A microlearning course or mini course is one of the fastest and easiest ways to make money online and start building your online business.

Why create a mini course?

The advantages of starting your business with a mini course are excellent:

• No inventory.
• No shipping fees.
• You can create and sell it…fast.
• Low investment to create.
• Easy impulse purchase for your audience.
• Fast implementation and RESULTS for your students.

What is a mini course? 

A mini course is a short online course. Lessons are usually less than ten minutes each. The formats can be video, text, text message, audio, carrier pigeon…your creativity is the limit. The entire course is less than two hours. Personally, I’m a big fan of the micro course, which I define as less than 60 minutes. There’s no one perfect definition of a mini course; the one defining characteristic is that it’s short. 

Microlearning is the future of learning. We have less time than ever to waste, hoping the instructor gets to the point. We want the answer to our questions now. The hashtag ‘education’ on TikTok has more than 1.4 billion tags (and it’s just getting started). 

“Can you share examples of mini courses?”

A mini course is a joy to behold. I like to call it the gateway into creating a course-based business as you can take the pressure off and create your mini course fast without the fear of wasting your time or investing a ton of money (you can make a mini course for free).

As I’ve started to share about my upcoming micro course program the top question I’ve received is to provide examples of successful mini courses for inspiration.

I’ve compiled a list of 50+ examples (including course tech and price) you can download here, though here are eight mini course examples you can learn from to hopefully inspire you to get started on yours!

1. Justin Welsh’s The LinkedIn OS and The Content OS mini courses

Price: $150 USD (*Justin currently offers relief pricing of 20% off for Canadians (and may be offering discounts based on your location. Awesome concept)

Format:  Video-based lessons (sharing slides while Justin teaches on-camera)

Online Course Platform: Kajabi

Link:  https://www.justinwelsh.me/the-operating-system-grow-monetize-your-linkedin, https://www.justinwelsh.me/the-content-os 

Results for students: “Build a better, faster content production system.” and “Grow & monetize your Linkedin account.”

Public business results: As of October 2022, the courses generated $1.5m in course sales (10,000 students x 150/enrollment)

2. Amanda Genther’s Sales Page in a Day

Price: $37 USD

Format: Google Doc with bulk of course education, video + text walkthroughs

Online Course Platform: Kajabi, Google Docs

Link:  https://www.salespageinaday.com/ 

Results for students:  Banish writer's block forever & confidently write your money-making sales page TODAY!

Public business results: 4100 students x $37 = $151,700 USD in revenue generated

3. Laura Belgray’s 60-Minute Makeovers Copywriting Mini-Course

Price: $99 USD

Link: https://www.talkingshrimp.com/60-minute-makeover 

Online Course Platform (best guess): Custom sales page (wordpress), Kajabi Learning Management System

Results for students: Make strategic tweaks to your copy (in <60 mins) to make your ideal buyers join your list and click that BUY button.

4. Yeung Man Cooking (Will Yeung’s) Vegan Sushi MasterClass

Price: $39.95 USD

Format: 5 short video lessons  + a Bonus Video Lesson

Online Course Platform: Shopify for sales page, Thinkific for Learning Management System (Note - if you’re a Shopify customer you can use the Thinkific App to create a course for free!)

Link: https://yeungmancooking.com/en-ca/collections/masterclass 

Results for students: You’ll learn how to make 6 vegan plant based sushi recipes. 

5. John D. Saunder’s Design Agency Job Templates

*John, please forgive me for the screenshot! I was in strugglecity screengrabbing the video and this was my best attempt!!

Price: $39 USD

Format: 12 minute intro video, 1 PDF guide, two templates, one project timeline download

Online Course Platform: Webflow sales page (best guess), Podia Learning Management System

Link:  https://www.johndsaunders.co/courses/templates 

Results for students: Organize your agency with detailed job templates used for website design, quality assurance, social media and more for use with your favorite task management platform.

Business results: 500+ students x $39 = $19,500 in revenue 

6. Julie Daniluk’s Hot Detox Weekend

Price:  $99 

Format: Step-by-step email guidance 

Online Course Platform: Best guess: Kajabi

Link: https://www.juliedaniluk.com/hot-detox-weekend-reset-offer 

Results for students: Lose weight, recharge, and be happier in 3 days with The Hot Detox Weekend Reset

7. Penney Peirce’s Penney-a-Day Subscription

Price: $22 for the year

Format: One email a day!

Online Course Platform: Not known. Could be a CRM like ConvertKit or MailChimp that sends one email/day automatically

Link: https://www.penneypeirce.com/courses/penney-a-day/

Results for students: Do you wish you had a daily reminder to help you raise and stabilize your frequency? Penney will be your companion for a moment each day to help you remember to stop, center, and be present to what’s deep and real.

8. Greg McKeown’s Essentialism 21-Day Challenge Course

Price: $79 USD

Format: For 21 days receive a video with a micro-adjustment to lean into towards becoming an essentialist

Online Course Platform: Not known. Could be Custom LMS.

Link: https://essentialism.com/ (scroll down to find the 21-day challenge)

Results for students:  Live more deliberately and find more purpose

Ready to get started with microlearning and mini courses?

After co-creating 90+ online courses, and helping in-demand experts and agency owners pivot to create a course-based business, I can confidently say a flagship, premium online course takes a lot of work and becomes overwhelming fast.

Sign up for my microcourse training and I look forward to helping you get your mighty, but mini course out into the world to help you make more money, free up your time, and enjoy the fun of helping people get better results in their life!

Also...if you've created a mini course already or have recommendations for ones to check out, please leave a comment below! I read every one!