Derek Sivers, the creator of CD Baby, writes in his book Anything You Want that your success is directly related to the amount of people that you help. I believe in this idea, and I feel that guiding your efforts with the aim to help first and foremost will result in a successful business. After all, what businesses really do is solve problems. There is a time and place to provide training and information for free. However, for the sake of your own sustainability and also the dedication of the student, you need to charge a fee for your tutelage. As [...]

When creating materials for online education, add what is necessary and nothing more. Bloated courses can become confusing and cumbersome. Long videos take a long time to watch and too much text is taxing. Padding things out to make them seem substantial doesn’t benefit anyone. Keep it simple. There is power is simplicity.

There are many attractive features to online teaching but there might be a few more gems that you don’t know yet. Your Audience Is Interested In You, Not Just Your Teaching Once you have built an audience you have a group of people that trust you and that have given you their attention. This is a privileged position. From this place you have the ability to serve your audience in a multitude of ways not just through education. It never ceases to amaze me when I see every artist lining up to go through the same door. Musicians want to be [...]

It is tempting at the outset of your online endeavor to try and make things “perfect”. Editing and re-editing every blemish, every hiccup, and every mistake. Perfection is crippling, and if you don’t deal with it quickly, then you might give up. This would be a tragedy because you have the ability to help people. I am a classical musician, and in our world the advent of recordings, more specifically edited recordings, has given rise to unrealistic expectations of perfection from performers. Much like the photoshopped images of men’s and women’s bodies in magazines that send ripples of doubt and unnecessary [...]