Episode 342: Selling Online Courses: How to compete and succeed in today’s saturated info market

Shownotes: http://fizzleshow.com/342 What are the necessary steps to take to start selling online courses? Do you need to be at a certain level before you should start thinking about that at all? How do we pitch online courses at the right level and niche to maximize our reach and potential? The world of learning and the promotion of web-based resources and teaching has evolved very quickly over the last few years and as it has grown and changed, new companies have sprung up and filled spaces some of us never even knew existed. With the multitude of options out there, you might be wondering where can you content fit in and if there is even space for you? In this episode, we have a big discussion on this fertile topic, looking at pillar content, accelerator models and the big one: personalization and segmentation! Our panel of guests gives amazing perspectives on referrals, funnels, scaling and outsourcing. Today on the show we are joined by Janelle Allen from Zen Courses, Barrett Brooks of ConvertKit and Brennan Dunn from RightMessage! These three friends of Fizzle all have valuable and contrasting experience in the fields of online learning and we promise they have all the beans to spill! We also talk about using your collected data smartly, when or if to hire a virtual assistant, baselines to reach before creating courses and how far you should niche down. So for all this and a whole lot more, join us on the Fizzle Show today! Today’s episode is brought to you by Podia. Podia is a Swiss Army Knife for selling anything you need online. It's an all-in-one digital storefront where you can sell courses, memberships, and digital downloads all in one place. The cool thing about Podia is that they eliminate all the technical headaches. You don’t have to install anything, you can host your sales pages there, your files, your checkout process. You can even do your email marketing and your newsletters from Podia! Fizzle Show listeners can get 15% off of Podia FOR LIFE by signing up for a free trial over at http://podia.com/fizzle. Key Points From This Episode: Is it possible to still make a dent in the online teaching world? [0:02:32.4] Helping people with their own success through different formats. [0:06:12.7] Standing out in a crowded market and the accelerator model. [0:09:36.4] The unique opportunity for interactive and sticky courses. [0:13:52.1] The vital importance of referrals and testimonials in marketing and sustainability. [0:15:31.7] Personalization, segmentation, and customization; the future of online courses. [0:17:25.9] Finding common ground and reflecting this to customers through email. [0:23:40.4] Niching down versus personalization; why segmentation comes first. [0:27:12.3] Weighing the creation of new content against refining existent content. [0:33:17.7] Baselines for successful first course sales! [0:39:02.5] The benefits of collecting segment data for focussing your marketing. [0:42:01.4] Scaling up and the differences between small teams and big companies. [0:47:20.3] When to do things yourself and when to outsource certain jobs. [0:52:45.2] Prioritizing work and letting go of tasks that you do not need to do. [0:58:47.9] And much more! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Fizzle — https://fizzle.co Podia — https://www.podia.com/fizzle Zen Courses — https://www.zencourses.co/about Janelle Allen — https://www.zencourses.co Brennan Dunn — https://brennandunn.com RightMessage — https://rightmessage.com ConvertKit — https://brennandunn.com/ Barrett Brooks — https://barrettbrooks.com/ Inc 5000 — https://www.inc.com/inc5000/index.html Teachable — https://teachable.com Coursera — https://www.coursera.org/ Thinkific — https://www.thinkific.com/ Udemy — https://www.udemy.com Masterclass — https://www.masterclass.com Double Your Freelancing — https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/ Bryan Harris — https://videofruit.com Tim Ferris — https://tim.blog Airtable — https://airtable.com Pat Flynn — https://www.smartpassiveincome.com OptinMonster — https://optinmonster.com Corbett Barr — https://corbettbarr.com