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The Membership Blast — 027

I Launched a Microcourse Last Week. Here's What I Learned.

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Hey everyone,
 
Spring is finally starting to show up in Chicago.
 
Had one of those days where you can go outside without a jacket and it actually feels good.
 
That shift to good weather always inspires me to create, build, and launch.
 
Lately, I’ve also been seeing more and more data around “micro” courses.
 
Did you know microcourses (under 60 minutes) tend to have about a 70% higher completion rate than longer ones? And courses priced between $100–$199 often see the highest completion rates with the lowest refund rates (Thinkific reports).
 
Made me think… maybe simpler and more focused is actually better.
 
So I built and launched a microcourse last week, and I’m pretty excited about it.
 
I’ve always had this idea that building a course had to be a big, heavy lift. Something that takes weeks of time and effort. But this was different. It took a couple of days, and I was able to share something genuinely valuable around a very specific problem for membership community leaders.
 
The best way to learn anything, in my opinion, is to just do the thing and improve as you go. I learned quite a few things while building this microcourse. #3 was probably my biggest takeaway.
 
Here’s what I learned:
 
  1. Keep it short and laser-focused. If it feels too broad, it probably is. One clear result beats a bunch of scattered ideas.

  2. Block your time, or it won’t happen. I needed one full day for recording and editing, and another day for all the logistics like uploading, pricing, and setup. Clear your schedule and remove distractions.

  3. Shoot video in short chunks. I recorded everything in 10–30 second clips and stitched them together with transitions. Way faster than trying to nail long takes, and way less frustrating.

  4. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Most courses follow a simple structure: modules and lessons. No need to reinvent it. Students already understand that format.

  5. Use simple tools to enhance it. Typeform has a great quiz feature where you can send people who pass to a generic (no name) certificate page, and send others back to retry. Super easy way to add a nice touch.

  6. Repurpose it. Once it’s done, it can live in your community, or you can publish it on platforms like Udemy or Coursera to reach new audiences.

  7. Look at other courses before you start. Not to copy, just to get a feel for structure, length, and flow. It saves a lot of guesswork.

If you want to see what I ended up building, here’s the course I launched last week (it’s 100% free):
 


Use it for inspiration if you’ve been thinking about creating something yourself.

What course should I create next?

  • A course on how to launch a membership site
  • Or a course on how to build a course
  • …what do you think?
Click here to leave me a comment.

The free course and newsletter comments live inside MemberSpace. If you’re not a MemberSpace customer, create a free account to access the course and leave a comment.

 

Marvin
Chief Growth Officer
MemberSpace