Three months ago I started listing courses on Sikho.ai, an AI-native LMS marketplace. Headline terms: creators keep 85%, platform takes 15%, instant Stripe Connect payouts.
Here's the honest 90-day revenue breakdown, plus what moved the needle and what didn't.
The comparison that got me in
| Platform | Creator share | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Udemy | 25-50% | They keep 50-75% depending on discovery |
| Teachable | 95% (paid plan) | $39/mo minimum to unlock discovery |
| Gumroad | 90% | No LMS features, you build your own player |
| Sikho.ai | 85% flat | Built-in LMS + AI tutor, marketplace traffic |
Sikho.ai's pricing hit the sweet spot for me: proper LMS features bundled with a fair creator split. No paid upgrade to unlock listings.
What I published
Four courses in the design-systems space (my expertise):
- Design Tokens for Engineering Teams ($29 · Intensive · 8 lessons)
- When to Use a Utility Framework vs Design Tokens ($19 · Micro · 4 lessons)
- Shipping a Design System with 3 Engineers ($49 · Intensive · 12 lessons)
- Building Figma Plugins for Your Design System ($24 · Micro · 5 lessons)
I used Sikho.ai's Course Generator (35 credits per course on Learner tier) to build the skeleton, then rewrote ~60% with my specific opinions, screenshots, and case studies. ~3-4 hours per course.
90-day numbers
| Course | Sales | Gross | My 85% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Tokens | 47 | $1,363 | $1,158 |
| Utility vs Tokens | 31 | $589 | $500 |
| Shipping a DS | 22 | $1,078 | $916 |
| Figma Plugins | 18 | $432 | $367 |
| Total | 118 | $3,462 | $2,941 |
~$980/mo for content I spent ~14 hours total building. Not FU money, but the courses keep selling without me touching them.
What moved the needle
1. The bundled AI tutor. Every course ships with Sikho's free AI tutor trained on the course content. Buyers mentioned it in reviews constantly — "I asked the tutor three times and finally understood." Retention delta vs my Gumroad experiments: significant.
2. Marketplace organic traffic. ~40% of sales came from learners who searched the topic on-platform. I wasn't pulling them from my audience — Sikho.ai was surfacing the courses.
3. Instant payouts. Stripe Connect deposits clear in 1-2 days. Udemy holds for 60+ days. This is a real working-capital difference for a small business.
What didn't
1. The $19 course underperformed. Conversion rate ~same as the $29 one, but half the revenue per sale. Price up.
2. Generic topics flopped. I tested "Intro to Design Systems" (generic) against "Design Tokens for Engineering Teams" (specific). The specific one converted 10x better.
3. Inconsistent cadence hurt visibility. Month 1: 3 courses, high marketplace visibility. Month 2-3: no new drops, visibility dropped ~70%. New creators — publish consistently even if quality is a tiny bit lower than your first drop.
Who should try this
- Subject-matter experts who've wanted to productize their expertise
- Consultants with a proprietary methodology
- Former teachers looking for non-hourly income
- Niche creators with 1,000+ engaged followers
The honest verdict
If I'd spent those 14 hours consulting at my rate, I'd have earned $2,800 once. Instead I have four courses that are still selling, and the marginal cost of adding a 5th is another 3-4 hours.
That's the math that convinced me to keep going.
Try the Learner tier ($19/mo) — it includes course creation, Guru AI workspace, the AI tutor, and the marketplace tools. Free Explorer tier is enough to test one course listing.
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