How To Choose An Online

Course
Topic That Sells
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells  

Thanks for downloading your free
eBook,
How To Choose An Online Course
Topic That Sells. 
Before we get started, I thought it would
help if I introduced myself. I’m Rishabh
Jani, Co-founder of Business Success
Tools. Since 2010 I’ve been working with
digital media in a wide variety of elds
like graphic design, photography, video
creation, post-production and online
learning. For over 3 years I have been
training people in the art of video making
and online course creation. In that time, I
have met massively in uential people like
Ron Kau man, Allan Pease and David
Avrin to name a few. I’ve helped over 5000 people in the knowledge business. This
eBook is just a quick snippet of the plethora of information I have made for you! In
this eBook I will teach you some of the essentials you need to get started with
creating online courses. I also o er a coaching program, where I guide you, step-by-
step, with a system to create successful online courses. Trust me, some of my
students have even become best-selling authors as a result of implementing this
system! 
So. 
Are you ready? Let’s begin!
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

Choosing the right online course topic is a vital rst step that will prevent you
from spending loads of time creating a course nobody wants.

Instead, it can help you understand exactly what to cover in the course, and even
get a load of people lined up ready and waiting for the day you launch.

This article is part of a hub of useful guides on this site, all focused on teaching
you (for free!) how to create an online course.

Today, I'm going to show you how to narrow down and decide on your online
course topic.

But rst, a quick word on pricing.

1) Decide On Your Pricing

I honestly believe that for most people the best way to get started is to make a
short course that sells for $100-200. 

Here’s why:

1) It can be simple and relatively quick to make

2)  It enables you to start earning income faster

3) You get to test your ideas and get feedback from your audience before
investing too much time and money

4) It gives your audience a low cost way to start learning with you
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

5) It helps to build a group of potential customers for a more detailed follow-up

‘ agship’ course

For most people this will be the best way to get started.

You might consider jumping in with a higher priced, more in-depth course to
begin with if:

1. you are a consultant/coach who already charges hundreds of

dollars per hour and/or
2. you have a list of clients who would jump at the chance to
work with you regardless of price
Ok, let’s move on to helping you choose the right online course topic.

2) Brainstorm Your Initial Ideas

First up, a 5 minute exercise - just brainstorm ideas of stu you know something
about.

You may already have a good idea of what you want to teach, but don’t worry if
you haven’t just yet. At this stage we’re just casting the net and looking at areas
that we could potentially teach others about. Here are some ideas to help get you
going:

  kills or knowledge you’ve developed in your work or career

S
 Hobbies you're really passionate about
 Topics others come to you for advice on
 A personal transformation you've gone through (for example:
quitting smoking, running a marathon, overcoming anxiety
etc)
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

Write down a list of possible subject areas o the top of your head. It might look
something like this:

Photography, baking bread, marketing, yoga, building a website, running a local

business, losing weight….you get the picture

3) Niche It Down
It’s important to think about whether your potential course idea is something
that people will pay for.

This generally means that it should solve a particular problem or speak to a desire
that a speci c type of person or business may have.

This will begin to get clearer as you carry out the rest of the steps below.

You should now have a general list of ideas, and it’s time to get speci c.

There are 2 things you need to become ultra-speci c on:

1. Who is the course for?

2. What is the ‘one big outcome’ that the course will teach?
Pick 2 or 3 of the ideas that appeal to you most from your list of brainstormed
subjects and have a go at working out exactly who you could help with your
course and what is the one big outcome they will achieve from it.

Let’s take one of my hypothetical examples from above and work through this
process.

Example #1:
Initial idea:  “Building a website”
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

This is way too vague.

You might think it’s good to keep it broad and appeal to a larger audience, but in
doing so you’ll risk appealing to no one.

It’s much better to de ne exactly who your course will serve, so that when the
right people come across it, they’ll know it’s for them.

"You might think it’s good to keep it broad and appeal to a larger audience, but in
doing so you’ll risk appealing to no one"

 Niche it down: “How To Create Your Own Website Using

WordPress” - a little better, but still too broad as it doesn’t give
any idea exactly who it’s for.
  iche it further: “How to Create A Website For Your Local Food
N
Business” - now we’re getting somewhere.
You can tailor the content of the course to meet the needs of that audience;
focusing on what would be important for their website, and leaving out a load
of content that would probably be irrelevant for them.

The one big outcome

: 

Have your own local food website up and running in just 1 week.

Example #2:
I  nitial Idea: “Teaching Yoga” - too vague
 Niche it down: “Yoga For New Parents” – nice and speci ic.
 The one big outcome: Keep yourself healthy and well after
childbirth with just 15 minutes of daily Yoga practice
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

Have a go at a similar process for your own course ideas. It might take a few
attempts but it’s really good practice to think it through like this.

The more speci c your target audience is, the better you can create a course that
serves that particular group well, and the more likely they are to take your
course.

Clearly, it is possible to take this too far and end up with something that might
end up appealing to a group that’s either too small in numbers or not willing to
pay for a course, but that’s where the next step comes in.

4) Research & Validate Your Idea

The aim of this step is to make sure there is a paying audience for what you want
to teach, but it also has the added bonus of helping you to know what to include
in your course.

There are many ways of researching and validating your course idea and I have a
whole in-depth article on validating your online course that goes into more
detail on this.

In this article, I'll just break it down into 3 steps for simplicity:

1) Research what’s already out there

This step need only take an hour or so and basically involves what you’re already
used to doing.

First stop, Google.

Search for: “(your course subject area) online course”

 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

Keep it broad to begin with to get a feel for what’s out there. For example, to
start with you might search for “Yoga Online Course” and once you’ve seen
what’s there, you might look more speci cally at “Yoga for New Parents”.

You’ll often nd a lot of info relating to your subject area already online for free,
but don’t let this put you o , especially if it’s presented badly or it’s incomplete
in any one place.

Also don’t be put o if there’s a similar online course already out there as this is
often a good sign of demand.

People buy online courses because:

 
They want to learn from an actual person with experience
 The information is put together in an easily digestible step by
step system or format
 The course can produce a clear outcome that they desire
If there is a lot of free info already out there, you can make your personal
experience and the simplicity of learning from a reliable step by step system the
reason that people should join.

If there are existing courses out there, think about how you can strike a unique
angle on the same subject or appeal to a di erent section of the audience.

The aim of researching what’s out there is to check that there is evidence of an
existing group of people that might want what you can o er.

2) Gain insight to your audience

If you already have an online audience or perhaps already work freelance with
existing clients you are in a great spot for this.

If you don’t, it’s ok – there are other ways to arrive at the same point.
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

You want to ask your audience or clients what they would like to learn more
about or what problems they need help with solving.

You could create a quick and simple survey or just ask a couple of open questions
to them.

Ideally you should try to speak in-depth with at least 3 people who would be
potential course members.

If you can do this you’ll pick up all sorts of useful insights including the exact
language, thought processes, problems and desires that other people in your
audience will likely also share.

If you haven’t already got a connection with a potential audience, nd out

where they hang out online and go and glean the relevant info from what you
can nd out there. Try looking in some of these places:

  nline forums based on your topic area

O
 Discussions at the bottom of relevant blog posts
 Facebook groups
 Quora questions on your subject
 Reddit (search subreddits)
 Amazon book reviews
You're looking for examples of the pains, problems or desires of your audience
and what it is they need help with.

Even better is to see evidence of people already paying to get help with these
things.

In many ways this is what making an online course boils down to:
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

Find a pain, problem or desire and design an online course that o ers the
solution

" In many ways this is what making an online course boils down to: Find a pain,
problem or desire; and design an online course that offers the solution"

Carrying out this step should help to con rm that there is a need for what you
want to o er and will help you to decide which of your potential course ideas to
focus on.

More importantly, it will also help you to gain key insights into what your
audience cares about...

... how they think and feel, what they want to know more about, the key
problems they face - even the kind of language they use and how they speak. 

This is really good stu to design your course o ering around and it will also be
invaluable when it comes to selling your course and communicating the value of
it.

3) Validating Your Course Idea

Depending on what you found at the last step, you may not nd this next step
necessary - especially if you already have an audience or client group telling you
they want to learn more from you.

However, this step can still help in building engagement with your audience and
in building an email list of people ready for when you launch your online
course.

In short, you want to create a Lead Magnet – a simple free resource that you give
away to people in return for them joining your email list.
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

It should be directly related to what your course will be about, and teach
something useful, but not in too much depth.

For example, in the case of our hypothetical “Yoga For New Parents” course it
might be a 1 page pdf or even a quick video explaining how yoga can aid in
having a good night's sleep.

The process that people will go through on your site might look like this:

Read content on your site related to course subject --> Landing page with a Lead
Magnet (content related to course idea) --> Join Email List

All those who opt-in for your free resource and join this email list have
e ectively shown you that they are interested in the subject matter you are
looking to create a course about.

They have validated that it is of interest to them, and you are building a list of
people who will be receptive to your course o er when you launch.

You've also had a chance to build authority and trust as someone who can help
them.

If you have your own website, I highly recommend Thrive Landing Pages for
creating great landing page designs at a great price. 

If you don’t already have your own site, you can get started easily with a service
like Unbounce or LeadPages – both of which can easily help you build a landing
page that they’ll host and then you just direct people to.

5) Choose Your Online Course Topic

 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

At this point you should have gone through a pretty detailed process to help
narrow down from initial course ideas to a speci c subject and audience.

It might seem like a lot of work, but it's really worth it - think of it as an
investment.

Time spent doing this now, will pay you back dividends when it comes to
making and promoting your course a few months later, and it will prevent you
from making a course nobody wants.  

Don't get too caught up with this whole process though - it should take you no
more than 3 hours at a rst attempt.

It's important to keep moving forward and actually get started with making your
course.

And on that note, to wrap up everything you've found out from your research,
it's a good idea to write it all down in a well crafted nal course o er, which you
can then use as a framework to help build your course.

I nd the following key headings useful to condense it all down into:

Finalize Your Course Topic

write down the following:

1: Course Title

2: Subtitle

3: Course Audience
 How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells

4: The One Big Outcome

5: Course Price

Now you have your course topic, audience and pricing narrowed down, the
next step is to create your online course structure and outline.

I hope you've found this useful - if you're still unsure then drop a comment
below and tell me what kind of course you'd like to create. I'll do my best to
reply and help you out.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Teachable is the easiest way to create and sell online courses

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