Use YouTube community posts to choose your next workshop topic

You have three workshop ideas on your list, but no clear reason to choose one. Instead of guessing, put the decision in front of your YouTube viewers. A short Community post with concrete choices can show you which problem people recognise, what language they use for it and where they feel stuck.

Start with problems, not broad subjects

“What workshop would you like?” creates work for the viewer. They have to invent a topic, describe it and decide whether you are the right person to teach it. Most will scroll past. A better post gives them a short list of problems they may already be trying to solve.

Turn each idea into a result someone could recognise. For example, a photographer might offer: “Plan a three-hour mini-session day”, “Choose which images to include in a client gallery” and “Write a follow-up email that gets a clear response”. These are narrower than “a photography business workshop”, so the answers tell you more.

1. 1List the recurring questions you have answered in recent videos, comments, emails or coaching calls.
2. 2Group similar questions into three or four practical problems.
3. 3Write each problem as an outcome that could be completed during a workshop.
4. 4Remove any option that requires a completely different audience, skill level or set of tools.
5. 5Keep the options similar in scope, so one does not win simply because it sounds easier.

Write a Community post people can answer quickly

The post needs enough context to make the choice meaningful, but not so much that the question disappears. Start by naming the situation you have noticed, then give the choices and explain what will happen next. That last part matters: people are more likely to answer when their response has a visible use.

Use comments to find the real workshop brief

The poll result tells you which label attracted the most interest. The comments can tell you why. Look for repeated words, stages and constraints: “I know what to say but cannot structure it”, “I have tried this twice” or “I need to do it without new software”. Those details should shape the workshop more than the option title alone.

• Copy the exact phrases that appear more than once.
• Separate the desired result from the obstacle preventing it.
• Note whether commenters are beginners, returning customers or experienced practitioners.
• Mark requests that are outside the workshop’s likely scope, such as personal feedback or technical troubleshooting.
• Reply with a clarifying question when two comments use the same word for different problems.

Turn the winning choice into a session plan

Do not build a workshop by collecting everything you know about the topic. Start with the result promised in the post. Then choose the smallest sequence of decisions and actions that gets a participant there. If the outcome is “leave with a first draft”, the session should include time to make that draft, not just an explanation of good examples.

1. 1State the finished result in one sentence at the beginning.
2. 2Show a before-and-after example so attendees can see what “done” means.
3. 3Break the work into three to five decisions or actions.
4. 4Give attendees a short task after each explanation.
5. 5Reserve time to identify common mistakes and repair one example.
6. 6End with a next step that can be completed without another purchase.

A 90-minute session might contain 10 minutes of orientation, 15 minutes of demonstration, three 15-minute working blocks and time for questions. The exact timing is yours to test, but the arithmetic exposes a common problem: if explanation takes 60 minutes, there may be too little time left for participants to practise.

Validate before you build the whole thing

A popular poll option is useful evidence, but it is not a booking. Before making slides, ask voters to join a short interest list or reply with the date and format they could attend. You can then compare the number of people who chose the topic with the number willing to take a next step.

Make the purchase and delivery match the promise

Once the session is defined, give it one clear description: who it is for, what they will complete and what is included. You can sell a live session through a storefront such as store.fan’s webinar feature, or package the material as an online course if people need to work through it at their own pace. A focused offer is easier to compare with the problem your viewers voted for.

If you want to collect interest before the workshop is ready, a store.fan email marketing setup can give you a place to follow up with people who opt in. When you are ready to sell, store.fan sends payments to your own Stripe account and takes 0% of sales; Stripe’s processing fee still applies. The paid plans begin with a 14-day trial, while the free plan is link-in-bio only.