Course Creators Weekly #73
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November 15th, 2021
- Viral Writing 101 with Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri, Dickie Bush, and Nicolas Cole talk about viral writing, Julia Saxena shares tips on the operational side of running CBCs, and Janelle Allen talks about curriculum design.
Viral Writing 101 with Shaan Puri, Dickie Bush & Nicolas Cole
Shaan Puri, Dickie Bush, and Nicolas Cole talk about viral writing. They dissect Twitter threads, and share actionable frameworks you can start using today to make sure your writing captures the eyeballs it deserves.
Here are some of the key lessons I took from their conversation:
Tap into emotions—think about how you want your audience to feel (watch this part)
Use simple, easy-to-understand language—avoid fancy words
Be mindful of your timing—you don't want to be too early or too late on trends
Practice—frameworks and tactics will only make sense once you get into the weeds
Remember, it's all about your readers and what they want to read—it's not about you
On writing Twitter threads:
Hook people in with a strong lead-in tweet, and try not to lose them by the third one
Spend the most time on your first tweet—brain dump at least 20 different variations
Tell people what they'll get out of reading your thread, and why they should care
Don't be afraid of "clickbait" titles—it's only clickbait if it fails to deliver on its promise
Recycle your best-performing tweets from within a thread—repeat or expand on them
Gauge your audience's interest in a topic and validate ideas with standalone tweets
I definitely recommend watching the video for plenty of examples, including one of Shaan's viral threads where he predicted Clubhouse was going to fail… 
Random Picks from past editions
How to run a cohort-based course
This article from Julia Saxena is PACKED with practical tips on how to run a cohort-based course—possibly the most actionable piece of content I've shared in this newsletter! 
Make sure students always know what to expect, when, how, and where
Set up a separate calendar, schedule Zoom calls on it, then share it with your students
Design an elaborate onboarding process to better understand and help your students
Ask students to rate their current skill set, creating a snapshot of their starting point
Create an onboarding email, with all the key information in one place
Invite your students to an onboarding call, either 1:1 or in small groups- Send reminders before live sessions—explain how to join or find the recording later
Make sure to record, and pause the recording if/while students are in breakout rooms
Upload the recording, the slides and the chat soon after each session
Email students after each session—recap what's been discussed + next steps
Check in with students directly + make sure they're comfortable reaching out to you
Set up a knowledge base or resource hub for the most commonly asked questions- Create an elaborate offboarding process—it's just as important as your onboarding
Ask for testimonials, and be specific (e.g. why they joined, what they've achieved)
Create space to provide ongoing support to students, either directly or indirectly
My summary above only scratches the surface of what Julia covers in her article. Make sure to check it out for more tips and detailed examples of how to do everything you just read.
P.S. Just last week, Julia announced Course Creator Lab, the ultimate resource for launching, running, and scaling online courses. It's a real goldmine—start digging! ⛏
How to outline your online course
This is 12 minutes of pure, practical advice…
Walk backwards
Define student outcomes (use ACTION verbs)
Map topics/lessons to outcomes
Design assignments/tasks specific to outcomes
