Should Entrepreneurs Sell Courses?

Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Eric Siu and Neil Patel

Careers, Business, Marketing

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Neil and Eric explore the real ROI of selling online courses — from how tripwire offers drive conversions to the difference between being a “course creator” and using courses to build brand authority. They share a viral YouTube case study revealing how great packaging and craftsmanship fuel growth, discuss why going live is essential as YouTube evolves, and debunk the myths around AI SEO and “geo” optimization hype. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Why you shouldn’t give up on courses (04:11) Tripwire offers and customer acquisition (08:00) Course creation vs. community building (20:13) YouTube craftsmanship and virality (31:02) The truth about AI SEO and geo optimization 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HOSTS Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel FREE RESOURCES Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So today, we're going to start off by talking about why we should have kept selling courses.
0:06.7	If you look at Eric and I, we've tried a lot of different products.
0:09.6	You've tried courses a few times.
0:11.4	We've tried masterminds together.
0:13.6	We've been in masterminds together as well.
0:17.3	Honestly, the masterminds, if they kept going, it probably would have been fine.
0:20.7	Yeah. Yeah.
0:21.1	Yeah.
0:21.2	And the reason I really regret the model of stop selling courses, because I don't think courses are a good business.
0:30.8	It's a really low-tam business, in my opinion.
0:33.5	I think you're better off being the software that helps course creators versus being the one who's selling a course.
0:38.6	Community, like school, whatever, yeah.
0:40.5	Work a job or whatever it may be, right?
0:43.5	But I think it's an amazing tripwire.
0:47.2	And in our core business, if we sold courses, if you sold a course on YouTube marketing or B2B marketing, you
0:57.8	wouldn't make a killing from it.
0:59.0	Maybe you make extra 20, 30, 50 grand a month.
1:02.9	How many of those customers paying 50 bucks, 100 bucks for the course would eventually
1:07.5	become a customer?
1:09.0	A small percentage, but that small percentage adds up.
1:11.9	Yeah.
1:12.6	And you should explain tripwire to everyone too.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Eric Siu and Neil Patel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Eric Siu and Neil Patel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.