235: Selling Digital Products to Business or Government Clients: An Online Business Success Story with a Twist


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As one of several side hustles, Ryan Dowd runs HomelessLibrary.com, a training program that teaches librarians how to confidently and compassionately deal with their homeless patrons.

It’s something a little different from the business-to-consumer model we usually see with online course sales and comes with some advantages over the B2C market — namely potentially higher prices and the ability to perform direct outreach.

By day Ryan is the executive director for a homeless shelter in Illinois, but on the side he’s also an adjunct professor, a practicing attorney, and he’s writing a book — in addition to the 3-15 hours a week he spends on HomelessLibrary.com.

(And he’s married with a couple kids, so it’s fair to say he’s a busy guy.)

Ryan was working at the homeless shelter when a friend asked if he would speak at a local conference about homelessness to a group of librarian executive directors.

His talk went so well he started receiving offers to deliver training in person at libraries. Not having the time to travel to different locations, Ryan recorded a 30-minute video, posted it on YouTube, and sent people the link.

Now with over 13,000 views, his video has become a staple training tool for librarians across the country and there was a demand for more.

Ryan capitalized on this by recording a longer, more in-depth training. He broke it up into modules and began selling it to libraries across the US.

Tune in to hear how that first conference speaking gig Ryan did for a friend turned into a successful side hustle selling B2B online courses and started what he calls, “A crazy wild ride with a completely accidental start.”

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Learn:

  • How speaking at a conference turned into an idea for an online course.
  • How Ryan’s 30-minute YouTube video landed him his first customer.
  • How that first sale tripled his initial investment.
  • How offering his complete course as a free trial lead to more sales.
  • The advantages of selling business-to-business courses over business-to-consumer.
  • Why Ryan found selling his course had more value than giving it away.
  • The tools he used to host his course.
  • How he’s using a virtual assistant to generate a high ROI on cold outreach.
  • Ryan’s #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation.

Links:

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Nick Loper

About the Author

Nick Loper is a side hustle expert who loves helping people earn more money and start businesses they care about. He hosts the award-winning Side Hustle Show, where he's interviewed over 500 successful entrepreneurs, and is the bestselling author of Buy Buttons, The Side Hustle, and $1,000 100 Ways.

His work has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Forbes, TIME, Newsweek, Business Insider, MSN, Yahoo Finance, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Financial Times, Bankrate, Hubspot, Ahrefs, Shopify, Investopedia, VICE, Vox, Mashable, ChooseFI, Bigger Pockets, The Penny Hoarder, GoBankingRates, and more.

1 thought on “235: Selling Digital Products to Business or Government Clients: An Online Business Success Story with a Twist”

  1. I’m really interested in this model! I wonder how the course was created and what it looks like, but of course, I’m not a library and can’t try it out. Is there a way to reach out to the guest or are there other episodes that get into how to build a great online course?

    Reply

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