Due to the Great Recession, many people have found that the past several years have been really hard for them to make ends meet. And, at a organizational level, it’s also been rough. One way that you can supplement income and increase the visibility of your personal and professional brand is to create your very own online course.
After all, Forbes reported that the online course industry will grow from $56 billion to $107 billion in 2015! And, guess what? A great deal of this growth is coming from private individuals with their own courses to offer.
Still unsure if this is for you?
Let’s be honest. You don’t have to be a “wizard,” “guru” or Rosh Yeshiva. As rabbis and educators, we all have something to teach. In order to offer your own online course, you just have to know something useful to someone else.
And, there are a lot of people around the globe who may not be able to or want to walk into the doors of your organization. That said, they are looking for advice or a comfortable learning opportunity to get themselves onto better spiritual footing.
While the financial benefits can be a great reason to invest the time and energy into building a curriculum and offering your own online course, it can also really change your life and workweek.
If you want to spend more time with your family and cut back on teaching at nights or tutoring every Sunday, this can be a great way to still not lose out on that income. And, it allows you to still “scratch that itch” and deliver value to people without having to drive to them or teach at night when you are wiped out from your long day.
Unsure how to price such a course?
Guess what?
You can sell a course for whatever makes the most sense to you. Whether that’s $120 or $180 or $360 or $500 or more is up to you. Let’s just say you make a course for $500. If only ten people buy it, that’s another $5,000 you’ve earned. If 100 people buy it, that’s $50,000 for you or your organization.
How hard is it for you to make $50,000 right now?
Does it take you six months or a year?
How hard would it be for you to find 100 people you can help in such a way that they’ll pay you to help them be more confident in Hilchos Shabbos or improve their Shalom Bayis?
Consider this: For someone such as Chris Brogan, who is a New York Times bestselling author and business advisor, online courses have become over 70% of his annual revenue. Imagine if you could provide an online course and it adds or supplements your income even to an amount as low as 10%…?
Still unsure if this is something that can work in the “Jewish world?” See below for just a short list of Jewish online courses:
1) Rabbi Aryeh Nivin’s Personal Development Chabura
2) The Women’s Mussar Vaad: By Rebbetzin Dina Schoonmaker
3) YU Global
4) National Council of Young Israel Kallah Teacher Training Course. Also see here.
So…now you are really read to consider this?
Follow the five steps that appear below:
1) Idea – Ask yourself: What’s a good course idea, and how can you develop it?
2) Time – Once you have decided what you want to share with the world, give yourself twenty minutes a day for two weeks, and you’ll be through the material. Building out course material isn’t as hard as you’re thinking…IF you have a strong plan and a framework. In order to achieve any of this, you need to carve out the…TIME. (Keep in mind: It might take a bit longer to actually launch your course, depending on you.)
3) Content – How exactly will you build out your course? Do you have a large following on social media? Do you know a friend that does? Would you consider advertising here or sending emails out to friends, family, students and congregants? How you answer this question will forever impact the success of your online course. Think. Think. Think.
4) Pricing & Marketing – Think about how much should you charge? Also, consider ways that you can retain and add students as well as engage new ones to join you for a Shabbaton, trip to Israel, etc. Think of a special offer made ONLY to people who purchased the webinar/online course (you don’t have to be there LIVE for the offer, but you have to have purchased the online course to receive the offer).
5) Technology & Publishing – Unsure how to produce and publish your course? Consider some of the various tech options out there. See here and here for some great FREE ways that we have covered previously on NLEResources.com.
Chances are that you are a nice, personable, easy to reach, person who has a great smile and can convey Torah values to a broad audience of listeners online and offline. This new method allows people who live locally or even in another continent to become connected to you and your organization while bringing in and establishing a new revenue stream.
OK. Now you are ready to go ahead and begin the process of opening the online doors for a new shiur so that you could help people learn what you know. Hatzlacha!
