An online course business allows you to sell your online courses from your website using your existing skills and knowledge. It will enable you to become your boss. This is probably one business where you don’t need much investment. It sets you free from the 9-to-5 grind. It lets you work from home with zero employees and save on rentals.

At the same time, people create online courses either because they are passionate about a specific topic and want to share their knowledge with others and, in the process, make money online. Many also do it to teach and inspire thousands of people worldwide and actually make a massive difference in the lives of learners.

This is exactly what people prefer today. Work that gives meaning to their life, a purpose, freedom to pursue what they wish, and the financial stability to achieve more incredible things.

On Knorish alone, thousands of such entrepreneurial individuals have found their financial freedom doing what they do best – sharing their knowledge of what they do best and making money while doing it. And this is another testimony to online success.

Meet Shaurya Sinha, founder of sleepdeprivedreamers

Much known for his oratory skills and philanthropic initiatives, Shaurya is a young entrepreneur, an online course creator, a YouTuber, a filmmaker, a writer, and an Indian admitted to Stanford’s class of 2025. 

He is also the proud winner of the Pradhan Mantri Bal Shakti Puraskar: President’s Award 2020. Psychology is his favourite subject. For the past few years, he has been working with children and adults with disabilities as an advocate, volunteer, filmmaker, and social entrepreneur.

All in all, his story would inspire generations and present you, too, with every good reason to not wait to act until an opportunity presents itself. And this is why we are sharing his story with you so that you can learn more about his journey as an entrepreneur, online course creator and instructor. After all, anyone who builds a six-digit online business from scratch by just using a phone and a laptop is bound to have learned some valuable lessons along the way.

Discover his journey to online course business success, watch the webinar replay

The inspiration behind the name

“I really liked the phrase sleep deprived dreamer because, for me, it was trying to realize your dreams not when you’re sleeping but when you’re actually wide awake,” says Shaurya.

And it has turned out to be true in his case. Getting accepted into Stanford, where chances of acceptance stand at just 4% on average, he had nailed it. Since then, he has ensured that his knowledge and expertise are now available for all students like him who aspire to excel in their field. Here’s precisely what he did, and it’s fascinating.

His Go To Marketing Strategy for Course Sales Success: YouTube Videos and Community

He used the power of the Internet, and with some time on his hand during the lockdown, he started creating videos for his YouTube channel. On that YouTube channel, he consistently offered valuable content accessible to all hoping other IVY League aspirants would benefit from the learning & experience that he had gained over a period of four years while he was working on his own United States College Admissions rates.

And this was the same information for which the private counsellors generally charge a couple of lakhs. Within a few months, he has built a strong YouTube community of 23,000 subscribers – people across 25 countries who saw in-depth value in his knowledge. And that’s really impressive!

However, YouTube is designed for something other than authentic learning. Once he realized that, to ensure maximum impact and enable deep understanding for other students, Shaurya started working on launching his own online course for college applications.

Being super fanatic about his academic goals, and social responsibilities, he kept building his following and understood the potential for his knowledge and expertise.

YouTube won’t let you monetize your online course, you really need a platform. And that’s where Knorish enabled the ecosystem. 

Launch of the first Online Course 

Based on his online learning platform from YouTube, within two weeks of course launch, his course was very well received and registered sales worth 1.5 lakhs. It’s no wonder that at 17; he added another accomplishment to his credit.

 For an intelligent and bright boy whose videos on the prestigious universities’ application process have been viewed by over 930,000 people globally, it didn’t come across as a surprise. The twist in the story is that in such a highly adult professionals-dominated arena, how did he garner a name for his brand and Academy on Knorish he created by the name

Sleep Deprived Dreamers?

An online journey getting stronger day-by-day

“The biggest insecurity people have is you know I don’t know coding, I don’t know HTML. What will I do? How can I possibly create an entire thing out of nothing”? is how he puts it. 

Knorish helped him bay off any hesitation initially to jump into creating his course and launch it. As an 18-year-old young entrepreneur, the platform has not only enabled him to launch his entire online course business but also helped him win his fanfare in return. He thinks all it takes is knowledge, a laptop, and a Knorish platform to get empowered.

Here’s Shaurya’s advice to fellow entrepreneurs who are trying to sell their niche Online Course – (excerpts from the webinar)

“It took me 4 days to create my Knorish site, upload my content and publish it. Kudos to the Super helpful Support Team of Knorish!”

• • • Structure Your Course Around Your Target Audience
      Just like how I did. I have my course spread into four big chunks, viz—reflecting/Thinking, Storytelling, followed by Writing & Editing. Further, before you create your first (or your next) online course, make sure you address the needs of your target audience. In my case, since the course is for the US Colleges Admission process Essay writing, I created my YouTube presence.
    • Make Content Creation Really your forte Today, when I’m happily riding on the success of my online course business, certain basics are what I always keep in mind. I’m clear that :
    • My course provides highly valuable content
    • My course keeps the learning interest of my students close to my heart.
    • Build a Substantial Following on Social Channels Building an email list of people who are in your target market is not just enough. When I launched my course, I had my ready-to-sell market waiting for me because I had created a whopping 26,000-strong subscriber community. Not just that, I experimented with my audience by rolling out Pilot Course Series on my YouTube channel before I finally decided to launch it.
    • Email Marketing, Discussion Forums Help When it comes to creating your email list, the key is to consistently provide value to your subscribers for free. I made perfect use of the integration features on Knorish. I haven’t run any Paid Ads till now. But I researched well the marketing aspects of my potential course. I nurtured my YouTube channel and used the Email marketing feature on the platform. Contributed on forums like Reddit-where I could reach a cosmopolitan audience.
    • Give enough value to the audience
      Leave your camera phobia behind and make some really high-quality content. Start getting used to the attention you get on screen. You can make your video content simply using your regular smartphone too. In the beginning, I decided to make my course interactive, where I could have 25 full-length interviews with students who’ve gotten into Ivy League colleges. To date, I review my students’ college application essays and give them one time, really detailed feedback. I try to level up my content compared to what other people are offering to stay ahead of the game.
    • Price your course according to input and your labour.
      “As an 18-year-old, I’m often skeptical of asking for money. Initially, I hesitated about having a challenging course at the price tag of 195 US$. But then, I had passed the test of creating credit courses”, says Shaurya.

His strong following on YouTube and his success in getting through the application process stage in several selective colleges in the United States, including Stanford simply was self-explanatory for the price tag his courses came with. Here we think that when you communicate your message credibility and are committed to adding a constant value to your courses, half the job is done that requires you to convince your audience.

He went one step ahead and introduced a scholarship graduate program and discount vouchers for early 50- That was indeed helpful to establish his credentials still better.

Last but not least, choose the user-friendly knowledge platform to launch your course. I can guarantee that the quality of your online course is extremely good with Knorish, says Shaurya.

So, what next? Are you the one keen to replicate young Shaurya’s success?