Choosing the right topic

01. Choose the right subject matter

The topic you choose is entirely in your hands, and can be pretty much anything - from baking tips to website design. While the possibilities are just about endless, the right subject matter is a determining factor in an online course’s success.

The main criteria in evaluating your online course’s topic are whether it appeals to both you and your audience:

Choose something you want to teach:

The topic for your online course should be either a subject that you’re already knowledgeable about or are willing to invest in learning thoroughly. Either way, you need to be passionate about the subject.

Try and think about what it is that you do best, and what people come to you for advice on. Those topics usually make for the most successful online courses. Alternatively, ask yourself what you’d like to know more about, and through learning it yourself, you’ll be able to become a great teacher on the subject. You can also browse some of the Wix Learn Online Courses to find inspiration or brush up on your skills.

Choose something others want to learn:

Before getting to work, identify your audience and the demand for the topic at hand. Ask a group of friends, as well as your existing audience, what they think of the subject you had in mind. Test it out by sharing polls or online forms for your audience to fill out. You can make a short tutorial first, and monitor its performance. Then, follow up on the tutorial on social media or via email marketing campaigns, asking your audience if this type of material is something they’re interested in seeing more of.

In addition, conduct some online research into your topic. If you find other online courses about the same subject matter, that’s a great sign. Having competition means that people find the topic relevant and helpful for them. It’s also a good idea to create content that can comfortably fit into an existing, tried-and-tested space.

Once you have a clear target audience in mind, you are best equipped for later creating and marketing the course. This is because you’ll be able to know exactly who you’re looking to reach, which type of content they are hoping to consume, and what their level of expertise is at that point in their learning journey.

02. Test your idea

Creating an online course requires a lot of hard work and effort on your part, so running a test before you begin will allow you to validate this online business idea as one that will pay itself off down the line.

In order to test your idea, use a landing page builder to create a page for your upcoming online course. Although you haven’t created the course just yet, you already know what it’s going to be about. Include a concise description of the course explaining what people can expect to learn and add eye-catching imagery to further reflect the concept. Check out these fully customizable landing page templates to use as a starting point.

Utilize call-to-action buttons (CTAs) to invite visitors to sign up for free for your upcoming online course, or pre-purchase it to save a spot in your class. After promoting your website on various channels, like social media, newsletters, and more, you’ll be able to look over the data you collected and see if you have enough attendees and encouraging feedback. Decide on metrics ahead of time, so that you’ll know what results to look for at the end of the trial period.

03. Research the topic extensively

Whether you’re already an expert in your field or are looking forward to learning it from start to finish, now is the time to deep dive until you know everything there is to know about the topic.

As part of your thorough learning process, go beyond what course attendees will easily find on search results. Go the extra mile and find a variety of different sources on the topic, from literature to competitor classes and webinars. Perform keyword research in order to see what type of queries people are looking up on the topic. From this, you can get a better feel for the kinds of questions that your audience might be interested in.

Keep your eyes open for any subcategories within your niche. For example, if you plan on instructing a course about how to take care of indoor plants, you’ll definitely want to cover the basics such as water and natural light. But in order to provide added value, look for unique angles to widen the scope of your course, like the types of air purifying plants, for example.

04.Write a course outline

Now is the time to develop the curriculum for your online course. On a piece of paper, write down a list of the different lessons you plan on teaching online. Within each lesson, break it down to the main topics you want to cover. Go in a logical order and try to make your ideas evolve naturally from one to the other, to ensure a smooth and frictionless learning process.

Remember that teaching is about guiding your audience through an idea, step by step. To make this clear in your course outline, define an objective for each of your lessons.

Continuing with the indoor plant care example from the previous section, you might want your students to be able to classify the plants they have at home in one lesson, and to be able to recognize signs of pests or disease in the next.

Here’s an example of an online course outline for an indoor plant care class. You can use this example as a template for creating your own:

Lesson #1: How to water plants

Lesson objective: Students will learn how much, and how often, to water their plants.

Topics covered:

The importance of watering;

The dangers of overwatering;

Different types of plants and the watering they require;

Soil as a signifier of dehydration or overhydration.

Lesson #2: Plants and natural light

Lesson objective: Students will understand the importance of natural light, and will be able to pick the optimal lighting for their plants.

Topics covered:

Light and its role in plant photosynthesis;

Different types of plants and the amount of sunlight they need;

How and when to use fluorescent lighting for indoor plants.

Remember to also include an introduction and a conclusion to your entire course, as well as in each individual lesson. Reiteration is a good aid in learning processes.

Consider adding assignments and activities as part of your course curriculum, to help the newly gained knowledge sink in. It’s recommended to start with a theoretical discussion, then to give some examples, and to follow up with an assignment at the very end.