Get started creating your first online course

Did you start your business working with people 1:1, but now you’re hoping to move to a 1 to many format? Maybe you have a lot of knowledge and expertise to share, and you want to be able to reach more people than you can work with individually. Or maybe you want to add something to your business that could bring in some passive income.

Whatever the reason, an online course could be the next step in your business.

If you want to know how to get started, choose your course topic, and pick a platform to host your course, watch this video:

Listen to the audio:

How to get started with an online course

Have you been thinking about creating an online course but you're not sure where to get started? I’ve got you covered!

Online courses seem like a hot thing to do right now, right? But how do you actually get started creating one?

There are some important things to consider when you're creating an online course. Do you already have a lot of content that you could put into a course? Do you have too much content for one course? Do you already have a set process that you walk a lot of your clients through? These can be great places to start.

Picking your course topic

First of all, if you already have a foundational process that you walk your clients through, this might be a good thing to turn into a course, if you haven't already. This is something standard that you may want videos, worksheets, etc. for anyway that you can give to clients.

This is also something that you are probably pretty passionate about, have a lot of knowledge about, and probably have a lot of content for already.

Now, one thing to consider with online courses is the high rate of people who don't actually finish them. The average completion rate for eLearning courses is 5-15%! Part of the problem is that so many courses out there have too much content. I know that you know a lot and you want to give a lot of value. You want to give people as much as possible in your course.

However, if you are able to simplify the process into actionable, bite-sized chunks, they're more likely to finish it. If you have so much content that you're just going to overwhelm them, that means you may need multiple courses.

Another option to consider is: what are people asking you about all the time? What are common questions that you're answering for clients or common things that you're walking them through that keep coming up again and again? This might be something to turn into a course so that you have the answer to that question readily available.

Putting your course content together

So, how do you go about putting a course together? The good news is, you do not have to have the entirety of the content done before you create your course or before your course goes live.

This is a spot where potential course creators often get stuck. It is a lot of content for you to generate, especially if you're doing video, because it's hard for people to help you with that - they can't be you on camera!

A good thing to keep in mind is that you can go one lesson at a time or one module at a time. You just have to stay ahead of where people are at. You don’t need to create the entire course in advance if you’re not there yet. (Although you should have the outline planned in advance). You can create your course over time or you can get started with very basic things - a couple of YouTube videos and maybe a Google Drive for some documents. When you’re first getting started, this can be a simple way to get initial content out in the world and get people going through it.

As you get further into your business and get feedback, you can refine your course content. Then you can turn that into a more formal course on a formal course platform later. So don't let the overwhelm of creating the course stop you from actually doing it.

Picking a course platform

If you're looking for a more formal course platform, I recommend ones like Thinkific, Teachable, or Kajabi. They are some pretty popular platforms with some pretty robust features. Some of them have steeper learning curves than others, but I encourage you to take a look at what's out there.

Most course platforms have some free trials. Thinkific even allows you to have one course for free without having to upgrade to a paid account. Check out some different platforms, see what works for you and your learning style, and go from there.

Do you have questions about getting started setting up an online course? Let me know down in the comments or feel free to reach out.