Several months ago while I was anxiously awaiting the first class Brad Kleinman held here on eduFire, I shared with several online friends my observation that we may have been witnessing the emergence of one of eduFire’s first teachers with genuine star power.

Now before I continue any further let me clarify what I mean by the term ‘star power’. 

I realize that eduFire is blessed with hundreds of teachers who are excellent not only at teaching their students, but also at motivating them as well.  I myself have been lucky enough to establish mentoring relationships with some wonderful teachers here on eduFire who meet such a high standard of excellence.  However, what I am referring to when I use the term ‘star power’ is much more than just a high level of excellence as a teacher.  I use this term to describe people who already possess such amazing popularity they have the ability to attract a large number of new students to an educational website simply by choosing to teach an online class.  Brad Kleinman possesses such a high level of popularity and clout. This was proven by the wonderful sea of blue that quickly flooded his class information page following the announcement of his first class here on eduFire.

Now in case you are wondering what the phrase “wonderful sea of blue” refers to, take a look at the class page for Sean Ellis’ upcoming class on eduFire.  Sean is just one of fifteen new instructors who introduced their new classes on eduFire’s own version of ‘Super Tuesday’.  These classes helped define eduFire’s introduction of its exciting new Business Channel as nothing less than a spectacular success. 

As you take a look at Sean’s class page try not to get to hung up on the fact that in just a little more than 24 hours he managed to get 86 people sign up for his very first class on eduFire!  In the nearly 5 months I have been involved with eduFire, I have never seen a class fill up as quickly as Sean’s “Startup Customer Development” class has.  But in my opinion, this amazing feat is eclipsed by the fact that 63 of those 86 people who have registered for his class have never taken the time to post a profile picture or even write a brief introduction of themselves on their eduFire student or tutor profile page. 

Why is this important?

If you have been a devoted reader of the eduFire forums, you may be one who tends to believe that those who fail to post a picture or an introduction to their profile aren’t very serious about online learning.  In fact, conventional wisdom holds that come October 19th, Mr. Ellis will have a terribly disappointing class session as most of those who registered will fail to even show up. 

But don’t worry about writing that sympathy note to Mr. Ellis just yet.  Chances are, unless there is a massive power failure near the location he gives his class from, we may well see a 100% attendance rate for his popular class.

 What we are all witnessing here is the emergence of not just one eduFire teacher with genuine star power, but fifteen of them all on the same day.  This is why I referred to the introduction of eduFire’s new Business Channel as its own version of ‘Super Tuesday”.

You see, Sean Ellis is not alone in his ability to attract new students to eduFire.  Avinash Kaushik, the best-selling author of the books, "Web Analytics 2.0" and "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day", also announced his new class to be held on eduFire on Tuesday.  Again, in just a little more than 24 hours Mr. Kaushik’s class, “Making a Career out of Web Analytics”, has managed to gain 53 students!  Out of those 53 students, 32 of them have yet to fill in any profile information.  I could keep going down the list of all 15 of the wonderful new instructors who have helped launch eduFire’s new Business Channel.  However, I believe I have made my point already.

These new teachers are bringing fresh new faces into the eduFire community at an amazingly fast pace.  Those who follow the work of Mr. Ellis, Mr. Kaushik and the others realize just how special their classes will be.  The benefit that comes from spending just one hour with these teachers is what these new blue faces are seeking as they sign up for eduFire.  The reason they have yet to fill in their student profile isn’t because they aren’t serious about online education; they haven’t done so because they haven’t had the time to do so.  These new blue faces realize that if they waited just another day, chances are they would miss out on the opportunity to attend these classes.  That’s the true testament to the immense popularity of all these new teachers.

Now if you are like me, a mere mortal working to find your place in the emerging online educational industry, you may be getting a little bit concerned about how you will compete with these superstars.  So let me give you a little advice in how I believe to be the best way to handle this urgent situation. 

Sit back, relax, and get to work on preparing the best classes possible! 

Realize that as an eduFire tutor you will not have to worry about competing against the popularity of someone such as Sean Ellis because you will be too busy benefiting from his popularity!  You see, as these superstar teachers with true star power attract more and more visitors to eduFire, all of us who conduct classes here have the opportunity to benefit.  These new blue faces are potential new students that all of us have an opportunity to impress with our exciting new classes.  We just have to put in some extra time and effort to make these classes more noticeable and appealing.

How do we as tutors do this?

First, follow the guidelines that eduFire has set for getting your class featured on eduFire.  There is a link to these guidelines in the upper right corner of the “Create a New Class” page on eduFire.  Do yourself a favor and print out a copy of these guidelines.  Keep the copy in a prominent place and refer to it as you plan your classes and write your class descriptions.

Second, take the time to develop the skills to create amazing class logos and titles that will help your classes stand out.  Realize that most new students will only have an opportunity to learn about your exciting new classes as they scroll down the long list of classes on the eduFire Upcoming Classes page.  Does your class stand out from all the other great classes here on eduFire?  If you are not sure, take the time to learn how to make them do so.  On Saturday, November 7th I will be teaching a class on how to create awesome class icons and banners that will help your classes get noticed by your potential students.  This class, "Creating Custom Class Logo and Banners Using Adobe Photoshop", is absolutely free to attend.  I will be going through the process of creating these logos using Adobe Photoshop.  However, even if you do not have access to a copy of Adobe Photoshop, I still recommend you sign up for this course because I will also be addressing how you can go about using these images in your overall marketing strategy for your online tutoring business.

The third and most important skill you need to develop is the ability to write amazing class descriptions.  The class description page is more than just a tool to let your potential new students know what your class will be covering.  It is perhaps the most important tool you have as a tutor to sell your amazing class to potential new students. 

Is your class description page attractive?  Does it answer the basic questions that most people will have about your class?  More importantly, does your class description page illustrate how students will benefit from taking your class?

Try to spend a little extra time getting your class description page as near as perfect as possible.  Just as your class icon and title must serve as invitation to potential new students to click the link to your class description page, your class description page must compel them to sign up for your class.  The extra time spent learning this skill will benefit you in ways you have yet to realize.

What all these great new teachers with genuine star power bring to eduFire is the opportunity for all of us to get noticed by potential new students who are eager to learn.  Better yet, they already realize the potential the internet has to help them to do so.  The only question each of us working to establish ourselves on eduFire must ask ourselves is how hard we are willing to work to take advantage of the amazing opportunities these Super Stars will give us.