When we think of creating online courses we often think about a price being associated with it and for the most part an online course does cost something usually.
After all, if you’re paying for a platform like Teachable or planning to buy Teachable you might be wondering can you create a free course on Teachable?
Yes, you can create a free course on Teachable. The Teachable platform allows you to create free courses, paid courses, and even membership subscription plans.
Now that you know that you can create free courses on Teachable you might wondering why you should even do this and how to set this all up.
Why Create a Free Course with Teachable
Creating a free course in Teachable actually presents a huge opportunity that most people overlook. So knowing that you can create a free course on the Teachable the question is why would you even want to do this?
#1 To Give Value That Others Won’t
Most people think you have to charge a price on your course but if you’re brand new to the whole course creating thing then you may want to create your first few course for free.
This will expose people to your brand and give you a way to win others over that you may not have been able to do because you don’t have a well known brand yet.
If your competitors are creating a course that sells for money create a similar course and promote it for free for a limited time. While this won’t get everyone to look at your course you’re sure to get a few people to check it out.
So in the beginning do what others aren’t doing and do it for free. You can always charge for the course in the future but for now use it to your advantage to get new people check out your brand.
#2 To Build Up Your Student Base
Another great reason to create free courses is to use it build up your base of students. The great thing about Teachable is that it gives you access to your students because they are your students.
If they get one of your free courses they may be willing to buy one of your courses in the future. This also means when you go to sell to them in the future they will know who you are and give your courses more consideration.
Eventually when you do have your base built up enough you’ll have bigger courses that will make you far more money down the road because you had a base of people to buy from you.
#3 Sell Affiliate Products
Now just because you have a free course doesn’t mean you can’t make no money with it. You could sell affiliate products inside the course where it makes sense.
For example, you could create a free course on how to start a new blog. Inside of the course you could promote all kinds of products. Here is a short list of a few thing right off the top of my mind.
- Bluehost as a hosting option for your blog
- Namecheap as a place to buy domain names
- LongTail Pro as an affiliate for a keyword tool
- Fiverr.com as a place to get a logo done
- Divi Theme as a place to get a blog them
You can be an affiliate for all of these products as you talk about these things you can recommend and link to them with your affiliate link and if people click on them and buy you’ll likely get a commission from them.
Side Note: Make sure it’s not against the affiliates terms and conditions to promote their product in a course or behind a paywall. Ex. Amazon Associates does not allow this.
So if you have a free course in mind think about the products you could promote in them.
To do this think about the process your course goes through. List out any potential products or services you could promote and sign up for them.
#4 Up-Sell Them Into Other Course
The other benefit to free courses is that you could up sell them in the free course while they’re signing up. Teachable has had the ablility to do this for a long time now and you could use this as way to draw more students and customers in.
For example lets say you have a free course on how to start a blog. While they are signing up you have a course on content creation that normally list for $197 but because they are signing up for your start a blog course you are giving them 50% fro a limited time.
This gives you a huge opportunity to grow your student base and also make some money at the same time.
Related Article: Check out my complete tutorial on how to upsell on Teachable here.
How to Create a Free Course with Teachable
So now that we know why creating free courses is a huge deal, you might be wondering how do we create a free course with Teachable?
#1 Create a New Course in Teachable
The first step is the create a new course in Teachable. Click here to sign up for your free Teachable account and follow along.
One big tip about creating a free course is to make it something basic. You don’t want your free course to be this all in one huge course of everything you know. Instead think of something small you could teach that everyone needs to know.
For example, let’s say you’re topic is all about throwing darts. You wouldn’t want to create the complete course on dart-throwing but rather a course on how to hold and aim your dart.
So what is something small you could teach people for free?
You’ll also need to create a basic sales page for your free course as well. I’m personally not an expert at creating sales pages but I do know this…
Don’t make the sales page about the course, make it about the person you’re selling the course to.
Don’t talk about how your course has 5 videos and all the other features. Talk about the specific benefits they’ll get because they have your course. Here are a few examples.
- Take 4 strokes off your next golf game.
- Write 25% faster after following our secret framework.
- Take 2 minutes off your next 5k run.
When you give these defined specific benefits it helps people understand exactly what they’ll get if they buy your course. So take some time to craft 3 to 5 quality bullet points for your sales page.
#2 Name Your Course
Next you need to name your course. Naming your courses is very important. It should communicate what your course is who its for.
Related Article: Click Here to Read My Complete Guide on How to Name Your Online Course.
To name your course you need to do 2 things.
#1 Your Course Title Should Identify an Outcome
For example, let’s say you want to create a course about golfing. You could name your course How to Play Golf. That’s OK but it really doesn’t define the true outcome your students looking for.
To do this you need to look at the pain points or symptoms your student is facing. A lot of times we think we know what people taking our courses want but we need to dig deeper.
After doing some research you find out that what your students really want is to know how to look good golfing in front of their buddies. On top of that, they want every swing to look amazing.
That’s the first of all of this.
#2 It should Identify Who the Target Market is
Secondly, it should identify who your target market is. One of the biggest misconceptions is that you want a big audience but your message will get lost in all the noise if you don’t narrow things down.
So, in this case, you don’t want to talk to all golfers but rather beginner golfers who only golf 3 to 5 times a year.
#3 Put It All Together
Finally, you want to put it all together. So we want to create a course that makes you look like a golf pro infront of your buddies even when you only golf 5 times a year.
You could name your course Golf Like a Pro – How to Golf like a Pro Even If You’re Beginner
To be honest I don’t know to much about golf other than the few times I do it a year but choosing a course title is a process that takes time and research.
#3 Create Your Course Curriculum
Your next step is to create your course curriculum. A lot of people like to write up an entire outline but I prefer to create my outline right inside teachable. You can sign up for a free Teachable account here to get started.
Since this is a free course your only going to create 3 to 5 videos. Remember your not looking to teach them everything on your topic but rather give them something that gives a quick and immediate solution.
So list out the 3 to 5 videos that you that give a step by step path to achieving the outcome of your student.
#4 Set the Pricing to Free
Now it’s time to do one of the most important parts, set the pricing to free. This is probably one of easiest steps to do.
To do this go to the pricing tab in your free course and click on add pricing plan.
Next, click on the Free Pricing Plan.
On the next screen you’ll need to provide a name for the pricing plan, a subtitle, and a detail description of the plan.
#5 Create the Course Content
Now that you have all the basics created its time to create your course content. So here are a few tips to help you create your content for your free Teachable course.
#1 Keep it Short
First, as I mentioned keep your course to 3 or 5 videos. The reason this is because you want to give value quickly. You don’t want to give them everything. On top of that most people will never complete your free course.
A good example of this is free lead magnets you get when you sign up for someones email list. In most cases when I get these I usually only ever look at them once or twice and archive it.
When you get something free you’re likely never to value it as much if you were to pay for it. So keep it short but value packed.
#2 Keep Your Videos Short
Next, keep your videos short and sweet. Overall you want your free course to be around 15 to 30 long at most. Again, this isn’t meant to be a big course.
#3 Don’t Create Slides
Also, don’t worry about creating any slides. For this course just record yourself covering your topic. Believe it or not but this is the best way to give great value and get your videos done quickly.
The only caveat to this is if you need to do a screencast to show how something works, or do add text to your video to break things up and keep people on point.
#4 Create a Short Outline
Finally, you’ll want to create a short outline. Each bullet point should online be a few words just to remind you of what you need to talk about. It should not be a detailed outline. Just cover 3 to 5 points in every video and that’ sit.
One thing I like to do is tape each short outline I created for each video below the camera on my tripod. That way it helps remind me of what I need to cover and keep me on point.
So pull out your camera or smartphone and create your videos.
#6 Promote it
Finally, the last step is to promote your course but the way you promote this course is different than the way you’ll promote a paid course.
Advertise Your Course on Your Site
Think of your free course as a lead magnet to get people to sign up for your school so you can sell other courses to them later.
Create an ad for your course and stick it on your website and put it in your sidebar, and below every post on your site. Also, create a pop up to get people to check out your free course. You can use this free pop up plug in to help you do this.
Share on Social Media
Next share your free course on social media to get people to sign up. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
- Post your course on Facebook. Use the image you created for your site or create a video.
- Post on Pinterest. Create a unique graphic for Pinterest and promote your course there.
- Post on Twitter. Share a link to your course on Twitter. Use the graphic you create to promote it. Also, add a few hashtags to make it more searchable on Twitter.
- Create a YouTube Video. Do a YouTube video sharing value tips. Find a searchable term related to your topic and create a free video that drives people to your free course.
Email Your List
Finally, if you have an email list. promote it to them. This might sound simple but take a full week and email your list everyday. Here is a simple email campain you could do for your list.
- Monday – Be direct let them know you have something special for them. Tell them about your free course and the benefits behind it.
- Tuesday – Share a story that gives value. Then in the PS mention your free course.
- Wednesday – Give a quick tip that you shared in your course and remind them they can get the entire course for free.
- Thursday – Give a testimonial. Tell them a story about someone who took your course and got results.
- Friday – Be direct and tell them this will be the last time you are going to email them with this opportunity about the course.
So there you go if you are looking to create a free course by signing for your free Teachable account today.
