My Step-By-Step Playbook for Creating a $25k/Month Online Course

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Packaging up my existing knowledge into an online course and putting it out there into the world has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 

Why? 

Not only has it been a financial game-changer, bringing in over $500,000 USD since I first launched my course in 2019, but it’s also been a TOTAL lifestyle game-changer, giving me the freedom and flexibility I’d always craved as well as the opportunity to teach others to do the same. 

If you have some special skill or knowledge—and I know you do, because we ALL do—there’s no reason not to wrap it all up into a digital course and share it with those who really need it.

Those people really do exist—people out there who want the skills or knowledge you have (that they don’t) and who are more than happy to pay you to teach it to them.

Today I’m going to share the exact process I used to create and sell my own online course, Low-Content Profits Academy. I opened the course with a $60k launch and now, 2.5 years later, it generates a healthy average income of around $25k/ month.

Watch the video or read the main points below and I’ll show you the exact path I took.

Why Create an Online Course?

The main reason to consider creating an online course is that it’s an asset you can leverage for YEARS to come, either as your core product or as a complement to any other products or services you’re currently offering. 

My Step-By-Step Playbook for Creating an Online Course

There are a lot of different ways to build and launch an online course, but for mine I focused on: 

• audience-building
• organic marketing
• launching with live webinars

My playbook isn’t the only process out there but it worked VERY well for me. Feel free to follow it step-by-step or extract any key steps that work for you. 

I Decided on a Niche

Since I already had a low-content publishing business, this is the niche I chose for my course. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll need to do some research and find a niche that works for you. For some help, you can check out my post “How to Find A Profitable Niche and Validate Your Business Idea.” 

Remember, you don’t need to be an expert in whatever niche you decide on. You just need to know a bit more than the average person. If you’re still not sure what that might be for you, check out this free downloadable worksheet from my personal online business mentor, Amy Porterfield. This worksheet, called “What’s Your Thing?”, can help you uncover the skills or knowledge you have that can add value to others and generate an income for you. We all have our “thing,” and this worksheet can definitely help you find it! 

I Purchased a Course to Help Me

Speaking of Amy Porterfield, the very next step I took was to invest in my business by purchasing Amy’s Digital Course Academy.

When I started, I didn’t have a website or a YouTube channel; I just knew that I wanted to create a digital course. Once I purchased Amy’s course, I essentially followed it step-by-step to create a course of my own.

While I didn’t have a website or a YouTube channel back then, I did know that I’d need an audience before I actually launched the course. This leads me to the next step of my playbook. 

I Built My Audience

I wasn’t going to wait until my course was finished before I started building an audience. My goal was to have people ready to buy my course by the time I launched it. I needed to attract my audience now! 

You’ve probably heard of a “lead magnet,” which is essentially a freebie that offers some value to a potential audience member in exchange for their email address. Building an email list is probably the most important thing you need to do when starting your business.

Because I was building a low-content publishing course, my lead magnet was a “quick-start” guide to help people new to low-content publishing understand the process. By the time I launched my course 9 months later, I had several thousand people on my email list. This meant that I had several thousand people already interested in learning more about my course. 

Incidentally, I’m still using that lead magnet to attract new audience members to my list today! 

I Started Creating Content

As soon as I had my lead magnet done, I created approximately 3 blog posts. I still didn’t have a website at this time but I knew that I would have one when I launched my course. I wanted to be sure that visitors to my site would see that I had more than just one piece of content published. 

I Set Up My Website and Launched My YouTube Channel

Once I created my blog posts I set up my website and YouTube channel. My website wasn’t  anything fancy (and still isn’t!). I simply downloaded a WordPress template and added my blog posts, and since I didn’t have any professional photos of myself, I used pictures from my wedding day.

I also created my YouTube channel and got it ready to start uploading videos. 

I Created Consistent Weekly Content to Attract Ideal Customers

Once my blog and YouTube channel were up and running, I focused on creating consistent weekly content for both. I’m now a few years into running my business and I’m still on the same schedule I started out with—one week each month I batch-create a month’s worth of content and then slowly drip it out over the next four weeks. 

Creating content consistently week-by-week is the best organic marketing technique I know. Doing this helped attract people to me so that when my course was ready I already had an audience I could share it with. 

For more on how to generate an income as a content creator, be sure to check out “5 Steps to Success: How to Make $20k a Month as a Content Creator.” 

You’ll also need to choose a medium and a platform for publishing your free content for your business. For me, it was my blog and YouTube. You might decide on a blog and a podcast, YouTube and a podcast, a blog and Instagram, or any other combination of media and platforms. 

When you’re choosing the type of content and where to share it, be sure to keep your audience in mind. Where do they hang out online? Do they like podcasts? Are they more likely to watch videos? Where will it be easy for them to find you? 

I Created My Ideal Customer Avatar

You should already have a good idea of who your ideal customer is (your customer avatar). It’s a great idea to clearly define your avatar on paper because future decisions you make about your course and your business will be driven in large part by your ideal customer. 

When defining your avatar, don’t just think in terms of demographics (e.g., age, sex, location). Also consider psychographics:

• What are their needs? 
• What are their values?
• Where are they on their journey? 

These things will help you shape your course, products, services, and future content. 

I Named My Course and Set My Pricing

Naming my course made it real. When considering a name, I chose one that accurately represented the results I wanted students to get: Low-Content Profits Academy. 

Selecting a price for your course or product offering can be a bit trickier. Start by thinking about the total value you’re offering to your customer. What is having their problem solved worth to them? 

If you need some more help with pricing, check out “How to Find A Profitable Niche and Validate Your Business Idea.”

I Scheduled All of My Launch Dates

The next thing I did was set my launch dates. In her Digital Course Academy, Amy Porterfield describes how to work backward from your launch date to help determine the significant milestone dates when creating your course. These milestones may include things like writing scripts, recording videos, editing, etc. 

Just remember that your schedule doesn’t have to be set in stone. I initially attempted to have my course ready to go in 3 months, but it actually took 9! Setting dates is just a good way to help you plan and stay focused, so set them and adjust if necessary. 

I Validated My Course Idea

Before moving forward and investing time in the actual course creation work, I wanted to make sure that it was something my audience wanted. The last thing you want is to work hard to create something that nobody wants. 

I set up some Zoom calls with people in my audience to get an idea of where they were on their journey and what specific areas they needed help with. 

Another way you can validate your course is to pre-sell it. Simply let your audience know that this is a course you are creating and offer them a generous discount for purchasing it now. If people are willing to pay for it before it’s even created, that is a big THUMBS UP that people want this course. I didn’t do this for my first course launch but will definitely consider it for my next. 

For more help with validating your business idea, check out “5 Steps to Creating An Irresistible Offer.”

I Outlined My Course

As I decided what to include in my course, I found it helpful to keep a few things top-of-mind. When I created the course outline I considered:

• the problem my course would solve for my students
• the results or transformation my students hope to achieve as a result of taking the course
• the information they need to achieve the results they want

I Created My Copy

The next thing I did was create the copy for my sales page and my email sequences. These emails included:

• webinar invitations 
• a post-webinar sequence to send people who attended the webinar but didn’t purchase
• an onboarding sequence for new customers

I Created A Webinar

I created a webinar packed with a lot of valuable free content to share with my audience. About two-thirds of the way through the webinar I introduced the course and delivered my sales pitch. 

I Recorded the Course and Tested It Out

It was finally time to record! I grabbed my Blue Yeti Nano mic and shoe-horned myself into my closet (where the sound was the best) and recorded the course, one module at a time.

As I finished each module I sent it to a small, select group of beta testers. I had six to seven testers who would watch the modules and give me feedback so that I could make tweaks as needed.

Tip for Using Beta Testers: Hindsight, I probably should have charged my beta tester pool to take the course (even if it was at a reduced rate) because, without any “skin in the game,” not all of the testers followed through on sharing feedback. For my next course, I will more than likely charge them to take the course to help ensure I get the feedback I need. 

I Set Up My Infrastructure

Setting up my infrastructure mainly entailed setting up the tech. Here are some things I did at this stage, along with some of the software I chose: 

• found a hosting program (Kajabi)
• chose a webinar platform (Demio)
• chose marketing funnel software (Deadline Funnel) 
• built sales pages
• set up a payment gateways (Stripe and PayPal)
• set up my business bank account

Launch Time! 

After I set up my infrastructure it was time for the live launch. I sent out the webinar invitation emails I had created to my email list and shared it on social media. 

I did a couple of live launches of my course after the initial launch, which meant that the course was “open” for a specific period of time, after which it was unavailable for purchase until I conducted the next live launch.

However, since that time, I’ve made the course evergreen, which means that it’s available for purchase at any time. Additionally, the webinar is prerecorded now (no longer “live”) so anyone can watch it on demand. 

Each year l make updates to the course to ensure the information presented in it is accurate based on any changes in my niche. I also consider any feedback I’ve received from my students and incorporate changes based on it when appropriate. 

I Conducted a Post-Launch Debrief

It’s really important to conduct a post-launch debrief after you launch your course to help you understand what worked well and what didn’t. 

It’s important to analyze all of the facts and figures to determine how well all of the work you put into creating and launching your course converted into sales. Adjusting your launch strategy based on the metrics you gather from your debrief can really help make your next launch a success.

I Created a Post-Launch Nurture Sequence

The goal of my course was not just to sell it but to help my students learn and to develop a relationship with them. 

I’ve helped nurture the relationship with my students by: 

• sending a sequence of weekly emails to support them
• creating a private Facebook community for accountability and support from me and amongst my students 

It’s important that your students not feel as if purchasing your course was purely transactional.

The 4 Biggest Factors That Contributed to My Success

As I mentioned, I do continue to make updates to the course each year as things change or as I receive feedback from students, but there isn’t a ton of work I need to put into it at this point. Since it’s always available for purchase now, it continues to bring in approximately $20K/ month for me. 

Here are 4 of the biggest factors that contributed to the success of my course:

1. I created a course that people wanted. The fact that people wanted this course wasn’t just a hunch because I took the time to validate my idea for the course with real people. I knew before I created my course that there were people who would pay for it.
2. I consistently published valuable content for free. Before I ever asked for a sale, I was already providing value to my audience by giving away free content that would help them. This process helped my audience but also worked to establish me as a trusted expert in my niche. 
3. I built an email list before I launched. Starting an email list is one of the most important things you can do because when you’re ready to launch, you’ll already have a group of people who know and trust you. 
4. I invested in myself.  Purchasing Digital Course Academy and following along with Amy as she walked me through creating a digital course was a huge factor in my success with Low-Content Profits Academy. I couldn’t have done it on my own without it taking ten times longer—and with probably ten times worse results.

As you can see, creating and launching a course took quite a bit of elbow grease but the juice was DEFINITELY worth the squeeze! And If you have some special skill or knowledge, packaging it up into a digital course will likely be well worth it for you as well. Don’t deprive the world of what you have to offer! It will add value to others while also providing you with an asset that can generate income for years to come. 

If you’re an aspiring online business owner who needs a helping hand getting things off the ground, download my free guide, “The 4-Step ‘No Time to Waste’ Online Business Start Up Blueprint.” This guide takes you through ALL of the steps to starting an online knowledge-based business, from idea generation all the way through to creating an offer and marketing it to your audience, so definitely check it out!