{"id":2538,"date":"2020-06-18T17:59:17","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T17:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/blog\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2021-08-10T10:50:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T10:50:27","slug":"online-course-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/blog\/online-course-website\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create an online course website in 2020 and the Mistakes to avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0website<\/a> in 2020 and the Mistakes to avoid<\/p>\n

The online course industry is booming<\/strong>\u00a0right now.<\/p>\n

(According to Global Industry Analysts, the online course industry is already worth 107 billion. And they project that this number will triple to 325 billion within the next 5 years)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also shared my personal journey:<\/p>\n

How I turned online courses<\/a> from a side hustle… to a multiple seven-figure businesses.<\/p>\n

So yeah, a window of opportunity just opened. And more and more people are crushing it with courses than ever before.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean that you can create a course, put it for sale, and buy a private island.<\/p>\n

If only it were that easy \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s email I want to make sure that you start things off on the right track.<\/p>\n

Which is why I\u2019m going to share the four rookie mistakes that hold people back from success with online courses.<\/p>\n

Maybe you’re thinking of starting an online course.<\/p>\n

Or maybe you already have a course that you want to sell more of.<\/p>\n

Either way, when you avoid these four mistakes you\u2019re primed for success.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s jump right in.<\/p>\n

Rookie Mistake #1: Packing a Course With Way Too Much Material<\/strong><\/p>\n

I see lots of people brag that their course contains “17 modules with 112 hours of video lessons”.<\/p>\n

112 hours of the video?! How is that a good thing?<\/p>\n

I was guilty of this with my first course. I included over 50 lessons. That way it would be \u201ccomplete\u201d.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, this was a huge mistake.<\/p>\n

The thing is, people buy courses to AVOID information overload.<\/p>\n

And packing your course with hours and hours of the material makes the problem worse.<\/p>\n

Read more on online course topic selection\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I totally get it. Someone bought your course.<\/p>\n

So you want to make sure that you “give them their money’s worth” and cover everything. This makes sense. In theory.<\/p>\n

But in reality, overloading students with 100 videos isn’t going to get them any closer to their goals.<\/p>\n

It’s only going to add to their information overload problem.<\/p>\n

Which leads us to…<\/p>\n

Rookie Mistake #2: Creating a Course on a Hot New Trend<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a big one.<\/p>\n

Lots of so-called \u201claunch gurus\u201d tell you to create a course on a hot new topic.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, this is the\u00a0worst<\/strong>\u00a0way to develop a course.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll explain:<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say that you notice that chatbots are getting super popular.<\/p>\n

According to these so-called \u201cexperts\u201d you should go ahead and create a chatbot course… even if you don’t know anything about chatbots.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I want to create products that I\u2019m proud of. So I\u2019m not about to create a course on something I don\u2019t know anything about.<\/p>\n

Plus, creating a course on something you don\u2019t know a lot about is a recipe for low sales.<\/p>\n

REALLY low sales.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because your course\u2019s marketing and positioning are largely based on\u00a0your personal expertise on that subject<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And if you try to \u201cfake it till you make it\u201d on a topic that you know nothing about, people are going to see right through it.<\/p>\n

(Plus, even if you somehow get people to buy your course on chatbots, they\u2019re going to notice that there aren\u2019t any first-hand examples in the program. And your refund rate is gonna be super high.)<\/p>\n

For example, we recently launched a program called Grow Your Blog Fast.<\/p>\n

If you believed the so-called \u201cexperts\u201d, this course was destined to fail.<\/p>\n

Instead of being on a hot topic, this course was on an ancient topic: blogging.<\/p>\n

These so-called \u201cexperts\u201d would probably say: \u201ca course on blogging? Seriously. That\u2019s so 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

So: why did I decide to create a course on growing a blog?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple:\u00a0I knew how to grow a blog<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So instead of overthinking it, I created a course on that expertise that I already had.<\/p>\n

And because I created a course that was based on my existing knowledge, we had one of our best launches ever.<\/p>\n

Rookie Mistake #3: Announcing and Launching Your Course<\/a> On the Same Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a mistake that I made back in the day.<\/p>\n

When I released my first course, I told people about the course and launched it… all in the same email.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, this is a big mistake that can really hurt sales.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

For your course to sell well, you need to let your students know about your course\u00a0before it\u2019s released<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This builds up anticipation for your course. Which is HUGE.<\/p>\n

Take a look at Apple. Do they suddenly release the latest iPhone out of nowhere? Of course not. They talk about it months in advance.<\/p>\n

Or take Marvel Studios. Do they release a new Avengers movie in theaters out of the blue? Nope! They tease the movie months (and sometimes years) in advance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same story with your online course website:<\/p>\n

If you launch your course without any advance\u00a0warning, you\u2019re going to catch your audience off guard.<\/p>\n

But when you preview your course in advance, you\u2019ll have a small army of people ready to check out your course on Day 1.<\/p>\n

Rookie Mistake #4: Creating a Course On a Topic<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking:<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian, how is this a mistake? I mean, my course has to be about something, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes and no.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll explain…<\/p>\n

Not a lot of people know this, but in the early days of Alternative Adverts Ltd\u00a0I decided to launch an online course.<\/p>\n

I called it: \u201cThe Advanced Link Building Course\u201d.<\/p>\n

At this point I had pretty much zero experience with the online course world. So I kind of just winged it.<\/p>\n

I had no idea what I was doing. So that course didn\u2019t turn out that great. And my course positioning was even worse.<\/p>\n

(Which is why I rarely talk about this course. I like to pretend that it never existed, LOL)<\/p>\n

But this course is a great example of how\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0to position an online course. So I\u2019m happy to tell you about it here.<\/p>\n

This course was about link building. I knew a lot about link building. So at least my course was on a topic that I had experience with.<\/p>\n

But that wasn’t enough.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ll explain later this week, you want to zero-in on a specific\u00a0Outcome<\/strong>\u00a0that people will get from your course.<\/p>\n

That Outcome is what helps your course stand out from other courses in your niche.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, my course didn\u2019t check this super important box.<\/p>\n

Instead of a specific Outcome, my course was just\u00a0about a topic<\/strong>: link building.<\/p>\n

It had video after video on what I considered important for learning about the topic of link building.<\/p>\n

I talked about anchor text. And PageRank. And whether it\u2019s worth it to get links from relevant websites.<\/p>\n

It was just a smattering of different strategies. There was no structure to get someone from point A to point B.<\/p>\n

(Which is the main selling point of an online course)<\/p>\n

So yeah, there was some really good material in there.<\/p>\n

But the course wasn\u2019t something that you could follow from start to finish and get a specific result.<\/p>\n

And because my course wasn\u2019t positioned around an outcome, it failed.<\/p>\n

It was super hard to sell. And people weren\u2019t that happy with it.<\/p>\n

Flash forward to a few years later, when I launched SEO<\/a> That Works.<\/p>\n

Unlike my link building course, this program wasn\u2019t a random list of techniques.<\/p>\n

Instead, it was a step-by-step blueprint that showed people\u00a0exactly<\/strong>\u00a0how to achieve a specific outcome: rank #1 in Google.<\/p>\n

And because that course has such a specific outcome, SEO That Works has been a blockbuster success.<\/p>\n

The question is:<\/p>\n

How do you choose an outcome for your online course website?<\/p>\n

And even more important:<\/p>\n

How do you use that outcome to position your course the right way?<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m going to cover in Friday\u2019s email.<\/p>\n

But for now, I\u2019d like to hear from you:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you made any of these rookie mistakes in the past?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nothing to be ashamed of. As I said, I\u2019ve made all of these mistakes myself.<\/p>\n

Or maybe one of these mistakes surprised you.<\/p>\n

Either way, write me back and let me know.<\/p>\n

Read more about the digital marketing training course in Lagos Nigeria below<\/strong><\/p>\n

Digital marketing training in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt etc, Individual and corporate digital marketing course.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n