(This post contains Affiliate Links)

Being in the blogosphere world, I have learned that there are many ways to monetize your blog or increase your passive income. When I started, I learned about affiliate programs, sponsors and Ads. All these are great ways to monetize your blog and get some income to your household, but you will be getting a few cents here and there.

Today, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to Gina on her most recent course in which I’m an affiliate to and just signed up to take, “The Course Course“, for those planning on creating a product for their blog, such as an E-Course.

We’ve seen many bloggers come up with different courses, from Blogging 101 to How to Create Pin-Worthy Pins for Pinterest and even how to sell your photography if you’re an upcoming photographer. All these are excellent ways to bring in income for yourself without having to put a lot of time and effort once your course has been created and established.

You can continue making money while you sleep as these are courses where you don’t necessarily have to be online with your students unless it’s the one on one coaching sessions you might offer in your courses.

Having taken Gina’s 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success Course, I can honestly say that Gina took into account to show us step by step on how to accomplish this goal and not make the same mistakes she made. She gives you step by step guides and lessons and even throws in some templates for you depending on which package you choose. Being that today, her new course launches, below is an interview of how this all came about. 

Increase Your Passive Income

Gina, tell us how you got started online?

Heck, I’d always been a decent writer and I’d been working in the financial services industry for almost a decade, so I figured that would be as good a place as any to start.

Why not?

So I purchased an online course, secured a domain name and some hosting and launched my new web-based business as a freelance writer.

I was thrilled (and a little nervous). But mostly hopeful that if I worked hard enough, I might be able to make this whole online business thing work and take control over my career future.

If it didn’t work, I’d have to continue working in a job I didn’t love, we’d still be scraping by and I hate to say it, but I’d probably be resenting that job and my family.

However, our concerns were soon alleviated when, after six months of hustling my butt off, I was bringing in an extra $4,000 per month. I’d read about how people were launching courses and making some passive income and I wanted to give it a try. I didn’t really know what I was doing.

First off, I wasn’t completely sold that anyone cared about what I had to say and I’d never done anything like this before. Secondly, I’m the complete opposite of tech savvy. How the heck was I going to create a course online? But me being me, I ended up creating the content anyway and decided to worry about the details later. 😉

And after about a month of waking up every morning at 4:30 am to write a lesson or two, 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success was born. At the time I launched the course my list was teeny, only 64 subscribers and I had about 3,000 monthly website visitors (only 700 of which were unique). The total revenue from this launch? $680.

Hardly a number to brag about. But nonetheless, it was a course launch. Being that I really didn’t know how to properly create, promote and launch an online course, I just did what I thought felt right at the time.

In hindsight, I might have done a thing or two differently. And knowing what I know now, I went about this first launch the complete opposite way of how I would do a launch today.

What are the mistakes to avoid?

Mistake #1: Not spending any time on building an email list.

Here’s the truth:

• You can literally have the best looking site on the internet…
• The best images…
• The best blog content…
• Tons of social media followers…
• And lots of website traffic.

But, if you’re not building up an email list, your chances of having people buy your course or product are slim to none.

Your time and effort when it comes to your launch plans = wasted.

Mistake #2: Not researching and validating my idea before creating the course.

This is the one thing that I CRINGE about now. I was LUCKY! Like many others I know, I had an idea, I built it out and THEN I took it to market by asking people to buy it from me.

Yes, I sold copies of my course without validating, but in hindsight it was SUPER risky for me to go this route.

Can you imagine if I had spent all those days waking up at 4:30every morning only to have no one buy my course?

• The number of proposals I could have sent out for paying work instead…
• The thousands of wasted words I typed up…
• The hours I spent on the sales page I put together…
• The time and money I used to get MailChimp setup to deliver the course lessons…

All of that opportunity wasted, when all I needed to do was make sure that people actually wanted the course I was about to create.

Mistake #3: Not having a launch plan for my course.

Oh boy, this is another area where I really wish I could go back and do things differently. Again, this was my first rodeo – so I really was flying by the seat of my pants.

But now I realize the importance of laying out a launch plan and working from the launch date back.

• I had no strategic partnerships.
• I had no idea how to get people excited about the upcoming launch.
• I didn’t know I should be writing content on my blog or offering freebies to get more people on my list.
• … and the list goes on… and on.

You could spend weeks trying to learn all of the different ways to go about creating and launching your course. And then months more to see if your course idea works out.

Or you can do what I do now.

Instead, you can follow the methodical process that I’ve created to ensure you have a successful course launch. And avoid making the same three mistakes I made when I first launched back in 2014.

So now I’ve told you three things NOT to do when launching your online course. What should you do instead? Focus on creating the right course for the right people at theright time.

When I launched my first course back in 2014, I thought I was going about it the right way. (Well, at least I didn’t know there was a wrong way!) I was creating the course for others who aspired to do what I do: Make a living as a freelance writer.

I figured anyone who was interested in knowing how to grow a successful freelance writing business would want to buy my course.

I never stopped to think about whether or not I should validate or pre-sell it.

• Or focus on list building…
• Or a launch plan…
• Or choosing the right kind of courseware…

It wasn’t until a friend of mine pointed all of this out to me that I realized the mistakes I made. But by the time I got over my embarrassment, I was already gearing up for my second course launch…

And with Carlos’ advice, I was more excited than I had been all year!

Why? Because now I knew what I needed to focus on to make sure my next course launch was going to be the biggest yet and take my business to the next level.

If you want to generate income on the side or replace your current income by launching an online course, knowing the steps to take and executing them is hands down the fastest way to make that happen.

For example, with the right preparation and launch plan, you can turn your:

• $50 course into $500 if you sell it to 10 people.
• $100 course into $1,000 if you sell it to 10 people.
• $50 course into $5,000 if you sell it to 100 people.
• $100 course into $10,000 if you sell it to 100 people.

How you go about researching, validating and launching your course makes your dream of generating extra income a reality.

And it makes the whole process a whole lot easier for you.

How can I launch my own course?

For example, once you’ve done all of the steps above there are still questions like:

1. How do I know I’ve properly researched my idea?
2. Now that I’ve pre-sold my course what do I do next?
3. What list building strategies should I try?
4. What software should I use and how do I connect it with my email service provider?

If you want answers to these questions and are ready to be taken by the hand and shown the exact process I’ve used, we can help.

Carlos and I have just put the finishing touches on a brand-new course that will walk you through a proven, step-by-step system for creating and selling your first (or next) online course, so that you can turn your dream of generating money on the side or earning a full-time income online into a reality.

We’re offering The Course Course in three packages to make sure you get the one that’s right for you.

Click here to choose your package and get started today.

This course is about creating a course unlike any other. And we’ll supply you with both the strategies and tactics necessary to get you up and running quickly.

In Conclusion

If we take Gina’s advice on avoiding the three mistakes she took when launching her first course: 

• Mistake #1: Not spending any time on building an email list.

• Mistake #2: Not researching and validating your idea before creating it.

• Mistake #3: Not having a launch plan for your course.

You will have a starting point of creating and launching your own course without having to jump the hurdles she jumped through to become successful with this course and a couple others she has, such as: 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success, 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success.

As you can see, Gina has plenty of experience in creating and launching her own courses and wants to give you the tools necessary and blueprints to make it happen for you. 

P.S. Have you been thinking about creating your own course? Let us know what type of course you’re interested in pursuing if you do.

Exclusive Offer

Update 6/30/2016:

**Time for discount expired.

Only for TODAY, get 25% 20% off by using my affiliate link in order to get this offer here and use code VIP EARLYBIRD.

*This post contains affiliate links or ads and I’ll earn a small commission if you shop through them. My family and I will greatly appreciate this as this is how we help provide income to our household so we can continue bringing you amazing content.