Course Creation: My Process
Gaze upon my wares
Have you ever looked into how to make your own online course? Did you get almost immediately lured into some pyramid-scheme-esque “collective” of people who make courses and “help each other grow”? Yeah, lot of that going around.
Luckily for you, I’m going to detail [in broad strokes] every step of my process in how I made each of my programs right here in this blog post 100% for free, so get your reading muscles warmed up because this might take a minute.
**Upon review, I decided that this is a little hard to follow, so I’ve added in a cute little metaphor about building a house.
The Platforms
Just like actual construction, there are many different methods and styles to developing an online course or program, and with those methods, many tools. Consider different programs and platforms as the tools required for establishing a functional online transactional presence. Aside from physical equipment, which for me was just a camera & laptop, I used a plethora of different softwares and online platforms to create the various aspects of my programs. I’ll list them here and then get into how I used them all later:
Software: gimp, hitfilm express, premiere pro, google sheets/docs/drive, R, capcut
Platforms: canva, meta, tiktok, squarespace, siteground, teachable, google analytics, linkedin, mailerlite
Now that we’ve got a complete list, let’s learn how I used all of these FREE services to create my programs. Premiere Pro is technically not a free software, I just so happen to have won a free year of it during this time, but I use HitFilm Express before and that was just as doable if just a bit more janky.
the planning stage
“Failure to plan is a plan to fail” or so they say. For creating a program like mine, you absolutely must have strong planning skills and be willing to revise those plans over and over again.
Consider this phase as writing out the blueprints and making small-scale models for the future house. This is also the most risk-free part for messing up, so I recommend messing up a lot. Odds are you’re not going to land on the perfect model in one try, and there are still tons of unknown variables in the future, so the more rough drafts you create, the better prepared you’ll be.
Now I am an absolute hater of rough drafts, I think my senior thesis in college was the only essay I ever revised multiple times before turning in, but I probably came up with about 30 different options for how I wanted my course to function before moving on. For this stage, I used Google Docs to write out internal documents for the programs including syllabi, level models, progression pathways, video scripts, notes about specialty inclusions, alternatives, and just about anything else I could think of. These documents end up being about 20 pages long and are written primarily in copywrite style since only collaborators and I ever see them. While you’ll typically start with the broadest ideas of a topic and work your way down to the details, I actually found that starting from both ends and working toward the middle was best considering everything I needed to do.
For example, while I was writing out these documents, I also developed a model for how I wanted individual lessons to look. Modeling the first and last lessons, and thus knowing my start & end points, then comparing & contrasting them helped me to see the ideal ways to bridge them together, which brings me to the last part of the planning stage: data.
the structuring stage
With our blueprints and models complete, now we’re onto throwing up some scaffolding and getting the frame of the house up. Also, it should go without saying, but the more solid the structure, the better every stage after will go, so think Timber Frame and not that garbage Stick Framing construction.
Having knowledge on basic data analytics made this part sooo much easier on me because it’s basically separating the data into the smallest pieces, organizing them, and assigning them a value. For me, that meant listing out each exercise (there about 500 total), and then assigning it: a rank, a category, a secondary category, and then a bunch of empty values for later.
This was all done through Google Sheets because I am too poor for Xcel and can’t be bothered. It takes a long time to organize data into such specific categories, especially when a lot of it is proprietary (many of these exercises are of my own design) and thus doesn’t exist anywhere else for reference yet. There would be one main sheet with all of the exercises, then I would make 8 other sheets with several tables each for the individual levels… it was a slog. I would put on one of those 10-hour youtube mixes at 1.5x speed and just crank out spreadsheets for 7-8h at a time until it was done, not sure I recommend this.
the shooting stage
Now that we can see what the house will look like, it’s time to start slapping some pannels and roofing on this bad boy… or so you’d think. This is actually more akin to gathering up all of the materials we’ll need: trucking in bricks, renting an earth mover, buying cement, hiring construction workers (me), and everything else.
This is the most straightforward stage, but also the most physically demanding. Once I had everything planned out in Sheets, I would take chunks of exercises to the gym/park and film them from different angles. Even for a fitness veteran like me, repeating exercises back to back with perfect form over and over again (especially when I mess up a shot) is straight up exhausting. Couple this with the fact that for FORM & FUNCTION, I also happened to have been traveling in Asia for a stunt job, and you get quite the demanding circumstance. I filmed exercises for these programs in Irvine, Taipei, Bangkok, Fukuoka, and Honolulu whenever I had time and space to do so between film & travel days.
For efficiency’s sake, I also did a lot of clip editing during this time so that I could know exactly how far along I was and what I had left. This wasn’t a super software or platform-heavy stage, I mainly just used CapCut & Premiere Pro to trim down the clips and keep everything in some degree of order.
the editing stage
Ok now we can start throwing up those pannels, roofing, windows, shingles and everything we need for the outside structure of the house because this is where everything starts to come together.
Again, this is something I do in smaller stages. The first phase is to convert the .mp4s from large raw files into more manageable clips that are under 90 seconds each. This is where I correct exposure, align framing, stitch angles, and do other adjustments so that the next phase is more streamlined. Once I have all of my clips polished up and named (off of the spreadsheet), I then start organizing them into compilations which mirror the workouts in each section. These range anywhere from 2-12 minutes depending on the level of complexity of the content, as some require full tutorials, and they areare all neatly labeled for better student accessibility. I then finish up by adding some royalty free or custom made beats to the video so it’s not dull to watch on its own, and then we’re done… with that part.
the creation stage
This is the part of creating a course that contains about 70% of the work no one thinks about when they consider making a course of their own. As such, I would liken this to the fitting stage of building a home. Once the walls are up and painted, people seldom consider how long things like plumbing, wiring, insulation, drywalling, flooring, or safety measures will take before the house truly becomes a house and not just an empty shell of a building.
First up, I make the sections, lesons, and addidtional content blocks where everything will go and then title & format them all. This is all done through Teachable’s platform, but I found it more effecient to just write everything out in Docs and then copy/paste as plain text and reformatted. I also take this stage to do all of the copywriting, any additional coding, and spreadsheet uploads since it’s mostly stuff that students either won’t see or won’t notice.
Second, the FAT uploads and graphic uploads (we’ll come back to that later). Because of how long the longer videos can take to render and upload, I also take this time to create thumbnails for every video. Every. Video. Now while you could make this stage easier by:
1) using the same one for every video
2) creating templates for each type of video
3) commit heresy by generating some AI slop
I’ve found that it looks most professional to have an unique thumbnail for each video as it gives a sense of progression and personal pride in my product, and I am truly proud, so why not? I’m not completely unhinged though, I do create templates, but I adjust the text and photo for each one as shown below. Also, I’ve gotten so fast at doing this that I can usually have it done before each video is even finished processing, so it’s extra work yes, but it won’t kill you.
Each of my programs has about 30 or so thumbnails, so be prepared to take a MINUTE doing that and I highly recommend finding a way to optimize your process through creating templates and taking getting your photos in order as early as you can. With the exception of the FORM introduction, all of my thumbnails photos are taken from their respective videos.
Another thing I create during this stage is .gifs of certain exercises that I believe deserves a spotlight or just some extra explanation. I had to learn this skill as I did it, and I can give you this pro tip: make your gifs as small as possible. I didn’t know .gifs could be so enormous! The first ones I made were nearly the same file size as some of the videos, so a 720x480 aspect ratio, limited colors, 10 fps, and keeping them under 10 seconds is the way to do it if you’re thinking of giving it a try.
These don’t have to be perfect since students can always go back and look at the video if they really need, but I find that having a reference on hand helps reinforce whatever points I’m making in my descriptions. Obviously, these require additional editing and formatting, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re thinking of adding these in. I did most of these in one time frame, which ended up taking 3 or 4 days for each program.
Finally, I create any additional visual elements I’ll need for the courses’ resource section. These can range in size anywhere from a single image to a 20 page .pdf (anything that’s that long usually means I’ve worked on it for a while), which is why this stage kind of just persists for the rest of the process in one way or another. Here are some example visuals:
Oh yeah, pretty much everything in this stage was done with a combination of Gimp & Canva.
The Polishing stage
Now don’t let the title fool you, this is polishing, but more like how you have to polish a hardwood floor correctly to keep it from disintegrating as opposed to just making something shiny. Looking at you, Irvine Company.
This is where that other 30% of hidden work is: Landing Pages. How many pages do you think each program contains or is directly linked to?
3?
5?
10.
10 landing pages I either built from scratch or previously designed templates for each course. This stage just sucks, I’m not even gonna sugar coat it. If you’re reading this with the hope of making your own online course and you’ve made it this far, I hope you had Myspace or Tumblr back in the day because creating a landing page is basically just that over and over. In addition to writing endless descriptions, CTAs, and alt text, this is also where you’ll want to edit your metadata for better SEO results and insert your tracking code into each page’s html/java source. I used Google Analytics for this part, and they make it pretty easy to follow, but this will still probably be a pretty daunting task if you’ve never done anything with code before. But you got this, YouTube is your friend!
Once everything is copacetic both behind and beyond the curtain, this is where you’ll do any copywriting or crediting you need to do, I get to skip this step because I make literally eveything myself. I’m sure it takes way longer in the end, but I take small joy in getting to ignore this last little part.
The publishing stage
Ok! The house is complete, up to code, on the grid, and registered with the city, now it just needs residents! This could also be called “The Digital Marketing Stage” because that’s pretty much all you’re doing from this point onward (besides admin), but “Publishing” just has a better ring to it because you’re presenting your creation to the world! Be proud!
Now that being said, this is the stage where a hidden antagonist most often makes his stealhty introduction: Imposter Syndrome. I’m not a psychologist, so I’m not going to pretend I know how to tell you to get past this, but I can tell you this from my experience with influencers, viral creators, “gurus”, and a whole host of other famous people: for every 1 person dedicated to their crafts who has doubts, there are 10 charlatans with none. So do your thing and don’t worry about failure when you’ve already come so far.
There are many steps to digital marketing, and they’re all pretty straightforward, but the downside is that each one also comes with the added pressure of public speaking… possibly to millions. My advice, start with your smallest or most dedicated group of people; for me, I started by giving free sign-ups to close friends and peers in exchange for feedback and testimonials. Then I moved up to my mailing list and used MailerLite to create brand emails announcing my new programs with exclusive mailing list discount codes. Next, I began creating subtle references and posts on social media to introduce or “soft-launch” without actually ever fully announcing it to build hype.
Once my stage was set and hype was built, I dropped my announcements… for like a month straight. People take breaks from the apps, forget to read emails, and blink through stories, so it’s important to keep the pressure on so that you can fully utilize your reach. I’ve amassed a sizeable organic following on Instagram, Meta, and Tiktok over the years, so that’s where I get most of my customers from, but that might be different by the individual. Regardless of account size, it’s important to keep going: repost all the stories, tag people, create consistent content*, shout out your program in anyway you can and eventually the people will come.
** I refuse to sacrifice my standards of quality when it comes to what I post, but I will say there is some merit to shelling out no-effort reels & posts with templates just to get your numbers up. You won’t ever catch me doing it, but it might be worth looking into if you’re starting off. That being said, people can always recognize when actual hard work went into something.
The cycle
As I said before, some parts of this process never truly end. Your house may be beautiful, but maybe the neighborhood just isn’t ready yet. Take any constructive criticism, advice, or straight up hate in stride and fix up what needs fixing. Unfortunately, your finished product will probably never be perfect, and it definitely won’t sell itself right away. Maintaining the same level of diligence for the final stage as in the previous stages and understanding that it will be the longest stage will require patience and dedication, but if you’ve made it this far then you’ve got what it takes.
Keep at it, review your work, refine your process, and never stop promoting your product; it’s a piece of you, after all, and aren’t you worth your own time & effort?
