How To Find A Profitable Online Course Idea In 15 Minutes Or Less

So, you want to create and sell online courses? That’s why you’re here, after all. Well, let me let you in on a little secret…

No one wakes up and screams, “The FIRST thing I’m going to do today is buy an online course. I LOVE LEARNING!”

Maybe you do. Maybe I do. But most people don’t. People hate spending their hard-earned money. Especially on something like “an online course.”

And yet, as I shared in the last email, the market for the online course industry is surging right now.

The secret?

If you want to sell an online course, you need to find a profitable online course idea first—and today I’ll show you how to do just that.

On the rest of this page, I’ll share a simple technique you can use to find an idea for a profitable online course in 15 minutes or less. I’ll also share the most common mistakes people make then they come up with with their online course ideas.

Plus, I'm hosting a FREE WEBINAR TRAINING that goes down THIS THURSDAY. You can learn more about it here. In the mean time...

Let’s jump right in.

3 Common Mistakes People Make When They Create Online Courses

Before I share the technique, let me share three common mistakes people make when they create online courses. I share this as they’re common mistakes, and they’re easy to fix.

Mistake #1: You Create Something People Don’t Want

Repeat this after me: Just because you want to create it doesn’t mean people want to buy it.

Smart people can come up with a reason why ANYTHING is a good idea. You might tell yourself, “Yes, they may want this, but they need it!” You could also say, “Well, if I were in their shoes, I’d want this.”

But none of this matters. Especially when it comes to investing in something like an online course.

In reality, there’s only ONE reason why people buy online courses… people buy courses because they have a problem in their life they want to solve… and they want to SOLVE IT RIGHT NOW.

That’s it. Sell a course that does anything else and you’ll struggle forever.

When I share the technique I use to find a profitable course idea, you’ll see how we ensure the course solves a real pressing problem so you don’t make this mistake. Moving on…

Mistake #2: You Educate People Instead Of Providing A Solution

This is another common mistake when people create online courses. They say, “Well, I’m creating a Marketing 101 course.”

Here’s the deal…

No one ever wakes up and says “I NEED TO LEARN MARKETING.”

Yes, learning how to market may be essential to all business owners. But is that what they really want? Marketing education?

No.

They want customers. They want money. They want GOOD customers. But marketing education isn’t what they want.

So, working off mistake #1, again, your courses need to provide solutions to specific problem sin peoples lives. And “needing to learn a topic” isn’t a real problem.

Mistake #3: You Never Actually LAUNCH the Online Course

I know this goes without saying, but one of the biggest mistakes people make then they want to create and sell online courses is this: they NEVER ACTUALLY FINISH IT.

Don’t do that.

In just a second I’ll show you a simple technique you can use to find a profitable online course idea. And then in my next installment, I’ll show you a simple “online course rollout plan” that you can use to get started.

But I want you to commit to doing this technique AND LAUNCHING your first online course. If you never finish it, you’ll never succeed.

That said…

The Simple Technique You Can Use To Find A Profitable Online Course Idea In 15 Minutes Or Less

Now that you know the common mistakes, this technique will help ensure you sidestep all of them.

The other day I had you write a list of things you have helped people with in the past. This is a start.

Why? Because if you helped someone with it, that means SOMEONE had a problem and you helped solve it. Each of these things you helped someone with COULD be an online course.

However, here’s how you can take it one step further…

Find The Pain. And Eliminate It.

This is a little exercise I call “Find the Pain. And Eliminate it.”

I know this sounds morose, but bear with me.

Just because I’m asking you to find the pain right now doesn’t mean I want you to be negative in your marketing.

I just want you to understand your customer first… before you pick a course topic.

So, let’s do just that.

Let’s say on your list you picked the topic, “I want to help people with their relationships because my girl friends always ask me for advice.”

No problem!

Here’s what I want you to do…

Step 1: Find 3 or 4 best-selling books on the topic.

Step 2: Read the 5 star reviews and the 1 star reviews and look for “trigger phrases.”

A trigger phrase is an example of someone describing a problem in their life

A trigger phrase is also an example of someone bragging about a success in their life.

(If you’re confused, don’t worry. I’ve got an example).

Step 3: Start to compile a list of “Pain points” and “Solutions.”

That’s it.

Now let me show you this in action…

I found a few books, and after going through the 5 star reviews of each book, I saw these examples of people describing problems in their life:

“I just went through a pretty rough patch with a man I thought cared about me where I was easily set aside when anything else interesting came up. ”

“I wish I would have read this for the ex before the last. I did everything wrong!! He must think I’m a total wimp and he’s now got an even bigger ego.”

“My relationship unexpectedly fell apart, and I found myself very distraught and alone…”

If you’re looking to help people with relationship problems, finding these problems helps you understand where your ideal customer is coming from. It helps you see the pain they’re going through so you can hopefully solve it.

That’s when you plot it on a little chart like this:

Now that you’ve found the pain people experience… your goal is to figure out what a potential solution might “look” like.

So, I want you to imagine a friend came to you with this exact problem. What would you tell them?

If a friend told you, “My man always sets me aside,” you’d tell your friend, “Well, don’t let him do that. Make him put you first.”

If a friend told you, “I’m distraught and I’m alone,” what would you say? “You just got out of a relationship. You should be single and happy about it!”

Right?

Do that for each pain. Just like this…

See how easy this is?

You start with pain. You know the solution. And that’s where your course comes in. You can help people go from pain to solution.

And bam.

You’ve got your first online course idea.

“What if I can’t find any books?”

That might be evidence that there isn’t demand for the type of online course you want to create.

But if you can’t find books, I’d also check for blog posts about the topic. If there’s a blog post and it looks like the blog posts are getting traffic, then you can do the same thing with blog posts.

What Do You Do After You Have An Idea For An Online Course?

Well, you might think, “Well, I better create this thing!”

However, would you want to spend time creating something without being 100% sure it’s going to work?

I wouldn’t.

That’s why in the next installment in this series, I’ll show you a simple plan you can follow to launch your first online course.

The good news is this:

This isn’t a premium training program I’m going to sell you. I’m going to provide this launch plan FOR FREE.

Now you might be wondering, “Well, how do you actually make money off this series, then Derek?”

And I’ll level with you:

You can’t create and sell online courses without having SOFTWARE to protect and sell your online course.

I happened to create a piece of software that makes this MUCH easier for you. But I’ll share more about that software later.

For now, I want you to find a profitable online course idea. And then, what i want you to do is this:

Share the type of course you plan on creating in the comments below. The more specific you are the better, and I’ll do my best to respond to comments giving quick feedback on the course idea you came up with.

So go ahead and leave a comment right now.