Info products might seem kind of intangible, like something it would be hard to price and market.
But there's a lot of money in that kind of thing. And the biggest moneymaker is offering an online course.
It's no secret: some of the courses out there are kind of, well, spammy. Maybe even scammy.
They cost a lot, but ultimately, they don't offer anything you can't find elsewhere for free.
But then, there are the courses that really, really thrive. The ones that provide real value to their students. The ones where by paying for the course, your eventual ROI will recoup the cost many times over.
If you can offer real value like that, you're sitting on a potential goldmine.
Online courses are an option in a ton of different niches and industries. If you're reading this, you may have even taken a course or two on something like digital marketing or starting an online ecommerce business.
There are also online courses for tons of other things, like web development, graphic design, the “business side” of freelance work, and even how to play the guitar.
In a recent post, Smart Passive Income rounded up some great quotes from top online course entrepreneurs. Check out these ten juicy tips from people whose courses ended up being massively profitable.
1. Stop worrying all the time about how you will sell your course and start worrying about how you will create such a good course that will provoke a real change in your students’ lives.
Then, I promise you the money will come. Great content means good reviews, and good reviews mean more money.
– David Perálvarez, Club SiliCODE Valley
2. Build content that people can’t find anywhere else in the world for the same price or at the same level of quality.
If you do both at the same time, sales will roll in like crazy.
– Dakota Wixom, QuantCourse
3. Test your idea first.
Don’t waste any time creating a course unless you have a solid list ready to buy it.
Start small with blog posts and expand as the traffic steadily increases. Launch your course when your audience starts asking for it.
– Sarah Crosley, The Creative Boss: Create the Ultimate Opt-In Offer
4. Teach MORE THAN your competitors for FREE. Selling is nothing but teaching genuinely.
If you just teach without holding anything back, genuinely, and help people, everything becomes very easy.
Why I am saying this? Because it’s not something I had planned before my course launch.
It’s something I realised last month. My “Aha!” moment. After looking at last 4 months’ stats.
I did $20,000 in sales in the last 4 months without running a single Facebook ad or any kind of promotion. I have just 11 videos on my YouTube channel.
But those 11 videos teach more than other paid courses. Somehow people are finding those videos, getting amazing value, and subscribing to my paid course.
– Mubaid Syed, T-Shirt Profit Academy
5. Roadmap actual deliverables and stick to a schedule that’s conducive to producing the outcomes you need to meet your plan.
Too many entrepreneurs spend three years “making” a course, and not a single buyer will ever be exposed or even hear about it!
Our current course is doing well over $25k/month in recurring and we’re moving all of the outside stuff into Teachable as we speak!
– Scot Smith, Automated Inbound: Rainmaker University
6. Plan out your marketing and promotion strategy even before you build your course.
– Amir West, Online Entrepreneur Life: Amazon Phenomenon
7. Stop reading about it. Taking action is the best teacher!
For years I have been studying marketing strategies, read articles, listened to podcasts (SPI rocks!).
The more I studied, the more overwhelmed I became.
I finally stopped worrying about it, moved my business to Teachable and simply took action. My business income quintupled (literally!) after doing those things.
This is after 10 years of struggling with the business. Pat and Teachable, thank you!
– David Wallimann, Guitar Playback
8. VALIDATE, then create.
Before pouring time and money into an online course, make sure that people will buy it by actually ASKING people to buy it!
You may be able to get 100 people to sign up to be beta testers for your course, but if no one is willing to pay you for the course, then it’s not worth creating.
When I created my first online course, I sent a few people in my audience a personalized email where I gave them a description of what the course was and what it would include.
If they were interested, I asked them if they wanted to pre-purchase the course at a special rate (yes, before it was built!).
I made $8,000 off of the pre-sale, which validated that people wanted my course.
I spent the next few months creating the course, and launched to my list of only 2,000 at the time.
My first launch did $41k in sales. Validate the idea, then create the product.
– Abbey Ashley, The Virtual Savvy: VA Bootcamp
9. The number one tip I would give to course creators is start building your list immediately.
Always be growing your audience and remember to nurture it as you grow.
If you have a great audience who wants to hear what you have to say, you will be successful in your online course creation and sales!
10. Don’t pressure yourself to create one module or even one PDF of the course BEFORE you’ve pre-launched and pre-sold the idea.
That pressure can be a major mental block, and you’ll never take action to get it out of your brain and into Teachable (#speakingfromexperience).
So instead, craft your pre-sales campaign, do that, and then once the dollars are in and there’s PROOF that your people are willing to put their money into your idea . . .
Then your mental blocks will magically turn into action.
– Elise Darma, InstaGrowth Boss
You can find more sage advice from successful entrepreneurs over at Smart Passive Income.
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