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Nice to see you here. You're wondering: “How do I create and sell an online course myself?”
We understand that curiosity. With e-learning, you can enrich the lives of your students by teaching them something new! In addition, you can earn 'mountains' of passive income yourself. Although... of course, that sounds as realistic as losing 10 kilos within a week. Or win a million with the State Lottery.
Nevertheless, this is often promised. Ads on Facebook and Instagram make you believe that entrepreneurs are generating mountains of money after launching their online program. I can already hear you thinking. If that's so easy, why isn't everyone doing it?
The reality is a little different. After all, making a successful online course takes a lot of hard work!
You really have to create a strong online training if you want to be able to buy a swimming pool for it. And that Hummer isn't coming just like that either... So you'd do well to delve into a thorough step-by-step plan before you get started yourself. Then the chance of “a mountain” of passive income is much higher ;-) So please read on!
Still not quite clear to you what e-learning exactly is? So read: What is e-learning?
If you're going to create an online training, you can compare this to setting up a new company. If you want to make a profit out of it, your idea has to be damn good. Without a good idea, you can't make a successful online training. So it's logical that you'll first consider what the business plan for your online training will be.
This step is very simple if you already have offline training. This is because you can transform this into an online learning intervention. But even if you start without a clear starting point, you can generate income by developing e-learning. Then you just need to clarify what you really have something to add.
So, grab a piece of paper and answer the following questions:
In step 2, you will translate your answers into a specific topic for you e-learning.
It is advisable to focus on the sales strategy of your training very early in the development process. Selling e-learning After all, it takes quite a bit of thought and that starts the moment you come up with the topic. You should check which course topic is likely to sell best. Your training really needs product-market fit. But how do you find out?
Take another look at the list of topics you created in step 1. Now write down 3 specific topics where you have a online training could make over. In doing so, make sure that the subject for your online training meets the following points:
Ready? Beautiful. Time to test whether your idea actually works.
Be sure to check out our latest free tool: the E-learning Needs Scan. Answer the questions within 10 minutes and receive a personal advice report written by our own e-learning experts.
Prevent developing a workout from costing you blood, sweat and tears, but yielding nothing. Before you start, put a few growth hacking tactics in! Using these techniques, you can already find out if the market is waiting for your e-learning.
In an imaginary world, you create three different ads on Facebook about possible topics for a online training. Let's say:
So each ad is about a different course topic. You select the same target group and budget for each ad (very important!). You distribute the ads and look back after half a month to see how the ads performed. Which ad got the highest CTR (click-through rate)? In other words, the highest click-through rate.
It's important that you never rely on your first feeling. No person is the same and you cannot decide for others what they are or are not interested in.
Did you expect training about cuddling spiders to be the most popular?
The next step is to create a landing page with a form where interested parties can subscribe. This looks like pre-registration for your online training. This way, you can check again whether there is actually interest in your training.
Do you still have doubts? Do you think it's too unlikely that people need an e-learning about spiders? Test again if this training really sells well by creating a landing page with a very long survey.
Do interested parties make a lot of effort and fill out the entire form?
Then they can't wait to receive information about cuddling with spiders!
Building the online training can begin! But not without the right e-learning software... We recommend that you take plenty of time and find out which learning environment best suits your online training.
In this blog, we'll tell you exactly how to make an informed choice for e-learning software you can create.
Our LMS, Pluvo, contains many options. You can start for free and easy create your own online course. We offer subscriptions for large and smaller customers, so you never pay too much. This is ideal if you prefer to start slowly and first see how your online training will come out on the market.
Opt for a Learning Management System in combination with an authoring tool. So you can create the online training and analyse the results in the same place!
After all the preparatory steps, it is now time to actually get started building your online training. Party! 🥳 Start by determining the structure. This makes it much easier to provide content to your e-learning in the future. To do this, follow the steps below.
Ready! You can now start filling out the e-learning.
Now that your structure is in place, you can start developing the content. Of course, you can't wait to put your knowledge on digital paper. Just take the things below into account!
Always take into account the current level of the students. Are you making your teaching material too easy? Then the students are not challenged. However, are you making your teaching modules too difficult? Then they can become demotivated.
As a result, they do not complete the online training and regret their purchase.
That's why you always start with the easiest part in your online training. You adjust this level to the current level of your students. Make sure someone can join the training immediately. In the following chapters, you can increase the level a bit.
From a didactic point of view, it is wise to take into account the 4 different learning preferences. Don't get me wrong, because every student uses them all. But not everyone has the same prevailing preference.
The perfect online training alternates between these variants, so that everyone is and remains fascinated.
If you don't have content yet, you'll have to start writing yourself. This sometimes seems like a very long process. This is because writers are often perfectionists. Don't do it!
Use your structure and just start writing down everything that comes to mind about the particular topic.
You can always delete or rewrite sentences. You'll see that a lesson or chapter is written much faster this way.
Just make sure these pieces of text are not too long. You then run the risk that your students will quickly become demotivated. Facebook, Tweakers or NU.nl are just a few clicks away from you learning environment. Therefore, alternate different types of content (text, video, images).
Also read our blog about writing web texts, for more tips about writing online content.
No time/money/desire to make professional videos, but do you still want to show something to your students? Record your screen with, for example Camtasias whether Quicktime and record what you're doing. And/or record your face. Very personal and yet accessible!
your online training has been created. However, people won't just buy them, no matter how nice the end result may be. First, you have to convince them of the added value of your training. You can do this by making sure that future customers can take part of your course for free! This also reduces the risk of dissatisfaction. After all, they know what to expect from the e-learning.
One gratuitous course By the way, it doesn't fill up automatically either: here, too, you need to ensure a thorough marketing plan.
Now that you have that bin of really interested parties, it's time to convert them into customers! Write multiple emails and schedule them with a mail tool such as Campaign Monitor whether Mailchimp.
Tell them why they should sign up for you in this email fantastic training courses.
Also add a piece social proof add: a quote from someone who has already followed your training, for example. Or someone who was positive about your company.
Getting started with your online course? Start with Pluvo for free!
As an educational expert specialising in online learning, I have been writing blogs for Pluvo for 5 years. My focus is on powerful learning solutions for organisations. Universal Design for Learning and inclusive learning are my passion; I believe that education should be accessible and fun for everyone.
I've been combining my 35 years of HR experience with copywriting for over 15 years. And even then, I learn new things over and over again. That's what makes writing blogs for Pluvo so incredibly interesting!
