With the advancement of technology and easy Internet access education has become a rapidly growing business through all the platforms that operate with the help of the Internet. As there are well-known and trending names of educational companies and institutions, which have made it with the help of the internet. Byju’s, Akash, Unacademy, and Vedantu are some of the popular names. With the fame of these companies, the question comes along, is that how these brands are making millions of dollars?
Apart from providing free content on platforms like YouTube, they are now making it through their online courses. You may be amazed by this, but selling e-learning courses can be more beneficial. And when it is beneficial, along with this we are stuck on the question of how much it costs to develop an e-learning course. This blog has the answer to this question.
People nowadays, often talk about passive income ideas and sources of income. Passive sources means which make you money while you are not working. To sell e-learning courses might be one of them. If you are wondering if e-learning courses can make you millions of dollars as passive income, it is right.
What is e-learning?
The delivery of instruction and training via digital resources is known as electronic learning or eLearning. Despite having its roots in traditional education, e-learning is delivered via internet-connected electronic devices like computers, tablets, and even mobile phones. Users may now easily learn whenever and wherever they want with little to no limitations, thanks to this. Training, education, and learning that is provided online via a computer or other digital device is known as e-learning.
Making a course
Thinking to sell e-learning courses will require you to research deeply. You can take case studies to make the foundation to make and sell e-learning courses. Analyze and think about all the things you will need in the first stage, which is to start the process.
- Determining your target audience
On the first hand, you need to decide your target audience and you will be making all the content accordingly. Compare the most popular educational brands and see the target audience they focus upon. Accordingly make your mind to one particular area whether it can be engineering, defense, or medical. Though there can be similar subjects in all three areas, choosing a particular thing will make your audience specific to you and the audience will grow over time.
- Planning and Analysis
The basic of starting anything is Planning and Analysis. For this, we can choose a name in a similar business that is not so high for us that we fail to copy their ideas and not too small that we can’t find any innovative idea to implement, which will ultimately attract the customers. This will include thinking about the time and human resources you will choose for your business. Analyzing who is your target audience and what are their needs will be a great help for you to continue your process of establishing a successful business.
Contemplate about who can be your target audience for a while. It can vary from geographical area or the income status of your audience.
- Operational and Content Creation Costs
Before jumping into starting something you will be required to have a clear understanding of what you are going to do and what is your purpose behind it.
You should align your content to get more and more engagement or who are the potential people who will make it a success in the first go and more. Let’s highlight some of the same parameters which will affect your work right from the beginning.
- Managing Human Resources or SME (Subject Matter Experts)
When it is the thing of education, you can’t imagine a reliable and stable audience without choosing an adept Subject Matter Expert, who has a smiling face along with familiar nature who can make an inseparable bond with the students.
- Choosing content type
As we all know, no one has the patience to sit and read the topic for a while nowadays. The human being is attracted by audio-visual characteristics and thus is more prone to screens rather than the lines of a book or PDF. It will be more appropriate if you select your content to be audio-visual.
- Required Equipment, devices, and software
Now, when you have chosen video content to reach your audience, you will require various equipment and software to edit the videos and images and to make sure that the content is created in high quality. Using trending equipment and software helps content creators to make the content appealing. When your material is worth watching, in terms of both content and quality, it is a million times easier for you to sell the e-learning courses you have created.
Camera, Tripods, and High-quality cellphones all are on the list of your most required materials. Then you must have the current software of the industry which is in trend currently. Adobe Premiere Pro and Aftereffects are some of the exclusive video editing tools that may contain premium costs. Canva, Photoshop, etc are some of the tools used for editing images and photographs. Other than editing the content you may need other software and tools like Microsoft 365 to go smoothly with the storage of your content. Other than this there are digital screens or projectors, microphones, lighting, etc. you must need. So, you have to keep in mind all the expenses, these things will take.
Talking about the physical tools, you will be anticipating the number of professionals you want to hire for the starting phase and the furniture stuff it will take.
- Creating the right team of Content Creators
Creating a master team of content creators can be time-consuming but it will help you in a million ways to sell e-learning courses you will make with them. Their mastery in the field will show when your business begins to catch the pace and the attention of people.
- Starting a podcast
Podcasts are trending nowadays and they can be really helpful for you to inform the audience that you are planning to sell e-learning courses for such an audience. You can also elaborate on the content and subjects your courses will cover. It can make your customers out of nowhere.
- Stock images and music:
For creating trending content so that you get more and more reach and engagement, you will need license-free music and images. It can cost quite fine to buy the licenses for the same.
- Course Creation Costs
- Course Complexity
The various multimedia components used in each course will ultimately define how interesting and powerful the course is. Consider eBooks, images, animations, sound, video, and more—sometimes with multilingual narration. You may utilize more or less media, depending on the course’s level and subject matter.
- Content Quality:
You will need to invest more money to obtain the appropriate level of media quality if you wish to provide your students with sophisticated and carefully chosen information. For instance, would you like to use your smartphone to make basic videos? Alternatively, would you like to buy video training software and do outdoor photo shoots? In accordance, the price will drop or increase.
- Course Length
From mini-courses to Masterclasses, there are several courses, and they demand cost according to their time and volume. The longer the course is, the more content, time, and revenue you will need to create and maintain it.
- Course Materials
When you think about what type of course and content you should make, again you need to reflect on the demographics of your target audience and how prone they are to technology. You need to know if they are aware of the tools and platforms you will be using to deliver your classes or conduct the class tests. You will have to discover if your audience is comfortable with live classes and interactions or discussions.
You can deliver the content in different formats like No interaction, Limited participation, Moderate Interaction, and Full Immersion in terms of whether your audience will be capable of interacting with you during your classes.
- Marketing & Promotion:
For the initial stage, you may think of small steps for the promotion of your brand. You may introduce your audience to the brand through banners, pamphlets etc. So, that may seem a small expense but it can be quite expensive than we usually think.
- Starting a podcast
Podcasts are trending nowadays and they can be really helpful for you to inform the audience that you are planning to sell e-learning courses for such an audience. You can also elaborate on the content and subjects your courses will cover. It can also make your customers
For an impressive performance on podcasting, the following tools are recommended-
- Audio interface
- Mic stand
- Shock Mount
- Mixer
- Pop filter/Windscreen
- Headphone Amplifier
- Podcast editing software.
- Advertising and media partners:
In case if you think of choosing well-known media partners for the promotion of your businesses, then you should calculate the cost precisely. It may have a one-time promotion or contract-based marketing. Thus choose the wise side that will benefit you in the long run.
To sell e-learning courses you will have to spend on potential promotion strategies through platforms like Facebook, Google, and YouTube which are as follows:
- Advertising:
Costs for running promotional ads through Google ads, Facebook ads, and YouTube ads.
- Content marketing:
This includes expenses related to blog posts, videos, social media content, and other materials to attract and engage your target audience.
Other costs
- Legal and Compliances: These expenses have to do with legal things such as creating terms of service, privacy policies, and complying with online education regulations in your region.
- Website and E-Commerce platform
If you sell e-learning courses directly from your website, you may get yourself into trouble.
- Content Development
This part is a major portion of all the expenses because it has to do with all the material and content you will sell to your customers. This includes writing of the content, designing images, creating visuals, and editing the videos. It also includes hiring subject matter experts, video editors, designers, content writers, and multimedia creators.
Budget is a problem for you? Here’s the way for you to be followed..
Use your smartphone or webcam
If you think that buying all the equipment is a must, well it may be not. Most smartphones nowadays come with high-quality cameras, good storage, and amazing process. So, instead of running towards the planning of buying new ones, you can start recording on the existing devices.
Minimize outsourced work
For the initial phase, try to learn more and more things so that you need fewer and fewer people to do the work you are not an expert in. For example, you can record and shoot images and videos and write the content.
Conclusion:
The process of creating and selling an e-learning course comprises numerous interrelated elements, each of which affects the final cost. The costs to sell e-learning courses can differ greatly for anything from technology to project management, from multimedia integration to content development. Accurately determining the total cost of the course requires a thorough understanding of its requirements and complexity.
It is imperative to acknowledge that these numbers are approximations and may vary based on certain project specifications. Working with a qualified group or business that specializes in developing e-learning can provide you with a more accurate cost breakdown based on your unique requirements. Keep in mind that investing in a well-thought-out and captivating online course can pay off handsomely by giving your audience useful instruction and training. It may seem a costly business, but it has long-term benefits if you have that patience and resilience to stand up on your decision in tough times, it can be a great passive income source for you which will earn even when you are sleeping.