Coaching Session 9 – Online Course Creation as a Passive Income

Lesson Notes

  1. What is an Online Course Creation?
  2. Types of Online Courses
  3. Steps To Creating an Online Course
  4. Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses
  5. How To Sell Online Courses?
  6. Free Tools for Online Course Creation
  7. Online Creators Support Group

 

What is an Online Course Creation?

An online course is a way to learn a new skill or gain some new knowledge through the internet. They can either be paid or offered for free. Some are offered by educational institutions, while others are produced by experts in their field.

 

Creating a course will set you up as an expert in your industry. By teaching about your topic in the form of an online course, it shows your audience that you know what you’re talking about, you’re good at what you do and you’re an expert in your industry. Online courses can free up your time.

 

There are hundreds of tools and resources out there to create a stunning course! Online course is generally self-paced, allowing for greater flexibility in completing coursework. Some examples of online courses are MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, as produced by organizations such as edX or Coursera.

 

18 Types of Courses

  1.  Assessment Courses
  2.  Presell Courses
  3.  Orientation Courses
  4.  Mini-courses
  5.  Live courses
  6.  Demonstrations/Workshops
  7.  Professional training courses
  8.  The X days challenge courses
  9.  Certification courses
  10. Spotlight/Niche Topic Courses
  11. Traditional Academic Courses
  12. Drip feed courses
  13. Conceptual Change Courses
  14. Hybrid courses
  15. Series of invited talks Courses
  16. Selling digital goods or extra services
  17. Bonus Courses
  18. Complimentary to Physical Products Courses

 

Steps in Creating an Online Course

  1. Pick the Perfect Course Topic/Problem You Want to Offer a Solution
  2. Ensure Your Course Idea has High Market Demand/Identify the Target Audience
  3. Create Magnetic and Specific Learning Outcomes/Make Sure Your Content is Engaging
  4. Select and Gather your Course Content/Structure Your Knowledge
  5. Put Your Modules and Lessons in Order/Create an Online Course Outline
  6. Determine the Most Engaging and Effective Delivery Methods for Each Lesson/Choose Your Online Course Software or Platform
  7. Filming, Recording and Editing your Online Course/Create the Course Content
  8. Setting up your Online School/Create a Community for Your Online Course
  9. Getting the perfect pricing models and feeding into a bigger education-based business model/Gather Feedback for Your Online Course/Adapt, Improve and Update
  10. Launch and Ongoing Marketing


Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses

One of the most important things to know about choosing the best online course software is that most platforms out there are not designed to sell online courses. They are made to deliver internal corporate training or to support academic programs. Even those that will work for selling online courses come in a lot of different flavors. Pick the wrong flavor for your online course business needs and you will have headaches.

  1.  Standalone Platforms.  They are great for solo edupreneurs, small businesses.
  2.  All-In-One Platforms.  They run on your website and course site together.
  3.  WordPress Options.  They are for those who want to keep it all in WordPress.
  4.  Marketplace Platforms. They get a pre-made market to sell courses online.
  5.  Video Platforms. If your main focus is on selling videos.
  6.  Small Business-Extended Enterprise. They are for more complex needs.
  7.  Moodle Plug-Ins/Add-Ons.  They make Moodle into a selling machine.

 

I. Standalone Online Course Platforms

These are hosted platforms geared toward solo edupreneurs or small businesses that want a turnkey way to create their own branded site to sell online courses. Also, unlike Udemy, which is discussed below in a different category, they allow you full control over your user data. While the feature sets are relatively similar, they can be very different in their “look and feel” as well as in how focused they are on helping course entrepreneurs succeed. For example, by providing good resources, educational content, strong support. Be sure to check out the free trial options, where available, so that you have a chance to kick the tires before committing.

  1. Thinkific — https://www.thinkific.com
  2. LearnWorlds — https://www.learnworlds.com/
  3. Teachable — https://teachable.com/
  4. Podia — https://www.podia.com
  5. Click4Course — https://www.click4course.com/
  6. Pathwright — http://www.pathwright.com/
  7. Zippy Courses — https://zippycourses.com

II. All-inOne Platforms

  1.  Kajabi —  https://newkajabi.com/
  2.  Kartra — https://home.kartra.com

 

III.  WordPress for Selling Courses Online  

  1. LearnDash — http://www.learndash.com/
  2. AccessAlly — https://accessally.com/
  3. Course Cats — http://coursecats.com
  4. Lifter LMS — https://lifterlms.com/

 

IV. Marketplace Online Course Platforms  

  1.     OpenSesame — https://www.opensesame.com/sell-online-elearning-training-courses
  2.    Skillshare — https://www.skillshare.com/teach
  3.    Udemy — http://www.udemy.com/teach

 

V. Video Platforms for Selling Courses

  1. Unscreen — https://www.uscreen.tv
  2. Muvi — https://www.muvi.com/

 

VI. Small Business or Extended Enterprise Platforms

  1. LearningCart — https://www.learningcart.com/
  2. TalentLMS — https://www.talentlms.com/

 

VII. Moodle Plug-In or Add-ons to Sell Online Courses

  1. CourseMerchant — http://www.coursemerchant.com/
  2. LMS Checkout — https://www.lmscheckout.com/

 

How to Sell Online Courses

  1. Online Course Platform designed to meet all the needs of a course creator, from video hosting to marketing. 
  2.  Self-hosting. Set up your own server with a hosting company to host and sell online courses from your own website. While it can be expensive and a bit technical, self-hosting gives you complete freedom and power over your material.  You have to consider the following: Paid Advertising, Social Media, SEO, Content Marketing, Facebook, YouTube and many other social media. 
  3. Online Course Marketplace. The final option for hosting is to use a learning marketplace such as Udemy or Masterclass. Marketplace platforms host your course and let you customize your branding. Note that these platforms tend to have restrictive rules and may charge for up to 50% of your revenue.

 

Free Tools for Online Course Creation

Create, launch and market your online course with these free tools

  • Free Social Media/Newsletter Designs: Canva
  • Free Project Planning Tool: Trello – the free version has some limits, but you can work in a team for free and even make you plans/board public to your audience
  • Free Facebook/Instagram Posting Tool: Facebook Creator Studio – this is part of Facebook and allows you to schedule Instagram posts from your Desktop computer. It also has a free library of music tracks you can use on Instagram
  • Free Camera: If you have a good smartphone use that for recording
  • Free Screen Capture/Streaming Software: OBS – it’s the number one tool of big youtubers and streamers
  • Free Video Cutting software: Davinci Resolve Beta – From the Industry Leader Blackmagic – used to also cut Movies and Netflix shows
  • Free Images for Commercial Purposes from certified photographers: com
  • Free Survey Tool: Google Docs – It’s not the prettiest one, but it has a lot of functions and works great
  • Free Chat Room: Discord – allows you to create rooms and even audio conferences with many users
  • Free Video Conferencing: Google Hangout – Easy to use, allows screen casting too
  • Free Music for your YouTube Videos: “Audio Library — Music for content creators” – you need to put the source links into your video description. They will have a copy & paste links list ready for you per track you download. You can only use these tracks on YouTube!
  • Free Audio Editing: Audacity
  • Free Online Store: Gumroad – the free version takes a tiny cut of your revenue, but you don’t have to pay upfront. The pro version takes no cut. Also unlimited mail address collection and email automation
  • Free Marketing Automation: Gumroad can send emails for you based filters you se
  • Free Subscription Service: Patreon – Takes a cut of your income. You can make reward Tiers, make posts per Tier and Mail your Supporters – you also get their Mail address. I would suggest Tiers between 2-20$ US

 

Online Course Creator Support Group

  • Online Course Secrets
  • The Course Creators Community
  • Course Creators Network
  • Thinkific
  • OCM Course Creator Community

 

References

 

How to Come up with a Course Subject

Start by creating a list of what you know and are passionate enough to educate others about. It could be your language, something from your own educational background, work-related, or a favorite hobby.

Once you’ve chosen your subject and started planning and creating your lessons, you can find the right hosting platform and monetization methods.

You can choose to become a tutor for one or all of the following online course models.

  • Skill/hobby training courses
    For example, you can teach English online, painting, singing, guitar, dancing, piano, cake baking, origami, etc.
  • Standalone online courses
    You can design standalone courses to teach on an independent vertical. For example, instead of covering up the whole big subject, you can focus on a dedicated topic that can be taught independently (see, for example, photoshop courses, excel skills, relationship advice etc).
  • Comprehensive online courses
    You can create courses to cover every related topic or lesson relevant to a particular module (website designing, software development, photography, digital marketing, data science, masterclasses etc).

For example, you might be interested in becoming an ESL teacher. ESL teachers work with English language learners, or those students for whom English is not their primary language.

They help them acquire fluency in English, both spoken and in the written word. Learning more about teaching English may offer you more opportunities for an online teaching career.


How Much Revenue can you Expect from an Online Course?

  1. The price of the course
  2. Your audience
  3. Your marketing and sales experience
  4. Your current customer loyalty

 

Other Business’ Benefits of Teaching Created Online Courses

  1. Enhance your online brand/presence
  2. Create a loyal following of your current clients
  3. Train your customers into using your products

 

How to Teach Online Courses

Step 1: Your School’s Branding and Website
Step 2: Develop Your First Online Course
Step 3: Use tools and integrations
Step 4: Connect the analytics and know your numbers
Step 5: Use the available sales and marketing tools
Step 6: Schedule Automated email notifications
Step 7: Change the most important settings in your school

 

Portfolio

OTC – Portfolio 9

  1. What trending relevant topic that you would like to create as an online course?  Why?  What problem in society can you offer a solution?
  2. Which platform would you like to use for your online course?  Why?
  3. Create a topic outline.

 

Subject: OTC – Portfolio 9

 

PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION GUIDES:

1. Video-On-Demand (VOD) Access
Submit your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
You can submit individually per coaching session or submit all required portfolios as one, in one email (attach your Google Drive).

2. VOD with Class Coaching
Send your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
Please submit individually per coaching session.

3. VOD with Mentoring
Send your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
Please submit individually per coaching session.

4. Premium Members
Submit your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
Please submit all required portfolios as one, in one email (attach your Google Drive).

 

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, 

by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 

James 3:13