In my experience in online marketing in the make money online space, there seems to be only a handful of strategies that pretty much drive the majority of the sales and profits being made.
Those include: email marketing, webinars, and membership sites.
And that’s why I love Teachable so much, especially for people just getting started trying to make a full-time comfortable living online.
Teachable is one of many available solutions that allows anyone to quickly and easily create and sell their own online courses and membership sites, without having to be some technical wizard when it comes to websites, hosting, etc.
All you do is create your account, add your content, publish it, and you’re all setup to start making money.
So, what sort of tools do you need to start creating your own online courses?
This is another reason why I love the online courses model, because there are only a few basic tools you need, and that’s it.
First, you’ll need a computer. I used a 15” MacBook Pro. But you can use a laptop or desktop, whichever you feel most comfortable with.
Next you will need some sort of screen capture tool for recording your videos. I’m on a Mac, so I use ScreenFlow, which is only about $100. But if you’re on a PC I would recommend Camtasia.
Last, I recommend investing in a quality external microphone. There are several great solutions out there, but I use a Blue Yeti USB microphone, that you can pick up on Amazon for about $100.
That’s pretty much it as far as the equipment you need.
So, why do I like Teachable so much as opposed to the other solutions available?
There are a number of different similar platforms that allow you to create your own membership sites, such as Thinkific and ClickFunnels, but the reason I like Teachable so much is because #1 it is extremely easy to use…
And #2 it actually gives you the ability to email your customers and students FREE (this is an incredibly valuable feature). You’re essentially getting a free autoresponder, which eliminates the need to invest in a third party one yourself 🙂
So, how would you recommend a beginner get started?
Well, since Teachable has a FREE plan, I would absolutely suggest starting there.
You can sign up for the FREE account when you’re getting everything setup and adding all of your content.
I suggest creating some sort of MVP (minimum viable product) that you can give away for FREE as an ethical bribe.
And then once you’ve built up lots and lots of people who are enrolled in your FREE training, you can then upsell them on your paid training.
And all you need to do this is to send out an email in your Teachable back office, announcing your new course.
Alternatively, once you create the paid course, you can setup a thank you page once people enroll in your FREE training, introducing them to the optional paid training.
Once you start offering the paid training, it would then be a good idea to upgrade your Teachable account from the FREE plan to the Professional plan. I recommend the Professional plan because there are not only any transaction fees at this level, but also you get instant payouts, which is far more favorable than having to wait over a month to get paid after you make a sale.
So, how do you market and promote your courses when just getting started?
There are a number of different no cost or low cost options available to market your courses.
A few options include:
- Creating a YouTube channel where to talk about and educate people on your specific topic or niche, and then as a call-to-action inform them about your FREE course
- You could create an authority blog or website, where you, again, share tips and information about that particular topic or niche and direct people to enroll in your FREE course.
- Or you could even create a Facebook group and build a community around your topic and niche and share your course that way.
In summary, here is how I would take advantage of Teachable…
- Create a lead magnet training course or content that you can give away, essentially building and email list, that you can remarket to for FREE.
- Assuming that your FREE content is excellent and your customers got lots of value out of it, offer a premium or paid upgraded version of the content you shared for FREE.
- And then take advantage of Teachable’s ability to email your audience through their back office to market and promote other products and services related to the topic of your training.