If you’ve been daydreaming about creating an online course, let’s talk about what could happen if you made that dream real.

Well-designed online courses help people get results that impact their lives for the better.

As Pam Slim has said: “That is what our work is about: it’s about the impact of your gifts on people that you care about that’s solving problems you want solved in the world.”

It’s a powerful mission, that could give you 3 massive levels to improve your business and your impact:

1. You could grow a close-knit tribe.

Your course participants can be far more engaged than blog readers or email subscribers.

They can become the initial leaders of a passionate tribe that supports your work.

Sonia Simone, co-founder of Copyblogger, said in an interview: “If you let people know you care about them, they will have loyalty to you and that loyalty will help them get moving.”

The key to nurturing a strong tribe is to have clear values and a strong point-of-view. Sonia Simone noted in her own courses that “people sign up because they resonate with your values — your point of view — and that gives everyone something in common and makes everything go more smoothly.”

Your tribe will grow stronger as participants connect, help each other, and learn.

Here’s an example. “It’s not been an uncommon phenomenon for people to come out of our courses and start a mastermind group or continue to have significant contact with some of their buddies from the courses one, two, three years later,” said Mark Silver, from Heart of Business, has said. “Building those relationships, and really being able to trust and get support from your peers, are some of the most important parts of the learning experience.”

Start growing a close-knit tribe by creating your own online program to engage and connect.

2. You could make more money by serving more people.

The fastest way to get started with almost any small business is offering services: consulting, coaching, writing, design… whatever professional services your market or niche values.

You’re probably already doing that 🙂

So what’s next?

This is where courses come in.

You can create an online program that can help more people, in a more affordable way, than a service package.

A great way to get started is to “pre-sell” your course, before you have even created it.

Get some revenue upfront, so you are “paying yourself” to build the whole program.

Learn more about this powerful approach here: Roadmap to $5K in Course Revenue.

3. You could inspire your community to action.

We’ve entered a time in which information is abundant… and in many cases, it’s free.

But while it’s easier than ever to access raw information, it’s harder than ever to find inspiration and take action.

And that’s your opportunity!

According to Pam Slim, author of Body of Work and Escape from Cubicle Nation, you should focus on helping your participants take action, and get results.

She says: “[Results are] always, always a stronger foundation for your company —rather than focusing all this time and energy on getting the perfect brand, or the perfect tagline, or the right people to be re-tweeting your stuff on Twitter.”

People love to feel inspired, and they love to have a sense of accomplishment — of making progress.

If you help someone solve a problem, and get that addictive sense of progress, they are likely to share their experience with their friends.

They’ll sing your praises on Facebook, leave glowing testimonials, and talk you up through good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.

“People become raving fans if they use the whole thing and complete it,” said Scott Stratten of Un-marketing.com. “Don’t be afraid of the conversation [in social media]. People are going to ask, ‘what are you talking about? What is UnBootcamp?’ and then [other] people can go check it out.”

Inspire people to action with your course, and watch your community and your impact grow like never before.

Example: from books and YouTube to online courses

Steve Schwartz provides a great example of how this can play out in practice.

Steve helps students master the LSAT exam, so they can get into a law school they love.

He started his business by writing several books about LSAT preparation.

Then he created dozens of free YouTube videos that his audience enjoyed.

He began to think about what type of content to create next for his audience, and soon realized that creating an online video course was the next step.

Within 12 months, he created his first two courses on ruzuku and began selling them on his blog and email list.

He connected directly with his audience.

Helped his community achieve their dreams of getting into great law schools.

And added thousands of dollars in revenue to his business.

Do you see how this progression can work for you and your business?

You can start right now. Watch our free training video at RoadmapTo5K.com, and learn the 3 steps to define your course — so you can inspire your community to action.