Hello! How has January been treating you so far? Is your new year off to a good start? I’ll be honest — I’ve been itching to blog more over here like nobody’s business. The inspiration is flowing, exciting new projects are rolling in and there’s so much to share…like more details about the new Branch studio space! But the content I’ve planned for you continues to pile up because there’s been absolutely no break. That’s partially because over the last eight months, Branch took on one of its biggest projects to date and it just launched today.
As many of you know, I run a second business called The Blogcademy. Started two years ago after a whirlwind trip to Vegas with two friends, this workshop quickly took on a life all its own. We spent two years traveling across three continents, teaching close to 1,000 folks how to run successful blogs and online businesses but it soon became apparent that not everyone could attend an in-person workshop. I’ve learned a valuable lesson in business over the years — your customers are more than willing to tell you what they want. You just have to be willing to listen. We listened and got to work bringing the blogging course which had been so successful in person to the online masses.
That’s where Branch comes in. Transforming a two-day long workshop into a digital course is no small feat. The first step was revamping The Blogcademy website from the ground up. The redesign needed to reflect the addition of Blogcademy Online and clearly differentiate the three tiers of offerings in a clear, visual way.
Next, changing online trends meant that the short, snappy shop pages Blogcademy had in place were going the way of the dinosaur. Increasingly savvy online customers want an experience — they want to see, feel and understand what they’re buying, even when it’s a digital course so we got to work on creating long-form sales pages for each product.
Once the website was redesigned, the next step was working on all the supporting collateral like worksheets as well as graphics for our digital launch plan. There were a lot of bits and pieces but the most fun were a series of “Mini Manifestos” that were set up for Instagram.
When developing digital courses, the tricky part often comes into play with organizing content in a hierarchy that makes sense. This course in particular is absolutely massive. Eighteen separate video modules, three packets of worksheets, a 300 page transcript AND a bonus download of computer wallpapers took some thought — we didn’t want the course to feel clunky or overwhelming because that defeats the purpose of learning altogether!
Designing Blogcademy Online has been such a labor of love and it’s so exciting to finally share the outcome with you. Please take a look around and if you’re feeling ready for a change in your career or just want to be more savvy with your online presence, this may be the perfect course for you.
Here’s to living 2015 on your terms. —Shauna
