At this point, you have probably been hearing about the possibility (and profitability) that creating online courses, can have for you and your business.
And if you haven’t heard, these are the benefits that most entrepreneurs and professional bloggers agree on when it comes to selling online courses:
- Be seen as an expert in your field. If you are teaching an online course on a topic, people will automatically think of you as the expert. When they think of this topic, you will automatically come to mind and so people will refer others to you.
- Have more time to innovate. Yes, nothing kills creativity like being broke. So if you want to free up your time to innovate on your dream, you will need cashflow. An eCourse is exactly that – it becomes like your best employee out there doing the work, telling people how great you are even while you’re sleeping.
- Shatter the revenue ceiling. You know that as long as you’re selling services, you will hit a revenue ceiling. There’s only one you, and there’s only so high that you can raise your prices.
If you’re like me though, you aren’t willing to just jump into a new idea, spend a bunch of time, spend a bunch of money, only to find out that you made one long, expensive mistake. You first want to test the waters quickly and make sure that the money and time invested will be well spent.
As an instructional designer, I’ve worked with hundreds of course creators in universities and corporations to create courses as well as entire educational programs online and I’ve found that one of the single most effective steps in having a successful online course, is running it as a pilot first. If you are interested in piloting your course idea, keep reading.
As I’ve begun working with entrepreneurs, however, I’ve noticed that a surprising few add this step to their course creation process. And it makes sense. As entrepreneurs, we tend to be natural optimists. We believe that the work we have done is good and will be successful.
All we need to do is have a spark of brilliance, put in the time and hard work, polish off a perfect product, and then wait for the millions to pour in, right? Or we assume that if it worked for us, it will work for everyone else.
Seriously, though, we never know if a course will sell or if it will be effective until it is used by someone else. Did we make an assumption about our audience, their willingness to buy, and how much they really need this course? Doing a pilot test, prelaunching, or preselling your course is the best way to validate your idea.
The plan is broken up into 8 steps of specific strategies that build on each other. And while there are no hard and fast rules for establishing successful pilot courses, I’ve found these eight steps to be quite effective:
- Define BETA Course Goals
- Define & Build BETA Course Audience
- Outline & Create BETA Course Timeline
- Create BETA Course Materials
- Price & Launch BETA Course
- Document Course Feedback
- Document Student Results
- Evaluate BETA Course Results
You can download the 8-Step guide as well as the audio explanation to help you execute your plan now:
SAVE TIME & MONEY BY PRE-SELLING YOUR ONLINE COURSE
Get the free PDF and Audio Download, for easier online course creation.
GET STARTED!
In this 8-step guide you will learn:
- How to setup goals for your BETA test, for example, how many purchases of your BETA course means you should create the online course
- How to find an audience of BETA testers, even with a small or non-existent email list
- What tools are necessary and which ones you do not need during your BETA test
- How to evaluate your BETA test results
Have you ever beta tested an online course before? Let’s chat in the comments below.
Hi Coleen,
GREAT post! I have to be honest, my favorite line:
“Shatter the revenue ceiling”
As someone who has just done the beta course, this is the BEST guideline I’ve seen!
Excited to share this with my audience!
Thanks Kim! Your content strategy workshop has been a lifesaver. Gave me just the focus I needed!
Im not quite in that field but I think beta testing is super important for anything!
yes, we have to test our ideas, there’s no room for assumptions in business 🙂
[…] Read 8 Easy (and Inexpensive) Steps to PreSelling and Beta Testing Your Online Course here. […]
I pinned this post. I am still getting everything in order to start my own freelance business. I think this could be very helpful.
Oh, this is something I need right now! I love that you’re talking about how to find an audience even when you don’t have an email list. Which I don’t right now. Yay!
So glad this is helpful to you! I think I’ll talk more about this aspect, but it’s good to develop relationships and leverage other people’s audience. you are bringing value to their audience so it’s really a win-win!
This is awesome and my next step! Thanks for the awesome info and I will be back when I’m ready!! xo
Very cool. There is so much to learn about this topic and I always find your material so accessible… as someone not super techy, that is a big compliment! ? I actually understand what you are saying! Thank you for that!
This is excellent information. We have been toying with the idea of an online course. Saved this post for future reference 🙂