How to Become an Online Course Creator + Quiz (Ultimate Guide)
Becoming an online course creator means to become an educator, content creator, edupreneur and marketer with the ability to turn your knowledge into engaging online learning experience.
With the best online course platforms, you can create online courses, market and sell your course, build your online brand and create a profitable course for your online business all at the same place.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Key to becoming a successful online course creator means to choose the right topic, create high converting sales funnel, market and launch on the right platform.
- There are 4 main types of course creators; The Insider, The Journeyman, The Experts and The Professional.
- Creating online course can take a massive amount of time and energy, but the reward you get from creating and selling your own course is totally worth it.
What is an Online Course Creator?
An online course creator is an individual that create virtual learning content, offering online learning experience for learners. Learners will engage with the course materials, perform exercise, and perform knowledge assessment through quizzes and exams at their own pace.
Online course creator serve as the guide to offer learners the flexibility and opportunity to learn various topics, empowering learner to take responsibility of their learning journey.
Unlike traditional education, anyone can become an online course creator.
Types of Online Course Creator
While anyone can create and sell online courses using course builders and online learning platform, not all online course creators does it for the same reasons.
- Some create online course for fun, simply because they are passionate about the topic and want to share their expertise.
- Others create online course to build an online school business, selling courses to make a profit.
Each type of course creator are unique in their own ways, but each have their own weakness and strength, thus knowing which type of course creator are you is important if you want to be successful selling your online course.
The Insider: Unveiling the Passionate Enthusiast
The Insider is a beacon of authenticity, deeply immersed in a specific hobby or interest.
As an insider, your knowledge, though not claiming expert status, resonates with substance, making them sought-after advisors in their community.
Characteristics
- Authenticity: Genuine passion exudes from every lesson, fostering a relatable and engaging teaching style.
- Relatability: Sharing personal experiences makes for easy connections with learners.
- Accessibility: Courses are beginner-friendly and easily digestible.
Strengths
- Authentic Appeal: The Insider’s genuine passion makes their courses captivating and relatable.
- Relatable Teaching Style: Learners connect emotionally, enhancing the learning experience.
- Beginner-Friendly Content: Accessibility attracts a broad audience, especially beginners.
Weaknesses
- Limited Depth: Lack of extensive expertise may restrict the depth of course content.
- Monetization Challenge: Transitioning from a hobby to income requires a clear monetization strategy.
What You Should Do As Course Creator
- Leverage Your Strength: Craft courses emphasizing the journey and personal insights, connecting deeply with learners.
- Overcome Your Weakness: Seek partnerships with experts to enhance course depth, and explore creative monetization avenues.
The Journeyman: Navigating Diverse Knowledge Landscapes
The Journeyman possesses above-average knowledge across various areas, sharing experiences successfully.
As a journeyman, you are always contemplating transforming this knowledge into a substantial income. With your diverse knowledge landscape, your experience is invaluable and uniquely yours making it highly valued by others.
Characteristics
- Practicality: Courses are grounded in real-world experiences, offering practical insights.
- Flexibility: Adaptable, providing a diverse range of skills and experiences.
- Potential for Side Income: Existing success can be transformed into a supplementary income stream.
Strengths
- Real-World Insights: Practical experiences enhance the relevance and applicability of the courses.
- Adaptability: A broad range of skills caters to a diverse audience.
- Side Income Potential: Existing success provides a foundation for additional income.
Weaknesses
- Overwhelm: Attempting to cover too much may lead to overwhelming, lengthy courses.
- Monetization Clarity: Clear strategies are essential to turn side income into a consistent revenue stream.
What You Should Do As Course Creator
- Leverage Your Strength: Highlight the practicality of your courses; offer bite-sized modules for diverse learning.
- Overcome Your Weakness: Focus on niche topics, ensuring depth without overwhelming learners, and refine monetization strategies.
The Expert: Unveiling the In-Depth Specialist
The Expert is armed with specialized training and extensive experience, stands as a beacon of knowledge.
You are a specialist, a sort after expert who is highly recognized in your field. Not only you have real-world experience, you are trained in their profession.
Seeking to derive more meaningful income or offer a higher value proposition, your courses provide comprehensive insights.
Characteristics
- Depth of Knowledge: Courses are thorough, providing profound insights.
- Credibility: Trust emanates from the Expert’s wealth of experience and training.
- Monetization Potential: A clear path exists to monetize their expertise.
Strengths
- Comprehensive Expertise: Courses offer in-depth knowledge, ensuring a valuable learning experience.
- Credibility Boost: Learners trust the Expert’s vast experience, enhancing the course’s perceived value.
- Monetization Path: A clear strategy exists for converting expertise into income.
Weaknesses
- Assumption Pitfall: Overestimating market needs due to extensive knowledge may pose challenges.
- Market Blindness: Deep understanding may lead to overlooking market demands.
What You Should Do As Course Creator
- Leverage Your Strength: Demonstrate practical applications of your expertise; offer case studies and real-world examples.
- Overcome Your Weakness: Regularly gather feedback, stay attuned to market trends, and validate assumptions through audience interaction.
The Professional: Elevating Expertise into Scalable Success
The Professional is an expert with a distinguished reputation, now explores scalable options like online course creation.
You are the most in-demanded coach, the go-to person, the problem solver, the person who makes things happen.
Despite a high demand for your expertise, time constraints and the shift from one-on-one interactions present challenges.
Characteristics
- Established Reputation: Recognized as an authority in their field.
- Scalability: Courses provide the potential to scale income beyond traditional consulting.
- High Demand: Significant demand exists for the Professional’s expertise.
Strengths
- Reputational Influence: An established reputation attracts a ready audience for courses.
- Scalable Income: Courses offer the potential to multiply income beyond billable hours.
- Built-in Demand: High demand for their expertise ensures a steady flow of learners.
Weaknesses
- Time Constraints: Limited time for course creation due to existing professional commitments.
- Transition Challenges: Shifting from one-on-one interactions to online teaching requires adjustment.
What You Should Do As Course Creator
- Leverage Your Strength: Collaborate with a team for content creation and leverage existing networks for course promotion.
- Overcome Your Weakness: Optimize time management, consider outsourcing non-core tasks, and gradually transition from one-on-one engagements.
How to Become an Online Course Creator & Create Online Course
Source: ThinkiFic
With your understanding on what type of course creator you are, let take a look at how you can start become an online course creator, creating engaging new courses for your online business.
1. Choose Your Course Topic
Exploring the various course ideas and choose a compelling and relevant topic which you are passionate about and your audience will be interested.
Choosing the right course topic is the first step in becoming an effective online course creator, it is the foundation of your online course and the key to creating a course that you are proud of.
Create courses that align to your passion for the subject matter is crucial, as it will resonate in your course materials. Consider these steps:
Steps to Choosing Your Course Topic
- Reflect on your skills, talents, and life experiences.
- Choose a subject you are passionate about.
- Explore non-traditional areas; online platforms embrace a variety of topics.
- Ensure familiarity with the chosen subject to facilitate high-quality content creation.
2. Perform Market Research
With your topic selected, it’s time to conduct a thorough market research to ensure its profitability.
Having passion in your topic is important, but it is just as important that it is a topic that your audience are interested as well. Because you are creating and selling your course to your audience and not to yourself.
- Who is your target audience and their persona?
- What is the problem they want to solve?
- Why you are the solution to their problem?
Understanding your target audience and analyzing competitors will guide your decisions.
Steps to Doing Market Research
- Gather data on your target audience.
- Research competitors in your chosen subject.
- Analyze enrollment numbers on popular platforms cautiously.
- Assess the level of interest in your content compared to similar courses.
3. Plan Your Course Content
Passion and knowledge are essential, but planning your course content strategically is equally crucial.
Heard of the phase, “Fail to plan, is Plan to fail”?
Yup, this is exactly the case. I’ve once create a course without much planning, and guess what… it was so bad an unorganized that I have to take down the course and redo everything from scratch.
Getting started in building your course without planning can lead to waste of your time, effort and resources.
Balancing depth and simplicity ensures your course is engaging and valuable.
Steps to Planning Your Course
- Identify the most engaging aspects of your subject.
- Trim excessive material; market research helps identify crucial content.
- Outline content types: video lectures, written modules, discussions, etc.
- Choose a course structure that resonates with your audience.
- Consider your audience’s preferences and learning goals when planning.
4. Build Your Course Online
Once your content is planned, it’s time to bring it to life.
Using a Learning Management System (LMS) which are all-in-one online course platform platform will give you everything you need to create, sell and market your course worldwide.
To help you in your journey, here I’ve handpick some of the best platform to get started:
- Top online course platform for both beginners and seasoned course creators
- Free online course platform that is budget friendly for beginners.
- Course platform that offers you the ability to create your own branded App.
- Online course platform with ability to create your branded certificate.
Choosing the best all-in-one platform offers the course creation tools that let you streamlines the process, making it user-friendly for both you and your students.
Steps to Building Your Course Online
- Utilize an LMS with features like drag-and-drop course builder and intuitive course interface.
- Choose a platform that supports various content formats.
- Look for features such as drip course content, course completion certificates, course content that engages your learners and increase your overall course completion rate.
- Define your course’s structure, course curriculum and add content.
- Select the right monetization strategy and price your course right.
- Write benefit focused course description and title that hook your audience.
- Create sales page and sales funnel to convert your audience into paying learners.
- Launch and publish your course and make it accessible to your audience.
- Market and promote your course with email marketing and other marketing tools.
- Take feedbacks from learners, update and improve on your online course.
Benefits of Becoming an Online Course Creator
Becoming an online course creator offers many benefits, here are just a few of the main benefits why it makes becoming an online course creator a good option.
1. Diversification of Income
Becoming an online course creator means to offer diversification of income, mitigating risks associated with market fluctuations.
Creating an online course means to build a new stream of income for your online business.
2. Market Reach
Virtual courses break geographical barriers, allowing creators to reach a global audience.
With your learners having the option to learn anywhere anytime, it makes your course more desirable and helps you grow your income on the long term.
3. Long-Term Revenue
Successful courses can generate revenue long after the initial creation, creating a passive income stream for your online business.
Unlike traditional education where you need to be physically in the class to teach, online course let you teach and sell your courses without limit even when you are sleeping.
Starting Online Course Creation As Course Creator
With the development of all-in-one course creation software, many popular online course software allows you to create your course without writing a single line of code.
Together with course templates, AI tools, and 3rd-party App integration, you can easily create highly engaging online courses within a few weeks.
Take a look at our ultimate guide to course creation to get started:
- Creating online course from start to finish for beginners
- Creating an online course using AI such as ChatGPT and Bard
- Creating online videos for your online course
The course creation process is becoming easier as many online course tools are developed. While the journey of becoming a course creator can come with many challenges, the rewards of creating and selling your online course is far greater.
Time your course launch right such as the month of January, September, November or December and you will see your online course business making it’s first course sale earlier than expected.
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Antony C. is a dividend investor with over 15+ years of investing experience. He’s also the book author of “Start Small, Dream Big“, certified PMP® holder and founder of IncomeBuddies.com (IB). At IB, he share his personal journey and expertise on growing passive income through dividend investing and building online business. Antony has been featured in global news outlet including Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq and Non Fiction Author Association (NFAA).
