5 Online Course Ideas to Help You Scale Sustainably
You’ve decided it’s time to create your own course, but now you’re blanking on ideas and don’t know where to start — or what to create. You know you want to scale, but you’re not sure what your audience wants or what you can truly offer (at least when it comes to teaching).
Luckily, as a learning specialist and course creator, I know exactly how to help and sift through all the online course ideas out there to find the one that fits YOU.
Online Course Ideas to Use For (Almost) Every Niche
This list is to give you a solid starting point for brainstorming your online course. In fact, after you start brainstorming and find the purpose behind your course (besides scaling), you may not be anywhere near your original idea.
Here are a few online course ideas to help you scale sustainably —
#1. Your Signature Offer
If you’ve imagined building a course to scale your business, you’ve probably pictured a signature course. A signature course is typically an alternative to working with you one-on-one — meaning it’s often based on the signature framework of your main offer(s).
You can also use it with clients to reach deeper levels of your conversations in coaching, mentorship, or any of your programs.
It’s not the only option for building a course and scaling (especially considering it’s only the first on our list). Still, it is a favorite because it’s often bigger, bulkier, and higher-priced than other, smaller courses or offers.
#2. Specific Location
The next place you should look for online course ideas is your location. For example, if you’re a bookkeeper and you serve different areas, you could create different courses based on location, such as bookkeeping for Canadian businesses or bookkeeping for US-based businesses.
#3. Supporting Your 1:1
You don’t have to create a forward-facing course to sell to the masses to scale; you can create a course that supports your 1:1. Think about the commonly asked questions or experiences your clients have — do you find yourself repeating the same information over and over again?
Take this information and turn it into a course! Not only will you save time (allowing you some precious time freedom to do what you want), but it will create a better client experience, and a better client experience leads to better transformations.
Pssttt…this approach can also apply to your group programs!
#4. Niched Expertise
I love a good, niche mini-course! This isn’t a course for a specific audience or location but for a specific niche within a topic. For example, a course on blogging (general) vs. a course on creating how-to blog posts (niche/specific). Or, more specifically, a course on mobility for fitness coaches or reading nutrition labels for nutritionists.
You can use mini-courses to build a bigger course or keep them separate to have a lower-ticket item in your funnel and lower your barrier to entry.
#5. How to
If you’re struggling to come up with a course idea, it’s time to go back to the basics with a simple how-to (although I’ll be honest, when you’re done planning your course and curriculum, it probably won’t be a simple how-to).
Think about the essentials someone needs to get the transformation you provide your clients. What do they have to know? What do they need to comprehend/understand? Brainstorm a list, and I promise you’ll find a bunch of ideas you never knew you had!
Need More Course Ideas? This is for You!
I wanted to create a list that would help you come up with an online course idea no matter what your niche or expertise was — but I also love coming up with ideas for your business specifically (I even have a whole story highlight dedicated to this on my Instagram).
If you’re stuck on what to include or where to start with your online course, take the free workshop 3 Steps to Create More Impact & Income with an Online Course here.
