Day 6: Make Money From Teaching Online and Creating Courses
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To truly enjoy the moment…
I don't think I ever understood what that meant until I started making money online passively. Prior to making money online, I was working a 9 to 5 job, I felt like I was always stressed out, and when I did clock out, I was unable to unwind.
Now things have changed. I'm living a simple and good life, traveling across the world in a van making videos. If it wasn't for the side hustle that I’m about to teach you, I would never be close to where I am today.
This is one of my favorite side hustle because it truly allows you to put your heart and passion into it. You can make money by helping people with whatever skills that you have. Maybe you're good at woodworking, coaching soccer, lifting weights, sign language, spanish — the possibilities are endless.
If there was one thing that had a surge in demand because of COVID, it was learning online. Learning online was already a growing macro trend but when COVID shut down the real world, online became the only option. Now, learning online is normal. Meeting people via Zoom, learning on live streams, and tuning into groups of strangers all around the world is a part of our everyday lives.
Content made on Kapwing
Like I said earlier, my first side hustle was teaching people how to dance the robot online because that's what I love to do! I wasn't an expert at it by any means. I actually learned to dance on YouTube!
Overcoming the Mental Barriers
It’s very easy to get into a mental state of “imposter syndrome” when you first start out. You might find yourself questioning yourself, “who am I to be teaching xyz?”. Well, there's always going to be people better looking, richer, and more talented than you. But the whole point of why you should still, on top of all those other reasons, boils down to one word — relatability.
Relatability
It’s true that the relatability factor is weighted more than the actual skill set of the teacher. When your viewer can relate to you, they will soak up and retain information more, which leads to them taking action.
There are people that relate to your life story, age range, demographic, location, etc. As described in the famous blog article 1,000 True Fans, you only need to find 1,000 of these people that can truly relate to you. This counts for musicians, artists, and side hustlers alike.
Money Principles 101
You can break down society into two different categories; people that have money and other people that have experience. Typically, people with money will pay the latter for their knowledge or experience.
Teaching what you know and charging a fair price for it is a side hustle that will be around forever.
Pricing Your Courses
I have hundreds of premium tutorials that I charge anywhere from $1 to $1,000 just to get the course. People not only pay my prices, but they are stoked with them too. Unlike a school system where you don't really get a say in whether or not you get to go, who your professors are, etc., the online world is opposite. E-learning is an open forum where you can learn from anyone. Your price should be a reflection of the value you provide.
I think the highest ticket course that I’ve sold this far was around $6,000 and I had zero refunds. I made sure the value was in line with the price.
What Should You Teach?
Teaching doesn't always have to be in front of a camera because, let's be real, talking in front of a screen is hard! Nobody is born with the ability to basically talk to themselves and have it sound natural. You could do a screencast and voiceover if that is less scary to start out.
I argue that if you have an iPhone, you're set. You don't need a fancy camera, tripod, and microphone — you’ll work up to that.
One of the best ways to get started is to do a brain dump. This is where you literally write down everything you're good at. Use these reflection questions to get started:
- What areas of your life are you proud about?
- What’s something you do better than someone else?
- What do you know a lot about?
- What’s something you want to know more about?
- What makes you relatable?
Where Should You Teach?: Skillshare vs. Udemy vs. Website
In this era of e-learning there are tons of platforms that host thousands of different online courses. In this post, we will go over two: Skillshare and Udemy. I prefer these two because they are absolutely free to start and there's a very low technical barrier to get in.
Skillshare
Skillshare is great for beginners. All you have to do is post one 10 minute or longer video and it will monetize based on views. In my first month on Skillshare I got around 1,000 views and made between 70 and 80 dollars. For some perspective, if you got 1,000 views on YouTube, you’d probably make around $3.
I love Skillshare because it helps me monitor my progress. You might be looking at the screen shot above and thinking $82 a month is kinda lame. While I did only make $82 in my first month, I haven't touched this course since. And, as you can see, my income doubled passively in month two. Not bad.
To create a Skillshare profile, all you need is your name, a little bio (I opted for a short video), and a profile picture. Pretty easy, right?
Udemy
Udemy courses are usually a bit more structured and longer than just one video. When you create a course, you have to determine a set price for your product. After uploading one course to Udemy, I let it sit for a year and made $3k.
What’s even better is that I was taking some of my videos from Udemy, uploading them to Skillshare, and monetizing off of them both.
Creating a Udemy profile (which is completely free) is very similar to creating a Facebook account. You’ll need a name, a bio, your social media handles, a profile picture, etc.
Course Website
Once you've mastered Skillshare and Udemy, you can look into creating your own website to host your courses. From there, you can run ads for your website, rank it on google, and begin to build a following.
Research
The key to creating quality content is setting yourself apart from others. To do this, go to one of the platforms I’ve listed above and type in your niche/lesson. What’s already out there? How can you do it better? What kind of person is interested in what you have to teach?
In the Tools section of Udemy, you can do keyword research based on searches within Udemy. Once you put in your topic, Udemy will let you know the student demand, number of existing courses on your topic, the median monthly revenue, and the top monthly revenue. Even if there's lots of competition in your field, it never hurts to upload a video and try it out.
I think everybody has the ability to teach online. All you need is a little bit of confidence and a topic to teach!
If you liked this post, you're probably going to love my full side hustle academy course that breaks down all the possible ways to make money online. To check it out, go to adrianbrambila.com/sidehustle.
Peace and God bless.
For the complimentary worksheets and resources, go to adrianbrambila.com/30days.
I make new content every single week, so be sure to subscribe to my Youtube and follow my Instagram @brambilabong and TikTok at @AdrianBrambila. I also have tons of resources and courses on my website that you won’t want to miss. Head over to www.adrianbrambila.com to learn more about what I do and how I live a financially free life.
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