How to launch your first online solar course?

15/11/2019

Being a solar entrepreneur means you know solar better than the others.

Like any other business solar too has many aspects like technical, marketing, client acquisition, finance, productivity, solar financial feasibility, solar installation, and many more.

I’m sure you would be handling all, good in many and excellent in few, just like me.

You can capitalize your learning as a solar entrepreneur by designing an online course.

What is an Online course?

Online course is a course which is taught online instead of in-person. Filter your area of expertise.

Encapsulate your learning and experience in audio, video and text format and offer it to your viewers to view and listen it online.

This is an online course.

The online courses also include project, assignments and quizzes to make them more interactive.

If you are a newbie, looking for a good online business then launching an online course is the perfect idea.

Podia is a very good platform to help you in selling your first online course

Why you should launch your online course?

Launching your online course has the following advantages:

A good online course has the potential to reward you incredibly, expands your reach and makes you an expert in the solar domain.
The entry barrier is low for creating an online course
The online course delivers value by solving the specific problem of the people.

Overcoming the mental barriers

Few questions will pull you back from launching your online course like:

1. Why people should buy from me as the information is already available in the internet?
It is true that one can research and get the desired information from the internet.

But it is very time consuming
As numerous options are available, you get confused
It is difficult to trust the authenticity of the information
In the end, you still remain directionless with very less value addition

Your course can solve these problems and add value.

2. I am no expert in this field

My friend, you need not to be an expert. You just need to know more and better than others.

Research about the topic of interest and in few hours, you are ready to share your knowledge through a small yet meaningful course.
The expertise will automatically come with time and you can always add, omit or re-create the course content.

3. Launching an online course is very time consuming and hard

Then start small.
For example, “How to design the residential solar power system by yourself?” is a big course which includes following chapters:

What is solar power system?
The different types of solar power systems?
How to size the solar panels?
How to size the batteries?
How to size the inverter?
How to size the solar charge controller?
How to size the wires?
The tilt and the orientation of the solar power system

It is very time consuming to design the above course in one go.

It is better to take one chapter at a time and design a small course. You will able to do it in a week’s time and it will be a fun.

4. The course is already available in the market and don’t have anything to teach?

It is even better as your idea is already validated, available and selling in the market.

You just need to improve upon the existing idea and offer the better version.

How to build the course content

There are 2 main types of online course videos: one is screen recordings and the second is your talking videos.

In screen recordings, you record your computer screen and explain the things to your students. A power point presentation is a good way to do this.
You can even explain the mathematical equations in the excel.

An example of screen recording:

A talking video, you record yourself speaking to the camera and explaining the things to your students.

These type of videos are good while explaining the less technical stuff like introduction to the course to your students.

But talking videos are very effective as students get to know the person behind the course.

The talking videos can create a long lasting impact on your students.

An example of talking video:

Remember:

To be natural and be like a friend while explaining the things to your students
Explain the course content in simple language
Don't worry too much about the quality of the video. It is more important to launch your first course than delaying it due to video quality.
Create a mix of screen recordings and talking videos.

Naming of the online course

Naming your course is the first thing that anybody will see first.

The name should draw the students and create curiosity in their minds.

A good course name tells the students the type of learning they will get in the end.

If for some reason, you get it wrong, the students will move to other course even if you have better content inside it.

Examples of result oriented & time bound courses names:

"How to design the solar power system in 30 days?"
"How to get first 100 customers in 30 days?"
"How to learn car driving in 2 hours?"

Pricing of the course

Pricing of your course is dynamic in nature and it mainly depends on your goal.

If your goal is to create value and penetrate deep in the market then offer your solar course for free or with less pricing.
If you are thinking of making good money out of your course then keep the price high. Even few buyers can can boost your sales. For example a $100 course sold to 10 customers can give you same money as $10 course sold to 100 customers.
If you want to keep a balance between value and profit then keep a reasonable price for your viewers.

Experiment with the price and see what the customers are ready to pay for.

Marketing

E-mail marketing:

Your e-mail list is the most valuable sales asset.

Creating a blog is the best way to build up your e-mail list. You can launch your blog on Weebly.

Offer free and valuable content to your visitors.

They will visit your blog and signup to get the latest updates in their mail-box.
You can launch your blog on square space or wordpress

Write a guest post:

Another effective way of increasing e-mail list in a short period is writing a guest post on the popular blogs in your category.

Look for the popular blogs in your category.

Offer your content to publish on their blogs. Provide the back-links of your blog within the offered post.

Due to heavy traffic, more people will come to know about you when they read your guest post.

Offer something free to subscribe

Design a small 3-4-page PDF file like

10 steps before buying a solar panel
Or
How to maintain your solar panels?

and offer it free to the subscribers.

You will see 3-4 times increase in the subscribers than it was without a free offering.

If you have a blog then search for most popular article. Convert it into a PDF file and offer it for free to the visitors who subscribe your newsletter

Join social media groups:

Writing about your solar course and sharing the link on social media platform is a good idea to promote it.

Start your marketing campaign by sharing on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Join groups related to your domain and share your content.

Like minded people will read your content and there are good chances of buying your solar course.

Share other people content in your blog-post:

Link the work and content of other people/bloggers/entrepreneurs in the same domain in your posts.

In this way you are directing the traffic to them and contributing in their business.

They will realize your efforts and will reciprocate by linking your content in their posts.

Finally, you will also start getting traffic from them.

Writing a sales page

Your product cannot sell without a great sales page.

Start with problem your prospective students are facing.

Problem:

For example, People are reluctant in buying the residential solar power system because they are ignorant about its benefits.

Highlight its consequences:

They are using more of fossil fuels, polluting the environment
The grid electricity is costlier than solar electricity
The grid electricity makes you dependent on grid. The solar electricity makes you independent as the source sunlight is free for all.

Benefits of solving the problem:

Help in preserving the environment
Pocket friendly
Low maintenance and durability
You can sell extra units through net-metering
Smooth electricity increases the life of your electrical appliances.

Solution: How your course will help in solving the problem?

It will help in choosing the best system meeting your requirements
You will get to know the financial feasibility of the system

Conclusion

Getting testimonials from people and publishing them with the course would be a great idea to market your course.

Offer big discount for first 15 days of the course launch.

This will create a sense of urgency and will help you in getting good sales.

Offer 60 days money-back guarantee to the audiences provided they have completed the course.

If your course content is good people will not ask for money after completing the course.

How to start solar power installation business?
How to start solar lantern business and make it online?
How to setup an online shop of solar products?

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