How to Create and Sell Online Courses in India: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Pick a topic and check demand

The best first course answers a question you have been asked many times. Demand matters more than how much you know: a narrow course that a clear group of learners needs will sell better than a broad course on everything.

• List the questions your students, followers or juniors ask again and again. A topic that keeps coming back is a course.
• Type your topic into Google and YouTube search and note the suggestions that appear. They reflect what people actually look for.
• Look at existing courses on the topic and read their reviews, especially the complaints. Every missing piece is an opening for you.
• Run one free live session or post one free lesson, and count how many people sign up or ask for more.
• Pre-sell: share a short outline and ask interested learners to join a waiting list. If nobody joins, change the topic or the promise before you record anything.

Write your course promise in one line before you start: This course helps [who] to [result] in [time], even if [common difficulty]. Keep the promise honest and within your control: understanding, practice and skills, never a rank or a guaranteed result.

Step 2: Plan the curriculum: modules, lessons and tests

Work backwards from the result. List what a learner must be able to do at the end, group those skills into modules, and split each module into lessons that teach one idea each. Short lessons are easier to finish, easier to revise, and much easier to update later.

Course outline template. Course title: [title]. Who it is for: [learner and level]. Result: [what they can do at the end]. Module 1: [name]. Lessons: 1.1 [idea], 1.2 [idea], 1.3 [idea]. Practice: [worksheet or questions]. Module test: [number] questions. Module 2: [name] (same pattern). Final test: [number] questions, pass mark [marks]. Certificate: on passing the final test. Extras: [notes, formula sheet, doubt sessions].

Step 3: Record and edit your lessons

Audio first

Learners will sit through an ordinary picture but not poor sound. Use a clip-on (lapel) or USB mic, record in a room with curtains, cushions or a bed to soak up echo, and switch off fans and coolers while recording. Record a few seconds of silence at the start so your editing app can remove background hiss.

Phone or screen recording?

• Talking to camera or using a board: a phone on a tripod at eye level, held sideways (landscape).
• Slides, software or worked problems: a screen recorder on your laptop, with a pen tablet for writing. Many lessons work best as the screen plus a small video of your face in a corner.
• Writing on paper: a phone fixed above the desk, pointing straight down at the page.

Lighting

Face a window during the day, or place a lamp or ring light in front of you, slightly above eye level. Avoid a bright window behind you, and avoid mixing yellow and white bulbs in one shot.

Editing

• Cut mistakes, long pauses and dead air, and keep the pace brisk.
• Add on-screen titles for key terms, formulas and steps.
• End each lesson by saying what comes next, so learners keep going.
• Export in HD. Udemy, for example, requires 720p or 1080p video (as of October 2026), which is a fair standard wherever you sell.
• Add captions if you can. They help learners who watch without sound or in their second language.

Before you record a whole module, record one lesson, watch it on a phone with earphones, and fix the sound, light and pace first. Changing your setup after twenty lessons is painful.

Step 4: Choose an online course selling platform

There are three broad options, and the right one depends on whether you already have an audience. Our comparison of online teaching platforms goes into each kind in more detail.

Selling in more than one place? Read each platform's rules on exclusivity and pricing first. Udemy's rule, for example, is that a course you charge for there cannot be offered free anywhere else, including YouTube or your own website. It charges no fee to create and host a course, and to sell paid courses you apply, at no cost, to become a premium instructor.

Step 5: Price your course by method

Do not copy a number from someone else's course. Set the price from what similar courses cost and from the value to the learner, then test it with real buyers.

1. List a few similar courses and note their price, length and what is included. Place yours in that range according to what you add: tests, notes, doubt support or a certificate.
2. Think about the result. A course that helps someone clear a test or use a skill at work can carry a higher price than general-interest content.
3. Offer two levels if it makes sense: the course alone, and the course with live doubt sessions or feedback on assignments.
4. Give an early-buyer price only with a real closing date, and keep to it. The Central Consumer Protection Authority's Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 list practices such as false urgency and drip pricing, which count as unfair trade practices under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. So no fake countdown timers, and no charges that appear only at checkout.
5. After your first group of buyers, read their feedback and see where they stop, then adjust the content or the price.
6. Keep one price for the same course everywhere you sell it, so no buyer feels cheated.

Step 6: Collect payments in India

For a handful of buyers you can take UPI and give access by hand. Beyond that, use a platform's checkout or a payment gateway, so that payment, access and receipts happen without you.

• Gateways verify every seller before activating the account (KYC). As of October 2026, Razorpay asks an individual seller for a personal PAN, Aadhaar (front and back), a bank account (a personal account is accepted if you are not registered as a business or are a sole proprietor) and an email address.
• Keep your name the same on your PAN, your bank account and your course page, so buyers and the gateway see one identity.
• Put clear terms, a refund policy, a privacy note and contact details on your course page. Buyers look for them before they pay.
• Send a receipt or invoice for every sale, and keep a record of every payment for tax.

Refund policy template. You can ask for a full refund of [course name] within [number] days of purchase if you have watched fewer than [number] lessons. Write to [email or WhatsApp number] with your payment ID. Refunds go back to the original payment method within [number] working days. After this period the course fee is not refundable.

Step 7: GST and income tax on online course sales

Here is what we checked on official sites in October 2026. Your case may differ, especially if you sell to buyers outside India, so confirm the details with a chartered accountant (CA).

• GST rate: education services by an 'educational institution' (school education, courses that are part of a curriculum for a qualification recognised by law, and approved vocational courses) are exempt. Private coaching that does not lead to a recognised qualification does not get this exemption, and education services outside the exemption are taxed at the standard rate of 18%. Most online courses sold by individual teachers do not lead to such a qualification, so they fall in this taxable group.
• Registration threshold: a supplier of services must register for GST once aggregate turnover in a financial year goes above Rs 20 lakh, or Rs 10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
• Below that threshold, CBIC says service providers need not register even when they sell to learners in other states or through e-commerce platforms, though you may register voluntarily. Once registered, you charge GST on every sale.
• Income tax: course income is reported in your return like other teaching income: ITR-3 for income from business or profession, or ITR-4 (Sugam) if your total income is up to Rs 50 lakh and you choose a presumptive scheme you qualify for. The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026, so use the current forms for income earned from that date.

Our guide on how to become an online tutor explains the presumptive schemes in a little more detail.

Step 8: Launch and market your course

1. Warm up before launch. For two or three weeks, post short lessons or solved questions from the course and invite people to a waiting list.
2. Run a free live session on the course topic and end it with the offer.
3. Open sales to the waiting list first, with a real early-buyer price and a real closing date.
4. Ask your first buyers for honest reviews once they finish a module, and show them on the course page with their permission.
5. Go where your learners already gather: your own YouTube or Instagram, student groups you belong to (with the admin's permission), and teachers or institutes who serve the same learners.
6. Keep every claim honest. The CCPA's 2022 guidelines on misleading advertisements set conditions for an advertisement to be non-misleading, so never promise ranks, selections or guaranteed results.

Launch message templates

My new course, [course name], is now open! It is for [who] who want to [result]. Inside: [number] short video lessons, [notes or worksheets], a test after each module, and a certificate when you pass the final test. Early-buyer price of [amount] until [date and time], then [regular price]. Watch a free sample lesson and enrol here: [link]. Questions? Just reply to this message.

मेरा नया कोर्स [कोर्स का नाम] अब शुरू हो गया है! यह उन [किसके लिए] के लिए है जो [नतीजा] चाहते हैं। इसमें: [संख्या] छोटे वीडियो लेसन, [नोट्स या वर्कशीट], हर मॉड्यूल के बाद टेस्ट, और फ़ाइनल टेस्ट पास करने पर सर्टिफ़िकेट। [तारीख़ और समय] तक अर्ली-बर्ड क़ीमत [राशि], उसके बाद [सामान्य क़ीमत]। फ़्री सैंपल लेसन देखें और यहाँ जॉइन करें: [लिंक]। कोई सवाल हो तो इसी मैसेज पर जवाब दें।

Step 9: Add tests and certificates

• A short test after each module shows learners what they have really understood, and shows you which lesson needs a better explanation.
• Mix question types: concept checks, numericals or practical tasks, and one or two harder questions.
• Set a pass mark for the final test and issue the certificate only on passing, so it means something.
• Name the certificate honestly: a certificate of completion from you or your institute, not a degree or a government-recognised qualification.
• Check what your platform offers. On Udemy, for example, free courses do not come with a certificate of completion (as of October 2026).

Step 10: Keep the course up to date

• Review the course every few months, and straight away after any syllabus, exam-pattern or software change.
• Replace single lessons instead of re-recording everything. This is where one-idea lessons pay off.
• Turn questions that learners ask repeatedly into short new lessons or an FAQ lesson.
• Use completion data: if many learners stop at the same lesson, that lesson is too long, too hard or unclear.
• Tell existing buyers what changed with a short announcement. It brings them back and often earns new reviews.

Selling your course on Sikhami

On Sikhami, courses are sold through an institute. A teacher creates one, free, in Learning studio, then adds the video course under it. The institute and every course get their own public page, and the institute works as a complete LMS. Upload your videos, or import a YouTube playlist; playlist courses are always free, so a paid course uses uploaded videos, and learners pay online to join it. Add tests and certificates, see in course analytics where learners stop and how they score, and send announcements to every student of the course. You can also invite other teachers to your courses, and each sale is shared with them automatically.

See Sikhami for teachers for the free teacher profile, and Sikhami for institutes for everything an institute includes.