Creating an online course is not really an easy process. There's alot of stages and it takes lot of work. It's a journey and it can be overwhelming at times.
You want a nice clear route ahead like the photo above. You want to avoid twists and turns, dead ends, and tumbleweeds when it comes time to launch your course.
Here then, are the 5 biggest mistakes you should avoid when creating an online course:
This is too often the biggest downfall when someone creates an online course. They focus too much on a topic they think is important, without taking time to make sure it interests enough other people as well!
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Or they won’t be specific enough about what the course can help their students achieve. How will your course change people’s lives? What specific outcome or transformation will they undergo by the end of it?
Solution:
Your online course needs to provide a solution to a problem that people have, and it needs to speak to a person’s motivations, fears or dreams.
You should validate any hunches you have with research and feedback from the sort of people you imagine taking your course.
Check out this in-depth post about how to choose an online course topic that sells.
2
FAILING TO UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE
This relates to not having a clear course topic in many ways, but can be a problem in itself.
If you don't really understand your audience, you won't know what to write about to attract leads to your site and even worse you won't know what to make a course about. Your audience won't feel that you understand them and won't give you their attention.
Solution:
Don’t try to appeal to too many different people – you’ll risk appealing to no one.
Be clear who your course is for and also who it’s not for.
Understand, in as much detail as you can, the thoughts, feelings and motivations of the people you’re aiming to serve.
Doing this ensures your course has a clear audience in mind; people who feel like you understand their needs and wishes.
Check out this post about choosing an online course topic, where I also look at how to gain insight to your audience.
3
GETTING LOST IN THE DETAIL
This can happen at every step in your journey of creating an online course.
Before you begin, you can be overwhelmed by all the steps ahead of you and become lost amongst all the voices out there suggesting different tips and techniques.
Once you commit and get started, you can waste hours choosing which recording equipment to use or how to host your course online.
And in the middle of making your course material it’s really easy to get lost in the detail of your own knowledge and start making a course that’s too lengthy or doesn’t follow a clear logical sequence.
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Solution:
Create a clear course structure and follow the process I walk you through in this article on how to structure your online course.
Set yourself some goals, take it one step at a time, and focus on the bigger picture of getting it done.
4
FAILING TO MARKET & PROMOTE YOUR COURSE
You spend all the effort creating an amazing online course, launch it to world and then.…nothing. Tumbleweeds roll down the road, no one joins, and you’re left wondering why you wasted all that time and effort.
This absolutely shouldn’t happen if you’ve chosen the right topic, understood your audiences needs and desires, and created a listed of targeted leads before launching your course.
Solution:
Write articles relevant to your course topic. Get out there in front of the right people.
Give away a quality free resource. Use it to collect a list of email addresses, and then begin to build trust and authority by being yourself and showing people how you can help them.
Then find out what people want to learn more about, build them a great course, and then sell it. Read more in my guide to promoting & selling an online course.
5
NOT CREATING AN ONLINE COURSE AT ALL!
Sounds kind of stupid I know, but a vast majority of people who want to make an online course won’t end up doing it.
They’ll get put off by the work required or overwhelmed by different options throughout the process. They might start to investigate it a little or even begin to create some of the course material before trailing off and leaving it half done.
Either that or they just won’t believe enough in themselves or think they’re capable.
Solution:
Don’t be that person. I know deep down that you know you could do this if you really put your mind to it. There are steps to follow - you could even say there’s a formula to make an online course that succeeds.
That formula would look something like this:
Hard Work + Following The Steps = Success
There are hundreds of every-day people out there who have gone through the process of creating an online course, having known nothing about it to begin with.
Many of them, including myself, have come out the other side with a course up and running that continues to teach people their knowledge and earn them a passive income for years into the future.
Keep that end goal in mind.
Everything else is just steps you need to take to get to this goal.
