Introduction
If you have written a book and want to turn it into an online course, this guide will help you create one. It will show you how to go about creating your online course as well as give some tips on how best to structure it.
First, make a list of the key points of your book
First, make a list of the key points of your book. Write down the main points of your book in a friendly tone. You can use this as an outline and then fill in more details as you go through step two:
- Make sure that every point is covered by at least one paragraph so that there are no gaps in your discussion or information.
- Use bullet points to highlight important items and make them stand out compared to other sentences or paragraphs on the page (this can also be done using bold text).
Second, write your outline
An outline is key to making a course work because it guides you through all the steps and helps you stay on track. An outline can be as simple as a few bullet points or as detailed as an entire chapter; whatever works best for your topic will determine what kind of structure you use.
For example, if I were writing a book about “How To Be A Perfect Wife” and wanted my audience to take away something from each chapter (like tips for cooking dinner), then I would create an outline that looked something like this:
Third, read over your outline and make any necessary changes
The third step is to read over your outline and make any necessary changes.
- Read through your outline again, making sure you are happy with how it looks and feels.
- Make any necessary changes to the text before uploading it into your course builder or sales page on a website like Udemy or Teachable.* If you feel that something is missing from this step, then go back and edit what needs to be added for readers to understand exactly what content they will receive from reading through their book!
Then you can create the course!
After you’ve created your course, it’s time to publish it.
- Create a website for your course: The first thing you’ll want to do is create a website for your course (or, if it’s not self-directed, use an existing site). You can use a WordPress or other template that has been designed specifically for online courses.
- Create a landing page: Next, create a landing page where people who are interested in enrolling can find out more about what they’re getting themselves into and how much it will cost them—this will also be used as an opportunity for them to view some of their other modules before making a purchase decision. A good place for this would be at the end of each module so that people don’t get confused about where they need to go next!
If you’re using a self-directed course platform, this is one of the most important things that you can do. It will help keep your students engaged and focused on learning as well as provide them with an incentive to continue moving through your course.
- Create a sales funnel: Next, you’ll want to create a sales funnel. This is simply a process that will guide people through the steps of purchasing your course and moving through each module. It’s a great way to make sure that everyone who enrolls knows exactly what they’re getting themselves into—and it helps keep them from feeling like they’ve been left hanging when they finish one module only to find out there are more!
A good sales funnel can do a lot to help you build your course. Here’s an example of one that I’ve used for my courses: By creating this funnel, I’m able to make sure that people understand what they’re getting into and how much it will cost them—this will also be used as an opportunity for them to view some of their other modules before making a purchase decision. A good place for this would be at the end of each module so that people don’t get confused about where they need to go next!
Set up your payment processor: Next, you’ll want to set up a payment processor. This is the service that will let people pay for their course and manage payments across all of your different platforms (like Gumroad). I’ve used Gumroad for my courses because it’s easy, affordable, and allows me to take payments through PayPal—which means that my students can pay with any form of credit card or cash!
Create an online course by using the same principles that you use when writing a book!
Now that you’ve created your book, it’s time to take what you learned and create an online course. The same principles that apply when writing a book will also apply here. To get started, let’s look at what we can learn from our experience with writing and publishing this book:
- We had to think about every step of the process before we could launch it! This included making sure our cover design was perfect (we used Canva), formatting everything correctly in Word and Google Docs, creating sales pages for each chapter (more on those later), and making sure social media posts were scheduled out exactly as planned…and so on. As you know from reading this far into my advice section above—it takes planning!
- We were able to use some of the same tools as when I wrote my first book! For example, Google Docs allowed me both share drafts with people outside my organization who needed feedback on specific parts — but also gave me enough space within which each new sentence flowed smoothly into its surrounding paragraph without being interrupted by other thoughts cluttering up just because they weren’t fully formed yet.”
As you can see, there are a lot of steps involved in writing your first book. However, if you’re ready to take the plunge and write one yourself—I hope this guide was helpful!
If you have any questions about writing your first book or how to make it successful, feel free to reach out. I’d love to talk with you further!
Conclusion
When you’re done, you’ll have a great self-publishing course that’s useful for your students. You can use the same principles for writing an online course as you do for writing a book. We hope these steps have been helpful to you!