Is your course material under high demand?
What content do you want to produce for your online course? Most people have an idea of what they want to teach, something you already have experience in is usually a solid choice. It is important that there is a demand for more information when you choose your topic.
Look into what your possible competitors are teaching to collect some ideas. What topics did they talk about that had the most interest from their students/customers? If you are looking to collect information from existing students, you can make a poll to see what topic they may want to learn about next.
Quality of Content
High-quality video and audio is a must. Don’t take short cuts, take your time and make sure your content is written and you read from a script. Improvising may be something comedians can do well, but for your course videos, I recommend you stick to your script and keep those ‘umms’ and ‘uhhs’ out of your videos when you are recording.
Remember that your students are going to expect quality when they pay for it. Don’t have any background noise going when recording either, this also falls under the expectation of high quality. People don’t want to hear your fan running in the background of your videos or anything else like that.
Make sure you have a clear directive for what you are teaching- don’t do an hour-long video when you can summarize it into ten minutes. You don’t want to add filler to your content as this could possibly bore your students and make them look elsewhere for what they want to learn. I can’t stress how important it is to just have a straightforward message when educating others through your course.
Lets talk about your Course Outline and Content
The more you give, the more valuable your course will be to others. You will be able to ask for a higher price for your course if you provide multiple options for learning. But what else other than videos can you provide to your students?
Transcript Downloads
That transcript I mentioned you should make and read off of when recording? You can provide a written version of it for your students to download. This way they have the option of reading along with your videos and staying involved.
Audio Downloads
The same thing applies here to an audio download as with transcripts. Think of the audio-only option of being a way for people to learn-on-the-go. It may seem unnecessary, but many people listen to podcasts and audiobooks every day. Why not your online course?
App Downloads + Discount Referrals
Is there an app or a program that you use or find helpful in teaching your course? Be sure to provide info on downloading and using any programs that you find useful when teaching your subject. Further to this you could reach out to the company and negotiate a discount rate for your students so you will be driving sales to them.
Keep your Students Attention
Provide them with quizzes and exams strategically placed throughout your course. This can be done by leveraging a platform such as Thinkific, they make it super easy to set up everything you’ll need.
Don’t try to put too many topics into one video, or make your courses too complex. It is easier for most people to learn a little bit of information at a time, and you can create multiple videos or courses to cover everything you want to teach. Using visual demonstrations and text in your videos will also help to keep your students attention.
Pricing your Online Course
Always price your course higher than lower. Your knowledge is valuable, and you should present it as such.
Your online course will offer knowledge not available anywhere else, so you should price accordingly. Your course should be interactive with videos, quizzes, other learning tools, and your guidance as a teacher. When pricing your course, don’t contend with your competitors by making your prices lower. Most people view lower-priced courses as low-quality or perhaps as having less content than higher-priced courses.
You can create smaller stand-alone training videos that are priced lower to attract new students, for example, let’s say under $100. But your actual courses should be priced around $200+, with all the beneficial expertise that you will grant your students.
Use the Right Platform to Sell Your Course
While there are many options out there, I am going to talk about my favorite platform specifically, Thinkific.
Thinkific is usually at the top of everyone’s list for platforms for multiple reasons. It is so easy and clean to use, but the big attraction is the Thinkific help center. They provide in-depth customer support, training, and advice in the industry and using their platform. This platform provides all aspects you will need to get your business up and running. It is very easy to build and create a good looking website of your own design, and you can integrate your training site with existing websites using a custom domain. You will be provided with options to market and sell your courses, a course-builder for your curriculums, and opportunities to support and email your students enrolled in your courses.
There are so many options available through Thinkific to enrich your courses. Not only can you easily upload videos and audio, but you can also integrate text lessons, exams, quizzes, surveys, discussions, narrated slide shows, downloads and more. All of these extra choices will help to create an engaging experience for your students and keep their interest. There are features that you can use like drip schedules (a ‘drip calendar’ is used to give every student the same start date and release schedule regardless of when they enroll in your course), certificates, and prerequisites for tests or other courses.
You will be able to easily add a payment processor to your site, where you can customize with payment plans, one-time fees, subscriptions, up-sells, bonuses, and memberships. They also give a 30-day guarantee, and you are able to sign up for a free account to get yourself started, which will allow you to use the platform’s core features.
It can seem like a daunting task to start up your own online course, but with the resources and support that Thinkific provides, it will take that weight off your shoulders if you ever feel lost while creating your own education empire.