Many individuals have expertise that they can package online to establish a passive income. Such is the dream of health practitioners, chiropractors, and others who want to earn an income while they sleep with online courses. While the motive is inspiring, the technological complexity of such endeavors often nullifies any action. There are certain pages needed to produce an online course launch and membership area. First, a person should set up a landing page designed to collect people’s contact information, such as their name and email. Most landing or opt-in pages consist of those two items, although recently more vendors are requesting cell phones numbers for SMS (Short Message Service) Marketing. The trend highlights a valuable insight into consumer responsiveness, as “the open rate of SMS is 98% compared with 22% of emails” (1). The logic is understandable as persistent spam messages usually fill inboxes while SMS messages often come from friends via a texting application. Furthermore, the email application is locked inside one’s phone, whereas texts are available to view and respond to on the lock screen. Nevertheless, the options for requesting contact information on an email collector, landing, or opt-in page are generally effective.
Following the landing page, a person would need to create a “Thank You” page, which subscribers are directed to after they enter their contact information. The “Thank You” page provides the incentive that enticed a person to enter their contact information such as a free report on the Nine Mental Musts of Entrepreneurs or an instructional CD gift. Page copy could inform, “Thank you for subscribing to my blog/website/newsletter! Check your inbox for the [name of gift] to start succeeding as an entrepreneur now.” If the free incentive is a physical item such as a DVD or CD, the landing page may read, “Thank you for committing to your personal and business development. All you need to do is enter your mailing address so we can send you the [name of physical gift] at no charge!” Delivering on the promise of the landing page is critical lest viewers mark your website as spam, complain about your brand on social media, or detach from you for lack of follow-through.
To consistently market yourself to subscribers, a business owner can send out a weekly email. This email must provide some valuable content, such as a video or article on a topic of interest to the reader. If you are promoting an online course, you can set up an email autoresponder to inform your prospects. For example, you will launch the Social Media Mastery online course two weeks from now. You create a Facebook ad targeting business owners interested in social media. When they click on the advertisement, they are directed to an email collector page. They enter their name and email to receive the incentive, such as a coupon to enroll in the course, VIP access, a free report, etc. The autoresponder follows up with the subscribers. By creating an autoresponder before you promote the email collector page, you can send an email three, five and seven days after the subscriber opts-in. A model autoresponder first informs the subscriber of your purpose and who you serve, then provides a valuable email, perhaps about optimizing in-office productivity, and lastly reiterates the offer to enroll in your online course. You can space these emails out over five, seven or ten days.
Until now, we have created an email collector page, “Thank You” page, and synced them with an autoresponder. Finally, in offering your online course, you would create a sales page, preferably with a video to engage viewers. If they would like to purchase your online course, they click your “Buy Now” or “Reserve Your Spot” button, re-directing them to Paypal or another fulfillment service. Then, they receive an email via an autoresponder congratulating them for taking action, and providing a link to your Login Page. Members will enter a username and password in this Login Page, which allows to access a Membership Home Page. From there, they click on the lessons, or Content Pages, to view the training you promised.
To offer a basic online course, you need to create the following pages: Email Collector, “Thank You”, Sales, Membership Home, and Content or Lessons. Sync those with a fulfillment service and autoresponder, and you are on the path to establishing a passive income by packaging your advice online.
Works Cited
1. “19 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind | Oracle Marketing Cloud.” 19 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind | Oracle Marketing Cloud. Web. 07 January 2015.