Many students ask me all the time: “What makes a good online course where I just know my course content is valuable?”

The answer is simple. Great courses deliver course content that: 

• Is set up in an efficient way
• Caters to all the different learning styles
• Creates urgency within the curriculum
• Can be discussed with you or your team member

3. Great courses create urgency within the curriculum

I don’t believe in just watching a few videos and doing the work “whenever”. My course content and even challenges are set up in a way that the students need to get a certain task done in a certain timeframe, otherwise, they will be behind and need to catch up, which makes the journey harder than just doing the work right from the get-go. 

And it works wonders. Because that’s the number one reason why students actually fail. Accountability. 

If you have urgency integrated into your course content, the lessons and weekly or monthly meetings (should you offer them), then this would really help your students to get stuff done. My students appreciate it, love it and have gotten results. 

So to sum this up: a great course needs to be set up in a way that the student can not fail. At least not for reasons caused by you. 

Now, of course, you have students who don’t show up to calls, just won’t do the work or simply lose self-believe halfway through. Your job is to inspire that belief within them that they can “do it”, that they can reach the promised transformation. Because that’s half the battle. 

If someone doesn’t show up to the group- or private calls, then there is little you can do about those. And unfortunately, you will have those students as well. 

The takeaway here is: Have urgency integrated into your marketing as well as in your actual learning content. 

4. Great courses offer access to the coach

A great course, especially in this fast-changing knowledge economy we live in now, should offer an option to get direct access to real live coaching to the course creator, or a team member. 

This way, the course creator can hold the students accountable and more pupils will actually end up doing the work and succeed in whatever it is they are trying to achieve. 

You can compare it with going to university, being surrounded by your peers, being able to ask questions and get those answered immediately once a roadblock pops up. And they will pop up, it’s inevitable that they won’t. Because every student has a different mindset and different battles to fight with. 

If your students wouldn’t have roadblocks and obstacles, they wouldn’t be your students. Your job is to help them overcome those. 

In one of my programs, Sold Out Programs, I offer my students to hand in their work to me, so I can look over it and offer feedback via a recorded video. 

This is one of the most valuable support systems you can offer to your students, as it minimizes the risk of failure and leaves no room for them to run in the wrong direction for months, or maybe even years. 

That’s what makes a good online course ladies and gentlemen. 

Selling digital goods and getting started in the online education sector has never been easier in today’s online world. According to Research and Markets, the online education industry is poised to become a $325 billion dollar industry by 2025, increasing from $187.877 billion in 2019.

Not only do we live in an instant gratification economy, where we want to have products delivered instantly to our doorstep (or even better via our email inbox), but we also demand location-independent freedom from both sides, the consumer and the business perspective. 

Consumers are purchasing more and more digital goods, for example membership sites, ebooks, audiobooks, digital courses or live lessons and tutorials, videos, songs, design, photography, templates, apps, masterminds, or worksheets. There are literally hundreds of digital product options out there that you can add to your product suite. 

There are countless benefits to selling digital goods online. For instance, the entry barrier to getting started is very low, digital goods are low-maintenance in general, you have full creative freedom and digital products have huge scalability.

Here are the top three tips and marketing strategies on how you can promote and sell digital products best to achieve the highest profits possible, listed in no particular order. 

3. Membership sites and online learning platforms 

Membership sites and online learning platforms are another awesome but much more indirect way to sell digital products. You can either build your own e-learning platform where you can sell your own digital products or you can sell digital goods from fellow experts in the industry. 

There are many different types of membership site models and online course platforms you can either join or create. To name just a few:

• The drip-fed model: Content will be added every month.
• The all-in membership: Members get access to everything straight away.
• The online community membership: Members get access to private forums, masterminds or online groups.

A consultant and course creator, for example, isn’t necessarily interested in creating ongoing new content and therefore isn’t looking to build an entire membership site themselves. However, most consultants, coaches and course creators are more than eager to get involved in a joint venture and have their online course listed on the best e-learning platforms in return for an affiliate commission or simply for exposure.