Every day, I see new course creators struggling to make money selling their online courses. They want to ditch their 9-5 job and create an online business around what they love! So, they choose a course topic, film a bunch of videos, and then months or years later they finally launch their first online course!
And then… ZERO Sales… Their course fails or gets nowhere near to that “Golden $10K Goal”…
In this post, you will discover exactly how it’s possible to generate over $30,000 in online course sales in less than 30 days! This strategy is proven and tons of online course creators are reaping the benefits of it. Here’s how…
Before You Start: Fix Your Mindset
Before you can think of making money selling online courses, you must be in the right mindset to create your course. Cut out distractions, commit to the process, and have a reason why you’re doing this. I promise you, your life can change if you successfully complete the steps. But, only if you commit & are consistent. Let’s dive in now that you’re ready!
Step 1: Pick your “Hyper Niche”
Your niche comes from your expertise, skills, results, or passions you have. These should be things you can easily teach to others. Today’s online world is very crowded and it tends to be difficult to differentiate yourself from the crowd. So, you need a “Hyper Niche”, a niche within a niche.
Example: Let’s say your niche is Fitness. To identify your hyper niche, you must niche it down even further. So it goes from Fitness > Weight Loss > Weight Loss only for Women > Weight Loss only for Women who are 40-50. You could even take it another step further by …> Weight Loss only for Women who are 40-50 with Diabetes.
By doing this, you will be able to understand your ideal customer more, create content that attracts them by talking about their problems and eventually make yourself the “Go-To Expert” for those people.
If you market to everyone, you will sell to no one. Market to a very select group of individuals that is sizable enough for your business.
Step 2: Build Your Audience
The easiest way to sell your course is to an audience of people who know, like and trust you. You build an audience online by creating and posting content. Russell Brunson says it the best,
wherever your ideal customer hangs out, is where you need to amass a following.
Russell Brunson, ClickFunnels.
Create content that attracts your ideal customers by talking about their problems and teaching them how to fix them. Also share your story, results, life etc. Post valuable content that helps people without expecting anything in return. Over time you’ll have people coming to you! This can be done on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. Make sure you’re consistent, people need to get to know, like and trust you!
Step 3: Create Your Course Outline
Do not follow the mistake of just guessing what your course framework should be. You can have an idea of what it’ll be like but your audience will decide this. You can create your course outline by asking and interviewing your audience.
If Coca Cola was going to release a new product, they’d spend millions of dollars, and thousands of hours just into MARKET RESEARCH. Luckily for you, you can just do this for free and get direct feedback from your audience. During this process, you discover what your audiences biggest problems, questions, and desires are.
Then you can use that to create your course outline, content, and messaging. Only choose a course topic if you can 100% solve that problem. Now you know exactly what to teach and your ideal customer will be more willing to pay you to learn it.
Step 4: Sell Your Course
Yes, You read that right! Sell spots into your program before you film or create it.
“But Caleb, if I don’t have a course filmed & created, then what am I selling? I can’t sell nothing!”
You are selling spots for your test group. Your test group is a small group of students who want to learn from you. You teach them live or through group coaching. Selling first, saves time and helps you start getting some people in early. I’d recommend selling your course over the phone to increase your conversion rate and to make sure that person is a good fit for your test group. Doing this helps you create a proof of concept, and allows you to not film course content that may or may not work.
Step 5: Deliver Your Course
You can deliver your course to your test group live or through group coaching. This helps you ensure that your strategy works. During this process, you discover what truly works and what your students struggled with. So that after your done teaching it & ready to film your course content, you can make the changes needed to ensure your course is successful.
You want to be sure people are interested in what you’ll be teaching and that by the end once the course is completed, your students actually got results. The test group will also provide you with results, testimonials and even affiliates to help you launch your finished course.
Delivering your course live or through group coaching will leave you with a strong foundation to build on top of for the future! Your understanding of your ideal buyer, their problems, and how to speak to them will be strong.
Step 6: Create Your Course
Once the test group is deemed successful, create the first version of your course. You can create, record, and upload your new proven course content to a hosting platform. Gather your testimonials and results from your students and prepare to launch it to the public!
Step 7: Launch Your Course
Sell spots into your new and improved course to your audience! Create an irresistible offer and make sure everything is based around your ideal customer’s problems & desires. If you’re launching, make it a special price, include bonuses, and add a real deadline.
If you’re choosing to sell evergreen, don’t include a deadline unless it’s a real deadline like a price increase or certain bonuses will no longer be available after 50 students. I’d still recommend selling your course over the phone to increase conversions and build a stronger connection with your audience.
That’s it guys! This is how you make tons of money selling online courses. Yes, there are a MILLION different things that go into successfully launching a course, but this is just a birds-eye view into it all.
If you’re just starting out, I dropped some really helpful tips here Starting a New Business? Here Are 10 Things You Should Know
Would love to hear what you guys think and if you thought any piece of information is valuable to you and your journey, do leave a comment below.
