If you’ve landed on this blog chances are you’re already thinking of how to create an online course so I probably don’t need to sell you on the benefits of online course creation. Online education is a great business model, there’s Passive Income, helping others, and sharing your message etc, you’ve heard them all before!
What I do want to share though, is the best way to create a successful online course because what can often happen is that a potential Course Creator has a great idea for an online course, they spend months and months and thousands of dollars creating their online course and then they don’t sell a single course.
I don’t want that to happen to you, hence why I’m putting together this step by step framework on how to create your online course and set yourself up for success and it’s not going to cost you a fortune, using my systems below, chances are you will be able to create your online course for free.
Also, if you’re new here, at the Course Creator Community, we actually run one of the largest and most engaged Facebook Groups in the world for Course Creators “The Course Creator Community”. There’s over 5,000 of us in there, everyone is super supportive and we all share tips and ideas. If you’re not already a member – click here to join.
STEP 1: BASIC TOOLS
The good news is… you can probably create your online course for free because you already have the tools you need. And any tools that you don’t currently possess, can be picked up on Amazon or eBay for a couple of bucks!
Tool 1: Camera
This is going to depend on whether what you’re teaching is taught via “sharing your computer screen” (e.g a PowerPoint presentation) or whether you’re teaching something that needs to be physically demonstrated (e.g. fitness, an instrument, etc).
If you’re teaching via sharing your computer screen – it’s quite simple, use your computer :). There’s no need for a fancy webcam or anything – just use your computer.
If you’re teaching something more physical – it’s also quite simple, use your phone. Your phone has a BETTER quality camera than what is needed. The only thing you may need is a basic Tripod which can be purchased for $15-$20 on Amazon.
Just one tip with recording – the most important aspect to recording is actually the lighting! When recording make sure you’re in a well-lit area and FACE THE LIGHT (e.g if you’re inside – face your window, if you’re outside – look at the sun)
Tool 2: Microphone
Believe it or not, your sound is actually more important than your video. Most people don’t really care how hi-def your video is… but if they can’t hear you… They’re asking for a refund!
Now you don’t necessarily need a ridiculously high-quality microphone. What you need is for your students to be able to hear you.
If you’re teaching via screen sharing then your computer microphone is good enough (provided you’re in a quiet area). You can choose to purchase an external microphone (if so I recommend the Blue Yeti) but at this stage, it’s not really worth it.
If you’re teaching something more physical like fitness, you may need a microphone. For example, if you’re teaching your exercise outside and there’s wind blowing, cars honking and other background noises, you’re going to need a microphone.
The only way to know for sure whether you need a microphone or not is to record a practice video and listen to it. Can you hear yourself clearly? If so, you don’t need a microphone. If not, you need a microphone.
If you decide you need a microphone, you have two basic options
Option 1: (more affordable) is a simple lapel microphone. You can pick these up for $15-$20 on Amazon and the sound is great! The limitation of the lapel microphone is that it’s connected to your phone via a wire so you can’t really move around much.
Option 2: (less affordable) is the Rode Wireless Go microphone. The audio on this is great but you’re spending closer to $200-$300 so it’s a decent investment. The biggest advantage is that you can move around as much as you like.
Note: If you’re strapped for cash and want to bootstrap your first course, you don’t HAVE to go for the Rode Wireless Go – there are ways you can get creative with a lapel mic for example you are the one speaking into the microphone and you have someone else demonstrating the exercises or you may demonstrate the exercises and do a voice-over later.
Tool 3: Recording / Editing Software
You’ve got your sound and microphone sorted now we just need the software to record on.
If you’re using your phone, it’s an easy solution – just use the camera app.
If you’re screen sharing the two most popular software most Course Creators use are “zoom” or “loom”. Both are free and will do the job.
In terms of editing your videos, if you’re an Apple user you’ve got iTunes which is free, super easy to use and better than what you need.
If you’re not an Apple user, then you’ve got two options – either pay for Camtasia or do your videos in one take.
Tool 4: Course Creation Platform / Course Creation Software
I’ve actually written a full blog on this, you can check that out if you like.
I’ll also cover this in a little more detail when we talk about creating your free mini-course but for now, it doesn’t really matter what platform/software you chose. Don’t let that slow you down.
I personally recommend registering for the free version on New Zenler (click here to check it out) but Thinkific, Teachable and Membervault all offer free versions too so you may as well register for a few of them and see which one you like best.
SUMMARY
That’s all you need tool-wise!
- A camera to record with which is free as you already have it
- MAYBE: A microphone – $15-$20 on Amazon
- Zoom / Loom which is free
- iMovie which is free (sorry non-Apple users :p)
- New Zenler or equivalent course creation platform which is free
That’s how you can create a course for free or close too
STEP 2: CREATE A FREE MINI COURSE
Before you create your first signature course, I strongly recommend creating a free mini course. This free mini course is you teaching ONE SMALL course topic. The total duration of the course mini-course should be 20-60mins max and you should be able to create in a weekend! If it’s taken you any longer than a weekend to create, then you’re spending too much time on it!
There are MULTIPLE reasons why I recommend creating a free mini course before your signature course so let me break them down one by one.
a.) You can test out your course platform.
There are so many different course platforms out there…. Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, New Zenler, Membervault etc. They all have there different advantages and disadvantages so it can be super overwhelming for a potential Course Creator to pick one. And what happens if they pick the wrong one? Then it’s a pain to change over!
However, pretty much every platform has a free version. There’s usually some limits in place e.g. you can only host a certain amount of courses for free or you can only have a certain amount of students for free but for a mini course that’s fine.
So sign up for a 2-3 different platforms on their free version, upload your mini course to all them and see which one you like best.
b.) You can make your mistakes
The first time you do anything, you’re going to make mistakes. The first you rode your bike – you probably fell off, if you’re a guy – the first time you shaved – you probably cut yourself, the first time you tried chopticks – you probably dropped your food. There’s nothing wrong with that – that’s life.
However… If you’re putting all this time, money and energy into creating an online course – i’m sure you don’t want it to suck! So you can use a ‘free mini course’ as a ‘tester’ to weed out all those little mistakes. What’s your audio like? What’s the tone of your voice like? What’s the presentation of the course like? Was it easy for a student to register?
I GUARANTEE you, after creating your first mini course, you’re going to think – ‘you know what, if i was to do it again I would probably do it slightly differently’. That’s great – when you create your signature course you can do it ‘slightly differently’.
c.) Your identity is now a Course Creator
The first time you do anything, you’re going to make mistakes. The first you rode your bike – you probably fell off, if you’re a guy – the first time you shaved – you probably cut yourself, the first time you tried chopticks – you probably dropped your food. There’s nothing wrong with that – that’s life.
However… If you’re putting all this time, money and energy into creating an online course – i’m sure you don’t want it to suck! So you can use a ‘free mini course’ as a ‘tester’ to weed out all those little mistakes. What’s your audio like? What’s the tone of your voice like? What’s the presentation of the course like? Was it easy for a student to register?
I GUARANTEE you, after creating your first mini course, you’re going to think – ‘you know what, if i was to do it again I would probably do it slightly differently’. That’s great – when you create your signature course you can do it ‘slightly differently’.
ing
Now you’ve got your free mini course, you can start promoting that mini course to your target audience on social media to build your email list. We’ll speak more about launching later… but for now just hypothetically – when it times to launch your signature course – anyone who’s registered for your free mini course will be your hottest leads! They’ve already showed interest, they’ve already consumed your content and ideally they like you :p
e.) You can use this mini course to gather testimonials / reviews
Just because the course is for free – it doesn’t mean you can’t leverage it for video testimonials, Facebook / Google reviews or screenshots! Simply add a section at the end the course asking your audience to leave a review here (insert your platform of choice) if they enjoyed the course. You can then leverage these testimonials in your marketing when you launch your signature course.
f.) You can use this mini course to gather feedback
Just because the course is for free – it doesn’t mean you can’t leverage it for feedback. Have a feedback form at the end of your course and make sure you ask your students to answer the following questions
- What did they like most about the course?
- What could have been improved?
- What other topics would they like you to create a course on?
That way you can see what you’re doing well (and do more of that in your signature course), see what you’re doing not so well (and do less of that, or improve it) and you’ve got some market research to see what the next course you create will be.
SAMPLE OF A FREE ONLINE MINI COURSE OUTLINE
STEP 3: MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Creating a free mini course is a great start but it’s not going to promote itself. What you need to do now is get your free mini course out to as many people as possible on Social Media, Facebook Groups, Blog posts etc to grow your email list (as you’re going to use your Email list to sell your signature course moving forward).
To start with, you’ll obviously post your free mini course (also called a ‘lead magnet’) on your own Social Media challenge – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. See if any of your current network is interested.
Unless you’ve already got a decent following, chances are you’ll probably exhaust that list pretty quick and you don’t want to keep trying to plug it to your friends and family so the next logical step is to promote via Facebook Groups. Chances are whatever your topic is, there is already a Facebook Group around that topic where your ideal students are already gathering. So this can also be a good place to post your mini course. Make sure you check the Group rules before posting as certain groups only allow promotions on certain days and some Groups don’t allow promotions at all.
Eventually you’re also going to exhaust these Facebook Groups too so you’ll have to start building your own following… That’s a whole nother topic and you don’t need to worry about it at this stage but just be aware that moving forward if you want to continuously sell your online course, you’re going to need a social media following.
My preferred social media platform to grow a following on is a Facebook Group. If you’d like some tips on how to grow a Facebook Group, you might want to check out the blow below
3 Best Strategies to Grow a Facebook Group
STEP 4: BETA LAUNCH
This can be a complex concept for new Course Creators, so I’ll simplify and break it down.
Once you’ve created your free mini course, put a few students through it and got some feedback – the next step actually ISN’T to create your signature course and then try and sell it…
The first time you teach your online course, you’re actually going to do a Beta Launch, which is basically dripping the course to your students week by week. I’ll explain why a little later but for now let me just explain the concept
Let’s just say for example let’s say you’re creating an online course all around ‘Learning French’ and you’re planning it to be a 4-module course.
Module 1: Useful phrases
Module 2: How to structure sentences
Module 3: Pronunciation
Module 4: Grammar
Instead of creating it as a course, you’re going to create it as a ‘class’, with a set start date and drip it to your students.
So for example, your semester starts on the 1st June and you’re teaching a 4 week crash course in French. The syllabus
Week 1: Useful phrases
Week 2: How to structure sentences
Week 3: Pronunciation
Week 4: Grammar
You can either choose to teach the online class live on a platform like zoom (and record the live class) or you can create the lesson beforehand and upload it to your platform or email your students.
A week or two before your start date, you’re then going to run a free webinar / masterclass (I’ll share a little later how you can fill your webinar) where you give a few tips and then offer your online program at the end.
The course does need to be completed for you to sell it. All you need is the outline of your course and a landing page that explains what is covered.
If you’re wondering why you would do it like this and not just create the course in one hit, there’s a specific reason.
There’s a chance that you’re going to make your pitch at the end of the webinar and no-one buy it :(.
If you went the traditional route and created your course first. It can get quite depressing because you put all that time, effort, and money into creating the course and no one purchased it.
However, if you use the “class/cohort” method if no-one purchases, it’s not really a big deal because you didn’t put any work into the course yet. It just means you go back to the drawing board, see where you went wrong and fix it.
And on the flip side, if you do get students to purchase the course then that’s great – you can start building the course. You don’t need to build it ALL in that week, you just want to be one module in front. So after the webinar, all you need to focus on is making sure Module 1 is really great content. Then the next week, all you need to focus on is making sure Module 2 is really great content, then Module 3, and finally Module 4.
Once you’ve done it like this the first time and recorded all your content, now you have an online course that you can sell on demand in the future.
I personally prefer teaching the Beta launch live – which means I set aside a certain day / time every week that students attend and I teach the module live. Anyone that can’t make it live gets access to the replay.
The reason why I prefer to teach it to live the first time is that it gives me real-time feedback. Your students are more engaged and can ask questions in the chat box while I’m teaching or I can do a Q and A at the end of the session. This way if I’ve made the concepts too hard – I know I need to scale it back for the next modules. Or if I’ve made it too easy I know I need to make it more advanced for the next module. Or if there are any audio/presentation issues I can fix it before the next module. You’re obviously going to ask for Feedback at the end of the course too but if you can take care of the Feedback before then, even better
SUMMARY
Let’s just do a quick recap
Step 1: Get your tools ready
Step 2: Create your free mini course
Step 3: Promote your mini course on Social Media to build your list
Step 4: Sell your signature course via a webinar / masterclass
If your course makes sales – get to work and drip it to your students week by week.
If your course doesn’t make sales, it’s not the end of the world, just go back to the drawing board. See what went wrong and fix it.
Examples
Problem 1: You didn’t get anyone to register for your webinar. This means either your following isn’t interested in the webinar topic or your following isn’t big enough yet. Spend another month building your list and try again. If you still don’t get any registrants – change the topic next month.
Problem 2: You had people register for your webinar but they didn’t show up. This means you need to do a better job with your reminders. What could you have done better? More Facebook post reminders? Instagram story reminders? More emails? A text message? Change something and try again next month.
Problem 3: You had people register AND attend the webinar but no one purchased. This means you have a sales problem. Tweak your webinar, your offer, your price or your messaging and try again next month.
Creating an online course can be an overwhelming experience so if you need any help or support, the first step is to join the Course Creator Community Facebook Group. We have over 5,000 Course Creators in our Group, everyone is super supportive and we all share tips and ideas. We would love to invite you there!
PS: At the Course Creator Community we have one. of the largest Facebook Groups in the world for Course Creators. Everyone in there is super supportive and we all share tips and ideas! We would love to invite you to join our Group! Simply click the link below to join click here to join the Course Creator Community Facebook Group
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