So many people never move forward with creating there course because they think “I can’t create a course on the topic I wanted to because it already exists”.

If you fall into this category here’s some great news…THAT’S BS!

To be honest, I would be more concerned if there weren’t already profitable courses on your topic. This proves that there is indeed a market for it.  More often than not, when there is no one else selling a product or service in a certain niche or topic there’s a reason (like people aren’t willing to pay for it!).

Another plus side to competition is that success leaves clues! One of the best lessons I learned from Tony Robbins is that if you want to achieve success faster, model someone who’s already where you want to be.

So now that we have established that competition is a good thing, I’m going to show you how using a simple competitive analysis spreadsheet can help you accelerate success by modeling what works, generate a ton of content creation ideas, and differentiate yourself!

Download the spreadsheet here.

Step 1: Gather the data

To get started research the industry leaders that have similar product/service offerings and enter the following information in the first 6 columns.

• Column 1: Company/brand name
• Column 2:  Paste the url to their website
• Column 3: Find their lead magnet and enter a description.
• Column 4: Paste the url to their lead magnet
• Column 5: Paste the url to the sales page
• Column 6: If the price is listed enter it here.

Do this for as many competitors as you can find. Having all this data neatly compiled in one place is like a goldmine!

Step 2: Analyze the data

Now that you have collected this information take some time to review the competition and complete the last three columns.

Strengths– What do they do really well? Did you like about their course outline? Did they do an excellent job with copy? Did their offering seem really valuable? Basically your goal is to extract a few key reasons their program has been successful.

Weaknesses– Where did you feel they were lacking? If you’re having a hard time figuring this out on your own ask others who have taken their course. Trust me, what you learn in a few minutes from these short conversations is priceless!

What differentiates you? – This one is important because it’s what sets you apart from all the others. For example, I offer a course called Online Courses Academy that teaches you how to create premium flagship programs and courses. While there are a TON of other courses on how to create a course, there are still many ways they differentiate such as focusing more on how to write your course, how to come up with an winning idea for a course, how to create a course to sell on Udemy, and so on.

If your serious about creating leveraged income with an online course this research will be invaluable! This one spreadsheet will give you a plethora of ideas for content, copy, lead magnets, pricing strategy and most importantly, it will help you determine what sets you apart!