A Case Against Pre-Selling Online Courses — Before You Create Them
When it comes to creating an online course, the prevailing advice from many business coaches and course experts goes something like this:
“Before you build it, pre-sell it. Put the idea out there. Make sure people will buy before you spend the time creating it.”
At first glance, this guidance sounds sensible, perhaps even responsible. And for some people, it genuinely is a good approach.
But if you’re a highly sensitive to pressure, you’ve been sitting with a course idea for a long time, and notice that this approach make your body tense, there is good reason for that — and that’s what I’m unpacking in this article.
Table of Contents
The Premise Behind Pre-selling Online Courses
The premise of pre-selling a course before you create it is fairly simple. Don’t pour energy into something unless you know it will sell. Get proof first.
That quest for certainty is very human, especially if your time, energy, or finances already feel stretched. The problem isn’t wanting assurance, it’s the narrow way pre-selling courses aims to obtain it.
Pre-selling creates certainty by testing whether there is real demand for an idea. There’s nothing inherently wrong testing a course idea — It’s in what unfolds as a result.
Once people have put their money down, a different dynamic kicks in. There’s now a delivery date. People are waiting. The clock is ticking. For many people, their body registers this immediately as pressure, and instead of creativity and ideas opening up, everything starts to contract.
Yes, some people do their best work under pressure. Deadlines sharpen their thinking. They make decisions quickly and adjust as they go.
Others like me and maybe you need calm for their thinking to come together. They work through reflection, listening, and letting ideas simmer before they solidify.
Pre-selling strongly suits the first group and tends to work against the second.
If you’re already carrying a full workload, or quietly worrying about how you’re going to support yourself, pre-selling can create more misery than momentum. And that’s not a happy place to create from.
What Emerges When Ideas Are Given Time
Something I’ve noticed again and again in my own work is how much a course idea evolves when it isn’t rushed. An early version can feel clear enough at the time, but with a bit of space, a more valuable and elegant version emerges.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve looked back at an initial course plan and thought to myself “Imagine if I had released it like that!”
Energetic sustainability is often the first element that gets overlooked. I’ll realise that the way I originally planned to deliver the course is not something I have the capacity for.
At other times, it’s the structure that isn’t quite right. With a bit more space, things begin to reorganise themselves. A simpler container appears. A clearer sequence makes itself known. A better way of delivering the course becomes obvious.
Those insights rarely arrive when there’s a countdown running. They tend to surface when there’s room to think and feel into the course creation.
Your Course Is Not Set In Stone
Earlier on in my course creation journey, I assumed that once a course was published that was it. But over time, I realised that my courses naturally move through iterations.
Lessons become clearer. Resources get added. Occasionally a section wants to be reworked. Some of my courses are now several iterations in. That wasn’t something I planned for. It’s simply what’s happened by staying close to the work and responding to what actually supports people.
These days, I expect that evolution is part of the process. I don’t rush it. I usually give a course around a year before considering a bigger rework, while smaller changes for clarity can happen along the way. Knowing that a course isn’t fixed takes a surprising amount of pressure off.
When you understand that nothing has to be perfect or final at the point of creation, there’s more room to think clearly, choose sustainably, and begin without rushing.
How I Suggest You Approach Proof Of Concept
I don’t believe you need to pre-sell a course in order to justify creating it. If you’re already working with clients and helping them with specific outcomes, you have a very real form of proof right there. In that case, a course isn’t a gamble. It’s a translation of something you already do one-to-one, into a format that can support one-to-many.
Another approach I’ve used many times is to offer an idea as a live workshop. Sometimes that’s meant turning up with no slides at all, just a few key teaching points written on a notepad. That creates a very different atmosphere. There’s room for questions, conversation, and for the work to develop in real time.
Three of my best-selling courses, How To Market Quietly & Still Be Successful, Art of Responding, and Create a Tiny Course, were first offered as live workshops before they became online courses. Those early sessions were valuable for both validating the ideas and shaping them.
Trust Your Instincts
If the pre-sell your course advice has never quite sat well with you, this article has probably clarified why. Not every approach is a fit for every person, and sensitivity, alignment, and timing matter more than much of the business advice in circulation allows for.
What often gets labelled as hesitation is actually discernment. A sense that what you’re being advised to do isn’t a good fit for you personally.
Courses created from a place of alignment tend to carry more clarity, more coherence, and more care. When you give yourself room to think, test, listen, and adjust, the course becomes an extension of work you already trust, rather than something you have to force into existence.
I find creating useful, digestible courses a deeply satisfying pursuit on multiple levels. I enjoy the creative expression of words and images, the way they create new results for people, and how they allow me to support more people without adding more screen time.
This way of working is the foundation of how I teach course creation inside Create a Tiny Course. It’s designed to help you shape a course from outcomes you’re already creating, without pre-selling pressure, without rushing, and without needing everything to be decided upfront.
Have a question or a takeaway from what I’ve shared here? Let’s chat in the comments ⤵
Danielle Gardner
The Quiet Marketer
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