Build Credibility With an Email Course

When you are an expert, you sometimes forget that others don't know as much as you do. Not only do you understand your topic at a higher level, but you also know what's important for a novice to know. By providing your insight to those at a basic level, you can save them time in learning and applying their newly acquired knowledge.

So how do you share your expert information with prospects and clients in order to showcase your expertise while providing them with desired knowledge? Why not offer a course via email?

Your course will consist of several lessons, delivered at pre-set intervals. You'll compose the lessons once so that you're ready to deliver them to anyone who signs up for the course.

Now won't that be a bear to administer, you ask? Not if you use one of the online services that is designed to do this. This category of service is called a sequential autoresponder. There are several services to choose from.

In using one of the popular autoresponder services, for example, you have up to 52 lessons. Your first lesson is set to go out immediately after your new 'student' sends an email to the course address (you set this address!). Then each lesson goes out automatically on the day you prescribe. It may be daily for the first 3 days, then every 3d day thereafter. Or it may be weekly.

Regardless of the interval, you enter each lesson as you want it to appear to the enrollees. Since you don't know when someone will sign up, the system tracks each enrollee individually so that they receive their emails on schedule, regardless of when other people sign up. It's like having a private secretary to track all of the enrollments and
mailouts!

You can opt to receive a notification each time someone signs up to take the course (fun at first, but overwhelming in the long run). At any time you can log into your control panel and see who is enrolled in your course, which email they have received and when they last heard from you.

Why would you want to offer an email course?

Maybe you have a complex subject on which you need to educate prospects. Why not create a course - with a small commercial in each lesson?

Maybe you delivered a great seminar and you now want to keep in touch with audience members. Why not create a series of reminder emails to be sent at regular intervals?

Or maybe you want to offer an online course, but you're not sure how well it will go over. Why not pilot some of the content with an email course to test the market?

Or perhaps you sell a product or service online and you want to entice more people to share their name and email with you. You can offer the free course as the incentive to share their information.

What's a course like this cost? Fees vary, but you can offer an email course for less than $20 per month. In some cases you may already have the sequential autoresponders you need built into another feature of your website.

So go ahead and add an email course to your online strategy on an ongoing basis. You won't be sorry. You'll probably find yourself back starting a new course shortly! And each time you do, you'll enhance your credibility.

For an example of an email course, send an email to elearning@techtamers.com

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with experts who are ready to turn their knowledge and their websites into Gold. Her reputation as a speaker and trainer has earned her the title of The Technology Tamer. With more than 20 years in instructional design and elearning, Jeanette shares her news and views in OnlineSuccessNews.com

In The News:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories

In this Oct. 15, 2008 file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, right, listens to Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, before speaking at the Economic Club of New York. President-elect Barack Obama is likely to name Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary in a time of intense economic turmoil as he rounds out the upper echelon of his Cabinet, a senior Democratic official familiar with the deliberations said Friday. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)AP - President-elect Barack Obama intends to name Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as his treasury secretary to confront the nation's intense economic turmoil, senior Democratic officials said Friday.



President-elect Barack Obama, with money in hand, looks to pay for his order during a visit to Manny's Deli in Chicago, Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)AP - While President-elect Barack Obama publicly sidelined himself during congressional debate over an auto industry bailout this week, he and his top aides quietly prodded congressional leaders to find a solution to rescue struggling automakers.



Nebraska lawmakers Tom Carlson, left, of Holdrege, Lowen Kruse of Omaha, John Wightman of Lexington, and Norm Wallman of Cortland visit briefly Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, on the floor of the legislature just before the final vote of LB1, which puts a 30-day age limit on children who can be dropped off at Nebraska hospitals under the safe haven law. The bill easily passed 43-5. (AP Photo/Bill Wolf)AP - Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law Friday a bill adding a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law that allowed 35 children — including teenagers as old as 17 — to be abandoned at state hospitals. The law, approved hours earlier by the Legislature in a 45-3 vote, goes into effect Saturday, and makes Nebraska the 14th state with a 30-day age cap. It had been the only state with a safe-haven law without an age limit.



Joerg Schoenbohm, Brandeburg state Interior Minister and current chairman of the German Interior Ministers Conference, center, opens the final day of the ministers meeting in Potsdam, Germany, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. At left is German Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. German security officials said Friday they will drop their attempt to pursue a ban of the Church of Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of unconstitutional activity.  (AP Photo/Bernd Settnik Pool)AP - Germany is dropping its pursuit of a ban on Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity, security officials said Friday.



Lori Drew walks to federal court Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, in Los Angeles. Drew has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. She is accused of helping create a false-identity account on the the MySpace social networking site then posing as a teenage boy and befriending a 13-year old girl who later committed suicide.  (AP Photo/Ric Francis)AP - A friend of the Missouri woman accused of sending cruel Internet messages to teenage neighbor Megan Meier, who later committed suicide, testified Friday that the defendant told her she had concocted a false online identity "to mess with Megan."



AP - A college student committed suicide by taking a drug overdose in front of a live webcam as some computer users egged him on, others tried to talk him out of it, and another messaged OMG in horror when it became clear it was no joke. Some watchers contacted the Web site to notify police, but by the time officers entered Abraham Biggs' home — a scene also captured on the Internet — it was too late.

AP - The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday ordered a year-old boy back into the home of an adoptive couple who had to give him up months ago after not telling the biological family the woman was pregnant.

Bulgarian archaeologists work near a Thracian bronze chariot discovered near the village of Karanovo. A bronze chariot dating back to the second century AD has been unearthed in a Thracian burial mound in southeastern Bulgaria, archaeologists said Friday.(AFP/BGNES)AP - Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborately decorated 1,800-year-old chariot sheathed in bronze at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Friday. "The lavishly ornamented four-wheel chariot dates back to the end of the second century A.D.," Veselin Ignatov told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site, near the southeastern village of Karanovo.



AP - Police have arrested a man suspected of leaving greasy, graphic imprints on the windows of stores, churches and schools in a small Nebraska town. A 35-year-old man was caught in the act by police early Wednesday morning, Cherry County Attorney Eric Scott said Friday. The man hasn't been charged yet, but authorities believe he is the vandal some townsfolk have dubbed the "Butt Bandit."

In this Nov. 12, 2008, file photo, Memphis Grizzlies' Quinton Ross defends New York Knicks Jamal Crawford (11) as he shoots a three point shot in the third quarter of an NBA basketball game in Memphis, Tenn. The Golden State Warriors traded disgruntled forward Al Harrington to the New York Knicks for guard Jamal Crawford on Friday. (AP Photo/Nikki Boertman, File)AP - The New York Knicks traded Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford in separate deals Friday, parting with their two top scorers to free up coveted salary-cap space for the summer of 2010. Crawford was sent to Golden State for forward Al Harrington. Hours later, Randolph was shipped to the Los Angeles Clippers along with reserve guard Mardy Collins for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas.



(From left) Senator Hillary Clinton, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and Timothy F. Geithner, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, are seen in a combination file photo. (From left Craig Mitchelldyer, Andrea Comas, Keith Bedford/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama on Friday moved toward nominating Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and charging the respected head of the New York Federal Reserve with helping pull the United States out of an economic nosedive.



Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers (L) and Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a composite image. (Files/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama may consider Lawrence Summers as a successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term expires in January 2010, a Democratic source told Reuters on Friday.



Leaders of the U.S. automotive industry testify at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington November 19, 2008. From left are General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner, Chrysler Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli and Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)Reuters - Detroit automakers began work on turnaround plans demanded by Congress in return for $25 billion in aid as General Motors Corp said it would cut production more and give up two of its controversial corporate jets.



Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit in a file photo. (Peter Morgan/Reuters)Reuters - Citigroup Inc shares tumbled for a fifth straight day on doubts about its survival prospects after its chief executive downplayed speculation the bank might sell major businesses or merge with a rival.



Traders work in close quarters on the main trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange early in the trading session in New York City, November 21, 2008. (Mike Segar/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. stocks stormed higher in a late rally on Friday to cap another volatile week as investors welcomed reports that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his point person to combat the U.S. economic crisis, instilling confidence about the administration's ability to take action.



A British military vehicle drives past an Afghan man in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province October 20, 2008. (Abdul Qodus/Reuters)Reuters - The Pentagon is considering a plan to send more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next 12 to 18 months to help safeguard elections and quell rising Taliban violence, officials said on Friday.



President Bush walks across the South Lawn to board Marine One at the White House, November 21, 2008. (Jim Young/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush held talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program with Chinese leader Hu Jintao on Friday, the first in a series of meetings U.S. officials hope will lead to a renewal of six-party talks by early December.



A cleric walks past the national flag and a nuclear logo while visiting the International Koran exhibition at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran September 3, 2008. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)Reuters - Iran rejected Friday U.S. reports it had enriched enough uranium to make an atom bomb, saying this would require steps it had ruled out like ejecting U.N. inspectors and leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).



Peruvian President Alan Garcia delivers a speech during the opening of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Lima. Leaders of the 21-member APEC group are to seek ways of turning back the world economic crisis as they gather in Lima amid unrelenting bad news from the Asia-Pacific region.(AFP/Presidencia)AFP - US President George W. Bush began Friday his last scheduled foreign trip, meeting the leader of increasingly important China ahead of a summit aimed at containing a spiraling financial crisis.



Children are being forcibly recruited into the ongoing conflict in Congo. Profile of a former child soldier. Duration: 02:06(AFPTV)AFP - Congo demanded a stronger mandate for UN troops in the conflict-torn east Friday, while residents of a squalid refugee camp said government soldiers killed a woman during a looting spree.




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