Online Course Ideas: Follow These Examples To See If You're On The Right Track
It’s no wonder that a huge number of online course ideas are popping up out of the blue these days, thanks to advanced tech availability. Stats say that the “online learning industry” is about to shoot past $325 billion by 2025, which is a 200% increase between 2020 and 2025.
And if you’re reading this, you must be one of the many aspiring tutors looking forward to creating an online course. Also, you probably have a couple of online course ideas. Great!
So, the question is how do you validate your online course ideas?
Before we get to that, you should know why you should be validating your online course ideas before you get started!
Udemy, as of now, has more than 70,000 instructors and 130,000 courses. Coursera on the other hand is making great strides as well! If you’re looking to break in, move up the ladder and create some healthy chaos, your online course ideas should be feasible—that’s where the course validation part comes in!
Enough reason! Let’s get to it!
7 Steps To Validate Your Online Course Ideas
It’s always best when you start off to know if there’s a demand for your online course idea, whether people are searching for what you’re about to teach on a daily basis, and how important it will be to their life. Because only when there is enough demand, will you get considerable registrations followed by revenue.
Mentioned below are a few ways/mediums which will help you understand the demand and validate your online course idea (we’ll start with “copywriting online courses” as an example and see how feasible this can be).
1. YouTube
If you’re asking why YouTube, here you go!
YouTube is one of the most widely used platforms today, having more than active 2 billion monthly users (now that’s some number, ain’t it?).
Also, YouTube accounts for 25% of global mobile traffic and 15% of broadband traffic. So, it definitely is a good place to start validating your online course idea.
Let’s start with the online course idea we already spoke about: copywriting.
We went to YouTube and searched “copywriting online course,” these were the results:
The results were extensive! You could literally scroll forever with relevant results.
The above-mentioned are only a few handpicked copywriting course videos that have good metrics. Brain Dean has gained 350k+ views in a year! And that’s definitely a clear sign of demand plus potential!
Just imagine that 1% of the above number is your registration; that would make it 3,500! Sounds cool, right?
Since YouTube is where most people nowadays look for quick answers, having decent results and good metric figures for your online course idea here is a good sign to proceed!
Once when you’re done with YouTube, let’s begin with the old-fashioned way.
2. Google Search Results
Google has always been people’s go-to source for browsing information, especially if they are a novice!
Let’s take a look at the results when searched for an “online copywriting course”.
Huge results! Though search results are an important metric when it comes to online course idea validation, they aren’t quite enough to make conclusive decisions - relevancy matters.
All you have to do is, skim through the search results and find how relevant the search results are. These were the most relevant results for the search query we used!
Apart from Udemy and Coursera (which were the top results), the above are a couple of relevant and potential search results.
When you follow the same approach for your online course ideas, by now you’d be having a shallow idea whether to proceed or not!
But again, it’s better if you conduct in-depth research before you conclude.
3. Keyword Search Volume
This might sound like technical stuff but it’s one of the easiest methods on our list. Keyword search volume is nothing but the idea of how much people search for a particular query in a month.
Depending on the search volume, you can simply decide whether it’s going to be worth the effort or not.
How do you do this? It’s all below!
The extension used here is “Keywords Everywhere”, a free tool that gives you the list of related keywords to your search query.
Now, make a note of them and head to The Hoth - Keyword Volume Checker.
Simply paste the list of keywords and you’ll get the search volume for each one of them. Here are the results for our example search query.
The term online copywriting course alone has an approximate search volume of 480 per month!
This method is actually easier than said and can help you gain clear insights - free of cost!
4. Amazon
The A-Z store is emerging as the go-to marketplace for almost anything! And books & courses are no exception. Edupreneurs who focus on driving revenue via multiple streams definitely have Amazon on their marketing shelf.
Let’s check Amazon for copywriting.
Above were the results (there were a couple more actually)! Getting results on Amazon is a clear sign of how much of a need your online course idea is to people.
And when done, start looking at your competitors.
5. Competitor Sneak Peek
When starting an online/offline business, it’s always recommended that you take a look at niche competitors. This helps you to know whether your plan is viable or not! If your competitors are thriving and you smell good revenue, there is definitely an opportunity for you as well!
When it comes to learning courses online, there’s no better place to start than Udemy and Coursera.
On searching for “Copywriting” in Udemy, the following were the results.
The competitor here is not Udemy but the tutors! Some tutors have received 12000+ reviews - let’s say only one-fourth of the total course attendees left a review which brings it close to 50,000 course registrations!
Similarly, you can head to other popular eLearning platforms like Coursera, Skillshare and more to validate your online course ideas.
6. Interact With People
All the above-mentioned ideas were rock solid methods to validate your online course idea based on existing data and proof. But this one is slightly different.
This is where you interact with a group of people and know what they think about your online course idea!
You can simply interact with people by
- Creating an online questionnaire using Google Forms/Feedier. This works best if you have a marketing email list or you can simply reach out to people personally.
- Create engaging conversations in forums like Reddit, Quora and more.
- Create a preview of your course and post it on social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, to know what people think about your online course idea.
Going further, if you’ve already come up with course materials, feel free to share them with industry experts and ask for their opinion.
Trying out these things not only helps you get honest feedback but also helps you come up with a robust online course!
And the last one on our list is going to be,
7. Play to Your Strengths
This part here is quite important. There is no point validating your online course idea if you’re not an expert in it. Mastering a new art and then later teaching online takes time and if that’s a luxury you can afford, then super cool!
But if not, it’s better you do what you’re already good at!
Say you’re an SEO expert, you can come up with SEO courses in all three levels. Or if you’re a culinary expert with knowledge in different cuisine styles, you can create the same number of courses!
It’s important that you identify your strengths, know how good of a person you are in it and make decisions.
Well, that’s pretty much how you validate your online course idea and come up with a conclusion as to whether you’re going to pursue it or not!
And as for our experiment, “Copywriting” seems to be an ideal online course idea to proceed with (based on what we saw above).
Before we wind up this read, we thought why not come up with some of the most profitable niches for you to get started with (if you don’t have one in your mind already).
5 Best Online Course Ideas You Should Consider in 2021
Like we already said, here are some of the top ideas you should consider for your online course.
1. Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing needs no introduction and reasoning as well! The total number of websites up and running today are close to two billion and each one of them at some point has to implement Digital Marketing.
Coming up with digital marketing courses on all levels (beginner, intermediate and expert) can prove to be a great online course idea today!
Here are a few examples you can consider coming up with
- Google Analytics Course
- On-Page & Technical SEO Courses
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Pay-per-click Courses
- Social Media Marketing and more.
2. Programming and Development Courses
Python? React? Flutter? You name it, there’d be an online course for it already! The software development industry is at its peak and everyone is looking forward to becoming a full-stack developer today - that’s a great opportunity provided you are an expert in programming and development.
Below are a few examples of computer programming and related courses,
- Full Stack Development Courses
- Machine Learning/AI
- Application Development Courses
- Robotics
- Cybersecurity & Network Management, etc.
3. Graphic Designing & Video Editing
Pretty sure that everyone would have a different perspective but the hacks and techniques is something that everyone doesn’t know!
If you’ve got the attention to detail and you can play around with some of the most advanced designing & video editing software like Camtasia, Photoshop, Figma and more, you’ve got a great chance to earn significant revenue figures.
Here are quite a few examples,
- UI/UX Courses
- Motion Graphic Designing Courses
- Camtasia Video Editing Courses
- Adobe Premiere Video Editing Courses, etc.
4. Health & Fitness
These days, people are turning more and more health-conscious. With the number of chronic diseases on the rise, people are doing everything possible to stay fit & healthy. And in the process, they are open to learn about nutrition plans, aerobics, Zumba courses and more.
So, if you’re an expert among one of the above-mentioned (or anything else related to this), you might as well start your online course right now!
Here are a few online course ideas with regards to health and fitness,
- Diet & Nutrition Courses
- Fitness Courses
- Aromatherapy Courses
- Yoga Coach Certifications and Courses
- Human Anatomy Courses
- First Aid Courses and more.
5. Personality Development
Who doesn’t want to look or sound better these days? Whether it’s to crack an interview or deliver a presentation amidst thousands, people always want to look better and give their best! And this opens up a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities for online tutors.
Here are few examples of online courses ideas when it comes to personality development,
- Setting Goals and Time Management Courses
- Communication & Public Speaking Courses
- Presentation & Decision Making Courses
- Anger Management Courses
- Memory Management Courses and more.
The Bottom Line
That’s pretty much the end of the read.
You now know how to validate an online course without spending a dollar. And of course, a few popular niches to start with as well!
But, here’s one thing you should keep in mind while validating your online course ideas,
“Numbers and metric figures can help you know whether you’re headed in the right direction. Completely relying on them will do you no good!”
An uncracked highly lucrative niche will only have fewer numbers. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be pursuing it! This could be a great opportunity for you to evolve as one of the leading experts in the long run!
So, make sure you consider all the above-mentioned factors while you validate your online course ideas.
P.S. Starting an online course can seem difficult at first but with pre-existing platforms, you can get started pretty quick - completely hassle-free!
Now that you know how to validate an online course idea and the platforms to get started with as well, what are you still waiting for?
Start creating your own online course now!
Cheers!
