Steps to Take to Create an Online Course That Sells

Are you looking forward to offering an online course? Take your time to read this article to understand the steps that you should take to create an online course that sells.

The technological advancements of the current century have created a significant shift in the education sector. One of the significant changes is embracing eLearning as a go-to strategy to benefit from the tech-evolutions.

You can maximize eLearning to your advantage by creating an online course that sells. Think outside the box and put together your ideas to develop an online course as a business. But if you are not sure how to create an online course, you’re in the right place. Continue reading to learn the steps you need to take to develop a perfect online course that sells.

1. Decide on a Perfect Course Idea

The first step to creating an online course that sells is to decide on a perfect course idea. This step is critical because it determines whether or not you will get customers for your online course. Therefore you need to put into consideration some crucial factors that will guide your decision-making. Some of these factors include:

i. Your passion. It would be best to start an online course about an idea you are passionate about. Your motivation will keep you moving as you enjoy what you do.

ii. Market demand: It is crucial to develop an online course that has a high demand. Perform a survey to determine market demands and specialize in an area that’s loved by many. That may include taking the ideas from your friends, workmates, and relatives. But with the rise in technology, an online survey will be a fast and efficient way to obtain valuable information from your target audience.

iii. Expertise required to train. You should foresee the expertise that your course requires to deliver rightfully. It could be the skills you’ll need to teach or the operation of the equipment or software to use during content delivery. Ensure that you are well-equipped with all the necessary expertise to avoid losing the market.

iv. Profitability: Determine if your course is likely to be profitable. If you offer a high market demand course, it is apparent that you are going to earn good profits. You can go the extra mile by performing research to get the best idea of a profitable niche that you can indulge in.

2. Research and Plan the Course

You now have your course idea. It is high time you perform thorough research to learn more and plan for the course adequately. You need to take a considerable amount of time at this stage to prepare the best plan that will allow your online course to sell quickly.

Your research skills should be top-notch to come up with a good and substantial plan. Remember that numerous competitors could be offering the same course through other modes such as books and blogs. Therefore, your outcome should include a unique and compelling piece that attracts customers to enroll in your course.

You should include all the possible subtopics that are relevant to your course. Also, plan for content that is easy to understand with a good flow of information. In case of any technical terms, ensure that you provide definitions. Also, include learner enhancements such as illustrations and demonstrations that promote positive learner outcomes. Besides, provide references that allow learners to find more information on different areas.

 3. Develop a Clear Course Outline

Developing a clear course outline should be easy for you once you have adequate research and plan. According to your study in the earlier step, you need to look further into your subtopics and group the subtopics accordingly.

In the subgroupings, take each idea and break it down to include more refined details. For each of the main topics, create relevant subtopics. Ensure that all the ideas merge well and can meet the end goal.

 4. Determine and Indicate Goals and Objectives

Goals include broad statements of what you would like your learners to learn at the end of a particular duration (usually long-term), including your expectations at the end of the course. They act as a roadmap or guide that provides direction during the learning period. As you create your online course, ensure that you set clear and concise goals.

On the other hand, objectives should include measurable sub-goals that explain what you expect the learners to have gained at the end of the session. The objectives also inform your students what you expect from them at the end of the lesson. 

Learner objectives help you to determine what to include in each learning session. They keep you focused throughout the course. Besides, objectives determine the overall goal of your course. Ensure that your objectives are SMART.

Further, your course objectives will guide you in developing learner activities and assessments. The assessments could be in the form of questions, assignments, or exams by which you evaluate the students to gauge their understanding of the course. In other words, assessments help to understand whether or not the learning objectives have been met.

Unlike objectives, goals are broad and not always measurable. They help you to portray your perspective of the course in general.

 5. Create the Actual Content

This step requires you to create the actual content for your online course. Your previous preparations from the former stages will guide you. For instance, you will have to look at your course outline and the goals and objectives to act as a roadmap to develop the actual content.

Think of any useful reference that can allow you to get valuable content for your course. Look at your former presentations, webinars, blogs, videos, PowerPoint, books, and any other media that contains related content to your course. Read between the lines to extract important content that you can restructure to be meaningful for your lessons. Remember to prioritize updated content sources to avoid transferring void and outdated information to your online course.

 If you come across old materials that can help in developing your content, do not ignore them. However, validate the pieces of information that you obtain for relevancy. Update any changes over the years in the subject matter before you include them in your online course.

Have a clear and specific plan to allow your content creation to run successfully. Also, ensure that you develop clear criteria of how you will create your content. You can establish milestones with a specific time plan to avoid falling out of plan. It would help if you allocated reasonable time for each milestone to work to perfection. 

6. Determine Your Mode of Delivering Content for Each Session

 Your mode of content delivery needs to be highly engaging and effective for success. You will need to consider your target audience, the feasible content delivery methods, the availability of physical learning points, and your set goals and objectives. Other factors like the cost of content delivery may be significant as you begin.

 Your course delivery can include:

 • Videos,

 • Audios,

 • Reading content, and

 • Practical activities

 You can have a mix of various delivery methods to make your course more lively and enjoyable. But remember to use a suitable technique for each lesson based on the course content, objectives, and goals.

7. Filming, Recording, and Editing your Online Course

Now it is your time to indulge in the actual production of your online course. Depending on your course delivery method, you’ll need to do what it takes to produce content that’s deliverable online. But majorly, your mode of delivery will be videos. Hence, you will have to face the camera for the recordings.

You can choose any form of video style that you require, including recording using our computer’s webcam. Before you post, you need to edit your videos to match your preferences. Editing can include adding your logos, fixing the sound, and adding texts and pop-ups to your videos. Your recordings should be clear and interactive. Upon successful editing, save your videos as mp4 and share them via your online learning platform. 

8. Launch and Market Your Online Course

At this stage, your online course is ready. For you to sell the course, it will be essential to launch and continuously market your online course. Think of any viable marketing strategies that can work for you. Ensure that the selected approach promotes your online course as much as possible. Some of your marketing strategies could include:

 • Running ads on various platforms

 • Content marketing

 • Email marketing

 • Early bird discount promotions

 • Social media marketing

 • Influencer marketing

 • Affiliate marketing

You are free to use any other marketing strategy that can sell your online course widely. Your marketing, unlike other steps, should be a continuous process as long as you want to keep your online course alive. Therefore, it is excellent to come up with sustainable marketing solutions.

Conclusion

The digitalization of learning in the 21st century has enabled a significant shift from traditional learning to online learning. eLearning presents you with an opportunity to monetize your ideas by developing an online course. If you need to come up with your online course, follow the steps highlighted above to start on the right foot.

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