How to Use Your Blog to Launch an Online Course

Congratulations!

You’re going to launch your first online course.

You have (almost) everything you need: expertise, experience, unique content – maybe you’ve even written a book.

The problem is you don’t have an audience.

If you don’t have an audience to sell to, your course will join thousands of other good intentions that don’t make money.

Sorry, to be the bummer.

With a regular blog publishing schedule, attracting more followers, and growing your mailing list, you are more likely to enjoy a profitable launch of your new course. And with this formula, your audience will keep getting bigger and each launch will be more profitable.

Now, before you roll your eyes and tell me a blog is boooringly slow, let me tell you a story.

My first online course launch was an unmitigated disaster. It took 3 months to build, cost $2,500, and in the end, I might have had $3,000 in total sales.

I did everything wrong:

• No research (into topic or audience).
• Instead of marketing, all my time and money went into building the course.
• No launch campaign (I assumed people would somehow find my course!)

My biggest mistake was that I didn’t have an audience. I wasn’t blogging and there was no reason for people to come to my website.

I licked my wounds, started blogging, and built a second course. This one was simpler, completely online, and designed for back-of-room sales after my keynote presentations.

This one did a bit better. It cost (mostly staff time) about $1,000 to build and I think I had about $5,000 in sales.

Finally, I got smart, it was becoming pretty obvious that throwing a course out to the world, even with the support of friends and the bonus advantage of an audience when I gave a speech, wasn’t enough. I needed a reason for people to come to me.

[It was becoming pretty obvious that throwing a course out to the world wasn’t enough. I needed a reason for people to come to me.]

I increased my blogging frequency to weekly.

And that’s when everything changed. My list was growing – I eventually reached 15,000 followers. Finally, I had an audience I could communicate with.

My third course cost about $1,500 and my first launch grossed over $65,000. I updated it and did a second launch for $85,000. My third launch grossed 90,000.

Total added income over three launches was $240,000. And almost all sales came from the mailing list I had built using my blog.

In this post, I’m going to break down the 5-step process I used for that campaign. If you’re brave enough to dip your toes in the online course ocean, this is the process that works.

Why you need a plan

This might grate your entrepreneurial spirit, but if you don’t plan your project launch you will FAIL.

This might grate your entrepreneurial spirit, but if you don’t plan your launch campaign you will FAIL. Click To Tweet

This is true for launching an online course, publishing a book, or building your mailing list – you need to start with a clear picture of the goal and a plan to get there.

But, don’t worry – I’m not recommending Gantt charts or crazy-micro-detailed plans. My simple 5-step pre-launch process is all you need to get started:

1. Map out your launch campaign – allow at least 6 months to build an audience.
2. Make a list of keyword search terms – do basic keyword research.
3. Create a Content Calendar – brainstorm all the topics that relate to your course content.
4. Publish and promote weekly blog articles – each article solves one problem.
5. Grow your list – invite blog readers to receive a lead magnet and join your list.

Let’s go into more detail on each step.

1. Map out your launch campaign

Imagine going for a long hike in the woods and you’re heading to a mountain pass. Sounds nice, right?

Now, imagine all the landmarks keep changing. You know you want to reach that darn mountain pass by nightfall, but the trees keep moving, the creek you saw on the map is gone and now there’s a new mountain you have to go around.

Welcome to the complicated, ever-changing, and unnecessarily confusing world of launching an online course. You can take all the courses offered by “guru’s”, learn all about the design software, course hosting options, and email marketing and the only thing guaranteed is your launch will NEVER GO THE WAY YOU THINK.

At least with a plan, you have a much, much greater chance of success. Here’s what a plan can help you avoid:

• Running on assumptions instead of testing out your ideas.
• Putting all your attention (where it’s safe) on building the course and not on marketing.
• Launching to a cold audience because you didn’t build a base of followers.

And the biggest mistake of all…

• Not allowing enough time.

Your campaign plan works backward from the day you close your offer. You can build it on paper, using free tools like Asana or Trello or using Google Calendar.

2. Discover keyword search terms

The basic idea of SEO and keywords is all about matching what people search for with what’s in your blog articles. Here’s how it works…

The basic idea of SEO and keywords is all about matching what people search for with what’s in your blog articles. Click To Tweet

Millions of people are searching every second for answers to questions:

• “How to work from home with kids”
  
• “How to cook the perfect sourdough bread”
  
• “How to overcome procrastination”

When you include keywords (or phrases) in your blog posts matching what people are searching for you attract what’s called “organic traffic.” It’s free, happening 24/7, and it’s massive.

In the examples above, the keywords might be:

• “work from home”
  
• “perfect sourdough bread”
  
• “overcome procrastination”

To find keywords for your campaign you can start with free tools like Moz Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest, or Google Search Console.

Or you can do what I do and allow Google autosuggest to give your suggestions.

Simply, type variations of your topic into your search engine and let Google suggest popular searches.

For example, for this article, my topic is launching an online course. When I type that into the search bar I get…

3. Create a Content Calendar

Now that you have your keywords it’s time to map out what you will write about.
Similar to an author planning the chapters in her book, the object is to create a calendar of blog topics before you start writing.

And here’s the trick:

Every topic in your Content Calendar solves one important problem for your prospects.

Let me explain…

The majority of traffic to your website will always be organic (we talked about this above)—people searching for solutions for their problems.

For example, if you are a financial advisor, people are searching for solutions for retirement planning, wills and, estate planning, life insurance, succession planning for their business, etc.

Your job is to answer their questions and build your online authority. A Content Calendar is a simple way to organize your blog topics, starting with the main solution you provide.

I like to use Google Sheets to organize my Content Calendar – it’s easy to work with and share with my team.

Start with your main topic. For example, leadership.

Next, create a short-list of the sub-topics you get asked the most about. In our example, that could be:

• Delegation,
• Conflict,
• Coaching, and
• Communications

Within those 4 sub-topics, there are some obvious categories of topics. For example, within Delegation, there could be:

• Steps to take,
• Mistakes to avoid,
• Feedback, and
• Praise.

Finally, within each category are specific problems you know how to solve – these are future blog topics:

• The ## steps to perfect delegation
• The role of the leader (in delegation)
• How to empower people (with delegation)
• Mistakes to avoid (when delegating)

As you go through each category of topics, look for specific problems you have been asked about. You don’t have to write about all of these (first you will test each one for traffic using Google autosuggest we talked about above), but now you have a good inventory of future articles.

4. Publish and promote weekly blog articles

You’ve done the heavy lifting with keyword research, creating a Content Calendar, now all you have to do is write!

In this article, I walk you through the 7 step system I created to write my blog articles. Read this article before you start writing blog posts – it will save you time and a lot of frustration!

Here are the 7 steps (we’ve already covered #1):

1. Build a Content Calendar of great topics for future articles.
2. Start with the end in mind and plan the CTA’s (Call To Action) you want readers to take.
3. Use an egg timer and limit your research to 15 minutes.
4. Use a template to save time writing and make your article better.
5. Avoid the temptation to edit until you have your first draft
6. When editing, avoid the temptation to rewrite your article—done is better than perfect.
7. Write your headline and select your images last.

8. Grow your list

I’m always surprised that the “guru’s” who want to teach you how to launch an online course often miss one big step:

BUILDING AN MAILING LIST.

Without a list, you can’t reach people directly – in their Inbox. Your mailing list is the fastest way to build rapport, trust, and authority with your followers.

In this article, I answer the 5 most common questions about building a mailing list, including what kind of lead magnet offer works the best.

Your mailing list is the fastest way to build rapport, trust, and authority with your followers. Click To Tweet

Of course, there are always alternative ways to launch your online course:

You can use social media – but Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram are designed for conversations, not selling.

You can enlist a colleague and do an affiliate launch (you promote my launch and then I promote your launch), but that requires a mailing list.

You could pay for advertising, but that requires someone with experience managing ads and – of course – a budget.

There are 3 main advantages to growing your mailing list:

1. You own the list and can control how you reach your audience.
2. You can build your authority and trust with a select audience.
3. You can learn more about your market by tracking their behaviour.

In this article, I explain the 5 other ways you can make money from your mailing list.

The mechanics behind building your list are simple and once get set them up they’re designed to keep running while you are working on your campaign:

1. attract people to your blog,
2. offer them a lead magnet for joining your list,
3. send them a sequence of welcome emails,
4. move them into your sales funnel.

Getting started

My failed course launches forced me to completely rethink my approach. I want this article to help you avoid months of frustration and disappointment.

Having a simple pre-launch plan to build an audience with my blog and grow my list has changed everything.

That investment has allowed me to build rapport with my audience and to reach out when I needed to test an idea or to market a new product. If you want to build a sustainable, profitable business you need to start by building an audience.

The sooner you start the sooner you can enjoy the rewards of your investment.

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