Step-by-Step Guide to Create an Online Course that Sells like Crazy
As the world increasingly shifts online, many people are looking for ways to make money through creating and selling courses. If you’re thinking about joining this trend and creating an online course of your own, this guide is for you.
In it, we’ll give you a step-by-step process for creating an online course that sells like crazy. We’ll cover everything from finding your niche to promoting your course. By the end of this article, you’ll have all the information you need to get started!
By following these steps, you’ll be able to create a course that meets the needs of your audience and you will be able to sell it easily and be profitable.
So let’s get started!
What is an Online Course?
Introduction
An online course is a type of educational program that is delivered via the internet. Online courses are becoming increasingly popular as they offer a flexible and convenient way to learn. Many online courses are self-paced, which means that you can work through the material at your own pace. Some online courses also offer live sessions, which allow you to interact with your instructor and classmates in real-time.
Market-Size of Online Teaching Courses
There are various reports that talk about the size of the online education market, many times with varying projections. However, whichever report you choose to believe, one thing is very clear: the market size is HUGE!!
The global online education market size was valued at USD 30.60 billion in 2021. After COVID, it has seen much higher demand. It is expected to reach USD 198.9 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 23.12%.
Online education is one aspect of the E-learning market and does not include e-books, AR/VR etc. E-learning includes delivering knowledge to students through electronic modes such as videos, audio, e-books, AR/VR or any other electronic mode. The global e-learning market size was valued at $197.00 billion in 2020. It is projected to reach $840.11 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 17.5% from 2021 to 2030.
The growing popularity of online education among students and working professionals is one of the major factors driving the growth of this market. The increasing use of digital technologies in the education sector is another key factor fuelling the growth of this market.
Additionally, the rising number of e-learning platforms and courses is also contributing to the growth of the online teaching courses market.
Why to Create and Sell an Online Course?
There are many reasons why you might want to create an online course. Maybe you want to share your knowledge with others, or perhaps you want to make some extra money. Whatever your reasons, creating an online course can be a great way to achieve your goals.
Another great thing about online courses is that they are relatively easy and inexpensive to create. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. You can record your lectures and put them up on the web without spending a lot of money.
So if you’re looking for a way to reach a larger audience or save some money, creating an online course is a great option.
Share knowledge with others
One of the best things about creating an online course is that you can reach a large audience with your message. If you have something valuable to say, then there are people all over the world who will want to hear it. With an online course, you can reach more people than you ever could by giving lectures or writing books.
Earn additional income
Online courses are usually more affordable for students than traditional courses, so you can attract a larger number of students overall. They do not require investments of renting a classroom. It also avoids any travel to the venue and hence can save a lot of time. So many people prefer online courses over traditional classroom courses.
By reaching a much wider audience than you ever could by giving lectures in a classroom, you can earn additional income from your course.
Initially, when you start, this would be a side income. But with more focus and effort, you can grow this to more than your full time income. There are many online coaches and online trainers that earn very well and have quit their full time jobs to fully focus on online teaching.
Create a community
Another key benefit of creating a course is that you attract like-minded people. When you create a community of these people, they are able to help each other. They are able to get their doubts cleared.
Many times, they get new clients by being active in these communities. Thus the community in itself provides a lot of value to the enrolled students.
Steps to Create and Sell a Successful Online Course
The Right Mindset
The first step in order to create and sell a successful online course is to have the right mindset and attitude. Here are the requirements:
Positive Attitude
If you are a first time course creator, you may face issues and find yourself stuck sometimes. That is where your positive mindset will help.
You will be able to find solutions from guides like these and not give up easily. So, you must be positive and enthusiastic about creating your course.
Passion & Interest in the Subject
You need to be passionate about the subject matter of your course. This passion will come through in your content and make your students excited about learning. Students will be more likely to stay engaged if they see that you are excited about the material.
Clear Vision & Setting clear Goals
You should have a clear vision about how the course will be helping the students. It is not about a one time course. you are going to create a long term relationship with your students. You are creating a community of like minded people who should be aligned with your vision.
You must be organized and have clear goals for your course. Your students will appreciate a well-structured course that is easy to follow with specific and clear goals.
Pick the Perfect Course topic for a Profitable Course
Once you have decided to create an online course and are ready with a positive mindset, you need to select the niche in which you want to create the course. Obviously, you want to make some profit from the course for all your efforts.
Are you thinking about creating an online course but aren’t sure if there’s a market for it? Before you spend the time and effort to create a course, it’s important to do your research and make sure there is indeed a demand for it.
Market research to check demand for the Course
The good news is, there are some easy ways to check demand for your potential course. The first step is to do some keyword research. Find out what people are searching for when they’re looking for a course like yours. This will give you an idea of how many people are interested in taking such a course.
Another way to check demand is to look at similar courses that are already being offered. See how many students they have and whether or not they have positive reviews. This can give you an idea of whether or not there is a market for your course.
Check how many people are looking for such a course on other Websites
Youtube videos : Search for your niche on YouTube. You will be able to see the results available. You can also use Keyword research tools like Keywords Everywhere, VidIq, TubeBuddy that show search volumes for particular keywords on Youtube. This will give you a good ideas about the demand for your course and the type of competition you can expect while trying to sell the course.
Quora : On Quora, people ask questions related to your Niche. This will give you ideas about what topics to include in your course, which can help you sell your course.
Reddit: This is a great place to find the topics related to your niche that people are interested in. Cover them in your course and more people would be interested in buying the course.
Others: There are many other such websites which help understand what people are searching for. For example, answerthepublic.com is one such website. It gives insights on what people are asking Google. You can get a lot of good ideas from the questions that people ask Google.
Check other Online Learning Platforms & Massive Open Online Course Provider (MOOCs)
There are many online course platforms, where you can search for courses, enrol and learn. Some of the popular ones are Udemy, Coursera and Skillshare. You can find courses on just about any topic. You can read reviews of the courses, see how many people have enrolled for these courses etc. This can give you a good idea about the demand for courses in your subject.
Learn about other courses in the same Niche on the Internet
Search for popular course creators and see if they have a course in the same Niche. Looking at other books in the same Niche as these can give you more ideas.
Pick the Perfect Subject & Course Title
When it comes to creating an online course that sells like crazy, picking the perfect topic is essential. An interesting title helps in getting more people to click on your Ads / blogs.
Based on the above market research, your expertise and interests, you should identify the niche which has high demand and where you feel you can offer a unique course which can be different than the current options in the market.
Identify the missing areas or areas for improvement in Other Courses
Based on your market research, note down the areas where people are disappointed. Read their reviews and comments. this should give you are clear idea about what to avoid.
Plan your unique ideas to differentiate your course material
Based on your research, you will be able to plan some unique ideas that you want to include in your course. Figure out what unique perspective you can offer. What do you know that others don’t? What can you teach that will really resonate with your target audience?
Step-by-Step Guide to Create the Online Course Outline
Once you have finalized the subject or Niche where you want to create the course, you need to now start planning the topics that you want to cover in more detail. You should start by creating a high level course outline. This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a complete and comprehensive course outline.
Plan the Course Delivery Channels
Fully recorded
This consists of pre-recorded videos. Students can go through the same at a time of their convenience. They can then ask questions in some common online forums or groups. Some instructors also conduct live sessions periodically (for example, once a month) to clear the doubts.
Fully Live online
This consists of live sessions via online webinar tools like Zoom, WebinarJam etc. All students should join the class at the same time. However if someone misses the class, there are recordings that are provided. Students can go through the recordings at a time of their convenience. Obviously, joining live is much better as one can ask questions and clear their doubts immediately from the instructors.
Hybrid of Videos and Online Live
As the name suggests, this is a combination of the above two modes of delivering the classes. This consists of some recorded videos and a few live sessions via online webinar tools like Zoom, WebinarJam etc. The recorded videos are generally of higher quality as these are well planned and shot in quieter rooms compared to online webinars.
The live classes cover some topics and all students should join the class at the same time. However if someone misses the class, there are recordings that are provided. Students can go through the recordings at a time of their convenience.
Physical Classroom Classes
These are the traditional ways where students go to a classroom physically and attend the classes. However if someone misses the class, there are normally no recordings that are provided. But they have direct access to the trainers and other students and can ask their doubts face to face.
Plan the Online Course Content & Course Outline
The first step is to plan your course content and outline. This may seem like a daunting task, but it’s actually pretty simple if you follow these steps:
Check Books in same Niche
You can refer to popular books in the same niche. Going through the table of contents can give you a good idea about how other authors have created an outline for the book. You can get ideas from the same for your course outline.
Check content of other course creators
Search for the courses that are available from other course creators and look at their course outline. You do not have to follow their outline but you can get more ideas that you may not have thought about earlier.
Decide Topics to be covered
Brainstorm all of the topics you want to cover in your course. Write down everything that comes to mind, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Pay special attention to the topics that people liked in other courses. Also, remember to cover the areas that students were complaining about in the reviews of other courses.
Once you have a complete list of topics, you can start grouping them together into broader categories.
Next, you need to start creating an outline for each category. Begin by listing all of the subtopics you want to cover under each category. Then, add some additional details such as lectures, assignments, and readings. Be as specific as possible in your outline so that you can easily follow it when creating your course content.
Thus, by following the above steps, you should be able to finalize a nice outline for your course!
Ideal Duration of the Course
Now, based on the course outline and mode of delivery of the course, you should plan the ideal duration for the course. If the course is too short, then students may not learn the topics in depth. On the other hand, if the course is too long, then the costs may be higher and the time commitment required from students would be longer, which may lead to some students not joining the course.
Number of Weeks
You need to plan how many weeks the course duration would be. Full masterclass may be longer. For some of the shorter “Crash course”, the duration could be even 2-3 days, with longer number of hours per day. These are generally preferred by working professionals over the weekends.
Number of Sessions per Week
You need to plan how many sessions will you be covering every week. Some courses have only class a week, while some may have even 5 classes. You should plan the ideal one for your course depending on the complexity of the course, time required by students to absorb the concepts etc.
Days of the Week
As many people who join online classes are either working professionals or students, you need to plan the days of the week depending on the availability of your students, especially if you are planning for live online classes.
Some students want to study during the weekends, as they may be returning from their office late due to longer working hours or longer travel times. On the other hand, some students prefer to keep their weekends free. You may offer different batches for Weekdays and for Weekend batches to cater to both types of people.
Time of class
The most important factor to consider when creating a live online course is the timing of the class. You want to make sure that your course is taught at a time when more people are available. You should plan it based on your target audience. Are they working professionals? Are they students? What would be the most likely time when they would be available to join the live classes? Answering these questions will help you in deciding the best time for the classes.
Finalize Course Content & Divide into Modules
Based on the above aspects, you should finalize the final course content. Divide them into smaller modules, so that it is easier for students to understand the topics. The flow of topics should be easy to follow.
Each module can have multiple short videos, as people like to watch shorter videos compared to longer videos. Some of these modules can have assignments and quizzes too.
Prepare the Materials, notes, assignments, quizzes, Mind maps etc
As you begin to create your online course, there are several materials you will need to prepare, in order to make it successful.
In addition to the videos, you will also want to have a set of written notes for each lesson. This will provide a resource for students to refer back to as they work through the course material. Finally, mind maps are an excellent way to visually represent key concepts from the course.
You may also want to create a quiz for each lesson. This will help gauge student understanding and allow you to identify any areas that may need further explanation.
Next, prepare assignments that are directly related to the content of the course. These can include writing papers, creating presentations, or completing research projects.
Quizzes, assignments, notes, and mind maps are all essential in ensuring that your students are engaged and retained throughout the duration of the course.
Equipment Required
Microphone
You will need a microphone to record your voice clearly. A good sound indicates that this is a professional course and investing in a good microphone is essential.
Camera
As this is an online course, you will be either recording the videos or delivering the lectures via a camera online. In both situations, you need to make sure that you have a good camera, as a poor camera can spoil the whole experience for the students.
Tripod
You will need a good tripod so that your camera is stable while recording the videos. This will make sure that your videos are steady and not shaking, which will ensure that the quality of videos is good.
Record the Videos
In order to create an online course that sells in 2023, you will need to start by recording the videos. This may seem like a daunting task, but we have put together a guide to make it as easy as possible for you.
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way to creating an online course that sells like crazy:
1. Choose a quiet location with good lighting to record your videos. This will help ensure that your videos look professional and are easy to hear and see.
2. Create an outline for each video. This will help keep you focused while recording and ensure that your videos are well-organized.
3. Prepare the Script for Recording : Having a script can help cover the key points and also make it more interesting by adding personal stories, real life examples etc.
4. Record the videos. Try to record it a few times and see which version is good. Initially, this may be difficult, but with practice, the process will become easier and faster!
Editing the Videos
After you have recorded the videos, you will have to edit them and make them more useful to the students by adding relevant text to explain the concepts clearly. You may also add Intros & Outros and other relevant images to explain the topics.
You may cut the videos into smaller topics, so it is easier for the students to search and go through. You may remove silences, filler words etc to make the videos more professional. Adding the right type of background music/sound can keep the attention of students for a longer duration.
Setting up your Online School
After you are ready with your videos, you need to choose a learning management system (LMS), where you will host all of your lessons and materials. The LMS will help you in consolidating all your courses at one place and track the progress made by students easily.
Students will be using a learning management system (LMS) to access your course materials, submit quizzes / assignments, and take exams.
You’ll need to decide which LMS platform to host it on. This can be a difficult decision, as there are many different platforms out there with different features and price points, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
This section will help you to understand the various types of LMS available and choose the one best for your requirements:
Online Learning Community Platforms
There are many online platforms like Udemy, Skillshare & Coursera, which have millions of users registered already. They allow you to upload and host your courses on their platform and also help you with marketing and selling your courses.
Advantages
There are several advantages for instructors when using an online learning community platform for their school. The first advantage is the ability to connect with other instructors from around the world. This can be a great way to collaborate on projects, share resources, and get new ideas for teaching.
The second advantage is the ability to reach a larger audience of students. With an online platform, instructors can easily reach millions of students who are already available on these platforms. This can be a great way to increase enrollment and course offerings.
There are no monthly charges for hosting your courses. This makes it one of the fastest ways to launch your online course.
Disadvantages
However, there are some disadvantages of these platforms. Online learning community platforms are less customizable. You will not be able to have a custom domain for your online course.
They also take a large share of the revenue for providing these services.
Some examples of these learning communities are Udemy, Skillshare & Coursera.
Udemy
Udemy is one of the most popular learning platforms. As of July 2022, the platform has more than 54 million students and over 71,000 instructors teaching more than 200,000 courses in over 75 languages. The faculty can easily host their courses here and also engage and interact with users via online discussion boards.
For sales that do not occur through an instructor promotion, instructors receive 37% of the revenue for any Udemy sales.
SkillShare
Skillshare is another popular learning platform, where courses are only available through paid subscription. Members pay an annual fee for a Skillshare membership, which includes unlimited access to the full catalog of classes. Other membership benefits include hands-on projects, teacher feedback, and offline viewing through the mobile app.
The instructors get a revenue based on the number of minutes that their courses have been watched.
Self Hosted Learning Platforms
This is a LMS platform that you host and manage yourself. It gives you a lot of control over the look, feel, and functionality of your site. However, it also requires more work on your part to keep things running smoothly.
Many of these are based on WordPress. Some popular LMS plugins for WordPress are LearnDash & LifterLMS.
Advantages
There are many advantages of using a self-hosted learning platform for your online school. The most obvious advantage is that you can have your own domain name for your online school.
Also, you have complete control over your data. With a self-hosted system, you own your data and can decide how to use it and who to share it with.
Disadvantages
There are a few disadvantages to setting up your own self-hosted learning platform. One is the initial cost of purchasing and setting up the necessary hardware and software.
If you’re not comfortable with doing this yourself, you’ll need to hire someone who is, which can add to the cost. Another disadvantage is that you’ll need to maintain the system yourself, which can take up considerable time and effort, particularly if something goes wrong.
You also won’t have access to the same range of features and integrations that you would with a commercial learning management system (LMS).
Finally, it can be difficult to get others on board with using your self-hosted platform if they’re not already familiar with it.
Commercial LMS Platforms
Commercial learning platforms are a popular choice for online schools. These LMS platforms are available as a SaaS and come with many features. They offer a wide range of features and tools to help you build and manage your school.
However, they can have monthly charges, and you need to be sure that you’re getting the right platform for your needs.
Advantages
There are many advantages of using a commercial learning platform for teachers. Perhaps the most obvious advantage is that it can save the teacher time and effort in setting up and maintaining their online school.
A good learning platform will also provide the teacher with a wide range of features and tools to use, which can make running their school more efficient and effective. In addition, a commercial learning platform can help to create a more professional-looking website for the school, which can attract more students.
Overall, using a commercial learning platform can be extremely beneficial for teachers, providing them with a number of advantages that can make running their online school easier and more successful.
Disadvantages
There are some disadvantages of using a commercial learning platform for teachers. One is that the platform may not be customizable to the specific needs of the teacher or their students.
Additionally, these platforms can have monthly charges, and may require additional fees for certain features or integrations.
A few examples of popular commercial LMS include Thinkific, Teachable, Podia & Graphy.
Thinkific
You can use a platform like Thinkific to host your courses and take care of all the technical aspects for you. All you need to do is create the content for your courses and upload it onto the Thinkific platform. They’ll take care of everything else for you.
Teachable
Teachable is one such platform that has gained popularity in recent years. Teachable is a user-friendly platform that makes it easy to create and manage your online courses. You can upload your course content, set the price, and then promote your courses through Teachable’s marketing tools. When students enroll in your courses, they’ll have access to all of the course content and can track their progress through the course dashboard.
Podia
Podia is an e-learning platform that makes it easy to create and sell online courses. You can use Podia to host your course content, manage your students, and track your progress.
Getting started with Podia is easy as it even has a free plan. Just sign up for a free account and you’ll be able to start creating your courses right away. You can use Podia’s drag-and-drop course builder to add text, images, videos, and more to your courses.
Graphy
Graphy is a great option for schools of all sizes. Graphy is an easy-to-use LMS that makes online learning fun and engaging for students. With Graphy, you can easily create and manage your courses, add multimedia content, track student progress, and more.
Selecting the best LMS for YOUR requirements
As you can see, there are many LMS available in the market. Each of them offers multiple features at various price points.
You should list down the key features that you definitely need right at the beginning and the list of features that you may need after 6-12 months. This will help you in choosing the best LMS as per your current needs, but which supports your future needs too. Changing your LMS after a few months is not going to be an easy task.
Also, you should try the free trials / plans to see if you like the user interface of the particular tool.
Finally, depending on your budget and the above factors, you will be able to finalize your ideal LMS.
Other software required
Here is an indicative list of other softwares / tools required to run an online course smoothly:
- Live Webinar Tools
- Zoom
- Google Meet
- GoToWebinar
- Video Editing Tools
- VSDC Editor
- Filmora
- ContentFries
- Community building Tools
- Tribe
- Heartbeat
- Telegram
- Facebook Groups
This is just an indicative list and there are many more tools for each of these categories. You can try these tools and choose the ones that you like based on your personal preference.
Pricing your Course for a Profitable Online Course
In order to make a profit from your online course, you’ll need to price it correctly. Here are a few pointers from our side, so that all your hard work pays off!
Guide on How to Price your Online Course
Here are a few things to keep in mind when setting the price for your course.
1. Consider the value of your course. How much time and effort did you put into creating the course? How much would it cost to hire someone else to do the same thing? This is the starting point for pricing your course.
2. Think about what your target market is willing to pay. If you’re selling to businesses, they may be willing to pay more than individuals. Do some research on similar courses to see what others are charging.
3. You’ll also need to factor in any costs associated with running the course, such as hosting fees or payment processing charges.
Special Launch Offers to Sell your Course Online
You can have a special offer price for the initial batches to make it more attractive. For selling your course online, you can do some webinars and offer discount coupons which can be used on your website for extra discounts.
How to Market & Sell an Online Course
After you are ready with your Online School, start promoting your course. Afterall, a course that nobody has heard about is not worth anything, right?!
There are a number of ways you can market and sell it to potential students. Use social media, email marketing, and other channels to reach potential students and get the word out about your course.
With over 2 billion active users, Facebook is a great place to start promoting your online course. Create a Page for your course and use targeted ads to reach individuals who may be interested in taking your class.
You can also use Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms to share information about your course and drive traffic to your website.
You can also hire digital marketing experts that can run paid ads and send relevant traffic to your online school. You should plan some budget for running ads.
In addition to social media, email marketing is another effective way to reach potential students. Send out periodic emails with information about your course, as well as any discounts or special offers you may be running.
Tips to Create a Learning Tribe
When it comes to learning, we often think of going it alone. But what if there was a way to tap into the power of community and create a learning tribe? You can create an online learning tribe that helps the students to clarify their doubts and learn from each other.
A learning tribe is a group of people who come together to support each other in their journey of learning. By working together, members of a learning tribe can help each other stay motivated and accountable.
Set ground rules for the community
It’s important to set ground rules for your learning community from the beginning. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows what is expected of them. Here are a few things to keep in mind when setting ground rules:
- Be clear and concise in your communication.
- Make sure all members understand the rules and are comfortable with them.
- Be open to feedback and willing to make changes if necessary.
- Enforce the rules fairly and consistently.
- Provide value to the members
- Help members learn from each other
- Create success stories – Help your students achieve success. You can use these as case studies, video testimonials etc to further promote your courses.
- Get feedback from the community to create more courses – Since these community members are already part of your tribe, you can ask them for feedback and ideas about what other things they would like to learn. Based on this, you can create more courses and even upsell these courses to the members.
Summary & Conclusion
So there you have it! A step-by-step guide on how to create an online course in 2022 that sells like crazy. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a course that is both informative and engaging.
We hope this guide has been helpful and that you’ll be able to successfully create and sell your online courses.
Comment below and let us know if you found this guide useful.
If you have any more questions, ask your questions in the comments below, and we will get back to you!
Till then, happy course making and selling!
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does it cost to create an online course?
- I am not a technical person. Can I create an online course on my own?
- I am scared that I will spend weeks of my life creating an online course, for absolutely nobody to buy it? What shall I do ?
- How do you create and sell an online course?
- Is creating online courses profitable?
- Can you make money creating online courses?
- Do online courses really sell?
- How do I make my own selling course?
- How do you design and sell a course?
- How long does it take to create an online course?
- What are the best course platforms to host my course?
- What equipment do I need to create an online course?
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