Hi Reader,

Happy Sunday! Here's what I've been up to...

🥳 Published a video on how to summarize books with ChatGPT and it's the most successful one on our channel so far. Most traffic is coming from Google search results.

🏒 Went to my first NHL game. The Toronto Maple Leafs won (by a lot), star player scored a hat-trick, fights broke out – it was everything you could ever want from an ice hockey game!

🎬 Remotely guided 2 days of filming for our new course "Pillars of Productivity." I created a checklist for the course launch that I'm sharing with you today...

The Course Launch Checklist From Idea to Go-Live

(You can duplicate this checklist in Notion here.)

Launching a self-paced online course is no small feat. Whether you're a seasoned course creator or taking your first steps in the digital education realm, a structured checklist can be your guiding light.

As we’re about to launch our second self-paced course at Forte Labs this Black Friday, I’ve created the following checklist to streamline the course creation journey, making sure you and I don’t miss any vital steps.

Dive in and let's bring your course to life!

(This checklist assumes that you have an existing audience so it doesn’t include any audience-building steps.)

Kick Off the Project

Before you jump right into doing, let’s pause and make a plan. Creating a new course is a project and benefits from some basic project management. Here’s why this is so important and best practices to follow.​

At a minimum, you’ll need to make the following key decisions:

• Schedule a go-live date (announce it publicly for accountability)
• Pick an ideal audience (Who is this course for?)
• Name the course (here’s a guide to help you find the perfect name)
• Pick a price (here’s a data-driven approach)
  • What should the launch price be? (if running a special promotion)
  • What should the evergreen price be?
• Decide on a money-back guarantee (if any)
• Decide on access (e.g. lifetime or limited access)

Prepare the Course Content

Let your subject matter expertise shine! These are the steps to creating the course itself.

• Pull together all source material into one document or folder for easy access
• Draft learning objectives for the course (ChatGPT can help formulate these)
• Outline the curriculum and add learning objectives for each lesson
• Create videos for each lesson (if using)
  • Script videos
  • Prepare slides/dummy accounts and data
  • Film videos (A-roll & B-roll)
  • Edit videos
• Draft content accompanying each lesson
  • Lesson description (What will the student get out of each lesson?)
  • Exercises (How will they put what they learned into practice?)
  • Downloadable assets (e.g. checklists)
  • Additional resources (e.g. tools and apps)
• Draft welcome email and any follow-up emails for new students
• Sign up for an LMS where you’ll host the course (e.g. Kajabi, Circle)

Prepare the Marketing Material

These are the assets that will help you draw your ideal students to your course. You’ll be preparing these in parallel to your course content or even beforehand.

• Create landing page for waitlist/lead magnet (and share immediately)
• Create visual assets (e.g. logo, graphics)
• Create the sales page (here’s a template you can follow)
• Draft FAQs (here are 10 must-answer questions)
• Create the checkout (e.g. in your LMS or a separate tool such as SamCart)
• Draft launch email sequence
• Draft social media promotions
• Schedule a launch event e.g. workshop (if using)
• Assemble key information for affiliates (if using)

Go Live

It’s launch time! Now, all the assets you’ve prepared before will be released into the wild. Publish your course and share it with the world.

• Assemble your course in your LMS
• Share key information with affiliate partners (if using)
• Set automations between checkout and LMS and ESP so new students get the access they need
• Publish the sales page and checkout
• Send your launch email sequence
• Promote the launch on social media
• Host launch event (if using)

Conduct a Post-Mortem

Congrats! Your course is now live. Let’s take a moment to reflect on how this launch went and what you can learn from it for future projects.

• Assemble your sales stats
• Celebrate Wins! What went well?
• Reflect on challenges. Where do you have room for improvement?

Quote of the Week

Thanks for reading!

How I can help you

• ​Check out Course Creator Lab: You'll find a ton of free resources to launch, run, and scale your online course.
• ​Book a 1:1 session with me: If you have a specific challenge or just want to pick my brain, just reply to this email for scheduling and pricing (very limited spots).

230 Queens Quay W, Toronto, Ontario M5J2Y7
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