10 Reasons You Should Develop an Online Course

Online courses and classes are not unheard of, and they became more accessible (not to mention necessary) in 2020. While we were sheltering in place and trying to work on professional and personal development, eLearning rose to the occasion. 

Now, while we may be through the worst of a global pandemic, many are using the tools we learned and created during quarantine to continue virtually learning. If you’re on the fence about the investment of creating an online course, here’s 10 reasons you should start!

1. Reach a Larger Audience

If you’ve used digital and online spaces before, you know how many people you can reach in one sitting. Facebook has 2.8 billion active users, YouTube has 2.2 billion, Instagram has 1 billion, and Reddit has 48 million active users. Meaning, it can push your course to the masses in multiple ways.

Once you’ve established and created your course and launch, you’ll be able to share it with your network to push it forward to their friends and family. Online visibility works to your advantage as it allows you to promote, sell, and market your product to not just a select few people, but the entire world. 

2. Make it Easy to Manage

Unlike class materials which need to be updated every semester along with syllabus and more, eLearning makes coursework more accessible. Teachers are given the unique opportunity of building a course from scratch with very little maintenance after it’s posted. 

Learning management systems (LMS) provide all you need for sales and tools, along with marketing. Some, such as LearnWorlds, allow you to customize the appearance of your content and how it comes across to users. Enhancing the learning experience creates a space to align with you and your brand.

3. Free Up Time

We hear “time is money” so much that it’s become cliche, but the truth of it stands. Investing your time into a product that will pay out years to come allows for flexibility and freeing up time while still earning money.

Want to work from Spain? Or the Bahamas? Or your favorite coffee shop down the street? Online learning and creating courses allows you to manage your product with a few clicks on your laptop. If you’re ready to take a vacation and spend time with your friends on a cruise, you have the freedom to do that! 

You’re not bound to a 9 to 5 cubicle job or needing to sit behind a desk all day – you can open your online eLearning classes from anywhere in the world and make the most of your life.

4. Repurpose and Resell

Content is king! And repurposing older content? Still king. When you’re finished with your prep work to expand your online course, it’s finished and you have a product you can sell to many people again and again. Whether it’s just one person taking your class or if it’s one million, you put the same amount of effort in regardless.

Reusing content after it’s been on the back-burner for a while is one of the easiest (and smartest!) ways to make money off work you’ve put the time into. Taking courses and re-offering them after a period of time brings new students who will learn and engage with your well-thought out class. 

5. Become an Authority

Why do we listen to certain people? For starters, maybe we find them interesting or intriguing with their life story. Or maybe they entertain us. Or maybe we view them as knowledgeable in their field. They’ve become an authority with knowledge beyond ours. 

Creating and selling an online course will position you as someone with knowledge and understanding on your specific topic. It shows potential students that you have the expertise in this niche and can teach an entire course about it. This allows for easier promotion and marketing and opens doors for speaking engagements, podcasts, and more!

6. Have a Passive Stream of Income

We all dream of making money in our sleep, don’t we? Well, that dream doesn’t need to stay a dream – make it a reality. Building coursework and materials via digital and eLearning avenues allows you to make money whenever someone signs up for your classes. You’ll be paid for your knowledge and create your own source of income that doesn’t need to be checked on as frequently.

Imagine being on vacation and getting an email that ten people just signed up for your all-inclusive Sports Medicine course (at $120 per person). You can keep earning money while attracting students who could benefit from your course.

7. Skip the Paperwork

With teaching an in-person class, there’s a lot of paperwork. We’re talking syllabi, printouts, informationals, check-in sheets, class notes, and more. The poor trees are shaking thinking about all that paper.

But online and eLearning cuts the trees out of the picture entirely (no pun intended). Instead, you don’t have to worry about ordering flyers, class materials, or anything else! All aspects of management are carried out online with no physical paper or materials. Anything that is usually printed can be made into a PDF. Talk about easy.

8. Start Generating New Leads

One of the best parts of online teaching is the lead generation. Think about it this way: if students are taking your classes consistently and need to sign up using their email, they finish a course and what should appear in their inbox? An email from you mentioning another course you just launched.

These past students are already aware of your authority in that niche and will be more likely to sign up for another course you’re teaching. Cashing in on already loyal consumers will help expand your reach to even more people!

9. Teach What You Love

Each of us has topics, interests, and skills we could talk about for hours. Many of these are buildable, too, meaning you can expound your knowledge in order to deepen your understanding and expertise. And the fact of the matter is: if you have a skill, you can teach others (same goes for hobbies and unique experiences).

The thought of making, creating, and promoting a course can feel daunting. Instead of focusing on “how do I make money off of this”, think through what you enjoy and already have a lot of knowledge about. You can choose to focus your eLearning courses around your business or if you’d rather, you can create one that is a skill you’ve picked up in life.

Remember to teach what you love. It makes all the difference in this world.

10. Create a Personal Brand

Chances are, you already have a personal brand. Don’t believe us? Ask your followers on social media to use five words to describe your feed and what you post to see what yours is! Putting out content as courses will allow more followers and to create an even stronger personal brand. If you already have an established business, this can help you get more customers.

Establishing a strong personal brand will also lead to scaling your business. Once your courses launch, it requires very little time and gets you out of the “time for money” mindset. Selling these courses to many people frees up your time while also bringing in the cash at no increase to your investment of time. 

It’s a win-win!

 

In this digital age, the possibilities are truly endless. Whether you’re ready to teach classes on the basics of chiropractic or if you’re showing others how to knit with a round hook, the internet is your oyster. And at SPEG, we can help you get any idea off the ground—and into the inboxes of your next student.