How to create and sell an online course in 9 steps - Part 1
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 5:16 am
Almost everyone has a certain skill or knowledge, whether it's marketing, design, cooking, fitness, or something else. Thanks to globalization and the internet, you can share that knowledge with people all over the world and make money by publishing an online course.
If you think you'd like to teach other people something but are wondering how to create an online course, this article may be helpful.
I've created over 10 of my own courses in my career, and at my previous job we also created online courses for other entrepreneurs. So you can learn a lot of interesting things from the knowledge I've gathered for you in this article.
We'll look at which online courses are the most profitable and most sought-after, and you'll also learn how to promote and sell your content to make money.
Online courses and e-learning are a great opportunity to earn extra money:
By the end of 2022, the e-learning industry is expected to be worth as much as $243 billion.
By 2026, the e-learning industry is expected to be worth more than $350 billion.
Global consumption of e-learning and courses has increased significantly during the pandemic , and many experts expect this to continue.
Positive benefits of online education
It helps you build your brand and trust.
People get to know you better as an expert in your field.
It is a great way to gain email contacts and new customers.
It is a great tool for selling your products or services.
Low investment for implementation.
You can do it from home or anywhere, all you need is WI-FI and a computer.
You can conduct online training from home if a situation arises where you cannot go to the field.
To better imagine what types of online courses are being sold, let's look at some of the main reasons why people buy them:
They want to gain knowledge at the start of a new career path.
They want to get certified in a specific skill to increase their career prospects.
Further education.
Academic preparation.
They simply want to learn new skills or gain new knowledge.
According to my research among my followers, the demand for online courses has been increasing over the last two years.
STEP 1: Think about an idea for an online course
When thinking about what kind of course to create, you need to do your research and find out what online courses are in demand. Creating an online course that many people want will make you much more money. Keep in mind what kind of knowledge you have and what you want to share in your course.
Once you have a list of skills, gather ideas on the most popular online course platforms like Udemy or Skillshare . There you can find out which courses are the most popular in a particular category.
It's also a good idea to check what people are searching for on Google using Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner.
Some of the most sought-after niches currently are:
technology (programming, security, web development, machine learning)
marketing (copywriting, social media marketing, video marketing)
self-development (time management and productivity, leadership, negotiation, influence, attention)
business (e-commerce, business ads, sales pages)
beauty (makeup, style, wellness, skin care, hair care)
video and photography (food photography, portrait photography, videography, video editing, vlogging, creating content for Youtube, photo editing)
languages (popular languages such as Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese)
There are many topics you can share your knowledge about. Try to find a specific topic within these topics. For example, in the arts and crafts field, you could create an online course on using social media to promote your Etsy shop. In the 1,000 mobile number list free download computer science and technology field, you could create an online course for beginners on coding.
STEP 2 - Choose a platform
If you don't already have your own infrastructure for hosting online courses and don't have a payment system, then consider a platform (e.g. Wordpress, Wix, etc.). Fortunately, you don't have to create everything from scratch. Some platforms are paid, while others are free and only charge a certain fee from the courses you sell.
The most popular platforms with the highest traffic are:
Udemy - is a well-known content-rich learning platform that offers a huge number of courses covering a wide range of fields and topics. The courses are mostly in English, but since Udemy is a platform that brings together many lecturers from all over the world, there are also courses in other languages, so keep that in mind.
Skillshare is another platform for video courses that are much shorter than Udemy, with most courses lasting around 20-60 minutes and broken down into shorter videos. On Skillshare, users pay a monthly fee to access all the courses on the platform.
Thinkific - is a platform packed with features that are useful for any online course creator, making it easy to create engaging training courses. It doesn't charge fees for courses sold, but rather relies on monthly subscriptions that start at $49 per month. You can try this platform for free with its basic features.
Teachable - Offers a variety of payment options based on a monthly subscription or a fee-based approach to courses sold. Comes with a custom domain, super easy setup, built-in payment system, and even one-on-one sessions.
STEP 3: Prepare the content of your online course
How to create online course content?
At this point you need a good plan. By this I mean you need to plan out the course content point by point. You need to divide the content into individual chapters, and then lessons.
From my own experience, I suggest you create shorter clips . So you should create more lessons, but shorter ones. Once you have a list of lessons ready, try to add some keywords about what you will talk about in each lesson.
To record a course, you need some basic equipment. It's not complicated, you just need a camera or mobile phone, a microphone, because good sound is the most important part of any video. It would also be good to have a tripod , and that's basically it. If you're just recording your computer screen and a presentation, you can use tools like Loom and Vimeo.
Once the equipment is ready, you need to create a script for each lesson you want to create. However, you should not learn it or read it verbatim; prepare supporting points and speak freely and casually. You can also prepare a presentation to help you with the recording.
Once you have all of the above, choose a location to film your online course. This could be your office or another quiet, tidy space. It is important to have natural lighting so that you look good on camera. If you have video lighting, you don't need to worry too much about natural lighting.
Once your course is recorded, you need to check if the audio is good; if not, you need to fix it in post-production. You can also cut out some parts with errors, which happens to everyone. And voila, your online course is ready! What's next?
STEP 4: Decide how much you will charge for your online course
Online courses can cost anywhere from $5 to $2,000. Your first online course will likely cost anywhere from $50 to $200. This can vary depending on your topic, audience, and expertise.
When determining the price of an online course, consider the following:
How much money will you spend on course creation, hosting, and marketing the course?
What are the prices of competitors?
The income level of your target group. How much do you think they are willing to spend?
When selling online courses, you can structure payments to:
One-time payment for lifetime access to the course.
Monthly subscription.
Payment in installments, especially if the course amount is high.
Assess your target market and determine how you want to structure payment for your online course.
STEP 5: Increase the value (and price) of your online course
One way to increase the price of an online course is to add value to it. You can do this by:
Offer additional materials.
Include additional bonuses.
Every good online course offering has bonuses.
You can create a good offer of additional materials by:
Prepare e-manuals, worksheets, workbooks, infographics, special reports...
Make sure these bonuses have a high monetary value. This way you can promote the high added value of your course.
Of course, as a marketer, I've also prepared a Black Friday offer for you , namely all my online courses are discounted to €30 until Sunday.
If you think you'd like to teach other people something but are wondering how to create an online course, this article may be helpful.
I've created over 10 of my own courses in my career, and at my previous job we also created online courses for other entrepreneurs. So you can learn a lot of interesting things from the knowledge I've gathered for you in this article.
We'll look at which online courses are the most profitable and most sought-after, and you'll also learn how to promote and sell your content to make money.
Online courses and e-learning are a great opportunity to earn extra money:
By the end of 2022, the e-learning industry is expected to be worth as much as $243 billion.
By 2026, the e-learning industry is expected to be worth more than $350 billion.
Global consumption of e-learning and courses has increased significantly during the pandemic , and many experts expect this to continue.
Positive benefits of online education
It helps you build your brand and trust.
People get to know you better as an expert in your field.
It is a great way to gain email contacts and new customers.
It is a great tool for selling your products or services.
Low investment for implementation.
You can do it from home or anywhere, all you need is WI-FI and a computer.
You can conduct online training from home if a situation arises where you cannot go to the field.
To better imagine what types of online courses are being sold, let's look at some of the main reasons why people buy them:
They want to gain knowledge at the start of a new career path.
They want to get certified in a specific skill to increase their career prospects.
Further education.
Academic preparation.
They simply want to learn new skills or gain new knowledge.
According to my research among my followers, the demand for online courses has been increasing over the last two years.
STEP 1: Think about an idea for an online course
When thinking about what kind of course to create, you need to do your research and find out what online courses are in demand. Creating an online course that many people want will make you much more money. Keep in mind what kind of knowledge you have and what you want to share in your course.
Once you have a list of skills, gather ideas on the most popular online course platforms like Udemy or Skillshare . There you can find out which courses are the most popular in a particular category.
It's also a good idea to check what people are searching for on Google using Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner.
Some of the most sought-after niches currently are:
technology (programming, security, web development, machine learning)
marketing (copywriting, social media marketing, video marketing)
self-development (time management and productivity, leadership, negotiation, influence, attention)
business (e-commerce, business ads, sales pages)
beauty (makeup, style, wellness, skin care, hair care)
video and photography (food photography, portrait photography, videography, video editing, vlogging, creating content for Youtube, photo editing)
languages (popular languages such as Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese)
There are many topics you can share your knowledge about. Try to find a specific topic within these topics. For example, in the arts and crafts field, you could create an online course on using social media to promote your Etsy shop. In the 1,000 mobile number list free download computer science and technology field, you could create an online course for beginners on coding.
STEP 2 - Choose a platform
If you don't already have your own infrastructure for hosting online courses and don't have a payment system, then consider a platform (e.g. Wordpress, Wix, etc.). Fortunately, you don't have to create everything from scratch. Some platforms are paid, while others are free and only charge a certain fee from the courses you sell.
The most popular platforms with the highest traffic are:
Udemy - is a well-known content-rich learning platform that offers a huge number of courses covering a wide range of fields and topics. The courses are mostly in English, but since Udemy is a platform that brings together many lecturers from all over the world, there are also courses in other languages, so keep that in mind.
Skillshare is another platform for video courses that are much shorter than Udemy, with most courses lasting around 20-60 minutes and broken down into shorter videos. On Skillshare, users pay a monthly fee to access all the courses on the platform.
Thinkific - is a platform packed with features that are useful for any online course creator, making it easy to create engaging training courses. It doesn't charge fees for courses sold, but rather relies on monthly subscriptions that start at $49 per month. You can try this platform for free with its basic features.
Teachable - Offers a variety of payment options based on a monthly subscription or a fee-based approach to courses sold. Comes with a custom domain, super easy setup, built-in payment system, and even one-on-one sessions.
STEP 3: Prepare the content of your online course
How to create online course content?
At this point you need a good plan. By this I mean you need to plan out the course content point by point. You need to divide the content into individual chapters, and then lessons.
From my own experience, I suggest you create shorter clips . So you should create more lessons, but shorter ones. Once you have a list of lessons ready, try to add some keywords about what you will talk about in each lesson.
To record a course, you need some basic equipment. It's not complicated, you just need a camera or mobile phone, a microphone, because good sound is the most important part of any video. It would also be good to have a tripod , and that's basically it. If you're just recording your computer screen and a presentation, you can use tools like Loom and Vimeo.
Once the equipment is ready, you need to create a script for each lesson you want to create. However, you should not learn it or read it verbatim; prepare supporting points and speak freely and casually. You can also prepare a presentation to help you with the recording.
Once you have all of the above, choose a location to film your online course. This could be your office or another quiet, tidy space. It is important to have natural lighting so that you look good on camera. If you have video lighting, you don't need to worry too much about natural lighting.
Once your course is recorded, you need to check if the audio is good; if not, you need to fix it in post-production. You can also cut out some parts with errors, which happens to everyone. And voila, your online course is ready! What's next?
STEP 4: Decide how much you will charge for your online course
Online courses can cost anywhere from $5 to $2,000. Your first online course will likely cost anywhere from $50 to $200. This can vary depending on your topic, audience, and expertise.
When determining the price of an online course, consider the following:
How much money will you spend on course creation, hosting, and marketing the course?
What are the prices of competitors?
The income level of your target group. How much do you think they are willing to spend?
When selling online courses, you can structure payments to:
One-time payment for lifetime access to the course.
Monthly subscription.
Payment in installments, especially if the course amount is high.
Assess your target market and determine how you want to structure payment for your online course.
STEP 5: Increase the value (and price) of your online course
One way to increase the price of an online course is to add value to it. You can do this by:
Offer additional materials.
Include additional bonuses.
Every good online course offering has bonuses.
You can create a good offer of additional materials by:
Prepare e-manuals, worksheets, workbooks, infographics, special reports...
Make sure these bonuses have a high monetary value. This way you can promote the high added value of your course.
Of course, as a marketer, I've also prepared a Black Friday offer for you , namely all my online courses are discounted to €30 until Sunday.