Instructor course guidelines

Our goal is to give every member an enjoyable experience each and every time they come to Invested Pro. Learning and improving investing and day trading skills is a lifelong journey and we're focused on delivering the necessary technology and courses to create a high-quality and memorable learning experience for everyone. 

Read through the guidelines below to familiarize yourself with the general requirements for becoming an Invested Pro instructor. Course lessons should be designed to teach specific skills for trading and investing and for building up confidence that will lead to independent decision making. Courses that are more academic in nature should help members gain a deeper understanding of the markets and aid them in creating a solid foundation for more practical applications down the road. 

Note that classes are reviewed by our staff to determine if they meet the guidelines below. Courses that do not meet the guidelines will be unpublished until those guidelines are met.

To gain traction as an Instructor and build up your popularity, increase earnings, and promote learning, here are some important guidelines to follow : 

Course Guidelines and Standards

• Course Length: 30 minutes of video content is required on each course. Additionally, at least Four separate video lessons are also required. 
  
  • Course Duration: Course length is automatically calculated based on the total length of the uploaded video lessons. This cannot be manually overridden. 
• Video Quality: HD video quality is required with a minimum of 720p. It's important to follow the recording guidelines to enhance the overall quality of your courses, which will lead to more enrolled members.
• Audio Quality: Must be clear, your own voice, properly synced with the video, and use both right and left channels
• Intro Video: An intro video is required for each course that you create on Invested Pro. The intro will significantly improve your course results. This video is shown in the course listings as the official trailer to your course. Learn how to effectively construct your intro video here: Intro Video
  • You may also upload a cover photo for your intro video
• Course Title: The course title should be specific to the topics you are covering. Generic titles will not perform as well since they will not be found easily in the search listings. Here are a couple quick tips to follow:
  • Do not promise monetary results in the title. Course titles should put the focus on the topics the members will learn.
  • By keeping the title short and descriptive and using keywords, you will get the best results in the Invested Pro search engine.
• Course Image: A course image is required. 
  • The minimum dimension is 700 x 430 pixels to keep it from getting pixelated (stretched). Images will automatically be resized if bigger, but this is the minimum size for the area.
  • The image must be relevant to the course topic
  • Text over the image is not permitted. If you are adding a logo, be sure it's not in the center of the image
  • If using stock images, only high quality images are permitted. It is your responsibility to be sure you have the correct licensing rights on any photos, images, or illustrations that you post to Invested Pro
  • .jpeg, .jpg, .bmp, and .png are permitted
  • Overcrowded images and cartoon looking images are not permitted
• Instructor Profile: A completed instructor profile with a bio and a profile photo are required. This is another opportunity to set yourself apart. List the the skills and experience related to the financial markets or crypto markets that you bring to the table. If you have any specific credentials, be sure to mention them in your bio. 
• Course description: A thorough description page with an overview about the course is required and must be at least 200 words. It's a good idea to be as descriptive as possible, use keyword rich content, and fill out all sections about the course before publishing it. The course content will be indexed by our search engine for members to easily find your courses. Since each section of the course must be filled out, this will ensure that you get the best exposure possible to all Invested Pro members. Let members know what skills they will learn by taking your class. 
  • Course Sections include: 
    • Benefits of the Course
    • Requirements / Instructions
    • Targeted Audience
    • Materials Included
• Course Topics: You have a wide variety of options when choosing your course topics on Invested Pro.  Academic, theoretical, and practical courses are all permitted as long as they are related to and fit within the course categories and subcategories offered at Invested Pro. To see the current course categories, visit the category page here: Course Category Listings. Permitted courses will focus on either the financial markets or the cryptocurrency markets and teach members about Investing and Trading - the more practical courses should include information for achieving either short-term or long-term investment and day trading objectives.
  
  Hot topics such as Algorithmic Trading (including building Algo Trading Models), Derivatives Trading, Technical Analysis, and Retirement Planning, may need additional courses and lessons to properly prepare your target audience. In these cases, it's important to provide a basic foundation before diving into the intricacies of implementing specific strategies. In the course builder, you will find a section for adding prerequisites to your courses if needed.  
  
  Courses are to be created for different levels (from beginner to advanced) and all course content within a single course should remain on the same level. In other words, if you are creating a course for beginners, all content on that course should be at the beginner level.
  
  There are different membership plans for people with different objectives; including members of the Enterprise Plan, which is designed for employee learning. Regardless of the different types of members that sign up for your courses, all  Invested Pro course offerings span the following three general categories (Full details here - Types of Courses):
  
  Investing Courses - To get a general understanding of the ideal types of courses under this category, visit the Investing page
  
  Day Trading and Cryptocurrency Courses - To get a general understanding of the ideal types of courses under this category, visit the Trading page
  
  Weekly Market Intelligence Courses - To get a general understanding of the ideal types of courses under this category, visit the Weekly Market Intelligence Page (Note that posting courses in this category has additional requirements - click here to learn about those requirements).
• Differentiate your course: You have a wide variety of topics to choose from, including many specialties within each topic. Pick the topics and ideas where you feel you are strongest to get started. If you want more ideas on the types of courses offered, you can view all courses and categories here. Additionally, members (students) are able to create their own learning paths to meet their personal learning objectives. By creating multiple courses or a series of courses, members will be able learn in a sequence or even pick up additional specializations. 
• Permitted Links: You may add links in the course lessons or the course description if they are relevant to the course / lesson topics and will aid the student members with their learning. 
• Prohibited Links: You may not include links on the course overview page to any paid products or services. The only exception to this rule is if you are providing access to a tool or resource that is helpful to use with the course (such as Trading Chart software) and not your own product or service. This must be clearly stated on the course overview page. 
  • You may not add promotional links, affiliate links, or any links that are not related to the course learning objectives
• Restrictions: You may have a marketing tilt to your course video and course overview page to garner interest and attract more members, but you may not guarantee specific financial results to the Invested Pro community. If the content of your course sounds like a get rich quick scheme, it will be removed until it meets the course guidelines. By mentioning you have back-tested results, historical performance, or other concrete ways to prove your methods, that will suffice to entice members to join your courses. It's important to focus on what Invested Pro members will learn and how they will build on their current skillsets, including learning the proper risk management skills.
• Learning Tools: Invested Pro members put a high value on quality education and understand that this is a long-term journey. Therefore, it's important to go in-depth on your topic and provide examples along the way. There are many tools available to instructors for offering custom curriculum, including quizzes, assignments, and live lessons. 
• Limit self promotion in your videos and on your courses. Invested Pro is an excellent platform to get exposure for yourself and your brand, and there are several ways to do this. Beyond your courses and course ratings, you can fill out your public profile with links to your social media accounts. You can share your courses and profile externally at any time. When creating a course, it's important not to distract the members from the content they are interested in learning. 
  • A small watermark on the bottom right of your videos and a brief intro about yourself or your company are what is currently permitted on a course.