Two hundred people, mostly women, gathered in a central London hotel to hear Smarta founder Shaa Wasmund talk about her business success, her recent MBE & how the audience could also find success producing online courses for delivery providers such as Groupon.
Shaa Wasmund
Shaa explained that time not money is our most
valuable commodity and one to one services are not scalable.
Providing content online is not the same as personal instruction.
It's a means whereby virtually unlimited people can be trained though
digital courses and do distribute your knowledge beyond what you can
personally do.
Her own company uses videos to teach customers how
to set up businesses. After buying about six different software
platforms she opted for Skilljar and working with Ross Walker of
Groupon they have provided affordable training to large numbers of
people.
The 90 Day Plan
Stop Talking, Start Doing!
Shaa Wasmund Bestselling Business Author at WH Smith's
You need to find your market and then your target market will tell you what will sell. She explained that this is an area that's wide open and it's at the start of a new trend which will only grow over the next two years. She said “it's virgin territory” and “it's easier than you think” to create a course , but what is required is passion, simplicity and elegance to your writing. You can even film in your living room if you know your subject and have enthusiasm for it. It's a mistake to start creating right away, you must ask potential customers what they need & what do they want. Can you solve day to day frustrations for a client? What do they want or need in my industry? E-mail people and ask them. Do research. Find the top blogging sites on your chosen topic and read the ones with the most comments. Look at Facebook groups related to your industry. Go to networking events. Look at tweet hashtags about what consumers care about. If you can, look at what courses your clients have already done. You are aiming to create the MVP – minimum viable product.
E-books are quick and cheap to produce to test the market. Think what time and money you could save if you took your own course?
The Business Bootcamp
Shaa Wasmund's business bootcamp
Ross Walker of Groupon
Ross Walker has worked for Groupon about five years. It has a presence in 47 countries so he knows what sells. It reaches 70-80 million people via email. It's evolving into being a search marketplace. If you are lucky enough to have your courses featured on Groupon they will run for a short period and then will be removed. Just make sure you know what to do with your customers when Groupon sends them to you. There is big money to be made.
Great material is key. Thin content won't work and it wouldn't get past Groupon's vetting process. Material taken by Groupon has to have been offered to the public at a higher price before it can be sold at a discount by them. Clarity and design are important. If people want to buy a course they will look at your website, make sure they are directed to the right landing page. After they have finished their course offer them something else, an extension or an enhanced course. Groupon charges on average £5-10 for their service but in some industries they charge £100 of the product price. A figure of 50% was mentioned as being normal.
Why do people buy? Everything. Why do they buy? Often it's curiosity. The professional and hobbyist markets do well. Some use courses to enhance their CVs.
If your course sells in the UK it can then be rolled out elsewhere, such as the USA, the Netherlands, South Africa etc.
Shaa then described some of the software products with hosting that can be used to deliver courses. She also named other delivery providers such as Udemy and Amazon Local.
Software & websites for publishing your course material
Camtasia (PC)
Screenflow (MAC)
Screenflow (PC)
Udemy
Articulate
Kajabi
Rainmaker
Nation Builder
Skilljar
Additional software not mentioned in the seminar (some are for creating courses that are offered without payment).
Learn Upon
www.adobe.com/Presenter
www.trainingbricks.com/create-course
Pathwright
Versal
Skills Platform
Coursio
Capterra
iSpring Solutions
Mindflash
Coursecraft
Odijoo
Uduto
Alison
Moodle
Claroline
Learnopia
P2PU
Curious
Skillshare
Fedora
Vidyard
Thinkific
Patience
Wistia
Screencast
Edukaans
Learnlyst
Thinkific is good value if you want to control your costs. All the platforms offer different solutions. It's a question of doing extensive research, deciding what you need & then budgeting for it. The best platforms are not cheap. Some are free. If you are going to sell thousands of one particular course then maybe you can afford a solution such as Skilljar. You also need to factor in the 50% that Groupon or Udemy will take in commission. To use Groupon you will need to have sold the courses elsewhere at a higher price & be approved by them.
It's clear from the briefest of research that finding the right hosting platform is difficult. At the Bootcamp Shaa was asked the question about how to choose the platform & provider and after some consideration she said that she would produce a webinar to help attendees decide. She admitted to having bought about six different platforms and then discovered that some were unsuitable as they wouldn't integrate with Contents Rights Management Software (CRM) or Groupon.
There's no universal opinion about which platform is best. You can host courses on your own Wordpress website using third party software and plug-ins or you can use a platform with its own web hosting included. What's not so good is to have a platform like Kajabi where you can't removing the branding.
A few examples of platforms used by successful courses
Brendan Burchard uses Kajabi. He is a personal development trainer & #1 New York Times bestselling author. His books include The Motivation Manifesto, The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive, The Millionaire Messenger, & Life’s Golden Ticket. He produces the #1 self-help show on YouTube & a podcast, The Charged Life. The Smarta Business School uses Skilljar. It's very expensive. The Shaw Academy record their live sessions with NCH's Debut (I use this too) and deliver their training sessions using Citrix. Smart Majority & the Online Marketing College use LearningHub.Shaa Online Courses (See Groupon for discounts)
How to write a bestsellerGroupon Online Course: Book Writing and Publishing Tips for £19 from Best-Selling Author Shaa Wasmund (94% Off)
How to start a business with Shaa
Start your own Business - Groupon £29
Online Course providers that have found success
Chandoo.orgExcel with Business
Business Bootcamp audience
Michelle Carvill
Michelle Carvill of CarvillCreative
The Business of Being Social: A Practical Guide to Harnessing the power of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & YouTube for all businesses by Michelle Carvill
Michelle Carvill - the agenda
Michelle Carvill on integrated marketing
Michelle Carvill on old & new marketing
Michelle Carvill on modern marketing
Michelle Carvill on customer behaviour
Michelle Carvill's hand drawn marketing funnel
Michelle Carvill explains the time people stay online
Michelle Carvill explains how recommendations work in selling
Michelle Carvill on the new digital marketing...
Michelle Carvill on how social media can work for you..
Michelle Carvill says - "use social networks"
Michelle Carvill on the new marketing planning
Michelle Carvill on planning the channels you need to use
Matt Thomas Curators of Awesome
Curators of Awesome is a new business just set up by Matt Thomas & Shaa Wasmund to create content for big brand businesses such as Satander
He said “be authentic” and make content your passion as content is at the heart of marketing.
Shaa Wasmund wraps up!
Coaching works - It means a 95% probability of achieving your primary goal.
Shaa's recommended book - Eric Ries The Lean Startup
Useful websites for your online content project
Fiverr.com Find services here- such as creating intro videosCoursecraft.net
Littlebird
Netmums
Mumsnet
Shaa Wasmund
#businessbootcamp#shaa
@shaa
@shaawasmund
https://www.facebook.com/shaawasmund
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shaawasmund
info@shaa.com
Michelle Carvill
@michellecarvillMatt Thomas
@CuratorsAwesome
