Courses

The Ultimate Guide to Creating an Online Course

Wondering how to create an online course with staying power? This ultimate guide will show you everything you need to know.

By Mighty Team

October 23, 2023

26 min read

This example can help explain. Let’s say you’re one year into a new career in finance right out of college. Sure, there are plenty of people with more experience who could create an online training course around succeeding in a finance career. But nobody is as qualified as you to understand what they're going through.

Often people who have recently learned something are better positioned to teach it than experts--because they remember what it's like to learn.

When you take any of these three not-so-obvious approaches to finding your topic, you give yourself the best opportunity possible to get specific and be authentic. And the more specific and authentic your topic is, the easier it will be to check off the next two steps of creating awesome online courses.

But if you're still stuck, we've compiled a list of 168 online course ideas. You should definitely check that out, but here are a few quick ideas for popular course niches.

Health & wellness	Online business	Food and nutrition	Love & Relationships	Personal development
Basics of yoga	How to start an X business	Eating for a specific illness	Dating at 30, 40, etc	Dealing with negative thoughts
Learning mindfulness	Finding financing	How to eat for more energy	How to be more vulnerable	Manifesting your vision
Develop better sleep habits	Product design	Specialty diets	Creating a happy marriage	Time-management
Stretching for mobility	Bookkeeping	How to eat on a budget	Intimacy after kids	Goal-setting
Nature bathing	Using social media	Help kids eat vegetables	Communication	Overcoming fear
Alternative health	How to hire	Cooking a specific type of food	Building lasting friendships	Finding purpose and happiness
How to reduce your stress	How to scale	Becoming a baker	Coping with loss	Master work-life balance
Better money mindset	How to license	Time-saving cooking	Healing from toxic partners	Controling anger

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2. Find your Ideal Member

ideal member- member growth

When planning how to create an online course, there's a secret truth that will BLOW YOUR MIND.

Ready?

You don't want EVERYONE to buy it.

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Seriously. You don't.

An online instructor who thinks it's for EVERYONE has some work to do.

You need an Ideal Student. Or--as we prefer to say--an Ideal Member.

The most valuable online courses are those that deliver results and transformation for their students.

Think about results or transformation as taking someone from “point A” to “point B” in pursuit of a lifestyle shift, a career move, an interest, a passion, or a goal.

People are motivated by transformation and they are willing to pay for it when it comes in the form of an online course.

ideal member- member growth

Your Ideal Member is the person who most needs your online course the most.

They are motivated by what the topic will help them achieve and the way that your story makes it feel accessible and doable for them to achieve it.

The more specific you are with defining your ideal member when you create an online training course, the better. Because that specificity sets them up for success.

Be clear about your ideal member’s demographics, cultural background, identity, circumstances, where they’ve been and why, what they want to achieve, and what’s gotten in their way.

Your Ideal Member is the person who needs your course and community the most right now.

Do your research to find your ideal member!

Want the best secret to find your Ideal Member? Talk to them!

Set up anywhere from 10-30 quick chats with potential course members. Get clear on what their pain points are, and listen for their needs and hopes from a course.

Here are some questions you can ask:

What are you struggling with in X that you’d like to learn?

What do you wish you could be doing with X in a year?

How valuable would it be to you to learn X?

We have a free training on finding your Ideal Member in our Mighty Community!

Ideal Member Results

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3. Tell your story

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The final step is to ground this in your story.

Why are you the right person to create an online course about this topic?

Like we said, you don't need to be an expert to teach an online course. You don’t need to have a fancy degree, a huge following, or online accolades to be the right instructor or mentor for your topic.

You are an expert on your background and lived experiences.

It’s your journey that makes you the right instructor or mentor for this topic and your ideal member.

That’s more powerful than any highly produced video or snazzy website. It’s the difference between creating an online course that thrives and grows and one that falls flat on its face.

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Case Study: Slow AF Run Club

For one of the COOLEST examples of a brand rooted in a powerful story, check out the story of Martinus Evans. Martinus founded the Slow AF Run Club for "back of the pack" runners. It's a movement 20,000+ strong, and it all started with Martinus being brave enough to share his story.

Pro Stories SEO

4. Gather your gear

The next step to create online courses is to gather your gear. So let's talk about some options with 2 awesome YouTube Tutorials from the Mighty YouTube Channel.

And if you don't have gear, don't sweat it. Here's how to do an awesome course set-up on any budget.

Video setup

If you have access to professional video gear--or you're planning to get some--that’s cool. You can follow the tutorial above for some great set-up guidance.

Course video setup on a budget

If you don't have professional gear, that's okay. Any modern smartphone or webcam probably has a camera that’s HD and more than powerful enough to build a great online course.

Here's a simple pro tip.

The trick to great video isn’t gear–it’s lighting. And one of the simple tricks to get great lighting on a budget is to set up in front of a window with the light on your face. Take a quick look to make sure your background is clean. You’re good to go.

One more reminder, if you have a slide show and your video feed will be appearing as a small box on the corner of it, make sure your face is close enough to the camera to be seen.

Sound setup

There’s a famous saying among YouTubers: People will watch a terrible video with good sound, but they won’t watch a great video with terrible sound. That’s why sound is probably more important than the video itself. (If you’ve ever tried to watch a lecture with a scratchy audio feed, you know what we mean.)

It’s here that sitting 3 feet away from your laptop as you record your online course probably won’t cut it. You’ll get that scratchy sound nobody wants to listen to.

You might have a headset with an existing mic that does a good job (e.g. airbuds or bluetooth headphones). Test what you have to see if you can get a good quality recording on playback.

If not, it might be worth investing in a lapel mic or desktop condenser. They aren’t expensive, and will make a huge difference to the quality of your course.

Pro tip: If you’re delivering your course over Zoom or some other streaming platform, capture a backup via a desktop audio recorder. This means that even if you have feedback or connection issues, you’ll still have a good quality recording you can match to the video after.

5. Choose your platform

If you're going to create an online course, obviously you'll need course creation software.

At a minumum, a course platform needs elearning authoring to build the course itself. Then it needs an LMS to manage learning and help you create a course business.

Here are the basic features a course platform NEEDS:

Content options

Flexible course content options (video, audio, text, images, etc.)

Content organization tools (inc. dripping content)

Assessment tools

Member management

Create course pricing, bundles, etc.

Sales, checkout tools, and different currency options

Member profiles and analytics

But just having these doesn't mean you've found an amazing course platform. The best platforms also have...

Engagement

Member messaging, chat, and profiles

Community options like discussion forums, posts, long-form content

Livestreaming, virtual events, tools for live teaching

Branding & Access

Course customization options

Light & dark mode

Native apps for iOS and Android

Branded course apps (under YOUR brand in the App Store and Google Play Store)

Marketing & selling

Build landing & sales pages

Create offers and discounts

Sell add-ons like memberships, premium groups, events, etc.

Connect email

Each of these features has a purpose, and finding a platform with all of them gives you tremendous power for course-building. And even if you don't want all the features today, they're nice to have as you grow.

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Choose an "all-in-one" course platform

Whatever you do, choose an "all-in-one" platform to build an online course. Seriously.

There are some good options out there, and there's no point in using 5 different pieces of software to run your course when you could use one.

This will let you bring online courses, course community, and payments together in one place – ensuring your students grow quickly and you can charge more money for your online courses, generating more income as people get results from your online courses faster.

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Choosing live or pre-recorded

Once upon a time, you could only really teach a pre-recorded course online. But with livestreaming technology going mainstream, it's now possible to teach live too--we call this a cohort course.

In technical speak, this is a question of an asynchronous vs a synchronous course.

asynchronous = learning NOT done in real time

synchronous =learning done in real time

We do really love synchronous courses. There's a magic when you can bring learners together and let them feed off each other's energy.

But when deciding which of these to choose, it really comes down to your audience.

Live instruction requires members that can show up and learn together.

Pre-recorded courses are more flexible, but have lower completion rates (and are lonelier).

So here's a quick chart to help you choose which is right for your Ideal Members.

Factor	If Yes...	If No...
Are your students self-directed and autonomous?	Try Asynchronous	Try Synchronous
Does your material ever change?	Try Synchronous	Try Asynchronous
Do students require live feedback and support?	Try Synchronous	Try Asynchronous
Do your students have limitations in joining through a live session, either because of learning style or lifestyle?	Try Asynchronous	Try Synchronous
Will the students need to workshop ideas, have discussions, or work together?	Try Asynchronous	Try Synchronous

6. Get the pricing right

Finally we get to the fun part. How much money can you make off this thing? Will it be enough to earn you a living? Let you quit your job and do this full time?

Obviously, it’s impossible for us to tell you exactly how to price YOUR online course, although if you want to drop into our community and get some advice from people who have done it, come on over!

Here are some things to think about when it comes to pricing.

Do charge something. Your time is worth something, of course. But also, your members will value what they pay for.

Charge enough that it hurts a bit

If you’re creating a course for the first time, you’ll have a tendency to price too low. Most creators do. It’s normal.

That’s why you should charge enough that it hurts a bit. This isn’t to say it hurts your audience a bit; it hurts YOU a bit. When you’re thinking, “oh gee–that feels like too much,” you’re probably in the right territory.

This isn’t to say you’re going to gouge your audience. Of course, you’d never do that. But the point is, people do value what they pay for. And they value things in proportion to how much they pay.

The less they pay, the less they’ll value something.

Let that sink in. If you’re promising your audience the transformation of a lifetime, and you charge $3.99 for it, you’re signaling to them that this isn’t worth much. And they’ll believe that signal and won’t spend the time to get the results.

Something we learned from studying successful creators and community hosts: when you charge a reasonable price, people value it so much more.

This means that what you might lose from those few customers who say, “Oh, that’s too expensive,” you’ll gain from the people who take it seriously, show up, and do the work.

After all, they’ve got skin in the game now.

And as a bonus, you’ll have a way better chance of earning enough income to actually support the work you do.

Here's how Dan Miller, author and host of 48 Days Eagles--a training community for entrepeneurs--puts it:

People who pay, pay attention. If people pay, they implement what you say, they take action and change their lives. We're helping people develop business ideas. We're clear on the value that's going to be delivered, and it's going to turn into profitable businesses in our case, so there's even that quantifiable factor there. Dan Miller

Don’t outprice your audience

Having covered the IMPORTANT stuff in the last point, let us also say that you need to be careful not to outprice what your audience can actually afford.

This is SUCH a hard balance, and it may take you time to find the sweet spot for your niche.

If you’re creating a course for unemployed single parents trying to find a job, it’s probably not reasonable to charge $4,500 for your course–even if it might be worth that.

You’ve got to make a reasonable guess as to what your audience can actually afford, or else you’re not going to sell your course.

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Don’t try to underprice your competitors

When you take a look around and see what others are charging, you can absolutely let that inform what you should charge. But don’t get in a race to the bottom.

People equate price with value. If people were always looking for the best bargain, Whole Foods would be out of business. Often in online courses, as in groceries, people are willing to pay more for quality.

Don’t race to the bottom on pricing.

Try value-based pricing

Here's a cool pricing strategy when you create an online course.

It’s common to think of pricing as a factor of what we put into something, usually measured by an hourly rate. “Oh, I only spent 5 hours making this… even if I charge $14 and get 20 customers, I’ve made $56/hr–which is pretty good.”

Don’t price like this.

Price based on the value to the audience. What is a transformation worth to them?

Here are some questions to ask:

How much time would it take them to learn this without your course?

How meaningful is the transformation to them?

What extra money will the skill you're teaching help them make?

If you can teach a business owner to make an extra $1,000 a month from now until forever, that course is probably worth a $1,000 price tag at least.

You can’t break down every course subject into absolute value. Things like oil painting or learning to play guitar are probably more for fun than anything.

But these have a psychological value too. If someone has always dreamed about playing guitar around a campfire, and they’ve never been able to do it, what would that be worth to them?

Figure it out as best you can and price accordingly.

Choose the right payment structure

Last but not least, figure out the right payment structure for your pricing. If you create a course on getting a job and charge $10/mo for access to a course and community, what if all your members start getting jobs after a month and leave?

This is where membership churn factors in, and your success might turn into a failure of your business model.

In courses where your members can take in value quickly, you probably don’t want to give monthly payments over a long period of time (unless people are locked in– but even then, who wants to pay for a full year for something that took 3 days to learn?).

In instances where your online course takes a while to complete, and you know people are going to stick around in your community to get results from it, it might be worth offering a payment plan to make it more affordable!

7. Market your online course

Stay in touch with your ideal members

ideal members - falling in love

One of the best reasons to interview as many potential students as you can possibly find is that some of these will become your first customers. That’s not to say they all will, and you shouldn’t expect them to. But once people talk to you about their challenges, see you as the right person to help them fix them, and they hear you’ve created a course exactly around those challenges, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that some of those people might want to buy.

You can reach out to them as the course is launching with an email like this:

Hi Jen,
Thanks again for your amazing insights in our interview–they were so helpful in creating my course: Watercolor Brush Techniques. If you’re interested, I’m launching it next week for $59, but here’s a coupon code for 50% off as a thank you for your time. And no pressure if it’s not the right time right now. Hope to see you there!

You don’t have to give a coupon code, but it’s a nice touch. So is offering people an out; after all, it’s nice if they buy your course but they aren’t obligated to.

Still, many creators find that their first students come from those ideal members they interviewed, which is great!

Use all your social channels

If you have any sort of social media presence, talk your course up on social! You could even use a scheduling tool (if you don’t already) to make sure that you’re consistently reaching any followers you have about the course you’re creating.

And you don’t need 50,000 followers to launch a successful course. Work with what you’ve got.

Try email

If you have an email list of any kind, it’s a great way to promote an online course. People on your email list are already looking forward to hearing from you on a regular basis, so promote your course to them!

One thing to remember. It’s very unlikely that all of them will buy. More likely, a fairly small percentage of them will. That’s okay and totally normal!

Don’t get your feelings hurt if you have 100 people on an email list and only 5 of them buy on your launch weekend. As far as email marketing goes, that’s a pretty good response!

*If you're building on Mighty Networks, you can use the ConvertKit integration to connect Mighty and ConvertKit together!

SEO Image - ConvertKit

Host a webinar

Webinars are a tried and true way to market an online course. A great webinar sets you up as the expert, shows that you’re a great presenter, and gives people a taste of what it would be like to join a course with you.

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A few things to keep in mind:

The webinar should be a taste of the course, it should give value but leave people wanting more.

Don’t make it a straight marketing pitch. Make sure people get some actionable advice in the webinar.

A webinar is just as much about establishing you as the expert as it is delivering material.

You can choose live or recorded webinars, there’s no wrong answer. HOWEVER, a lot of people run pre-recorded webinars, and it shows. If you can make it live, it’s a nice touch.

8. Figure out your winning edge

As we’ve said a lot, there are a lot of online courses out there. If you want to make sure people buy yours, it’s important to identify what you have that others don’t.

And if you choose to host on Mighty Networks, you can give some amazing value added to your members.

Things like:

“This course will be taught live with community breakout sessions after.”

“Come build meaningful relationships with fellow course members.”

“I answer questions in the discussion section live.”

“Office hours every Thursday.”

People love this stuff! And in a world full of hit it and quit it online course marketing, where people tell you to just throw your course up and forget it, the winning edge is bound to be the connections people can make in your course.

Online Course Checklist

Identify a clear topic

Understand your ideal member

Tap into your unique strengths and identity

Find your tech & platform

Figure out pricing

Develop a marketing strategy

Conclusion- Come build with us!

We hope this guide for how to build an online course has given you everything you need to get started.

And if you're ready to build, come build with Mighty! Mighty Networks is cultural software platform, that's unique for courses.

Mighty lets you mix of content, community, courses, and commerce in a way you can't do anywhere else. You get a powerful course platform built into G2's top-rated community software. With flexible Spaces that let you add livestreaming, live events, discussions, assessments, or chat to your courses, you've got total control over your teaching. And yup, you can teach live or pre-recorded courses, whatever fits your business best.

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Mighty's AI tools mean you can instantly build course outlines, landing pages, and even a brand identity. Sell in 135 different currencies or even monetize with token-gating.

And, Mighty comes with beautiful native iOS and Android apps, or you can even get your course on a branded course app with Mighty Pro.

Try it free for 14 days - No credit card required.