These days you can find the concept of online course trending everywhere. Casually going through your Facebook wall and “pop, there is an online course”, going through a website and “pop, there is an ad of an online course”! I am sure you must have also noticed it. 

Now that you have landed on this article so it is obvious that you have also decided to wrap up your knowledge in an online course bundle and lend it out to your learners. To launch an online course is the best decision as it creates a win-win situation for both, you and your learners.

As a part of Study24x7 I have learned about the various dynamics of course creation, launching and selling, which I will share here with you. Even if you are an educator, you would realize that course creation and launching can teach you so many new things and it is entirely a new teaching journey. 

So let’s take a look at top 5 things that you must know before launching an online course for the first time-

Chose your Niche and target audience 

Avoid targeting a broad audience as it will only divert you from the learners that are actually interested in getting your course. 

Deciding upon a niche is the first and most important step before launching a course. You can select a niche of your choice that can make you stand out from your competitors. Selecting a niche makes you an expert in that particular domain and attracts relevant customers who are looking forward to courses related to that niche. 

Now it can be a case that you are good at many things and that is making you puzzled about selecting a particular niche. So let’s take a look at points that will help you identify your passion-

1. What are you best at?
2.  Is it needed by the people out there?
3. Will you be paid for it?

Once you have sorted the answers to all the above mentioned questions, you would probably get a definite idea for an online course niche. 

The next step is to target your audience that will ultimately turn into your dedicated paying customers. Target audiences are the ones who are interested in gaining knowledge related to your niche and would approach you for the same. 

Get your target audience by researching the market

Before starting to create your online course make sure there is an audience looking forward to it. The biggest mistake done by online course entrepreneurs is that they get an idea and simply move forward with it. 

To avoid this mistake you need to go through market research that will support your idea and give you confidence for selling your course. Find out what people are looking for or what is the latest trend in the online course market. Then deduce the fact that how your course can cater their demand. You can also take up certain platforms to know the requirements of people such as-

1. Create a sort of quiz through Google Form and circulate amongst your contacts or post it on social media such as Facebook. This process is not just easy but also super useful. 
2. Take help from Quora. Post your question on it or go through the answers of similar questions that are already there on Quora. 
3. You can also implement some of your original ideas to this process. Just remember that your motto is to filter out the audience for your online course. 

Create a marketing plan

Now that you have filtered a set of audience you need to move further with creating a successful marketing plan. 

1. Promote within your existing students - If you are already eminent in the offline teaching industry then create your marketing plan based on that. Promote your course amongst your students in the classroom coaching after which more people would start coming to your course. 

1. Connect through Social Media - Creating a social media strategy for promoting your course is most effective. You can promote your brand amongst your Instagram followers, YouTube subscribers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections which are the easiest sources of social media marketing. 

Choose an all in one platform 

You might think of hosting your online course on a WordPress Website. However, when the time will come for designing a marketing strategy and reaching out to the audience your efforts would have to be doubled. It is better to choose a platform that is specially meant for this purpose such as Study24x7. 

Here you will get a dedicated interface for creating and publishing the course along with many learners who are already there to purchase your course. Study24x7 provides all the benefits for hosting a course such as integrated payment gateways, chat system, online live classes, etc. 

Pre-course launch 

The pre-course launch is an experimental phase where you get to rectify any sort of errors in your course. You can start by launching only the initial one or two modules and see if they are coming out to be perfect. Suppose there is an issue with the echo of microphone or the text is not clear then you have got the option to rectify these errors in all other modules as well. 

This also helps in getting the attention of your audience in advance. It is like a sneak peak of what you have got for them and if they liked it, your course will be a super hit. 

Hope you liked this course creation guide. Best of Luck!