Are you thinking you’d love to launch a self-help course?
Do you work as a psychologist, therapist or other type of mental health professional? Would a digital product that reaches advice-seekers who need budget-friendly options be perfect for you? If you’ve ever wanted to launch a self help course but didn’t know how or where to begin, let me give you the lowdown.
Why Launch a Self-Help Course Online?
A self-help course launch could be just the thing your clients need in these uncertain times, and here’s why:
- They might have a budgetary concern that prevents them from booking coaching hours at this time. Instead of offering them nothing, why not provide something special that’s also pocket-book friendly?
- They might need to hone in on a specific issue. Present information and tools to help them solve a specific challenge or reach a particular goal in their lives.
If You Launch a Self Help Course, Will It Make Your Coaching Life Easier?
The first time a personal coach decides to launch a course, something amazing happens. She realizes that she won’t have to start from scratch with this particular type of client problem, ever again.
After all, a complete course that’s already written can be recycled, repurposed, versioned, spun a different way… basically it’s endless launch and profit potential in hand.
So then, if there’s such a sweet pot of gold at the end of the self-help course launch rainbow… why’s it so difficult to create that course?
Self-Help Course Creation Roadblocks and How to Hurdle Them
A busy coach need not stay hindered by the road blocks that stop them from launching a course. Let’s consider what derails you, and how to overcome each issue.
- Can’t decide on a course topic
- Not sure what to include with the course
- Not enough time to write a course
- Don’t know how to set up the course for automated sales
Can’t Decide on a Course Topic
You have a few options for how to choose a course topic. You could…
- Take a survey of your existing customers, email subscribers and social media followers
- Compile your existing content (if any) and see how that can pour into a course theme
- Seek a source of done-for-you content, and from these run some different course possibilities by your readers
- See what the possible trending topics are of late, and spin your course off this
- Settle on a topic that you know like the back of your hand, and that clients have already responded favorably to your verbal teachings on
Brainstorming a Self-Help Course
Every great digital product starts with a brainstorm. Here’s how to kick yours off.
- Write down common problems of your target audience. Make a page-long list or so.
- Narrow down the topics to about five.
- Run the five topics by a focus group, such as your online Facebook group, to see how they respond and what suggestions they have for what to include in the course.
- Select a topic for your course based on their feedback.
Deciding What to Include with Your Course
A multi-module course conveys value to your customers, and offers a variety of options for different types of learners to absorb the information. One, well-written series of articles on a topic, can easily become a full course with the addition of some or all of the following:
- A PDF ebook presentation of the articles, with images and your business upsells included
- Course homework, such as journaling pages, survey questions, personal development assessments, Q&A, essay writing, goal sheets and checklists, planner pages, and other common coaching elements that add depth to your course
- Audio tutorials of the lessons available on a private podcast
- Video recorded lessons – can be you talking, or can easily be a slide show presentation of the main ideas and supporting points, with built-in breakout sessions, summaries and reviews
- A “widget series” or pictorial
- A day-by-day email series (can be the same lessons as the written ebook)
“No Time” to Write a Self-Help Course? Block Out Productive Segments
Time management is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s pretty simple. If you think you don’t have time to create a self-help course, then you won’t. But if you make time to produce, then it will happen. Below, some ideas to get you cooking:
Make room in your day by eliminating or reducing time spent on non-important or non-essential tasks. Example, you’ve got a running group text with a pack of local moms? Set a time to check in with the convo, and don’t sneak extra peeks
Block out chunks of time to work on course creation. Let’s say you have about an hour of quiet time while your kids do homework… create some learning resources to add to your course in that time.
Be opportunistic about grabbing a few minutes here and there. Example, maybe you’ll be sitting in the dentist’s waiting room for a while… great moment to get that initial outline written.
Reward yourself after a certain amount of sustained productivity. Example, “I’ll enjoy that snack after I complete chapter 2,” or “I’ll check my Facebook after I download all of these images.”
Launch a Self Help Course that Makes Automated Sales
A big, and I mean BIG, part of why experts balk at the thought of launching a self-help course is that they have no knowledge of the tech that automates your course.
If you’re thinking “I’ll just manually email each person who orders the course,” or “They can just email me if they want to buy it,” that’s not the way to go. You’ll lose tons of sales and completely miss the luxury of course sales automation.
In fact, without the automation bit, there’s almost no way you’d be able to call this a decent form of passive income.
Okay, so how would you automate your course? You have some different options for doing this.
- Set it up as a series of private, password-protected pages on your WordPress site. After the course is purchased, automate an email to go out that contains a welcome message, link to the first page of the course, and the password. Repeat for each “day” of the course.
- Set your course up as a series of automated emails that directly contain the course text, with links to Google docs, and video links.
- Set up your course on an all-inclusive platform, such as Teachable, Udemy or Ruzuku.
- Host your course inside of a private Facebook group.
How to Modify Your Self-Help Course
You have the option of repurposing your course material once it’s written and published. Here are some ideas:
- Combine the material with other content, and turn it into a deluxe course.
- “Talk” your course out lout to make video tutorial.
- Edit your course down to a smaller, bite-sized sample course to use as a preview sneak-peek.
- Break your course up into mini ebooks.
- Copy and paste your course lessons into an email autoresponder series.
Ready to Launch a Self-Help Course, and You’d Love Some Assistance?
We have done-for-you content for relationship coaches right here.
You can also outsource some or all of the course creation details to Dina and associates.
Email dina@wordfeeder.com for more details!