If you’re reading this post, you probably already know that starting an online business is the best way o generate income online.
And creating online courses is one of the ways to build a profitable business and make money online as a beginner.
The reason is that anyone with skills and experience in any subject can become a digital course creator.
So, you don’t have to be a trained teacher to make a successful online course. You need to know about a subject that other people are willing to pay for
At the moment, anyone can make their course and put it on the internet. Just do a quick search on YouTube, and you’ll find millions of videos in any market or niche.
There are many ways to make money with your online courses. You can sell your courses by making your website, using an online course platform, or even teaming up with other companies that offer distance learning.
One of the best training programs to help you is the Jeff Walker Product Launch Formula course. He has helped thousands of people how to launch successful products that generate income.
Table of Contents
Why Sell Courses Online?
Online training is popular because people want to learn new skills at any age, and the ease of accessing online information makes people want to learn in the comfort and convenience of their homes instead of spending a lot of money on trips to “real” classrooms.
The 6 Steps To Create An Online Course
1. Choose Your Market Niche
Choosing a niche is always the first step because it will help you figure out the rest of your sales plan.
The niche market is just a section of the market you want to serve. This market niche must be unique, and you’ll need to pay attention to those things that make it tick as you work.
Do research on the topic from many sources, Check sites like Quora, KeywordTools, Pinterest, and even Google’s autocomplete (a tool that gives you several search options as you type) to find people’s most frequently asked questions about your topic and related terms.
Some examples of niches are health and fitness, pet products, fitness clothing, loans, weight loss, and more.
If you already know what your niche is, that’s great. If you don’t already have one in mind, you’ll have to go through a few steps before picking one:
Will they:
- Source for content for the course
- Look at the supply and demand.
- Understand trends
- Look at your competitors.
- Pick your niche and the subject of your course
Why do These Steps matter?
Well, that’s the only way you’ll be able to make the complete content possible, one your future customers will be pleased to have bought.
2. Get The Necessary Tools
You cannot create an online course without using vital tools that make your work easier and faster.
Don’t forget that the quality of tools you use helps determine how clear your course will be. So, opt for the best quality and cost-effective online course software.
3. Find A Good Training Topic
I don’t need to say it, but I will say it anyway. Your training will only sell if it has original content and real added value. It can also help you make money if there isn’t too much competition or if it has things that set it apart from other training.
4. Compare supply and demand
After you’ve made a list of topics, check to see if there are people who are interested in them. Google Keyword Planner is a tool that can help you figure out how many people search for a particular topic on Google, the most popular online search engine.
5. Define and understand your audience.
First, you must figure out who you want to serve based on your idea. This will help shape the rest of the course and will be especially important during this business planning phase
The tip is to make a “persona,” a made-up version of your ideal customer.
A persona based on accurate data about your customers’ behaviour and demographics can have personal details like motivations, goals, challenges, and worries.
A good tip is to use your course to answer strategic questions and user search queries. This will help you learn more about your audience and shape the online course to meet their needs.
Set the length of each topic, module, or category based on your audience and how you plan to teach the content.
Remember that the best time for the content is when you can get your message across without too much trouble.
Thus, ensure you have enough time to talk about everything, but don’t ask your students for too much time. One of the things that students like most about an online course are how fast it moves.
6. Outsource Your Course
If you have a lot of money, you can pay a pro to make the courses for you. Creating them yourself is cheaper, of course.
Unless you use one of the industry-specific platforms for writing, PDF or PowerPoint are easy ways to do this. With only these tools, it is possible to launch successful online courses.
You can give your students a basic level of interactivity with PDF files that can be read and written on (taking notes or answering quiz questions).
Powerpoint works well (if you keep the layout consistent and accessible). PowerPoint now has a free plugin called Office Mix that lets you export directly to SCORM format, which most learning management systems use.
This brings us to SCORM, which stands for “Shareable Content Object Reference Model.” It is a set of standards made to work on all learning management systems, so you can publish your training on any learning platform you want.
How To Sell Online Courses
You can make money selling online courses in two main ways: by selling one-time courses or subscriptions. We’ll prefer to sell our courses in bits to increase your profit.
- Sell Your Courses In Units
Buying separate courses is an excellent idea for people who want to learn a lot about a particular subject but don’t care about the other content on the platform.
For example, if a high school student only wants to learn about the law of gravity, he can buy just the module about that topic and not pay for the whole Physics course.
In this case, prices can be set based on how long classes are and how much information is covered.
- Subscription Sale
This is the same model that popular services like Netflix or Spotify use. It lets the user watch or listen to as many courses, modules, or classes as they want for a fixed monthly price.
Hence, the student can look through different kinds of content in other areas and have a much fuller and richer experience on its platform.
In this model, the payment is made regularly, so the prices are much lower and more appealing. You can set the costs based on how much and what kind of content you offer.
- Spread The News About Your Course
After you’ve set up the sales model, the next step is to let people know about your offer. And there are many ways to do this. Look at some:
- Social Networking.
One of the essential parts of your strategy should be to work with social networks. Spend money on these platforms to get your content out there.
Use videos and interesting calls to show people how valuable your course is. The tip is to pay attention to the social media channels where your audience spends the most time.
For instance, Instagram can be a great choice if most of your audience is between 20 and 35 years old. LinkedIn can help you a lot if you want to reach the business market.
Study and sketch out a plan that works for the kind of content you are offering.
- Share With Your Email List
Tell your email subscribers about your course and how it can benefit them.
Have a good content strategy in place, or have a list of emails or clients that you can use to send information or content to.
Make a nice email, and if you can, offer these people a discount or something special. This will help your courses get more attention.
- Use Paid Ads
It’s essential to set aside money to spend on sponsored ads and content, whether you do it through Google, on sites related to your business, or on your social networks.
This will help get the word out about your courses and help you find more qualified people to take them.
Did you learn everything you needed to know to set up an online course?! It would help if you had good planning, text and video content, and a platform for online courses.
Then, you have to figure out your sales model, put money into advertising, and be very willing to keep getting better at what you do.