How to Sell Online Courses [Includes ChatGPT Guide]
May 08, 2023
Show notes
Nancy was extremely excited she finally got clarity on the idea for her online courses but she wondered how to sell online courses. Like Nancy, many aspiring course creators struggle with figuring out their offer, ideal client and marketing strategy. After playing around with the A.I., tool ChatGPT, Nancy was able to get a comprehensive overview of her offer, big promise and ideal client in granular detail. However, before creating her course she needed to have a chat with her prospective students in a group setting, like a Facebook Group. This will help her validate her offer and course content as well as enrol her first students at a beta price. Major Tip: Before you sell online courses it’s important to get really clear on your offer, ideal client, big promise and course content – see the ChatGPT videos below for more. Looking to Start Selling Courses Online? Are you looking to start selling courses online? If yes, then hold tight as I give you a deep dive into this interesting topic. It has all the information you need to get started on the right foot. In this post, you’ll learn some great insights into how to start selling your very own online course. I’ll highlight best practices as you consider how you will proceed with your digital products. Selling courses online has become extremely lucrative over the last decade. This explosion in popularity is forecasted to continue. The eLearning market is expected to reach $350 billion by 2025. This is good news for those who have exciting online course ideas. Selling courses online is a great way to earn passive income. The key to success lies in creating high-quality content. If you understand and are passionate about your subject you can succeed in creating courses that appeal to students. There are several ways to go about achieving this. As I go through this resource, you’ll also learn how to increase your course conversion rate and how to focus your marketing efforts. Why Make and Sell Your Own Online Course? There are many different ways to monetize your skills and knowledge. You can make money online with an online course. It doesn’t matter if it is your first time teaching or if you have some experience under your belt in the education field. With hard work, passion, and a good idea you can make a lucrative digital course. Online courses are a growing industry making them a great option for breaking into the work-from-home space. With an online course, you are also your own boss and in control of your online business. You can create a course that requires little oversight from you that has a passive income. The flexibility and growth of selling an online course are some of the greatest benefits of the endeavour. If you’ve ever dreamt of creating a more secure and stress-free lifestyle for yourself, online course creation is the way to go. Content creation can also be a stimulating experience for course creators who are passionate about their subject. In turn, this passion helps you create content that students will enjoy and learn from. Making your passion your business is a great idea since it allows you to engage with what you love whenever you work. Your knowledge of your field will also grow as you research and create content for your students. Why Is Having an Online Course Profitable? Online course creation has a very low barrier to entry. You can essentially create an online course for free. Your greatest resource is your expertise in your subject matter after all. If repurposing content the investment of time can be minimised as well. Expenses you may face in creating an online course are all optional. Some things you could choose to invest in are: Software programs to create graphics or edit video Video and audio recording equipment An editor for written content A graphic designer A professional videographer or photographer Keep in mind that these are all optional! You can choose to spend as little, or as much, as you’d like to create your online course. Since the cost of course creation is low you can create a profitable online course. Another cost to consider is hosting your online course. Different platforms for hosting come at different price points. Their models also vary. You can choose to subscribe to a course creation service or you can choose to share revenue with a site. It is also possible to create your own course. This will require coding knowledge or the ability to find free WordPress plug-ins. Creating online courses is a popular path to online revenue due to the low cost of entering the field. The low costs also create high profitability. Another interesting thing about the profitability of online courses is that the revenue can become passive income. Your course can generate sales long after you complete its creation. Once you create your course the costs to maintain it is lowered apart from marketing expenses and hosting fees. You can set goals for yourself to recoup your costs and then sit back and let any additional sales become extra income. How Do You Make a Successful Online Course? To sell your online course you need to have one! Even better if it is a great course full of good content and well-researched. I’m sure yours will be! Let’s go through the steps to a successful online course together (at the end I’ll show you a cool hack to sell it successfully). 1. Find Your Niche Assess your areas of expertise. What are you most knowledgeable about and able to teach others? From there, think about what people might want to learn about in your field. Do market research to see if there are any gaps in the market for your field. You can create multiple courses if you identify several areas that meet the requirements for course creation. You can also consider developing a series of courses that build on each other. 2. Identify Course Type Once you have a topic, think about how it is best presented. Most courses take several hours to complete and are performed at the student’s pace or at dates set out by the teacher over several weeks. Choosing between these two versions comes down to how much you need to be involved. If you are going to mark projects it is good to set dates for completion. When students are submitting work based on their own timing you might not have time to grade their materials in a timely manner. If your course grading is all automated you can let students work at their own speed. You can choose another format if it works better for you. Consider a Bootcamp that condenses your teaching into a couple of high-intensity days of learning. This is currently a popular option for coding but can be used in other fields of study as well. This format might appeal to students so that they can achieve results quickly and stay motivated. A mini-course is a good option for covering a small, niche area of your field. If teaching photography, for example, your mini-course could deal with adjusting just one setting on the camera. In addition to being a good format to cover just one niche topic, mini-courses can also serve as marketing tools. You can offer a mini-course as a bonus for signing up for your course to create value. You can also give mini-courses away, as a bonus, in exchange for the student’s email. Then add the email to your email list to market your other course offerings. 3. Choose the Best Medium for Your Course Courses can be presented through a few different content types. Images, videos, texts, and audio are all popular choices. Which you select will depend on the type of material you are presenting. The best practice is to vary the content throughout your course to keep students interested and motivated. Within the field of video content, you also have options. You can make the image displayed as a slideshow and just have a voice-over. This combines graphics and audio. You can also present to the camera directly. Consider supplementing with images if recording yourself. 4. Produce Your Own Online Course Make sure your instructions are clear and concise. Don’t assume that everyone knows everything about your topic already. They are in your course so they see a need to learn more. Instead, explain things step-by-step. This makes it easier for learners to follow along and understand exactly what you’re asking them to do. Make sure to include quiz questions and assignments. They give learners immediate feedback on their understanding of the material. They also encourage students to practice what they’ve learned. Ensure that your course materials are accurate and high-quality. Avoid looking like you’ve rushed the process and thrown out a product without care. 5. Select the Best Course Platform Consider where you are going to host your online course. There are several options in this area as well. You can host the course on your own website. You can use a platform that hosts your course. Some of these sites are also marketplaces where you can also sell your course to students. The different course platforms each come with their own sets of pros and cons that we will cover later. 6. Establish Course Pricing and Sales Targets Choose a price for your course that values the effort that you have put into creating it while also being within your students’ budgets. Consider doing market research to see how similar courses are priced. Stay competitive without undervaluing yourself. It is always good to be working toward your goals. Establish sales targets that you can motivate yourself to work towards. You can make money selling online courses but you need to stay motivated. 7. Launch Your Online Course Launching your course is not as simple as just clicking a button and making it go live on the web. You should consider carefully a launch strategy to start making money from your online course fast. Create a buzz about your launch. Some options you consider for your course launch are a countdown timer to the launch date, a special offer for signing up early, or an opening webinar. If you are excited your new students will be excited too! 8. Create a Community Once your course is launched, create a community for your students to connect and learn from each other. This online community will be a great study tool. Students can also clarify each other questions about the class procedure. You can use a service like Facebook Groups to achieve this, make a subreddit, or use a connection feature on another platform. Using a social media platform as a host for your community has the advantages of being free and being a place where your students likely already have log-ins. You can also consider creating a community on your website. While this requires the upfront work of making it, it does have its advantages. You are in complete control of the content and the user experience. You can also charge for access to the community. Remember as you go through the work of creating your online community that it will benefit your students. It will also benefit you by serving as a marketing tool for your online course. 9. Promote Your Online Course Once your course is created and launched you can further devote yourself to promoting it. Digital marketing is an essential piece of the course creation puzzle and will help you reach your sales goals. Continue to stay involved with your email list of potential students via a newsletter or promotional offers. Promotional offers could include limited-time-only discounts or freebies for signing up for the course. Consider placing ads across the web with a service like Google Ads that will advertise your course on platforms that appeal to your target students. Social media marketing is vital. You should be actively using your social media platform to reach potential students. Respond to comments and post consistently. You can also use paid advertising services to reach potential students who don’t follow you. How To Set the Price of Your Course You’ve spent hours writing content, creating slides, designing graphics, and putting together videos. Now that all that work is done, you’re still stuck wondering how much money you should charge for your course. You know that a lot of your time and effort went into creating the course but how much is that worth exactly? Pricing your course is a delicate balance between charging enough to compensate you for your expenditures, knowledge, and time, while also not setting your price so high that it scares students away. You have to find the sweet spot. A good way to do that is to research how courses similar to yours are priced. Bear in mind that as your course garners reviews it will appeal to more students and you can always increase your prices. When thinking about pricing your online course you also need to consider HOW to charge for an online course. There are two main methods – subscription-based and fixed-price. Subscription-based model (membership) In a subscription-based model, students pay a recurring fee for access to your courses. This model can make sense if you are frequently adding new course material or if your field requires practice. With a subscription model, students can keep engaging with your content and continue to develop their skills. A good example of a subscription-based online course is online fitness memberships. These memberships offer students access to online fitness courses and other related materials. Students continue to pay the subscription as they repeat the videos. The fitness instructors also continue to release more videos for their members to access. Fitness is a lifelong journey and continuing to engage with the materials makes sense. Fixed Price model In a fixed-price model, students pay a fee and then have access to a set amount of content. You can choose to make the amount of time they have access limited but this is not a common practice. This model of paying one price for access to content is the most common form online course payment takes. This is also the model on popular online course marketplaces like Udemy. Course Payment Plan Another factor to consider in your pricing is whether you would like to offer a course payment plan. In a fixed-price model, students would pay one set price for the course but break it up into instalments under a course payment plan. A somewhat similar idea in the world of subscription-based courses is tiered memberships. Students can pay a lower price but do not have access to the full features of the course. A Successful Sales Page for an Online Course Your sales page is where you present your course to prospective students. It’s possibly the first impression that a potential student will have of your business, so it needs to be well-designed and professional looking. A good sales page should include: An introduction to the course (what does it cover?) You wouldn’t buy a product that you don’t understand and neither will your students. You also want to avoid disappointing students who thought that they were buying a different kind of course or product. The benefits of taking the course What will this course help your target student achieve? Lay this out clearly and attractively for them on your sales page. Will it help them improve their business? Will it teach them a new macrame technique that will allow them to start creating fibre pieces with multiple colours? Lay out exactly what skills your students will level up with your course. Any extra value your course might offer Why should students choose your course over the other HIIT course two search results down? Use your sales page to show the value of your specific course. Will your students get any additional materials? Tell them! Do you have any special certifications relevant to the course or many years of experience? Tell them! Also, include testimonials and reviews so they can see that others have received benefits from your teaching. The price of the course Though it might seem obvious, don’t forget to include the price. Your sales page is the moment of decision and your students should have all of the inform…
How to Launch an Online Course – Ultimate Guide [Checklist Incl]
Apr 24, 2023
Show notes
This guide begins with a story about Sandra, a 25-year-old chef working at a local restaurant. She is known amongst her peers and customers as the “genius behind the recipe.” To Sandra, cooking goes beyond simply heating up a collection of ingredients – it is an art that she’s perfected over the years. She loves cooking and is passionate about her craft. Through her experience and networking within the culinary world, Sandra meets a man named Kyle: the owner of a five-star restaurant downtown who loved the cinnamon rolls Sandra’s restaurant is famous for. Wanting to learn more about her and her style of cooking, Kyle offers her a lead role in the online culinary courses he manages for international students. Sandra began nurturing this idea of developing a course and selling it to people like Kyle and his students stationed all over the world. As Sandra considers making her first course she realizes that there is a lot she doesn’t know about how to create one. Her knowledge of successful online course creation is not at the same level compared with her knowledge of cooking. It’s clear that there are many people like Sandra, armed with the perfect potential to excel in creating courses online but lacking the basic knowledge required to launch their course content onto the internet in the best way. Here’s how to launch an online course with ease and transparent comprehension. What Are the Benefits of Launching an Online Course? Perfect Source of Passive Income One of the many advantages that come with launching an online course is that your presence isn’t needed in order to earn income. You’ll need to invest in marketing, but after that, the course pretty much runs itself. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. The simple fact of only needing to do it once makes the whole process much more straightforward. If you are looking for the most effective way to earn a passive income with a smaller workload and less oversight, launching an online course is an ideal route to consider. Expand Your Audience Building monetary value is common sense: The bigger the market you cover, the more sales you accumulate. What better possible way can you reach more audiences if not online? Online learning is available to anyone with an internet connection. By putting your course content online your list of potential students expands exponentially from just students in your local area, Work Remotely Like Sandra, it doesn’t matter where you are. Just like your students can be anywhere with an internet connection, so can you. You can do a lot of work creating your course in a coffee shop or have your launch day on vacation in Bali You can be anywhere at any time and still make sales. If flexibility in where and when you work is important to you, creating an online course could definitely be the right decision for you. Creating online courses is one of the most highly recommended businesses for many such as those stay-at-home moms who wish to make a living while still keeping an eye on their kids. It is also great for those who travel frequently or wish to start living the digital nomad lifestyle. Self-Fulfilment Online course creation is for people who find joy in the ability to impact others by sharing their knowledge of a particular niche. A great course is made by someone who has a passion for sharing their knowledge with others. In any circumstance, you may have seen people quit their regular jobs so they may concentrate solely on creating course material on a particular topic. To these types of people, creating this material is more of a hobby than it is a business. When they made their first online course they discovered the joy of teaching others and they keep that positivity going through each new course they create. As the popular quote by Confucious goes, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Let’s make sure you are set up for a successful launch. Here’s how to make it happen. Launching an Online Course: A Step-by-Step Guide When I set out to create an engaging course, I divide the creation process into smaller stages. This is perfect for quality assurance and makes me feel confident that every step of the way is covered in detail for my students. The first phase, the Pre-launch phase, is the most labour-intensive. You will have to put in hard work now to set yourself up for an easier time later. If you’re overwhelmed, I’ve broken it down into baby steps, and we can work on it together. Remember, I’ve got your back. Phase 1: The Pre-Launch Phase Structure Your Online Course Structuring your online course is one of the most important aspects of getting your online courses on the radar. Every niche, every topic, has an ideal course breakdown that makes the most sense for new learners. What’s your niche’s optimal outline? Think about the best way to deliver what you know to new students. What is the optimal order to teach your online course topic? Good structuring doesn’t stop at the course creation stage; it extends to its marketing, upselling, and pre-selling stages for your course: it’s all about efficient planning. You’ll want to have the plan to reach your target market with your online class. The outcome of improper structuring is high bounce rates and poor sales. Once you’ve put so much work into creating a course you’ll want to be sure that you have students in your class. I’ll teach you how to avoid common mistakes as we continue. Educate Your Target Audience To succeed in this aspect, focus on telling prospects about the benefits of the course. Everywhere from your first email to your online ads you will want to show your potential students what you are all about and what value you can offer them. Let’s take Sandra’s case, for example. Should Sandra want to educate her prospective audience, she would likely start by citing the advantages of her cooking and how lucrative it is to stick to the method she teaches in the course. That way, she can shed light on the course without letting the cat out of the bag. Of course, you want to show people what they will learn in your course but also not give so much of your knowledge away they do not need to become students. Build an Email List of Potential Customers Many marketers are starting to believe that the email list method of lead generation is old school. That it does not have the big impact that it once did. However, this is not the case for everyone and email should still be a part of your online course launch strategy. According to the latest report by Snov.io, 93% of B2B marketers still leverage this method for all their marketing activities, while 29% of online marketers still see it as the most effective channel of marketing. So, if you are serious about growth as an online course creator, you should build a current email list for your present and future campaigns. You don’t need to spend much time on this. There are many techniques to garner email signups, like a gated content system. This marketing technique restricts prospective consumers’ access to the course until they provide an email address. Discount Method Another method is the discount method. In this case, you will offer some sort of financial incentive whether it be a percentage off a course offering or a free printable in exchange for an email address. This is one of the more common methods and this is most likely because of its effectiveness. Plus, who doesn’t love a good deal? Social Media Method The least effective strategy is the social media method of building an email list. You all know how big the social media world is; the 2021 survey by Backlinko disclosed that there are approximately 4.48 billion social media users in the world today, with Facebook topping 2.85 billion users. Social media is huge. So, do yourself a favour and leverage this channel. To harness the power of social media you’ll need an engaged audience. Post content that resonates with your ideal students. Build as much fan base as possible. In your posts add a catchy call to action that allows you to collect emails easily. Set Up Email Campaigns The whole idea of building an email list is to one day use it for a powerful email campaign. To pull off this process, you need two things: a good email campaign tool (email service provider), and an email list obtained from your email list-building efforts. I’ve noticed that there are many online course creators out there who are not familiar with how online tools work, so they find it a bit difficult to use email campaign tools. I’ll explain everything in detail, so you can make the best choices for your business. The most popular tools in the email marketing realm are: Flodesk: This tool was made by creators for creators making it perfect for your online course business. It can be used both to design and send emails. Flodesk also allows you to create sales and checkout pages to link to in those emails making it a truly multi-faceted tool. It also lets you continue to grow your email list with its opt-in forms. Their email automation process is also intuitive and powerful. Flodesk also offers a free thirty-day trial. Flodesk is popular among entrepreneurs offering creative services because they make emails beautiful. Sendinblue: This tool conducts automated marketing campaigns, advertised as a “separate SMTP bulk email marketing service.” This service is what propels the automated email function from website platforms like WordPress. Like Mailchimp, it is mostly used by e-commerce merchants and B2B companies to reach out to more customers. Here, you can upload your email list on Excel, Microsoft Outlook, and more. This is perfect for new people in the email campaign business since it comes with so much simplicity in its operations. If you are nervous about starting out with email marketing its user experience will reassure you and help you get the ball rolling. What makes SendinBlue unique compared to other email service providers is the fact that they offer WhatsApp campaigns, heat map reporting, Facebook Ads integration, marketing automation and page tracking. ActiveCampaign One of my favourite email service providers is ActiveCampaign. When it comes to setting up complex and comprehensive funnel automations you’ll need a robust service that can trigger emails to go out based on what actions people on your list take. Yes, ActiveCampaign can achieve all this and so much more. Here are a number of features that I enjoy about ActiveCampaign. Granular tagging Goals Integrations Triggers from forms, lists, tags and link visits Segmenting Reporting inside Google Analytics 4 Evergreen campaigns If you are interested in using ActiveCampaign in your business and you need help with the set-up and maintenance feel free to book some time in my calendar here. Other email campaign tools: GetResponse, MailerLite, AWeber, Moosend Ltd, Zoho Corporation, and more. There are many tools out there. Consider the one that will work best for you and the success of your online course. The concept of an email campaign is complex. There are many branches, strategies, and tools that factor into a decision. The key is to know what you need, and what will perform the needed actions for your business reach and marketing. Optimise the Sales Page Research shows that companies that optimise their sales page will most likely get twice their current sales. This makes sense since the more people that see your page the more potential customers you have. According to research by KISSMetrics, the more sales pages you create, the more sales you make. So let’s optimise your sales pages ASAP! Don’t miss out on course sales by not optimizing. Formally, sales page optimization is a marketing process that ensures that your product or sales page is easy to locate on search engines. Search engines have algorithms that rank the content they display and with some tweaking, you can place your page higher on the list and gain a larger amount of views from potential students. When a sales page is properly optimised, all the relevant information on the product or about the seller is displayed for the prospective student to consume. Sales page optimization doesn’t just happen; it requires the handiwork of a professional to make it really pop. And by pop, I mean views and conversions. SEO Specialist If you hire an SEO Specialist to boost your site’s visibility, they will do the following: Enforce your unique value proposition (UVP) or unique selling point (USP). This proposition directly explains what your offering is all about, and the value provided. It is all about what makes your online course a great way to learn the course content. What makes your online course a better idea than another? Write a clear and compelling meta description. A meta description is the following text after the site’s headline/title. It’s usually around 180 characters and is your first chance at capturing users’ attention. Think about a short and convincing summary of your offering– this is your meta description. This is what will display on the search results page and a good meta description is essential for getting potential students to click the link to your sales page. A/B Test your Call To Action. It’s not one-size-fits-all when it comes to CTAs. Testing out the slogan can drastically influence your sales. The best practice in SEO is to try different ways to state your CTA and use analytics tools to find which are most effective. Create a Course Teaser Course teasers or “course trailers” are compelling invites that use some media instruments to help the audience understand the information being communicated to them. In addition to serving as a way to introduce potential students to what you have to offer they also generate excitement as you reach your launch date. You want students buzzing about starting your course and telling their friends. There are many ways to pull this off; the most common being a webinar. A webinar is a live interactive online presentation or conference. In a webinar situation, participants can actually ask questions, discuss topics, and get relevant information in real-time. The webinar method, or course teaser, is used by every industry, especially when they release a new product. So, as someone hoping to get to a wider audience, it is only rational if you use the webinar method or course teasing. And we must add, though, webinars and social media ads work hand-in-hand, you will have to use the ads to send invites to prospective students/customers, and then use the webinar to pitch them about the content. And if it’s a free training, you must emphasize it in ads as well. Send out an email to your list of subscribers for a live webinar. Then, appear on camera to sell your course and answer questions. Phase 2: Launch It’s your big day– launching! What an exciting time your course is going live. All of that hard work is paying off! What’s your budget? Do you know your timeline? What’s your strategy? Okay, too many questions, to the drawing board we go! Let’s go through what you need to do to really get your online course out into the stratosphere. Hyping a product like an online course (whether paid or not) means telling your audience about its benefits in an exceptional way. You want them to be excited about what you have to offer and clear about what they will be learning and why it is a good value. When pitching any new product, focus on the value provided rather than the deliverables. Inform about leading information, skills needed, and the 411 on what’s included in the course without giving away your secrets for free! You’ll want to have a well-coordinated marketing strategy. Consider where you will be placing your ads and what your budget will be. Consider investing in Google Ads as well as social media ads. Speaking of social media ads don’t neglect your free social media accounts. Though Facebook Ads are powerful, marketing your Facebook page itself is good as well. Create good post…
Cost of Marketing on Social Media: How Much Should It Be?
Apr 10, 2023
Show notes
Patty was preparing to start her small business but one question bothered her, what is the actual cost of marketing on social media?
During her online research, she found several sources that outlined a large number of different strategies.
As someone who is going to be a solopreneur, Patty doesn’t have a big budget available.
So, it’s imperative for her to adopt a strategy and develop a plan that will work for her and the way she wants her potential clients to experience her brand online.
If it was true a decade ago that everyone was on social media, it definitely is a fact now. Even your grandmother is on Facebook sharing viral cat videos.
The fact that everyone is on social media, gives you a good reason to market using social media. Who doesn’t want to be marketing to everyone?
The cost of marketing on social media is a factor to consider as you start considering your marketing strategy.
Though you can’t afford to ignore advertising on social media you still want an idea of the costs so that you can advertise on social media while staying within your marketing budget.
In this post, you’ll learn who does what on social media, the cost of hiring them, the tools you can use, and the cost of social media advertising.
Also, how to calculate your budget and the number one secret that nobody shares on how to get a return on your investment.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing boils down to marketing on social media. Does that answer your question? Probably not. Let’s dig into it more deeply.
Social media marketing involves using social media platforms to build awareness of your brand, increase sales of your products, and drive traffic to your website.
The platforms for social media are places where people can connect with others and share content. Social media platforms include sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
You can use your profile on these sites to market to your potential customers. This requires creating content and posting it.
You can use planners to chart out your posting schedule. You can also use tools like Facebook Ads to market to people who fit the profile of your customers that might not already be following you on social media.
No matter which strategy you pursue with your social media marketing campaign, you need to advertise on social media. There are 4.62 billion social media users this year.
These people represent 58% of the globe. 27.6% of these users say that they discover new products and brands via social media. You need to be marketing to these people to capture your share of the market. This is the most effective way to generate leads and increase your conversion rate.
Social media marketing also offers the advantage of analytics. You can see in clear numbers the number of people seeing and engaging with your content.
You can easily track which types of posts resonate with the largest market share and create more posts that get clicks.
Social Media Manager Costs
You are going to be marketing on social media. It is a given in today’s climate. Though there are many tools available to ease the process of doing it yourself, you might be considering bringing in help for your digital marketing campaign.
How much is a social media manager? What about an intern? Let’s dive into it!
Intern
Social media marketing interns generally earn around $15 per hour. Their tasks include things like creating social media posting schedules, creating captions or graphics for social media posts, and tracking analytics for already posted marketing.
Interns might not have the experience to tackle large projects or take on the creation of posts. They are a great option to keep you organised and to handle smaller tasks.
As your intern gains experience you can begin to entrust them with more tasks, perhaps even working up to content creation.
Freelancer
The internet hasn’t just changed the way we connect with each other via the rise of social media, it has also led to the rise of freelancers in fields such as social media marketing services.
With platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, you can hire a social media manager on a per-post basis and see reviews of their previous work. Well-reviewed freelancers on these platforms, on average, start at $285 for four posts on two platforms to $795 for 30 posts on four platforms.
They can be the best way for small businesses to manage their different social media platforms on a small budget.
Full-Time Employee
On average a full-time social media manager earns $58,000 per year. Though this might seem like a large chunk of change a full-time employee can make sense depending on the size of your business.
They will be fully devoted to tasks like increasing your social media following and planning out a posting schedule. They also handle analytics to see what is and isn’t helping your business.
Social Media Marketing Firm
A small social media marketing firm can charge a variety of rates depending on the social media management you require. Prices range from $50-$300 per hour.
Tasks that these firms can handle range from responding to customer reviews to creating and publishing Facebook Ads for your company. They will also have graphic designers.
Social media marketing firms might seem like an expensive purchase but can definitely be the best option for your social media pages. If you are considering launching a large campaign it can be worth it to have a dedicated team to plan and implement it.
If you want to increase your engagement with people who comment on your posts or leave reviews it can eat up a lot of your time to do it personally and could be a great task for a firm.
Factors Affecting Social Media Marketing Costs
A lot of different elements go into creating your social media marketing budget. Are you just in need of some help and can hire an intern?
Have you scaled your business and found yourself in need of someone to create an entire social media marketing campaign for a new product? These come with wildly different price tags. Let’s dive into these various factors affecting price.
Your Company’s Size
As I’m sure you have found out during your entrepreneurial journey, your needs change as you grow. If you are still running your business as a one-man shop you might consider bringing in a freelancer to handle your posting schedule to open up your time for other endeavours.
If you have scaled your business and are launching a new product, you might consider an agency to create an entire marketing strategy for you.
Specific Business Objectives
Your aim in your marketing campaign will affect your budget. Objectives of social media marketing can include building brand awareness, creating sales, or getting sign-ups for your email list. All of these different goals can require different social media marketing elements and this come in at different price points.
Tools and Software
The content you post for your social media marketing doesn’t come out of the clear blue sky. It has to be created. Creating content requires investments of not just time and creativity, but can also include an investment of money.
You might need to invest in a higher-calibre camera if taking photos of products for your campaign.
If your brand is built on your personality you might need a tripod to take better photos for your Instagram feed. Canva’s paid subscription might be a necessary investment for creating graphics for social platforms.
Social Media Advertising Costs on the Most Popular Social Media Platforms
Your business’ social media page is an integral part of your social media marketing. However, you might want to reach people who do not already follow you. This is going to require an investment in ads and sponsored posts. How much do social media ads cost? Let’s dive in.
Facebook and Instagram, both a part of Meta, allow you to set the price you are willing to pay and will deliver you the best results possible within that budget. How Meta calculates your costs varies according to factors like your target audience or your ad placement.
For Facebook, the average cost per thousand impressions is $7.19. For Instagram, that figure ranges from $2.50 to $3.50.
The average cost per click on Facebook is $1.72, for Instagram that figure is $0.40 to $0.70. The cost per action on Facebook is $18.68. The cost per engagement on Instagram is $0.01 to $0.05.
For the popular video content streaming service YouTube, the cost per view ranges from $0.01-$0.03. The cost of reaching 100,000 viewers is $2,000. Like Meta, costs vary depending on many factors like the length of the video or the ad campaign’s objective.
There are a variety of factors to consider when you calculate your social media marketing budget. There is no one-size fits all answer to the cost of marketing on social media. It is a good idea to consider the following when setting your budget:
Are you hiring for additional help? If so what kind?
Do you need to pay for any equipment or subscription?
Are you going to run ads? On which platforms?
Will you do a photoshoot?
Are you going to need tools for scheduling and hashtag research?
Will you be investing in stock photos?
From your answers to these questions, you can research the average cost of the option you have chosen. Once you have found the average you can set a personal budget that you are comfortable with.
Though the costs might seem intimidating, consider if you can afford not to invest in social media marketing. Your business needs customers and those customers are on social media. Social media marketing doesn’t require top dollars always.
You can opt to do it yourself or to contract out to a freelancer versus hiring an agency. This can keep costs down but make sure that your social media isn’t suffering in return for you saving a penny. Social media marketing creates sales and is worth the investment.
One thing you can do is start with one method like posting content organically on Instagram 3-5 days a week for 3 months.
Next, look at the metrics and decide if you want to run a paid advertising campaign based on the type of content that is getting the results you need.
How To Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Marketing Costs
To get the most bang for your buck when it comes to social media marketing you should avoid just throwing money at it.
You’ll want your marketing efforts to yield better results and harness the power of social media.
Do your market research. Analyse your target customer, check out your competition, and try out some surveys. Get a lay of the land before you jump in feet first. Then you can map out your goals and outline a plan to reach them.
Keep your eye on analytics. Social media platforms offer built-in analytics tools just for this purpose. Use them to see how your audience interacts with your content and adjust accordingly.
Keep this up consistently not just when considering starting a marketing campaign. The way you evolve with your audience changes and grows and requires continuous reflection.
You can use these analytics tools for more than just seeing what content creates the most engagement. These tools also let you see a snapshot of your audience.
Social Media Activity Times
One of the most useful pieces of this is activity times. You can see when your audience is most active and plan posts accordingly. You want active social media users to see your social media campaign.
In addition to continuously checking engagement via analytics, you should conduct regular social media audits. Set aside the time to sit down and look at your social media.
When you look back over time you might find things like schedule inconsistency. If you notice that weekends tend to have a lapse in posts you can consider planning out posts to schedule in advance.
If you look back through your posts and notice that a key aspect of your business is underrepresented you can add that to a priority list. This will lead you to create and schedule posts on the topic.
Social Media Analytics + Tracking
One of the best ways to get a return on your social media investment is tracking every single thing and checking your analytics/metrics.
When looking back over analytics you might find that some content consistently underperforms in engagements.
As much as you might enjoy your regular series ‘Monday Motivation: Various Photos and Quotes of Things That Keep People Motivated,’ if it isn’t resonating with your audience you might need to drop it. It isn’t helping you reach your business goals.
These audits are also a great time to check your content for broken links or inaccurate information.
In reviewing your feed you can also consider if what you find is exciting or dull. If you find that your followers aren’t growing maybe it is time for a new campaign or a consideration of whether your style has become outdated.
Conclusion
Social media marketing is essential in the modern era. Nobody can argue that social media is not a powerful influence in all of their lives. And if they are arguing about it they are probably doing it on social media.
As important as social media marketing is, it can still be an extremely daunting proposition. Should you be posting reels?
My business is in the digital marketing sphere but everyone wants to see a cat meme right? Should I post it to my Facebook story? There is so much to consider!
There is also the budget to keep in mind. Should you opt for Canva Pro? Do you need to hire a marketing agency? Can you justify a freelancer? How much should you bid for Facebook Ads?
Don’t get overwhelmed. Check out our 90 Days in 90 Minutes program and develop your social media marketing strategy now.
How To Create an Online Course [The Ultimate Guide]
Mar 27, 2023
Show notes
Jen lost her job as a high school teacher after four years of working with her former employer. It was a devastating moment for a 28-year-old woman with a passion for impacting knowledge in others. Normally, people like her would look for another 9-5 job to rely on because that’s the easy path, but Jen was smarter. Teaching is the only thing Jen has a passion for. She is an IT expert and understands how hacking works. She wasn’t ready to let teaching go, and that was how she got the idea of creating online training for prospective hackers and IT students. Jen had the right market, concept, and strategy. But, there was a problem: she needed help to create an online course. The point is that we know many people like Jen are out there. People knowledgeable in a particular niche, excellent communicators, and passionate about impacting others with knowledge but need to learn how to go about it. If you are like Jen, you are lucky to be in this group because we created this piece just for you. In this post, you’ll learn ten important steps you will need to develop the best online course. So, let’s do this, shall we? What is an Online Course? An online course is a learning program structured in a syllabus focusing on a particular niche or topic. Depending on the niche, these courses can be formal or informal. Unlike the informal, the formal type of online courses usually come with certification at the end. Benefits of Developing an Online Course There is no one benefit of developing online courses, but there is one popular benefit all online course creators admit to innovation. An innovative online course idea has been one of the methods corporate bodies deploy when trying to communicate their new ideas or strategies to their staff. Some other known benefits are Constant availability of your instructor. You can access your instructor 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Convenience. Unlike the traditional classroom setting, it allows you to bring the classroom to your room. You will agree that this is the best way to learn in the 21st century. It commands attention. Because you are the only person in the room, it is easier to pay attention while an online course is going on. Step-By-Step Guide to Creating an Online Course Now, to the big part. The thing is, knowing how to teach a course online plays a huge part in the whole online course creation process. Like Jen, you should be talented in teaching skills and understand the psychology behind impacting knowledge. How to structure an online course – to be seen as an expert, course creators should know how to structure an online course. Without wasting much time, check out the steps below. #1. Find Your Niche Before teaching a particular course, you must have an area of concentration or interest. Like Jen, who is into IT and skilled in hacking, you should be able to find a niche and create a syllabus around it. Choose the Best Course Topic There are many good online course ideas; make sure you choose topics that solve real problems. Here are the factors you should consider when choosing your ideal topic: Passion. Passion is crucial if you want to teach the course in the long run. Furthermore, being passionate about a topic helps you apply effective marketing strategies that will lead to high sales. Profitability. Good topics are always the most profitable; make sure it is what the market (your potential students) needs. You can conduct a market research assessment to determine whether your topic of choice is in demand. Experience and expertise. Experience and expertise are crucial in backing up your content. With experience, you know the issues your audience is likely to encounter, and you can offer them help, giving you an edge over your competitors. Ensure That Your Course Concept Has High Market Demand When selecting your niche, you should focus on what people need. Carry out a market research assessment to know whether your topic is in demand But how do you ensure your course topic is in demand? Use online course platforms like Lynda, Skillshare, and Coursera to find out what your competitors are doing. It will help you to differentiate what you offer from what they have, enabling you to stand out from your competitors. Focus on the trends and ideas in course titles and the major selling points for the popular courses. As an online course creator, you want to avoid getting stuck with a course you cannot sell. Therefore, it is a good idea to presell your course to figure out your target audience. It will help you avoid creating a course that will not sell. How to Presell A course Here are some tips for preselling your course: Sell Your Course Before Creation You can come up with a course title and an outline that shows the content that will be included in the course. You can then set a price for it and set sales goals. For example, you can hope to acquire just 10 customers. You will then introduce this information to your audience through a webinar or an email. If your course fails to meet its goal, you can explain to them that you will refund them because there needs to be more interest shown towards your content. If you use this tactic, ensure that you will be ready to deliver the content within the specified timeframe. Refund requests and complaints may come in if you do not keep your end of the bargain. Launch a Pilot Course The pilot strategy is common among TV networks. This strategy involves creating a pilot episode- a standalone one meant to test the ground and gauge if the reception would be successful. They can continue the series if it is well received, saving production and marketing money. You can use the same strategy to gauge whether people are willing to pay for your content and get feedback from your target audience. You can then improve and refine your course based on their feedback. Sell at a Lower Price for the Pilot Course Your pilot should sell at a lower price than what you eventually plan to sell. As this is your first course, it’s only fair to offer it to the pioneers at a reduced price. You can create hype around this by calling them a ‘beta testing group’ and limiting the number of students. You can increase the prices as the course becomes more popular and advanced. #2. Identify Course Type There are different types of courses that you can explore as a content creator. The type of course you choose is crucial as it determines the method you use to market to buyers, the selling price of the course, and the content you will include. A great course will fall under one of the types we discuss below; Mini-courses Mini-courses are small courses that would require the user to take one or two hours to complete. It can be delivered through a variety of mediums. For instance, you can deliver it as a series of short videos or emails. If you choose to do a mini-course, it is best to price it at under $100 or even let it be free. Those who offer free mini-courses do it as a marketing tool or a lead magnet for a bigger, pricier course. A mini-course is best for you if you are just getting started and are looking to test the market for the larger course. It can be the first online course you offer in a series of many others and can be a free trial to more advanced courses. How To Create a Mini Course Creating a mini-course requires a fine balance between the course topic, the curriculum, the length, and the topic. Below are some steps to create a mini-course: Choose a Super-Actionable Topic The first step to developing a mini-course is to choose an actionable topic. A mini-course is typically small and goes straight to the point with a definite learning outcome. Choose Your Audience Wisely Your chosen topic should align with the topic and the problem the audience is seeking to solve. While some content creators would like their courses to cover as many topics as possible, some courses work best if they speak to a specific audience. So figure out where you fall and run with it. Ensure you get as specific as possible and realize that your topic can appeal to some. Bite-Size your Content After honing in on your audience, you should get started on the course content and action plan. Your target audience needs concise information, so avoid any fillers. Instead, help them build momentum quickly as they go through the course by presenting information in small chunks. Don’t overthink it Avoid overthinking the creative process, as this is a small course. You only need it to see what your audience thinks. Consider Impulse Buyers when Pricing Many course creators give free mini-courses, so the user can see what the full course offers. However, you can start at a low price to help filter out those who are willing to pay from those who are not. Multi-day Courses (boot camps) Multi-day courses can also be called boot camps. These are intermediate courses that will require days to complete. You can design it as a series of pre-recorded videos breaking down the course into modules or levels. Include checklists and worksheets, and you will have gotten yourself a winner. Most of these are within the price range of $250 to $2000 and are ideal for those who have already validated their idea through mini-courses. Masterclasses Masterclasses are more advanced than a typical boot camp and are geared toward a professional audience. This course takes weeks to months to complete and gives the audience an entire system to help them succeed. You can price it anywhere between $3000 and $5000, which is ideal for those who want to offer a more comprehensive course than mini-courses and boot camps. #3. Choose the Best Medium for Your Course You can decide the medium for your course based on the contents of your course. For instance, a mini-course can work with an email format. You can use text, screenshots, and images to pass the message. More advanced or intensive courses may require you to use multiple formats throughout the course to promote user engagement. Below are some recommended formats and benefits: Video Video content is ideal for portraying ideas simply and effectively. Here, you can read more about creating a video for a successful online course. Screencasts and walkthroughs Screencasts are a good option for your course if it involves a lot of demonstrations. This medium will allow your students to see the steps they need to take to get to an answer. For instance, an arithmetic course would benefit from this format. Text content Text content is ideal for a course that explains concepts in detail and gives step-by-step information. It can also be useful if you need to link information to other sources around the web. Downloadable content This format is applicable if you want to include glossary templates and cheat sheets to help set up the users for success. Workbooks This great format can help you present information to help learners internalize concepts. #4. Produce Your Online Course Now it’s time to produce your course and bring it to life. How long should an online course be? We will give you more information on the link. However, ideally, you should have a course outline, come up with content and then logically divide the content into lessons. Create your outline keeping the student in mind and considering how long your course is. If you want to know more about how to make a course outline, you can read more. However, the number of lessons you will provide will be determined by the type of course you choose and the time and cost implications. After sorting out the outline, you can break it down into lessons or modules. #5. Select the Best Course Platform Now, it’s time to choose a course platform to host your work online. Again, many different platforms have unique features that can suit an online marketplace. Some of them include the following: Standalone Platforms These give you control over the content and data. These include Thinkific, LearnWorlds, Teachery, and Teachable. This kind of platform has all the tools you need to host your content in one place. These include website builders and marketing tools. All-in-One Platforms Note that such platforms may be expensive. However, they are worthwhile as they let you use multiple tools to accomplish things in the same place—some of the best online course platforms. Online Course Marketplaces Online marketplaces have built-in audiences that can help bring your course to the surface easily and quickly. However, you may need more control over pricing and data, but it can be one of the best masterclass alternatives you will get in the market. They include platforms such as Udemy and Skillshare. #6. Establish Course Pricing and Sales Targets The next step involves setting sales goals and course pricing. Ideally, the cost of creating your course can be low, mid, or high-cost, depending on the course created. However, the pricing will depend on other factors, including: Niche and Course topic. Considering your industry and how others are pricing their courses would be best. Marketing. Your price will also be determined by the amount you are willing to spend on marketing. For example, the cost of marketing on social media may be different from marketing the course in real life. As discussed above, you can presell your course to see how it will fair in the real world. Your authority as a Course creator. Buyers will pay more if you are perceived to be valuable and considered a force in the industry. Therefore, create a perceived authority before diving into course creation. A good way to see how much your course is worth is to research your competitors’ prices and how they are pricing their digital courses. The price you set should not be too low or too high. Remember to set a sales goal, which can also inform your pricing. #7. Launch Your Online Course Now that you have come this far, it is time to launch your course to the world and market it to buyers. If you want to know how to launch an online course, follow the marketing tips below. Weekly webinars. Webinars are a great way to market your content and prevent yourself from feeling overwhelmed with the demands of your course. They are also low-cost and can be a good way to convince your audience to buy your course. Email Marketing. You must capture prospective buyers’ emails and have an email list to help share updates, discounts, and any other information related to the course. While some people may buy the course from the landing page, others may only be convinced through the email marketing funnel. Podcast Appearances. Podcast appearances can help increase your authority and help you show your expertise. You can pitch to podcasters in your niches so they can see the value you can add to their listeners. In addition, they will allow you to tell the audience what you’re working on and even offer a discount. Choose a Platform Wisely. Choosing a platform for setting up your course is crucial as this is where your students will get access to your content and how you will manage them. Several platforms, including Podia and Kajabi, can help you get started as you come to the last steps on how to sell an online course. You can use this Podia vs. Kajabi resource to see which products work best for your course and needs. #8. Create a Community If you are looking for different ways to give your course traction online, one of the best tips would be that you build an online community. If you are wondering how to build an online community for your course, use these pointers: Online communication platforms. Online communication platforms such as Discord, Circle or Slack are good for community learning. Build a Members Area. A member’s area on your site could include forums, blogs, and chat boxes. This type of content would only be available to paying users. Social media groups. You can use online community resources such as Twitter lists and a Facebook group to allow learners to interact with each other. #9. Promote Your Online Course You must promote your online cours…
How Long Should an Online Course Be (Lessons + Modules)
Mar 13, 2023
Show notes
Eva sat in front of her desktop, contemplating how to set up the online classes she dreamed of launching.
‘But how long should an online course be?’ she thought. She didn’t want to prepare online content that would be too cumbersome for students to complete.
For over two years now Eva has been a digital marketer, and quite successful at it, but now she wants to launch into the online course space. For what exactly? To bring her knowledge and skills to students who want to learn.
She glanced over at her email list to see the number of emails requesting her to start already; it made her more determined.
If you are also like Eva, seeking to also put your course out there in the online space, you might find yourself asking questions like these:
What is the ideal class length?
How long should I make courses, so that my students can enjoy the lessons?
Will people appreciate a longer course, or do they prefer shorter ones?
Will my prospective students be willing to pay for the course if it’s too long or too short?
How long are master classes?
Will I make more sales if I make the course a bit longer?
Will people feel my teaching won’t have value if it’s short? I think I need to increase it a bit, say 8 hours or more.
All these are valid questions, so stick to this resource if you want good answers that will guide you through.
In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to help you determine the ideal length of your online course including lessons and modules.
Factors That Affect The Length of Your Online Course
It’s not just about putting out online programs. You want your students to get value from what you will teach them in your e-learning course. Depending on the course and the technicality, course content shouldn’t be less than 30 minutes or more than 4 hours.
There is no set rule on what the length of an online training should be. However, from the process of course creation, you will understand how teaching goals affect online course length.
There are other things you might want to consider about the length, which include activities you will provide, what course material you will use, how thoroughly you will dwell on the subject, and so on. An ideal online course length can depend on a variety of factors.
In all, your course should be long enough to cover everything that your students need to know without taking much time.
What Course Material Will You Use
Before putting together a course for your online training, you need to keep these things at the back of your mind:
Check the content material you are putting together and ensure it’s not too complex for the learners.
Knowing a particular subject well doesn’t automatically translate to knowing how to put that knowledge together to teach someone else via online learning.
Why this? Most course creators make the mistake of thinking their students are at the same knowledge level as them.
They make the course so complicated and too long to the point that it is too difficult for students to understand. You have to identify common gaps in your student’s knowledge.
Put yourself in their position and ask, as a beginner with little or no knowledge about this subject, will I need all of these?
Your aim shouldn’t be to make sales but to impart knowledge, skills, and valuable information, so let your priority be the students.
How Do I Spread Out The Modules and Lessons
At the time of compiling the course, if it’s getting too long, then you should consider dividing it into modules and lessons. Covering your course topic by spreading out learning materials can help your students reach their learning objectives in less time.
Spreading out the information in this way will help the lessons be concise for better comprehension. Ideally, the range of each should be between five to twenty minutes, a maximum of twenty-five minutes.
As earlier stated, your students do not want anything that is unnecessarily long or complex, so there is no need to make video content that lasts five hours
Also, consider that your students have their schedules. Some might have active jobs or run a business. Think about what their day would be like and make videos that they can cover at their own pace.
Students appreciate it when lessons are in smaller bits rather than having the whole chunk of it all at once. This method is also an excellent way to help the brain grasp information better.
How To Create a Good Course Outline
Spreading out course activities is a great way to facilitate better learning. It is good practice to put the basics of the course first.
If your students need to learn about the terminology used in the field of study, then it should be in the introductory section for easy access.
Let them be appropriately introduced to the lesson plan. It will keep them excited and have an end result of helping them anticipate more information.
The introduction should also contain the instructions they must follow. This includes how to follow through with the remaining modules and how to carry out the activity lessons collected in the course.
Each lesson activity should be coordinated to give the best learning experience by using invaluable learning techniques.
You might want to also include an interactive section in between lessons, say a video of about 2- 5 minutes, that requires them to take a quick test to check their understanding of the online course so far.
What Factors Affect How Long A Student Can Concentrate?
According to studies, many factors affect attention spans. Factors can range from things on the student’s end to the course itself. Let’s look at some of them.
#1 Passion for Knowledge
How seriously a person takes something will largely depend on how interested they are in it. The same applies to learning courses.
If the lessons are essential to them, or of great interest, they will be more willing to engage. In addition, the better designed your course is the more willing they will be to pay attention.
Let your course be captivating as well as educational, it will capture your student’s interest, and they will appreciate what you offer in online education.
#2 Engaging Courses
If you want to get maximum concentration from students, choose activities that will get them to participate. Even though you know the courses are for learning, you can also incorporate a way to teach the lessons that will make them more fun for students.
You can make some lessons interactive. It could be a 2- 4 min video. Get them to complete a question-and-answer section.
You can also give them practical classes, tests, and personal research projects to carry out, let them be actively involved in the class, and you will see an increase in engagement and interest.
#3 Easy To Achieve
Students want to start and finish a lesson without fail. If you’re going to get the best from them, don’t make them afraid by painting a picture of a very tough and complicated course that they are bound to fail.
This will give them cold feet as they already have the mindset of a challenging course. Instead, find the right way to communicate that it’s something that can be done if they put their mind to it.
#4 Quality Video and Audio
Since you are creating an online class, you should use high-quality graphics and videos.
High quality improves the appeal to students, don’t forget that people leave reviews online about the courses they attended.
The best way to do this is to invest in quality visuals. The recommended video quality is 1080p.
#5 A Class That Sparks Enthusiasm
Switch things up a little bit. Instead of the conventional way of introducing the topic of a new module, add some suspense by revealing some clues about what to expect in the previous class.
This creates a mystery that generates enthusiasm for the next class.
How Long Should Your Videos and Lessons Be?
Now, the big question is, what is the easiest way to structure your lessons and videos so that they won’t be too long or too short?
Even though you want to create great content, you should also consider determining how long your videos and lessons should really be to ensure student engagement.
This will also determine whether people will appreciate the time they’ve invested in taking the course and if they would buy it at an even higher price tag.
Relevancy and Quality of The Course
The main objective of an online course is to educate and provide needed information to people. If people are going to appreciate what you do, then it must be relevant to them, and it must answer the questions in their hearts.
To have a large quantity of content, course builders make the mistake of stuffing information that is not necessarily relevant to their courses. This degrades the quality of the course. You want to make your class the best thing that has happened to them.
Attention Span
The attention span of the average human keeps decreasing, and especially with the constant use of technology, people are used to getting things done in a shorter length of time.
Think of it this way. People will move away from a video that doesn’t capture their attention in at least 8 seconds. That’s how short attention spans have become, so to get your student’s attention, don’t put out lessons that are too long.
Even in psychology, it’s easier to understand a lesson when it comes out in smaller portions than taking a long lecture.
Long vs. Short Courses
Point blank, people tend to like shorter videos, people are busy with so many schedules and deadlines to meet, and if, in the midst of all that, they want to take up a course, they don’t want one that will take up too much of their time.
Students want a well-put-together video that they can watch and understand quickly without wasting extra time. So, how long is a short online course? It’s a point to consider.
A study that analysed the watch time of video courses considered a sample set of 7 million videos from various learning platforms. It was found that learners found videos that lasted six minutes are more engaging than videos that take a longer amount of time.
If you are a course creator and you want the best engagement and positive feedback, then you should look at best practices. It would be best if you prioritised making videos below five minutes or, at most, five minutes.
This method has been tested and proven as an effective way to get the highest engagement from students.
Effective Ways To Keep Your Students Interested
Create Short Videos
As we’ve discussed, people don’t want to spend too much of their time on online lessons. They want to be able to manage their time, so rather than making long videos that last for hours, make videos students can engage with quickly.
Think of yourself in the classroom listening to a long, boring lecture. In that scenario, you are forced to wait until the end. Not so in an online course. It’s just you and your screen, so you might as well switch it off.
Help your online students have a better learning experience by decreasing the time they must invest to complete your course. Please give them the modules and lessons in more digestible chunks. It will facilitate the engagement you want to see.
Throw in Quizzes
The main goal of introducing quizzes, practicals, and tests is to increase the interactivity of the course. When it’s more interactive, it’s more engaging for students in the long run.
Make them do a compulsory quiz or test at the end of each module. This should be an expected part of the course so students are transformed as they complete the module. Their scores at the end of each quiz will tell you if they are following the course or not.
Conclusion
Your online course should be practical and relatable. You want your students to complete the course so make sure it fits into their lifestyle by breaking up content into manageable pieces and keeping the overall length of the course manageable.
Once you have set your goals for your course you can begin considering the most effective way to present your materials to manage time. You are encouraged to schedule a call with me to assist you in planning your course.
How to Create a Video for Online Course [7-Year-Olds Can Do It]
Feb 27, 2023
Show notes
Margaret sat at the kitchen table wondering how to create a video for her online course. Ever since she experienced an online program a few years ago, Margaret got the course creator bug. She realised how much value she could add to the lives of her potential students. With the emergence of popular social media apps: TikTok, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, Youtube shorts– there’s a key underlying attraction and all signs point to video content. Let’s face it, video is king now. Even if we didn’t want to jump on that train, it’s a take-it-or-lose ROI situation now. Selling anything is directly related to how well you present the service or product. Although informing through a blog post is useful, numerous people prefer watching a video instead. Thus, the boom in online learning. At first, the video freaked me out. How will I keep up with the quality, the lighting, the tone, everything? What goes into a high-quality, high-converting video and how do I get there? I’ve invested hours upon hours in building out my video content so I can let you in on all the industry tricks of the trade. Grab your phone or DSLR, and let’s get filming, crew! In this post, you’ll learn everything from reaching your target audience to identifying the right tools to make your work easy, and how to position yourself as an expert in your field. It’s completely possible to make money as a course creator without any teaching experience. As long as you have adequate knowledge of a subject, you can create expert video courses by following these painless steps. Tag along as we take a deep dive into the subject. First, Why Should You Create Online Courses? The short answer here is impact, passive income, a wealth of knowledge, and flexibility. But, the freedom that comes with being a course creator is unparalleled– plus sharing your passions with others is always an exciting venture, isn’t it? Create an Online Course to Impact Lives Do you ever feel deeply satisfied whenever you help someone? That’s a sign that you’ll do well as a content creator. Your content can really make a difference. The major reason for educating people is to impact their lives in a positive way. Teachers create a lasting impact on their students’ lives and can really shape and influence people in powerful ways. The internet has made it easier than ever to teach local and international students. Create a course in California that’s accessible to learners in India, Turkey, Europe, and more! You no longer have to meet people physically to make positive changes in their lives. Simply by producing excellent course content, you have the opportunity to make someone else’s journey smoother. Tell your progress story to guide others as they climb the ladder. Someone out there needs the knowledge that you have; dispense it. Sharing your skills and expertise will have a greater impact than you might be able to imagine. Create an Online Course for Passive Income As of late, the entire world is experiencing inflation, which means having one stream of income is not enough to keep you financially stable. The ultimate goal for anyone in the 21st century is to make money while you sleep or at least have multiple sources of income. Turn your passions and knowledge into passive income by creating a course that up and runs itself after initial development. Before, you were only able to access your local market to teach in-person classes. Now, the market is worldwide. Create an Online Course for Flexibility Online education has made it easy and convenient for entrepreneurs to make money doing what they enjoy from the comfort of their homes. We no longer need a physical location to create a business. You can make your own video course at your own pace without any pressure. This allows you to own your time and manage it as you deem fit. If you’ve ever worked a 9-5, you know what I’m talking about. Creating a complete guide on your preferred subject matter allows you to take breaks and spend ample time doing whatever it is that feeds you. Since you have the flexibility, you’ll have time to delve into hobbies and pastimes that you’ve previously ignored. Create an Online Course to Concrete Personal Branding Building a personal brand is essential for any expert who wants to stand out among the crowd. Creating a video for online courses allows you to leave an unforgettable impression on your audience and makes your face easy to remember. Not to mention, videos reveal your personality more than text or imagery ever will! You can transfer this audience to your social media platforms and interact with them there or create an email list and drive up customer/user loyalty. When past or present students need assistance in their business, they’ll reach out to who they remember first– YOU! This provides the opportunity to upsell and assist others in producing better results for their business. Long story short– branding equals visibility and awareness which equals higher ROI, enforced customer loyalty, and scaled online presence. Create an Online Course With Little-to-Zero Investment Anyone who says you need to shell out thousands to build an online course is simply gatekeeping. All it takes is the right tools and proper direction to get it right, the first time. Online learning eradicates the need to spend on printing course materials, creating an ideal environment for your students, and the costs of running a physical school. Instead, you can leverage online course platform resources to create the perfect environment for your students to learn quickly. Most platforms have a free version that you can use without worrying about fees. The paid version is affordable and helpful since you’ll get your money back. Create an Online Course Because Videos Are King If you’ve ever considered releasing an e-book instead of a video; stop that thought. Video is the way to reach people in this day and age. According to WordStream, 68% of customers prefer watching videos to using other forms like ebooks or infographics. With the amount of time users spend daily on social media, this isn’t surprising. Create an Online Course To Generate Leads Are you trying to gain more customers and generate leads for your business? Learning how to create a video for an online course can help you achieve such results. Once people perceive you as an authority in your niche, it opens doors for you to become a leader, appear on podcasts and interviews, and eventually gain traction in your field. People are always looking for experts in particular niches to help them with business problems. Once you position yourself in a value-delivered role, you can upscale your business. Now, How Do Different Video Formats Work for Online Courses? Before learning how to develop online courses, it is essential that you’re aware of the different video formats that exist. It would help to familiarize yourself with them so you can make a perfect choice. If you’re not tech-savvy, I totally get it. Snag a virtual coffee and chat with me, and I can answer any questions that arise in the following discussion. Number 1: Screencast Videos This video format involves recording your screen and accompanying it with a voiceover. You can decide whether to show your entire screen or just a part depending on what works best. Most online course creators use this video function to walk students through every step they take. This way, students can easily imitate it to get the same results. You should splice screencast videos with a presenter video for variety’s sake. Screencast videos work best for courses that teach testing new software or products, setting up a new platform, building out funnels and much more. Your potential customers will find this super useful and it saves them the trouble of having to figure out how a computer system works. Number 2: Talking Head Videos A talking head video requires a presenter or subject matter expert that is comfortable speaking to the camera. The instructor either takes over the full screen or remains at the side so slides can be shown to students. If you don’t have props, it is a good idea for you to use talking head videos for a start. All you really need is a good camera, a distraction-free location, video editing tools, and a script. Number 3: Animated Videos Animated videos are popular for their way of bringing a fun and exciting perspective to the learning experience. If you’re looking for a way to make complex topics much easier, you can use this format. These videos use graphics and text to pass a specific message to an audience. Some popular examples of animated videos include animated infographics, whiteboard animations, cartoon-style animations, character-based animations, and 2D animations. You can hire a designer to help you produce animated videos from your course content if you prefer this format to the rest, as most online course platforms don’t offer this media tool. Number 4: Interactive Videos Interactive videos are relatively new in online education. Interactive videos guide students through the course by clicking buttons to navigate to the following steps. Students must make decisions or answer questions correctly to be prompted with the next step. This format works well for adapting to different scenarios and allows students to make decisions in real time. Which Video Format Is Best for Your Business or Course Offering? All four video formats are used for unique reasons. For certain niches, it may be better to have a guidable course setup, like interactive videos. For coding or tech, a lot, of course, facilitators use talking heads or screen sharing so students can follow along with the exact layout of the site. Think about what you would prefer as a student in your niche, what avenue provides the best opportunity to stimulate learning? Five factors to consider when choosing a video format for your course are: The Budget Creating a talking-head video is the most affordable option as it requires minimal equipment. However, if you want to create animated videos or interactive videos, you’ll need to invest more cash in the visuals. Visual Knowledge Although you can create expert videos like talking-head videos without much knowledge of visuals, knowing what works best for what content will make your course outperform others. Technical Knowledge Some video formats have complexities requiring technical knowledge to create a successful online course. For example, to make animated videos or screencasts about how computer software works you’ll need technical expertise. Then, you can fully explore the video formats throughout your course that will heighten the learning experience for your students. The Topic The topic of your online course is an important factor that influences the type of video that will work best for you. Take into consideration the main objective and outcome of the course. If you’re walking your audience through the process of using new software, you cannot avoid using screencasts. If you’re dealing with a dull subject that requires some excitement, use animated videos to make it simple yet engaging. A good way to decide if this video format is perfect for your course offering is to conduct baseline competitor research by scanning reviews. Check the negative reviews to see if there are any mentions of how the course could be improved and then deliver. Preference Select the format you’re most comfortable with to ensure your videos come out looking their best. If you’re able to budget in a video editor, then you can experiment with formats outside of your comfort zone, which might end up working better for your course niche. So, How Can You Produce Appealing Videos for Your Online Courses, Without Being a Professional Videographer? Do the words, “video production,” ring any bells? What is video production anyways? To put it simply, video production deals with the entire process of making a video, from ideation to execution. This includes pre-production, production and post-production. A, B, and C of video before and after. You’re seeing the online course idea and script through the pipeline until completion. Even though you’re not plotting a major motion picture, it’s vital you flow through every step of the video process to ensure the final product comes out perfectly. You can liken the process of creating online course videos to that of building a house. Builders always have to start by preparing the land, starting the foundation, and building the blocks till the point of roofing. There’s no way you can jump one step before going to the other, the same way with creating an appealing online course video. Remember, if you create a quality video, you won’t need to jump through hoops again and again to fix the weak spots. Video production can be as smooth as four, basic steps. 4 Steps for Producing Captivating Videos For Online Courses You need to create online video courses that will grab your audience’s attention and keep them coming back for more. The purpose of your online course can be defeated if the videos you create fail to resonate with your viewers. Instead of testing random suggestions, here are my four tried and tested steps towards a flawless course creation process. If you have any questions or need help with the content planning and video suggestions, let’s hop on a call and discuss what suits you best! Step 1: Planning Remember that popular saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail?” Planning is everything. As a creator and expert in your niche, it’s your job to provide the quality and valuable information that customers are willing to pay for. When you fail to strategize or think through your logic and script, people are going to notice. Before you start filming, ask yourself: What Are Your Expected Learning Outcomes? When your students have finished taking your course, what do you want them to achieve? For example, if you’re teaching them how to use a particular software, you need to determine how proficient you want them to be after taking the course. Knowing what your students stand to gain will offer you a clear direction on what you’re supposed to produce. What’s Your Topic? When choosing a topic, it must be one that you can handle confidently. Choosing a topic you cannot handle will affect your reputation and reduce your capacity to earn passive income. This may be obvious, but it’s a needed reminder. Who Is Your Target Audience? Who and where are important factors. The who is who you see taking your course and gaining something from it. The where is where in their learning journey are your target students. If you’re targeting people with advanced knowledge of a subject, it will be a waste of time for you to start your course from scratch. Instead, you can move directly to the significant aspect you’re handling with a summary of the basics. Step 2: Preparing After you’ve drafted a solid plan for your video courses, the next step is for you to start making moves. How Do You Create an Outline? Every outline or lesson plan begins with the research stage. Know and study the ins and outs of your niche to determine a structure for course delivery. Without a good structure, you can miss out on some crucial aspects or even talk about the subject because there’s no clear direction. You can search for blog posts or videos that have already been created around a specific topic to determine the pain points of your target audience. The research will help you identify the gaps in the materials already created and see how your course can fill them. Afterwards, you start creating a sketch of what the course will look like. For visual learners and teachers, I recommend using a storyboard to help visualize a sequence of the information provided. How To Prepare a Video Script? When training for improv, professional comedians practice filling or not filling the quiet spaces with common stutters like “um,” “ah,” and “like.” In fact, throw these words out of your vocabulary– the…
The Ultimate Guide on How To Create a Mini-course [Step-by-Step]
Feb 13, 2023
Show notes
Maxine wanted to know how to create a mini-course because a 6-figure course creator let her in on a little secret. Just like Maxine, this 6-figure business owner got a successful start using a mini-course. After hearing this Maxine was determined to grow her business using similar strategies. However, there was one problem. Maxine never created a mini-course before so she needed a guide or mentor to assist. Let me know if you’re having an experience similar to Maxine’s. You’ve heard that less is more. How true is this concept in online course creation? Is there value in creating a one-hour or two-hour mini-course? Mini-courses can be powerful online tools for creators when created correctly. If you’re just starting out, a mini-course provides a great platform for you to grow into full online courses. If you already have a course running it can be a great complement and drive sales to your full course. But to create a valuable best-selling mini-course, you should select a topic, know how to create an online mini-course, and consider what modules you should include. In this post, you’ll learn how to create a mini-course, how many modules a mini-course has, and the benefits of developing a short course. What’s a Mini-Course? A mini-course is a short online course or a condensed version of a full-length course. It can also be online video courses created for a targeted audience. As a short course, it can contain a number of short videos and be used as a minimum viable product of a larger course. A mini-course can be mini online video classes or a set of live trainings without printables or download options. A mini-course is a powerful tool that creators use to build their online businesses. It takes less time and is one of the best ways to launch an online course business. The focus of mini-courses is assisting people to gain experience and learn a new concept or skill. A mini-course acts as a tool creators use to attract market leads or acquire market validation. Compared to full courses, mini-courses are action-oriented, more focused, and quicker and easier to complete. In most cases, creators use a free mini-course as a guide and platform for creating more expensive and longer courses. Advantages of Developing a Mini-Course Bigger isn’t always better, and creating a mini-course is simpler and takes less time to produce. A mini-course is an appropriate way to start making money before launching your full-length course. It can be placed at the front end of a sales funnel and sold using monthly subscriptions. So why should you create a mini-course? Is it worth the time and the resources used when creating it? What are the potential advantages of developing a mini-course for your audience? Below you’ll find the primary benefits of creating a mini-course. Less Time To Produce If you don’t have the time to create a full-length course, but you still want to share your ideas online, why don’t you create a mini-course that requires less time to produce? Producing a mini-course is faster than a full-length course. You can create a mini-course in two weeks and use limited resources and money. A large course has much more pressure and requires more investment of time and money. Verify Your Market Mini-courses also help you gauge demand for the selected topic before investing resources and time to create a larger course. You have the opportunity to create online courses to test your market. When starting your online course business, starting small is always appropriate. You can even ask your audience what they really want through social media platforms and social networks. You can use the feedback to verify and validate your target audience and market. Start small if it is your first online course to create and you feel insecure and uncertain. Select a mini-course topic and create a short online course for your target audience. It’s a good idea to test your idea and skills based on your course idea before developing a larger project. Simpler A mini-course covers a narrow subject, which makes it simpler to create than a full course as it does not include extra resources. The course format of a mini-course addresses a specific topic of your choice. It is a simplified version of a full-length course. The simplicity of mini-courses makes them easier to digest. Just like mini burgers, mini-courses can be digested easily and are better for business. Instead of focusing on a broad topic, you concentrate on a particular problem. People don’t have all day to sit down and watch more than 200 hours of video or read a 6,000-word blog post on a given topic. The simpler the course, the better. We’re all busy with work, kids, and running businesses. Creating shorter courses allows you to access students who might not have the time or need for the full breadth of your knowledge of your field. Get More New Leads A free mini-course is a great approach to capturing leads in your targeted audience. People are more willing to commit when the investment is smaller. Once you have their attention you can show them the value of your other, or future, offerings. Where provided for free, mini-courses are lead magnets and can attract learners to pay for the full course. A mini-course is used to create and build an online audience. A mini-course can create expert recognition and generate reviews. When you have a lead magnet, you’ll get students’ contact information and open a communication channel. You can use the contacts for email marketing for your other courses or services. Many online course creators use mini-courses to attract leads and traffic into their marketing funnel. Students may be interested in a $500 course, but hesitant to commit. Such a large investment requires consideration. Giving potential students mini-course options allows them to test the water. With a $15 or free mini-course you can create brand extensions by appealing to new customers. How can you promote your mini-course to get new leads? Here are the primary strategies you can use to promote your short course to generate leads. Email Marketing Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools you can use to promote your products, such as a mini-course. Popular email marketing campaigns include email newsletters and promotional emails. You can check out our article, where we unscramble the leading steps to a successful email marketing strategy for course creators. You can use free email marketing services such as SendInBlue, Email Octopus, Benchmark, or MailChimp. The advanced free options for marketing services include Zoho Campaigns (2,000 subscribers and also sends 12,000 emails monthly). You can also use Hubspot Marketing for the free email marketing tool and benefit from 1,000,000 contacts. Social Media You can share your content on social media platforms to attract more readers, convert your followers into clients, and grow your email list. You can get customised social media campaigns and improve conversion rates when marketing your own online course. Social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Quora, and Reddit, can be effective tools for promoting your mini-course. You can go beyond sharing it with your followers and find communities to share it with as well. Facebook groups relevant to your topic can be a great place to share! You can also have sponsored Facebook Ads for your mini-course and quickly attract clients and generate leads. The best decision you can make is to use social media for advertising your short course. Blogging Although blogging can be time-consuming, it is a rewarding strategy that will create quality leads for your mini-course. You can create your own blog or even engage in guest posting on blogs your target students might already be following. Content marketing provides a strategy to create credibility online and educate your clientele. You must make room for blogging as a marketing strategy for spreading knowledge and online presence. Paid Ads The most effective and quick way to improve your online presence is through paid ads. The only shortcoming you’ll experience when using paid ads is the financial investment. Facebook Ads and Google Ads are two top choices to consider to drive traffic to your course and generate leads. Influencer Outreach Offer YouTubers, Podcasters, Bloggers, Influencers, and Instagrammers free access to your mini-course, especially if they run accounts closely related to your course. If a particular influencer has great reach with your target students you can also consider approaching them for a sponsored post. Great Way to Start Making Money You can start earning money before launching your full-length course. Just create mini-courses, sell them, and generate money today. Mini-courses are not capital intensive, and you can create them in a short time and start making a profit. Creating a short course helps cut startup time and quickly produces profit. If you are already blogging, have a YouTube channel or podcast, or even extensive social media content related to your topic, you can repurpose this content to get started even faster. Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Mini-Course 1. Choose Your Mini-Course Topic Choose a mini-course topic that demonstrates your expertise and can bring potential clients to your brand. Choosing the right mini-course topic is the key to your success. Your topic should be something that you are knowledgeable about and that can be imparted to others in a short course format. Whether you’re an expert or new, you need to choose a topic you can comfortably write (or talk) about and that will significantly assist your target audience to achieve their goals. If you already have existing content, narrow it down and create a mini-course. A creator with an email list already understands the market and the content they’re interested in and passionate about. Ensure the mini-course topic aligns with your target audience. 2. Establish the Learning Objectives Now that you have chosen your mini-course topic, what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish with your mini-course? Creating learning objectives is the answer to these questions. Defining your learning objectives, goals, and mini-course objectives will help you organise your course content. Achievable objectives will help you to promote your mini-course effectively. If you have clear objectives, your target audience will have a reason to join your mini-course. 3. Research The next important step is to conduct online research for your topic ideas and plan the course outline. The research will help inspire you and ensure you aren’t missing anything related to your mini-course topic. The research should include an extensive Google search, a social media dive, reading Amazon, and checking out the competition. Don’t skip research; remember to search on Facebook, browse Instagram hashtags, and look for your topic on Twitter. Next, conduct keyword research using online tools such as Keyword Tool, SEMrush, Google Trends, and Buzzsumo. Why does research matter? Given that you want to generate traffic and sales, you need an organic search for your course topic. A well-researched topic can help your minicourse rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs). After you find your topic and search a keyword for your minicourse, create a title that will rank and generate excitement among your followers. You can also use powerful verbs and adjectives to appeal to your audience. A pro tip: A well-sought-after keyword will increase the chances of your potential student searching and finding your mini-course and purchasing it. 4. Create a Buyer Persona for Your Short Course What is a buyer persona, and why do you need to create one for your short course? Briefly, a buyer persona is also known as the audience or marketing persona and helps you create content targeting your audience. A buyer persona is important and will keep you focused on addressing your potential student’s priorities rather than your own. A buyer persona describes the individuals who represent your target students. If you don’t know your target students, you cannot market your mini-course effectively. Creating a buyer persona for your short course will enable you to choose marketing strategies that resonate with them. A buyer persona’s information can include age, income, hobbies, spending habits, and personal and professional goals. 5. Sketch Your Mini-Course Outline After you have gathered all the necessary information for your mini-course, the next step is to create your mini-course outline. The mini-course outline helps you plan out the flow of your course and ensure that the pieces build on each other. Whether you’re creating your course from scratch or repurposing content, you can utilise a mini course outline template. An outline will help you connect the dots and put your ideas together for the mini-course. Your course outline breaks the topic down into modules that align with your mini-course learning objectives. It will help you put all of your ideas into an actionable, logical order. 6. Create Your Course Content Now that you have all the information, you can start to create your mini-course. So far, you’ve done your research, keyword search selected a topic and sketched your mini-course outline, you can now create your content. Be sure to compile your content into an easy-to-use mini-course package attractive to customers. You must ensure that your content is actionable, unique, focused, and reliable. You want to attract your audience and convince them to purchase your short course. The goal is to provide value for money to your students. If they are happy with your mini-course you can convert them into students for longer courses and other offerings. You can deliver gold in your mini-course as an expert on your topic. Building a mini-course is simple, and you can use Kajabi and other platforms with pre-built blueprints. What Should the Price of a Mini-Course Be? After creating your mini-course, you should determine its price. You need to research and set the right price for your mini-course. Many creators give their mini-courses for free to create leads and get a taste of the full course. However, you can choose to sell it for a small fee. An impulse price point is recommendable for your short video or written course. You can set the price of your course as low as $20, $50, or even $100. People are more likely to pay a small price for a mini-course, given the availability of free online short courses. If you’re unsure about the price, you can consider charging $10-$50 for your mini-course. How Long Does It Take To Make a Mini-course? An attractive online mini-course requires planning and commitment. On average, a mini-course will take you one month to create. It might also take you one day to three months to fully create a mini-course. The length of a mini-course depends on the content to be included, materials, format, and learning objectives. If you’re integrating video content into your mini-course, you might require an additional ten to fifty hours of recording and editing. How Long Should a Mini-course Be? So, how many modules is a mini-course and how long should a class be? There is no rule of thumb on the number of modules you should have in a mini-course. Shorter modules are easier to digest and more engaging so multiple modules are encouraged even in a mini-course. An ideal mini-course will allow your students to learn within the shortest time possible. A mini-course should range between 30 to 90 minutes. As we have discussed, your potential students are busy people. They are opting for your short course to quickly develop a targeted skill or to assess your offerings before committing to a longer course. Bear that in mind and keep things quick and concise. How do you Generate Leads for your Mini-course? Generating leads for your mini-course requires consistency and dedication. You can use some of the following ideas to attract attention and…
9 Incredible Tips on How To Presell a Course [+ 6-Figure Secrets]
Jan 30, 2023
Show notes
Lily felt lost because after spending days searching through content about how to presell a course she wasn’t any wiser. You see, Lily heard inside a Facebook group that it was better to presell a course rather than invest lots of time building it out. She wanted to be able to gauge interest in her signature offer before investing time and energy. The problem though is that preselling a course is not as easy as she expected it to be. All the information in blogs and in YouTube videos seems to be oh-so vague. Let me know if you can relate to these points. Creating an online course is a labour of love. You know your topic well and are excited to share your knowledge with others but it is still a lot of labour. Learning how to presell a course can help you feel like the work you are putting in is worth it. You want to have students and make an income. That is why you are learning about online course creation after all. If you can generate presales you can work on that content knowing that eyes will see it! Make sure the labour in your labour of love is worth it. In this post, you’ll learn why pre-selling is important as well as 9 incredible tips that will help you to sell out your course in no time. Why Pre-Selling is Important You are passionate and knowledgeable about your field. So much so that you can teach others about it and you want to! But of course, you want the time you spend making a course to be worth it for you financially. You aren’t giving away your hard-earned skill for free after all. Pre-selling before and as you create means that your course will be generating income even as you invest time and effort in creating it. You are being paid for your work upfront. Not only does this ease your pocket it can also help incentivise you to work when that cup of coffee isn’t cutting it. All the tips outlined in this resource will help you with creating pre-sales for your course. Online innovative business owners now have all the information they need to start pre-selling to their target students. Use this info to get the pre-sales for your next course. Tips on How To Sell a Course Tip #1 Layout Your Digital Product Navigating through the entire course shouldn’t be difficult for students. The first section starts with the basics like the course title. The introductory part of the lessons should carry all the needed information about what to expect. You can start by giving out a sneak peek of what to expect in each module, the topics, class activities, quizzes, and the time frame for completing the course. Through pre-sales, you can be selling your course as you are creating it however it is essential to create a great online course. Students can refer other students or leave reviews. You want to make sure your pre-sales students have a great online course after you launch. Tip #2 Figure out Your Target Numbers You do not want to price your online course so high that people do not sign-up but you also want to recoup the investment of your time and resources in creating a course. Conduct market research, calculate your cost during production (value your time too!) and use that to guide you in pricing your new online course. This is important in pre-selling as you do not want to over-price or even under-price your course. The next step is to know that you are not marketing your product to just anyone but to people who need or would be interested in your online course, so just like any other venture, you need to figure out who your potential customers are, including where and how to find them. Don’t make the mistakes some course creators make, thinking people will be more interested if they offer their course at a lower price. This is not true at all. If your course is worth it, you will make sales effortlessly. When you determine the people your course is meant for and set the price appropriately, it will be easier to plan your strategies. Tip #3 Identify Your Launch Date One of the reasons you might not have a profitable online course as a new course creator, even though you have great content, is that you didn’t consider timing. First, you need to make sure there’s enough demand for your course. If you fix your launch date when there is no demand for online classes, you’ll have a hard time making sales. Imagine selling Christmas lights in May. Yikes! You’ll be in the same boat if you launch a digital product at a time when it’s not in demand. There is a lot of competition out there already, so you have to make sure yours sells. Look at your own schedule. Perhaps use our planner! Start early enough to put together your materials. Even though the course is on pre-sale, you do not want your customers waiting for a long time before getting it. For all we know, you might have a great turnout. Think about this. Don’t put a date too soon when you know you’re not ready to deliver or too late when the demand is over, and you know that there are many competitors already in the market launching the same course, so you don’t want to be left behind. Tip #4 Pick Your Pre-Sell Strategy Outline the pre-sales strategy you want to use for your upcoming course launch. Consider whether you want to use a video format or webinar sign-ups. Perhaps something else! You can make a video for your pre-sales page to spell out the importance of the new product and how it would be of great value to your potential students and their career, job, or business. Outline the benefits to show the great things they would be getting from it. You can host a webinar with your potential students to find out what their interests and expectations are for the course and have a question-and-answer session with them. It will show them that you have their interests at heart and are ready to give them great value. There is also the option of using social media to share snippets of what you’re creating. Your potential students can read about it across various social media platforms. Make teaser videos that give an insight about the course, and share highlights and thrilling aspects of the course. Make them realise they would miss a lot if they don’t sign up. This will keep them anticipating the course release date. Most people taking an online course like to check the reviews for a course before purchasing because, for all they know, you might be making fake promises online. So, this is an excellent opportunity to include past reviews and testimonies from previous students attesting to your capability. You gain trust if they see examples of the impact your teaching has made in the past. If this is your first online course and you don’t have student testimonials from any other source, you can highlight testimonials from people who have seen you put the skills you will be teaching into practice. Tip #5 Create a Waitlist Opt-In Page A Strong Headline An essential aspect of pre-selling is making a powerful headline. Your headline is like an intro to the course, and remember that people’s attention spans are short, so you have to create something that will keep them hooked and interested in a short time. Your headline should be short but powerful, explaining the course outline, the problems it would solve, and why it is the next best thing to happen in their life. A Detailed Overview of the Course Use a detailed format to explain the content of your course. This overview will give your potential students a deeper view of what to expect, plus the advantages of the course. Don’t write long speeches. Keep them as short as possible to avoid confusing the reader. Communicate as if you are speaking to someone you see physically. Make use of a simple, friendly tone when writing. Avoid the use of terminology and technical jargon that would put off the reader. Use a Strong Call to Action The call to action you use should be compelling enough to encourage them to make a purchase. Your call to action should be convincing but not manipulative. Don’t give them room for options. Make them act immediately. You can do this by offering a discount price to the early birds, or you can offer them free course material or, better still, a money-back guarantee if they don’t get value from the course content. Tip #6 Create Content This is when you want to create content around your product to increase the course conversion rate. At this point, you have successfully put together all you need to start the presale. The next thing you want to do is your advertising. It’s time to create awareness and inform people about what is coming up. Let’s look at some of the ways you can create content around your course topic. Make Youtube Videos The number of people who spend time on YouTube videos is estimated to be about 2 billion. From watching live streams, movies, and music videos to learning skills, YouTube has it all and you can use the platform to promote your course. Making videos on YouTube is an excellent way of reaching out to your potential students. Start by creating short videos. Each video talks about a new topic, don’t give out all the information, just snippets of it, then ask them to sign up if they want to know more. You can offer one of your courses for free as a lead magnet to attract a lot of people. You can also leave a link in the description box that will lead them to your course landing page, where they can fill out the checkout page. Start an Email Campaign Start email marketing. Make an email list of all the emails of the interested persons that you have, and you can start sending them emails about the upcoming course. Create a compelling landing page and insert the links to the presell page in the email. Create a situation of urgency to let them know they don’t have much time before the course launch date and they need to be among the first beneficiaries of the goodies to come. After sending the email, always follow up by sending a reminder to their email address to ensure they haven’t forgotten. Put it on Your Blog People spend a lot of time on various blogs, so if you can’t reach them via email, they can read about your pre-sell on your blog. Writing a blog post either on your blog or someone else’s blog for social proof would help you expand your marketing strategy and give you the leverage to reach more people. People who love to read would appreciate it if you could put down all the benefits they would get by registering. This would convince them to click the call to action button to get the course. You can also encourage people to become an affiliate with you. They earn a commission when someone clicks on their affiliate link to purchase the course. Use Social Media advertisements All the social media platforms can be turned into your marketing channel. Apart from sending emails and making YouTube videos, use various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter and turn them into your marketplace. When doing your promotions, don’t be too salesy. Customers want to know that you are interested in their pain point first, don’t sound like all you want is to collect money from them. Learn how to create compelling social media content here If they end up showing interest, reply to their messages and comments and show appreciation for their interest. Tip #7 Close Your Offer The best presales are those that are only offered for a brief period of time. This creates a sense of urgency, which motivates customers to pull out their credit cards. To get people to make haste and register for the course, you need to let them know you have a special offer for them to get it at a lower price now or get it at the full price later, as the offer won’t be there for a long time. It would help if you offered a massively discounted price for the first round of people to sign up and close the offer as soon as the pre-sales are over. Tip #8 Keep Your Customers Engaged After The Pre-Sale As a countdown timer for the launch date is approaching, you must keep in touch with your new students. You do not want to leave them hanging, wondering what to do next until the release date. Make them realise they have come to the right place, and create a series of activities to keep them busy with your course creation process until the day of the launch. Start by sending them thoughtful inspirational quotes, not necessarily about the course, just something to motivate them to succeed. You can also give them a free ebook about one of your courses. It will help to make the whole process worthwhile. Create a platform where you can ask them about their expectations about the course, even as the day approaches. Lastly, you can create a Facebook group for your online students. This is an excellent way to bring all the students together for social interactions, and they can ask questions and seek clarification about anything. Tip #9 Gather Feedback When creating your course, you want to hear what your potential customers have to say. This will help your online business because customers feel like you listen to them. Their feedback will give you insight into what to fix and what corrections must be made before the final release of the full course. Advantages of Pre-Selling If you have never heard of pre-selling and you are asking how presales work and if it is important, you will find your questions answered here. Pre-selling a course means that your course is available for purchase before it launches. Perhaps even before it is finished. Students who sign-up during a pre-sale are often rewarded with freebies or a discount. Here are the advantages of pre-selling an online course. 1. Make a List of Your Potential Customers Creating awareness for your upcoming course will help you know the people interested in the course so that you can add them to a list of prospective customers. You can do this by creating an email list that you would use to send bulk messages to your email subscribers, telling them when the launch date for the course is approaching. If you want to know how to make an online course sell, then you need to look at advertising strategy. And if you have the money, you can go all out on this, as it would yield significant returns of reaching as many people as possible, which is an excellent advantage in the long run. Depending on your budget or expectations, it is up to you to decide how long the email list will be before your launch date. 2. Receive Constructive Criticism From Your Students Students who have first-hand access to your course as soon as it launches will help you by generating reviews early. The feedback they give you will also tell you where you can improve the course or advise you of any glitches in your course. Please encourage them to give you feedback. You’ll use their reviews, whether positive or negative, to improve the course content and make it worth it for the students. Remember that your aim is to put out educational content that will satisfy your student’s needs. 3. Raise Money in Advance To Build the Lessons You could be spending money developing your course, depending on what you will put out and what resources you already have. Running a pre-sale will help you gather a little bit of income to help with your course creation costs. Pre-selling is a way of receiving advance payment for the course. 4. It Allows You To Know if Your Ideas Are Great If you are wondering if you have valuable information and if it is something people would appreciate, selling your course before it comes out will help you know if students find the lessons educating and engaging. If you receive lots of positive responses from them, it’s a good sign because you don’t want to waste resources on a futile venture. You can then use the feedback to make changes where necessary to give your students nothing but the best learning experience. Conclusion You have spent a lot of time on your course content creation but haven’t launched yet (or maybe you just have an outline!). Either way, pre-selling is for you! Selling an e-learning course before the release date re…
How To Create an Online Course Outline [Plus 6-Figure Examples]
Jan 16, 2023
Show notes
Linda was excited, she figured out her course niche but how to create a course outline still remained as the burning question on her lips.
You see, Linda spent the last 3-5 years trying to decide what she can teach online.
As a Therapist, it can be difficult to translate her skills into something easily teachable.
Like Linda, I’ve had similar battles in the past.
At this point, I’ve already lost count of how many courses I prematurely tossed aside.
You know the ones I’m talking about: those with huge unstructured walls of text that’s just a huge run-on sentence.
I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to try and learn a new course that’s nothing more than a jumble of information. How are you supposed to know where to start? Or what the most important information is?
Fortunately, a simple solution to this problem is learning how to create a course outline.
A course outline is a road map for your course. It’s a way to take all the information you want to include in your course and organize it into an easy-to-follow format.
Now, how do you create an online course outline?
Creating a course outline is a simple process that anyone can do. Determine your goals, break down the steps, and reassess your outline, ensuring you maintain simplicity.
In this blog post, you’ll learn easy steps (with examples) to create an effective course outline. I’ll also give you outline creation tips and answer questions like, “what is a course format?”
Let’s take a closer look.
What is a Course Outline?
Did you know that 2030 e-learning predictions place the online course market at six times the 2015 levels($107 billion)?
As such, it’s unsurprising why many want to perfect this area. One of the biggest questions course creators ask is, “What is a detailed course outline?”
A course outline is a document that typically includes a
Course title
Course description,
Learning outcomes
Subject matter topics
Course syllabus materials
Course requirements and assessments
Course Policies
Course Schedule
Instructor’s contact information, and sometimes social media pages.
A course outline is like a teaching partner for instructors, which lays the building blocks for each online course topic. You can share it with students to give them an overview of the course content.
Once a course plan is ready, you may add more detail to the objectives or topics or an additional assessment. You can also modify a course plan as you teach to make changes to the content or structure of the course.
Why You Need a Course Outline
An outline is an excellent enhancer of your teaching methods.
It helps you organize yourself and stay on the right track. An outline helps you keep all your content organized in one place from the first to the final project. You can easily reference it when you need to and it can help you with course development.
An outline also helps ensure an instructional designer creates cohesive and well-flowing modules. Planning your course material ahead of time ensures that the component parts build on each other. It ensures that you adequately cover all the course modules.
Creating an outline for your course may seem time-consuming and hard work. However, it saves you much time in the long run. Take time to plan out your content ahead of time. This way, you’ll avoid having to make last-minute changes to your lectures or handouts.
A course outline provides a clear overview of the learning resources and their structure. A clear understanding is helpful to prospective students as they meet your material for the first time.
Well-structured course outlines give a good impression to students. They help them determine how the courses fit into their schedules and what the set expectations are.
How To Create an Effective Course Outline
Creating a course outline can be a simple or complex process, depending on your needs. You can create an outline in a word processing program like Microsoft Word, Airtable or Google Docs. You can also use an online course outline template.
The three aspects to keep in mind when creating an outline are goals, procedures, and assessing the product.
First Step: Determine Your End Goal
The first step is establishing the course goals. What do you want your course students to achieve by the end of the course?
Your learning objectives should be SMART. In other words, it should be a goal you can realistically achieve within a specific timeframe.
For example, if you want your students to learn how to use a particular software program, your goal should be
Specific: learn how to use the software program
Measurable: Use the software program to complete a specific task
Achievable: have the necessary skills and knowledge to use the software program
Relevant: the software program is relevant to your course
Time-bound: You’ll complete the task within a specific timeframe.
Once you determine your end goal, you can begin to identify the steps that you’ll need to take to reach it.
Next Step: Identify Your Steps
The next step in creating an effective course outline is to identify the steps needed to take to reach your goal. This stage may require some research on your part, but it is important to ensure that your steps are clear and concise.
To identify your steps, you’ll need to think about what your target audience needs to do to reach your goal. For example, if your goal is for your students to learn how to use a particular software program, your steps might include
Research the software program.
Install the software program.
Learn the basics of how to use the software program.
Complete a specific task using the software program.
Evaluate their progress and understanding of how to use the software program.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until they have a complete understanding of how to use the software program.
Once you have identified your steps, you can begin to outline your course.
Final Step: Review Your Outline
The final step is to ensure that each step is well-defined. There should be a logical progression covering everything from the basic information at the start until the end of the course.
If there are steps that are not vital, remove them from your outline. It’s also a good idea to ask yourself if the order of the steps makes sense. Let the first things ease students into your course and follow smoothly to the end.
Tips When Creating Your Course Outline
Many first-time course creators make the mistake of rushing through the content creation process. As a result, their courses end up disorganised and difficult to follow.
A great way to ensure your course outline is on par is to be concise yet detailed. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Use as Few Steps as Possible
The best way to create a course outline is to use as few steps as possible. Doing this helps to keep your course concise and focused. Too many steps can overwhelm students and make it difficult for them to follow along.
Additionally, be clear and brief when writing your steps. Use language that your target audience understands and can follow easily.
Use Supplementary Information Sparingly
Don’t load your students with handouts, PowerPoints, and readings. Too much supplemental information can overwhelm students and make it difficult for them to focus on the content of your course.
Only include the necessary information to make the students’ understanding a little bit better. Everything added should help your students to understand the course’s lessons and improve their learning.
Use Simple Language
Imagine trying to teach peripheral nerve surgery in elementary school. It would be pretty difficult, right? That’s because the language used in medical school is far too complex for elementary school students.
The same is true when creating your course outline. Don’t complicate basic details except when handling complex subjects with no alternatives.
Simple language helps to ensure that your online students understand the material and can follow along easily. Additionally, simple language helps keep your material focused and concise, two key things of successful courses.
Course Outline Example
Have you gone through the outline creation steps but still wondering, “How do I create a course plan?” While we’ll follow our three steps, we can break them further into five tasks. We’ll:
Start with the result. Write down the result using mind map tools like MindMeister and Coggle. You can also use tools with cards, boards, and lists like Trello. A third option would be merging several tools, such as mind-mapping and building further on Trello.
Determine your major steps. Don’t get into many details. We are only outlining. For instance, creating several Trello lists of the key steps needed to achieve the result.
Develop the action steps for each major step. Provide the subordinate steps for each step you developed above. Don’t get into details.
Outline the milestones covering each of your steps in step three. Get into the nitty-gritties to ensure you address all the critical information, i.e.; you can make checklists for each step with Trello, Airtable or Google Sheets.
Review your outline. Drag and adjust to ensure everything flows and is cohesive.
Let’s now apply the simplified version to see a course outline example.
Application of Steps
Let’s assume our course title is “How to Start a Blog.” We’ll begin with the result and work our way backwards.
So, the goal of each student learning in this class is to “become a blogger.”
There are several major steps involved in starting a blog, which we can break down into lists inside Asana, ClickUp or Notion.
We’ll have several topics. For instance, the main topic that can form our first module could be the “blog framework.” Under this, some major steps may include:
Choosing a blog name
Creating a blog navigation layout
Buying a domain and hosting.
You need to take several steps for all major steps in starting a blog. For instance, when choosing a blog name, you’ll need to:
Brainstorm ideas
Come up with a list of possible names
Decide on the best one.
When creating a blog navigation layout, you’ll need to:
Determine what pages you want to include
Establish how you want those pages organized.
Then, when buying a domain and hosting, you’ll need to:
Research your options
Decide on a provider
Set up your account.
You must meet several milestones for each action step in starting a blog. For instance, when brainstorming ideas for a blog name, you may need to:
Assess your niche
Come up with a list of relevant keywords
Use keywords to generate a list of possible names.
When deciding the name, milestones may include:
Establishing a weighting mechanism for various factors
Using the weighting mechanism to assess options
Selecting the best option.
As we conclude, you’ll want to ensure that the steps involved in each major task are clearly laid out.
By the end, you’ll have an effective course outline. Readers/students should have all they need to become successful bloggers.
Conclusion
A course outline is a vital element of the learning management system. It makes it easy to identify important pieces within your training materials.
The most important thing course instructors should do for a great course is careful planning. Try using headings, subheadings, audio recordings, and video content to break up your content and make it easy to scan.
I hope our course outline template provided you with everything you need to create a successful online course outline, right?
You can use this example to tailor it to your specific course and stand out from similar courses.
If you want an excellent platform to create online courses, grab our free course outline template here. My 6-figure clients use a similar template for their courses.
This course gives you excellent tips on actualizing your goals through writing.
201 Best Online Course Ideas – What Profitable Niche to Target?
Jan 02, 2023
Show notes
Lizzy was reading a sales page about the best ways to find online course ideas for creators. She wanted to do the market research herself but she was short on time. You see, Lizzy had about 5-6 ideas swirling around in her head about potential topics for a course she would like to launch in a few months. Like Lizzy, you’re probably facing a similar challenge. What niche should you choose for your online course? There are hundreds of courses out there, and you don’t want to create a course in an oversaturated niche. How do you decide whether or not a particular course is worth making? How do you narrow down a field to one niche to teach? There are many reasons why you want to create your own online course. Some of them might include earning extra income, building a brand, and even helping others. The key is finding something that you enjoy creating and sharing. There are lots of online course ideas that you can get started with if you keep that in mind. How to Choose the Best Online Course Idea You have mastered a skill and have a lot you can share with others. That is why you want to create an online course or even a mini-course. However, you want to pick a topic that will sell. Consider our profitable course ideas to choose your online course niche. 1 – Demand Will people be interested in purchasing and learning from it? Is your topic something that has demand? Make sure there are people out there interested in what you want to share. You want to pick a popular topic that will intrigue students. What problem can you solve? If you create something that solves a problem for someone, then they will be interested in buying it. Pick a topic that addresses a concrete pain point. 2 – Audience Who is your target audience? Your target audience is your potential student. What kind of students are you looking for? What are they looking for? What are their pain points? Once you know who the target audience for your online course is you can begin to consider their needs. Think about what problems they need to solve. How long should an online course be for them to stay interested? It is important that your online course be a manageable length for your students. Don’t create a course that is too long. 3 – Expertise Do you have unique skills? Is there a particular skill that sets you apart in your field? Think about things that make you different from other people interested in your topic. What’s your expertise and knowledge that you can share with your audience? Think about what you know that others might want to know. Don’t try to teach an online course about surfing if you can’t swim. Stick to what you know. 4 – Competition How many other courses are already out in your chosen niche/topic? With proper marketing and a quality product, you can break into a crowded field. However, you can consider the competition when selecting a course topic to perhaps cover a lesser-explored corner of your field. 5 – Medium What’s your approach? Your approach is how you will deliver your knowledge to your students. Think about the different course content types you will use. Options include audio, text, video, and more. 6 – Profitability Can you profit from your online course? Though you have many motivations for selling online courses such as making the world a better place and educating others, you still want to make money selling courses online. Ideas For A Successful Online Course With these ideas and questions in your mind, you are ready to start thinking about your online course topic. Take a look at some of the fields and topics we have highlighted to get your next great idea. Digital Marketing Digital Marketing has become very important these days. With the rise of the new online marketing medium, there has been equal demand for courses on the subject. Digital Marketing is basically the promotion of brands through various digital platforms such as social media, mobile apps, websites, and email. It involves creating strategies to promote products or services using multiple channels. It is also known as Online Marketing because it deals with promoting businesses online. The main aim of digital marketing is to increase sales and improve brand awareness. Content marketing is a large piece of online marketing. Using content marketing involves creating content and publishing it online to reach your target audience. Once you create your digital marketing course you will probably need to engage in content marketing yourself if you aren’t already. You can use our Google Sheets Editorial Calendar to plan months of content all in one place. Even with expertise in digital marketing, you might be struggling to think about what exactly to teach your students. Hopefully, these course ideas inspire you. Onpage SEO Email Marketing Landing Page Optimization Email List Management Affiliate Linking Monetizing Facebook Groups Building a Sales Funnel Leveraging your LinkedIn Presence Social Media Marketing PPC Ad Strategies Technology Technology has become a huge part of our lives. From smartphones to tablets, laptops and even desktops, technology has changed the way we live. Technology also plays a major role in the workplace. If you want to advance in your career or start a new job, learning about technology can give you an edge over other candidates. The essential nature of technology makes it a hot course creation opportunity. Your students have the desire to improve their technology skills. It is even in high demand. Here are some ideas of things you can teach them in your online technology course. Google Suites Microsoft Office Adobe After Effects Adobe Photoshop CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) Tools JavaScript Fullstack Coding Data Science HTML and CSS Online Hosting Platforms Trading and Investing There are many options out there for those who want to start investing or trading. In fact, there are an overwhelming amount of ways to get into the industry. Your students understand that breaking into this field will be their ticket to financial freedom or a smart move for their retirement. But let’s face it, it can be a scary field. A lot of people will be interested in your online classes to learn new skills in trading and investing. You can use your expertise to help people level up their skills in the trading and investing fields or even just get started. Here are some ideas of areas for you to build an online course around. Index Funds Mutual Funds Roth IRAs How to Analyse Buying Trends Stock Market Secrets Investing for Beginners Diversifying Your Portfolio 401Ks Forex Trading Getting Started Flipping Houses Building Personal Finance and Wealth Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular. Many people want to get involved in the exciting new trend, but they don’t know where to start. Non-fungible token? Come on, you know that can confuse a newbie even if you were involved in mining the first Bitcoin. Creating an online cryptocurrency course can take a lot of different forms. You will need to find an area that you are knowledgeable about and that you can market to people as a way to increase their knowledge of Crypto or even increase their crypto wallet balance. Here are some ideas for you to run with to find a profitable idea. Metaverse Decentralised Finance Reading Candlesticks Bitcoin and Crypto Technology NFTs Ethereum and Other Coins USDT: Stablecoins Digital Art Bitcoin Mining Crypto Applications Language Online language courses are becoming increasingly popular around the world. They allow students to learn at home from anywhere, anytime, and they also offer flexibility when studying. There are free online language learning apps like Duolingo but many users complain about these apps. They want more in-depth knowledge. This is where you come in. Additionally, when creating a language course, you can think beyond just traditional learning of new language ideas. Language is a very wide field! There are a lot of types of courses you can create. Look at some of our ideas below. English as a Second Language Ancient Languages French Becoming a Polyglot English Language Grammar Guide to Tonal Languages Arabic For Travelers Gen Z Slang Guide How Language Evolves Dying Languages American Sign Language Photography Photography has become very popular over the years. Many people want to take their hobby to the next level and break into professional photography. Others just want to know how to use their iPhone to up their Instagram feed. If you have some photography skills you can create a course that appeals to these people. Your new course will teach people about a specific topic in photography. You know you are good at photography but you might be having some issues thinking of ways to teach others how to do what you do. Photography can be broken down into many teachable skills. The biggest challenge could be knowing where to start. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. DSLR Cameras Lightroom Editing 35mm Film Cameras Creating a Darkroom Film Development and Manipulation Depth of Field Shutter Speed How to Pose Like a Model How to Make Money From Stock Photos Photography Essentials for Beginners Videography Video has become a powerful tool in our modern world. Video content is now being shared at a much faster rate than text or images. Lots of people have ideas for videos but no know-how to create a video. There is a large audience in online education for creating videography courses that teach practical skills for making great videos. How would you describe your videographer skills? Are they good enough to create professional video content? If yes, then you can create an online videography course to teach your skills to others. Here are some ideas to get you started with online course creation. Audio Effects Post-Production Skills TikTok Video Creation Tips Drone Footage Final Cut Pro CapCut Professional Live Streaming Videography for Beginners iMovie Film and TV Production Graphic Design Graphic Design is a field where creativity meets technical skills. This combination makes it possible to create visual messages that communicate effectively. Graphic designers are responsible for creating logos, websites, advertisements, brochures, packaging, posters, and more. They also develop brand identities, corporate communications, and other marketing materials. With all of these tasks in the field, there is a lot of room to learn more and level-up skills. Maybe you have the know-how to get people started in the course ideas we lay out here or another option will work for you with additional research. Illustrator Canva Brand Kit Creation Logo Design Fundamentals Vector and Rendering Web and Mobile Design Print Design Brand Identity Adobe Creative Cloud Colour Theory Health and Wellness Health and wellness have become a major concern for everyone today. The demand for fitness programs and exercise classes is increasing day by day. People are experimenting with ketosis and intermittent fasting. Of course, everyone wants to know how to increase their mental well-being and end their stress. A healthy lifestyle can be found by addressing a specific problem in an online course. If you have expertise in improving health and wellness you can turn your knowledge into a course that ups other people’s skills. Most importantly you’ll be making the world a happier and healthier place with your real-world experience. Take a look at these ideas to get started with online learning in the health and wellness sphere. Pilates Clean Eating Meditation Full Body Workouts HIIT Workouts Bulking as a Vegan Managing Stress Nutrition Navigating Allergies Easy Indoor Fitness Online Sports Course Sports are popular for recreation and exercise. Not all little league players make it to the majors but many of them continue to play sports for the rest of their lives. Adult recreation leagues are becoming increasingly popular and popping up for even more sports. Sports courses could become among the most popular online courses. If you are a coach or athlete you can create online sports courses. Sports go beyond just playing! If you have no knowledge of how to backhand serve you can still make an online sports course. Think outside the box and use your own experiences. Your sports course doesn’t have to just be a guide to playing. Here are some ideas! Pickleball Sports Betting Perfecting the Slapshot Cross Training for Football Sport Psychology Basketball Fundamentals Rowing Yoga for Surfers Sports Management History of Cricket Relationships and Family Relationships, whether they be with family, friends, co-workers, or significant others, can be incredibly difficult to navigate. Having healthy relationships is vital for mental well-being and satisfies a human need for connection. Relationships have never been easy but the stresses of our modern world have not helped. An online course can be a great place for students to make strides in their relationships. If you have solutions to creating healthy relationships please do us all a favour and create an online course to teach your magic and skills to others. There are a lot of directions that you can take in your online course. Here are some potential course ideas to get you started. Sibling Relationships Parenting in a Blended Family Guide to Falling in Love Communicating Boundaries Relationships with an Attachment Disorder How To Start Dating Again in Your 40s and 50s Moving on After Heartbreak Love Languages Navigating Business Relationships Premarital Counselling Course Parenting Course Parenting is a challenging job. There are lots of things to consider, from discipline to nutrition. Parenting is a long journey and can become overwhelming. The demand for help in the endeavour of nurturing children is high. Parenting is such a great responsibility of course people want to learn how to do it as best they can. Children are the future after all. Impart your knowledge of parenting in an online course. You might have a background in medicine. counselling, or even just hard-earned experience. All of it can be turned into an online course. Your knowledge is valuable! Here are some ideas for areas where you can share your knowledge. Parenting with An Anxiety Disorder Guide to Common Childhood Ailments Parenting a Child with ADHD Preparation for Childbirth Lactation Tips Postpartum Advice How to Parent After Your Spouse Dies Guide to Relationships with Adult Children Parenting a Gifted Child Child Learning Styles Personal Growth Personal growth is a hot online course field. It’s not just about learning how to be more productive, it’s also about being happier and healthier. People are interested in improving their life and having more success. You can share your knowledge and help others! It is important that you have a passion for your course content. Your potential customers are looking for a quality course and an instructor who cares about their success Personal growth is a wide category and you might be having trouble figuring out what niche to focus on. It does not help that this topic can also be rife with scams. You want to make sure that your course stands out as a high-quality offering. Take a look at a few of our ideas. You’ll be creating a course in no time. Fostering Healthy Relationships Stopping Bad Habits How to Follow Your Dreams Setting Healthy Boundaries Knowing Your Worth in the Workplace Letting Go of the Small Things Time Management How to Get Motivated to Succeed Networking in the Modern World A Guide to Mastering Work-Life Balance Online Career Course Earning an income from home is a top desire of many people. Remote work is increasingly popular. Not everyone has the option of taking their existing job online. Others might not like what they do. These people are seeking information about how to change their careers. Your course can help them achieve their dreams! See if any of these course ideas appeal to you. Make sure to choose a topic that you have experience…
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