TLDR – What’s The Verdict on Skool?
Sam Ovens’ Skool platform offers an all-in-one solution for online course creators to compile their educational content while building a community. The platform even leverages gamification elements such as points and rankings to help create a sense of competition between the students.
A great online learning platform is a lot like a well-designed theme park.
A theme park needs to have a series of elements and if it’s missing just one, you won’t enjoy your time as much.
For example, the park needs to have exciting rides (content), games (interactive features), food and drinks (benchmarks), and a fun and supportive staff (community).
All of these elements need to come together in perfect harmony and while I believe that Skool has the potential to be that well-designed theme park for course creators, it’s not a one-size-fits-all-solution.
While Skool provides a legitimate and valuable platform for many course creators, it doesn’t necessarily address all the challenges you might face in your journey to build a successful online course business.
Challenges such as:
- Creating high-quality, compelling course content
- Attracting and nurturing a targeted audience
- Implementing effective marketing strategies
- Providing personalized support and feedback
- Continuously updating and improving your courses
Without developing expertise in these areas, you risk losing students’ interest and engagement, even with a powerful platform like Skool.
Not to mention the ongoing and never ending challenge of getting new students into the program.
Instead of relying on constant course sales to take control of your financial future – I have a better solution that is passive, simple, and capable of earning you thousands per month. Digital Leasing.
The idea behind Digital Leasing is straightforward – create digital assets that attract potential customers, lease those assets to local businesses, and enjoy passive monthly income.
With Digital Leasing, you don’t have to worry about creating extensive course content, constantly engaging students, or relying on a platform’s features to keep your business afloat.
This is a simple, effective business model built on delivering value to local businesses in your area.
So, if you’d like to discover more about Digital Leasing, click here.
If you’re still curious about Sam Ovens’ Skool platform, let’s dive deeper into its features and benefits.
Who Benefits From Skool and Who Doesn’t?
Sam Ovens’ Skool platform is designed to empower online course creators and foster engaged learning for community members. However, not everyone may find it to be the perfect fit for their unique needs and goals.
Let’s explore the types of individuals who would thrive using Skool and those who might be better off seeking alternative solutions.
Who Benefits
- Experienced course creators looking to streamline their content delivery and community management. Skool’s all-in-one approach can simplify their workflow and enhance student engagement.
- Educators who value gamification and interactive learning. Skool’s features, such as points, levels, and rewards, can motivate students and encourage active participation.
- Instructors who prioritize building a strong community platform. Skool’s emphasis on social interaction and collaboration can help foster a sense of belonging and support among community members.
Who Doesn’t Benefit?
- Beginners who are just starting their online course creation journey. While Skool offers a user-friendly interface, it may be more suitable for those with some experience in course development and delivery.
- Course creators who require advanced customization options. Skool’s platform, while feature-rich, may not offer the level of flexibility and control that some instructors need to create highly specialized courses.
- Educators who primarily focus on self-paced, asynchronous learning. While Skool supports this type of content, its strength lies in fostering real-time interaction and engagement, which may not be a priority for all course creators.
My main takeaway after diving into Skool and looking at the platform is that it’s best left for people who have created courses before but are looking for a way to bring that “in-person” learning experience online with a bigger and more active online community.
If you’re looking to increase your online marketing experience before creating a course, consider looking into Digital Course Academy or Course From Scratch.
1,000 FT View of Sam Ovens Skool
While the competition isn’t as fierce as some other businesses, there are still numerous options in the online course platform market that have owned the space for quite some time.
Skool intends on separating itself from the pack with it’s focus on community and gamification. Let’s take a look at what else might make it stand out.
Business Model
Creating and selling online courses has become an increasingly popular business model in recent years. With the rise of platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and Skillshare, more and more entrepreneurs and experts are turning to online education as a way to share their knowledge and generate passive income.
In fact, influencers like Russell Brunson and Dean Graziosi have built entire businesses on providing adjacent tools and education to help course creators.
Skool aims to support this business model by providing course creators with the tools and features they need to create high-quality, engaging courses and build loyal student communities.
By streamlining the course creation and delivery process, Skool allows instructors to focus on what they do best: teaching and sharing their expertise.
About Sam Ovens
Sam Ovens is a New Zealand-born entrepreneur and digital marketer who has built a reputation as a leading expert in the online course creation space. He’s the founder of Consulting.com, a training company that helps consultants and coaches grow their businesses through online courses and coaching programs.
With Skool, Ovens brings his extensive experience and knowledge of online course creation to a wider audience. His goal is to empower more entrepreneurs and experts to share their knowledge and create successful online course businesses.
Sam Ovens Skool Cost
The Sam Ovens Skool cost is just about as simple as it gets. It’s $99 per month per group of students. You can have unlimited students in a group with unlimited courses so I find it hard to understand why you would need to create multiple groups unless you have totally different educational models.
We also can’t forget about the dreaded transaction cost of 2.9% of all sales.
There’s also a 14-day free trial you can use to play around with the platform and see how it works. All-in-all, I like the simplicity of this pricing structure. No need to think too hard about it, sign up, or not.
What Makes This Different?… or Not?
In the world of online course platforms, Skool faces stiff competition from established players like Teachable and Kajabi. So, what sets Skool apart from these other platforms?
One key differentiator is the Skool community building and engagement. While platforms like Teachable and Kajabi offer basic community features, Skool takes it a step further with its robust tools for creating and managing student communities.
This focus on social interaction and collaboration is designed to help course creators build loyal, engaged student bases that are more likely to complete courses and purchase additional offerings.
Another unique aspect of Skool is its gamification features. By incorporating elements like points, badges, and leaderboards, Skool aims to make the learning experience more fun and rewarding for students. This approach has been shown to increase motivation and engagement, leading to better learning outcomes.
Finally, Skool benefits from the expertise and reputation of its founder, Sam Ovens. As a well-known figure in the online course creation space, Ovens brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the platform.
His involvement lends credibility to Skool and may attract course creators who are familiar with his work and teaching style.
But then again, he’s not the only one. There’s a lot of marketing training out there with authoritative figures like Douglas James or Mike Gandia.
Personal Opinion
As someone who has extensively researched and used various online learning platforms, I have a deep understanding of what separates great platforms from ones that are just so-so.
I’ve also taken a lot of courses and used most of the e-learning tools you’re likely familiar with.
Skool, founded by Sam Ovens, shows immense promise in revolutionizing the online course creation space. However, it’s crucial to recognize that not everyone is ready to create a course even if they are one of the best in their chosen field.
The allure of getting hundreds of people to follow you and hang on your every word is compelling but succeeding as an online course creator demands a wide range of skills beyond what any platform can provide – from crafting compelling content to marketing your offerings effectively.
For example, you might be the best darn birdhouse builder on the planet, but that doesn’t mean you can create a course and actually have success with it.
It requires a ton of marketing knowledge, list building, funnel building, social media knowledge, email marketing, and more to get students.
So, there’s a few things you’ll want to think about before committing to Skool.
- Are you ready to pour your heart and soul into learning the marketing aspect of building a course?
- Are you capable of going months or even longer without an income while building your audience and authority?
- Have you considered other easier business models before deciding if a course is how you want to make money line?
While the platform itself may not let you down, you need to decide if now is the right time for you to start building and pushing a course.
Is This a Sam Ovens Skool Scam?
There’s no Sam Ovens Skool scam since it appears to be a legitimate platform that provides the tools and features it promises for creating and selling online courses.
The platform’s functionality, including course creation, community management, and gamification, seems to be genuinely designed to help course creators succeed. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best choice for everyone looking to build a profitable online business.
My main concern is if course creation is a sustainable long-term business model. I mean, you’re going to create a course, get some students, make some money, and then what?
Even the greatest courses fizzle out eventually.
While Skool offers an impressive array of features, it’s important to remember that the success of an online course depends on much more than just the platform it’s hosted on. Course creators still face numerous challenges, such as:
- Identifying a profitable niche and target audience
- Creating high-quality, engaging course content
- Developing effective marketing and sales strategies
- Building and nurturing a loyal student community
- Continuously updating and improving their courses
Relying too heavily on a platform like Skool to handle these aspects of your business can be risky, as it may limit your ability to adapt and grow independently.
Plus, if you wanted to move your course to a different platform, you risk losing the modules and content you’ve worked so hard to put together.
I just don’t believe the never ending process of selling an education to people online is the best way to make money right now. There are better options like Digital Leasing that helps you create passive income while giving people serious value instead of just selling them on a course that may or not help them.
Digital Leasing allows you to create and control your own digital assets, generating semi-passive income based on your efforts and expertise. While there is undoubtedly a learning curve involved, the support of a community can help accelerate your progress.
Once your digital assets are established, you can enjoy a consistent stream of revenue month after month, without being beholden to any single platform or service provider. You maintain full ownership and control over your business, giving you the flexibility to pivot and scale as needed.
Before investing significant time and money into Sam Ovens’ Skool, I recommend carefully evaluating whether Digital Leasing might be a more suitable opportunity for your unique goals and circumstances.
What’s Inside Skool?
Sam Ovens’ Skool e-learning platform aims to provide everything you need to streamline the creation and delivery of your courses. Here are some of it’s key components:
Course Creation
At the heart of Skool is its lean course creation interface designed to be simple and easy to use but in reality, it’s a bit basic.
The platform supports a variety of content formats, ensuring that course creators can deliver their material in the way that best suits their teaching style and subject matter.
One notable aspect of Skool’s course delivery system is its focus on mobile responsiveness. With more and more students accessing online courses from their smartphones and tablets, Skool ensures that all content is optimized for viewing on any device, providing a seamless learning experience across platforms.
Students and educators also get access to the Skool mobile app so they can upload content and learn on the go.
Community Platform and Online Community
Skool places a strong emphasis on building the ultimate community building platform for students, educators, and the support team. The platform offers various community building tools to help you and community members alike:
- Discussion forums: Students can ask questions, share insights, and collaborate with their peers in dedicated course forums, creating a sense of community and enhancing the learning experience.
- Live video sessions: Instructors can host real-time video sessions, such as webinars or Q&A sessions, to provide a more interactive and personal touch to their courses.
- Group messaging: Skool’s messaging system allows students to connect with each other and their instructors directly, facilitating communication and collaboration outside of the main course content.
These community engagement tools not only help to create a more dynamic and interactive learning environment but also contribute to higher course completion rates and student satisfaction.
Plus these types of online communities are more effective that Facebook groups. The goal is to build an engaging online community where members are actually engaged and helpful rather than just lurking in the shadows.
Gamification Elements
Another interesting aspect of Skool compared to the other e-learning tools is the gamification designed to foster community and motivate students to complete coursework. It features things like:
- Points and badges: Students can earn points and badges for completing course milestones, participating in discussions, and other achievements, providing a sense of progress and accomplishment.
- Leaderboards: Skool’s leaderboards add a competitive element to the learning experience, encouraging students to engage more actively with the course content and their peers.
- Rewards and incentives: Course creators can set up custom rewards and incentives for their students, such as unlocking bonus content or offering discounts on future courses, further motivating them to succeed.
By tapping into the power of gamification, Skool aims to create a more engaging and addictive learning experience that keeps students coming back for more.
Course and Completion Analytics
Skool provides course creators with a wealth of analytics and insights to help them understand how their courses are performing and identify areas for improvement.
The platform tracks key metrics such as enrollment numbers, completion rates, student engagement, and revenue, allowing instructors to make data-driven decisions about their course content and marketing strategies.
These analytics tools not only help course creators to optimize their offerings but also provide valuable feedback on student preferences and behavior, enabling them to tailor their courses to better meet the needs of their target audience.
Third-Party Tool Integration
It’s important to realize that you can’t do everything with this platform alone, you’ll need ways to generate leads, build landing pages, funnels, email marketing campaigns, and more.
Unfortunately, Skool doesn’t really offer anything like this.
They state that the platform can integrate with tools like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign but these come at additional costs to the already somewhat high $99 per month cost.
What’s The Final Scoop on Skool?
In conclusion, while Sam Ovens’ Skool platform offers a range of features designed to simplify the creation and delivery of online courses, I can’t really endorse it.
Despite its user-friendly interface and emphasis on community engagement, Skool’s overall functionality feels somewhat basic compared to other established players in the market.
I’m also concerned about the longevity of the educational product business model because there are a lot of scams out there and building a successful online course requires serious commitment, time, effort, and resources. There’s no promise of success.
What is My Top Recommendation for Making Money Online in 2025?
As someone who has explored numerous online courses and tried various business models including:
- Shopify ecommerce selling scuba kits
- Affiliate marketing for fishing gear
- Freelancing for numerous brands
I’ve gained valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building a sustainable online income.
While platforms like Sam Ovens’ Skool offer a seemingly attractive solution for aspiring course creators, they often fail to address the fundamental challenges inherent in the online course business model.
Creating and selling courses can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive endeavor, with no guarantee of success, even with the support of a user-friendly platform.
Even more so, relying entirely on course sales as your main income leaves you vulnerable to some serious issues that would keep me up at night:
- My course never gaining enough traction to make up the upfront costs.
- Struggling to consistently attract new students.
- Demand weaning over time for my course and ultimately feeling like a failure.
The reality is that building a thriving online course business requires a great deal of effort, expertise, and ongoing adaptation to changing market conditions. It’s not the “set it and forget it” passive income stream that many people imagine it to be.
This is why I want to recommend Digital Leasing as a superior business model for those seeking true passive income and long-term financial freedom.
1. Genuine Passive Income – With Digital Leasing, your income is not dependent on constantly creating new content or driving traffic to your courses. Once your digital assets are in place and leased to clients, the money flows in automatically, thanks to the built-in lease agreements.
2. Low Maintenance – Unlike online courses, which require constant attention, answering questions from students, and marketing to attract new learners – Digital Leasing allows you to enjoy mostly hands-off income. You can expect to work just a few hours per day, rather than being constantly tied to your computer.
3. Scalable and Replicable – Expanding your Digital Leasing business is as simple as creating new assets and connecting payment links. You can easily replicate the same process to multiply your earnings, without the need for significant additional financial investment.
4. Making a Real Difference – With Digital Leasing, you’re not just selling courses and stacking up numbers; you’re providing serious value to local small business owners and you get to see that impact being made all around you. By developing valuable marketing skills and assets, you can make a genuine impact on the lives of others while securing your own financial independence.
In my experience, Digital Leasing offers a clear path to true passive income and the freedom to live life on your own terms. It’s a win-win situation that allows you to help real people while building a sustainable and scalable online business.
If you’re ready to discover how Digital Leasing can help you achieve your financial goals and escape the limitations of traditional online business models, click here to learn more.
