It is one thing to be an expert in a particular subject matter and another to know how to make money from your knowledge. In this article, we share some valuable points from one of our Grow My Business webinars, where Stephanie Obi talked about “Turning Your Expertise Into A Profitable Online Course.”
You need to have clarity and a strategy over what to teach and how to sell your course. Getting people to buy your course requires a lot of strategy and marketing, don’t expect people to buy because you are an expert in your field, you will be shocked! You don’t always have to be the very best in your field to sell your course; sometimes, you just need to know how to market it. Now, this doesn’t mean that you scam people, if you do not know something, don’t teach it! You can’t give what you don’t have!
1. Choosing the perfect course topic
The perfect course topic is a topic you can sell over and over again. Everyone has that topic they can sell over and over again. Don’t make the mistake of teaching everything you have an idea of because you want to make money online, start with one thing you know very well and gradually build momentum. Choose your niche carefully so that you don’t get forced to create content on every new thing, this can make people lose interest in the value you have to add because they are not sure what to come to you for. You also need to know that not all of your courses will be very profitable.
You should pick a topic you have undeniable results in, something you are so good at! These are the questions you should be answering:
- What do I have results in?
- What results do I help my clients get?
- What obstacle have I overcome?
- What exciting goal have I achieved?
- What topic have I spent hours developing myself on?
- What do people always come to me for advice on?
- What tools do I know how to use very well?
- What software do I know how to use very well?
To pick your course topic, you should answer Steph’s 5 Questions Test:
- Are there people willing to pay me for this topic?
- Am I ready to teach this topic?
- Is this a topic I want to be known for?
- Is this a topic I can pay someone else to learn?
- Is there anything unique about me when it comes to this topic?
2. Setting up an online course even if you are not a techie.
A lot of people who have expert knowledge on different topics do not have online courses because they believe you need to be a techie to launch an online course. However, this is not true!
Your online course is made up of 3 major pillars:
- Your Framework:
Your framework is what guarantees that people actually get results. You will be showing people a step by step guide on how to get a specific result. Your framework helps you to become a thought leader, and you don’t have to be a techie. - Your Lessons:
Your online course will consist of video lessons that will explain your framework. You can create a presentation (PowerPoint or slides) screencast or talking head videos. You will also need to create workbooks and guides that help people to implement your framework. You don’t need to be a techie to create a video, you can create one with any budget that you have. - Your Online School
You need a branded online school that will host your video lessons and workbooks. Your course needs to be very protected so that people can not steal and resell. You don’t have to build from scratch because there are platforms (like TrainQuarters) that can help you create an online branded school in minutes.
Fun fact: Flutterwave can help you receive payments from your online students, you only need to integrate Flutterwave For Business with TrainQuarters. This makes a lot of sense because it is automated; once they pay for the course, they get access to it. This way, you can be getting paid while sleeping or living your life. Your students can be from anywhere in the world because we receive payments from anywhere in the world.
3. Launching a profitable online course even if you do not have a huge audience.
Many people are so good at what they do that focus majorly on doing it without really thinking about marketing. Here are some ways you can start building your audience:
- Presell your course and get your first 10 students: You will get more students as you relaunch.
Presell your course ➡️ Create your course content ➡️ Deliver the course to your students ➡️ Grow your audience ➡️ Launch your course. - The typical conversion rate based on your audience is 1%, whether you have 1000 or 10,000 followers. Selling low-price mini-courses may not really help you because it takes the same effort to create a low-price course and a premium course.
If you are really interested in starting an online course, you should totally consider checking out Stephanie’s website where she has a lot of helpful resources.
