How to Make Money With a Great Online Course: 10 Simple Steps

The eLearning market is demonstrating a constant growth. According to Global Industry Analysts, by 2025 the volume of the online learning market is expected to be $325 billion. Today is the best time to enter the market with your content. We have prepared a 10-step guide on how to create an online course and make it profitable.

Step 1: Audit your knowledge 

So you’ve committed yourself to creating a course? Start with deciding what you will teach. It’s great if you’re an expert with years of experience in any of the in-demand topics like digital marketing or mobile app development. In that case, teach everything you know about your job. If you doubt your professional skills or experience, think of things you’re good at. Maybe networking is your strength or you know 20 variations of push-ups. Amazing, teach it. 

Step 3: Test your idea.

If you’re not sure whether your course can bring value, spend some time on a market research. Check out what professional communities of your potential students are talking about. You can use your social media accounts to ask followers on their opinion. Browse forums and platforms like Quora and Reddit and post your question there. Talk to your LinkedIn connections. Ask as many people as you can to know whether your course sounds promising.  

Step 3: Come up with the name for a course.

A course title defines whether a course will be a success or a failure. Take a closer look at what your future students talk about and audit commonly asked questions. At that point, you know the main pain points and can use them for your title. The examples of working formulas for creating engaging titles are “HOW to XYZ in 2 hours”, “The Complete Guide on XYZ in 2020”, and “XYZ for beginners: how to ABC”. Make sure you address the audience and tell what they get by taking your course.

Step 4: Create a course outline.

When you have the title for your course, creating an outline won’t be a problem. Think of the topics you want to elaborate on and write them down. Then, break each topic into questions. 

Don’t overload your lessons. Don’t pack too much content into each topic. When there are too many videos in one lesson, it looks hard and overwhelming to students. Better divide large lessons into several subtopics to make them short and easy to follow.

Step 5: Create course content.

Once the outline is ready, get down to creating content. You don’t need fancy equipment to shoot a lesson. An iPhone with a good camera will do a great job. Focus on value you bring to students with what you teach. Make short videos up to 10 minutes. Brief videos are easier to follow and don’t significantly impact on monthly data traffic while watching them on the go.

Step 6: Get your course online.

Content checked and looks good? Time to publish it. There are many platforms to choose from. The first thing to decide is whether you want to take care of marketing your course or you’d prefer a marketplace like Grinfer to bring traffic. The good thing about marketplaces is that you don’t pay anything for publishing courses. They only take a revenue share from your sales.

Step 7: Set a price for your work.

When setting up a price, don’t listen to those saying that nobody will pay for information that can be easily found on the internet for free. We all buy things that help us either solve problems or achieve goals. Plus, people are paying for online courses as those look more credible than free videos on Youtube. 

To get the right price, think of the outcome and benefits learners will get with your course. If you’re teaching high-in-demand skills like Python or Machine learning, don’t undercharge. In case, your class is not one of the trending topics, make it affordable but don’t set a low price. Low-priced courses may look suspicious to potential buyers. Browse lookalike courses to see what instructors are charging. 

Step 8: Announce your course.

Let every possible person know that you’ve launched a course. Make an announcement on Facebook, LinkdeIn, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and every other social media you have. If you have an email list, that’s even better as you can let your followers know about the launch and make sure they will see it. Don’t hesitate to ask for spreading the word. To add credibility to your newly born course, ask some of your friends to buy the course and leave a review for it. 

Step 9: Engage students and keep a course updated.

Make your online course as engaging as possible. Add assignments, PDFs, and printables. People don’t learn by only watching videos. You as a teacher should motivate students to take action and apply newly gained skills. Do that with every possible way – reply to questions, give feedback on assignments, and constantly update your course. The better experience learners get, the higher the probability they will tell colleagues and friends about the course. To let potential buyers know that your course is fresh, add a year to the title – e.g. “The Complete Digital Marketing Guide [2020]”.

Step 10: Give it some time.

Don’t expect staggering sales right the moment you publish your online course. Building the audience will take time. Work on promoting your masterclass and it doesn’t necessarily mean spending sums on paid ads. Devote your time and effort to let everyone know about your course and how it may help. Be patient. Success doesn’t come overnight.