How to create your online Course?

Are you a Coach, Speaker or a Trainer who want to create your online coaching course? In this Online Coaching course guide I will give you all the information you need to create your course in two weeks time.

Its is possible to create the course in 2 weeks if you can spend 4-6 hrs / day. I have created my online coaching course ” 8 Weeks Diabetes Challenge” in 3 weeks but I was working approx 3 hrs/ day. 

In this guide we are going to cover the following topics.

how to create online course

COURSE PLANNING

In the planning phase you should decide the following.

Who is this Course for?

online course target student

Before creating a online course or online coaching course you should have your target audience in mind? By having the clear picture of whom are you going to coach / train through your course the course content syncs with the student and student will learn easily and accomplish his / her goals 

Who is this course not for?

buyer persona

You would have taken online courses and would have experienced that whatever was projected was not what is inside, As a result you would have felt cheated or just would have left the course partially finished. 

So it is very important that you set the right expectations by mentioning or clarifying this is course is not for people who are Amateurs etc. For example let’s say your course is on meditation but it focuses on some advanced techniques so you need to specify the students that in order to benefit from this course they need to have some basic understanding about meditation.

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Where will you host / sell this Course?

online course hosting

There are 3 options.

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What will your Students accomplish?

online course goals

Any one who is spending time and money will expect some results, If you are focused about what will your student achieve by implementing the information provided in the course, Your content will be focused on providing the right information and you wil also speak that action language. 

You can also call this as your Online Coaching Course objective / goal

For example – 

My Course will help you get rid of stage fear in 3 months.

My course will help you with public speaking

Which one do you think people will get connected to ? answer is first one obviously because it is addressing a subtopic and gives information on exactly what can you expect whereas the second one is general in nature and will not attract the Audience.

What will be the duration of your Course?

duration of online course

Duration of your online course is a very important thing, Most of us think Lengthier the course is better are the chances of people buying the course. 

I was initially thinking that way, But when I have seen the courses of best selling Instructors on Udemy most of them have their course duration between 2-4 hrs.

For a Master course duration is generally higher which you can offer to students who are very loyal to you and believe in you 100%.

So it is ideal to keep your course duration between 2 – 4 hrs

Course Content

Course Outline

online course outline

You already know who your target student is and also know the pain / problem area which you want to address through your course. Now you need to create a course outline, Whenever I want to create a course I think this way.

Number of Lessons

video lesson duration

Number of Lessons can be decided based on the topic you want to cover, Udemy recommends that duration of each video lesson is 5 mins, Udemy allows video lessons upto a maximum of 20 minutes. If you are publishing courses on your own platforms you don’t have that limitation.

But logically if your video is more than 5 minutes it will be boring except incase you are showing them how to use a software etc .

So keep duration of each lesson in the mind and decide upon the number of lessons.

Interactive stuff

interactive online courses

Interactive stuff like Quizzes or games are also possible with Authoring tools but remember that Marketplaces like Udemy do not allow interactive stuff.

If you are publishing your online course on your own platform and your Course Topic demands interactive Stuff then you may have to think creatively or else just stick to your own platform.

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Downloads / Freebies

online course downloads

Downloadable Materials like pdf’s, worksheets and templates which can help your students to take action and achieve their goals.

This downloads really create a good impact and Student feels motivated and optimistic So ensure you have downloadable resources in each topic. Topic does not mean each lesson.

Let us say Your course is divided into 8 Core topics and each topic has 4 video lessons, So you will have 32 video lessons,  Just plan to have downloadable stuff for each topic. By planning this way you will also design your course to be more actionable than being just informational.

Actionable courses have higher chances of Completion and implementation leading to good reviews of your course. Where as a course which just gives information has lower chances of completion.

Course Creation Tools

How to record online video lectures

phone camera

Laptop camera

webcamera

When it comes to shooting videos for your Online courses, many of us are over whelmed about a DSLR Camera, Tripod, Lighting and even a professional photographer, I don’t think you will need all this if you have just started to create online courses and you are not sure what is your Market? 

There are different ways to record your online course videos.

So to conclude these are three different ways.

Investment on Camera

Lowest you can spend on a camera is zero rupees if you have a Laptop with a decent camera, I use my Macbook Air to shoot my videos for online courses, which does the job pretty well.

If your laptop camera is not decent enough you might have to at least spend around 2000₹ for a webcam. 

Investment can vary between 0₹ to 2000₹ and sky is the limit.

 

How to record online video lectures

Accessories like a Tripod and Focus lights may be required

Tripod & ligthing

Investment on Accessories

Most of you may not need this, But if you want to create your videos on anytime of the day, I suggest you have the lighting set, because if lighting is not good You can’t produce good quality videos which leads to bad user experience and you may also require a Tripod which can cost your around 1000₹, So total investment can vary between 0₹ to 3000₹

 

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Best Microphone for Online teaching

microphone for online course

I can guess what comes to your mind while thinking about Microphone. That big microphone we see on podcasting and the microphone which singers use. But for recording the audio for your lectures using a lapel microphone is best.

I use a lapel microphone from a brand called Boya, Its pretty cheap only 800₹, It works for me, for most of you it will work.  you don’t need a high end microphone.

I have used Boat Rockerz Headphones they are good, cost – 1800₹

Investment on Microphone

Lowest you can spend on a Microphone is around 800₹ , I have spent around 2500₹ approx  for my Audio recording purpose, I have one Bluetooth headset and a Lapel Microphone.

Video Editing softwares / Screen Recording Softwares

Above video is created using a Screen recording software called Loom, using this software your can record your video lessons without showing your face, with your face and screen both and only your face.

Do you know that it is not necessary to show your face in all the video lessons to create a online course? You need 30 minutes of total video in your course, thats enough.

Screen Recording Softwares can be used to create your video lessons.

Yes, I have taken many good courses on Udemy in which the Instructor is not seen on camera most of the times, instead his voice is heard and the slides are displayed to explain the concept. 

Screencasting softwares help us do this, i have two Softwares to recommend.

Investment on Software

Lowest you can spend on a Screen Recording software is $5 / month or else you can go for a one time investment, $130 for purchasing Screen flow for Mac. 

Graphics for Online courses

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Online Course Publishing platforms

Self Hosting

If you want to host your courses on your on website following 3 things are needed

1.Wordpress – Domain and Hosting, For Hosting I recommend Siteground Hosting. ($50 per year )

2.Thrive Apprentice (one time price – $67), best one if you offer free online course as a lead magnet.

 3. Payment Gateway – Instamojo, Razorpay etc.

Market Place

UDEMY

Udemy is basically a Marketplace for selling online course, so Marketing is taken care of them, you can host your courses free of cost but there will be limitations on the pricing you can charge for your online courses. 

SkillShare 

Skillshare is a platform similar to Udemy but the revenue sharing model is different, skillshare do not pay per the course sold, but it pays per views of your course.

Self Hosting vs Market place

Instance 1

self ho​sting

PROS

CONS

$

100

/mo

market place

PROS

CONS

$

20

/mo

Third Party Platforms

Teachable is a user friendly platform to publish your online courses it costs you 348$ / year or 29$ per month. You can also start with free account but it has its own limitations.

Thinkific and Teachable both are quite popular, I did not personally use Thinkific but you may explore it, It will cost you $49/ Month.

Hybrid

HYBRID MODEL using LMS AND YOUR BLOG/ EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE

PROS

CONS

$

60

/mo

I have used the Hybrid Model in which I hosted the course on Teachable free version and I collect payment using payment gateway Instamojo and communicate with users using my email marketing software Getresponse. By doing this way I could keep expenses at optimum and still was able to provide good user experience.

FINAL WORDS

Lowest you can spend is Zero rupees, but it does not offer you the best possible options. I suggest you go for Teachable for 30$ / month.

Udemy is anyway free but understand that they take almost 50% of your course price and they control your course pricing.

POST COURS​E CREATION

Email Marketing

I recommend Getresponse because it is easy to use and also offers landing pages, email marketing webinar software all in one subscription – $49 / Month. If you don’t want to use webinars you can start with $15/ month.

Payment Gateway

I use Instamojo to collect Indian Payments and Paypal to collect payments from outside of India. There are other good platforms like Razor pay (India) and Stripe for out of India.

Social Media Group

Having a Social media group will help the students get engaged and also get answers to the questions not only from the Instructor. I mean fellow members in the group can help each other and there is a sense of belonging and community.

FAQ on Online Course Creation

What is the Ideal Online Course Duration?

Ideal online course duration is 2-4 hrs. 

Do I need Hi-fi Eqipment to create an Online Course?

You don’t need hifi equipment to create Online courses, You may need some or all of these like good Laptop, Webcam, lapel microphone and a Tripod.

What software do I need to purchase for Online Course Creation?

You will need video Editing software and Screen recording softwares like Loom, Camtasia, Screenflow etc.

Do you need to show my face to create an Online course?

You don’t need to show your face to Create an Online course, you can create a ppt and give voice over just like you present a seminar.

Should i be Tech savvy to create an Online course?

NO, Not necessarily. You should know how to create a ppt and how to use a screen recording software. In single line, I can say that if you know how to use a Smartphone you can easily learn to create an online course.

Final words on Online Course Creation

Creating a Course can take anywhere between 20 hrs -1000 hrs of your time depending on the course duration. But remember ideally your online course length should be 2-4 hrs. You should be creating courses as long as 10 hrs for Mastery kind of courses.

 Your initial one time investment can be as low as 3000₹ and recurring investments can be as low as 35 $ per month.

But If you want to do it professionally you may end up spending a setup cost of around 10,000₹ and recurring costs of 50$ – 100$ depending on what you want to do with your online courses.

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Gowardhan Doddi

Growth Hacker / Inbound Marketer.

Gowardhan Doddi is a Mechanical Engineer turned Digital Marketer, He learn digital marketing by blogging since 2011, His passion for marketing made him change his Career from a Power plant QA/QC professional to full time Digital Marketer. He also works with Digital Vidya as a freelance trainer for Inbound Marketing & Email Marketing.

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