Creating an online course can be a really simple process. There are tools available to you now that could have your course up and running in a matter of hours.
Let's take a look at what you need to get started and how to know if you should create a course in the first place.
Is An Online Course Right For Your Business?
If you provide a service that walks people through some kind of transformation process, an online course can be a really effective way to get your message to a larger audience.
The way we learn is changing. Having access to pre recorded material that you can access in your own time in the comfort of your home, is becoming the preferred way of learning.
As the course consumer, it is more convenient and location and lifestyle factors no longer exclude us from accessing the material.
As the course creator, it allows you to increase the reach of your message and set yourself up with a form of passive income.
What Is Passive Income?
The term passive income can be misunderstood as it implies that you are passively standing around watching money flow in to your bank account for doing nothing.
Unfortunately, that's not exactly how it works!
Passive income is money that you earn that does not require you to trade your time for money on an ongoing basis. You may put in a considerable amount of time and effort upfront to create the course, but once that is done you can receive payment for your course without actively being present.
However you will need a marketing and sales plan to facilitate that flow of passive revenue. Once all that upfront work is complete, you can find yourself with a nice little passive income stream coming in with minimal effort needed from your side.
An online course can provide this for you.
How To Create Your Online Course
1. Know the problem that needs to be solved.
Survey your target audience and find out exactly what problem they have that they are looking for a solution for. Create a course that solves that problem.
2. Start with one to ones.
Test out your course concept with individual clients. That way you can get real time feedback to perfect it so that the passive version will be more effective.
3. Don't create the entire course before you sell it.
Map out your course outline and create the first few modules. As you run through them with your first few one to one clients it will shape and shift and you can create the rest as you go to reflect their needs. Let those clients lead your course content creation.
4. Test, Tweak, Test, Tweak!
Allow the course to grow and develop around the needs of the clients you are working with. Nothing is set in stone and the more you listen to your clients feedback, the better your course will be in the long run.
Your Course Creation Check List
You don't need to invest a lot of money in fancy tools to create your first course. Here is a list of what you need to get started:
1. A laptop with a camera
2. Zoom
Sign up for an account (free or paid, it doesn't matter) where you will record your material on your laptop. If you want to show your face while you show your laptop screen you can use Loom.
3. Google Slides/PowerPoint
Create slides that deliver your material. You can then record your voice over them to give more value and a personal touch.
4. A Good Microphone
Sound is important. I recommend using the Blue Yeti microphone. It's around €130 and comes with a USB cable that just plugs into your laptop.
5. A Course Platform
Using a platform to host your course is an easy way to make your home made course look really professional. Your clients can log in, get lifetime access and you can monitor their progress too.
I recommend Thinkific. It's really easy to use and has different options available depending on what kind of course you are building.
You can upload your videos, PDF's and even quiz your students using this platform.
In my experience, it's one of the easiest course creation platforms to use, both from a course creator perspective and from a user experience perspective.
Thinkific has branding capabilities, sales pages and the ability to take payments directly on the site.
You can sign up for a free trial of Thinkific here, using my referral link: http://try.thinkific.com/karenmccarthy8605
To Recap (screenshot this to reming yourself!
Tag me on Instagram Stories here)
Should I create an online course? If you have a service that walks people through a transformation process an online course will work for you.
How do I get started? Talk to your audience!
What is passive income? It's money you earn that is not the traditional time traded for money model.
What do I need to create my own course? Not much! See the checklist above!
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