I started blogging (blogging? what's that!:?)) a few years ago, but I've been teaching (first music for dance, later psychology) for decades. I remember professors in the 1980s were already saying they noticed a rather dramatic decline in reading ability between the 60s and 80s (and if you look at books that were assigned to high school kids in the 40s and earlier, I doubt if many of my 60s classmates could have handled them!)
Now you hear about professional writers complaining their attention span has declined to a point they can barely read a magazine article much less a book.
Jan and I mostly produce videos with music - free on our site and YouTube channel, all of which relate back to online courses we're selling. This week I'm finishing up text to accompany the videos, for over 60 videos.
How is that possible in one week? I found even writing a few paragraphs (like this comment) can be too much for time-starved rushed folks surfing the net.
So I'm writing basically about 3 paragraph posts, but more as a written, guided meditation that itself will be almost as soothing and meditative as the videos. I thought of this since I came across a former Buddhist monk making OVER 100K a month (seriously) selling meditation scripts (this is for new "mindfulness" teachers - my own view is if you can't improvise a guided meditation maybe you shouldn't be teaching it!!?)
So here's the question:
Do your suggestions apply equally to people who are not primarily writers, but focusing mostly on video and music (short 1-2 minute videos, but very long 1 hour or more for the many who love to put on relaxation music in the background)?
thanks. Great work. This is a really fascinating development.
Don you may want to try to use A.I. tools to help you in your tasks, you would be surprised perhaps at how much time it could save you, if understand your needs correctly. ChatGPT demo is there free and available.
I can also tell you that for Creators, they are multi-tasking between writing, marketing, shooting videos and dozens of our mini tasks, we are a busy bunch.
You can get your lead funnel from anywhere even as a YouTuber, that's why YouTube and TikTok people are starting Newsletters. You want to make use of any possible advantage in your niche both algorithmic and peer generated. Reddit can also be helpful for SEO.
For some reason I'm not always sure exactly what you are asking. Sorry for my lack of understanding your specific needs or what your goals are.
Ultimately you want to learn how to be experts in your niche and follow what others are doing in the same area and what works for them and try to do the same. I think! This could even actually be a really good Instagram account, selling merchandise related to your theme, and diversifying your revenue streams.
Hi Michael - thanks for all this - I'll look into all of this.
Let's see if I can clarify.
Our business at present and for the foreseeable future is extremely simple. We have two courses we're selling: "Wake Up to the Best Sleep Ever," $79; and "Train Your Brain, Change Your Life," $149. The aim is simply to sell as many as possible! (we've worked out in quite some detail the general market for these, niche audiences, the "competition" etc)
We sell them both on the Thinkific platform, and use our Squarespace website - www.RememberToBe.Life as a landing page for both courses. People can sign in at the RTB site and from there are taken to a checkout page at Thrivecart, which finally takes them to their Student Dashboard. Everything else lives on Thinkific - the two courses and the Community (which Thinkific has done a surprisingly good job of updating regularly)
I was avoiding saying too much about this because I didn't want to be obviously commercial, but I guess it's ok.
Lastly, to speak of multitasking. I was a professional composer/pianist in the 70s and 80s, and a clinical psychologist since the late 90s. What we do in creating and marketing the course:
1. Create and manage a Squarespace website and social media pages (so far just FB and YouTube channels)
2. Jan taught herself Motion software and creates stunning videos.
3. I taught myself Logic Pro and have been composing using it for about 10 years
4. Thinkific has a pretty steep learning curve, but we've taught ourselves everything involved in uploading our text, videos and music.
5. I shoot the "talking heads" videos as well as some live piano videos using our iPhone 14.
6. Other marketing software includes Active Campaign for email marketing.
Sorry for the longish answer but I know in our past conversations I haven't been clear about the business.
TLDR: we're selling two online courses:>)) (I am much more interested in a host of related non-business projects related to yogic psychology, but that's enough for this comment:>))
Oh well, one more quick one - I have what I think is an absolutely unique course, simple, 8 simple lessons, "How to Improvise Meditative Keyboard Music from Day 1 - Good for absolute beginners or advanced keyboardists" (based on 25 years of teaching piano from the mid 60s through the 80s)
I was thinking of doing it for about $10 on Udemy. I think much of what you write in your OP and comments is applicable to this. Well, 2023 is going to be quite a year! Thanks again SO much for your suggestions - they look to be immensely helpful.
I'm no expert about course marketing, but a newsletter around your themes might be a good idea. After that, your next step would be to network with other substack newsletter writers who are also into your niche and mutually recommend each other so you can grow together. Over time, this could create a powerful marketing lead funnel that would help your courses sell in my opinion. It could be substantially better in the end than having many social media accounts.
Hey Michael -
very helpful video. I do have a question:
I started blogging (blogging? what's that!:?)) a few years ago, but I've been teaching (first music for dance, later psychology) for decades. I remember professors in the 1980s were already saying they noticed a rather dramatic decline in reading ability between the 60s and 80s (and if you look at books that were assigned to high school kids in the 40s and earlier, I doubt if many of my 60s classmates could have handled them!)
Now you hear about professional writers complaining their attention span has declined to a point they can barely read a magazine article much less a book.
Jan and I mostly produce videos with music - free on our site and YouTube channel, all of which relate back to online courses we're selling. This week I'm finishing up text to accompany the videos, for over 60 videos.
How is that possible in one week? I found even writing a few paragraphs (like this comment) can be too much for time-starved rushed folks surfing the net.
So I'm writing basically about 3 paragraph posts, but more as a written, guided meditation that itself will be almost as soothing and meditative as the videos. I thought of this since I came across a former Buddhist monk making OVER 100K a month (seriously) selling meditation scripts (this is for new "mindfulness" teachers - my own view is if you can't improvise a guided meditation maybe you shouldn't be teaching it!!?)
So here's the question:
Do your suggestions apply equally to people who are not primarily writers, but focusing mostly on video and music (short 1-2 minute videos, but very long 1 hour or more for the many who love to put on relaxation music in the background)?
thanks. Great work. This is a really fascinating development.
Don you may want to try to use A.I. tools to help you in your tasks, you would be surprised perhaps at how much time it could save you, if understand your needs correctly. ChatGPT demo is there free and available.
I can also tell you that for Creators, they are multi-tasking between writing, marketing, shooting videos and dozens of our mini tasks, we are a busy bunch.
You can get your lead funnel from anywhere even as a YouTuber, that's why YouTube and TikTok people are starting Newsletters. You want to make use of any possible advantage in your niche both algorithmic and peer generated. Reddit can also be helpful for SEO.
For some reason I'm not always sure exactly what you are asking. Sorry for my lack of understanding your specific needs or what your goals are.
Ultimately you want to learn how to be experts in your niche and follow what others are doing in the same area and what works for them and try to do the same. I think! This could even actually be a really good Instagram account, selling merchandise related to your theme, and diversifying your revenue streams.
Hi Michael - thanks for all this - I'll look into all of this.
Let's see if I can clarify.
Our business at present and for the foreseeable future is extremely simple. We have two courses we're selling: "Wake Up to the Best Sleep Ever," $79; and "Train Your Brain, Change Your Life," $149. The aim is simply to sell as many as possible! (we've worked out in quite some detail the general market for these, niche audiences, the "competition" etc)
We sell them both on the Thinkific platform, and use our Squarespace website - www.RememberToBe.Life as a landing page for both courses. People can sign in at the RTB site and from there are taken to a checkout page at Thrivecart, which finally takes them to their Student Dashboard. Everything else lives on Thinkific - the two courses and the Community (which Thinkific has done a surprisingly good job of updating regularly)
I was avoiding saying too much about this because I didn't want to be obviously commercial, but I guess it's ok.
Lastly, to speak of multitasking. I was a professional composer/pianist in the 70s and 80s, and a clinical psychologist since the late 90s. What we do in creating and marketing the course:
1. Create and manage a Squarespace website and social media pages (so far just FB and YouTube channels)
2. Jan taught herself Motion software and creates stunning videos.
3. I taught myself Logic Pro and have been composing using it for about 10 years
4. Thinkific has a pretty steep learning curve, but we've taught ourselves everything involved in uploading our text, videos and music.
5. I shoot the "talking heads" videos as well as some live piano videos using our iPhone 14.
6. Other marketing software includes Active Campaign for email marketing.
Sorry for the longish answer but I know in our past conversations I haven't been clear about the business.
TLDR: we're selling two online courses:>)) (I am much more interested in a host of related non-business projects related to yogic psychology, but that's enough for this comment:>))
Oh well, one more quick one - I have what I think is an absolutely unique course, simple, 8 simple lessons, "How to Improvise Meditative Keyboard Music from Day 1 - Good for absolute beginners or advanced keyboardists" (based on 25 years of teaching piano from the mid 60s through the 80s)
I was thinking of doing it for about $10 on Udemy. I think much of what you write in your OP and comments is applicable to this. Well, 2023 is going to be quite a year! Thanks again SO much for your suggestions - they look to be immensely helpful.
I'm no expert about course marketing, but a newsletter around your themes might be a good idea. After that, your next step would be to network with other substack newsletter writers who are also into your niche and mutually recommend each other so you can grow together. Over time, this could create a powerful marketing lead funnel that would help your courses sell in my opinion. It could be substantially better in the end than having many social media accounts.