This article is written by Udemy instructor Emilie Schrevens-Wester and is part of The Entrepreneur Masterclass.
Creating a course can bring you multiple benefits, it can help:
show people that you have knowledge and skills
generate passive income
bring clients to you
build social proof
have an audience that keeps tabs on your projects and products
1) Brainstorm course ideas
What are you good at? What do people trust you with? What did you study? What is your hobby?
Brainstorm all ideas that you feel confident you could create at least 45 minutes of content (+- 45 A4 written pages) with.
2) Trim it down
Using analytics tools, keyword searchers and more, you can trim down the selection and pick your top 3 courses. For me it will be “How to publish an online course”, “how to speak French” and “How to avoid scams online”. They will interest a lot of people, I am knowledgeable and people are actually willing to pay to learn these subjects.
You are not here to invent something new. You’re just here to share your skills, market your content, learn a bit of audio/video editing and you’ll be good to go.
Once you feel confident about the topic of your course, run it through Udemy’s insight tool: https://www.udemy.com/instructor/marketplace-insights/ . It will tell you the student demand, number of courses (on Udemy), monthly revenue, top revenue, and how well it ranks. Ideally, you want your course to have high demand but low amount of courses.
Check keyword tools, see how many people search your topic and want to learn more about it. Watch out for “seasonal effects”:
People want to be healthy after Christmas because it’s their new resolution
People want to make more money when they’re hit with a financial crisis
People want to freelance and travel the world when they’re on the edge of burn out.
You should not rely on seasonal effects. Think of Christmas decorations, you’ll sell a lot of them when it’s December, and after that, you’ll need to find something else to sell for the rest of the year.
Think of what kind of course you want to create. Do you want to make a mini-course to bring students to buy a bigger course? Do you want to make something super specific (like Python Advanced for creating an AI that plays Mario Bros) or something easy peasy to understand? Do you want to make a course that says “hi this is me and I’m an expert at this, so I teach it” and get noticed by businesses? What is your end goal?
3) Watch other courses
Watch other courses about the topic you want to teach, and how to create content (duh). While watching other courses, take notes on the content, how the editing is done, illustrations and how they are used, how the content is delivered (pictures? slides? someone talking? someone drawing on a white board?). Is it boring? Is it good? Do you want to do it this way as well or do you think another way is better for your subject? Think of your subject and the best way to provide content:
Teaching bookkeeping? Show your screen with Excel running
Teaching math? Have a well lit white board to explain what you’re doing
Teaching a language? Use illustrations and slides, and have a clear audio quality.
Teaching meditation? Record in nature and remove annoying noises post-production.
Teaching drawing? Film your canvas/table. Students don’t need to see your face, they need to see what your hands are doing.
Always combine at least two relevant styles to keep it entertaining.
If you’re studying a “competitor” course, write down the topics they talk about, and do it better. More valuable information, more engaging,
Decide whether you want to learn animation and A/V editing or pay a freelancer to create some animation/illustrations for you. You can also create videos and pictures with Canva for a very cheap price. Regarding Audio editing, to be honest, it will take you 10 minutes max to learn how to remove white noise in Audacity.
Establish your course outline and what teaching style you want for each lecture. Design templates to help yourself for the course creation. Include questions like:
Who are your target students?
Why does this course need to exist? What problems is your course solving?
What is the goal of the course?
What are the prerequisites?
What is your budget to create this course?
What skills do you need to learn? What do you want to delegate?
Is there someone else that can join and add something to the course? (ex: you’re teaching music production, invite a local artist that will give their take on the music industry)
Once you’ve gone through publishing your first course, edit that template document and improve it by adding ways to handle what you found difficult when making your first course.
It’s possible that during your research, you realize that creating an online course is not the best way to teach your students, and that’s okay. It’s better to realize it now than seeing your course fail miserably after months of hard work. Do even more research to figure out the best way to do it, or even better, bring new things on the table to make your topic teachable in video format.
If your topic already has a lot of competition, try to do it differently. Eg: lots of people teach nutrition and how to have a healthy diet (and those courses sell a lot when it’s new year time), why not add an interesting sub-niche, like “10 min prep meals for busy people”, “Nutrition for vegetarians”, “Nutrition for a gluten-free lifestyle”. Do something different than “Hi, this is a course to tell you sugar is bad”.
4) Brainstorm lectures
Make a list of the chapters and lectures you want to teach. Make sure the first lecture is an introduction one, and that the last lecture is a conclusion/outro lecture.
If it’s a 101 course, you will need to spend more time on the introduction, as your student is new to the topic. If you’re doing an intermediate course, a long introduction will bore students out and they’ll lose interest.
What is your key idea? What is the thread/common theme that will run through the whole course?
5) Define your ideal student
Decide how deep you want to go. Are you making a 101 type course to make complex information more understandable? Are you making an advanced course? What is the sub-niche? (see table below for examples). Who is your target student? If your course is for “everybody” then it’s just not tailored for anybody specific and that’s bad. Reflect on what you know, and what you want to share.
Specify your “not-for-student”: who is this course NOT for? Imagine you teach finance 101:
“This course is NOT for students who are looking for a get rich quick scheme”,
“This course is NOT for students who want to learn how to invest in cryptocurrencies”,
“This course is NOT for students who already have a certificate in finance, as we will start from scratch”.
You see the pattern? If you are clear about your target student, you’ll likely receive less reviews about wrong student expectations.
Think of your own struggles when you learned this topic. What do you wish you knew 10 years ago when you started learning? Include that in your promo video and explain to the student that it will save them a lot of time, money and frustration.
You will see this formula a lot online and I think it’s a good one. While defining your target student, think of filling the blanks:
“at the end of the course, the student will be able to (strong action verb) + (how/why)”
Eg: “the student will be able to master home budgeting in Excel 2023”
“the student will be able to create a wonderful piece of art using watercolor”
“the student will be able to plan a new diet in order to build muscle”
6) Get your equipment
Depending on the teaching style you chose, you might need equipment (microphone, microphone arm, green screen editing software, etc). Make sure you order/prepare that equipment before writing your course, otherwise it will delay your production to wait for those items when you’re done writing your course. Now is also the time to learn audio and video editing if needed. If you prefer, you can also do this while writing the course, so you spend half the day learning, half the day writing.
Write your quality testing video (depending on the platform, there could be different quality requirements). Try to make a promo video that is full HD, shows your face, your slides, and has proper mic quality. Once the learning platform you want to teach on has approved your test video (not all of them require it), then you can start writing the course. You can also start while waiting for their reply, because it could take a few days.
The audio quality matters SO MUCH. Make sure you invest to buy a decent microphone. No one will survive a course with bad audio quality.
7) Start writing
Now that you described your course goals, your ideal student and your main key idea, start writing.
First, pick a nice course name, remember the formula and the table from earlier. Either you name it something like “Excel 101: All the basics you need to do (whatever task)” or you name it with a goal in mind “Python Advanced: Program your own AI for deep-learning”. Double check if your title matches with popular keywords.
Don’t forget to write your promo video. It’s a video that will be on the main page of your course and should convince students to enroll in your course. Make sure it complies to the rules of every platform you’ll put it on (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc). Make it compatible with everything.
While writing, remember that more content isn’t always better. If you’re trying to extend the course length with bullshit, students won’t be happy.
While you’re at it, create course material for your students. It can be your PPTX file, a summarized version of the course script, a link to more resources through Google Drive or other file sharing websites.
Create a template to help you when you’ll film your course, this is what mine looks like:
Don’t forget to add (in your intro or in a short lecture afterwards) that you value an honest review and would appreciate students leaving one. Don’t ask for a review in the promotion video, as your students didn’t enroll yet and it will sound weird.
8) Recording and editing
Before recording, practice. It will allow you to figure out if something is wrong in your presentation or speech.
Be engaging: Practice, use your voice correctly. Don’t talk too fast and talk clearly. If you’re scared your students might be bored, use real-life examples that students can relate to.
Your environment cannot be distracting and should be adapted to the subject. If nothing special needs to be in the background, then leave it as it is (well, clean it first). The ideal neutral background would be a wall, with a bookshelf or just a wall. Record with natural daylight if possible, your camera will love you for this.
If you want to use a green screen, it’s a nice and cheap solution, but you must do it right. Stretch the green screen tight, get a stand to hold it, and make sure it’s evenly lit, as the editing will turn into a nightmare if you have different shades of green.
To edit videos, you can opt for Canva or ClipChamp (free on Windows).
When recording voice overs, make sure you remove white noise in Audacity, it’s fast and easy to learn and makes the difference for the student. Restart the whole sentence if you messed up a word otherwise your editing will be long and painful.
Shoot all the things that require the same material on the same day, even if it’s not in the script order.
Keep your files sorted and named correctly (lecture number + status: unedited, white noise removed, pptx added, etc).
Upload your finished videos on a second device or in the cloud. Render in the most international format: minimum 1080p at 30 FPS in the H264 codec.
If what I just talked about does not make much sense to you, I would advise you to watch some YouTube videos about creating content with Audacity, Clipchamp, Canva, or other software you might use for video editing.
9) Marketing
“Even great marketing can’t sell a bad course” as Brian Jackson, a Udemy instructor would say. I highly recommend his courses by the way. Your main marketing tool is the quality of your course. Keep that in mind. Deliver the best.
Have your own website
Let people see what you did before, let them decide if they trust you. Also, if you catch a visitor, you can turn it into a customer with a well made home page telling them “hey, you wanna learn this? How about you join my more expensive masterclass?” Make sure you let people sign up for a newsletter or for a $10 discount for your course. Have a page on your website that has all your free resources (YouTube videos, PDF resources, etc). Let people see what you do and decide if they want to learn through you.
Make your social media profiles nice AF
To convince students, create a page that has your headline (SEO strategist, graphic designer, French instructor, etc), and post in coupon groups as your page. Keep your brand present on social media pages.
Help out people publicly. Dedicate your time to give advice, answer questions, and help them in general. They will remember it, and others will see you are a trustworthy person.
Have a student group and post valuable content regularly. Have them share your posts, organize contests to win a free coupon to your next course. Once you have enough followers, start answering questions in live videos.
Write blog articles that link to your course
Publish valuable content and finish with “hey, wanna learn more, here’s my paid class”. Well it doesn’t have to be that obvious, but always have a hyperlink ready to be clicked on.
Learn social media marketing for your course
Yeah, I’m not going to teach that one here, so you’ll need to invest and learn on your side.
Get your branding right
Be consistent with your message, mission and color palette, so students recognize you. Compose a short jingle (or pay a freelancer for that) and design a logo that will be on your videos, in the corner.
Publish free content on social media
Publish one of your lectures on YouTube and make sure to link your full paid course in the description. Publish the videos that you think would be the most “clickbaity” about your topic, make people want to learn more.
Upload on TikTok or Instagram, but make the video length 30-60 seconds. Always reward your viewers for clicking. “Thanks for watching this video, you made the right choice! Before you go, check the description/bio, you’ll find a $10 coupon”.
Respond to questions and comments as much as you can.
Automate your marketing strategy with tools like Buffer, Zapier, or even cross-platform tools on social media websites.
Everything you post has to have a call to action.
Post coupons in Facebook groups
Explore coupon groups and find the ones that are moderated correctly. If only the admin can post, it's not worth it. If you see spam everywhere, not worth it. Get into 20 groups and save them in your browser. Start sharing your promotional message in 3-4 groups (to avoid being banned for spamming). The next day, post in 3-4 other groups. This is how I post my coupons (not all emojis and previews are visible on the screenshot)
10) Following up
Reply to reviews and thank people for the feedback. Double check if your coupons still work, if your resources are still accessible, if your course is still up to date. Update your course or add lessons in the future to keep students engaged.
Other tips:
You will likely spend more time learning to market your course (and actually market it) than creating it, that’s fine, you’ll get better and faster at it.
Make sure your profile is complete when you sign up to e-learning platforms as an instructor. Add a nice profile pic, your bio, and links to your social media and previous work.
Dedicate enough time to creating your course, learn to split your screen (or plug in another monitor) so you can read articles/watch courses and take notes at the same time.
Sign up for coupon groups while you’re creating the course, so you’re ready to post coupons when the course is ready.
While gathering social proof is important, you want to avoid attracting course collectors and students that will never open your course. You need quality students over a quantity of students.
Prepare to have your life invaded by random people finding your personal Facebook, asking for free coupons, asking to connect on Linkedin, and more. Make sure to double check your privacy settings on every platform you’re using your real name on.
Use color in your script to make it easier to read and record.
If you decide to use podcasting as a marketing tool, make sure you video tape everything, so you can use it on social media for promotion as well.
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