4 Proven Ways to Make Money Teaching Online
"What should I sell online FIRST?"
This episode answers one of the most common questions I get asked...
After working with hundreds of chefs, I know that getting started is the hardest part. If you don't know what to sell, how the heck are you going to make money teaching online?
In this show, I'm sharing the 4 proven ways to make money teaching online AND which option is the best for you right now. I've also included a BONUS workbook to help you get organized and give you clarity!
Links from this episode
Download the Bonus Workbook
Learn more about Culinary Creator Business School
Sign up for my FREE Culinary Roadmap and learn how to start a flexible and fulfilling online business.
Say hello to Cynthia on Instagram → @culinarycynthia!
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CYNTHIA SAMANIAN: If you don't know what you're going to sell, how can you even begin to think about making money? You just can't.
Okay now one of the most popular questions I get asked is, what should I sell online?
I understand why people ask this, because it's a really important decision to make when you're starting out. Because if you don't know what you're going to sell, how can you even begin to think about making money? You just can't.
I've also talked to many chefs who go down the path of selling the wrong thing. They come to me and they're so frustrated because they haven't been able to make any money online. Now you want to make sure that you don't choose the wrong thing because our greatest asset is time. And if you sell the wrong thing, you will be wasting so much time and money with nothing to show for it.
I'm going to walk you through the four most common ways to make money online and you're going to learn how you can decide what is best for you based on your experience, based on your desires, all that good stuff.
Before we begin I want to make sure that you've done this one thing. Now, maybe you're listening to this while you were washing the dishes. Maybe you're running errands or at the grocery store. That's totally fine. But when you get back to your desk, when you have a minute, I want you to download our bonus workbook. This is going to plant a seed in your brain that I want you to nurture and grow into your dream culinary business online. So let's dive in.
The first product or service that you can sell to make money online our public classes. This is fairly straightforward. What's a public class? Well, it's an individual class, or even a series of classes that you sell to the public. You can think of these as your typical 90-minute Zoom online cooking classes. These are really simple and straightforward. And the benefits that come with teaching public classes is that you get to test ideas. You don't have to spend a lot of time or money to come up with an idea and validate if it's good or not. You can just put it out there and see if people sign up and once they take your class, you can see how it does. So I like to use public classes as a testing ground. It's again, a very low risk way to put something out there and assess if it will succeed. It's also a really good way to learn about your audience. So if you do some research and you figure out that people are interested in say meal prep, well, you could then put out some different types of meal prep classes and see what people sign up for. You'll learn a lot about your audience too, when they sign up and when they're in your class, because you will be asking them questions. You'll get to see what really lights them up. They'll give you feedback and you can use that information to improve your classes going forward.
Public classes are also a great way to gain real teaching experience. So if you've never taught online classes, you have to start somewhere, right? You've got to rip off that Band-Aid and a 60-minute or 90-minute Zoom online cooking class is a really good place to start. Now I'm going to walk you through some other different ways that you can make money online, but I will tell you this. Always start with the public classes. No matter what you want to do later is a great way to again, test your ideas, learn about your audience and gain teaching experience. Now you could do a one-time class or you could do a series. I'll give you a few examples of classes from my students in Culinary Creator Business School. So my student Pam teaches a Crispy Skinned Salmon with Salsa Verde class. It's a Zoom class around 90 minutes long. It's a one-time thing. So people sign up, they attend and that's it. Another student of mine, Rosie, hosts a teen supper club. Now, this is a weekly cooking class series held on Zoom. So every week it builds off of the previous week and she teaches new recipes and techniques.
So when I talk about public classes, again, it could be an individual class or it could be a series of classes. But the key is that you are selling them to the public. You're keeping them pretty simple and straightforward. These types of classes are really great for your students too. Compared to other types of classes and courses out there, the live public cooking classes online are relatively cheap and don't require a ton of time.
When you have live classes, it also boosts the engagement of your students because they can ask you questions live and stop you as you cook. This is really important, especially if you're teaching something that is a bit more advanced or you have an audience of beginner cooks.
I have my students in my program do a lot of research before they come up with their class ideas. And it's really common to discount this benefit, the benefit of having your students be able to talk to you live in real time. It's what a lot of students want and that's why they want to sign up to learn from you live versus say, watch the recipe being taught on YouTube. So don't underestimate the benefit that comes with a live class. And again, if you are new to teaching online, if you've never taught cooking online before. This is where you'll want to start.
Do you have any ideas on things that you could teach in a public class? Press pause and take this time to write down your ideas.
Now the second way you could make money by teaching online is by offering corporate classes. So what is a corporate class? Well, it's usually a team building event or even a class focused on corporate wellness. And it's usually for a company's group of employees. Now you could also think of corporate classes as private classes for an organization or another team. It doesn't actually have to be a traditional company. For example, it could be a group of registered dietitians who want to take a class from you and they're part of some sort of organization.
Corporate is really where the money's at. I have alumni who are teaching corporate classes for 1500 US dollars and more. It's absolutely possible. And again, it's for about a 90-minute experience, max. And corporate events are only going to keep growing. In fact, the size of the global online events market is projected to be $505 billion in 2028. And on top of that the projected number of remote workers in the US will be 36 million by 2025. So while we have people going back to the office, let me tell you, teams are still going to be very much dispersed and you'll have employees working from home. So, what that means for you is that there is a huge opportunity to teach online with corporate teams. Huge. In fact, I want to share with you, one of my students recently taught a team from a very well-known tech company. And this team had employees all over the world and specifically for this event, they were based in Africa, Europe, and in the US. Now this team will always be dispersed. They will never work in the same office. And so a team-building event online was perfect for them. She hosted a 90-minute cooking class and brought in over $1,500. And I forgot to add, she's based in France. So she was able to do this from France, from the comfort of her own kitchen and lead an experience that was more profitable than most other events or things she's done in person.
Corporate classes are not just your public classes, taught to a corporate team. You really have to rethink the experience and understand how to create a class that not only teaches someone how to cook, but truly brings the team together. It needs to have elements of team-building integrated so that it is more than just a cooking experience. This is one of the factors that really sets a high end premium corporate class from just a normal cooking class. And that's actually why in my program, Culinary Creator Business School, I have a special mini course just on corporate because how you design your classes, sell your classes and even teach your classes is really unique.
Now you might be wondering if corporate classes are good for you. Well, I would say that if you have a niche that is really appealing to a corporate crowd, then you should go for it. The corporate classes that I've seen do really well, again, this is from data that I have by working with hundreds of students in my program, you know, I've seen that the classes that do well are those that are unique. They're different. So if you cook a cuisine that isn't as popular, isn't as well-known, or let's say you have a focus on sustainability. That could be really appealing to a company because it's just not that common. I also have a student, Alicia, who really focuses on inclusivity. So she helps everyone bake delicious treats regardless of their food allergies. You could be gluten-free, dairy free, nut-free and she's created recipes and classes that work, no matter what allergy or dietary preference you have. So, if you think that you have a niche or a focus that would work well for a corporate crowd, then I want you to consider this as your offer. Now, again, if you've never taught online classes before you may want to start with the public classes to get some experience, to really understand how to teach online before you jump into a corporate class.
So, do you have any ideas on what you could teach to a corporate audience? Hit pause, write down your thoughts, then come back.
So to recap, the first way to make money online is by teaching public classes. The second is by offering corporate classes. And the third are memberships. Oh, memberships. If I had a dime for every time someone entered my program telling me that they wanted to start a membership, I would be a rich woman. Memberships are really appealing to people. What we're talking about here is charging your members a recurring subscription fee to access your classes or content. So you may teach live classes every month, or you may have recorded classes. And on top of that, maybe you have a Facebook community where people can ask you questions. Or you have recipes and other content on a website. You can think of it as Netflix, right? You pay Netflix every month and you get to access all of their videos. Well, you could create your own Netflix for cooking.
Now, one of the biggest benefits around memberships is this idea of recurring revenue. So you are making money month after month, unless of course someone cancels. But it's great because your earning potential is limitless. If you sold a class to someone and they spent, you know, $39 on a live online cooking class. You just get $39 one time before you then have to sell them on something else.
But with the membership you could have a $20 a month membership and with every month that passes, you are earning more money. Now these numbers, by the way are just for example, I'm not saying you should operate a $20 membership, but you get the idea.
A membership is great if you already have experience teaching online. This is not a place to start. This is a place you can grow into after you've taught some classes already. You also need to have a sizable audience and you've got to know them really, really well. The reason why you need to have a large audience is because memberships are a volume game, meaning you need to have a lot of people in your audience because honestly only a small percent are going to convert to being members. So you may have a hundred people on your email list and you may say, well, Cynthia, if I could get a hundred people to pay $20 a month. Oh, my gosh. That's $2,000 a month. But that means a hundred percent of your audience are actually going to subscribe. And I hate to break it to you, that is not going to happen. You've got to assume single digit percentages, right? Maybe 5% will subscribe. 3% will subscribe. I'd love to be wrong here, but trust me, when I say that you're not going to have a hundred percent subscribe. So, what does that mean? It means you have to grow your audience because you need to have a larger audience so that a small percent really makes a dent in your revenue; it actually will move the needle.
So I wouldn't start with memberships, but it could be a great place to grow into as you build your audience. Memberships are also really good if you are able to commit the time to add content regularly. With every month, you have to add new content, whether it's recipes, live classes or recorded classes, it is not something that you just set up once and walk away from. You actually have to keep creating value every month otherwise you run the risk of people canceling their membership.
Now memberships are also really powerful if you teach something that requires building a habit. An example would be transitioning to a gluten-free diet and lifestyle. That's something that could be really tricky for someone to just do overnight or to do through a 90-minute Zoom class. It most likely needs a lot of time and effort and attention. So this would really lend itself well to a membership. Let's say a membership where every month you are helping your members that transition to a gluten-free diet giving them new recipes and techniques to take some of their favorite classics and transform them into gluten-free foods.
Now another example of a membership is from Rhiannon, who is an alum of Culinary Creator Business School. She is a master bread baker. She's the queen of sourdough in my eyes and she has a membership called the Bakehouse Club. She delivers a new bread class every month. She teaches it live. And if people miss out, they can watch the recording. She offers some other things as well, and people pay a monthly subscription in return.
If you could offer a membership, what would it be? What would you teach? Now's the time to press pause, write down your ideas, then come back.
And finally, the last way that you can make money by teaching online is by offering a recorded course. A recorded course is just that. It's a course that you create ahead of time. You pre-record it. And it's available for your students to view on demand. So you would get out your camera, get out your mic, set up your kitchen, Food Network-style and record your course from start to finish. And then you would put it up on a platform for people to purchase and view at their convenience. That's the keyword, convenience. Your students benefit from this because they can watch it anytime from anywhere. It is easy for them to watch late at night, early in the morning, whatever works for them based on their schedule.
There's a course out there that's dedicated to new moms and as a mom myself, I love that I can watch it any time because well, 3:00 AM sometimes is the perfect time to watch something on my phone. So you really have to think about your ideal student and what would make sense for them. A prerecorded course is also great because it allows your students to dive deep into a topic. You can go really specific into a certain niche or area of expertise because you can create lots of videos and supporting materials to help them learn. Now, here are the benefits to you as an instructor. You don't have any time constraints or live teaching limitations. So you can take as long as you need to teach what you need to teach. You don't have to cram everything into a 60-minute Zoom class and rush through steps. You can actually show the step-by-step. This is really helpful in some of the more complicated areas, such as pastry where you have to let dough rise, or you have to let something set before you can move on to the next step. It could take hours even days before you can move to the next step of a recipe so that's where recorded courses can really be handy.
The other benefit of a recorded course is that you create it once and you can sell it indefinitely. It's really efficient if you can create a recorded course that you know solves a problem or addresses a need of your ideal student, and then you can focus your efforts on marketing and selling it. Creating it once means you don't have to go back to the drawing board every month or every few months to come up with something new. You can focus on selling it.
I'm sharing recorded courses last for a reason. A recorded course makes sense for you if you have a good handle on your teaching style, you're comfortable in front of the camera, you know how to teach a recipe practically with your eyes closed and you also understand the needs of your ideal student. You already know where they'll get stuck and you know how to help them overcome it. The reason why having experience matters is because it takes a lot of time and some money to record your course and to get it edited. It is a polished final product. So you don't want to wing it. You really want to go into the process of creating a recorded course with as much preparation as possible.
I have to mention a recorded course from one of my alums Sumayya. She created this beautiful course called Sabzi and it's focused on plant-based Pakistani cuisine. As I said, you can dive deep into a topic and this is a great example of that. In the course, she has four different modules that walk her students through the different ways to layer spices, and to really bring out the natural flavors of vegetables through Pakistani cuisine. It took her a lot of time and effort to outline the course and record it and eventually market and sell it. But now that she has it, she can continue selling it anytime she wants. It truly is an asset that works for her.
Now's the time to dream big. If you could teach a recorded course on anything, any topic again with no time constraints, no teaching limitations, what would you want to teach your ideal student? Hit pause. Write it down. And then we'll keep going.
Okay. To recap, the four types of ways that you can make money online include one: public classes, two: corporate classes, again, this could also be private groups, three: memberships, and four: recorded courses. Now there are other ways you can make money online, but these four are proven. I've seen them work for my students time and time again. Now based on what I've shared, I want you to tell me which one makes the most sense for you to start with today and why. Be sure to jot down your notes in your workbook so that you don't lose those gems that you might have in your head right now.
And if you're thinking you want to do all of them, that all of them make sense for you, I get it. But trust me. You want to choose just one to focus on right now. I have students and alumni who are doing multiple types. They're teaching public classes. They just started corporate classes. Some already have recorded courses. But you cannot do them all at the same time for the first time. So I want you to think about which one you are going to start today and write that down.
If you're just starting out with teaching online, you haven't taught at all before, then I highly recommend you begin with the public classes. In fact in Culinary Creator Business School, that's where all of my students start because before you can move into corporate classes or memberships or recorded courses, you have to understand what it takes to teach a live online class and get experience doing it. Plus you'll learn so much more from your audience when you get in front of them in the live setting.
All right chef. Now, here's your next step. This is your homework. I want you to send me a DM on Instagram with the type of class you want to start teaching. You can message me at @culinarycynthia. Even better, send me a photo of your last workbook page so I can see exactly what you're thinking of teaching. And if you're really feeling inspired and excited to teach online, you have to check out Culinary Creator Business School. This is the only, yes, the only program of its kind dedicated to helping chefs teach online.
In fact, we'll get you teaching online in 90 days or less with our video content, expert coaching and diverse community of chefs to cheer you on. There is nothing else like it out there. To learn more head on over to joinccbs.com.
Thank you so, so much for joining me. I cannot wait to connect with you in the DMs. Talk soon!
