If you're thinking about creating your own online course one of the first questions you'll ask is what should the topic be so in this article i actually want to help rephrase that question because although you might be wondering about a course topic.
How to Make Your Online Course Idea a Profitable Investment ?
1. Outcomes
At the end of the day people don't buy topics instead they buy outcomes so here's what i mean let's say that you're a health and fitness instructor and you're thinking about doing something about either running or weightlifting and although those are great topics and you could certainly cover them in a course people aren't ultimately buying something with running tips because they want to go running there's probably a bigger outcome at the end so one great example of a program that has a clear outcome is called couch to 5k so in this case instead of just calling it the how to get better at running course they have identified a clear outcome which is running a 5k for students to work toward which makes it much easier to visualize if the course is right for you .
2. Why outcomes sell
So as a pro tip one of the reasons why having an outcome is so useful is because your prospective students are consistently asking themselves is this for me and if they can't measure where the end point is it'll be hard for them to answer that question now to give another example let's say you were a social media expert and you wanted to offer a social media course that sounds like it could be a topic but it's still not quite specific enough because depending on who your audience is or what their goals are social media can involve quite a few different things so instead a more tangible course outcome could be to say you want to help students get their first 10 000 followers now already that's more specific but there's one more important piece of the puzzle so once you have your outcome .
3. Identify your dream student
It's time to move into part three which is identifying your dream student if you think about social media even considering how that would work for an influencer somebody in the beauty industry a b2b company or a parent you can see how those are very different social media users so when you identify your course outcome it needs to be in service of a specific person and i would choose your favorite person the one who if all of your students were exactly like that person you would be thrilled they're the person you most want to serve honestly i think it could even be helpful to start with who you want to serve because their problems may stay the same over time but the solutions may be different so why are they really on social media maybe it's because businesses are trying to build their audience and maybe it's instagram today tic toc tomorrow and something new in two years that doesn't even exist yet so if you fall in love with the idea of helping a person then over time as the solutions develop you can adapt.
4. Airline theory
I have something i call the airline theory think about when you buy plane tickets you aren't really buying the ability to sit in the plane and to have your coffee over the atlantic ocean headed to some foreign destination instead you're actually buying the destination itself so if you pay close attention to airline marketing strategies yeah they may talk a little bit about the in-flight services that they offer but primarily they're showing you places that you might travel whether it's to see family or to visit somewhere new and exciting so i want you to be like an airline don't sell people the plane ticket sell them the destination so with that in mind if people buy outcomes if they're looking for an end transformation .
5. Two brainstorm promots
It's time for you to brainstorm what that transformation could be the first is to start by listing out things in these three categories what are your strengths what are your interests and where is their demand you'll find that there may be overlap between two out of the three of these but ideally you're looking for something in the sweet spot of all three so for example if you really enjoy cooking but it's not something that you're necessarily an all-time great at it might not make sense for you to teach it .
On the other hand there could be something that you're really excellent at but it doesn't really light you up that might not be the best route either because you might feel trapped by a skill that yeah is great that you can handle but it's not really something you enjoy talking about so that's never going to be a great fit once you get that list it's equally important to brainstorm who you would love to serve who is your ideal student who would you love to help if you can get that list together and think through who you want to help then you can start to ask yourself what problems are they facing what transformations are they looking for what don't they have today that they wish that they had in the future all great courses help somebody move from point a to point b so between who you want to serve what your strengths are and what your passions are you can find a clear route and a clear outcome that could work for your course.
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Course Tips