see your course (your advertisement, Turion’s suggestion, etc.)
- Conversion rate (how many people bought your course ÷ how many people saw your course offerings)
- Course Price (Basic & Premium)
One small tip for advertising: Do not invest heavily into advertising without knowing how people react to it. Start small until you get to a good conversion rate, then slowly increase your paid advertising budget. That way, you don’t burn your money without knowing the outcome. Also, you don't always need to put money into advertising, if you have a really good organic advertising channel.
(Here's a marketing and advertising guide for you, if you're interested.)
(Here's a marketing and advertising guide for you, if you're interested.)
Given all the information, what would your earnings look like, realistically?
Although there's no guaranteed path to Turion riches, there are many ways to maximize your earnings potential. Your earnings depend on a few key factors:
- Course topic: Is it a hot niche or something people are willing to pay a premium for?
- Pricing strategy: How much are you charging for Basic and Premium? Do you optimize your pricing to maximize earnings?
- Marketing strategy: Can you attract students and convince them to enroll? How do you upsell them? etc.
- Content and service: How good is your content in your course videos? Do you provide tons of useful knowledge? What about your engagement with the students? Do you do your best to make sure your students learn effectively?
- Discounts with Turion: Turion gives out discounts from time to time. Be sure to check out if you’re eligible for any of the discounts.
If you’ve read this far, you probably can have a good guess at how much you can realistically make on Turion. If not, at least you’ll be doing some realistic calculations.
There is one more secret to increasing your earnings if you’ve already started your journey on Turion. Want to find out? Read this article that takes less than 5 minutes!
We also have a beginner's marketing guide for your online courses that will work on any online course platform.