One of the most profitable ways of turning your blog into a business is creating and selling an online course. In this guide, we’re going to show you how to set up an online course for free using WordPress and create a profitable income stream from your blog.
Many bloggers like Pat Flynn and Yaro Starak managed to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by simply selling online courses from their blogs.
Why Use WordPress?
Usually, you have to use an online LMS (Learning Management System) platform to create and sell your courses as well as manage your students. But these platforms come with expensive monthly subscriptions and platforms fees.
When using WordPress, you can avoid monthly subscription fees and platform fees to provide a smooth online learning experience to your students without a hassle.
There are many great WordPress LMS plugins you can use to get this job done. The premium plugins offer better features and come with one-time prices. If you can’t afford a premium plugin, there are a few free plugins you can consider.
If you’re on a tight budget, go with a free option.
Best Free WordPress LMS Plugins
1. LearnPress
LearnPress is the most popular, free, stable, and probably the only free LMS plugin that gets updated regularly. It also comes with a beautiful design and even gives you the ability to use themes to customize the design of your courses to offer a better experience to your students.
It lets you create text, video, and quiz based courses with PayPal integration. Payment gateways such as Stripe and 2Checkout are available with Add-Ons.
2. LifterLMS
LifterLMS is a newer WordPress LMS plugin that also features a modern design and lots of customization options for creating an effective online learning platform.
This plugin also provides you with the ability to extend its functions with premium add-ons.
2. MasterStudy LMS
MasterStudy LMS is another great free plugin you can use to setup a learning management system in WordPress. This plugin allows you to create text, video, and slideshow based learning programs and offers integration with PayPal and Stripe for accepting payments.
CoursePress is a free LMS plugin that’s most suitable for schools and colleges. It lets you create unlimited courses with automated assessments, reporting, grading, and other useful features.