I think it’s time we bust some myths about online course creation.
I truly believe that anyone can create an online course. Yes, even you.
Because I believe that everyone has something to teach. Think about it. Everything we learn in life is taught by someone else – usually face to face – but there’s no reason why we can’t teach those same things online.
Maybe you learnt how to knit from your granny. Maybe your dad taught you how to garden. Maybe your bestie taught you how to take great photos. These are all skills that can be taught online. So, if you’re good at anything – I bet you can create an online course for it.
Don’t agree with me? I get it, there are some pretty persistent myths out there that may be stopping you from creating your online course – and I think it’s high time we bust those myths.
Here are the 5 biggest myths about online course creation.
To start off, I’d like to bust one of the biggest myths about course creation – Myth #1: I don’t have anything to teach in an online course. I bet you do. I bet there’s something that you do that comes so naturally to you that you don’t believe it’s valuable. Or there’s something that you do that everyone asks you to help them with. Or something that you’ve had to learn along the way that you can share with others.
I’ll give you an example of something in my life where I could have used an online course. My daughter was born with bilateral hip dysplasia (this was many years ago – before Facebook, or Youtube or even Google really). And I was thrown into this confusing world of multiple surgeries and having to deal with weird and unwieldy full-body plaster casts on my baby. It was scary and overwhelming and traumatic, and I would have paid anything to be able to get some guidance from someone who’d been through this situation. Someone who could help me out with practical advice and tips on how to deal with the situation, and perhaps a community of people going through the same experience.
So, I’ll bet there is something in your life that you could share with others. It doesn’t have to be a business-related topic or help people make money.
This leads me to the next myth – Myth #2: The profitable topic myth. Many people don’t believe they can create an online course because the thing they’re good at doesn’t help people make money. Or that it’s not a popular topic so no one will pay for it. And I hope I’ve busted this myth with the example I gave in myth #1. Because if the thing you can teach is something that people would like to learn – you can create a course on it. As long as you’re solving a problem, teaching a skill or just helping someone in general – there’s value in what you have to teach.
Let me give you an example, and I’ve used this example before and I’ll use it again because I love the ingenuity of it. Back when everyone was watching “The Walking Dead” and we all felt that a zombie apocalypse was imminent, someone created a course on “How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse”. And it was profitable – hundreds of people bought it! Even though it wasn’t a “profitable topic” and didn’t teach them how to make money.
Myth #3: I can’t create a course because I’m not an expert. You really don’t have to be an expert. And there are even times when being an expert is a problem. When I was going through the situation with my daughter’s hip dysplasia I was surrounded by experts – and while they could explain the surgeries and wound care – they couldn’t help me out with the practical day-to-day management stuff or share tips they’d learnt through their own experience. So, often you don’t need or even want an expert.
I love the way Denise Duffield Thomas puts this in one of her blogs (read it, it’s good!),
“I’m a contributor, not a guru. As soon as I gave myself permission to contribute to the conversation of women and money, and not have to be a guru or expert, then my business became fun. If you really care about a topic, be a contributor. Who cares if you don’t know everything. You don’t have to be the best to make a difference to someone.”
I love that! You don’t have to be the best to make a difference to someone. You just need to be one or two steps ahead to be able to teach them something. You just need to give them a hand up in some way and get them on the path they want to be on. You may not take them all the way, but that’s ok. As long as you’ve fulfilled their initial need, that’s all your course needs to do.
Myth #4: No one will buy my course when they can just Google it. Now here’s the thing about Googling it and let me know if this has happened to you before. Let’s say I Google, “How to take a flattering selfie”. There are literally thousands if not millions of results on this topic. Now I have to sift through all of these results and that takes a lot of time. And there’s also a possibility that the results I get contradict each other, which just leaves me more confused than when I started – rather than providing me with a solution.
Now, that’s why people would rather buy a course than just Google it. To save time. To get clarity quickly. Your course can give them the exact info they need, so they can solve their problem or gain a new skill faster than having to hunt for the information on Google or Youtube.
Myth #5: Someone else already has a course on my topic so I can’t do it. To bust this myth I want you to do a little exercise. Open up Google and type in “best yoga courses online” and take a look at the number of results you get. I got 427 million.
Are you thinking “I can’t create yet another yoga course”?
Well, what you should be thinking is, “Yes! People are definitely buying online yoga courses.”.
Because the reality is that no matter what industry or niche you’re in – there will be someone else already doing it.
The question is, are they doing it the same way that you do? Of course not, because you’ll be adding your own “secret sauce” to your course. Something that no-one else has. Something that will resonate with your people and get them to buy your course.
And that’s the end of this episode of course creation MythBusters. Now if there’s anything else holding you back from creating your course (or even if you just have questions about the process), hit reply to this email and let me know. Maybe I can help you bust some more of those annoying myths!