im currently working on an online course for mixing music at home. the biggest thing ive learned so far is to give more away than you're trying to sell. don't use your product to promote your RU-vid. use RU-vid to promote your product. give away content, ebooks, short lessons, etc. be generous with that stuff. and then you're in a position to build value into a paid/premium product you have.
I’m about to launch my first online course .. interior design for each room in your home .. so instead of spending 1000$ on a course that covers everything.. I’ve broken it down to each room .. so we start at planning the room.. budgets .. styles .. mood boards .. so you’ll have all the tools you’ll need to create the home you’ve always wanted ..
@@veronicataylorsfp cheers it was .. I suppose people at home fed up looking at their homes all day every day .. so now I’m moving onto mentoring.. offering group coaching on how to become an interior Designer.. also I’ll bring offering one on one too .. it seems people are quite interested in this .. thanks so much for asking btw .. hope you’re safe ..
Hi Gillian, forgot to say what my course is all about. I designed an English Grammar course for people with learning difficulties (including dyslexia) it is filled with sensory, visual aids made simple enabling them to grasp English grammar in such an 'easy way' (say those that have done the course), and they enjoyed it too. There are several ways for them to learn English due to them being assessed when they first start the course, they are then able to proceed with the course - they gain clarity and knowledge how they learn, and can begin the course with confidence.
Thank you so much for this. I've watched around 24,000 YT videos on this subject today, and yours has been the best. Short, to the point, honest, non-salesy, and genuinely well-researched and helpful.
I launched my course last week, it is called 'The Ultimate Polyglot Girl Course' and until now I've been only having sales from previous customers, which demonstrates me that they have found value in my products 💕 Amazing video, thanks for the tips! ☺
Suggestion for both courses and RU-vid videos: Bear in mind that some people like constant background music under narration (especially if it's in a style they like) and others absolutely hate it. My guess is that it will usually drive away more potential audience than it attracts, especially if it's loud or otherwise very noticeable. So you might want to limit its use or at least keep it subtle. On the other hand, background music is excellent when there is no speech, for example accompanying travel scenery or a montage of someone doing something without narration or dialog. In any event, it ought to be a thoughtful decision.
I always prefer no music at all, and if it’s too loud I will give up watching, but I think it can be used subtly to drown out background noise if your recording equipment poor sound quality - that I can accept because I’ve been there! I think music’s fine with humor to emphasize illustrations too. Just not a fan of music and talking at the same time. Is anyone? I see it a lot, even in high end productions, and I always wonder why.
One thing I have not seen very many videos on at all is how to put an online course together from front to back. How to title it how to intro it. How to make the outline. How to research to develop your course and how long it should be. And I know some of these things will vary like length but I just haven’t seen any videos in the last two or three weeks on how to put one of these online courses together. How to write a syllabus. How to create lesson plans. I just don’t know because I’ve never done this before. So if anyone has any tips please send them my way. Thank you in advance
@@rwdyer2263 unfortunately this type of information is only available in paid courses. Thats what most course creators teach in their courses. Theres a course I'm currently taking on skillshare about how to put together the contents of your course. You can look it up. costs just over $100 for the year and you get access to lots of courses. Hope this helps
As a former Star Rating Assessor and Hospitality Consultant, I've created an online course called Fresh Eyes do-it-yourself Airbnb Inspection and will be launching it soon. It helps Airbnb owners to get their place better than the competition for when tourism starts up again after Covid. I hear what you say about building an audience but I'm not really sure how to do that! I'd better watch more of your videos. Thanks Gillian.
Perfect timing. I’ve been mapping out my online course but am still in the early stages of building my audience. You’ve helped me see I want to put more attention and effort in building my audience right now before I put all my attention and energy into creating this course when I still don’t have a lot of people to sell it to... but SOON! 🙌
As a person in the education business, I think your advice is precise and valuable to those interested in offering an online course. However, the best online course is a live virtual course; so that your students can ask questions and engage with the instructor. Online courses are all about connecting with your audience. People want to be convenient that you truly care about their life journey.
I am in the thick of developing my course, having done a lot of work already...spent money on coaches to help me, etc. Thank you for the honesty about the struggle to successfully launch. This vid is a downer for me, but I know I can find my way.
Hang in there! I feel your struggle too and honestly it gets easier the more you do it because the first time around you're just still learning how to create the course and product. Be patient with yourself and just stick to it. You got this!
Who's going to find a $5 course to be valuable? Most people won't even bother spending that much because they're going to think it's just some random stuff thrown together quickly.
Okay, here's a quick summary: 1. Either sell to your audience, or on a marketplace like Udemy. If you sell on your website, you need to figure a way to get customers. In a marketplace, people may stumble upon your course. 2. If you don’t have an audience, it will be really hard to sell. 3. Courses sell for drastically different prices. You need to research and target your right audience. 4. Two different ways you can host the course; On your website, or a full-featured 3rd party platform. Like Teachable. 5. Paid advertising on Social media can work, but you need to dedicate time (several months) and a lot of money. 6. You can make a living by selling online courses.
Am a retired educator with training in hypnotherapy. I was advised to offer online classes in self-healing but didnt know whwere to start. How to start a RU-vid channel was enough of a learning curve for me, but the Millenials are making it fun to learn. Thank you!
So, I've thought about setting up an online course for a while now on crochet and learning crochet. Branching from beginning to advanced. The issue is it's really hard to research the need or desire for it since so much is available on youtube, hence my own use of youtube now. I'd love to see more in depth videos on HOW to research the start of a course, HOW to set up the course, What to think about when setting up a course (like private groups, one on one's, etc.) and how to best market. I typically find very generic videos and nothing really in depth. Just the "you should do this," but never a, "Let me show you one way you can find out if this will work for you."
Well done. Great advice. I have my first 10k subscribers in the first year on YT and am building a course now that i have an audience. Btw, i,m age 72 and glad to learn from you. i admire your very sincere style. wTG
This video came just in time! I've been planning to create an online course that I can link to my RU-vid Channel and theme it around content I already post, just more in depth.. It's very interesting to see this from your perspective. Great video! Thankfully, your channel has helped me start to BUILD my own audience. I still have a long way to go but thank you Gillian!!
My wife has created an online course for dental front desk training. She doesn’t have an online and that is where we are struggling. Mainly how we are going to market the course so we capture the right audience.
I am working on creating a course on becoming a Wellness coach. I have few followers on RU-vid and on Facebook. Hope to get sales on my launch. Thanks for the video
Thanks Gillian! I’d love to go into creating courses one day, I’ve so many ideas, but am no where near ready. Got a lot of work to do to create an audience from scratch!
Thank you so much for this video! I am so passionate about cooking and really want to create my own cooking course. I went to culinary school and I figured with covid and everything people who want to learn to cook don't wanna spend a lot of money or go to school for it. So I am getting into the process of planning a udemy course. I only have 146 subscribers right now, but I believe I can grow my audience, so I'm going to try to constantly improve my content and gain more of a following.
Thanks for the inspiration Gillian! I'm working on a free 5-day Creativity Reboot Challenge to build my email list so I will (hopefully) have an audience when I create my courses on Creativity, Art, and Business. Your advice is always helpful!
Very helpful Gillian! My biggest struggle at the moment is growing the audience. I had this idea dawned on me 2 weeks ago to help architecture students / new designers learn a software that most professional architects use today. I remember the struggle of learning this program during school and spending countless hours searching on youtube. My ambition is to have packages of in depth videos of what helped me that I know will help these students - basically bridging that gap for them and save them time. I graduated with a Bach of Architecture and have been practicing professionally for 3 years since. I very advanced in the software and can help teach the most efficient ways to use it while in school especially. I've created an instagram and tiktok with little snippets of mini tutorials of what i would be posting, but not much traction since. (even though its only been 2 weeks). I know there is a market for it, even looking at comments on RU-vid from other little tutorials on the software. I just don't know where to launch or if i want to use a platform. Sorry for all the deets :)
I haven't started my online courses yet because I'm not sure how to make and edit videos so they look professional 😅 sometimes I get overwhelmed just thinking of where to start. Good thing is, I already have my audience 🙏
Great info, thanks. It would be nice to hear how you finally built your audience and your marketing strategy to create your sales funnel (and the link to your courses)
Gillian, this was an excellent tutorial! You asked what is holding us back... I would get a lot of value from you doing a video about the different ways to build an audience, for an online course. Obviously, posting useful content on RU-vid is one way but have you come across any other methods that you found particularly successful? Also, what methods did not work very well for you? Thank you for everything you're doing here to help people.
It’s cool that you said you didn’t sale when you first started, that’s an inspiration. For me, I’ve been really interested in starting an online course BUT I’m not sure if my core audience can afford it (pre nursing students) and I also don’t know if it’s too early in my RU-vid journey to offer a paid course to people. I’ve been on RU-vid for years and I’ve built up a fan base and I’ve already given valuable content but I don’t know if I can make a profitable yet affordable course. Thanks for this video.
Hello!! I just wanted to share with you about my experience: I only started blogging last year. I created my website on May 2018, and on August 2018 I launched my first product which of course did not make many sales, but little by little I built an email list and created new products, so I think you can launch products whenever you feel ready! If you have an audience, they may want to purchase from you. Apart from it, you said you werent sure about your audience having the money to afford a course, and I thought the same as you...but recently I've had customers who are just starting University and that shows me that everyone can pay, not just adults. I hope this was useful to you. I wish you the best ☺
THIS IS GREAT! Thank you for always being willing to share your knowledge and breaking it down for us to understand. I’ve been able to grow my channel A LOT from your videos. 😊
I just finished planning my course, and I am going to start filming tomorrow for the fundamentals of singing. Really excited about it and I loved how informative your video was. It gave me some real food for thought before I start to hit that record button. Thank you!
@@levicull626 hey thanks for asking! I finished filming and all set up. Unfortunately the selling part is the tricky bit! The filming went really well! 😂
Thank you so much for your honesty Gillian. I am in the process of creating my first online course and I want to ensure that my expectations are tempered. As you say, I hear so many people wax poetic about the life-changing power that online courses bring, it sounds too good to be true.
I have launched an online course on breathing and meditation. With the rising levels of stress and anxiety happening, I want to help more people be able to deal with this better. I have not had many sales yet but I will keep going. I have a tiny audience but that is growing. I love what I do and I love helping people. Thanks for your inspiring video. I must admit I have had my doubts but they are going.
Thanks for the inspiration! I am a master's holder in Design and would love to share my knowledge with everyone who is starting or dreaming of becoming a designer. I am afraid it won't reach. Wish me luck :)
You got this! If you have the knowledge and experience (which you totally do!) then its just a matter of creating a course outline and getting started :) Best wishes!
I started making an online course, but now I'm seeing that I should try to build my audience first. That means I should switch to learning how to market now...
No one ever does a video on how to create your own video courses online and post it. What type of softwares should we use? Maybe you could make a video course on that one of these days.
Thank you so much, Gillian! I'm beginning to plan an online English course. My audience is still tiny, but I will follow your advice and be patient. More videos like this one will certainly be very helpful, maybe one about the strategies you've used to sell your course and how you eventually got the strategies right. 🙏
After thinking a long time- I have finally published my first online course which is "Data Entry Course for Beginners - with Practical Works" on Udemy. I have included the project descriptions and how to work on them step by step. And, I am really happy because I am getting lots of students enrolling to the course and providing me positive feedback. It's a great feeling to have good words from people's while I am helping them and they are helping me too with the money they are spending for it. I am working on my new course too. Thanks a lot for the information 😊
In my opinion you are spot on. I created course in past without any audience and it was extremely hard to sell that course. Eventually I had given up. But I think it what I want to and I am starting again. Thanks for helpful info.
Watta timing!!! I was just about to start making my online course today but thought of checking out any info on building an online course, so by chance got through your video and trust me on this, its super informative and I just love the way you talk and present yourself. Simply awesome! and thanks a lot for your quick note. I will definitely focus on building my audience now and then do the rest. Thanks sweetie!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It's tough when all you hear all the crazy success stories with a bunch of money. I don't want to have unrealistic expectations. I also feel like niche can influence pricing of your course too. I see all these big price tags out there but I just don't feel like people will pay a premium price for a sewing (my niche) course when it's likely a hobby for them and not going to deliver a financial return.
Thanks so much for sharing this information in such a grounded and practical way! I am currently creating my first online course cirricullum (the part that is SO in my realm of expertise) but feeling like I'm wading through a sea of unfamiliar territory when it comes to HOW to film, edit, host, and sell my course. I'm working on slowing building an audience and slowly learning the ropes of the industry. I am a midwife and my course revolves around supporting people to navigate the world of maternity care with straightforward and respectful information about how the system works as well as supporting families to advocate for their needs and tune into intuition as well as intellect. I'm considering breaking the modules into individual courses to make them more affordable and accessible as well as making it a comprehensive course!
Thanks for your information on what to expect with online courses. I too am venturing into the space except my ideas a little bit different. Maybe you can label it for me. i'm writing a book about how to quit drinking alcohol. It's called the key system that I have invented. used with other people, but haven't formally packaged it into a course. I have written the book. but I want to turn it into an online course. Really a cross between a course a coaching service and training I don't know maybe you could shed some light on what category you would call this. But I want to have one on one telehealth services especially during the first week of not drinking, which can be difficult with withdraws and stuff then have a once a week check in for about three months. I haven't figured this out as far as the amount of one-on-one time I want to spend and the price points I'm basically going to have three levels one basic course where I'm not doing any one on one and then two levels of one on one guidance and help what are your thoughts? Thank you.
Thanks, Gillian. Your information was helpful. It's great to hear from a young, enthusiastic person with a success story. I have been in the process of building my audience and have not done a course yet but am thinking about it. I have a devotional book that is being published within the next few weeks and was thinking a course to go along with it would be beneficial. Thanks again!
Good tips! I want to launch a course this year but I realised that I need to create an audience first. So I created a freebie and I´m currently working on my email welcome sequence. After, it´s all about directing traffic to my funnel to build the mailing list aka audience.
Thanks for these 6 tips. I'm in the process of creating my first course in the Health and Fitness field. I'm looking forward to watching more of your videos. Continued success, Frank
I have a 36,000 member FB group and 1500 people on my email list. I ge a 60% open rate on my newsletter and about 10% click through to the website each week. How do I know when my audience is large enough to justify the time required to put a course together? Are there typical ranges regarding what to expect for customer acquisition costs? How do you test to determine an optimum price to charge for a course? How much material is appropriate for a course? How do you get your audience warmed up or even anticipating your course launches? Thanks for any insights, Gillian.
I love creating online courses using Canva templates. It makes it so much easier and faster especially if you are a personal brand. These tips were really helpful thanks so much for sharing. What do you use to create your courses easily?
Awesome video Gillian...I'm halfway done with a course where I help people how to help others clarify their direction in life. :) it's something I've been doing with people for years and a bunch of them told me I should do it full time...So I'm putting the process down in a course. :)
What’s holding me back is; I have so many different experiences that would be great to build an audience with but I don’t want to seem all over the place nor want to focus on the wrong niche and miss the right one that may be right In front of me🤯
🅣🅗🅐🅝🅚 🅨🅞🅤 for this video. Creating online course is in my wishlist for so long. I am just hesitant about running my own site.. Which I think is huge task.. Also building audience. I like to see more videos on 1. How to build audience 2. How to run ur own website. 3. How to plan nd create course content. 4. How to flim nd various ways to deliver. And much more On 🅞🅝🅛🅘🅝🅔 🅒🅞🅤🅡🅢🅔🅢 😊👍
Thanks so much Gillian i'm planning to launch a course talking about , immerse your self in discovering and preparing traditional and healthy tea in my desert country , prepared by traditional tools ,it's really an amazing experience, more than that it's different than it seen before.
Hi. I love the information that you shared here on your video. Regarding the matter of having first an audience to whom you can launch your course, how therefore do you first build that audience? I am thinking of creating an online course, and I am starting from complete zero.
Thank you so much Gillian for your help and support. I start my business this year, I create my website and I'm building my audience now and I have an email list so I can contact my audience and know what there problem so I can create a course that help them to solve their problems. I love you Gillian, you motivate me to continue my work, thank you very much 😘💐
Im about to start building an online course, my brand will be helping males through their break ups and the course will be a 21 day boot camp to get them back on their own track. The brand will offer value through podcasts, webinars, blogs etc then i will sell a live webinar which I will do twice a week and then thats where I will upsell them on the boot camp which will be 997. I am really passionate about talking to our guys about their break ups and helping them with their lives moving forward.
Thank you for your candid and practical video, I am considering a short course on getting out of student debt, but I have no following and I don’t have time to waste so I need to consider this process. Like your first experience, the content the easy part. I’m sure I can do that but I’m a little insecure with the marketing aspect and how do I know anybody would buy a video about student debt although the crisis is real
You explained this 6 points about creating online courses really well. I wish I had watched this before started my new course but glad I caught it now!
Thank you so much Gillian! Your videos help me so much...I am an online Greek teacher, I have my audience which I built so as to have private online lessons , now I am trying to do recorded videos for my website, but my only problem is I cannot speak when I don't have someone to talk to, you know? I don't have the student to interact, I get so stressed and I cannot focus. I will overcome my problem, even though it's been a long time I am trying to overcome it...Keep on working, you are very good and helpful..
Hi Gillian! I'm starting my course creation now, with my own site and small following. At the moment, I'm mostly working on expanding my knowledge of course creation so I can make a course that's valuable and well put together. My course is going to help people lose weight and keep it off, and will include an action and accountability plan so people can lose weight for good. Thanks for the helpful insight!
Thank for this! It's really not as easy as they say. I just published my 1st online course on Udemy but not a single person bought. I am now trying to build my audience . Still trying to decipher some ways to generate income out of it.
Is it possible to sell email courses? (So you host it via mailchimp or some other provider and they get it mailed to them every day for X amount of days?) Or do people not want to pay for this?
I created a course, but not traditionally. I used Facebook's "unit" option to organize videos and downloadable files to share with my students. It was about the basics of real estate investing Now, that group is free and I'll be putting the content on RU-vid. I'm going to make another version that's more professional and sell that one on my website
Your knowledge always helps me and Keep me going! I tried a lot of your tips and advices and they pay out. Making videos is so much fun! Keep up with your great and helpful content!
No I haven't created an online course thus far. I've recently decided to do so as I've been making videos and doing lives, but not doing much with them. I'm learning that I can actually teach and sell these courses. I didn't have much belief that I could at first, but I'm taking steps forward. This week I've written the outline for 2 online courses that I can do.
I created a course in 2005 before youtube. I hosted the videos and audio files myself and it sold well in all 50 states. But... I never made any real money because Google ads and other marketing erased almost all profit. I didn't have my own audience already. I have thought about doing more courses now but I still don't have a big audience.
Been there, done that. Did everything you mention. The question is how do you build an audience? It's like "how to make a million dollars... Step 1, get a million dollars". Building an audience means you have to spend a huge effort to build the audience and years of work - whether it's a RU-vid channel, social, blog, podcast, etc. Then you are ready to do a course. I think the platform providers tell a rainbow pony story, telling people how easy it is to get a course out there. They stress the obvious point of having an existing audience but no one tackles the nitty-gritty of explaining how to actually build an audience.
Hi Gillian, thank you for your youtube well needed. I identified with you. I designed my own course, although I did achieve some sales. Also, put my course on teachable no sales from there, but put it on another platform and got quite a few sales. I have my own websites, but things seem to slow down so will try other platform you mentioned. The sales funnel you mentioned for your website what is it called? I know just like you that when you put time and effort into your own website we just need to get the right know how to get the traffic/audience to visit the site and buy. Many thanks for your information.
Hi Gillian! Thank you for the great video! I am in the process of setting up my first online course where I teach the basics of project management and business analysis in a practical way that is fun and easy to understand. These two topics are very close to my heart and I would love to share my knowledge and experience with other people and hopefully add value to their lives :) I do not currently have a website and was wondering if you would recommend setting this up first before creating videos for my social media channels? What would you recommend - any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
I have not launched an online course. Reason #1 - I thought I had to make a website from scratch and pay a lot of money. I did not know about 3rd party platforms. Reason #2 - my program (self defense) is very physical by nature. I have always been hesitant to make an online option. Now with the restrictions with the Covid I am looking into it to give people options to train
I recommend some of your videos to my RU-vid startup coaching students! I work with spiritual folks, coaches and healers and RU-vid is often a brand new world for them (as a creator!.)
I have just watched like 4 or 5 videos back to back. I intend to start creating courses and digital products but what's holding me back is equipment!!!
Thanks for the video! I would like info on how to go about “building your audience” before you launch. To me, this would just mean again running facebook ads to get emails in exchange for a free something or other, but I don’t know- then it just seems like you are relying on Facebook ads again.
What's holding me back is not being able to create an audience. I made a tech blog many months ago but I still get around 5 to 7 visits a day, mostly all from Facebook. Some days I don't get any visits. I don't know what's wrong because my content is high quality - the research and analysis I've done for my posts amazed even my college professors who told me that this kind of analysis is done by PhD folks. Still don't know what I'm doing wrong...
Hi Gillian, I used to make about 8-10,000 dollars a month with a part-time photography business. I wrote a book about it but never published it. I was thinking about creating a course showing others how to do it. I have no idea where or how to start.
