If you're planning on starting some distance learning courses, here are some things I've learned.

1. Make your courses unusual in some way. There's a lot of competition out there. Try some different graphics or a different format, something that will make them stand out.

2. Be sure they're interactive. This can be as simple a putting polls or quizzes in course, or asking questions student can respond to by email.

3. A catchy title works wonders. "Get That Promotion" works better than "How to Get Promoted." Somethign action-oriented and promising works well.

4. Offer options. My courses are asynchronous--that is pre-packaged--and ready to go. Once student has paid for course, they can choose whether they want whole thing at one, or delivered to their email once a week.

5. The logistics of a distance learning course are something you don't need to be spending your time on. Get a virtual assistant to keep roster, mail courses out, and deliver completion certificates.

6. Yes, be sure and give your students a certificate at end. If you aren't that talented, a virtual assistant can create one for you. (Need name of a good VA, email me!)

I hereby award "WebSite101 Best of Show Award" to Groopz, for their stunningly simple and very powerful sales tool that, although stretching limits of affordability for typical SOHO (small office, home office) practitioner, it is definitely a fit for those who are trying to decide whether office space is justified. My answer, unless you MUST have a place to meet public or can't separate yourself from work at home, I say DON'T rent that office yet! Instead get Oracle Small Business Suite plus Groopz service which together total just $200 monthly, far less than any worthwhile office rent might cost. Even if you do rent office, this combination can't be beat!

To many who choose to work from home, it just isn't possible or there is little need to meet public at a business location, but now you can virtually greet them via Groopz live Java chat and real-time customer greeting system. Their marketing tag- line is, "Breathing Life into Web!" It turns out that this is not so far from truth since business owners with Groopz enabled site can now greet customers whenever they walk into your WEB store, extend a "digital handshake" and offer well known greeting, "Hello, Can I help you?"

The Groopz enabled web store allows a business rep (or owner) to know instantly that someone is shopping, know which page customer is on and how long that customer has been in store to make it possible to offer that "digital handshake" at any time or simply monitor traffic and activity in real-time. There are two ways for a conversation to be initiated. You can wait until they click "Contact live support" button or you may proactively approach them after noticing they are on FAQ page looking for answers. A Java chat window appears on screen.

The time to initiate that contact may be when you see them on information or sales page of your most profitable product or when they linger on one page for any significant length of time. Just as a person expects a store staffed by salespersons to be available to answer questions, so to would experienced visitors of your site. Once they have had that live interaction and refer your products to friends, they are very likely to let that friend know that live support and help is available from your business web site. If they leave with questions, they'll very likely return to ask them rather than leaving frustrated.