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Week 4 Update: How to Create an Online Course and Earn $1,100+ Per Month - Editing Workflow Optimisation

Discover how I advanced my course creation this week with completed lesson preparations, detailed automation diagrams, main lesson recordings, systematic backups, and optimized editing workflows, setting the stage for efficient and engaging content delivery

4 weeks into the process of creating my first online course, and things are going well. Based on current progress I estimate another 2.5 weeks before it will be completed and ready to publish.

Week's Focus and Main Achievements

Course Cover and Lesson Preparation: Designed the initial course cover in Canva and began preparing lessons for Zapier and Make automations. Created detailed diagrams to explain the automation processes, ensuring clear and engaging content.

Mini-Project Lessons Completion: Completed the Zapier and Make "mini-project" lessons and the GPT for Sheets demo lesson. These mini-projects included comprehensive diagrams to simplify complex automation setups for learners.

Main Lesson Recording: Started recording the main lessons, including both camera and screencasts. Successfully recorded three lessons from section one, making significant progress in the core course content.

Systematic Backup Setup: Implemented a daily backup routine using GoodSync for all Camtasia project files and renders, ensuring the security of all course materials.

Key Productivity Lessons: Recorded lessons on Parkinson's Law and the Pareto Principle, delivering essential productivity concepts to learners. Also completed the Flow State lesson, focusing on techniques to achieve and maintain peak productivity.

Workflow Optimization: Tested and refined the lesson editing workflow in FlexClip and Camtasia. Decided to focus on Camtasia for its efficient recording and editing capabilities, streamlining the process to save time and improve the quality of the final videos.

Next Week’s Plan

  • Focus on recording all the video lessons for the sections, and editing each lesson so they are ready to render.

Tool Stack

  • Camtasia: Enhance your productivity with Camtasia's easy-to-use screen recording and video editing tools, perfect for creating professional training videos and tutorials.
  • Snagit: Boost your efficiency with Snagit's powerful screen capture and recording features, making it simple to create and share high-quality visuals and walkthroughs.
  • GoodSync - Streamline your workflow and safeguard your data with GoodSync, an efficient file synchronization and backup solution that ensures all your files are always up-to-date and accessible.
  • Flexclip - Enhance your productivity with Flexclip, an easy-to-use video creation tool that allows you to create stunning videos quickly, saving time and boosting your content production efficiency.

Daily Highlights


Monday, July 22nd 2024

Course cover made in Canva. This is a work in progress and might not necessarily be the main image used for the final course.

check mark Completed

  • Lesson preparation for the Zapier and Make automations.
  • Created diagrams for explaining the automations.
  • Started course cover image in Canva. See screenshot above. Very much a WIP and could change completely but I had 45 mins spare so decided to get started on this.

Tuesday, July 23rd 2024

check mark Completed

  • Completed the Zapier and Make "mini-project" lessons, as well as the GPT for Sheets demo lesson. See the Zapier Mini Project diagram above for how the automation is setup.

Wednesday, July 24th 2024

check mark Completed

  • Started recording the main lessons (camera and screencasts)🥳. Feels like the software demos were taking very long, so it's great to finally be onto the main sections of course content. The finish line is in sight!
  • These will go much quicker from what I can tell. Completed 3 lessons from section 1 today.

Thursday, July 25th 2024

Goodsync screenshot

check mark Completed

  • Recorded lessons for Parkinson's Law (the notion that work expands to fill the time available for its completion) and the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule where 20% of your tasks will yield 80% of your result)
  • Needed to setup a more systematic backup to ensure all my work is protected. Setup GoodSync to run 2 separate backups for all Camtasia project files as well as all renders and media. This is set to run daily. See screenshot.

Friday, July 26th 2024

check mark Completed

  • Completed the Flow State lesson which discusses how to get into "flow state" and maximise focus.
  • Tested the lesson editing process inside of FlexClip to ensure it could handle everything. While it is one of the more impressive online video editors I've found the workflow of 1) rendering full lessons in Camtasia to then 2) be split, edited and have transitions added etc in Flexclip would not be the most optimal way to edit the videos, as I'd essentially be editing them twice. So I opted to change the flow to below, and use Camtasia for the final lesson edits.

Camtasia Recording Workflow

  1. Camtasia: Create a new project for the lesson. Use the template.
  2. Record screencast as well as camera. ie use Present mode in Canva, and check your notes and slides on your laptop. Remember: you can export from Canva for those videos where the screencast is not suitable.
  3. Record lesson by lesson and drop it into the timeline as you go. Camtasia needs the screencast to be recorded in order to drop in markers, ie it can't do this with only the camera. You can do micro-edits as you're adding the recordings. Add the screencast cursor effects each time!
  4. Edit in batches! You don't need to Edit after the recording as you'll will be splitting, editing and ripple-deleting as you go. So it will be double work (ie you would be re-watching and editing twice).
  5. Export the Canva lessons where needed. This is because when you do the edits it slices all the animations and the timing is all off.
  6. Once completed then render all lesson Project files in batches using the batch render feature.

That’s it for this week.


If there is anything you'd like to see more of, or you have your own ideas comments or tips, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Use the comment section below to drop me a message.

Written by:
James Mew
AI Automation Expert | former Head of eCommerce

With 20+ years in eCommerce and a proven history of scaling a 7-figure business, I know how to transform challenges into opportunities for growth. As the former Head of E-commerce for a European food tech company, I managed 14 e-shops across Europe and South Africa. Now, I specialise in helping professionals like you unlock the potential of AI automation for your business. 

Over 1,800 students have already enrolled in my online courses to master these skills. Whether you’re looking for hands-on AI automation services or want to upskill with my courses, I’m here to help. Connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss your needs or join my programs to start building smarter, more scalable systems today!

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