Course Creators Weekly #24 🗓 December 7th, 2020 - How Wes Bos Teaches 100,000 Programmers as a One-Man Operation

Lots to learn from this conversation. Here are my key takeaways:

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  Start/grow an email list—it's your number 1 marketing channel
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  Be helpful on the Internet, sharing your knowledge for free, with no strings attached
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  Show up on social platforms and help people—build credibility + find opportunities
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  Explore/evaluate potential topics by writing blog posts/making short YouTube videos
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  Stop worrying about competition—your unique perspective/approach matters
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  Focus on good, quality content as your foundation, not "tactics"
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  Teach in person—you'll get to see people's struggles (read: opportunities to do better)
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  Automate what consumes too much time (but avoid automating too early)

This is one of those obvious-in-hindsight types of content—for me, at least!

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  First, focus on Traffic to your website—aim for 1,000+ visitors per month
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  Make sure to Place the opt-in form somewhere it can't be missed
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  Repeat the subscription form in multiple places throughout your site
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  Optimise forms for Conversion—copy has the biggest impact, but also colour, size, etc
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  Run A/B tests on your subscription form (not before you have Traffic though)

Check out the article for more details and examples!

This one's actually a combination of two articles, also covering Three Things You Can Do to Validate Your Course Idea. My key takeaways are:

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  Validate your course ideas before you invest months into creating them
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  Don't let the fear of rejection stop you from validating, or you'll find out the hard way
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  Research similar courses, read people's comments and understand their struggles
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  Befriend your competition and be genuine about it—they're not your enemy
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  Talk to your audience, ask questions, and learn what they struggle with
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  Run a pilot group with paying customers—best validation of them all