Introduction
If you’ve ever thought about taking an online course but didn’t know how to get started, we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll walk through the steps of creating your first course and figuring out how to sell it for profit.
Brainstorm on ideas
To begin, brainstorm ideas.
- What do you enjoy teaching?
- What topics are you good at?
- What topics are you passionate about?
- What would be useful to others?
Consider what types of videos would be most effective for your audience and purpose: video lectures, screencasts or screencasts combined with text explanations (e.g., blog posts), live-streamed events like webinars.
Think about how much time it takes to create these kinds of resources—the amount of time spent recording the content, editing it, uploading the file to YouTube
Research your market
Before you start creating your course, it’s important to know what your market is like. You need to know what trends are happening in the space, who your competitors are and how they’re doing it, and what the pain points of your target audience are.
Who is your target audience?
Think about who would be interested in learning about this topic or product.
- Is it someone who has already taken an online course before but wants something new?
- Could it be someone who hasn’t taken an online course at all but wants some guidance on how best to use their existing skills or lack thereof?
- What other people are teaching similar things as you?
- Who else offers similar content as mine—and why haven’t they gotten more reviews than me yet?
Find your audience.
Before you can begin to build and sell courses online to earn money, you have to know who your audience is.
- Who are they?
- What do they want?
- Why do they care about what you’re offering?
- How can I reach them?
- Can I use social media or email marketing as a way of connecting with potential students?
- Where are these people, exactly?
Are there any other websites that may serve as natural allies for my own business—or vice versa—that could help me reach more people in general than just one website would ever be able to do alone?
Create a course outline and plan.
Creating a course outline is the first step in creating an online course. An outline is simply a list of topics and their order, which gives you a sense of where your lessons will go in the future.
A course plan is also important for creating your courses because it helps you organize all of the information about your lessons so that it’s easy for students to navigate and understand what they’re learning. The plan should include:
- The name of each lesson and any other details that might help people understand what they’re learning/
- A description of each lesson’s purpose i.e., how does this lesson help someone achieve their goals?
- A list of resources needed such as texts or videos/audio files
Decide on your course content format.
As you’re deciding on your course content format, there are two major choices to make: video or text. Video courses are easier to create and sell since they can be recorded by yourself in a studio or at home using high-quality equipment and software. Text courses require more work but offer more flexibility in how they can be delivered via email, private tutoring sessions, and so on.
If you’re interested in offering live classes as well as recorded ones, then it’s best to have the option of choosing between either an interactive webinar which allows participants to chat with each other during presentations, or an open call for questions after each session ends.
This way people who want more interaction than just reading about something will still be able to do so while others may prefer just watching videos rather than participating in discussions about topics covered during those classes.’
Create your materials.
- Create your course outline. This is the most important step. A good outline will help you stay focused, organized, and on track when creating your content for each lesson in the course. The first step is to write down all of the topics you want to include in your course and any additional details.
- Create a plan for each lesson in your online learning platform. This will help ensure that each lesson has enough substance without being too lengthy or complicated—and also makes it easier for students who want more information about an area after completing one lesson but don’t have time right away because they’re busy with work or family life
Create your slides and/or videos and other materials for the online learning platform of your choice.
You can use a good-quality camera to record your slides, or you could use a screen recorder. You can also use a green screen and whiteboard if you want to draw on the screen instead of using a digital pen or webcam.
If you’re recording on a laptop with an integrated microphone, this will all be here for you!
Upload your videos and other materials to the online learning platform of your choice. You can use a free platform like Youtube or Udemy, or a paid platform like Skillshare or Lynda.com
Promote, market, and sell your course.
Now that you’ve created the course and have the audience, it’s time to market it.
To create a marketing plan for your course, first, determine who your target audience is.
Are they students, teachers, or parents?
The age of students should also be taken into consideration when creating content for each topic in your course. You’ll want to consider what types of learners are most likely interested in buying your product or service, as well as what type of person they are.
Once you have identified these audiences, create different pages on Facebook ads related to each group so that they can find out more about what the product is and where they can buy it from you!
Other Social media platforms Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram are great places where people share their opinions on products/services which helps build trust between potential buyers/buyers versus just having them see an advertisement alone without any context behind why someone would buy something instead.
Other promotion techniques include:
- Create a blog post to promote the course and drive traffic to it.
- Get newsletter signup from those who have taken your online course and share it with their friends, family members, and colleagues.
- Create a podcast to highlight some of the most important points of your online course so that people can listen to them as they commute or work out in the gym!
- Start creating YouTube channels where you share videos with other people who want to learn more about this topic for example: “How To Become A Youtuber”.
- Create an Instagram account where you can post images related to your topic.
Creating an online course can provide you with recurring income for years to come
You may be passionate about something that you want to share with others, and it might not be related to the field of your primary job.
For example, if you are a photographer and want to teach people how to take better pictures, why not create an online course on photography? You could also offer classes in other countries where there is demand for them e.g. Japan. Or perhaps there are topics that people would love learning more about but aren’t offered at local colleges or universities—you could offer those too!
Benefits of online courses:
- The course can be sold again and again.
- You can update the content over time, adding more valuable materials and resources to your course as you go along.
- You can repackage a portion of your original course as an entirely new product (eBook or membership site) so that it doesn’t have to be created from scratch each time you want to sell it again.
- If a customer buys one copy of your original eCourse but wants access to additional training materials beyond what was included in their purchase price—you could offer them those updates for free or at a discount price!
Conclusion
Creating an online course is a great way to earn money and stay on top of your business. It will take some time, but if you follow these steps correctly then it shouldn’t be too difficult for you. Do not forget about marketing though!
You don’t want people finding out about your course from someone else rather than through their own efforts so keep this in mind when thinking about promoting yourself as an expert in whatever field interests you most.