154: The Profit Potential of Digital Courses: How to Generate Six-Figures in Less Than a Year with Amy Porterfield
In today's episode, I have the pleasure of welcoming Amy Porterfield, who is an online marketing expert and the host of the top-ranked podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy. Through her bestselling courses, book and popular podcast, Amy’s action-by-action approach proves that even the newest online entrepreneurs can bypass the overwhelm, and instead generate exciting momentum as they build a business they love.
In this episode, Amy shares her wisdom and breaks down the course math on how to generate 6-figures with your course in less than a year.
She identifies the three types of courses: starter course, spotlight course, and signature course. She reveals the simplicity of creating spotlight or starter courses, utilizing easy-to-use tools and not requiring appearing on video. These courses are perfect for those new to the course creation world. But that's not all Amy shares!
She also discusses her experience with live launches and evergreen sales funnels. We delve deep into the revenue potential of digital courses and the longevity of this booming market. Amy provides real examples and statistics so we can see the possibilities even in crowded niche markets. From making course lesson slides without having to show your face to utilizing AI tools like chat GPT, Amy covers it all.
So, grab your pen and notebook, and get ready to take your course creation game to the next level. Let's dive into this enlightening episode of the Course Creator's MBA Podcast with our special guest, Amy Porterfield.
Master the Art of Digital Course Creation with Amy Porterfield
In the rapidly evolving world of online education, creating and selling digital courses has become a lucrative avenue for entrepreneurs. In this episode of the Course Creator's MBA Podcast, renowned course creation expert Amy Porterfield joins host Dr. Destini Copp to share invaluable insights and tips to help aspiring course creators succeed in this highly competitive industry.
Amy Porterfield: The Guru of Online Course Creation
Amy Porterfield is a household name in the online course creation space with over 14 years of experience under her belt. Through her proven strategies, Amy has helped countless entrepreneurs turn their knowledge and expertise into profitable digital courses.
Types of Courses: Starter Courses, Spotlight Courses, and Signature Courses
Amy discusses three types of courses that cater to different levels of course creators: starter courses, spotlight courses, and signature courses. Starter courses and spotlight courses are particularly suitable for those just venturing into the world of course creation.
For beginners, Amy suggests either a starter or a spotlight course. These courses are relatively easier to create, with fewer lessons and less complex technology. This makes them perfect for individuals who may not have advanced technological skills or do not wish to appear on video.
Creating Stunning Slides with Canva
Amy emphasizes that fantastic course content can be created without the need for video by leveraging tools like Canva. Canva allows course creators to design visually appealing slides that engage students effectively. Amy assures listeners that with her guidance, anyone can learn to use Canva to create exceptional course materials.
From Live Launches to Automated Sales Funnels
The conversation steers towards different launch strategies and revenue models for digital courses. Amy delves into her personal experience with live launches and bootcamps. However, she expresses her love for automated sales funnels, which allow for consistent revenue generation without the need to be actively present.
Addressing Concerns: Market Saturation and Revenue Potential
The conversation takes a turn towards common concerns in the industry. Destini poses questions about market saturation and the revenue potential of digital courses. Amy offers fascinating insights, backed by statistics and real examples, to debunk the notion of market saturation and highlight the endless opportunities available to course creators.
Cracking the Revenue Code: Making Six Figures with Digital Courses
Amy simplifies the revenue potential of digital courses for those who might cringe at the mention of math. She outlines a conservative goal of making $10,000 in one month and illustrates how having just 20 students enroll in a $500 course can quickly achieve this. Creating a low-cost course with high enrollment becomes an effective strategy for generating significant revenue.
Unleashing Your Unique Teaching Style and Results
The conversation emphasizes the importance of a course creator's personality, teaching style, and experiences to stand out in a crowded market. Amy shares inspiring success stories of entrepreneurs who have found tremendous success teaching subjects like Sourdough Starters, proving that relatability and proven results can drive people to pay for structured learning experiences despite free resources available online.
Strategies for Continuous Growth and Success
Amy attributes success to consistent launches, learning from audience feedback, and improving marketing strategies. She stresses the importance of growing an email list between launches, as it becomes an invaluable asset for generating more sales during subsequent launches. Harnessing automated launches and expertly crafted webinars as revenue-generating tools are taught in detail, backed by Amy's own success stories.
Conclusion
Creating and selling digital courses is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs seeking to share their knowledge and make a significant income. In this captivating episode of the Course Creator's MBA Podcast, Amy Porterfield provides a wealth of knowledge, guidance, and proven strategies to help pave the way for aspiring course creators to achieve their financial and educational goals. By embracing the insights shared by Amy, you can embark on a journey towards building a profitable and impactful online course business.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Join us in Amy's Course Confident Bootcamp, but hurry! The Welcome Party starts soon on September 13, 2023! Go here to learn more.
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Transcript:
Dr. Destini Copp [00:00:03]:
Amy, I am super excited to chat with you today. I know you've been on my podcast before, but today, we're gonna be talking about digital courses and the possibilities in terms of what's out there for them, specifically how we can generate six figures with our course in less than a year. You're gonna be going through some course math math with us. I could even talk, but some course math with us And for those of you out there who hate math, don't worry. We're gonna make this super, super simple for you. And, Amy, I'm gonna jump right in to the questions, and we're gonna can you walk us through what is possible in terms of revenue for a digital course? and tell us, are you talking about, like, a low cost digital product
Amy Porterfield [00:00:52]:
or, you know, a full blown course or like a mini course that you would sell on a trip wire, walk us through the math there in what you're talking about. Okay. So when you are thinking about the opportunities with digital course, there's so many benefits of what a digital course will do for you. it could put you on the map to be known for whatever it is that you want to be known for. Let's say that you are a quilting expert and you wanna teach other people how to quilt If you have a digital course to do so, now you're known in your industry for that. So you're gonna be invited to podcasts to talk about it on stage possibly you're going to be introduced to new people that didn't know about you yet because your name starts to pop up. Oh, you wanna learn quilting. I know exactly who you should learn from. So you start to see opportunities and doors open up for you when you put out your course and you become known for something. So that's a huge benefit to grow your business. but another huge benefit is making money. And so first, I wanna walk you through what it looks like to do a little course math, and then I could share some of the stories of my students who have seen amazing success with their courses. So when you think about course math, the first thing you need to do is come up with type of course you want to create. So let's say you're thinking about, ah, I'd like to create a course. We'll use the example on quilting. Well, there's 3 ways you can approach it. Number 1, you could create a course that is a starter course, which means it's a 101 basic jumping off point just getting people started with the basics of quilting, the equipment you need, the material you need, the different kind of stitches you need to understand just to get started. because it's a basic course, you're not gonna charge that much. Anywhere from a 100 to $200 is a starter course, but it's easy to create because you can get it done quickly. The second type of course you can create is a spotlight course where you get very specific and you drill down on one area of, let's say, quilting. I don't know a lot about quilting, but let's say there's certain stitches that you would do for certain types of quilts, and you're just going to teach that technique in your course. You're gonna drill down on something very specific because it's specific, you usually can charge more. So a spotlight course is anywhere from 200 to $500. And then the Mac daddy of all courses is a signature course. And this is where you're going to promise a big transformation. Everything you need to know from start to finish Now because it's a big transformation and you're promising big results, you charge more anywhere from 500 to $3000 or more. So first, you're gonna decide, okay, what type of course might I create? And then from there, you're going to choose that price point. Now to back up a little bit, when you're thinking about launching something, you wanna think, well, how much money do I wanna make? Let's say in 1 month, how much money do I want to make with my digital course? we're gonna be conservative here and say $10,000. If you can make $10,000 with your 1st digital course in 1 month, That would be a beautiful thing. That's a lot of money. And so but we're gonna be conservative. My students have made much more than that, but I like to start out simple. And let's say you want to charge $500 for your digital course. Well, that means you only have to get twenty people, only twenty people need to raise their hand and say, I want that. And as you nurture your audience and build your audience and build trust, getting twenty people to say I want the results that you're promising is easier than you think. So that's essentially how you're going to do your course math. figuring out what type of course you wanna create, what might you charge for that course, what your goal is, and then back out in number of units. And so now you start to see what is possible. And there's so many different ways you can play this and and tweak it in order to charge less, but make more So there's a lot more we can get into, but that's essentially how you start with your course math.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:04:52]:
And, Amy, I love how you broke it out between and I'm gonna use your terminology to start a course versus a spotlight course versus a signature course. And based on your experience. And you've been doing this for, you know, 14 plus years. You have, I don't even know the number, but thousands of students have gone through your program. Can you tell us which one of those would be the best one to start with? If somebody is never done this before, they're starting, you know, just dipping their toes in the world of online course creation,
Amy Porterfield [00:05:26]:
what would you recommend to them? great question. I would say either a spotlight or a starter course or a spotlight course. You can't go wrong with either of those. And the reason I give you those as where I want you to start is because they're easier to create. There's less lessons that you need to create videos for or slide decks and audio, however you wanna do it. You can keep the technology very, very simple. You don't even need to show up on video if you don't want to. So with a starter course or a spotlight course, If you're a first time course creator, that's exactly where I want you to start.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:06:02]:
And you mentioned that people don't even need to show up on video because I know a lot of people when they're thinking about, oh, I gotta create this course. I gotta do these, you know, face to camera videos. I don't feel comfortable doing that. That seems like that would be a lot of work. What would you recommend when you say they don't even need to start up, you know, show their face on video?
Amy Porterfield [00:06:20]:
Yes. Okay. So I have a good friend, and she makes 1,000,000 of dollars with her digital course, and she never shows her face on video. she just chooses not to. She says it's a lot of work, and I'd rather not. So if I can make my money and not have to do that, I'm all for it. You can do slides and audio. And you can create slides on Canva. I teach all this inside of my program because I know it doesn't come natural to people who have never been taught it before. but you can absolutely, keep it as simple as possible. Use very simple technology. you can use your computer and the microphone that's in your computer to get started. And the reason I I really wanna hit home with this is I think a lot of people think there's a lot of technology involved and that they can't figure it out or it's way too complicated I work with a lot of new course creators that are not savvy at online marketing. So I teach in a very hand holding virtual style step by step, you can absolutely figure it out. And I will just attest to that. If it there's probably people listening to this that have been in my courses And that's what I use, Amy. I use Canvas. Sometimes I'll do the video there, but sometimes I just won't, you know. It kinda depends on whether I have to make a on for the day or not. Right? Even.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:07:39]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So going back to the course math, because we wanna you know, talk about that generating 6 figures with your course in less than a year. you you brought, you talked about the $10,000 number how if we're, you know, walk us through the math in terms of how much we would need to sell every month, how would we sell it would we launches where we put it in an evergreen sales funnel. Let's kinda break that down a little bit. Okay. Got it. So if you wanna get to 6 figures with your digital course,
Amy Porterfield [00:08:13]:
you the the goal here is to continue with each launch to grow your audience and to get better at how you market. And so a lot of my students, let's say if they have their first launch is $10,000, that second launch could easily be $50,000 if they pay attention to what worked and what didn't in their first launch. And so there's some things you can do to get to that 6 figures. So first of all, Let's say if you do have a $500 course, one of the things that you can do to enhance that the next time you launch it is offer some one on one coaching or consulting for, let's say, just ten of the people that sign up. You only have 10 spots You've got a VIP offer where they buy the course, but they also get a few coaching calls with you as well if that's something that you like to do. So now some of your students are paying a $1000 or $2000 to get to work with you in a very exclusive capacity. And because you're only offering 10 people that opportunity, it becomes very attractive. So we call that a VIP offer or an upsell And a lot of my students do this, and I teach it in my course because it allows you to get more squeeze out of that launch. And so now you're getting even more price per unit for whatever it is that you're selling. So it's easy to increase as you go. Now every time you launch your course, you're going to grow your email list. If you're doing webinars or a boot camp or something that people are signing up before they actually buy your program, now you're growing your list. And the easiest way to double a launch is to grow your email list between those launches. And so the bigger your email list is the easier it is for you to make more money in that launch. So it's really a stacking effect. Now a question I get is, well, how often can I launch? Well, you could do a live launch model or an automated launch. I like a hybrid. So, essentially, the first few times you launch your course, I want you to do it live because you're gonna learn a lot. You're gonna become more nimble. You're going to get talk to your students in real time. What do they want? What do they need? What do they like? What do they don't like? So you really understand that audience. So the next time you launch, you get better. Also, what I teach is multiple webinars. So webinars freak people out in the beginning if you've never done them, but with my patient step by step teaching style, a lot of people really understand how to do a webinar quickly and feel comfortable with it, especially if you don't even have to be on video. And so if you learn how to do multiple webinars, that's multiple opportunities for people to buy. So the first few launches you'll do live. Let's say you promote for 10 days. Because it's only open for 10 days, there's a lot of urgency there, which makes people get off the fence and actually buy. Once you do a live launch for a few times, you could go right into automation. Now that you've learned what works and what doesn't, you put that into automation are evergreen, now you're selling every single day where you don't have to show up live for anything, which is like the holy grail of launching online. I make 1,000,000 of dollars every year with an automated digital course, meaning I sell it through webinars, but it's pre recorded all the emails are pre written. So I don't have to show up live for it, but I make millions with it. And this is what I teach my students how to do as well. so that you can get to that 6 figures a whole lot easier even while you sleep. I know it might sound too good to be true. And 14 years ago when I started this, I thought it was very, very too good to be true, but I improve, and my students are proof every single day.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:11:57]:
And I can tell you that it is definitely doable, and I do very similar to what you just described there. with the live launches. We do a lot of virtual summits. I know the folks who are listening here, they have attended most likely one of our virtual summits. So we've done virtual summits. We've done 5 day challenges, boot campsters, a lot of different ways that you can live launch, and everybody knows that I'm a huge fan of evergreen sales funnels. So Yes. They're running in my business day in and day out. So, Amy, thank you for this. And I I have to ask you this because I know this is on a lot of people's mind. You've been creating and teaching online course creation. You've doing You've been working on these launches for over 14 years. Do you believe that digital courses are here to stay, or are you seeing a decline. I know people are feeling that the market's getting saturated. Can I even is is a room for me? I guess I should say. Okay. First, I wanna start out with some very real stats. I follow the stats. I do the research, but then I'm going to give you some real examples.
Amy Porterfield [00:13:03]:
So first of all, the number of online learning users is expected to reach 57,000,000 people by 2027. That is a huge increase year after year. 57,000,000 users of online learning. Now the number that I really love, though, is that the worldwide e learning market will be worth $848,000,000,000 by
Dr. Destini Copp [00:13:30]:
20, 30,000,008,148,000,000,000.
Amy Porterfield [00:13:33]:
That is incredible. And the online learning industry is expected to triple in size from 2020 to 2025. We are only seeing an incline, and this is why I think that's happening. In 2020, it was a boom for digital course creators and people using digital courses, we saw that number increase because people were stuck at home, and they were exploring new ways to get the education that they wanted or learned something new from guitar to cooking to everything in between. And so they were more open to learn online because they didn't have a choice. Well, it opened up an opportunity in the world that people that normally would never ever explore a digital course. Now they kinda had to if they wanted to learn something new, and their eyes and ears were open to holy cow. This is a really cool way to learn. I don't have to go back to college. I don't have to even leave my house, and I can learn something incredible. And so I think 2020 is where that boom started, and we're only seeing it increase year after year. Now with that, The this idea of saturation is my market too saturated. I, you know, I teach people how to do specific painting or different hobbies or, I am a nutritionist and I teach people how to meal plan, whatever it might be, instantly, anybody who teaches anything could say, but it's already been done before. It's too saturated. There's already so many courses out about this. And that is the death of an entrepreneur. You can never ever live in lack, and that is a lack of abundance. The only mindset that you can afford to have is that there is enough room for everyone. I teach people how to create digital courses. I can promise you there is a lot of competition. There's a lot of people who do what I do, but I have a unique teaching style. I'm step by step virtually hand holding my students. And I am also creating consistent content so that I'm attracting an audience that is loyal. All of that can be yours as well. You can have a unique teaching style. You have a way of teaching that nobody else does, and you have experiences and stories that nobody else has. Let me give you a perfect example. 1 of my students, she makes sourdough starters, and she created a digital course on how to make these sourdough starters and how to make beautiful sourdough bread. We call her Sarah sourdough. And Sarah She put her course out there, and she made a lot of money over the years with her sourdough course. She's a busy mom, a lot going on. She does it in a unique way that these other busy moms could really relate to. Now here's the truth. You could go on YouTube right now and Google how to make a sourdough starter and get thousands of results. But her students aren't doing that. They're spending 1000 of dollars with Sarah. And the reason for that is they want to learn from someone they can relate to that's gotten proven results and is willing to show how and they like Sarah. They gravitate toward her because she's putting out a lot of great content that they can relate to. People will pay for the roadmap or the easy way to get results instead of hunting and pecking all over the web and learning from people that they don't even know if they've even gotten results. So don't underestimate the power of your personality your own style of teaching and experiences, and there's absolutely room for you. The only thing that will stop you is you telling yourself that there isn't.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:17:00]:
And, Amy, I love that, and I will tell you a store a question that I got from somebody this morning was people are, you know, she wants to create a course. She's in the dog health industry. Okay. And she said that people are just giving away all the information for free on the internet, but I told her just what you said. People will pay for a step by step by step process.
Amy Porterfield [00:17:25]:
Absolutely. That is what they want. And and I love that you got an opportunity to share that as well because If you feel as though it's out there for free already, everything I teach, if you hunt and peck around the web well, long enough, you'll find all my stuff for free, maybe not from me, but from other people. But that is not who my students are. The reason I generated over $80,000,000 in digital core sales is because people want to learn from me because I give them a proven roadmap and help them get results faster and more efficiently. So don't underestimate the efficiency that a course will give you versus hunting and pecking all over the web. Now, Amy, I know you have the course confident boot camp coming up. And I am super excited to invite everybody to it. Can you tell people a little bit about what you're gonna be covering in this boot camp and what they can expect to learn. So every year, I do a boot camp. It's one of the cheapest opportunities I offer it's $47. And inside this boot camp, I am live doing trainings. They're all recorded if you can't make it live. I am live, kickstarting everyone's digital course creation journey from coming up with the idea that is a perfect fit for you and your business to figure out what type of course you should create. There's different frameworks to use to figure out if it's a starter, spotlight, or signature. how much you should charge for your course. So we're gonna go over that as well, how to validate a course idea to make sure you're not creating something that nobody's going to buy. And then also something new this year, I'm gonna teach people how to use chat GPT. It's an AI tool in order to fast track your digital course creation, how to use AI as a digital course creation assistant. So I'm teaching that for the first time as well, but there's so much engagement and accountability and just a kick start to your digital course journey. I'm gonna flood you with real examples from my students who have gone before you. So you can really see in real life how this might come to life for you.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:19:32]:
And I can tell you, Amy, I'm gonna be there. Charing everybody off, for sure. And I'm so excited that you are including the chat GPT and, you know, how we can use that in our online course creation and just fast tracked it. So we're not starting from that blank screen. And the co you know, the link to get into the boot camp for with Amy's boot camp is www.destinicopp.com/bootcamp. So that's www.destinicopp.com/bootcamp, and I will make sure that that link is in the show notes. so you can join Amy and me in the boot camp. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited you're gonna be there, Destini. We're gonna have a great time. Yeah. Well, Amy, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing all of your wonderful knowledge about online courses. You even touched on this building. And I will say, you know, I took your list building course. I also took your course creation course years ago before it turned into digital course academy, and it it was just a wealth of knowledge for me. Well, thank you so much. You've done such amazing things inside your business. So that's a huge compliment. Thanks again. Thank you, Amy.