How to become an online course producer. Part 1
Quick Start
Hello! This is Anton Viborniy, co-founder of Facely.
Welcome to my mini-guide "Quick Start," where I will explain how to become a producer of online courses and earn your first money in this profession.
By the end of the course, you will:
This course will be beneficial for:
Everything I will talk about is based on my method, which I call SCA.
Welcome to my mini-guide "Quick Start," where I will explain how to become a producer of online courses and earn your first money in this profession.
By the end of the course, you will:
- Learn how to use your SMM skills to earn 10 times more by creating online courses or work as a course producer of other experts.
- The Difference between course authors and course producers (It is like a film producer)
- Understand what you need to do and what to avoid on your path to success as a content creator’s producer.
This course will be beneficial for:
- Young ambitious individuals who want to earn online.
- Marketing specialists who are already providing SMM services, managing Instagram, or working in content marketing. Whether you're freelancing, working for a company, or running your own marketing agency, this course is for you.
- Those who already have a course or are considering creating one. If you recognize the value of the content creation business and want to enhance your product, this course will help you achieve your goals.
- Influencers who already have followers but lack a digital product to sell in large quantities.
Everything I will talk about is based on my method, which I call SCA.
I formulated this method, but I first saw the original roadmap from Melanie Perkins, the founder of Canva. I think many of you are familiar with this startup. Canva is valued at $26 billion, and its revenue is $2 billion. It's a very successful business!
There are three levels in this pyramid.
The first level: Service — this is when you sell services. You work in a job or manage an agency business. You have a service business and sell your time as an expert. Melanie Perkins was also an expert in Photoshop and worked as a freelance web designer, selling her services.
I started this way too. I graduated from architecture school and worked as a 3D artist, creating 3D renders for interior designers.
In general, everyone starts with services, as it's the easiest way to begin earning.
The second level: Courses — this is when you start earning by teaching others. There are two options here: you can sell your knowledge and become a course author, or work as a producer of online courses, selling the knowledge of others.
Melanie Perkins was a web design teacher and taught people how to use Photoshop. She had her own web design school.
I also quickly realized that providing services is a tough business, so I recorded my courses on 3D rendering and started selling them to my classmates. At the same time, I produced my classmates who taught how to work in software for interior design.
The third level: App — this is when you launch your tech startup, app, or software. As we know, Melanie Perkins launched the very successful startup Canva.
I am currently trying to build a tech startup, Facely — an app that allows you to create courses in TikTok format. And now you are watching this course using Facely.
There are three levels in this pyramid.
The first level: Service — this is when you sell services. You work in a job or manage an agency business. You have a service business and sell your time as an expert. Melanie Perkins was also an expert in Photoshop and worked as a freelance web designer, selling her services.
I started this way too. I graduated from architecture school and worked as a 3D artist, creating 3D renders for interior designers.
In general, everyone starts with services, as it's the easiest way to begin earning.
The second level: Courses — this is when you start earning by teaching others. There are two options here: you can sell your knowledge and become a course author, or work as a producer of online courses, selling the knowledge of others.
Melanie Perkins was a web design teacher and taught people how to use Photoshop. She had her own web design school.
I also quickly realized that providing services is a tough business, so I recorded my courses on 3D rendering and started selling them to my classmates. At the same time, I produced my classmates who taught how to work in software for interior design.
The third level: App — this is when you launch your tech startup, app, or software. As we know, Melanie Perkins launched the very successful startup Canva.
I am currently trying to build a tech startup, Facely — an app that allows you to create courses in TikTok format. And now you are watching this course using Facely.
I don't claim that my method is the only way to succeed, but it seems worthwhile to delve into it.
What is the main benefit of this method?
At the first level, by providing services, you gain experience and skills that you can sell, and you learn how to make money. For example, you learned how to do SMM.
At the second stage, by selling online courses, you earn your first serious capital from selling a digital, scalable product. You also gain a huge customer base. Imagine selling a course 10,000 times. You have access to 10,000 people who can buy your other products.
Some of these people might be your future investors, others business partners. You grow your social capital. You build your network.
At the third stage, you create a subscription digital product for these 10,000 people, and now they pay you every month. Such businesses (like Canva) are well-capitalized, and you can sell them for tens of millions of dollars.
That's exactly what Perkins did. She created Canva, and guess who her first customers were? Of course, her students.
The main idea of this method is that at each stage, you acquire resources that you can invest in the next stage. Most likely, your current resource is your marketing skill, through which you make money. The next step is to earn capital by selling online courses, using that skill.
I will talk more about this later.
Let's discuss how much you can earn at each level, and then we'll dive into the details.
At the first level, you can earn a good salary. If you have an SMM agency, you can make thousands of dollars, depending on the country where you live. Earning more than $10k in this type of business is very hard.
At the second level, you sell courses or produce online courses for influencers, and you can earn tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you produce an influencer from the USA with 200-300 thousand followers, you can even earn a million. It's not easy, but it's real. I will talk more about this in the next video.
At the third stage, this is millions, hundreds of millions, and even billions, as we saw in the case of Melanie Perkins. At this stage, you are in the world of tech startups, where there are limitless earning opportunities. But at the same time, this is the most challenging level.
What is the main benefit of this method?
At the first level, by providing services, you gain experience and skills that you can sell, and you learn how to make money. For example, you learned how to do SMM.
At the second stage, by selling online courses, you earn your first serious capital from selling a digital, scalable product. You also gain a huge customer base. Imagine selling a course 10,000 times. You have access to 10,000 people who can buy your other products.
Some of these people might be your future investors, others business partners. You grow your social capital. You build your network.
At the third stage, you create a subscription digital product for these 10,000 people, and now they pay you every month. Such businesses (like Canva) are well-capitalized, and you can sell them for tens of millions of dollars.
That's exactly what Perkins did. She created Canva, and guess who her first customers were? Of course, her students.
The main idea of this method is that at each stage, you acquire resources that you can invest in the next stage. Most likely, your current resource is your marketing skill, through which you make money. The next step is to earn capital by selling online courses, using that skill.
I will talk more about this later.
Let's discuss how much you can earn at each level, and then we'll dive into the details.
At the first level, you can earn a good salary. If you have an SMM agency, you can make thousands of dollars, depending on the country where you live. Earning more than $10k in this type of business is very hard.
At the second level, you sell courses or produce online courses for influencers, and you can earn tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you produce an influencer from the USA with 200-300 thousand followers, you can even earn a million. It's not easy, but it's real. I will talk more about this in the next video.
At the third stage, this is millions, hundreds of millions, and even billions, as we saw in the case of Melanie Perkins. At this stage, you are in the world of tech startups, where there are limitless earning opportunities. But at the same time, this is the most challenging level.
What is the difference between these levels?
The difference lies in the business model. A business model is what you sell and how you earn.
At the first level, you sell your time and skills. For example, if you have an SMM agency, you are reselling the skills and time of your employees. This is very hard to scale because one marketer can manage a maximum of 4-5 projects per month.
At the second level, you sell courses, meaning digital products. They scale excellently, especially if you work as a producer with various experts from different countries.
Imagine you have two influencers from the USA, one from France, one from Poland, and one from Italy. Each has 100,000 followers. You helped each of them create courses or a series of courses, and they continuously sell them. You earn money from that constantly.
It's similar to a recording studio. The Beatles recorded their hits in the 60s, and the recording studio Apple Corp still makes money every time someone in the world listens to a Beatles song (not to be confused with the company Apple that sells iPhones — they are different companies).
At the second level, the model is: the more copies I sell, the more I earn.
At the third level, you sell shares in the company. You play the game of "Company Capitalization." You grow your startup, attract investment, grow even faster, and then sell the company, like Instagram and WhatsApp, or go public, like Facebook, and sell shares to the whole world.
At different levels, you are playing completely different games.
The difference lies in the business model. A business model is what you sell and how you earn.
At the first level, you sell your time and skills. For example, if you have an SMM agency, you are reselling the skills and time of your employees. This is very hard to scale because one marketer can manage a maximum of 4-5 projects per month.
At the second level, you sell courses, meaning digital products. They scale excellently, especially if you work as a producer with various experts from different countries.
Imagine you have two influencers from the USA, one from France, one from Poland, and one from Italy. Each has 100,000 followers. You helped each of them create courses or a series of courses, and they continuously sell them. You earn money from that constantly.
It's similar to a recording studio. The Beatles recorded their hits in the 60s, and the recording studio Apple Corp still makes money every time someone in the world listens to a Beatles song (not to be confused with the company Apple that sells iPhones — they are different companies).
At the second level, the model is: the more copies I sell, the more I earn.
At the third level, you sell shares in the company. You play the game of "Company Capitalization." You grow your startup, attract investment, grow even faster, and then sell the company, like Instagram and WhatsApp, or go public, like Facebook, and sell shares to the whole world.
At different levels, you are playing completely different games.
Most people make the mistake of trying to grow on the same level, without moving up to the next one.
For instance, many marketers think: "The better I do marketing, the more I will be paid."
They try to scale at the first level, not moving to the second level.
This is the biggest mistake.
Your task is to jump to a new level, change the business model, and play a different game, and then hire those who have not yet made the jump from the first to the second level.
For instance, many marketers think: "The better I do marketing, the more I will be paid."
They try to scale at the first level, not moving to the second level.
This is the biggest mistake.
Your task is to jump to a new level, change the business model, and play a different game, and then hire those who have not yet made the jump from the first to the second level.
I remember how my mentor, the owner of a very large IT company, answered a guy at a conference.
The guy asked, 'I have a marketing agency. What should I do to make a lot of money?' The answer was, 'You need to do something that allows you to quit the marketing agency as quickly as possible’.
This was many years ago, but I remembered that answer for life.
In fact, the levels of this pyramid look like this:
The guy asked, 'I have a marketing agency. What should I do to make a lot of money?' The answer was, 'You need to do something that allows you to quit the marketing agency as quickly as possible’.
This was many years ago, but I remembered that answer for life.
In fact, the levels of this pyramid look like this:
The first level — 99% of people are engaged in services and compete at the first stage.
They discuss who sets up Facebook ads better, who does Instagram stories better, what my open rate is on email newsletters, and so on. They think in terms of "quality of services provided."
The second level — 1% of marketers begin to create courses because they understand that they can't earn much from services. They start applying their skills gained in the service business to sell a scalable product.
The third level — 0.0001% create startups. This happens when you already have capital, knowledge of how to launch startups, and the ability to hire programmers to develop your software. At the beginning, you usually don't have access to this option. The chance of launching a course and earning money from it is quite high.
However, the chance of building a tech startup and earning money in three months without knowledge and funds is nearly zero.
Startups are a gamble, and you should play when you already have money.
Your current task is to forget about the third stage and focus on crossing the chasm between the first and second stages.
They discuss who sets up Facebook ads better, who does Instagram stories better, what my open rate is on email newsletters, and so on. They think in terms of "quality of services provided."
The second level — 1% of marketers begin to create courses because they understand that they can't earn much from services. They start applying their skills gained in the service business to sell a scalable product.
The third level — 0.0001% create startups. This happens when you already have capital, knowledge of how to launch startups, and the ability to hire programmers to develop your software. At the beginning, you usually don't have access to this option. The chance of launching a course and earning money from it is quite high.
However, the chance of building a tech startup and earning money in three months without knowledge and funds is nearly zero.
Startups are a gamble, and you should play when you already have money.
Your current task is to forget about the third stage and focus on crossing the chasm between the first and second stages.
Your goal is to stop selling services and start selling courses, either as an expert or as a producer.
In my social media, I openly say that the service business is a bad business but an ideal springboard for your business career.
Many marketers get disappointed and think that learning marketing was their mistake.
But that's not a mistake — you did everything right. Marketing skills are among the most in-demand in the world. Your task is to apply them in the right niche.
Let me draw an analogy with sports. Imagine two girls who started getting into sports: they run in the mornings, play ball, and do exercises. They are physically identical.
One girl was sent by her parents to tennis, and the other to shot put.
In my social media, I openly say that the service business is a bad business but an ideal springboard for your business career.
Many marketers get disappointed and think that learning marketing was their mistake.
But that's not a mistake — you did everything right. Marketing skills are among the most in-demand in the world. Your task is to apply them in the right niche.
Let me draw an analogy with sports. Imagine two girls who started getting into sports: they run in the mornings, play ball, and do exercises. They are physically identical.
One girl was sent by her parents to tennis, and the other to shot put.
In the end, both became world champions. The first is Serena Williams, whose net worth is $300 million,
and the second is Jessica Shilberg, a world champion in shot put with a net worth of $3 million.
To become a world champion in tennis and shot put, the same effort is required — you need to train your whole life.
But the results are different. Jessica earns 100 times less not because she worked 100 times less.
They both trained in the gym, ran, and invested 100%. They performed the same exercises.
The difference is that tennis has money, while shot put does not.
In business, the situation is similar. As an SMM specialist, you can create Reels for a local restaurant or for an influencer selling courses in psychology in English. In the first case, you might get 1,000 views, in the second — 100,000, or maybe even several million.
To become a world champion in tennis and shot put, the same effort is required — you need to train your whole life.
But the results are different. Jessica earns 100 times less not because she worked 100 times less.
They both trained in the gym, ran, and invested 100%. They performed the same exercises.
The difference is that tennis has money, while shot put does not.
In business, the situation is similar. As an SMM specialist, you can create Reels for a local restaurant or for an influencer selling courses in psychology in English. In the first case, you might get 1,000 views, in the second — 100,000, or maybe even several million.
Read the Part 2