When Is the Best Time to Launch Your LearnDash Expert Course?

I was reading LearnDash expert Mikelya Fournier's articles, "Should I Create an Online Course?" and she covers a topic every business owner should consider. As a fellow LearnDash expert, I agree with her. I recommend every business owner point blank ask themselves, "Will an online course benefit me and my business? Is it the right next thing for me to be doing given my expertise in my field?"

Let me cover some of the points she makes and give you my LearnDash expert commentary on it. Between us, you'll get some insight on if and how this can work for you.

LearnDash Expert Point #1 - Who should create an online course?

An online course will work for you if you have two things.  The first is subject matter expertise. The second is there are people who are interested in the information you can provide them about it. I would go with the assumption that if you have expert knowledge and currently offer that as a service to paying customer, you are onto something. It can be that you are an advisor, consultant, coach or trainer. For example,

• if you are a tennis pro and you currently work with people wanting to learn tennis, you qualify.
• If you are a top real estate broker in your area and you have sales techniques that work, that's an expertise that could be taught in an online course.
• If you are a mental health professional with expert skill dealing with a specific population, you likely have the right know how.

It could be you're an author with books on the subject. It could be you are a speaker or presenter and people recognize you as the expert in the field.

Mikelya mentions that not everyone feels comfortable teaching. Some people dread getting up in front of people and doing anything. Online teaching removes that from the equation. You do have to learn how to assemble a course and their are know ways of doing that. It isn't that difficult, but any video presentations only mean you are talking to a camera and no one needs to be in the room.

LearnDash Expert Point #2 - What are the benefits of launching an online course?

Launching an online course requires plenty of work especially at the beginning. Once you have in up and running, it offers you a lot of benefits.  Mikelya lists of few of these and I'm going to add to hers:

1. You can earn money when you are NOT there. The downside of consulting type business models is that you have to be there doing the work in order to get paid. You are limited by the hours you can work. You are limited by time you want to be away from work, on vacation or doing something else unrelated to work. An online course enables you to offer what it is you teach to others without you having to be there.
2. You can have a bigger impact. Money is good, of course, but launching an online course enables you to reach a much larger audience. Anyone with access to the Internet and a device as simple as a phone can get to it. If you have something to teach and you want to reach people you cannot teach in person, this provides you with that.
3. It's in expensive to get started. My team and I have LearnDash expert skills and work with many business owners wanting to build online course. LearnDash is one of our preferred platforms. However, if you have a technical slant and determination, here are your costs:
   • LearnDash - $159 yearly
   • Website Hosting - $100 or so a year.
   • Web Hosting - SiteGround, a provider we recommend, has an offer that gets you reliable hosting for $47.88 a year. It goes up year two, but you can't beat that.

LearnDash Expert Point #3 - How can I confirm I have a course that will sell?

I've spoken with a lot of business owners who have considered working on their online course and they hesitated. I ran some surveys and found that the biggest thing holding people back from launching an online course is concern over whether it will sell. They fear spending all that time and money to get a course in place and then no one buys it. The potential that it would be a throw away program that no one would buy is a big obstacle to people.

I did want to mention that my team and I offer a free trial for our Breakthrough Course Selling System. This is a six week program designed to confirm you have an idea for a course that will sell. It's 100% free to get started with not even a credit card required.

The complete Breakthrough Course Selling System gets you a step-by-step program anyone can follow to confirm their course will sell. The program gives you instructors for building a landing page you can use to sell your course. It has a recommended way to first launch your course so you get feedback from your students and get testimonials from them. You can use that feedback to improve your course even more and to show potential customers what your students say about you and your program.

What are your thoughts on the idea of launch a course?