Thanks for sharing this information! It's important that potential customers understand the reality of these courses. They make it sound easy and gloss over the actual time + work + investment involved!
They absolutely gloss over the grit. Bur more importantly they don't always disclose what's exactly needed (more courses, tools, etc.) to be successful.
This is an absolutely fantastic article, Patti! Thanks for honestly sharing your experience. It is very valuable.
You hit the nail on the head when you said, "The course creators are the real winners". I see the same thing on Twitter and on every platform. There are people who make a living by telling you how to succeed on the platform.
I'm not saying that some of the courses don't have value. They do. But what they don't tell the buyers is the amount of work that they will have to put in to have the same type of success they are talking about and how long it will truly take a person who is starting from scratch. Plus, a lot of these course creators are email marketers, or they hire one. They know what to say to make you believe that what they are selling is the best thing since 'slice bread' as they tap into people's personal fears.
I applaud your efforts and your grit Patti! I wish you all the best as you find viable income streams.
Thank you, Jacquline. There are wonderful courses and online creators who share valuable information and ways to be successful. The problem is it's nearly impossible to discern the good from the bad, bordering on terrible.
Email marketers are the true geniuses in the online world. The come before the course creators. Interestedly enough they prey on those who need it the most. If it were truly a valuable offering they wouldn't force immediate reaction, having to sign up... FOMO... 'fear of missing out.'
I fell for it more often in the past while diving into cryptocurrencies. Somehow, I managed to find truly reputable people, and managed to get a brief glimpse of what a truly great offering looked like, but alas, the courses were far out of my financial reach. It was interesting that they weren't afraid to give month's trial away for me to experience it and then sign up after the time was up. I'm grateful I was able to participate in the short amounts of time I did to experience what could be the road to success.
I was rather naive when it came to taking these classes that you must have a degree of skill before entering the deep waters of creating and selling.
And finally. Course creators come in all shapes and sizes, in addition to skill levels and offerings. My favorite that I came across was a piano teacher who didn't play the piano. It took some digging to find more information out about the man, but I was truly astounded he was passing himself off and making a great living at it. Online presence isn't always transparent.
I really appreciate your honesty, openness, and vulnerability in sharing your side hustle experiments. I have gone through several ideas myself. They start as these perfect little shiny objects, but once you start working on them, you realize they’re not perfect, just like anything else. But I’ve also realized that I’ll never know whether or not something is the right fit until I actually just start doing the work. I tried my hand at the digital products a while back, and did see how much learning actually goes figuring out solid graphic design techniques and concepts. I’m excited to see what you experiment with next. A tip on courses: I tend to only take free mini courses to get a basic feel for what all I need to work on and then go find the answers on the internet. YouTube is an amazing resource for this too. For every person trying to sell a piece of knowledge, there’s half a dozen other people out there giving that same info away for free while trying to sell a different piece of info. I also look for affordable memberships that are loaded with a whole library of the type of info I’m looking for. That way I don’t have to drop a ton of money on a course that may or may not help.
Rebekah, you are spot on. Since this debacle I (accidentally) came across a digital creator who shares videos showing exactly what it takes to make a sellable product. She drills down into creating, SEO, and where to market and sell it. She also shares trial-basis plans on platforms - giving a month for free - which is plenty of time to understand the basic nuts and bolts to get an idea if you care to move forward. The library is the sole reason I signed up for the FB group inside GVC. The library is extremely valuable. But it is expensive. It is free after you make your first 100 sales (on Etsy). It's been a learning experience for sure. I've taken so many online classes I probably should have gone back to college and earned a degree... but (online) shiny object syndrome still catches my eye... I'm just hoping I find what works best for me... and I'm able to share with others to earn their way into passive income and freedom, whatever that looks like. Thank you for responding, great tips, and I appreciate you taking time to read.
Thanks for sharing this information! It's important that potential customers understand the reality of these courses. They make it sound easy and gloss over the actual time + work + investment involved!
They absolutely gloss over the grit. Bur more importantly they don't always disclose what's exactly needed (more courses, tools, etc.) to be successful.
This is an absolutely fantastic article, Patti! Thanks for honestly sharing your experience. It is very valuable.
You hit the nail on the head when you said, "The course creators are the real winners". I see the same thing on Twitter and on every platform. There are people who make a living by telling you how to succeed on the platform.
I'm not saying that some of the courses don't have value. They do. But what they don't tell the buyers is the amount of work that they will have to put in to have the same type of success they are talking about and how long it will truly take a person who is starting from scratch. Plus, a lot of these course creators are email marketers, or they hire one. They know what to say to make you believe that what they are selling is the best thing since 'slice bread' as they tap into people's personal fears.
I applaud your efforts and your grit Patti! I wish you all the best as you find viable income streams.
Thank you, Jacquline. There are wonderful courses and online creators who share valuable information and ways to be successful. The problem is it's nearly impossible to discern the good from the bad, bordering on terrible.
Email marketers are the true geniuses in the online world. The come before the course creators. Interestedly enough they prey on those who need it the most. If it were truly a valuable offering they wouldn't force immediate reaction, having to sign up... FOMO... 'fear of missing out.'
I fell for it more often in the past while diving into cryptocurrencies. Somehow, I managed to find truly reputable people, and managed to get a brief glimpse of what a truly great offering looked like, but alas, the courses were far out of my financial reach. It was interesting that they weren't afraid to give month's trial away for me to experience it and then sign up after the time was up. I'm grateful I was able to participate in the short amounts of time I did to experience what could be the road to success.
I was rather naive when it came to taking these classes that you must have a degree of skill before entering the deep waters of creating and selling.
And finally. Course creators come in all shapes and sizes, in addition to skill levels and offerings. My favorite that I came across was a piano teacher who didn't play the piano. It took some digging to find more information out about the man, but I was truly astounded he was passing himself off and making a great living at it. Online presence isn't always transparent.
Caveat emptor!
I really appreciate your honesty, openness, and vulnerability in sharing your side hustle experiments. I have gone through several ideas myself. They start as these perfect little shiny objects, but once you start working on them, you realize they’re not perfect, just like anything else. But I’ve also realized that I’ll never know whether or not something is the right fit until I actually just start doing the work. I tried my hand at the digital products a while back, and did see how much learning actually goes figuring out solid graphic design techniques and concepts. I’m excited to see what you experiment with next. A tip on courses: I tend to only take free mini courses to get a basic feel for what all I need to work on and then go find the answers on the internet. YouTube is an amazing resource for this too. For every person trying to sell a piece of knowledge, there’s half a dozen other people out there giving that same info away for free while trying to sell a different piece of info. I also look for affordable memberships that are loaded with a whole library of the type of info I’m looking for. That way I don’t have to drop a ton of money on a course that may or may not help.
Rebekah, you are spot on. Since this debacle I (accidentally) came across a digital creator who shares videos showing exactly what it takes to make a sellable product. She drills down into creating, SEO, and where to market and sell it. She also shares trial-basis plans on platforms - giving a month for free - which is plenty of time to understand the basic nuts and bolts to get an idea if you care to move forward. The library is the sole reason I signed up for the FB group inside GVC. The library is extremely valuable. But it is expensive. It is free after you make your first 100 sales (on Etsy). It's been a learning experience for sure. I've taken so many online classes I probably should have gone back to college and earned a degree... but (online) shiny object syndrome still catches my eye... I'm just hoping I find what works best for me... and I'm able to share with others to earn their way into passive income and freedom, whatever that looks like. Thank you for responding, great tips, and I appreciate you taking time to read.