Many people are looking online to make money. A profitable trend that’s getting popular is marketing and selling an online course.
Online courses are a great way to leverage your knowledge and sell products that relate to your expertise. Online courses can be created in any subject area.
While an online course can bring in recurring income on its own, many are designed on a platform that involves a student paying a one-time fee for access to the training, and even with this model you can still generate consistent recurring revenue by focusing on a strong front-end sales funnel that directs students to other products and services.
For example, while your online course may be a one-time charge, you could give students the option to upgrade to a monthly membership that offers tools and resources associated to the topic of the training program.
You can also choose to deliver your course using the 'Drip' method.
What is the Drip Method? Dripping content is a method of releasing content to the members bit by bit, perhaps over the course of a few months, until they have access to the entire course.
Either method could include additional auxiliary components such as webinars, printable downloads or additional workbooks that go beyond the scope of your course.
Oh and check out our article on "How To Make Recurring Revenue With Membership Programs" to learn a little known fact about some online course apps that might stifle this part of making real money with an online course!
Online Course Topics
Start by thinking about a topic for your course, as well as the content formats you would feel comfortable creating.
This could include:
The key is to identify an ongoing demand for help with specific problems that people in your niche face.
Your course should always focus on one main niche so you’re able to create content that is in-demand, relevant and focused.
At the same time, you don’t want to box yourself into a corner. The topic you choose should be something you can see yourself still interested in a year from now.
You don’t want the problem to be easily solvable, either. Your goal is to find a way to create a course that provides a workable system that addresses the issues that people are struggling with.
Starting Your Online Course
By purchasing access to your course, they are given the knowledge needed to accomplish specific goals.
Most of the top-selling courses focus on one main subject and then they expand their program by allowing students to either purchase additional access to upgrades or by offering additional resources after someone has graduated from the course.
Don’t let anything stand in your way!
Even if you aren’t an expert on the topic, chances are you still have something worthy of teaching and that people will pay money for.
Keep in mind that for your online course to be successful, you need to come up with a strong hook.
A hook reels you in... It sets your program apart. It works at differentiating your online course from your competitors and tells potential subscribers why they benefit from signing up for your program. It’s visceral and compelling.
Evaluate your online course’s strengths and unique benefits.
- How does it stand out?
- What is the greatest asset you offer members?
- How is it different?
- What will someone learn or improve by being a part of it?
Creating a profitable online course can be as simple as following a few easy steps that will get you on your way...
Your first step should be to identify an ongoing problem in your niche where people are actively seeking guidance, training and ultimately, a solution.
Your second step is to create a list of topics that you should cover in your course based on those common questions. Then, decide on the various formats you plan to use (video, printables, workbooks, etc.).
And the next step is to go through that list and narrow your focus so that you are targeting a specific segment of your market.
Need help identifying a problem in your niche or coming up with a topic for your course?
You'll want your course to be based on an evergreen, common problem in your market. So we have noted few ways to uncover proven possibilities that may fit your niche...
Send an email out to your mailing list that asks what your readers need help with. You can either set the email so they reply with their own feedback, or choose 3-4 topics and create a survey that asks them to choose only one. Need a simple way to survey? Try Feedback Fox. Don't have a list? Don't worry check more ways below...
Discover ideas for your course by searching popular blogs and Facebook groups in your niche. See what people are talking about and what questions are commonly asked.
Search Reddit sub-threads as well as Q&A sites like Quora for popular questions and ongoing discussions.
Search platforms like Udemy.com and Teachable.com to see what courses are selling and what kind of training is being offered.
Sites like Teachable will show you a breakdown of all lesson plans so you can get a feel for the scope of the training and identify what could be missing. Then, include more items that you have researched and cover more solutions in your own course to stand out in your market(never just copy another's course).
Getting profits rolling in could be easier than you think...
Once you have done the initial research and have an online course as your base business, you’ll be able to generate a steady and reliable income every single month.
If you've done your market research, then you know what your market wants - now you need to create content that solves their problems and meets their needs.
Best of all, you don’t have to stick with just one format and can expand your network as you discover new questions that need solutions.
The key is to really bring in revenue is always look for ways to tie a product or service into a online course to give you multiple recurring revenue sources.
For example, even if you decide to create a traditional online course you will want to create multiple revenue streams, you will want to look for ways to feed your existing 'students' into a funnel.
You always want to incorporate your funnel into a recurring income source whenever possible.
Important note: Remember to always make sure the programs and applications you chose to place your courses in will allow you to create these revenue streams or you will be leaving most your money on the table.
Once you have the your niche and the steps outlined above, you will need to decide how you'll logistically set up your online course, and what sort of tools you'll use to automate it.
This can get very confusing (and expensive) real fast if you haven't done this sort of thing before.
We suggest using ProductDyno for your course delivery system because whatever online course you create, you need it to be it securely protected and have delivery access simple & easy.
As mentioned, you should create multi-stream of income and much will likely come in the backend through the recommendations of related products and services.
We’ve explored some of the steps to getting started in this article, so I hope you are in a better position to move forward and work towards creating your first online course.
Hope this has given you the information you need to get started in a big way.
Now if you’re like a lot of people who are interested in starting an online course, you may want a jump start and hit the ground running.
You want to take this time to get some skills from an online course right now and turn the knowledge you gain in action and profits.
That’s why we suggest that your next step is to get the RapidDigitalProducts Coaching Program.
This is your insider guide to creating video training and other in-demand info-products faster and easier than you ever thought possible!
Discover SIX different ways to create awesome digital products… and they’re so easy you won’t even break a sweat.
Check it out here: https://promotelabs.com/rdp/
And do it now, because you DESERVE this kind of success!
