Squarespace Courses launches to let entrepreneurs monetise online learning

Squarespace has unveiled its new Squarespace Courses platform, which aims to help entrepreneurs in turning their knowledge and expertise into a new income stream. Squarespace Courses allows business owners and experts in their field to create an online course that can be monetised.

Examples of potential uses include chefs selling online cooking classes, wellness instructors creating meditation videos, and photographers teaching the basics of photography.

The platform offers customisable layouts and simple ways for business owners to divide their topic of choice into chapters and different lessons, as well as the adding text, images and downloadable content.

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Summary Squarespace scores extremely highly for creative professionals, and boasts impressive blogging tools. It features over 100 template designs which are fully adaptable to mobile devices, and visually, its websites are unmatched. Recently, vast improvements have been made in vital areas like UX, and the expanded feature list makes great value for money at £17 per month for businesses. However, these incredible designs and templates mean Squarespace's sitespeed can be affected and this is definitely an area that needs improvement. The customisation of the site's features and functions could also be further improved, particularly when compared to Wix.

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What is Squarespace Courses?

Squarespace Courses is the latest offering from website builder stalwart, Squarespace. The platform already has a long pedigree in offering professional-looking templates that let users create a business website or online store.

Now, with Squarespace Courses, there’s a simple way for entrepreneurs to create packages of online tuition or e-learning modules.

Squarespace Course offers creators various benefits:

• A new way to turn knowledge into income by allowing users to design, promote and sell multimedia courses with creative layouts and capabilities for uploading and hosting video, as well as supplementary content;
• The ability to engage audiences with interesting lessons and chapters, as well as a progress tracker to follow along with sequential content. Students can enroll at any time, or can be signed up in cohorts that take the course at the same time;
• Users can sell courses individually, bundled together or as part of a package with other content like memberships or video. Course creators can also choose the right fee structure for their business, such as one-off charges, instalments or recurring subscriptions;
• Creators get access to Squarespace’s all-in-one platform that allows them to create content, accept payments, monitor analytics, and leverage marketing tools to grow a business.

Boom time for online learning

According to research by UK e-learning provider Digits LMS, over 28% of adults cited online courses as their preferred way to learn – with only online videos rating higher at almost 29%. The appetite for online learning presents a significant opportunity for cash-strapped business owners that are experts in their field.

“We are always striving to create new ways for entrepreneurs to build a business and succeed online, and the launch of Courses is no exception,” says Paul Gubbay, chief product officer at Squarespace.

“We are excited to offer an effortless way to create and sell courses with Squarespace’s premium look and feel, to further support entrepreneurs looking to connect with and monetise their audience.”

With the cost of living crisis continuing and inflation being a significant concern, businesses are looking at different ways to fund their operation and keep them afloat, and the launch of platforms like Squarespace Courses offers the potential for a new revenue stream.

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Kirstie Pickering - business journalist

Kirstie is a freelance journalist writing in the tech, startup and business spaces for publications including Sifted, TNW, UKTN, The Business Magazine and Maddyness UK. She also works closely with agencies such as CEW Communications to develop content for their startup and scaleup clients.