How to Choose a Profitable Topic for Your Online Course

Choosing a Profitable Topic, Not Just One You Love

You probably have an idea of what you want to cover in your course.  The next step is to see if it is a profitable topic for your online course.  Now, if all you want to do is create an online course to get the hang it, go ahead and use the topic you are considering.

However, if you are like most bloggers and online entrepreneurs, you want to make money from your course.

This means you need to ensure it covers material that answers the biggest questions your target audience is asking right now. You need to solve big problems with your course, and you need to use keywords and phrases that people are already looking for online.

Put Big G to Work

You will use several tools that can help you with keyword research.  Sign up with Google Analytics and you immediately have access to the massive accumulation of search data Big G has compiled. From your Google Analytics account, you can perform as much keyword research as you need to ensure you are creating a course people are searching for.

There is also a simple way to search Google for the exact phrases and words people are looking for right now.

Head over to the world’s biggest search engine. Enter your topic idea plus “online course”.  Are there a lot of results?  If so, and you see plenty of paid advertising concerning that topic, you have hit upon a possible winner.  If there are few or no paid advertisements and not too many pages of results, you should probably move on to another topic.

From the Big G to the Big A

Another way to choose a profitable topic is to use Amazon.  Perform an e-book search for your proposed topic.  If you come up with a lot of results you have hit upon a potential winner.

Use the Amazon Best Sellers list.  Use Goggle to search for “Amazon Best Seller List”.  Find the link in the results.  Best selling products are listed by category so you can narrow your search quickly.  You also get tabs for New Releases, Movers & Shakers, and Most Wished For.  These results can also be very helpful in choosing a profitable topic for your online course.

Other Keyword Research Tools

You may already have a favourite keyword tool but if not, here are some options.  Google Trends, SEMRush, WordStream, Moz’s keyword explorer are some additional tools for conducting the research.  They can also reveal what keywords and phrases you should include in your course name, sales page, and promotional material to ensure free, targeted traffic.

If you have already developed an email list or medium to large Internet presence, ask your audience what type of online course they are looking for.

You can run a poll or survey through sites like Survey Monkey or simply reach out through email. Just because you have a favorite idea in mind does not mean it will be profitable, and your reputation in your niche could suffer if you develop products and courses no one really cares about.

Test-Drive Your Idea

Now it is time to see if topic idea really can be profitable. One way you can test-drive your idea is to offer a free report which highlights problems and questions associated with the topic of your course. This is a relatively quick and inexpensive way to test your idea.

Let’s say you drive traffic to an opt-in freebie titled “Top 10 Questions and Answers about Raising Box Turtles”.

Your analytics show that 5,000 people followed the link that led them to your opt-in page, but only 50 people traded their email addresses for your box turtle question and answers report. You can only expect a small fraction of those freebie grabbers to be interested in actually paying for your online course, so you may have to come up with another topic.

Another proven way to test out your course before you create it is to develop an autoresponder email course that you give away for free.  When you do this, you don’t need to spend a lot of time or money on this mini course.

You don’t need a website, you don’t need to understanding coding or design, and video creation is not necessary.  At the end of your free course ask for feedback. This can help you build your email list while also verifying whether or not your topic is going to be wanted in the marketplace.

Now that you have a profitable topic for your online course, you need to think about how long it will be and how you will deliver it.  This is the topic of my next post in this series.

If you are in a hurry, check out Create Courses for Profit