DEVELOP, WRITE, SELL AND TEACH ONLINE CLASSES , Part I by Pam White
Writers learn early in their career that seeking diverse assignments will keep their children in shoes and their kitties in kibble. While you can write for magazines, television, book publishers, and corporations, adding in a new revenue source is always welcome.
Do a search for online classes and you'll find that anyone from entrepreneurial individuals to the traditional colleges are creating, selling and teaching online courses. This article is the first in a series that will be a primer into the profitable niche of creating and teaching these classes.
Classes can be on any topic. Choose something you do well, you love to do, or that someone you know is an expert on. If you plan not only to develop and write the class, then you may well end up teaching it for years.
The following is the first, introductory lesson into how to create your own online classes. Over the next few weeks, I will continue to provide more detail in the steps to create an income-producing class.
It has only been a dozen or so years that the internet has provided entertainment, information and a means to earn a living. One area that writers can enter, and succeed at, is creating classes on any topic and selling and teaching them online. This provides writers with an ongoing income in a work-from-home job that can be done any time of day, from any location, and in addition to a full time, 40-hour a week job.
An online course is one that is taught primarily through the internet. They can be taught on message boards, in online classrooms, through email, with podcasts, videos and phone calls. While an online course could be a freebie that you send out to boost your sales in other areas, this course is about creating the classes in order to provide a steady income.
These courses can be on any conceivable topic but lend themselves better to those that are less hands-on. An online course in tole painting or photography may not be as popular as one on writing book proposals or how to build personal wealth. The former require more hands-on work on the part of the student, and in-person review of the work the students are doing. The latter can be taught through message boards quite easily, with messages passing back and forth, a sharing of ideas, and email celebrations of success.
Step 1: Choose your topic. Even if it is a subject you are an expert on, research the latest information, and what others are writing and teaching on your topic. Buy books that cover your idea, take some classes (if you have time and money), and read periodicals on your topic.
Step 2: This part begins while you are doing your research. Choose how you will set up your class. Will it be a weekly lesson for four weeks, or a bi-weekly lesson for eight weeks? When looking at the length of your class, think about individuals' attention spans and whether any class that goes much beyond eight weeks will not continue to hold the students' interest. Once you have the ideal number of lessons set out, start outlining the lessons' topics.
Step 3: How will you teach the class? You could send the lessons by email or create a newsgroup or use a message board like Moodle, a free source classroom software that allows you to keep the classroom or message board private while you post classes and discuss lessons. You might include webcasts, webinars, or live chats to engage your students.
Step 4: All the time you are writing the lessons, think about how you will reach your future students. Create a site, online newsletter, or blog and ask visitors to subscribe. Once you've captured their email addresses you can then send them announcements about upcoming courses. Network with other online entities: websites, blogs, zines, message boards and any other place that shares the audience you are trying to attract. Send press releases to magazines and newspapers if your topic is either of interest to a broad group or if your class's topic is covered in magazines, newspapers.
Step 5: Send your lessons to friends and fellow enthusiasts and ask them to read them, and offer you input, including testimonials you can use. Testimonials are most helpful if the person giving it uses quantifiable specifics: "Two weeks into the website
development class, I had my first job creating a website for a local business," "During the class I learned how to find clients and before the class was over I had increased my pet sitting income by 50 percent," or "I participated in the online class on self-confidence and have joined two community groups and asked (and received) a raise at work!"
Step 6: Name your price. What you can charge is tightly linked to how much extras (chats, bonus gifts, phone call consultations) you include in the course. It's also tied to how badly people need your class to be happy or rich, or both. Experiment with the cost. Two years ago I was teaching an 8-week class for $125 and each session was filled. When I raised the fee to $150 the class registrations nearly disappeared. If you can't sell classes at the first price you choose, then lower it until you find a more attractive price.
Step 7: Promote your class. Write ad copy that does three things: identifies the pain of your potential student, empathizes with them, and provides them with the solution. If you write a class on building a home-based business, you would begin by listing the pain (or the concerns) that your course would deal with: Sick of those phony work-at-home ads in the newspaper, magazines and on television? Been bamboozled at least once by these scams?
Empathize; "When I was first starting out, I, too, tried to make money sending mailings to sell dictionaries, holding home parties to sell laundry detergent and signing people up to buy things that never existed. Finally I found the way to create my own work at my own home-based business that used my talents."
Provide the Solutions: " I have written a class to keep you out of the deep waters and help you find your best home-based business without having to make the mistakes I did. "
In this case the course would likely have lessons that took students through discerning their own talents and gifts, solutions to finding a way to make an income using these talents, and the business end of having a home-based business. This course could include dozens of examples, and include one-on-one consulting since each student would have their own ideas.
Step 8: Create a start date, and teach your students.
DEVELOP, WRITE, SELL AND TEACH ONLINE CLASSES by Pam White