How to validate and sell a course - my project plan

[Andy Black]

A few people were asking how to use Google Sheets as a simple project management tool (here).

I thought I'd show how I'd go about it for a new project started here:

• EXECUTION - An Excel Course?

Hope it helps.

What's your main takeaway?

What will you different going forward?

View: https://youtu.be/Jkn6yEFFU-k

 

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[Andy Black]

Curious what you think of the plan @Lex DeVille and @lowtek. What are you doing different from what I’ve outlined?

 

[Hassassin]

I'm definitely going to be listening in on this. Great job at leading by example Andy!

 

[Andy Black]

I'm definitely going to be listening in on this.

Lol. I hope I didn’t click-bait you into watching. Curious what your takeaways are.

Great job at leading by example Andy!

Thanks! Is there any other way to lead?

 

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[John Clancy]

My main takeaway is that is simple... Simpler than most of the tools I've been exposed to. Not that it's any less effective - complexity is rarely a good predictor of success

Do you use spreadsheets and docs to for documenting SOPs and the like in your business? Or do you use something more complex?

 

[Andy Black]

My main takeaway is that is simple... Simpler than most of the tools I've been exposed to. Not that it's any less effective - complexity is rarely a good predictor of success

Do you use spreadsheets and docs to for documenting SOPs and the like in your business? Or do you use something more complex?

Some of our SOPs are in Basecamp, but I’d rather they were in Google Sheets and Docs so will be migrating to there.

What’s your thoughts on going straight for a sale versus an email signup?

 

[John Clancy]

Some of our SOPs are in Basecamp, but I’d rather they were in Google Sheets and Docs so will be migrating to there.

What’s your thoughts on going straight for a sale versus an email signup?

I'm working with a company that's putting all their SOP's into a dedicated piece of software. I do wonder if simple docs and spreadsheets would be the better choice...

IMO, it depends on what you're selling and where you're reaching people.

Personally, I don't think I'd buy something right from a YouTube CTA. But if I watched a YouTube tutorial and thought it was good, I'd click through to a cheap course sales page that aligned with my interests.

E.g. if you published a handful of videos outlining how solopreneurs can get more out of Excel, I'd watch them. If they were good, I'd check out your course. And if there were no red flags and the price was a no-brainer (say 10-20 euro), I'd buy it.

If you were pitching something more expensive, I'd expect to see an email list sign up CTA.

 

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[Andy Black]

I'm working with a company that's putting all their SOP's into a dedicated piece of software. I do wonder if simple docs and spreadsheets would be the better choice...

IMO, it depends on what you're selling and where you're reaching people.

Personally, I don't think I'd buy something right from a YouTube CTA. But if I watched a YouTube tutorial and thought it was good, I'd click through to a cheap course sales page that aligned with my interests.

E.g. if you published a handful of videos outlining how solopreneurs can get more out of Excel, I'd watch them. If they were good, I'd check out your course. And if there were no red flags and the price was a no-brainer (say 10-20 euro), I'd buy it.

If you were pitching something more expensive, I'd expect to see an email list sign up CTA.

It’s interesting isn’t it? The Masterclass.com ads I see all the time on YouTube retargeting me send me to a sales page. There’s nothing free to signup for.

 

[John Clancy]

It’s interesting isn’t it? I look at the Masterclass.com ads I see on YouTube all the time retargeting me. They send me to a sales page. There’s nothing free to signup for.

That's a good point.

I think Masterclass do a great job of leveraging the credibility and fame of their instructors. In that sense, they don't necessarily need to spend time building a relationship with the customer with lead magnets or free content...

Because all they're doing is facilitating a transaction between the celebrity and the customer themselves.

When you're selling your own knowledge without that instant credibility boost that fame provides, maybe you need to take a slightly different approach.

 

[Andy Black]

Someone shared this with me:

...

The Academy on LearnWorlds is brilliant also Andy great guides etc on course planning:

• LearnWorlds Academy

 

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[Timmy C]

My validation has just been seeing gaps in the market, topics that are in high demand with less competition and launching a course on that topic.

The other courses I made where just some basic things people need to know to start doing ok, I guess the foundations.

It would be great to know what the market as a whole wants as I know I can deliver.

I'm going to ask more questions going forward.



I've asked the market directly on a few things but couldn't collect enough data points.

 

[Andy Black]

My validation has just been seeing gaps in the market, topics that are in high demand with less competition and launching a course on that topic.

The other courses I made where just some basic things people need to know to start doing ok, I guess the foundations.

It would be great to know what the market as a whole wants as I know I can deliver.

I'm going to ask more questions going forward.



I've asked the market directly on a few things but couldn't collect enough data points.

Meh to data points. Look for “shut up and take my money” moments.

 

[Timmy C]

Meh to data points. Look for “shut up and take my money” moments.

I have heard some interesting problems that people are having with cooking, a whole host of things I didn't even know was an issue which was fascinating, but no shut up and take my money moments.

 

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[Andy Black]

I have heard some interesting problems that people are having with cooking, a whole host of things I didn't even know was an issue which was fascinating, but no shut up and take my money moments.

What are people searching for on Google and YouTube? The Google Keyword Planner is free. VidIQ is cheap (but personally I just use the Google Keyword Planner).

What search terms are used by buyers?

What search terms are used by info-seekers?

Pretend you’re a buyer and check out the ads that show for buyer search terms. Do the same with info-seeker search terms.

Study who is serving both types of searchers.

Check out Udemy for courses on cooking. What’s the best sellers? What does their sales video promise? What does their sales page (contents list?) promise?

Check out best-selling books on Amazon. Again, what does their sales page promise? What are people’s reviews like (especially the 3-star reviews ... see @MTF ‘s latest post in his INSIDERS Online Publishing thread)?

 

[Timmy C]

They are not promising anything i can't deliver that's for sure.

Benefit words there using on Udemy

'' help you find your way around the kitchen''
'' let you cook smarter, faster and healthier''

3 star reviews are things like
''could have found this all out on youtube''
''im from a different country and we dont use those measurement types''
''to easy and simple''
''course is to short''

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In the keyword planner the searches for cooking classes and courses do not specify ''online'' in the keyword (search term)

These guys below do online classes with Italian cooking, i am an expert in Italian cooking.

Online italian cooking classes - Natalina's Kitchen

natalinaskitchen.com

''For online Italian cooking class'' no ads come up just that website listed above followed by Udemy courses on cooking etc

Sometimes ads come up for Masterclass and Udemy, as well as in person cooking classes etc.

Search term ''online cooking course''

Just a bunch of certification courses to become a qualified chef and to get a food handlers certificate ads.


Info seeker search terms

''recipe''

''cooking tips''

''kitchen tips''

''pork ribs tips recipe''

''easy dinner ideas''

etc.

Info seeker search terms are being served by gordon ramsay cooking youtube videos, being sent to landing pages with a free recipe ebook to get me in there funnel.

 

[Timmy C]

the pulled data from the site i listed above.

 

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[lowtek]

Curious what you think of the plan @Lex DeVille and @lowtek. What are you doing different from what I’ve outlined?

Sorry bud, took me a few days to get to this.

I think this is a reasonable way to go about starting from scratch, relatively quickly.

My own path was different and probably atypical.

I got approached by Manning publications when I only had 50 subs on my YT channel. One of their reps contacted me and said they were looking for people to produce ML content. We had some chats and decided on the broad topic, and then they began a rather extensive market research process.

They polled their prior customers, sent them to my YT channel and basically asked them if it was someone they would trust content from, and whether they would purchase the course. The response was positive, so they went to the next phase.

Then I had to come up with the course outline and overall theme. This was then sent off to a separate group of people who were again asked if they would buy it, and response was positive so they moved ahead.

Once I had delivered a portion of the course, they did the same thing and got more feedback on it. All positive, and so we moved ahead with the rest.

This was all quite slow, but it built my own confidence as I went along. For me it validated that I had a delivery that people would pay for, and that I was free to produce more content in the future. This has been borne out by the reasonable success of my Udemy course.

I launched that by dropping hints on the channel, before I had really seriously started development. I started getting people asking about it with each new video, so I went ahead and produced it.

I'm not doing any further validation for my subsequent courses, as I've gotten a sizable audience on Udemy from cold traffic (so I know that my course landing page copy and preview videos are sufficient to generate sales), my refund rate is within the norm (so I know that I'm not violating peoples' expectations when they get in the course), and reviews are generally positive (4.6 stars).

All of which is a long winded way of saying that I basically did the same steps, but in a different order. I did the YT channel first, and that snowballed into the other steps.