3 BIG Online Course Creation Myths

There are people online right now making a ton of money selling online courses, and you're not because you have some things that are holding you back from actually making the content, from doing the thing. And there are 3 myths in particular that I'm going to bust today because I love busting myths. And these are the 3 most common ones that are causing you to keep making excuses, to keep waffling around, and that are causing you to not actually just make your course, put it out there, and start making money online. So without further ado, let's bust some myths. Welcome to the Profit Your Knowledge podcast. Today is episode number 3 of the official podcast, and I'm your host, James Allen. I'm here to help you turn your knowledge, passions, skills, and expertise into an online business and build yourself a life of freedom. Today is going to be a very fun lesson. It's going to be a very fun little session that you and I have together, because that's kind of what I want you to treat these as, this podcast, or if you're tuned in on YouTube, is that you and I are sitting across from each other and I am basically giving you a one-on-one coaching session, even though I know it's just one way. But that's okay. Treat it as such. And if you have questions, you're on YouTube, let me know down in the comments. If you have ideas, etc., let me know down there. Okay. A little bit different on the podcast. But anyway, today we're going to bust some myths about online business, about creating courses, creating scalable income through online courses, which is what I'm a huge fan of. And if you're in a position right now where you're thinking about starting an online business or even just creating another stream of income to whatever it is that you're doing, whether you work a 9 to 5 and you just want something, or maybe you are a full-time expert or coach or teacher of some sort and you want to start creating online courses and adding that to your suite of products, then I have a special gift for you. I created a 5-step guide that is 8 pages long and it'll take you about 10 minutes to read through, but it's an action guide. There's no fluff. I wrote out the entire method that is responsible for helping people create 5, 6, or even 7-figure online businesses working part-time hours. So 20, 30 hours per week or even less. Some people are even at 5, which is crazy. Not quite there yet, but we're getting there. But this method is what allows you to actually achieve that. What I've learned, it's what I've experienced myself in creating a life of freedom for myself. It does take time, I'll be honest with you, but it is reliable, it's legit, and you get to build a business off of generosity and it's not spammy or scammy or anything like that. So if you want to start building your online business, this is a great resource for you to have. There's links to different videos. It's really like a free mini course, basically. So you have the action guide. I wrote out the whole method, like I said, and then just cut all the fat. So it's as short as I can make it, but as actionable as possible so that it's digestible for you because I want you to actually get inspired. And use it so you can start building your online business. So you could literally use that and then watch my free content and build an online business. Like, I really, I really don't hold back. So if you are interested in checking it out, go to profityourknowledge.com/guide, or I've put a link in the description as well. Okay, without further ado, let's bust some myths. I'm excited for today. There are 3 that we're going to cover. The first one, the first myth about online course creation is that more content doesn't equal more value. I guess that's the statement. The myth is that you think you need to have a ton of content in order to charge a high price point for your course. High price point is pretty vague. It could be, it could be $1,000 is what you could think. It could even be $50 depending on what you sell or what you want to teach. Could feel like a high price point. I recommend to not go under $47, but bare minimum, so $50 plus really is what you should sell an online course for. And you have the right to do that, you know, and you deserve that kind of income from an online course. You don't need to sell an online course for $14 or anything like Udemy, or a lot of people think. You can sell premium pricing for your course. You just have to do the research and do the things that I teach you and I will teach you more and more of as long as you're subscribed to the channel and you tune in. But that's just kind of a quick little thing about pricing that people think like, why would I create a course if I can only sell it for $10, $12, maybe $20? It's like, no, you're gonna get less quality people through it. And because of that, you're probably gonna get a lot more refund requests et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But going back to the more content piece, people think that I need to create some huge lavish course in order to sell for a couple hundred bucks even, or $1,000. The biggest thing that I would love you to stick with, and this is everything from your content to your courses to really anything, products that you create, keep things as short as possible but long enough. It goes for like copywriting as well, or writing emails. Everybody's so busy right now, so keep things as short as possible but long enough to get the job done. So an example with your course, keep your course as short as possible. There are different types of courses. There are mini courses, there are full-fledged courses or flagship courses. And it depends on what you are teaching, really. So there's no set rules per se about what is long enough or what's too long, what's too short. But the biggest thing is that when you're thinking about writing like your outline, for example, write out everything that you feel that this person needs to know and then trim the stuff that you feel is not really necessary. A personal example for me, I'm creating a course right now about everything that I do one-on-one with people. So that it's more accessible to a lot more people because I charge a premium to work with me one-on-one. I put a lot of time into people that I work with and I go above and beyond to the best of my ability for them. When I'm writing out my outline, I was writing out a bunch of different modules and stuff and lessons, and I was thinking, can I turn this lesson and this lesson into one lesson? And that's kind of the thought process that I have in terms of keeping things as short as possible, because I'm always telling myself this. When I'm writing copy. Is it too wordy? Are there unnecessary filler words that I'm saying inside of this email that doesn't really matter? You know, because like, I mean, with blog posts, it's like, oh, you got to have 2,000 or whatever words, um, in your blog post to really rank up for SEO. But in my opinion, people, people would rather get through something quick. That's like my 5-step guide as well. They'd rather get through something quick than have to go through a ton of different information because there's a few key things that people want. And then the better you understand your audience and all these kind of things that go into it, the better you can deliver that, the faster you can deliver those things to them, the happier they're going to be because there's so much information out into the world right now about like online business, for example, going back to my 5-step guide. I wrote out the entire method and there's a lot to talk about. Like I keep creating content every single week about it. but I compacted it as much as possible so that it's short, it's digestible. You get the point. Okay, that's the biggest thing. And then you can actually take action from that. And if you need more information, there's like a link to a video if you wanted to dive a bit deeper into it. Um, but I'm always thinking about that. Keep it as short as possible, but long enough. Trim the unnecessary fat. That's really the point behind it. So with an online course, you, I mean, people would really rather have a shorter course to get the job done. An online course is a, compact step-by-step system that helps someone get a specific result. For example, if you help people lose weight, then you want to get them from point A to point B the fastest way possible instead of just throwing this like overwhelming amount of information to them. And that's the other thing is that it's going to be overwhelming. They get into the course and they're like, oh my God, there's so much content to get through. The big thing I want you to understand Keep it as short as possible, but long enough. And on top of that, long enough means that you're, you're giving the person what they really want and what they paid for. Because people want transformation, not just information. And that's why keeping it short, getting them a specific result as fast as possible, as fast as you can, giving them the information that they need, but more importantly, making them feel like they can actually do it, that's huge. So like they need information, but it's not just about information. It's about the transformation that they are expecting to get from it. Again, if you teach weight loss, you are giving them the information that they need, but you're inspiring them to actually do it. You're making them feel like they are capable enough to do it. And having a shorter course is actually great for that. Because it's not as overwhelming. It's not saying, oh, this is going to be ridiculously long. Like, it's going to take me forever to get where I want to be. And then they're going to lose motivation. Then they're not going to do it. So shorter courses are actually better, but the information has to be really good. And the biggest thing to keep in mind is like as short as possible, but long enough to experience a transformation and that inspires them the whole way. Because the goal of an online course and high completion rates is to inspire forward momentum. That is the whole process here. Keep them going. Have the titles need to be super catchy to where just reading the titles make them say, oh, I want to, I want to listen to that lesson. Then they get into the content. You trimmed all the fat. It's just what they need to experience a transformation, inspires them to keep doing it, to watch the other modules. Momentum. That is what it is all about. Okay, so more content does not equal more value. Actually being more compact is more valuable for people because people have enough on their mind. Okay, myth number 1 busted. Myth number 2: you need to have expensive software and equipment in order to create an online course. This is a huge one. People think, like YouTube creators, they think that they need to have— or even podcasters, really— they think they need to have some crazy camera. Like, I have a nice camera, but I wanted to make that investment. But I didn't need to. Like, literally, phones nowadays are crazy. They can shoot at 4K, 60 frames per second. You can change the FPS. You can do 24 frames per second, I'm pretty sure, but you can do 30 as well. And you can do all this cool stuff with your camera. And if all you need is like a lapel mic, which can be like $25. Okay, so if you have a computer, which most likely I'm assuming you do, You can build your online course for under $50 easy. I mean, it could be $25 really, but assuming that you do have a computer, you can make that happen. And when I say $50, I'm really talking about in terms of an online course, not paying for a $50 camera because that's probably not going to do super well. I mean, even a phone is like a grand nowadays or more. For like a good camera, etc. But when I'm talking about $50 or less, that is a good price point for a decent microphone, a USB microphone, which you can use because you don't need to have some huge production crew. You don't need to have multiple cameras, multiple GoPros or DSLR cameras or multiple phone angles or anything like that. People get so wrapped up in this and I work with people all the time. To help them create courses and to create this sort of business model with online courses. And they're like, oh, like, I got to hire like this, this person to come in and film for me. It's like, no, you don't. You do not have to do any of that. You can just set up some slides on your camera, on your, on your computer and have a decent USB microphone for like $50. That was my first microphone was $50. And then I upgraded to a more expensive one. This one's like $120. When I got it. Apparently it's like $200. But yeah, that's the biggest thing. You don't need a big production crew. You don't need expensive cameras. You don't even need to be on camera for the majority of your course. I recommend that if you do create slide decks and then do a voiceover on the slide decks, which is what I recommend, and I have videos on my YouTube channel where I show you how to actually do that, or you can just leave a comment down below if you're on YouTube and I can point you in the right direction or share the video for you. But when I make a course, it's all slide decks or screen shares because it's kind of the nature of what I teach though. If you are more of a fitness instructor or you're teaching a sport or something like soccer, for example, then you are gonna need to be on camera more because you're gonna be teaching people how to actually move and do specific things. For me, I teach online business and it's a lot of tech technology stuff, so I can just do screen shares. But even still, if you're just doing a teaching, like a meta teaching where it's just kind of like the ideas behind something, it's giving them that information, inspiring them, you can do all of that in slide decks and then leave just like a couple things. So for example, if it was soccer that you were teaching, how to be a better soccer player, you'd be teaching them the theory, the technique, and just kind of talking about it, things that you can talk about You don't need to be on camera for that. You can create slide decks for all that and have pictures of slide decks as well. And like I said, if you have a computer like a MacBook, you can do that all inside of Keynote. That's what I use. I build it inside of Keynote and there's a feature inside of there where you can record your entire slide deck with a microphone. Just plug it in to your computer and you're groovy. Okay? It's awesome. But then if it came down to with your soccer course, that you were actually showing them what to do with your footwork, more of like a quote unquote how-to or show me video, then you could, you could even just have the camera on your feet showing them what to do with their feet. Okay. So there's, there's so many ways that you can build an online course. You don't need to be on camera like I am when I make my YouTube videos. My courses are a very different format, very different feel, but I feel I can add a lot more value. I can teach a better lesson by writing everything out ahead of time and I put a lot of time into it. And it also, it addresses more of the auditory learner, but as well as the video, the visual learner, forgive me. And it also, you can do slide decks. You could pop your slide decks down in there and you're off to the races. Okay, but you can do all of that inside of Keynote or you can use something like Google Slides and Loom. You can use, Microsoft PowerPoint probably has some sort of feature like Keynote where you go into quote unquote presentation mode and you can see one screen of the screen that you're on that's recording and the other screen is the one that's up next. So you can smoothly transition into all your slides and you're not even on camera. If you do do a slide deck and you teach something where you're not even showing them like soccer foot techniques or how to do a specific workout movement, you're not actually being on camera, something more like me where I'm doing screen shares, You should at least have a video of you with your face on the very first, like, welcome video and a closing remarks or an ending video of just being like, hey, congratulations on completing your course. You can have a digital certification or whatever you want to do for helping them actually get through the whole entire thing. Okay, but create slide decks. You don't need crazy software or equipment. I would recommend if you do do slide decks, invest in a good mic. It can be anywhere from $25 to $50. And you're, you're solid. Okay. If you ever do have questions about how to do that, just let me know down in the comments on YouTube. Next myth. That's myth number 2, by the way, busted. Next myth is kind of ties into the one that I just mentioned, but courses take a long time to create. That's the third myth. I get it. Creating an online course seems pretty daunting. And in the conversations that I've had, the customer research, everything that I've done, that's one of the biggest things that people say. It's one of the biggest things that holds people back. They say just the whole process seems so daunting. I don't know what to do. What if I put all this time into building a course and then I put it up there and it doesn't even sell? I've been there 100% and it's not very fun, but I've created a lot of courses until I created one that actually sold. And one of the biggest things that I did was I did customer research. And if you download my 5-step guide, like I mentioned, you can go through, watch the entire process. I talk about customer research. I talk about how to find either your business idea or it can be your product idea as well. And then how to actually have conversations with people, what to say to people, what to look for. And I have videos on my YouTube channel. Like everything is there. Okay. Again, if you have questions, just reach out. Courses can take a long time. I mean, it takes a couple of months really to get all the things put together. But when you understand customer research, you understand how to find what people really want, and then you're able to deliver on that. It's worth it because when you create an online course, you're not— you stop trading your time for money. If, for example, if you're a coach where you teach people things online, whether it's mindset, relationships, dating, business, you know, fitness, whatever. There's so many different people teaching things online. And what they do and what I was taught to do when I went through coaching certifications is to connect with people, find people, create content, speak on stages, etc., do a strategy session with people that are interested in actually working with you, and then you enroll them and then you work with them one-on-one. And then when you start getting busy with one-on-one, you move to group coaching. But still, what you're doing is trading your time for money. And group coaching is super valuable. I love one-on-one. I love being able to make a $5,000 sale or $10,000 sale in a phone call. It is the coolest feeling in the world, you know, just to be like, yes, that was sick. And it's fun because it's just the beginning. And then you get to deliver and see people's results, all that stuff. The only thing is that it takes a lot of time. That takes a ton of energy. Okay, it's almost, I feel like, more stressful than creating an online course because you meet with them every week. You got to deliver, assuming you have like, you know, good systems and all that stuff. But that's a topic for a different day. But when it comes to online courses, it's a long-term asset, meaning that you have like your one-on-one package that you have for people that you take people through. It's a proven process because you've been able to get people results and then you convert that into a step-by-step system that is your online course. And that's it. That's really all it is. So what's cool about it is that you are basically replicating your one-on-one process and now you can sell it over and over and over again. So you're creating a long-term asset that is always going to be working for you. And if you use the method and the model that I've learned and that I teach and that I help people with, is that you create content, you have a lead magnet, people opt in, You have an email funnel, you have different little funnel that ultimately leads people to find out about your course and then you offer your course. But the beautiful thing is that it's happening all on the back end. It's working for you 24/7 without you trading your time for money. So it's worth it. Okay? And if you do good customer research, like I mentioned, you understand what people really want. You understand your market, you understand what they care about. Which is a never-ending skill set that you develop, you are going to sell a course. And if you're really concerned about something taking a long time, consider creating a mini course. It's great to have a mini course, an entry-level course that's priced somewhere between $47 to $197. Somewhere in that range is great. $97 is phenomenal, or it could be $70, whatever. It depends on your niche too, what you teach. But I would say don't go under $47 or $50 because that's going to give you a great price point. Tim Ferriss talks about that in The 4-Hour Workweek. He talks about having a product at $47 or $50 to $200, somewhere in that price range, and you're able to sell it automatically. That leads you to a great income. You know, you can have a really good income. You don't need to have thousands of dollars worth or a $1,000 course or anything like that, or even hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Worth, uh, or like a priced course. I mean, with a mini course, it's something great because you can have, and you should have, and this is again a topic for a different day, uh, like a mini course for people to test, to test you out. They check out your free content. They're like, oh, this person's awesome. I love this. Uh, I wonder what it'd be like to pay for their course. And then they can have something that's priced at a reasonable price point. You know, $100 for something that resonates with someone because you understand what they struggle with. It's worth it. It makes sense. Why not? It's $50, $100. It's not a big deal. You know, it's worth it. And some people that can be a stretch, obviously, but for the most part, that is a lot more reasonable mentally. You can justify spending that much money on something that you actually care about, like how to get better at dating, for example, or how to get in better shape or how to grow an online business than having like a $500 or $1,000 course. And there's a lot more that goes into that in terms of customer journey, et cetera. But again, topic for a different day. So if you can create a mini course, which again, priced at anywhere from $47 to $197, somewhere in that range, doesn't matter. Have a couple different options, like maybe a $47 and a $97 tier price point, or $97 and $197 tier, whatever. But have a couple different options for them so they can choose which one do they want. If you create that course, And also, by the way, that's a price point in terms of length for a mini course. How long should the course be? Uh, make it about 5 to 7 lessons. That's it. So this is actually great because it ties into the first myth that we busted about making your content as short as possible, but long enough. What is a quick result that you can get someone for $50 to $100 or maybe $200 depending on what you teach? That you can create 5 to 7 lessons that walks them through the exact process on how to get that result. It could be how— it could be some sort of like a fitness routine, like how to, how to lose their first 30 pounds or something like that. It could just be like a— get some quick result, something fast, because that is going to motivate these people. Say, wow, I could maybe— maybe I'll buy their full-fledged course. You know, that happens to me all the time. I love buying courses. I love studying and seeing what people do with courses. I've seen great courses. I've also seen really crappy courses, which I regret paying for and I get a refund. But it is really interesting to see how people create their courses and to go through it. And if it's a good course and I spend $100 or even $127, sometimes it's like an order bump that they have, then I'm like, wow, that was sick. I got some really cool resources. I learned a lot. I wonder what it'd be like to pay for their $1,000 course. Okay, so that's what I love about creating online courses too. People check out your free content, they get value from it, and then if you're one-on-one, it's like a couple grand to work with you. That's, that's big for people. But if you can have a course, it's $100, $50, they can test it and then they get more familiar with spending money with you and they start to trust you more because you do good research and you are a good business owner. All right. So if you can create a mini course, 5 to 7 modules, somewhere between $50 to $200, you have a good lead magnet, which we talk about on this channel. So if you haven't subscribed, go for it, do it, check it out, or check out some other videos or podcast episodes. So good course, good lead magnet, good email funnel that can build a relationship and introduce your product to these people. Done good customer research. You can get some good steady income and that doesn't need to take you a super long time to create a mini course. Okay, because again, the myth is that courses take a super long time to create. If you do full-fledged courses, they do take time, no doubt about it. All right. So I hope that inspires you, uh, to actually stop making excuses, to buckle down, stop waffling around, stop coming up with reasons why you can't have a course. You're creating a long-term asset. That's the biggest thing. Start making it, start creating your course. And just start. Like, dear God, if you're in a business or, or in a job that you're not happy with, just start making it in your spare time. Nobody is, is forcing you to like sit down, right? Yourself, you would be, but, um, it really like, it's something that you can do with the extra time that you have. You could commit 20 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day, an hour a day. I mean really like 3 to 4 hours a week. Commit that. You have the time, I know you do, to just make the course, to start doing it. And again, my 5-step guide walks you through the entire process. It's going to inspire you to make it happen. And then I make videos, et cetera. But the biggest thing is that you just do it. And my job is to show up for you every single week and inspire you to the best of my ability. And I get better at it every single day. Every single week, but to just get it done, to do it. Stop waffling, stop making excuses, just do it. And if you do want to pick up the 5-step guide, you want to run through that, go to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/guide or click on the link in the description. You can pick it up today. You can read through it. And if you don't like it, you can unsubscribe. Don't let these myths set you back. Don't, don't let these myths cause you to not take action. Okay, more content does not equal more value. Shorter courses are better. They inspire people to take action, get forward momentum. You don't need to have expensive software or equipment. You can do it with your phone, with a nice microphone. You can create slide decks to make this stuff happen for basically free, under $50, 100%. And courses can take a long time. That actually is kind of true. but they don't need to. A mini course can give you great, great income for minimal amount of effort. And then you create a quick little system like I show you in the 5-step guide and you are solid. Okay? You can start making some money and that'll inspire you to create a full-fledged course because you're like, oh wow, I'm actually making money from this. Imagine if I was doing this and I know it's working and I create a $500 course or I create a $1,000 course 'Or a $300 course, what would happen to my income?' Okay, and also gives people something else to invest in, something else to check in, some ladder that they get to climb until they can actually work with you one-on-one, if that's what you want to do, unless you just want to sell courses. Okay, so I hope this inspires you. That's all I got for you today. If you did get value from this, I do just have to say this for myself, please share this podcast, please share the YouTube channel. Or the video. And if you know someone that is kind of struggling with this, you've heard people say that they're struggling with, or you just think it would be valuable, send it to them. Okay, give me a like, subscribe, all that kind of stuff. You know, if you like it, you'll do it. But that's all I got for you. I hope you have a stellar day, a stellar week, and I will see you next week. Have an awesome day.