Learn how to create high-quality, marketable online courses, from topic selection to digital course launch, for high-demand online educational content.

With just a laptop and an internet connection, you can provide online training content to students worldwide, giving them the opportunity to acquire critical skills and knowledge at a fraction of the cost of traditional training methods.

This blog introduces the "10 Steps to Creating Online Courses," which will help you create online educational content that will satisfy your students and generate revenue for them.

By carefully reviewing these 10 processes, you'll have a blueprint for creating online content that will position you as an expert in your industry, generate significant revenue, and guide your students to success.

10 Steps to Creating an Online Course

1. Selecting an online lecture topic
2. Conduct customer research
3. Choosing an online course type
4. Market demand testing
5. Pre-sale of lectures
6. Writing a lecture content outline
7. Setting course prices and sales goals
8. Choosing the right lecture platform
9. Lecture launch and advertising
10. Collect feedback and course recommendations

1. Selecting an online lecture topic

The growth of the online education market and the advantages of creating online courses have an important implication: when you launch an online course, competition can be fierce. Digital marketing and There are a plethora of courses covering a wide range of topics, from starting a business to gardening and even cat training (being a cat butler).

When launching an online course, choose a topic that is uniquely yours and in which you have insight, credibility, expertise, and passion. Once you've chosen a topic, you should also check whether there's strong market demand for it.

For example, if your course is a niche topic or area, such as "Making Real Maple Syrup" or "Producing Ska Music," you may have a smaller student body, but your course will likely establish itself as a leading course in that field.

On the other hand, if you cover a popular topic like "Fiction Writing" or "Golf," while your student base may expand, it can be difficult for introductory instructors to gain a competitive edge. For example, you might find yourself competing with well-known courses like "The Science of Well-Being at Yale University."

Your online course doesn't necessarily have to cover a universally popular category. However, it should offer real value to your students by covering a topic of consistent interest and offering unique value that's difficult to find in similar content.

We'll cover marketing demand research assessments a bit more in "Step 4" of this blog.

Choosing a topic: 'Ikigai' Practice of 'Reason for Existence'

Inspired by popular "ikigai" (reason for being), you can practice selecting a suitable lecture topic based on your skills, passions, and market demand.

The concept of "reason for being," commonly known as " ikigai ," is a Japanese concept that describes personal inspiration, purpose, and joy. This so-called "ikigai diagram" can help you identify which topics most motivate you as a lecturer.

for example:

Draw four circles

Let's draw four circles on a piece of paper so that they intersect, as shown in the image below, and label each circle as shown below.

• “What you like”
• “What you are good at”
• “What the world needs”
• “What you can offer for money”

Fill in the space in the green circle

In the "What You Like" section, list topics you enjoy and are passionate about. In the "What You're Good at," list your skills and areas of expertise.

"What the World Needs" explores current trends, market problems, and gaps in the realities of what people want in solutions. This will help guide you through the second step of demand research and the content you'll write here.

Finally, under “What You Can Offer for Money,” list the topics or skills people would be willing to pay to learn.

Define the intersection of circles

Apply the four categories and examine the intersections between the remaining circles. These intersections will become potential lecture topics that align with your passions, expertise, market demand, and revenue potential. Through this exercise, you can refine high-potential lecture topics that not only provide a rewarding teaching experience but also attract and engage students.

2. Conduct customer research

Once you've chosen your course topic, the next step is to identify the skills, knowledge, or experiences that will most interest your students. Conducting customer research is essential to identifying your target audience . This will help you define your ideal students and provide the information you need to create course content that your audience will want to hear.

Before creating an online course, try to define your target audience using the following technical methods.

• Think from a beginner's perspective. Becoming an expert in a particular field can easily lead you to forget what it felt like to be a complete beginner. Talking to potential students can help you understand the mindset of a beginner.
• Identify your customers' pain points . Your courses should help students resolve their pain points, acquire knowledge they can't find elsewhere, and help them learn faster and more efficiently than other alternatives. To achieve this, you need to accurately identify your potential customers' pain points.
• Understand your students' goals . The most important aspect of any course is whether or not the students are changing. In other words, what they achieved after completing the course is crucial. Talk to your potential customers to understand their goals.

Useful Tools for Customer Research

When defining your ideal lecture audience, approach it with the mindset of conducting methodical market research. Use tools like the following to generate user insights.

• Google Trends inspection : Use Google Trends to see whether interest in a topic is increasing or decreasing.
• Using the Keyword Tool: Use keyword tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or AnswerThePublic to see what people are searching for on Google and social media.
• Using community sites: Reddit , By browsing community sites like Quora and niche forums (a type of community with a shared interest), you can get a sense of the trends in questions and comments that are being posted in those communities related to your course topic.
• Research social media and forums . Follow prominent industry figures on social networks like X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, and listen in on conversations related to your course topic.

Basic research

We engage directly with potential customers to understand their needs and preferences to identify meaningful metrics about their students.

Conduct interviews with at least 10 people. Keep them short and concise, and use this as an opportunity to inquire about preferred teaching methods, tuition fees, and more. You can even offer those who participate in the interview a benefit, such as a free opportunity to take your course. You can structure your questions as follows:

• What problems can my lectures help solve?
• Why did you choose to take my class?
• What outcome do you hope to achieve after completing this course?

Use the following script to ask your prospects if they'd be willing to participate in a user research interview.

Results learning

Once you've completed your user research, you can define the learning outcomes for your online course. From a student's perspective, the skills, experiences, or knowledge they'll gain from taking the course will become key marketing elements for your course.

When predicting outcomes, think about what students will be able to do, know, or feel upon completing your course.

In writing learning outcomes, There are several methods , but the 'ABCD approach' below is the most popular.

1. Audience: Who will take this course?
2. Behavior: Skills or knowledge that students will gain
3. Condition: Course Requirements
4. Degree: The level of expertise a student can achieve

Using this approach, you can outline the behaviors (B) your students will learn, including the knowledge they will acquire (C) and the expertise they will acquire (D) to successfully complete your course (A).

Consider the ideal student's priorities and incorporate four elements. For example, if your course leads to professional certification, the certificate is the starting point. Or, if the course is about a hobby, emphasize the specific behaviors the student will acquire.

When writing learning outcomes, consider providing detailed information that resonates with your students. While a one-line learning objective may be appropriate for some students, a detailed document detailing the learning content will be helpful for most prospective students.

3. Selecting an online lecture type

Course types and media can vary. How you structure and deliver your courses will determine your marketing strategy, the amount of content included in the curriculum, and your reasonable course price.

Once you've chosen a course type, consider the appropriate delivery medium. For example, if students will access course materials and other materials on an e-learning platform and complete step-by-step assignments based on their schedules rather than live lectures, what medium would be appropriate? Or what if you need to attend in a live webinar setting or in a scheduled lecture?

If the course is flexible enough to accommodate individual student schedules, the course progress will be tailored to their individual pace. Conversely, if students take the course as a group, using the same textbook, at a set time, the course start and end dates can be aligned.

Therefore, you can review the appropriate medium depending on the type of lecture you have selected.

There are three main types of lectures:

• Short-term special lectures
• Regular lectures
• In-depth lecture

Short-term special lectures

Short-term special lectures typically last one to two hours and can be comprised of approximately ten short videos or emails organized into a series.

Short-term special lectures typically cost less than $100, or are sometimes free. Rather than being intended for large-scale profit, they can serve as a marketing tool or a stepping stone for more in-depth, higher-priced courses. Short-term special lectures can also be a way to test the market and expand into more specialized, longer-term courses.

Regular lectures

Regular courses are typical digital educational products that typically run over multiple days.

Regular courses may be broken down into learning levels or modules and include pre-recorded videos with practice worksheets and checklists. They may also include quizzes for assessment as students progress.

Typically, regular lecture prices range from tens of thousands of won ($250) to hundreds of thousands of won ($2,000). If you've gained confidence in your lecture idea through a short-term special lecture, it's a good idea to create a regular lecture.

In-depth lecture

Intensive courses can last from a few weeks to several months and are designed to provide a comprehensive course for student success. These courses are typically aimed at professionals and can range in price from tens to hundreds of thousands of won. If you're new to course creation, I wouldn't recommend starting with an intensive course. It's better to first build awareness and experience through short-term special lectures and regular classes.

Jean-Martin Pommer and Sulica Montpetit, founders of The Market Gardener Institute, offer a variety of courses, including The Market Gardener Masterclass .

This intensive course takes 40 to 60 hours to complete and includes over 40 modules, 50 videos, and 45 technical resources. Students also have access to the community. Before purchasing the course, you can also download the syllabus, which outlines the course curriculum and content.

4. Market demand testing

In business, it's wise to validate your idea before launching it into the market. Before investing time and money in creating a digital product that may not sell, it's never too late to verify there's real market demand before launching in earnest.

One way to do this is to build a minimum viable product (MVP), a concept introduced in Eric Reis's book " The Lean Startup ." An MVP is a product that contains only the essential features necessary to test your assumptions. Use MVPs, such as short-term training sessions or free webinars, to test market demand for online courses.

Short-term special lecture production

Short-term intensive courses typically last only a few hours, so they cover specific topics rather than a broad range of topics. The following is an example of narrowing a broad lecture topic down to a short-term intensive course MVP.

Crash Courses allow you to take a topic you're familiar with and repurpose existing materials (e.g., blog posts, X threads, email newsletters, etc.) that have built up your expertise into a different format, such as an email course. This is especially true if you're converting them into an email course, as it provides an opportunity to secure the email addresses of people who are likely to take your regular or advanced courses in the future. The fact that people are taking Crash Courses indicates that there's market demand for courses that cover a broader range of topics.

Create a free webinar

Another MVP strategy to determine if there is market demand for your course is to create a webinar that allows upselling, converting free to paid courses. The average conversion rate can be around 20% .

A higher conversion rate indicates market demand for a larger course. In this case, your webinar should provide as much useful information as possible about the course's topic and collect feedback from attendees, such as what they found useful or what they would like to learn more about. By validating market demand for your course in this way, you can avoid the mistake of creating a course that no one will buy.

5. Pre-sale of lectures

Pre-selling a course means selling it before it's actually available. This is another way to mitigate the risk of releasing a course with no demand.

Pre-sales offer the advantage of assessing the risks of your course concept, adjusting content based on early customer feedback, and even raising funds for actual course production. Furthermore, securing a small number of students early on can accelerate the completion and launch of your course.

To recruit the first class group Create a pre-sale (or pre-order) landing page and offer a discount to buyers.

If you want to pre-sell your course, consider the following:

• Provide a course curriculum that is understandable to first-time students, including course titles, topics, and outlines.
• Clarifying the success criteria for pre-sales

For example, you might set a goal of preselling a course to 25 students. If fewer students sign up within the planned timeframe, you'll need to carefully consider whether to continue producing the course or refund the money and start over.

In fact, you can use Shopify to create a pre-order page and collect payment for your course. To add pre-order functionality to your store: Download the app from the Shopify AppStore . Shopify also integrates with popular online course platforms like Thinkific.

6. Write an outline of the lecture content

To outline your course content, plan its content, and logically divide it into multiple lessons, you need to think from the perspective of your students. Start by working backwards from your students' desired end goals and write your outline.

Breaking down content into modules and courses

The amount of lecture content and number of courses are determined by the type of lecture (e.g., short-term special lecture, regular lecture, intensive lecture), course duration, and tuition fee.

For example, if your course topic is content marketing, you could break it down into five modules:

Each module is now broken down into a series of lectures that delve into specific topics. The five modules above can be broken down into the following lectures:

Module 1: Content Strategy Planning

A clear outline outlining each module and lecture topic will provide a clear direction for each course. Each course includes detailed steps, information, and practice questions that students can understand and learn. It's also important to set clear learning objectives for each course.

Deciding how to structure the lecture

Depending on the type of course you're creating, you can choose from a variety of teaching media. For short-term, free or low-cost special lectures, you can choose an email format that includes text and simple illustrations or screenshots.

However, for more intensive, high-value courses, it's recommended to use a variety of media to engage learners. For example, rather than relying solely on text or video, consider mixing multiple formats to encourage more active participation. Common formats and their respective advantages are outlined below.

• Video content : Ideal for simple and time-efficient concept delivery.
• Screencasts and walkthroughs (structure diagrams) : Ideal for delivering precise, step-by-step content.
• Text content : Best for more detailed explanations of concepts, step-by-step information, and links to original sources via the web.
• Downloadable content : Ideal for providing summaries, glossary templates, and other tools to aid learning success.
• Workbook : Useful for reviewing learners' concepts

Video content should ideally be under 10 minutes long, and aim to create engaging and actionable content. During the research phase, examine what formats your competitors are using and ask potential students which teaching mediums they find most appealing.

Lecture video recording

High-quality video production encourages ongoing lecture participation. Please refer to the following information for preparation, filming, and editing.

preparation

• Space : Choose a space with a quiet, clean background so as not to interfere with recording.
• Lighting : Invest in natural light or a spotlight. When filming, set the camera at a 45-degree angle to avoid shadows on the instructor's face.
• Equipment : Use a mobile phone or DSLR camera with a tripod, and preferably a good microphone to ensure good audio quality for your lecture.

filming

• Frame : Position the camera at the instructor's eye level, with the top of their face in the top ⅓ of the frame.
• Recording : When recording, keep your voice clear but at a calm pace.
• Appropriate commas : Keep your recordings vibrant and energetic by separating specific sections within the video. These sections can be used as editing points later.

edit

• Editing software : allows for moving, cropping, and composing screens within a screen. Use our free editing tools .
• Trim : Precisely cut out empty or misspelled sections of audio.
• Reinforcement : Add reinforcement elements to help students stay engaged in the lecture, such as inserting text, moving it, or adding background music to emphasize the part.
• Captions : Please include subtitles to improve accessibility and student understanding.

7. Set course prices and sales goals

Course prices generally vary depending on the type of course. Short-term special courses are free or inexpensive, regular courses are mid-level, and in-depth courses are generally more expensive. Generally, course pricing can be categorized according to the following criteria.

• Niche and Course Topic : Consider the industry your course is in and your audience's price sensitivity. For example, a customer looking for an investment-related course is likely to be more willing to pay than someone looking for a knitting course.
• marketing : What is your expected budget for your marketing campaign ? Consider the cost of promoting your course when setting your pricing.
• Course creator reputation : Customers are willing to pay more for courses from recognized industry leaders. Consider your industry reputation when pricing your courses.

lecture To gain a clearer understanding of pricing , research your competitors' prices. Find out what other online course providers are offering and identify your own competitive advantage. Don't undercut your own value by setting your prices too low.

On the other hand, setting unrealistically high prices is not a good idea. Research what your competitors are offering, determine if your course offers more value, and then offer a price that matches theirs.

When conducting market research on course pricing, be sure to specify your course sales goals and consider pricing and marketing strategies. For example, if your course sales target is 70 million won ($50,000), you could set the price using one of the following methods:

First scenario:

• Goal: Sales of approximately 70 million won ($50,000) in lectures
• Course fee: approximately 30,000 won ($20)
• Target number of students: approximately 2,350

Second scenario:

• Goal: Sales of approximately 70 million won ($50,000) in lectures
• Course tuition: approximately 360,000 won ($250)
• Target number of students: approximately 200

In the first scenario, tuition is set low, increasing the number of students required to enroll. In the second scenario, tuition is raised, reducing the target number of students. So, which scenario is better?

Generally, setting your tuition too low is not a good strategy. In the first scenario, you'll need to invest time and money in marketing to drive traffic to your course page.

Let's assume that 1% of the customers who visit your page take the course. In the first scenario, you should drive approximately 250,000 page visitors, and in the second scenario, 20,000. Furthermore, it's often advantageous to attract customers with low price sensitivity.

Consider these factors when setting your tuition to avoid the risk of aggressive marketing due to too low a price. Instead, focus your time and energy on creating courses you can confidently claim are valuable.

8. Selecting an Appropriate Lecture Platform

At this stage, you'll select a platform appropriate for your lecture content. While there are a variety of platforms for lectures, each with unique features, common platforms for online lectures include all-in-one platforms and online lecture marketplaces.

All-in-one lecture platform : marketing tools, You can build websites and distribute content in one solution. While all-in-one lecture platforms typically cost more, they offer the advantage of being able to use multiple tools simultaneously.

For these types of platforms, see below.

• Fast Campus
• Class 101

If you're considering an all-in-one option that offers value for money, you can streamline your website and course management by integrating multiple course platforms with Shopify. See the applications below. (Note: Most services are available in English, but some are available in Korean.)

• Tevello Lectures and Community
• LDT Online Course
• Courses Plus
• Inflowkit Membership & Courses

Online Course Marketplaces : Online course marketplaces offer a pre-built student pool, making student recruitment much easier than recruiting students yourself. However, keep in mind that fees and course data management must adhere to the marketplace's guidelines.

See below for online course marketplaces.

• De-ing
• Udemy

To choose the best platform for your online course, evaluate each platform using the criteria below.

• How intuitive is the platform from both a course creator's perspective and your students' perspective?
• Does it support the type of content you want to create (video, audio, text, quizzes, etc.)?
• Does it offer features that allow students to participate, such as discussions or live lectures?
• Is it customizable to reflect your brand identity?
• What are the cost factors (initial setup costs, monthly fees, commissions)?
• Do you offer your own marketing tools, such as email marketing or collaboration programs?
• Will the platform help you scale your course size and student enrollment?
• Is there a mobile app that students can access to attend lectures?
• What level of support do you provide for those creating your courses?

Clearly, the content of your course takes precedence over the platform you choose. If the platform you choose doesn't offer sufficient functionality, you can always change it.

9. Lecture Release and Advertising

If course production is one part of the equation, the other part is market launch and promotion.

Now that you've put enough effort into creating high-quality courses for your potential audience, the next step is to market them and make them widely known. Below are some ways to sell your courses and generate revenue.

• Host weekly webinars : Webinars are generally inexpensive and can attract potential customers. Participants in a 30- to 60-minute webinar are more likely to purchase your course.
• Leverage email marketing : Building an email list of potential customers is a highly effective way to share course updates, information, and discounts. Even if someone doesn't sign up on their first visit to your course page, you can build an email marketing funnel by requesting their email address, which you can leverage to persuade them to purchase later.
• Podcast appearances : Podcasting allows you to naturally showcase your expertise and build your profile. Show the podcaster how your knowledge and expertise can benefit their program's subscribers.
• Leverage Social Media Marketing : Identify the best social media channels to connect with your potential followers and create lasting value through them.
• Paid advertising operation : Google Ads or Leveraging paid advertising, such as Facebook ads , on your sales page can be a powerful strategy for targeting your ideal customer base and converting viewers into paying customers. When using paid advertising, ensure the return on investment (ROI)—that is, the cost of acquiring a customer—is lower than the course price.
• Adopt an SEO strategy : Optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results will help you get your course noticed by your customers. You can also check out our SEO Checklist for tips on how to rank higher in SEO.
• Build a Content Marketing Strategy : Creating free educational content specific to your field of study will help you strengthen your expertise and increase your exposure in search results, converting non-paying readers into paying customers. Learn more about how to attract more customers through content marketing .

Successfully selling your course using marketing strategies requires some experimentation. Start with a few marketing channels to see which ones work best. It's best to double down on effective marketing strategies and abandon those that require more time, effort, or money.

Alt Text: Image of a promotional video linking Fast Campus's popular courses to YouTube.

Image Caption: Fast Campus' flagship course, Accountant Kwon Oh-sang's Financial Academy, is boosting its promotional impact by linking YouTube previews and tutorials.

Fast Campus' 'Kwon Oh-sang's Financial Academy'

10. Collect feedback and course recommendations

While customers may trust your marketing, even better are the praise and testimonials from actual students who have taken your course. Collect feedback and testimonials from satisfied students who have achieved success through your course.

Incorporating positive anecdotes about the changes your course has brought to your students throughout your course landing page and marketing materials is a powerful way to connect with your prospects about the value of your course and the results it can bring.

Ask your students to collect customer reviews and testimonials. Ask students who provide positive feedback if they'd be willing to write testimonials for use in your marketing materials.

Provide specific guidance to your clients about what they want in their testimonials. Rather than simply asking them about a positive course experience, ask more specific questions, such as how much their income increased as a result of your course or how they progressed in their preparation for their real estate license before and after taking your course.

Detailed information about how the course helped you is far more effective than vague, general praise. Also, if possible, request a video review rather than a written one.

Of course feedback Requests shouldn't be limited to positive testimonials. Positive feedback should highlight which aspects of your course resonate with students, while critical feedback should be used to refine underperforming courses. By genuinely accepting feedback from each group, you can improve your course over time, ensuring the best possible learning experience.

Advantages of Creating Online Courses

Selling your courses online without having to worry about supply chain or inventory issues is worth considering. It is an online business idea and has the following advantages:

• Online courses are scalable : Creating an online course requires a significant amount of time and effort. However, as a digital product, an online course can be created once and sold to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people worldwide. This process can be fully automated, allowing anyone to purchase your online course with just a few clicks.
• Online courses are inexpensive to produce : Depending on the type of online course you're creating, you may only need to subscribe to a few software subscriptions to host your course, send emails to potential customers, and build a community of learners.
• Online courses have high margins : After deducting course production and marketing costs, the remainder can be profitable. While traditionally, companies selling physical products have low margins, digital products like online courses can have margins of up to 85%. For example, selling a course priced at around 140,000 won ($100) generates approximately 120,000 won ($85) in profit.

• Generating Passive Income with Online Courses : It requires time, money and effort in the beginning. While it's difficult to say that passive income is absolute, successful online courses are almost always passive. Once you create a successful online course, it generates a steady stream of income. This is especially true for courses that rely on video downloads rather than recurring visits, such as live lectures or community elements.

Common Mistakes in Creating Online Courses

Improve your chances of success and the quality of your lectures by proactively identifying and preparing for common errors and pitfalls in online lecture production. Common mistakes include:

• Lack of a clear purpose : Be clear about what your students want to learn. The clearer your purpose, the more likely you are to structure your lectures in a coherent manner.
• Overload : Avoid trying to cram in too much information at once. Break it down into lecture-based sections to focus on the most important points.
• Missing Engagement Features : Keep students engaged by incorporating interactive elements like quizzes and discussions. This not only makes the course more enjoyable, but also improves its effectiveness.
• Low-quality video and audio : Good sound and clear picture quality are important. Invest in basic equipment to ensure your lecture videos are easy to watch.
• Ignore feedback : Regularly ask for student feedback to determine what is helpful and what needs improvement.
• Inadequate marketing : Even if your course is excellent, it still needs promotion/marketing. Develop a marketing plan that reaches those who need your course.
• Understand the time commitment : Creating a course takes time. Create a realistic schedule to ensure you can produce quality content without feeling rushed.

Start selling your online courses today

Consider carefully what unique insights, valuable knowledge, and marketable skills you can share with others through your first online course. Examples include:

• Once you've mastered creating stunning illustrations on your iPad, you can teach others how to do just that.
• If you've helped various brands activate their social media presence, you may have potential clients who would like to learn from your expertise.
• If you're a product management leader and mentor with experience helping others get started, you can expand your students' opportunities to demonstrate their skills through your lectures.

Creating engaging and successful online courses means infusing your passion into a digital product. Embarking on the journey of online course creation allows you to leverage your passion and expertise to generate revenue and share your knowledge to help learners along the way.

FAQs on How to Create Online Courses