In Episode 68, we begin our series on Starting and Growing Your Online Course. To kick it off we brought in one of the internet veterans when it comes to online courses, Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger. Brian has been in the space of online courses and digital content long before they started taking off on the web. So today he brings to our show his past experience and how he evolved into the space with Copyblogger, as well as what he foresees in the future with online courses.

If you are thinking of diving into this space, or already are doing online courses, this is a must-listen-to-show.

We chatted about:

* How Copyblogger has evolved and its beginning in the online course space

* When online courses started gaining momentum and the key to their growth

* Brian’s top tips for someone considering starting their first online course

* What Brian thinks when it comes to running your courses on your own site vs. an educational platform, eg. Lynda.com

* Why you may not see some topics covered in online courses

* The lack of online courses on specific topics and should you pay attention to those

* What Brian sees in the future of online courses

The other shows in this series:

Tips for Starting Your First Online Course with Carrie Dils

How To Successfully Market Your Online Course with Troy Dean

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 68 April 17 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone. Bob Dunn here, known as BobWP on the web. Thanks for tuning in to our next series called What You Need to Know About Starting and Growing Your Online Course. I thought what better way to start out than looking at the big picture of all courses, now and the future? So, to give us his insights, I’ve invited Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, to lead the way. Welcome to the show, Brian.

Brian Clark: Thanks, Bob. Glad to be here.

Bob: It’s really my pleasure to have you on the show. I’m pretty excited about this, especially kicking off this four-part series. So Brian, I am guessing a lot of my listeners know who you are, or of you, but I figured there may be some scattered individuals who are not into the digital content field, or have spent their last several years on remote islands, or perhaps visiting other planets. So, for the sake of those wandering people, could you tell us a bit about yourself and how Copyblogger has brought online courses into vogue?

Meet Brian Clark, Founder of Copyblogger

Brian: You’re much too kind, first of all. I’m sure there are a lot of people who are unfamiliar. Brief history: A long, long time ago, I used to be an attorney. I did not enjoy that. This was in the ’90s. I moved and taught myself online publishing back in the days when there wasn’t a BobWP to help. There wasn’t even a WP. It was static HTML and all of that. Anyway, those were the days. But yeah, I figured out, basically I was interested in becoming a writer and building online audiences, and I got good at that without really knowing how to make money. Then I figured that part out, and then I realized that I had found a different way of approaching marketing. Fast forward many years later, and we call that content marketing.