Make an online course
Here’s a guide on the seven major steps to
create + launch your profitable online course.
1. Validating your Course
The first step in your course creation process
is validating your course idea. This will involve surveying your audience to
ensure that your course idea and content meets their needs. This can be done
through an online survey, through phone calls with prospective students or a
combination of both. The primary goal of this exercise is to make sure that
what you plan to offer is exactly what your audience needs and wants. You want
to make sure you are creating a course that solves a major pain point – their migraine!!
After all, you don’t want to go through all the hard work to create a course
than no one will buy!
2. Outlining your Course Content
After you have validated your course idea and
clearly understand your customers’ fears and challenges, it’s time to outline
your course content. In this step, you will brainstorm all content that you
think should be included in your course. You can capture this information on a
Google Docs, Word or even a sheet of notebook paper. Then you will use a mind
mapping app such as Coggle to organize your content into steps, modules and
lessons. Mind maps are great because they allow you to translate what's in your
brain to a visual picture. It also easy to organize and move your course
content around in a mind map so you can develop a clear learning path for your
students.
3. Build your Course Content
The tools used in this step depends on how you
are delivering your course content. You have several options here. You can
build your content on slides such as PowerPoint or Keynote and then record your
voice over. Another option, which is popular if you are doing a software demo
for your course, is to do a screen recording of your computer. The third option
is to record direct to camera. In this option, you are speaking directly into
the camera teaching your course content. Of course, many Course Creators do a
combination of recording from slides and direct to camera. The last option is
an audio course only.
4. Creating your Course Materials
It’s important to make your course actionable
and provide your students with cheat sheets, workbooks, how-to guides and other
material so that they can take action on the information you have taught them.
In addition, you will need to develop any branding material such as your course
graphics. Developing a course is just like launching a new product into the
marketplace. In this step, you are branding your course and making it your own
so it is recognizable by your audience.
5. Hosting your Course
In this step, you should decide what’s best
for you and your students in terms of hosting your course. You should explore
using a standalone course management system or an all-in-one platform if you
want to build a sustainable business that will provide income for years to come
and allow your business to scale and grow. There are strong players in the
market to consider for your learning management system. These include Kajabi,
Thinkific, and Teachable to give you a few examples. Some Course Creators feel
comfortable hosting their course on their own website with a plug-in such as
Course Cats.
6. Selling your Course
Facebook ads and webinars are the tools of
choice to promote your online course. The key thing to remember in this stage
is to warm up your audience and build the "know, like, trust" factor
before you approach them to buy your online course. You can attract your ideal
customer through Facebook ads and then send the ad to a blog post with a free
giveaway so you can build your email list. Private Facebook groups or LinkedIn
groups for your business are another great way to build trust with your
audience. This step takes time and it's important to start building your
audience with your ideal customers before you want to sell your online course.
7. Support your Customers
This step often
gets overlooked. The power of a private Facebook groups specifically created
for your paying clients is priceless. In your group, members can help answer
questions and provide support. It’s also a way for you to answer questions from
your group via a Facebook live on a weekly or bi-weekly basis so all members
can benefit from your answer. Some Course Creators use Slack as a support
platform for their customers, but based on my personal experience a private
Facebook group for your paying customers works best when managed properly.
I’ve created about 14 courses of one type or
another. Offline, online, guided, self-guided. What I’ve broken down below is a
summary of what I learned over the years working in an environment in which we
did not have forever to develop a course but we needed to create quality
courses in order to prepare people for certification. So real results were on
the line.
Here are the steps I go through, not always in
the following order.
First, who will be served by this course?
Make sure you know at least one person you
will help.
Second, what problem will you help them solve?
People pay more for solutions to problems than
for mere benefits. Think of it this way, if you are having a good time with
friends, then get poo on your shoe, do you keep walking and talking or do you
stop right now to get that stuff off your shoe? Problems are like that. When
you know you have it, you will want to solve it right away.
Third, what’s the measurable result you will
deliver.
You don’t have to solve all of their problems.
It can be a subset. For example, some people have expensive cameras and want to
use all the dozens of fancy settings instead of the automatic setting. The big
result is better photos but a subset might be to learn how to adjust just three
settings well.
Fourth, turn the information into a digestible
system.
That involves first brainstorming the topics.
Then choosing three subtopics. Then breaking those subtopics into three more
pieces. You end up with 9 elements total that are far easier for your customers
to manage.
The most important part of this is the three
subtopics. If you think of really good books like Choose To Be Great by Jim
Collins or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People you see three subtopics
in action. In Choose to Be Great the three subtopics are Fanatical Discipline,
Empirical Creativity and Productive Paranoia. In the Seven Habits the three
parts are Private Victory (Habits 1–3), Public Victory (Habits 4–6) and Sharpen
The Saw (Four practices). If you read these books, you can summarize everything
you learn just by remembering the three subtopics. This makes learning far
easier.
If you have a self-guided course, creating a
system with a limited number of steps aides memory but also makes a person feel
they must complete the course so they can get the whole system. If the content
doesn’t have that sense of structure to it, people often drop off.
Fifth, outline each of the elements using a
minimum of three questions:
“What is the concept?” “Why is the concept
important” and “How do you do it/use it?” This outlining process using
questions is almost like magic. When I do it with people they are often amazed
that they could breathe so much life into the structure we had created. Of
course, those aren’t the only three questions, you’ll come up with others that
are specific to your subject. But isn’t it easier to answer a question than to
just write content? Yes. It’s so much easier.
Sixth, make sure to use stories and examples
to prove your points and start every section with a story.
Stories are the lifeblood of any method of
instruction. People can often remember the point of a story after hearing it
just once.
This covers the
content aspects of what I do to create a self-guided course. If your course is
guided you also have a social system to manage but I’ll need to save that for
anyone that asks about that.
It’s more
important to determine who you can sell the course to immediately first before
you create the course. I work with some of the most successful subject
matter experts in the world who also have online courses. You need to
first understand the market you intend to sell to and what they need first and
then build your course around their needs, not yours! You can have
created the best course in the world, but if you don’t have anyone to sell the
course too then it’s not the best course in the world. It’s just a course that
no one takes.
So,
BEFORE you create your course - Ask yourself, if I sold my course tomorrow who
would immediately buy it from me and why?
Then
ask yourself do they HAVE to buy it or will they CHOOSE to buy it? Let me
explain. Many professionals choose to buy and engage in an online course
because:
1.
they earn their re-certification credits to apply
to their continuing education requirements
2.
they don’t have to travel anywhere to take the
course
3.
and they can access the course 24/7, 365 days a
year in their pajama’s at 12 O’clock at night, 2 in the morning on their lunch
break at work.
Do they have to engage in your course to earn professional development credits because if they don’t earn their continuing education credits by midnight they loose their designation and can’t go to work tomorrow.
If the answer is YES, that’s a pretty compelling reason for you to start to create your a course and sell it!
Do they have to engage in your course to earn professional development credits because if they don’t earn their continuing education credits by midnight they loose their designation and can’t go to work tomorrow.
If the answer is YES, that’s a pretty compelling reason for you to start to create your a course and sell it!
How
to promote and sell your course:
·
Create a Course Outline
·
promotional course video or presentation
·
Instructor’s profile and expertise
·
Show course curriculum
·
Create Course Content (audio/video, presentations,
pdf)
·
Set a Price for Your Course
·
Host/publish Course Online
·
Get Students for Your Course
Once
you have your course online start promoting the same on all social media
platforms to get more and more students.
Here
is a brief run-down of course market place platforms :
·
edX
There
has never been a better time to build a business in online education industry.
If you plan to Build a Successful Online Course Business platform then consult
with Foldcode Solutions at no cost.
Consult
your idea with e-learning solutions development company will help you to
execute your idea in reality:
·
Execute development plan
·
Validate market demand
·
Create a compelling and unique brand
·
Start reach out to your audience
·
Get people on your platform
·
Offer flexible course hosting model
·
Focus on customer success
·
Marketing Strategy to scale business
How
to promote and sell your course:
·
Create a Course Outline
·
promotional course video or presentation
·
Instructor’s profile and expertise
·
Show course curriculum
·
Create Course Content (audio/video, presentations,
pdf)
·
Set a Price for Your Course
·
Host/publish Course Online
·
Get Students for Your Course
Once
you have your course online start promoting the same on all social media
platforms to get more and more students.
Here
is a brief run-down of course market place platforms :
·
edX
There
has never been a better time to build a business in online education industry.
If you plan to Build a Successful Online Course Business platform then consult
with Foldcode Solutions at no cost.
Consult
your idea with e-learning solutions development company will help you to
execute your idea in reality:
·
Execute development plan
·
Validate market demand
·
Create a compelling and unique brand
·
Start reach out to your audience
·
Get people on your platform
·
Offer flexible course hosting model
·
Focus on customer success
·
Marketing Strategy to scale business
Here’s
what I recommend in my step-by-step guide to creating
and selling profitable online courses:
Step
1: Come up with a profitable topic idea for your course
There
are three sources of inspiration I recommend for this:
·
Look at what’s already bringing
you revenue. What are people paying you for?
·
Survey your audience, asking them questions like
“what’s your biggest challenge with [topic idea that you’ve brainstormed]” and
“what would solving this problem allow you to achieve” (so that you can
understand just how much of a burning pain the challenge is for them). I’ve
included 5 other questions to ask (and a framework for how many people to
survey) in my online course guide.
·
Find a gap in the market. Go on sites like Quora
and Reddit, and, in the communities focused on your topic, search for terms
that suggest that people are looking for a solution. Things like “how do you”,
“how do I”, “I’m struggling with”, etc…
·
Step 2: Plan your course content
When
students pay you for a course, they’re not paying you for information; they’re
paying you for a successful outcome.
So
when planning your content, start with that successful outcome and
work backwards.
What
is the end result you want your student to achieve?
When
you build your outline, the answer to that question goes at the very top.
Then,
your first course module will reaffirm to the student why they’ll be doing
everything they’re doing for the rest of the course.
After
that, break the end result down into the various steps that need to be taken to
achieve it, and plan to build one module for each big step.
Step
3: Create your course content
The
four primary content formats you see in online courses are video, audio,
digital downloads (PDF’s, worksheets, etc…) and text.
The
“gold standard” for is video, and here’s why: it’s multi-sensory (students
see andhear the content), and so it can be more engaging, more
interesting and more “sticky” than other formats.
One report by Forrester Research suggested
that when it comes to delivering information, 1 minute of video is
worth 1.8 million words.
For
that reason, I recommend that you include at least some video
content in your course.
The complete guide to creating
an online course has expert tips on how to produce content in
each of the four formats.
Step
4: Name your course
After
studying thousands of course names, we found that the most effective ones tend
to have three things in common:
·
Great course names are targeted, making
clear exactly who this course is for. “Knife Skills 101: Learn
To Cut With Confidence” is a much better name than “Knife Skills” because it
tells the prospect what level of skill the course is meant for.
·
Great course names are results-oriented,
conveying the result that the student can expect. “Knife Skills 101: Learn To
Cut With Confidence” is also a better name than “Knife Skills” because it tells
the student what outcome they’ll get at the end.
·
Great course names are unambiguous, not
using fluffy language or jargon that confuses the student and makes them think
too hard about what the course is about. “Knife Skills 101: Learn To Cut With
Confidence” leaves no question as to the course topic, whereas something like
“Blade Mastery” might sound “cool” but isn’t clear.
Step
5: Price your course
Course
pricing can be a really complicated topic, but it doesn’t have to be.
I
suggest a simple model of goal-based pricing.
What
is it that you want out of your course?
·
Do you want to reach the highest number of
people? Offer it for free.
·
Do you want to make the highest total
number of sales? Price your course low enough to make it a “no-brainer”
(think under $30 in most markets).
·
Do you want to earn the most total revenue?
Price high. It’s a lot easier to earn $1K selling a $1K course to one person
than by selling a $20 course to 50 people.
At
this point, you’re ready to sell!
Step
6: Sell your course
The
best way to sell your course is with email marketing, using a series of emails
that takes your subscriber through all of the stages of the course buyer’s
journey:
This
is where all of that research you did to come up with
your course will come in handy.
(For
tips on building your email list if you don’t yet have one, see this guide).
Here
are the questions we need to answer:
Before
moving on to the next step, make sure that you can confidently answer these
questions. If you need to, go back to the research steps outlined in our
previous guide and dig in until you uncover the answers you need.
Once
you’re ready, let’s start mapping out your email sequence:
A
5-Email Online Course Sales Sequence Template
You
can get endlessly sophisticated and complex with your email sequence — and you
will, as you grow! — but to get started, keep it simple.
Use
this template to write your five-step online course sales sequence.
If
you’re selling an evergreen course, then you can set this
email drip up to automatically send to every subscriber who joins your list, no
matter when they join.
On
the other hand, if you’re running a course launch, then you can
send this sequence at the same time to your entire list.
Email
1: Introduce and Engage
First
things first: introduce yourself, show your subscriber what this is all about,
and get them thinking about the problem you’re going to solve for them.
You
wouldn’t buy a course on improving your golf swing if you hadn’t thought about
golf in a few months, and your prospects won’t buy your course unless the
problem you’re solving is top of mind for them.
So
in this first email, we’re going to introduce ourselves, tell a story and get
them thinking about the problem with a gentle nudge, and an invitation to
engage.
Subject:
“My 3-year old has better knife skills than you”
Hi
Jane,
I’ll
never forget the condescending way he said it.
I
was watching an episode of Ultimate Recipe Showdown, a show where home cooks
were invited into a professional kitchen studio to pit their best recipes
against one another.
One
contestant, frantically working to finish her dish before time ran out, drew the
attention of Michael Psilakis, one of the “celebrity chef” judges.
"My
3-year old has better knife skills,” he commented as she rushed to chop an
onion, leaving a pile of uneven, jagged bits on the board.
In
that moment, I realized two things:
First,
that either he’s a jerk, or the producers told him to act like one...
And
second, that my “knife skills” — although I never thought of them in that way —
were exactly like hers!
I
had never given much thought to how to properly use a knife in the kitchen, and
yet I often ended up with dishes that:
·
Looked NOTHING like the photos in the
recipe (I’d call them “rustic”, but really they were just sloppy)
·
Took way, way longer to cook than
recipes said they should (I didn’t realize this at the time, but that had
everything to do with knife skills, or my lack thereof)
·
Came out wrong because I’d see steps in
the recipe that seemed tedious, and skip them altogether (“Butterfly the
chicken? NOPE”).
I
have to be honest: even though they were directed at some lady I’d never met,
Michael’s comments made me feel pretty bad about myself. Despite the fact that
I liked to cook, I was a complete amateur when it came to knife skills.
I’ll
always remember that moment as the one when I decided to do something about it.
And
I’m glad I did.
After
years of practice, and lots of trial-and-error, I’m more confident in the
kitchen than ever.
I
see recipes that call for complicated cuts — did somebody call for a brunoise?
— or chopping huge piles of vegetables, and I’ll just smile and say “bring it
on.”
It’s
made cooking at home SO much more fun, and the look on my friends’ faces when
they see me in the kitchen is priceless.
“I
didn’t know you were a chef!”
(I’m
not, of course. I’ve just learned out how to cut like one.)
It
may seem like a trivial thing, but I can honestly say that developing great
knife skills has changed my life.
And
if you’ve ever been frustrated by how long a recipe takes to make, or backed down
from cooking a dish because you were intimidated by it, or felt bad that you
couldn’t impress your date with a gorgeous meal…then it can change your life,
too.
And
tomorrow, I’ll show you how.
But
first, a question: what’s your “white whale” recipe? The one you’ve always
dreamed of being able to cook, but have shied away from?
Reply
to this email and let me know.
Best,
- Remy
What
do you notice about this email?
·
It tells a story. Stories are the best way to grab
your subscribers’ attention and engage them. Humans crave stories, especially
ones with vivid descriptions and specific details.
·
It agitates the problem. We’re going beyond saying
“having bad knife skills is bad.” We’re showing just how deeply the problem can
affect us.
·
It invites the reader to engage. It takes them from
thinking about the problem as YOU — the writer — faced it, and gets them to think
about how the problem impacts THEM.
Hopefully,
you also notice that this email feels like a human wrote it,
rather than a salesperson. In fact, there’s no pitch at all!
The
primary intention is to begin to build a relationship with the subscriber,
based on a shared frustration with the same problem.
Email
2: Share Key Insights
Now
that your prospect is thinking about the problem, let’s share some valuable
insights with them that can help them take the first steps toward solving it.
Why
would we do that?
Why
would we help them for free, while we’re trying to get them to pay
us for a course?
The
simple answer is trust.
Put
yourself into the reader’s shoes. Wouldn’t you be more likely to buy from
someone who has already delivered something of great value to you
(for free)?
Of
course you would. You’d trust them more, because they’ve shown
you that they can help you.
The
key insights you share in this email aren’t going to be the ultimate solution
that your course is; they’ll simply be useful tidbits that help your reader
take the first few steps toward success.
As
you see in these examples, don’t be afraid to get personal! Sharing stories
from your own journey lets your subscribers get to know you, which helps to
build trust…after all, we’d all rather buy from people we know.
Subject:
The most important thing to know about knife skills
Hi
Jane,
I
spent more than four years trying to improve my knife skills, so that I can go
from someone who gets scared of hard recipes to someone who happily pursues
them.
I
learned A LOT in those four years, and yes, I got much better.
But
I also learned that a few things along the way that, if I had known them on day
one, I probably would’ve become an expert a lot faster.
Today,
I want to share one of them with you:
A
sharp knife is worth 1,000 hours of practice
A
friend of mine is a restaurant chef, and I asked him to come over and teach me
a few things.
Secretly,
I was also excited to show him the fancy German knife I had bought a few months
prior. I had been practicing with it, and it just looked so…cool.
The
first thing he does is show me a technique for slicing tomatoes (I could never
do this without getting tomato juice all over the cutting board).
Ready
for him to tell me how impressed he was, I sheepishly hand him my expensive
knife.
He
takes one look at it and grins.
Except
instead of praising my excellent taste, he says “yeah, I can see why you were
having trouble. This thing is as dull as a rock.”
What
he taught me that day, and what restaurant chefs have always known, is that the
most important part of cutting well (and safely)…
·
More important than the type of knife
you choose.
·
More important than how expensive or
cheap it is.
·
And yes, more important than your
technique, even.
…is
how sharp your knife is.
A
cheap knife that’s sharpened well will outperform an expensive dull knife, 10
times out of ten.
And
it’s actually not that hard to keep your knives sharp! A simple, $30 tool can keep your knives
razor-sharp for life (here’s a YouTube video on how
to use it).
If
you do nothing else to improve your knife skills, keep your knives sharp with
monthly honing. It’s a game-changer.
That’s
all for today. I hope this helps you.
Tomorrow,
I’ll share something I’ve been working on that could help you transform your
knife skills, no matter how advanced (or not) you are today.
Best,
-
Remy
Email
3: Introduce your Solution
It’s
time for the pitch.
In
this email, we’ll outline what our course offers and why it could be a great
solution for them.
This
is also a good place to point out who the course is not right
for. You’re in this for the long-haul, and ensuring that you only attract students
that are a good fit for your course will help you build a tribe of delighted,
successful students.
Just
like the other emails, keep it personal! Your readers are buying from you, so
your personality needs to come through.
Subject:
Finally: Learn to Cut with Confidence
Hi
Jane,
Over
the last couple of days, I’ve shared some stories with you from my own journey
to mastering knife skills.
It
took me a LONG time, and I made a lot of mistakes along the way.
I
took dozens of knife skills classes, from the local kitchenwares shop to the
culinary institute.
I
read every book and watched every YouTube video I could get my hands on.
I
even hired a professional chef to coach me for a day.
And
while I’ve learned an incredible amount, I’ve also come to understand
something: it doesn’t have to be that complicated.
Out
of everything I’ve learned, only a few things — less than 10% — really matter
when I step into my home kitchen every day.
All
of that training was a great way to satisfy my curiosity, and perhaps prep me
for the culinary career I’ll never have…but as a home cook who just wants to be
more confident in the kitchen?
It
was too much.
The
problem is that nobody offers to teach you those few key things, and only those
few key things.
To
really master knife skills for a home kitchen, you either have to spend a ton
of time or a ton of money (or both) learning more than you need to, and then
try to parse it for what’s truly important.
Until
now.
Over
the past few months, I’ve been working on distilling those key lessons into a
course that’s designed to teach you to use a knife with confidence…
·
No matter your current skill level
·
No matter what knives you have
·
No matter what kind of food you want to
cook
And
today, I want to share that course with you.
Knife
Skills 101: Learn To Cut With Confidence is a five-week course that will help
you overcome any hesitation you have in the kitchen, so that you can:
·
Tackle any recipe you see with
confidence
·
Actually finish cooking recipes in the
time listed on the recipe (or, often, faster!)
·
Impress your friends and loved ones with
our chef-like abilities
The
course is now available, and I invite you to enroll today.
Looking
forward to seeing you in the course.
Best,
-
Remy
Email
4: Overcome Objections
You’ve
made your first pitch, but your prospective student still has some
reservations.
And
why shouldn’t they? We all want to make sure we’re investing our money and time
wisely, so it makes sense that they’d take some time to think about whether
they should buy your course.
In
this email, we’ll answer some of the key questions they might be wondering
about.
Subject:
Questions about the course?
Hi
Jane,
Yesterday,
I told you about my new course, Knife Skills 101: Learn To Cut With Confidence.
Today,
I’m going to share a few questions that I’ve been getting about the course, in
case it helps you decide whether it’s right for you.
How
much time does the course take to complete?
The
course includes five modules, with roughly ten minutes of video each, and
several worksheets.
The
coursework can be completed in about an hour each week, but the more you
practice, the faster you’ll see results. I recommend setting aside two hours
per week.
Do
I need to buy new knives for the course?
Probably
not! The course will show you techniques that work with many different kinds of
knives.
And
rest assured, if you do need a new knife, you don’t need an expensive one. The
course has recommendations for some great knives that are under $30.
What
if it doesn’t work for me?
That’s
what the money-back guarantee is for :)
If
for any reason, in the first 30 days, you’re unhappy with your purchase, just
email me and I’ll refund your tuition.
Have
any questions not covered here? Reply to this email and let me know.
Ready
to enroll?
Hope
to see you in the course.
Best,
-
Remy
Email
5: The Final Pitch
Okay,
so your subscriber hasn’t purchased yet.
But
they haven’t unsubscribed, either, so there’s a good chance that they’re still
thinking about it!
Let’s
make one final pitch; a last attempt to show them why they should act now and
not ignore the problem any longer.
This
is also a good time to invite them to reach out to you with any questions.
Subject:
Dinner next month
Hi
Jane,
Imagine
that it’s Wednesday, March 24th.
Five
weeks from now.
You
come home from work.
It’s
dinner time, but something is different.
You’re
not thinking “should I get takeout, or grab something out of the freezer?”
You’re
not resigning yourself to another night of leftovers.
You
grab some fresh veggies out of your fridge, and you start chopping, not
thinking twice about it.
That’s
what the money-back guarantee is for :)
You’re
calm, steady and completely in your comfort zone.
A
few ingredients and 20 minutes later, you’ve prepared a beautiful, healthy and
delicious meal from scratch.
It
would’ve taken you over an hour to make something like this before.
Not
that it matters, since you probably wouldn’t have considered a recipe with so
much prep.
But
that day, you breeze through it, and you reap the rewards of a wholesome, tasty
dinner that you made yourself.
That’s
the level of skill and confidence that Knife Skills 101 is built to instill,
and if you enroll today, you could achieve that in just five short weeks.
But
to get there, you need to take the first step.
Hope
to see you in the course.
Best,
-
Remy
P.S.
Remember: the course is backed by a 30-day money back guarantee; if you’re not
happy, you get your money back, no questions asked.
And
that’s it!
A
five-step email sequence that you’re free to model for your own course.
Again,
you’ll improve on your first version of this sequence with time, as you get to
know what works for your audience, and what doesn’t.
But
don’t overcomplicate things when you’re just getting started; it’s far more
important to get this out the door then it is to spend countless hours trying
to get it “perfect” (which, without actual results from sending these emails,
it never will be!).
For
the complete guide on how to earn money with online courses, see: How to Create and Sell a
Profitable Online Course in 2018
If
you’re looking for a place to host and sell your course, check out Podia.
We
all know that the market for online courses is big and it’s getting bigger. The
need for learning has created a great opportunity for you to get paid for your
knowledge. Many people earn money by creating a blog or making a YouTube video,
online course is another method of selling what you know. The e-learning is
expected to reach more than $240 billion by 2021, according to Global Industry
Analysts.
Create
a course online by following the below steps:
1.
Choose a course topic:
First,
make sure you choose a course idea that… You’re passionate about and you can
make money teaching it.
If
you already have a special skill or expertise, you can share that knowledge by
teaching what you know.
The
other option is you can teach as you learn yourself. Choose a topic you’re
interested in and as you learn, document the process. This way can create a
course about almost anything that you’re interested in.
2. Choose
a profitable idea:
You
don’t want to spend a lot of time creating a course that no one will buy. Focus
on what gets you money. Take surveys from various sites to know what people are
struggling with and ask questions about all the time. create an online course
that solves those problems which in turn gets you good revenue.
3. Outline
your course:
First,
look at the purpose of your course and according to that break your course down
into individual lessons. organize your course, in terms of modules and lessons
and give them proper titles.
4. create
your course content:
Most
of the courses are video content, make sure that the audio and video quality is
good without any errors.
5. Get
your course online:
This
is the time you need a good platform to sell your courses. Hittly is
a unique platform for you where you can write your blogs, start your own
community and sell courses at one place.
6. Pricing
your course:
It
depends on your target income and your ability to get the audience. Price the
course according to its nature.
Tomorrow
is too late, start creating your course today. Hittly
helps you with that :)
Hittly
charges the Zero transaction fee and unlimited everything to
the creators.
It
is a beautifully designed website without clutter and makes the creators feel
good because of its simplicity and easy to use features.
7
Steps to creating your first online course:
1.
The first thing to do is Figure out why you
are trying to create an online course. Are you trying to share something?
Test an Idea? Is this your main product? Are you trying to add passive income
streams to your blog? This is an important first step because it will inform how
you go about making this online course, what exactly is the end game. If you
want to just get a point across a short video that explains the idea well may
be what you use. If you are trying to build income streams then you might want
to break the videos up into a series that you can market as it comes out. If
you want people to learn a new habit or way of life you might want them to have
action items and worksheets to go through
2.
Select your topic. Depending
on your reason for making a course this will differ. If you want to share
something you know about you simply select what it is you want others to know
and share your topic. If you want to sell the course and make money then often
more research has to be done on the customer before you select your topic. What
do they want to learn about? What kind of problems do your audience constantly
have? What kind of language do they use when discussing the problem? All of
these are important questions in selecting the right topic that people will
learn about. If you already have a blog/ a loyal fan-base then you can get
through this step much quicker and easier
3.
Research your topic. You
don’t have to be an expert at what you are talking about when you start making
your online course. However you should do what you can to become
competent/fluent in whatever it is that you are doing. You can do this research
by reading books on the topic, reading blog post, looking at other online
courses on the same topic. The internet is your friend. Also do not be afraid
to copy work and edit it.If you are taking old information and putting it in a
way that specific groups, occupations or people can understand, you are
expanding the reach and impact of whomever you “copy”. you are helping more
people. It is also good to research the type of people that would be interested
in you work and the type of language they use this will help you design it so
that it speaks to them and is appealing.
4.
Create a table of contents. By
creating a table of contents or a guided plan, you now have the means to work
on your course step by step. You can see the parts that you know fairly well
and fill in the parts that you don’t. This will let you work on the course bit
by bit. I cannot tell you how indispensable a table of contents is for your
production and work. It also gives you a good long term plan if you want to
stretch the course out into series.
5.
Decide what platform you are
using. There are a lot of platforms out there to start
your online course. You can use Udemy, Thinkify, you can even use Youtube. Each
platform has different advantages and disadvantages to the content creator and
the user. Look at reviews and see which works best for your needs
6.
Record the course. This
part is the often the scariest and the most fun. Actually record your course. Once
you do all of this prep work you should be perfectly capable and able to make a
successful online course.. So do it. Trust me! It will be fun and rewarding.
Make sure to set aside time that works with your schedule to either regularly
work on it or knock it out in big bursts.
7.
This is not really a step, but rather an
alternative to doing steps 1–6 . Partner with or hire someone to make
the course. If you have a good blog or a strong distribution network,
you can hire someone or partner with someone to make content that will sell.
You can either pay them upfront to do the video or if they have a significant
role and they believe in your ability to distribute, can share profits with
them as an affiliate marketer. This option takes minimal effort on your part
and does not cost anything out of pocket. The drawback to using this method is
that you only get 50–70% of the revenue and in many cases you do not own the
video itself. If you would like to use such a service to expand your passive
income streams,
How
to build an online course website from scratch and questions to answer before
that.
According
to research, the global
elearning market is going to grow at a CAGR of around 7.0% over the next few
years and will reach approximately $331 billion by 2025. This creates a massive
opportunity for business and tutors to create online courses and elearning
platforms. In this guide, we will cover all the aspects of building an
elearning website.
3
ways of building elearning website
There
are 3 main ways you can build a website for your online course: use
LMS(Learning Management System), SaaS solutions or code from scratch. Let’s
dive into the pros and cons of each of them.
1.
Code From Scratch
This
will be a good choice if you want to build a website with custom features and
expect a large number of students enrolled. Notice, that each part of a site
will be coded from scratch, so you need a strong team of developers. Most of the
online learning websites are build with the usage of PHP, ASP or NodeJS
programming languages. Moreover, such a website requires a specific server and
database setup. Mostly, cloud solutions like AWS or GCP are used.
Pros
·
Customization. The
main reason why you would choose this approach is that you can develop
literally anything you want with a help of skilled programmers. This gives you
an opportunity to develop custom features that will differentiate you from the
competitors and create a better learning environment for your students.
·
Scalability. There
is always a desire to grow and expand, a lot of online courses transform into
full elearning platforms with a range of different courses inside them.
Moreover, with a growing number of students, you can to expand the servers’
capacity.
·
Ownership. One
more strong point of custom development is that you own the whole system and
you decide whether to shut it down or not.
Cons
·
Costs. Everything
depends on the complexity of the project you want to develop, but it was never
cheap to build a custom website. And it’s much more expensive than using SaaS
or open-source solution.
·
Time and effort. Usually,
it takes 2–3 months to build a website from scratch, not to mention continuous
discussions and decision makings about your project.
·
Maintenance. Custom
code requires constant maintenance. If something in the code or on the server
goes wrong, you have to have a development team ready to fix it immediately.
2.
Open Source LMS and CMS
Open
Source LMS(Learning Management Systems) like Moodle or TalentLMSprovide
you with a ready-built platform which is ready to go after installation on your
servers. All the necessary features for creating an online course and its
management are included.
There
is also an ability to create online courses on popular CMS like WordPress and
Joomla, using themes and plugins like Sensei, LifterLMS, eMember, etc.
Pros
·
Costs. Most of the
open-source CMS and LMS a free to use or cost thousands of times less than
building such a system from scratch.
·
Time. As
management systems, themes and plugins are already built, you only need time to
install, setup and customize them. Due to that, your online course can be
launched in a matter of a few weeks.
·
Features. Ready-built
systems are rich on features necessary to run a successful elearning website
from course content management and varies tasks types to payments.
·
Maintenance.
The vendor of a management system is responsible for updating and supporting
the code.
Cons
·
Scalability. Commonly,
CMS are hard to scale and you are limited by its features.
·
Customization. In
case you would like to add some custom features, you will need to hire specialists who
know the system you use.
·
Bandwidth. Usage
of ready-built systems is acceptable under 10,000 users, if you plan to have
more students, you should consider the custom-build platform.
3.
SaaS platforms
SaaS(Software
as a Service) platforms like Teachable and Thinkific provide
a full range of elearning features via a monthly or annual subscription. There
is no installation or coding required.
Pros
·
Price. SaaS solution
is affordable for any business or solopreneur. In addition, you pay as you go,
instead of a large sum of money at the very beginning.
·
Time. Considering
the fact that you don’t need to install any software, the online course website
can be created in a few days.
·
Flexibility. Such
speed in launching a business gives an opportunity to quickly change approach
and strategy if needed.
·
Maintainance. The
vendor of elearning platform services covers all the issues concerning code,
servers and stable work.
·
Bandwidth. SaaS
companies use the best servers to host your website and you can use as much
space and traffic as you need.
Cons
·
Customization. Though
SaaS platforms provide quite a lot of UI customization options, there is no way
of editing the code of the platform and adding your own, custom features.
·
Scalability.
SaaS solution is perfect for a fast start, but if you consider growing into a
big platform, it’s better to start from CMS or custom development.
You
can read about questions you better answer before building an online course in
my article here: How to build an online course
website from scratch and questions to answer before that .
There
are 5 steps to follow in order to create your course without wasting time on
something nobody will buy.
Most
people will tell you to go create it, waste time, and finally sell!
That’s
risky!
I
did it this way and launched my course to crickets. Months of preparation, and
finally when I launched it, no one bought.
What
you need to do instead is very simple, and so much safer: pre-sell the course.
During
the whole process you want to gather an audience around you and engage with
people (help them out) so that when you finally launch it, you have people that
know like and trust you.
·
Step 1: Decide
who you want to sell to and what result you want to bring them
·
Step 2: Start
researching your audience. go where they hangout (usually facebook group) and
find out where they are not being served properly… ask them.
·
Step 3: Outline
the course. Find the easiest and fastest way to get them the best possible
result. (break down the big problem from step 2 into 5 steps)
·
Step 4: Launch
a free live training in which you will teach them something related to your
course, and get them a quick win. at the end of the training you pitch them
(this is where you validate your course)
·
Step 5: (if
needed) Reiterate. else, just collect the money and go teach them live.
·
We heard about so many platforms/software/websites
that offer the facility to create online courses.
·
I would like to share the most important tips that
can be very useful for individual, professional to create online courses over WizIQ.
·
1. Course/Subject Identification –
Before start creating the course you need to identify your expertise. Based on
your expertise you can create an online course. Online course can be self-paced
or Schedule live class.
·
2. Create Index Content – Create
the index content based on the list of topic you going to cover.
·
3. Course Creation Process – WizIQ
- course builder helps you to create
online courses in a minute. At a very broad level courses are divided into two
levels – self-paced and scheduled live course.
Based on your comfort you can choose the type of course.
·
Let’s explore the step by step guide of
creating the self – paced courses:
·
At a very first you need to create
an account over WizIQ.
·
·
Click on “Create a self paced course”
·
·
Select the type of courses - Free/Paid
·
Here, you can decide following:
·
a) To whom this course will be visible?
·
b) Would like to enable the Enforce Sequencing?
·
c) Would like to enable discussion?
·
·
Specify the course title and course schedule
information
·
·
Specify course title, subtitle, Course
highlight, About the course and much more. Once you are done with
information integration, click on save button.
·
After clicking on save button your course will be
saved and going to live in few minutes.
·
In similar way you can create the “Schedule Live
Classes”. Below I am attaching the print screen of the overall process –
·
·
·
with schedule live classes you can decide
following:
·
a) Select the start and end date
·
b) Decide the course title
·
c) Course schedule
·
d) Subtitle
·
e) Course highlights
·
f) About the course
·
Once you are done with the information integration
click on save button.
·
After live, your screen will look like the below
the screen.
·
Install WordPress in
your hosting account and install one of its free templates, this
will give you the most cost effective and simplest start for an online
training website.
Which
web-host to go with?, Your answer is Hostgator
Best
for websites that run simple to complex operations
like online training websites etc..Their 14 years of
experience in this domain brings lot of benefits to their customers.
Benefits Hostgator
provides:
·
1-CLICK automated Installation, of apps
like wordPress,
·
Shared,VPS,Wordpress,Cloud and dedicated
hosting present at one place
·
Multi Domain hosting, based on your wish
you can host as many number of domain or websites in the same place.
·
Free $100 Google AdWords Offer, i.e. you
can advertise on google for free, $100 given as a free offer.
·
Free $100 Yahoo!/Bing Credit
·
4,500 Free Website Templates
·
99.9% Uptime Guarantee
·
45 Day Money Back Guarantee
·
24/7/365 Technical Support
·
EASY Control Panel Free demo:(Try Demo)
Discount
coupon for upto 60% off limited period offer
:
Coupon
code: HOSTSALE2017 (upto 60% off limited period offer)
Also
the coupon is inside the link: Hostgator (upto
60% off, coupon inside)
Hope
This Helps…:)
There’s
money to be made but your ability to do so I can’t predict.
People
approach me all of the time saying their courses don’t sell.
Here
are the main reasons why this happens:
·
Their focus is elsewhere
·
The copy of the landing page and ads is awful
·
Marketing efforts fail
·
Not sure about how to structure funnel properly
·
Course needs an overhaul
·
Encyclopedia of information and not an
implementation guide
·
Low quality audio/design
·
Do not utilize remarketing in their campaigns
·
Don’t have a high value upsell
There’s
nothing wrong with doing it yourself.
It
will cost you time, money and effort.
Don’t
beat yourself up about it. If you fail you fail… next time you might succeed.
10
Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course
Gone
are the days when you could just ‘promise’ your prospects that you are worth
investing in – now you have to PROVE it. And there is no better way
of demonstrating your expertise than by creating an online course.
In
this article, you’ll find an overview of the 10 major stages of online course
creation
While
this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the things that need to be
planned, prepared for and executed to create a successful online
course, it provides you with the ‘stratospheric overview’ of the major
milestones so that you know what to expect and what the journey will look like
before you get started.
Your
course topic must be something that you LOVE. If you are not passionate about
your topic, it will be obvious if you don’t love your topic and will make your
training about as engaging as a cardboard sandwich.
Don’t
feel like you have to teach a university-level profession. Think about your
skills, talents and life experiences that you have been through. Cooking your
favorite dishes, interior design, writing non-fiction, overcoming the death of
a loved one… the list of possible course topics is endless.
Hands
up who wants to spend weeks of their life creating an online course, for
absolutely nobody to buy it? Nope. Didn’t think so.
Once
you have picked your online course topic, the next step is to conduct a number
of market research tests to see if it has a market demand or not. Many course
creators make the mistake of thinking that if there is a lot
of competition in their topic area, then their course idea won’t fly. But
actually, this shows that there is a high chance of there being a strong market
demand for that course idea and is therefore well worth investigating further.
Would
you hand over your money to someone for a product you don’t understand and you
have no idea what it will do for you? Of course not.Just because you know
what your course will give your students, it does not mean that they will know.
The
main reason we get stuck here is often because of the sheer volume of information we
have in our heads or all around us in books, on our hard drives, in our
notepads and so on. The art at this stage is not just about what we should
include in our course, but what stuff we need to leave out.
This
is where the research you will have conducted in the market testing phase and
your learning outcomes, now come to serve you again. As you are
sorting through your piles of content, throw out anything that does not
directly relate to achieving a learning outcome.
This
is the stage where you now take a look at all of your content and start
grouping together your similar themes, tips, and ideas into modules and then
ordering the lectures within those modules into the most progressive and
logical manner so that they form a flowing sequence of lessons.
You
need to make sure that you have a balance of visual, audio and practical
methodologies so that everyone is engaged and provided with the optimum
learning experience.
I
believe course creation is just like a new product launch. If I have to
summarize in 10 steps, here they are:
1.
Choose a profitable topic.
2.
Reach out to your audience and asking the right
questions. Understand your audience's goal and pain points.
3.
Find more about your competition so that you can
find a differentiating factor (Unique Value Proposition.)
4.
Narrow down to your niche and build your audience.
5.
Define the title, outcome, why you and your story.
6.
Price your course.
7.
Validate your course with a small group using
either the drip method or providing a mini-course.
8.
Create effective content. This step can go parallel
or before validating the course step (step 7), depending on the approach you
take (drip vs min-course.)
9.
Find a place to host your content.
10.
Launch, market, and scale.
Sounds
easy, right? Not that easy. Each step can quickly elaborate into more and more.
You need the right tools and the right skills to carry out the entire process.
PHASE
1: IDEA
·
Come up with an idea for your course
·
Get feedback from existing audience using Google
Forms
·
Start building an email list for the course launch
·
Organize all of your ideas into a course plan
·
Test your ideas without going all in and creating a
full blown course
·
Come up with a name for the course
·
Check for existing trademarks to stay out of
trouble
PHASE
2: CREATE
·
Purchase or gather necessary equipment
·
Record video lessons in stages
·
Edit audio and video files
PHASE
3: HOST
·
Decide on whether this is going to be a free or
paid course
·
Decide if this will be a membership site or a
course
·
Asses hosting options
·
Plan out what you will charge for the course
PHASE
4: LAUNCH
·
Gather testimonials from your test group
·
Build prelaunch hype
·
Launch course in stages (email, social media etc.)
·
Follow my 7 day email marketing sequence
·
Follow organic and or paid marketing strategies
PHASE
5: MAINTENANCE
·
Continue to gather testimonials from students
·
Consider taking on students as course affiliates
·
Drive sales through implied scarcity
·
Follow up with existing students
·
Update any material as needed
I
put together a free course that teaches you how to create online courses. If
you are interested, you can access it here.
Once
you have a good idea for an online course and you’ve done your research
(including polling your audience) it’s time to create and sell your own online
course. So, what does that look like?
First,
let’s talk about creating your online course.
Why
are you creating an online course?
What
are you hoping to get out of it? These are important questions as they will
help you create content.
·
Are you creating an online course just for fun? I
mean, that’s cool! Who wouldn’t want to create one now that you have CreateOnlineAcademy to build your
online course right?
·
Are you trying to make a little extra money to help
pay some of those bills off? Either way, you can still create your online
course. It’s just nice to know upfront what you are looking to get out of it.
There
is so much to learn in this world.
Technology
today makes it easy to access more information, but it doesn’t always make it
easier to understand it. That’s where you come in and teach what you know.
Break what you know down into a fun and easy way to learn it.
What
does this look like?
Well,
you take what you know, break it into sections (lessons) and try to stick to no
more than 3 supporting points for each lesson. You can simply use a pen and
paper to sketch this out or use a Word doc with bullet points – pen and paper
work so much better though. Here’s what it can look like…
·
Intro
·
Problem
·
Solution
·
Lesson 1
·
Lesson 2
·
Lesson 3 and so on
As
you create your online course keep this in mind, “Why should I care?” as it’s
what your students will be asking themselves when they see your course. Remember,
you are solving one problem within your course and giving your students the
solution they need. You want your students to be able to take a lesson in
between classes, shifts, baby duty, game day, and more – hence the 5-minute cap
on videos.
Selling your own online course is the
next part of the equation, right?
Once
you have your course outline and know what you are going to deliver its time to
figure out pricing.
How
do you want to price your online course?
On CreateOnlineAcademy you have the
option to price your own online course for FREE or, if you
like, you can put a price on it. When it comes to putting a price on your
course you want to ask yourself what’s your time worth? What is the solution
you are providing worth to your ideal student (i.e. target market)?
One
way to determine your price tag is to circle back to your research and see what
others are charging for something similar. If you have ever taken an online
course, think about how much you paid and how much time it might have saved you
which we all know time translates to money right? Was it worth it?
online courses are easy to sign up and read
daily up to our time.
Videos will help
to understand easier and quicker.
Create online
courses to make money is the most common question by many. Today making money
online has set a new trend.
Everyone is eager
and keen to start earning money online in an easier way.
There are few
best online courses available on the internet. Let us have a look into it
1.)
Skillshare
2.) Udemy
3.) WizIQ:
4.)
Pathwright
Top 5
Platforms to Sell Online Courses
1.) Click
Funnels
2.) Click
4 Course
Learn and gather information and start a job.
I
think I have answered this question already somewhere in a different form.
Making an online course is not as hard as people think. If you have an audience
and you have the content in demand. Then, all you need is to re-purpose that
content in the compatible format. Now the question is how? So here are some
ways you can convert your old training content into new elearning modules?
1.
Lectures & Webinars: Your
classroom lectures and live webinars can be recorded and converted into Video
tutorials.
2.
PowerPoint Presentation: Turn
your presentations into Slidedecks or instructional videos by adding a voice
over. To make it more interesting there are ways to add interaction and pop up
quizzes that can be tracked.
3.
Internal Data: Use
the internal data analysis into Case Studies.
4.
Interviews: Use
previous discussions or forum dialogues to create expert advice ebooks.
5.
Old Blogs: Do
the same with your old blog posts, utilise the comment section too. Got any
image heavy posts? Create pinterest Board.
You
will need expert help when you want to grow from basic online content to high
quality, interacting e learning course-ware. You can then hire some one
like Tonewdigital and get them to develop
courses for you. They can even help you set up your own e commerce shop.
Creating an online course can be easy, but
building a course that goes viral and brings in engagement is really tough. If
you follow this step-by-step approach, you automatically increase the odds of
creating a successful online course.
1. Choose
a Mouth Watering Topic
You might choose
any random topic to build your online course, but it’s not worth the efforts.
First, you must figure out how desperately people are searching for a
particular course and what all loopholes can you cover with a bit of “extra”
effort. If you create another “photography” or “film” course that the web has
in abundance, you lay the ground for failure. Pick a relevant topic and
brainstorm what improvements can you bring to the table.
2. Prepare
a Rough Outline
Yes, you heard
that right. Don’t rush for that “perfect” outline in a single go. Instead,
draft a rough outline first and try to bring coherence. If required, label the
course as beginner, intermediate or advanced. Check on the length of the entire
course as well as the individual modules. Remember the shorter your modules,
the better. No one wants a course that takes forever to consume.
3. Choose
a Authoring Tool
Once you are done
with the initial research, it’s time to build your course with an online
authoring tool. Go for time tested options such as ProProfs Training Maker to
make course creation a breeze. It requires no coding or technical expertise and
you can prepare a course the way you write a doc. Moreover, you can add videos,
images and GIFs to make your course more engaging.
4. Craft
the First Draft
Write your course
contents in a simple, easy to consume language. When you use technical jargons,
make sure to provide tooltips. Double check for coherence and if you think a
piece of information is bland, add a quiz or questionnaire to keep the learner
engaged. Make ample use of gamification, simulations and use personal
characters to keep your reader hooked.
5. Polish
the Course
This step
generally requires finalizing the learning outcomes and fixing the errors in
content and language, if any. Make sure to ask yourself whether individual
modules can be improved further. If you think a concept needs two modules for
an explanation, do that. If it can be constricted to one, even better. Add
plenty of visual appeal and make sure the voice overs are loud and clear.
6.
Distribute to Audience
After an initial
period of internal review, distribute the course to your learners. It might be
intimidating, but an essential part to grow as a trainer and educator. Don’t be
afraid to receive negative feedback. Take every negative comment as an
opportunity to improve. Integrate all learner feedback into your course for
creating a chiselled course.
That’s all for a beginning. ProProfs Training Maker can help you
create your online courses 10X faster without sacrificing quality. It requires
zero coding or technical expertise and you can get started in minutes. It’s a
fully-functional, cloud-based LMS; so you don’t need to worry about downtimes.
Create user groups, classrooms, learning paths and more. Still not convinced? Sign-up for
a 15-day, no-obligation trial. The best part, you don’t need to furnish credit
card details or other financial information. Every plan comes with a 30-day
money back guarantee, so don’t worry! Try ProProfs Training Maker today.
Comments
Post a Comment