Anna felt stranded, she heard that growing a community on social media is a great way to generate a consistent income online.

But she wondered, how to build an online community that is engaged.

A few years ago, Anna made a first attempt at building an engaged group on social media but it went quiet pretty quickly.

This time she wants to do it right so that she can have over 1,000 engaged group members in 90 days.

As you know, social media has become a part of our everyday lives.

Whether we’re talking about posting pictures and updates on Facebook, tweeting about our latest activities on Twitter, or sharing funny memes on Instagram, social media has become a major source of entertainment and information.

Social media platforms are also powerful tools for connecting people and building community. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram bring people together. Facebook groups in particular are great online communities.

If you want the students in your online course to be able to connect and learn from each other you are probably interested in how to build an online community. But building an online community isn’t always easy.

This guide will walk you through the steps needed to build an online community.

An online community is a group of individuals who share common interests and goals. The members of an online community may be connected through a website, blog, forum, Facebook group, or any other form of digital communication. 

Online communities provide a platform for individuals to interact and collaborate around specific topics. They also allow businesses to connect with customers and prospects.

For course creators, online communities serve as a powerful learning tool.

Facilitating connection between your students and allowing them to learn from each other improves the overall learning process. Your vibrant online community can also drive sales of your online course. 

As a course creator, the online community you create will be focused on bringing your students together.

This has obvious benefits for your students in the form of a space for them to ask questions about course procedure or content, and to learn from each other.

However, it also has benefits for your online training business including turning satisfied students into brand ambassadors. 

Creating an online community can ultimately increase the money you make from selling online lessons. Students who actively engage in your online community are more likely to find that they receive a benefit from your course. 

This will lead them to purchase further courses and increase your revenue. Happy students will also help you reach a larger audience.

If they are happy with the benefit they have received from your course, and from being with like-minded people in your shared space, they can refer new people to your online platform.

Your online community will also afford you the opportunity to present yourself as a leader in your field with the social proof of a large online community behind you.

The students engaging with you in your community will also feel a connection to you and be more likely to refer others to your course. Social networks and blog posts can only take you so far. Having real people see and attest to your expertise is great for content creators to showcase their abilities.

Online communities will not only highlight your strengths and build brand loyalty but also point out your weaknesses. Don’t worry! This is a good thing. 

Taking the temperature of your online community and finding the content your students are struggling with allows you to improve your course offerings.

Students in your community will also be able to point out any potential technical glitches. Your engaged community can be your first line of quality assurance.

There are a wide variety of online communities on the internet. They range from meme-sharing groups to communities for professionals in a geographic area. There are two main types of community groups that will be of interest to course creators that we will highlight below. 

Learning communities are built around, well, learning. You would create this online community around your course. You could even consider a membership community. 

Brand communities are built around businesses. Though learning is your business you could consider a brand community if you offer a variety of courses.

This is a place where fans of your teaching style can engage with you and others and stay tuned for more course offerings. It can be a great complement to your business’s social media presence.

Now that you understand the value of building an online community around your course or your online learning brand it is time to learn the steps to do it.

If you find that you need further guidance after you’ve read through the steps you can schedule a call to discuss it with me. The best option always is to just get started!

What type of online community do you want to grow? Online communities can have more than one purpose but it is best practice to identify the main purpose of your community. 

While you want to leverage your community to increase course sales this will not necessarily be done by marketing to your community but rather by the members feeling that they are receiving value from the community.

The best way to ensure students find value in your community is by building a great community. You want it to be a space where people can come together around a shared interest. 

Where they can learn from their peers and share their successes. You might also use your community as a space for people to find employment if your courses are geared toward career change or the business world.

Build a valuable community rather than focusing exclusively on how you can improve your sales.

The goal of your community should be based on meeting the needs of your online course students. You also want to increase their engagement in the community. 

It is best to define a few key performance indicators (KPIs) to make sure you can track whether you are meeting your goal. This will keep you and your community focused. By tracking you can also find what is and isn’t working for students and tweak it to improve their experience.

Before you begin your community you will need to establish who will be in it. Determining the members will help decide the tone and direction of the community. As an online course creator, you have a few options.

You can opt to have only currently enrolled students in your community. This creates an online community focused on learning and your course content. 

Your online community would like a study group where students can seek answers from each other and hold each other accountable for reaching goals.

If you opt to only have current students in your group consider having another place for them to move once they complete the course. This keeps them engaged with you and your content.

You can also allow students who have completed your course into the community. The community can remain focused on your subject matter but will probably have a larger scope. 

Allowing former members lends itself to job or opportunity posts. Former students can also ask expansion questions. Since they have mastered your content they can bring additional ideas from the field to the community. 

This could give you ideas for additional courses! They can also help current students if they are so inclined. Perhaps most importantly to you, they can decide to enrol in additional courses. 

A big consideration is whether you want to open your online community to potential students. An online community can be a great place to convert potential students into students. 

However, it might not mesh with the feeling of the group to have someone not enrolled, or previously enrolled, in the course in the community. You would also need to ensure that your community has rules against posting course content in the group. 

While having potential students as members of the group would be done with an eye to entice them to join, you don’t want to give them the whole course for free.

Alas, the internet is not free of conflict. To avoid your online community becoming a troll party it is imperative for you to set up rules and guidelines that govern the behaviour of both your community members but also your moderators. 

By setting clear expectations for everyone involved in the community-building process you can do your part to create a peaceful corner of the internet.

A key thing that your rules should address is that rude behaviour is not allowed. Draw a line between debate and harassment. While your subject matter may lend itself to passionate debate you don’t want community members crossing the line. 

Set rules regarding language, personal attacks, and doxing. You will also need to specify that discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated. Learning is for everyone after all.

The scope of topics allowed in the community should be clearly defined to keep the group cohesive and everyone on the same page. Off-topic personal discussions can help build a sense of community but you will need to consider their downsides.

They can derail the group from its main focus and possibly create conflict by bringing up contentious issues. Defining the topics allowed means that everyone will remain on the same page.  

A possible solution to this is to specify a specific post or day per week for off-topic comments. This will give your group the feel of an in-person community without clogging group members’ feeds with things unrelated to the subject they are learning about.

How moderators will handle digression from the rules, whether it be a rude comment or an off-topic post, should also be defined. You can consider warnings for first offences, post-deletion, or group bans depending on the severity of the offence.

When considering creating an online community your mind might jump straight to a Facebook group. While Facebook groups are a powerful player in online communities they aren’t the only show in town. Consider all of your options before settling on one.

Free community platforms are great because, well, they are free. These include the ubiquitous Facebook group and also other communities like subreddits and LinkedIn groups. 

They have the advantage of being easy to start up. No coding or WordPress plug-ins are required! They are a great option if you need to get an online community started quickly.

Besides being free and easy these platforms offer the benefit of a built-in user base. Your students probably already have a Facebook account and can connect with your community easily. 

As opposed to hosting your own community, where students will have to create new log-ins and learn a new platform. If you decide to allow potential students in your group you draw them in through their searches on the platform. 

Building a branded online community will involve building your own site. Once you’ve built your platform you can offer it for a membership fee as opposed to free community platforms which are always free for your members. 

Another benefit of the branded community platform that might make it worth investing in is that you completely control the experience. You can ensure your students are focused on your content and each other rather than being distracted by ads. If you do run ads you can decide their placement and keep the revenue generated from them.

If you are currently running your online course creation business solo, congratulations you have found your key community player. It is you! You will be the main admin of your group and be responsible for fostering it and helping it grow. It is an important role but can also be fun!

If managing the community becomes too cumbersome you can consider hiring a community manager for your Facebook group. This person would be responsible for monitoring the group for issues and engaging in posts in addition to you. 

If that is not within your budget you can reach out to your community and see if there are any volunteers to moderate the group to keep it a great space for everyone. 

Do you run a larger business that already has separate roles? Then consider who should be engaged in the group and what their role will be. If you have customer support they should be a part of the community to answer questions. 

Sales should be a part of the team for marketing purposes. If there will be multiple team members in their group clearly define their roles and make sure they are invested in fostering a community spirit.

Once you have considered the above, it is time to create your community. If creating a branded community platform you will need to design and build the site. 

If you are hosting on a free community platform, customise it to the degree the site allows. Make sure you have a cover photo that quickly reflects the group if using Facebook groups for example.

You will want to ensure that any membership questions you might require are posted. Also, have your rules and guidelines somewhere clear and accessible. Test your community for glitches. You want to launch your new community to be a seamless process.

Once you have begun your online community it is time to fill it with students and start developing connections. In the beginning, you might need to engage in more posting to give students something to engage with and prompts to respond to. 

Once the community has had time to establish itself your members will begin generating content. You will need to stay involved however to moderate and to ensure the goals of the group are being met.

Some ideas to get the ball rolling include themed daily posts like Monday Goals or Share what you are proud of Friday. You can pose questions to your community. You can create posts that allow members to find an accountability partner.

Encourage everyone to introduce themselves! These are just some ideas to get you started.

Once your community begins you’ll want to grow it. Some ideas to attract members to your online community include emailing a link to your email list and including a link on your website. You can promote your community via your social media channels. You can also encourage members to invite other members.

As your community grows it is important to continue to look at the KPIs you selected. Keep track of the rate your community is growing at.

Watch engagement on various posts and what percentage of members post monthly. Also, watch how promotion in your group affects sales.

Now that your online community is established, it’s time to start creating content. You can write articles, answer questions, host discussions, and more. Just make sure that your content meets the guidelines laid out in your community rules. 

This content will provide your community members with something to engage with as the community begins to grow. 

Even after your community is active and posting its own content it is a good idea to keep posting content regularly so that your community members see value in being a member of your community.

Remember that students who feel connected to you and your courses can help drive sales by referring their friends and family. 

You have a thriving community. Now it’s time to engage with your members! Ask them questions, respond to their messages, and encourage them to participate in discussions. Even if you are no longer generating the bulk of initial discussion posts you still need to be active and engaged with them. 

Monitoring activity in your community is essential to keeping things running smoothly. You have established community rules and guidelines for a reason. You must continue to monitor the community to see that the guidelines are adhered to. Doing so will create a better, safer space for everyone. 

Check your analytics regularly to ensure that members are engaging with your content and that your rules are being followed. If your community is not receiving high engagement from its members it isn’t doing its job. You can use analytics to tweak your strategy in your community and hopefully develop engagement. 

Responding to comments and questions is key to maintaining a strong community. When members leave feedback, thank them and address their concerns.

When they ask a question, reply promptly and offer helpful advice. If they post a success, encourage them. To develop an active online community you too must be active in it. 

Building an online community, whether it be on a free community platform or a branded community platform, can be a powerful piece of your online course creator toolkit. Developing these communities allows you to engage with your students, build loyalty, and increase sales. 

The steps in this guide are easy to follow and will lead to a strong online community. Make sure you take the time to carefully consider your goals in creating the community and what you would like the community to look like.

Monitor your group after it is created and keep actively engaged in it. If you are considering starting an online community as a part of your online course creator journey check out our 90 Days in 90 Minutes social media bundle. This offering will help you confidently create content for your community.

The post How to Build an Online Community [That’s Active + Engaged] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

Melinda was excited because she found out that it was possible to generate income online by selling courses.

However, she had lots of other questions that needed answers. The most obvious question is this.

How much can you make selling online courses? The answer depends on several factors such as your niche, audience size, business model and competitiveness of your field.

There are thousands of online course providers offering anything from basic English lessons to advanced programming skills.

If you want to start earning some extra cash, then you should consider starting your own online course. The e-learning market is growing and is a great source of potential revenue.

You can sell your courses through multiple platforms, including Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare, and CreativeLive.

Each has its pros and cons, and you’ll need to decide which suits your style and target audience. You can scale up as you go to reach more students and create additional courses to increase your potential revenue.

In this post, you’ll learn how much you can make from online course sales and other tips and tricks.

Yes, it is possible to sell online courses for profit.

There are several ways to do this, such as through Amazon, Clickbank, Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare, and others. The key to making money from these platforms is to create high-quality courses that teach something valuable and useful. Your educational content should have real value.

You can opt to create your course on a course creation platform or WordPress site and market it through social media ads or Google Ads. Great options for generating revenue if you do not already have a built-in audience to whom to sell your course. 

Another option for earning money from selling an online course is to utilize an online course marketplace like Udemy. Potential students visit these sites seeking out online courses which can reduce your marketing pressure.

A downside might be the competitiveness of offerings and the low cost of courses on these sites. Additional marketing outside the platform and creating a stellar brand reputation is the best option for helping you manage these downsides. 

Income in the course creation field can vary widely. Course creators might make only a thousand dollars a year from a course while others might be raking in more than a hundred thousand dollars a year in passive income.

Several factors go into what end of the spectrum you might find yourself on.

First, how much effort you put into marketing your course is going to have a huge impact on how much return on investment you will see.

To get people to purchase your course they need to see it and for them to see it you are probably going to need to show it to them in the form of an ad, social media post, Pinterest pin or blog post.

Your advertising style and strategy are going to depend on factors personal to you but rest assured putting effort into marketing will pay off.

Once people have found your online course you want them to go beyond browsing. The percentage of viewers who become students is your conversion rate. The higher your conversion rate the higher your revenue.

Bear in might that the lowest acceptable conversion rate when it comes to online marketing is 1%.

One way to increase your conversion rate is to offer students value and a compelling reason to buy.

They want to learn new skills via the online education industry.

Your job is to make sure your digital courses appeal to them by offering value and quality.

It’s important that your course helps your students move away from pain and towards pleasure and that you address these points in your sales page copy.

The third factor that goes into determining how much you can make from selling online courses is the price point.

While it stands to reason that the higher you sell your course for, the more you will make, you can’t set the price so high you have no students.

You have to strike a delicate balance between a lower price that doesn’t reflect the quality of your course material and a higher price that discourages conversions.

Choosing an ongoing membership instead of a one-time payment can make the price point attractive.

Additionally, consider any fees or advertising costs of revenue the platform you choose to host on will take.

Here’s an example when it comes to figuring out how much revenue you can expect from your online course.

Course prices can range between $97 to $997 on the low end. In the mid-range category, you’ll be looking at $1,297 to $4,997.

When it comes to high-end aka high ticket course prices you can expect to see $5,997 to $19,997+.

Therefore how much revenue you can expect will be calculated as follows:

Number of enrolled students x course price

So if your program sells for $997 and you get 10 sales a month then your annual revenue will be as follows:

120 x $997 = $119,640

These revenue figures exclude expenses and other overhead costs.

As we laid out before, your earnings for an online course will equal the number of potential students who view it times your conversion rate times your price point.

To increase all three of the numbers you should consider the aspects which I’ll cover shortly to launch a successful online course.

Do you already have a successful blog or a sizable social media following? If yes, then you are halfway there by already having a company or personal brand. If not, no worries.

You can start building a brand today and working toward a large audience.

For those that already have a brand, whether it be personal or professional, consider how you can leverage it to sell your online course to your target market.

If your course is not related to what you are currently posting, start to move your posts in the direction of your course to begin establishing your brand’s relation to the topic. Your brand is one of the most powerful marketing tools you possess.

If you are starting from scratch, it is a good idea to build your brand with your online learning course sales in mind.

Start accumulating followers that are interested in your course idea and you can convert them to students when you launch a course. Make your new social media platform a lead magnet.

Teachers should know something about what they intend to teach and that applies to you too.

Choose a topic that you can educate your students about. A topic to display your expertise.

You don’t have to know every single little thing about the topic you choose for your online course but you should know more than the Average Joe. Potential students want to know that their teacher knows what is up.

If adding a certification or brushing up on your skills will benefit you, do it! If potential students are more likely to convert when they see your additional training that will only increase your revenue.

Investing in your personal development is one of the best things you can do to establish your expertise in the field.

The topic of your course is understandably going to have an impact on your revenue. In the formula mentioned previously the larger the number of students you can get to enrol in your course offerings the larger your income.

Your topic is going to affect the course enrollment. However, you should not change your topic away from an area in which you are qualified to one in which you are just going to fill a trend in online learning.

Sticking to what you know best is going to create more income for you in the long run than any trend will.

If your topic has a high rate of interest you will also find that you are probably not the first to offer a course on the subject.

So, though the number of people that view your course might be high they might not be converting to students but rather opting for other courses. You can remedy this by offering value and quality.

Include a case study of what your potential student’s journey looked like before enrolling in your course as well as their results after taking the program.

Give students a reason to buy your course rather than browsing through another twenty additional options. You can do this by creating a sales page that establishes your course is created by an expert(you!) and offer value via things like free digital downloads, a live coaching component and other bonuses.

You know from experience that browsing becomes exhausting. Converting potential students into students benefits not just you but also them by allowing them to end their search and move on to learning.

If your topic is more niche perhaps you will have fewer people viewing your course but it creates opportunities for you elsewhere. You can increase your price point if options are limited. When you are the only show in the town you have a bit of power over the price of admission.

You might also see a high student conversion rate since students are so excited to finally find a course offering about their interests.

Especially, if students need to develop a skill for their job or business that’s not available online.

An online course that will help them will encourage them to purchase yours if it meets that need.

Your target students are the people who will ultimately decide how much you earn from your online course. You need to understand and cater to them to increase your revenue.

Consider hosting a webinar or challenge to establish yourself in your field and find out from potential students what they are looking for in a course. You can use the webinar to tease your eventual course as well.

You can take their feedback and use it to create marketing strategies for your course and set your price point. As valuable as your knowledge you have to meet market demand.

Hosting a webinar also means that you will collect the email addresses of the attendees. 

You can use that later to convert these interested people into students when your course is ready to launch. Be sure to offer them a freebie or discount for getting in early and helping you with the course creation process.

You aren’t the first person to create an online course and it would be silly to pretend you are.

Take the time to consider the other players in the market. Understand the dynamics of pricing and how much you might expect to make from an online course. 

You have all the tools and skills you need to create a course on any topic and should not be discouraged by the competition. Rather leverage your knowledge of the competition to make your online course even better.

If you scope out the competition you might also be able to find gaps in what they are offering. With that knowledge, you can fill that gap with your course. Advertise to potential students that your course covers x, y, and z. 

Create value and increase your student conversion rate.

If you have noticed that other courses are missing an essential piece of the puzzle other students have probably noticed too.

Assure them that they are in good hands with you and that they will get all the pieces to complete their learning puzzle.

Just like Goldilocks, you want your course to be priced just right. Not too high and not too low. An overly expensive course will drive off potential students and negate any gains that might be made from increasing the price of the formula. 

Price it too low and you are giving away your valuable time, effort, and knowledge for less than it is worth. Market research is key to striking the perfect balance.

Once you have gotten students interested in your online course through marketing you need to convince them to purchase the course.

Your sales page is the ideal place to offer that last push. You are selling a high-quality product and you can use your sales page to highlight that. 

Include testimonials and reviews related to your subject. You can highlight your experience in the field. You can offer students a bonus for signing up now! 

Create a sense of urgency and offer value. You have a lot of tools at your disposal to get browsers to convert to students and increase your online course income.

Once you have created your sales page you need to funnel your potential students to it. You can create a sales funnel via effective social media marketing that grows your following.

You can use your email list to direct students to your sales page and create excitement. Start teasing the course before it launches and start a countdown. Make it something they cannot miss!

To grow your email list offer freebies that require a potential student to sign-up with their email address. You could create a free newsletter that offers value to readers to start getting names on your email list if you don’t already have a list at your disposal. 

If you hosted a webinar to gather information from students those attendees are prime potential student conversions. Reach back out to them and get them enrolled in your online course.

There are many ways to advertise in the 21st century. Take the time to identify the one that works best for what you are offering.

Set your budget and invest in tools like Facebook Ads or Google Ads. Perhaps try a less conventional advertising strategy like Podcorn, a marketplace where podcasts can present offers for you to sponsor their podcasts.

The options for marketing are as limitless as the internet. With a little thought and investment, you will be on your way to a large online course revenue in no time. Persistence and consistency are key.

It might be counterintuitive, but creating more courses can be a way to not only create more revenue from online courses through the volume of sales from additional offerings but also to increase the sales you are making from existing courses. 

Consider creating a mini-course or planner and offer it at a low price point to increase interest in your larger course.

People like a deal and once they see the real expertise and opportunity for growth your courses give them they will be excited to move on to your offerings at a higher price point. 

Students might also be attracted to what they see as a series of courses since it means there is a way to continue to learn if they enjoy what they get from the course they are purchasing. This lends itself well to fields that naturally progress in difficulty like learning to code.

The most profitable online course is the one that you are able to successfully create and market. Having said that, there are topics that tend to generate more interest than others:

People seem to always be interested in working for themselves. These courses remain popular for people with a business idea and a dream and also those looking to scale up their existing business. Entrepreneurship isn’t something one completes and thus there will always be a demand to learn more about it.

Learning to code is popular and not without reason. Coders are some of the most in-demand people in the job market. It is no wonder people are flocking to online coding courses since it is a skill that can bring you gainful employment without a degree.

Though a sub-niche of computers it is worth mentioning on its own. It remains one of the most popular subsegments of online learning in the computer field, If you have a talent for graphic design this can be a great course to create.

Do not be discouraged if your field isn’t above. Any high-quality online course can generate good revenue if marketed well. 

Just like revenue from online courses can vary widely, so can the cost of creating one. The hosting platform you choose, there are dozens out there, will affect your upfront cost and how much you earn as you go. 

You might want to hire a video editor or a copywriter to polish your material which is an additional expense. You might need to invest in software or a higher-quality camera to really create your vision of a course. 

There isn’t a high-cost barrier to entering the online course creation field but you can increase your cost as your needs and desires dictate. 

Online courses are an ever more popular offering on the internet and many people consider making them to have a source of passive income once they are launched. 

Creating an online course is an investment of time, labour, and perhaps money depending on the course you are creating and what equipment and materials you already have. Given this, it is natural to be interested in knowing how much you can make selling courses online before you begin. 

Course viewers x course conversions x course price = revenue

The secret to increasing your income from online courses is to increase one of the three numbers in the equation. Potential students viewing your course can be increased via effective marketing and creating a sales funnel.

Course conversions can be increased by creating value for your students, making a great sales page, and highlighting your experience. Careful with the third factor, price. You do not want to increase your price beyond the point the market can bear. 

To help you navigate the factors that go into how much you make from creating an online course, book a call and create an action plan. 

The post How Much Can You Make Selling Online Courses? appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

Melli was browsing the self-improvement section on Amazon when she had a question, how can she sell courses on Amazon?

As a personal development coach who has seen it all, Melli wanted to help as many people as possible.

She knew very well that reading a self-improvement book or listening to an audiobook is only hitting the top of the iceberg.

Her potential students needed someone to walk them through that transformation while holding their hands.

However, she had no idea if it is even possible to sell courses on Amazon.

Like Melli, if you are creating an online course, Amazon has to come to mind as a place to sell it. You can buy cat food, a trampoline, and your wedding dress on Amazon. Why shouldn’t you consider adding your online course to their myriad options?

Amazon sellers have access to millions of customers via the Amazon platform. Though you might be worried there is too much competition, by following best practices you can sell profitable products via the Amazon marketplace.

If you want to know how to sell your detailed course on Amazon you’ll find it requires thinking outside the box.

Amazon is very user-friendly for both its customers and its sellers. However, they do not allow online courses to be sold as we might traditionally think of them.

In this post, you’ll learn clever ways to get your course marketed on Amazon as well as how to sell other digital products on the platform as needed.

Amazon does not allow third-party vendors (that’s you!) to sell traditional online courses on Amazon. Selling digital products on Amazon is limited to Amazon’s partners which are limited to other large corporations like Sony or Microsoft. You will see digital codes for the latest Switch games for sale on Amazon for example. 

You are considering selling your online course on Amazon due to its customer base. Amazon developed that customer base due to its sterling reputation. It has that reputation because it offers quality products. Your online course will be of the highest quality I’m sure but you know you can’t trust others. 

Amazon can’t risk having its site clogged, and reputation degraded, by low-quality course offerings and can’t take the time to verify each course. They are running a huge global conglomerate. You understand. 

While you can’t sell online courses on Amazon directly, which some might consider a con, there are ways to get your online course content on Amazon and reach students. Given that Amazon is still an option to deliver your digital product we should consider the pros and cons of using Amazon. 

If your online course is largely in text format, or your course idea lends itself to the written word, you can convert it into an ebook to sell your course on Amazon. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a powerful tool that allows you to sell your ideas on Amazon. Using this method allows students access to your great courses on Amazon’s website.

With KDP you’ll upload your text, set your pricing and royalty share, and design your cover. From there, students can purchase your online course as an ebook or as a physical book.

One of Amazon’s greatest selling points in this regard is that you do not have to bulk order as a self-publisher. They’ll print on demand.

As for how much you’ll make from selling your course on Amazon as a book, you can earn a 70% royalty fee per purchase. This is only if you set your pricing between $2.99 and $9.99. Outside of that range, the royalty fee is only 35%.

You also have a ceiling of $200. Carefully consider the price point your potential students will be comfortable with when choosing between higher royalties or a higher purchase point.

A clever way to overcome the issue of low prices is to break your big course into 10-20 mini-courses and refer your reader to the next book as part of a series.

If you’re wondering what people are searching for right now on Amazon KDP you can use this clever tool to help you spy out potential opportunities.

If your course is mostly in video format why reinvent the wheel? Sell your online course on Amazon as a video. Amazon’s Prime Video Direct is waiting for you! This is also a great option if you already have video content on YouTube, your website, or in reels. 

As always, Amazon is concerned with quality control on this platform as they are with their others. Your video will be screened to ensure that it is HD quality.

If your course is just an idea make sure you invest in equipment that will meet this standard. If you have an existing course you are hoping to convert for Amazon review your videos to ensure they are up to snuff. 

Amazon will pay you based on the time customers spend streaming your content. If people purchase or rent your video via Amazon video direct you will also receive a piece of the action. 

Audible is another excellent option for selling your online course on Amazon. If you already have the text or created a book for KDP, it is a pretty simple option as well. 

Potential customers might also like the convenience of learning about your specific subject while doing tasks like driving or washing the dishes. If you offer good value Audible can be the right place for small business owners to become an Amazon success.

While you always have the option of recording your Audible book to retain a greater share of the sales, Amazon can also provide a narrator for you. This option is simple and removes the stress of worrying about recording equipment.

It also helps you avoid the dreaded question, “Does my voice really sound like that?!” With Amazon’s narration services, you’ll receive 20% of sales. 

Paying Amazon a production fee is also an option. Though it is an upfront cost you can keep a larger amount of revenue as you sell your course.

You receive 40% of the sales if you give Amazon exclusive distribution rights or 25% otherwise with the production fee model. 

Amazon might not allow third-party digital sales but they do allow third-party sales of physical items. You can consider selling your online course on Amazon via DVDs, CDs, or even a flash drive.

Setting up these product listings might seem like a lot of hard work but they can be a great way to get the best products to your students. After you set up your Amazon listing you will be an amazing selling machine.

This does require you to invest in the physical items. You will also need to add trips to the post office into your day. Another option is taking advantage of Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) to reduce your involvement. 

With FBA you ship Amazon a box of products and they take care of shipping it out to your students as they purchase.

Amazon will take a larger share of your sales for the convenience but you avail yourself of their years of experience shipping packages on a regular basis. Starting your Amazon FBA journey can be a ticket to freedom from the post office.

It’s important to note that Amazon will charge a significant warehousing fee if your physical product is not sold out after 12 months.

Another clever hack is via integration with Zapier from four popular course platforms; Kajabi, Clickfunnels, Teachable and Thinkific.

Of course, you will not have the ability to upload your entire video course to Amazon but through an integration with Zapier, it is possible to sell your course via Amazon.

After purchase, there’ll be a trigger that will deliver logins to your course via your integration with Teachable or Thinkific.

All you need to make this happen is an account with Zapier and Thinkific or Kajabi or one of the others as well as a Seller Central account with Amazon.

Bear in mind that people can complain to Amazon customer service if they are not happy with your course content.

As we’ve discussed Amazon is concerned with quality control. As you might have experienced during your time on the internet, not everyone is looking out for the good of others.

There is no Nigerian prince who needs to send you a bank transfer because their aunt has a terminal illness. 

Given that the internet has some shady characters you can see how Amazon might be concerned about low-quality courses flooding their site. You would never do such a thing of course. 

Since you are all about selling digital products on Amazon that are of high quality, you can take advantage of one of the options discussed previously to get your content out there on Amazon.

These different ways allow your online business to place new products on the various Amazon marketplace platforms.

First things first, do you have an Amazon account? If you are one of the five people that don’t, create an Amazon seller account. From there navigate to the site for the route you are choosing Audible, KDP, Amazon Seller Central, or Prime Direct Video. 

From there you’ll need to sign a contract with Amazon to begin selling. You will also need to fill in tax information if it is applicable based on your country. Once the pesky paperwork is out of the way you can upload your content and begin selling your online course on Amazon. 

If you are opting to sell your online course on Amazon via a physical item you will also need to set up a system for your stock. Amazon rewards timely product shipment so make sure you have a system in place to manage this. 

Also, consider taking advantage of the Fulfilled By Amazon service and shipping a box of your products to Amazon. They will handle the distribution for you. 

The advantage of using Amazon is its large customer base. Everyone and their uncle is on Amazon. They also have a reputation for delivering quality products. 

The same reason you cannot sell your online course directly on Amazon is the same reason people might trust buying it as an ebook from the Amazon store.

Amazon also has a wide array of features and great customer support for sellers. One feature that stands out is the ability to add people to your account.

If you have a partner or a Virtual Assistant you can add them to your Amazon account, so they can help with uploading ebooks or shipping CDs, without dealing with them logging in and out of your account or having to share account details. They don’t need to know about your midnight Amazon shopping binges. 

Amazon is a great platform for selling your online course “in disguise” but if the workarounds do not appeal to you there are other options. They may not have the number of potential students that Amazon has but they are geared toward selling online courses.

Udemy is a popular online course marketplace where you can both create and sell your digital product as an online course. They have a large market share and their browsers are looking for online courses. These factors make Udemy an attractive option for online course creators. 

Another option is selling your course via your own website. You can create a course on Kajabi or iSpring Suite and then market it via your website and social media. 

Interested students can then click through to a landing page to purchase your online course. Though this relies on you to seek out potential students it is still a great option for online course creators.

The most important part of selling an online course is understanding your student. Why is a student going to take your online course and where would they be looking for it? 

Someone taking a course for personal versus professional development would be two different types of students who would be approaching the process differently. 

Once you understand your student you can select the platforms that will appeal to them. You can also use this understanding to create your marketing campaign. 

Whether you are selling your course on Amazon or another platform you will need to advertise to drive students to your product. The best course is a course with students.

You aren’t creating online courses for nobody to take them. You want students. That is why you are considering Amazon, the largest online retailer on the globe. 

Amazon didn’t become number one without some quality control measures which, unfortunately, means you can’t sell your online course as an online course there. 

There are plenty of ways to work within Amazon’s framework to get your content out there as we’ve discussed. 

You can create an ebook, upload a video to Amazon’s Prime Direct Video, create an Audible book, or sell your digital product on a physical item like a CD. You have options and Amazon is a great platform to work with. 

If you are considering launching your online course via Amazon and want some guidance you can book a call with me to go through these options and select the one that works best for you and your students. 

The post How to Sell Courses on Amazon – 5 Clever Hacks [#5 is a Gem] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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 information in front of them.

It’s important that your sales page has a clear call to action (CTA) button that leads students through the process of purchasing your course. The CTA button should lead students directly to the checkout process. If you want to add extra functionality to your sales page such as a free trial, you can link to that as well. 

Selling courses online is a great way to earn money from home. There are several ways to sell courses online, such as through Amazon, Teachable, Udemy, and others. 

The best part about selling courses online is that you don’t need any inventory or physical space to do so. All you need is a computer and an internet connection.

Your inventory will be on the internet and you will have a place to put it, in other words, you will need an online course hosting platform. Let’s discuss the different types of platforms for selling your online course.

A great option for hosting your online course is your own website. You can code the course from scratch, use a stand-alone online course hosting platform, or use WordPress plugins. 

This option is great for course creators who already have an online audience that they can direct to their course. It also allows you to maintain complete control of your content.

Some downsides to this method are that you are responsible for all marketing and for taking payment. Protecting your students’ credit card and personal data is of the utmost importance. Don’t skimp on setting up your online payment system. You can consider using Stripe as an easy and safe way to take payments on your website.

Online course creation is made simple with an all-in-one solution. Course creation services in this bracket aim to have everything you need to set up a course, accept payments and market your online course. Examples of all-in-one course platforms include Kartra, Podia and Kajabi.

These types of platforms generally operate on a subscription model. As your course creation needs increase you can move up the payment plan tiers to access more features.

A benefit to using this method is that all that you need is one place. It also takes away the need to have or to hire technical expertise. Some downsides include having to pay an ongoing fee and not having complete control of the platform.

Online course marketplaces also help you create and host online courses on their sites. You will have all the tools you need to create a course right there on your host site. 

In addition, your course will be added to the site’s marketplace! These marketplaces have students actively searching to take online courses like yours.

These platforms also cater to students as well as course creators. They can come there to browse and search for courses. 

In exchange for offering you access to their student pool, these sites will take a share of your course sales. The access to students could also come with the downside of students having access to your competition’s course with the same search.

Yes, it is! Selling courses online is a great way to earn money from home. There are several reasons why selling courses online is worth it.

First, you don’t need any inventory. You can get started with computer access and your own knowledge of your field.

Second, you can sell anywhere at any time. You aren’t limited by the constraints of time or place on the internet.

Third, you can set up your own schedule. Since you are not working a traditional 9-5 with online course creation you can make a schedule that fits your lifestyle.

Fourth, you can work from home, at a coffee shop, from a villa in your dream vacation spot, or at the beach. You get it. You can take your online course creation business anywhere you can dream.

Fifth, you can start making money from selling courses right away. You can make a course for a low financial investment. As your first sales roll in you could already recoup your investment and begin profiting.

Sixth, you can build a business around what you love doing. Your course should cover something you are not only knowledgeable about but also excited about. Follow your passions. As the saying goes, if you love what you do you never work a day in your life.

Seventh, you can create passive income. Online courses can be created in a way that requires very little ongoing involvement from the creator. As you step away the income you generate becomes a passive income.

Eighth, you can scale your business quickly. Once you create one course you can find gaps where other courses can go. Your students can approach you with other areas they need development. You can then create more courses. Sales of online courses are also limitless. Even with one online course, you can scale. Just keep marketing and finding new students.

Ninth, why stop at one course or niche? You can create an entire range of courses based on market trends, feedback from your students and updates on your course topic.

Tenth, you can grow your business with minimal investment. As you create new courses you can continue to do so on a low budget. Just make sure you are turning out high-quality content. Your marketing costs can also be kept low. You don’t even need to spend on Facebook ads if you can grow your following organically through hard work.

Online course creation doesn’t need to break the bank. You don’t even need a computer if you can access a public library. Don’t let any potential costs stop you from creating the online course of your dreams.

The best way to turn prospects into students is to provide them with valuable information about your product or service. Once they find out what you do, they may be interested in buying from you. If what you are offering is unclear or confusing you will have less success in the long term. 

When marketing your course, always clearly lay out what you are bringing to the table and have a clear call to action. The call to action should lead them to your lead magnet or sales page. Don’t confuse people by making them navigate through several pages to get to what you are offering.

Ensure that you are creating a sales funnel and email list. Utilise these tools to reach out to people that have expressed interest in your online business so that you can convert them into students. 

Consider offering them freebies to sign-up or offering them a mini-course as a taster. You can also offer limited-time only discounts to create a sense of urgency for them to purchase. If they have shown enough interest in what you have to offer to give their email addresses they might just need one more little push to become students.

If you have your own website make sure you are doing these things to turn prospects into sales. To attract new students, you need to create a website that has useful information for visitors. 

Include relevant blog posts that establish your expertise in your field. Make sure that your site is easy to navigate and that it loads quickly. Also, include contact information such as email addresses, phone numbers, and physical address if applicable.

As we have already highlighted in this complete guide, it is important that you lay out what your students will get from your course and what the course is about on this page. 

You will also highlight any special offers you might have and include testimonials. Be sure to include a checkout cart for students to input their credit card information and purchase your course.

Marketing online courses can be done in a variety of ways. There is no one-size fits all answer to marketing and will depend on the other choices you have made along the way to creating your course.

Social media marketing is a great tool in the online course creator’s marketing toolkit. Using this method will require setting up profiles on various social media sites with the goal of promoting your online course. Using these pages you can interact with interested potential students and push sales of your course.

If you are looking for a simple way to get more students to sign up for your course, social media marketing can be the answer. Social media marketing has become one of the most effective ways to market your products or services like online courses. 

If done correctly, it will help you reach out to potential students and build relationships with them. Social media marketing is an affordable way to promote your business and increase traffic to your website or course sales page. It’s easy to set up and use, so don’t let it go to waste!

Email marketing is another excellent way to market. Create an email list with emails generated from your lead magnet or other sources, and send out emails periodically. 

This is a great way to keep people engaged and interested in what you’re doing. You could also include a link to your website or blog so that they can learn more about you and your work.

Gather email addresses from people interested in your topic by offering them freebies like a template or newsletter. You can then leverage these email addresses by sending them marketing materials and information that they will find value in.

The options for marketing don’t end at social media and email. You can also participate in a podcast or host your own. You can give a TedTalk or create an online community. The options to market are endless.

If you want to be successful, it is important that you know the difference between good marketing and bad marketing.

Good Marketing:

Bad Marketing:

As this list shows us, good marketing has a clear target in mind and a clear goal to achieve. Marketing should not be a shot in the dark. 

It is also best if you can measure how successful your marketing strategy was so you can make any necessary tweaks before beginning a new campaign. Create good marketing and a great course and you will be making money from online courses in no time.

Social media is an EXTREMELY important part of selling courses online. It is a powerful tool for building your brand, creating social proof, and connecting with potential students. 

Social media platforms are where people communicate, build communities, and even get their news. You want to be a part of that ecosystem. If an ad runs in the woods and nobody sees it, was there ever an ad?

You can leverage social media for a variety of purposes. The first thing that might come to mind is digital marketing. This kind of marketing via social media can take two basic forms. But all in all, it’s about engaging with your audience and creating content that keeps them interested. You should try to be informative while also entertaining.

One way to market is via your posts on the platform. You will create posts with calls to action that implore people to buy your course. These posts will resemble more traditional advertising. 

You can also use advertising tools on social media. These are paid ads that will reach an audience beyond your followers. You can repurpose posts on your own page for these ads to keep the content more organic.

Social media is useful beyond just traditional-looking marketing, however. All of your interactions on social media platforms do not need to be salesy to be useful toward your goal of selling an online course. 

Engaging with people in your field, or interested in it, can help you find students and course ideas. By contributing to communities you can build a good reputation for yourself and your brand. You can also use social media to create your own online community to support your online course.

The best way to determine who your target customers are is through market research. Market research is the process of gathering information about your potential customer base. This includes asking questions:

People make purchases to satisfy their necessities and desires. Just by thinking about how your course could fulfil that you can work backwards to find the type of person who would be interested in purchasing your course. You wouldn’t sell ice to Eskimos after all.

Lots of offerings might be able to fill the same need your course does. This is where you need to think about what sets your course apart. Does your course feature lots of audio content making it easy for people on the go to engage? 

Does it come with a planning section when others skip over it? When you find what is special about your course as compared to comparable courses you can get an idea of who might be interested in that special feature and find your target student.

When considering who will buy your course, think about the people who are already exposed to your content. That is your built-in market. If you have a sizable social media following, those users can become students. 

While this tip skews more towards selecting a course topic it is still important to keep in mind when creating a model of your target student.

Once you have your answers to these questions, you can create a marketing campaign that appeals to your future students. This is how to best sell online courses. Just as you have your ideal course in mind as you create your online course content it is helpful to keep a picture of your target student in mind as you create your marketing strategy.

The best platforms for hosting videos for your online course include YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia. These platforms offer different features such as analytics, embedding, and commenting. However, they all provide similar functionality. Choosing between them comes down largely to personal preference.

Why do you want to host videos for an online course? Video content is engaging and popular with students. However, when creating videos for an online course ensure they are not too lengthy. 

Creating smaller videos allows busy students to break up their study time into manageable chunks. If your video is too long, it becomes difficult to watch and can put off students who would rather read the material than watch a video.

The best way to find out if your audience will enjoy your videos is by testing them yourself. Ask friends and family to test your videos and see what works well and what doesn’t work so well. This will help you improve your videos and increase engagement.

I’m going to outline step by step how to use ChatGPT to help you map out and sell your online course content.

Give ChatGPT the information it needs to know about you in as much detail as possible. This video gives you an overview of how to get that done.

In the next step you’re going to ask ChatGPT for more information about who it thinks is the best client avatar for your program, this video will show you how to get that done.

Well done on getting this far in the process. Remember to take the results from ChatGPT and add them to your Google document. The next step involves interrogating your ideal client avatar. Watch this video and here to find out how to do that well.

The next step is where things get a little more exciting. You’ll now want to ask ChatGPT to write 5 emails for you in two separate batches. This video here will explain why you’ll need to break up the content creation process in two.

We’re almost there. It’s time to look at your options for lead magnets. In this video, we’ll ask ChatGPT to give us suggestions for lead magnets as well as deep dive into one of the suggestions to create an outline.

Now it’s time to create the welcome email series plus one upsell email. There’s also a bit on creating a launch strategy which you can find in the video here.

Oh goodness!!! I had so much fun creating these ChatGPT hacks for you. In this step, we reviewed the launch strategy given by the tool and we even created an outline for a 10-day series for you to go live on social media with experts in the market. Check out the excitement in the video.

Organising all of the content for your course is intimidating but also essential. Your students will respond better to a course that they can follow. 

The modules should clearly be building to their desired outcome. Instructions should also be clear and easy to follow. Remember that happy students make referrals.

Maybe you are a super organised person and nothing about this scares you. Or maybe, like most of us, you aren’t. 

Don’t give up hope! You can organise a course. I know it sounds daunting but I promise that it isn’t as hard as you think. It is actually quite simple to do.

The first step is to brainstorm everything that will need to be covered in the course. From there you can break down the pieces into component parts that lead to the desired outcome.

For example, if your goal is to teach your students how to write a book, then you’ll want to think about what it takes to get published and make money from writing books. 

You might also consider topics like marketing, editing, or even self-publishing. The more specific you are with your goals, the easier it will be to find resources on those subjects.

Once your brainstorming is done put your thoughts on Trello or use Google Sheets. As you are inputting the information, think about how they flow together and in the best possible order. Then review it. 

If you have a lot of ideas, it’s good to go through them one by one and see if they make sense in the context of the course. You can also do this for each module of the course. If you find that some modules don’t work well with others, then you may want to split those out into separate courses.

Now that you know the modules and goals of your course, and have an order, you are ready to move forward and begin creating. Keep this organised by making lists you can easily update about the content needed for each section. Review as you go.

Selling a course online is an attainable goal for you. If you have the knowledge to share you can make a profitable course. However, You will need to spend the time to make it great. Ensure that you keep in mind the needs of your audience when creating your content.

Create quality content and compile it in an organised way that appeals to students. Think about your ideal student and what they will need and find interesting.

Create a quality online course that benefits your students and that you can sell successfully.

With your ideal student still in mind, you can create an effective marketing campaign to sell you online.

Utilise different ways of marketing including email lists and social media. Selling a course can be overwhelming so if you need help with the process, schedule a call with me so we can create a great plan for your course idea.

The post How to Sell Online Courses [Includes ChatGPT Guide] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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?

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. 

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you hire an SEO Specialist to boost your site’s visibility, they will do the following:

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.

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 posts that engage your audience and have a clear call to action.

In addition to course sales being a call to action in your advertising don’t neglect a lead magnet that will grow your email list. You will be continuing to utilize email marketing at this time.

Some additional ideas include blog posts, being featured on other blogs and social media accounts, and podcast appearances. Really get the word out there about your course launch. You want to create excitement and really start out strong.

All the email lists you have built, and all the contacts you have created on your social media page, still have important roles to play even after the end of your sale.

You have probably not converted all of them to students after all. They have shown interest in what you have to offer so keep engaging with them to get them enrolled in your course.  

In fact, some of the key post-launching techniques include gathering feedback and upselling. This is how you make your course better and more sustainable over time. 

Upselling means offering a higher-priced program (like 1:1 coaching) after the official closing of the former sales. 

What differentiates a normal selling process from upselling is that upselling comes with a higher value and is more expensive.

The advantage of this is that it will even yield more profit, and continue to increase your reputation. If your first online course was productive for you and your students, why not create more?

For example, if I sell a course for $100 about plants. Students learn everything about plants, flowers, and growing their own flora and fauna– and they love it! I can upsell these students by marketing an add-on to the course about soil irrigation techniques or how to grow their own spice plants. See how that works?

Consider what you can tack on as bonus value to your current offering. Chances are good your students want to continue to grow their knowledge. Make sure you are ready to fulfil that need.

And, don’t sleep on feedback. 

Feedback is compelling; it’s a major driving force in an upselling process. What did well and what fell flat? Make improvements, and launch further updates to stimulate sales on improved products.

If your students are consistently telling you that they felt they had no way of gauging their progress throughout the course then add quizzes. If they felt that they learned more than they expected add that to your marketing. Use their feedback to both convert more students but also to improve what you have created.

Having a launch checklist is one of the secrets to reducing human error and increasing the possibility that your launch will be successful.

Start the pre-launch process by promoting your lead magnet so that you can grow your email list of potential students

Start the pre-launch process by promoting your webinar, 5-day challenge or other hype events so that you can grow your email list of attendees/participants

Run the hype event and open the cart

Close the cart and create the first lesson of your course then release it to your buyers

As soon as the first lesson is ready, take it live.

Yes, you heard that right. You should make it available as soon as possible. 

How fast do information and advancements in your niche evolve? In tech, the information and processes are ever-changing; a minute delay can lead to so many changes that render the entire course obsolete.

Delay is dangerous in this business. Making your courses available ASAP is the best precautionary measure.

Additionally launching the course allows you to improve the course and generate more buzz. As we covered before, feedback from students is a powerful tool. Those early students can help you figure out what is and isn’t working and allow you to make changes.

You can use their testimonials as a selling point on your sales page. They can write reviews if you are offering your course on an online course marketplace like Udemy.

Don’t forget word of mouth. If your course content is valuable these early students are sure to help spread the word for you.

Launching your online course is a phase-by-phase process that absolutely rocks if you take it in stride. It’s your creation, and once you have it up and running, it does the work for you, basically. You know that you have valuable knowledge and you are passionate about sharing it with others.

Before you head out and get creative, let’s recap. You want to be ready for the best successful launch of your online course offering after all.

The structure is everything. Don’t put the cart before the horse, map it out correctly and strategically with the logical flow of the content.

You want to deliver high-quality and high-value material to your students after all. In addition to letting down your students a poorly designed course won’t generate additional sales.

Launch via email lists and webinars. Your target audience wants to ask questions before they buy and you should be present for the delivery.

Get the help you need with launching, and don’t stop when you’ve completed the launch. Keep in stride with current market trends and ride the wave.

The post How to Launch an Online Course – Ultimate Guide [Checklist Incl] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here are some tips for preselling your course:

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

Avoid overthinking the creative process, as this is a small course. You only need it to see what your audience thinks.

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 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 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.

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 content is ideal for portraying ideas simply and effectively. Here, you can read more about creating a video for a successful online course.

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 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.

This format is applicable if you want to include glossary templates and cheat sheets to help set up the users for success.

This great format can help you present information to help learners internalize concepts.

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.

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:

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.

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 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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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:

You must promote your online course to ensure longevity. If you do not know how to market an online course, we have some pointers below;

Invest in social media ads. One of the best ways to promote your course is to utilize social media as a marketing tool. Facebook ads are a great way to start as this platform provides various tools to ensure your online marketing success. 

For instance, the FB ads library allows you to spy on what your competitors are doing online and see the active ads on different Meta products. On the other hand, the FB ads learning phase is when the delivery system will learn about your ads set. During this time, you should not expect a stellar performance as the performance will fluctuate, and results will vary.

If Meta products are not working for you, you can choose an alternative to Facebook ads and see how well that works.

However, sometimes you may need help figuring it out, as only some have the knowledge and skills to market a course successfully.

Success Unscrambled can help you plan your course so you will always have content ideas whenever they’re promoting your course on social media. 

Since this is a way of disseminating online education, you can make data-driven decisions based on analytics and scale higher with your online course.

Take advantage of your chances to improve the curriculum by seeking feedback at all course stages. If you can improve the course, your students will enjoy a better experience and enrol in your future courses or workshops.

You can do this by creating surveys that explore user experience and provide a chance for them to give suggestions for improvement. You can then adjust to make your course better.

Creating an online course can be taxing if the right steps are not followed.

Do you know the steps you need to take to create interactive content for an online course? Consider these mistakes during the course creation process to help you meet your educational goals.

The first thing you need to do is avoid overloading your learners with too much information. It can overwhelm them and hinder the online learning process. Instead of sharing every aspect of the course, focus on the main parts and discuss them extensively. As a result, you will build a strong community and improve the learning process.

Online courses that are longer with low interactivity could be more appealing. On the other hand, you want to give learners a manageable amount of information without impact.

Encourage learners to participate in the learning process by allowing them to share views on the course material. Similarly, create free discussions among learners on the platform to increase engagement. But, again, you will only have an impact if your platform is fun and engaging.

Only create meaningful clickable interactions if you have something else to offer. Focus on creating impactful content and only create links when necessary. This way, you will not bore learners with endless clickable interactions.

Online courses that lack any assessment are boring and incomplete. So the rule is simple; always have an assessment by the end of the course. This step is crucial because it allows learners to know the progress and whether they are on the right track.

 Online courses are popular nowadays because of the high demand. With more people working online, the need for learning opportunities has increased to equip them with the necessary skills.

There is high demand for online courses, and more creators are needed to fill the gap.

Many people think that course creation is expensive and needs a huge investment. Nothing is further from the truth, going by the large number of creators online. 

You can create course content for free and make fortunes out of it.

Identity a niche. The first step is choosing an attractive and unique topic that will appeal to your audience. You can find a wide range of ideas online but ensure that you choose something that appeals to you. Which subjects are you passionate about?

Identify your target audience. Who are you targeting with your online course material? This information will help you design and create the right content. Also, determine your target audience’s age, background, and interests to tailor the course material to their needs.

Research the topic. Before you start educating people about the topic:

Tools and Software. You can use software to create an online course for free. They include Freshlearn, Teachable, and Thinkific. These tools are easy to set up and use, allowing you to share courses at the touch of a button.

Learn the cost of creating an online course, including software, web hosting, and hardware costs. Learn free options available in the market and how to maximize them. We break down each cost category for course creation to give you a good perspective.

Creating an online course ranges from $200 to $10,000. Labour is the main source of expense, followed by software and equipment. However, only some expenses are involved if you create the course and do not get third-party assistance. Also, it enables you to learn tricks and tips to improve your content creation.

While you can use free software online to create your online course, you must get a good microphone. Getting the right equipment helps in producing high-quality content that captivates learners. You will incur a higher expense if you hire a professional to create and edit your course.

If you don’t have the means to outsource, you can do everything by yourself. If anything, the best online courses out there are those produced with minimal equipment.

Hardware – the actual equipment needed to produce an online course. You will incur roughly $300 for hardware. This includes using a microphone, pen, notepad and external hard drive where necessary (videos can take up a lot of storage space).

Software – software that accompanies the equipment and is roughly $300. You may need screencast software like Camtasia, video editing software like Adobe Premiere, Filmora or Final Cut Pro, video recording software apps like Filmic Pro and audio editing platforms like Auphonic.

Hosting is where you place your online course materials to reach learners, which is free if you use YouTube to host your videos or paid platforms like Vimeo, Wistia, Kajabi or Thinkific.

Marketing – tools used to promote and sell course materials. You can do free email marketing like MailerLite to reach learners. Or if you need a more professional solution you can use ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Missinglettr, Easy Webinar and many others.

Microphone – A major piece of equipment you need to produce your online course. You can get a good microphone for $100.

Yes. Creating an online course is a profitable venture like any other business. Plus, there are good platforms on which you can market your courses and get students. The good thing is you have many avenues that can scale up your online course business.

You are missing a lot if you have not started creating and selling courses on online platforms. It is hard to quote the amount you can make by creating online courses. However, one thing that you can be sure of is profits.

Sell courses on Amazon to generate more income and build a strong community. The best part is that you get to sell your courses for free. Once you sign up as an Amazon seller, you can sell your courses without monthly fees or subscriptions.

You pay Amazon $0.99 for every course sold. To get valuable tools, you can sign up as a professional seller at a fee. Selling on the platform is as easy as:

Profits you get from selling only courses vary and depend on many factors. Some factors that affect the amount you earn include the course price, customer loyalty, your audience, and sales and marketing experience. In addition, some courses pay more than others across different platforms.

One way to increase course creation earnings is to improve your course’s value. While creating course content purely for money is okay, you also need to consider the value students derive from using your course. Improve value by picking profitable topics/ideas, focusing on areas you know, and creating engaging content.

Many creators need help to create interactive courses that appeal to learners. You can turn boring courses into immersive and interactive ones with the right knowledge and tools. Here’s how!

Creators who engage students directly with the course material yield better results than those who prefer a passing learning approach. Active learning is where learners are actively involved in the learning process instead of only listening and taking notes. Creators can create an active learning environment through problem-solving, case studies, and discussions.

The goal is to motivate learners to participate in the learning approach. Although it needs creativity to build an active learning approach in an online course, it is worthwhile. It will make your course unique and provide value for your learners.

Students derive value from interacting with their peers, whether they attend virtual or physical classrooms. A cohort-based course emphasizes student teamwork and collaboration rather than individual effort and understanding.  

It encourages students to consult one another and develop unique ideas to improve learning experiences. Moreover, it encourages critical thinking and problem-solving abilities in students. Bring your learners together regularly in your course community or other online platforms to benefit from a cohort-based course. Give them time to interact after the course session to build friendships, trust, and teamwork.

Let them know each other and interact to form connections.

Nothing compares to real-time interactions between creators and students. The Zoom app can bring everyone together and discuss the course material. Online interaction apps come with quizzes, games, and discussions that learners can use to increase understanding.

Creating an online course can be daunting if you need the necessary tools and skills. However, content creation has come a long way to accommodate different subjects and individuals to speak freely and connect with an audience.

You can use many tools to create a robust online course that gives value to learners. There is a high demand for creators as more people learn about online courses and their benefits. Take advantage of this opportunity by creating top-notch courses that meet the needs of students.

 Learn about topics that interest you and seek subject matter expert opinions on how to go about them. Don’t be afraid of failure or rejection; use them as a stepping stone to develop your course creation career.

Make an appointment with me to help you map out your program and skyrocket it.

The post How To Create an Online Course [The Ultimate Guide] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

The post How Long Should an Online Course Be (Lessons + Modules)  appeared first on Success Unscrambled.