How I Earned $269,761 from my Online Courses over 18 months

Discover what has been successful as well as what has failed.

The book, Entrepreneurial You, has just come out from Harvard Business Review Press. It outlines my personal experiences as well as explains how professionals of all levels can utilize the same concepts to generate fresh revenue streams to their businesses.

In my case, as the direct result of using the concepts I've learned when going through the text, I've earned an additional 270,000 dollars in income in the last 18 months. I've also designed three online course (such ones like this which focuses specifically on Rapid Content Creation) and developing a range of paid and live opportunities to participants of the course.

The most difficult aspect of it is trying to find how to start. Here is an adaption of Entrepreneurial You that outlines the initial steps I took to begin my own.

First, Survey Your Audience

The Entrepreneurial You: How to Create Yourself in the book the book I interviewedRyan Levesque, who is director of the top-level mastermind group. The group gained a lot of attention due to the creation in the "Ask" methodology which suggests to survey your customers prior to offering your clients some thing. This is exactly my approach.

In December of 2015 I posted an email to all of my readers. The questionnaire began with the question that Levesque considers to be the most crucial and important question: "What's your single biggest present professional challenge?" That allows respondents to reply in the way they'd like, without prejudice in the next round of questioning.

There are lots of theories on their problems, but this question will let you know which communication and solution is most efficient to meet their demands. The next stage is when I asked them a couple of fundamental questions regarding the demographics (age, gender, etc.) and asked them to evaluate what topics I'd written about popular with them.

percentage points more than any other topic. It's interesting, but, Levesque warns, not enough.

What you're seeking isn't general opinion. It's about finding the topics that you have the highest number of passionate fans. The best way to measure whether they're interested according to the article's author, is to gauge the duration of their responses. The longer they answer in this manner that is more engaging, the more engaged they are about the topic. If you're asking them about their top concern it's common to conclude that someone who responds by referring to "hiring" and "burnout" will not be more enthused about the topic when compared to someone who is able to write a thoughtful and thoughtful reply.

I took several weeks to go through and record the free-form answers and the results were valuable. It was clear that there could be enough need for a course that would make me an expert in the field. But, I was not ready to begin a real pilot. At the same time, I called fifty people who had indicated that, based on another of Levesque's suggestions to ask whether they'd like to talk with me further.

I have sent them a text message to them asking for them to read a single page description of the classes I had thought of offering and then tell me what their opinions were about the idea?

I asked them if they were interested in the course that would enable them to become an expert in their field, which information should be the most essential to the course, as well as what they enjoyed the most and their least favorite aspects of the class that I'd given them.

I also asked whether anyone might be interested in enrolling in the course if the cost was $500 along with the rationale for why they shouldn't. fifteen people responded and five agreed. The businessman Bryan Harris shared in a podcast interview with Pat Flynn, if you can convince 10 percent of the people you polled to buy your product, that's a solid evidence that there's enough interest in your product. I finally felt confident enough to launch my very first trial.

Next, Offer a Pilot

Five months ago I asked my readers to vote, I sent out an email that was on the exact subject, and this was entitled, "A Chance to Work with Me - Special Pilot Offering." In my email, I provided the specifics: I was open to accepting forty slots on a training course in order to be a recognized professional. The course will comprise six webcasts which are available for on-demand over 5 weeks.

The subjects would cover "Finding your new concept that's revolutionary" through "Building an Effective Network." As a condition for feedback about the course (and possibly a post-course review after the class if satisfied with the course) Participants will get the benefit of having me in person and pay a more affordable fee of $500 instead up to $2,000 to attend the class. It will cost you once the course has started fully.

(You are able to download free copies of my email that I used to advertise my online pilot course. )

Once you press "send," you can never know for sure if the message you send will be acknowledged. The class sold out in just 45 minutes.

In the past, after having spent hundreds of dollars in the past with ideas I did not thoroughly test, I figured out how to identify the needs of my clients. Within less than an hour, I could get $33,500.

It was just the beginning the online course development has subsequently become a major part of my plan of business.

Dorie Clark is a strategist for the market  as well as a professional speaker and consultant. She is an instructor at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. She is the writer of Entrepreneurial You Reinventing You and Stand Out. Get her book for absolutely no cost. Entrepreneurial You self-assessment.

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