How to Sell Online Courses in 2024 (Organic Approach)

Creating an online course selling business is one of the best ways to scale your impact and achieve financial freedom. Which is why in this video I'm going to share with you everything I've learned over the past two years building my seven-figure course selling business all without spending a penny on paid ads or doing any direct outreach. This approach is completely organic and scalable, so stay tuned and I'll show you exactly how to build a business like this for yourself. So I get the impression that there are a lot of people out there talking about how

to sell online courses, and I think a lot of them treat it as a get rich quick scheme or they bombard people with ads about why they should buy their course about how to sell online courses. So I completely understand if you've seen ads like that and you're skeptical of anyone who even talks about selling online courses. I don't have anything to sell you, so don't worry about that. And I think it would be good before we get too deep into it for me to let you know who I am and where I'm coming from.

And then you can decide if the rest of this video will have any value to you. So, my name is Devlin Peck. I identify as a teacher at heart. I always thought that I would be teaching when I was going through college and approaching graduation. I thought I was teaching. That's what I loved. That's what I cared about. But when I started facing the reality of that, I realized I wanted more earning potential than what teachers typically had. And I didn't want to be tied down to a classroom in one specific geographic location. I wanted

that- that mobility. I wanted to be able to work from my laptop, either from home or while traveling. So I found a field called instructional design, which is where you basically are creating online courses for big brands and big corporations to help their employees do their jobs better. So that's what I was doing for a couple of years. But it wasn't the most rewarding thing because I was really creating these courses to make the clients happy. And there were some limitations on how much access I could have to the actual end users or the learners.

I really wanted to help- help make an impact in their lives. And the client aspect of that sometimes made it difficult. And if you- if any of you freelance, you know what client requests can be like at times. So it wasn't the most rewarding thing. But to find more purpose in my life and to make my job more rewarding, I started basically doing instructional design work for other instructional designers. I started creating free content like articles and YouTube videos and tutorials to help other people get into the instructional design field and do their jobs better

in the field. And that was much, much more rewarding for me, helping people, you know, earn more money, do their jobs better directly instead of having a client as a middleman, essentially. And I wasn't making any money creating that content to start. It was just for, like, personal satisfaction. But over two years, I scaled that into a seven-figure business. So I went from spending a lot of my time on it to make nothing to- to earning seven-figures a year from this business, which blows my mind. I can tell you two years ago I never in

a million years would have thought that this would be possible. I would have been ecstatic to be making six-figures from this business. But it's 10x that and it's only growing from here. So still blows me away. I want to help you do the same. I've been waiting to do this series for so long, but I felt like passing that seven-figure mark made this the right time. So yeah, I'm going to share everything that I've learned, not just in this video, but in a full YouTube playlist I'm going to do. And if there's anything you want

to learn more about, just drop a comment as you're watching and I will be sure to let you know. So I'm going to share it all for free and, you know, completely free here on YouTube. Nothing is going to be behind any paid gates or anything like that. So why course selling? In case you couldn't have already figured it out from that little 'about me'. You get more freedom from this than from freelancing or working a full-time job. So, you don't have any clients that are calling you up or wondering if you're meeting a specific

deadline, like, you answer directly to the people that you're serving. And they're generally, yeah, a lot more understanding. . . Like you set the pace basically instead of, like, a client deadline. And then working full-time job, I mean, you can work the hours you want to work from, from where you want. Yeah. There's way more freedom than a full-time job as you can imagine. There's no earning ceiling here. So, it is completely scalable. The effort you do on day one will keep paying off on day 500. So as you- as you work on this business

more and more over the years, it's going to keep scaling bigger and bigger and bigger to the point where you will kind of grow bigger than your wildest dreams, like what happened to me. So, it is very scalable. It doesn't depend on an hour of your time to produce X amount of dollars, which is different than full-time work or most freelancing work. And then my favorite part about this, like, I mentioned, you answer directly to the people you serve. So the people that you decide to help, those are your customers. Those are your clients. Those

are- those are the people you're helping. You're not answering to a client. So, you essentially are directly responsible for the impact you make as you create more content, as you- as the word spreads about your content, you're going to reach more and more people without any additional work required on your part. So, really cool stuff. Very, very rewarding work, I should say. Few expectations we should set. This is not a get rich quick scheme. It does take time. You're not going to build a seven-figure business in the next three months. It's not going to happen.

I mean, maybe if you get super, super lucky. But I would say that this is- that's not the approach I'm laying out for you here. It will take some time and it will take some effort to get going again. The cool thing about this kind of business is the effort pays off for years and years to come. It's not like you do a little bit of effort, you get a little bit of result and it's done. It works a little bit differently. And the best analogy I've heard for this, I don't remember where I've heard

it, but it's kind of like a flywheel kind of effect or if you picture, like, a big, like, a water wheel, like, at a water mill that, like, churns water. Imagine, like, pulling on that and trying to get that wheel moving. At first t's going to move so, so, so, so slowly. And it's going to feel like it's not moving at all. But then over time, as you start getting it moving a little faster, it's slowly going to start picking up more and more speed. And at a certain point, it's going to be- you're going

to take your hands off and it's going to be spinning all on its own. And that analogy, it really stuck with me when I first heard it. And it is completely true. It's exactly how a business like this works. So, it is going to take some effort upfront. It's not going to be the easiest thing ever, but it is so, so rewarding because. . . The effort you put in compounds so, so well, so the effort you put in, it's going to keep building on itself. You're basically making a very good investment for your future

self. So for example, here is kind of my trajectory. It took me one year from starting my YouTube channel to cross six-figures in revenue from my core selling business, and I think it was, like, five months after starting my YouTube channel before I even pre-sold my first course. So, not terrible. Better than I expected, I will say. And then a little bit over a year after that, across seven-figures in revenue. And that was the completely unexpected, unforeseen part of this. And then who knows how long it's going to take to get to eight-figures of revenue.

Maybe, maybe I'll be recording a video in a couple of years about how to get to that point. But- but it can really start scaling very quickly as your content from years past is still producing results for you for years into the future. So, hopefully this playlist will help you do it faster. Again, I want to give you everything that you need to to do this effectively. I'm going to share everything I've learned along the way, but hopefully it won't take you as long as it took me because I was kind of figuring a lot

of it out from scratch and piecing it together from creators. I had seen do this successfully, but they didn't really have videos like this laying out exactly how how they did it. So, let's dive into the process. So it's going to, yeah, here's we're going to cover. So, first you need to identify your audience and know who you're serving. Then you're going to create free content for that audience. You're going to grow your mailing list with your most engaged viewers or community members. Then you're going to validate a paid course idea. You're going to presell

that course, you're going to create that course with the people you're presold it to. You're going to launch that finished course to your wider audience, and then you're going to focus on growth levers, basically, so that you can grow that business even further. Now, these are a lot of steps. So, we're going to do an overview of each of them in this video so you can get a really clear idea of, like, how a business like this works and how to get started. But I am going to do a full, in-depth video for each one

of these steps. And I'm going to create, like, a PDF template to guide you through each of them linked in the description. So, think of this as a good starting point or place to refer back to. But know, every single week after posting this video, we're going to dive deeper into one of these topics. So, I'm going to give you more than what we cover here, but this will be a good primer. So first off, you will want to identify your audience. You'll want to know who you're helping. And I don't want you to get,

like, stuck on this part. So essentially, ask yourself, who would you like to serve? For me, that was other instructional designers. It was pretty broad. I want to help other people in the instructional design space with the challenges I'm facing in this field. But you can think professions, hobbies, and/or personal identities. So instructional designers, for example, is a- as a profession, it could also be software engineers, UX designers, you know, booksellers. The list goes on. And of course, things that you have experience with will probably be better here. You could think hobbies, so you could

think, like, gardening, for example. So, maybe you're a- you’re a really good gardener or hobby gardener. You might want to focus on other people who are interested in gardening. And then personal identities are a good source that you can look into as well. So for example, like, husbands or parents or- or mothers. So, identities like that could be good to dive into as well when you're thinking about who you want to serve. And think about your own identities as well when you're- when you're brainstorming who you might want to serve here, because that's likely where

you have some expertis- expertise that you'll be able to turn into really helpful content. And then ask yourself, "What do these people want?" So, what do instructional designers want? In my case, they might want to land a great job in the field, or they might want to build their freelance business, or they might want to improve their skills so that they can get noticed by their employer better. If you're serving gardeners, they may want to build an edible garden in their backyard so they can- they can eat the fruits of their labor, so to speak.

And then with, like, the husband example, they may want to be a better partner for their partners. So, those are just some examples. You want a rough idea, your audience can and likely will change. And that's because as you start creating content, you're going to start seeing what's most popular and that's going to give you a lot of insights into- into who is resonating the most with- with your work. So, you don't need to have, like, a fully fleshed out, like, user persona to get started with this. You just want have a general idea of

who you're serving. You're going to get a lot of helpful data once you start creating content. So, I want to reiterate that a lot of people out there, I've gotten stressed by this so much when they're like, “You need to know what your audience is eating for breakfast in the morning. You need to know exactly how old they are, how many kids they have and what music they like”. I'm sure that would be very helpful if you could get that level of specificity. And I will say the more specific you can get, the better and

the easier your life will be. I was not specific at all. I started off just saying, "Hey, I'm going to help out instructional designers". Now I'm a bit more specific, most of them helping former educators transition into the instructional design field and get full-time jobs. That's, like, our main user persona, so to speak. But I- it took me years to get to that point. At first I'm like, “I'm helping instructional designers. I'm helping people become instructional designers”. So, keep that in mind. The only other thing I'll say there is the I think that worked really

well for me focusing on helping people become instructional designers, because when, especially since a lot of people are transitioning from teaching to instructional design, which had a lot higher earning potential, a lot better work life balance, and as a very, like, material difference in people's lives, like, it changes their lives overnight basically when they get that instructional design job because they are earning so much more, they do have so much more free time for themselves and their families. And I think helping people achieve an outcome like that not only made it way more rewarding for

me, as I was creating all of this content and focusing on this mission, but I think it also made it, yeah, made people a bit more motivated to stick to this content because the transformation would have such a big impact on their lives. So, let me know in the comments if you're going to pursue something more hobby driven. But I think, yeah, I think the bigger change it's going to have in someone's life, the probably more likely that your content will be to succeed. But we'll dive deeper into that into the full video we do

on identifying your audience. Next up, create free content. So once you have an idea of who you want to serve, start creating some content to help those people. That's the main idea here. So, choose a platform. YouTube is amazing. So, I started out writing only- I was a writer. I studied English literature in undergrad. I written fiction in the past, so I was like, I am going to write a blog. I'm going to write these text based tutorials. And that's what I did. And it was it was picking up some tracks and it was getting

me noticed. I would say it helped me land some clients in the space, but I realized it's a lot easier to build a relationship with people with video based content where people can see my face and hear my voice than it is with written content. So that was my hypothesis, you know, watching YouTube creators myself, feeling like I knew them, even though I had never spoken to them before in my life. And that, yeah, that helped me trust them, especially because of what they helped me accomplish in my own business and in my own life.

So I was like, I am going to get comfortable recording on YouTube and I'm going to force myself to figure it out. And if you look at some of the first videos on this channel, it's painful. It was very hard to learn how to do that. But a lot of the people who are interested in paying for online courses are spending a lot of their time learning from videos on YouTube. If you're going to pay for a video based course, you're probably already learning from videos for free on YouTube. And that has been very true.

I noticed pretty early on since I started creating YouTube content that people are receiving it very well. A lot more people reaching out to me compared to my text based content, even though I had fewer views on YouTube. And since then this has been the main driver of, like, sales and helping me get found and all of that good stuff. So, if you can- if you can get comfortable with video based content, I will say it is very, very worth it. But if you want to start writing or blogging on your own personal website, that

is a great way. . .that works really well too. I will say video based content, you will see a higher return on investment on though. Now the idea when it comes to, like, which content to create. You want to create content that your audience would find valuable. In other words, help them solve their problems. So, this is why it's good to draw on identities that, like, you've held or challenges that you've overcome. Because I- when I had recently become an instructional designer before I started creating content on it. So, I was just thinking back to

all the stuff that I was googling, all the stuff that I had a hard time finding an answer for all the stuff that I wish someone had created when I was going through that transition. So, it made it really easy. First, I kind of mined my own mind for- for content ideas and then being immersed in communities with these people and seeing, like, the questions they're asking, the things that they are struggling with made it really easy to come up with content ideas too. So, we're going to dive way deeper into that in the content

video. But of course the idea is, yeah, which problems are your audience facing and how can you help them solve those problems? Another way to think about it is what are your what is your audience searching for? So again, this was easy for me to think about because I was googling and looking up on YouTube so many different things when I was becoming an instructional designer. Think back, you know, if- if you have been searching for stuff when you started gardening or if you're trying to, like, work on relationship issues, what kind of stuff are

you searching that your audience may also be searching for? And then there are, of course, keyword research tools out there, which we'll get into in the content video where you can quite literally see data about what people are searching for and- and and volume on how many people are searching for those different things. Okay. This one is important. Provide as much value as possible and do not hold back. This is a huge mistake that I see aspiring course creators make. They think, "Yeah, I have all of this really useful information. I can't put it all

out there for free because then I won't be able to make any money from the paid stuff". That is the complete wrong way to go about it. This whole approach is founded on giving as much as you possibly can away for free and helping make a difference in people's lives for free. That's- that's a core tenet of this organic approach, I would say. So, definitely don't hold back. You want, yeah, you want your free content to be better than anything else out there so that when people- people come across it, they're like, I cannot believe

this is free. I want to give this person money because they helped me solve such a big problem in my life. And I didn't- and I didn't have to pay for them. So, it's kind of that, like, principle of reciprocity there. It's like, I can't believe someone put this much time and effort into this free thing. I want to help them back out in return in some way. And maybe they won't. Maybe a hundred of them won't. But- but some people will. But, yeah, that's- that's I guess a bigger discussion. But that is a very

good way to make sure that your business doesn't grow very well to hide stuff behind closed doors or. . . Yeah, lock up information. You don't want to do that because if- if you're doing that and your competitor is giving stuff away from it for free, who do you think that people are going to trust? The person who's saying, I have all the secrets, just pay me $1,000, or the person who has already helped you solve major problems and they know that your content is really good because you are sharing so willingly. So, main principle

there. Another suggestion: make your content SEO friendly. So, the idea you want is so that if someone is looking up how to solve one of their problems, you want your resource that you put a lot of time and effort into to show up for them. That's the idea. You want to be found where your audience is searching, right? That's how the organic part of this works and it's how you're going to get found over and over in your content that you created two years ago. It's still going to bring people to you two years down

the line. So, I'm not going to go super deep into that. It's essentially just, like, creating the content that people are looking for and these platforms are generally able to figure out the rest. But the suggestion I will make to you is at least look up how the algorithm works on the platform you're publishing on. So, if you're going to publish on YouTube, watch at least a few videos on how the YouTube algorithm works, just so that you, like, know how YouTube decides what to show to people. That stuff is helpful. It's not going to

really, you know, if you're- if you're creating really valuable content, it's going to get in front of people. But if you can optimize it and make it easier for people to find it, that's going to be even better. And then the other piece of this, very important, be consistent. So, if you're going- if you're going to seriously if you're going to take this journey seriously, it's not something where you just, like, post a video or two and then two months later post another video or two and then three months later post something else that's not

going to produce results for you commit to a cadence that you can actually keep up with. So, if you're going to post one high value piece of content a month, that's okay if that's all you can do for now, but be consistent with that every single month. Weekly is ideal. I think weekly is the most common approach that content creators use, especially ones who are full-time content creators like myself. And then there are some people who are doing, like, ten times a week, which is intense, but once a week, if you can keep up with

that, you will be in very good shape. I built my seven-figure business posting content once a week, so that is completely reasonable thing to work up to, especially if you already have a full-time job. It can be hard to keep up with that. So, whatever you're going to commit to be consistent with it. Next up, it is time to grow your mailing list. So, you're going to want to do this hand in hand with creating your free content essentially. You can think of your- your free content as a way to let people know who you

are and to introduce people to yourself. But then your mailing list is where you're most engaged viewers or your biggest fans will wind up. So, they'll end up giving you your email address, their email address in exchange for something. Whether that's just to keep up with your latest posts or to get some kind of resource or template you've made, and then you're going to be able to keep them in the loop with everything you've got going on. So, you do not have a business without a mailing list. So, let's let that sink in. I cannot

tell you how many people I've spoken to who are interested in starting a course selling business and they're talking to me all about what their course is going to be and how they've even started working on a course, but they don't have a single email on their mailing list. That is a very big waste of time, at least in my opinion. I don't think that's going to lead to very much success. You need a mailing list before you're working on your course. You don't want to put the cart before the horse, so please keep that

in mind. Please prioritize building your mailing list. This is how you talk to your most engaged fans. It's essential your direct line of access. It's really going to handle your most important communications. So, it's where you announce new content. So it's, you know, wherever you post that content. Again, first I was publishing on my blog, I already had a little bit of a mailing list. So when I started creating on YouTube, I could send a thousand people to my very first YouTube video. So again, it's really important to have that direct line of communication. It's

where they can request feedback and you'll see that is another very big part of this process having that direct line of communication where you can not just send new stuff to your people, but you can also ask your people to get feedback on what you've got going on. That will play a very big role, especially once we get to the paid stuff and this is where you will actually do your sales. So, this is your- this is where you launch your paid courses. This is essentially how you make a living from a content business. Again,

no mailing lists, no money. This- this is- this is essential. So, choose a platform. The earlier you get started with this, the better. If you have this all set up by the time you post your first piece of content, amazing. It's not a requirement. But again, the earlier the better. So, here are a few platforms. There's Drip, which I use, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, MailChimp, several options. One of, you know, any of these will do just fine. So check them out, see which ones resonate the most with you. But you definitely will want to start building your

mailing list as early as possible. And then to build your mailing list, you can create "lead gens" that's, like, the term for it in the industry. It's essentially where you give someone something in exchange for their mailing list, something that will be valuable to them. So the simplest lead gen and what I use for probably, like, months, if not up to a year, is to say, “Hey, I'm going to keep you in the loop with my new content. So, if you want to get that reminder, as soon as something new goes live, join these other

people on the mailing list and then we'll have that direct line of communication”. Something that builds my mailing list more effectively than pretty much anything else is my free checklist on how to become an instructional designer. So it's, like, a one page document and it kind of outlines step-by-step what people should learn and what they should do if they want to break into the instructional design field. So as you can imagine, a lot of people who want to become instructional designers, that's a very high value thing for them because it lets them keep everything in

track in one single place. So, it's completely free. But people sign up on the mailing list for that and then I can send them a lot of other emails with relevant content and eventually sales emails about paid courses that will help them achieve that goal of becoming an instructional designer. So again, we'll dive deeper into this into the mailing list video, but I hope that gives you a good idea of how this works. All right next up, once you- once you have some content out there, some of that content is doing well and it's helping

bring people onto your mailing list. It is time to validate your course idea. We're getting very close to sales at this point, so you can look at your top content for inspiration and you're trying to figure out what people's main challenges are, because the closer you get to their their challenges and their pain points, the course you're going to get to the money because then you can create a course or a program that can solve that challenge more comprehensively than a YouTube video can. So and the next step, once you have some ideas here, is

going to be to host focus groups, to talk to people on your mailing list and discuss these options. So for me, I just want to give you an idea of how this looks and how this happened for me. Okay so it was one night, it was at, like, 2 a.m. I was feeling wide awake, which wasn't usual at the time. And I started thinking about what I'm actually doing and I realized, hey, I'm helping instructional designers like, achieve more financial freedom, essentially, like, earn more, work less compared to their previous jobs. That's what I'm doing.

I can create a paid program to help people this way better than my YouTube content can. And I'm going to cover so many things. I'm going to help people learn all the theory, learn how to use the technology, I'm going to help them build their portfolios, teach them how to build a freelance business if they want. I'm going to do all of these things and it's going to be amazing. All right. So then I was like, “Wait, before I get carried away with this and start building, I need to see if people are actually interested

in this”. So, I sent out an email to my mailing list and there were maybe, like, 1,300 people on at the time and I was like, “Hey, can you register for one of these focus group sessions?" There was maybe ten or so people on each session. And can I talk to you about some of the paid course ideas I had and see what you might be interested in?” So essentially, after doing three focus groups or so and talking to 30 or so people, the unanimous response after I gave them, like, all- all this stuff I

wanted to cover, people were like, "Yeah, that's all interesting and really ambitious and great and everything, but I'm really interested in that 'how to build your portfolio' piece. I want to- I want to learn more about the portfolio that's, like, the missing piece for me". And then talking through with them more, they're like, “Yeah, the highest value part of that would be feedback from you”. So, again I'll dive deeper into it in this video. But- but that's the idea. I talked to my people, I asked, I said, “Here's what I've been thinking. What do you

all think about this? What would you actually be interested in paying for?” And if I were to go ahead with what I originally thought, I'd probably still be working on building that to this day making. . . Yeah, probably not meeting my income goals, but because I took an extra week and actually talked to people and asked them what they wanted and what would be valuable to them, it changed the entire trajectory of what I built and it made me sure that I had a winning product essentially. So yeah, you're going to discuss potential course

outcomes with people and see what they may or may not be interested in. And this is going to be a really big and important part where you decide if access to you or coach is necessary. Again, for me, the resounding response from these focus groups is that people would be interested in paying for- for feedback from me, and I've eventually brought on some coaches to help deliver this feedback and worked with those coaches to bring their feedback in line with mine. But that was very, very clear it was going to need to be a higher

ticket offer with feedback included. Excuse me. So. So, that's going to be something you're gonna want to keep in mind while you're working through these focus groups too, and ask questions about price. Don't be afraid to discuss price. Just get some impressions of it. You can ask, yeah, “What might you be willing to pay for a program like this? Or what might a program like this be worth to you?” And you don't have to be confined by their answers and people could really say whatever they want. You're not going to really know until they actually

enter their credit card details and purchase the course. But getting that kind of data can help, you know, if you're on to something or not and seeing that response. So, the next step after you do those, after doing those focus groups, what I did is I surveyed my mailing list with a short list of options. And I basically said, "Which one of these course ideas sounds most appealing to you?" I would- you could ask any other questions that made you clarification that didn't get answered during the focus groups and very important here, you can ask

people, would you be open to discussing this further on a one-on-one? That's what I did. And that's going to be very important for this next step, which is the presale. So, you're essentially saying- asking your whole mailing list, “Hey, if you're interested in this paid course, can I reach out to you to schedule a Zoom call essentially and talk about it with you further?” It's a very important and if they say that they are interested, of course, make sure that you collect their name and email address. So, now it's time to make some sales. So,

you're probably 3 to 6 months into your content creation journey at this point. You could do it sooner. Keep me posted on your journeys in the comments. I love to see how this process is going for you all and of course help out how I can. So for the presale process, create a slide deck outlining your course as well as you can, the intended outcomes, and the benefits. So this is essentially the deck outlining your offer, what it includes, what it's going to help people with. Then you can invite people who answered yes on that

survey they would want to get on a one-on-one, invite them to schedule a one-on-one with you. Calendly is a really helpful tool with this. It'll automatically generate a Zoom link if you haven't used that tool before, it makes it super easy and you're going to hop on to some calls with people and you're going to go through that slide deck with them. So you're going to say, “Hey, thanks for hopping on this call and giving me some feedback. I'm just going to go through this slide deck with you. Let me know what you think. Yeah,

I'm just collecting feedback as I go". At the very end of that, you can ask them, “Hey, do you want to basically enroll in this course before it's even built and help me build it in exchange for a big discount?” So for me, I generally do a 50% discount for the presale. So, if it's $1,000 course, which is what I told people, I'm like, “This is going to be $1,000 once it's built. Do you want to get in on this at $500, essentially half the price?” And most of those people will say, yes, if they're

with you to this point. The cool thing, too, is the reason you're doing these one-on-ones and asking for feedback through that slide deck isn't just to build a relationship and kind of walk people through the offer, but it's also because you can apply people's feedback to that slide deck and refine your offer as you go. So, some people might be like, “Oh yeah, I really, like, wish that this would be covered”. And you'd be like, “Oh yeah, that makes complete sense. We definitely want to cover that”. You would then update that slide and include that

in your walk through for the next person. So, it's like the product and the offer is refining itself with each one of these one- on-ones that was very, very effective at helping me get it, not just get a clearer idea of what the offer will be and what people really want and need, but also, yeah, it helped me close more sales. As you know, as we were, the offer was refined. So, you'll then create a shell on a course platform and send people the enrollment link. That's where they'll actually pay. So, I use a platform

called Teachable. Another popular one is Thinkific. Kajabi is another one. Teachable has been great for me. I don't have any complaints there. I don't plan to use anything else. But you can just create a shell of that course. It doesn't need to have a single video or lesson yet. I guess you could record lessons saying, "Hey, welcome to the presale program, I'll talk to you soon". But you're making sales at this point without having any paid product. And that is a key part of this process. Another thing you can do after doing those one-on-ones is

you can send that enrollment link out to the rest of your mailing list. You can let them you can give them more details about the offer and what it is that you're building and say once again, "Hey, you can get in on this 50% off this week only if you want to build this out with me and get that big discount". So, I did that and I ran up with around 35 people or so in this presale program. I think around 30 is a really good number. If you are 15 or 20, that's okay. But

you want to have a decent amount of people to make sure that they're able to give you the feedback you need to then do this next step, which is creating the course. So, this is where you build the course with the people that you just presold it to. Their input and feedback here is going to be absolutely essential. I think I forgot to mention that. But you're going to mention that too. Yeah. You're going to get this big discount in exchange for building the course with me and giving me feedback along the way so that

I can make sure it's as good as possible by the time we finish it. So, you're definitely going to want to create a community space for communication and feedback. So, I had a- I'd use Slack when I started my business. It was really easy to talk to people in real time. Since then we've switched over to circle.so really good with automations and really good for course creators. But you essentially want to make sure, you know, people use Facebook groups, you want to- you want to make sure you have somewhere that you can talk to everyone

in the course and the people in the course can talk to each other. So, that's something that email can't do super well. And then this is really important too. You're going to want to host a weekly focus group to review new and upcoming content. So, every single week with my presale group- group at the same time, I said, Hey, we're going to meet. We're going to- I'm going to ask you how you like the content you just went through and ask if you had any feedback on that. And I'm going to go through the plans

that I have on the content I'm creating over the next week or for the overall structure, and I'm going to get input on that before I build it. So, building the course with your community like this and with the people who need the course, it- it builds your confidence really, really well because then, you know, when this thing gets launched, it's going to be a hit because you're getting that feedback from the people who need it most. You know, the people who enroll after you launch it at full price, they're going to get it really.

. . They're going to have a really good experience because it's already been tested. It's already been iterated upon with feedback from your intended audience. So, this is very important to this is why people were like, “Oh, I'm going to go build my course in a bubble and then launch it without anyone ever seeing it”. That's a recipe for disaster, and it's probably not going to be super effective. So, listen to your audience. They play a key role in this. Apply the feedback that's essential. So, don't just get the feedback and do nothing with it.

Like that's the process. Get the feedback, iterate on the course, re-record stuff if you need to. That's how you're going to make this more effective. Some other suggestions that I've- I've seen some online courses, like, not really have you want to incorporate practice opportunities and peer feedback. You want to get people actually getting practice with this stuff. It is that they're supposed to be learning and then whether you're giving feedback, like, asynchronously or via a coach or yourself, like, or facilitating peer-to-peer feedback with rubrics or peer-to-peer zoom calls, we'll get we can do a whole

video on how to facilitate stuff like that, but keep those pieces in mind. And then create supplemental resources as needed too. So, you can create things like checklists or templates to make people's lives easier or other other job aids. Just things like that that people can download and reference or fill out easily so that they don't have to, like, start from scratch. You're essentially want to save people time if they're doing your course, and if templates can help with that, then you should take the time to create them. But yeah, we're definitely going to do

a big video on how to actually create the course. Once the course is created and you've worked through it with your presale group, it's time to launch the course and this is where you're probably going to be making quite significant sales and income. So, you're going to publish relevant content in the weeks leading up to your course launch. So, like, in my case, my course at the time was all about how to build a really impressive portfolio website in the weeks leading up to the launch. My best launches have been, like, eLearning portfolio review videos.

I'll say, "Hey, let's take a look at this- this portfolio and review it and how it could be better." Because the people watching that and most engaged with that are people who want to improve portfolios of their own. So, then- when the launch comes after and it's, “Hey, I'm going to work with you directly to help you improve your portfolio”. It made a lot of sense that it prompted people quite well who are most interested in that topic. You're also going to want to create landing page outlining your offer and what it will help people

achieve. So, you want to be very benefits driven here. You want to be very clear about what difference your offer is going to make in people's lives and what they should be able to accomplish after going through your program. Social proof here is imperative. This again, is why it's really helpful having a presale group, because some people, while you're building it, they're going to get a lot of value out of it. They are going to get the jobs they're looking for. They are going to build those really impressive portfolios. They are going to get their

edible garden started in their backyard, if that's what you're helping them with. So, you want to talk to those people who have been, like, keeping up with the presale program and getting good results from it, and you're going to want to ask them to provide a testimonial about their experience with your program, and then they're going to run a feature that on your landing page so that prospective students and prospective buyers can see. Oh yeah, I don't just need to trust this person and take their word for it that this is going to help me.

I can see other people that this has helped and I can even reach out to those people and ask them about their experience if I wanted to. So, that is a huge sales driver. That is something you need on every single landing page, not just course landing pages, but very important, very good thing to learn early on. And then you're going to offer a discount if people enroll during launch week. So, you're going to send out an email essentially. So, Monday to Friday usually works really well with this. And on Monday you'll announce your offer.

On Tuesday and Wednesday you may share some social proof or, you know, a more insider look of what your offer entails and on Thursday and Friday, you're basically saying, "Hey, this offer is coming to an end. Get it now at this launch price. And it's never going to be this price at this point again". So, what I would usually do is, like, 25% off during launch week. That's what I've always done. And that's, like, the second biggest discount I would do after the presale discount. So, that's usually a huge burst of sales. Some people do

this differently. I've- I've tried before with, like, including other courses during the launch week instead of offering a discount, but you basically want to sweeten the pot and give people some type of bonus for being the first people who join it once it launches. So again, we'll go way deeper into launch strategies in it's own video, just like everything else here. The last real step I have here. Is it growing your business and going with these, like, growth levers essentially? So testimonials, again that social proof, couldn't that that is such- that grows your business quicker

than anything else. Your students success is the biggest growth driver of your business. I can't understate that. And if you can highlight that student success, you are going to grow very quickly. So, highlight student stories and accomplishments in your content. So, I've done a question and answer sessions with people who have completed my program successfully. I've highlighted them on my website on a showcase. I show off the work that they've created after my program. I referenced their work in videos, like, about good portfolios and stuff. So, the more you can incorporate your students success in

your content and in your storytelling, the the more you can show people, yeah, this thing actually works. People are seeing real results from this. People who are in your exact position have done this and achieved and achieved exactly what they wanted to achieve. You can do that too. That's the message you're getting out there and it makes a very big difference in your sales. And then there are a whole host of social media strategies and approaches that you can use to grow that top level of the funnel and just help people become more aware of

who you are. And then of course, a portion of those people will filter into your longer form YouTube content and a portion of those people will go on to your mailing lists and then a portion of those people will become paid customers or clients. So, that's, like, the funnel. You've probably heard of marketing funnels before. If not, you can check it out, but it's essentially constantly a trickle down. You may have millions, you know, a million people watch your free YouTube content or see your social media posts and then you may have a much, much

smaller handful of them become paid customers. And that's completely fine because you have a ton of free stuff out there that is helping people for free. And then you have more premium hand-holding or more structured offers for people who want to dive deeper with you or pay for support. So it's a really, really cool type of business because You do get to help people for free, but then it also, as you- as you reach more people and provide more value out there in the world, your income levels can grow beyond your wildest dreams. At least

that's what happened to me. And a lot of people who have who have started businesses like this. So, if you enjoyed this video and you are up for trying out this process and building a course selling business of your own, please subscribe. That's the best way to show me that you're interested in this type of content. And you also don't want to miss it because every week for the next ten weeks or so, I am building out this playlist and we're going to dive much deeper into all of these topics, so there's plenty more content

to come. If you have any questions that I didn't cover or you're curious about any aspects of this, please drop a comment letting me know just so I know, like, what to create videos about that I haven't already talked about here and I want to say thank you again for making it to the end of this video. My throat is sore I've been talking for a while I can tell. And I will see you in the next video next week. Talk to you soon.