How to Create an Online Course Marketplace in WordPress (Multiple Instructors)

A single course represents a product, while a collection of ten instructors each offering their unique courses depicts a complete platform. If you’ve contemplated the idea of a marketplace like Udemy but personalised to your own domain with tailored rules, you’re envisioning a course marketplace. This concept features multiple instructors sharing a common platform, students completing purchases via a unified checkout, and everyone involved receiving their fair share of profits.

WordPress is well-equipped to facilitate this model. By employing a WordPress LMS plugin (where LMS stands for Learning Management System, a software that governs courses, lessons, quizzes, and registrations), you can manage instructor sign-ups, sell courses, and automatically share earnings, all without needing to lease space on external platforms.

Before proceeding with the instructions, it’s crucial to note that running a marketplace entails responsibilities beyond merely selling courses. You’ll be actively involved in recruiting instructors, evaluating their courses, and managing financial distributions. This guide will explain what it takes to establish a successful marketplace, outline the actual workload, detail the specific setup steps with Masteriyo, and provide some hypothetical calculations on revenue distribution.

Let’s dive in and start building!

Essential Components of a Course Marketplace

At its core, a marketplace consists of four essential components:

• Instructors: Individuals, aside from yourself, who create courses and hold ownership. They require a mechanism to register and commence their work.
• Courses: An expanding inventory of courses without needing you to draft every lesson personally.
• Financial Flow: A singular checkout system that channels payments to the platform, with a predetermined share for each instructor.
• Moderation: Someone must determine which courses meet the necessary standards for sale – that person is you.

Neglecting any of these four elements means you’re not creating a true marketplace; you could merely have a standard course website with additional user accounts. The subsequent steps will address all four components, and I’ll indicate which features are complimentary and which require payment.

The Reality of Becoming the Platform

A marketplace does not function as a passive income generator; it demands operational oversight. Your role encompasses:

• Recruitment: Instructors won’t appear on their own. You’ll need to identify potential instructors, engage them, and address their inquiries prior to course publication.
• Support: If a student’s transaction encounters issues or a video fails to play, they will contact you, not the instructor.
• Payouts: With every sale, instructors accumulate balance which you are responsible for distributing punctually.
• Quality Control: Every course available on your platform reflects your brand. A poorly executed course can lead to refunds and negative reviews.

Should you have only a single course and a few interested instructors, it may be beneficial to begin with a simpler approach: start by selling online courses on your own website first. Transitioning to the marketplace model makes sense once there’s genuine interest from instructors wanting to teach.

Step 1: Set Up Masteriyo and Initiate Selling (Free)

The primary tool for building this marketplace is the Masteriyo, a no-cost LMS plugin from the Themeisle family (full disclosure, it’s one of ours!). Install it through your WordPress dashboard just like any standard plugin and then follow the setup wizard.

In terms of financial transactions, Masteriyo includes a built-in checkout that operates independently of WooCommerce: it has offline and PayPal payment options, along with free add-ons for Stripe, Mollie, and Lemon Squeezy. Every tier, including the free version, incurs no transaction fees, allowing the platform to retain the total amount collected at checkout (minus any applicable fees from your chosen payment gateway).

Course creation is beyond the scope of this guide, which focuses on marketplace dynamics. Your instructors will utilize the same drag-and-drop interface that you would use for personal course management.

Step 2: Allow Instructor Registrations (Free)

Instructor accounts are a complimentary feature. Opening up registration involves adjusting two settings and implementing one shortcode:

1. Navigate to Masteriyo → Settings → General and locate the Registration section.
2. Activate Enable Instructor Registration, to display the instructor sign-up page.
3. Consider turning on Restrict Instructors under Course Access settings, ensuring each instructor only views their own content.

To place the sign-up form on a specific page, such as a dedicated “Teach with Us” landing page, insert the [masteriyo_instructor_registration] shortcode onto that page.

PRO TIP: Draft a concise instructor information page prior to recruiting anyone: include guidelines regarding quality standards, the revenue distribution model, payout methods, and moderation processes. This clarifies expectations and helps rule out unsuitable matches right at the outset.

Step 3: Incorporate Co-Instructors to a Course (Pro)

Here’s a clear distinction: while the free plugin accommodates one instructor per course, adding multiple instructors necessitates the Multiple Instructors add-on, which falls under Masteriyo Pro (currently priced at $149/year for introductory access, renewing at $299/year). This is ideal for scenarios where two instructors share course materials, quizzes, and student interactions.

If your marketplace functions typically, with each instructor solely responsible for their courses, the free version suffices. Consider the free option as a trial phase: establish the entire marketplace first and only upgrade if the demand for co-taught courses arises. If the need arises:

1. Open Masteriyo → Addons and enable Multiple Instructors (this requires an active Pro license).
2. Navigate to Masteriyo → Courses and edit the desired course.
3. Select Settings → General and enter the names of co-instructors under Additional Instructors.
4. Hit Update.

Step 4: Set Up Revenue Sharing (Free)

This is the section that transforms your setup into a marketplace rather than a collaborative project: dividing each sale between the platform and instructors. Revenue Sharing is a cost-free add-on, making it accessible without requiring an upgrade.

1. Go to Masteriyo → Addons and turn on Revenue Sharing.
2. Proceed to Masteriyo → Settings → Payments → Revenue Sharing.
3. Activate Enable, set your preferences, and click Save Settings.

Here’s what each option entails:

• Commission rate: This dictates the division of each course sale, specified as Admin (x%) and Instructor (y%). The instructor’s share is the remainder after the admin’s cut.
• Enable Deductible Fee: This deducts a fixed fee from the sale price first; both the admin and instructor’s portions are calculated based on the adjusted sum.
• Minimum Payout Amount: This is the least balance amount an instructor must have before they can withdraw.
• Maturity Period: This indicates how many days a sale should remain before its funds are available for withdrawal. If set to one day, instructors may withdraw funds one day after each sale.
• Payout Methods: Select from PayPal, e-check, and bank transfer. Instructors will choose one of the available methods for their withdrawals.

PRO TIP: Set the maturity period to cover your refund window. This ensures you won’t be paying out money a student may request back.

Step 5: Understand Instructor Payouts (Free)

Instructors can monitor their earnings and initiate withdrawals via their account section, under Account → Withdraw. They will see their total earnings, the amount available for withdrawal (which requires clearing the maturity period), and their selected payout method:

Two important notes regarding financial operations: first, available payout methods are limited to PayPal, e-checks, and bank accounts; there aren’t more advanced payment options integrated at this stage. Second, Masteriyo’s marketplace features are intentionally straightforward, and while there isn’t a built-in course approval queue, you still have to handle course quality manually.

Step 6: Ensure Course Quality Control (Manual)

Since there is no automated approval queue, you must cultivate a moderation routine. Here’s a practical approach:

• Establish Ground Rules: Reach an agreement with instructors that new courses remain unpublished until they’ve been reviewed.
• Review Before Publication: Engage with the content: watch a few lessons, attempt the quiz, verify pricing, and assess the course page content. Spending approximately fifteen minutes per course pre-emptively assures against a wave of refunds later on.
• Utilise Public Feedback: Take advantage of course ratings and the Q&A section (both features are complimentary) to quickly identify which courses resonate well and those that may require a more in-depth conversation.

Masteriyo also provides built-in email notifications: it sends out 11 instructor-specific emails by default, ensuring instructors are informed of significant events rather than needing to reach out for updates.

Visualising Revenue Distribution (Hypothetical Figures)

The financial details in this section are entirely fictional and provided for illustrative purposes only. For example, if the platform takes a 30% cut while instructors receive 70%, on a fictional $40 course the calculations would be as follows:

There are two more options that may affect financial distributions:

• If a Minimum Payout Amount of $80 is set (as illustrated), the instructor in this scenario can request withdrawal after completing three sales (earning $84, thus meeting the withdrawal limit).
• With a 7-Day Maturity Period, funds from each sale will be available for withdrawal one week post-transaction, allowing a build-up of available payouts rather than immediate access.

To scale up hypothetically: if there were 20 instructors each selling 10 copies of a $40 course monthly, that totals 200 sales, resulting in a $2,400 share for the platform monthly, before factoring in expenses for hosting, tools, and the operational efforts detailed earlier. Whether this model is financially viable ultimately hinges on the quality of instructors and your target audience, which the plugin can facilitate.

Is Operating Your Own Marketplace Worth the Effort?

In a nutshell, hosted marketplaces come with an existing audience but impose their own constraints, whereas having your own site makes you the decision-maker and audience engager simultaneously. Running your own platform ensures you maintain brand control, a direct student relationship, and with Masteriyo’s 0% transaction fees, you will receive the complete checkout sum. In return, you assume the responsibilities of recruitment, support, payouts, and oversight.

A sensible approach for most individuals is to initially validate the model with your own courses, introduce instructors as genuine demand arises, and let the free tier of the marketplace function until co-taught courses justify upgrading to Pro. Rushing into a “marketplace” concept without established instructors or an audience is akin to constructing a shopping centre before the community is in place.

Conclusion

In summary:

• A marketplace requires four elements: instructors, courses, financial flow, and moderation.
• Instructor registration, course sales, and revenue sharing functionalities can be accessed via the free Masteriyo plugin.
• The option for multiple instructors on a single course is a feature exclusive to Pro ($149/year for the initial sign-up, renewing at $299); everything else in this guide can be achieved at no cost.
• There is a manual approval process for new courses, so quality management is a procedure rather than a mere setting you toggle.

Begin with setting up instructor registrations and the revenue sharing options, subsequently recruiting a couple of trustworthy instructors, and expand your course catalog from there. The technicalities require an afternoon to sort out, while the platform will demand ongoing effort, and now you have clarity on what this entails.

Are you currently managing multiple instructors on your site, or still deliberating between this and a hosted marketplace? We invite you to discuss your situation in the comments below!

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