EXPERTISE INTO INCOME: Lesson 2 - How 6-lesson Mini-Courses Work, Earn, and Leverage to Make You Money While You Sleep
EXPERTISE INTO INCOME: Lesson 2 - How 6-lesson Mini-Courses Work, Earn, and Leverage to Make You Money While You Sleep
Welcome to Expertise Into Income™ from BarryBazMorris.com.
This is a free 6-lesson mini-course that provides you with an overview of the concepts behind starting a one-person digital business offering a specific type of product—your authoritative 6-lesson mini-course, based on what you already know well and delivered via email.
LESSON 2 - How 6-lesson Mini-Courses Work, Earn, and Leverage to Make You Money While You Sleep
Definition of a Mini-Course
Let’s begin by defining what mini-course means.
You may have some experience with online learning, often called asynchronous learning, because you learn when it’s convenient to open and consume the materials.
Contrastingly, classroom learning is synchronous because it occurs while the instruction is disseminated simultaneously.
A mini-course is a form of asynchronous learning in which materials (lessons, videos, links to online resources) are distributed via email.
Why Mini-Courses are a Favorite Mode of Teaching
Shortened Attention Spans. Our attention spans have decreased significantly because we live in a world of social media apps. Our collective endless scrolling (doom scrolling) consumes our attention for hours per day.
Knowing this, I believe the best way to teach someone new skills and concepts is via brief asynchronous lessons they can consume when they are ready. Mini-courses are a perfect match for this new, challenging learning environment.
No UserNames or Passwords. I’ve taken dozens of online courses requiring a username and password. These courses were hosted on teaching websites such as Teachify and Skillshare.
I don’t know about you, but I have my laptop manage and store all my usernames and passwords. When it comes to a course, I’d prefer not to have them.
You Have Access to the Materials Forever. The consumer or customer maintains access to your course materials by receiving the materials and links for downloadable content. I’ve taken courses where I’d have to request new links or ask the teacher to send me their content (again).
Mini-Course Mechanics
Here’s how the mini-course process works from beginning to end from the potential customer’s point of view:
The potential customer:
Reads an article on Substack Notes, Threads, Medium, etc.
Clicks on the link in the article about a free mini-course
Arrives on a landing page or web form on a website
Fill in the web form and click on the ‘Submit’ button
Receives a confirmation email and clicks on the appropriate link to confirm they want to enroll in the free course
Immediately receive Lesson 1 in their email inbox
For the next four days, they receive Lessons 2-6
At the end of Lesson 6, there is a link to the premium $XX mini-course
Clicks on the link and arrives at the enrollment page
Enters their information into the secure payment form and click ‘Enroll”
Payment is processed, and a receipt is emailed to their inbox
Lesson 1 of the premium course arrives in their email inbox
The process continues…
Here’s how it works from the business owner’s/teacher’s perspective:
Outlines the mini-course
Writes out the first lesson only
Creates a page with a web form that captures the customer’s payment info for enrollment
Loads the first lesson into their email processor account, such as Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or AWeber (affiliate link), and configures it to send after someone enrolls
Alternatively, they load the lessons into their Substack as Paid posts in a separate section. (Remember, ‘Sections’ can’t be paywalled, only individual posts.)
They don’t have to do anything until someone buys their mini-course
When that happens, they write and upload the next few lessons
The payment processor collects the payment
On payday, usually once a week, the processor deposits your earnings (minus their small cut) into your bank account.
As you can see, there is some setup to do in the background, including opening accounts with AWeber, a payment processor (PayPal, Stripe, etc.), and uploading your lessons.
However, the rest is handled automatically, and you can sit back and collect each time a customer enrolls in your mini-course.
Leveraging Your Time
When you have a service business, you have to negotiate sales, invoice customers (and hope they pay in a timely manner), and do the work they hire you to do. That can be draining.
By leveraging your time, you do the required work up front (write the content, open the accounts, create forms, etc.), and with the miracle of technology, everything else is automated.
“Create Once, Sell Repeatedly.”
In Lesson 3, you’ll learn how mini-courses give you The Power To Determine Your Income.