Tips For Creating Your First eCourse

eCourses are a common way that bloggers monetise their blogs. But where do you get started on this? Is it hard? Read on for tips for creating your first eCourse.

 

Tips For Creating Your First eCourse

 

Tips For Creating Your First eCourse

 

First things first: don’t trick yourself into thinking that the topic you want to write about has to be something that is a struggle for you. You don’t have to be a paid expert consulting for thousands of dollars a day to write a course about something. What you need to do is pick a topic that others need help with, that you have worked out how to do for yourself. And of course, a topic that gives value to your target audience!

 

Some questions you can ask yourself:

 

What do I know but others struggle with?

For example: Contentum Creatio was my first eCourse. This was because I write a lot of content, I create a lot, and I have multiple blogs. I know that while most bloggers are good at creating content, it’s also something they can get very stuck on, so I wanted to show them the strategies that I use to create and share content.

 

What can I write a lot about?

This is one of the key questions, because if you can answer the question in below 1000 words, then there’s not much value in it being an eCourse. It’s probably more the sort of thing could be an info graphic, a blog post, a guest post, or something that is a bit shorter. You need to make sure that people aren’t left feeling like you haven’t given enough value on the topic. Having said that, being able to write a lot about the topic is not an excuse to fill it with fluff to make it seem bigger, you need to actually have an appropriate amount of knowledge for the content and for how you are going to be sharing that content with your audience. Balance. The answer to everything is balance.

 

What do I explain well to others?

Even if you have picked the perfect topic, and you can write well about it: you have to know that you can explain it well to others. If you can’t explain it then there’s not going to be much learning value for the people who pay you to take your course. There are ways to test runs, and they include things like having a series of Instagram images on a topic or doing a light blog post series around the topic as a way to test it with your audience (and also test the way you explain it). If you do this, pay very careful attention to the questions and comments and the amount of likes and interaction you get from these test topics, as they will be able to give you a lot of information about how your audience needs to consume and understand your content on this topic.

 

What format should I deliver the eCourse in?

This is a personal choice. Contentum Creatio is an email based eCourse that is run through automation sequences via my mail provider, MailerLite. eCourses can also be video or audio based. Some provide multiple options. Providing multiple options is wise, purely from the perspective that everyone learns different. However, creating video, audio and written version can be time consuming and expensive if you have a lot to learn in any of those areas, so you do have my permission to choose the one you are most suited to and run with that. Remember, if the course is successful, you can always update and upgrade it with newer options.

 

Do you have any questions about creating your first eCourse? If you haven’t yet, what is holding you back?

 

4 Replies to “Tips For Creating Your First eCourse”

  1. I wonder if I’ll ever know or be good enough at something to create my own ecourse but I’m loving these practical tips. Can you do something similar for ebooks, pretty please?!

    1. I totally can!!

  2. Oh boy, this is timely for me! I have just started working as a mentor & educator on a new film school that my mentor is creating (I’ll be looking after tech support and helping film beginners) and I also have my own masterclass that will run in October and I am secretly shitting myself about writing it and getting it ready. Honestly, I haven’t even figured out what the actual name or subject is yet! One of the things the Academy manager said to me when we were chatting about it last week was “you need to figure out who your audience is first & foremost, who are aiming this at” and I realised that is what I need to figure out before anything else! So if you notice stress coming through in my IBOT posts around August Spetember it’s because I’m freaking out about my course, lol!

    1. Vanessa Smith says: Reply

      See the massive advantage of consolidating everything into this one blog (instead of keeping my blogging content separate) is that when people ask me questions I hate, like “who is your audience”, I can answer with something *so* useful like “people who like me” haha. Good luck with the course creation 🙂

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