You may not have heard of Danielle Leslie until now. But she’s the millionaire course maker that’s helping other course creators, professionals and experts launch their courses – and earn six-figure incomes in the process.
Who Is Danielle Leslie?
Danielle Leslie started creating courses in 2011 on Udemy teaching marketing to students on the platform. Over two years, more than 50,000 students attended the course. However, being a course instructor on Udemy wasn’t her full-time job. She still had a job working as a marketer at a firm in Silicon Valley. But in 2015, she would be let go from that job. While looking to find work as a marketer at another firm, a friend would recommend her as an independent contractor for a non-profit. It is during her time as an independent contractor that she started taking her course creating seriously.
In 2018, her courses broke the million-dollar mark – reaching $2 million in a year. Fast forward to this year, she has sold more than $15 million in courses and was featured on Forbes.
What Can You Learn From Danielle Leslie?
Danielle’s success gives concrete insight into the formula for creating a million-dollar course and how you can become a go-to resource for those who want to learn what you know.
#1: Use Marketplaces & Social Media
If you want to teach, you should go where people want to learn. Danielle started creating courses on Udemy and using her social media accounts, she was able to display that she had a valuable understanding of her subject matter.
Essentially, Udemy provided the platform and social media provided the social proof.
Because Udemy is the perfect starting point, not only is it an easy to use platform for course creators but it also is the only marketplace with that many students. If you know how to leverage your courses there, it becomes easier to build your relevance and reach on other platforms.
You can accomplish the same by launching your course on an established marketplace and using social media to grow an audience that sees you as a valuable resource.
#2: Change Course To Improve Your Program’s Longevity
As you begin honing your skills as a course instructor, find other niches that are just as valuable to your audience but help you to increase the longevity of your course. Although courses can create “passive income” in this ever-changing environment, information that was relevant a year ago will become outdated. But, if you teach a timeless subject, you’ll have less maintenance to uphold the integrity of the course. To change direction from your initial material, you will first need to develop your understanding of marketing – and developing – courses. The only way to do that is to teach what you already know before expanding into new subjects.
#3: Creating Scarcity
Danielle hasn’t taught on Udemy for years. However, even though she isn’t using a platform like Udemy, she’s still getting frequent interest in her courses. Because one thing that Danielle does differently to others in the course community is that she creates scarcity around her course.
Enrollment for her course is currently closed. Because of this, when she does open enrollment again, demand for her course will be higher than if the course was always available. This tactic is most commonly known as scarcity marketing, but it can provide a customer or client with value when used in the manner Danielle does.
As an aspiring course creator, you can create scarcity in your course as well, without being as well known as Danielle. The best way to do this is to host live coaching calls or webinars with a small group of course-goers where they can ask you questions they may have while attending the course. If you keep these webinars or coaching calls small and intimate, your attendees will feel the material is worthwhile.
By keeping your course open to a small group, you will also benefit from FOMO. More people will want to join your course if they know that there are only limited spots. Not just because you say they are in your funnel, but because there truly are only a few spots. The learners that do attend will feel extra special that they’ve gotten a spot in your course.
#4: Provide Value
To attend Danielle’s course you would need to spend well over $1,000.
Why can Danielle charge this much for a course?
The short answer lies in two segments: value and targeting.
There are no rules governing how much you should charge for a course. However, there is a two-step system that assists you in determining the worth of your program.
Value:
How much value does your course provide the attendee?
Once attendees graduate from your course how influential will the material be to their income? How likely are they going to have an ROI greater than the cost of the course?
Targeting:
Who is your target audience?
If your target audience is youngsters with limited resources, you cannot justify charging $1,000 for a course. The more established your attendees are, the more you can charge for the skill you are teaching.
The Fascinating World of The Knowledge Economy & How You Can Enter It
Depending on who you ask, digital courses often have a bad reputation because of some unscrupulous actors who regurgitate information from their YouTube videos and charge hundreds of dollars for it.
However, selling knowledge and experience is not a new phenomenon. It’s something you are introduced to early on in life.
It may start with a fee for your childhood piano lessons and culminate in tens of thousands for college, but you are frequently paying to learn valuable information.
It’s just that modern courses don’t share the structure that you’re familiar with in a traditional learning environment.
But as a course instructor, all you are is a teacher who is spreading your knowledge to a larger audience than a class or lecture hall. Essentially, you’re a blend of a teacher and an entrepreneur, and to succeed, you can follow in Danielle’s footsteps.
You probably won’t start on the level she’s at now, but if you start, you can work to get to her level and create your million-dollar course.
Stay with us to learn more about how to grow and make money online.
