Expert advice for online course creators who want to create high-quality course content that gets their students results.

Shannon Boyer is an award-winning educator with a Masters degree in education and more than 20 years of experience in curriculum and course design. Drawing from her background in education and her most recent experience working with entrepreneurs with online courses, she dives deep into what it means to truly create a high-quality online course. Listeners range from professionals thinking of expanding their brick and mortar practices online to seasoned course creators with established six-figure online courses.
 

The ART of Online Course Creation is a fairly new podcast that was born from Shannon's desire to reach a broader audience and dive deeper into the topics that truly matter to her. After being repeatedly told that her social media posts were "too long", she decided to take her knowledge, expertise, and opinions to the world of podcasting. With the support of an experienced mentor and a professional sound and content editor, she was able to launch her podcast one month after committing to publish it.
 

The ART of Online Course Creation releases one episode a week. It takes about 4 hours to plan and record an episode before sending it off to be edited. It takes another hour to publish and promote it. The creation of the podcast is a part of the overall content strategy for Shannon's work as an Online Course Strategist. More information about her work can be found at www.shannonlboyer.com. The podcast is self-funded and it costs about $235 CAD a month to run.
 

The purpose of the podcast is to elevate the standard of courses in the marketplace. The goal is to help experts understand better how to showcase their expertise in a way that they can be proud of and that will represent them well. It also aims to educate consumers of online courses so that they know better what makes a high-quality course so that they can make sure they are spending their money on something that will actually get them the results they have been promised. The benefit to the host is broader exposure and an increase in the number of people interested in working with her.
 

First, Shannon brainstorms her ideas and organizes them in bullet points. Then she does voice to text in Google Docs to quickly transfer her ideas into written form. Next, she cleans up the text and edits it for clarity. Finally, she uses the script to record the solo episode in Zoom before sending it off to her editor. When doing interviews, she uses past and current clients as guests, other experts in the industry who she knows, and sometimes experts she has found through other podcasts. She writes out questions in advance and then ad libs when necessary during the interview. The interview is also recorded on Zoom.
 

Listeners find the show predominantly through Spotify and Apple searches, so SEO and keywords are very important. The show is also promoted through a newsletter and Instagram. We will soon be promoting on Pinterest as well.
 

What I've learned is that it takes a lot longer to create each show than I had initially thought, but it is also a lot more fun and rewarding than I expected it to be as well. The biggest piece of advice I have is to batch your content before releasing your first episode and to get a good sound editor. High-quality sound is key to a successful podcast. My show rose to top 10% globally after the first six weeks, and I think it was a combination of high-quality content and high-quality sound. I use Cardinal Studios for my sound.
 

You can learn more about my podcast and the work I do with online course creators at www.shannonlboyer.com and www.instagram.com/shannonlboyer. You can contact me directly at hello@shannonlboyer.com