Funnily enough, I spent A LOT of time talking to people who want to make an online course, but haven’t yet.
In fact, I ask everyone who joins the Content into Courses Facebook group what’s stopping them from having an online course.

And there are some common themes that come up when we talk about why they don’t have one yet.

So, I’m here to bust some of those fears for you.

4 common fears about creating an online course

I don’t have enough content/know enough

I’ve put this fear first because it comes up often.

I’m sure that you have more than enough knowledge, and therefor content to create an online course. Most of the clients I work with have too much content.

You’ve fallen into the “Curse of Knowledge”.
You see, we are so used to doing the thing we do, or knowing what we know, that we think it’s common sense… or we assume that it’s not that special, that everyone knows how to do it.

But the only reason it feels like that is because you know it so well, or you’ve known it for so long.

Your knowledge and experience is unique to you. Sure, other people might know the same content, but they don’t have your experiences or contexts.

Trust me when I say you will have enough (or be able to create enough) content and you do know enough.

I don’t know how to do the tech

Online courses don’t have to be complicated any more. If you don’t feel confident building it on your own website, there are plenty of other hosted course platforms available which you can use instead.

You don’t have to own a website, do any coding, or any set up. Simply upload your content to their platform and you are ready to go.

There are a variety of options when it comes to hosted platforms, which some common choices being MemberVault, Teachable and Thinkific.

Just a note: Whenever you are using an external platform, please make sure you read the terms and conditions, and that you understand whats required and what you have to pay (for example, some platforms take a % of the sale).

I don’t know where to start.

That’s ok, creating your own online course can feel like a huge task, but break it into little steps.

Before creating any content, take a moment to work out why you want a course.
Then get really clear on what you are building and who you are building it for.

Knowing the answers to what you are doing, why you are doing it and who you are doing it for makes the creation much easier.

If you are stuck with any of these questions, or you’re not sure if an online course will suit you and your business, check out my “5 days to Course Clarity” program. It’s just $5, and a great place to get started.

I don’t have time

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this, I’d be making snow angels in my cash.

Unfortunately you’ll never have spare time to create your online course unless you make time for it. I face this problem myself. With client work to do, and a super busy home life with 4 kids, it’s hard to see where it fits. When I need to create a new course for my business, I have to schedule little bits of time to get myself started. First, I block out a time to map it out. Once I’ve done that I can see how much content creation is involved and how much more time I’ll need.

My favourite way is just to block out a full day and smash out all the videos or content in one go where possible, but if you can do this, try for an hour a day, or even an hour a week.

So, if you really want a course, but don’t think you have time, start by scheduling the first block. Put it in your calendar, make sure no one else can book tasks over it, and commit to it. Better still, start by scheduling that first block for this week.