In that time I’ve accumulated a wealth of knowledge that isn’t organised enough to be a course/training itself but is too juicy to keep to myself. So I’ve decided to plonk it down here in a random list of tidbits for you to rummage through and take whatever is useful to you.

Here are my top 10 course creation and launching insights:

#1 You shouldn’t spend 100s of hours creating the course

Don’t spend hours and hours and hours creating the content, perfecting the videos, making incredible-looking slides, and beautifying the workbook before your first launch. Because when people first go through the course they will have questions, they will get stuck, they will not understand bits (even though you tried really hard to make it easy). And you will need to go back and make changes.

When you first create a course, aim to get it in front of a paying, eager and interactive audience as quickly as possible. Create materials good enough to communicate your message, but flexible enough that you can make changes later.

Most of my courses were created using Elizabeth Goddard’s Paid Live Training approach* (affiliate link). She has a free training on How To Choose Your Paid Live Training Topic* (affiliate link) which will give you some useful ideas and insight into how the process works.

Irresistible Offers started as a paid 5-day challenge with a Facebook group and I created the material as I went along. It’s had a couple of makeovers since then, and I found creating as I went along a bit stressful, but it worked to get the idea out of my head and into some format people could buy and use.

#2 You don’t have to wait until it’s ready to sell it

For me and my clients ‘write the sales page’ is often the first step in the course creation and launching process.

The sales page enables us to set our own goals and intentions for the course, and the process of writing it helps us dive inside the head of the future student, so we’re promising (and then creating) something they really want.

And then, if you’ve got the sales page available, you might as well put it on sale.

So long as you pre-warn the buyers that the thing doesn’t even exist yet, it’s totally acceptable (and even quite sensible) to pre-sell your thing.

And if not many people buy it, you get to decide whether you refund them and don’t bother creating it, or you trust that more buyers will come in the future so you go ahead and make it anyway.

I almost always pre-sell my courses because that chunk of money helps create some breathing space financially, which means I can spend less time on client work, which means I’ve got more time to create the course – it’s like Kick-starter for course creation.

You might find this free training from Lizzy Goddard helpful: How To Create And Sell Something Before You’re Ready* (also an affiliate link, and yes, she’s definitely my go-to person for learning about this)

#3 You’ll probably want to offer a launch/beta/early bird price

Reasons you may want to start out by offering a lower price than the price you plan to eventually sell it at:

• If you’re pre-selling, the discount can act as a ‘thank you for your patience while I make the thing’
• If you position the new course as your beta-version you are managing people’s expectations. There will be mistakes. There will be some areas that need improving or explaining. You’re preparing them for that, and at the same time encouraging their feedback, which will help you make the course better for when you’re ready to sell it at full price.
• When you first launch your course has zero testimonials and zero reputation, which means it’ll be harder to sell at first. A special price helps get over that.

#4 Even for an evergreen course you might want to close the doors to start with

There are going to be teething problems, tech hitches and improvements you want to make.

If you launch the course then leave the doors open, you may end up working on these updates ALL THE TIME, distracting you from other important work.

If you close the doors for a brief period, it:

• Encourages people to buy the course when you first launch it because they’ll know they have to wait for another opportunity
• Allows you to switch your energy to focus on the people who have bought and on making sure they’re engaging with and benefiting from you course.
• And then you can use that experience to batch up all the changes you want to make, and complete that work in one go.

#5 You don’t have to pay $$$$ to learn about course creation

Before you go an spend thousands of dollars on a specialist course or training programme that promises to help you create and sell your course, here are three excellent sources of information you might be able to tap into at no extra cost.

a) Many platforms that host courses have excellent resources that you can access for free.

b) Some of the platforms have training that you can only access once you’ve signed up to use their platform – but as you were paying to host the course anyway, this training is effectively free to you.

c) Check the memberships or subscriptions you are already paying for. Many will have masterclasses or mini-courses on creating and selling an offer.

For example… Kajabi University is totally free….

Go to the Kajabi website* (affiliate link), head for the Resources section and look for Kajabi University.

#6 You don’t need to start with the name

Yes, the name you choose is hugely important because it is a massive pain to go back and change it later.

But you don’t need to have the name sorted to be able to write the sales page, or begin drafting the course content.

You might even find it easier to pick a name once you have a clearer picture of what you’re selling.

Here’s a blog post to help you name your new course: 9 Steps To Name Your Online Course.

#7 You don’t need a course platform to get started

A single video on a password protected page on a website.

Text in a Google doc with restricted link access.

Text and multiple videos presented on a page in Notion.

That’s three of the more unusual ways courses I’ve bought have been hosted.

And it really didn’t distract from the quality of the material.

Just because some multi-millionaire course creators hire a full film crew, set, hair & make-up, and video-editing team, and then host on a very flash-bang whizzy course platform…. that doesn’t mean your course needs to live up to that expectation.

When you do decide to choose a course platform, this blog post will help: How To Choose The Best Platform To Host Your Online Course.

#8 Once you’ve created this course it can be an income-generating asset for your business forever and ever and ever and ever

But only if you put the work in, and don’t give up after the first launch.

Think of it like a holiday rental property.

If you put the effort into rennovating a property, but had a disappointing first few weeks, you wouldn’t just lock up the front door, walk away and think ‘well that didn’t work out’ and switch your attention to something else.

You would figure out what changes you needed to make, and marketing you needed to do to make that asset generate money for you.

I have seen soooooooo many business owners create a course, fall out of love with it (usually because they wrongly imagine it isn’t any good), take it off their website…..and then a year later they start wondering if maybe they should be selling it!

#9 The mid-launch lull is a thing

When you first launch your course you may get a flurry of sales, and then it all goes quiet and you wonder if maybe you should shut up about your new course because nobody is interested and they don’t want to hear about it anymore.

This dip in sales (and confidence) is the mid-launch lull, and you can read all about it (and how to combat it) here.

#10 Would this be better as a group programme?

The fundamental difference between a course and a group programme is that a course is usually self-study, and a group programme is run between set dates with live support from you.

When a course is brand new, it can often work better as a group programme because:

• Your live involvement encourages people to actually use the course and so you’ll know more quickly whether it works or not, and if there are changes you need to make
• You’re right there if people get stuck, so you can create additional resources, or refine what’s there already, making the course better suited to self-study in the future.
• The live support will encourage students to complete the course, and so they’ll get results more quickly – great for them, and for your future testimonials.

And you can usually charge more for a group programme, so you’d need to sell fewer spots to meet your income goal.