What are the technical and other considerations and requirements for creating your course? How much will it cost to create an online course?

Technical considerations are the thing that scares off a lot of would-be course creators. Not to worry, by breaking it all down, you’ll find that it’s a lot simpler than you think.

-Do you have the required equipment?

If you do a Google search for which equipment you need to create and record an online course, you may be intimidated by the results. You’ll get subsumed by infinite recommendations for microphones, cameras, lights, backdrops, editing programs, and more. I’m here to reassure you and tell you that basically, if you have a decent computer and a smartphone, you can create a course. There are free apps and programs that can help you along the way, and we’ll outline the best ones. As you make more money, you can decide whether you want to level up when it come to technology, but there are truly ways to make a high quality, professional looking course with limited equipment, and in our course we break it all down in detail.

-Do you have the know-how?

Are there any skills that you need to develop? First of all, do you know everything you want to share about your chosen subject? If you have any holes in your knowledge, that’s fine- just make sure you do your own learning before you start. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are not cut out for teaching it- in fact, you’ll know what it’s like to be in your students’ shoes.

In terms of learning the tech- how to record, format, upload, organize, all of that good stuff, our course has detailed instructions and checklists. If this all has you feeling hopeless, not to worry- you can hire someone to fill in the blanks. Just know that it might cost you! We’ll help you to not get taken advantage of.

-Do you know which platform you would use?

One big question is where to host your course. In many cases, you can offer your course on several different platforms, but these require further skills and time. We’ll go over the pros and cons of each platform. Also, you can choose to host the course on your own website. This requires a whole other level of technology, but if you already have a large mailing list, it can be worth it. Again, we’ll go over the options and have a step-by-step guide. We’ll tell you how to organize your course assets so that it’s easy for you to upload and repurpose them.

-Do I have time to create an online course? How much time does it take to build an online course?

If you’ve read up until here and thought to yourself, “Wow, this sounds like it’s gonna take a ton of time that I don’t have,” listen, we’ll be straight with you: course creation is definitely a time-intensive pursuit. If you’ve been doing a little research into course creation, you’ve no doubt seen the ads that promise a course in minutes or days. Honestly, no quality course can be created in minutes. Your students deserve better than that, and a crappy course does not make you look good, either. However, there are definitely proven ways to streamline the process and reduce the time and effort it takes to get a great course out there. You can break the whole process into manageable steps so that you can still live your life, do your work, and get your writing done while you create your course. And of course, the whole point of having an online course or two is to save yourself time in the long run: To create an evergreen or near-evergreen income stream that can give you more time and resources to write. If you’re not willing to put in any time, though, or if you truly feel like you have no time to spare at all, it’s probably time to re-evaluate. You actually might be better served by a course like From Aspiring Writer to Successful Author.

Now that you’ve had a chance to read about some of the technical, knowledge, and time requirements of creating an online course, what are you thinking? Take a sheet of paper and brainstorm. Is your plan becoming more clear? I would love to hear from you. Please don’t hesitate to send me an email. And if this all sounds wonderful to you and you would like to use your unique creative and storytelling talents to craft a truly transformational online course, join me inside .