Creating your online course can be one of the best ways to increase revenue and develop an income stream that gets you away from payment tied to hours. In particular, course creation has many synergies with service businesses. You can refer clients to courses to make faster progress between sessions. And it’s not unusual for students to move from your courses to your coaching and consulting. They’ve gained some valuable insight and they know what you’re capable of offering.
In addition to generating revenue, your course helps you achieve two other business goals:
(1) Your course creates credibility.
Publishing a blog demonstrates your expertise and commitment. Your ability to produce high-quality content consistently, on your chosen topic, shows that you know your subject. In this way you level the playing field when you’re competing against more experienced business owners, while you’re building up testimonials and word of mouth.
(2) Your course gives you exposure to a broader audience.
Those who follow blogs will be quite different from those who take courses, even online courses. Blogs – even those most finely targeted – cover a range of topics. In contrast, signing up for a course is a one-off decision for students who want a specific solution to a problem.
Why Course Creation Can Feel Overwhelming
But developing a course can seem like a lot of work. In particular, the challenge of writing content for a whole course can be pretty daunting. Even if you’re an experienced teacher and presenter, you might wonder where you’ll find the time.
The good news is, you probably already have a lot of material in your blog, and you can use this content to create your course painlessly. Additionally, you can use your blog to build your course, much as authors use the blog-to-book format.
Blogging a course helps you overcome the biggest obstacle to creating the course. You can create content one post at a time. Additionally, while creating your course, you’re building your platform as an expert and attracting a following of raving fans. You also test your ideas as you go. Posts that get attention can lead to course modules that will attract students to sign up and pay for your course. Posts that get comments will get students engaged, a good sign that they’ll finish the course and recommend others.
Here are five steps to blog your way to a course.
Step 1: The Course Profitability Plan
Your first step is to create profitability plan for your course. Many business owners develop a course topic based on their own interests, but in fact your profitability will be based on what your audience wants and needs.
Begin by recognizing that your blog ideally focuses on teaching your readers something they need to learn. All too many business owners include posts on self-expression, rants and personal history. On a blog, these posts help build relationships. But when you’re blogging for a course, you need posts directly related to solving problems – or, even better, getting your readers to solve problems.
When you begin with a profitability plan, you increase your chances of developing a course that will attract paying students. Your profitability plan helps you create a course that is unique, valuable and even necessary to your students. You answer a need in the marketplace.
The key is to find a problem that many other courses have solved. A crowded market place is a sign that you’ve hit a nerve. Your challenge will be to differentiate your course from the competition. Your creativity comes in the way your approach your course, present material and ultimately market your idea.
When you skip this step (and it’s all too tempting to jump right in an create content), you risk spending many hours developing a course that’s brilliant but doesn’t attract students.
Let’s look at some examples.
Tom is a food blogger. He gets lots of questions about how to create delicious family meals without going overboard on sugar and carbs. He’s also noticing that many of his friends don’t seem to know the basics of kitchen safety. They don’t wrap food properly and they leave everything in the fridge way too long, risking indigestion and worse.
So Tom might consider a course on creating healthy meals or learning kitchen safety basics. But he needs a closer look at those topics. There’s no competition out there. So Tom goes to the Internet to search for course. He also goes to Udemy and searches on food courses.
Tom soon discovers the most popular food courses seem to be related to weight loss, a category he wants to avoid. But he notices that courses on fitness and health often include a section on food. He sees a few courses on “Eating for Energy.” That’s something he can relate to. He now needs to put a spin on the topic and specialize. One idea that deserves further exploration: “How Entrepreneurs Can Be More Productive By Eating For Energy.”
Marilyn blogs on relationships and dating. Her research turns up courses on “Surviving Your First Date.” But she doesn’t want to get lost in the crowd. She narrows down her topic to “Surviving Your First Date After The Divorce.” She knows many women will take her course even if they’re not newly divorced. Some will be newly widowed; others will be experiencing transitions like moving and career change.
Before going further, Tom and Marilyn would each list benefits and features of their courses. In fact, it’s a good idea to draft a sales letter and/or promotion video. That way you focus from the beginning on what your buyers want. You can set up your content to meet the expectations you create in your sales letter – much easier than digging into your content to find sales hooks.
Step Two: Develop a course blogging plan.
Outline your course by identifying no more than 12 major sections, also known as modules. Today’s courses tend to be short, so you’ll need to plan no more than 12 modules.
Your outline looks like this:
Section or Module 1
Sub-Topic 1. Introduction. Explanation. Example.
Sub-Topic 2. Introduction. Explanation. Example.
Sub-Topic 3. Introduction. Explanation. Example.
Section or Module 2
Sub-Topic 1. Introduction. Explanation. Example.
Sub-Topic 2. Introduction. Explanation. Example.
Sub-Topic 3. Introduction. Explanation. Example.
and so on.
Unlike books chapters, course modules tend to be brief and interactive. You may need t
You may need to update some previous blog posts. Blogs tend to focus on the present moment. Courses need to present techniques that won’t disappear immediately.
Now plan how you will set up your blog. How often will you publish content? How will you announce your content?
Do you have existing content that can be repurposed into your course?
Continuing our examples, Tom’s outline might look like:
Module 1: Energy Menu Planning: Add 2 Hours To Your Day
Sub-Topic 1.
Introduction: How breakfast can fuel your energy through the whole day.
Explanation: Why eating these foods for breakfast will increase your energy (and what foods drain your energy).
Example: Story of how one of Tom’s clients changed his breakfast menu and now stays awake through those late afternoon meetings
Marilyn’s first module:
Module 1: Why It’s Normal To Be Terrified When You Re-Enter The World of Dating
Sub-Topic 1.
Introduction: What you bring to your first date, emotionally and mentally, makes a difference in the outcome.
Explanation. Psychological research shows that most people prepare inadequately for first dates.
Example: Story of Marilyn’s client who faced her first date after 20 years of marriage.
Step 3: Begin writing blog posts.
Now that you’ve planned your idea and your blog, you’re ready to begin blogging for your course. I recommend setting up each post as a portion of your future course. You’ll introduce your content to your readers and get their reactions. Some of your readers will become fans, who will follow you from week to week as you develop your course. Set each post to about 500 words.
You can encourage readers to follow along by presenting your blog posts as a series. As you finish each post, say, “And we’ll be continuing this theme in the next post, coming on Thursday.” And if you realize you’d be more effective by re-arranging your topics, no problem! You can do that later.
Don’t worry about giving away the course material. Readers rarely remember what they read in detail and the material will appear quite different when you present it on video or webinar. Remember that as you build loyalty, you’re also creating a potential audience who can be invited to purchase the final course in beta version, so you can get reviews and suggestions for improvement.
Include a call to action after every post, inviting comments. Invite readers to send you emails with messages or provide a Survey Monkey opportunity. The more involvement you create among your readers, the more likely they’ll want to follow up with a purchase.
For example, Tom might write a single post on “How breakfast will keep you going as you survive a day of meetings.” Marilyn might write a post just focusing on a story about a 45-year-old woman facing her first date in 20 years. Your post can be on any component of your course and it’s better to have too many than too few. We’ll see why in the next step.
Step 4: Move your blog posts to your course delivery medium.
For most online courses, your delivery system will involve video. You might set up a “talking head” video, where you appear yourself, speaking to your audience. This method works to create a sense of connection with your audience, but it can be boring when it’s overdone. Additionally, when you’re on camera, your audience pays attention to every detail of your appearance and style – far more than they would in person. There’s a good reason professional actors insist on special lighting and camera angles.
Therefore, it’s a good idea to vary your presentation style. Include some PowerPoint videos to break things up. Many people see Powerpoint as boring, but that’s because they haven’t explored the capabilities of Powerpoint. You can add lots of graphics, introduce a font that’s not standard PowerPoint, and create your own theme. Use visual software like Canva to create surprising visual effects.
For even more variety, use animated video software with cartoon characters and moving text. Add some upbeat music a few segments to create variety.
Now here’s where your blog posts will help you the most. You can turn your posts into voiceovers for your videos. You’ll probably want to make some changes. Although we’re often advised to “Write the way you talk,” the reality is that words come across very differently in print and in spoken form.
And we haven’t even come to the best part. You can cut and paste your blog posts into a new document (or get your assistant to do this for you). Create a PDF document that becomes a guidebook for your course and offer it as a bonus. Get a budget designer to add some formatting and graphics and you’ve added significant value to your offer.
Do you have extra posts that don’t seem to fit into your course after you start recording? Terrific! You’ve got bonus material, ready-made.
Step 5: Use your blog posts to market your new course.
Continue blogging after you’ve completed your course and marketed the finished product to your audience. In particular, use your blog posts to take advantage of social media. When you tweet or post on Facebook or LinkedIn, send your audience to one of your blog posts rather than a sales page. You can include links at the bottom of your post, referring readers to your course or to a lead magnet that ties directly to your course. In fact, you can use one of your blog posts as a lead magnet, with a blurb to refer readers to the whole course.
And there you have it: a straightforward way to create your online course with the help of your blog. You have no more excuses: you can begin creating your course right away and start enjoying the benefits while you continue serving your clients.
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