That's a good question. I suggest that you focus on building the audience that would need the course you are thinking about building. If you can't build the audience, then you might rethink building the course.
Loved this post — especially your point about “What you already know is worth teaching.” That’s exactly what inspired us to build EdShopify — a creator-first platform helping experts, coaches, and educators turn their knowledge into income effortlessly. We’re launching next week and I’d love to chat about how we could team up to support more creators.
You have such a depth of experience, Melissa. You are definitely the right person to learn from about IFS. You might want to share this information on your offer page so people know you are a person to trust about this topic.
Love the concept, but the biggest challenge I have is where do you get the people? I’m sure a lot of us have seen “Field of Dreams,” but reality says “Build it and they will come” is not a good business strategy. 🤷♀️
There are many ways to get the people. If you have an audience already, then you sell to that audience. But, people ask if they don't have an audience. So what do you do then?
You either 1) build the audience first or 2) do enough market research so you know what are effective ways of reaching the people you want. That might be through advertising, joint ventures, etc.
Thank you for encouraging us to share our knowledge, expertise, and experiences through courses that can help others reach their goals.
I love teaching and creating courses for people eager to write their life stories, but who are timid about their writing skills or unsure about where to start. Even people who have succeeded with academic writing (like me) face fears when they set out to write the personal and intimate story of their lives.
The first barrier they face is the wall of traditional writing advice, followed by clouds of self-limiting beliefs based on comparing themselves to bestsellers. I created a tiny video e-course to topple the barriers holding people back from writing the story only they can tell. When they purchase this e-course, they also get great bonuses.
Yikes! I'll double check it. Thanks for letting me know. Seems like the period at the end of the sentence thought it was part of the link. Let me know if this one works.
Such an encouraging post. Just what I needed to hear today.
I've created courses, and here is one Tiny Course for horse owners who love to train using positive reinforcement.
Many clicker trainers are all by themselves, and they need to become their own coach.
In this tiny course they get a Clicker Training Journal that they can use to log their training sessions, their wins and find the holes in their training, so they can close them and make progress.
Includes free resources: a video, evaluation forms for 30-day progress, 4-week progress, 12-week/quarterly progress and one-year progress so that it helps you stay on track.
Hi there, love the idea of tiny courses as I've got decades of experience in L&D creating courses for corporates. However, I've heard that video courses are not selling anymore and that courses have to have a live element to succeed. I'm interested in your opinion on this as to start with, I'd prefer to create and market self-paced video courses.
Wendy, people still buy courses of all kinds. Live courses are best when people need the energy of a group to follow through or if they need feedback to succeed. If you've taught your material before and know the sticking points, you can make a self guided course that can do well.
What if we don't have an audience yet? 🙂
That's a good question. I suggest that you focus on building the audience that would need the course you are thinking about building. If you can't build the audience, then you might rethink building the course.
Loved this post — especially your point about “What you already know is worth teaching.” That’s exactly what inspired us to build EdShopify — a creator-first platform helping experts, coaches, and educators turn their knowledge into income effortlessly. We’re launching next week and I’d love to chat about how we could team up to support more creators.
Wow in a week. Sounds interesting. I replied to your DM.
I love this idea! A tiny course.
Thank you.
I’m an Internal Family Systems expert and offer video courses and unique IFS sessions for people to learn IFS parts work!
https://deeperintimacywithyourself.ezycourse.com/course-detail/intro-to-ifs/19908/
I’m an Internal Family Systems Certified Practitioner (since 2010).
Not a therapist, but well-qualified with over 2,350 hours of IFS training to support individuals and couples with IFS parts work.
My videos are great for therapists and coaches to deepen their understanding of IFS for clients, and also anyone who wants to do IFS on themselves!
Because I’ve done over 8,000 hours of IFS on myself over the last 23 years, I specialize in DIY IFS!
A lot of my videos are geared towards helping people externalize parts or learn techniques that make self-work easier and more effective.
My next workshop, The Math and Science of Self, helps people use simple quantification methods to support self-work.
http://www.athousandpaths.com/all-upcoming-classes is the spot to find all my upcoming live Zoom workshops!
You have such a depth of experience, Melissa. You are definitely the right person to learn from about IFS. You might want to share this information on your offer page so people know you are a person to trust about this topic.
Maybe you already have that. I just realize that similar information is on the home page of your course website.
I don’t think my Substack has much about my online or live Zoom courses so I agree, that’s something to update!
I deeply appreciate the suggestion!
Thanks Rodney!! That’s a great idea!
I’ll do that! 😊
That's great, Melissa. I read your page.
Is this parts work for self help or to teach therapists? Also, are you a therapist?
Everyone can make a course but not everyone can market it. That’s the thing.
I think everyone CAN market a course. It's a skill like any other. The question is how to learn that skill.
Very true. The only difference is that creating one course it's for the most part easy, but the marketing part it the heavy one.
What do you feel is the source of the marketing difficulty?
I think that course creators (OK, I will speak for myself ;-)) can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees.
You know the ins-and outs of the course and your target market, yet to connect the two... I struggle.
And yes, it can be very hard to figure out marketing and course creation at the same time ... at first. Here's one concept that can help: https://rodneydaut.substack.com/p/stop-promising-transformations-people
What’s one of your courses about? What complaint does it solve for your customers?
No idea what a text course is or how to make it...but like the concept of the Tiny Course
Pat, a text-based course is a course made from text. So the text may be in the form of PDFs for example.
Love the concept, but the biggest challenge I have is where do you get the people? I’m sure a lot of us have seen “Field of Dreams,” but reality says “Build it and they will come” is not a good business strategy. 🤷♀️
There are many ways to get the people. If you have an audience already, then you sell to that audience. But, people ask if they don't have an audience. So what do you do then?
You either 1) build the audience first or 2) do enough market research so you know what are effective ways of reaching the people you want. That might be through advertising, joint ventures, etc.
Hi Kristina,
Thank you for encouraging us to share our knowledge, expertise, and experiences through courses that can help others reach their goals.
I love teaching and creating courses for people eager to write their life stories, but who are timid about their writing skills or unsure about where to start. Even people who have succeeded with academic writing (like me) face fears when they set out to write the personal and intimate story of their lives.
The first barrier they face is the wall of traditional writing advice, followed by clouds of self-limiting beliefs based on comparing themselves to bestsellers. I created a tiny video e-course to topple the barriers holding people back from writing the story only they can tell. When they purchase this e-course, they also get great bonuses.
Get the details and immediate access at https://www.florabrown.com/course-everything-you-need-to-know-sales-page.
Hi Flora, i get Error 404 😢
Yikes! I'll double check it. Thanks for letting me know. Seems like the period at the end of the sentence thought it was part of the link. Let me know if this one works.
https://www.florabrown.com/course-everything-you-need-to-know-sales-page
Both links are working now, Flora. You have a great-looking page, too.
Thanks Rodney.
Thanks Rodney. I bought some of your products yesterday and will be reaching out soon to get your wisdom on another program I want to launch.
Thank you so much, Flora. I look forward to speaking with you.
Such an encouraging post. Just what I needed to hear today.
I've created courses, and here is one Tiny Course for horse owners who love to train using positive reinforcement.
Many clicker trainers are all by themselves, and they need to become their own coach.
In this tiny course they get a Clicker Training Journal that they can use to log their training sessions, their wins and find the holes in their training, so they can close them and make progress.
Includes free resources: a video, evaluation forms for 30-day progress, 4-week progress, 12-week/quarterly progress and one-year progress so that it helps you stay on track.
Here is the link https://clickertraining.ca/courses/hippologic-clicker-training-journal/
Such a great idea.
I love this! Is just what I’m looking for these days. Would there be a second part to talk about platforms to host, costs, and more technical details?
Thanks for teaching this!
Elena,
Great idea. I may make that a subject for an upcoming article.
Goodnight from Germany :) Here's the chatty Chat thread: https://substack.com/chat/443311/post/0a4a2dd5-8a49-40ec-a5cf-7ea70676f0f5
Hi there, love the idea of tiny courses as I've got decades of experience in L&D creating courses for corporates. However, I've heard that video courses are not selling anymore and that courses have to have a live element to succeed. I'm interested in your opinion on this as to start with, I'd prefer to create and market self-paced video courses.
Wendy, people still buy courses of all kinds. Live courses are best when people need the energy of a group to follow through or if they need feedback to succeed. If you've taught your material before and know the sticking points, you can make a self guided course that can do well.
Fantastic. Creating self-paced courses will suit me better.