The making of a digital course - Episode 35
When I launched The Influencer Income Accelerator, my digital course for creators and influencers, I wanted it to provide two key things for creators: more time back in their day and increased earnings through passive income streams.
My course guides students through identifying passive income opportunities, selecting the ones best suited to their business, and refining their strategies to work smarter, not harder.
For all the details about the course, you can head to austentosone.com/enroll or check the link in the show notes. But today, I’ll take you behind the scenes to share how I brought this course to life.
Create & consume:
What I’m creating this week: I wrote a blog post about 13 small towns in the US that I think are worth visiting, as you guys know I did an episode about US cities so these are some small towns if you liked that.
What I’m consuming this week: Juror #2 holy moly this movie was wild but not in a crazy action packed way in the subtle way it built suspense and kept you second guessing through the whole thing. It’s directed by Clint Eastwood.
In this episode:
The Idea for the Course
Every successful product begins with a clear idea, and this course was no exception.
I started by asking my audience to vote on 4 topic ideas for digital courses I was interested in creating.
The most popular topic with 62% of the vote was how to create consistent income as a content creator.
This feedback became the foundation for The Influencer Income Accelerator.
Learning the Course Landscape
Before creating my own course, I also immersed myself in the world of digital courses. I invested in several programs, ranging in price from $300 to nearly $2,000:
YouTube for Bosses by Sunny Lenarduzzi
Stupid Simple SEO by Mike Futia
Digital Course Academy by Amy Porterfield
Marketing for Makers Academy by Alissa Rose
For each course, I first consumed the instructor’s free content to ensure I resonated with their teaching style.
I also committed to finishing every step of the courses, even when I was tempted to skip ahead.
This process gave me invaluable insights into structuring my own course—including what I liked and didn't like about the digital course experience.
Pre-Selling the Course
One of the scariest yet most impactful strategies I used was pre-selling the course before it was fully built.
This idea, inspired by Amy Porterfield’s Digital Course Academy (and something I also discussed on her podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy), allowed me to validate the course concept.
I offered it at a discount to the first 10 students in exchange for their honest feedback.
Not only did this validate my idea, but it also gave me the confidence to move forward.
Implementing Student Feedback
The feedback from those early students was invaluable. For example:
In the course: Some students who printed the worksheets suggested removing cover pages from each handout, as it wasted ink and added unnecessary steps. I streamlined the materials to make them more user-friendly.
In my content: A student’s comment about wanting to see behind-the-scenes content inspired me to return to vlogging on YouTube, showcasing a day in my life as a creator.
Moving to Evergreen
Initially, The Influencer Income Accelerator was launched once a year, but I’ve since transitioned it to an evergreen format. This shift involved several changes:
Platform: I moved the course from Thinkific to Squarespace for better integration with my existing website.
Content Strategy: As I shifted away from creator tips on YouTube, the evergreen model aligned better with my evolving content goals.
Future Plans: I’m exploring the idea of hosting a challenge to complement the evergreen course structure and provide additional value to students.
In summary:
Creating a digital course has been one of the most rewarding projects of my career, and I’m thrilled to see the impact it’s had on creators and influencers.
Whether you’re considering launching your own course or you were just curious about what goes into the process, I hope you've enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look.
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