I’m not sure where you are with your plans for a digital course.

Perhaps you’re still thinking about a topic…

Perhaps you’re in the early planning stage…

Or maybe you haven’t made a start yet.

Whatever the case, I need to tell you something very important…

And you might not like it.

That information you’re thinking of selling to customers through your course…?

It is probably out there on the internet.

For free.

Yes, it’s true. No matter what topic you choose, it is likely that there is freely available information online about it… that anyone can access from almost anywhere in the world… and at any time.

Does that shock you?

It might even scare you off the whole thing.

After all, what’s the point in you trying to compete with all that free stuff out there? What could you have to offer? Why would anyone pay?

It makes you question your worth, doesn’t it?

But stop.

Wait a second!

We course creators are not selling information…

That’s one of the biggest misconceptions about what we do.

I think one reason for this is that courses, newsletters and membership sites are often grouped under the old-fashioned term ‘Information Publishing’.

But that term was coined before the internet age when it was very hard to access information.

Back when I first started out, people needed to go to libraries, subscribe to journals, and buy books if they wanted to learn about something.

Even then, ‘info publishing’ was never about pure ‘information’… it was about opinion, insight, and advice from a trusted source.

The same goes for course creation in the Internet Age.

Today, information is cheap…
But good advice has a very high value

Course creators are not in business to add to the piles and piles of data, facts, figures, stats, numbers, theories and techniques that are sloshing around in cyberspace.

Very few of us want or need MORE information.

There’s just so much of it out there. A lot of it is unreliable, outdated, conflicting, or plain wrong. And even the good stuff needs sifting, organising, and understanding.

And that’s where we course creators are worth our weight in gold… and why the eLearning industry is growing at a furious pace, year after year.

Because we are solving problems and providing solutions.

…We are cutting out all the noise, bad info, unnecessary facts and theories, and giving people the essentials they need to know.

…We are saving our students hours and hours of research by collecting, sifting, and selecting information so they don’t have to.

…We are taking them by the (virtual) hand and leading them, step by step, towards a goal.

…We are talking directly to them through our course materials in a personal, human way, building trust and respect.

That’s what people are looking for in a course, and why they’re more than willing to pay for it.

So when you worry that everything you’re going to share in your first published course is available on the internet for free, think of this as a GOOD thing.

Because the more complicated, noisy and busy a subject matter is, the more people need clarity and simplicity.

After all, just think of what someone has to go through in order to learn a new skill…

• They might go on YouTube, where they’ll fall down a rabbit hole of videos, some of which seem of dubious quality, or are annoying, and in which they are plagued by adverts every few minutes.
• They might start Googling for info, whereupon they are deluged with links to news websites, blogs, articles and ads, all full of info, but rarely offering clear advice and most trying to sell something.
• Then they might get on social media, at which point they’re going to be wading through all kinds of opinions, misinformation, angry shouting and downright lies.
• Then they might seek out scientific journals, technical websites, plug-ins, tools and sources of raw data… all of which take concentration and an ability to interpret the figures.

After all that, they have to somehow collate the information and work out what to do with it… and in what order…

All by themselves…

With no absolute certainty they’re on the right track.

The process is time-consuming and boring, with distractions that can head them off into dark side alleys and treacherous dead ends.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried doing this kind of research yourself when you need help urgently…

But I most certainly have…

And sometimes I want to scream out loud:

“CAN SOMEONE PLEASE JUST SHOW ME
WHAT TO DO?!”

Which is exactly what a good online course is all about.

It’s like someone friendly taking you by the hand and leading you through a busy crowd to where you need to go.

You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to have celebrity status, awards or accolades. You don’t even need to know everything about your subject.

You just need to be someone who’s been there and done it… who can show your customer how to solve their problems or achieve their goals without all the hassle, confusion and wasted time.

This is something I can do for you, too, if you like!

I know all the pitfalls and obstacles of creating your first course… from self-doubt and struggles for time and focus… to headaches over tech.

So if we are not already working together (hello to my lovely students who are already getting on with their course creation!) let me help guide you through the process, step-by-step. This way, you won’t get overloaded with too much information, or have to do your own research.

Just email me at [email protected] and we can get you started on my Course Creation Academy.