Online Courses Archives - Luisa Zhou

What are Cohort-Based Courses? Examples & Steps

Luisa Zhou — Tue, 28 May 2024 14:48:23 +0000

Want to learn all about cohort-based courses?

You’re in the right place.

Because today, I’m going to walk you through cohort-based courses, show you how to build one, and give you a few examples to get you started.

Ready? Let’s go!

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(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

What are cohort-based courses?

Cohort-based courses have a shared learning experience. Simply put, students take a distance-learning course together in real time and participate in live discussions.

They are a bit like a traditional classroom setting. But since they typically take place online, they’re available to anyone, anywhere.

And if a student can’t attend a session, there are often playback options.

There’s not any one format that cohort-based courses have to stick to.

For example, I used to offer one called Employee to Entrepreneur Live. This course was based on my flagship course, ETE (a fully self-study course).

But instead of having students move through a syllabus together, the course was self-study with a group coaching element.

In addition to the course material itself, students received:

Dozens of live group coaching calls
Lessons from business experts
Support and feedback in an exclusive ETE group

Basically, people went through the program to learn how to set up a business as fast as possible.

The best part about cohort-based courses?

You can teach as little or as many people as you want – I used to host hundreds in ETE Live.

At the same time, self-paced and cohort-based courses may sound like they offer the same kind of learning experience, but they are actually quite different.

I’ll break down the differences next, so keep reading!

What are the differences between self-paced and cohort-based courses?

Cohort-based courses aren’t the same thing as self-paced courses.

Let’s talk about some of the differences.

Learning style

Collaboration is key in cohort-based courses. There’s an emphasis on group interaction and progressing through the syllabus together.

In self-paced courses, students work through the course at their own speed and in their own style. If they want to spend more time on one topic or section, they can. Or they can skip it altogether.

Engagement

Engagement is much higher in cohort-based courses than in self-paced courses.

Why?

Because students take cohort-based courses alongside others.

This means they have the chance to interact during live sessions, offer accountability, and create a community.

On the other hand, self-paced courses don’t offer any real-time interaction, so it’s easy for students to check out instead of engaging with the material.

Schedule

Students on cohort-based courses follow a fixed schedule.

However, self-paced courses allow students to learn on their own schedule without having to worry about live sessions or deadlines.

While that flexibility is good for some, others might struggle to stay motivated and on track.

Which leads me to the next difference.

Completion rates

Because cohort-based courses are taught live and according to a schedule, they see a much higher completion rate than self-paced courses.

According to an MIT study, self-paced courses have a completion rate of just 5% to 10%.

However, 90% of students finish cohort-based courses.

Why?

Because the benefits of cohort-based courses motivate students to stay engaged.

What are the benefits of cohort-based courses? That’s what we’ll look at next.

What are the benefits of cohort-based learning?

Here are some of the best benefits of cohort-based courses:

Community support: In cohort-based courses, working alongside other students in live sessions, discussions, and group activities creates a sense of community. This helps students stay engaged, motivated, and accountable.
Engagement: Because cohort-based courses require students to actively participate in them, students stay highly engaged. Most students (90%) say they feel engaged in cohort-based courses compared to just 60% of students taking self-paced programs. Higher engagement leads to better understanding and a greater sense of fulfillment.

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Increased motivation: In cohort-based courses, it’s not just instructors who motivate students. When the students interact with each other, they create a supportive learning environment that drives motivation. In fact, 85% of students say they feel motivated in cohort-based courses.
Accountability: When you take part in cohort-based courses, you’re working alongside other students who count on you to contribute to discussions and activities. That kind of responsibility will keep you accountable throughout the course and make it harder to slack off or choose not to complete it.
Knowledge retention: Studies have found that cohort-based courses are 41% better for retention. Why? Because students are actively engaging with the material and collaborating with their peers, all of which lead to a deeper understanding.
Audience insights: Students aren’t the only ones who learn a thing or two in cohort-based courses. As the course creator, you can learn a lot from your audience and their feedback, including what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be changed. This is especially helpful if you want to turn it into a self-study course.

If you’ve been thinking about creating your own cohort-based courses, keep reading.

I’ll show you how to do it in just a few steps.

How to create successful cohort-based courses in 7 steps

When it comes to creating successful cohort-based courses that sell, there are a few things you need to do.

And it all starts with choosing the right topic.

Pick a profitable topic

The key to finding a profitable topic is figuring out your niche.

Your niche is critical – it’s what will help you instantly stand out from the cohort-based courses already on the market.

I know choosing a profitable niche seems like a tall order, but it’s as simple as solving a problem that people are willing to pay for.

You only have to ask yourself two questions:

What skills do I have? And what do people want?

Start by writing down all your skills, whether you use them in your day job or a hobby – those are your potential topics.

Then, work out which of these is the most profitable.

To do that, you’ll have to carry out some market research.

Are there any courses already being offered on the topic? If not, it’s likely not a profitable idea.

Remember, the problem you’re solving doesn’t have to be new. You just have to solve it faster or cheaper than other courses.

It’s also worth checking where your audience hangs out. Think places like Reddit or Facebook groups.

There, you will see what your audience is talking about and uncover the problems that need solving.

Not sure where to start when it comes to your niche? I’ve put together a list of over 200 ideas in this guide.

Structure your course

Once you’ve landed on your topic, it’s time to start building the course.

But before you can think about the content, you have to consider the framework.

It’s best to create an instructional design storyboard to help you figure out what the course needs to cover for students to achieve their full potential.

What did their life look like before your course, and what will it look like after? What will they have to accomplish to get there?

Think of it like helping students get from point A to point B. The milestones your students have to reach will serve as your modules (which we’ll talk about next).

Once you’ve got the bones of your course, it’s time to think about a schedule and find the best name for your course.

You’ll also need to decide on the format.

Most cohort-based courses are delivered by video, but you can also use slides, reading materials, or other visuals like screenshots or PDFs.

Create an outline

With the overarching structure of the course in mind, it’s time to create an outline that includes all of the relevant information.

The modules and lessons in your outline should be driven by the course’s ultimate goal – the transformation that your students are working toward.

Think back to the storyboard you created. The milestones will act as your modules.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Those milestones will serve as the course sections, and the information within them will be the lessons.

Lessons, which have video, audio, and images, are small and easy to understand.

Just don’t include too much, or you’ll run the risk of overwhelming your students.

I recommend keeping your course on the smaller side – 4-8 modules with 3-7 lessons each.

Here’s an easy template to follow:

Course name
Course description, including the learning objectives and end goal
Course schedule
Modules
Lessons
Bonuses, if you’re including any
Assessments, if you’re including any

You can learn more about creating a course outline in this guide.

Remember, your outline is just an overarching look at your course. It doesn’t have to be final!

In fact, it probably won’t be – it took me years of feedback and edits before any of my online courses were perfect.

Want to learn more about outlining your course? Check out this video:

Choose the right platform

You’ll also need a place to host your course.

For that, you have three options.

1. Host on your own website

You can host and sell your course on your own website if you have one.

WordPress offers several plugins, like AccessAlly, that make building and hosting a course easy. You’ll also have complete control of your content and pricing.

However, you’ll need some tech experience to host on your own website.

2. Use online course platforms

If you don’t have a website, online course platforms are the next best option for creating cohort-based courses.

Teaching platforms like Thinkific or Teachable are easy to use and designed to help you create a professional-looking course.

There are also cohort-based course platforms, like Eduflow.

3. Use online course marketplaces

You can also use online course marketplaces such as LinkedIn Learning, Maven, or Coursera, but there are some drawbacks to keep in mind.

While you might reach a larger audience, you won’t own that audience. You also won’t be able to control your pricing and will have to follow the marketplace’s rules around format, length, and style.

Create a price package & presell

Figuring out a price is one of the hardest parts of launching cohort-based courses.

Your price hinges on a few things:

Results
Target audience
Your experience
Course features
The cost of creating the course

Your first cohort-based course can be priced anywhere from $197 to $497.

And after you’ve gotten a few students, you can raise your rates to $1,000 or higher.

My best advice? Don’t overthink it.

I talk more about pricing cohort-based courses here.

Here’s the thing about selling your course.

You don’t have to wait until it’s finished. In fact, you shouldn’t!

Pre-selling your course will help you validate the idea and make sure there’s a market for your topic.

All you have to do to pre-sell your course is:

Create a course sales page
Outline the course
Create your first module
Launch it

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Launch your course

As you gear up to launch your course, don’t just focus on what it looks like or costs.

Instead, make sure you’re offering content that’s valuable, relatable, and stands out from other courses.

How?

By including interactive sessions, collaborative group activities, and plenty of opportunities for students to engage with and ask questions about the material.

When you’re ready to launch your course, choose a plan that works for where you are in your course creation journey.

You can do a no-list launch using paid ads, affiliates, or your own audience. Or, you can use all three.

Dial-in launches are great for creators with existing email lists.

Or, if you’ve already launched a course, you can scale up.

Get testimonials

A testimonial is a review of your course.

And they’re incredibly powerful for cohort-based courses.

Why?

Because they act as social proof – in other words, people are more likely to buy a product that other people have vouched for.

A good testimonial will answer two important questions:

Why did someone like your course? And what did it help them achieve?

In other words: “This course helped me _____, so I could _____.”

A big misconception about testimonials is that you can only get them from paying clients.

However, you can get them from anyone you’ve helped!

At the end of the day, it’s not about whether or not someone’s bought your course. It’s about the ways you’ve helped people.

You’ll find a complete guide to asking for testimonials (and scripts to use!) in this guide.

Now that we’ve talked about how to launch cohort-based courses, let’s take a look at a few successful ones.

Top cohort-based course examples

There are thousands of cohort-based courses out there that cover any topic you can think of.

I’ve seen courses on personal finance, weight loss, money-saving hacks at Disney, and more.

Here are a few examples.

ETE Live

Like I mentioned earlier, I used to offer a cohort-based course called Employee to Entrepreneur Live to hundreds of students at a time.

It was all about helping people launch a successful and scalable business that could replace their 9-5 jobs and offer them more freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.

Technically, it wasn’t a fully cohort-based course.

Instead, it was a self-study course that also included group coaching, guest speakers, and access to an exclusive community.

And, if a student couldn’t attend a session for whatever reason, they always had access to video recordings.

Newbie Real Estate Investing

My student, Ryan, built a real estate portfolio that earns him more than six figures a year.

And with interest in real estate investing on the rise, he knew there was potential for a cohort-based course.

So, on top of his one-on-one coaching offer, he launched a group coaching mastermind.

In the mastermind, students help each other find different ways to solve real estate problems and offer multiple perspectives.

Coursera

Coursera is a course marketplace with thousands of courses from all kinds of creators.

And now, students can use it to earn certificates from universities worldwide, including universities like the University of Illinois and the University of Colorado.

While some are self-study, a good number are cohort-based courses that include live session classes and take up to 10 hours per week.

Here are some of the courses currently available:

Next steps

There you have it!

Everything you need to know about cohort-based courses, including how to launch your own.

I’ve helped hundreds of students launch their own successful six- and seven-figure courses.

But I see the three same mistakes get made time and time again.

Want to find out what they are – and how to avoid them?

I’ll tell you in my FREE guide. Get it here:

Want to Build a 6-Figure Coaching Business So You Can Achieve More Freedom?

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When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.

How to Create an Evergreen Course to Sell Online

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18 Ways to Make Money as a Content Creator in 2024

Luisa Zhou — Tue, 28 May 2024 00:27:00 +0000

Let me know if this sounds like you…

You…

Don’t love your 9-5
Want to make a bigger impact
Like the idea of working from anywhere
Want to have virtually no limit to how much you can make

Sound accurate?

In this article, you’ll learn exactly how to make money as a content creator so you can live the life you want.

Let’s dive in.

How much does a content creator make?

Your earnings as a content creator can vary based on your chosen medium, niche, location, and more.

The average salary is $89,128.

But keep in mind…

You don’t need a huge following to make money as a content creator – especially if you focus on high-value offers like coaching or courses.

Imagine 300 people have signed up to your email list.

Of those, 1% buy your coaching package at $1,500.

With 3 clients, you’d earn $4,500.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Here’s another example: Let’s say you start a YouTube channel and want to use it to maximize your income. In that case, you could join a platform like Patreon.

That’s exactly what the YouTuber behind The Ukulele Teacher does – and he earns at least $5,400 per month from Patreon alone for his niche content.

I myself run a creator business with content on my blog, emails, YouTube, and other social media.

My business is an eight-figure business. Now, it DID take me time to get here but that just goes to show there are all types of creator businesses out there.

So, remember…

How much you earn as a content creator depends on many factors and varies wildly.

According to data from Glassdoor, here’s how much a few different types of US-based creators earn on average:

YouTubers: $62k–$116k per year
Bloggers: $33k–$36k per year
Podcasters: $101k–$188k per year

But overall, US-based content creators make between $51k and $95k.

Okay, so that’s how much you can make as a content creator.

But what does one do? Here’s what you need to know.

What is a content creator?

A content creator is someone who creates great content for a digital audience. You have lots of options for this content, so choose the format that speaks to you the most.

Need a few ideas? You could…

Create video content (think: YouTube and TikTok)
Get into photography
Start a podcast
Write ebooks
Blog
Create social media posts
Design graphics

…and more!

For example, I use platforms like this blog, my YouTube channel, and my email list to publish content and make sales.

Okay, but maybe at this point you’re wondering, What’s the difference between that and an influencer?

Great question.

Many use these terms interchangeably, but they’re not the same.

The key difference? Intention.

Let me explain…

Content creators create content on a specific niche or topic and share their insights to educate and/or entertain their audience.

For example, a content creator who’s a photographer might use Instagram to share their latest work for the sake of sharing beautiful pictures.

On the other hand, influencers build a personal brand with the goal of using their influence to make sales.

For instance:

A beauty influencer with a large following might partner with a popular skincare brand and create content promoting it in exchange for commissions.

So, although content creators can influence people, they’re more focused on creating high-quality content (versus getting the highest number of likes and followers).

But you are making money either way.

And the good news is you have several ways to make that money as a content creator.

18 ways content creators make money

Now that you know what a content creator is, let’s dig deeper: How can content creators make money?

You’re about to find out.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

1. Online teaching

Do you enjoy teaching people? Then, good news: There’s a huge demand. To give you an idea, the e-learning market size was worth nearly $400 billion in 2022.

So, you could reach a lot of people, depending on your niche.

I personally make most of my money through my own courses. This isn’t an easy business model, but can be a highly fulfilling one – and scalable.

To get started, you need a niche and an audience.

I talk more about it in this guide:

Start here: How To Create A 6-Figure Online Course

2. Consulting

Consulting is all about evaluating a client’s problem and coming up with a plan to solve it. As you can imagine, there are a lot of consulting niches to explore.

For example, if you’re good at digital advertising, you could become a digital advertising consultant and help businesses rank higher in search engines.

If you have leadership skills, you could focus on supporting CEOs in maximizing team success.

Having marketable skills means you can start consulting immediately, without having to get formal certifications or training.

Start here: How to Become a Successful Consultant (8 Steps)

3. Coaching

Coaching and consulting can appear similar, but here’s a key difference: As a coach, you’d guide your clients to a solution – rather than doing it for them, as a consultant would.

What’s great about coaching is that, like consulting, you can start today based on your current skills.

I go into more detail in this video:

Another perk?

By offering 3-month coaching packages for $1,500 (which is what I recommend if you’re just getting started), you can quickly replace your income – while having a huge impact.

Start here: How to Become a Coach

4. Selling digital products and merchandise

As a content creator, selling digital products is a smart way to make money without having to work for an hourly wage.

Plus, there’s a huge demand for digital assets like courses and ebooks.

In fact, the eLearning market is expected to surpass $840 billion by 2030, which gives you a huge audience to tap into.

Don’t know what to sell?

You have tons of options. For example, you could offer…

Templates
Apps
Patterns
Premium content
Digital plans

…and more!

But maybe you’re wondering, Luisa, what’s the best digital product I can offer to maximize my ROI?

Easy: courses. Because they’re so valuable, you can sell them for a much higher price point (between $100-$3k) compared to assets like templates.

Start here: The Most Profitable Digital Products To Sell (+Where)

5. Brand partnerships

You want to aim for long-term brand partnerships.

Why? Because they’re an efficient way to generate revenue and attract more opportunities in your niche.

And yYou don’t necessarily need a huge audience to get started.

What matters more than size is engagement. So, if you’re a small creator but have high engagement rates, that’s attractive to brands.

Start here: 5 Tips for Landing Your First Brand Partnership

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

6. Affiliate marketing

The affiliate marketing industry will be worth over $27 billion by 2027.

And depending on things like your niche and audience size, you can make money through affiliate commissions.

As an affiliate, you promote products to your audience and get a commission for every sale.

The blogger behind Making Sense of Cents made over $100k from affiliates in just one month. (But those aren’t really typical numbers – and affiliate marketing requires a sizable audience to be profitable.)

Start here: 65+ Top Affiliate Programs for Bloggers + Content Creators

7. Direct ad sponsorship

If you’ve ever encountered a creator who mentioned that a brand sponsored their video or other content, you’ve seen ad sponsorships at work.

Once you have a following, sponsorships are a great way to monetize your content – while promoting brands you believe in.

Start here: How to Make Money with Sponsors – A Guide for Online Content Creators

8. Subscriptions

Offering a subscription gives your audience access to your offer – for a recurring fee.

For example, you could set up a membership platform that gives people exclusive perks, like subscriber-only videos, services, downloads, and so on.

The great thing about subscriptions? They offer consistent income, which helps reduce the guesswork about how much you’ll earn in any given month.

Start here: How Creators Can Make Money with Membership Sites, Subscriptions, and Paywalls

9. Speaking engagements

Landing speaking engagements is a golden opportunity to talk about a specific topic – and get paid for it.

But first, clarify your goals by being specific.

According to Grand Baldwin, who’s earned $2+ million from speaking engagements, knowing what you’re aiming for is a key to getting gigs.

Think: Where do I want to speak? What do I want to talk about? Why should my audience care about what I have to say?

It also helps to keep a list of opportunities you come across along with dates and event organizer contact info.

Start here: 11 Ways to Find Paid Speaking Opportunities in Any Industry

10. Platform creator funds

These days, many platforms offer financial incentives for top creators. It’s a win-win: Platforms get traffic from the audience you attract, and you get paid for the great content you offer.

Here are a few creator funds to know about (and I’ll cover more platforms in a minute):

However, you need a fairly big audience to make this work. (To make money from AdSense on YouTube, you need at least 1,000 subscribers.)

Start here: 7 Social Media Platforms That Pay You to Create Content

11. Offering exclusive content

A lot of people are willing to pay to see more of their favorite creators’ work.

This can mean giving paying subscribers early access to your content, behind-the-scenes videos, and other exclusive perks.

The important thing? Find out what your audience wants to see, and give them that.

Start here: 3 Unusual Ways To Create Exclusive Content That Attracts A Crowd

12. Writing a book

According to Statista, there’ll be more than 1 billion eBook readers by 2027.

And there are ebooks in all types of niches, from fact to fiction.

The best thing is that you can self-publish your own ebooks on platforms like Amazon.

However, ebooks are low-priced offers, so you either need a big audience or a lot of books to make a good income from ebooks.

Start here: How to Self-Publish a Book [+ Checklist]

13. Guest posting

I’m a big fan of guest posting. In fact, getting published on sites like Business Insider gave my business a huge boost early on.

With that said…

You don’t need to be published on massive platforms to get results. Instead, focus on pitching to relevant platforms.

Remember: Speaking to the right audience, even if it’s small, is better than speaking to a huge audience of people who aren’t interested.

Start here: 300+ Free Guest Posting Sites to Submit Guest Posts

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

14. Becoming a brand ambassador

As a brand ambassador, your task would be to represent a particular brand through your content. So, to maximize your results, work with brands that are well-aligned with what you do.

Once you have some experience and you’ve grown your audience, you’ll be able to work with bigger businesses and get paid more.

Start here: How To Become A Brand Ambassador and Get Paid

15. Selling art

Yes, you can make money selling art.

Take Iulia Bochis, for example.

During Covid, she started posting her artwork on Instagram – and today, she’s a full-time artist with over 770k followers.

So, don’t underestimate the power of using a huge platform like Instagram to connect with a specific audience, like Iulia does.

In fact, online art sales grew by 7% in 2023 compared to the previous year, so there’s clearly a demand.

Start here: The starving artist is a myth: how to sell digital art (+ make a profit)

16. Podcasting

Growing a successful podcast is an effective way to promote products and services to make money through your content. The key is to target a specific audience.

For example, if you start a personal finance podcast, you could promote something like a course on how to get out of debt in X amount of time.

Keep in mind that nearly 505 million people listen to podcasts as of 2024, so there’s a huge audience you can tap into.

Start here: 10 Tips For Building A Successful Podcast

17. Opening an online store

Platforms like Shopify and Etsy make setting up an online store easy.

Plus, you can sell virtually anything, which gives you a lot of options depending on your interests and who your audience is. For example, YouTuber Paola Merrill (aka “The Cottage Fairy”) used her success on YouTube to start a successful Etsy store for her art.

Start here: How to start an online store – full guide

18. Getting donations

As a creator, one way to boost your income is through donations.

An easy way to set this up?

Use a platform like Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee. The idea is that your fans can support your work and gain access to exclusive content they wouldn’t see otherwise.

That way, you earn more money, and your followers get to see more of your content.

Start here: Want more donations on Patreon? Cornell University researchers have some marketing advice

Okay, now that we’ve looked at HOW you can make money as a content creator, let’s look at how MUCH you can make.

Frequently asked questions

Okay, now that you know how much content creators can make, let’s cover some FAQs:

How do you become a profitable content creator?

Focus is the key. In other words, don’t join a million different platforms and try to grow on all of them at once. That’s a good way to burn out, but it’s NOT a good way to sustainably expand your reach.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

So, what should you do instead?

This:

Choose one platform that works for you
Learn how to use it and what people want to see
Once you get traction, expand to another platform

I also recommend starting with just one offer rather than trying to diversify too soon.

That’s what I did with my Employee to Entrepreneur course: I spent a lot of time making it the most comprehensive course for people who wanted to quit their jobs and work for themselves.

Result: I got over $1.1 million in sales in under a year.

So, keep in mind: Coaching or consulting is an ideal way to make money with the skills you already have. But once you start building an audience, adding courses will maximize your profits.

What are platforms that pay content creators?

There are a lot, but here are some of my top picks:

Next steps

Alright, there you have it!

Now you know how to make money as a content creator. As you can see, you have a lot of options. But remember: Deciding on one specific platform and being focused is how you’ll get results.

What else do you need to know to succeed?

As an eight-figure coach, I’ve identified three mistakes course creators often make.

Want to skip them so you can grow faster? Check out my FREE guide.

The Most Profitable Digital Products To Sell (+Where)

Social Media for Business: The Best Platforms & Tips

The post 18 Ways to Make Money as a Content Creator in 2024 appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

What is a Content Creator? How to become a top creator + ideas

Luisa Zhou — Mon, 27 May 2024 15:53:21 +0000

What is a content creator, anyway? And how can you skip the trial-and-error so you can make money faster?

That’s what you’re going to learn in this article. If you’re serious about things like…

Earning more money than you’ve ever made in your 9-to-5
Working from anywhere
Having more purpose in your professional life

…then becoming a content creator could be an ideal fit for you.

Want to learn more? Here we go.

How to become a successful content creator:

Find a niche
Know your audience
Decide on a platform
Publish content
Use tools to automate and measure

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

What is a content creator?

First off, a content creator is someone who creates content for a digital audience.

As you can imagine, this can mean a lot of things because content comes in so many forms: Blogs, podcasts, videos, social media, and so on.

For example, you could be a content creator who creates podcasts about a particular topic, like personal finance.

Is writing your strong suit? Then you could start a blog and create written content instead.

For example, I have a YouTube audience, a blog audience, and a sizable email list. I share advice on something I have 10+ years of experience in – building businesses.

ou get the idea…

The important thing? Choose a medium you can see yourself committing to for long enough to see results.

So, if you hate the idea of being on video, vlogging probably isn’t your best bet. Ideally, choose something you already enjoy or want to learn more about because this will help you keep going.

Okay, but what else can you do to succeed faster?

That’s what you’re about to find out.

How to become a successful content creator in 5 steps

Here’s what I recommend to maximize your results.

1. Find your niche

If your goal is to grow quickly as a content creator, niching down is really important. That means targeting a specific market segment rather than trying to reach everyone.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you want to become a podcaster because you like discussing ideas and having interesting conversations.

Great! Here’s the thing, though… Podcasting is still really broad.

And because it’s really broad, it doesn’t speak to anyone in particular.

So, think about a specific topic you’re knowledgeable about – and that others will be interested in.

For instance, maybe you’re passionate about helping young adults live debt-free because you used to be in debt and turned things around for yourself..

Or maybe you want to help middle-aged adults get in shape using science-based strategies you’ve had success with.

Having a niche will help you speak to your target audience and address their specific pain points.

Ultimately, think: What are some problems that I could help people solve based on my experience?

Once you’ve chosen a niche, you’ll have a solid foundation that you’ll be able to build on.

2. Know your audience

Okay, so you’ve chosen a niche. The next step is to get to know your audience and what they want.

Because remember…

To create engaging content that solves people’s problems, you have to know what those problems are in the first place.

So, what would attract the people you’re trying to reach?

Going back to our earlier example, if you want to appeal to young adults trying to get out of debt, you wouldn’t use the same language you’d use to appeal to people in their 50s.

That’s why it’s so important to research your target audience.

For example, look at what discussions people are having in online groups, how they engage with other content creators, and so on.

Think: What do they need? What are their priorities? How can I use my experience to make their lives easier?

If you create content with them in mind, that’ll help you get better results.

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3. Decide on a platform

Once you’ve decided who your audience is, you have to choose what platform you’re going to use to reach them. This step is essential, and it ties into knowing your audience.

Why? Because just as communication styles differ, so too do people’s preferences about how and where they consume content.

For example, Gen Z is a big fan of visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok. So if you’re trying to appeal to a younger market segment, those are great platforms to target.

On the other hand, if you’re aiming for a slightly older audience, Facebook is a better choice.

(Also, keep in mind that statistically, adults who are 55+ tend to prefer text-based content versus video.)

Here’s a quick overview of different platforms and what they’re best for:

Facebook: Ideal for building niche groups on a variety of topics, especially among millennials (69% use it).
YouTube: Ideal for long-form and short-form video content, especially if you’re trying to target Gen Z or millennials.
Instagram: Ideal for sharing visual content, with a majority of users (over 60%) being between 18 and 34 years old.
TikTok: Ideal for short video content to attract Gen Z.
X/Twitter: Ideal for sharing written content, podcasts, and videos. Most popular among men (60.9%).

As you can see, there are a lot of great platforms you can use to reach your target audience as a content creator.

In fact, you might even be tempted to sign up for all of them to try to reach more people.

Sounds like a good strategy, right?

Actually, trying to grow on a bunch of different platforms at once can be counter-productive. Instead of reaching more people, you’ll risk reaching less – and burning out in the process.

Let me explain…

Unfortunately, you can’t just use one strategy across the board. Different platforms require different approaches, and it takes time to figure out what works and what doesn’t on each.

And if you try to do it all, it’ll be much harder to get traction.

So, here’s what I recommend:

Start with one or two platforms
Learn as much as possible about the platform(s) and what users want to see (for example, user-generated content is popular on platforms like Instagram, and funny posts work great on Facebook)
Once you get traction, rinse and repeat elsewhere

With this strategy, you’ll get better results, fast.

For example, when I was starting out, I got really good at using one platform (Facebook) to help me scale.

Later on, I added YouTube and search engine optimization, which helped me build the sustainable eight-figure business I have now.

4. Publish content consistently

Being consistent is one key to growing an audience as a content creator.

Okay, but how?

Choose a medium that works for you.

Remember: If you enjoy creating content, it won’t feel like a chore.

And… if it doesn’t feel like a chore, you’ll be much more likely to want to do it every day. Even if you don’t see results immediately.Sticking to a schedule is also crucial. I recommend creating content early in your workday so you’ll be less likely to skip it – especially if you have a busy schedule.

Want more tips? I go into a lot more detail in this video:

5. Use tools to automate and optimize

So, how can you effectively automate as much of the process as possible?

That’s where tools come in.

These days, there are a lot of tools you can use to get better results and automate, like Later, and Tailwind.

Other tools, like Google Analytics, help you measure your results, so that you know how to improve your content and reach even more people.

What skills do content creators need?

The content creation market is expected to be worth $23.2 billion by 2026.

In other words? The demand for content creators who know how to create engaging content isn’t going anywhere.

And if you want to quit your job and become one yourself, there’s plenty of room in the market for you.

With that said, the specific skills you’ll need as a content creator depend (at least in part) on what format you choose for content delivery.

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Here’s what I mean by that…

Some people excel at creating engaging videos that viewers love consuming. Or they’re really good at interviewing people and creating podcast episodes that their audience comes back to again and again.

But… sometimes, the same people can struggle to create attention-grabbing written content, like social media captions or blog posts.

The good news is that you don’t need to know everything about content creation to be successful. Choose a format that works for you.

If you’re a strong writer and video isn’t your thing, that’s fine. Just stick with writing and get even better at it.

Ultimately, no matter what format you go with, here are some key things you should get good at:

Creating valuable content – Ask yourself: Is this useful to my target audience? Does it address a problem they have?

Researching trends – What’s new? What do people want to see?

Monitoring your content’s performance – Are certain types of content getting more traction than others? Look for patterns that can help you focus on creating content that will outperform what you’ve made in the past.

Building an audience – This is a key part of being a successful content creator, and it starts with identifying a target market.

Monetizing your content – From brand partnerships to monetizing videos and podcasts, there are a lot of ways to make money from your content (and we’ll get into the details in a bit).

Coming up with a content strategy – Think: Who am I trying to reach? What am I going to post? How often? Having a plan will help you work effectively and know if you’re on the right track or not.

What are the best content creator ideas?

Now that we’ve looked at what skills you need as a content creator, what are the different ways of becoming one? That’s what we’ll look at next.

Blogger

If writing is your thing, blogging is an ideal way to become a content creator.

According to LinkedIn, 77% of internet users read blogs.

Which means? There’s a huge audience you could tap into.

And remember, you don’t need any formal higher ed to be a blogger.

In fact, having an academic background can work against you because you might have to unlearn the stuffy writing that’s taught in college.

So, what do you need?

The key to effective blogging is creating content that interests your audience. Be engaging. Be funny. Use your personality.

That’s how you’ll set yourself apart.

YouTuber

As a YouTuber, you’d create videos geared toward your specific audience and get paid through sponsorships or YouTube itself (and I’ll cover specific ways you can earn later on).

There are all kinds of YouTubers out there – from teens who do makeup tutorials to middle-aged digital nomads who vlog about their lifestyles.

One benefit of going this route?

Unlike other platforms, like Instagram, YouTube content has a much longer lifespan.

In other words, you can create valuable content and keep making money on it years down the road.

In fact, that’s why I’ve moved away from Instagram in favor of YouTube myself:

Ultimately, if video creation is your thing, choosing YouTube specifically is a solid choice.

Why? 47% of internet users watch YouTube videos at least once a month, so there’s a huge audience to tap into.

Content writer

If you decide to become a content writer, you could create a wide range of content, from ebooks to articles.

But again, it does help to have a niche.

That way, you’ll know who you’re writing for and you’ll get better at writing for a specific audience.

Plus, as a content writer who runs their own thing, you’d have the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Ultimately, practice is key to becoming a better writer. Once you’ve decided on a niche, get some experience under your belt for your portfolio.

Don’t have any professional experience yet? Don’t worry, you can still get published on platforms like Medium.

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Social media content creator

As the name suggests, social media content creators focus specifically on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and so on.

Depending on the platform, you could engage with your audience via videos, captions, pictures, or other types of content.

Influencer

In a nutshell, influencers leverage their popularity to promote products or services among their target audience.

As we’ll see in a bit, making money as an influencer depends on a few factors, like the size of your audience, your engagement rate, and what you promote.

And as an influencer,you could use various platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Again, choose what makes sense for you.

Podcast host

Podcasts are an incredibly popular form of content.

In fact, over 500 million people listen to podcasts worldwide.

And in the U.S. alone, the average listener spends seven hours per week consuming podcasts.

Clearly, there’s a big demand for engaging podcast content – and again, there are all kinds of niches you could explore, from food to personal finance.

If you enjoy interesting conversations with people on a range of topics, podcasting is a solid choice.

Designer

Content designers are in charge of curating digital content to enhance the user experience (UX).

So, they focus on understanding the target market they’re trying to reach, developing a consistent style guide, and evaluating how content is performing.

As a designer, you’d work to make designs across mobile and web applications easier to understand and use.

Photographer

These days, content is incredibly visual. That means, knowing how to take great pictures is a valuable skill. Plus, as a photographer, you could work in a variety of settings.

For example, you could work with influencers, do weddings, or specialize in something like portrait photography instead.

To get your foot in the door, learn how to use industry tools like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Videographer

Videographers create and edit video content.

In the world of content creation this often means making content for video-based social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Videographers also work on websites, films, and marketing campaigns.

If you’ve always wanted to work behind the scenes on a viral video, then this could be the career for you.

Streamer

Simply put, a streamer is someone who uses social media platforms (like YouTube or Facebook) to go live for an audience.

By streaming live, you can interact with your viewers in real time and get immediate feedback.

There are all kinds of streamers out there, from gamers to chefs. No matter who your target audience is, streaming can be a great way to to create a genuine community around your content.

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How do content creators make money?

The average income for content creators is $89,128.

However, as a content creator, you don’t have to depend on one income stream, like you do in a typical 9-5.

Let’s take YouTube as a quick example:

As a YouTuber, here are some of the ways you could earn money from your content:

Ads (specifically through Google AdSense and the YouTube Partner Program)
Super Thanks
Super Chats and Super Stickers
Brand sponsorships/partnerships
YouTube Premium

And YouTube is just one example.

What are some other ways to earn?

Here are a few:

Affiliate marketing
Online courses/services
Digital downloads
Merch (t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, etc.)
Exclusive content on Patreon

There are plenty of different ways you could monetize your content depending on things like your experience, the format you choose, your niche, which platforms you’re using, and so on.

Of course, how much you earn also depends on how big and engaged your audience is. And the bigger and more engaged you are, the more control you have about how much you can charge for things like brand deals.

For instance, content creators with at least one million followers can earn $10,000 for a single post – and some charge significantly more.

However, there are lots of content creators who make significantly less or not much at all because they haven’t built a sustainable business from the start.

Focus on creating high-quality content and becoming an authority in your niche. Once you’re doing that, earning money will be a lot easier.

Examples of successful content creators

Okay, now that we’ve talked about how content creators make money, let’s look at some specific examples.

LuisaZhou.com

First up, hi – it’s me, Luisa. As an eight-figure coach, my top platforms include this blog, email, and YouTube. My secret to getting traction and results? Focus. As I mentioned earlier, signing up for too many platforms and trying to do it all won’t help you grow. Instead, stick to one or two platforms and learn the ins and outs of how to use them effectively.

IWillTeachYouToBeRich

This platform is all about helping people create a rich life and get rid of limiting beliefs they may have about money. The founder, Ramit Sethi, reaches his audience through his podcast, his blog, X, and Netflix. He’s even written a best-selling book.

AliAbdaal.com

Ali Abdaal is a former doctor turned YouTuber, podcaster, and New York Times bestselling author who creates content around topics like productivity, money, and tech.

As you can see, these content creators all have a focus.

In other words, they don’t create random content and hope that people will like it. They have a specific audience in mind, and they create content geared toward that audience.

For example, in my business, I help people who are disillusioned with their boring, restrictive 9-to-5 and want more freedom, money, and purpose.

Since that’s the audience I want to attract, I speak to their pain points in my content.

Ultimately, knowing who you’re trying to attract will make it easier to create the kind of content that will help you succeed too.

Next steps

So, there you have it!

Now you know what a content creator is and how you can become one yourself. As you can see, you have all kinds of options to explore depending on your interests and preferences.

Ready to get started but not sure where to go from here?

I’m giving you FREE access to my PDF to help you avoid three big mistakes creators make.

Social Media for Business: The Best Platforms & Tips

How to Work for Yourself and Make 6-Figures (in 8 steps)

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4 Simple Steps to High Online Course Completion Rates

Luisa Zhou — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 22:52:00 +0000

If you want to learn how to improve your online course completion rates, then you’ve come to the right place.

I’ll show you a few foolproof ways to do exactly that in this guide.

Want to learn more? Let’s get started.

What is a good course completion rate?

What does “online course completion rate” mean?

Online course completion rates reflect the number of students who finish an online course in its entirety.

What counts as “complete” varies by course and platform.

Some require students to complete each module and assignment, while others look for certain engagement levels or grades.

Despite the popularity of online courses, completion rates are low – on average, just 5% to 15% of students finish any given course.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), which are free online courses often offered by universities, have an even lower completion rate of 3% to 6%.

But why are online course completion rates so low? We’ll talk about that next.

The top reasons students don’t complete your course

Why aren’t students completing online courses?

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Here are some reasons that online course completion rates are so low:

Lack of motivation: No personalized feedback, obvious progress markers, or answers to questions reduce motivation.
No time: Students often underestimate the time commitment of course lectures and assignments.
Fear: Fear of failure or being overwhelmed causes students to quit early.
Expectation vs. reality: If the course experience is different from what they expected, students might be disappointed and abandon it.
Boredom: Your content or teaching style might not be engaging enough.

It is possible to improve your online course completion rates. Keep reading to find out how!

4 steps to improve your course completion rate

Before I show you the top four ways to improve your online course completion rates, I want to note that I approach online course completion rates differently from most course creators.

Completion rates do matter.

But to me, what’s more important is the value your course offers.

When I buy a course, I do it because I want to learn something specific. As long as I learn that one thing, the course is worth the price I paid, regardless of whether or not I finish it.

If your student gets even one “Aha!” from your course, it doesn’t matter if they complete it.

You’ve already provided them the value they were looking for.

So for most courses, your course completion rate can be a “vanity metric” versus a metric that actually helps your students achieve their goal.

I talk more about it in this video:

But, even if course completion rates aren’t the best metric on how effective a course is, you do want to build a course that serves the right people in the best way.

And that’s what you can do by improving your completion rates.

Here are four ways:

Set expectations

Setting expectations clearly and early is crucial for your students’ success and improving your online course completion rates.

That’s why I always recommend that you clearly map out the student journey before you launch your course.

Doing so reduces confusion, helps students set more realistic goals, and lessens potential disappointment.

Take time to outline what matters most to students, like course structure, learning outcomes, assignments, and technology requirements.

By setting clear expectations and consistently upholding them, you create a structured and supportive learning environment.

And that sort of environment builds student confidence, fosters motivation, and ultimately leads to better online course completion rates.

Use feedback to improve your course

The truth is, an online course isn’t a “set it and forget it” product – because it’s impossible to create the best online course on your first try.

Even though a lot of people dread feedback, it’s a good thing.

In fact, it’s crucial to the success of your course.

How else will you create a course that really resonates with your audience?

Even the most successful online course creators have to make adjustments.

I’m constantly finding new ways to improve my online courses.

For example, my Employee to Entrepreneur course is made up of five modules. Each module is filled with lessons, videos, and bonus content like PDFs, videos, and how-to guides.

But it didn’t start that way! I spent more than three years finalizing the course based on the feedback I got from my students.

And because I did, I’m now confident that I’m offering the highest-value course possible.

You can hear more about that in this video:

Target the right audience

Part of improving your online course completion rates is being sure that you’re getting in front of your ideal audience.

First and foremost, you have to really get to know who you’re targeting. What are they hoping to learn from and get out of your course? Figure out their needs and tailor your content to them.

Once you’ve done that, be sure to clearly explain what they’ll get out of your course.

Doing so will attract the kind of students who appreciate what you’re offering and get them more involved. That kind of investment is what really helps improve your online course completion rates.

But be careful to do more than just explain and market your course.

Instead, focus on creating targeted messaging that resonates and be transparent about content, difficulty, and expectations.

Finally, it’s essential to make sure you’ve priced your online course fairly and correctly.

And sometimes, that means increasing your course price.

I know course creators are often hesitant to do it, but the truth is that higher prices are actually a highly effective way to attract the right audience.

Why?

Because according to studies, a higher price tag sends a message that your course is valuable, which will pique audience interest.

Plus, people value a product more when they pay a higher price for it.

When someone decides to pay more for your course, it means that they see and appreciate its value and will be committed to seeing it through.

That kind of self-selection will improve your online course completion rates dramatically.

Add on a community or coaching

Lastly, offering additional support or coaching is a great way to improve your online course completion rates.

This is especially true for courses that are more than just self-study.

By adding a community or coaching option to existing material, you’ll increase student engagement and, in turn, motivation – both of which are essential in improving your online course completion rates.

Take it from me.

While most of the online courses I offer are self-study, my flagship courses include some extra support from me or my coaching team.

I’ve found that this simple offer has increased student retention, engagement, satisfaction, and, yes, my online course completion rates.

The kind of support you can offer varies and really depends on the course.

It could be access to a forum where students can get support and answers to their questions, group learning calls, or even one-on-one calls with you.

At the end of the day, adding another line of support isn’t just a strategy to improve your online course completion rates.

It’s a way to create a supportive and empowering learning environment that provides a meaningful learning experience and offers even more value to students.

You can learn more about this strategy in this quick video:

Next steps

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

There you have it! Four foolproof strategies to improve your online course completion rates.

But before you can improve your online course creation rates, you need to know how to create the most impactful course possible.

That’s why I’ve created my free PDF on the three biggest mistakes people make when they launch their first course.

In it, I’ll show you the secrets of creating a successful course and help you avoid the same mistakes I see others make.

Get it below!

Read more:

How to Create a 6-Figure Online Course

How to Start an Online Course Business

How to Create a Successful Course Outline

The post 4 Simple Steps to High Online Course Completion Rates appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

How to Structure an Online Course: 7 steps + template

Luisa Zhou — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 14:36:00 +0000

How do you structure an online course?

Online courses help you build a business or grow your existing business. But first, you need to sell a course people want to buy.

How? Read on!

1. Define your target audience and learning outcomes

The online course market is huge. In fact, the global e-learning industry is expected to reach $325 billion by 2025. So to make your course stand out, you need to create the best possible course for your niche audience.

How? First, you need to understand who they are.

See, your target audience affects your teaching style, content format, and how you organize your content.

For example, say you’re creating a course about how to make a chocolate cake. If your course is for complete beginners, then you will spend more time explaining technical terms and basic techniques. Compare that to a course for pastry chefs. That course would include way more technical details and advanced techniques.

So figure out:

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What is their ultimate goal?
What do they already know about your chosen topic?
What are their challenges?

One of the best ways to research these questions is to work with a few coaching or consulting clients.

That way, you’ll get to know exactly what your ideal students are struggling with and the problems you can solve with your course.

Because that’s key: every successful online course needs to solve a problem.

And that problem not only has to be helpful, but it also needs to be worth paying for.

For example, some people wouldn’t pay for a course on how to knit. But other people really value that skill and would invest in a course that teaches them how to knit.

So think about why your course is valuable and who it would be valuable to.

Now let’s talk about learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes are what your audience can expect to learn from taking your course.

In short, what is the transformation you offer?

Even if what you’re teaching is not that tangible, that’s okay. There’s still going to be some kind of tangible result.

For example, if you’re teaching a course on how to feel happier throughout your day, get clear on what will change in your students’ daily lives to make them feel happier.

So focus on the results. This will help you design a course that gets your students to their end goal in the easiest and fastest way possible.

Once you’ve figured out the main learning outcomes of your course, it’s time to break that down into milestones, which we’ll look at in the next step.

And for more on identifying your course’s end result, check out this video:

2. Create a course outline

Now you’ve got an idea of the learning outcomes, you can create a more detailed outline.

You want to identify the main milestones that your student needs to achieve to get to their overall goal.

So let’s say you’re designing a course to help someone get a new job like my student Emily Liou did with her course Happily Hired.

The first milestone might be to get clear on exactly what type of career they want.

Think of it like a path. What are the specific steps and milestones that will get your student from A to Z? You can draw out the steps on the path and that becomes your course outline.

This logical step-by-step method is the most common way of organizing the key milestones of your course.

But there’s another method.

You can also organize your content into “areas of mastery.”

So instead of a linear path step-by-step, your milestones are focused on mastering one area of the overall goal – like a puzzle piece.

For example, if you’re creating a course on yoga, you might organize your content around the different types of poses, with one module each on standing poses, sitting poses, dynamic poses, and so on.

Your student has to master each of the benchmarks to get to their final goal. But they don’t have to take the course in order to get value. They could even focus on one of the areas they struggle with the most.

Whichever method you choose, mapping out the areas of mastery or the steps on the path will tell you exactly what each module should include.

I talk more about how to structure an online course in this video:

Once you have a skeleton you can easily fill in, creating the content is way easier.

So what should your course outline include?

Here’s a rough guide:

Course name: What will you name your course? Don’t overthink it.

Course description: What is your course about? What is the end goal?

Modules: What is the subject of each module?

Lessons: Define the topic of each lesson within the modules.

Bonuses: What bonuses will you offer to students?

Let’s dive a little deeper in the next section.

3. Structure the course in modules and lessons

So let’s translate those milestones into modules and lessons.

To start, a common mistake I see first-time course creators make is including way too much information. Yes, there is such a thing as too much information.

Think of it this way:

Your students are investing in your course because you’re making it easier to get their goal.

Too many lessons and PDF workbooks are just overwhelming.

Instead, you want to streamline your content in the most logical, step-by-step way possible.

First, modules.

Each module should line up with completing a milestone on the way to achieving the ultimate goal.

That means that some modules will be bigger than others.

For example, let’s say you’re creating a course about learning the guitar. The module explaining chords may be bigger than the module about tuning the guitar.

That’s where lessons come in. Your lessons break up your modules into digestible chunks.

So when structuring your lessons, think about:

The introduction: At the beginning of each lesson, introduce the topic and let students know what they’ll learn in the lesson.
Results-focused content: Make the meat of your lessons results-focused.
Summary: Summarize the main takeaways of the lesson and what action steps your students should take to progress to the next level.

So how many lessons and modules should you have in your course?

A great structure is 4-8 modules. And each module should have no more than 3-7 lessons.

This structure has just enough information to be easy to implement and high-value for your students.

Finally, let’s talk about the supporting materials.

PDF workbooks, checklists, trackers, implementation guides, quizzes, and so on. These are extra materials that help your students achieve their goals.

It’s even better if the material is action-based. So plan out the list of materials you’ll include in each module. And remember, you don’t have to include a ton of materials in each module to make the course valuable. Only information that will make a difference to your student’s journey.

Next up: delivery.

4. Choose the right content delivery methods

You can format your course in multiple different ways:

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Slideshows
Straight-to-camera videos
Screen captures
Audio clips
PDF downloads
Text
Images/infographics
Emails

When it comes to delivery, the method isn’t everything.

What matters most is the content.

At the same time, you want to choose a delivery method that works for your audience.

For example, if your course is aimed at young people, video and short text will work better than email.

It also depends on your course content.

Most people who buy a course on learning to play the piano probably expect to see video tutorials rather than text explanations.

However, your delivery doesn’t need to be super high-end. Of course, create the best quality content you can with the resources you have. But you can do a lot with your smartphone.

You can even create a slide deck and record your voice walking people through the lessons in a video. That’s a super easy way of delivering your course that still provides your students with great value. You can always upgrade the format (if you need to) once you break even on your course.

As a general rule, the most high-value formats are video and audio. Combine those with PDF downloads and you have a high-ticket course that your students will enjoy.

Now let’s talk about user experience.

5. Make the course easy to navigate

When thinking about how to structure an online course, many people forget about user experience.

But here’s the thing. The easier your course is to implement, the better the results your students will get.

Better results mean amazing case studies you can use to sell your course in the future.

So investing time in your course’s user experience is always worth it.

Think about how easy it is to go through your course.

That means:

Is everything well explained?
Is the platform you’re using easy to navigate?
Is it easy for students to track their progress?
How well does one module build on the previous one?
Are the action steps simple to implement? If not, are there smaller steps you can add to make it easier?

Answering these questions will help you design a course that gets your students to the finish line in the most efficient way possible.

My advice? Create an overview in the first module of the course and the learning objectives.

This establishes exactly what your students are going to learn at each milestone and how to get the most out of the course.

Then, at the end of every module, recap what they’ve learned and what they’ll learn in the next module.

This helps reinforce what your students have learned so far and encourages them to complete the course.

Next up: bonuses and homework.

6. Add bonuses and assignments

One of the best ways to increase the value of your course is to add bonuses.

Your bonuses should be extra material that helps people implement your course and get results faster. They don’t need to be videos or PDFs, but they could be services, too – like group coaching calls.

Ultimately, bonuses make your course feel like a no-brainer to prospective students. They make the experience better for your students and make your course overall more valuable.

So what makes a good bonus?

Examples include:

Scripts (such as interview scripts for job searchers)
Templates (such as meal plan template for people designing their diet)
Case studies (such as success story of how one of your previous clients achieved their goal)
Bonus lessons (such as exclusive video on how to nail an interview for corporate employees looking for their dream job)
Free membership (such as an exclusive space for your students to connect)
Coaching sessions (such as one on one time with you to help them achieve their goal, group coaching calls, or group chats)

The bonuses you choose depend on your course topic and the amount of support you want to give.

The only rule is that the bonus should be relevant to the course and add a lot of value.

Another “extra” you can include are assignments. I personally don’t use assignments or homework in my own courses, but if you have a course that requires people to retain information, you can add quizzes at the end of each lesson or module.

And what if you don’t know what bonuses or assignments to include? After launching your course, student feedback will help you figure out what you can offer.

And to use student feedback, read on.

7. Use student feedback

Once your course has launched, the work doesn’t stop there. Now you can improve and perfect your course using the number one resource: student feedback.

Listen, creating my flagship course – Employee to Entrepreneur – was a great experience. I got to help so many people achieve their goals of becoming an entrepreneur.

But even though the first version of the course was well-received, it took me almost three years to perfect it.

Why? Because I continuously listened to my students over the years and incorporated their feedback in the next version.

Improving your course could mean:

Switching formats
Clarifying things
Adding or removing content
Adding new bonuses or supporting material

All of this makes your course the best possible product it can be so you can continue to make profits.

Now, you don’t have to look for negative feedback.

If something is wrong with your course, like a link isn’t working, someone will tell you straight away.

But if your course is pretty good as it is, how do you get student feedback to help you make it even better?

Simple: ask them.

Email your students directly or post in a community space about what you could improve with your course.

Ask questions like:

What was your favorite part of the course and why?

What was your least favorite part of the course and why?

Do you think there is something missing from the course?

Was the course easy to follow and implement?

Did you complete all of the assignments in the course? Why or why not?

What did you think of the course bonuses?

What are your results from taking the course?

Would you recommend the course to others? Why or why not?

Student feedback is what makes your course the best possible product on the market for your niche and helps you achieve financial freedom. So don’t skip this step!

Online course structure template

So now you know how to build your own successful online course.

Here’s a structure you can use for your course to get you started:

Online course outline example

Module 1: Introduction

Lesson 1: Welcome
Lesson 2: Course Overview
Lesson 3: Learning Objectives

Module 2: Topic 1

Lesson 1: Introduction to Topic 1
Lesson 2: Subtopic 1
Lesson 3: Subtopic 2
Lesson 4: Overview / assignments

Module 3: Topic 2

Lesson 1: Introduction to Topic 2
Lesson 2: Subtopic 1
Lesson 3: Subtopic 2
Lesson 4: Overview / assignments

Module 4: Conclusion

Lesson 1: Course Review
Lesson 2: Next Steps

Next steps

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

And that’s how to structure an online course!

But having a well-structured course is just the beginning.

Creating an online course is simple…but it’s not easy. There are plenty of mistakes new course creators make all the time. And those mistakes could keep you from launching a successful course.

Want to know what they are?

Download my free guide on the 3 most common mistakes course creators make and how to avoid them.

Read more:

How to Create a 6-Figure Online Course

How to Sell High-Ticket Courses

How to Launch Your Online Course

The post How to Structure an Online Course: 7 steps + template appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

6 Proven Steps to Finally Stop Trading Time for Money

Luisa Zhou — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 22:31:00 +0000

Want to learn how to stop trading time for money? You’re in the right place. If you’re ready to get more of your time back so you can…

Pursue interests outside of work
Spend more time with your family
Have a better work/life balance

…keep reading. That’s what we’re going to talk about here.

Why shouldn’t you trade time for money?

Before we talk about HOW to stop trading time for money, let’s talk about WHY it’s a bad idea in the first place.

For starters, your time is limited:

If you’re spending eight hours per day working a salaried job and another eight hours sleeping, that doesn’t leave much time for other things.

And because your time is limited, your income potential is ALSO limited when you work per hour – and so is the impact you can have.

Ultimately, being dependent on an employer who gets to decide your working hours and salary isn’t the best way to be financially free.

Ready to try something different?

That’s what we’ll look at next.

4 ways to stop trading time for money

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Here are my top recommendations.

Starting a business

If you’re looking for ultimate freedom in your work, starting a business is your best option.

And the good thing is, you don’t have to quit your job or invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to get started.

For example:

I, if you choose a low-risk, service-based business model like coaching, the value you offer will come from your skillset, not a physical product.

Which means?

You’ll have very little overhead. Once you’ve identified a problem people have that you can solve, you’ll be able to hit the ground running.

In fact, you don’t even need a website or external funding to get started.

I didn’t have either when I was a new entrepreneur. And now, I’ve scaled to eight-figures.

Creating digital products

Depending on your niche, there are all kinds of digital products you could sell. For example, a few popular options include:

Subscription services
Courses
eBooks
Software

Wondering which option will get you the highest ROI?

Easy.

Courses will. And here’s why: You can charge hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for a comprehensive course. I’ve done it.

And the best part? Once you’ve created your course, you can resell it over and over again, which makes it incredibly scaleable.

Offering group programs

Side note: If you’re not yet a business owner, save this strategy for later.

But here’s an example to show how effective group programs can be… Let’s say you’re a health coach who works with clients one-on-one.

By offering group coaching, you’d be able to increase the number of people you help – without increasing the number of hours you’d work to match.

Your clients would get to network and learn together, and you’d get more control over your working hours and income. It’s a win-win.

I’ve used group programs myself, and I’ve also helped my clients scale by going this route, so I know it works:

Investing

As an investor, you can theoretically make good money – even when you’re not actively working.

For example, the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is all about extreme saving and investing so that you can leave the workforce earlier and spend your time as you see fit.

But… FIRE isn’t for everyone. It requires years of sacrifice and cutting out anything that’s not strictly necessary, which can feel limiting.

Another example? Investing in real estate, like my student Ryan does (in student housing).

You can also invest in stocks or bonds.

Here’s the thing, though…

If you’re looking for fast results, investing isn’t your best bet.

You’d need capital to get started, and it’s much riskier than a simple business model like coaching, for example.

Ultimately, investing can offer passive income, which is nice.

But the thing is, passive income isn’t completely “passive” (and I’ll talk about this more in a bit).

If you don’t want to wait years to see serious investment returns, having a business you can scale with minimal risk is a better idea.

How to stop trading time for money in your business in 6 steps

So far, we’ve covered a few options for how to avoid trading your time for money, like starting a business or investing. Now let’s dig deeper and talk about specifics.

Sell your expertise

If you’re currently working a 9-to-5 and excel at what you do, try to negotiate a higher salary as a first step. Chances are, you’re leaving money on the table and could get paid more just by asking.

But ultimately, I recommend starting a freedom business:

The kind of business that will help you leave your job and make more money doing what you’re already good at.

For example:

I, if you’re a copywriter for a company, you could start your own thing and use your skills to teach people how to write effective copy that converts.

Not sure what you could offer as a coach?

Think about your background and interests, and then do some research to see if there’s a demand for what you want to help people with.

To be successful, be sure to choose a niche (rather than trying to appeal to everyone):

Create products

Selling products can be an effective way to stop trading your time for money.

With that said…

Remember how I mentioned that passive income isn’t really “passive”?

Here’s why:

To build income streams that don’t require your time on an ongoing basis, you have to work beforehand to get the momentum going.

In other words? You can’t just create a digital product, post about it on your social media, and expect the passive income to roll in indefinitely.

But that doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7 and burn out, either. With the right strategies, you absolutely CAN use products to help you take more time off.

As I mentioned earlier, digital products include all kinds of things, from courses to subscriptions to eBooks.

There’s no right or wrong way to go here.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

But again, if you’re looking to maximize your impact and profit, courses are your best bet.

Wondering why that is?

Here’s an example:

Ebooks typically cost a few dollars. That means you have to sell a lot of books to make a decent income.

On the other hand, if you sell a course for three or four figures, you’ll just need a few sales to make the same amount.

Master one sales system

Once you’ve decided what you want to sell, it’s time to create a system that will help people find you.

Remember: You can have the best offer in the world, but… if no one knows about it, what’s the point?

That’s where mastering one system for driving traffic and sales comes in.

Why just one?

Because focus is really important. If you try to go in too many directions simultaneously, you won’t be nearly as effective as if you choose one strategy and stick to it until you get serious results.

So, here are the top ways to drive traffic that you can choose from:

Paid ads
Affiliates
Social media
SEO

My take? Social media is the hardest option of the three: The algorithm can change unexpectedly, and you have to get good at growing organically.

What I’ve used successfully in my own business are paid ads and SEO. To reach my first seven figures, I focused specifically on Facebook ads, then expanded to include YouTube ads.

After that, I switched over to search traffic (SEO), which helped me build a sustainable and highly profitable business.

So, bottom line here: Go deep, not wide. Focus on one strategy rather than trying to do too much, too soon.

Scale up your traffic

If your ultimate goal is being able to work less without earning less, scaling your traffic will help you get there.

Okay, but how?

As we covered earlier, there are several different ways you can go here, including SEO, affiliates, and social media.

Once you’ve chosen a traffic source to master, it’s also important to know your numbers. For example, what’s your sales conversion rate?

In other words, out of all the people who go through your sales system, what percentage actually buys from you?

Knowing your metrics will help you know how many people you’ll need to make X in sales – without the guesswork.

I cover all the details in this video:

And remember: Potential clients will be attracted to what you offer if you can show them that you’re an authority in your niche.

Because at the end of the day, people want results. You’ll know you’re on the right track when you’re able to scale your traffic while maintaining high conversion rates and satisfied clients.

Automate as much as you can

Once you have a strategy for driving traffic to your offer, it’s time to automate your funnel.

Let’s look at an example to see what this looks like:

Imagine someone finds your content through search traffic, paid ads, social media, or some other source and takes action, like signing up to get your emails.

With automation, you can plan out an entire email sequence so that your leads will get your emails as soon as they enter your funnel. And that’s just one example.

These days, there are plenty of tools that can help you automate tasks and free up your time.

Outsource

Outsourcing is incredibly useful, and I do it myself.

But… if you’re a new business owner (or want to become one), I don’t recommend outsourcing right away.

Let me explain…

Before looking for outside help, you want to be able to manage on your own so that you know how things work. This will make it a lot easier for you to delegate later.

For example, if you learn how to set up a sales funnel yourself first, you won’t be in the dark when the time comes to choose someone who can take over, like a VA.

But early on, your primary focus should be on bringing in revenue.

Think: Could this business-related task lead to a sale?

If not, skip it for now.

Once you have consistent revenue, then you can think about outsourcing, but it’s important to do things in order.

That’s how you’ll maximize your results.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Next steps

There you have it! Now you know how to stop trading time for money so you can make a living on your terms.

Need more guidance on exactly how to get there?

I’ve used everything I’ve learned from building an eight-figure business from scratch to show you how to create and sell courses and group programs.

And I share the top mistakes course creators make in my FREE PDF.

Read more:

How to Start a True Freedom Business

What is an Online Course? Definition, Examples & Benefits

How to Build an Evergreen Sales Funnel

The post 6 Proven Steps to Finally Stop Trading Time for Money appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

How Much Money Can You Make Selling Online Courses? (Realistically!)

Luisa Zhou — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 12:21:00 +0000

How much can you make selling online courses?

In today’s guide, you’ll learn how much you can charge for your course, how to create a course that sells – and increase your earnings.

Want to learn more? Read on!

How much can you make by selling an online course?

You can make anywhere from $100 to multiple six-figures (or even seven figures) per year from your online courses. Most people who create courses as their full-time job make five to six figures per year. Your course sales will depend on your course topic, marketing strategies, conversion rate, and course price.

For example, if your course is priced at $299 and you get 5,000 people to your course page with a 5% email opt-in rate and a 1% sales conversion rate, you make $748 in revenue.

Or, if you charge $1,000 for that same course, you make $2,500.

Ultimately, there’s a lot of potential in the e-learning market, which is estimated to reach $325 billion by 2025.

The average part-time Kajabi course creator earns over $30,000, while one in three full-time creator makes over six figures.

Teachable creators earned close to $400 million in 2020.

And many of my own students earn five to six figures and beyond with their online course businesses.

We’ll talk more about the strategies successful course creators use below.

But first, let’s take a look at how you can calculate your course revenue.

How do you calculate the revenue of your online course?

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

To calculate the revenue of your online course, here’s a simple formula:

Revenue = the size of your audience x conversion rate x price of your course

Let’s break it down.

Audience size: This is the number of website visitors who convert into email subscribers. On average, 3% of your “cold traffic” (like traffic from paid ads and SEO) will sign up to your email list. But “warm traffic” (like clicks from guest posts, social media, and podcasts) has a higher subscription rate – typically 5-7%. If you don’t have an audience yet, make a conservative estimate of how many people you think you can reach.
Conversion rate: This is the number of email subscribers that buy your course. The average conversion rate across the online course industry is 1%.
Price of your course: Your revenue is going to be very different if you price your course at $50 instead of $500. (We’ll talk more about pricing your course in a later section.)

So here’s an example:

Say 1,000 people become subscribers to your email list after finding you via blogs, social media, or other marketing channels.

That’s your audience size.

Now let’s take the average conversion rate of 1%.

That’s 10 people.

If the price of your course is $500, you can expect to make $5,000 in revenue.

So that’s revenue. What about profit?

Profit = revenue – expenses

Expenses could be marketing costs, course platforms, hired freelancers, taxes, and so on.

There are ways to keep your expenses down – especially in the beginning.

For example, you can create videos for your course on your smartphone; you don’t need a professional setup.

But is selling online courses profitable?

Here’s what you need to know.

Is selling online courses profitable?

Yes, selling online courses can be very profitable.

You’re selling a digital product that you don’t have to produce over and over.

Instead, you put in the work once and can continue to sell the course without having to re-create it.

But that doesn’t mean that making money with online courses is easy.

It takes work. And you won’t see overnight sales.

When students ask me “How much can you make selling online courses?”, I’m honest with them.

I now make multiple seven figures across my many courses (I have around 16 courses and trainings on offer).

But it took me years to perfect them.

For example, my flagship course – Employee to Entrepreneur took a few years to develop.

At the same time, there are a lot of people who find success with online courses.

Take Alex Cattoni, an expert copywriter and YouTuber. She built a seven-figure business selling her flagship course, The Copy Posse Launch Files, teaching people to become great copywriters.

Or Teresa Greenway of Northwest Sourdough. She makes over $200,000 a year selling courses on Udemy about how to make sourdough bread.

So as you can see, online courses can be hugely profitable. Even for niche course topics.

Another factor that impacts the profitability of your course is how effective your marketing is.

The better your marketing, the better your conversion rate.For example, paid ads are fast and effective, but drain your profits over time because you need to keep paying for them to drive traffic.

But organic traffic from search engines (SEO) is free (in the sense that you don’t pay for your visitors) and can scale. Over time, your sales become more profitable.

Next, let’s talk about how you can increase your revenue as a course creator.

How to make more money from your online course

Now you know how much you can make from selling online courses. But there are ways to improve your course sales.

And here’s how you can maximize your results:

Choose the right audience and topic

Here’s the thing about courses: a lot of topics can make money.

Sure, some popular topics always do well like marketing and tech topics. Some topics have more demand depending on existing trends, such as AI and coding. But your course doesn’t need to be about these topics to make money.

For example, some successful course topics include courses on how to:

Write a book
Build tiny homes
Breastfeed
Raise a puppy

And so on. Often, these types of niche courses can sell for more than more general courses because the audience is smaller. What matters is that you have an audience that is willing and able to pay for your course.

Tip: Try coaching or consulting a few clients to learn what your audience needs.

I talk more about this strategy in this video:

Help students get great results

When I launched my first course, I went above and beyond to help my students get results.

Why? I wanted to learn as much as I could from my students, so that I could develop my course. Those students then gave me glowing testimonials, which I could use to sell the course.

After all, testimonials help build trust and show new customers that they can get results from your course.

So a great way to develop your course as fast as possible and get testimonials is to work one-on-one or in a group setting with your first few students.

Next, let’s look at how you can continuously develop your course.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Improve your online course

If you want your course to sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, you need to provide a great learning experience.

And you will need feedback to make the course into the best possible product it can be.

For example, it took me almost three years to tweak my flagship course, Employee to Entrepreneur. I listened to my customers and developed it based on their feedback.

So take feedback and use it to iterate your course.

To get that feedback, ask your course students.

Ask them questions like:

“Where were you at with your goals before taking the course?”

“Did the course help you get closer to your goals?”

“Were you happy with the experience?”

“What were your favorite parts of the course? What areas of the course could be improved?”

“If someone was thinking of taking a course on this topic, would you recommend that they take my course?”

By improving your product, people will continue to buy from you.

Use the right marketing strategies

There are several marketing strategies you can use to sell your online course.

Examples include:

Referrals
Social media marketing
Podcast interviews
Paid ads
SEO

The most profitable methods are the “free strategies.” By that I mean you get “free,” organic traffic to your course.

Compare that to paid ads. Paid ads are effective but eat up your profits fast. So I don’t recommend relying on them too much – especially when you want to scale your business.

My favorite marketing strategy is SEO. It’s great for scaling because you continue to get traffic from your old content. But I wouldn’t recommend this for beginners.

In the beginning, focus on strategies like podcast interviews and social media until you have your first students. At this stage, it’s more about building relationships than getting as much traffic as possible.

Increase your conversion rate

This step immediately helps you increase revenue.

Your conversion rate is the percentage of people who buy your online course after seeing your marketing or landing on your sales page.

How can you improve? Here are some things to think about:

Include testimonials
Focus on benefits, not features
Write descriptive calls-to-action (for example, “Get the…” or “Buy it now”)
Use your audience’s language in your sales copy

These tweaks can take time to perfect. But as you keep experimenting, you’ll slowly increase your conversion rate over time.

Upsell

One of the best ways to increase revenue is through upselling.

You can upsell to people who enroll in your course by giving them tools to get faster, better results.

Examples include:

A bundle with another course
Coaching or consulting time with you
Extra material like templates, masterclasses, or guides
Membership in an exclusive online community with other students

I upsold one of my first courses with coaching. That simple add-on led to 21k more in sales on a $8,000 course launch.

Next up: Pricing.

Choose the right price

How much you charge for your online course depends on the type of course you’re selling.

I recommend new course creators to make a “First Steps” course first. This is a course that will help your students with the first steps of their journey to their end goal. These courses can be short and self-study.

For example, my first course helped new entrepreneurs get their first clients.

Compare that to a flagship A-Z course. An A-Z course helps students achieve their goals from beginning to end. For example, my flagship course, Employee to Entrepreneur, helps corporate employees start a business and leave their 9 to 5 jobs.

As a general guide:

For a new 4-6 week self-study course, charge $500
For a flagship, A-Z course, charge $1,000-3,000

But don’t overthink your pricing. Just set the price and start selling. You can incrementally increase your price over time.

What online courses make the most money?

Some of the most popular course niches at the moment are:

AI
Data Science
Coding/web development
Entrepreneurship
Photography
Nutrition
Fitness
Writing
Content creation

But you can make a successful course about anything.

For example, on Teachable, the most successful online course categories are marketing and self-development.

Whereas on Skillshare, they are illustration, graphic design, fine art, and photography.

And Udemy’s best-selling courses include Python, Excel, AWS certification, and web development courses.

Bottom line: Any course idea can make money if there’s a market for it. Everything from baking to entrepreneurship can be successful.

Focus on the topics that you have experience in and build an audience around your knowledge. That’s how you create a sustainable course business, no matter what your niche is.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Next steps

There you have it! The answer to the question “How much can you make selling online courses?”

We’ve looked at some of the most important steps to create a course that makes money. But the devil is in the details and those are just the steps…At the same time, most course creators make the same mistakes over and over.

And those mistakes keep them from making more sales.

Want to know what they are?

Get the free blueprint for new online course creators with three deadly course mistakes to avoid.

Read more:

How to Launch Your Online Course

How Long Does It Take to Create an Online Course?

Steps to Sell High-Ticket Online Courses

The post How Much Money Can You Make Selling Online Courses? (Realistically!) appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

How to Make Money Teaching Online (& earn thousands)

Luisa Zhou — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 17:28:38 +0000

If you want to make money teaching online, you’ll really enjoy this guide.

In this article, we’ll talk about the different ways to teach online, the benefits of teaching online, how to get started, and how much you can earn.

Sound good? Read on.

The top ways to teach online

There are many ways to make money teaching online.

The main ones are:

Selling online courses
Coaching or consulting
Creating educational resources
Online tutoring
Teaching English (or other languages) online

Let’s talk about each of them in detail.

Sell online courses

An online course is a training program delivered completely online. And you can create a successful course about anything from photography to entrepreneurship, baking to making tiny houses from scratch.

You can learn more about creating an online course in this video:

It’s simple to get started because there are so many platforms you can use to create your course. You could host it on your own WordPress website, use a course creator like Teachable, or try a course marketplace like Skillshare.

Whatever method you choose, selling online courses can be highly profitable and scalable.

Income potential: Six to seven figures

Pros:

You can set your own prices
Simple to get started

Cons:

It takes time to build an audience and make your first sales
There’s more work to do upfront

Coach or consult online

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Coaching or consulting is a great place to start teaching online.

Why? Because it’s profitable, flexible, and easy to start.

You can make money teaching topics you already have experience in. That could be from your day job, your personal experience, or your hobbies.

For example, one of my students, Adunola Adeshola from employeeREDEFINED, climbed the corporate ladder to an executive level, only to realize she wasn’t happy. Now she helps mid-executive level women find their dream roles. So she is coaching from her personal experience.

Income potential: Six or seven figures

Pros:

Can be highly profitable
You can set your own hours

Cons:

Not as scalable as courses
You need expertise in a specific niche

Create educational resources

Another way to make money teaching online is to sell educational digital products.

By digital products, I mean PDF guides, eBooks, workbooks, workshops, webinars, and so on.

These educational resources are great because you only have to put in the work of creating them once. You can sell them indefinitely.

Income potential: Five figures. Six figures are possible but rare.

Pros:

Upfront costs are low so educational resources are high in profit
Digital products generate passive income

Cons:

Tend to be priced low so not as profitable as courses
It takes time to build an audience to sell large volumes

Tutor online

Think you could help students with their studies? Why not try tutoring online?

With platforms like TutorMe, you can tutor students of all ages on their school subjects and earn for each session you do.

The platform will help you find students to tutor. And if you’re good, you could get regular clients and get paid a weekly side income.

Income potential: Up to five figures

Pros:

You can set your own schedule
Highly rewarding work

Cons:

If you tutor for an online company, you can’t set your own rates
Work can be sporadic depending on your subject

Teach English online

The most common way of tutoring online is to teach English.

Why? Because there are 1.5 billion English language learners in the world.

As there is so much demand for English tutors, you can find quite regular work online. You could either create your own website to advertise your own services. Or sign up for platforms like iTalki, Preply, or Lingoda. On average, these platforms will pay you $10-20 per hour.

Income potential: Five figures.

Pros:

Easy to get started
Can provide a steady side income

Cons:

Might require an English language qualification like TEFL
If you’re using an ESL platform, you can’t set your own prices

Next up: why you should teach online.

Benefits of teaching online

So now you know the different ways you can make money teaching online, is it right for you?

Well, here are the benefits:

Flexibility and freedom: It’s easy to fit teaching online around your schedule. Whether that’s by creating a digital product like a course or signing up for an online tutoring platform, you’re in control of when you work and where.
Easy to start: Because you’re using the knowledge you already have, you can start teaching online straight away. With tutoring, there may be an application step to pass, but once you’re approved, you can start earning within a couple of days.
Profitability: Now not all of the methods for teaching online earn the same. But with online courses and coaching, you can create a highly profitable business with low upfront costs and high returns.
“Passive” income: Let’s be clear – there’s no such thing as truly passive income. But courses and digital products are the closest. You can make unlimited sales on products you’ve already created without too much effort.
Scalable: Once you have a good sales funnel in place, selling educational resources and courses is highly scalable. This applies less to tutoring and coaching as you can only teach so many people simultaneously.
Rewarding: Lastly, you can have a huge impact on many people’s lives by teaching online. Whether you’re teaching a 12-year-old English or a career-changer how to find their dream job, you’re changing someone’s life for the better.

In the next section, we’ll talk about exactly how you can start teaching online.

How to make money teaching online

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Here’s how to get started making money teaching online.

Decide what you want to teach

Can any topic make money?

Yes and no. Let me explain.

Any niche can be successful in theory. From playing the guitar to creating a social media schedule – there’s always someone who wants to learn the skills you have.

But here’s the thing: as the online teaching industry grows, the market becomes more saturated.

To figure out a topic that helps you stand out first figure out the unique skills you have.

For example, if you’ve been a practicing pediatric nurse for years, you could tutor new moms on baby health. Or you could create a course for other nurses teaching them how to find work-life balance.

Which brings me to my next point:

Who do you want to serve?

Your niche is a combination of what you want to teach and who you want to teach.

I talk more about finding your niche in this video:

Now you have a course idea, will it sell? Let’s find out.

Conduct market research

Once you know who your ideal student is, you need to understand them.

Audience or demographic research is how you actually find out if your topic will sell.

My advice is to start online. Use Reddit forums and other social media groups in your niche to see the common questions people are asking.

You could also create your own social media accounts to interact with your audience. Ask them questions in your posts or direct message new followers to see what they want to learn about your niche.

If you’re creating a course, it helps to see what other courses are selling in your niche too. So you can create a fresh product that stands out from the others.

Want to get even more detailed research? Why not coach or consult a few private clients?

That way you get one-on-one time with members of your audience and can see the common problems they face.

Acquire the necessary skills

So let’s say you want to teach English or tutor medical students. You’re probably going to sign up to an existing education platform to find your students.

Some platforms require certifications, relevant degrees, or teaching experience to host you on their platform. Check you fit all of those requirements before you apply.

Do you need a certification to create an online course or start coaching?

Generally no. These are great ways of making money by teaching skills you already have. That means no extra school or teaching qualifications.

But it depends on the topic.

For example, if you want to become a health coach and create courses about health, you probably should have a certification or a background in healthcare. This also helps build trust with your audience.

Overall, you should be teaching a subject you know really well before you start selling your products or services. That could be because of your day job or your personal experience.

And:

If you don’t have the skills yet for the topic you want to teach, spend time becoming an expert first. You can do that with a certification or self-study until you feel confident teaching others.

Create your online course

Let’s talk about how to create an online course (though this could also apply to lesson or coaching programs.)

The first step is to identify the main goal of your program.

Every course or program has a promised result or transformation. That’s what makes the student want to work with you.

For example, if you’re a relationship expert, your program’s goal might be to help your students find love. Or even smaller than that – to figure out the type of person they are looking for so they can find love.

Now you have your end goal in mind, think about the step-by-step process to get there.

Each milestone becomes a module in your curriculum. And you can break each module into 4-7 lessons. That’s enough to be easy to work through either with you or on their own.

By the end, your outline should have:

Course/program name
Course/program description
Modules
Lessons
Bonuses

Now let’s talk about format.

If you choose to create a course, I’ll let you in on a secret:

The format doesn’t really matter. The content is the most important thing.

You can use video, photos, graphics, PDF workbooks, templates, emails – or a combination of all of them.

Most high-ticket courses are video lessons with PDF extras.

Focus on creating lessons that are easy to understand and contain actionable steps for your students to help them achieve their goals.

Speaking of students, let’s talk about how to connect with them.

Connect with your target audience

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

You need to build a relationship with your target audience. That way, they are more likely to trust your guidance and buy your teaching products.

How do you build those relationships?

Simple: give value first.

That could mean different things depending on your audience. For me, it means creating YouTube videos about how to start an online business and writing daily (weekday) email newsletters. These two things help my audience get to know me and my work.

So when you’re starting out, use social media to get in front of your audience and share as much free content as consistently as you can.

Another great strategy is to guest post on podcasts in your niche. This helps boost your visibility with potential students and helps them understand your brand.

Now followers on your social media accounts can be great. But there’s a word for metrics like your follower count: vanity metrics.

Your success depends on more than how many followers you have on Instagram. What’s important is if you can convert those followers into customers.

To do that, I recommend you create an email list for people to subscribe to. An email list gives you closer access to your followers so you can build a closer relationship and give value differently.

When the time comes, email subscribers are way more likely to buy your course or sign up for coaching.

So start with social media and then funnel them to your email list.

Let’s talk more about social media strategy.

Build your online presence

Social media platforms are all different.

Each one has a target audience. And you need to figure out where your target audience hangs out.

Think about:

Your industry
Your audience’s age range

For example, if you’re starting a tutoring business for high-school students, TikTok could be a great fit for your brand.

On the other hand, a career coach for mid–level career changers should probably be posting on LinkedIn consistently to find their audience.

But here’s the key: Focus on one channel first.

I know there’s pressure to be everywhere at once, but honestly, it’s just overwhelming.

Focusing on learning one platform well gives you a better chance at nurturing your audience. You’ll also understand what content works and what doesn’t.

Once you’ve started posting on your chosen platform, create a content strategy you can stick to. That means posting every day for most platforms.

But if you can only post every other day, that’s okay too.

What matters is you’re showing up consistently, answering questions in the comments, engaging with others in your niche, and building an approachable, knowledgeable brand.

You can use your chosen platform to sell your course or teaching services as you build your audience. So don’t think you need to already have a huge audience to make this work. You can build and sell at the same time.

Improve your product

So you’ve sold your course or coaching program – what’s next?

To me, the real work begins. To make your course or program the best it can be, you need to keep improving it.

Why? Well, if your audience is spending hundreds or thousands on your products, you want it to be the best experience it can be.

So how do you improve? The best way is to tweak based on customer feedback.

Now, this could take time. It took me 2-3 years to perfect my flagship course, Employee to Entrepreneur. But it was so worth it. That course is still a bestseller and brings in multiple six figures every year.

The key? Obsess over providing the most value you can. Overdeliver and engage with your audience to learn what’s working and what’s not.

Many people will give you positive feedback if they are enjoying your course or program. That’s great because testimonials will help you sell your products in the future. However, I recommend contacting students directly to ask some more targeted questions.

Here are some examples:

What do you like about the course?
What are the areas I can improve?
Would you recommend the course to your friends, family, or colleagues? Why or why not?
What transformation did you get from taking the course?
What were your results from taking the course?

These answers are invaluable to building a better product that continues to sell.

Build your resilience

So those are the more practical elements of teaching online.

But I want to talk about mindset for a minute.

The truth is making money teaching online can take time. You won’t build your business overnight. And no matter what any “guru” tells you, creating courses is not a fast track to getting rich.

It takes hard work and persistence to create, market, and sell educational resources and services that can sustain your business.

It’s all about having an entrepreneurial mindset.

That means:

Setting realistic goals: Don’t expect that you’ll reach six figures with your first course launch. You’ll probably be disappointed. For context, I made $8,000 with my first course launch which is pretty good. So keep your numbers in check.
Schedule when you’ll work on your business: “Booking” time in your calendar to work on your online teaching business will help make sure important tasks get done.
Switch your negativity bias: Negativity bias is the very human tendency to focus on the negative. So next time something isn’t working, change “Why isn’t this working?” to “How can I make this work?”

Just these three mindset shifts will go a long way.

But you can read more about developing an entrepreneurial mindset in this blog post.

How much money can you make teaching online?

The amount you could earn teaching online depends on two things:

The topic you’re teaching
The type of teaching you’re doing
The platform you’re using to teach

For example, if you teach English for an online teaching company, you can make between $10-20 per hour. Most online teaching companies have set rates and minimum working hours so you have less flexibility on how much you can earn.

According to Glassdoor, online ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers make an average of $51,360 per year.

Compare that to selling an online course on a topic you’re passionate about. Selling three flagship $2,000 courses every month makes $72,000 per year. And because courses are digital products, you don’t have to spend as much time selling them as you would tutoring English one-on-one.

But if you prefer one-on-one work, coaching or consulting gives you way more flexibility in how much you can earn.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

A coach can earn $100 to $500+ per hour depending on their reputation, expertise, and target audience. Life coaches make on average $69,980 per year. But because you can set your own rates, you could make six figures or even seven figures as a successful coach.

Bottom line: How much you can make teaching online depends on you.

If you want to start making income faster, teaching for an online company is a good place to start. But if you want to reach multiple six figures in revenue, coaching or courses are better paths.

Next step

And that’s how you make money teaching online!

For most people, I recommend starting an online course business. It’s profitable, scalable, and gives you so much flexibility and freedom.

But there are many mistakes that course creators make in the beginning that can impact their success.

Want to know what they are?

Download my free guide on the top three most common mistakes course creators make (and how to avoid them.)

How to Start an Online Course Business

The Most Profitable Digital Products To Sell

The post How to Make Money Teaching Online (& earn thousands) appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

How to Use SEO for Course Creators (Full Guide)

Luisa Zhou — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 18:57:44 +0000

How do you attract customers to your course…every day?

After all, to build a profitable and sustainable course business, you need a scalable traffic source – SEO.

And today, you’ll learn how to use SEO for course creators.

Read on!

What is SEO for course creators?

When you use SEO (search engine optimization) to market your courses, you optimize your website to appear in search engines. People search for content related to your course, find your website – and some of them buy your course.

Basically, you attract new students by bringing in free, organic traffic.

But why is SEO better than other traffic sources, like paid ads?

Great question. SEO is, just like paid ads, a highly scalable traffic source.

It’s also profitable because you don’t pay for every visitor. In contrast, paid ad costs go up – and eat up profits.

And, you build up assets that continue to deliver traffic. You see, once a blog post ranks on search engines, it continues to drive traffic every month.

The best part? You don’t need a ton of traffic to get sales.

And that’s what we’ll look at next.

The 4-Step Automatic Attraction System

for attracting more clients daily... without paid ads, social media, or "hustle"!

12 top SEO strategies for course creators

A few years back, I had successfully scaled my business with paid ads.

Sure, my business was a seven-figure business…but it felt incredibly stressful to run.

Ad costs kept creeping up so profits were never stable, my business wasn’t predictable, and despite working with an ads manager, I had to constantly think about new ad creatives and angles.

That’s when I decided to invest in SEO.

Within two years, SEO was a multiple six-figure channel that kept growing.

Today, I’m selling my courses passively (or as passively as it gets – no sales are completely passive!), every day. My sales are much more predictable, not to mention profits.

And that’s what I teach in the steps below – how to use SEO for course creators.

The steps we’ll cover are…

Use the right keywords
Research your competition
Match search intent
Get people to stay on your website
Increase clicks to your website
Make your content the most authoritative
Write the right number of words
Include keywords (in the right way)
Use internal linking
Make your website work faster
Get featured in media
Get more email subscribers

For the full process, take a look at my tutorial here:

Find the right keywords that attract buyers

First up:

Finding the right keywords.

You see, when people search for things on search engines like Google, they use different search phrases.

For example:

“How to play the piano”

“How do I ask for a promotion?”

…And so on.

You want to rank for those search phrases.

And to do so, you need to find relevant keywords.

Typically, you write blog posts and optimize them for these keywords. So the keywords you find are your blog post topics.

In the examples above, you’d use keywords like “play the piano” or “ask for a promotion.”

How do you figure out what keywords people are searching for, though?

First of all, you need to know your audience well enough.

What are their most frequently asked questions?

What challenges and dreams do they have?

That’s going to give you a few ideas.

You can then research those ideas in Google Keyword Planner (GKP), which is Google’s free keyword tool. It’s created for ads but you can use it for researching keywords to target in organic (non-paid) searches.

Search for the keywords you think your audience might be looking for to see if they get any search traffic. You’ll see if they get search traffic by looking at the column “avg. monthly searches”:

There are other tools you can use, too, including Ahrefs and Semrush.

However, GKP is a free tool and a good starting point.

When you do your research, don’t get stuck in trying to target keywords with the most traffic.

Instead, look at keywords that are relatively easy to rank for.

How do you figure out which keywords those are, though?

Google your keyword and look at what websites come up.

Are the only websites ranking for that keyword big websites like Healthline and Forbes?

If so, it’s most likely a relatively competitive keyword.

Ideally, you’ll find a keyword that has at least a few smaller websites ranking for it.

But there are other ways to find keywords than just manually searching for different topic ideas.

You can also use your competitors. And that’s what we’ll look at next.

Research your competition (to get ideas)

Another way to find keyword ideas is to research your competitors.

You see, your competitors might already be ranking for a good number of keywords.

And you can get keyword ideas from them and use those keywords for your own blog posts.

One of the best ways to do competitor research as a beginner is to use Google Keyword Planner.

Choose “Start with website” and insert the domain you want to research.

You’ll get a list of all the keywords they rank for.

Use the same criteria you used above to choose the right keywords.

Match search intent

Now you know how to find keywords.

But before you start writing your content, you need to be clear on the search intent of your keyword.

Search intent refers to what people are looking for when they search for your keyword.

For example, someone who is searching for “Titanic” might be looking for information about the actual historical event or the movie.

And you want to ensure that your blog topic matches that search intent.

So if you teach people how to play the piano and you’re creating a tutorial, you’ll want to make sure that your tutorial matches what people want.

Are they looking for general information on the topic?

A specific type of tutorial?

…And so.

When I created this article, I checked the search results and saw that most of them include lists of strategies – so I created my own list based on my personal experience.

Get people to stay longer on your website

Understanding what people want to read about is key to getting your blog post to rank for its target keyword.

But you also need to know how to keep people on your post for as long as possible.

You see, Google wants to offer a good experience to its users – that’s how they keep coming back.

So if your blog post offers the most value to them, they’ll spend longer on your page.

On the other hand, if they hit the back button and go to another search result, that search result will eventually rank higher than yours.

How do you get people to stick around, though?

First of all, you need to offer real value.

Offer content based on your experience – like I do here. This isn’t rehashed content, but I’m sharing practical steps I’ve used in my own business.

But you also need to present your content in an engaging way.

And that comes down to copywriting.

One of the key things is to write to YOUR reader. Use a lot of “you” and make your copy conversational by writing as you speak.

Overall, make your text easy to read. A good tool to use here is Hemingway Editor, which highlights sections you can improve.

A few things that make your text more readable are:

Short sentences
Headlines
Images

Increase your CTRs

Your blog posts will appear in search results.

And there, the only things people typically can see are a title and meta description.

Like here…

Now, if people don’t click through to your website, your blog post won’t rank.

So, how do you improve your click-through rates (CTRs)?

By improving your titles.

First, if you use a WordPress website, download the plugin Yoast.

Here, you’ll be able to see how your title appears in search results.

Ideally, you want to create a title that fits in the search results. If it’s longer, people won’t see all the words in the search results.

But your title also needs to be appealing.

Why should people click on your article and not anyone else’s?

After all, there are often millions of search results you have to compete against…

Often, “how to” or list posts get the most clicks.

So if you’re creating a tutorial-style blog post, then use a “how to” headline.

For example:

“How to find a new job”

“How to improve your posture”

And if you’re creating a list post (a list of tools, tips, or something else), use that in your headline.

“12 Clothing Items Your Capsule Wardrobe Must Include”

“21 Helpful Tools for New Software Engineers”

Also, try to use “power words” in your title.

Words like “fast,” “simple,” or “great” that convey emotion.

Other examples are…

Smart

Best

Quick

No-brainer

Free

Top

Secret

Mistake

Here’s how I use this in one of my own titles:

If you want to check your own headline, use a tool like the CoSchedule headline analyzer to measure how powerful your headline is.

Show why YOU’re an expert

You’ve created a course on a specific topic – a topic you’re an expert on.

And that’s what you’ll want to show search engines (and your readers).

You see, there’s a concept called “EEAT.” This stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

Google uses this concept to assess whether search results are helpful.

At the same time, Google has said EEAT isn’t a ranking factor, so a factor that would help you rank higher.

That said, EEAT is part of Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines – the guidelines Google uses to assess search results.

So, you do want to show your authoritativeness on a topic.

There are a few ways to do this…

Include stories and examples
Mention results or achievements whenever possible
Link to your about page, LinkedIn profile, or other profiles that show your expertise

You can (should) also include high-authority sources to back up your claims.

Those are sources by reputable websites in your industry.

For example, if you’re in the health industry, that would include websites like Healthline.

If your course is on career development, you might link to Harvard Business Review.

And so on.

The 4-Step Automatic Attraction System

for attracting more clients daily... without paid ads, social media, or "hustle"!

Write the right number of words

How long should your blog posts be?

The thing is…there’s no such thing as a “perfect” word count.

In fact, Google has confirmed that there’s no perfect word count – and that you should go for what makes sense for the topic.

In other words, your blog post should be as long as it needs to be.

Some topics just don’t need a very long post (such as answers to questions that don’t require a lot of explanation).

But sometimes, you should create a lengthier post if you’re creating a more in-depth guide.

For example, my guide on how to sell online courses is longer because I have to include a bit more text to cover all the most important aspects of the topic.

In general, 2,000-2,500 is a good range. Most topics can be sufficiently explained in that many words.

Include keywords in the right places

One way search engines analyze your page is by figuring out its context.

The easiest way to do this is to look at keywords on your page.

If you include enough keywords the search crawler can determine what your page is about – helping it rank your blog post for its target keyword.

So, you need to include your target keyword throughout your page.

A good rule is to include it once in the introduction, twice in the body, and once in the conclusion.

Now, search engines are getting smarter all the time and including keywords in your content is less important today than it was a few years ago.

But it’s still safe to include your keyword at least a few times to help search crawlers figure out what your blog post is about faster.

Other words to include are related keywords, sometimes called “LSI” keywords.

These are keywords that add even more context to your page.

A great way to find them is to look at the search results for your target keyword.

Look at things like…

“People also ask” sections.

“Related searches” sections.

Use as many of those as you can – but keep your copy natural without trying to stuff in keywords that sound unnatural and make the user experience worse.

Use internal links (here’s why they’re important)

Next up:

Internal linking.

You see, search engines need to easily access and understand your website.

First, you need the right website architecture, meaning that your website pages have a logical structure.

The homepage is the “main” page with links to your menu bar, which links to pages like your About page, blog, and contact page.

Those pages, again, link to other pages.

This type of website structure helps search engine crawlers access your website and figure out what it’s about much faster than if your structure isn’t as logical.

As a general rule, every page should be three clicks away from the homepage.

But you also need to include internal links in your blog posts.

This is fairly easy:

Include links to relevant blog posts you’ve written before.

And try to include at least two such internal links in your posts.

Next, let’s take a look at website performance.

Speed up your website

As we talked about, search engines need to be able to access your website.

And a major factor in how well they’re able to do that (and rank your website) is your website performance.

Plus, if your website doesn’t work well and pages take a long time to load, people will leave – and your pages won’t bring in much traffic.

What’s more, website performance is important for your conversions, too.

For example, for every second a page is delayed on mobile devices, conversions fall by up to 20%.

How do you know how well your website is performing, though?

GTMetrix and Google Page Speed Insights help you quickly see how you can improve your website.

If your score is good, you’re good to go.

But if your score needs improvement, you typically need to bring in a developer to fix those issues. Upwork is a good place to look for WordPress developers.

Next up:

Backlinks.

Use Connectively and Featured

Historically, backlinks, or links from other websites, have been incredibly important for SEO.

So whenever another website links to your website, Google sees that as a vote of approval. Your website’s authority increases and it might eventually get higher search rankings and more traffic.

Especially relevant and authoritative websites provide good backlinks. For example, if you’re in the marketing space and a major website like Forbes linked to you, that would be a great backlink.

Links from smaller websites are valuable, too. (Especially if they’re highly relevant.)

However, Google says that backlinks aren’t a top-three ranking factor anymore.

But they most likely still play an important role – so you should start promoting your website right away to get backlinks to your site.

And the lowest-hanging fruit are sites like Connectively (previously known as HARO) and Featured.

These are services that connect journalists, writers, and bloggers with experts (like yourself).

Journalists want to cite authoritative sources to write credible articles.

But finding those sources isn’t always easy – and that’s why they use Connectively and other platforms.

The way these services work is that you get a newsletter or skim the platform for new queries.

When you find one that fits your profile (AKA you can authoritatively speak on it), you pitch that query with a short answer.

Pitching doesn’t take more than 20 minutes per day and you can get some high-quality links, like I did here:

Get more email subscribers

Finally, we have a step that few SEO posts talk about.

You see, getting traffic is one thing but converting it is another.

For your course business, the best way to build your audience is to get people to sign up for your newsletter.

You can then build a relationship with them through your emails and direct them to a webinar or sales page.

Use an opt-in form on your blog to collect emails.

However, few people will sign up unless there’s an incentive to do so.

And that’s what you do with a lead magnet.

This is a free offer people get when they sign up – and preferably, it’s a quick win for them.

Your lead magnet could be a PDF, a short video, or an audio file.

A few examples include…

A strategy sheet
A checklist
Free resources like free stock photos

Once your blog readers sign up for your lead magnet, you can automatically add them to an email sequence that sells your course.

I talk more about it here:

What’s next?

There you have it! That’s how to use SEO for course creators.

The 4-Step Automatic Attraction System

for attracting more clients daily... without paid ads, social media, or "hustle"!

While it does take time to build up your SEO, making that investment now is going to help you build a sustainable business.

Ultimately, search traffic has helped me build a true Freedom Business – one that offers me the most freedom and flexibility.

But to build your SEO, you also need the right system.

That’s what I’ll share in my free PDF on how to build a 4-step system that delivers clients to you…every day. Get it now!

Read more:

The Ultimate Guide to SEO for Coaches

How Do You Increase Your Organic Traffic?

How Long Does SEO Take to Work?

The post How to Use SEO for Course Creators (Full Guide) appeared first on Luisa Zhou.

What is an Online Course? Definition, Examples & Benefits

Luisa Zhou — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 20:35:40 +0000

This is the ultimate guide to online courses.

After all, courses are some of the most profitable products you can sell online. And if you have the right knowledge to package as a course, you could make a huge impact in people’s lives.

Want to learn more? Read on!

What is an online course?

An online course is an online learning program delivered fully online.

Online courses can vary in length – from a few hours to several months. However, there are courses on everything.

For example, there are courses on engineering, computer programming, baking, and dog training, just to name a few.

And the online education market is booming. In fact, the industry is expected to reach $200 billion in 2024.

Elearning courses come in a lot of different formats, too.

They can be asynchronous and completely self-paced with no live interaction from the course creator. You only need an internet connection to get started.

Or they can be synchronous and involve live group calls. The course materials can be delivered through pre-recorded video lessons, live webinars, discussion forums, assignments, PDFs, and more.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

Plus, there is a ton of variety in the online course market. We’ll talk more about the different types later.

But is it worth it for you to create and sell online courses? Let’s talk about it.

What are the benefits of online courses?

So what are the benefits of online courses?

They are:

Accessibility: Students can access an online course anywhere, anytime, and at a fraction of the price it would take them to learn the course content on their own or from traditional courses. That makes incredibly valuable information way more accessible than ever before.
Flexible: Online courses can be self-paced, cohort-based, delivered live, and so on. There are also email courses, video courses, PDF-based courses, or a combination of formats. You get to choose how you want to conduct an online course.
Scalable: Especially with self-paced courses, you create the product once and can continue to sell it. That makes online courses great passive income streams.
Impactful: You can widen your impact as an expert in your niche with an online course because you can sell it worldwide to hundreds or even thousands of students. So you can help people from around the world achieve their goals with one product.
Profitable: Because online courses are so scalable, they can be highly profitable. The expenses to run an online course business are also much lower than other business models.

Next up: Examples of top-selling online courses.

Top online course examples

Now you’re probably wondering, what are the best types of online courses to sell?

Well, there are successful online courses in every niche. But here are three examples of top-selling courses from myself and my students:

Employee-To-Entrepreneur by Luisa Zhou (me)

Employee-To-Entrepreneur is my flagship course. It’s a self-paced blueprint to help corporate employees break free of their day jobs and create their own Freedom Business. A Freedom Business is a business that allows you as a business founder to have more flexibility, profit, and freedom in your life. To this date, I’ve helped 1,000+ people start their own businesses.

Why does it work? I designed it based on my own experience and used my unique logical teaching style to help people achieve results. The course helps students avoid the mistakes I made and achieve financial freedom in their businesses. By using this method, I left my day job within just six months, and I’ve helped others do the same.

Lighting Bundle by the Academy of Animated Art

My student Jasmine was a successful 3D lighting artist, working for major studios when she realized something. It was tough for young artists to break into the industry, and degrees in animation were expensive. She built The Academy of Animated Art to offer top-quality animation courses for more accessible prices.

Why does it work? The Lighting Bundle includes seven mini self-paced video courses on how to do lighting animation and how to get a job as a lighting artist. It includes all the technical information to help students go from zero to hired.

Happily Hired by Cultivitae

My student Emily Liou was a professional recruiter for top Fortune 500 companies. And she’d seen all of the common mistakes that professional women make when going for their dream careers. So she started a career coaching company called Cultivitae to help mid-level career women achieve their career goals. The main product? A self-paced course with over 20 hours of video training called Happily Hired.

Why does it work? Happily Hired uses Emily’s professional experience to guide career women through the process of finding their dream job. She uses each module to help her students achieve a milestone in their career journey. She also offers the course with one-on-one coaching support as an upsell.

Different types of online courses

Now. let’s talk about the many online courses you could create:

Self-paced course: A self-paced course has little to no interaction with the course creator. Instead, students go at their own pace through the pre-recorded or pre-written material to achieve their goals.
Live course: A live course is when you deliver the course live. That could be in live lectures or webinars. Or it could be sending emails to your students with the next steps.
Certificate course: A certificate course is a course that ends with a certification. It could be a certification accredited by a professional organization or by your company.
Hybrid course: A hybrid course is a blend between a live course and a self-paced course. Maybe some modules are taught live but others are not. Or maybe the course is mostly self-paced but includes some live group calls where students can ask questions. You get to decide how your course is delivered.
Massive open online course (MOOC): A massive open online course (MOOC) is a free, online course that anyone can take at any time. It’s asynchronous because everyone starts at different times and you don’t have any interaction from the course creator. Typically, these are hosted by universities to make education more accessible.

What makes a great online course?

So you want to sell an online course? Here are the key things that make it worth buying:

Easy to learn: I always say that you’re selling the transformation, not information. With a course, you’re selling high-quality information that leads to transformation. It’s not about adding an overload of information – just the stuff that matters to help your students achieve their goals.
Clear milestones and modules: In a course, you’re organizing the information in a way that will lead to transformation for the student. And this is completely unique to you. What someone is buying is your specific way of organizing the content because they think the way you do. For example, I’m a very logical person as a former engineer. So my courses are no fluff, logical step-by-step products that lead to a tangible result.
Personal or professional experience: Your students are paying to hear from someone who has experienced or helped others experience the transformation you’re promising. Learning from someone with first-hand experience completely changes the energy of the course.
Support: Offer support material that helps your students achieve their goal – these could be eBooks, worksheets, templates, and bonuses. Plus, coaching is a great value-add, especially when you sell your first course.
Proof: Testimonials, reviews, and case studies show future students that they can achieve great results with your course too. In one study, 63% of people were more likely to make a purchase if the site had reviews. So add social proof to show that your course really works.

Want to learn more about what sells courses? Here’s a helpful video:

How to create an online course

Ready to start creating your online course? Here are the basic steps:

Pick a profitable course idea

The best course idea answers these two questions:

What skills do you have?
What do people want?

Starting with your skills, write down all of the things you’ve learned from your day job and hobbies that you could make a course about.

One of those things will stand out as something you’re more able to teach.

Next, what do people want?

You can figure this out by researching your niche online and seeing what people are asking. You can also coach a few private clients (by taking on coaching or consulting clients) to understand their pain points.

Now you have a course idea, it’s time to outline the course.

Structure your course

Next, create a course outline.

First, decide on the learning outcomes – what goals will your students have learned at the end of the course?

Then, identify the main milestones that will lead to that goal. One milestone represents a module in your course.

Then break down the modules into smaller lessons to make it easier.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

As a rough guide, your first course should be 4-8 modules with 3-5 lessons in each module.

Create your course content

Now you have the outline of your course mapped out, creating the content is easy.

You have a wide range of formats to choose from:

Video tutorials
Screen recordings/screenshots
PDF workbooks
Email sequences
Audio files

Whatever works best for the content you’re teaching.

As a rule of thumb, video courses with PDF workbooks tend to be perceived as higher value and work for most niches.

Choose the right course platform

Once you have your course, you need a place to upload and sell it.

There are three options:

Your own website
An online course platform (like Teachable)
A course marketplace

I personally prefer selling courses from my own website for a number of reasons – I have full ownership and control of my course, I maximize my profits, and so on. However, we’ll go through a few course platforms below, if that’s the option you want to go for.

Set a course price

To sell your course, you also need to decide on a course price.

This is fairly simple; for your first course (a shorter online course with videos and PDFs), price your course at $197-$497.

When you create a longer online course, a flagship course, you can price it at $1,000 to $3,000.

Launch your course

You don’t need a huge audience to sell out your online course.

With a smart launch strategy, you can build an audience while you launch.

How? Launch with a live challenge that encourages people to sign up for your email list.

Example: I sold my first course with a live challenge called the Weekend Empire. It was a five-day challenge with daily advice on how to start a profitable business.

At the end of the challenge, post the link to purchase your course if they want to learn more from you.

If you want to learn more about how I sold out my first course, check out this video:

The top online course websites

Want to host your course on another platform than your own website? Then, here are some of the top online course websites:

Teachable: Teachable is an online course platform where you can create and host your course.
Thinkific: Like Teachable, Thinkific is a course platform with drag-and-drop tools.
Kajabi: Kajabi is another course platform for course creators who want to sell a course, but not on their own website.
Udemy: Udemy is a course marketplace, which hosts courses and markets them to their audience against a commission.
Coursera: Coursera specializes in degrees and certificate online courses by universities and larger companies.
edX: This marketplace hosts mainly free university courses and online classes.

Next steps

There you have it! The answer to the question “What is an online course?” and how you can get started with creating your own.

Discover the top 3 reasons most courses fail

(plus how to fix them so you succeed)

But this is just the beginning. If you want to be a successful online course creator, there are some big mistakes you need to avoid.

Download my free guide on the top three mistakes course creators make so you can make a profitable online course business for yourself.

Online Course Design: How to Design a Remarkable Course

The Best Course Creation Software

The post What is an Online Course? Definition, Examples & Benefits appeared first on Luisa Zhou.