Creating Online Product

Weekly Teaching Tip – Nov. 21, 2016
by John Henny

Being a voice teacher you know the one big downside to this business – you can only teach so many hours a day.

While teaching is extremely rewarding, it also takes a lot of focus and energy, which again limits the amount of money you can make.

One of the most exciting developments of our technology era is the ability to create education products for relatively little money and to be able to distribute them worldwide.

This means you have the ability to have passive income – yes, making money literally while you sleep, without having to invest in expensive tools.

What you need is knowledge (which you have), a great topic and the willingness to put in the work and make your idea a reality.

Where to Start?

This is the part that stops almost everyone – they just don’t know how to begin. They have knowledge and skills and get great results for their students, but how do you turn that into something people can buy online?

What you need to do is some good old-fashioned brainstorming.

You need to find your niche. By that I mean taking what you do and narrowing it down so that it solves a specific problem.

You don’t necessarily want to create a large, wandering course that teaches you to “sing better.”

The topic is probably too broad and undefined to really get your potential consumer excited.

However, if you focused down on an aspect of better singing, a problem that the potential buyer is struggling with, you likely have a better chance of a winning product.

A course on how to belt, or how to audition, or vocal health would more likely get a good reaction from the right audience.

When I consult with teachers and help them with their products I want to know what they do better than anyone else. I help them find their specific passion and we focus on that.

Perhaps you are really good with children, or helping rehab voices, or teaching performance.

This is where you want to start.

This doesn’t mean you can’t do a large, more generalized course later, but you can more quickly build your following and your authority by specializing in the beginning.

Next Steps

The next step is to plot out your course. I like to sit with a pad of paper and start writing out all the possible topics within my chosen course.

Then under each topic, write out all the possible lessons within that topic.

I then create a PowerPoint for each lesson with the main points I want to make.

I do not script any further as that can make your presentation a bit stale, but I do run through the slides and get myself mentally ready to discuss each point clearly.

At that point it is the technical job of recording, editing and publishing my product, which opens up a wider range of options that are beyond the scope of this article.

However, get these first steps done and you are well on your way to creating passive income and expanding your business.