In this post, I’m going to give you solid insights into how you need to find online course ideas and validate them for surefire success.
The demand for online courses and eLearning has been growing exponentially.
According to the UF Canvas study, the eLearning industry is set for $325 Billion by 2025. That’s huge!
Before getting excited about creating an online course, determine what topic you need to create an online course. Your first step in getting a sweet pie of this emerging industry is by being an early adopter.
Below is a short video that outlines different techniques for finding course ideas in niche markets.
If you’re interested in reading the full blog post, which contains additional techniques not covered in the video, feel free to skip the video and continue reading the blog post.
Finding a niche for your course
You will be overwhelmed when determining the topic for your online course due to the presence of diverse niches.
80% of the course niches come under these areas:
- Wealth
- Health
- Relationships
- Lifestyle
- Education
- Spirituality
- Fashion
Any niche that you choose to create a course falls under any of these giant umbrellas.
You see, I’m a blogger for content marketers, right? So, it would be Wealth > Online marketing > Blogging/Content marketing.
You need to dive deep into a niche where there is enough audience to create your online course.
Based on the Japanese concept of “Ikigai”, you need to create a course around a topic:
- You love
- You are good/knowledgeable in
- The world needs
- You can be paid for
Choosing an online course niche that you love is a no-brainer. So, our primary focus would be the other three.
Knowledgeability
Are you already an expert?
If you are already an expert in any field, it makes perfect sense to create a course in that field.
As an expert, you may already have an audience base, marketing strategies, a blog, a YouTube channel, and subscribers that you can leverage. You also have a vague idea about audience psychology in your field of expertise.
If you are a seasoned online marketer, the first step for you would be to identify the areas in which you are already generating revenue. Then, you need to find a course that helps you growth-hack your existing business.
If you have great content on your blog, you can repurpose your blog content like online courses, or it’ll be easy for you to prepare a course transcript.
You need to prepare a detailed list of topics you are an expert in.
For example, if you are an SEO expert, your list would look like this:
- Onpage SEO
- Offpage SEO
- Link building
- PBN
- Semantic SEO
- WordPress SEO
- Keyword research
- Technical SEO
- SEO audit
- SEO tools
So on.
There may be chances of you having fierce competition in your niche. For this, finding a market gap by using niche angling or other strategies is essential.
I will discuss these concepts in detail in the later sections.
Are you not an expert?
If you are not an expert in any field, no problem.
One example is that of the “Sleep hacking” course by Scott; he discussed it in the SideHustleNation podcast.
Scott was initially a life hacks coach; while teaching, he noticed that his students loved his sleep optimization lecture. Thereby he got the idea to create a course around sleep hacking.
While he is not a sleep doctor, he conducted research, acquired knowledge, curated the best information, created logical segments, developed presentations, and published them.
In a podcast, he stated, “Many people have limiting beliefs about what they can create courses on because they don’t have skills in the subject they want to teach. But the truth is that you can be an effective teacher if you have more knowledge than the person listening to your topic.”
To become an effective teacher, it is important to develop an interest in a specific field and gain a solid understanding of the topics within it.
This works great if you are looking to publish courses on big marketplaces like Udemy, where they handle most of your marketing.
If you are into self-hosting courses on Teachable or Thinkific, you may find it challenging to market your courses not being an expert in a field.
In this case, I would advise you to carry out the course idea research as your first step, picking up a topic where there’s a massive need and gaining expertise.
You need to also keep in mind that if you are not an expert, preparing a detailed transcript and the presentations is very important.
Finding course ideas that people need
People only buy things that they need. Before finalizing a course topic, it’s essential for you to test whether there’s a real need for the course in the market.
Based on my research, here are some topics that are in high demand in the market
These topics address real pain points that people are currently facing.
- For teachers going digital: Imagine a course aimed at helping teachers transition to digital platforms. By understanding their specific challenges, you can create content that resonates and truly helps.
- Small real-estate businesses starting with the digital advertising world: Similar approach – listen to their unique struggles in going digital and tailor your course to offer practical, actionable solutions.
If you want to find various sub-niches like this, there are several techniques that you can use, which I will outline below.
Ask your audience
If you have an existing audience-base, you need to consider asking them what problem are they facing currently and would they be willing to pay you if you solve their problems.
You can reach them out via various channels like:
- Email newsletters
- Facebook posts
- Facebook groups
- Blog posts
- Facebook ads
So on.
Once you come across the problems, they’re having, you can pitch them some course topic ideas that you think would solve their problems.
Look at your popular blog posts
If you are a blogger, you can take a look at the best-performing posts on your blog for course ideas.
Your content is performing well because you’re good at the topic, or your audience loves it. In both of these cases, it may be a good topic for the next online course.
If there are enough popular blog posts on a specific topic on your blog, you can consider creating an entire course on it by partially repurposing your blog’s content.
Online forums
Have you ever wondered where people openly share their deepest challenges without the fear of judgment?
Forums like Reddit and Quora are goldmines for this.
Here, people use pseudonyms, so they’re more comfortable sharing their problems and vulnerabilities.
It’s like having a front-row seat to the pain points of your potential audience.
Take, for instance, the subreddit r/NewTubers. It’s a community of budding YouTubers openly discussing their struggles.
As a course creator, these insights are invaluable.
Imagine you’re planning a course on YouTube success.
By engaging in these forums, you’ll learn what aspects to focus on, like maybe ‘YouTube Shorts’ if it’s trending in conversations.
But it’s not just about observing. Get involved in these discussions. You’ll be surprised by the depth of insight you can gather.
People share their experiences, tips, and frustrations, which can guide the structure and content of your course.
Udemy marketplace insights
Platforms like Udemy are treasure troves for keyword insights.
Just searching for a topic can reveal what courses exist and what’s trending.
For example, a quick search for “marketing” might show you courses already out there, their popularity, and areas where there might be a gap you can fill.
Also while researching, don’t forget to check the quality of your potential audience.
Look at reviews and comments on existing courses and ask yourself:
- Are they insightful?
- What are the common complaints?
- Are there any gaps in understanding on the topic for the students?
This can give you a sense of whether the audience is likely to engage deeply with your course.
Also you can use tools like Udemy’s Marketplace Insights, you can gauge the demand for a specific topic, the number of existing courses, and even the average monthly revenue.
For instance, searching for ‘neuromarketing’ reveals the number of courses available, the level of student demand, and potential earnings.
Or another example:
Online forums
Have you ever wondered where people openly share their deepest challenges without the fear of judgment?
Forums like Reddit and Quora are goldmines for this.
Here, people use pseudonyms, so they’re more comfortable sharing their problems and vulnerabilities.
It’s like having a front-row seat to the pain points of your potential audience.
Take, for instance, the subreddit r/NewTubers. It’s a community of budding YouTubers openly discussing their struggles.
As a course creator, these insights are invaluable.
Imagine you’re planning a course on YouTube success.
By engaging in these forums, you’ll learn what aspects to focus on, like maybe ‘YouTube Shorts’ if it’s trending in conversations.
But it’s not just about observing. Get involved in these discussions. You’ll be surprised by the depth of insight you can gather.
People share their experiences, tips, and frustrations, which can guide the structure and content of your course.
Keyword research
Another place where highly motivated buyers are searching is Google.
You need to research what people are searching on Google regarding your field of interest/expertise.
Here, you need to find the ultra-specific topic ideas to cut through the competition.
Let’s say you are an expert in “finance.”
As you may know, there seems to be lots of competition for finance courses as a whole.
Here you can see Google will only recommend you the focused topics on which you can create a course.
Let’s say you’re into marketing; try typing “[letter] + marketing courses” and see the variety of niches that appear.
Here are some of the search terms you need to consider:
- courses
- training
- online courses on
- courses for
You can also use the power of Semrush and Ubersuggest to take this to the next level.
These tools can give you a detailed breakdown of search volumes and trends.
Suppose you’re considering a course on “neuromarketing”.
These tools can show you how many people are searching for this topic, what specific aspects they’re interested in, and even the geographical regions where this topic is most popular.
These keyword research tools rely on historical data to determine keyword volume.
However, if you want to understand the real-time popularity of different topics and keywords, you can use Google Trends, which provides data directly from Google.
You always need to go behind keywords with good search volume, representing the demand for your course idea on the internet.
Niche angling and overlapping
If you are an expert in a field that’s very competitive when it comes to online courses, you may need to find a unique angle, and market gap by making use of niche overlaps and other techniques.
For example, if you have an interest in finance, particularly in debt management, and you are also familiar with the educational niche,
Well, you can create a course on how to handle student debt!
Another example would be the freelancer courses. You can create freelance related hyper-targeted courses like:
- Freelancing for developers
- Freelancing for travelers
- Freelancing for moms
So on.
Here’s an example of Elna Cain who teaches moms how to excel in freelance writing working from home.
Competition is good
If there is a lot of competition in a specific niche, it does not necessarily mean that you should avoid entering that space. In fact, it could indicate that there is still significant profit potential.
Personally, I do not enter a niche without thoroughly researching if there are no existing online courses available.
When you encounter strong competition in your researched niche, it is important to determine whether you will be competing with low-quality courses or if the competition is truly fierce.
To effectively position yourself alongside the competition, you can:
- Research the reviews of the existing courses.
- Invest time in evaluating the existing courses.
- Research whether there are any unfulfilled needs in the existing training courses.
How to validate your course idea?
Before giving your final call on any topic you researched, it’s very essential to execute some of these course idea validation strategies.
Are people already spending money?
The first step to validate the profitability of the niche is to determine whether your target audience are spending money online in order to get their problem solved.
You need to ask yourself these questions:
- Are there any existing courses on the same topic that are selling well?
- Are there any other good selling information products (like eBooks) on the topic?
- Are there any people giving paid consultations on the topic?
- Are there any mobile apps that people are buying to get their specific problems solved?
- Are people searching for certifications in the field?
Once you are sure that your target audience have their wallet open, rest assured you can proceed with the following validation strategies.
Conduct surveys
You need to first ask your existing audience, whether they are interested in your course.
You can conduct surveys using email newsletters, FB ads, communities, blogs, etc.
You need to know some details like:
- Demographics of the audience whom you’ll be serving your course.
- Challenges that people are facing in the given niche.
- How they are handling their current challenges in the niche
- What blogs your audience read?
- What books do they read?
- How can you help them?
- Would they love a course that solves their problems?
- What content they expect in the training course?
- What outcome do they expect out of the training course?
- What format of the training course do they love the most?
The questions I’ve mentioned above are quite generic, you need to tweak them according to your business goals and strategies.
By getting the answers to these queries, you’ll get a clear idea of whether your course idea will be relevant for your audience or not.
If you have an existing audience, but you’ve not done a detailed survey of their needs and challenges, you’ll be missing out a lot.
You can make use of tools like Typeform, Paperform, HotJar, or even free Google Forms for creating surveys. All you need to do is to drive targeted traffic to these tool pages. If you don’t want to spend money on these survey tools, you can consider choosing the LMS platforms like Thinkific or Kajabi. Both these come with surveys, built-in.
Consider preselling your course
Preselling is an excellent strategy to implement if you are unsure whether there’s a demand for the course you’re going to create.
It refers to the process of selling a course before creating it. You just need to create a media kit, mockups, and promotional materials and present them on the preselling landing page.
On that landing page, you need to include some description of the course, modules, and details about each lecture. Tools like Podia or Thinkific have this feature built-in. If you are using Kajabi, you can create a dedicated landing page for this purpose.
The preselling price of the course is typically highly discounted as buyers will get access to the course only after it gets launched. Before putting forward this offer, make sure you have a clear ETA in place for your course creation and launch. If this is your first-course launch, allow enough buffer time to avoid being squeezed in the middle.
Bryan from VideoFruit has a great case study on this where he made over $10,000 in 24 hours by preselling his course.
According to him, the right pricing, evoking strong desire, and messaging are very important. He used this strategy as part of his course idea validation strategies with his existing audience, mostly email subscribers.).
Create an MVP
Before considering creating a fully-blown course, you may want to start by creating a “minimum viable product” (MVP) course. This allows you to test the waters before fully committing.
Creating an MVP also helps you set a realistic launch date for your pre-launch offer. You can release the MVP at a lower price and gradually increase the price as you add more videos. This adds value for existing students.
When you start seeing sales and positive reviews, it will motivate you to create more videos and turn it into a full-blown course.
Even if your minimum viable course fails, it won’t be a heartbreaking moment for you since you haven’t invested significant effort and money into it.
Google Trends
You need to consider using Google Trends to ensure that your course topic stays relevant and set proper revenue expectations.
Suppose you are considering creating a course on the “Paleo diet”, you can search for it on Google Trends.
Here you can view the trend graph of the topic.
You can see that people search more about dieting during the New Year time – thanks to the new year resolutions. And you can also see that the popularity of the Paleo diet has been declining.
You can also see in what subregions the paleolithic diet is popular. You need to make sure that the audience you’re willing to market are indeed from these regions.
With this, you’ll get to set the expectations right for your online course.
In Google Trends, you need to avoid getting into course ideas with huge spikes.
For example, if you are thinking of creating a course on the PubG game, it may be too late to enter, and it’ll not be an evergreen niche.
Google Trends data for PubG
It’ll just be another Pokemon Go on a smaller scale.
Start with the end in mind.
Creating an online course alone is not enough. You need to figure out the strategies to market them.
Although the idea on which you create your online course is essential, your ability to market it effectively matters a lot.
Before creating an online course, you need to determine where you’re going to host it, what channels you’re going to market on, what’s your upsell? and so on.
You need to have a detailed game plan ready beforehand.
If you create an excellent course without proper marketing strategies, you are doomed to fail. Because marketing research is one of the important course idea validation techniques to implement.
Also, you need to have a clear final outcome you’re expecting out of the course in mind.
Wrapping up
These are some techniques I personally use to research online course ideas.
Finding a low-competitive yet-profitable course idea is very important, and it determines at least 50% or even more of your success depends upon your marketing.
Course creation takes a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources. So I highly advise you to create a detailed plan, including the niche validation, niche research, and marketing reports.
Hope you found this post helpful.
