One of the most important pieces of the course creation puzzle is TRACKING. 

You can start tracking just by paying attention to links that you share and how many people click on your links. 

Let me give you an example to see how this works: 

1. Suppose I wanted to share my affiliate/partner link to a tool called King Sumo (for hosting drawings to build your email list). 

2. I can share my ugly affiliate link like this: https://appsumo.8odi.net/c/1814102/884562/7443

3. But that would be impossible to share out loud (on a podcast for example). 

4. So instead I can share a branded and shortened link that redirects to that affiliate link. For example, 
https://CourseCreatorsHQ.com/KingSumo goes to the same place. But it’s much easier to share and much easier for me to remember! 

5. Then periodically I go back and look to see how many clicks have occurred on my KingSumo link. It helps me know if this was a popular topic or not. 

There are several tools you can use for this – both free and paid – but there are some secrets to doing this well: 

Secret #1: Don’t just use Bit.ly links. Spammers have used this tool in the past, and so emails with bit.ly links are likely to go to spam. 

Secret #2: Add your own branding with a custom domain. When I share links I use my CourseCreatorsHQ.com domain because it’s a WordPress website and I use a plugin called Pretty Links Lite. 

But if you don’t have a WordPress site, there are still ways to use a custom domain. It usually can’t be your regular domain/website (because the tools get confused), but you can buy another domain to use for sharing links. 

Then pick a tool like Clickmagick or Rebrandly or Switchy to setup your link redirects and track how many clicks the links get. 

As of June, 2023, Switchy is on AppSumo for a lifetime account for only $39 (you should only need to purchase 1 code). Instead of having to pay a monthly fee to track your links, you can get a lifetime account to Switchy and only pay once. Go here to get the deal. 

Then if you want to know more, I have an inexpensive course on how to use Switchy to setup your custom domain and track your links. Go here to get the details on getting a lifetime account for Switchy and then setting it up to track your results.