Course Creators Weekly #19 🗓 November 2nd, 2020 - How to Niche Down and CRUSH Your Competition

Why niche down:

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  There's less competition and less noise
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  It's easier to become the leader, faster
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  Much easier to create highly relevant content
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  Solutions and products become much more obvious

A few ways to niche down:

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  By demographics, e.g. location, age, gender, etc
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  By classification, e.g. content marketing for speakers
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  By specific goals, e.g. running a 5k marathon for the first time
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  By specific problems/pains to avoid, e.g. algae in an above-ground pool

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  Make an educated guess, test it, evaluate it, repeat, and raise prices over time
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  To start, pick the price you want, then average it with the competition
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  Use tiered pricing to test your audience's willingness to pay
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  Keep raising prices until only 10–15% buy your highest tier package
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  Before raising prices, consider a limited-time promotion at the current price
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  Consider payment plans, allowing people to pay in installments
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  Don’t worry about getting things perfect the first time—no one does
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  Raising prices could increase the perceived value of your course + sales

First, here are the 10 fears shared in this episode:

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  I'm afraid of creating something nobody wants
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  I don't know where/how to host the course
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  I'm not sure how long my course should be
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  I've built my authority around a different topic to the one I want to teach about
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  I'm intimidated with all the skills I must learn + cost of producing
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  I don't know what equipment I need
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  I don't have an audience and don't know how to market my course
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  How do I make sure people get value + results?
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  I'm afraid of being judged negatively
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  I don't think I have enough credibility

And here are some tips, in no particular order:

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  Validate by selling one-time workshops
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  Consider writing guest articles to leverage other people's audience
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  Accept you'll never have 100% chance of success, no matter how much you validate
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  Use existing course platforms unless you have the audience + skills to build your own
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  Always start by defining a narrow, specific outcome for your students—focus on that
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  Start by creating small courses, to help you validate quickly + build authority
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  Start with a few people, walking them through your process in a hands-on experience
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  Start with simple equipment like your webcam, and cheap software, but invest in audio
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  Shorter is better—get your students to their desired outcome as quickly as possible
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  Follow up with people for feedback and to measure results
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  Putting yourself out there is scary, but remember: you're not in way of actual harm!
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  Ignore haters, and use valid criticisms to help you improve

P.S. Do any of those fears resonate with you? Is there something else that you fear? I'd love to hear from you!