According to the latest data, the online learning market increased from $200 billion in 2019 to more than $315 billion in 2021.
Right now, more and more people are jumping on this bandwagon, and experts predict that the global market value of the eLearning business will be $457 billion by 2026.
The graph below depicts how quickly the online eLearning market is expanding when compared to others.
If you’re thinking about launching an online course, now is clearly the perfect moment to do it.
I’ve built numerous courses for students and earned a steady income by selling my knowledge online. But I still remember how frightening it was to create my first online course, which is why I wrote this step-by-step guide to selling online courses.
Read on to learn how to develop online courses, even if you’re a newbie, with this 10-step tutorial.
Choose the right subject matter.The first and most critical step in producing a successful online course is to choose an appropriate subject matter.
You can choose any topic you want, from website development to food recipes and everything in between.
However, while there are several options for online course subjects, it is crucial to recognize that not all of them are equally practical.
The following are some characteristics to examine when considering a potential topic to see if it will appeal to you and your target audience:.
Choose a Topic You Are Passionate About: You must be eager to teach the subject; otherwise, you will likely abandon it before it reaches fruition.Choose a topic that others want to learn about: To establish demand for the topic, you must first define your target audience. In other words, what does your audience require? If you don’t have an audience yet, that’s fine, but choose a topic that is relevant to your online presence. Choose Something People Are Willing to Pay For: There are plenty of great topics to write about, but will people pay for them?
This last tip is especially important since it can have a significant impact on your online course sales, which can amount to a lot of money if done correctly.
For instance, even if your content is extremely appealing to cash-strapped university students, you are unlikely to find paying customers quickly if you design an online course for them.
You can ask a group of friends or your existing audience (via blog or social media) what they think about the subject at hand.
Share surveys or online forms for people to complete, or create a brief instructional and then track its performance to see if that is the type of material your audience wants to see more of.
Make sure your idea has high market demand.
The next stage is to test your idea to guarantee that it is marketable.
Creating an online course requires a significant amount of labor and effort. So, before you start, do a test to confirm your internet company idea and ensure that it will pay for itself in the future.
You don’t want to build an online course that no one wants to take.
This stage is a continuation of the research you did in step one, but you’re going a step farther by validating your hypothesis.
Here’s how you may do market research studies to determine whether or not your course is in demand:
How do I conduct market research?Many course authors believe that if their topic is highly competitive, the course idea will fail, yet the contrary is often true.
When there are a lot of competitors, it indicates great market demand, so it’s worth looking into your online course idea further.
Ask yourself the following questions:.
Are people searching for a course topic?Are they asking any questions concerning the topic?Are participants willing to pay to solve the problem that your course addresses?Do your competitors’ content offerings have any gaps?
These and other questions will assist you in identifying what is already available and whether there is a chance for you to provide something similar but unique to the other courses.
If you want to base your decision on data, look at some of the top course marketplaces, such as Udemy or Skillshare, to discover which courses are the most popular on their site. When you do this, you’ll be able to look at the stats, reverse engineer what’s working well on their platforms, and then leverage it to your benefit.
Research your topic.At this point in the process of learning how to design online courses, you should conduct extensive research on your topic. You may already have extensive knowledge of your subject, especially if you run a blog where you publish articles on related topics. In such a case, this section will be straightforward for you.
Don’t worry, even if you’re starting from the beginning. Here are some suggestions and strategies to make your topic research process less scary.
Conduct keyword research to understand what types of queries users are searching for when researching the issue.Look through the comments on relevant blog entries to see what readers are saying about the subject.Sift through social media to see what people are saying about your selected course topic. Check out the “People Also Ask” area to get more ideas for sub-topics and sub-categories. Check out the “Related Searches” section at the bottom of each search results page for further ideas.Investigate a variety of sources, such as forums, books, webinars, competitive courses, and more, to produce fresh content.
This will give you a better idea of the types of questions your course students could be interested in.
As you can see, you must go deep to understand as much as possible about your course topic. However, it is definitely worth the effort because your material is more likely to do well if you can go beyond what visitors can quickly access in Google search results.
Create magnetic learning outcomes.
Sometimes, designers disregard learning outcomes when designing an online course. However, they are among the most critical factors to consider if you want to create a popular online course.
How do I know?
Aside from all of this digital marketing, I am a college professor. I’ve been there since 2010, and in that time I’ve created dozens of courses utilizing university-sponsored approaches.
Marketers, not competent educators, now control the online course creation sector. Many of them overlook this key step in the development of their online learning program, which has a detrimental influence on both the learning experience and, ultimately, sales.
Avoid making the same error when designing your first online course.
Ask yourself: After completing my course,
What skills will students be able to demonstrate?What new knowledge will they have acquired?What feelings will they have moved away from or toward?Take the time to create a learning outcome that will
Clearly define what your content will teach students (this prevents them from making false assumptions about what they will learn in your online course).Explicitly outline the benefits and outcomes that students will receive as a result of completing the course. This is vital. As they strive to improve themselves, explain exactly what each lesson will accomplish. Remove anyone who isn’t a good fit for your online course (this significantly minimizes refund requests).The best part is that you can use your learning outcomes to stay focused and on track while creating your online course content, as you will only need to create content that directly relates to a learning result to prevent course creation overload.
If any content you gather for a future course or use it as bonus material if it doesn’t directly lead learners to one of the learning outcomes.
Create a course outline.
At this point, you can begin developing the curriculum for your online course. Begin by making a list of the lessons you will teach.
Divide each lesson into the primary subjects you wish to discuss, following a logical order and ensuring that your thoughts flow smoothly from one to the next. This promotes a smooth and fluid learning process.
Your outline will vary based on the type of online course you’re developing, but here’s an example of what it could look like:
Lesson 1: How to Trade ForexLesson Objective: Learners will discover the three major forex trading strategies.
Topics Covered:
Choosing the ideal trading strategy for your personalityAligning your approach with the relevant market conditionsHow to maximize the results of each technique.Lesson 2: Understanding Forex Markets. Lesson objective:
Topics covered:
………And so on.
A quick online search can yield course outline templates like the one below, which you can use to make your job much easier.
Remember to include an introduction and conclusion for the full course, as well as each individual lesson.
Don’t worry about repeating yourself; reiteration is beneficial to the learning process.
Once you’ve produced a course outline that takes your students step by step from one concept to the next, you can move on to the next phase, which is to choose an online course platform or software and begin developing or assembling your course content.
Pro tip: Include assignments, quizzes, and activities.
Consider including additional exercises and assignments in your course curriculum to help learners retain more of their newly acquired knowledge. You can start with theoretical explanations and then provide learners with instances. At the end of class, follow up with an assignment.
Choose an online course platform.At this point in the course creation process, you must decide whether to host your new course on your own website or on an existing online course platform such as Thinkific, Learnworlds, Teachable, etc.
I’ve compiled a list of the greatest online course platforms to help you select the best one for your needs. If you don’t have time to read everything, Thinkific is my #1 recommendation.
Remember that the method you use to host your course has advantages and disadvantages, so before you make your decision, let’s look at what each option entails.
Using Your Own WebsiteCreate and market your own course using website plugins or software. If you utilize your own portal, you will have complete control over your online course, including the website, branding, and price.
This includes utilizing services such as LearnDash (full review here) that interact directly with WordPress.
However, you will be responsible for your course’s marketing and advertising to attract new students, as well as payments, video streaming, third-party app integrations, and a variety of other issues. Unless you’re an experienced creator, I don’t recommend this.
Using an Established MarketAn alternative is to employ online course marketplaces with a built-in audience.
While you can find a ready-made audience to promote your online course to, your courses will appear alongside those of your competitors, resulting in significantly more limited pricing options. This was the most difficult challenge for me to overcome while launching on various platforms. For example, on Udemy, my course would routinely sell for $10. Now I’m able to sell new courses for over $250.
Furthermore, the platform’s capabilities will limit your course branding, which means you might blend into the sea of courses already available on your subject and fail to attract the attention necessary to sell them.
As you can see, this causes a different set of headaches, leaving one other possibility.
Using an Online Course Platform
An online course platform offers a plug-and-play learning management system, making it a better alternative for beginners and those who do not want to cope with the technical difficulties associated with online courses.
If you use an online course platform, such as those mentioned in my review article, you will have access to a plethora of options that will allow you to create, market, sell, and manage your course all in one place—without the need for technical knowledge or the headaches that would otherwise arise.
Create (or gather) your course content.Now comes the exciting part of learning how to develop online courses: getting the content out there.
After you’ve decided on a structure and a platform, you may begin building or assembling your course.
If you already have a lot of ready-to-use information, you can save time on this phase.
However, even if you’re starting from the beginning, you’ve already completed all the necessary research and outlining to simplify content creation.
First, determine the type of online course content you’ll use, whether it’s
Text content.Video material.Audio material.Image content.Screencasting content…etc.
The method by which you offer your lessons will differ depending on the type of course and the audience.
Fortunately, you can combine many forms of information to make your course as engaging and successful as possible.
Develop grading and assessment techniques.In a regular school, grades are based on tests because this is how the school system determines how much pupils have learned.
So, for those who have been paying attention, pop quizzes are simple. However, for pupils who have been slacking, their grades will indicate that they need to pick up the pace.
Of course, online course assessments are entirely optional, and your teaching style may not require them.
However, it is vital to remember that providing your students with a sense of accomplishment early on has been proven to increase engagement. And once they’ve signed up, the most difficult part is getting them to interact with your content.
If you choose to include quizzes or tests in your course, your online course assessments may take various forms. For example, at the end of each class, you may include a project that affects the final grade or a fast pop quiz.
Software like Thinkific makes it quite simple to add a quiz to each course.
The type of evaluation you employ will depend on the subject you teach and how you want your students to demonstrate their understanding.
For example, if you teach a topic that is primarily factual, you can utilize a by-the-book multiple-choice quiz, whereas someone who teaches a topic like creative copywriting may require a more subjective assessment method.
Sell your course online.Once you’ve finished creating your online course, it’s time to get it in front of your intended audience.
Depending on whether you’re hosting your course on your own website, using a marketplace like Udemy, or using an online course platform like Thinkific, your options will vary.
As previously said, if you are utilizing your own website, you have complete control over how you price and sell your course.
However, you must handle all technological difficulties yourself, such as connecting to payment processors, ensuring your site’s security, streamlining your checkout, and so on.
On an online course platform, you can provide your students with a variety of payment alternatives, such as paying for your course all at once or through a recurring payment plan. Online course platforms make this simple by giving you a plethora of appropriate selections to pick from.
Pro Tip: When pricing your course, evaluate competitor prices to get a sense of the market rate. Remember to consider your level of skill, the course creation time, and the value that users will derive from your content.
Promote your course content.Now that your course is available, it’s time to reach as many students as possible. You can accomplish this in a variety of ways, including:
Social Media: Promote your course on social media, as well as in groups and forums where relevant people gather.Create an email marketing campaign that includes discounts and early-bird incentives to encourage more people to sign up for your course.Blog Posts: If you don’t already have a blog, start one and post about your course and topic to improve search engine optimization.Guest posts: Write for respected sites in your niche to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and attract additional traffic to your material.Podcasts: Starting your own podcast or being a guest on other industry-relevant podcasts is an excellent method to broaden your audience and reach. ConclusionCreating an online course can be a difficult process, but I hope this post provides you with some ideas on how to create something that others will learn while also putting money in your pocket each month.
Do you feel that I missed something important in this guide on creating online courses? Do you want me to expand a section of this post? Please let me know if you have any comments below!
