Thread by @dickiebush

Looking to build an online course?

Over the next 30 days, Ship 30 for 30 will help over 600 writers start writing online.

Supporting them is a team of 4 people and an army of software platforms.

Here's the stack powering the marketing, curriculum, community, and operations:

This thread covers everything we use for:

• Surveys
• Community
• Live sessions
• Landing page
• Course hosting
• Internal operations
• Email communication
• Writing and publishing

It's the thread I wish I had 9 months ago when Ship 30 started.

Links at the bottom!

Let's start with the landing page.

• Built with @webflow
• Testimonials with @shoutoutso_ and testimonial.to
• Email capture with @rightmessageapp
• Pop-ups using @usefomo
• Copywritten by yours truly

BUT - you can get by with way less.

ship30for30.com

One quick thing before we go further.

The tech stack I'm sharing is one I highly recommend.

But - don't overcomplicate it!

I made 99% of these choices by googling "best platform for X" and clicking on the first one.

Most course creators get caught up in the tech stack.

Instead - focus on the two most important parts of your course:

• Delivering a transformation
• Enabling the community

If you nail these two things, the tech stack does not matter.

The rest takes care of itself.

Next - email communications.

We use @convertkit for anything email-based.

• Newsletters
• Email courses
• Course onboarding
• One-off communications
• Community announcements

Their segmenting and automation save us hours and hours of time.

convertkit.com/?lmref=8JInsw

Next - course hosting.

I googled "course hosting with referral program" and found @podia - haven't looked back since.

It does everything we need:

• Courses
• Products
• Referrals
• Memberships

Also integrates with @webflow, @stripe and @convertkit

podia.com/?via=dickie

The best part of Ship 30:

The live sessions.

We host them with @zoom, schedule them with @lumahq, and cut snippets with @grainhq

We then take detailed show notes, upload them to @youtube, and distribute the recording.

Next up - community.

There are a lot of promising "community platforms" in the works right now.

However, each is still a bit "out of the way." (But not for much longer.)

So for now - we use @slack because it works.

On the radar:

• @discord
• @circleapp
• @joinathena

The reason we can just use @slack: We do work behind the scenes to enable friendships that don't rely on a single platform/tool.

We partnered with @trycovalent to create interest and time zone-based matches between members of each cohort.

And it's been a booming success.

We use surveys quite a bit both before, during, and after the course.

• Onboarding/offboarding
• Intra-cohort feedback
• Live-session feedback
• AMA session write-ins

@typeform does it all for us.

The foundation of Ship 30: Atomic Essays.

• 250 words
• One single idea
• Every day for 30 days

We used to take screenshots of the notes app like an apologizing celebrity.

Now, @samjshore has built a beautiful application for hosting a Social Blog.

typeshare.co

Managing a cohort with 600+ people can be hectic.

But @stephvalibus and @dbustac have helped build a ship that always runs smoothly.

• Student CRM in @airtable
• Documentation via @loom
• Internal work and SOPs in @NotionHQ

We meet once every ~two weeks. Almost 100% async.

And that's it!

It's wild how much high-quality software there is out there to manage every aspect of a course.

But I remember being overwhelmed with the number of options out there when starting Ship 30.

So I compiled all the links into this Notion doc:
vine-perch-730.notion.site/Ship-30-for-30…

And if you want to see this course in action - or want to learn the fundamentals of digital writing - hop aboard the last Ship 30 cohort of the year!

Over 600 writers are already signed up - it's gonna be a blast.

Sign-ups close Friday at 11:59 PM EST!

ship30for30.com

Ship 30 tech stack:

Course: @podia
Surveys: @typeform
Writing: @typeshare_co
Community: @SlackHQ, @trycovalent
Email: @ConvertKit, @rightmessageapp
Projects: @NotionHQ, @airtable, @loom
Live calls: @Zoom, @LumaHQ, @GrainHQ
Landing page: @webflow, @shoutoutso_, @usefomo