How to become an Online Course Creator in 12 Steps

WHY become an Online Course Creator NOW?

 There is a skills gaps, a lack of mentors, and access to Experts in our current world. There may be lots of colleges and universities around and formal courses. BUT there are not a lot of experts – people with many years of experience in an industry or role, directly teaching and mentoring people who have only entered the field or who want to gain the skills. And that is where an Expert becoming an Online Course Creator’s Gap exists.

Are you an Expert at what you do?

Do you want to slow down or change what you do?. Maybe create an additional income source or change your career? Think about becoming an Online Course Creator and use your experience to teach and mentor others.

 The eLearning industry was valued at $100 billion (in 2021). The eLearning industry is expected to grow to $360 billion in 2026, now is the best moment to get involved. However, designing an online course is not as simple as it appears; there are numerous moving parts. To make it all work, you’ll need to be a cross between a teacher, a mentor, and an online marketer. There’s a lot of contradictory advice as well. It might be tough to decide whom to trust and which approach, system, or framework is best for you. But don’t worry, I’ve been there and dealt with all of this confusing information and I have come up with a service to help Experts become eCourse Creators.

 So let’s talk about what do you need to do, to become an Online Course Creator

1. Understand Your Subject 

In order to truly create a course that will help your learner achieve the outcome that they need to. You truly need to understand your subject, you need to have studied it, be experienced at doing it yourself, and be able to explain and mentor others along the way. So that they achieve the outcome or results they need to.

2. Understand Your Student 

To understand your learner, the person that actually needs your help and supports the most means that you’re either been them, and you understand the problems that they face or you have helped many in their situation achieve the goals they want to achieve. Either way, talking and guiding from a place of place experience is key. It is what will separate your offer from what they can learn at an institution.

3. Be More Than a Teacher 

In order to teach and guide somebody from point A to point B to achieve the transformation and the outcome that they want you do need to be a teacher, mentor, and supporter of that person. You need to be a listener, and reflector, who is details orientated so that you can build the content in a step-by-step manner and lay a solid foundation for your learners to achieve their goals.

An example of this would be is if you’re a senior project manager and you’ve mentored other project managers before you’d make a great Online Course Creator for Project Management and you would be able to help people become project managers and improve on their project management skills. As you have a deep understanding of the problems and challenges your learners face in that industry, role, or situation. And you know how to achieve the goal, this is a fundamental part of being an exceptional eCourse Creator. If you have that, then we can help you other, and we can guide you in the progress of translating your knowledge into an eLearning course and set up and run that platform for you.

4. Embrace being a Content Creator

You need to be able to create the content for your course and your marketing. As an eCourse Creator, you have to be a Subject Matter Expert and a digital Marketer. Everything you do online, whether it’s publishing something on your website, sending an email, creating a course, creating a slide presentation, or making a social media post, is content. As a result, you’ll need to improve your content creation skills so that everything you do appears nice, professional, and reliable. You’ll need to learn how to create and communicate content effectively across several channels (audio, video, text, slide decks, copy, etc…). Repurpose content into shorter formats so that you can teach a variety of individuals in a variety of settings (social media, for instance, and the various types of platforms out there). When you work with us, these are things we teach you and do for you as well.

 

5. Recognize (and VALUE) SEO

So in order to recognize the value of SEO or Search Engine Optimization, you need to understand what it is. SEO talks in the language of Google, Bing, Firefox, and other search engines. It is one of the most undervalued skills that many course creators neglect. If you only remember one thing from this tutorial, let it be this: SEO matters, and it matters a lot. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a collection of skills that will assist you in attracting visitors and leads to your online course website. SEO is a service we provide to eCourse Creators. The true value of SEO is that it not only helps you rank higher on Google, but it also gives you the ability to:

•  Conduct thorough research on your topic and industry…
• Keep an eye on who your competitors are…
• Improve your understanding of your audience’s pain and issues…
• Validate your ideas before investing time and money in them…
• as well as the apparent benefit of increasing website visitors!

You don’t need to be a Guru, but you do need to understand the basics. Obtaining an understanding of SEO is similar to gaining a superpower.

6. Create a Sales Funnel with SEO 

Whether you realize it or not, you’re developing a business and a reputation as a course creator. This is where your course comes in. But it’s only one part of a much larger mechanism. It’s best if you recognize this “larger picture” as soon as possible. Consider the journey your audience takes once they begin interacting with your material as one of the finest ways to wrap your head around this “big picture.” We create Sales Funnels for our eCourse Creators with SEO. To summarize the value of a sales funnel, consider the following:

•  It guarantees that your audience follows a pre-planned and appropriate path.
• It assists you in creating an efficient email sequence as well as other forms of material that “speak” to your learners.
• It ensures that you communicate through the appropriate channels (social media, for example).
• It demonstrates where you should put your money (time, money, team members, et al)

In the beginning, you don’t need complex sales to funnel. It has the potential to grow and will do so in the future. The idea is to concentrate on this early on so that it may change with you. It enables you to approach your course(s) as a company, allowing you to establish a long-term brand.

7. Create a Brand 

Customers become loyal as a result of branding. Branding is crucial because it is not simply what leaves a lasting impression on customers. As amazing as your marketing campaign can be, your brand, ultimately what you become known for is derived very much from the experience people have interacting with your business from the spectating point, through your operations/course experience, and through to post-sales as well. How you make people feel they will always remember. A good brand can be built based upon a quality product or service and a good customer experience. A brand can also be destroyed based upon quality and service, no matter the amount of money spent on its marketing campaign.

 8. Create a Community

Your students get access to dozens of other types of content in addition to your course. It’s only getting more difficult. Every day, fresh creators join the online course industry! You must stand out not simply with outstanding content, but also by establishing a high level of trust. The majority of the time, people make decisions based on their emotions. Logic takes a backseat far too frequently. Your students make purchases depending on how they feel at the time, and how they feel about you is a big part of it.

Creating a relevant, active, and devoted group goes a long way toward ensuring favorable feelings. It provides your audience access to not only you, but also other people who are in the same boat as them; people who have experienced similar pains and challenges, and who can relate to them. So, how do you go about establishing this community?

•  YouTube
• Facebook/LinkedIn groups
• Telegram/WhatsApp groups
• Slack and so forth.

 Every Creator’s choice of channels is different and based upon Creator and Learner preferences. The point is that you need to create a community for yourself and your people because it has so much worth. As a content creator, you’ll constantly struggle to stand out if you don’t have one.

9. Figure Out How To “Effectively” Engage Your Audience 

Let’s take a moment to focus on one of the most fundamental parts of “community” before moving on: Engagement! Having a Facebook or Slack group isn’t enough. Growing it into the hundreds or thousands isn’t enough either. What counts is how involved those on the inside are. Do people actually read what you’ve written? Do they respond to your inquiries? Do they inquire about you and your classmates? As a course creator, one of your most critical responsibilities is to learn how to properly engage your audience. Engagement is fundamental in our service offering.

10. Test Everything You Create

This is an important point to remember, and one that many course authors neglect. It’s very understandable. I had a hard time with this one at first. After all, you have a concept… You’re looking forward to it… You want to get right in!! However, this is a huge mistake. Why? Because it takes time to create a course. Even a short course necessitates a significant amount of your time and effort. So, before you sign on the dotted line, double-check that it’s the course your kids require. This is why it’s critical to test everything you create. This not only saves you time and money, but it also provides the best value to your audience.

  What methods do you use to validate your course?

•  ASK: Conduct surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with your current pupils. One of the main benefits of forming a community is that it allows you to validate your ideas.
• OBSERVE: pay attention to the questions people ask and the problems they face.
• SELL: test your idea with a beta group before you produce it.

 You can validate your idea in a variety of ways. Each scenario necessitates a unique strategy. What matters is that you consider this before you make a decision. You’ll save more time if you spend more time validating. Most importantly, confirming your concepts guarantees that you provide your pupils with the information they require.

11. Make Yourself a Boss!

It’s possible that your company will start out small and stay that way for a while. After all, in the real world, it takes time to build a business. However, as you create more courses and engage with more students, your business will grow. You’ll be able to hire a few team members or outsource some functions in no time. Many Business Owners become so accustomed to doing everything themselves that outsourcing, delegating, and handing over responsibilities becomes difficult. However, if you want to make a career out of your courses, you must let go. You need to spend time working ON your business and not IN your business.

 12. GET STARTED!

This final point could be the most crucial of all… START! There is no such thing as a perfect time. There will never be a time when you feel prepared. Having a strategy is beneficial, and creating a thorough timeline can be beneficial. However, at some point, you must simply begin and find things out. It’s okay if you have to wing a few things along the road.

 At Success By Design, we help Experts become Online Creators with our Done-for-You eLearning Design Services and Learning Management System(LMS). You can become an Online Course Creator with our services. Contact us for more information about being an Online course Creator info@successbydesign.co.za.