Play courses / cohorts: teach what already works for you
People with a proven skill and an audience (or a way to borrow one).
First dollar: Can be fast with a waitlist and a live cohort. Async catalogs are slower and more competitive.
Exact steps. Ship the smallest unit of paid value before you gold-plate.
Not a topic you find interesting. A transformation with proof.
Live first cohort, rough notes okay. Record and polish after revenue.
Weekly outcomes, not 40 hours of video filler.
Email, partnerships, YouTube. Marketplace alone is a race.
Templates, community, or consulting upsells for people who want more.
Not the median. These are rare winners so you can study a real decklist.
Related decks if this one is working or if you need a stronger wincon.
What you do on paper: Package expertise into a video course (Udemy/Teachable) or live cohort, then sell it. Income = price x students, so it's gated entirely on audience and trust. On marketplaces like Udemy you also surrender pricing power to platform discounting. Most courses get a handful of students.
Frequency: Hundreds of thousands of course creators on Udemy alone; full-time earners are ~1%