Teach Online | Turning Your Skills & Experience into Cash with Online Courses | With Sarah Cordiner

Tim Cooper

Oct 24 2015

Award winning Edupreneur Sarah Cordiner shares how she went from broke and homeless to building a seven-figure online education business in 18 months.

Don't wait until the perfect moment, your passion is enough!

You don't have to be an expert in order to share your knowledge and experience online.

A forth grader is an expert to a second grader.

You just need to know more about the topic than those you are teaching. Most people prefer to learn from someone who is just a little further along the journey than they are. The experiences are still very fresh versus learning from a Ph.D. who may have never even walked the path.

A very successful strategy is the L.A.T. or Learn, Apply, Teach method. This approach also goes by a number of different acronyms.

Basically you Learn a new skill, apply it and get a result. Then you teach your new skill.

People love being part of your journey and are more likely to engage with you rather than a theory churning professor.

Share your journey, not your product.

The Journey to Building a Seven Figure Education Business

In order to grow a profitable business, you need to turn your content into an online course. In the past, content marketing was used primarily as a means of building a list. We now see content marketing making a shift into a new phase of edupreneurship, or presenting your information for profit.

The most exciting part is this strategy can work for any industry and profession, online or offline.

If creating online education content is new to you, don't go out and spend a lot of money setting up a platform. Using platforms such as Udemy is a great way to start.

Successful businesses provide a lot of free content to help grow their business and build relationships with prospective customers. You may provide free webinars and workshops, set up a blog or produce a podcast. These will always continue to play an important part in your overall business framework.

Edupreneurs take this to another level. Instead of giving away all your content for free, consider turning your free content into an online course. Now you are generating income as you build your list.

Packaging your information

You deserve to get paid, highly, for putting all your knowledge together in an online course.

In order to present our services to our prospective clients in a meaningful way, a way that our prospects understand what we can actually do for them, we have to provide them with a menu.

Your first step is to sit down and list all the products and services you offer along with the exact pricing.

If you just have one course you can greatly expand your profitability by offering it as part of a tiered package.

Give your audience a choice. They can start with the course only for say $47. Then they could have the option to get the course plus a set of templates at a higher price point.

You can continue to build out your options to include 1-on-1 coaching, done for you services, right up to top end mastermind group membership.

How to Set Up Your Tiers

At the bottom level you have your free or entry level product. This is simply information. Once you have created it you don't have to spend much time on it apart from the occasional update. At this level your audience has no direct contact with you. It's basically up to them to work through the information and make the most of it.

The next step up is providing strategies and methods for implementation. You giving your audience the tools that can be used to turn your information into practical exercise.

As we continue up the tiers, the next stage is the transformation stage. Do you or the information you're presenting help people get from A to B, from one circumstance to another? We've all seen the transformational before and after shots for popular weight loss or exercise programs. The same principles can be applied to any business. At this level of the tier you could be looking at a 4 figure price point.

As we continue our climb up the tiers we reach the 'done for you' level. Here we offer to perform the service for the customer. No matter what industry you're in you can find services that you can provide for your customers at a premium rate.

The top level of the tier structure is the 'do it with you' offer. This is your most expensive service as you are exchanging your time for money.

So, make up a menu for all your products and services using this tier strategy and your prospective clients will find it much easier to identify the products and services they require.

Pricing Your Products and Services

We can't tell you the exact price points for your services as we don't know your business. Only you can set your price points based on your industry and what is already out there.

You are going to have to do some market research. As guide, go onto the online course platforms and search for courses in your area. Take note of the -

• Price
• Number of modules/lectures
• Length of course in hours and minutes
• What are the topics
• Is your competition providing information only, or are they including implementation strategies or are they creating a transformation on some level.

You have to provide a similar or better outcome for the price being charged.

In order to be successful, you must have a product to market fit. You have to create a course that people want, not what you want to teach.

The best way to find out what people want is to ask them. You can use groups, forums and surveys to gather information about your target audience and what they want to know about.

Also don't be put off by competitor courses or the expertise of other instructors. Competition is a sign that there is a market for the information. Also don't sell yourself short. We are all unique, we all have our own style and experiences which allow us to present the same topic in a totally different way. You will create a following of people who relate to you and your teaching style.

Another common question is, “should I put my course on Udemy?”.

I'm not going to go into all the drawbacks of using a marketplace-style platform. The short answer is you'll be leaving money on the table if you don't and Udemy can also be used as a lead generator back to your premium products.

You should look at repurposing your content for Udemy. Don't try and sell a big, $500 course, you'll lose a lot of money. Instead, break your course down into ten $50 courses.

Taking it to the Next Level

While creating courses can certainly generate a good income for you, when looking at the bigger picture there truly is no limit to your income generating possibilities.

Once you start to publish courses and other information products on a topic you are automatically tagged as an expert in the subject. This opens up doors for public speaking engagements, invitations onto expert panels and also media exposure. All of which have the potential to drive you even more sales.

One of the biggest things that helped Sarah move from zero money to 7 figures was starting to think like a thought leader. Also, start making sure your friends and family know exactly what it is you do, so they can start referring to you. Then expand your reach out to your social media audience then your town, city, country and ultimately the world.

Take advantage of Sarah's limited time, 50% off offer on these courses -

100+ Ways To Promote, Market & Sell Your Udemy Course

How To Create Your Own Profitable Training Courses

What Is Your Professional Purpose?

Workforce Planning, Development & Instructional Design

Here is a link to one of the resources Sarah recommended -

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

You can also find out more about Sarah at her web sites -

http://www.sarahcordiner.com/

http://maintraining.com.au/