Out of all the digital products that my business sells, online courses have made up 80 to 90% of our revenue year after year for the last decade.

Today, I'm going to take you through what online courses are and the steps that actually work today to build passive income with your own online course.

What exactly is an Online Course?

Think of an online course like a class or a workshop that you're hosting online.

So instead of actually having to teach it in person, what you're doing is you're creating a curriculum just like you would with any class. But then what you're doing is you're recording it in videos and creating worksheets.

Then you're hosting it online with course hosting software so that you can sell your course to an unlimited number of people.

And once people purchase it, it's all automated.

They get the login, they can go in, and they can take the course.

They can watch the videos as many times as they want. They can go through the course as many times as they want.

Not only are online courses already really big, but this is definitely the future of learning.

How to Come up with a Course Idea?

Okay, you're here because you want to create your own online course for passive income or maybe you just want to help a lot of people around the world.

But you might be wondering how you actually come up with your course idea.

That’s a great question!

Let me share with you a framework for coming up with your idea and also share my story on how I have come up with my own profitable course idea.

One of the best ways you can come up with your own online course idea is to start to ask yourself questions like:

-What are the problems that you've solved?

-What are things you've overcome?

-What achievements you've had?

So, for example, when I wanted to start my very first online course, I could have taught a course on how to have a good babysitting company because I used to have one. I could have taught a course on how to make your first painting because I love to paint. I could have taught a course on amateur dog training because I was really into that.

Just different things I was passionate about and knowledgeable in. I could have made courses on that.

For me, at the time though, I had a successful photo studio and people were asking me how I did it. So not only could I have done a lot of those different course ideas, but what I did was actually listened to the market.

People were actively asking me for this thing and they were willing to pay me for this thing. So I decided to make a course on how to have a successful photography business, because that was one of the things that I had achieved and was good at and passionate about, and knowledgeable in.

But also it was the thing that people were actively asking me, so I knew that was the winning idea.

So for you, again, ask yourself all those questions, make a list of different course ideas, and then really think and go through like, which one of these should I start with?

You can always do more course ideas down the line, but you definitely want to pick one to start with so that you can focus on it, really see it through, and make sure that it's successful.

Creating an Online Course

Now let's talk about actually creating your online course.

A lot of people think that the first thing to do is actually create the course. That is true to a degree. But I want to talk about the strategy of actually creating a course and what components and elements and things you should do to create one.

1. Course Curriculum (Post-it Power Hour Strategy)

When creating an online course, I teach my students what I call the—Post-it Power Hour Strategy as one of the most important steps.

I know making a course is super freaking overwhelming, and this strategy can help turn your course idea into a full-fledged course curriculum in no time.

Essentially, you use post-it notes to figure out where your ideal clients are now and where you want them to be at the end of your course.

The first thing you need to do is obviously come up with your course topic. Then decide how many modules you need to get someone from point A to point Z as quickly as possible. Note that, the number of modules is up to you! It could be as many as needed to get them the result they wanted.

From there, you can actually create the curriculum for your course, all the modules, all the lessons, and all that.

I highly recommend creating the curriculum first, instead of going in and building out the videos and the worksheets and all of that stuff.

2. Pre-sell your Course

I've seen so many people build out their course, spend months doing it, and never make any sales.

It’s the reason why I recommend pre-selling your online course.

By doing this, you can prove your concept and know that people are going to pay for it before spending, hours, and hours, days, weeks, and even, maybe months, building out a course. Pre-selling your course also allows you to get paid upfront.

But now you're probably wondering, how do I pre-sell my online course?

Make sure you’re done with your course curriculum. Come up with a name for your course. Then, create an offer and highlight that you're going to help them get a result. Highlight why it’s going to be worth the money.

If you have at least 200 email subscribers, then you can start to send emails, show people your offer, and try and sell them into your course.

3. Build a Following for your Course

If you have no following at all, start with a Facebook group.

I'm not the biggest fan of Facebook, but if you have no following at all, it is one of the fastest places that you can grow a following quickly. Then, also convert them to email subscribers.

Once you have built a following, it is now time to enroll your first students. You can now take student payments, and make sure you already set up your checkout page.

4. Teaching Live Round

One of the best things about actually making your course alongside your first students is it’s going to make your course so much better. You can get feedback from your first students right away that can help you improve your course.

You can do this by teaching the first round of your course live.

First, you can simply choose a start date for teaching live rounds. Then, for every person who pays for your course, and wants to be part of the first live round, you're going to add them to a separate Facebook group for paid members only. Then, you're actually going to teach your course inside of that Facebook group.

Now, you can do this in a number of different ways. You can record a video each week like pre-record it and then upload it to the group, then do it week by week. But don't do it until people have actually paid because you don't want to waste your time until you know people are going to pay for it.

5. Certificate of Completion

Certificate of completion is optional.

But, it’s easy to create, so why not?

This will make your students feel great for completing your course and they need to be celebrated.

You can create the certificate of completion in Canva as well.

It should have your course name, date of completion, and/or the course components.

How and where do I actually create Course Content?

To actually create the content, I do recommend Canva.

You just need to open a webinar template or slide in Canva and then you can go ahead and create your teaching slides.

Now you can make a course that's like a talking head video, kind of like a YouTube video, or you can go ahead and create slides and just record your voice-over, or you can just do a combination of both.

So start by creating the title, and prepare everything that you will be going to cover. Then, break down each point with the different sections and you can use as many slides as needed.

Then I usually end with frequently asked questions or a Q&A if I'm teaching live, and lastly I leave them with homework.

So that's kind of my structure and I hope that it gives you an idea.

How to sell the Course consistently and passively?

In order to sell your course, passively successfully, you'll need a number of components.

1. Set up your Checkout Page

Now, since you’re hosting your course online, the first thing you need to do is set up a checkout page.

It is so important because it’s where people purchase your course. It’s a place where they put in their name and email address, thus it should be user-friendly and easy to navigate.

When people purchase, it should automatically send to them their course login and password.

So this is how you can actually make sales while you're on vacation, taking a nap, watching Netflix, or whatever. Everything here should be automated.

Now, the software that I use and recommend to host an online course is called Systeme.io.

2. Sales Mechanism

Once you have your course hosted and you actually have a checkout page, you will need some kind of sales mechanism to actually sell your course.

Now for me, I chose webinars. I did my webinar live until it was converting and then once it was converting, I automated it using the software.

And if you want to see my auto webinar, how it works, and how I teach, here’s the link: https://www.profitablecourses.com/class

The best way to learn is really just to see how I do it!

I called it My Free Course Training and you can put in your name and email, sign up, and see how the whole thing works.

3. Traffic

Okay, so once you have your course hosted, you have a checkout page for people to pay. You have a sales mechanism, whether it's a webinar or a challenge, or no matter what sales mechanism you choose to sell, the next thing you’ll need is traffic.

So for me, it’s through YouTube and other social media platforms. We repurpose clips from my YouTube videos and post them to places like IG reels, TikTok, and YouTube shorts. Then I add the link to my free course workshop on the descriptions and captions. In this way, when people click it, it will automatically direct them to my auto-webinar, which serves as my "sales mechanism."

Another thing I do to get more traffic is by being a guest on other people’s podcasts.

Now, you don't have to start with all of this at one time. Heck, you don't even have to have a YouTube channel. You can do it however you want with whatever social platforms you want.

Of course, there are other options; you can always think of new strategies to increase traffic. You’ll soon discover what works best for you.

Lastly, one of the most effective strategies is by building your email list. Your email list is where the money is made.

With this, your result will be more consistent, no matter what social platforms you choose.

You can share free PDF downloads to get people onto your email list or create freebies or lead magnet.

Additionally, email lists are actually 40 times more effective at converting followers to purchasers. So you always want to grow your following on whatever platforms work for you and then move people to your email list.

How do I promote through my email list?

Once people get onto my email list, I send them one email a day for five days, which is called my welcome series. This is where I introduce them to my story, what I do, who I help, and what I help them with.

Then I invite them to my free auto webinar. So that is exactly how you can possibly sell your course as well.

I create valuable content with stories and personal photos and just share tons of free helpful value.

I don't even have to do sales calls.

I don't even have to sell to anyone.

I don't have to convince anyone to join my program.

All I do is I just share free, helpful content.

When people find me online, they can download my free content, sign up for my email list, participate in my training, and eventually enroll in my course Profitable Courses.

Final Thoughts

Creating an online course may not be as hard as you think, but it sure takes time, hard work, and determination.

Today I've revealed my methods, the tools, and the software I used, as well as important steps on how to create a profitable online course. These things worked for me and continue to provide me with steady passive income year after year.

I can say that it’s all worth it.

Now, I say, Building Passive Income with Online Courses is possible! I did it and many of my students are nailing it!

Want to be one of them?