Why Creating an Online Course Could Be a Game Changer for Your Career
Online courses have long been touted as a way for digital entrepreneurs and experts to make money. However, now that the internet has become far more open to learning through content, there are a lot more opportunities popping up for anyone with above average knowledge on just about any topic.
Additionally, thanks to the advent of great online course software like Kajabi and Teachable, as well as the beauty of online advertising, it’s now easier than ever for anyone to create courses.
Most importantly, online courses provide more benefits to the creator than just making a few extra bucks, although that’s always a great reason. Your online course could be the game changing move your career needs – allowing you to gain recognition, capture leads, attract better job prospects and even help you improve your own knowledge.
Here’s a look at some of the ways creating an online course can help propel your career to success.
1. Show your ability to develop and execute a project
Let’s face it. Creating an online course isn’t easy. It takes a lot of planning, research, organization, filming, editing and setting up just to get started. You’ll also be using quite a few digital tools and resources along the way to produce your content.
By embarking on and completing this journey, you are proving your ability to successfully develop and effectively execute a project and be resourceful, which are valuable skills in every career.
Be sure to document your process and the challenges you overcame so you can reference them in the future.
Every potential employer or client will appreciate a potential hire who can overcome obstacles and see things through to the end.
2. Establish authority in your field
The best way to showcase how much you know about a subject is to teach it, therefore, creating an online course is one of the best way to immediately get identified as an authority in the field.
Authority, in this context, doesn’t actually require being an expert or having significant seniority in a particular area. The truth is, having authority simply means that you are a widely-recognizable name to those within the field or those trying to learn it. So even if you don’t consider yourself an expert, that shouldn’t stop you from establishing authority.
Authority also doesn’t mean that you know everything there is to know in a certain area. As a matter of fact, one of the best ways to achieve authority and expertise is to take a small subsection or “niche” of a broader topic, and create a course on that. For example, you may not be the go-to expert on online marketing overall, but if someone wants information on the most effective online marketing for local businesses in Phoenix, Arizona, they’ll have to come to you.
3. Build an audience that will follow you wherever your path leads
Nowadays, it’s not sufficient to have businesses and organizations with a large online audience and promotional reach. Employees who have the authority mentioned earlier will gain a significant presence online, and this has become extremely valuable to employers for two main reasons – goodwill and support. People tend to trust other people over brands. This makes the audience of employees, partners and clients extremely valuable to today’s businesses.
The brand now develops goodwill from being associated with prominent online influencers, not just the other way around. Of course, this also translates to the bottom line, especially if your following directly aligns with the company’s target audience. Sharing information about the brand will convince people to seek it out and support you by buying your products. And for those who don’t follow you, simply knowing that you, a person whom people trust online, are affiliated with a certain brand, can be the deciding factor for making purchases.
Apart from being an extremely valuable hire when you bring along your supportive online course audience, it will also be a lot harder for employees to let you go. Losing you will mean losing your audience. However, you get to decide exactly where you go and the path will be paved, wherever it may lead.
4. Help you identify and fill gaps in your own knowledge
Creating an online course isn’t just valuable for the people you teach. It can help you fill in gaps in your own knowledge you didn’t even know were there.
When you start planning your course outline, you’ll identify areas you’ll need to research to get more comfortable with the subject. After gleaning this information, you will then need to add it to your script and record it for your course.
By the time you’ve completed and launched your course, you’ll have had at least three opportunities to solidify new and existing knowledge is a logical, cohesive way – which can help you attract further opportunities for speaking, workshops and writing more on your subject.
Conclusion
For anyone wanting to build their own reputation and authority in their career, independent of their employer, creating an online course is one of the best ways to do it.
Along with paying for itself through course sales, it helps you to improve your own knowledge in your field and makes you an invaluable employee that businesses will want to hire and never lose.