We earn a commission from partner links on this site. This doesn’t affect our opinions or evaluations.
Updated on
Digital learning programs are now widely accepted in numerous subject areas, and I’ve observed numerous educators achieve great results, even within highly specialized fields.
Nevertheless, your ultimate achievement hinges significantly on the existing market interest for your chosen subject matter, a crucial factor often overlooked by individuals launching their initial course.
Therefore, confirming the viability of your online course concept is essential prior to development; otherwise, you may face significant challenges in attracting buyers.
Various methods exist for verifying your concept, and within this comprehensive resource, I will detail the eleven most potent validation techniques, clarifying the ideal circumstances and rationale for employing each method.
For enhanced clarity, I’ve organized these approaches into three main classifications:
Let’s begin this exploration.
Obtaining information that points towards sufficient interest in your course concept serves as a strong indicator of its potential viability.
This method is remarkably efficient; applying all the techniques detailed in this part should only require a short amount of time.
Consequently, I suggest that every course developer intending to confirm their course concept should prioritize data analysis as their initial step.
Let’s now explore the various avenues available for gathering information to substantiate your course concept.
One of the most accessible methods for gaining an initial understanding of the interest surrounding your course subject is by checking Google search volume estimations for your main keyword and closely related terms.
There are several distinct approaches you can utilize to achieve this.
Initially, you can investigate the estimations for search queries that specifically include the word ‘course’ alongside your primary subject keyword.
For example, suppose you intend to develop a learning program focused on knitting. In this situation, you would examine the search volume data for the search term ‘knitting course’ and any potential variations of that phrase.
Subsequently, you might expand your keyword research slightly, incorporating terms such as ‘learn knitting’ or ‘instructions for knitting’. Such phrases indicate a clear desire from individuals searching online to acquire knowledge in your subject, providing you with an approximation of the possible learner pool size.
Furthermore, this process can reveal valuable details about the specific learning objectives people have, allowing you to utilize these findings to enhance and sharpen your course concept.
Lastly, it’s advisable to examine the estimations for search terms that incorporate your main topic keyword but omit modifiers like ‘course’ or ‘learn’.
In this instance, you’ll observe a notably larger search volume estimate, recognizing that not every individual searching for your general keyword on Google represents a prospective student.
However, this approach will still provide a reasonable gauge of the overall enthusiasm for your central topic, proving particularly beneficial if your course addresses a more specialized subject area.
You can employ a complimentary resource known as Google Keyword Planner to approximate search volumes; it furnishes a general range that should suffice for initial assessment.
Upon inputting your primary keyword, the tool will propose additional relevant keywords along with their corresponding search traffic, and it’s wise to consider all these suggestions.
Beyond search volume, the planner also presents a measure to evaluate keyword competition, which is another insightful element worth considering.
We recommend reviewing this comprehensive tutorial from Ahrefs if you wish to master using the Google Keyword Planner application.
Consuming video content online represents one of the most straightforward methods for acquiring a new skill or delving into a hobby, and YouTube often stands as the primary destination for individuals aiming to gain knowledge through complimentary video resources.
Therefore, if your goal is to determine whether a substantial number of people wish to learn your course subject, investigating the engagement levels of YouTube videos centered around your main keyword should be among your initial actions.
Additionally, this constitutes a highly dependable means of evaluating interest, because if there is a noticeable absence of video creation and viewership related to your course concept, it is improbable that significant genuine demand exists.
Now, let us explore precisely how you can employ YouTube to confirm the interest level for your proposed course.
You might commence by entering your primary keyword into the YouTube search bar. Subsequently, examine the viewership statistics for the leading ten videos corresponding to your keyword and compute their combined view totals.
If the aggregate viewership figure ascends into the millions, or even reaches the substantial hundreds of thousands range, you can be quite certain that a considerable segment of the population is keen on learning about your course topic.
As demonstrated below, inputting “learn knitting” into YouTube search shows that the average view count for just the first four results is nearly four million, which definitively proves that a large audience is interested in acquiring knitting skills.
What particularly appeals to me regarding this method is how effectively it complements the Google search volume assessment approach. Discovering that individuals are not merely searching for your targeted keywords but are also engaging with informative video content significantly boosts confidence in the viability of your course subject.
Moreover, it’s common to find many specialized fields where Google keyword searches yield low numbers, yet corresponding videos on YouTube might nevertheless garner substantial viewership.
Another valuable method for verifying your course concept involves examining the sales performance of similar courses within your subject area on established online learning marketplaces such as Udemy.
Should you discover pre-existing courses covering your topic, and observe that a significant number of individuals are purchasing them, it provides a strong indication that people are indeed prepared to invest financially for knowledge related to your course idea.
It’s important to note, however, that the absence of strong demand on Udemy doesn’t definitively signal a lack of overall interest.
Put differently, if your course concept doesn’t appear highly sought-after on Udemy, it might simply mean your topic targets a specific audience not heavily represented on that particular platform, while still possessing sufficient demand elsewhere.
Let’s delve into the practical steps for gauging the demand for a course idea specifically on the Udemy platform.
Initially, you can utilize the Udemy Marketplace Insights feature by searching for your primary keyword. This complimentary tool allows you to evaluate the popularity of a course concept within the Udemy ecosystem, offering the most direct way to assess demand on their site.
For instance, as illustrated below, inputting ‘bread baking’ into the Marketplace Insights tool reveals a significant level of interest for courses on this subject within the Udemy marketplace.
For a more precise understanding of the existing interest, you can perform a direct search using your keyword within the Udemy marketplace itself, carefully observing the quantity of reviews and student enrollments listed for relevant courses. To simplify this investigation, it’s helpful to organize the search findings by the total number of reviews received.
As illustrated in the example below, conducting a search for ‘bread baking’ on Udemy reveals that the cumulative review count for merely the initial four courses exceeds 5,000. This figure strongly points towards ‘bread baking’ being a highly favored course subject on the Udemy platform.
Furthermore, observe that this Udemy baking course boasts enrollment figures that are approximately seven times greater than the number of reviews it has received.
When a significant number of individuals turn to books for knowledge on a specific subject, it strongly suggests a corresponding market exists for courses covering the same material.
Consequently, examining the volume of reviews for relevant books on Amazon within your field offers a dependable method for confirming interest in your potential course.
Let’s explore the specific process for utilizing Amazon book review counts to evaluate the potential demand for your course concept.
To begin, select the ‘books’ department on the Amazon website and enter your main keyword into the search bar. Ensure the results are organized by the ‘featured’ setting to prioritize the most pertinent titles.
Next, observe the review counts associated with the initial ten book listings displayed. Additionally, disregard any titles that do not align closely with your proposed course subject matter.
Should the combined review tally for books related to your keyword reach into the thousands, it serves as a strong confirmation of that subject’s widespread appeal.
This confidence is further bolstered by the understanding that book reviews typically represent only a minor portion of overall sales figures, as relatively few purchasers actually submit feedback on Amazon.
As illustrated below, a search for the term ‘keto diet’ specifically related to weight loss shows that the leading four book results alone have accumulated almost 40,000 reviews.
Finally, it is worth remembering that published books typically cover more expansive subject areas, so you might not discover a large quantity of books that precisely match your exact course topic, especially if your focus is particularly narrow or specialized.
Employing alternative strategies to evaluate interest is another efficient technique, proving highly beneficial for a couple of key reasons.
To start, there might be instances where sufficient market information isn’t readily available to confirm demand, even for a potentially successful concept, making alternative evaluation methods necessary.
Additionally, these approaches can assist you in reconsidering your course concept, determining whether it requires further specialization or minor adjustments.
Let’s now explore several alternative techniques you can employ to better grasp the potential interest surrounding your proposed course topic.
Should you currently manage a blog or operate a YouTube channel, you have the opportunity to ascertain whether content related to your proposed course subject resonates effectively with your existing followers.
For instance, if you maintain a blog, you can review metrics such as total page visits and the average duration visitors spend on relevant articles using Google Analytics.
Achieving a respectable volume of page views on pertinent posts serves as a very positive sign regarding the potential interest in your course topic.
Nevertheless, bear in mind that low page view counts could stem from various factors, such as your content not achieving high rankings in Google search results; thus, it doesn’t automatically signify a lack of demand for your course concept.
Furthermore, a substantial average time spent on the page coupled with a low bounce rate for content concerning a particular subject indicates strong engagement from your readership with that topic, offering reasonable confirmation for your course concept’s viability.
If your platform is a YouTube channel, you can analyze statistics like total views, average view duration, likes, and shares for videos pertinent to your course. Similarly, if you host a podcast, examine download numbers and share counts for episodes centered around your course subject matter.
Lastly, if you possess an established platform but lack sufficient content related to your intended course topic, it’s advisable to produce more relevant material and observe how your audience interacts with this new content.
An additional verification approach, and one I personally find quite effective, involves exploring online communities like Facebook Groups, subreddits, Quora discussions, and various other digital forums to gauge whether your course concept holds potential interest.
As an illustration, imagine you intend to develop a learning program to instruct individuals on playing an instrument, such as the harmonica.
In this scenario, you could investigate the existence of Facebook groups dedicated to your course subject. Furthermore, examining the membership statistics of popular related groups can offer deeper understanding regarding the potential popularity of your course idea.
In a similar fashion, you can investigate related subreddits and Quora discussion topics to determine if a sufficient number of individuals show interest in your proposed course subject.
Furthermore, examining the actual discussions taking place in these locations can significantly aid in identifying the specific challenges and difficulties experienced by your intended audience.
Consider becoming an active member of pertinent Facebook groups and forums to initiate dialogue with potential learners. A straightforward method for doing this involves proposing to address inquiries related to your course area, thereby creating an opportunity for meaningful interaction.
By cultivating more profound insights into the particular struggles of your target audience, you can effectively modify your course concept and perhaps approach the material from an alternative perspective if necessary.
Moreover, you can leverage these acquired insights to refine the planning of your course curriculum and clearly articulate the distinct advantages your program offers.
Finally, it’s possible to employ a very similar methodology when interacting with communities on Reddit and other specialized online forums.
Regarding Quora, while engaging in direct dialogue might be structured differently, you can still effectively solicit input and gather perspectives by posing relevant questions to the community.
Another effective strategy for confirming your course concept involves studying the existing competition in the field, and there are a couple of distinct methods you can employ for this analysis.
Initially, you can utilize specialized search operators to gauge the quantity of courses related to your topic that appear within Google’s search findings.
Imagine, for example, that you are considering developing a course focused on ‘vegan cooking’. You could input the search term ‘allintitle: vegan cooking course’ directly into the Google search bar.
This specific search command instructs Google to display only those web pages where the title explicitly includes the terms — vegan, cooking, and course. The majority of these results will likely be the promotional pages for actual vegan cooking courses.
Consequently, discovering a substantial volume of results for your query provides strong evidence that numerous courses addressing this particular concept already exist in the marketplace.
An alternative method you might employ involves researching documented achievements of courses similar to your concept online. Discovering even a single instance of someone establishing a thriving course based on your selected theme can significantly bolster your assurance in the potential viability of your own course concept.
Locating these accounts of successful courses is often as straightforward as performing a Google search for terms like ‘online course achievements’. Alternatively, you could explore the websites of programs designed to guide individuals in building prosperous online course enterprises.
Making direct contact with your intended learners and gathering their input can represent the most dependable strategy for confirming the potential of your course concept.
Simultaneously, the techniques detailed within this part are generally anticipated to require a greater investment of effort and resources compared to those we’ve explored up to this point.
If your intention is to develop a premium-level course and you are ready to dedicate more thorough effort towards validating your course concept, then employing this direct engagement approach is advisable.
Additionally, should the analysis of market data and the use of indirect evaluation methods fail to yield a clear conclusion, resorting to this direct feedback method can provide absolute certainty regarding the viability of your course idea.
Distributing surveys to potential learners to assess enthusiasm for a specific course concept stands as one of the most widely adopted validation methods among educational content developers.
To start this process, you can structure your survey inquiries using a couple of distinct strategies.
One option involves straightforwardly querying your audience regarding their potential willingness to purchase a learning program centered around your selected topic. I employed this specific tactic when I polled my own readership concerning my advanced course, Network Guru.
Another approach involves engaging your audience with a quiz to gauge their specific interests and identify their challenges, which can help determine the potential value of your course offering for them.
For those with an established audience or a significant social media presence, conducting a survey is relatively simple since you can directly invite your followers to respond to your questions.
On the other hand, if you’re starting without an existing following, a bit more groundwork will be necessary.
In this situation, you might develop an appealing lead magnet, cultivate a targeted audience using paid advertising, and then invite these new email list subscribers to participate in your survey.
A key benefit of cultivating an email list is the opportunity it provides for conducting personalized one-on-one interviews with select audience members, allowing you to delve into more specific questions and gain richer understanding.
Alternatively, you could present a quiz or survey directly via Facebook Ads, bypassing the need for a lead magnet; this method could prove more cost-effective due to potentially higher participation rates.
In addition to these approaches, you could explore partnerships with established blogs and forums in your niche, allowing you to present your survey to their engaged communities.
When aiming to develop educational content for a specialized area, gathering sufficient validation through the previously mentioned techniques might prove challenging.
Under these circumstances, identifying potential learners within your connections and engaging them directly presents an excellent opportunity for grasping their key difficulties and evaluating whether your proposed course holds genuine market appeal.
As an illustration, perhaps you possess expertise in a highly particular subject such as ‘navigating professional exhaustion within the legal field’.
Although online conversations and materials relating to this subject certainly exist, this information might be insufficient for determining the potential resonance your educational concept could achieve among the majority of legal professionals.
Therefore, in this situation, leveraging your established professional contacts to initiate personal conversations with fellow lawyers allows you to inquire about their potential interest in purchasing a course based on your concept.
Furthermore, through these interactions, you might uncover the necessity to tackle a somewhat wider issue or reframe your course’s focus. For instance, it could become apparent that addressing stress management for attorneys presents a more effective approach compared to concentrating solely on burnout recovery for your course theme.
Moreover, should you wish to converse with a somewhat larger group, consider contacting your secondary connections via LinkedIn, as they often exhibit a greater willingness to assist compared to individuals entirely unconnected to you.
In addition to conversing with your intended learners, engaging with specialists within your specific field, potentially found within your connections, allows you to solicit their perspective regarding your course concept.
By way of example, if your curriculum intends to feature a particular dietary plan aimed at weight management, consulting fellow health advisors and nutrition professionals can help ascertain whether your proposed course effectively targets the fundamental challenge appropriately.
Developing and evaluating a digital resource, themed around your potential course, to use as an introductory incentive is among the most effective methods for confirming your course concept’s viability.
Additionally, should a significant number of individuals express enthusiasm for your complimentary offering, you gain considerable confidence that your proposed course aligns with genuine market need.
Furthermore, beyond just confirming your course concept, an introductory resource aids in cultivating your foundational audience, who could potentially become your inaugural purchasers.
Presently, various kinds of introductory incentives are available for development, and the specific type you select should align with your specialized area and the level of commitment you’re prepared to invest in its production.
As an example, consider crafting a concise electronic book, a comprehensive manual, or even a condensed course covering your subject matter. Alternatively, if you prefer producing something requiring less intensive work, developing a usable template, a helpful planner, or a practical checklist is also feasible.
Next, let us explore the methods available for assessing your introductory resource.
Should you possess an existing email subscriber base or an established following via your blog or YouTube channel, presenting your introductory resource to them provides a direct avenue for evaluating this complimentary offering.
Below is a sample webinar invitation that Anthony Moore, an educator specializing in personal growth, distributes to his subscribed contacts.
Alternatively, should you lack an existing following, leveraging social media platforms to advertise your introductory offer is a viable option, or potentially employ paid advertising methods. For individuals at ease with conducting real-time presentations, utilizing Facebook Live presents an effective means for rapidly cultivating a foundational viewership.
Offering enrollments prior to course completion represents a definitive method for confirming your course concept’s value, establishing perhaps the most dependable means available for assessing its market reception.
As an illustration, consider Bree Noble, an expert assisting women musicians in monetizing their craft, who secured 15 participant enrollments yielding $4,350 through early access sales.
Executing an effective early enrollment campaign necessitates meticulous preparation involving distinct actions; let us examine several key components required for success.
To begin, constructing a compelling enrollment page that prominently features your qualifications is essential for encouraging prospective learners to become paying participants.
Next, transparently communicating to your prospective students that this is an early access opportunity ensures everyone shares the same understanding throughout the process.
Following that, enhancing the attractiveness of your early enrollment offer might involve providing a significant price reduction and adding valuable extras such as collective coaching sessions.
Additionally, consider developing an initial segment of your curriculum and delivering it incrementally to early enrollees, leveraging this chance to solicit input and collaboratively shape the final course content based on their suggestions.
Securing the first participants for your early enrollment initiative is considerably simpler when you possess an established following. Without an existing audience, however, greater effort is required.
Nevertheless, a significant advantage of this strategy is the absence of a requirement to secure numerous early enrollments; achieving merely a handful of purchases indicates your course possesses revenue-generating possibilities.
Throughout this discussion, we explored numerous effective approaches for confirming the viability of your educational concept and identifying appropriate scenarios for each method. Allow us to briefly recap these key points.
Initially, it is recommended to compile market intelligence utilizing every available avenue to measure potential interest in your proposed course, a process that typically requires moderate effort.
Should sufficient information prove elusive, employing alternative strategies such as analyzing relevant online communities and examining competitor offerings is advisable for determining if your subject matter resonates with the needs and preferences of your intended learners.
Furthermore, even when substantial validating data is available, this technique remains beneficial for assisting in focusing your concept and enhancing its specifics.
Lastly, for those intending to develop a high-value program or when preceding methods yield inadequate results, engaging in direct conversation with your prospective students is essential for obtaining definitive confirmation of market interest.
We trust this overview has proven beneficial, equipping you with insights on how to ascertain your course concept’s potential. Should any inquiries or recommendations arise, we encourage you to share them in the discussion area that follows.
Daniel NicFounder, SellingOnliceCoursesGuide.comis an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
Selling Online Courses Guide is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. However, this doesn’t influence our reviews or product listings. All opinions are based on our tests and personal experience with a product/service.
Copyright © 2024 by SellCoursesOnline
Daniel Nic is an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
We respect your privacy and will never spam you.
