3 types of online courses you can create in a morning
Episode 118 • 17th March 2022 • The Courageous CEO • Janet Murray
00:00:00 00:12:58

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IMPORTANT: THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED. WE GIVE IT A QUICK CHECK THROUGH BUT WE DON’T CORRECT EVERYTHING AS IT’S INTENDED TO HELP YOU FIND PARTS YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO AGAIN - NOT AS AN EXACT TRANSCRIPT. SO THERE MIGHT BE A FEW QUIRKY WORDS/PHRASES HERE!

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What do you think of when you hear someone talk about creating an online course, hours of video tutorials, tons of editing, creating workbooks, cheat sheets, checklists, and online course can be all that, but it really doesn't have to be I'm Janet Murray and online content and business strategist who's created and sold dozens of digital products. And if there's one thing I've learned,

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it's that most new course creators over-complicates creating and launching online courses. In this podcast episode, I share three types of online course that you can create. First off, I've got some really good news for you. And online course does not have to contain umpteen video tutorials, cheat sheets, and checklists. I go into much more detail on this. In another podcast episode,

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it's called you can start generating recurring revenue today. So why aren't you? And I'll link to that in the show notes, but here's a quick summary. You can deliver a ton of value in a one module online course. So what I mean by that is literally one video tutorial, one masterclass, it doesn't even have to be a masterclass. It could be an ebook.

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That's an online course. It could be a toolkit of resources, something you can literally create and start selling in a morning without any fancy email marketing or course Hastings software. And if you're wondering where and how to launch your online course, I've got an episode coming up on that very thing called or which online course platform is best. The answer might surprise you as a world link to that one in the show notes too.

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So with that in mind, here's three online courses you can create in just a few hours. Number one is the online masterclass. You can deliver a ton of value in an online masterclass, 90 minutes, 60 minutes, maybe even less. Plus you can teach your master class live using something like zoom and then sell the replay or recording. I successfully sold one of my classes on everything from how to launch and sell your own power hour,

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how to launch an online course or rescue on this bond to how to launch your own planner, which is so popular that when I took it off my website for a little while last year, when I was redoing my website, people actually emailed to ask me where it was and you can do this. If you are a product space business owner, too,

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I sell both products and services. And the way I was looking at it is to think what problem does my product solve? So in my case, I sell a content planet, physical products itself, two key problems, not having enough ideas to post on social media and other content platforms and struggling to stick to a consistent content schedule. So if I wanted to create a master class that would help me sell more copies of the planner,

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I might create something on how to create a content plan. For example, the second type of online course you can create in just a few hours is an ebook I've sold thousands of playbooks. So these are PDF downloads that go really deep on one specific topic. In my case, I've thought playbooks on Instagram engagement, LinkedIn engagement, Instagram story ideas, hashtag strategy.

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And the brilliant thing about this is that it's also a great way to repurpose content you've already created. So blog content, podcast, scripts, marketing emails, your weekly email newsletter. If you're listening to this podcast, I'm guessing there's a very good chance that you are an expert in something, and you've already created some really useful content on that, which can be repurposed into a one-off e-book or PDF download.

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And while these are one module online courses may not make you rich by next week. More on that later, they can also be very effective at helping you bring the right people in to your audience in attracting clients who will invest in your higher-paid products and services further down the line. So just to give you an example, I was running a content and business strategy,

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which we over the last few days, and one of my clients said to me that she bought one of my eBooks, which was 9.99 that's in pounds. And it was that ebook that gave her the confidence to invest in my membership program, which I think at the time was about five or 600 pounds. So while you can make money from a PDF download or ebook,

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it's also a great entry-level products for people who may not be ready to invest in your bigger programs and are still getting to know like, and trust you. Finally, there is the toolkit and this is particularly relevant. If you provide a service and it can be as simple as going into your Google drive or your Dropbox and gathering together, those resources that people tell you are really useful.

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So an example that comes to mind here is I used to deliver media training up until about five years or so ago, that's radio and TV training. And I had a bunch of resources, so checklists, cheat sheets templates that went alongside that class and could be used by people who had been to my media training after the training or people who maybe didn't have the budget to do the training,

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but wanted the information that I shared in that session. Another example that springs to mind here is pates Cocker works with me on my podcast. She has given me some really great templates that have helped me to plan out my podcast, but also to get it ready to send to my editor. She basically gave me amongst other things, a running or with her like a radio running all day.

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And it's been so useful for me to communicate with my editor, what I want him to do. And when, because I'm not from a radio background, I'd have never have thought of doing it like that, but it saved me tons of time and other clients, Nikki, who helps people who run dance, costume businesses to grow their business. She created a pricing toolkit.

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The main part of which is a simple spreadsheet that allows people to work out how much it's going to cost them to create a particular costume or set of costumes so that they're able to set their prices and make sure that they are not cutting into their profit too much, or leaving themselves with little or no profit. And if it can make an impact on somebody's business,

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if it can save them time or money, then you can sell it. Finally, I want to be upfront. That's some of these ideas that I've shared are not going to make you millions overnights, but neither is that multi-module online course that you're thinking about. And you're putting off because you don't have time to record all the videos to create author workbooks,

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to go with it. And it just feels so big and overwhelming as I shared in that podcast, which is called you could start generating recurring revenue today. So why aren't you? I gave an example of an Instagram post that I created that has been very popular in which I showed two 90 day paths to recurring revenue. So you have most new course creators who spend 90 days thinking about launching an online course and putting it on their to do list every week,

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but never quite getting around to it. And then you've got your savvy new course creator who recognizes that they're new to online course creation that this is going to take them some time to get good at all of this. And they release a one module online course, like I've described here, a tiny offer. Sometimes people call it and they start bringing recurring revenue into their business immediately.

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And in this example, I shared how by selling one master class prices, 37 pounds, not even every day, every couple of days, over 90 days, that's 2,200, which is more than the no pounds you would make. If you spend another 90 days thinking about and watching an online course. So I hope that this has encouraged you and reminded you that you can start to bring recurring revenue into your business today.

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Very, very thin. And it also reminded you that an online course does not have to be a multi-module or thinging or dancing caused that by the way, most people won't even ever get to the end of, or near to the end of you can deliver a lot of value in a one off resource, and also get that satisfaction of knowing that you've delivered a transformation and get feedback and testimonials from your students very quickly,

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because they will be able to go out and implement and tell you how they've got on. I've talked about this in so many episodes, but there is so much hype out there about passive income and how much money you can make from selling digital products like online courses. And it is possible. It's what I do. But my very first online course, I sold 13 and I had an email list of a good couple of thousands at the time.

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What I didn't appreciate and what a lot of course creators really don't appreciate is that the average conversion rate for online sales is just one to 2%, which means for every hundred people on your email list, only a handful will buy. So that gives you an idea of the kind of numbers you need on your email list. But the other part, and people don't talk about this bit at all actually,

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is that because creation is a skill as is promoting a cause, and you're not just going to rock up online, create an online course, be absolutely brilliant at every aspect of it like creating sales pages, writing EMA marketing campaigns, knowing what order to do things, then even teaching on line and creating materials to deliver effective learning online is a skill and like anything it takes time and practice.

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So instead of delaying your learning by waiting until you have time to create an all singing, all dancing, massive, big online course, why not cut your teeth on something smaller that also gives you the benefits of bringing money into your business today. And these three examples I've given you, I'm not going to lie. They're not going to make you a millionaire overnight,

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but they will give you the experience you need. You'll get the experience of running through a launch of what it's like to actually create and promote an online course. You'll get testimonials because you'll actually have students working through your material. You'll get feedback that will help you to get better at what you do. So when you do want to launch that signature online course,

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you will make much better sales. So I hope this has been helpful. And if you would like me to help you to get your first online course on sale, or to help you to go back through the steps and relaunch something, which hasn't done very well in the past, or I say very well, but not as well as you hoped, then I do have something coming up for you that I think will be of interest.

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So starting in April, that's 2020. If you're listening in the future, I am running my 90-day course launch sprint over that 90 day period, I will walk you through the steps. You need to come up with an idea for a simple online course, and you will actually get it launched for as long as you follow the steps that I give you and you do what I say,

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then you will get that launched and you will be selling it by the end of the 90 days. And I'll give you all the cheat sheets and checklists. You need to make it as easy for you as possible to go through that launch process and know you don't need any fancy tech or online course hosting software. The podcast episode that will fill out this one,

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we'll go into that in much more detail it's called or which online course platform is best. The answer that might surprise you. So if this podcast episode has given you what you need and you are having to go, please don't delay launching your online course, get started on it today. If you would like some accountability, if you've still got questions and you would like some help to get your one module online course off the ground,

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then come and join me. In my 90-day course launch sprint. I will add a link in the show notes so you can find out more.

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