The Art of Online Course Creation | Helping Experts Build Impactful Courses That Get Real Results

What makes an online course feel clear, easy to follow, and worth completing?

It is not just the amount of information inside it.

In this episode of The ART of Online Course Creation, Shannon explores why many well-intentioned course creators accidentally make their courses harder to learn from by adding too much content, too many options, and too much explanation without enough structure.

You will hear why cognitive load matters in online course design, how confusion quietly leads students to disengage, and why strong teaching often looks deceptively simple from the outside.

This episode is for course creators who want their students to move through their course with more clarity, confidence, and momentum, without dumbing down the material or stripping away its value.

Inside this episode, you will hear about:

•  Why “more content” does not always create a better course 
•  How cognitive load affects student learning and follow-through 
•  The difference between deep learning and unnecessary mental strain 
•  Why students need a clear learning path, not just access to your expertise 
•  The invisible structure that makes good teaching feel simple 

If you want to create an online course that does more than deliver information, this episode will help you think more carefully about the clarity, structure, and learner experience behind your content.

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

What if gamification in online courses is about far more than points, badges, and leaderboards?

In this episode, Shannon sits down with learning engineer and Lavender Dragon co-founder Mary Nunley for a thoughtful conversation about what gamification really means in online course creation and community engagement. Together, they unpack why some popular engagement tactics work, why others fall flat, and how course creators can think more strategically about motivating learners in ways that actually support transformation. 

You will hear a nuanced discussion about the difference between keeping people entertained and keeping them meaningfully engaged, why dopamine-driven design has limits, and how seemingly small choices inside a course can shape persistence, motivation, and connection. The conversation also explores Easter eggs, urgency, rewards, learner psychology, and the role of thoughtful course design in creating an experience people want to continue. 

Whether you are building your first online course or looking for ways to make an existing program more engaging, this episode will give you a fresh lens on gamification and help you think more carefully about what actually keeps learners coming back.

Mary Nunaley is a learning engineer and co-founder of The Lavender Dragon Team. She turns complex ideas into human-centered learning experiences using storytelling, game-based design, and thoughtful applications of AI. With a background in online education and years of experience designing asynchronous courses, simulations, and microlearning, Mary focuses on building learning that actually changes behavior not just checks a completion box. Her work sits at the intersection of learning science, creativity, and practical AI integration for modern educators and creators

You can find Mary:

The Lavender Dragon Team

LinkedIn

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

A polished course is not always a good course.

In this episode, Shannon Boyer explores why some online courses feel clear, supportive, and energizing, while others leave students confused, discouraged, and blaming themselves. This conversation goes beyond content, bonuses, and branding to uncover what really shapes the student experience inside an online course.

If you are serious about creating a high-quality online course that actually helps people learn and get results, this episode will give you a deeper lens on what great course design really means.

To book a no-pressure 20-minute coffee chat in order to discuss how I might help you with your online course creation process, please book here.

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

Should you launch your online course live, build an evergreen funnel, or rethink the whole model entirely?

In this episode of The ART of Online Course Creation, Shannon Boyer is joined by award-winning marketing educator Jessica Korthuis for a conversation about what it really takes to sell an online course in today’s market. They unpack the pressure many course creators feel to follow big-name launch strategies, the reality of trying to sell without a massive audience, and why more visibility does not always mean better results.

You’ll also hear a refreshing discussion about sales runways, early adopters, audience-building, partnerships, and the common marketing mistakes that can quietly hold a course back before it ever has a real chance to succeed.

If you’ve been trying to decide between launching and evergreen, feeling overwhelmed by online course marketing advice, or wondering how to sell your course in a way that is sustainable, strategic, and actually aligned with the business you want to build, this episode is one you won’t want to miss.

Jessica Korthuis is a 2x entrepreneur, award-winning marketing educator, women’s business advisor, Group Vice President at Full Tilt and the Co-founder of Her Brand & Co., the leading marketing educational platform for women-owned businesses (which was acquired by Full Tilt in 2024). 

Jessica is a 40 Under 40 Honoree, a “Women Who Mean Business” Honoree, and a two-time award recipient of the Womenpreneur Education Business Innovator of the Year by the Influential Businesswoman Awards. 

She is known for her engaging energy and frequently speaks on the topics of marketing, sales, and how to grow and launch profitable businesses. 

She’s been featured by the Amazon Small Business Academy, Entrepreneur Women, The Lean Startup Co., IFundWomen, The Female Founder Collective, The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and many others. She is a proud mompreneur with a passion for writing and is a fierce advocate for women driving wealth creation, and is most happy spending time with her husband and daughters.

https://herbrandandco.com/

https://www.instagram.com/herbrandandco/

https://herbrandandco.com/her-brand-and-co-subscriptions

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

Are Online Courses Dead? Not Exactly. The Old Version Is Dying, and That’s Good News.

“If online courses are dead… why are people still up at midnight searching for answers, buying solutions, and trying to get better at the things that matter to them?”

In this episode, Shannon breaks down why online courses are not dead, but the passive-income, content-dump version of courses is finally losing its grip. With big names like Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher making major changes, it is easy to assume the whole model is collapsing. Shannon offers a different interpretation, and then gets practical about what the market is actually rejecting and what modern learners are still hungry for.

You’ll learn:

• Why “courses are dead” is usually a misunderstanding of what is really changing
• How passive-income marketing damaged trust in the word “course”
• The difference between content and curriculum, and why that is the real rebrand
• The design shifts that help learners implement, finish, and get measurable outcomes
• Why selling the finish line matters more than selling access

If you have been thinking about renaming your course into a challenge, lab, or program to make it more appealing, Shannon shares why a course by any other name is still a course, and what actually makes it work.

🎧 Plus: Shannon’s Bold Idea reframes what “credibility” looks like in the current course market.

✨ Want more?

Join The Build Lab, the community for course creators who want to build high-quality learning experiences that get results, with guidance, feedback, and access to Shannon’s course-building system.

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

If you have ever wondered whether a podcast can actually lead to online course sales, this episode gives you a clearer, more strategic way to think about it.

In this conversation, I’m joined by Adam Schaeuble, the host of Podcasting Business School, who has been podcasting since 2015 and has recorded well over 1,000 episodes across his shows. Adam shares what changed everything for him when his first attempts at podcast monetization did not work, plus the specific shifts that helped him move from “posting and hoping” to building a podcast that supports real revenue through programs, coaching, and courses.

We dig into what makes podcasting uniquely effective for course creators who want to grow trust, build authority, and create a steady path from free content to paid transformation, without feeling like they need to become a full-time content machine or add YouTube before they are ready.

In this episode, you’ll hear about

• Why a podcast can function as both a discovery channel and a relationship-building channel at the same time
• The “ideal listener journey” concept and why it changes how you decide what to create and what to sell
• The most common naming mistake course creators make when launching a podcast, and what to do instead
• How to position yourself as the expert on your own show, even if you love interviews
• A practical approach to consistency that reduces burnout, including why “breaks” are often a planning problem, not a publishing problem
• The audio-only strategy, when it makes sense, and how to stop letting extra platforms delay your momentum
• The fear every course creator has about “giving away too much,” and the real reason people still buy
• What “good” download numbers actually look like early on, plus the benchmarks that help set realistic expectations

This is an especially useful listen if you are a course creator who is podcast-curious, if your show has stalled out, or if you have been creating content but still feel unsure how it connects to course sales.

Mentioned in this episode

• Podcasting Business School episode 545: “Podcast Monetization Difficulty vs. Access”
• Podcasting Business School episode 560: SEO and organic podcast discovery

Connect with Adam at:

Website

Threads

Newsletter

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

If you’re trying to decide between launching an online course or starting a membership, this episode will save you a lot of time and potentially a lot of frustration because this isn’t really a formatting decision. It’s a promise decision.

In this episode of The ART of Online Course Creation, Shannon Boyer breaks down the real difference between a course and a membership in a way most creators never consider. 

You’ll learn a practical framework to choose the right model based on three essential factors.

 Along the way, Shannon shares a revealing client story that highlights the hidden workload behind “predictable” revenue, and why the best business model is the one that fits your real life, not your aspirational one.

You’ll also get a simple, powerful decision test you can complete in ten minutes. It cuts through trends and helps you build the right offer with confidence.

If you want to create an offer that delivers real results, attracts the right buyers, and supports your long-term capacity as a creator, press play.

At the end, Shannon also shares details about her membership, the Build Lab, which is designed for course creators who don’t just need information, but ongoing implementation support to keep moving all the way to the finish line.

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

If you’ve ever thought, “I should probably be on Pinterest,” and then immediately felt overwhelmed by the visuals, the time commitment, or the sheer number of pins already out there, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, I’m joined by Tim Adam, founder of Pinterest Skool, who has built a business around helping creators use Pinterest strategically, without treating it like another full-time social channel.

Together, we unpack what makes Pinterest different (and why that difference matters for course creators), how to think about pins when you don’t have an “obviously visual” business, and what it actually takes to build consistent traffic that doesn’t disappear 24 hours later.

This isn’t a “post more” pep talk. It’s a practical look at how Pinterest works as a search engine, and how online educators can use it to funnel the right people into their ecosystem.

In This Episode, You’ll Hear About

• Why Pinterest behaves more like a search engine than a traditional social media platform—and how that changes your strategy
• The real role of keywords on Pinterest (and why it’s the piece most people skip)
• Whether you “missed the boat” if you weren’t an early adopter, and what the data suggests now
• What course creators can pin when their business doesn’t feel visual
• The difference between creating fresh pins vs. constantly needing fresh links
• How Pinterest boards support discoverability and help Pinterest understand what your content is about
• What a realistic timeline can look like for traffic, and what to watch for so you know you’re on the right track
• How to think about using Pinterest within a larger funnel (especially when your paid offer is higher-ticket)
• A quick but important note on affiliate links and disclosures on Pinterest

About Tim Adam

Tim Adam is the founder of Pinterest Skool and has been using Pinterest since its earliest days. He began as a full-time Etsy seller, then started teaching other creators how to grow visibility and traffic through Pinterest. He’s known for practical, clear teaching and for helping people build momentum without relying on followers or daily content performance.

Connect with Tim

Tim’s best starting point is his free community, Pinterest Skool. 

Loved This Episode?

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Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

If your current audience-building plan still starts with “I’ll just open a free Facebook group,” this episode offers a thoughtful pause and a practical alternative.

Shannon Boyer breaks down why the free Facebook group model has lost much of its effectiveness, what’s shifted in the online landscape, and why more course creators are moving toward an ecosystem-based approach that reduces friction for both you and your students. You’ll also hear why Shannon—who resisted Skool for a long time—changed her mind after experiencing it from the student side, and how that experience reshaped how she thinks about lead magnets, community, and course delivery.

Rather than treating “community” as a separate add-on you have to constantly coax people into, this conversation explores a model where the community is the front door—and the course content lives right beside it.

In this conversation, you’ll hear Shannon unpack:

• What changed with Facebook groups, and why “dead group” fatigue is becoming the norm
• The hidden cost of building on rented land, especially when your business relies on consistent visibility and engagement
• Why the biggest issue is not reach, but friction (and how friction quietly kills follow-through)
• How Skool flips the traditional course platform model by making community the main dashboard and coursework the adjacent layer
• The freemium concept as a cleaner “front door” into paid programs, without pulling people across multiple platforms
• The specific features that make Skool feel more like a business hub than a content warehouse (including events, reminders, native video, and member-to-member interaction)
• The tradeoffs worth knowing before you switch platforms, including the limitations that may matter depending on how you sell

The Build Lab (Skool community)
Shannon’s community for course creators who want to build high-quality, high-impact courses that deliver real results.

You can start for $12/year, which includes:

• Access to the Validate Your Best Course mini-course
• A full year inside the Build Lab community
• The option to upgrade later if you want deeper support

Skool free trial + affiliate link
If you want to explore Skool for your own offers,  you can access a 14-day free trial here.

If you’ve been questioning where to host your course, how to build community without burning yourself out, or how to replace the old free Facebook group strategy with something more sustainable, this episode will give you a clearer framework for what to do next.

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊

You can feel it when someone’s ready for their next chapter.

In this coaching-style episode, I’m joined by Kathy Kwon, a brand + website designer who helps creativity-driven entrepreneurs stand out authentically through strategic branding and website design. Kathy’s work is rooted in visual storytelling, and after years of delivering high-touch, one-on-one services, she’s ready to explore what it could look like to bring her expertise into the world of online courses.

But she’s at a crossroads that will feel very familiar if you’ve ever thought, “I want to create a course… I just don’t know which direction to commit to.”

Kathy is weighing two strong ideas:

• a practical, foundation-building course that would give website designers stronger visual branding skills
• a more unconventional, expressive course that helps creative entrepreneurs use design to get seen and noticed

And underneath both ideas is the real question most course creators don’t ask clearly enough:

Which one solves a problem people will actually pay to solve—and how do you find that out without building the whole course first?

In this conversation, we talk about what to do when you’re caught between “what would sell” and “what would be fun to teach,” why you shouldn’t build in isolation, and how to start gathering real feedback without needing your course to be “perfect” yet.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• The hidden difference between a course idea that’s interesting vs. one that’s painful enough to create demand
• Why identifying a “gap” in someone’s skill set isn’t the same as confirming they’ll invest time and money to close it
• How to approach student conversations so you get honest insight (without pitching your idea)
• Why building your audience and building your course need to happen at the same time
• A smart progression for new course creators: validate → create something small → build proof → expand

Mentioned in the episode

Build Lab — my community for course creators who want to actually get their course finished and done right. Inside, you’ll get support, feedback, accountability, live calls, monthly challenges, and exclusive tools (including custom GPTs), plus access to the first module of my signature course.

Connect with Kathy

Kathy’s free resource: “5 Essential Pages a Course Creator Needs on Their Website” (checklist)
Website: Bright Matters Studio
Instagram: @brightmattersstudio

Want coaching on the podcast?
If you want to be featured on a future coaching episode, fill out the form here: www.shannonlboyer.com/podcast

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

To book a call to discuss your options and see if working together makes sense.  Click here. 😊