A big misconception about ideas is that they just appear in our minds at the right moment. You just need to wait for inspiration to come and you’ll find the perfect idea for your online course!
Wrong, wrong, wrong. There’s a reason why people get the best ideas in the shower, in their dreams or on a plane. Your brain is seeking new information, learning things and just working constantly. It just takes a while to mull things over! And even then, how can you be 100% that it’s going to attract learners? In order words, how do you know that your idea will sell?
Picking an idea for an online course that sells well means that it’s time for you to think like a scientist and not base an entire course on your assumptions about what people need. Also, you’re not going to lose money if you test your ideas first, but might actually end up in that situation if the course isn’t attracting enough clients.
How to do this? First, put on a lab coat because it’s going to require some experimenting. Second, here are the questions to ask yourself in order to come up with the best online course idea that will actually sell:
To come up with a great idea for an online course, you should first know what are your strong points and interests. Maybe you’re already a business owner who has a lot of experience in a field, or you’ve learned how to DIY and want to share your method.
Read more: Why business owners should sell online courses
The so called magic formula is: what you are good at + what you love to do + what you can offer.
What you are good at means that you have enough expertise in an area to be able to teach it to someone else. What you’re interested in is picking a topic that you truly enjoy and won’t get bored of it halfway through making the course. Finally, what you can offer is what you can realistically achieve in terms of time, logistics, and what could best fit the needs of your prospective learners.
Which brings us to the next question...
Deep down, we all want to achieve our goals in order to become better, smarter, happier, healthier, etc. as close as possible to that ideal self. People need something practical and engaging that’s not too easy or too difficult for them.
In reality, people tell you all the time what they want and need. Take Google searches for: “learn how to code” or “how to start a business”. There are entire Facebook groups, forums and conferences dedicated to a certain audience.
Your job at this stage is to listen. Active listening goes a long way when you are researching ideas. Of course, what you want is to narrow down the conversations you are having and try to pay attention to things that are relevant for people that could be your learners at some point. You don’t want to create a generic course that speaks to everyone, you’re doing this for a specific audience.
The short answer is yes. If you’re already very familiar with the field and think you can find some interesting ideas, write them down. If you’re stuck and need to get the ball rolling, you have plenty of options for finding inspiration.
Where to find ideas:
Read more: How to create successful podcasts for your online course
Once you find a few ideas, it’s time to cut them off the list. Yes, that’s hard to do, but remember that you only need one winning idea to sell courses.
Let’s take productivity as an example. In my research I’ve found that people that work full time and study at the same time need to manage their time better (I’ve used Quora to find this problem actually). Here’s my idea for an online course: Best productivity tips for working students. While this idea can be refined in the future, my idea works because it’s:
So, it seems that I’ve found my best selling idea and can get cracking. Except how do I know that working students need my course? How can I be sure that this idea is good enough?
Testing is the most important part. This is where you confront your assumptions about what works and doesn’t work. Businesses do this all the time before launching a new product on the market, but you don’t need a big budget to validate your online course idea. In fact, testing should be almost one hundred percent free:
Read more: Social media platforms to consider when marketing your online course
The winner is the idea that you’ve validated and that best answers the needs of people in that particular niche. You should come to the conclusion that 1. a group of people have a problem/pain point/need and 2. Your experience and tips could help them solve it.
The key takeaway of today is that you can brainstorm ideas, narrow them down and then validate your idea before starting to work on a course. Ideally, it shouldn’t take you a long time to choose the best idea. Some people do it in a week, others take up to a month, but don’t prolong this process unnecessarily. If needed, set up a deadline to come up with an idea and as they say “just do it”.