Important Tips To Remember When Creating Your Online Course

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

When I started out as an Online Course Creator, I was thoroughly intimidated and terrified of the prospect of creating and selling online courses to strangers. Selling your Online Course on Online Learning Platforms is one of the better alternatives to a full-time day job. It can also be a high-paying sideline gig that you have to help with making ends meet.

Not everyone was born a trust fund baby. The majority of the population is all too familiar with financial struggles. Even with a full-time day job, it is understandable that your monthly salary is not enough because of the number of your expenditures. Fortunately, with a little side hustle, you will be able to earn some passive income to supplement your monthly salary.

However, creating online courses is not a cut-and-dry deal. It takes a lot of time and effort so that you can be successful. Here are some important tips that you should remember when creating your online course.

Pick The Proper Subject

Choosing the right subject for your Online Course is crucial if you want it to be successful and bought by interested students. It is not as simple as just choosing a topic that you are an expert at.

What you want for a topic is something that many potential students will be interested in paying for. Your subject should also be relevant to the times. Your Online Course will not be sellable if you are teaching a field that is not even relevant anymore. For example, a course on how to operate a computer program that has already been discontinued like Microsoft Excel 2007 would generate no students. Who would want to pay for an online course to learn something that would have no relevance to their life? Take the time to research which subjects are applicable to recent times, such as current SEO best practices.

Research Your Topic

When you have decided on a topic, you should do extensive research before you start creating your online course. No matter how well-versed you think you are with the subject, it is still highly possible that you have forgotten a vital part.

Even tenured professors at Universities take their time to go over their course materials. It is your responsibility to ensure that the stuff that you teach is factually correct, otherwise, you risk being caught teaching the wrong information which isn’t good for your reputation.

You should also spend some time talking to other experts and getting their advice on which points are crucial to teaching. Don’t just dive in headfirst. Spend a few days reading over relevant course materials like books, journals, academic papers, instructional videos, etc.

Use Legitimate Tools

Do not publish and sell a course that has bad graphics and poorly edited videos. This is just in bad taste. When you are creating your online course, invest in legitimate tools and software instead of using pirated versions. This will definitely improve the learning experience for your students.

Using legitimate tools is also the right thing to do as you are using them for a professional cause.  Investing in some basic editing software is more recommended than using a pirated version that would create bad results.

Be Interesting

Just as with University professors, you need to exert some effort into making your online course interesting. Your students also have to be entertained for two reasons. One reason is that studies have found that students learn better when they are entertained instead of bored. When you are bored, your mind travels elsewhere. This means that they are less receptive to new information.

Another reason is that you would want some returning customers and them to refer you. An entertaining online course will likely get more students than a purely educational, non-entertaining one. It is just like YouTube videos. Charismatic and enjoyable videos get much more views than normal videos.

Advertise Properly

Don’t let your work go to waste by poorly advertising your Online Course. There are multiple platforms that you can advertise at which will allow you to connect with your audience.

A great example of an advertising platform is YouTube. You can create a YouTube channel that you can use to cement your reputation as a well-informed member of the community. This will allow students to get a preview of how your full online course would go. If interested, they can then go straight to your chosen online learning platform to buy your online course.

Listen To Comments

It would do you well to listen to comments and reviews of your previous online courses. At the end of your course, you should ask your students to leave a review. Insightful comments help you improve your craft as an Online Course Creator.