how to create your online course
TRANSCRIPT
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CREATE AN ONLINE COURSE
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OVERVIEW• Introduction • Validate Your Course • Creating Content & Content Mediums • Course Marketplaces • Learning Management Systems (LMS) • Pricing Your Course • Creating Your Website • Screenflow Walkthrough • Internet Marketing & User Growth • Everything Else
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1 INTRODUCTION
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SEO Project Manager at Airbnb
Previously SEO Manager at PayPal
Created an online SEO training course with 5,000+ users called ClickMinded
Who is this bozo?
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ClickMinded started as a live, face-to-face training class at a co-working space in San Francisco.
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We eventually filmed it and turned it onto a comprehensive 5-hour online training course.
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ClickMinded now has more than 5,000 paid users. This course is about what worked and what didn’t.
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2 VALIDATE YOUR COURSE
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Use tools to determine if there’s demand for your content before you create it.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Trends SkillShareUdemy
Amazon
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Search the way your target market would.
“dog training course”“dog training how to”
“how to train a dog”
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Read reviews of what people say they liked / didn’t like and take note.
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3CREATE CONTENTS & CONTENT MEDIUMS
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The Course Skeleton
Create a simple skeleton outline
of your entire course in Google
Docs.
Create a simple 1.0 presentation with just text in Google
slides.
Convert the Google Slides into
a well-designed Powerpoint or
Keynote.
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No good at Powerpoint or Keynote? Use Upwork.com to find freelancers to do it for you.
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Stock Photography & Video
• Free ‣Unsplash ‣Gratisography ‣Death To The Stock Photo ‣Negative Space ‣Picjumbo
• Paid ‣Shutterstock Video ‣VideoHive ‣VideoBlocks ‣GraphicRiver ‣PhotoDune
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• Video courses seem to command the most dollars. • They’re more difficult to pull off but worth it in the end. • Live audience vs just you. • Scouting a location.
Video Courses
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Video Courses & Meetup.com• One of the best, fastest, cheapest ways to get people of similar
interests into a room with you. • Set up a Meetup group at least 30 days before your event, create an
event right away. • You don’t even necessarily need a location for your event, just start
collecting names. • This effectively becomes a mailing list for people interested in your
subject. • Integrate Eventbrite - don’t make it free! Put a price on it and offer a
discount.
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Fast, Cheap & Effective Video
Have a Mac? Use Photo Booth.
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Fast, Cheap & Effective Video
Have a iPhone? Shoot with that.
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Tools & Apps for Your Phone
Cinema FV-5 on Android
FiLMic Pro on iPhone
Smartphone Tripod
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One of the best films at Sundance was shot on an iPhone 5s.
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Additional Content Mediums
• Slides: Use Slideshare to embed an entire presentation.
• Slides with audio: Record your voice while you’re going through slides via Screenflow.
• Embedded quizzes: Use self-graded quizzes to make sure students are getting it.
• Downloadable files: PDFs, MP3s, MP4s, Programming Code & Scripts, Graphics and more.
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4 COURSE MARKETPLACES
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Marketplaces
There are a few top-tier “self-serve” course marketplaces. These are ecosystems you should consider uploading your content to.
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Marketplaces
• There are a number of additional “teaching ecosystems” that have a high barrier to entry. You generally have to contact them, get approved, and sometimes even fly to where they are and re-shoot their content in their style. Don’t start with these.
• There are a large number of “2nd tier” course marketplaces. Don’t start with these either.
• There are also MOOCs, which are generally free and have content from major universities. You generally couldn’t even start with these if you wanted to.
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Self-Serve Marketplaces:
• The first place you should go to create a course. • Great if you don’t want to create your own site. • Millions of students, thousands of teachers, strong promotional
network. • Pretty good UI and a good course editor. • Very high revenue share (Udemy takes a minimum 50% of all sales). • If you opt-in to Udemy’s marketing programs, they take even more.
Udemy
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Self-Serve Marketplaces: Udemy
• Udemy sends out coupon codes way too frequently. • Udemy gives you 100% of revenue from students you refer, but you
don’t get their email address, and Udemy markets competitor courses to them.
• You can not price your course above $300. • The rules are subject to change (and have changed frequently).
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Self-Serve Marketplaces:• 750,000+ Students. • Creative orientation (Design, Photography, DIY, Culinary). • 25+ students puts you in their partner program. • Pays out on the number of monthly premium enrollments + student
projects created in each class. • Not very straight forward and they seem to obfuscate it with weird
examples on their FAQ page. • I generally don’t like participating in “all you can eat” learning
engagements because the incentives are for the marketplace and not for you.
Skillshare
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Self-Serve Marketplaces:
• “All-You-Can-Eat” course marketplace from Shutterstock.
• Students pay $19 a month, can access all content.
• Instructors are pooled together and paid 30% of all revenue based on how many minutes students watch.
• Most courses are less than 20 minutes.
• I generally don’t like participating in “all you can eat” learning engagements because the incentives are for the marketplace and not for you.
Skillfeed
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Second-Tier Self-Serve Marketplaces
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Learning & Teaching Ecosystems
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MOOCs
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WordPress
• WordPress is a free content management system (CMS) that powers ~20% of the internet.
• What started off as blogging software has become a powerful way to run a comprehensive website.
• One of the biggest benefits of WordPress is the vast ecosystem of themes and plugins that are available.
• Many learning managements systems (LMS) to create online courses are built on WordPress as themes and plugins.
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5 LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
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Learning Management System (LMS)
• Software that hosts your online course is called an LMS. • Most LMS’ allow you to create multiple courses, and within
those courses you can create a series of chapters and lessons.
• Most LMS’ also include a grade book and progress tracker. • An LMS is not an online learning ecosystem like Skillshare or
Udemy, it’s the software you install yourself.
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Learning Management System (LMS)
• The upside to using an LMS is more control over the look and feel.
• The downside is more technical integration needed and multiple 3rd parties that need to ‘play nice’ with each other.
• Content can be text, video or images and grading can be automated
• Not all of them are on WordPress, but many are.
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LMS:
• In my experience, the best way to host your own course. • You can host your content as a subdomain on their site or
your own. • I recommend WordPress as your primary site and Fedora
installed on a subdomain. • $0 - $300 a month.
Fedora
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• A WordPress plugin that functions as a great LMS within WordPress. • Technically works with any WordPress theme, but some
customization is required. They recommend using the WooThemes Definition theme.
• Other themes that work well with Sensei are Skillfully, Guru and LMS. • Relies on the insanely popular WooCommerce for checkout
functionality.
LMS: Sensei
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LMS: Sensei
• Uses the regular WordPress database to store user information.
• Not great for quizzes and tests. • Lots of plugin conflicts that would break lessons, checkout
functionality, logins. • Starts at $129.
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• WordPress plugin that integrates with your existing theme. • Drag-and-drop content creation within WordPress. • Full courses have modules, modules have course units,
course units have tests and quizzes. • Better quiz and test functionality than Sensei.
LMS: WP Course Ware
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LMS: WP Course Ware
• Not as seamless as Sensei. • Requires a separate membership & payment integration to
secure content. • Easily integrates with s2 Member, Wishlist, Premise,
Memberpress, Membersonic & Paid Memberships Pro. • Starts at $99.
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LMS: Learn Dash
• WordPress plugin that integrates with your existing WordPress installation.
• All-In-One solution: You don’t need a separate plugin to manage memberships, drip content or process payments
• Integrates with PayPal, 2CheckOut, Woocommerce and a few other
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LMS: Learn Dash
• Uses the Tin Can API, which allows other high-end learning systems to communicate with each other and track learning experience
• Many higher ed institutions use LearnDash. • Starts at $99.
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Second-Tier WordPress LMS
WPLMS Academy Clever Course LMS Press
EduLMS Educator WPS
There are lots of these you can check out, but I still recommend using Fedora.
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WordPress Membership Plugins
• You can create content, and then create a WordPress membership site to access that content (DIY LMS).
• Some LMS plugins require a membership integration (WP Courseware): ‣Wishlist Member ‣Digital Access Pass ‣Magic Members ‣Member Mouse ‣Paid Memberships Pro
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GumRoad
• GumRoad is a beautiful, fantastic, fast way to sell digital content. • 5% + 25¢ per transaction. • There are a number of ways to sell an online course through
GumRoad: ‣Use GumRoad to create a multi-file product. ‣Drip out course content over time with a GumRoad Workflow. ‣Use memberships to charge on a monthly / annual basis for content. ‣Use pre-orders to sell content before it even exists.
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6 PRICING YOUR COURSE
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Charge More Than You Think
• People get value in different ways. • Have multiple price points: The best price is the most the student
will pay. • People value the product more when you price higher. • Rule of thumb: $25 for 1 hour of content.
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You Charge More When You Have:
✓ Higher production quality.
✓More teacher / student engagement.
✓ Offer more value than competitors.
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Multiple Products & Bundling
• Consider cutting up your course into multiple products.
• 3 products is a good start: ‣Bronze ‣Silver ‣Gold
• Additional upsells & products for each: ‣30 minute phone call ‣Premium support / unlimited
email support ‣Additional content / eBooks /
Information ‣Access to a community
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Discounting
• Price your course high and don’t lose credibility with excessive discounts.
• Set a firm deadline on your discount a.k.a “finite sales window”.
• Deadlines get deals done!
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Discounting
• 3-7 days is a good start (enough for 3 emails): ‣First send a “This discount is coming soon” email. ‣Then send a “This discount is now live” email. ‣Finally send a “This discount ends in X hours” email.
• Add products as a bundle rather than lowering your price. Example: “get an additional ebook free if you sign up in the next 24 hours”.
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Subscriptions
• If you’re providing ongoing value, offer a subscription. • Subscription model is okay, but only if you can
consistently provide value: ‣Monthly webinar or phone call ‣Forum or message board ‣Weekly or monthly lesson updates
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Subscriptions
• It doesn’t make sense to pay monthly for content that doesn’t change.
• Huge value in recurring revenue. • Most membership and LMS WordPress plugins offer
this functionality if they integrate with a major payment processor.
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7 CREATING YOUR WEBSITE
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Starting a site for the first time? I recommend WordPress.
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WordPress & Website Hosting
There are lots of sites that offer “1 click WordPress installation” and cheap web hosting.
My favorites:
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Faster and with more features, but comes at a price.
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Don’t Want To Create A Website?
• Fedora & GumRoad will host for you (but you bring your own users).
• Udemy, Skillfeed & SkillShare will host for you (with a revenue share).
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10 EVERYTHING ELSE
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Video Hosting
• Many course platforms take care of video for you (Fedora, Udemy, Skillshare, Skillfeed).
• A few others require you to manage video on your own. • If this is the case, you have the following options: ‣Wistia ‣YouTube ‣Vimeo ‣Easy Video Player & Amazon S3
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Promo Video
• Over-invest in your promo video. • For many people, the promo video is the make-
or-break factor in purchasing. • Be succinct and end with a clear call to action.
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Student Management
• Email response time is a giant consideration for everything: ✓Getting sales ✓Getting referrals ✓Getting great reviews ✓Keeping students
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Commenting on Lectures
• Many LMS include the ability to comment on lectures. • This is great - but maintain it! Seeing a lecture with
unanswered comments from weeks / months / years ago is not good.
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Facebook Groups & Community Forums
• Offering a community is a great value-add. • It’s very difficult to manage / maintain / contribute to a
community over the long term. Have a long term vision before you commit to this.
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Launching Your Course
• Get your course live before it’s perfect. • Consider a very precise, very specific value
proposition. Example: ‣ClickMinded: 10x your traffic from Google
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Other Good Course Titles
• Build 15 iPhone apps in 30 days. • Become a Bartender in 12 hours. • Learn CPR this Weekend. • Remix Your First Song Today.
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Collecting Email Addresses?
Consider a launch day with a finite sales window that has clear start and end dates.“Deadlines get deals done”
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SlideShare
• A web-based version of powerpoint or keynote. • Great way to embed content. • Not only is Slideshare great to embed on your own
site, it’s great for generating leads to your content. • Publish your slides, leave them public on slideshare
and make sure to include links back to your site.
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Certificates
• People love certificates. • People will justify absurd things in order to add a line
on their resume. • Many LMS have certificate systems built into them -
most of them suck. • Accredible is a great 3rd party tool to host and
manage certificates.