Today I’m going to talk with you about how to create an online course and successfully launch it online.
I’ve been using courses as a source of income in my business for years now and considering the times that we are in, there is no better time to tackle creating a course to fill your income gap than now.
There are a few things that you want to consider when it comes to creating your first online course and that’s what we’re going to discuss today in 7 easy steps.
- How to Determine Your Expertise
- How to Determine Which Area of Expertise is Most Profitable
- Testing Your Idea
- How to Create the Blueprint for Your Course
- Determine Where You’ll House Your Course
- Pricing Your Course
- Getting Your Course Launched
Today we’ll discuss steps 1- 3 and if you find this information helpful, I’ll share with you how you can get access to my full mini-course “Teach in a Week” that takes you through all 7 steps of planning and launching a successful course online.
Deal?
In each step, I’m going to talk with you about a strategy to use to help you accomplish the step and then share some resources on how to implement the step.
By the time you’re finished reading this article, you should have the information necessary to help you go out and get on your way to creating your first course.
# 1 Determine Your Expertise
So often when we hear the word “EXPERT” we get intimidated and start to question whether or not we are an expert in anything.
I know people that have been in business for years and still feel like they don’t have a lot to offer to the world, and I’m here to tell you that you are dead WRONG.
Being an expert doesn’t mean you’ve mastered EVERYTHING.
In fact, being an expert just simply means you’ve figured something out that is valuable to a person that is struggling with the same challenges maybe a few steps behind you, and because you’ve solved that same problem in your own way, you can now offer some sound advice on how to get over it, so they can see similar results.
That’s it.
It’s simply taking what you’ve already learned and teaching it to someone that may not be as far along in the process as you are.
If you’ve had a problem, solved your problem and are seeing positive results, you my friend, qualify as an expert!
CONGRATULATIONS.
Now that we’ve got that pep talk out of the way let’s talk about how you determine what that expertise is.
One of the easiest ways to determine what you’re an expert in is to look at three core areas of your life, and asking yourself these 3 questions:
- What have you overcome professionally?
- What personal challenges have you overcome?
- What advice are people most often coming to you for?
If you can identify any of those areas, you can monetize it and charge money for your advice.
Yep, true story, you can be a coach in that one area and make a killing, lol.
Trust me, we’ve been doing this for years.
If you’re having a hard time figuring out the answers to these questions, I’ve prepared a short worksheet to help you through it. You can download via the box below.
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I also did a whole Facebook live on this very topic and you can enjoy the replay below
Now that you’ve determined what you’re good at, it’s time to move on to step #2, determining what to sell.
#2 Determining Which Expertise to Sell
Now that we’ve gone through a little bit of work to determine what you’re an expert in, it’s time to narrow down that list just a little bit to determine which one of your many talents will you turn into a profitable course.
What??? I can’t see any of it?
Nope, sorry, now we’ve got to do a little work to determine what’s going to be something that your audience will actually pay money for.
Waymin Kae!!!! Stop the press…
I thought you said I can be an expert in anything??!?
Well, technically you can; but just because you’re an expert in something doesn’t mean people will want to pay you for it, lol. And that is why we’re creating the course right????
Ok now that we’re on the same page, let’s move on.
So in this step, you’ve got to figure out a little balancing act between WHAT YOU WANT TO TEACH and WHAT PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO PAY YOU FOR.
Make sense?
If you downloaded the worksheet, (You can Download it Here), you saw that there were three major areas of your life we looked at, 4 actually.
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- Your past experiences
- Your personal victories
- Your professional victories
- What other people say you’re good at
And based on these 4 areas, we’ve got to narrow down what’s actually going to make the cut and get you paid.
So in step #2, I want you to look at each one of those areas and ask yourself the following question.
“Which one of these topics would I teach if I didn’t get paid to do it?”
Now obviously we’re going to get you paid but the whole idea here is to find what’s a passion for you.
For the ones you’d teach for free I want you to highlight them, we’re going to circle back around in just a second to make good use of that list. That’s the easy part, you ready for what’s next?
Now that you’ve found your passion I want you to ask yourself this following question:
“Out of the things that I am passionate about, what do I already have an audience for?”
The reason this question is so important is that at this point we’re looking for the lowest hanging fruit possible. If we’ve already got half an audience for something the is directly related to our profession and we’re passionate about it our window for faster success is much larger than if we have to start with a new audience.
If we have to start with a new audience, it’s ok, but we want to be prudent in our decision making and see what’s going to take us to the bank faster, am I right or am I right?
Now if you don’t have an audience please don’t spaz out on me now, it’s cool friend, that just means we’re going to have to make one. We’re just doing a little evaluating to see where we are so we know what we’re working with.
Alright, on to step 3.
#3 Test Your Idea
Alright, alright alright we’re cooking with a little grease now friend!!!
Now we’ve got to see if what we’re thinking of SELLING is what the people are willing to PAY for.
The easiest way to do this, drum roll please, IS TO ASK!
GASP!!!!
You mean I can ask the people I’m intending to sell my course to if they’ll pay for it?
Uhm, can I say Hell to the Yes!!!!!
Excuse my language, this part I’m passionate about!!!!
Ok so here’s where so more research comes in, if you downloaded the worksheet about establishing your expertise, you took the questions I gave you and sent them to your trusted friends and colleagues and asked them what they thought you were an expert in.
(Don’t worry, if you didn’t download it you can STILL DOWNLOAD IT HERE {Shame on You BTW}, IJS 😈 )
Now I want you to go back to those very same people and be like
“Friend! Guess what?!?!? I think I have it figured out. Tell me what you think about this? And how much would you pay for it?”
Now if you followed my instructions you got a friend that is going to shoot it straight with you, but if you didn’t and you went and found somebody to make you feel good, then that’s on you, don’t’ say I didn’t tell you so when it’s time to sell your course and no one is pulling out the credit cards.
I told you, we need, good honest feedback.
So ask your friends, ask your email list and ask your social media audiences if you have them.
A lot of times people will tell you how much they are willing to pay for what you’re offering and let’s face it, for this first go around you may let the market determine your price, at least until you can get some successful students under your belt.
And if you ask people and get them excited enough they’ll start to share the word for you.
People will be brutally honest with you and tell you if you are working with a hero or a zero.
Don’t be afraid to put it out there and see what you get back!
Now that you’ve gotten a little feedback about what’s hot and what’s not, it’s time to outline your course in a way that gets the results your audience is looking for and gets you paid.
Ready to learn more???
So today we talked about 3 things you can do to create your first online course, and as you can see the list goes on and on.
When it comes to creating a successful course, it takes thoughtful planning and a strategy that you know will work.
If you’ve learned a lot from this article and want to continue your learning we offer our very own mini-course called “Teach in a Week!”
In “Teach in a Week” we break down each of the seven steps in detail and help you get well on your way to having a well-planned course to take to market in just 1 week.
Teach in a Week, is the exact process that we use here at the Kae Factory each and every time we get ready to take a course to market and I’m bringing it out of retirement, just for you, lol.
Courses have been a really lucrative way for us to fill the gaps in our business for the past 6 years, and with where we are with the COVID-19, small businesses all over the world are desperately looking for additional ways to monetize their expertise to survive this time that we’re in, and that’s why I’ve decided to update Teach in a Week and bring it to a more modern platform and make it available for small business owners worldwide for a fraction of the cost.
Teach in a Week will be fully operable by Friday, March 27, 2020, and you can get access to it for over 50% off.
In the past, we ran Teach in a Week as a week-long challenge, but we want to take the barriers off and give you complete access to the course to take at your own pace as soon as it’s ready for self-paced learning on this Friday.
If you’re ready to tap into an area of expertise you may or may not have known you had, and teach it to others to see similar results I invite you to get access to your copy of Teach in a Week today at half price.
Normally we would run our challenge at $297 but today through May of 2020 we’re offering Teach in a Week in a self-paced format at only $97.
If you’re reading this article before March 27,2020 you can sign up to get access and once it’s ready on Friday you’ll be the first to be notified and have immediate access to start learning at your own pace.
If you’re here and it’s after the 27th all you’ve got to do is head over to check out and sign up to start learning right away.
