# Create an email course

Source: https://help.meisa.io/articles/create-an-email-course

An email course is a free course people sign up for: they confirm their address and then get one lesson a day. When they buy, the course stops on its own. To make one, go to **Courses**, click **New course**, write the lessons, pick a sender, add the signup form to your site and turn it on.

## Create the course

1. In the sidebar, click **Courses**.
2. Click **New course**.
3. In **New email course**, fill in:
   - **Name**, for example "5 days to better cold emails".
   - **What readers get (shown on the signup page)**: one or two lines on what they will learn.
   - **How many lessons**: **3**, **5** or **7**. You can add or remove lessons later.
4. Click **Create course**.

The course opens with a short checklist: **Write your lessons**, **Pick who it comes from** and **Put the signup form on your site**.

![The course page with the Readers, Lessons, Signup form and Settings tabs](https://cdn.kamaan.io/kamaan/sites/6ae9f671d5ea373710b2366f/images/meisa-courses-5b12ca5d.webp)
## Write your lessons

1. Open the **Lessons** tab.
2. Click **Write** on a lesson to open it in the template editor. Write the subject and the content, then save.
3. Use **Add lesson** to add more, the arrows to change the order, or remove a lesson you don't need.

Once people are partway through the course, the lesson order is locked so nobody gets a lesson twice or skips one.

## Pick the sender and the sending time

1. Open the **Settings** tab.
2. Under **Sending**, choose the **From** sender.
3. Set the **Lesson time**. Lesson 1 goes out as soon as the reader confirms. The rest go out one a day at this hour, in each reader's own time zone.

Other settings:

- **Name and description**: what readers see on the signup page.
- **Look and confirmation**: the accent colour of the signup page, and **After confirming, go to (optional)**, a page on your site to send people to after they confirm.
- **Delete course**, at the bottom.

## Add the signup form

Open the **Signup form** tab. You have three choices:

- **Hosted signup page, ready to share**: click **Copy link** and share it anywhere, for example in a post or your newsletter.
- **HTML form**: copy the snippet and paste it into your website. The button reads **Start the free course**.
- **From your backend**: sign people up from your app with the API, for example when they tick a box at signup.

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.meisa.io/api/v1/courses/your-course-slug/subscribe/" \
  -H "X-API-Key: meisa_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "email": "user@example.com", "first_name": "Maya", "timezone": "Europe/London" }'
```

The exact URL with your course slug is shown in the tab. The API key needs the **Add people to sequences** or **Add and update contacts** permission.

## Turn it on

Click **Turn on**. Signups are not accepted until the course is on. To stop sending for a while, click **Pause**.

## Stop the course when someone buys

The point of most courses is to turn readers into customers, and nobody wants lesson 4 after they paid. When someone buys, have your app tell Meisa:

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.meisa.io/api/v1/courses/end/" \
  -H "X-API-Key: meisa_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "email": "user@example.com", "reason": "purchased" }'
```

`reason` can be `purchased`, `unsubscribed` or `other`. Readers who bought are counted under **Bought**.

## Track how it's doing

The **Readers** tab shows the funnel: **Signed up**, **Confirmed** (clicked the confirmation link), **Mid-course**, **Finished** and **Bought**. Filter the list by **Mid-course**, **Finished**, **Bought** or **Not confirmed**.

## Troubleshooting

- **The signup form says the course isn't available**: turn the course on first.
- **A reader never got lesson 1**: they have not confirmed yet. Check the **Not confirmed** filter. The confirmation email can land in spam.
- **Lessons arrive at the wrong hour**: lessons follow the reader's time zone. Pass `timezone` when you sign people up from your backend.

## Related articles

- [Create an onboarding email sequence](/articles/create-an-email-sequence)
- [Build an email template](/articles/build-an-email-template)
- [Create and manage API keys](/articles/create-an-api-key)
- [Add a sender (From name and address)](/articles/add-a-sender-address)