Last Updated on August 17, 2023 by George Palmer
More than 100 million students have signed up for different online courses as of 2021, making it clear that online learning is the way to go as a course creator. By 2026, the industry for eLearning is predicted to be worth $375 billion.
You can make between $1,000 to $10,000 or more every month. This depends on your expertise, the value you provide, and the number of your courses.
All you need to succeed is
– Knowledge of a certain niche
– Teaching ability
– Marketing skills
Selling online courses is currently a popular business.
Pro tip: Make sure the course material is valuable to your students so that they can write positive reviews.
Selling online courses is fantastic because:
- You can get started for very little money.
- You can make courses on any subject in which you have experience.
- It’s very easy to scale.
- And you’ll be helping people get things done.
8 steps to create a bestselling course
Step 1 — Think of the course idea
Choosing a topic or a niche is one of the important steps in creating an online course. You must be aware of the people you are engaging with and the issues you can assist them with.
Pick a niche you’ll enjoy working in.
You should consider the following questions to define your ideal niche:
“What am I passionate about?”
“Is there a market that aligns with my passion?”
“Does this market have a large enough audience?”
“Can I offer a unique stance that’ll help me stand out?”
“Will I be able to connect with the audience authentically?”
“What’ll make the most money?”
You should be practical even if it’s wonderful to write about a subject you’re passionate about.
Take a look at the 5 elements your ideal niche should consist of:
If the topic of your course is not well-liked in your target market, it won’t be profitable and will only be a hobby rather than a profitable business.
For instance, a course that teaches how to launch a dog-walking business will be profitable because the market itself is a thriving industry.
The best action to take in a market with demands is to provide your customers with options.
The trick is to choose something that isn’t very saturated and full of highly influential course creators.
Some of the top niches to date, include:
- Computers and Technology.
- Business and Entrepreneurship.
- Arts and Crafts.
- Writing and Content Creation.
- Health.
Step 2 — Ask the audience
What’s your biggest challenge with [BLANK]? is a frequently asked topic on social media.
This is clever since the creators are researching the issues that their audience is facing so they can identify an opportunity.
If you have an email list, run a survey and analyze the answers.
Google Forms or Typeform can be of great help.
4 great questions you could ask are:
1. “What’s the biggest pain or frustration you feel when it comes to [YOUR TOPIC]?”
2. “What are the consequences of this situation and how does it make you feel?”
3. “What are the goals you’d like to achieve using [YOUR TOPIC]?”
4. “What are the risks that could prevent you from achieving these goals?”
These questions help the customer in identifying their challenge and in recognizing the potential value of your proposed solution.
Customers who express greater pain in their surveys are also more inclined to make purchases since they need a remedy.
You should leverage the emotional language your audience uses in your course material if you take note of it.
For example: “I don’t feel confident speaking English.”
Course name: “Learn to speak English with CONFIDENCE!”
For example: “I don’t know how to build a converting Landing Page.”
Course name: “Learn how to build a converting Landing Page!”
The problems mentioned most by your audience are where the best opportunities for the success of your course.
If you don’t have an audience, find out what things are currently on the market:
Kindle books, books (practical guides) on Amazon (look at older books compared to newer ones).
Explore the offers on ClickBank.
Visit many online markets that provide courses and teachings.
The goal is to search for products or subjects that are already getting lots of traffic.
To determine what works and what doesn’t, make use of product details and customer feedback.
Likewise, research your competitors:
- Who are the leaders within your niche market?
- What do they do well?
- What could they be doing better?
- Is there something that they’re all missing?
If you know your competitor, you can learn from them. When you can learn, you can profit.
Step 3 — Locate a gap in the market
Although the goal is different, finding the market gap is fairly similar to asking the audience.
Reddit is an excellent place to get answers.
You can encounter a topic on this platform for which there is little to no meaningful information or information that is out-of-date, which is why it is so successful.
You can also use other tools to help you find public questions online for your course idea (these can also be used for keyword research):
Step 4 — Pre-sell your course
Let’s now examine something that the majority of people never think to do: pre-selling an online course.
An excellent approach to make sure that your audience is aware of what you’re doing before you even begin is to pre-sell your online course.
Most creators wait to sell their courses until they have finished creating them from top to bottom. This is a needless waste of time.
Why?
Because you would have to start again if you finished creating your online course and nobody decided to purchase it.
Your final opportunity to assess whether or not you have a sizable audience of interested consumers is during pre-selling.
Pre-selling your online courses involves doing the following:
1. Describing your product
What subjects will be covered in your course?
What issues you will resolve?
What goals you will help your customers meet?
2. List the special advantages of your course.
Make a thorough list of the benefits you offer.
Determine advantages specific to your field of study or teaching style.
What makes your online course unique compared to others?
3. Establishing a presale page.
4. Starting an email marketing campaign with systeme.io
5. Make your course available on social media.
This is the simplest approach to advertise your course and will help you quickly expand your market.
6. Close your offer
If your presale is only accessible for a little time, it generates a sense of urgency that motivates customers to buy.
Step 5 — Determine your teaching style
Knowing the teaching method you intend to use for your course material is important during the course-building process.
You have the following choices:
- Text: The student reads what you have written.
- PowerPoint: The student listens as you speak off-screen.
- Talking head: You speak “on camera” in a screen corner with the background of the video behind you.
- Whiteboard – The camera pans in and out while you write on one.
Of course, there are additional choices, but these are the most common.
Video formats might be more efficient for some subjects, such as DIY classes, than text formats. While complex subjects like finances could work better as PowerPoint or Whiteboard presentations.
If you decide to record your screen instead of yourself on camera, the systeme.io editor also allows you to upload that screen recording to your course lecture.
Regardless of the approach you use, consider how your audience will profit the most from the information in your course.
Go back to your niche study and look for the structures that seem to be most profitable for your course topic if you’re unsure of which structures will suit your topic.
Step 6 – Determine your marketing strategies.
If you’ve successfully pre-sold your online courses, your target audience should already be interested in buying from you.
This audience should be your primary concern.
You can sell your online courses effectively by identifying big groups of people who share your passions.
However, be careful while advertising your course when you are just starting and joining random groups.
This is not only generally discouraged, but it could also turn off prospective clients or students.
Step 7 — Write a high-converting sales page
Gaining readers’ attention requires both creative copywriting and the use of color.
Professional image quality also promotes a visual representation of the worth of your products.
People will arrive at your sales page when they decide to check out what you have to offer, which makes it an important stage in the selling process.
Anytime a potential consumer thinks about making a purchase, they weigh the risks.
You should add promises to your text to ensure that your clients continue to feel secure.
To make your buyers feel more at ease, include a lot of:
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- Results
- Social proof
This helps prospective clients invest in your product.
Additionally, they boost conversion rates, particularly when selling expensive goods.
If you don’t currently have any reviews, consider lowering your pricing or offering your course for free in return for a review.
When someone finishes your first course and expresses dissatisfaction, follow up with them to find out how you can make it better.
This will not only strengthen your connections with clients by demonstrating your importance to them, but it’s also an effective approach to staying in touch with them in the future.
Step 8 — Final adjustments
Perfectionism is the main challenge with lots of course creators and online businesses in general.
We all want things to be perfect, but giving up that idea is necessary if you want to succeed as a course creator. Better than perfect is done.
People will always have different perspectives, and since you’re dealing with people, you will never have the ideal course since you won’t be able to assist everyone.
You won’t be able to help someone if you keep sitting there stressing over whether you can or can’t.
The genius of the eLearning sector is that you can start without having a teaching credential.
You can teach anyone anything using eLearning.
There will always be someone looking for your technical expertise on a certain topic.
If you can find the right audience, you can sell a course that teaches anything.
If you do it right, creating an online course may let you showcase your knowledge while earning a ton of cash.
If you follow all of the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll have no problem selling your course, no matter what topic it’s on.
Systeme.io: The perfect solution to create, launch, and market your online course
We’ve explained how to choose your course topic, approach your target audience, and market online courses in this guide.
It’s time to learn how to get this done.
Let’s explore how systeme.io can support you while you design and promote a profitable online course from the beginning.
You can launch an eLearning business with the support of Systeme.io, an all-in-one course creation platform.
What makes systeme.io superior to other available online course design platforms like Thinkific, LearnDash, and Katra?
What sets Systeme apart from the competition are these features:
- Build courses and membership sites.
- Create a website with our drag-and-drop builder (no coding experience needed).
- Create sales funnels based on proven templates, convert new customers, and increase the value of your existing customers.
- Automate your entire business.
- Create evergreen webinars packed with timeless resources for your online class.
- Promote your courses and generate a passive income with the affiliate program.
- Blog as much as you want.
- Market and sell your online courses with our email marketing tools and marketplace.
- And many more.
Creating online courses with systeme.io
Creating your course structure and course pages has never been simpler.
With systeme.io’s simple course builder you’ll be able to create a profitable course in minutes!
But how does it work?
Once you’ve opted-in to your free account, head to the menu and select “Courses” under the “Products/Sales” option.
From there, click “Create” in the center of the screen and fill in your information on the next page.
Create the modules
Let’s say you are creating a course on dog walking. Your first module’s name might be, “When to walk a Dog.”
To add another module, click on “Add Module”:
Keep your audience in mind when outlining your content as well.
If you’re catering to a beginner audience, make sure the content starts with the idea that they know nothing about the subject.
If you’re appealing to a more experienced audience, update accordingly.
Once you’ve outlined all your modules, shift to your lectures.
Don’t worry about uploading content yet; just focus on the course outline at the moment.
Your dashboard will start to look something like this:
Create each lesson
What makes the course editor so effective is your ability to modify your lecture structure — we have both video and image templates available.
Lecture content can also be delayed (or dripped) by selecting the number of delayed days you want in the lecture settings.
This forces students to progress at a set pace and prevents information bombardment. If your course includes assignments, this is an absolute must.
Make sure as you’re outlining your content, that you’re taking the student through a calculated journey.
Every module should have a natural progression.
The main reason for drip content is to offer your course at a lower price.
This makes your course more attractive and helps struggling students pay a smaller monthly fee that’s more affordable to them.
This then allows you to enjoy a monthly income from that course.
By now, you should have created your free systeme.io account. If not do so – it’s free. Then import this free course template to your account.
Conclusion
An excellent method to establish your credibility as an expert in your field and authority on whatever you’re teaching is to create an online course. To impart your knowledge, you don’t require any special certification. With an online course, you immediately establish yourself as an authority. The more people trust you, the bigger you grow and the more sales you make.