8 Tools you need to create your Online Course

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If you haven’t heard, online courses are the latest and greatest way to make money online.

Okay, they’re for much for than that and they’re not so new.

The idea of learning online has been around for quite a long time, but back then only a select few professors and teachers were teaching in the online space.

It was thought you had to have a degree in teaching to teach online, but times have changed and for the better!

Today, there is a plethora of people teaching online and with a few simple clicks, you can learn just about anything you want from the comfort of your own home.

Who wouldn’t want to get a piece of the action?

The online course market was valued at $165 billion in 2015 and is expected to exceed $240 billion by 2023!

That’s a whole lot of profit to be made, but settle down, it’s not all about the money.

Online courses are premium content, meaning your students are getting the best information and it’s extremely convent for them!

People learning online have jobs, lives and families.

They want to learn quickly and at their own pace, which makes online courses a perfect place for them to learn and actually get something out of it!

While some niches are of course more profitable than others, you can literally teach whatever you want in the form of online courses, within reason.

No one is going to pay you to show them how to change a light bulb…I digress.

I’m laying out eight tools you can use to make creating online courses a little bit smoother of a ride.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission if you choose to use my link to purchase a product or service from that particular link. 

#1: Camera and/or something to film with

A camera, iPhone, laptop, basically a recording device of your choosing.

You are probably going to be on film at one point or another during your course creation process and you need something to record yourself with!

I personally use my iPhone 7 because it’s a really decent camera and it’s so simple to use.

You want to make premium content, so make sure whatever recording device you are using looks decent on screen and isn’t blurry.

Video content is going to be the heart of your lessons whether you are physically on camera or not, this is how you are teaching your students.

Think about upgrading your phone or purchasing a camera if you are serious about creating online courses for your business.

You are also going to need a tripod or something to mount your camera on.

There is nothing worse than shaky video.

This can really ruin the quality of your video.

You can check out the one I’ve used for over three years and absolutely love!

Not only that, if you have to take pictures for your course and don’t have anyone to help you, this tripod is perfect!

You can check it out here: Camera Tripod

#2: Microphone 

Keeping with the theme of electronics, you’re going to need a microphone!

This is almost more important than the camera because if people can’t hear you, they can’t learn from you.

If you are choosing to be on camera, I recommend a lapel microphone. You can buy these inexpensively on amazon.com.

If you are doing voice overs you can purchase a microphone made specifically for voiceovers from Amazon as well.

I also recommend buying a pop filter if you are going voice-overs for your course.

A pop filter helps with the “P” and “T” sounds that can be really prominent when doing voice-overs creating a loud noise that can be irritating to your students listening.

You can check out the microphone I use for voiceovers here: Blue Snowball Mic.

You can check out the pop filter I use here: Pop Filter 

#3: Imovie 

Next, you’re going to need an editing software.

If you own a mac, you can use iMovie which is perfect for anyone just starting out and it’s really simple to use! It’s also a free software!

You can also use iMovie on your iPhone if you’ve filmed your videos on your iPhone.

There are of course other paid editing software you can purchase as well.

Editing your videos is so so important for the overall quality of your course.

We all stumble over our words at some point or another or get distracted by a butterfly in the window…(or a squirrel…).

Editing is a simple way to cut out anything that doesn’t make sense or takes away from the value of your lesson.

#4: Canva.com

Whether you are creating graphics for ads or for the presentations in your course you’re going to need a software that helps you streamline the process and that website is Canva.com.

I’m only slightly obsessed with Canva.com because it’s free and they have SO MANY OPTIONS!

Seriously though, I may be a bit biased, but you can literally create anything you need for your course inside Canva.

Do you want worksheets?

Canva.com has a template for that, you want to create the slides for your course, Canva.com has a template for that, you want to create highly converting ads for your course, Canva.com has a template for that!

Okay, I’ll stop.

Canva.com is free and simple to use and it’s pretty much a one-stop shop when it comes to creating worksheets or any graphics you may need for your online course.

#5: Spell check-Grammarly

We are zooming through these tools like no body’s business!

Whoo!

Okay, next on the list is, an editing software.

What another software?

Yes, because there’s nothing worse than a whole bunch of spelling and grammatically errors.

These can make your course look unprofessional and like you just rushed to put everything together without checking it.

But have no fear, Grammarly is here!

That’s right, you heard it here, grammarly.com is a website I swear by!

I am not the worlds greatest speller but I take the time to check everything before I hit publish and that is soooo time-consuming.

Grammarly.com does this for you!

It’s like having your own proofreading assistant and guess what, it’s free!

Yup, that’s right, you can get your own spelling proofreader for free!

This will really boost the quality of your course and save a ton of time!

Although, I still recommend going through your course to make sure everything looks the way you want it before you hit publish.

#6: Host 

Now onto the good stuff, where in the heck do you host this incredibly amazing course that you’ve created?

You’ve gotta put it somewhere so people can buy it and you want it to look nice without extensive experience in coding.

Teachable is my hosting of choice!

Teachable streamlines your entire course so it looks absolutely amazing to your students, you have customer support, you get paid directly to your pay pal account and there’s no coding involved!

#7: Sales Funnel

#8: Email Provider

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