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Launching an Online Course....DIY style

by tonejunkee
14 replies
I used to have decent ebook sales on my site back in 2010. Looking back, it did quite well considering it was just a 60 page PDF. Not bad for $39.95 a pop. Eventually, sales tapered off and I pulled it. The checkout/delivery was super smooth via the eJunkie/Paypal combo.
Now I still have the site, which still dominates the niche

An online course looks to be way better and after a bit of research, I arrived at the $347 price. It will be ten, 30 min videos I also learned the sweet spot for an online course is 4 to 6 hrs long. The average price is from 200 to 2000, which has me super stoked

Just wondering how to deliver them. So far, these are the options Ive found:

* Redirects to a new page on my site, which has the vids embeded (maybe with a password?)
* Redirects to an unlisted batch of youtubes (I guess these could also be embeded on my site, but youtube feels cheap
* Zip the 10 vids up and they can download them as one chunk (maybe the vids can be watermarked)

Just looking for options/tips for a smooth launch. Overall, I'm excited after reading about niche courses going for 2 grand. Not interested in the Udemy, etc route and want to keep this on-site as possible. My traffic is like 3k a month, so its niched down pretty deep
#diy #launching #online
  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    I would do either the 1st or 3rd option, I personally don't like the idea of hosting videos on youtube for paid sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Janice Sperry
    I like your first option best.
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  • Profile picture of the author JosephC
    First option works great and you can use S2 member with wordpress to make this part super easy.

    Might want to host the videos on Vimeo and set them as 'private' and only allow them to be played on your domain. This will save space if your videos are big.
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  • Profile picture of the author tonejunkee
    Thanks. Yeah I forgot about vimeo, which seems slightly better than youtube. My site is hand coded in PHP, real simple but I have no idea how to make a password page. Also, it seems this page will have to receive the no-robot/no-follow so it doesn't show up in G. Then there is the concern(paranoia) of linking out to any external site. One clump of files just appeals to me for some reason - maybe due to the greater perception of ownership when its being downloaded to their own computer
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Regarding the format, the price, and the delivery method for your videos . . .

    Have you asked your customers what they would prefer? (Those that have purchased from you previously plus any prospects that have shown an interest in your new course ...)

    To me, this is a no-brainer and essential step to getting these variables right for your particular audience. Don't just pull some numbers out of thin air. Don't just guess at what your potential prospects would prefer.

    Why am I suggesting this? Maybe your audience isn't ready for a $347 price point ... maybe they think 5 hours of video is too much ... maybe they would rather get the info in written form. Who knows? If you don't ask you'll never know their preferences. Remember, this is about what your customers want - not what is easiest for you.

    Good luck on this effort,

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author DeadRooster
    Steve B makes some great points (as usual).

    I put my video courses inside a membership area and host them on S3.

    Is that Old School now?
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    I have a couple of setups I run on my sites:

    1. Optimize Press 2 blog theme comes with built-in player where you can select 3 hosting options - YouTube (where you can hide the logo on control bar - but still shows on bottom right of video); URL - which means you can host your video on Amazon S3 giving you more control as the presentation of the video runs on your server while the bandwidth and storage is on S3; Embed Code - which works for other video hosts like Vimeo. I have used both Youtube and hosted videos on Amazon S3 on my OP2 sites

    2. I also use Membergate on one of my sites which is a full-CMS (membership site + shoppingcart, etc...) - but that runs about $197/month so on the pricey side if sole objective is presenting one video training program

    3. Vimeo Pro - which runs about $240 for year


    There are other options:

    Elite Video Player ~$30 + $10/yr support and host your video on Amazon S3 - this is a Wordpress plugin, the player looks great, lots of options.

    Another is S3Flowshield (one-time $97) + Amazon S3 which has a video player and secure method of delivering Amazon S3 videos with Wordpress

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author tonejunkee
      Thanks Jeff, for the valuable feedback. This site is about as far from wordpress as it gets The good news is that it's PHP and far more accessible - for special tasks I can outsource

      As for the audience/niche/pricepoint, all feedback has been extracted over the past 7 years and competing products thoroughly analyzed.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chuck Evans
      Originally Posted by jbsmith View Post

      I have a couple of setups I run on my sites:

      1. Optimize Press 2 blog theme comes with built-in player where you can select 3 hosting options - YouTube (where you can hide the logo on control bar - but still shows on bottom right of video); URL - which means you can host your video on Amazon S3 giving you more control as the presentation of the video runs on your server while the bandwidth and storage is on S3; Embed Code - which works for other video hosts like Vimeo. I have used both Youtube and hosted videos on Amazon S3 on my OP2 sites

      2. I also use Membergate on one of my sites which is a full-CMS (membership site + shoppingcart, etc...) - but that runs about $197/month so on the pricey side if sole objective is presenting one video training program

      3. Vimeo Pro - which runs about $240 for year


      There are other options:

      Elite Video Player ~$30 + $10/yr support and host your video on Amazon S3 - this is a Wordpress plugin, the player looks great, lots of options.

      Another is S3Flowshield (one-time $97) + Amazon S3 which has a video player and secure method of delivering Amazon S3 videos with Wordpress

      Jeff
      Direct quote from one of the founders of Memberium on membership sites and video hosting.

      "Amazon S3 is *not* designed as a video streaming platform in any way, shape, or form.

      The quality of the streaming experience isn't based just on your ISP speeds but on the connectivity between you and the S3 regional data center where your files are hosted.

      Performance from S3 can wildly vary depending on where you are located.

      It's also influenced by the encoding settings of your file (compression, encoding), how much bandwidth the file takes up, and how hard it is for your CPU to decode it.

      If you're going to host your videos on S3 I would recommend trying to use their CloudFront CDN to improve the connection quality.

      S3 uses singular data centers and is optimized for bulk volume, not speed. Cloudfront uses regional POP's.

      We actually recommend Vimeo Pro for video hosting. It's a service designed for streaming video, and properly handles the issues surrounding it. It ensures your files are encoded optimally for streaming, etc.

      It's the difference between a DIY kit, and a professional purpose-built solution."
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      Chuck Evans - Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher
      Learn How To Play Your Best Golf

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  • Profile picture of the author skjlle
    I think first option works great and you can use S2 member with wordpress to make this part super easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author troy23
    I use Membersonic now with S3.

    In the past I had great success by hosting the vids on my site and delivering via autoresponder....1 lesson a week. It's such a simple membership model.
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  • Profile picture of the author spearce000
    Option 1, or host/list your course on somewhere like lynda.com and redirect to that from your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author zeus136
    We would recommend Udemy for selling courses.

    Best regards, Kathleen
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  • Profile picture of the author tonejunkee
    I'm sorry but there is no way in hell I'm coming near those sites. They drop $500 courses to like $18 on a moments notice, without even telling the creator. Luckily, this is a very small niche and the site happens to be #1 for 7 years running. Nobody drops my price. It will only be going upwards

    Those sites can be great for really generic/popular topics but I've seen too many detailed reports from big earners who are jumping ship.
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