By Rachel Puryear

While you’ve surfed the web over the years, you’ve certainly seen plentiful ads for a diverse array of online courses. One can learn about almost anything on the web nowadays, with lots of offerings to choose from.

Maybe you’ve taken some online courses. Maybe you’ve even considered creating your own online course – and generating passive income from that that you can earn from anywhere in the world.

What a way to live the Free Range Life! 🙂

At the same time, perhaps doubts have held you back from creating courses. The market is too saturated, you think. How can mine be profitable competing with dozens of others on the same topic? you might wonder.

However, the existence of lots of other courses doesn’t mean that there isn’t still plenty of room on the market for yours – or that you can’t make decent money doing it.

With that in mind; here’s a great way you can stand out, no matter how many other online courses already exist:

Look at What Exists, and Niche Down

There’s riches in niches.

And that goes for courses, too.

There are lots and lots of topics out there. And that means there are exponential potential niches.

Subjects you are interested in and could teach are likely already covered by some existing courses. But that doesn’t mean all the niches within them are!

So, for subjects you might want to teach, start by looking at what courses are already available.

Then, think about what niches within them you could cover, that aren’t yet covered so much. These are the places you can stand out.

For instance: Let’s say you’re interested in cooking, and would like to create an online course teaching people how to cook. You know, of course, that there are lots of online cooking courses, and you want to stand out amongst them.

You could narrow it down to deeper levels. Cooking courses by cuisines and regions, by type of dish (i.e., dessert, meats, breakfast), by dietary considerations (i.e., vegan, keto), situational cooking (i.e., cooking for kids, grilling at a barbecue, instant pot recipes).

Of course, quite a few subcategories are also already well covered. So, you dig deeper. You can also mix and match across categories.

Remember, the subject of cooking is always in strong demand, as people always need to eat. That means there’s room for all kinds of subjects, and niches within niches within niches!

For example; a course in cooking vegan breakfasts for your kids using an instant pot; or making gorgeous Italian desserts using sugar substitutes will stand out a lot more than the much broader categories.

Busy parents will love the sound of effortless and nutritious morning meals, and who doesn’t love the perfect dessert without all the sugar for a romantic dinner?

And, you can do the same kind of narrowing down with any broad category, in the same way you see here. That’s limited only by your imagination.

Work Your Network

All else being equal; would you rather take a course from someone you already know and like, or from an unknown?

For better or for worse, people generally would choose someone already familiar to them over someone they don’t know anything about.

You have people in your personal, family friends, professional, and community networks who know you. They would likely prefer a course from you over someone they don’t know, for subjects they’re looking to learn more about.

Therefore, there are people out there, in your own established network, who you will have an advantage with over almost anyone else giving a course on that same subject. Reach out to them, and tell them about your course idea, and see how they react.

Your friends and family will likely take your course first, and hopefully also give you great reviews to help launch you further. Or, at the very least, they can give you the feedback you need to develop an excellent course.

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There’s no need to hold back on developing your online course. There’s plenty of room for your course on the market. And, there are people out there who’d love to learn what you have to teach them.

Want to get started on your online course, but not sure where to begin?

Here are some great resources to help you get started – for next to nothing!

Check out The Ultimate Online Course Creation Guide by Frank Vale, a highly successful online course creator on Udemy, for how to launch your course and make it successful.

See also Course Design Formula: How to Teach Anything to Anyone Online by Rebecca Frost Cuevas, for an in-depth guide to the teaching and course-building process.

Also, if you’re serious about doing a course, you’ll need a good microphone – your students will have a much better experience with good, clear audio. Check out Logitech’s headset with noise cancelling headphones, for under $30.

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Thank you, dear readers, for reading, following, and sharing. Here’s to finding our unique niches.

Got a question you want answered through this blog? Submit your question to me here – and if you don’t already, please request to subscribe to the Free Range Life newsletter while you’re there!

Check out my other blog, too – World Class Hugs, at https://worldclasshugs.com. It’s about better understanding relationships, empathic perspectives, and traveling and nature photos.

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