Blog

  Last week you learned that creating a first small or limited online course is a great first step for your online teaching business. You learned about both beta and minimum viable products (MVP). The benefits of starting with either a beta or MVP and selling...

  Building an online teaching business entails both course creation and marketing activities. I’ve heard again and again from students who believe that the separation between course creation work and marketing work will let them work more efficiently, batching...

  When you want to get up and running with a first online course offer, consider going with a digital product that you can: create in a few days, deliver without a full-blown classroom, and count on to get your students quick wins. I'm not saying you abandon that...

With Thanksgiving (and those Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales) in the rear view mirror, this was a week of new lesson prep, live teaching, and email strategy. Take a look behind the scenes of my course building work at both Get It Scrapped and Teach What You Do to...

This week was a productive one: a new class went up at my scrapbooking membership Get It Scrapped, planning for membership content for all of 2018 at Get It Scrapped is done, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers were set up and scheduled for both Get It Scrapped...

This week is all about making offers. See how I went from a draft of lessons for a live workshop to a completed offer with course branding, sales page, shopping cart setup and email campaign.

This was not a smooth work week for me--forces out of my control threw me off my game. Partly, I think that if I were a stronger person, I wouldn't let a four-day power outage be a problem. Partly I think: we can't all be on top of things all the time. I dig into it...

I was a little “Friday-afternoon-giddy” in this entry. It always feels good to be looking at the weekend with projects completed. AND, as I recorded this, I realized that these "Course Builder's Diary" videos give me a reply for those non-entrepreneurial acquaintances...

This week was one with only a single scheduled webinar or meeting... And I took advantage of it to get a big tech and marketing project taken care of: Turning a live webinar and its funnel to automated. Get a look at the work of setting up an automated funnel and the...

This week I didn't get a lot of writing or creating done. But I did do a whole bunch of live virtual teaching: Five live sessions for a special event at Get It Scrapped (my scrapbooking education website) and two live sessions here at Teach What You Do. In this entry,...

Debbie here back with a second "entry" in my course builder's diary. This week, I've got a list of what I did daily over to the right side of the recorded screen. And here's why: My intention here is not to show you every little task I do, but rather to show you how...

You might have a picture of what your life would look like if your main gig was creating and selling online courses. Yes? No? Since it's my main gig, I'm going to take you behind the scenes for the next several weeks. The first episode of Course Builder's Diary shows...

A “signature system” puts your expertise and best processes into a roadmap that your students can use to get to their goal. I know that sounds like . . . an online course. And it could be an online course. Or even a series of online courses. The thing is to actually...

Your online course should be designed to deliver a path to transformation for your students. You're not selling information but, rather, results. Providing the path to those results will include four kinds of lesson content: Lecture Demo Practice Roadmap A key task in...

"Touch" is an aspect of your online course, and it refers to how much you interact with and personally support your students. Touch a way to distinguish your class from others in the market, and it's an aspect that can be used to ensure and increase student success...

Converting your knowledge and skills into "on-demand" lessons that your students can access at their convenience most likely means you're creating one or more of: written (and perhaps illustrated) materials audio video These are great basic formats because they're...

I run two teaching businesses: Get It Scrapped since 2007 and Teach What You Do since late 2015. These aren't hobbies. They are honest-to-goodness, money-earning, expense-generating businesses with fabulous customers who I want to make sure get the very best care....

There are two distinct benefits to talking about your online course once it's designed and outlined--and before it's complete. First you can generate buzz and anticipation--and even build your authority on the topic. Hey did you see that Joanna's got a class coming...

It's a Course Builder's Diary episode. That means a behind the scenes look at work I'm doing on my two teaching businesses: Teach What You Do and Get It Scrapped. In this session I share work and processes for: marketing an upcoming 5-day event, creating a planner to...

Once you've got an idea for a course topic, it's time to refine it, testing and tweaking to come up with a class that: your audience wants, that you are well suited to offer, and that will be profitable for your business within your market. The work of validating and...

The work of selling your online course starts as soon as--or even before--you start making the actual course. Here's the process: Begin to create an audience that you can reach through email and retargeting ads. Nurture the audience you're building. Educate them to...

An engaged email list is key to selling your online course. The mechanics of it, though, get many would-be teachers stalled. In this post, you'll find an index to the pieces and a roadmap to work steps. You've got this--and your business can truly move forward when...

Your own focused lessons will be the core of your online course. With that core made clear, though, you will always have students who want to go deeper in their learning or practice or who could benefit from additional motivation, inspiration, and instruction. In my...

As  you define--and refine!!--your online course offering, a primary consideration is how the course fits into your business and your existing (or future) product portfolio. Make sure the course you create is one you can have success with now--and that can pave the...