In Episode 74, we are wrapping up our series,  Starting and Growing Your Online Course. In today’s show we talk about the biggest challenge when it comes to your online courses. And that is attracting your students and building a healthy community. And to help us get a better grip on marketing our courses, we bring in Troy Dean, founder of WP Elevation, who has been very successful in the online course space.

From my own experience, I have seen a lot of people who dive into online courses, build their site, create their content, and then hope for signups. This is where the largest number of individuals hit a brick wall. They can be amazing teachers with awesome content, but they struggle with driving the traffic and signups to their site. Listen to these great tips and insights from Troy on how you can successfully market your online course.

We chatted about:

* At what point in the process of planning your course, creating the content and building the site should you start to seriously think about the marketing side? (Troy’s answer may surprise you.)

* How to find that sweet spot of when to start marketing and what you should consider when pre-announcing your launch

* Troy’s two biggest tips on where you should be promoting your online course

* How the marketing process ties into not only the launch of your course but also its growth

* How important it is to know why you are starting this online course

* Never underestimating the power of community and how that is a key to your course’s success

The other shows in this series:

Online Courses: The Past, the Present and the Future with Brian Clark

Tips for Starting Your First Online Course with Carrie Dils

How Courses Can Help Grow Your Online Store with Chris Badgett

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download a pdf of the full transcript here: WordPress eCommerce Show Episode 74 May 8 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Thanks for tuning into into the fourth and last show of our series: What You Need to Know about Starting and Growing your Online Course. We’ve talked about the landscape, the scope of online courses, how to start them with your online store. But today we are talking about what I feel is one of the top challenges when it comes to online courses and that is marketing your course. In fact from experience, talking with others, this is where I’ve seen a lot of people drop the ball when it comes to the success of their course. So to help us wrap our brain around some of the basics here, we have Troy Dean, co-founder of WP Elevation. Hey, Troy, welcome to the show.

Troy Dean: Hey, Bob. Thanks for having me. I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to actually connect and have this conversation.

Bob: I think it was the last WordCamp, WordCamp Miami, that was the first time we actually found each other.

Troy: Yeah, I know. I’ve walked past you several times but we didn’t actually connect until Miami. So it’s a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Bob: Well, Troy, I gave a very brief description of you as co-founder of WP Elevation, but there may be some listeners out there who don’t know what you do.