I’ll share a quick and simple way to put a short course together that you can offer as an entry-level digital product to your audience. You can follow this method and have your own short course up and running in a week.
Watch the presentation on YouTube and subscribe for more great content!Coaching one-to-one is trading time for dollars, and you’re only getting to teach however many people you have time for. Whereas when you create and sell digital products, you can create a course. You can teach one-to-many and you’ll be saving time and earning income passively.
Quote from the Livestream
We start out as content creators with passion and a message to share.
First, we choose a method or platform, such as livestreaming to YouTube, to get our message out to the world.
Next, it’s important to focus on who we best serve and how to solve their biggest problem.
We learn to create content consistently to share our method for overcoming obstacles and reaching new levels.
Then we establish a framework to share our content across all media platforms online so we can quickly gain visibility for our brand.
Watching the number of subscribers, views, and downloads go up is exciting.
Engaging with viewers during a livestream motivates us to keep showing up and reaching out.
We share our contact information everywhere, hoping to connect with more people who love our content.
There is nothing better than positive feedback to add to the joy we experience in our work.
We don’t want to build a business home on the shifting sands of YouTube or any other social media site.
That leads to uncertainty and desperation when they change their rules or algorithms.
Instead, we build our business home on what we can control: our email list and website.
We create our first opt-in lead magnet to build an email list.
Then we send out a weekly update newsletter to keep in touch with our most precious and most interested audience members.
It’s time to offer private coaching or consulting to build a reputation, make some money and gather testimonials.
We might start off with a free trial offer to earn those valuable testimonials from coaching clients.
We might send out many proposals to various companies to offer our specialized services at a competitive price before getting a contract.
Then, when our clients are hooked, we can charge a higher price for our time to bring income to our growing business.
Coaching one-to-one is a great way to get experience, but it is an enterprise of trading time for money and time is a very limited resource.
Using our experience, testimonials, and creativity, we create a book or a course and set up a funnel and a marketing plan.
We can teach one-to-many and earn passive income from our digital products.
Now we are content entrepreneurs with a successful business model.
What would make a great course? What does my audience want to learn from me?
If you can ask your audience or clients what they want to learn, or there are specific things people always ask you, that’s the best possible course topic.
But many times when we first get started, we have to guess.
Look at past videos, podcasts, blog posts, and social media to see what got the most engagement from your audience.
Think about what grabs the attention of people you speak to when you share about your passion and business.
You may believe you know what your target audience needs.
Obviously, they need more confidence and a growth mindset!
But people don’t buy what they need.
They buy what they want.
Choosing to purchase a digital course, like many other buying decisions, is an emotional experience.
First, we visualize what it would be like to have the results promised by the sales copy for the course.
We decide to buy based on how much we want those results and the feelings associated with those results.
Our desire usually centers on
We justify an emotional purchase with logic later, perhaps when somebody asks why we spent our money on the thing we bought.
“Why did you buy that mixer and all those kitchen tools?”
“I needed the new stand-up mixer and tools to make the amazing biscuits I saw on YouTube.“
“But you don’t eat bread.”
“Shut up.“
How can your course give your potential customer their desired results?
The challenge with online courses is people sign up hoping for transformation and life-changing results.
But they quickly lose interest and give up.
If what you teach them to do seems too difficult or uncomfortable, fear takes over and spurs them to quit.
They need an engaging, supportive experience, not just a video course.
A great course requires teaching and coaching. Offering instruction is only the first part.
We need to follow up with opportunities to put the instruction into action and offer support when obstacles pop up for our students.
There are many pieces to a great course that builds a positive relationship between the teacher and students.
It starts with the basics of online instruction.
Online learning is wonderful because it is self-paced and each student can do as much or as little work as they choose.
Online learning is challenging because it requires discipline, focus, and motivation to complete the work.
That’s why I encourage students to schedule a video call with me whenever they feel stuck. We can also check in with them periodically with personal emails or texts.
My students can find me livestreaming every week to feel encouraged and ask questions in the chat.
That helps me improve my instruction and can even suggest a new course to create.
It also means I stand out from the competition because I show up every week to help my online course students.
The things you need to gather to build and host your course include:
If you follow the live video first content creation method I share in the Content Consistency Framework and Schedule, then you’ll have your course materials put together in a week.
Even better, you can create a short course any time you have a presentation that sparks an outstanding response from your audience.
The title and description will become part of your sales page copy.
The YouTube thumbnail is the graphic that represents your course.
We can download the slides as a PDF and add them as a resource.
After you finish your livestream video, transcribe, edit, and add captions to it with Descript. Break it into short video lessons. I use one or two slides per lesson. This is your set of video presentations for your course.
Break apart your blog post into the corresponding sections to add as the supplementary text for each video lesson.
If you choose to create a course from a livestream video you’ve done, change the video access to private and the blog post to draft mode so people won’t stumble across it.
We need a gated platform to host our courses and gather the payments. I’ve tried many course platforms, including Udemy, which does the marketing for you but gives you very little revenue in return.
You have a choice of many course platforms that are available only as a subscription, such as Thinkific, Teachable, and Kajabi. These can get expensive, especially for new creators.
We prefer to own the app that hosts our courses. I’ve tried several and found that Vonza works the best for me. We purchased Vonza on AppSumo.
They integrated Vonza with Stripe, and it is easy to set up an account to receive payments.
Vonza also includes these features
I can upload my course videos into Vonza so I don’t have to host them on YouTube and worry that somebody will find them on my channel.
Because we are creating content every week, we can simply add the promotion of our new course to everything.
A funnel is a simple way to illustrate your customer’s journey or the relationship you are building with your prospective client.
They first hear about you through your video, podcast, blog, or social media content.
You offer valuable advice and training, along with a free download of an opt-in lead magnet that your audience wants.
My free download is the Content Consistency Framework & Schedule.
When they request the free download, they give you their email address in exchange.
Add them to your email list and provide the promised, valuable, free download to their inbox.
Next, they arrive on your sales page for your new short course.
My new course is called How to Create, Publish and Distribute Content Consistently.
Be sure to give your course a simple, clear title so your students know what results they will achieve.
If they purchase the course, there is an automated email sent out immediately to congratulate them on taking the first step in an exciting transformation to a brighter future.
If they do not purchase the course, an automated email arrives a day later to express gratitude for their presence in your community, along with a coupon for a discount on your course. It could be a 20%, 50%, or 100% discount.
Whether or not they buy, add them to your weekly update newsletter and continue to provide value as you nurture this relationship. Occasionally repeat the offer of the course or any other products and services you offer.
Your short course is likely to be one of the first purchases for your new customer. Breaking through that initial resistance to trust you with their money is an emotional decision and you want to make it a very easy one.
That’s why I suggest additional enticements.
You often hear ads that compare the cost of something to a cup of coffee. That’s because people frequently buy a cup of coffee without thinking about the price.
If your course is less than $30, you can compare it to other small purchases they make without thinking much about it.
It’s less than an average trip to Target for toiletries!
If they waver on spending, push them past their indecision with a coupon code.
People love to get a deal on something they want. In fact, the coupon code can make them want it more.
If something we’ve been thinking about buying is on sale, we feel compelled to get it because it costs less than the original price.
If this is your first course or digital product, you can offer a discount to your email list, viewers, or listeners. You can even provide it for free just to get people to try a sample of what it’s like to work with you or join your community.
Take advantage of FOMO (fear of missing out) with a limited-time offer. Your coupon, discount, or free offer should have a deadline to motivate people to decide and take action.
People feel satisfied with their purchase as long as you come through on the promises in your sales copy.
The money-back guarantee helps people trust you enough to spend their money with you.
Come through with exceptional value and you won’t see people asking for refunds.
Watch my video on YouTube to see the demonstration of how I transcribe, edit and add captions to the video lessons with Descript, create a course in Vonza, and set up a sales funnel for it.
Grow your online business income and connect more deeply with your audience by creating and selling short, simple, entry-level courses.
Get my new course, How to Create, Publish and Distribute Content Consistently, which uses the Content Consistency Framework and Schedule for simple, successful content marketing at course.agkmedia.studio.
Through November 18, 2022, you can get this course for free by using the coupon code AGKSAVER.
Write to me at support@agkmedia.studio with questions or schedule a free consultation to share your vision for your livecast with me at consulting.agkmedia.studio.
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Learn more about Shelley Carney and connect with her here: http://shelleycarney.com
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Livecast Life: The Content Creator Lifestyle is a new book written by Shelley Carney and is now available on Amazon at http://book.livecast.life
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