How to create and sell online courses

Write the course outline before opening WordPress. Divide it into modules, lessons, topics, quizzes, downloadable resources, and a clear completion point. Decide whether students can move freely or must complete lessons in order.

Keep videos, transcripts, and downloads organised with consistent names. Do not upload paid lesson files to a public media URL and assume the LMS will protect them; test whether an unauthorised visitor can open each file.

For a small course that does not need tracking, you can publish lessons as protected pages and manually grant access after payment. This is inexpensive, but you will lack reliable enrolment records, progress tracking, quizzes, certificates, and automatic access removal.

For a course you intend to sell properly, install an LMS plugin. WordPress installs plugins from Plugins > Add New, or lets you upload a plugin ZIP from the same screen. Check compatibility information before activating it.

Open the LMS course area, add the course title and description, then create the lessons and arrange them into the intended order. Add topics beneath lessons where a module needs smaller steps, and attach quizzes or assignments at the points where students need to demonstrate understanding.

Most LMS builders support either linear progression or free navigation. Linear progression normally requires the learner to mark each step complete before continuing, so check that the completion control appears on the front end before launch.

Choose whether the course is open, free after registration, a one-time purchase, recurring, or closed to direct purchases. Connect Stripe, PayPal, or another supported gateway, and set the price, currency, refund wording, tax settings, and customer emails.

If you use WooCommerce or a membership plugin as the shopping cart, use the LMS mode intended for external enrolment rather than also enabling the LMS's own direct checkout. Mixing both routes is a common cause of a successful order without course access. Some LMS documentation explicitly recommends a closed or externally controlled access mode for shopping-cart sales.

Create a sales page that explains the outcome, syllabus, expected workload, audience, prerequisites, price, refund policy, and what happens after payment. Link its purchase button to the actual course product or LMS checkout, not to a second duplicate product.

Check the login, registration, checkout, account, course, and password-reset pages on mobile. If you sell files as part of the course, configure download access and login requirements separately; WooCommerce's downloadable-product settings control when and where customers receive files.

Place a real or test order with a separate student account, then confirm payment, account creation, enrolment, welcome email, course access, progress saving, quiz submission, and any certificate or download. Test both a successful payment and a failed or cancelled payment.

Also test the course while logged out. The Friday problem is usually not the course editor: it is a payment marked complete while the student remains unenrolled, a lesson visible through a direct URL, or an email trapped in spam. Fix those before launch.

If you want the course site to look designed without assembling the presentation layer yourself, Educavo is a practical shortcut. It is an education-focused WordPress theme with course layouts, student dashboards, progress tracking, page-builder support, and payment-related integrations described for launching a branded LMS site.

It does not remove the need to configure the underlying LMS, payment account, email delivery, access rules, and backups. After installing the theme, confirm which LMS and payment components your chosen course workflow uses, then repeat the purchase test above.