Online Courses
Struggling to build your first course? Try this…
Your first course won't make you millions.
Not unless you're very, very lucky or you already have a big audience.
But what it will do is get the ball rolling. Build momentum. Prove to you that you can do it.
With that first course in the bag your second becomes exponentially easier to create. As does your third, fourth or however many you want to make.
But getting that first course out the door is often hard.
So here's a suggestion to make it much, much easier: create a micro-course.
A micro-course is simply a very short course focused on one specific problem. Ideally you'll be able to teach it in something like 10-15 minutes. Maybe 30 tops.
Often the thing you teach is a small but valuable part of a wider skillset. For example, in every course or workshop I've done on email marketing I've taught a module on email subject lines. That module could be a micro course in its own right.
The advantage of micro courses is twofold.
Firstly, because they're small they're easy to create. I reckon I could create a decent micro course on email subject lines in a couple of hours.
I'd gather some of my existing material and models. Do a quick search for new examples of good subject lines. Outline what I wanted to teach. Rattle off a few slides. Record a video.
I could have it out “on the market” the next day and be getting feedback.
Secondly, they're actually good for learners.
We might feel we're giving more value by cramming more into a course but usually our customers want to learn the minimum possible to achieve the outcome they're looking for.
With a micro course we're focusing on solving a small but valuable problem. Out customers should be able to start work on solving that problem after taking our training in just 15 minutes or so.
That means they're getting results faster and not wasting any time.
Now of course it's difficult to charge a huge fee for a micro course so you're not going to get rich creating one. But as we already said, you never get rich from your first course anyway.
So why not make it easy on yourself and make that “first course that isn't going to make you rich” quick and easy to create.
Get some momentum going. Get some early adopters who'll give you feedback, get great results and give you great testimonials.
And prove to yourself it's not as hard as it looks to make a course.
Ian Brodie
https://www.ianbrodie.comIan Brodie is the best-selling author of Email Persuasion and the creator of Unsnooze Your Inbox - *the* guide to crafting engaging emails and newsletters that captivate your audience, build authority and generate more sales.