Creating online courses: how to validate my course idea

Naturally, you want to invest your money, time and effort in something that is in high demand. Otherwise, creating online courses and building a distance education business will be a complete waste of time.

Ask friends, family and people who fit your target audience, that is, have a relationship with the area and theme you intend to teach. Find out what their difficulties are and what they would like to learn. 

You can use social media, email, join groups and discussion forums, among other channels, to get as many responses as possible.

This survey can give you an idea if the topic you intend to address has a demand and if enough people are already trying to solve it. Search Google, Amazon, popular podcasts and other online education-related platforms. Take the opportunity to use your competitors as inspiration to create successful online courses.

But be aware, if there is little or no competition, this is a bad sign. It probably means that there is little or no demand for your idea.

Google is a powerful tool that you can use to analyze the demand of their course. Use the keyword planner to find out what people are searching for and what topics are most searched for. 

Another great keyword tool is Answer The Public. Just select keywords related to the course topic and see how many questions arise. The more questions there are, the greater the interest in the subject.

Many people who start creating online courses make the mistake of assuming that their course is perfect for everyone. However, those who do not focus on a specific group, end up reaching anyone.

It may seem counterintuitive to restrict your course audience, but it is proven that courses have sold best when created with a specific target audience in mind.

• In addition to increasing your income, you need to have greater motivation when it comes to teaching.
• Without a real passion for your topic, you will not be as enthusiastic as your competitors, and your potential students are sure to notice, which will result in fewer sales. 
• Many professionals create a course just for the purpose of winning and forget that the most important thing is to serve your audience.
• Doing an internal search is just as important as an external search. If you have no motivation other than money, you may need to rethink your idea of ​​creating online courses.

Thanks to technology, you have several simple and free tools online to validate your course idea.

Conducting a survey is important to assess whether there is a market for your course and to give you more security before you start.

There are different channels for making this query, and here are three of them, in detail:

• Google
• Buzzsumo
• Amazon Kindle

Go to Google and start with the obvious, do a search for keywords and phrases related to the topic of your course.

Think about how your potential audience could search for that topic on the internet and don’t necessarily include the word “online course”. Pay attention to these results:

• How relevant is your idea of ​​an online course to searchers? In what position does it appear?
• Do videos appear on the first page?
• Are there any paid ads related to the topic?
• Are courses on the same topic already available?

BuzzSumo is a powerful SEO tool that evaluates shares on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Instagram.

Just type a topic or keyword in the search field and the program will show you which sites are gaining the most likes, shares and links related to the subject.

These results provide a good sense of how popular a topic is and on which channel it attracted the most attention.

The Amazon Kindle Store area is particularly valuable for course creators. It contains a large number of eBooks on various subjects.

Through Amazon’s search engine you can find out if there are books on the topic you want to address and if they sell well.

Enter your search terms in the search bar and select “Kindle Store” from the side menu.

If you see several results related to your course topic, and if any of them are on Amazon’s Best Sellers list, this is a good indication that you are on the right track.

Determining whether there is a market for your course is as important as creating and selling it. 

Remember that you don’t have to have tons of experience or qualifications to teach on your chosen topic.

What you need is a passion for the subject, a willingness to teach and a determination to create well-made and effective online courses that stand out from the competition.

And, most importantly, you must strive to create a course that meets the needs of your target audience. Do this and the money will follow.