When I first started out online. I had very little budget. I Googled for free tools and tutorials to set up my fist website.
I did the same for my online training program. There were free tutorials on how to record and edit video lessons.
The first mini site was an accomplishment. But it took many tries and a lot of patience.
What’s Required To Prepare Online Training Content
To be able to offer my own online training, I needed to do the following:
- Design the course – good thing I have the domain expertise
- I needed a video screen casting software to record my lessons. This was expensive.
- I also needed a video editing software for my recordings. The was expensive too.
And then there’s the logistic side of things. I needed:
- A mini site with web pages where I can hold the training videos so others can watch them
- A secured video hosting which offers speed in loading time. This way viewers don’t have to wait for the videos to buffer
- A video player so I can embed the video on my site (as I can’t use YouTube to host my premium videos)
All of these incured additional costs, some a one-time fee and others a monthly fee. I had to look for alternatives.
I needed free tools.
Bootstrapping; Creating Online Training Was A Mammoth Task
I scoured the net for information and immersed myself in learning from free tutorials. Some tutorials were helpful others were not.
I experimented with free tools but was constantly hitting roadblocks . These tools are free for a reason; there were many limitations. My videos had to be less than 5 minutes each and they needed to be in a certain format in order for them to work with the free video editing software I was using.
I found this out after I’ve started recording. So there was a lot of rework. A lot of time was lost and trial and error was at every step of the way.
It was a three-steps-forward-2-steps-backwards kind of journey.
The First Is The Sweetest
It took hours for me to prepare my first online training program. And when the first sale came in, I was so overjoyed. In fact, it was disbelief at first. Then tears of joy.
My method worked. But it was an arduous tasks requiring much commitment.
A Producer Marketer Needs To Spend Time Marketing
The good thing is I had the determination and I did not give up. The downside was that it took so much time that by the time I had the product, I was exhausted and had not done enough marketing.
Today, technology has advanced so much. Free tools are every where. Free tutorials too, although you’ll need to know where to look for updated and helpful ones.
So if you want to offer online training today and host these behind some gated membership site, let me share a strategy with you that you can use without going through the pains I did.
Use Google Plus Hangout, YouTube and Google Plus Community
Use these to create, host and manage delivery of your training.
Here’s how it works. Use Google Plus Community, YouTube and Hangouts to produce your training as well as grow your permission based email list
Everything in the Google plus ecosystem is integrated so you don’t have to worry about compatibility. And all the tools mentioned here is free.
There is no cost.
And yes, you get the hosting as well as the video production and editing done. You can also control who has access to your training videos.
Use it to grow your list and your business. Then when you get a budget, move the set up to your own membership site and build your business on your own property.
So here’s the presentation on how you can do this.
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This looks doable, right?
My mentors and peers have used it. And so have I and it works beautifully.
To get the full write up and details, you can refer to this post. It shows you the reason why I recommend using Google plus community and its integrated application, Hangout and YouTube. I also explain one important condition that you should note if you decide to use this method.
Another related post on this subject can be found here: How To Grow A Versatile Membership With Zero Cost.
And if you do have the budget then I would suggest you get the New RainMaker Platform. It’s a turnkey solution that takes the headache out of the technical side of things.
If you’d like more information, check this out or get in touch.
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you use these links, I may get paid a small referral fee but you don’t pay more than you normally would. And I’ll only recommend tools and courses I have personal experience with and found to be helpful.
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