Hello awesome Steemit community!
This is my first post and I'd like to kick off my support for this amazing platform by sharing my passion for online teaching.
I've been teaching online for 6 years and, to this day, creating online courses on Udemy and on my own websites has been by far the most profitable and rewarding thing I've done.
If you enjoy teaching and are looking for alternative ways to generate more income and reach a wider audience, I cannot think of a better way to monetize your knowledge and skills than creating an online course.
The big question I get all the time is: How do you create an online course?
The summarized version is: 1. Record yourself teaching what you love and 2. upload it to Udemy, Skillshare, or an online course hosting platform like Thinkific or Teachable .
For a more in-depth explanation here is a 1 hour class where I teach everything you need to know to create your first online course:
Here is what I cover in the video:
3:36 - Why should you create an online course
6:07 - What it takes to be a successful online instructor?
14:56 - The 15 Online course productions stages
16:15 - How to break down your knowledge into an outline
19:53 - How much work is required to create an online course?
21:15 - How much should you charge for your online course?
25:42 - All the software and hardware required to record your courses
31:00 - How to record, edit and upload your lectures
40:41 - Self-Hosting versus course marketplaces
44:53 - How to get your first students
HOW TO RECORD YOUR FIRST ONLINE VIDEO LECTURE
If you don't want to watch the entire tutorial I encourage you to get started by learning exactly how to record a online lecture.
In this video tutorial I teach all the steps required to create your first online lesson including a list with all the recommended software and equipment to get started teaching online:
HOW TO VALIDATE YOUR COURSE IDEA
Now you know how to record an awesome online lesson but wait! before you go ahead and spend the next two weeks recording a full online course, it's paramount that you figure out if people will actually buy your course.
I can't count how many times I thought I had a great idea for a course, spend 50 hours recording it, launch it and nothing, nada, zilch... the dreaded sound of crickets.
There is no need for you to commit the same mistake. On this next video I teach 3 strategies to validate your course before you build it. Check it out:
THE COMPLETE COURSE CREATION MASTER LIST
If you watched the tutorials above, you've probably realized that creating a high quality course is not something you can do in just one afternoon.
The hardest part of teaching online is not creating courses but building the marketing engine to sell them on a consistent basis.
Building a profitable business teaching online is very similar to building any other type of online business. You need a product plus all the infrastructure to reach customers and convert them into customers.
To make your life easier, I've compiled complete list of the BEST resources, tools, and equipment to create, host, sell, and market online courses. You can access it HERE.
TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
If you are interested in understanding all the intricacies of what it takes to build an online business that sells both services and products, I also created a 10 hour course teaching how to launch and grow a $500K/year online business based on my experience running one since 2010. You can check it out HERE.
I hope this article was useful for you and that it encourages you to go ahead and share your hard earned knowledge, package, and monetize it in the form of an online course (or many!).
Cheers,
Miguel Hernandez
Founder of Grumo.com