How to Create an Online Course in 2024 (14 Simple Steps)
One of the best ways to share your knowledge with the world and make money simultaneously is by creating and selling an online course.
The eLearning industry will be worth $300 billion within the next five years.
If you’re wondering how to create an online course of your own and share it with the world, then keep reading.
In this article, I’ll teach you how to
- Zero in on the right topic.
- Use authority in your chosen subject matter.
- Create course content and choose the right course platform.
- Use marketing channels that generate the highest revenue.
- And more…
Following these steps, you will learn how to create a plan for launching your first eLearning course with confidence.
Steps To Creating An Online Course
Naturally, experts, entrepreneurs, and educators are taking the path of online course creation to share their knowledge.
For students, online courses have become more popular, which in my opinion, has only made online education more mainstream.
There are several steps to be followed to launch a successful online course.
From the actual course creation, understanding the costs involved, pricing and marketing and much more, here are the steps to making your course a big hit.
1. Research And Settle On The Course Topic
Choosing the topic for your course is perhaps the most difficult but also the most critical step.
Researching is not something that you can take lightly at all, as it will make or break the success of your course.
If you create a class that doesn’t solve a problem for a group of people online, it will never do well.
Don’t think of yourself as just a “course creator.”
You are a solutions provider with real value to bring to the marketplace.
I suggest you begin market research tests with the following question:
What are the trending topics people are most interested in finding solutions for?
Search engine optimization (SEO) tools like Ahrefs and Google Trends can help you understand the new and emerging subjects most people are interested in.
Quick caveat on the above point… You have to provide a solution for the people.
For example, creating a blogging course makes a lot of sense to me, but creating a dog training course makes absolutely zero sense.
Don’t base your entire course on some random search data.
It’s a tool, and use it as such.
You don’t have to be an expert in the subject to create an online course; you must be ahead of your target audience.
Another aspect you must remember here is the endless possibilities for creating online courses.
From cooking courses to the basics of Jujitsu, you can create an online course on any topic under the sun.
However, here is some personal advice: always go for a passionate topic (it also helps if you have formal training.)
For example, you can create guitar tutorials even if you’re an accountant, provided you have the know-how and passion for following through.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create an online course on a topic you’re an expert in!
Selecting such a topic will make the course creation process and production phase simpler and more manageable.
It’ll also ensure that your students can derive professional-grade value from the course and get its results.
2. Check Out The Market For The Topic
Along with searching for the topic for your course, you also need to keep an eye out whether the subject you’ve chosen has enough popularity among your target audience.
Most online course creators think that if their chosen topic already has many courses available, theirs might not sell.
If there are a lot of courses about the topic, that means that there is demand.
Succeeding with selling courses comes down to finding where the demand is and supplying unique and better solutions.
To better understand your niche’s best online course ideas, you can check out major online learning platforms such as Udemy and Coursera.
Scouring these sites will give you a good grasp of what most online learners and students seek in your niche.
In short, in the first two steps, you need to find the sweet spot at the intersection of a topic you’re passionate (or could become) about, have knowledge and expertise in, and which is also in demand.
Once you’ve got all these boxes ticked, you can settle on that topic (or even topics) and move on to the next step.
3. Build Authority To Become An Expert
I’m sure you’ve noticed that in both of the above steps, I’ve mentioned that you need to be knowledgeable about the subject you’re creating a course on.
At the same time, I’ve also said that you don’t need to be an absolute expert to make your first online course.
These two statements might seem to be contradictory, but they are not.
While it’s true that you should have some basic knowledge about the course subject you’re about to teach, you can also pick up a lot as you go along.
There are two benefits to be gained from this:
First, you can get hold of a lot of learning objectives and materials you can use in your course videos and study materials.
Second, you’ll also get to build knowledge on specific niches in the topic that might make your online courses more profitable.
People don’t only want to learn from the foremost expert on a topic.
They want to learn from someone that they can relate to and trust.
Being an expert is great, but if you are relatable and willing to become an expert on the topic to serve your students, even better.
4. Settle On Your Target Audience
By now, I’m sure you have a clear idea about the topic you will create an online course about.
Now it’s time to understand your target audience, i.e., the demographic you will focus on serving.
It pays to be specific: not every topic is suited for every audience.
Ensure your target audience is well-defined, actionable, and interested in your subject of choice.
The following are some of the demographic factors that you need to consider:
- Age of your target audience
- The Gender your course is more popular with
- The average Education Level of your target audience
- The Employment Status of your audience
The above list is not exhaustive and can vary based on your subject of choice.
The average gender percentage for an online student is 70-30 in favor of female students.
Another factor that can decide your audience is seasonality.
Some courses are more appealing at particular times, such as baking during the festive season.
You can also target audiences based on intent, for instance, aiming a data science course at the crowd looking to make a career transition to data science.
An online course on interior design is another course idea.
Finally, don’t forget to use social media to your advantage.
Social channels such as Facebook groups, LinkedIn, and Instagram can quickly identify a target audience for research.
I did this for my blogging course; it worked wonders for identifying the exact angle of the course.
5. Map Out The Online Course Outline
Anybody can create an online course and put it up for sale.
However, creating an online course that gets results and is successful takes serious planning. It took over 6 months to correctly map out, test, and launch my blogging like a business course.
After settling on your target topic and audience, you must create a detailed course outline.
You’ll need to consider aspects such as how in-depth the course will be, your tone to appeal to your target demographic, and learning objectives.
Your target audience’s requirements will primarily drive the course’s depth.
An online course on management principles aimed at post-grads will undoubtedly have to be more professional in style and depth than a cooking course which can be fun and quirky.
When creating an online course outline, you can use several available templates for online course creation.
Generally, breaking down your subject into specific topics and learning goals and segmenting them further into targeted subtopics and lessons is an excellent place to start.
Remember that creating an outline is not mandatory.
You can jump into creating the course content if you have a clear idea about what you want to impart to your learners.
However, I suggest you don’t skip this step, as it’ll help you structure your online course.
6. Frame Compelling Course Outcomes
Once you’ve completed your course outline and structured the modules, it’s time to frame the course’s ideal outcomes.
Framing outcomes matters as students pay for the course to get results.
Just think about this.
You know your course’s material and how it can help your students.
But they don’t know about it, and unless your would-be learners can get a clear idea of what they can get out of the course, they’ll be less likely to enroll.
That’s why you must create a course outline to get your students results as fast as possible.
Ensure you include these course outcomes on your page so learners know what they will sign up for and their potential learning outcomes.
Another benefit of creating customized course outcomes is that they ensure only interested students join the course.
The right students translate to greater satisfaction, completion rates, and lower refund requests.
7. Create The Actual Course Materials
After you’ve completed each of the above steps, it’s finally time to jump in and create the actual course material.
Here, you have many choices regarding the medium; I recommend going with video courses as these tend to have the most impact.
Along with the video, you also need to provide suitable study materials in the form of PowerPoint presentations, eBooks in PDF format, or self-assessment questionnaires.
Each course will be different, but the only goal is to create additional materials that help your students get results.
The most common problem online course creators face here is determining which materials to include in the course and which to leave out.
No matter what topic you choose, you’re sure to find multiple resources and references to use in today’s age of information overload.
Here’s where your online course outline and outcomes will guide you.
When selecting materials for course creation, be sure that you include only those aligned with your course structure.
Doing so will help you streamline the course content and reduce creation time.
Finally, once you have all the material, it’s time to record the videos.
And here, you have a lot of flexibility; it doesn’t take a pro videographer to create high-quality online courses.
All you need is a good webcam and screen-capture software such as Camtasia.
Choose from screen-capture videos, talking head-style videos, or even a combination.
If you already have webinars or podcasts on the topic, don’t hesitate to repurpose the content for your online course.
All that matters is that you stay on topic and provide value.
8. Monetize It Right
Now that you’ve created the online course content, it’s time to decide how you want to monetize.
You can use tactics such as offering a free course as a lead magnet or setting up a subscription-based model.
You’ll also have to perform market research here for premium courses.
Check out the prices of similar courses on popular eLearning platforms, and understand the enrolment rates.
Another aspect you need to keep in mind is the purchasing power of your target audience.
After all, there’s no point in pricing a course so high that no one can buy it.
Here, you’ll have to strike the perfect balance between profitability and affordability.
One last thing regarding pricing: set your online course price to be less than the value you’re providing.
If you want to charge higher than the market rates, you’ll need to provide better content than the competition; it’s as simple as that.
9. Select The Appropriate Delivery Channel
After completing the above steps, you must decide how to deliver your course to your audience.
In general, there are three standard methods by which you can sell online courses.
Each of these is discussed below under separate heads.
A. Online Course Platforms
Online course platforms are one of the most popular online course distribution methods.
Platforms like Coursera and Udemy are vibrant course marketplaces where you can sell your tutorials.
These platforms provide a stable, integrated environment for course uploading, marketing, and selling.
If you’re uploading a course for the first time, you should take advantage of these platforms’ goodwill and marketing reach.
They make the process smooth and comfortable, allowing you to upload testimonials and worksheets and customize your course content.
Here is my Thinkific review and why it is my #1 pick for online course platforms and is the one that I use.
B. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
An LMS is an online education system that can link to your website and work as a brand platform for your course.
LMSs make everything from creating online courses to setting up a profitable online course business a simple process.
While many LMS options are available, I recommend Thinkific (Spring, LearnDash, or Teachable are excellent alternatives).
This online course platform lets you fully customize your courses and make every step, from course subject or idea to creating and distribution, a breeze.
C. Website Plugins
If you have a website that you want to host the online course on, you can select from numerous website plugins available on the internet.
WordPress provides the most flexibility for creating an online education membership site.
Whichever option you choose to go with, make sure you have the tools in place for enrolling and validating students.
Also, don’t forget to integrate your learning platform with payment gateways for easy enrollments and refunds if needed.
10. Build An Email List of Raving Fans
Most online course creators and startups make the mistake of thinking they’ll have a steady income stream once their course is up and running.
In reality, the real work begins after you’ve created and uploaded your course.
You now need to market your online course.
Email marketing is the best way to do this.
From experience, email marketing still provides the highest ROI among all digital product marketing channels.
To take advantage of email marketing, you must create an email list of people to whom you can sell your course.
I’d recommend running a social media marketing campaign to gather emails.
You can even offer part of your online course for free as a bid to capture leads.
Once you’ve got a sizable email list, you need to send personalized, targeted emails to those learners who showed interest in your course.
You can ensure they can leap prospects to paying customers.
11. Create A Sales Landing Page
However, don’t think you’re out of the woods yet, for capturing emails is only half the battle won.
Sending captivating emails is the best way to bring customers to your course landing page and website.
Once they arrive, however, you need to ensure they have an incredible experience.
The best way to do this is to create a landing page that reflects your online course’s essence.
A high-quality landing page is the best way to ensure learners get complete course content information.
When creating the landing page, you must consider several factors, such as the target demographic, your audience’s interests, and your subject.
Another good step is to create different landing pages for different audiences and test which works best.
Such a split-testing model will give you a clear idea of organizing the page layout.
12. Jump On To The Marketing Bandwagon
Email lists, landing pages, and social media teasers are all parts of the bigger marketing plan you must follow to succeed in your online course launch.
An ongoing marketing strategy is essential to ensure that the word gets out about your online courses.
Here, you have several options: you can run early bird campaigns that offer attractive discounts or even search engine or social media ads.
Moreover, you can also take advantage of content marketing strategies and promote your target list.
I’m sure you’ve already understood that the last three steps, including this one, were dedicated to marketing the courses.
Marketing is vital because the moment you stop marketing, your course is when you effectively stop selling.
13. Nurture A Dedicated Community
At this stage, you’ve finally published your course.
But now, there’s an even more critical part of the process: building a dedicated community of students.
One of the drawbacks of online courses is that they take away a lot of the direct interaction that comes with a classroom learning environment.
However, you can easily overcome this using online channels such as a social media group and video conferencing webinars that allow you to interact with your students.
Learning is a social process; people love interacting with others on the same journey.
Such interactions help make learning more enjoyable and foster a sense of community.
Another advantage of nurturing a dedicated community is that this helps to spread word-of-mouth publicity about your course.
And when your customers become vocal advocates for your brand, your course will grow organically.
14. Remember To Update Your Course Over Time
The last point you need to focus on for creating an online course is updating your course.
Skill demands change over time, and new skills must be added to your course repertoire.
You can’t expect a three-year-old course to provide the same value to your students as it did at the time of launch.
Ensure you continuously add and update new course materials according to market demands.
That way, your online course remains relevant today and provides value to your existing students.
Choosing The Right Topic For Your Online Course
When creating an online course, choosing the right topic is essential.
After all, if you don’t have a relevant topic that captures your audience’s attention, no one will sign up for the course.
It is essential to take some time to research and find out what is famous, already popular, and in demand by potential customers.
It is also essential to ensure you create content that resonates with your target audience.
Ask yourself: “What problem does my course solve? What type of people would benefit from my course?”.
You may even want to consider conducting surveys or focus groups on getting feedback from potential customers about which topics they think would be most beneficial for the course.
Once you have identified a relevant topic for your online course, start creating content.
Whether it’s step-by-step tutorials, videos, slideshows, worksheets, quizzes, activities, etc., it’s all important.
Ensure each content is exciting and engaging so students stay engaged throughout the course.
Your online course should also be structured logically and include multiple lessons with clear objectives.
Be sure to keep each lesson concise but comprehensive so that students can master the material efficiently and quickly while having a solid understanding of the subject matter afterward.
Wrap Up
I hope this condensed guide has been able to help you understand the entire online course creation process.
While online education has pros and cons, the pros outweigh the cons.
With eLearning statistics showing that this industry is on a highly upward trend, getting into this niche is a good idea.
Not only will you be creating a steady income stream, but you will also have the advantage of sharing your expertise and emerging as a thought leader in your niche.
Now, that’s better than any passive marketing strategy money can buy.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below!
Last Updated on May 13, 2024 by Adam Enfroy
