Create an ultra-simple, ultra-profitable digital course in the next 30 days — delivered entirely over email
Email Delivered Courses are the fastest, easiest way to create digital courses customers love — one daily lesson at a time.
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I've spent more than a decade delivering courses entirely over email — and getting paid for them before I've written a single word. I'll show you exactly how I do it — from finding profitable course ideas, to testing whether or not people will buy in just 7 days, to getting paying customers before writing a single word, to writing the course content in daily bite-sized chunks, to scaling up, and so much.
Test
course ideas in 7 days (& quickly ditch the losers)
Get paid
for your course before you've made it
Create
your course in real time, one lesson at a time
Grow
the "holy grail" of profitable mailing lists
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at least one Email Delivered Course.
I want to tell you a quick story about how I made an ultra-simple multi-million dollar course in just 30 days... entirely over email.
II want to tell you a quick story.One night more than 10 years ago, I was laying awake at 2am freaking out about money.A few months earlier my friend and business partner emptied our business bank account to pay down a DUI. I'd poured most of my savings into that bank account so I was officially broke. I had nothing to my name.I somehow survived that situation, disbanded the partnership, and took a couple of our clients with me. These clients had digital courses and I handled all their marketing.But earlier that day I got in a fight with one those clients about us needing to scale up faster. So now I’m worried he’s going to "fire" me despite everything I’ve built for him. Thus, the reason I can't sleep.
I said I was freaking out about money but really I was laying there thinking of ways that I could start my own full-time business.
I wanted to be free of that client and to earn all the money I was making for him, but for myself.I desperately wanted to create and sell a product of my own, but I couldn't seem to come up with any good ideas worth pursuing.Laying there, feeling at the end of my rope, I had a "f*ck-it moment". I decided I was going to try something radical.I thought to myself, "I’ve got an idea for a course and I’m going to start taking orders for it tomorrow (before I create a single lesson)."Well, turns out that that wasn’t a radical idea at all.My plan worked. Just 12 hours later I had slapped together a 500 word pitch I sent to some friends in an entrepreneurial forum called the Dynamite Circle, including a payment link at the end.20 people sent me $20 for a course that didn’t exist (yet).That’s not a lot of money but it was enough to show me there was demand.And over the last 10+ years later that course has generated multiple seven figures in profit for me (in fact, it's doing better now than ever).
What's crazy though is the way I built it originally ... was entirely over email.
Over the course of 4 weeks, that first group of 20 customers simply got a short email from me every day at 9am. In that email was a bite-sized lesson and a simple exercise they could do to reinforce the lesson.I'd literally write each email one day at a time. (One customer was in Australia so my goal was just to be ahead of him by about 1 hour.) Instead, I want to show you how to build a course in real-time, using daily email delivery. This is exactly how I built CopyHour and my most successful products. Frankly, I’m shocked more solopreneurs don’t use this method to build their offers and courses.
There are a tremendous amount of benefits to putting together a daily email delivered course that I’ll explore this week:
Email delivered courses take ALL the pressure off the course idea and course content.You can put together a guess of what people would want to buy – you don’t have to create ANY course content – and then you take orders. You risk nothing, not even your time, because if people don’t buy the course you don’t make it. If only a few people buy you can just refund them if it’s not worth going through with it.
You start building the course only AFTER you know there's demand and then you get to build the course in basically real-time – customers can even help you build the content as you go. I can't stress how easy it makes your life.
Email-delivered courses also put you in full control of your messaging. You don’t have to pretend to be an expert if you’re not and you'll still be able to sell courses like crazy because the delivery method becomes your biggest differentiator (we’ll go into greater detail on this, this week).
And best of all people LOVE to consume content that's dripped out daily (not in a firehose all at once) because it produces better end-results. I've literally spent less than $1,000 in paid ads on my business because my courses sell almost entirely based on word of mouth from happy customers.
Here's the deal: I'm a solopreneur.I'm also a father with two kids.On the one hand, I need my business to make money month after month — there is no room for error. My family depends on me. And in the space I'm in (selling digital courses), it's important to be publishing On the other hand, Here's how it works:Imagine you have an idea for a course.It doesn't have to be complicated at all. In fact, maybe it's super simple — just walking people through learning a simple skill they're desperately trying to master.The "traditional" way to build that course would be to spend months writing in-depth break-downs and tutorials you'll eventually host in a members area or put in a PDF.Which seems easy enough — unless you're like most people, in which case somewhere along the line you'll get side-tracked by perfectionism and doubt and questions like "what if no one actually wants this?"...Until, eventually, you give up on your course entirely.(That's if you even started writing the course at all.)Or, even worse, maybe you actually finish the course — but it's only after spending 6+ months on it that you realize your doubts were right all along: no one actually wants it.Either way, you just flushed months of work down the drain...And you're right back where you started.Sound familiar?
But now imagine the exact opposite.
Imagine that before you write down a single word of your idea, you already have a line-up of customers who have paid you for your course — with the money already in your bank account.And that over the following 30 days, you write your course in easy small chunks one day at a time — delivering those small chunks to your paying customers via email, and asking them for feedback the entire way to make sure you're on the right track and delivering exactly the content they want.Once those 30 days are up, that's it — you're done. You've now got an evergreen course you can sell while you sleep.And you know it will sell since you already verified there was demand by getting buyers before writing a single word. Because the content is being "drip-fed" to them one day at a time in such small chunks, your customers are also able to consume the content much more easily — leading more of them to actually implement what you teach, rave about your material, and become life-long fans of your work. What I'm talking about is something I call an Email Delivered Course.The concept is simple. It's a course that:
You create on-demand, one day at a time, over 30-45 days — and send each day's lesson out over email
Only after you've verified there's demand for the course
Only after you've received payments for the course
In other words, you see if people actually want what you're selling... then you give them a checkout page to prove they want it... and then, assuming you get enough orders, you simply email them a lesson every day over the next 30-45 days.After those 30-45 days, you now have a completed evergreen course — something that can make you money while you sleep.That's it. It's a really simple concept.
And it's great for how easy it makes it to create a course.
There's nothing like making a course only after you've verified people want it and they've paid you for it.Not to mention you'll be getting their feedback every day after each lesson, so you know if what you're teaching is making sense — or if you need to go deeper on any particular subject.This absolutely destroys the perfectionism that keeps so many people (including me) from creating more "traditional" courses.
And these Email Delivered Courses are also great because customers love them.
I know because I've both made a bunch of them — and been on the receiving end of a bunch of them.Because your customers aren't just getting a firehose of information all at once, but instead are getting courses drip-fed to them daily (that integrate their feedback and ensure they're "getting it"), they're able to actually integrate what they're learning and create real lasting change.But what I've just told you isn't why I think you need at least one of these in your business.
The real reason you need at least one in your business is because of the mailing list it builds.
Think about it for a second.Someone pays you money. You then deliver one email a day to them over the next 30-45 days. Because of the value you're delivering, every day they anticipate the next email showing up in their inbox. Pretty quickly they become addicted to your content — when they see your name in their inbox, they're clicking immediately.They associate your name in their inbox with massive value.Now what kind of effect do you think this will have on your mailing list after the Email Delivered Course is complete?I'll tell you now:Your open rates will skyrocket.Your subscribers will become loyal followers.And you'll make way more money from everything you promote to that list — whether it's your own stuff or someone else's.That's because an Email Delivered Course basically trains your list to value & open your emails. It's a super powerful hack for creating hyper-responsive lists.Hacks like this are how some business owners have mailing lists of just 1,000-10,000 that pay them top 1% incomes every year.
And it's how you can build an ultra-simple business that prints money in just 30-45 days.
If you don't have a business yet, great — my flagship course, CopyHour, is an Email Delivered Course that I originally built more than 10 years ago with no list (and is still my flagship to this day).If you do have a business with an existing suite of products, even better — creating an Email Delivered Course as an add-on to any of your existing products will immediately take your list from "meh" to rabid, loyal, trusting followers that hang on to your every word.And if you just want a hack to quickly create a brand new course that makes money while you sleep and builds a hyper-responsive list at the same time? There's no better way than making an Email Delivered Course.I want to show you how to do this.While the concept is simple, doing it right is more difficult.And even better — I want to show you how to do this by delivering it to you as an Email Delivered Course. I want you to experience what these courses are like. Because as soon as you do, it'll "click".I absolutely guarantee if you let me show you everything I know about building Email Delivered Courses... and you add just one Email Delivered Course to your business (whether it's a brand new course or an add-on to an existing course)... you will make back 10x-1,000x your original investment.You'll learn how to...
Test a product idea in 7-14 days
Get paid for your product before making it
Build that product in small chunks, in real time, one day a time with customer feedback over the next 30-45 days
Nurture & grow your mailing list into the "holy grail" of mailing lists (paying customers who open everything you send — and buy the products you recommend)
Build an ultra-simple, ultra-profitable evergreen business from scratch
Email Delivered Courses have generated multiple seven figures for me over the last decade. They've literally changed my life — and made my work as a solopreneur so much easier.I guarantee this will be the most valuable training you go through this year — or you don't pay anything.If for any reason you feel this course didn't deliver on my promises, or if it's just not right for you, send me an email any time within the first 30 days of purchase and I'll refund everything.It's on me to deliver to you — and not the other way around.I look forward to seeing you inside the course.— Derek
One night more than 10 years ago, I was laying awake at 2am.I was freaking out about money and couldn't sleep.That's because a few months earlier my friend and business partner had emptied our business bank account (without telling me) to pay down a DUI.I'd poured most of my savings into that bank account...So I was now officially broke.I had nothing to my name.I immediately left that partnership and took some of our clients with me. Those clients had digital course businesses — and I handled all their marketing.And that was going mostly okay — except that earlier that day I got in a fight with one those clients because he had an offer that was CRUSHING yet was refusing to scale up his ad spend...So now I’m worried he’s going to "fire" me.Despite everything we've built together.Plus he was my biggest client by far.Thus, the reason I can't sleep.I was sick of having to fight clients like this so I was laying in bed thinking of ways I could start my own full-time business.I wanted to be free of that client (and all clients like him) and earn all the money I was making for him, but for myself.
I desperately wanted to create and sell a product of my own, but I couldn't seem to come up with any good ideas worth pursuing.
This wasn't the first time I'd laid awake thinking about this.Honestly, I felt stuck.And laying there, feeling like I'm at the end of my rope, something finally sort of snapped in me and I had a "f*ck-it moment".I decided I was going to try something radical.I thought to myself, "I’ve got an idea for a course and I’m going to start taking orders for it tomorrow (before I create a single lesson)."Well, turns out that that wasn’t a radical idea at all.My plan worked. Just 12 hours later I had slapped together a 500 word pitch I sent to some friends in an entrepreneurial forum called the Dynamite Circle, including a payment link at the end.20 people sent me $20 for a course that didn’t exist (yet).That’s not a lot of money...But it was enough to show me there was demand.And over the last 10+ years later that course has gone on to generate multiple seven figures for me. (In fact, it's doing better now today than ever.)
What's crazy though is the way I built it originally... was entirely over email.
Over the course of 4 weeks, that first group of 20 customers simply got a short email from me every day at 9am.In that email was:
A bite-sized lesson
And a simple exercise they could do to reinforce the lesson.
I'd literally write each email one day at a time, on demand, in real time. (One customer was in Australia so my goal was just to be ahead of him by about 1 hour.)At the beginning I also asked all the customers to hit "reply" after each email if it felt like something was missing, if they wanted me to go into more detail on something, or if they just loved what they were reading.In other words, my customers were helping me to write my content. Instead of writing into a void, I had paying customers telling me exactly what they wanted to hear.I can't stress how easy this made my life.Then at the end of 4 weeks, that's it — I was done.Because I'd been putting each day's lesson into an autoresponder, I now had an evergreen course on my hands. I left the sales page up and as soon as someone bought, they'd get the same 4 weeks of lessons delivered day-by-day to their inbox.
And you might think at first it's weird to receive a course in daily bite-sized chunks over email... but my customers LOVED it.
That's because small, daily, drip-fed lessons more closely match how the human brain learns & processes information — and produces better end-results for your customers.Over the last 10+ years this product has generated multiple seven figures of profit without any paid ads primarily due to word of mouth from happy customers.Just about everyone who goes through it raves about it.I've since built multiple other email delivered courses like this, and I've also worked with a number of entrepreneurs doing the same, and the results are always mind-blowing.
Frankly, I’m shocked more solopreneurs don’t use this method to build their offers and courses.
There are a tremendous amount of benefits to putting together a daily email delivered course instead of going the "traditional" route:
Email delivered courses take ALL the pressure off your course idea and course content.
You just get an idea and start taking orders before you create ANY course content. You risk nothing, not even your time, because if people don’t buy the course you don’t make it. If only a few people buy you can just refund them if it’s not worth going through with it.
You start building the course only AFTER you know there's demand and then you build the course in basically real-time.
In fact it's better to build your course in real time because your customers can just hit "reply" and tell you what they want to hear next. Seriously, I can't stress how easy it makes your life to have paying customers simply telling you what to write every day.
Email delivered courses also make it easy to sell courses WITHOUT being an expert in your topic.
You don't need to know everything about a subject — you just need to know how to teach one skill. Your email delivered course could just be 30 days of exercises that reinforce & hard-wire that one skill, and your customers will LOVE it because it will create real lasting change for them.
They naturally build hyper-responsive mailing lists that last LONG after the course is over.
You already know "the money is in the list" — and an email delivered course basically trains your customers to open every email you send. This is every business owner's dream.
And customers LOVE content that is drip-fed over email (instead of a firehose of information all at once).
Getting emails from happy customers who rave about your course is one of the best feelings in the world — and seeing sales come in effortlessly from word of mouth for years after is even better.
If you know you need to build a course but you find yourself procrastinating or complicating the whole process, I guarantee this approach will simplify everything for you.But let's say you don't want to waste any time trying to figure it out yourself.And you want to make sure you do this right.
I want to show you how I do it.
More specifically — I want to show you how I do it by delivering it to you as an Email Delivered Course over the next 30 days.I absolutely guarantee if you let me show you everything I know about building Email Delivered Courses... and you follow my exact instructions... you will make back at least 100x-1,000x your original investment.You'll learn how to test a product idea in 7-14 days.Get paid for your product before making it (even if you don't have a mailing list or existing audience to market to).Build that product in small chunks, in real time, one day a time with customer feedback over the next 30-45 days — and then scale it up after.Nurture & grow your mailing list into the "holy grail" of mailing lists (paying customers who open everything you send — and buy the products you recommend.And build an ultra-simple, ultra-profitable evergreen business from scratch.Email Delivered Courses have generated multiple seven figures for me over the last decade. They've literally changed my life — and made my work as a solopreneur so much easier.If you're a solopreneur who's been complicating course creation, I guarantee this will be the most valuable training you go through this year — or you don't pay anything.If for any reason you feel this course didn't deliver on my promises, or if it's just not right for you, send me an email any time within the first 30 days of purchase and I'll refund everything.It's on me to deliver to you — and not the other way around.I look forward to seeing you inside the course.
— Derek
Here's what the course covers
Over the next 30 days you'll receive one email every day covering how to go from testing your idea — to writing emails your customers stop everything to read every day.
Module 1
The 3 types of Email Delivered Courses
I'm convinced every business needs at least one Email Delivered Course — only because having even just one will build a hyper-responsive list that loves & opens everything you write, and that's all you need to thrive. So we start by describing the three ways you can implement them — and how they fit into your current (or new) business.
Email Delivered Courses built from scratch — for both an existing business and a brand new business
Reducing customer support tickets & developing a hyper-responsive list by creating an Email Delivered Course add-on for an existing course — to serve as a walk-through of content
How to create a course that develops a skill for your customers vs. a course that teaches a method (there's a big difference — and one is easier to make if you don't feel like you're enough of an "expert" yet)
Module 2
Pre-selling your course
One of the biggest advantages to an Email Delivered Course is that you only make it when you've verified there's demand for it. In this module, we'll explore exactly how you pre-sell your course and verify demand — both if you have a list and if you're starting from scratch. (This works if you're selling any other kind of course, too — doesn't have to be an Email Delivered Course.)
The one week pre-sell sequence to send to your list to warm them up to your course idea
The one-email blast that will tell you if you need to make your course — or ditch it entirely and start over
Where to go and what to do if you don't have a list at all — and need to verify your course idea and make some sales
Module 3
Selling your course
Once you've verified there's demand for your course, it's time to make some money — even before you've written a single word of the course itself.
The exact email to send to your list to get them to buy
The exact messages to send if you don't already have a list
How to sell your course without a fancy sales letter (you can do this in under 5 minutes & sell hundreds of copies)
Module 4
Creating addicting content
Now we're on to the fun part: making your course. I have three rules for this: it's got to be easy, it's got to be fast, and it's got to be content that my customers go crazy over. I'll show you exactly how I do all three — completed codified so it's easy for you to do the same. (NOTE: this is the bulk of the course and the longest module by far.)
The six pillars of habit-forming content you always need to use (with in-depth examples)
The "Version 1.0 Mindset" that clears writer's block
Complete real-time walkthrough examples of rapidly writing habit-forming content for your customers
Module 5
Nurturing your list
Once you've completed your course, congrats!... you've now got an evergreen Email Delivered Course you can sell for years to come. You're also going to have a constantly-growing email list of customers who open every email you write — so you've got to know how to nurture it properly. We'll cover that here.
The two simplest strategies for keeping your list warm after an Email Delivered Course
How to turn that list into a money-printing machine — without burning them out or killing goodwill
How to properly ask your list what they want — and sell it to them
Module 6
Tech & common issues
You're going to have a bunch of miscellaneous questions while you're building your Email Delivered Course — and we'll cover them all here.
The best email autoresponders & checkout services for these types of courses (keeping it cheap and simple)
Every question & concern I've heard (and continue to hear) about Email Delivered Courses, answered in detail
The guiding principle that will answer almost every question you have
Plus bonuses
To make sure Email Delivered Courses is as easy to implement as possible, you'll receive a number of add-ons that make it as fool-proof as possible.
Quick start
The Quick Start Guide
Even though we'll have 30+ days of content walking you through this entire process, it always helps to have the tl;dr version — which you'll have the entire way through the course.
Included with Email Delivered Courses
Templates
Pre-sell Templates
To be honest, I use the same formulas every time I pre-sell one of these courses. I'll give you the exact formulas I use — just mold them to your course.
Included with Email Delivered Courses
Templates
Course Content Templates
Everything is easier if you have an exact system to follow — and I'll give you worksheets, templates, and more to make writing your course as easy as possible.
Yes! If you don't think this course lives up to my promises for any reason at all (or you just realize it's not right for you), send me one email within 30 days and I'll refund your purchase price — no questions asked.It's on me to deliver to you — and if I don't, I don't want you to pay.
How is this course delivered?
After you purchase, you'll be asked to enter your best email address.You'll begin receiving daily emails from me, Derek Johanson, the following Monday — and they'll last for 30 days, covering everything from testing your idea to making the course content "addictive" to creating & nurturing a mailing list that pays your bills every month.
What are some examples of successful Email Delivered Courses you've seen?
There are really 3 "types" of Email Delivered Courses.The first, The Stand-Alone Course, is where you create a course... from scratch... using the Email Delivered Courses methodology. My flagship course, CopyHour, was created this way more than 10 years ago — and still sells very well to this day.The second, The Add-On, is where you make an Email Delivered Course as an add-on to an existing course. I once worked with a workout program that did exactly this — the program itself was stored in a private members area, and when customers were ready to begin the program, they would enter their email address and get started on a 90 day day-by-day walkthrough of the entire program.The third, The Bonus, is where you make an Email Delivered Course that extends an existing course. I once worked with a fitness author who authored a simple PDF outlining one simple technique — then offered a 20 day Email Delivered Course as a bonus that also covered his thoughts on nutrition, recovery, and more. (His open rates after that Email Delivered Course were 60%+ by the way — almost completely unheard of.)In every case, the outcome is the same: you create an association of your name in your customers' inboxes with massive value — and end up with a hyper-responsive mailing list (as well as a course that was easy to create and that customers love).
Wouldn't customers prefer to have a course that they have full immediate access to, not a course that's drip-fed to them over 30+ days?
I'll be the first to admit that Email Delivered Courses aren't the "holy grail" for all course creation. I still create other types of courses — video courses in particular.If you have a solution that could be delivered as, say, a 10 page PDF — then by all means, skip the Email Delivered Course. Keep it simple.But what if you had an Email Delivered Course as a bonus — that walked your customers through implementing that 10 page PDF over the next 20-30 days? They would love that, and you're also now left with a hyper-responsive list.And more importantly, what if you're teaching something that can't be learned after a few minutes reading? Most solutions aren't "overnight" and your customers know that.Choose the right tool for the job — but keep in mind that an Email Delivered Course should be somewhere in your business. You'll make a lot more money — particularly from your mailing list — if you have one.
Should I build every course as an Email Delivered Course?
Honestly, no. This is just one extra tactic to have in your business toolbelt. I still build video courses and, when time allows (and I'm working on a course I know will be a winner), courses based on full-blown written modules in a members area.But I do deeply believe every business should have at least one Email Delivered Course in its line-up because it will create the most loyal, loving, profitable list you can imagine.It's also the easiest entry point for someone who has not yet built their own business.That could mean making an Email Delivered Course from scratch — or adding an Email Delivered Course as a bonus to an existing course.
I don't have any ideas for a course. Do you cover coming up with course ideas?
No — only because that's a subject that would need a lot more space & time to cover properly. This course is focused strictly on testing, building, and scaling Email Delivered Courses (and the hyper-responsive mailing lists they create).However, in the course I will point you toward resources that may help.
I don't think I'm enough of an expert yet to create an entire course on a particular subject. What should I do?
Email Delivered courses aren't just for teaching in-depth content on a subject.They're also perfect for walking your customers through "hard-wiring" skills they want to learn.This is what my first ever Email Delivered Course, CopyHour, was designed to do. While the course has been updated over the last 10 years to focus on teaching more, initially I just sent out "proven" sales letters every day for 4 weeks that I knew would take roughly one hour to write by hand — a simple concept that "hard-wires" the rhythms & cadences of winning copy into your head.I've since worked with entrepreneurs who did the same in fitness, music, and more — providing Email Delivered Courses for their customers that simply focused on walking them through some kind of daily, compounding "skill-building" exercise. Their customers love it because it keeps them accountable and gets them real results.So if you don't think you have enough expertise yet to teach an in-depth course...Consider teaching a single skill (that requires repetition over 30+ days to "hard-wire") instead.
