I just started an e-course version of DIY Writing Retreat – Your DIY Writing Retreat – and it was a lot of fun. I’ve taught before and taken online courses – both via email and not – so I had a pretty good idea of how to make it look. But creating this course took longer than expected Mailchimp – Alicia de los Reyes” />
I thought I’d share a quick guide on how to use MailChimp, my automated email service of choice, created an e-course.
Reading: How to create an email ecourse with mailchimp
If you follow these steps and add your own content, you will have an e-course that works like this:
- People are reporting over a MailChimp signup form for your e-course (in other words, by joining a Mailchimp list).
- You will receive an email that starts the course. Emails = Lessons.
- By clicking or waiting a certain amount of time, they will receive another email lesson.
- The course will be sent automatically when someone joins the list.
If you’ve ever signed up for a free mini-course from a website, chances are you’ve received these automated emails in an order that makes sense.
So here’s how:
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Step 1. Outline your e-course by dividing an idea or lesson into chunks about half a page long. If you’ve ever planned a curriculum or lesson, this is very similar. Think of each email as a lesson we want the reader to take away. For example, when I was working on Your DIY Writing Retreat, I set a “pick a date” tag and committed to it focused as if to find time to get away.
Step 2. Add tasks to each tag. For each day of your DIY writing retreat, I wanted there to be a clear realization. The best way to do this is to turn these insights into a concrete task. For example, on the “Go Shopping” day of your DIY writing retreat, I created a printable shopping list and instructed the reader to print it out and buy the materials on it.
Step 3. If If you have a free MailChimp account, upgrade it. You only need to sign up for the cheapest service tier ($10/month) to get access to “Automation” or the ability to create emails that send themselves.
Step 4. Create a Mailchimp list for your e-course. You don’t want everyone on your regular email list (if you have one) 
to get your course – only the select few (unless you create an introductory course – then they can list be your newsletter list!). So create a separate list for these people and design a subscription form.
Step 5. In MailChimp go to “Automation” and click on “Create Automation Workflow”. ” button. Set it to send to the list you just created and select the type of workflow you want to send. I used “Educate Subscribers”. Your list should be empty, so it’s not actually sent to anyone yet.
Step 6. Compose your first email, then click “Add new email” and compose the next one.Repeat.
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Step 7. Create artwork? Create these in the program of your choice and save as a PDF Then upload to Dropbox (another free service – isn’t the internet great?) and click the share button to get a link to include in your emails/lessons.
Step 8 . Set the trigger for each email. If you want the emails to be sent automatically (so that as soon as someone s I subscribe, receives one email per day or one email per week), then change the settings for each email to send periodically after the last email is sent (or opened). If you want the e-course to be self-paced (so that the reader controls when they receive the next email), change the settings for each email to send after the last email 
was clicked. (You can choose what they click – I created a button for each of mine that takes them to a page on my site that just says, “Thanks for clicking! Your next lesson is on the way.”)
Step 9. Try the e-course! Add yourself to the list you create and make sure everything works: links, downloads, triggers. Look for typos. Have someone else try it and ask for feedback.
Step 10. Confirm! Add Start sharing the signup form on your website.(For example: Interested in doing your DIY writing retreat? Buy the course here!) If you want to put it up for sale, keep the link hidden and send the code to customers who buy it – if You buy my course, you will receive the link in a fancy PDF so you can sign up and complete the course at your leisure.
Have you thought about creating an e-course? Please share what’s stopping you in the comments!
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