Background
To “be seen as the recognized authority in your market niche,” you must demonstrate your expertise via speaking and publishing.
- Speaking can be in the form of public speaking, live training, webinars, podcasts, online video, and media appearances
- Publishing can be in the form of books (print, eBook, audiobook, flip-book), articles (written for others, published on own properties, syndicated), podcasts/webinars (your own, as a guest), and eLearning programs
Of all of these methods, the most profitable approach is to publish eLearning programs.
In terms of profitability, the other methods to demonstrate your authority listed above have these issues:
- Webinars, podcasts, media appearances, articles, flip books: offered for free to build awareness
- Books: low price so difficult to make much money without the book being a national bestseller (for this reason, the primary goal of book publishing is credibility rather than generating profits)
- Public speaking and live training: can be profitable but you’re effectively being paid for your time and the opportunities are constrained — so these methods are not scalable.
In contrast, eLearning programs can be sold for a high price and are infinitely scalable. You can earn money while you sleep.
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
— Warren Buffet, investor, $84 billion net worth (1930 to present)
In addition, the availability of eLearning programs is disrupting the world’s historical classroom learning model.
There is no longer an educational institution in the United States that doesn’t have some part of its curriculum available in an online form, with some schools using a 100% eLearning model. Organizations have cut way back on their classroom training and now offer that same training via online courses. Progressive information marketers (e.g., book authors, speakers, training companies) are now able to scale their organization by offering eLearning programs.
Challenge
If publishing eLearning programs is the most profitable method of demonstrating expertise, why aren’t more people using this method?
The reason is that the traditional approach to producing an eLearning program is prohibitively expensive both in time commitment and price.
Here are the steps that most eLearning production houses say are required to create a basic eLearning program: needs assessment, instructional design, graphics and animation design, narration script development, quiz development, and course construction
An often-used rule-of-thumb price for such an eLearning program is $500 per finished minute or about 200 hours of work per finished course hour. However, that doesn’t include content development or video production.
You don’t need to be a mathematician to conclude that the normal pricing for production of an eLearning program is completely out of reach for most organizations.
Goodlook Marketing’s eLearning Programs
The eLearning program production costs described above is why Goodlook Marketing developed its iterative and PDQ (pretty darn quick) approach to eLearning program development based on the “agile” versus “waterfall” method of product development.
This approach involved the following steps:
- Install our proprietary learning management system (LMS) on a unique domain (e.g., based on company name — nametraining.com)
- Build out an internal infrastructure for the eLearning program within the LMS
- Have the organization’s best trainers do a mock training session where the course is recorded (using a lapel microphone connected to a smartphone or tablet computer)
- Transcribe the audio recording and edit the transcription into final written text
- Add this written text content to separate “Units” within the preliminary site infrastructure
- Obtain user feedback (e.g., does the course structure work? is the written content understandable? is the written content length about right?) and then refine the course structure and written text based on this input.
- Develop graphics elements for written content pages
- Record a voice-over of each of the text Units and edit these recordings to produce high-quality audio files.
- Upload these files to GLM’s proprietary private online hosting system and install a digital player on each Unit that will autoplay the audio.
- Obtain user feedback (e.g., input on audio, graphics, course flow) and make whatever enhancements that are identified.
At this point, a useable eLearning program is available with the core content presented via text, audio, and graphics — so students can be given access to the program and feedback can be collected.
The next step is to decide what additional elements are needed to make the eLearning program great, such as:
- Instructional videos of one or more of these six types: Explanation (talking head, animation, screen capture), Personal Story/Case History (talking head), Demonstration (talking head, animation, screen capture), Scenario (on location with actors), Learning Point (talking head explanation of scenario video), Promotional (e.g., welcome video by key individual with organization).
[Please see the description of Goodlook Marketing’s video production services to learn about our PDQ (pretty darn quick) approach to producing videos of these six types]
- Quizzes and/or Surveys
- Single Entry Fields (to drive engagement by requiring a written response to a question)
- Instructions for an assignment that should be completed before continuing
- Downloadable PDFs to print out and review (e.g., key points summary, checklists, etc.)
Then, using GLM’s PDQ (pretty darn quick) methods, these additional elements are produced. Given the nature of Goodlook Marketing’s LMS, the produced elements can be added to the previously-released eLearning program in a piecemeal fashion.
Once the eLearning program is completed, piloted, refined, and finalized, a decision can then be made for a going-forward plan, with these three options:
- Leave everything as it is because the eLearning program is well received and Goodlook Marketing’s LMS is working well for the organization’s needs
- Convert the eLearning program to a more-highly-produced version using a professional authoring tool (e.g., Captivate, Storyline, GoMo) — but keep hosting of the courses on Goodlook Marketing’s LMS.
- Convert the eLearning program to a more-highly-produced version using a professional authoring tool — and host the course on the organization’s LMS
Pricing
Because of Goodlook Marketing’s iterative and PDQ approach to eLearning program development, it is possible to produce a high-quality eLearning program at a fraction of the cost of the traditional approach.
Due to the wide variability of eLearning programs in length, features, and amount of video, we can only provide a price quote after an initial consultation.