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Looking for a course on how to market/sell an online course...is this the right thread?

businprogress

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Hi y'all,

I currently teach a full schedule one-on-one clients as well as a group class for singing, and I'm looking for affordable courses on how to sell and market and online course. I already built a course, no one bought it. So now I have to figure out how to pre-sell a course (to make sure people will actually buy it) and before that, the best way to survey my (small, 200) list of subscribers/clients so that I make sure I sell what they are willing to buy and want.

Any courses you can recommend?
 
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Hi y'all,

I currently teach a full schedule one-on-one clients as well as a group class for singing, and I'm looking for affordable courses on how to sell and market and online course. I already built a course, no one bought it. So now I have to figure out how to pre-sell a course (to make sure people will actually buy it) and before that, the best way to survey my (small, 200) list of subscribers/clients so that I make sure I sell what they are willing to buy and want.

Any courses you can recommend?

A course I would recommend is "course creater pro" by parker Walbeck. I got tons of value from this.

Is there any current thread on this forum about creating online courses?
(If not maybe I should start one...)
 

businprogress

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A course I would recommend is "course creater pro" by parker Walbeck. I got tons of value from this.

Is there any current thread on this forum about creating online courses?
(If not maybe I should start one...)
Thanks will check it out! Does it mostly talk about making the course or marketing/ selling it? I feel like my strong point is making the course, my weakness is getting the marketing on point/having it driven by the market mind.
 

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Thanks will check it out! Does it mostly talk about making the course or marketing/ selling it? I feel like my strong point is making the course, my weakness is getting the marketing on point/having it driven by the market mind.

Ya he covers marketing.

He does 3 million-plus a year with his own video/film skills course so he knows what he is talking about also. It cover marketing, fb ads, funnels, emails etc.
 
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businprogress

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Ya he covers marketing.

He does 3 million-plus a year with his own video/film skills course so he knows what he is talking about also. It cover marketing, fb ads, funnels, emails etc.

I saw the price of the course, that would set me back financially quite a lot. I am going to start saving though, as I'm finding that when I do find courses, I can't afford them. I started another topic on taking financial risks. taking financial risks to grow your business...any wisdom here?
 

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You can try putting it up on Udemy. They take 50% of the cut from organic sales, but only 3% from your own promotions. You retain the rights to the content so you can pull the plug at any time.

I market my courses through YouTube, for what it's worth. 1 course on Udemy and another on Manning publications. Just crossed 10,000 subscribers and 65% - 70% of my sales are through my own promotions.
 

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You can try putting it up on Udemy. They take 50% of the cut from organic sales, but only 3% from your own promotions. You retain the rights to the content so you can pull the plug at any time.

I market my courses through YouTube, for what it's worth. 1 course on Udemy and another on Manning publications. Just crossed 10,000 subscribers and 65% - 70% of my sales are through my own promotions.

Nice, mind posting a link to your channel?
 
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businprogress

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You can try putting it up on Udemy. They take 50% of the cut from organic sales, but only 3% from your own promotions. You retain the rights to the content so you can pull the plug at any time.

I market my courses through YouTube, for what it's worth. 1 course on Udemy and another on Manning publications. Just crossed 10,000 subscribers and 65% - 70% of my sales are through my own promotions.


Udemy would probably bring more traffic to my site...I'm wondering though whether I need to focus more on making sure I have something that is target well and converts well, or whether my sample size of 300 or so people just wasn't enough? I have the whole course up and running on my website, so I don't really need udemy per say as a platform, it would just be for promotion. What do you think? And how the hell did you get to 10,000 subs? haha I have 300...most of my time has been eaten up with 1-on-1 clients but I'm now carving out more time to work on an online business. THE PROBLEM IS there are million different things I can do, and I'm constantly facing decision overload on what to do, when, how much, and in what sequence. I'm still taking consistent action though, and I guess that's all I can really do sometimes...this morning though I've dedicated to getting advice.
 

businprogress

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lowtek

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Udemy would probably bring more traffic to my site...I'm wondering though whether I need to focus more on making sure I have something that is target well and converts well, or whether my sample size of 300 or so people just wasn't enough? I have the whole course up and running on my website, so I don't really need udemy per say as a platform, it would just be for promotion. What do you think? And how the hell did you get to 10,000 subs? haha I have 300...most of my time has been eaten up with 1-on-1 clients but I'm now carving out more time to work on an online business. THE PROBLEM IS there are million different things I can do, and I'm constantly facing decision overload on what to do, when, how much, and in what sequence. I'm still taking consistent action though, and I guess that's all I can really do sometimes...this morning though I've dedicated to getting advice.

IMHO 300 subs isn't enough to sustain a platform. My personal benchmark is 50,000 subs or more before I start focusing on my own platform.

Udemy has millions of students, but you're not going to get them off Udemy. The downside is ownership of the audience. You don't really own the emails of your students, but you can make educational announcements to divert them to YouTube, which you can then use to funnel them to your website.

The point of using Udemy is to capitalize on their massive organic base. It's not my end game, but it's part of a larger overall strategy.

What you'll find on YouTube is that 95% of your videos will range from duds to moderately popular. Only a small portion will achieve any real traction. That's just the name of the game. Well, unless you're a natural (which I'm definitely not). What moved the needle the most for me was getting on top of a controversy by the big dog in the space and taking a strong stance. That easily doubled my channel (from ~3500 to 7000 subs) and gave me enough momentum to get to 10,000.

Some other things I've noticed (for context I create programming tutorials and career advice):

- the more content you create the better you get at creating content, as well as feeling when a video is going to do well. If you're not having fun making the video, chances are good people won't be having fun watching it.
- Creating content that doesn't do well trumps not creating content at all, 100% of the time
- Titles and thumbnails matter a lot
- Audio matters the most
- Talking off the cuff to the camera does the best
- Average view duration (in absolute minutes + seconds, not percentage) + click through rate is what you want to optimize
- 1 video a week can maintain the momentum of a channel, 2 videos helps build momentum and 3 videos (assuming 2 of them are quality) is going to move the needle
- Sharing videos on various platforms (reddit, Facebook, Twitter) can give you more eyes but not necessarily more fans
 

businprogress

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IMHO 300 subs isn't enough to sustain a platform. My personal benchmark is 50,000 subs or more before I start focusing on my own platform.

Udemy has millions of students, but you're not going to get them off Udemy. The downside is ownership of the audience. You don't really own the emails of your students, but you can make educational announcements to divert them to YouTube, which you can then use to funnel them to your website.

The point of using Udemy is to capitalize on their massive organic base. It's not my end game, but it's part of a larger overall strategy.

What you'll find on YouTube is that 95% of your videos will range from duds to moderately popular. Only a small portion will achieve any real traction. That's just the name of the game. Well, unless you're a natural (which I'm definitely not). What moved the needle the most for me was getting on top of a controversy by the big dog in the space and taking a strong stance. That easily doubled my channel (from ~3500 to 7000 subs) and gave me enough momentum to get to 10,000.

Some other things I've noticed (for context I create programming tutorials and career advice):

- the more content you create the better you get at creating content, as well as feeling when a video is going to do well. If you're not having fun making the video, chances are good people won't be having fun watching it.
- Creating content that doesn't do well trumps not creating content at all, 100% of the time
- Titles and thumbnails matter a lot
- Audio matters the most
- Talking off the cuff to the camera does the best
- Average view duration (in absolute minutes + seconds, not percentage) + click through rate is what you want to optimize
- 1 video a week can maintain the momentum of a channel, 2 videos helps build momentum and 3 videos (assuming 2 of them are quality) is going to move the needle
- Sharing videos on various platforms (reddit, Facebook, Twitter) can give you more eyes but not necessarily more fans


This gives me great perspective, thanks! So am I on the right track going for a larger audience vs. trying to sell something to my current tiny one? Then I guess I'm wondering whether I should go all in on YouTube, or just try to build an email list through various routes. And should I make sure I have a website/leads that convert well before getting an audience? AAAA haha it's like a chicken or the egg thing. Which comes first, high converting offers/leads or building an audience?
 

lowtek

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This gives me great perspective, thanks! So am I on the right track going for a larger audience vs. trying to sell something to my current tiny one? Then I guess I'm wondering whether I should go all in on YouTube, or just try to build an email list through various routes. And should I make sure I have a website/leads that convert well before getting an audience? AAAA haha it's like a chicken or the egg thing. Which comes first, high converting offers/leads or building an audience?

Building an audience takes time, so you can't go wrong putting significant energy into doing that as soon as possible. An email list isn't a bad idea, but I don't have experience there so I can't speak to it.

For a benchmark, I as a not so great YouTuber putzed around for 22 months to get my first 1,000 subs (something like 50 videos). It took me just under 11 months to go from 1,000 to 10,000 subs - but that was doing it mostly full time and uploading about 70 videos in that time frame. Out of those 11 months I only missed a few weeks of uploads.

The "website / leads that convert" is a bit of a misnomer. The website doesn't convert people. It just convinces people who are already in the market for what you have to offer that what you're offering is worth the money you're asking, and that they're going to get that value.

My opinion is that it's better to build the audience first and then sell to them. Whether or not I'm correct is certainly up for debate, but it's been my approach.
 
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Andy Black

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Is there any current thread on this forum about creating online courses?
(If not maybe I should start one...)
I haven’t quite created one yet. I’ve got a few progress threads and recorded chats that are circling it. I’ll dig them out and link to them later.

@Lex DeVille has an INSIDERS progress thread.
 

lowtek

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For reference, here's my YT stats. The big spike is where I made a single video criticizing the big youtuber in the space for being a fraud. You can see the gap in posting content (almost certainly a mistake but I was finishing up my second course), but the performance reached (and stayed at) a whole new level.

30568
 

Andy Black

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Some of my own threads that might be relevant:
My current plan is to figure out how to run ads to get people to signup to an email list and then maybe buy a course, or go straight to buying a course.

I’m going to try to skip the “growing a YouTube channel” part:
 
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Andy Black

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I believe @Bekit does a lot of work marketing courses.
 

BrianLateStart

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I highly recommend a book by Mark Schaefer, Known. You're probably already known in your local area with classes you're teaching in person. You now have to be known on the internet to attract people to your online course.

Mark's book isn't just about the why you need to do this, but actionable steps in how. Maybe Youtube is how you become known, maybe it's blogging or through another social media like TikTok. You need to find and meet your customer where they are. Becoming known is a process, not an event.
 

businprogress

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I believe @Bekit does a lot of work marketing courses.
[/QUOTE
I believe @Bekit does a lot of work marketing courses.
I tried to message "bekit"...just asking if he/she has any content or resources they would recommend...no luck...then searched the forum...couldn't find anything...I'm an idiot please help!
 
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A course I would recommend is "course creater pro" by parker Walbeck. I got tons of value from this.

Is there any current thread on this forum about creating online courses?
(If not maybe I should start one...)

I'd love to read about course creation if there are threads available maybe I've missed. I wrote a book and am thinking of creating a course and then youtube content to drive traffic to it but haven't started the "how to" of that content creation for the course.
 

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