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How can I set up an online courses business?

I would like to get into the business of offering online courses in various Finance and Trading related areas eg. Trading Crude Oil, Futures and Options. I have the products, would just need technical help in putting them online.

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Answers

Sarah Brody

Digital Ads Expert | Former Marketer @ HubSpot

If you want to build a business around this, I'd recommend looking into some platforms that offer white-labeling and an easy interface for creating courses. Check out www.thoughtindustries.com.

Or you could always go with something like Udemy, which may be a bit easier, but would be hosted through their site.

Answered about 9 years ago

Malcolm Ong

Co-founder @ Terminal 3; Co-founder @ Skillshare

I am one of the co-founders of Skillshare, which is in this business (though not for finance and trading areas).

Your question is a bit vague, so it depends on a lot of specifics. How are these classes "delivered"? Who are your target customers? Are you looking to be more of a content provider, or a platform, or..?

Depending on the specifics, you could either start your own site, and host your courses there.. or simply distribute and syndicate your content elsewhere.

Happy to help if I can if you want to schedule a call.

Answered about 9 years ago

Joy Broto

🌎Harvard Certified Global Corporate Trainer🌍

There are many reasons why you should create an online course business instead of any other online business. Learn what is available in the market, how many competitors work and what they do, as well as how they do it. Learning about the competition will help you find the silver lining between what you want to do, your area of expertise, and the market needs. You will be amazed at what you can find about your industry with just a single search. For example, if your subject is early primary school courses, you are probably looking for women/men aged 25 – 45 with at least one child between 6 to 12 years old. Simply put, it helps you know who your students are – your audience, where to find them and how to approach them. The colours of your website, the copy you have an audience ready to buy when you launch.
Branding can easily help you create a marketing funnel where you can get course sales from and it is all about how you position your business in the market. To do this – since you cannot appeal to just about anyone – nor you should try to, you need to be able to attract your target audience effectively. These questions give you a chance to see your business through a different scope – from your potential student’s perspective.
Personal goals have a high satisfaction value, but a skill/certificate leading to a promotion might be valued even higher. The best thing about starting a business is that you can create something new, fresh, and innovative from scratch. Fortunately, there is a lot of potential for that, when creating online courses.
Your learning content should tie along with your learning goals and objectives. If you are using video, which is currently the most popular tool online, make sure you choose your equipment accordingly.
The next step is marketing and selling your courses. Marketing is all about attracting visitors and pushing them further into your sales funnel. This can be a combination of offline channels – business contacts, phone-calling, event marketing, meetings, workshops – and online channels – paid ads, SEO, affiliate marketing, partners, social media, and email marketing. Attracting the right audience is what really counts in all your marketing efforts.
You will need to choose the right way to attract your audience. However, the most important part of your strategy is how you can capture, and nurture leads into paying customers. The best way to do that is with email and social media marketing. An email list gives you access to a well-targeted group of people who have already shown their interest in your topic.
You can either send them industry specific news, advice, insights or send them your latest blog post. A social media presence is especially important to attract your first visitors. Use your personal social media first and then create professional accounts. Choose wisely, as not all SM are suitable for the same audience, and you might need to focus on one or two initially. Create a page/profile for your online academy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or even Pinterest and make industry-relevant posts frequently to drive traffic on your site.
You can get help on this through social management tools such as Buffer or Hootsuite. Affiliate marketing is a great way to get in front of new people and use another’s influencers skills to sell courses. Getting more leads from free courses and other downloadable you can add them in your email list. You will then need an email sequence to “nurture” those leads into paying customers. Think of leads as seeds of a flower, your email sequence is regular watering and paying customers as the blooming flowers. Your call to actions, your messaging and marketing messages. If you are doing business coaching, you can do a workshop for SMEs in your area and give them a discount to join your full course to help them succeed. A business is a living thing, it needs nurturing and can grow over time.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath

Answered almost 4 years ago