Digitally She Does It Podcast

EPISODE 86: Common questions asked when creating an online course for the first time

• Karen Davies • Season 1 • Episode 86

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In this episode of the digitally She Does It podcast, I am diving deep into the world of creating your very first online course.

Ever wondered about the ins and outs of identifying your ideal students, mastering marketing strategies, and tackling the tech side of things? I'll be sharing my own experiences and invaluable insights to help you confidently take that leap into online course creation.

Whether you're a newbie in the online course game or looking to level up your business, make sure to stick around for expert advice and actionable tips so you can bring your online course aspirations to life!

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Karen Davies [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to the Digitally She Does It Show. This is episode 86 and in today's episode I'm going to be answering the 3 most common questions that I get asked when somebody is creating an online course for the very first time. So, let's jump right in and let's get started. Welcome to the Digitally she does it show.

I'm your host Karen and I'm here to lift the lid on what it actually takes to create a successful business. If you are an ambitious creative ready to build a business on your own terms and without compromise, then this podcast is perfect for you. With my award winning approach to marketing and expert knowledge in creating online courses, this show will leave you feeling inspired, energized, and ready to bring those big dreams to life.

Join me each week for a dose of motivation and marketing know how along with actionable step by step strategies to help you accelerate your businesses grow.

Karen Davies [00:01:01]:
So, let's dive in and don't forget to subscribe to all my upcoming episodes which drop every Wednesday. Hello and welcome. Thank you for joining me today. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting the play button to listen to today's episode.

In today's episode, I am going to be sharing the 3 most common questions that I get asked all of the time when somebody is either thinking about creating an online course or maybe they've started that process of dipping their toe in, so to speak, and they have unanswered questions. And so I'm going to share that with you today so that you get the answers to these questions before you even take the first step if you are new to course creation. If you're already through the process then good on you. I'm hoping today's questions and the answers that I give you will equally be of use.

Karen Davies [00:02:09]:
But before I do, I want to talk about the digital creators hub. This is your one stop shop to getting started online. The hub is full of lots of different resources and tools and templates and things to help you get started. So if you are not in the hub, then go and get yourself in the hub for free. As I said there's no cost associated with this. It's my way of thanking you, my listeners, to showing up, to listening to my episodes and it's my way of being able to give something back. So head on over to the Digital Creators Hub and as I said you'll be able to get lots of different things to help you get started on your course creation journey. Or even if you're not thinking about an online course, even just thinking about what's possible for you.

Karen Davies [00:03:03]:
I've got lots of different resources in there. To access this free hub, go to www.pink-lemondigital.com/hub because there's no better time to get started with your digital business than now so go and access these free resources and get started. Okay.

So back to today's episode and today I am answering the 3 most common questions that I get asked all the time when somebody is starting their course creation journey. And now I get asked a lot of different questions and I try and answer them through my content that I share online but sometimes there are just questions that people have that they need answers to before they start that journey, if you like. So today that's what I'm going to be focusing on.

But before I do I just want to talk about online courses and why it's worth thinking about creating an online course. Now if you are an avid listener to this show you'll know that I speak at length about online course creation and I do that because I believe this is the one way that we can scale our businesses to create impact in the world and to build our expertise and to position ourselves as the expert in what we're doing.

Karen Davies [00:04:34]:
And, I come from a service based background. So when I first started my business I was building my branding and web studio and I was working with clients on a one to one basis. And it was very much trading time as my currency. So they would pay me for a service and in return I would give them my time to carry out the service. And then for me, I realised at the start of the pandemic that if I was going to do this long term then it wouldn't be sustainable on my own. I would need to build a team because although I had sort of people that I would be working alongside, so I had a communications consultant that I'd be working with, I had a copywriter, I had an SEO specialist, I had other people that I would work with to deliver these services. So to say it was all on my shoulders is probably inaccurate but a large proportion of the projects that I ran were very much on my shoulders because not only would I be project managing them but I would be carrying out a large piece of the work and then I'd be bringing people on in my team to support in different areas. And what's really interesting about this model is that it does very much fall down to me to be there in order to be able to provide the service.

Karen Davies [00:05:58]:
If I, for whatever reason, am not available then I become the bottleneck. Everything stops at me. So unless we're at a stage where somebody else has come on board and is working on a proportion of the project, 9 times out of 10 because I was managing the project and I was leading on the project it would be very much on my shoulders. So what became really apparent through the pandemic when everything was all crazy and whatnot was that this was not sustainable and during that period I had things going on, I had projects going on hold, I had a legal dispute with a client and just a lot of things that I was dealing with and the same thought was constantly in my head. This is not sustainable. You cannot continue the way you've been going. If I want to create a business that works for me it cannot be this way because everything is on my shoulders. And so I decided to pivot and move over into the online course space because I realized that in the background I was making money through my digital products and my online course and that was bringing in me in money but I wasn't really paying attention to that.

Karen Davies [00:07:17]:
I was sort of doing the minimum but I was making money. And so what that sort of showed me was that there was another approach, another way to build a business that was more sustainable because in order to sell my products I didn't need to be at my desk. I would be on a holiday with my family and I would make a sale and that sale would come from not me having to carry out work. It I didn't need to be there to get that sale, it happened. It may have been through my marketing, it may have been through affiliate, it may all different ways that sales can come in but essentially that that model of passive income seemed to be so much more sustainable than actually delivering a service that required my time and my presence to be there. And so that's why I moved into this space and then as I've sort of developed more in this space I realised just how limitless the opportunity is with this type of model. So whether you're building a membership or you're building an online course or a digital programme whatever that might be, It might be that you are wanting to create something a bit more hybrid. That's absolutely fine, but it's a limitless model to a certain extent because there is a there is a proportion of what you're doing that doesn't require you to have to be there to deliver it in person.

Karen Davies [00:08:50]:
And when I say that is huge, it is huge. The amount of times that I would feel responsible for something because I was managing my team, I was managing a project, I had the client chasing me for things, I had deadlines that I was working to, so even when I had that time with my family where I wouldn't be working truth be told I would be working because in my head I'd be thinking about all the things that either I haven't done or I need to get done or I'm chasing somebody else to get done and so being able to switch off was very challenging. Whereas what I do today is so much different because I'm not on the hook for everybody's work. I show up and I do what I do but at the end of the day it's down to individual students to do the training, to take action, to implement, to do all of that stuff. I facilitate but I'm not doing it for them which means that my currency is not my time. The currency that I'm selling is value and I think that's the difference. So when I talk about why creating an online course for your business is important it's because it's shifting that mindset. You're moving from a place of I'm going to sell my time which is in my opinion the most valuable thing you can sell and of course the most limited thing you can sell because you only have a so many hours in the day, so many days in the week, so many weeks in the year to give people your time.

Karen Davies [00:10:38]:
Your time is so incredibly value And then when you add on your energy levels so I'm sort of in a place now where I am shifting, my energy shifting. I'm in my I'm moving towards my mid forties. I'm feeling slightly different. I've got 2 young kids and my energy levels have shifted. I do not have the energy that I used to have in my 20s because there is so much more demand on my time now and I have more limited capacity than I have ever had before. So I can only take on so many clients at any given time which is which caps my ability to earn. So whatever you charge your service that it says out at, you're always going to have a ceiling and I think that's the point. It's about looking at what you can create, sell on repeat, scale but you get to step back and you get to enjoy the freedom that that then gives you.

Karen Davies [00:11:42]:
Now I'm not saying that it doesn't require work. Anything that takes any level of success you're working towards any level of success requires a level of work. But the difference between delivering services over and over again and building an online course or a membership or a digital programme whichever route you want to take, you essentially build it once and you sell it on repeat. So it's an entirely different approach and it means that you're not on the hook all of the time to just be carrying out this work. So whether you're a consultant, you're a service provider, you're a creative, you're somebody that needs to be heavily involved in a process, this is the one thing that you could be creating for yourself that gives you that time back. Of course you have to invest time at the beginning. Of course you do. You have to invest time into the things that go into a business to get a business up and running.

Karen Davies [00:12:47]:
You have to invest time in bringing your children up so that when they go off in the world, you know, they're they're good humans. Like time needs to be invested to bring anything to life. The difference is that once you get it to a point where it's done, dusted, it's been built then you start to get your time back because you're then selling it on repeat. And that's why I talk about the power of online courses because it is a very different model. And so I just wanted to share that with you because I talk about this a lot but sometimes it's really easy to forget the the reason why online courses make sense because often what some people can think is the work that's involved to get it built. But trust me I've been in a service based position where I'm I'm having to deliver services. I'm having to figure out what those services look like. I'm having to build whatever is I need to build for my clients, do the work, all of that other stuff.

Karen Davies [00:13:58]:
And I stand here today believing that the level of work I've put into my digital products is a lot less than the work I've put into my service based, offers. And the amount of stress and anxiety and all of that stuff that goes into making sure that clients are happy that you're delivering, is a is a lot less as well. Of course you want to deliver a really top student experience but you can do that on auto. Again, you don't have to be there in person and I think that's predominantly what makes the difference. So with that in mind, I want to just dive into the 3 most common questions I get asked when somebody is at that point where they know this is a viable option, they know they can do this because they have valuable knowledge to share and they want to create something that they can scale. So they know that an online course makes sense. However, naturally you're gonna have questions and so the questions I'm gonna share with you are just, as I said, these are the questions that I get asked all the time so I'm hoping that by answering these questions it will make sense for you as well. So the first question that is a really common question is how do I choose the right topic to teach in my online course? That's a big one because often people kind of come to the table with this abundance of knowledge and expertise.

Karen Davies [00:15:34]:
And what I have found in the world of entrepreneurship is that many people start a business a little bit later in life because for one thing or another they've decided that they want to create something for themselves. They do not want to be a slave to an employer where they are beholden to them. They want to create freedom and financial independence and all of that good stuff with by creating their business. And I do believe that our businesses are the vehicles that can take us anywhere we wanna go. We just need to work out that destination and then we need to be really clear about what that path looks like and then we need to implement and we need to take action and we need to do the work. So if you're thinking about creating an online course but you don't know the topic because maybe there's a lot of different topics that you could teach on then what I want you to do is really identify your core expertise. So start by listing out all of the different areas that you are passionate about, that you know how to get a result in and you are enthusiastic about, so you want to you want to share your knowledge in this area. So it might be something really simple, it might be something a little bit more complex because maybe you're pulling that topic from your experience in your career or it might be something that you love to do in your spare time and you think other people may love to do that as well.

Karen Davies [00:17:14]:
I was talking to one of my clients, I'm working with a client at the moment who is an, health editor. And one of her passions is the menopause because through going through it herself she has learned all of this information and then because of her day job where she is working within magazines, health magazines, she has this knowledge that she's accumulated over a long period of time. And so one of her passions is about getting that knowledge out to the people that need it, to the women that are going through the menopause. Because even though people now are talking more about the menopause, there is still so much to learn about it and she wants to make this information accessible to these people. So that's one of her passions. So this is an area that she's looking to develop an online course in because she feels like she can support and guide people to to to thrive in during this stage of their life. So it's not something necessarily she's doing in her day job although her day job does support her passion but this is something on the sideline that she's really interested in and because of the research that she's carried out and her knowledge around this she knows there's a gap in the market where she can create something that's going to be of value to the right people. So it doesn't have to be something that you're doing right now it could just be something you're passionate about, that you believe in, that you want to create for a specific audience.

Karen Davies [00:19:01]:
Now once you figure out what that looks like then you need to research it and you need to make sure that there is a demand for the thing that you're teaching. So just using my client as an example, you know, her topic is the menopause. Obviously, there is a lot of, sort of talk at the moment about the menopause, menopause in workplace, all of that good stuff. So she it's going to be really easy for her to carry out research and to identify whether or not her online course is going to be needed. So it's really important to carry this research out because this is going to build confidence and it's going to give you the insights that you will then need to go ahead and build your course. So never skip on the research stage. And then when it comes to choosing your topic it's about solving a problem. So consider the pain points or challenges that your ideal student is currently facing and then develop a course that addresses those needs.

Karen Davies [00:20:04]:
Now it doesn't have to be life changing. It doesn't have to be so big that it's going to take you forever to create your course. It could just be something really small. Now if you can provide a small result for your ideal person that can have big a big impact in their everyday life. So don't overlook the importance of what a small result could do. The more you research this the more you connect with your ideal person the better you'll get at understanding what they're going to need from you and this insight is really important. So you'd need to get clear on exactly who your audience are and who you're creating a course for as well. Again, don't over don't don't bypass this because your target audience knowing their interests, knowing their goals, knowing their skill levels is going to be really important for you determining what's going to go into your course.

Karen Davies [00:21:09]:
Okay, so the second question I get asked is about the tech. Now, if I had a pound for every time somebody said to me the tech scares me, I don't know what tech is needed, I don't know how to deliver my course and I feel overwhelmed by it, then I would be a very very rich person indeed because people do get really scared about the tech. It's like this unknown, you know, we know we need tech to deliver our courses, but unless you're in the online course space and you're like me where you're literally eat sleep breathing this subject, of course you're not necessarily gonna know. So I just want to sort of break this down a little bit so hopefully you'll get a better idea. Now, in order to deliver your course you need a platform and there are lots of different platforms out there. You've got learning management systems which is Kajabi, Thinkific, Podia, Teachable, Searchie, all of that that good stuff. There's lots of different platforms out there and a lot of them have the plug and play ability which means you create your content, you get it all ready, you choose a platform, you upload it, and then you set up your checkout and your payment solution, connect it all up and then you're good to go. So there isn't a lot of tech in this instance, you just need a platform.

Karen Davies [00:22:42]:
Now the other tech that comes into play when you're recording content, you're recording videos, you're needing a really good microphone or maybe you want to create beautiful graphics to support your course. So then you will be looking at things like you know, microphones that you can buy on Amazon or a really good camera or maybe you want to use Zoom or maybe you want to sign up to Canva, which is the graphic design tool that makes it really easy to create beautiful graphics. So there are lots of different things that obviously come into it that obviously you just need to think about. Now as I said, when it comes to micro microphones and physical equipment you can go on to Amazon and you can buy a really good microphone. I have, in the early days of recording my course I used the lapel mic which is a clip on. It's like 9.99 on Amazon. So it's it's really cheap, the quality is really good and it does the job. So if you wanted just to have a real basic microphone that you can plug into your computer and use to pick up really good quality audio then go and get a lapel mic.

Karen Davies [00:23:59]:
Otherwise, I mean I and now I use a Blue Yeti and a Blue Yeti I think starts from a £120 so that's obviously a little bit more expensive. But you don't need this, you you can start with a little lapel mic at like £10 and you're good to go. In terms of recording your content you can do this through Canva. Canva has a recording studio and it's probably the best recording studio that I've come across. So within my online course I use Canva to record my content. I have slides, I do voice so far and it works really well. If I'm recording my face to video then I'm using zoom. So it doesn't have to be anything overly technical, just use what you have available to you.

Karen Davies [00:24:48]:
Now there are platforms like Udemy where they you can sell your online course on there but I would just be careful about going down that route because you don't have full control over your course. You you don't set the price. You put it on their platform, and they make all the sort of key decisions for you. It might be perfect for you if you just wanna build something, stick it somewhere, and then leave it to get sales. But the problem is because it's a bit of a meat market, you are comparing your course to other pea other people's courses. So your course becomes a commodity because it's competing on price. If you go down the road of a learning management system where you're building it you have full control you set the price, you set the perimeters, you choose how you sell it and you can build that relationship with your students. So I will always recommend going down this route because I think if you are delivering your vow if your valuable knowledge you wanna get paid for it and you wanna be able to set the right price for the course that you're creating and most importantly you want to retain control.

Karen Davies [00:26:00]:
But Udemy is there if you decide that's a better option for you. So my 3rd and final question is about attracting students into your course. Now of course this is a big one because this is all about selling. Now I'm not gonna be here and say that there's one answer to this because there isn't. There are many different strategies you can implement to attract students to your course. But what I will say is that you need to know your ideal audience. You need to really understand who they are, what they need, what their pain points are and how you can support them. Because this way you can tailor your marketing to reach them most effectively.

Karen Davies [00:26:47]:
Now content marketing is a big one so I can't really go through it in this episode because I would literally be here all day. But developing high quality content that showcases the value of your course is really important. So if you are on social media you can leverage those platforms to connect with your ideal students. Also think about creating things like blog posts, video content, infographics and and building free resources. I have the Digital Creators Resource Hub. I build that because I want to get people started with creating their online course because I believe this is the best model out there for building freedom into your business whilst allowing you to scale. So I've created free resources so that I can build know, like and trust with you guys so that you get to know that I know what I'm talking about and I become that person that's going to help you. So you can think about doing that which is ultimately going to help your students and trust me when I say it goes a long long way to building long lasting relationships.

Karen Davies [00:28:00]:
I had a meeting with a new client on Friday who has been in my orbit for a couple of years and I I know that at the right time she's going to create her online course and she's going to work with me. I know that because she's told me but we have been in each other's orbit for over 2 years. And so on Friday when I spoke to her, she was she's launching a book at the moment and then that book is going to be turned into an online course. And we had a conversation about what her next steps are to get her ready for getting this course created. And I know that we're going to be working together because we have great synergy and I am that person that she wants to lean on to get her through this process. So do not underestimate the freebies and the free experiences that you can deliver to nurture your ideal students. Of course it takes time. Not every client takes 2 years to, you know, for to to work with.

Karen Davies [00:29:06]:
The point is though that it is a journey and you've got to think of this as something that is going to be around for a long time and not everybody is ready to buy at that moment. So you need to make sure that you are creating marketing that is showcasing the value of the thing that you're creating. That's really important and then looking at what else you can create to entice people into your world. I mean, I talk about the 2 year period but I've had people that I have met that have come into my online course instantaneously because I've just happened to say the right things at the right time for exactly what they need. So it can the that customer journey can can range between instant and a long time. But part of your job as a marketer of your course is to make sure that you nail all of this down so that you can provide what is needed at the right time to nurture them so that you become that person that they wanna work with. Now there are other things that you can be doing as well. So once your course has been launched, you can offer freebies and trials related to your course.

Karen Davies [00:30:21]:
You can optimize your website and spend some time with you on your website so you can optimize it for conversions. You can start getting involved in email marketing and building a list of ideal students that you can then engage with. You can collaborate with other people that may have synergy with your audience so that you can partner up with them. I'm going to be going on to a podcast in a couple of weeks for somebody that has an audience similar to my audience. So think about ways that you can branch out into other people's audiences so that you can share your goodness with them and then entice them to come into your course. And then of course you can run paid advertising, you can do SEO work online and then you can create things like Facebook groups and things like that where you can deliver free trainings. So there's lots of different ways that you can attract students into your world. The point though that I need to make is that you just need to have a plan.

Karen Davies [00:31:27]:
You need a strategy and you need to decide what is going to work for you and you will figure this out by getting to know your students really well. Because once you know them and you know where they hang out and what their trends are and all of that good stuff, you can then start building your marketing efforts around them. And the more insight that you can get the more effective your marketing is going to be. Now I'd love to say, I would really really love to say that you can literally build your online course, put it out there and you'll get a flock of students. But unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. You have to put time, effort and energy into attracting them. But as I said there's lots of different simple strategies that you can implement in order to attract your ideal students. So I don't want you to be put off by the fact that marketing is involved but I do think that anything that we do requires some level of effort and I want to be really upfront about that.

Karen Davies [00:32:38]:
But the thing is, consistency and persistence are key in your marketing when it comes to selling your online course. And The the thing that we need to be doing is experimenting with different strategies, monitoring our results and then refining our approach based on what is working for with our audience and that takes time. So there are lots of different ways to attract students but it just requires consistency, persistence and experimenting to figure out what your ideal sort of route to market is going to be. There are lots of different ways to market your course but you just need to keep experimenting when your course is ready to be launched so that you can figure out what the right approach for you is. Because what might work for me might not necessarily work for you so you have to figure out what that golden bullet is for your students and of course that does take time. But, it doesn't mean it can't be fun and it doesn't mean it can't bring in money whilst we're doing it. We just have to be strategic with our efforts. So before I wrap up on today's episode I just want to talk about the 3 masterclasses that I'm going to be delivering live in June.

Karen Davies [00:34:11]:
Now these masterclasses are going to each focus on a key aspect of creating and selling your online course. So if you have questions or you wanna find out more about what I've spoken about today, then I want you to come along to these master classes. Now the first master class is going to take place on 12th June at 11 AM UK time and it's called how to create your first online course. In this masterclass I'm going to dive into the how to literally create your first online course. I'm gonna share with you my framework for getting your course created. The second masterclass is going to be delivered on the 19th June at 11 am and this is called mastering your tech for your online course. And in this masterclass, I'm going to be diving into the tech that is needed for your course. Now, if today's helped but you want to know more then come along to this masterclass because I'm going to do a deeper dive into the world of tech.

Karen Davies [00:35:18]:
The 3rd and final masterclass I'm going to be delivering will take place on the 26th June at 11 am UK time And in this masterclass, I'm going to be talking about strategies for diversifying your online course revenue because there are many ways to create revenue once you have created your online course. So I'm going to dive into that. I'm gonna share some secrets so that by the end of it you'll have a better idea on how you can leverage your online course to make you more money.

If you would like to book your place on 1 or all of these sessions, then head over to my website www.pink-lemondigital.com/masterclasses. Go and sign up.

As I said these are completely free and you'll be able to come along and find out more. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode. I really hope you found this episode of value and of course please feel free to share it with anyone who you think will benefit from listening to today's episode.

Karen Davies [00:36:25]:
If you are feeling inspired and would like to know more about getting started with an online course or even just getting started online, then go and join the Digital Creators Hub at www.pink-lemondigital.com/hub. 

I will be back next week with another episode but until then have a great week. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the digitally she does it show. Don't forget to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in today's episode. New episodes drop every week on a Wednesday. So, why not rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thank you for tuning in today, and I will see you next time.