How to Create an Online Course to Sell & Earn Passive Income

1. Decide on a topic

First, you need to decide what your course will be about.

If you’re struggling, think about what you're good at. If you’re hesitating because you’re not an expert or have no certifications, you don't need to be an expert or have a Ph.D. in a certain field to share valuable information with the world.

Just think of things that you know better than the average person. Think of something you're passionate about and would talk about nonstop for free. Do some brainstorming and write down three to five course ideas.

2. Validate your idea 

The next thing you want to do is to validate your idea. While you might be passionate about a specific topic, you want to make sure there's enough demand in the market, because you want to create a course that will sell.

You can validate your course idea by going on to Google Trends and searching for the topic of your course. See if that's something people have been actively searching for lately. That will give you an idea if it's something people are interested in. 

Once you see the results of your search, you’ll have a better idea of what people have been interested in recently. If you have access to online marketplaces like Udemy and Skillshare, you can also go there, search the topic, and see if that's something that people have been actively enrolling in.

3. Niche down

When it comes to the topic, I recommend niching down to stay competitive in the market. For example, if you want to make a course about photography, don't make your course too general.

There's enough content out there to teach people photography basics. Pick a specific niche within photography. You can make a course about food photography, sports photography, or nature photography.

4. Outline

Once you figure out what you want to make a course about, it's time to start outlining. Your course outlines will help you figure out how to structure the information in a way that makes sense to your audience.

Outlines automatically break your course down into multiple sections or modules or lectures. This will enable you to create bite-size videos or shorter lectures. 

I recommend keeping your lessons under ten minutes and making your course as interactive as possible. Implement things like quizzes, worksheets, and projects, if that's applicable. This will help your students to be able to retain and apply what they're learning.

5. Filming

Once you're done with your course outline, it's time to start filming. When it comes to equipment, you don't need anything fancy. You can use the webcam on your laptop or your phone. There are affordable options for light, but you can also just use natural light. 

The only piece of equipment that I would recommend investing in is a decent microphone. It doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy, but it’s good to have something. Mine was $30 and it works great. Audio is important when you're filming educational content. 

There are different options on how you can structure your video. You can do a direct to camera format or a slideshow. You can do a voiceover with slides, or use talking head format. It depends on how you want to structure your lectures.

6. Editing 

The next step is editing. There's a lot of information on the internet on how to edit your videos so I'm not going into too much detail on that, but it doesn't have to be complicated. I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my course, but you can also use tools like iMovie and other beginner-friendly tools.

7. Choosing your host platform

Once you finish your course it's time to figure out where you want to host it. Having a great hosting platform is important. There are so many options for platforms.

Check out platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, or Graphy. Look for a platform that gives you control over your price and your audience. I’d also recommend a platform with a user-friendly UI. 

Make sure to use a platform with which you are able to collect your students’ emails. Building an email list is important in case of issues on social media platforms.

You need an email list to be able to sell your services and send automatic updates. This way you don't have to use any third-party platforms, which can get pretty pricey. 

Platforms like Graphy give you the option of building your own landing page and website or choosing from readymade design templates.

Graphy also has quiz builders and other tools that make your course more interactive. If you already created your own worksheets and quizzes, you could also upload them to each lecture as PDF files.

You can schedule live sessions and use tools like virtual polls to keep your audience more engaged. Many of these hosting platforms also offer a blog section. Blogs can help with your SEO. Blog posts will help you to appear higher in searches when somebody is searching for something that is similar to the topic of your course. 

Let's talk about the financial side of it. Make sure the platform you use gives you full control over your course prices. Some platforms run a lot of sales and sometimes sell your course at a fraction of the original price. Having control over pricing makes a huge difference. 

How to create an online course to sell

What are you planning on making a course about? Let me know in the comments down below. I would love to learn more. If you have any questions, reach out to me in the comments down below as well. Good luck, and have a great day!