Seven Fatal Mistakes With Adding E-Learning To Your Business

Many speakers and trainers want to deliver their material on-line, but don't know how to do it effectively. Let's look at some of the most common mistakes I've seen speakers, trainers and other infopreneurs make when they start thinking about e-learning.

Mistake #1. Trying to sell to strangers.

If you're a successful speaker or trainer, it's tempting to think it will be easy to translate that success into on-line success. After all, your face-to-face audiences love you, so why shouldn't you expect a flood of sales on your Web site? Well, it's just not that easy. Your audiences know you, like you and trust you. Internet users don't.

Mistake #2. Casting your net too wide.

As a rule, the more narrowly you define your market, the more valuable your e-learning programs will be. Unfortunately, it's tempting to do the exact opposite, and create something that "everybody needs". The trouble is, when it's aimed at everybody, it's valuable to nobody. So aim for a niche market, and make that niche as small as possible.

Mistake #3. Not doing enough.

A few years ago, just having an e-learning program was a significant selling point. In those days, you could get away with just sending an on-line course by e-mail with just plain text. Now, clients and participants expect much more. A single e-course, webinar or e-book doesn't give you "an e-learning program". You need more - much more.

Mistake #4. Too much sizzle, not enough steak.

People take part in e-learning programs to learn. Sounds obvious, right? But this isn't always the case in face-to-face presentations - e.g. a keynote might be just to entertain, inspire or energise. This isn't true for e-learning programs. You can't get by with just pretty pictures and low-value content.

Mistake #5. Not taking it seriously enough.

It's difficult to create an effective e-learning program on weekends, tea breaks and while waiting for taxis. You really do need to plan it out carefully. One of my clients even took three full months away from his business to develop his e-learning programs. This move paid dividends, though - it's clearly the best in his target market.

Mistake #6. Not having a clear strategy.

This follows from the previous point. It's not enough to just spend time on it; it's also about planning it appropriately. And the strategy that works for your face-to-face presentations doesn't necessarily work for e-learning.

Mistake #7. Not doing it!

Finally, the biggest mistake I've seen is that most speakers and trainers don't have any e-learning programs at all. This is a serious mistake.

There was a time not so long ago that it didn't matter, but that's no longer the case. Modern clients, audiences and Internet users expect you to include technology - including e-learning - in your delivery. Just as they expect you to use leading-edge presentation technology, they expect you to use leading-edge e-learning tools as well.


So are you making any of these mistakes? Use this as a checklist to assess your readiness for e-learning.

Are you keeping up your "match fitness"?

One of my clients has been on a self-imposed writing sabbatical. She recently got back into giving a presentation, and confessed that she was lacking "match fitness". In other words, despite being an experienced presenter, the lack of practice surprised her, and she wasn't as fluent as elegant as usual.

Are you in the same boat? If you're not presenting regularly - by choice or otherwise - what are you doing to keep up your match fitness? Here are some ways to ensure you keep in practice, while delivering value as well:

• Phone a regular client and offer to do a complimentary presentation for them.
• Phone a long-list client and offer the same.
• Create a presentation topic different from your main topic (so you don't harm that topic), and offer a community presentation free of charge.
• Run a public webinar - which you can do at any time, at no cost.
• Run a public seminar and invite a group of friends who would benefit from your message.

Whatever you do, stay match fit - and keep spreading your message.

Where do you draw the line between free and paid services?

Somebody recently asked this question on LinkedIn (edited version here):

"I'm putting together some brand new packages and would love some advice from the group. I currently give away a 10-page e-zine (10 editions per year), a weekly motivational email and offer a free trial coaching session. I have developed a new online survey, which I would like to offer for free, with the analysed results and other goodies being available in a package for purchase.

Where do others draw the line between offering good-quality free services to entice new clients - and giving away too much?"

I suggest you work backwards. Rather than asking how much to give away free, start by looking at your paid services and figure out a marketing and sales strategy for them.

For example, you might decide that a free trial coaching session is the best way to get coaching clients. Fair enough, but it's not the only option. A really good testimonial from a happy client might also work. Or a direct referral from a happy client. Or an endorsement from your mentor to their network. Or an introductory seminar or webinar. Or a great book you've written. Or the diagnostic tool you're planning. Or a special report that's been passed around virally. Or a YouTube video.

Some of these might be free; others might be for a fee. But don't judge their effectiveness on the price alone.

For example, I run regular webinars. Members of my (paid) membership site get the webinars free; and I'll sometimes open them up to non-members as well, but usually for a fee. Some of those non-members are attending the webinar to get a taste of my expertise before becoming a member or buying consulting services. They are happy to pay the one-off webinar fee before making a bigger commitment.

Internet marketing is not just a numbers game!

I was speaking with somebody recently about their Internet marketing, and he said something like, "But I don't want to get 10,000 visitors a month to our site. We just want a few clients every month, and we'll be happy".

Exactly! He was rejecting Internet marketing ideas because he thought they were all about numbers. But they're not - especially now. It's all about getting the right sort of people to visit your Web site. Who cares if you only get, say, 10 site visitors a week, provided they're the right visitors to do business with you!

This is why it's so important to be marketing in places other than Google. Google will get you the numbers, but it won't directly get you the site visitor who saw you mentioned in somebody else's newsletter. Or who heard you interviewed on somebody else's podcast. Or is a friend of a friend on Facebook. Or who had your tweet re-tweeted to them by somebody in their network. Or - best of all - who got an e-mail from a friend who recommended you.

Set Goals That Are Enjoyable

Most goal-setting programs are hard. The system might sound easy, but achieving the goals is difficult. It usually takes discipline, willpower, a strong mindset, hard work, sacrifice and struggle.

No wonder most people fail at their goals or New Year's Resolutions!

I've got a different approach to goal setting: This year, choose, plan and achieve goals that bring you joy, ease and happiness - not only when you achieve them, but along the way as well.

Now I know this flies in the face of many (most?) goal-setting programs! So be warned that what I'm going to share here might be controversial, confronting or conflicting with other advice you've seen. But hey - if you do embrace my advice, you will enjoy the next twelve months. So what have you got to lose?

We spend way too much time in our life doing things we don't want, that we're not good at, with people we don't like, and without getting any reward. Why not do something different this year?

Heck, there'll be plenty of times when life isn't perfect. Sure, you might get stuck in traffic, fight with your partner, struggle getting the kids to sleep, do work that you don't want to do just because it's in your job description, or force yourself to be more disciplined at work. But those things are going to happen anyway. Why would you deliberately schedule more of those things in your goal setting as well?

Using other people's material (with permission)

When you're scouring the Internet for material, you'll find different phrases describing how you're allowed to use that material. Here's a list of the most common:

• Public domain: The material is freely available for you to use in any way you like – including changing it and selling it.

• Free: As it says, you don't have to pay! Unlike public domain material, though, you don't automatically have permission to change it. And the copyright owner might add other restrictions (e.g. Some free e-books can only be given away, while others can only be included in paid product bundles).

  Be sure the owner does have the right to offer it free, though. I've come across some Web sites that offer, say, a collection of clip art with the notice that they “believe these are free for you to use”. That's not good enough, and could get you in legal hot water in the future!

• Royalty free: This means you only pay once for buying the licence, but don't pay each time you use it (unlike, say, a radio station that pays a royalty every time they play an artist's song). All the material we're covering in this program is royalty free.

• Reprint licence: This is just the name given to the copyright owner's wording that spells out your rights in using the material. Generally, if you've “got a reprint licence” for something, it means you've got the right to pass it on freely – but possibly under certain conditions.

  For example, if I find an e-book that I think my clients will find useful as well, I'm happy to pay money to buy it, as long as it has a reprint licence, which gives me permission to pass it on to my clients. Without that licence, I only have permission to recommend it to them, and they then have to buy it themselves.

• Resale licence: This usually means you don't have the right to copy the product, but you can re-sell it on the owner's behalf, and keep a share of the sale income. This can create a useful income stream, but it's not relevant for this program, so we won't go into this in any more detail.

• Private label rights: This usually means you have the right to take the content and re-publish it under your own brand. This most often applies to some e-books, where the author gives you the original Microsoft Word document, so you can edit it in any way you like.

• Master reprint licence: This means you've not only got permission to pass on the material, you've also got permission to pass on the licence.

  For example, if you're involved in network marketing, you might want a master reprint licence to an e-book, so you can not only pass it on to your downline, but they can pass it on to their downline in turn.

These various terms might have your head spinning. But in practice, it's just a matter of carefully reading the copyright owner's wording.

Give more to get more

What you teach is no longer valuable purely because it's rare or unique. Somebody else somewhere else is teaching the same thing, for a lower fee and possibly even doing it better than you.

You're not going to win by hoarding, protecting or tightly holding on to your intellectual property. In the next 12 months, give away more than you've ever given away before. Make money from the experiences you provide - experiences that can't be duplicated or found on Google.