You’ve heard that you can make money from your knowledge by developing online content. Perhaps what’s even better is the idea that you can generate a passive income from such content. While this is all true, you need to be sure that you're creating content that people want.

Do you really want to put all of the time and effort into creating a catalogue of content that no one is ever going to subscribe to? Of course not, why would you?! Before you even start to put your content together, you need to explore your idea and establish that a demand exists. You need to have a vision of who your ideal member is going to be and exactly where you will find them.

So, how do you turn your knowledge into revenue? How do you know that your content is going to appeal? How do you go about locating your potential learners? If this has left you scratching your head, the good news is that we’re here to help.

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How to establish who needs you

You have the idea and you’re looking at providing the best social learning experience possible, but how do you know that anyone is even interested in what your content is going to cover? Fortunately, the team at WONDR are on hand to help:

Identifying a gap in the market

If you find that your topic area is hugely popular you may be left feeling a little concerned. Does it mean that this is an idea that’s been done to death and does that mean that you need to go back to the drawing board? In short, the answer to both of the questions is no.

But don’t get complacent - think about where the gaps are.

When you’re looking to make money from your content, it’s generally good news if the area you’re focusing on is popular. Coming up with a completely unique idea is unlikely and, even if you do, there’s a good chance that there just won’t be any demand for it.

Instead, you need to take a look at how you can make your content stand out from what already exists. How can you approach the subject differently? What information are existing content providers missing? How do learners want to digest this content?

You can find answers to these sorts of questions by spending some time exploring the member information WONDR provides through in platform chat, Google Analytics, Quora, and Reddit. People here are quite vocal and it’s easy to get a feel for what they have experienced from a course so far.

If you want to learn more, post your own questions to the Wondr platform, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram Q&A, Facebook, or your newsletters.

Who are you selling to?

You now know that you have a sound idea for your content, but how do you identify the types of people who are going to be willing to part with their money for it? You can do this by following four simple steps:

1) Identify goals

What does your ideal learner want to achieve? Are they looking for professional development? Are they hoping to master an entirely new skill? Let’s say that you’re looking to teach sustainability, for example, what goals would your ideal learner have that your content would allow them to achieve?

2) What are their sources of information?

The basics of selling are down to showing the right product to the right person at the right time. So, where are the people who’ll want to sign-up for your membership to unlock your content? What publications do they read? Which social platforms are they active on? How do you get your message in front of them?

3) Demographic information