63: Turn Your Hobby Into a Six-Figure Online Course With Amy Porterfield
Picture this: You're doing what you love, sharing your expertise, and watching your bank account grow.
Sounds like a dream, right? Well, get ready to pinch yourself, because this week's HobbyScool Podcast is about to turn that dream into your reality!
🎨🧶🎸 Whether you're a whiz with watercolors, a guru of crochet, or a rockstar of home recording, your skills are more valuable than you think.
And we're not just talking about the joy they bring you (though that's priceless!) – we're talking cold, hard cash potential.
But how do you go from hobbyist to hot-shot online instructor?
That's where our latest episode comes in, featuring the one and only Amy Porterfield, the queen of digital course creation.
You'll discover:
How to create a course people will scramble to buy
A simple pricing strategy to boost your revenue
Why you don't need to be tech-savvy or camera-ready
The booming growth of online learning (it's HUGE!)
Ready to see your hobby as the goldmine it is? Your journey to becoming a six-figure course creator starts here!
Key points from the episode:
[00:04:34] Amy explains the three types of courses: starter, spotlight, and signature
[00:08:37] Learn how to create courses without appearing on camera
[00:11:19] Discover strategies to enhance your course offerings and increase revenue
[00:16:58] Amy shares exciting statistics on the growth of the online learning industry
[00:22:20] Preview of Amy's upcoming Course Confident Boot Camp
Mentioned In This Episode
Course Confident Bootcamp: https://www.destinicopp.com/bootcamp (affiliate link)
Turn Your Hobby into a Thriving Online Course: Insights from Amy Porterfield
Are you passionate about your hobby and dream of sharing your knowledge with others? Have you ever considered turning that expertise into an online course? If so, you're in for a treat! In our latest HobbyScool Podcast episode, we sat down with online marketing expert Amy Porterfield to explore the exciting world of digital course creation.
Amy, known for her top-ranked podcast "Online Marketing Made Easy," shared invaluable insights on how hobbyists like you can create successful online courses. Let's dive into the key takeaways that could help you transform your hobby into a profitable online business.
Understanding the Three Types of Courses
One of the first steps in creating a successful online course is deciding what type of course to offer. Amy breaks down three main categories:
Starter Course: This is a basic, introductory course that covers the fundamentals of your hobby. It's perfect for beginners and typically priced between $100 to $200.
Spotlight Course: This type of course focuses on a specific aspect or technique within your hobby. It's more detailed than a starter course and can be priced from $200 to $500.
Signature Course: This is the most comprehensive option, offering a complete transformation or in-depth knowledge of your hobby. Due to its extensive nature, signature courses can be priced anywhere from $500 to $3,000 or more.
For those just starting out, Amy recommends beginning with either a starter or spotlight course. These are easier to create and can help you build confidence as you enter the world of online teaching.
Creating Courses Without Camera Shyness
If the thought of being on camera makes you nervous, here's some great news: you don't have to show your face to create a successful course! Amy shared that one of her friends makes millions with digital courses without ever appearing on video.
Instead, you can use tools like Canva to create engaging slide presentations and pair them with audio narration. This approach not only eases the pressure of being on camera but also keeps the technology requirements simple. Remember, your students are there for your knowledge and expertise, not necessarily to see your face.
Strategies for Scaling Your Course Revenue
Once you've created your course, how do you turn it into a six-figure business? Amy suggests a few key strategies:
Offer VIP Upgrades: For your next launch, consider offering a limited number of VIP spots that include one-on-one coaching or consulting. This allows you to charge premium prices for an exclusive experience.
Grow Your Email List: The size of your email list directly correlates with your potential earnings. Focus on growing your list between launches to increase your revenue.
Experiment with Launch Styles: Start with live launches to learn and refine your process. Once you've mastered this, you can move towards automated or "evergreen" launches that can generate sales even while you sleep.
The Growing Demand for Online Learning
If you're worried about entering a saturated market, Amy's insights should put your mind at ease. The e-learning industry is booming, with projections suggesting it will be worth $848 billion by 2030. This growth isn't just in traditional educational fields – it spans all types of hobbies and interests.
Amy emphasizes that there's always room for your unique perspective and teaching style. Your personal experiences, stories, and approach to your hobby are what will set you apart and attract students who resonate with you.
Embracing AI in Course Creation
As technology evolves, so do the tools available to course creators. Amy revealed that she'll be teaching how to use AI tools like ChatGPT to streamline the course creation process in her upcoming Course Confident Boot Camp. This exciting development could help hobbyists create courses more efficiently, allowing you to focus more on sharing your passion and less on the technical aspects of content creation.
Your Next Steps: From Hobby to Online Course
Creating an online course about your hobby isn't just about making money – it's about sharing your passion, connecting with like-minded individuals, and potentially impacting lives through your knowledge and skills.
Remember, your unique perspective and teaching style are valuable. As Amy beautifully put it, "Don't underestimate the power of your personality, your own style of teaching and experiences, and there is absolutely room for you."
Whether you're a quilter, a gardener, a model train enthusiast, or any other type of hobbyist, your knowledge is valuable. By creating an online course, you're not just monetizing your hobby – you're creating a community around it and helping others discover the joy you've found in your passion.
Are you ready to take the leap and turn your hobby into an online course? Start by considering what type of course you'd like to create, and don't be afraid to start small. Remember, even the most successful course creators started with a single step. Your hobby has brought you joy – now it's time to share that joy with the world!
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Transcript:
Dr. Destini Copp [00:00:04]:
Welcome to the HobbyScool podcast. Whether you're a seasoned hobbyist or just getting started, HobbyScool is the perfect place to learn something new. My name is Dr. Destini Copp, and I'm your host of the podcast. But before we jump into our episode for today, the only thing I ask is that if you enjoy the episode, please share with a friend, and give us an honest review on your favorite podcast platform. This helps us get out the content to more people. I also wanna invite you to get on our wait list for our next HobbyScool Online Learning Summit. These are free to attend, and you can find the link to join at hobbyscool.com, which is also in our podcast show notes. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:00:56]:
In today's episode, I have the pleasure of welcoming Amy Porterfield, who is an online marketing expert and host of the top ranked podcast, online marketing made easy. Through her best selling 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. Now in this episode, Amy shares her wisdom and breaks down the course map on how to generate 6 figures with your course in less than a year. She identifies 3 types of courses, a starter course, a spotlight course, and a signature course. She reveals the simplicity of creating spotlight or starter courses and utilizing easy to use tools that don't require you to be on video. And these courses are perfect for those who are new to the course creation world, but that's not all Amy shares. So let's jump right in and get ready to take your course creation game to the next level. Amy, I am super excited to chat with you today.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:02:24]:
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 6 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 or, you know, a full blown course or like a mini course that you would sell on a tripwire? Walk us through the math there in what you're talking about.
Amy Porterfield [00:03:20]:
Okay. So when you are thinking about the opportunities with digital course, there are 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 podcast 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:03:56]:
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 the type of course you want to create. So let's say you're thinking about, oh, I'd like to create a course. We'll use the example on quilting. Well, there's 3 ways you can approach it.
Amy Porterfield [00:04:34]:
Number 1, you could create a course that is a starter course, which means it's a 1 on 1 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 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. So 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:05:28]:
And then the mad 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 $3,000 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? So we're gonna be conservative here and say $10,000. If you could make $10,000 with your first 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:06:17]:
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 20 people. Only 20 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 20 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:07:03]:
So there's a lot more we can get into, but that's essentially how you start with your course method.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:07:09]:
And Amy, I love how you broke it out between, and I'm gonna use your terminology, a starter 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. What would you recommend to them?
Amy Porterfield [00:07:45]:
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 [00:08:19]:
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'd 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 [00:08:37]:
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.
Amy Porterfield [00:09:10]:
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 handholding virtual style step by step. You can absolutely figure it out. And I will just attest
Dr. Destini Copp [00:09:40]:
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 kind of depends on whether I had the makeup one for the day or not. Right. Amen. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:09:58]:
So going back to the course math, because we want to, you know, talk about that generating 6 figures with your course in less than a year, you you know, right, 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 do launches? Will we put it in an evergreen sales funnel? Let's kind of break that down a little bit.
Amy Porterfield [00:10:24]:
Okay. Got it. So if you wanna get to 6 figures with your digital course, 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 1 on 1 coaching or consulting for, let's say just 10 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:11:19]:
So now some of your students are paying $1,000 or $2,000 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:12:06]:
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 to talk to your students in real time.
Amy Porterfield [00:12:40]:
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.
Amy Porterfield [00:13:22]:
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 or 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 prerecorded. All the emails are prewritten, so I don't have to show up live for it, but I make 1,000,000 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 approved every single day.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:14:14]:
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.
Amy Porterfield [00:14:38]:
So, yes,
Dr. Destini Copp [00:14:39]:
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're 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 there room for me? I guess I should say.
Amy Porterfield [00:16:20]:
Okay. 1st, I'm gonna 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. 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 elearning market will be worth $848,000,000,000 by 2030, 1000000000, 848,000,000,000.
Amy Porterfield [00:16:58]:
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 learn 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:17:44]:
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.
Amy Porterfield [00:18:25]:
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 handholding 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:19:00]:
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. One 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:19:35]:
You could go on YouTube right now and Google how to make a sourdough starter and get 1,000 of results, but her students aren't doing that. They're spending 1,000 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 road map 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 is absolutely room for you. The only thing that will stop you is you telling yourself that there isn't. And, A.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:20:24]:
B, I love that, and I will tell you a stor 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 she said. People will pay for a step by step by step process.
Amy Porterfield [00:20:48]:
Absolutely. That is what they want. And and I love that you got an opportunity to share that as well, because 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 course sales is because people want to learn from me because I give them a proven road map 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.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:21:30]:
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?
Amy Porterfield [00:21:47]:
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 kick starting everyone's digital course creation journey from coming up with the idea that is a perfect fit for you and your business to figuring 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.
Amy Porterfield [00:22:20]:
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 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 [00:22:56]:
And I could tell you, Amy, I'm gonna be there cheering everybody y'all. 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 track it. So we're not starting from that blank screen. And the, you know, the link to get into the boot camp for with Amy's boot camp is destinicopp.com/bootcamp. So that's destinicopp.com/bootcamp, and I will make sure that that link is in the show notes so you can join Amy and me in this bootcamp.
Amy Porterfield [00:23:31]:
Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. You're gonna be there, Destini. We're gonna have a great time.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:23:36]:
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 list building. And I will say, you know, I took your list building course. I took one of I took your course creation course years ago before it turned into digital course academy. And it it was just a wealth of knowledge for
Amy Porterfield [00:23:58]:
me. Well, thank you so much. You've done such amazing things inside your business. So that's a huge compliment. Thanks again.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:24:04]:
Thank you, Amy. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Amy. I'd love for you to join me in the boot camp where you will become course confident in just 5 days. Amy will help you nail down your digital course topic, the type, the price, and audience growth plan in a matter of days. And if you join with me, you will unlock my special bonus just for Amy's course confident boot camp attendees, which is my ultimate presale bundle. And with this bundle, you will earn before you even launch by presaleing your course, ensuring immediate revenue. You'll quickly validate and fine tune your offers with real time feedback to resonate perfectly with them. Essentially, it is your all in one marketing arsenal packed with persuasive email sequences, eye catching social media templates, and captivating reels and story designs.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:25:12]:
All of them are designed to turn interest into sales. So go to destinicopp.com/bootcamp and let me know if you join. I cannot wait to see you there. Bye for now. Thank you so much for listening today. Don't forget to sign up for the wait list so you'll be the first to know when our next free HobbyScool online learning summit launches. The link is in the show notes for this episode, or you can go to hobbyscool.com, and that's HobbyScool with school without an h in it. Talk soon.