Lately, people are looking to expand their knowledge or gain new skills. We currently live in the information age where anyone can learn anything on their own time and wherever they’d like to learn it (on the beach, at home, in-transit). Setting up an online class can be an effective form of passive income for a variety reasons that I will outline below. You will need to set up your online class effectively upfront. In your online class, you invest most of your time upfront (like publishing), but reap the benefits of little to no work thereafter. You can earn passive income by creating an online class. Just stay focused on the quality of the product and the end goal.
Earn Passive Income by Creating an Online Class for a Skill or Hobby
Traditionally, their only option would have been to go back to school. However, this has always turned out to be expensive, time consuming and in some cases nearly impossible for some. With an increase in the number of people with access to a stable internet connection (more than 82% growth rate in the past five years), then learning online becomes a viable and attractive option for many. Living an online nomad life can be rewarding. You have the freedom to do anything in any location.
In order to understand why setting up online classes for a hobby or a skill is a good idea, it is important to understand the characteristics of people who seek out such classes. Understanding these characteristics will help you create an engaging and successful online class.
One of the main characteristic is that these people are often very busy. Time is money. Many times, people who seek short courses have busy lives and wish to take a short class that will help them in their careers on in their daily lives. Being busy means that they do not have enough time to try and get a college degree that would help them gain the skill that they need.
Another characteristic is that they often do not have money to pay for college. This means that going to school is not an option for them since they cannot afford it.
With these two characteristics in mind, you should create a class that captures the busy aspect of their lives. The modules should be well spaced and ideally, the class should be self-paced. You want the class to be comprehensive enough that it will be easy to learn. You don’t want to confuse your audience. This will lead to bad reviews. Bad reviews result in little to no sales.
Income is paramount to financial planning. Not only that you need to increase your income over time without increasing your expenses.
Advantages of Creating an Online Class to Earn Passive Income
Some of the advantages that the online class will offer you include the following considerations.
Steady income
Online classes can be a great source of income for you if they are successful. If well planned and for a skill that is in demand, they may even end up being your sole source of income.
With an online class, you may charge whatever you want. In fact, you should make your classes a bit expensive because people always associate expensive with high quality and are more motivated to complete something they have spent a lot of money on. Choose your price point that reflects the optimal buying point. Once you launch the course, you essential make an income for doing nothing. You simply need to promote and monitor your strategies.
Easy to re-purpose
Once you start the class, you can resell it in different forms. In some cases, it is even possible to resell it for the same purpose. In instances where the platform does not require the class to be exclusive, you can literally sell you class anywhere. The first method of re-purposing would be offering the online class on another virtual platform.
The other method of reselling your class would be taking your online class and make it an in-person class! You don’t need to teach a whole audience. You’d be surprised at how many people might approach you about tutoring, mentoring and more.
Most people have something they can teach
This range includes hobbies and skills such as photography, web design, app development, accounting, mathematics, creative writing and other forms of writing, games such as chess, Go and any other board game, painting, organizational skills and strategies, business classes and many others. There is always something you can teach online and you should be ready to do that.
Gratification of helping others
While converting skills, passions and hobbies will be the main purpose of setting up the class for most, an online class enables one to help many people at ones. By making it possible to learn something without going to school or leaving home, one is able to help many people especially people who face constraints that prevent them from attending a traditional class. When you receive feedback from students that they were able to achieve their goals, this can be very rewarding.
An online class is great because you put the work upfront and read the benefits later. This is a lot different than online jobs where you put in time and get the reward instantly.
Steps to Earn Passive Income by Creating an Online Class
With these advantages in mind, its rewarding to earn passive income by creating an online class. Use the next steps as a guide to earn passive income by creating an online class.
Develop and plan the course idea
If you wish to set up an online class, you probably have some ideas on what and how to teach. Some ideas include gardening, baking and cooking and the hobbies and skills mentioned above. The development phase will include what to include in the class, the media to use, including videos, lectures, books, exercises and tests.
Look for platforms to offer your online class
There are various platforms you may use to sell your online course. These platforms make it easier for you since most of the time, a lot of the advertising work has been done for you. An example of a platform is edX where educational courses are offered. Another example is treehouse, which mainly teaches coding. Other platforms include Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare, CourseCraft, Thinkific, learnworlds, coursecrafts and many more.
Set the pricing for your class
Setting the pricing is not as easy as it looks. One may be tempted to set the classes up cheaply. However, as stated before, the more expensive classes are likely to be viewed positively. Additionally, they end up giving you the flexibility you need to teach and engage with the learners in ways that are comfortable and fulfilling.
Build your client base
This will probably prove to be the most difficult part of the process. The advertising strategies you use will include using the platform where the online class is set, using social media, using Google and in some cases using offline strategies. You may try to use a mailing list which will invite people to your class and let them know when the modules start, when they close and any other useful information related to your class.
Use pre-launch promotional techniques to build a client base by reaching out to influencers in the space. You can conduct interviews with experts on the matter and then quote them in your online class. This could have a great effect on your promotions as the influencer will be likely to share your class with their following.
Start teaching your class
Once you have established and planned your content, identified the appropriate medium to use, priced your class and built your client base, the next step, naturally, you should start teaching. You may use a variety of tools to measure progress and to make sure that even though the class will be self-paced, people who sign up for it will learn something after a certain period.
Conclusion on Selling an Online Course for Passive Income
With these ideas in mind, you now know the path you should follow when setting up an online class. As stated, the class will offer a number of advantages. You will be able to free up some time for your other hobbies and activities since the income from it will mainly be passive. You also get to change people’s lives by teaching them a skill.
You must know the different between passive income and nonpassive income for tax purposes.
Can you earn passive income by creating an online class? Do you already earn passive income from an online class? What has your experience been? Let us know in the comments below.
Need some other ideas to make money online? Here are several ways to make $500 fast.
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