Creating an online course can be a profitable business. If you’re a beginner, you may think you need to have Marketing or Coding skills. But that’s not true. You just need to find the right angle for your course, and if you do that, there is almost no limit for what type of content you can create. This article will teach you how to get started with creating an online course in 2022.
This blog is meant to inspire others who want to take their business, career, life or skill to the next level with an online course. I do this by sharing what I have learned in ten years of building and selling online courses – both personal experience and stories from students. There’s no question that, if you’re reading this right now, you are interested in making a change of some kind in your life… This is where an online course can come into play, and why I started this blog.
What is an online course?
What is an online course, you ask? Well, it’s a digital offering (this article is online) that includes educational content and/or assessment tasks. For example, this blog post would be considered an online course. From “How To’s” to “Top [X] Lists,” there’s a wide range of topic-specific courses available. We can predict that the eLearning industry will be worth $300 billion within the next five years.
Choose a platform.
If you want to create an online course, the first thing you need to do is decide on a platform. This article will take you through the options and what they have to offer so that you can make an informed decision about which one will be best for your needs.
There are lots of different ways to create an online course and this article will cover some of them.
The most popular way to create an online course is by using a platform such as Udemy, Teachable or Skillshare. These platforms allow you to upload your content and they’ll provide all the support you need to make sure that your content gets seen by as many people as possible.
If you’re not comfortable with using these platforms then there are plenty of other options available for creating your own website (such as WordPress) or creating your own learning management system (LMS).
Thinkific vs Udemy vs Teachable: Which is Best?
Thinkific and Udemy are two of the most popular choices for creating an online course. Teachable is another option, but it has fewer features than either Thinkific or Udemy, so it’s not as widely used by professional instructors.
Udemy offers a wide variety of tools for instructors, including live video streaming and auto-grading quizzes. However, this comes at a cost — there are no free plans available and the cheapest paid plan starts at $99 per month with no option for discounts (although students can pay for individual courses on a pay-per-course basis).
Teachable has no live video streaming capabilities, but it does offer some useful features like automatic grading for quizzes and tests and pre-recorded videos that don’t require any special equipment to watch them (just a browser). The platform also includes some basic analytics tools, but these require an upgrade in order to access more features.
Know your audience.
The first step to creating an online course is to know your audience. If you’re writing for a general audience, you should have a good idea of who they are and what they need from the course.
If you’re writing for a niche group, you need to know their needs and interests as well as any specific concerns they may have. For example, if you’re writing a course on how to get pregnant, you need to know that fertility treatments can be expensive and so should include options for people with low incomes or no insurance coverage.
Once you know your audience, it’s time to create your syllabus. This is often called the outline of an online course. The key here is brevity; if you want people to finish reading your syllabus within two minutes, then make it short enough for them to do so! Include only those topics that are essential to understanding the subject matter of your course. If there are many subtopics that might go into greater depth than what would fit into a single video or article, then consider breaking them out into additional lessons on different days or weeks later in the course.
Define your learning outcomes.
Once you have a plan in place, it’s time to start creating your course. The first step is to make sure that you have a clear idea of what kind of content you want to cover and what the student will learn. This is where the learning outcomes come into play.
Learning outcomes are statements that define the skills and knowledge the student will gain from taking your course. They should be specific, measurable and achievable. In other words, they should include all three of these elements:
Specific – If you can’t describe what you want to teach in one sentence or two, then it’s too vague and probably not worth teaching at all!
Measurable – You need to be able to measure how well someone has learned something in order for this statement to be useful. Otherwise, it’s impossible for anyone else (including yourself) to tell whether or not someone has learned something or not.
Achievable – If the learning outcome is too difficult or too easy, then it won’t be usable when creating your course because it won’t help you build a good lesson plan or choose appropriate resources.
Plan your course curriculum.
Before you start, you must know what you are going to teach. Before you begin writing your course, do some research and make sure that you know what kind of content will help your students achieve their goals.
When you are ready to start writing the syllabus, take a step back and look at the big picture. What is the purpose of your online course? What do you want your students to get out of it? How will they benefit from the course? Write down all these things in a concise way so that it is easy for you and anyone else who might be reading it later on.
Next, think about what topics will be covered in each lesson, then write them down in an outline format or similar format that makes sense to you. This will help you make sure that there are no gaps or missing pieces in your lessons. It also gives you an idea about how long each lesson should be as well as when it should be taught during the semester if necessary.
Script and record your course videos
1. Script and record your course videos
There are so many ways to script your videos and so many different types of videos you can create. Scripting your videos is a great way to help you plan out what you want to say, but it’s not the only option. Some people prefer to just start talking into the camera without any sort of planning or preparation.
If you’re using video as a way to share content with others, then it’s important that you have a script ready before you start recording your video. A good script will help ensure that everything you say is relevant and valuable for your audience. It also ensures that you don’t make any mistakes while filming because if there’s one thing that can kill an online course, it’s having someone say something embarrassing or incorrect on camera!
2. Pre-record all voice-overs before filming
One thing I’ve found useful when creating online courses is pre-recording all of my voice-overs for each lesson before actually filming them. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but it actually saves time and helps prevent errors from happening in front of the camera!
3. Add text overlays to explain things more clearly
In addition to pre-recording all voice-overs.
Add questions and exercises throughout the course
Creating an online course is not a difficult task. It only requires some basic knowledge of JavaScript and HTML, and can be done using tools like WYSIWYG editors or drag-and-drop builders.
However, creating an engaging online course that will keep your students engaged and interested is the real challenge. If you want to create a successful online course, follow these tips:
Add questions and exercises throughout the online course. Use multiple choice questions, fill in the blank questions and essay questions to engage your students and make them think about what they are learning.
Include real-life examples in your lectures. One way to do this is by including videos of people performing tasks related to what you are teaching in your lectures. For example, if you are teaching about how to bake cakes, include videos of people baking cakes so that your students can see what it looks like when someone makes a mistake while baking a cake or when someone does something right while baking a cake.
Create quizzes at regular intervals throughout the course so that students can test themselves on their knowledge of specific concepts before moving on to new material.
Create a PDF eBook version of the course.
For many people, the easiest way to create an online course is to first write a book. After all, it’s easy to write and publish an eBook using services like Amazon KDP or Smashwords. But there are two reasons why this approach can be problematic:
You don’t want to teach your entire course through text. You want to be able to show your students how things work, not just tell them.
It’s hard for readers to learn from an eBook because they can’t hear your voice or see your body language.
The solution is simple: Create a PDF eBook version of the course, but also use that as the basis for creating a video course as well.
Market your new course on social media channels
If you want to get people to enroll in your course, you need to tell them that it exists.
This isn’t just about getting people to sign up for your list. You need to get them excited about the topic and encourage them to buy your course.
To do this, you’ll need to market on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
But how can you do this effectively? Here are four tips for marketing your new course on social media:
Use a different approach for each social media channel. You’re not going to get the same results on Facebook as you do on Instagram or Twitter, so don’t waste time trying. The best way to make sure that your content gets seen by as many people as possible is by tailoring your posts specifically for each channel.
Post consistently. If you post once every few weeks or months, nobody is going to notice when you do post something — especially if there’s nothing new in those posts (like new content). Make sure that you’re posting regularly if you want your followers to remember who you are and what they can expect from your brand.
Host an exclusive live webinar for your best customers
You’ve built a reputation for offering high-quality online courses. But how do you get your best customers to continue to buy from you?
When it comes to converting customers from one product or service into another, the key is to make the transition as seamless as possible. In other words, you want to make sure that when someone purchases one product or service, they don’t feel like they have to start over again with something new and different.
Hosting an exclusive live webinar is a great way to do this because it builds on the relationship you already have with your customers. Your audience already knows and trusts you, and so they’re more likely to listen when you share something new and exciting about your business.
By hosting an exclusive live webinar for people who purchase your best online course, you can create an opportunity for them to learn more about this product (and any related products) in a setting they feel comfortable with — while also building trust between you and your audience by showing them that you care about them as individuals rather than just dollar signs.
Bring in affiliates to promote your course for you.
If you want to make money with your course, you need to bring in affiliates.
Affiliates are people who promote your content and earn a commission on sales.
You can get affiliates by promoting your content through a website like ClickBank or ShareASale, but they take a big cut of the profits.
Instead of paying them a cut, you can bring in affiliates to promote your course for free.
Here’s how:
Create an affiliate page on your website with links to bonuses and other offers that will appeal to them (e.g., free email courses). You can also include banners or other promotional materials on this page so it looks good and is easy for them to share.
Add an affiliate link for each product or service mentioned in your course (e.g., Udemy or Skillshare). This way, when someone buys one of these products using your affiliate link, you’ll get paid a commission on their purchase as well as any subsequent sales from their referrals (i.e., if they refer someone else who purchases the same product).
Track ROI with the right analytics tools
The key to measuring ROI is to track your objectives from the beginning. If you don’t know what you want, how will you know when you’ve got it?
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is failing to set goals and measure them at the outset. This leads to wasted time, effort and money on marketing programs that don’t yield results. The solution is to set clear objectives before you launch a campaign.
There are many ways to measure return on investment (ROI), but here’s a simple formula:
Gross margin x Conversion rate = Total revenue generated by an ad campaign
Let’s say your gross margin is $100 per sale and your conversion rate is 3%. That means each ad click generates $3 in revenue. Multiply those two numbers together and you get $9 total revenue generated by each click through your campaign.
Now compare that figure to what it cost you to generate those clicks, whether it was through paid search ads or social media posts. You can get this information from Google Analytics or other analytics tools that track how much money goes into creating traffic for your website or blog and how much comes out of that traffic in terms of sales
Manage customer support and offer refunds when necessary.
When you’re a small business, your customers are your best advocates. They’re the ones who can help you grow and succeed by spreading the word about your products or services. But if they’re not satisfied with their experience, they can easily turn into detractors who will share their bad experience with everyone they know.
This isn’t just bad for your business; it’s also bad for your customers. When you take care of problems as soon as possible, you can avoid any negative reviews or comments on social media and keep customers coming back again and again.
Here are some tips for managing customer support:
Answer questions promptly. If someone has a question about an order or product, they’ll expect an immediate response — even if it’s not urgent. Responding in less than 24 hours is best practice but at least respond within a few hours (unless they’ve contacted you outside of normal business hours). You can also use tools like Intercom to set up automated notifications when someone sends an email so that it gets flagged as soon as it arrives instead of waiting until someone gets around to checking their inbox first thing in the morning (and then having to go through their entire inbox looking for that one message).
Resolve problems quickly. It’s important to apologize when something goes wrong.
Consider selling additional products and services to existing customers
Selling additional products and services to existing customers is a powerful way to increase your company’s revenue. These products and services can range from simple add-ons, like software upgrades or maintenance plans, to more complex offerings such as managed services or professional consulting services.
The advantage of selling additional products and services to existing customers is that they already know and trust your company. They’ve already purchased something from you, so they’re more likely to purchase additional items than if they were being introduced to your company for the first time. This makes it easier for you to sell additional products and services because the customer has already done some of the work for you by making an initial purchase. If a customer buys one product from your company, they’re more likely to buy multiple products from you in the future because they have already had good experiences with your business in the past.
Selling additional products and services helps increase sales by creating more opportunities for upsells and cross-selling within an existing customer base. Upselling involves selling a higher priced product in place of a lower priced one — so if a customer wants X product but only has enough money for Y product, upselling allows you to offer them X plus Y together at an affordable price point instead of just Y alone at full price.
Takeaway
Creating an online course is more achievable than you think!
Creating a successful online course is about more than just putting together a bunch of videos, slides, and homework. It’s about creating something that’s actually going to help people learn and grow in their careers.
Here are some tips for creating an effective online course:
Start with your expertise. When it comes to creating an online course, there are two distinct approaches: the “how-to” and the “why-to”. The how-to approach focuses on teaching people skills they can apply immediately in their careers, while the why-to approach focuses on helping learners understand why they should use those skills in the first place. As a rule of thumb, start with how if you already have some expertise in the topic area, but if not, try starting with why first before diving into skills.
Make it interactive. One of the great things about online courses is that they allow for a lot of interactivity among students and instructors — something that isn’t possible when everyone is sitting in the same classroom at once! Try using discussion boards to bring students together as well as having clearly defined assignments with due dates so students know what’s expected from them at each stage of their learning journey.
Conclusion
The one goal that we try to achieve with the Online Course Creator is to make creating an online course as easy and straightforward as possible, making things easier for both instructors and students. Instructors can spend their time creating a fantastic course, not spending countless hours figuring out how to integrate it into the curriculum. Students learn by actually being taught by qualified instructors and not just anyone. We want to make sure that all our courses are created with educators in mind and are used every day by teachers around the world.
