How to Monetize Your Knowledge with AI (Without Selling a Course)

This playbook gives you the exact framework for monetizing your knowledge without ever selling a traditional online course. It is designed to save you from the oversaturated, high-churn, and low-margin business of selling courses, and instead build a sustainable, high-revenue business by giving your knowledge away for free.

I built a business that has generated over $10M in revenue, and the majority of that revenue came from giving away courses and trainings for free.

We will walk through the five core models for monetizing free content: SaaS, Productized Services, Coaching, Digital Assets, and Affiliate Marketing.

The UBI Strategy: Useful But Incomplete

The core of this model is the “Useful But Incomplete” (UBI) strategy.

You teach the “what”, the “why”, and the “how” for free, but you sell the easy button aka implementation.

You provide immense value, establish yourself as the expert, and then sell a product or service that makes the implementation faster, easier, or more effective.

The KEY: After watching your training, people should be able to implement without your product, but the key lies in your product making the implementation faster, easier, or more effective (even more powerful when you stack it with authority & proof)

The mistake most people make:

• They either hold back too much (no trust, no sales), or

• They give away everything including full implementation (no reason to buy).

The sweet spot is what I call UBI: Useful But Incomplete.

UBI means:

• Your free training is genuinely useful.

• People can see the strategy clearly.

• They understand the opportunity and the “big picture.”

• But the easiest, fastest, safest way to implement that strategy is your paid product.

In other words:

Teach the framework, sell the implementation.
Free: “Here’s how this works and why it’s powerful.”
Paid: “Here’s the tool/asset/service that does it for you or with you.”

The Formats:

• Courses: Multi-module, in-depth trainings.

• Masterclasses & Webinars: Live or pre-recorded deep-dive sessions.

• Tutorials (“How to X”): Short, tactical “how-to” videos.

• Assessments & Free Consulting: Personalized feedback and recommendations. (This can be automated with AI using a Custom Bot)

• Free Challenge

• Mini Series

Anything that teaches a framework qualifies.

Now, let’s look at the SIX ways to monetize this free content.

Model 1: Free Training → SaaS

The Playbook:

1. Build or Find a SaaS: Create a software that solves a specific, painful problem. You can vibe code one in a weekend, hire a team, or whitelabel an existing solution like GoHighLevel.

2. Create a Free Training: Develop a masterclass or course that teaches the framework your SaaS automates.

3. Sell the SaaS: At the end of the training, position your SaaS as the ultimate shortcut to implementing the framework.

Real-World Example: My company built a micro-SaaS for accessibility compliance. We created a free masterclass showing agencies how to manually audit websites for compliance. 3,000 people attended the free training, and 627 of them bought the software (priced between $247 and $497 per year), generating over $600,000 in revenue in less than 60 days. (Combine total launch days)

Model 2: Free Training → Productized Service

The Playbook:

1. Define a “Done For You” Service: Package your expertise into a standardized, high-ticket service offering.

2. Create a Free Training: Teach the core principles of your service.

3. Sell the Service: At the end of the training, offer a free consultation or a direct link to purchase your service.

Real-World Example: I used a free training to fill our done-for-you agency service. About 800 people attended, 80 booked a call, and we closed 15 sales at a $15k-$25k price point. We had to pause the offer because we couldn’t handle the demand.

Model 3: Free Training → Coaching & Support

The Playbook:

1. Structure a Coaching Program: Create a group or one-on-one coaching program that provides guidance and support.

2. Create a Free Training: Teach the foundational concepts of your coaching program.

3. Sell the Coaching: Offer enrollment into your coaching program as the next logical step.

Real-World Example: When my business launched an AI Accelerator coaching program, we simply created a free training that demonstrated the opportunity and then invited attendees to join the accelerator for hands-on support.

Model 4: Free Training → Templates & Digital Assets

The Playbook:

1. Create a Digital Asset Bundle: Package up your ‘done for you’ templates, SOPs, swipe files, Prompts, funnels, canva designs, agency kits, email sequences, scripts, automation workflows, and other digital assets.

2. Create a Free Training: Teach a process that is made easier by your digital assets.

3. Sell the Assets: Offer the bundle as a toolkit to accelerate implementation.

Real-World Example: My product “Local Agency Box” is a collection of 8 done-for-you agency templates. We ran a free training showing how to use the templates, and then sold the kit. A total of about 2,700 people who watched the free masterclass training generated $180,000 in sales.

Model 5: Free Training → Affiliate Product

The Playbook: Teach the method → Sell someone else’s product

1. Find a High-Quality Affiliate Product: Partner with a product that you trust and that solves a real problem for your audience.

2. Create a Free Training: Co-host a webinar or create a course that teaches the strategy behind the product.

3. Promote the Affiliate Product: Drive traffic to the training and earn a commission on every sale.

Real-World Example: I generated over $100,000 in sales as an affiliate for a partner’s product using this exact model. We co-hosted a training, and all my team did was to do was send attendees to attend a free training. I didn’t have to build the product, create the funnel, or handle customer support.

Other affiliates and partners promoting my products generated over $7M sales for us and more than 50% of that revenue came from those affiliates sending people to watch our free webinar or enroll for our free masterclasses, bootcamps & courses.