cm-online-course-creator

by charlie-morrison

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SKILL.md About

---
name: online-course-creator
description: Coach someone through creating, launching, and selling an online course — niche validation, curriculum design, lesson structure, recording workflow, platform choice (Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, Gumroad, self-hosted), pricing, sales page copy, launch sequence, and ongoing iteration. Knows the difference between cohort-based, self-paced, and hybrid models and helps choose the right one. Diagnoses why a course isn't selling, why completion rate is low, why students don't post testimonials. Use when asked to plan a course, launch a course, write a course outline, validate a course idea, set course pricing, design a launch funnel, build curriculum, choose a course platform, or revive a stale course. Triggers on "online course", "course launch", "course platform", "teachable", "thinkific", "kajabi", "podia", "gumroad course", "cohort course", "course pricing", "course curriculum".
metadata:
  tags: ["online-courses", "info-products", "creator-economy", "education", "teaching", "monetization", "launch"]
---

# Online Course Creator

Coach a creator through the messy process of turning expertise into a course that actually sells, gets completed, and gets recommended. Built for both first-time creators and experienced creators trying to relaunch or scale.

## Usage

**Basic invocation:**
> I want to create a course on [topic] — viable?
> Plan my course launch
> Write a course outline for [topic]
> My course isn't selling — diagnose
> Should I use Teachable or Kajabi?

**With context:**
> Topic: SQL for analysts. 8k Twitter followers, 3k newsletter. Never made a course.
> Built a course on UX research, $499, sold 14 since launch 4 months ago.
> Have 50k YouTube subs in financial planning. Want to launch first course at $1000.
> Cohort course on prompt engineering, finished 2 cohorts of 25 students at $799. Want to scale.

The coach takes inputs (audience size, niche, prior teaching, budget, timeline, business model goal) and returns a stage-appropriate plan with curriculum, platform, pricing, and launch.

## Stage-Stage Diagnosis

| Stage | Symptom | Right play |
|---|---|---|
| **Pre-validation** | "I have an idea" | Validate with a survey + 5 customer interviews + a free workshop |
| **Pre-launch** | Validated, no audience | Build audience FIRST (newsletter, content) — minimum 1000 engaged before $$ launch |
| **First launch** | Audience ready | Live cohort or beta cohort at discount; iterate based on feedback |
| **Post-launch plateau** | Sold to existing list, growth stalled | Affiliate program, paid ads, content marketing, refresh sales page |
| **Scale** | Course works, want to scale | Convert to evergreen; add automation; price tiers; B2B sales |

## Course Format Selection

Three primary models, very different economics:

### Self-paced ($49–$299 typically)

- Recorded video, modules, quizzes, optional community
- Margin: high (one production cost, infinite sales)
- Conversion: low (1–2% from audience)
- Completion: low (10–20% normal — even 30% is great)
- Effort: heavy upfront, light ongoing
- Best for: skill-based topics, evergreen demand, large audience

### Cohort-based ($499–$2,500)

- Live sessions, defined start/end (4–8 weeks), group
- Margin: medium (your time per cohort)
- Conversion: higher (3–8%)
- Completion: high (60–85%)
- Effort: heavy each cohort
- Best for: high-stakes outcomes (career, transformations), small audiences

### Hybrid ($299–$899)

- Self-paced core + group accountability + optional cohort
- Best of both, hardest to design well
- Best for: mid-size audiences, medium-stakes topics

The coach asks four questions to recommend the right model:

1. How big is your engaged audience? (<1k → cohort; 1k–10k → either; 10k+ → self-paced)
2. How transformative is the outcome? (Career change → cohort; skill upgrade → self-paced)
3. How complex is the material? (Linear → self-paced; emergent/applied → cohort)
4. How much of your time can you dedicate ongoing? (Lots → cohort; little → self-paced)

## Niche Validation (Pre-Launch)

Before recording anything:

1. **Audience interview survey** — 10 multiple-choice + 3 open. Get 50–100 responses. Look for actual problem framing in their words, willingness to pay, when they tried other solutions and failed.
2. **5 deep interviews** — 30 mins each with a target customer. Where they get stuck, what they've tried, what would convince them.
3. **Free workshop / webinar** — record it, see who shows up, see what questions land. This becomes lesson 1.
4. **Pre-sale at discount** — 10–25 founding members at 40–50% off, payment now, course delivers in 60 days. If you can't sell 10 at discount to a list of 1000, the course isn't ready.

**Mistakes that kill courses before launch:**

- Building the course you wish existed (instead of the one your audience is begging for)
- Niche too broad ("Productivity" → who?)
- Niche too narrow ("Notion for left-handed dental hygienists" → audience too small)
- Topic with no transformation (people pay for outcomes, not info)
- Topic with too long a payoff ("learn programming" — too much competition; payoff too distant)

## Curriculum Design

The course should change the student's reality between lesson 1 and last lesson. Design backward:

1. **End state:** What does the student know/do/have after the course?
2. **Stages:** What 4–8 capabilities do they need to reach that?
3. **Lessons:** For each capability, what's the one core idea + one application?
4. **Practice:** Each lesson has at least one exercise / template / artifact the student creates.
5. **Showcase:** Final project that proves they did the work.

**Lesson length and structure:**

- 5–15 min self-paced lessons (long lessons kill completion)
- 60–90 min live cohort sessions max
- Each lesson: hook (1 min) → core idea (5–10 min) → demo (3–5 min) → exercise prompt
- Slides + face-on-camera + screencast where appropriate

**Module structure (typical 6–8 modules):**

```
Module 1: Foundations & framing (the lens you'll teach through)
Module 2: Core skill #1
Module 3: Core skill #2
Module 4: Core skill #3
Module 5: Core skill #4
Module 6: Putting it together (the project / case study)
Module 7: Edge cases / advanced (optional)
Module 8: What's next (career path, community, ongoing)
```

**Curriculum red flags:**

- 30+ lessons (overload)
- Lessons longer than 20 minutes (drop-off)
- "Module 1: Why this matters" (cut; people who bought already believe)
- "Module 2: Tools setup" (move to pre-course; don't waste expensive lesson 1)
- No exercises (students who don't do anything don't testify)
- No final project / proof of learning

## Recording Workflow

Production budget tiers:

- **Bedroom DIY:** $0–500. Webcam + lavalier mic + Riverside.fm or OBS. Lighting: window + bounce.
- **Decent home studio:** $500–2000. Sony ZV-1 / Lumix G7, Rode NT-USB, key + fill light, soft backdrop. Edit in Descript or Premiere.
- **Pro:** $2000+. Mirrorless + interface + studio mic + LED panels. Film 2–3 days for whole course.

**Workflow that works:**

1. Slides + script first. Don't film without an outline.
2. Batch-film one module at a time (consistency, less makeup-of-the-day variance).
3. Record audio separate if pro mic exists; sync in post.
4. B-roll / screencast separately; cut to it in post.
5. Captions are required (SEO, accessibility, watch-without-sound).
6. Don't pursue cinematic perfection. Course buyers tolerate amateur production. They don't tolerate boring content.

**Don't:**

- Film with poor audio (kills more courses than poor video)
- Use stock music behind teaching (distracts)
- Film vertical for desktop platforms
- Re-record because you said "um" — edit it out

## Platform Selection

| Platform | Sweet spot | Why pick it |
|---|---|---|
| **Teachable** | $99–$499 self-paced; first course | Easy, decent payments, $39+/mo |
| **Thinkific** | Same as Teachable; bigger ecosystem | Plus $99/mo; good for community |
| **Podia** | All-in-one (course + email + downloads) | $33+/mo; small creators |
| **Kajabi** | $$$ funnels, all-in-one | $149+/mo; good for high-ticket coaches |
| **Gumroad** | Cheapest path; download / video | 9% per sale at base, $10+/mo plans; low effort |
| **Maven / Cohorts** | Cohort-based courses | Curated; built for live |
| **Circle / Discord + Loom + Stripe** | Cohort with community | DIY but cheap |
| **Self-hosted (Cloud + S3 + Stripe)** | Tech creator, full control | Effort high; cost lowest at scale |

**Picking criteria:**

- Cheapest path to launch: Gumroad
- Most flexible mid-tier: Teachable or Thinkific
- All-in-one with marketing: Kajabi (worth it once you're earning $5k+/mo)
- Cohort-first: Maven or DIY (Circle)
- Avoid: building your own LMS unless you're a 10k+ creator with engineering capability

## Pricing

Pricing reflects positioning, not cost. Three frames:

1. **Outcome value:** what would a student pay to achieve the outcome elsewhere? (Hire a coach? Take a college course? Hire a freelancer?)
2. **Audience capacity:** what does your audience pay for similar?
3. **Production-to-revenue ratio:** does the price support 50–200 sales paying back your time?

Pricing tiers (typical):

- **$49–$99:** Mini-courses, screencasts, single-skill
- **$199–$399:** Standard self-paced; "I learned a real skill"
- **$499–$899:** Comprehensive self-paced or community-included
- **$999–$2,499:** Cohort-based with personal interaction
- **$2,500–$10,000:** Group coaching, mastermind, B2B applicable

**Common pricing mistakes:**

- $99 for a transformative course (signals "small")
- $999 for a self-paced video collection (mismatch with delivery model)
- "Pay-what-you-want" (almost always undermines perceived value)
- Tiered pricing where the middle tier is obviously the trap (people see the trick)

**Cohort pricing rule:** at minimum $99/hour of live time. So 8 sessions × 90 min = 12 hours = $1,200 floor. Premium positions (>$2k) need clearly defined transformation.

## Sales Page Anatomy

Working sales page structure:

1. **Hero** — promise + sub-promise + clear CTA
2. **Pain agitation** — describe the problem in their words
3. **Why this is different** — what makes your approach unique
4. **Curriculum overview** — modules, time commitment, what they'll build
5. **Outcome / case studies** — testimonials from real students
6. **Bonuses** — templates, tools, swipe files, audits
7. **Pricing** — clear, with payment options
8. **FAQ** — actual questions students asked
9. **About me** — credibility, why I teach this
10. **Guarantee** — 14-day refund typical
11. **Final CTA** — same as hero

**Copy rules:**

- "You" more than "I"
- Specific numbers, not vague
- Real testimonials with full name + photo (and ideally video)
- Clarity over cleverness
- One CTA color throughout

## Launch Sequence

Standard 7-day launch (after pre-launch warmup):

```
Day -7: Open cart announcement
Day 0: Cart opens; price + bonus visible
Day 1–4: Daily emails (story / objection / case study / FAQ)
Day 5: 24-hour warning email
Day 6: Last 12 hours, scarcity message
Day 7: Cart closes (or transition to evergreen at higher price)
```

**Launch metrics:**

- Open rates >35% during launch (audience is engaged)
- Sales-page conversion 1–4% from email; 0.5–1.5% from cold traffic
- Refund rate <5% normal, <10% acceptable
- Bonus stack converts +20–40% of fence-sitters

## Common Diagnoses

### "Course isn't selling"

Most likely reasons (in order):

1. Audience too small or wrong audience
2. Price–value mismatch (too high for what's delivered, or too low signaling small)
3. Sales page not making the case
4. No social proof (no testimonials, no before/after)
5. No real outcome (course teaches info but no transformation)
6. No urgency / scarcity in launch

### "Bought but not finishing"

- Lessons too long
- No accountability mechanism
- No defined milestones / wins along the way
- Setup hurdles in lesson 1 (drop off after struggle)
- No community/peer engagement to make it social

Fix: chunk lessons shorter, add weekly office hours, add badges/checkpoints, add "homework due Friday" rhythm.

### "No testimonials"

- You haven't asked
- Asked too late (right after the course ends, before they apply)
- Asked too generically ("how was the course?")
- Asked at the wrong time (mid-course)

Fix: built-in 30-day-after-completion email asking specific questions about outcomes, with a link to record video testimonial.

### "Stale evergreen, sales declining"

- Content needs refresh (technology / examples outdated)
- Sales page hasn't been touched
- Affiliate program never set up
- No content marketing supporting the course
- Price unchanged for 2 years

Fix: refresh top 3 lessons, rewrite hero on sales page, launch affiliate program at 30–40% commission, do a "What's New" relaunch email.

## Output Format

The coach returns:

1. **Stage** — where you are
2. **Format recommendation** — self-paced / cohort / hybrid + why
3. **Curriculum outline** — 6–8 modules with one-line lesson list
4. **Pricing recommendation** — number + reasoning
5. **Platform recommendation** — which one + why
6. **Production plan** — recording approach, budget, timeline
7. **Pre-launch validation** — 30-day plan
8. **Launch sequence** — emails, content, partnerships
9. **First-90-days post-launch** — iteration, support, scaling

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