I just finished the first draft of my online course. What advice do you have for me?

I know many of you have sold online courses of your own. What did you learn through that process that a first-time course creator should know?

Your advice could pertain to course design, delivery, pricing, or marketing for starters. Dump your wisdom folks!

Along with your advice, please post a link to your course sales page. I want to all the marketing ideas I can get!

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Permalink Reply by John Henderson on August 15, 2016 at 7:23pm

Did you research the market first? The entrepreneurs guillotine is making something that no one wants. Good marketing never helped me. Good research did.

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Permalink Reply by Harvey Ramer on August 15, 2016 at 8:10pm

Yes, I did very informal research by looking for what other sidepreneurs struggle with most. One thing they said consistently was they had difficulty balancing family, work, and their side businesses. What I'm putting the finishing touches on is a system to help sidepreneurs manage their obligations.

I will be creating a landing page in the next week to begin to test if I actually heard everyone correctly. There's always some fear when it comes to testing assumptions, but here goes!

What research methods do you use when you're creating products?

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Permalink Reply by John Henderson on August 17, 2016 at 5:41am

Good work doing your research. Before you implement our ideas, (which are all great!) I would run a small, trial version of the course for a deep discount to a handful of people. Then get their feedback.

As smart as I'd like to pretend to be, the advice you want is from the people who are actually willing to trade you money for the course.

So what I do is build a simple framework, get a small group to go through, tell them they are the beta group and are getting a discount because it's new and let them help you build it to their standards and needs.

It will be worth it!

Keep us posted.

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Group LeaderPermalink Reply by Jen McDonough "The Iron Jen" on August 16, 2016 at 10:49am

Good point John!!!

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Group LeaderPermalink Reply by Terry Hadaway on August 16, 2016 at 6:48am

Harvey,

I've sold my own courses and helped other entrepreneurs create courses, too. I've attached my Ten Steps to an Awesome Course so you and others can check it out.

Though many people choose to use Udemy or Teachable to deliver their courses, I encourage you to seriously consider hosting your courses on your own site. We can talk about that if you want. Just don't make an uninformed decision.

Niche-targeted Facebook ads continue to be one of the most affordable lead generators. In addition, I offer people the first lesson of The Course Course for free.

The key for me is to focus on cultivating relationships rather than selling courses. Because there is so much sleazy marketing going on, people want to know they can trust you before they make a purchase. Relationship marketing is slower, but pays huge dividends in the long run.

Hope that helps!

Terry

Attachments:

Ten_Steps.pdf, 1.3 MB

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Group LeaderPermalink Reply by Jen McDonough "The Iron Jen" on August 16, 2016 at 10:49am

Hey Harvey, that is so great you are looking into creating an online course. This might be a GREAT discussion to start in Jeff Long's online course group as I am sure they will have some good feedback. You can click HERE to find the group. Best wishes on moving forward.

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Group LeaderPermalink Reply by Jen McDonough "The Iron Jen" on August 16, 2016 at 10:50am

Also, would suggest looking into Terry Hadaway's stuff - I am going through his online coaching right now and was glad I took.

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Permalink Reply by Harvey Ramer on Monday

Terry Hadaway has been very helpful so far. His free materials are very valuable. Everyone interested in building a course should drop by his website and see what he's got for free.

And, he also provided a very good article on how to select a product idea that your customers will love at Sidepreneur Magazine. Thanks Terry!

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Group LeaderPermalink Reply by Terry Hadaway on Monday

Thanks, Harvey.

Here's a product update...

I will soon be offering a very affordable monthly membership site. People who join will have full access to The Course Course (a $497 value) that walks you through everything you need to know to create courses. Also included is Write Now, a course to help you become an entrepreneurial content producer. There will be several other things included. The best part is that it's only $49 per month.

CLICK HERE to read more about it.