How to Leverage Media Appearances into Book-Based Courses

If you use any type of media as a promotional tool for your book or blog or as a way to build your author platform, you can leverage your appearances into material for courses based upon your book. All it takes is some planning on your part and knowledge about how to repurpose these forms of content.

Repurposing Podcasts or Radio Shows

Let’s say you are asked to appear on someone’s podcast and to speak about something related to the topic of your book. Typically the host will give you a copy of the show or you can download it when it airs. You can use that audio recording as bonus material for a course you have created based upon the information in your book. Of course, you need to give credit to the show and the host.

Additionally, you can provide a transcript of the show or even some handouts related to the recording. You might even obtain rights to sell the recording along with the transcript and your handouts, and now you have a product to sell. If you don’t yet have a course, this could be your first product.

You also could decide to host your own podcast show. Podcasts are a lot like online radio shows but you host them right on your blog. If you plan out the material with a course in mind, you could create many audio courses—one right after the other—as you host your show. Again, consider providing transcripts, homework assignments, handouts, or some other additional material.

Another way to podcast is with your own internet radio show, such as those hosted by blogtalkradio.com. There are numerous “stations” like this. You can accomplish the same goals but with an organization behind you to assist with some of the technological and promotional aspects.

If you happen to get a radio gig—as in “real” radio—you can use the recordings of these appearances as bonuses in your courses.

Keep in mind that many times podcasts actually involve both audio and video. They may be recorded using Skype with video or some other similar service. That means you could embed not just the audio but the video on your site afterward.

Repurposing Your Television Show

It is possible to land a spot on your local public television station and create a television show of your own. I know at least two people who have done this, and one has all his shows also uploaded to YouTube.com. Some people also call their YouTube channels “TV shows.”

With this in mind, you can, indeed, create a television show of your own. Set up a camera (your iPhone will do), start recording “shows” based on your book and upload them one by one to YouTube. Your YouTube station becomes your show. Broadcast it out via your social networks, but plan your content first. In other words, plan each show, or at least a series of shows, as part of a course.

Now, take those videos and upload them to a site like Vimeo.com, where you can upgrade your membership and use the site for video hosting. Place the Vimeo links on blog pages you created as a course or membership site (I describe this in earlier posts.), and then offer that course for free. This video course could be used as an enticement for people to join your mailing list, for instance. You wouldn’t want to create it as a paid course since the videos are available publicly.

You could, however, use a longer series of public videos or a short series from your show in a course that you sell if you provide additional material. You have to create value that can’t be found freely on the Internet—an ebook, handouts, homework, coaching sessions, forum, or a membership site—for someone to purchase your course or membership site subscription.

Repurposing Articles and Guest Posts

Don’t forget that written work, such as articles in trade journals, newspapers or magazines, that pertain to your book can all be repurposed into bonuses and handouts for your courses. You can also rewrite them or use excerpts if you want to expand upon them.

The same is true of blog posts. If you have written a lot of posts on the topic of your book, consider putting them together into an ebook for your course. Or use the most relevant ones as a handout.

Don’t let anything go to waste as you create your courses and memberships sites. The more you add or offer, the more benefit or value your customers will receive.

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