Remember Janelle? She contacted me a couple of months ago because she spent six months creating an online course, and the launch did not go well. So, I sent her some encouragement (and advice). If you missed the first part of the story, catch on up here. She got back to me after my last email to her. She told me all about her values – all the things I told her to think about (you can check out that magical elixir here – What Nobody is Telling You About Launching Your Damn Course). And she was EXCITED. So, she came back with the most obvious question: What is the secret celebrity ingredient to launch your online course?
See, she’s nailed her sweetspot. She’s started validating. And she is pushing through the fear.
What a badass!
But she had questions. Loads of questions. And her questions were mainly around that thing that we all struggle to talk about: MONEY.
What were these questions?
- What should she charge once her course is created?
- What if she creates this kickass course, and no one buys it?
I’m going to tackle the second question first. Because it’s EVERYTHING. And it speaks directly to the secret celebrity ingredient to launch your online course.
What if you create a kickass course, and no one buys it?
The one thing you must not do in your course-creation process is spend hours and hours creating an entire course, before you know and have tested whether it’s even something people want and need and will pay for!
I mean why on earth would you do this?
It’s the biggest mistake I see (and I made this painful and expensive mistake too). You do not want your course to bomb. It’s going to cost you time and money. And nobody wants that.
So, there’s no point in you wasting precious hours creating all that content if you haven’t validated who will buy your course.
One of the reasons you need to prevent this from happening, is because it will create fear and doubt. And there’s just no space for those emotions in this process.
You’ve got to be sure before you create that course, that people are going to buy it. That’s why the validation process is so important. Imagine receiving an extra income of $1,000 or $5,000 or $10,000 per month once you’ve tested, validated and pre-sold your first digital course?!
It’s totally possible, and more than that, it’s the SMART way to do it and build your online business.
The No-Brainer
The trial and error route is costly. It costs time and money. You’re way too smart for that.
The route where you give up? You stop before you even start to launch your course? Not. An. Option.
The no-brainer here is to pre-sell your course before you create it.
Hold up, Natalie! What?! That’s kerrr-aaazy.
Is it, though?
Think about major corporations like Apple. Or Nike. Or MacDonalds. I’m pretty sure they don’t spend money creating ANYTHING before they’ve pre-sold an idea. This is what I mean by finding the secret celebrity ingredient to launch your online course.
Take Ferrari. Several times they’ve planned a limited edition, massively expensive car. It’s known as a hypercar and it’s considerably more expensive than any car in their regular range (if that’s even possible).
The car might be completed in a prototype form, or merely as a drawing with specs attached. That car will sell before they’ve built a single one. For example, in 2013, only 499 LaFerraris were put up for sale and all of them were sold before the car was unveiled to the public. Over 1000 people put in a request for the car.
Now, I love this analogy for a couple of reasons.
Reason 1
Thinking about your damn course as though it was a Ferrari? Too delicious for words.
Reason 2
This car is EXPENSIVE. We’re talking over a million USD, over ten years ago. But people were willing to spend that moolah on something they hadn’t even seen yet, because they knew they were going to get something good. That’s what hype does.
The point is that if you don’t want to lose money, you need to pre-sell that course idea. And then build your course.
There are other brands that do this too:
Software companies do it.
H&M
Swarovski.
They all pre-sell their products.
Which leads me to this point…
How do you find the secret celebrity ingredient to launch your online course and pre-sell like a BOSS?
You go back to the very beginning. You check up on all that juicy validation you did. The questions you asked. The pain points you discovered. The solutions you came up with. The desires of all the people you’ve spoken to while doing your research.
And then you build that all-important buzz.
Your current community
Take a look at your email list. How many subscribers do you have? Take a look at your social media accounts – what are your stats there?
And I’m talking IG, FB, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn…all of it. Also take a look at the number of people in the groups you’re in, and friends or peers with established audiences that you could partner with. It all adds up. Celebrate the size of your current community.
What are you most comfortable with?
Are you a video wizz? Live or pre-recorded?
Do you prefer audio (like podcasts)?
Are interviews your thing?
Are you in love with written posts?
Are you more into imagery and photos?
Maybe it’s a combo of these?
Whatever floats your boat, start posting. Post regularly and consistently. Post content that’s of high quality. Position yourself as someone who knows about your niche – you don’t have to be an expert. But put out ideas that are engaging, entertaining and educational. Remember, people don’t want to be sold to. They want to feel like they’re learning and being engaged with.
When you put out regular content that’s insightful and engaging, people remember that. And that is GOLD when it comes to uncovering the secret celebrity ingredient to launch your online course.
The data doesn’t lie
Choose your top 3 platforms and focus on them. Now, obviously you need to choose the ones you enjoy the most and feel the most comfortable on. But make sure you do your research. Take a look at all your insights and analytics to get real data on what engagement, reach and impressions you’ve had on previous posts.
Use the platforms that are generating traffic for you. And if certain content is working well, create more of that kind of content.
Put it all together…
And start creating that all-important buzz so you can start to pre-sell your course.
What do you charge for your course?
Ah, that old chestnut. It’s the million-dollar question.
The key here is to look at the benefits of your course. What is it giving people? What is that worth? This requires a bit of guess-work, but it’s very important to put a value on the result or transformation that your course is going to give someone.
The next thing to do is research. Get online and look for course that are similar to yours, and take a look at how much they cost. How much are similar courses on the market? Take a look at what they charge, what they offer and what result they promise.
Think about how much you’d charge if you were offering this service to a private client. That’s often a good place to start. This is also tied into what you’d ideally like to earn on a monthly basis once your course is launched and created.
A good way to do this is to work backwards: eg I’d like to earn $1000 per month. If my course costs $197, I need to sell five per month; if it costs $500, I have to sell two.
Finally, how much are you prepared to invest in your course upfront if you’re sure you’ll make that back over the next 3 months. Think about an advertising budget, tech set up, copywriting, graphics and platforms costs (check out this megapost I put together that breaks down platforms, their costs and features.)
Bottom line
No, really. Think about your bottom line. That’s what this is all about. Remember what an online course can bring you:
Could it offer you more flexibility?
Allow you to do what you love?
Provide you with a 5, 6 or even 7-figure income?
If the answer is Hell Yes, then HELL YES to you!
This is your moment! Download my free Course-Creation Starter Kit and dive into some life-changing learnings. And then join me (and many other kickass entrepreneurs) in creating your own online course!