If you are an online coach, tutor or teacherpreneur and you are looking to create an online course, I have found the most affordable pieces of course creation kit, that won’t break the bank but will offer a professional experience for your students.
Making a course profitable
For an online course to be profitable you need three main things. Firstly you need to be sure that your online course will be valuable to your niche. If you do not yet know what your niche is, read this post here.
Secondly, your online course needs to be created and structured in such a way that it is easy for your student to navigate and login to! You would be surprised how many course creators have not thought this out. If a student has constant issues logging in, they are likely to request a refund, leave a bad review and spread the word accordingly! And they will not be a returning paying customer for sure. Our Teacherpreneurs Challenge course offers a complete set of ready-to-use templates and a prebuilt course and website, ready for you to brand and go.
Thirdly, an online course should be professionally created. From the moment that you expect someone to pay for an online course, you need to make the extra effort to provide a student experience that leaves the afterthought of how professional your online course is. So let’s look at some affordable and necessary equipment to do just that.
Audio
Remember ever hearing an audio on a youtube video or a course yourself that you cringed or grinded your teeth over?
I am sure, we all can! You don’t want to be that person.
Audio is as important and some might even say more so than the camera. People can put up with a low resolution recording but not bad audio.
I have a number of different microphones myself, but for recording voice overs on courses that I create I use the one and only YETI.
Why is the YETI microphone the best for course creators?
Simply because it is easy to set-up and provides an excellent sound. Most importantly it has various cardidynamic options that do not require any other equipment to use, you just flick a switch and you are there. Ah a dream!
Before I bought a YETI microphone, I had used another mic that was always picking up too much background noise, or putting in too much base. It was more than frustrating to get to the end of recording a module, only to play it back and realised I had to start all over again. With a YETI microphone, you will not have to do that!
Lighting
I think most of us do not have purpose-built recording studios but you can create a mobile one with all the lighting you will need ever for about $80 thanks to one of our partners over on Tik Tok. If you go to my profile, The AlitheContentCoach on Tik Tok and tap the basket icon ( beneath Q&A in red) you will find my Tik Tok shop. Here I have partnered with various suppliers that offer amazing kit, at seriously knock down prices, like this all in one Studio Kit!
This kit features:
Two soft lights, which take the harshness and over-saturation out of video that other lights put in there. Soft lights are used by photographers and professional videographers.
Two umbrella diffusers which help diffuse more light and take away overcast shadows in shot, which often happens when you record inside, in a small space. Yes, most course creators record in their lounge or a spare bedroom.
A green screen, which I personally cannot live without! I suffer with dust allegies so my home and office is super minimalistic and everything is in sliding cabinets, cupboards etc., and locked away. This doesn’t always give the required look I want and definitely not for the material I record for children. A green screen allows me to use any image or video as my backdrop and also blocks out what is in the room. This kit comes with a green screen, green screen stand, and green screen pegs.
I also use a software called Manycam when creating modules for mu courses. This is because I can set-up multiple
Camera
Whilst you can film with a Cannon or Nikon in 4K, you do require a lot of skill to use these and to edit recordings down but is a top-of-the-range camera necessary to create an online course?
Not at all. I have a canon camera but for recordings for my courses, I prefer to use a simple HD Webcam, like the Logitech one here.
Not only are these super easy to use, as they are simply plug-in and play (USB) but the camera resolution is great too. And the price is super affordable.
So you see, creating an online course doesn’t require loads of expensive course creation kit. It’s the content itself that is important.
Recommended Reading:
Make Money Online: Our top Free guides – Download now
Save Money: Recommended Kit for Online business owners
Make Money with Digital Educational products: For every niche
How to choose the right name for your Online Digital Store
How to use Tik Tok to make Digital Online sales
What software do Online Coaches use to create their online coaching business?
