This is a comprehensive guide to creating a profitable online course, based on my experience developing 6 courses over 7 years, which have been taken by more than 25,000 students and generated well over $1 million in revenue.

It introduces my 4-P model for developing a course, referring to the 4 main stages of Planning, Preparation, Production, and Promotion. This doesn’t include the actual running and delivery of the course, which is a whole different topic and depends a lot on the format you choose.

This guide also assumes you want to create a profitable, self-sustaining course. There are a lot of excellent reasons to create one, including learning, personal fulfillment, fun and experimentation, and simply to share what you know. But the level of preparation and effort I’m recommending in this guide is aimed at those who want to make a business out of it.

Here is a Table of Contents of the 36 specific steps that I use in my own course development. Under most of them I’ve included multiple examples of what it looks like in my own courses or those I’ve learned from. I’m sharing them in their full, messy glory because this process is inherently messy. I hope it gives you some guidance and ideas for your own course creation.

Table of Contents

Planning

WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL OBJECTIVES FOR THIS COURSE?

• Desired outcomes for BSB1

CREATE A MASTER COURSE OUTLINE AS THE CENTRALIZED REFERENCE FOR THE COURSE

• BASB v1 Planning

  • Headings:

    • To Do’s
    • Planning
    • Objectives
    • Brand design
    • Research

    • Content Outline

      • 1. Title slide
      • 2. Unit 1
      • 3. Unit 2
      • 4. Unit 3
      • 5. Unit 4
      • 6. Unit 5
      • 7. Unit 6
      • 8. Unit 7
    • Content to add
    • Sales page
    • Promotion
    • Logistics
    • Videos
    • Community
    • Activities
    • Final Project
    • Followup

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

• BASB customer personas
• BASB big picture and personas

WHAT’S THE TRANSFORMATION THEY’RE SEEKING?

• Forte Labs Customer Problems
• What it feels like to be disorganized

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT?

• What Makes Building a Second Brain Different

WHICH IDEAS OR PHRASES HAVE RESONATED WITH YOUR AUDIENCE?

• Notes on Beta Sessions (FLO-Evernote) 12/13/16 (four 60-minute feedback sessions where I presented initial material and got live feedback from 15 people)

POSSIBLE TITLES AND SUBTITLES

• Brainstorm with Raphael

WRITE/DESIGN THE COURSE PLEDGE OR PROMISE

• BASB: You will learn how to capture, organize, and share your ideas and insights using digital notes, with a systematic approach and tools that you trust to support creative breakthroughs in your work

WHICH SOURCES DO YOU WANT TO REVIEW FOR INSPIRATION AND IDEAS?

• Content:

  • Eureka notes (ebook by Evernote thought leader)
  • Evernote Essentials notes
  • Untethered with Evernote notes
  • Spark Joy, by Marie Kondo notes

• Promotion:

  • Mastermind Package (premium upsell to an online course)
  • Little List Leverage: How to sell out your course… even with a small list
  • Growth Day Webinar: Table of Contents
  • How to Create Mini-Courses and Email Courses to Grow Your List
  • Jenna Soard – YouCanBrand notes
  • Fwd: (Super Time Sensitive) Content Marketing Bootcamp is open for registrations
  • TeachableBlog-UltimateEmailExampleGuide
  • Rebecca Katz’s Cancer-Fighting Kitchen notes
  • How to Write a Powerful Sales Page notes
  • Dan Kennedy – The Ultimate Sales Letter
  • Value Prop Design notes
  • Farnam Street: The Art of Reading online course notes
  • altMBA notes
  • How to Design Marketing Campaigns: The Importance of Market Segmentation – The Startup – Medium
  • Flow Fundamentals sales page notes

WHO DO YOU WANT TO TALK TO?

• Stacey Harmon (Evernote certified consultant and online course creator)
• Brainstorm with Raphael
• Ting’s recommendations
• Strategy Lunch (12-19-2017) w/ Tiago and Amit

START COLLECTING V1 COURSE MATERIAL IN A DEDICATED NOTEBOOK