While online education has been popular for years in the online marketing space, it has suddenly boomed in the author world along with other craft and hobby niches. In today's show, I discuss this shift and how you can easily build your own online courses with Ankur Nagpal from Teachable.com. In the intro, I mention how I'm getting along with dictation (fantastically well!), the news that Penguin Random House sold Author Solutions, and that I booked my flights to Austin, Texas for the Smarter Artist Summit in March. I also talk about this great podcast documentary about ecommerce in India from BBC World, which makes it clear that we're only in the very early days of online shopping in India, so exciting times ahead! This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. Ankur Nagpal is the founder and CEO of Teachable, a site for creating and selling online courses. You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below. * Why online courses have exploded in the last year to 18 months * What non-fiction and fiction authors can offer courses on, and how to know if a course will sell. * The steps to take to create a course, including the beginning steps to take and the tools you'll need. * On the different types of experience you can create – audio, audio and video, slides, screen shots etc. * What makes a successful sales page for a course, including the importance of the right type of copy and images. * The differences between Teachable and sites like Udemy * What Ankur sees as the future of online education. You can check out Teachable here. Transcription of the interview with Ankur Nagpal Joanna: Hi everyone I'm Joanna Penn from thecreativepenn.com and today I'm here was Ankur Nagpal. Hi Ankur. Ankur: Hi Joanna it's great to be here. Joanna: Yes, it's great to have you on the show. A very brief introduction. Ankur is the founder and CEO of teachable.com. A site for creating and selling online courses. Which is super exciting. Give us a little bit more background about you Ankur. What's your entrepreneurial background? Ankur: I am in the very fortunate position to have never held a real job in my life!