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The Most Successful 1st Course Launch In The History Of Create Awesome Online Courses: The $226,000 Case Study With Mark Dawson

by David Garland in Creating & Selling Online Courses, Creating Products & Programs, David's Advice, David's Blog, Product Launches

This one brings a little happy tear to my eye 🙂

Today’s interview below is with Mr. Mark Dawson who just had the most successful 1st launch in Create Awesome Online Courses history (that I know of!) 226k in sales!!! (yes, that’s $226,000…not a misprint).

While it does appear Mark must be some kind of special unicorn on steroids (or is he?), this is crazy cool.

And may I add the following two fun facts:
1. His email list is ?#?smallbutmighty? (amazing)…under 3,000 peeps.
2. My first launch years and years ago was $19,800. It’s all about baby steps. There is going to be plenty to learn from Mark but realize a first launch is just that…FIRST LAUNCH! Getting the ball rolling and getting that momentum. Whether you make $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 it’s the beginning…not the end. Keep that in mind.

There is PLENTY to learn from Mark in this interview. How exactly he did it. Why he was so successful (he surprised himself). How he stressed himself out with his original topic and then changed it last minute which made all the difference.

And so much more. Enjoy!

Name: Mark Dawson

Name of your course 
Facebook Ads for Authors  http://www.selfpublishingformula.com
 
1. What is your total revenue generated so far and how much is your course? 
226k – cost of course is $497
 
2. What was your list size when you launched your course? 
2.7k
 
3 Who is your course for? 
Authors
 
4. How did you come up with the idea for your course? 
It was going to be a much bigger course, covering everything that authors need to know about starting their self publishing career. But I massively underestimated the work required and very neartly nixed the whole thing. I thought about it and decided to refocus on a tactic that is working very well for me right now – FB ads.
 
5. How did you build your email list? 
A lot of podcast appearances and social media ads. I’m quite well known in the indie community, but I worked hard to develop that.
 
6. When did you start your business? Did you make money in another way before a course or was this your first revenue generator? 
I’m a bestselling author.
 
7. How long did it take you to create your course from start to finish? 
3 months.
 
8. Did you face any big challenges (in creating, promoting, launching, anywhere along the journey)? Tell us about them and how did you overcome them? 
The weight of work was immense, especially while running my writing business and bringing up two kids under three. And that is true even though I was working in close concert with two partners who took care of the website and video work. I wrote and presented the course, did the PR, ran the ad campaigns, answered questions from students, etc. Huge work. Luckily, huge rewards, too.
 
9. How did it feel to make that first sale? 
I was unsure how the course would do. I’m a friend of Nick Stephenson, so I knew how he had done, and I would have been happy to do half as well. But the first half hour was crazy – we had a long sales page and a 30 minute video, but we had ten sales within the first five minutes (so people were buying without reading or watching; that says to me that I got the marketing spot on). We had sold $10k in the first 30 mins, and then $20k an hour for the next few hours. I knew we would do well from that point, and it was just a question of how well.
 
10. How has creating and selling your course changed your business/perspective? And/or your life? 
It’s added a new revenue stream, which is great – I was dependent on book sales, and dependent on Amazon, so that is some nice diversification. I was already doing very well from writing, but the course will mean that my mortgage is paid off very soon and my daughter’s school fees are all paid. I might also treat myself to a new car.
 
11. Have there been any other ‘surprises’ that have resulted from launching your course? 
The work. It’s huge. On a positive note, the reaction from almost all of my students has been amazing. A few are earning 400% returns on their ad spends and some have credited me with changing their lives. Feels good.
 
12. What’s next for you? 
Sleep. And then I’ll look at an affiliate launch.
 
13. What’s your advice to someone who is about to begin on their journey to create, promote & profit from online courses? And…finally, what would you say to someone who is interested in David’s Create Awesome Online Courses program? 
Don’t underestimate it. It’s a big undertaking. And a template is a useful starting point, and CAOC is a very good one to have.

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