Category: courses

    How to Develop an Email Course

    An email course is usually delivered in “drip” mode. This means that whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly, part of the course is delivered to those who signed up for it via their email, through an autoresponder service. An autoresponder service like Aweber.com, Mailchimp.com, or another one can get the job done delivering an email course.

    Determine What the Purpose of the Course Is

    Is this a free or paid course? Is the purpose of the course to encourage your audience to buy something from you when the course ends? If it’s a free course, what will the offer be at the end of the course? If it’s a paid course, how can you deliver exceptional value to your audience and make them feel as if they got their money’s worth?

    Decide What to Teach

    Teach your audience about or how to do something that is unclear, frustrating or hard to do for your audience. If you’re not sure what this could be, look be ask your audience for the answers. You can ask them directly, or you can find groups where they ask questions. Any question is a likely a good choice for an email course.

    Organize the Subject

    Choose your topic or question to answer so that you can now organize the subject into subtopics. You’ll want to pick one focused subtopic for each part of the email course. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much information at one time. Instead, think of it like teaching one point of a problem at a time in a logical order.

    Choose How Long You Want the Course to Be

    Usually an email course consists of five to seven emails for free courses, but sometimes a topic will require a lot more than that – especially if it’s a paid course. Decide how long, but more than six to eight weeks might be too long. It’s important to consider your audience so that you know how they’ll deal with shorter or longer courses. Making it too long might mean a lot of people don’t finish, but you do want to give enough information that they learn the material.

    Tell the Subscriber What to Expect

    Before and after the subscriber signs up for the course, you should let them know what to expect. Be explicit about what is in the course so that they’ll know what’s coming and know what to look for. How many emails will be in the course? How often will they come? Will you send other emails and information to them? Let them know what to do if there is a problem. Probably the best place to do this is on the sales page, plus on the thank you page, plus in the first email.

    Format Each Email Similarly

    You want each email to look like part of the same course by branding it the same. Use the same fonts, images, colors, intro and exit. Always tell them what you have already told them, and then after the body of the email tell them what to expect for the next part of the course. This will help hone their expectations in a way that keeps them interested and involved.

    Make Each Email Simple and To the Point

    Once you’ve created a template for your course, it will be simple to fill in the details for the course. Give them one strong lesson each email, and keep the emails on the short side – no more than 700 to 1500 words per email. Otherwise it will be too overwhelming.

    Craft Subject Lines They’ll Recognize and Open

    The subject line is important because it will be key to ensuring that your subscribers know to open the email. You probably want to put the name of the course and the lesson name inside so that they know.

    Finally, give your audience a way to report problems and ask questions. You can do that via a special course email address or by making a private and closed Facebook group only for people who have signed up for the course. In addition, you can use eCourse software to help you make an eCourse without having to know any coding or even have a website.

    Link to eCourse software – https://coursecraft.net/

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    How to Get Paid for an Email Course

    An important aspect of having an email course is finding a way to monetize it. Making money for your hard work is important. When you make money doing something you love, and that you really know how to do, it will enable you to do more of it – thus helping more people learn the information that they need to know.

    * Moon Clerk – This works with MadMimi.com, Aweber.com, GetResponse.com and other autoresponder services, which will enable you to collect one-time and recurring payments for your courses. You’ll need a stripe account as well to get started with using Moon Clerk.

    Link to Moon Clerk – http://www.moonclerk.com/

    * PayPal – You can set up a PayPal subscription payment with a simple link to set up an eCourse, using either ClickBank.com or another shopping cart system. Set up a sales page with the payment option, and then send them to a thank you page with a sign-up sheet. That will sign them up for the autoresponder with the eCourse.

    * aMember.com – This is a membership software, which you don’t need to run an eCourse, but it is a good way to set them up to avoid issues with people unsubscribing and still being on the course list, as can happen with the PayPal / ClickBank idea.

    * Upsells – A great way to make money from a free email course is to offer an upsell of some kind. This could be a product you’ve shown them that they need, such as a private membership group and other related products to the course.

    * Affiliate Programs – Your course may suggest different types of tools, software and services to your audience. This is a good opportunity to include an affiliate link. You do need to disclose in your terms of service on the sign-up page for the course that some links will be affiliate links. However, most people will not mind if you are suggesting things you’ve tried that work.

    * Exclusive Offers – People on your list will love feeling exclusive. Use the list to make “list member only” special offers. When you hype up these offers to let them know that they are honestly the only ones getting a “sneak peek exclusive offer” and an inside view of your products and services, they’ll be excited to get the chance.

    * Cross-Promote – If you have other offers outside of this course, such as more courses, you can cross-promote. This is an offer that is related to the course your customer is taking, but is not a sale that’s directly related to the course they’re in now.

    * Coaching – If you’ve given a good eCourse to your audience, you can offer to give them extra help with one-on-one coaching or group coaching calls for a fee. Make the offer through the course in the beginning, toward the middle and at the end.

    If you give it some thought, you’ll be able to cash in on email courses. You can make it as simple as you want, or as complicated as you want, depending on which software you choose to use. But, one thing is for sure; you can make money and get paid for an email course.

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    Making the Most of Your ECourse

    Creating an eCourse is a great way to get subscribers to your list. An eCourse is also a great way to give information to your subscribers that they need, as well as a way to market other information to them. It’s important to build trust with your subscribers and you can do that with a well written and planned out eCourse.

    But, there are some best practices for your eCourse that you should be aware of when using an eCourse as subscription bait, either free or paid.

    1. Craft Well Written Opt-In Messages – Tell your subscribers what to expect in the opt-in information. That way they will know that they’re going to get more than just the eCourse. Letting them know this will do two things. One, it will prepare your subscriber to get more than just the course; and two, it will give them the opportunity to say no or yes. The best subscribers know what they’re getting into when they opt in.

    2. Make the Most of Your Thank You Message – Once they opt in, send them a thank you message. This is a great place to include extra information about what they’re going to receive, again, and other opportunities that you have for them. If every single message you send out is packed with information, you’ll be more likely to get a positive response.

    3. Craft Your Course Series Carefully – If you’ve promised your subscribers a ten-day email course, each day of the course should be very well defined and stand on its own but also make them excited for the next course delivery. Remember a ten-day course doesn’t have to be delivered one each day; it can be one each week with other information in between.

    4. Create Offers within Course Messages – Each course message is a great time to include offers to the subscribers for other products and services or information that you promote. You can send them to affiliate products and services that coincide with what you’re teaching them in the course.

    5. Add Extras within the Course Series – A ten-day eCourse can turn into a month of emails with extra days and courses. You can even ask for homework from your course subscribers, sending them to a private Facebook group or forum where they can turn in their assignments to give them extra -all within the same “10 day” course.

    6. Give Bonus Course Information – If you want to, you can offer your subscribers the opportunity to sign up for another eCourse series within the current course that you’re providing. Many people are happy to find out about more advanced information about a particular subtopic within the original eCourse.

    7. Offer Opportunities to Join Other Lists – If you have more than one email list that might be of interest, the eCourse is an excellent way to let your subscribers know about them. Keeping your subscribers moving through your product funnel by making new offers is a great way to make the most of your eCourse.

    8. Periodically Update the Course Information – Even when the course is over, if updates happen, or changes in technology occur, it’s a good time to contact your course members to give them the scoop on the update.

    Making the most of an eCourse is essential to making the course worth your time and effort. Thankfully most, if not all, of the email course can be automated using your autoresponder service – whether it’s a free eCourse or a paid course.

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    Coming Up With a Teachable Topic

    Everyone has something they know that they can teach to others. Anyone can create an online course to teach other people what they know. But, when you sit down to come up with teachable topics you want to keep some things in mind.

    * What Do You Know? – There is usually something you are passionate about and that you already know that you can teach to others. For example, maybe you know the secret to making the perfect snicker doodle cookie? You can teach the fundamentals of baking a snicker doodle cookie and what is important to make it come out perfect.

    * What Do You Want to Know? – Even if you don’t know how to do something, you can still create an online course. Just learn how to do it and create step-by-step instructions as you go to create an online course with that information.

    * What Are Your Strengths? – It’s important to know what your strengths are, because creating a course requires several steps. For example, you may need to add video, or create screen shots, or write a great deal of material. Any one of these things may require learning or outsourcing.

    * Who Is Your Audience? – It’s important to start with an audience that you want to teach. Then you can find out what they want to know and create courses for them. Even if you don’t know the material personally, you can interview subject matter experts, or even hire someone to create the course for you.

    * What Is the Goal? – Once you’ve decided upon a potential topic, can you figure out what the end goal is? What do you want to teach your audience? What do you want them to walk away from the course knowing?

    * What Is the Main Objective? – You need to figure out your main objective for teaching a course at all, then the objective of the course. Do you want to teach them something they need to know so that you can earn extra money, or do you want to teach them something so that they can also learn about other offerings you have?

    * What Tools Do You Need? – When you determine the ideas you want to teach to your audience, you’ll need to make a list of tools you need for creating the course. Perhaps that means you’ll need a good video camera or a stand for your iPhone so that you can video yourself cooking. Or maybe you need a tool like Camtasia to edit the videos.

    * What Platform Is Right for Your Course? – Once you work out all the details, you’ll need to figure out where to host your course so that you can easily promote it. You can host it with the right software right on your own domain, or you can use a system like Udemy.com to sell your course. It’s up to you.

    Teaching online courses can be very lucrative if you find the right information that people want to know, find the right platform, and market the course in a way that gets people to sign up. The idea for the topic is just the beginning.

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    Course Outline Creation

    When you create a course, you will need to start with an outline. Outlines are for you and for your audience. The outline will help you avoid missing any part of what you need to teach to meet the objectives of your course, but it will also be of use to attract your audience to your course. It will give them a sneak peek into what they’ll learn and encourage them to sign up.

    The outline should include all of the following:

    1. Why You Should Teach the Course – Everyone wants to know why you are the right person to teach the course. What gives you the qualifications to teach the course you’re going to describe? Who you are, what your credentials are, and so forth should be listed.

    2. Course Description – Explain to the audience what the course is about in detail, but don’t make the description so long that they no longer need to take the course.

    3. Course Goals – What are the goals of the course? For example, will the learner know how to make a web page using a particular platform when the course is over?

    4. Learning Objectives and Outcome – Once the person finishes the course, what will they know and how can they use it? Will then have a workable item they can hold when they finish the course? Perhaps when the course is over they’ll have a five-page website that they can use.

    5. List of Topics That Will Be Covered in Each Module – You want to state exactly how many modules or sections there will be, along with a title and description of what is covered in each module.

    6. What Type of Audio / Visual Materials are Included – State what formats the information will include, for example if you’ll have audio, podcasts, video, and other types of material. This will alert the student about the requirements of their own systems.

    7. Procedures for Accomplishing Objectives – Explain what you’ll do to ensure that the students accomplish the objectives. For example, a reminder will go out to all students each week.

    8. Student Requirements – In cases where there are prerequisites for what students need to know, express them. Also if they will need to complete work that is turned in and evaluated, be sure to tell them.

    9. Assessments (If Any) – Some courses will have tests and assessments to qualify for a certificate, and others will not. If yours does, say so.

    10. Schedule of Activities – List the schedule of activities that are included in the course that the student will do, or that the instructor will demonstrate.

    11. Reading List (If Any) – In some cases a book might go with the course. If you’ve written a book that they need to purchase, or you’re using a book someone else wrote, link to it so they can buy it.

    12. Follow-Up Opportunity – A great thing to include in your course is a way for them to follow up with you and sign up for other courses you teach, or participate in other things that you do.

    The outline for an online course is only slightly different than if you were teaching a course in person. In both cases you want to explain what’s inside the course, what your audience will learn, and what to do after for more information or where to find more courses that you teach.

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    Earning Income with Courses

    There are many ways to earn an income with online courses. You can set them up on your own website, as a paid email course, or on a special website that promotes courses like Udemy. But, however you do it there is a lot of money to be made with online courses. You can earn money from a course directly, or you can make money on the back end (or both). Let’s look at some of the different ways to earn money with online courses.

    * Paid Course – You can earn money directly with a paid course. There are course websites like Udemy, Fedora, and many others. Look for “sell your course online” and you’ll find a lot of them to help you. You can also set up your course on your own website using a membership website feature like AWeber, InstaMember, or even just a PayPal button with a password only website.

    Links:
    Udemy – https://www.udemy.com/
    Fedora – https://usefedora.com/
    AWeber – http://www.aweber.com/
    InstaMember – http://www.instamember.com/
    PayPal – http://www.paypal.com/

    * Free Course – You can still earn money with a free course. By giving your audience a short free course via email, or in a membership on your website, you can use the course to build your email list. You can then promote other things to them via the course and the email list. For example, on each email that you send about the course, you can include a link to your paid courses.

    * Backend – Remember that for any page on your site (such as the page where you send people to collect the next free module of your course), you can put recommended products that match things that your audience will need if they are to become successful at whatever you are promoting through your course.

    * All Three – You can earn money through all three methods if you want to. It doesn’t matter if a paid course is delivered or not; you can still add complementary products to the delivery page, or via an email newsletter that the students sign up to receive.

    * Complementary Items – For example, if you are selling a course about how to write and sell a book on Kindle, you can promote services related to the venture, such as contractors who will do the work for them. You can also promote software that helps them, or peripheral products that they may be interested in.

    * Future Courses – A series of courses are an excellent way to earn more money through online courses. This works very well if the first course is free, then to learn more they have to pay for the upgraded future course.

    You can always make money with courses. You just have to think about what your audience needs outside of the course, and you can promote those things to them as well. You can make money from the course directly, and then make money indirectly by promoting complementary products, services and more courses.

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