If you’re starting out with the idea of creating an
online course, the first stage is always conceptualization- This post explains the term, conceptualization, clearly.
Having crossed the conceptualization stage in your online course creation, and you’re now
convinced that you have what it takes to go into online course, the stage is
now set for creating contents. This
is the real deal.
The major questions here has always been…
Ø What topical area
am I going to build my course on?
Ø How do I know if
people would be interested in what I have to offer?
Ø When and how do I
start?
The above three questions are common with everyone when starting an online course. But the
problem is that many have asked these questions without matching them with an
answer. The answers to these questions will take us discussing this post under 3
sub-titles, namely:
1.
Choosing a Niche
2.
Course Validation
3.
Taking Action
CHOOSING A NICHE FOR
YOUR
ONLINE COURSE CREATION
Choosing a niche here simply means identifying a
particular field or specific area of interest you will want to build your
course around. The truth is that you can’t teach everything and you can’t teach
everyone, as far as the global audience is concerned. This is because every man
out there has a distinct taste and interest from the others.
Every online content creator understands the importance
of niche selection- whether it’s blogging, video creation, podcast, app
development, online course etc- you must focus on a specific area.
Think of very notable niches like money making, health,
education, news report, technology etc. You might not still make it in online course if you just dabble into
covering the entirety of that particular niche.
Take for instance, the money making niche. You can still
find under it, personal finance, internet income, online investment,
cyptocurrency, affiliate income, just name it. Each of them again can still
have sub-categories. For example, instead of writing on Personal Finance as a
general topic, one may decide to narrow it by focusing on Single Mothers and Personal Finance… coming up with a topic like How
to create lifetime wealth as a single mother.
I believe you now understand what it means to choose a
niche for your online course.
COURSE VALIDATION
Now
that you have an idea and you know what it is you want to teach, the next step
is to validate
it.
You’re
now going to ask yourself: yes, I love this; it appears helpful in solving the
problem of my target audience; but would they really want it?
In
marketing, we are told that the key to selling it is simple: Give the people what they want and not what
they need!
You
think, as a health officer, that they need bitterquine- it’s good for their
health! But they want coca cola; give it to them if you really want to sell.
You don’t waste your resources trying to convince them on the basis of need;
try to find out what they really want. This is what validates your work.
The
truth is that while you might have a great idea, it doesn’t necessarily mean
that it’ll translate into a great product, let alone a great online course. What you don’t want to
be doing is spending hours and hours of precious time and energy on something
that people ultimately don’t want.
Now
let’s consider the two stages in online course validation.
Stage 1: Validating your course for passionate customers
The
first stage of online course validation
is knowing if actually there are persons out there who are interested to learn
from you. The truth is that it’s very possible to put up a very ‘useful’
content online, yet nobody shows interest on it.
Think
of how frustrated and depressed you were the last time you shared a post on
that online forum or social media group and there was no single comment, not
even a like received. Of course, there are other factors that could lend
credence to this. That should be a topic for another day.
So
you have to be sure people would like what you’re presenting.
And
one simple way to do this is to announce a freebie! That’s what I did with this
course. From the responses I received, I have validated it that my
target audience are really interested in this topic. The first validation stage
is settled in this case.
Don’t
tell us nobody is interested in your online
course when you’ve never offered a freebie, especially as a start-up. After
all, nobody knows your expertise yet until they taste of your offer. And you
know that the taste of the pudding is in the eating.
You
won’t blame them; you do same too. The last time you called that girl selling
groundnut, you didn’t just hand over some currency notes to her; you first
demanded for a ‘tasting’, to which the girl gladly obliged. Some terribly
greedy humans would even want to taste again and again before eventually buying
the one of fifty naira!
I am
sure you now understand my point. Allow the people to ‘taste’ your offer before
paying for it, especially when dealing with a completely new audience.
That
leads us to the second stage.
Stage 2: Validating your course for paying
customers
Of
course, you started out free, but your ultimate goal is to make a buck out of
your online course. Now you want to be sure that someone would really pay for
your course.
The
most important distinction to make when it comes to validating any product, is
that you’re looking for paying customers.
That
you send out surveys and ask around, and hear a lot of people who’ll say that
they’d “probably be interested” in what you’re selling does not necessarily
translates to them really paying for it.
Just
think about all of those unread books sitting on people’s desks, or annual gym
passes that’ll never get used. People like talking about what they’d like to
do, but chances are the majority of them won’t actually follow through.
So
how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?
One
of the best ways to get validation for your course is to do a smoke
test, meaning you start selling your course before it’s
even completed.
If
nobody is ready to pay for your online
course, it’s either you rework it or you have to rather channel your work
and energy to blogging; at least you can monetize your content traffic.
In
fact, this is why you must go into blogging the moment you decide to start
creating online content. In this case, you can’t lose out entirely.
Yes!
Find out if they are ready to pay. A lot of persons always like freebies. They
would claim to be interested, but the moment you mention ‘fee’, fiam,
they have gone!
If
you can have up to 5% of those who clicked to view your offer, ending up paying
for it, then that course is validated. That is to say, 5 out of 100 is not too
bad. You’re surprised! But that is the fact!
Meanwhile,
be sure you’re not the one driving away paying customers.
How?
You may ask.
When you never offer any value in your
so-called freebie, only for you to start announcing paid course; When you charge exorbitantly. Remember, even
if they want to pay, they wouldn’t still pay beyond their means. Of course,
considering the income level of your target audience matters. The same course
you charged some set of audience for $100 can be reduced to $40 for another set
of audience.
By
the time you’re through with your course validation, you can now fully swing
into action- the coast is clear!
TAKING ACTION
I
guess at this point, you’re good to go.
Start
organizing your works. Start writing. Get a book and start writing down your
topics- try to come up with catchy captions. Keyword research can be so
valuable in this regard.
At
this point, you may not worry about the platform to host your online course;
all you need is to make your materials ready.
To
make it at this stage, you need the following:
·
Passion- if you’re not passionate about it, a lot of
contradicting factors would stop you. So, you’ve got to be passionate about
what you’ve set out to do.
·
Consistency: Have a timetable to schedule your periodic
activities for your course creation- you don’t leave it to chance. And you know
what! Ideas flow when you’re consistent.
·
Research
ability-
You’ve got to have that ability to read up some others’ works related to what
you want to offer.
Your
intention here is not to plagiarize. All you need to do is to get some copy
contents and redesign them into original contents to support what you have. And
you can’t do this perfectly if you’re a complete novice in that field.
Remember, online course does not stop at creating
contents. There are several other things that must be done to eventually make
it in online course creation.
Hello, my name is Chima Ezuo. I'm a tech-savvy educator, a Nigerian with great passion to see Africa rise through tech-driven education and digital literacy integration in our educational processes. I train African teachers and teens; I blog for global teachers. 
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