The Coppertops Guide to Online Courses
Have you been considering offering an online course but feel overwhelmed at even the thought of it?
Don’t worry, we’re going to break it down for you
Always start with a Review!
We always recommend starting by reviewing where you’re at, before even trying to figure out where you want to go or how you’re going to get there. This is no different.
So here are some questions to help you check in and assess where you are on course creation – why, what, how and who.
Why would an online course be a good fit for you, your business, and your clients?
What would your course teach?
How would you build your course? Would you integrate it into your existing website? Have you figured it out yet? Would you build it yourself or seek outside help?
Who will you promote and sell your course to?
The Benefits – your WHY
An online course can be a great way to continue getting paid multiple times for one piece of work.
Earning passive income can give your business stability and a steady source of revenue, reducing the pressure on your cashflow
Most businesses start by selling time, which creates a natural limit on your earnings as time is a limited resource.
Switching to selling your knowledge means you can create resources which can be sold multiple times without any further input from you, meaning you can add extra income without absorbing more of your precious time.
Most of us started our businesses to help people. Our lovely clients benefit from what we do and we enjoy participating in their successes.
Similar to time, there’s a limit here as you will have a maximum number of clients you can effectively work with.
Working towards their success using online courses means you can achieve success with even more clients!
These are just some examples of the benefits of offering courses online, I’m sure you have some of your own that you could add to the list!
Top Tips
We do love some good tips, here are our top 3 to get started with selling your online course
KISS – Keep it simple
Don’t overdo it, Just get started!
For example, start with a live course, record it and upload it to sell.
TIME – People are busy, keep your lessons short.
Shorter lessons are easier for you to create and manage but also easier for your clients.
For example, 2-3 min lessons rather than an hour. Always think of what you would find easiest to manage if you were in your client’s shoes.
VALUE – Add as much value as you can.
Live Calls, Community, Downloads.
For example, access to a private Facebook Group, Monthly Zoom calls, and Workbooks to download
Adding value makes your course easier to sell and also allows you to charge more
How to set up online courses (The Techy Bit!)
Oh, the VOLUMES we could write on this! Let’s keep it as simple as possible, shall we?
Platform
When it comes to choosing a platform for your courses there are SO MANY CHOICES! This is where we’ve seen people get most stuck.
We would break them down into 3 core options. Once you know which type of platform you want to use it gets a bit easier to narrow it down and choose one.
- Fully hosted by a 3rd party like Teachable, Udemy, or Skillshare – you earn a portion of your sales
- Partially owned by you like Kajabi – these options are powerful with lots of integrated features to help you create and market your course but in return, they have a higher cost (significantly higher in the case of Kajabi). Your sales are generally your own
- Integrated into your website, like LearnDash on WordPress sites – fully customisable, lower cost, your sales are your own
For the simplest way to get up and running, you could also consider simply using email. You can send an email sequence from most email marketing providers, with varying levels of complications and cost. These can include text, images, video or links to a live call and can be a great way to test out the demand for what you have to teach.
Like anything else tech related we would have 2 key tips on getting your course up and running:
- Start simple, build extra features in later
- Figure out how you want it to work then adjust the tech around that – we see so many people trying to wrangle their business to suit technology and generally speaking tech should be able to fit to your business, although you may need a little help figuring it out!
Have fun!
If you are enjoying the process your clients and potential clients will be more engaged in what you are teaching and more likely to buy from you, complete your course and recommend you.
