Over my years of working with course creators, I've learned that there is no standard time frame for building a course.

Many different factors affect the answer, such as the type of course you’re building and how much time you set aside each week.

That’s why this is a self-paced programme - so it can adapt to your specific situation.

In my experience though, people who are successful set aside at least a couple of hours each week to work on their courses.

It’s realistic to design, build and beta-launch a small-to-medium sized course in around 3 months, working a few hours a week.

I find that the right feedback at the right time can make a huge difference to your success.

In fact, I believe getting feedback is one of the most valuable parts of the Academy.

Here are a few examples of how I can help:

• Helping you clarify your course’s target market and the outcome it will deliver for your customers

• Reviewing a draft of your course curriculum and giving you expert feedback and suggestions

• Taking a look at your lesson outline and advising on structure and flow

• Reviewing your first attempts at creating course content (e.g., a lesson video) and giving tips on how to improve

• Helping you brainstorm course, module and lesson names

While I won’t review every piece of your course-in-progress, getting feedback on your first efforts across different areas will save you time and dramatically improve your results.

Not every course needs to be a video course.

In fact, Build Your Best Course does not assume a specific content style for your course.

Instead it teaches universal content creation principles and then shows how they apply to three most common types of course content: talking head videos, narrated slide decks, and “blog style” text-based lesson.

In addition, the included mini course Quick Course Videos goes deep on a specific content format that works well even for people who are a little camera shy.

By making a slide deck the focus of each lesson and using a small webcam video in the corner you can get the best of two worlds.

You will have access to support for 6 months from your date of purchase.

After the initial support has expired, you will have the option to extend your support for a further 6 months.

Regardless of the status of your support, you will retain access to the course content (lessons, etc.) for the lifetime of the programme.

Unless you're creating a smaller course, or the content has been well tested elsewhere, I usually recommend running a "beta" launch with a small group of students to get feedback.

In fact, one of the course modules is dedicated to the process of planning and running an effective beta launch.

After that, you can make some revisions based on the feedback you receive and then relaunch it to a wider audience.

However, not everyone wants to run a beta launch and you can absolutely choose to skip this step.

The first modules of Build Your Best Course are designed to help you create a clear "promise" for a clear market.

This gives you the best possible foundation when you come to market your course. (No amount of clever marketing can fix a conceptually flawed course.)

However, the right marketing strategy for you will ultimately depend on several factors, including:

• The type of course you end up building

• The size of your audience (if you have one)

• Your budget for promoting your course (if any)

• Your personality type

Make no mistake: the success of your course depends on getting it in front of the right people.

I'll share tactics for finding and enrolling your first "beta" students. When you're ready for a bigger launch I'll teach you how to build a simple funnel to convert leads into buyers.

But I want to be upfront and say that marketing is not the main focus of this programme.

The focus is on creating a great product that you (or someone that you work with on your marketing) can build a successful promotional strategy around.

You don't need a big audience to make building an online course worthwhile.

In fact, a small tactical course can be a great way to start building an audience.

However, to sell your course you will need a strategy for getting it into the hands of the right people.

Just like selling services depends on finding people who need those services.

That might mean partnering with somebody who does have an audience who are a good fit for your course.

Or offering your course to people already contacting you about related services (i.e., tapping into your existing pipeline).

Or reaching out to individuals in your extended network to see if they’re interested in your course (or know people who might be.)

But your course won’t attract buyers on its own.

So here’s how I invite you to think about it…

Imagine your course already exists. How would you make your first few sales?

If you’re coming up totally blank, there’s some work to do before you’re ready to build a course.

The Online Course Sprint is a free "course about courses" I created for anyone thinking about creating an online course.

Its 20 "bitesize" video lessons were designed to set a beginner on the right path.

However, it isn't an execution manual for course creation.

Build Your Best Course Academy is for people who've already decided to create a course and need a detailed roadmap plus support to get it done.

Although the early part of the course covers some of the same ground as the Sprint, BYBC goes much deeper and is based on principles developed or significantly refined since I created the free course.