There are a lot of ways to monetize your skills out there on the Internet. While some people make money on filling out some surveys or taking part in some research online, others are trying to make ends meet with blogging. Increasingly more people are getting aware of even other ways of getting passive income, and one of them is creating your own online course. Today, we are going to talk for a while about creating an online course, good practices to follow, tricks to copy, and mistakes to avoid. Ready? Fasten your seatbelt and keep reading our article.
What is an online course?
Well, to even start specifying the elements of the right online course, it’s worth defining what the online course could look like and what it is. Online course is a set of lessons, courses, classes, based on the Internet, accessible from any place in the world (unless limited to some locations, for example, accounting courses in Germany for Germans only), anytime (unless it is limited by deadlines, for instance) and for anyone (unless premium). People can access content for free or after paying some money: it can be a monthly subscription or one-time payment. It entirely depends on the author of the course. A lot of valuable courses on the Internet are to be paid for, giving incredible value to subscribers, but also being a stable source of money for the author of the course.
Why should you create an online course?
- an online course can help you get more followers and build even more loyalty and trust among your current ones. They can recommend you further, drive you more additional traffic and reach advertisers.
- online course, if they are paid, can be a great source of a few bucks every month.
- of course, you need to spend a lot of time on making a course, but then you don’t need to spend that much time on maintaining it as you can automate a lot of elements of the course.
What can be an online course about?
Online courses can include a lot of elements and be about many areas or interests.
- Cooking online course – showing some premium recipes, good practices, introducing ingredients, spices, flavors. As a part of the course, a special group on social media can be included.
- Monetizing online course – showing some ways of monetizing, making extra money and income to your full time job. Some of those courses focus on leaving your job for a “work from home” one, however, this could be a step too many for the very beginning.
- Make-up online course – if you are great at make-up, you can make an online course with tutorials, videos, and guides on using cosmetics
- Language online course – who said you can’t teach languages online? Of course, you can!
- A particular skill-set online course – if you have a very niche hobby that actually people may look for, online course may be a great way to monetize your knowledge.
- Marketing online course – there are a lot of marketing courses available to be purchased and accessed on the Internet. Let’s look at examples of such courses:
- How to grow the number of followers on Facebook?
- How to boost your Instagram?
- How to make your social media strategy work?
- How to write great content?
- How to prepare outstanding content strategy?
Of course, there are only examples – you can do much more about your online course, and if you only have some followers interested in any type of course, just do it for them.
How to create an online course?
Choose a goal
What do you want your online course to be about? What is your target group? What is your goal – do you want to drive yourself some additional traffic, build recognition and brand awareness, upsell some of your products or monetize your course? It’s crucial to identify all those elements before you start working on a course.
What are the problems that you want to address? Is there any other course that could solve it? If there are too many courses on the Internet about a specific topic, your course may not be needed or warmly welcomed, and that is not what you want after putting so much effort, right?
Choose a platform
You don’t need to buy very advances software to make an online course, however, this would look professional indeed. You can as well use Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups or e-mails to do so. Preparing premium live videos, answering questions as for AMAs (ask me anything) sessions or creating units within groups can successfully replace any advanced software’s solutions.
Get ready
You need to look professional on your course, no matter if it is written, audio or video. Take care of promotional marketing materials, invest in good software and equipment to make a great online course. If you make a mistake, people won’t forget, won’t buy and will definitely demand a full refund. It is not what you want, right?
Think about the structure of your online course, the idea is not enough. What should the participants learn on each and every step? Make it valuable. If you are not sure you can deliver value, drop the idea of making an online course and come back to it when you will be fully ready and you will have a clear plan.
Don’t overdo it. We are sure your knowledge is really extensive, so whatever you want to share – just do it slowly and in parts. Revealing too much in one part can leave other parts a bit neglected and your audience may be disappointed. Make your course interactive – if possible, ask questions, request feedback, introduce some games or trivia. Quizzes or exams are also warmly welcomed as they will check the level of knowledge of the participants of your source, giving you some overview of how they are doing. Of course, you can send them some diploma afterwards!
Plan promotion
How to make people aware that you created a course? Well, you need to promote it on social media or through content marketing! Plan some amazing social media campaigns and boost it with a few bucks to see some results. Write some content about your course. Send a press release if it is relevant (for example, you create a marketing course in a very attractive price). Get into influencer marketing and take care of cross-promotion – maybe someone could recommend your course, and you can pay them for it? There are a lot of opportunities you should use to make it sparkle. The more you do here, the better – at the end of the day, you want people to find out about the amazing course you made!
Creating your first online course may not be a walk in the park, and you still can make “a lot” of mistakes during this journey. However, it can be highly addictive, especially if your first course is an overwhelming success. No matter what your goal is, you need to remember about being as professional as you can be and delivering as much value as possible. If people are happy with the course they participated or purchased, they will recommend it further, giving you a lot of additional traffic, recognition, and awareness. This can attract advertisers, too. Good luck, we are keeping fingers crossed for you and your glorious online course!
