There are two types of online courses.
Knowing on which side of the fence your course sits can help you better understand the environment you operate in and how its trajectory might look like.
The first type fits into a defined category.
Take David Perell's Write of Passage, for example. His course teaches people how to write online to accelerate their careers.
The audience knows where to place it as everyone is familiar with the concepts of blogging, email newsletters, and having a personal website.
Explaining the benefits to potential students is straightforward. That made it easier for David to scale the course fast.
However, there's a downside. Competitors offering similar results are emerging quickly, so there's a need for clear differentiation.
Now, to the second type of online course, which has to forge a category of its own before it can really take off.
Nothing like it exists yet.
Tiago Forte's Building a Second Brain comes to mind, that's focused on personal knowledge management.
This is a niche topic, and Tiago had to spend a lot of time, and content explaining why this is important and what it means to build and have a second brain. The benefits aren’t obvious.
In the short term, Tiago had to work harder, and his course only gained momentum slowly.
But by now, the course is firmly established and has become a monopoly in itself. Due to the unique nature, it's nearly impossible to copy, and competitors aren't a concern.
So, which type of online course are you starting?
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