Supporting Online Course Creators: From VA Help to Automation

First published in March 2024 and rewritten in October 2026. It describes how Ignite Drive supported online course creators before the original publication date. The final section is new.

Course creators tend to be experts in their subject and short on time for everything around it: research, platforms, newsletters and social media. This was the process Ignite Drive used to take that behind-the-scenes work off their hands.

Step 1: understand the creator

Before recommending anything, we talked through the creator's target audience, the features they wanted their course to have and their long-term aims. We looked at any courses they already ran and discussed where they wanted to be in six months, a year and five years.

Step 2: build the plan

• Market research to understand the ideal student and shape the course around them.
• Platform selection. We walked creators through course hosting platforms such as Kajabi, Searchie and Thinkific, comparing features, room to grow and budget, and shared our experience of each.
• Engagement. Calls to action such as newsletter sign-ups, referral schemes rewarded with exclusive content, and reward systems for loyal students.
• Community. Weekly newsletters, social media engagement and early access for subscribers, so students felt part of something.
• Social media. A plan for the creator's chosen channels, including engaging with other relevant channels and tracking the numbers that showed whether it was working.

The aim throughout was to let creators concentrate on what they did best: making good content and building relationships with their students.

What has changed on the platforms

Kajabi and Thinkific are both still running. Searchie (spelt "Searchi" in the original version of this article) is too, under a new name: it rebranded as Membership.io in 2024 and now presents itself as a platform built for membership businesses. If you are comparing platforms today, look for it under that name.

Why the VA model has gone

Ignite Drive no longer provides virtual assistant support. Much of the work in step 2 that repeated every week, such as newsletters, social posts, student admin and reporting, can now be automated or drafted by AI and checked by the creator. The research and strategy conversations in step 1 still need a person. The weekly grind mostly does not.

What we would do today

• Newsletters and posts from a voice note. The creator records a few minutes on what students struggled with this week. The content engine turns it into a newsletter, social posts and a carousel in the creator's voice. Nothing goes out until they approve it.
• Student admin that runs itself. A new enrolment triggers the welcome email, course access, a CRM update and any onboarding pack, on systems the creator owns.
• Numbers on request. A business dashboard connected to the creator's AI of choice answers questions such as how many students started this month, without anyone building a report.
• Filling a cohort. For courses aimed at professionals, a targeted list of the right people on LinkedIn and email, each message written for the person, with an easy way to opt out. Over 16 weeks, with the same audience and sequence, AI-written messages drew replies from 13.6% of people against 7.7% for a client's own templates. A reply means any reply, including "no thanks".

The 10-Hour Audit is where I would start, because it shows which of these jobs is costing you the most hours.