How I create new lessons, guides and bonus resources for my online course, Top Squarespace SEO
Hello hello! Mixing things up a little with today’s post to give you a “behind the scenes” look at what actually goes into creating, marketing, up-keeping and improving an online course :)
Consider this your chance to peek behind the curtains of this part of my online business - happy creeping LOL!
Jokes aside, I’m sharing this information because I’m learning all about marketing and running an online course as I go, and I am super excited to document my process and share my take-aways and strategies with you, my audience! This is the kind of post I would have liked to read a few months ago when I getting ready to create new course content so I hope someone else finds it valuable too.
If you’ve been following my work online, you probably already know that I am primarily a web designer/developer and Squarespace SEO expert, but I also have an online course called Top Squarespace SEO.
You can read all about my experience creating and launching Top Squarespace SEO here:
An in-depth recap of Top Squarespace SEO: Exactly how I launched and marketed my first online course
In November 2019 I did my first birthday flash sale of Top Squarespace SEO and you can read about that here:
Top Squarespace SEO is my baby - I launched it earlier in 2019 and it’s been SUCH a fun project to work on and I’ve been thrilled with the results my students have gotten so far! It’s actually the top-rated online course in this niche, which is pretty cool and something that I’ve very proud of.
If I’ve learned anything about having a successful online course, it’s that you can’t simply publish it, sell it, then never touch it again - LOL that would be one way to get some pretty crappy reviews!
Instead, online courses require regular updates and you’ve got to add new content to make it even better and more valuable to your customers.
So, in this blog post I’m going to show you everything I did recently to update and improve Top Squarespace SEO, my top-rated online course.
i’m giving you an insider’s look at how I decide on the content that’ll be added to the course and how I identify gaps in the course content to see where new lessons, resources, bonuses etc. will be a value-add or improve the customer’s experience.
I’ll also share my process for actually creating that new content, how I research and plan out the information, how the new content gets added to the online course, and so much more!
So grab a cup of whatever the heck you want and settle in, this post is a good one!
Why I added new content to my online course, Top Squarespace SEO
There were two main reasons why I updated and added new course content to Top Squarespace SEO:
Ensure that the lessons & instructions are all up to date
Fill in any gaps or add new content for additional value
I wasn’t just slaving away at my laptop for hours (day?) on end, creating new course content just for the sake of it LOL!
There’s a LOT of upkeep and ongoing work that goes into an online course - especially with something as ever-changing as SEO and using a platform like Squarespace. With the type of course that I have, I can’t just record all the lessons once, never touch it again and still expect to make sales!
Regular updates to the video lessons and supporting documents are required to ensure that the content is up to date, that the instructions still work in case Squarespace’s platform has been changed, and that students can follow along on their own websites without having to account for different versions or anything like that.
Birthday Flash Sale - a firm deadline to prepare all the new course content
I had a fire under my butt to get all this new content added to Top Squarespace SEO for a few reasons: improve the online course, make it more valuable to my students (current & future) , fill in any gaps and deliver on requests.
But perhaps most importantly, I also decided to run a birthday flash sale starting November 4th (my birthday!) and I wanted to deliver on my promise of offering all this new content at the special old price!
A bit of background info: I hadn’t opened enrollment on Top Squarespace SEO in several months (early spring 2019) so I decided that before I opened up another round of enrollment and increased the price in late November 2019, I was going to host a quick 3-day birthday flash sale.
During this flash sale, people could purchase the online course with all the NEW content but still only pay the old price ($297). #winning
This meant that they could save $100 (because the price would go up to $397 during the next enrollment period) AND get in on over $250 worth of new course content!
The birthday sale was a double whammy and I was super excited to give people the opportunity to get in on the new course content at the old price.
But I was also working with a strict deadline (my birthday haha!) so this was the extra push I needed to get all that new course content finalized during October.
^ special shoutout to the coffee shops that kept me fuelled the entire time 🙏
How did you decide what new content to add to Top Squarespace SEO? Who asked for it?
This is an important point to talk about because I want to be clear that I wasn’t just creating random course content just for kicks :)
I reached out and spoke with past course students and asked them directly for feedback. This was insanely helpful and gave me soooooo many insights into what they felt was lacking or where they would benefit from additional materials - I was able to get answers straight from the horses’ mouth, in their own words!
When I polled my past course students, I literally asked them feedback questions like:
What additional information or topics would you like to see added to this course?
Is there anything that wasn’t covered in this course that you wished we’d gone over?
Are there any gaps in the course content? anything you felt was missing?
Are you interested in learning about advanced SEO strategies? YES/NO
Their answers were so insightful and valuable, and whenever certain responses came up several times, I could see a clear & obvious need for new content.
In several cases, I was like “WOW that’s a glaringly obvious gap in the content” and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t included that lesson or resource the first time around haha! Even though this was exactly the kind of information I was hoping to get when I polled my students, I have to admit that a few requests made me shake my head cause I was like, “omg, how did I miss that” :)
Anyways, those subjects or requests that kept coming up were the first chunks of new content that I prioritized and added to the online course.
There were also a few one-off replies where students wanted super specific or personalized information to be added to the course, so I had to decide what new content would be valuable to a whole group of people versus just one person. I figured if the suggestion/request wouldn’t be helpful to the “average student”, it probably wasn’t worth my time. Can’t please everyone, you know?
All in all, this was a FANTASTIC way to decide on what new content I was going to add to the course, and see what real students would find most valuable.
I didn’t want to add new content to Top Squarespace SEO just for the sake of adding new content - instead, I wanted to make sure that it would actually be helpful/useful and that it was content people were truly asking for.
Here’s all the new content that I added to Top Squarespace SEO
Once I had reviewed past student’s feedback and requests, I got to work creating the following new lessons, guides and bonus resources to add to Top Squarespace SEO:
Knowing and understanding your ideal audience and attracting them to your website through SEO guide (VALUE $50)
Image guidelines and best practices for SEO (VALUE $75)
Guide to SEO copywriting (VALUE $75)
SEO and responsive design guide (VALUE $50)
New video lessons on event and product descriptions, index vs regular pages, Google My Business, URL redirects and more!
TOTAL VALUE: $250
Omg so good right? Ask and ye shall receive, my little hunnis! 💖
Updating & creating new video tutorials/lessons for the online course
Top Squarespace SEO is an online course that’s made up of video tutorials and supporting text documents, such as guides, resources, manuals, checklists, etc.
Creating the lessons & recording the video tutorials is pretty straightforward:
Outline lesson content
Draft out my script or the video tutorial lesson plan in a Google Doc
Prepare slides to talk over or present with
Prepare the demo Squarespace website to do the tech tutorial with (if required)
Record the lessons/video tutorial and save the new video file
Upload the new video to the online course (hosted on Teachable)
Update the sales page & marketing emails etc. to include the new lesson
This process is fairly similar whether we’re talking about a brand new video tutorial/lesson, or if I’m updating an existing video tutorial/lesson.
Creating brand new guides/resources/bonus material from scratch is same-same-but-different, as they say!
It’s generally a lengthier and more challenging process because it requires a lot more planning, research and design, and I’m excited to dive a little deeper here and really share that process with you below!
Creating new guides, bonuses or supporting resource documents for Top Squarespace SEO
As I mentioned above, it generally took me a lot more time & effort to create these new guides, bonuses or supporting resources than it did to add/update the video tutorials.
Here’s a look at my process:
Pick a topic (based on past students’ feedback)
Research the topic - Google, Youtube, Squarespace knowledgebase articles, etc.
Take lots of notes by hand
Plan outline and organize notes
Draft content in a Google Doc
Review & edit content
Design the document in Canva
Save & compress the file for smaller size
Upload the new guide/bonus/resource to the online course (hosted by Teachable)
Update sales page, marketing emails, etc. to include this new content
In my experience, the research, planning, writing and designing stages took the most time, because I was determined to get a good balance of value & information without overwhelming the student with too much or unnecessarily detailed/advanced content.
I’m thrilled with the finished products and so happy with how this new content content all came together!
Want in on Top Squarespace SEO?
I don’t blame you LOL!
Click here for course details more information about Top Squarespace SEO.
Enrollment in Top Squarespace SEO is open several times each year (launches AND special flash sales) so make sure that you’re signed up for the waitlist if the course is currently closed.
Seriously, leave your email address in the box below and I’ll make sure that you’re the first to know when Top Squarespace SEO is open, and also let you in on exclusive pricing that newsletter subscribers enjoy :)
Final Thoughts
There you have it, a breakdown of my process and what goes into updating and creating new course content for Top Squarespace SEO!
I hope you enjoyed this little behind the scenes blog post and that it’s helpful to anyone out there who is looking to do something similar.
If you want more SEO goodness, be sure to check out my Squarespace SEO page for all resources on the topic.
You can also sign up for my newsletter (right here or below), where I often share Squarespace SEO tips, tricks and high-quality exclusive content. I send out emails to my list every week and while I don’t talk about SEO every time, I can guarantee that you’ll still find the newsletter topics interesting, entertaining and worth your time.
Finally, shameless plug : hit me up with any specific questions you have about Squarespace SEO and your website because I’m your girl. You can reach out to me directly if you’re interested in working together on your website and we can talk about whether or not you would be a good fit for my consulting and ongoing services. I can’t take on every request to do SEO consulting but I do pick a few websites and businesses to work with every month and I’d love for you to be one of them.
You may also be interested in:
Top Squarespace SEO - online course details and enrollment
Squarespace SEO for Affiliate Marketing - masterclass
