To validate your online course idea, we'll follow Jeff Cobb's framework of searching, listening, asking, and testing. Let's start with searching. Searching is the easiest and fastest way to validate your course topic. All you do is search the Internet to see what other people are looking for, clicking on, and engaging with.

::wait - this feels easy - almost too easy::

A few searching tools are:

• BuzzSumo, a tool for seeing what online content is attracting the most attention. It's particularly useful for seeing what is being shared on social media.
• Another tool is the Amazon Kindle Store, which is actually a search engine filled with ebooks and other information products. You can search for successful ebooks on your topic.

But I recommend you find your answer in the most obvious place you can search: Google. For starters, you want to see if there are other courses like yours out there. Imagine that you were a student of your online course—what would you type in the Google search bar?

Keep in mind that you might not necessarily search for, "I need an online course on 'X.'" Come up with a list of a few short phrases that prospective students might use if they were searching for information on your topic.

For example, maybe I want to create a course on how to follow a vegan diet for 30 days. Potential students might search for "Vegan diet". Or "How to eat vegan," "Vegan meal plan," "Free vegan meal plan," "Veganism," "Vegan month," "Vegan meal plan one month," just to give you an idea.

Okay, back to Google. Take those phrases you came up with and type them into the search bar. Now check to see:

• Are the results that come up on the first page related to your online course topic? How closely are they related?
• Are there videos popping up on page 1 of the search results? This is a good way to see if there's a course out there, since many courses these days are delivered via video.
• Are there any ads on the page? If you see an ad on your course topic, that's a good sign. It means there are people who are willing to spend money on an ad trying to reach your audience. It's a good indicator that there's a substantial or active audience there.
• Are there any actual courses out there on your topic? Add words like course, lesson, workshop, learn to "blank," to your search terms and see what comes up. If you see other courses on your topic, that's a really good sign.

Since you're still at the beginning stages here, don't be afraid to try out different niches and sub-topics to get a sense of a good area to focus. For example, I might modify my vegan meal plan search and look at vegan cooking techniques for beginners.

Take notes on everything you find, and remember: if you discover competition out there, it's not a bad thing. Usually that means there is an audience there, and probably an opportunity for you to reach that audience in a unique way.