How to make 1,000,000 with online courses...

Today I wanted to share with you some things that I have learned over the past seven years about the online course creation industry and online business industry in general.

I think that there is a ton of opportunity online and that anybody who decides to and wants to create more income streams for their business. I also think there's a lot of smoke and mirrors out there. There are big claims and things that I see all the time, like this “million-dollar” claim. I see repeatedly in my Facebook ads, and I know that's because I'm in the online business industry, and I've invested in many of these courses over the years.

The basic formula for how to make a million dollars selling your online course goes like this:

Spend $900,000 in advertising and other business expenses. A lot of people invest in these types of programs, they invest in Facebook ads and do the work, and it still does not work for them.

The basic concept that's being sold online right now is, "Buy my $2,500 product on course creation, or Facebook ads, or how to do a proper launch, have a high conversion rate, and make a lot of money selling your own $2,500 course,". 

So the entire business model is, "Buy my $2,500 course and I'll teach you how to make money selling $2,500 courses."  To make a million dollars selling a $2,500 course, you need to sell 400 of them. To do that, what is being taught is that all you have to do is spend $40,000 to $50,000 on Facebook ads to get a list of people that are interested in your topic. And then you teach a free three-part series or a webinar saying, "This is why you should learn X concept."

For example, if I were teaching course creation, I could say:

• Reason number one why you want to learn how to create online courses, and that is so you can help more people. 
• Reason number two would be, so you can increase your income and have an amazing life.
• Reason number three would be, so you can create passive income.

I would expand on those topics and give genuinely useful information. 

Then I should say, "Now you know all the great reasons why you should create an online course, so take my course creation formula for $2,500 and I'll teach you how to create an online course."

But then you're not done, because now you have this online course, but you don't know how to sell it. So along comes the next $2,500 program. "I'm going to teach you how to launch your online course and make a million dollars."

The next thing you need is to run ads, so guess what? Yep, now you need the "Tiny product Facebook Success formula." 

It goes on and on and on, it's a vicious cycle, and it's a lot of smoke and mirrors.  I could say all day long that I made a million dollars last year in my online business, but a million dollars in sales is not the same thing as making a million dollars that you get to take home, and put in your bank account and spend!

I teach a class called Online Business Buildout, where I go into detail about how I built my online business over the past seven years. My biggest year in online business was a few years ago when I made $250,000, which was about $100,000 more than I had made the year before. But you know what? I had almost $100,000 more in expenses. I bought a lot more Facebook ads. I had a Facebook Ads Manager that I was paying and I upped my VA to full-time hours.

Honestly, I didn't get to take home much more money, and I was super stressed! That is not how I want to do business.

The numbers mean nothing to me if I don't get to take that money and spend it on my family. How many courses I sell is not what's important to me. What's important to me is helping people, making the money I want to make for my family and my lifestyle, and not being stressed out while I do it.

In the past seven years, I've sold 35,000 digital products. And my average price is insanely low. It's $15, which if you do the math comes out to just over $500,000 in total sales.

I'm doing the opposite of what these other people are doing who are selling these $2,500 because I so much didn't want to be a part of that. That didn't feel right to me, so I went a little bit far in the other direction. Selling products for $10, $15, $29, that's not sustainable for me either, and I'm getting burned out. I actually even thought about selling my business last year. And that's a sign of burnout to me.

I'm currently looking at things and experimenting with my business model, expanding into teaching online business based on my experience and my results, not giving people false promises or a magic “formula”.

That brings me to my latest course that I'm teaching and it is called, Build Your Dream Business in Eight Weeks, which is a fun title.

What I mean by that is, I believe that anybody in eight weeks could have a concept for an online business, and a basic business structure, which I feel is extremely important. Including a website, a way to take payments and deliver products. and at least one product created and for sale.

Your one product could be an hour of coaching with you or a video course.

You will also need a way for people to sign up, join your email marketing list, and a plan for starting to get out there and marketing your new business. It really is a matter of trying different things and seeing what appeals to your ideal clients, and what you like to do that you can be consistent with.

I like to talk to people. I like to share things like this video right here. So this is one of my main marketing strategies. I also will often take a video like this and have it transcribed and turn that into some written marketing content. Like I did right here!!

My new program Create Your Dream Business in 8 Weeks is designed to get your online business up and running with systems in place to build your email list and at least one product for sale by the end of the 8 weeks.

This program is now available as a part of The Mastermind Course Library, see what's included and how you can join here