When you are an expert, you sometimes forget that others don't know as much as you do. Not only do you understand your topic at a higher level, but you also know what's important for a novice to know. By providing your insight to those at a basic level, you can save them time in learning and applying their newly acquired knowledge.

So how do you share your expert information with prospects and clients in order to showcase your expertise while providing them with desired knowledge? Why not offer a course via email?

Your course will consist of several lessons, delivered at pre-set intervals. You'll compose the lessons once so that you're ready to deliver them to anyone who signs up for the course.

Now won't that be a bear to administer, you ask? Not if you use one of the online services that is designed to do this. This category of service is called a sequential autoresponder. There are several services to choose from.

In using one of the popular autoresponder services, for example, you have up to 52 lessons. Your first lesson is set to go out immediately after your new 'student' sends an email to the course address (you set this address!). Then each lesson goes out automatically on the day you prescribe. It may be daily for the first 3 days, then every 3d day thereafter. Or it may be weekly.

Regardless of the interval, you enter each lesson as you want it to appear to the enrollees. Since you don't know when someone will sign up, the system tracks each enrollee individually so that they receive their emails on schedule, regardless of when other people sign up. It's like having a private secretary to track all of the enrollments and
mailouts!

You can opt to receive a notification each time someone signs up to take the course (fun at first, but overwhelming in the long run). At any time you can log into your control panel and see who is enrolled in your course, which email they have received and when they last heard from you.

Why would you want to offer an email course?

Maybe you have a complex subject on which you need to educate prospects. Why not create a course  - with a small commercial in each lesson?

Maybe you delivered a great seminar and you now want to keep in touch with audience members. Why not create a series of reminder emails to be sent at regular intervals?

Or maybe you want to offer an online course, but you're not sure how well it will go over. Why not pilot some of the content with an email course to test the market?

Or perhaps you sell a product or service online and you want to entice more people to share their name and email with you. You can offer the free course as the incentive to share their information.

What's a course like this cost? Fees vary, but you can offer an email course for less than $20 per month. In some cases you may already have the sequential autoresponders you need built into another feature of your website.

So go ahead and add an email course to your online strategy on an ongoing basis.  You won't be sorry. You'll probably find yourself back starting a new course shortly! And each time you do, you'll enhance your credibility.

For an example of an email course, send an email to elearning@techtamers.com

Jeanette S Cates, PhD

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD is the creator of the Online Success System and author of Online Success Tactics: 101 ways to build your small business.

Dr. Cates is a frequent speaker at state and national conferences, with more than 300 presentations to her credit. Her fast-paced, information-packed presentations and her knack for explaining cutting-edge technology in easy-to-understand terms have gained her the reputation of being The Technology Tamer?. She has taken that same experience and applied it to the Internet to become your Online Success Guide.

As the owner of TechTamers she has developed a full line of learning materials, including more than 100 technology-based workshops, ranging from Introduction to eLearning to the 8-hour website. In addition, she has authored numerous tips booklets, special reports, ebooks, and audio albums. In 2001 she launched Tech4Speakers.com, a site dedicated to helping speakers use technology more effectively in their presentations, products, productivity, and online presence.

Jeanette is a Certified Technical Trainer and is conversant with more than 200 software programs. She is also a Robert G. Allen Infopreneur Master Trainer. In that capacity she edits the InfopreneurLibrary.com, an online resource for people who create and sell Information Products. She co-hosts the bi-annual Womens Power Summit and heads WINfopreneurs, the site for Women Infopreneurs.

Dr. Cates holds a PhD in Instructional Design and Technology and an M.Ed. in Adult Education, both from the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Trinity University. She is listed in Who?s Who of American Women and is a member of Women in Technology International and the National Speakers Association. Jeanette has been featured in PC World, Computer Shopper, and TechRepublic, among other technology-related publications.

Jeanette has been married for 36 years to Bob Cates, an Internal Auditor. They have three daughters ? Stephanie, Jennifer and Vicki, and are the proud grandparents of J.R., Heather, Megan, and Jaycie.