As a creative, a coach, a blogger, a content creator, etc., online courses are a great way to gain extra revenue, develop trust with your followers, and share your helpful knowledge.

Digital learning is an extremely fast-growing market with TONS of potential for success for those who find the right niche. (In fact, e-learning surpassed $250 billion profit and is expected to grow over 21% by 2027.)

So how do you stand out among all the other online courses being offered? One way is to determine the best timing.

Before you begin building your course, it’s essential to determine the times of the year where enrollments will be the highest. Once you’ve determined that, you can start planning around the time it takes to build your online course. These “high-sale” dates may differ depending on your niche. For example, if you are marketing a course to teachers, sales might be higher in the summer or right before school starts.

These months are general suggestions based on typical consumer behaviors, though, so make sure to do your own research into your target audience to ensure you are launching at the best possible times.

The Best Time to Launch an Online Course

January

The start of a new year is symbolic of a fresh start, which is why SO many people invest in themselves at this time of year. In January, you will find that many people tend to spend their money on self-improvement and new hobbies. If you position your marketing efforts around bringing value into their lives, you have a good shot at getting a fair amount of signups. Even if your online course does not directly relate to self-improvement, you should always look to find ways to show how it can benefit your potential students.

September

In general, online course signups slow in the summer months because most people are on vacation or enjoying the good weather. As a result, they won’t concentrate on learning something new as they would in the slower months.

However, September signals a shift out of summer and back into a steady schedule. With everyone’s attention back onto work and school, this is typically a good time to start marketing and launching your online course.

November & December

Lastly are November and December. As we reach the end of the year, many people realize that they did not accomplish everything they intended to during the year. As a result, many will seek out online courses and other resources to start the new year off strong. In addition to this, consumers tend to spend more in these months because of the holiday season. Once they get on a spending kick, the ideology becomes more on what they invest in bringing into their lives that will provide value. Therefore, offering your online courses as a gift idea for themselves or others can put you in an excellent position to get many enrollments right off the bat.

When to Create Your Online Course

Once you decide on the month you want to launch your online course, you need to plan ahead to ensure it’s completed before your launch goal date. You’ll first need to determine how large of an online course you plan to offer. Something that is only a few videos long may take less than a week to put together. On the other hand, a very in-depth course can take a couple of months to complete.

Keep in mind that you will have to block out time to do the following:

Conduct initial research into course topics and online platforms
Create an outline for your course by breaking it down into sections
Develop all content for the online course
Get your course set up online through your chosen platform

Depending on the length of your course, and if you will have help or not, you will want to start creating well in advance of your targeted launch date. Make sure to give yourself enough wiggle room in case you run into any roadblocks along the way. Reaching out to others who have already gone through this process may make it a lot smoother.