Create A Creative Business That Celebrates Your Ideal Life
Today’s episode is sponsored by my brand new roadmap – 57 Ways To Monetize Your Gifts and Create True Security For Yourself! Includes access to four bonus templates called the Creative Entrepreneurs Path to Cash and map your journey to an ideal business that celebrates the life you want to live.
Download your free roadmap today at getpaidforyourcreativity.com/57waysgift
Episode 028 Show Notes
If you missed Episode 027 of the podcast, ”Is There An Online Course Inside You Dying To Get Out?”
I suggest you hit the pause button and go have a listen now because it will help you get a handle on any mindset issues that you must get a handle on before you deep dive into the five strategies I’m going to share with you on this episode of the podcast.
Now on to the focus of today’s episode, assuming if you have at least a cursory idea for a course then you definitely want to pour yourself a cup of coffee, settle in and prepare to take a lot of notes because I’m going to reveal 5 Fool-Proof Ways To Validate Your Course Idea
1. Can you easily locate paid courses similar to the one you’re thinking about launching?
– Check out Udemy and Skillshare
– Another option is to check out courses at the local college or university level. Continuing education programs are perfect for researching ideas for courses you might be able to teach online.
– If you can consider enrolling in a local course to see how the course is being taught, make note of questions students are asking. This is also a perfect place to find people to interview #3
– Do a Google search for similar courses, what you’re looking to have appeared in the search is paid advertising
2. Published Books On Amazon
– Look for recent books 6 months or less
– Reviews and not just glowing ones, but 3’s or less (what are people complaining about?)
– Another option is Youtube Videos (I’ll deep dive more into this strategy visually in a followup episode)
3. Conduct Interviews
– Record your interview
– Let the interviewee talk more than you speak, it’s important not to guide or lead your participant, let them talk uninterrupted that’s where you’ll get your gold!
If you record the interview over the internet check out Zoom.us and/or Skype Recorder Another alternative is FreeConferenceCall.com
– Check out Facebook or Linkedin groups to find interview participants
– If you have one reach out to your own email list, groups and/or pages
4. Do a Facebook Live or Live Webclass Series
– Pick a specific piece of your possible course core topic and do Facebook Live or Live Webclass
– Write up an outline, maybe three to five bullet points and teach on these points during your Facebook Live.
– You can also break up your bullet points into a series of lives doing a small deep dive on each one.
– This is a great opportunity to get comfortable creating content, getting in front of your audience, engaging and answering questions helping you get more clarity about what they want to know more about.
– Ask participants to sign up to be on your early notification list for when you launch your paid course
– And if you really to know if people are series direct them to a payment page to make a deposit or pay for your course as a founding participant for a drastically reduced price
5. Teach For Free Then Sell
– If you feel you fully understand what your potential students really want to learn most draft up a full outline for a live online workshop, this virtual class will run about 2 to 3 hours, could be more but at least 2 to 3 hours.
– Teach your class, record it using a tool like Zoom.us (you’ll need to upgrade to the paid iteration) perhaps create some handouts or other printable support materials
– Let your participants know before, during and after your workshop if they want to keep a copy of the replay and those support materials they’ll have the option to purchase it.
Participation and collecting actual money is the best validation tool
Bonus Idea: After you’ve validated your idea with a participant-driven iteration of your course and better still if you’ve collected money explore the option to connect with an influencer that has access to your ideal audience, let them introduce you via a preview webinar or maybe podcast interview.
Participants sign up for your course pay you and split an agreed-upon percentage to the influencer. If you do this you won’t have to rely on paid advertising (at least when you’re in your validation stage) and once you know you can not only sell your course and help your students get results then you can look to expand your reach with more advanced marketing strategies like paid advertising.
Inspirational Links and Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode 027: Is There An Online Course Inside You Dying To Get Out?
Episode 013: Choose! My Personal Take On Ryan Levesque’s New Book & How Creatives Can Use It To Choose The Best Idea For Them
In the show notes you’ll find a Bonus Video Tutorial: Research Your Next Profitable Idea Using Google Trends, Google, Amazon, Udemy, and Skillshare
How To Create A Highly Irresistible List Building Freebie That Attracts Your Perfect Customers
57 Ways To Monetize Your Gifts and Create True Security For Yourself! Includes access to four bonus templates called the Creative Entrepreneurs Path to Cash and map your journey to an ideal business that celebrates the life you want to live. (example of a mini-course)
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