Live Vs. Self Led Online Courses - Here’s The Hybrid Option
Running your online course the deliciously freedom-friendly, anti-burnout way
So you’re struggling to find a happy medium between running your online course with a live cohort, and offering it as an always-available evergreen offer?
I hear ya! Both evergreen and live courses have their pros and cons, and I’ve definitely experienced both sides of the coin over the last few years - as a course creator and student.
If only you could take the best parts of both formats and make it into some kind of hybrid online course offer…
Well… you can!
I’m sharing my favourite way to run online courses. This is my anti-burnout, freedom-friendly course format.
I’ve seen the brilliant results students get from being part of a live cohort and experienced it myself as a student.
But I’ve also experienced how exhausting and draining live launches and courses can be too.
On the flip-side I've put my courses on evergreen in the past, and not felt 100% brilliant about the delivery, and discovered how un-passive ‘passive income’ really is.
So it's not like the evergreen option is without its flaws either.
Only last week was I chatting with a funnel build client about what a hybrid evergreen/live course look like for her and she’s now shifting her course model from live to the hybrid format I’m sharing in this post. Hurrah!
Beofre we dive in, lemmie tell ya, if you’re ready to turn your live course into a passive income stream - I’m excited for you. But before we get into the how, let’s talk about…
THE PROS & CONS OF SELF-LED VS. LIVE COURSES
PROs for the LIVE online course model
A deadline for decision making (which prompts action and gives a deadline for someone to decide whether they are, or aren’t going to buy your course)
An opportunity for students to create a community of like-minded folk while they work through the course together (I’ve made great business pals through courses and programmes and a live run offers the opportunity to create a great support system of like-minded souls)
The ability for students to ask questions and get clarity on anything that's not clear, or they're struggling with as they work through the course.
An opportunity for you to get live feedback on which parts of your course are working and which parts need some development.
A cash injection for your business around the launch and an opportunity to secure some of your income for the next few months if you offer monthly payment plans
That sense of having a project for a few months that comes to an end point, and then not having to think about it (until you run the course again).
CONs for the LIVE online course model
The launch – launches are often absolutely exhausting and they tend to come with a draining emotional rollercoaster.
The peaks and troughs in your income around live course runs
Having to show up in person every week, or even multiple times a week to run sessions and deliver modules - sure this is fun for a while but it can start to feel repetitive the third, fourth time you run your course AND it can get in the way of the freedom you set your business up to create
Running a community group (such as a slack group or Facebook group) alongside the course, which as lovely as these groups can be – if you’re an introvert like me – can be a real drain on your energy)
The potential for a really exhausting/ hustly period in your business.
After reading that you might be thinking – oh my goodness take me to the evergreen online course option immediately, but much like the live option, evergreen has it’s pros and cons too.
PROs of the SELF-LED online course format
Offering a solution to your audience that’s always available – no need to wait for doors opening
Creating a ‘passive' income stream - although the marketing of evergreen courses certainly isn't passive, the running of your course does become more passive as you don't need to be there to deliver the content - it's all pre-recorded and instantly available to your students.
Providing a course that your students can work through at their own pace - they can take their time, or they can binge it like it's Netflix.
Flexibility in your lifestyle and work - as your efforts are more directed to the marketing and selling of your course than the delivery. So you don't need to be available for live calls and training sessions and you can do the marketing bits, and keep the course updated around your lifestyle and other commitments.
A more introvert-friendly, sustainable way to market and sell your course - using an evergreen marketing strategy rather than live launches. This is no means ‘passive’ or ‘completely automated’ but evergreen marketing is alot more sustainable for me than launching.
If you’re looking for a flexible and freedom filled work/ life blend that seems like the sensible option, right? Let’s all go evergreen!
CONSs of the SELF-LED online course format
- Marketing and selling a self-led course is by no means ‘passive’. We’re all sold the 6-figures in your sleep from passive income dream pretty hard online. But the reality is, there's a lot more to it. It’s NOT build it and they will come, it’s have a solid evergreen marketing strategy and they will come. Without live launching to build ‘hype’ you will instead need a combination of:
- Consistent, strategic marketing for your course
- Plenty of organic traffic coming into your website and a strategic and intentional flow for that traffic to be ‘warmed up’ and then directed towards your course - yep, I’m talking about a sales funnel.
- And to reach the volume of sales you want to see for a self-led course, you might well need to experiment with running ads too, to ‘feed’ your funnels and deliver sales
As well as running your course on evergreen you might want to run the occasional mini-launch or promotional period for your course once or twice a year to dial up the volume on your course marketing
No sales deadline, meaning that people can sit on the fence forever about whether to buy your product or not
Your students MAY not see such transformational results from your self-led course as there isn’t the same sense of accountability or timeline that comes with a live course run. *Spoiler alert - there are ways to remedy this - hello hybrid format… – but it’s definitely one to be conscious of so you can be sure you’re putting tools in place to help your students get the transformation you and they want them to see - so you can continue to feel good about offering your course on evergreen.
You might feel disconnected from your students as you’re not getting to know and support them as they work through the course.
How about taking the best of both worlds and creating a hybrid self-led / live course cocktail?
If like me you LOVE working with your students, offering them some live support and helping them get as much from your course as they can, but you LOATHE the live launching element that can be so exhausting and emotionally draining - it makes sense to combine the benefits of a live and evergreen course into a hybrid solution and do away with the really exhausting and draining elements.
Here’s my favourite hybrid online course format…
It goes like this.
Your course content is always available on evergreen as a self-led course.
This means pre-recorded content, and having all of the resources and course content ready and available to use within your course platform.
This means students can join whenever they want.
BUT to support your students, help them get best results and create that element of connection and community with the people on your course, you over a live element.
This could be a community space like a facebook group or Slack community for the course OR/AND you could run a monthly live zoom session that works like a live Q&A where you can…
Celebrate your student’s wins
Answer their questions and help them if they feel stuck
Do on the spot coaching/ workshopping/ masterminding
Give your students a sense of community and an opportunity to learn from each other
Get live feedback on what’s working and not working in your course so you can constantly tweak and improve it
I’ve found that this approach gives me the best of both worlds. It’s that lovely mix of my favourite parts of self-led and live courses.
Options to adapt my freedom-friendly, anti-hustle online course format….
There are no rules here (no real ones anyway) so blend together what works for you and ditch what doesn’t to create your ideal self-led/ live course set up.
Some options for adapting the hybrid format further…
Launch and run your course live once or twice a year – anyone who’s bought your course in the last 6-months can join the live round if they want to re-do the course or want to take advantage of the accountability of the live run to help them complete it.
Run a launch for your evergreen course once or twice a year to create a buzz around it and create a cash injection.
The important thing with adapting the hybrid model is super clear communication around how the course works
Some important final caveats…
Run your course LIVE first
I ALWAYS recommend running your course live for at least the first round.
That way you can gather live feedback on what’s working and what’s not, so you can tweak the content and make your course more impactful as you learn.
Once you feel like your course is in a good place and it’s working - that’s the time to put it into hybrid-course mode. That’s not to say you stop learning, tweaking and improving your course - that’s a constant.
📣 Passive income ain’t passive
Without launching your course, you’re going to need a solid evergreen marketing strategy to keep those course sales dripping in.
That’s going to mean making sure you’ve got an intentional evergreen flow set up, you’ve got an automated marketing funnel working for you in the background (and perhaps ads running to keep feeding your sales funnel) AND you’re consistently selling it through your ongoing marketing as well.
The days of exhausting launches and live runs of your course every quarter are OVER!
I’m excited for you embrace this deliciously freedom-friendly, anti-burnout way to run your online course.
Wanna tuck this in your pocket for when you’re planning your next course? Pin it for later
