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Online courses are amazing vehicles for generating passive income. The big question here is, can you really validate if your course idea is worth the effort? In the vast online world, market demand is critical. If you think that your expertise is too mainstream to earn a profit, or too under the radar to click, clearly it’s time to evaluate it. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools and tips that can help you measure your ideas’ profitability.
Successful online course creation is all about profit and passion combined. You are probably not thinking about earning big from your first online course, but it’s still crucial to learn more about market demand, and how it can help you succeed in the long run.
How to Come Up with Your Profitable Course Idea?
The primary idea behind creating a value-packed online course is looking for a topic that you have great knowledge of, an idea you are highly passionate about, and profitable enough to generate income. Choose course idea that:
You are super passionate about
Your passion can transform your life and take you to places. So, ask yourself now, what are those things you have always wanted to do? We are talking about “profitable” courses here but it’s no secret that almost every successful business started as a “passion project.” Discover your true calling, and start your own passion project now. You will be able to do what you love, have the chance to earn, and also give back to your community.
A course you are highly knowledgeable in
You are an expert in this course idea, either by practical knowledge or by education. Sharing what you know with other people is inspirational. What is the topic that family, friends and colleagues come to you for advice? With an online course, you can share this not only to people close to you, but for thousands more all over the world.
It is profitable!
If your course idea addresses your target audience needs, then it can be profitable! You can make money out of it since many are looking for that solution. Lots of individuals are struggling each day with different subjects. Today, even the smallest tasks can be hard for those who are not knowledgeable enough in a specific area. Research on what your target audience’s pain points are, and try to come up with solutions.
List down the things that you love doing, what you do best, and what your target market needs. Take these parameters in mind when mapping out your course ideas and thoughts. Will those ideas work for you and for your potential students?
Become a thought leader and an authority in your niche.
More than creating a profitable online course and growing an online audience, you would want to become a reputable thought leader in your niche or industry. This means that you are going to try to become one of the go-to individuals that your target market consults when they have important questions. This may take lots of time and dedication. Be consistent with your efforts, and make sure to work with a positive mindset.
Can mindset really impact your life? Does having a positive way of thinking lead to success? Click here to find out!
To become a successful course creator and thought leader someday, you need to commit to the people you are trying to serve. Reach out to them. Let them know that you are there to help them. If you are a blogger or someone who already has a strong social media following, most likely, you already have a loyal audience who are willing to pay for your online course.
However, if you are starting out from nothing, no need to worry! You can establish a solid audience through user-friendly, popular platforms like Quora, and widen your reach on Facebook by implementing a good content marketing strategy. We can’t please everyone, but with every post, try to make a positive first impression. We all want everything to be great from the very beginning! Then, as you go along, you will eventually notice that people are asking the same exact questions. Make a list of all those common questions and answers. Group them together. From that list, you are sure to get profitable course ideas!
Successful content creation and market research go hand in hand.
I know that online course creation is a lot of fun, but don’t jump right into this task without doing market research and measuring the demand for your course idea. Market research is a way of collecting pieces of information that you can use to avoid or solve marketing issues. A thorough market research process gives you the details you need to come up with a profitable course topic and marketing plan that works best for you. Believe it or not, online course creation is an online business. Now, as a newbie creator, you need to understand how to run your startup venture.
Click here to read more about the benefits of market research.
How to Find Profitable Online Course Ideas (Proven Process)?!
How can you set the stage for a sustainable, successful online course business? Is there really a demand for your favorite course topic? If you find out that there isn’t, then you need to make adjustments so that your energy, time and money are not wasted. As for measuring market demand and implementing market research, let me help you with that. While talking to people physically can offer many valuable insights, there are other ways to get important data.
Social media and search engines are your best friends when it comes to measuring course profitability. With just your computer, internet connection and free tools, you can listen to your potential and existing customers, and make your course creation process more streamlined and valuable.
1. How to Find a Profitable Course Topic? Use SEO tools to measure the market demand of your course ideas.
Search engine optimization is more important now more than ever. At this day and age, SEO platforms are essentials not only for course creators but also for other digital professionals. Here are three easy-to-use tools that you can utilize in looking for the most profitable course ideas!
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a Google Chrome add-on from Surfer SEO that course creators can use for free. It allows you to get insights directly from search engine results pages–no login or dashboard required. It provides keyword suggestions, estimated organic traffic and search volume for all ranked web pages. With the help of this tool, you can create an online course inspired by search trends.
Google Trends
Just go to Google Trends, and type in topics, phrases or keywords to check how frequently people search these terms and related phrases. Get to know what people are talking about! You can even filter by city, country or time period. It gives you insights into where you should focus your marketing initiatives, should you decide to execute them.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner helps you check the average monthly search volume on Google for specific search terms and related search terms. For example, if you type in “fitness routine,” Google Keyword Planner gives a vast list of similar terms that can serve as validation for market demand and as inspiration for other course ideas. Clearly, fewer searches equate to less demand.
Pay attention to these aspects when using the aforementioned tools:
Long tail keywords
These are keywords composed of three or more terms. See to it that you end up with long tail-keywords which are closely related to your niche and course idea.
High search volume
Look for long-tail keywords that have a good search volume every month. Higher search volume means more individuals are searching for that potential course idea. It gives you a better grasp of how in-demand your potential topic is.
Competition
The competition column shows how many people are bidding actively and competing to show up on queries related to your keyword. In general, low competition means that it will be easier to rank for these terms. It’s also more affordable to buy ads based on those keywords.
2. Take advantage of the wonders of social media.
Have you ever heard of social media listening? Also called social media monitoring, this involves aggregating information from social media conversations about brands, industries, products and more. There are many tools out there that you can use to filter conversations and get summarized analytic reports. Every tool is unique, but they all do the same thing when it comes to understanding market demand.
TweetDeck
Many people go to Twitter to check daily trending topics. This is also the reason why TweetDeck is considered as one of the best social media listening tools. It is an excellent tool to use to keep up with live conversations, while keeping a keen eye on mentions related to your brand or course ideas. In addition to that, it allows you to create a customized Twitter interface to monitor lists, search terms, hashtags and different users. On a single panel, you can check tweets from your preferred groups, whether they are competitors or clients.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is similar to TweetDeck, but for all of your social media networks. You can do social campaigns, scheduling, monitoring and analytics straight from your dashboard. So convenient, right? You can work with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn content all in one place.
Leveraging on social media is beneficial since you can see right away what people are talking about. Just keep in mind that market demand is more than just calculating interest in a course topic or digital product. It also involves deep understanding of how much your target market will buy and at what price point.
Want to learn more about online course pricing? Click here.
3. Conduct a research on review sites and forums.
You will never understand how to assess a course idea without having a solid knowledge of your ideal students. Define their drives and troubles. What inspires them to work harder? What are the things that irritate them? If you fail to look into some target groups of consumers, you wouldn’t be able to convert your guesses into facts.
This is where review sites and forums come into play. Try exploring Reddit. By checking both negative and positive feedback from potential clients, you can validate the demand for your course idea. Even if you just started developing it, it is important to evaluate how beneficial it can be, and how appealing it can become to the masses.
4. Learn from your competitors.
Even if you think that your course idea is unique and promising, it’s difficult to imagine a new business that doesn’t have competitors. The performance of your competitors can provide useful data on how they market similar items.
Before creating your online course, check out your competition. Find out how many course creators are already developing the same course. You can utilize certain SEO and social listening tools, or if you want, you can just Google search terms away. Typing words on Google can actually get the job done. An old-fashioned step, yet this can yield amazing results!
Begin by analyzing your competitors’ social media presence. How many followers do they have? Are their followers actively engaging with them online? A brand’s popularity on social media is one of the most effective product evaluation criteria. Through this, you can check how big the market is for your amazing course idea. You can also see the reviews of your competitors’ existing customers, making you aware of its flaws and drawbacks.
How to Create the Most Profitable Online Courses?! More Helpful Tips!
1. Create interesting combinations of many online course ideas.
Is it possible to combine budgeting and yoga? What about maintaining a healthy diet and IT? Combining these ideas may seem unlikely and weird, but for the creative minds out there, it’s highly possible! This will help you come up with more compelling course ideas, some of which can turn out to be really profitable in the long run.
2. Help people “transform” for the better.
This is a popular technique for vloggers, motivational speakers and authors. Now, more and more course creators are exploring this tactic. We all know that attaching the concept of transformation to emotional experiences is highly beneficial for product use.
Let me ask you this. Have you done something inspirational in the past? Now that you are out of those dark times, maybe you can help someone who is going through the same hardship. You have gone through your very own transformation. It’s time for you to help someone get back on his or her own feet. Teach them what you know, and lead others to the same inspiring path.
3. Think of a course idea that can give birth to lots of other related courses.
Is there an online course topic that you can easily turn to a series of related courses? For example, if you want to develop a course on pilates, maybe you can break it into three other materials, like novice, intermediate and expert level courses.
4. If you’ve been blogging for quite a while now like me, look into the numbers game.
Check your blog analytics. What are your most popular blog posts? Have you ever had a social media post or blog article that went viral? If yes, is it possible for you to expand those topics, and share more about them? This is actually one of the best ways to look for new amazing product ideas. Whether you are making an online course or an ebook freebie, you can do this! Of course, if it gained a big amount of traffic before, most likely, it’s a good candidate for a course topic.
Get that profitable course idea into the World!
Validating course ideas is important because it removes the guessing element in every course creator’s mind. Sure, somewhere along the way, there will be tons of other guesses, from the budget to advertising and marketing, but the main route of online course businesses lie on digital product demand. Without it, it will be difficult to set yourself apart from the competition.
So far, what are the things that you have accomplished? Feel free to celebrate those little successes. You have successfully identified your passion and your expertise. What about your ideal students? Have you realized what makes them tick? Let’s put all of those learning to work and run your first pilot!
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