Wes Bos is a well-known name in web development education. He started his career 17 years ago, designing pages for bands on MySpace. Today, he has a large following of 165,000 email subscribers and over 388,062 Twitter followers. Wes has created many online courses that teach people how to code.
Wes Bos
Wes's most popular free course, JavaScript30, has over 682,363 people signed up. His paid courses have also done well. For example, his "React for Beginners" course has 36,322 buyers. These numbers show that many people trust Wes to teach them coding skills.
Wes didn't become successful overnight. He started by writing a book about a code editor called Sublime Text. This book got 2,000 email signups and 300-400 purchases in its first few days. From there, Wes moved on to creating video courses. He now has 7 paid courses and 6 free courses.
This article will look at how Wes built his business. We'll cover how he creates his courses, how he markets them, and how he manages his growing number of students. We'll also look at the tools and strategies he uses to run his online education business.
How Wes started in web design
Wes Bos's journey in web design began 17 years ago, during a time when MySpace was very popular. MySpace was one of the first big social media websites where people could customize their profile pages with different designs. This was a perfect opportunity for someone interested in web design.
As a teenager, Wes learned how to code by creating custom MySpace pages for bands. This was a great way to learn because he could see immediate results from his work. He would change the HTML and CSS code, and the band's page would look different. This hands-on experience was valuable for Wes, as it taught him the basics of web design in a practical way.
After high school, Wes continued to improve his skills. He worked as a freelance consultant during his time at university. This means he would take on web design projects for different clients. Working with real clients helped Wes learn not just about coding, but also about communicating with customers and managing projects.
Wes's first step into teaching came when he started working with an organization called Ladies Learning Code in Toronto. This group helps teach coding skills to women and youth. By teaching others, Wes found that he enjoyed explaining complex concepts in simple ways. This experience sparked his interest in education.
Inspired by his teaching experience, Wes started to create content online. He began writing blog posts about web development topics. He also started a YouTube channel where he would make videos explaining coding concepts. These early efforts in content creation were the first steps towards his future career as an online educator.
Wes's first product was a book about a popular code editor called Sublime Text. He decided to self-publish this book, which means he created and sold it himself instead of going through a publishing company. Along with the book, he also made video tutorials to go with it. This project was a success - 2,000 people signed up by email to learn about the book, and 300-400 people bought it in the first few days after it was released.
This early success showed Wes that there was a demand for the kind of teaching he could provide. It also gave him valuable experience in creating and selling educational products online.
Moving to full-time teaching
About a year and a half ago, Wes made a big decision. He decided to stop doing freelance work and focus entirely on teaching. This was a significant change in his career.
Before this, Wes was balancing different types of work. He was doing some teaching, but he was also taking on consulting jobs and freelance projects. Consulting means giving expert advice to companies, while freelance work involves doing specific jobs for different clients. This mix of work gave Wes a steady income, but it also meant his attention was divided between many different tasks.
As Wes created more educational content, he realized something important. He enjoyed making video courses more than writing books. Video courses allowed him to show and explain coding concepts in a way that many students found helpful. He could record his screen as he coded, allowing students to see exactly what he was doing.
This realization led Wes to focus more on creating video courses. Over time, he developed a range of courses covering different aspects of web development. Today, Wes offers an impressive number of courses:
He has 6 free courses:
1. JavaScript30 (used by 682,383 people)
2. CSS Grid (used by 163,739 people)
3. What the flexbox?! (used by 102,000 people)
4. https://commandlinepoweruser.com/
5. Learn Redux
6. Mastering Markdown
And 7 paid courses:
1. Master Gatsby (bought by 9,041 people)
2. Beginner JavaScript (bought by 22,491 people)
3. Fullstack Advanced React and GraphQL (bought by 32,361 people)
4. ES6 for Everyone (bought by 27,660 people)
5. React for Beginners (bought by 36,322 people)
6. Learn Node (bought by 21,433 people)
7. Sublime Text Power User (bought by 7,747 buyers)
These numbers show that many people find Wes's courses helpful. The free courses often serve as a way for people to try out Wes's teaching style. If they like what they learn, they might then decide to buy one of his paid courses.
Moving to full-time teaching was a big risk for Wes. He had to give up the security of his freelance and consulting work. However, the success of his courses shows that this risk paid off. By focusing all his energy on creating high-quality educational content, Wes was able to build a successful business and help thousands of people learn to code.
How Wes teaches
Wes Bos has a special way of teaching that many students find helpful. His main goal is to make difficult coding concepts easy to understand. Let's look at how he does this.
First, Wes tries to keep things simple. In coding, it's easy to make things more complicated than they need to be. For example, when teaching about React (a popular tool for building websites), some teachers might use a lot of extra tools and files. But Wes doesn't do this. He uses fewer files and tools than you might see in a real job. This helps students focus on learning the main ideas without getting confused by extra stuff.
Wes learned a lot about teaching from working with students in person. When you teach face-to-face, you can see when students are confused. You can tell by their facial expressions or the questions they ask. Wes paid close attention to these signs. He noticed which parts of coding were hardest for people to understand. Then, he used this knowledge to make his online courses better. He spends extra time explaining the things that often confuse people.
One big problem Wes noticed was that many new coders felt overwhelmed. There are always new coding tools and ways of doing things coming out. It can feel like you need to learn everything at once. Wes created his free JavaScript30 course to help with this problem. This course focuses on teaching plain JavaScript, without any extra tools or frameworks. The idea is to help students build a strong foundation in the basics. Once they understand the basics well, it's easier to learn more advanced topics.
Wes also believes in teaching through real examples. Instead of just explaining theory, he shows students how to build actual projects. This helps students see how they can use what they're learning in real life. It also makes the lessons more interesting and fun.
Another important part of Wes's teaching style is that he's not afraid to show mistakes. When he's recording a course, if he makes a small error, he often leaves it in the video. Then he shows how to find and fix the error. This is really helpful for students because in real coding work, making and fixing mistakes is a big part of the job.
Lastly, Wes tries to add some humor and personality to his lessons. Learning to code can be frustrating sometimes, so Wes tries to keep things light and fun when he can. This helps students stay motivated and enjoy the learning process.
All of these teaching methods work together to create courses that many people find very helpful. The large number of students taking Wes's courses shows that his teaching style is effective for many people trying to learn coding.
Making a course
Creating an online course is a big job that takes a lot of time and effort. Wes Bos has a careful process for making his courses. Let's look at how he does it.
1. Collecting ideas: The first step is coming up with ideas for what to teach. Wes doesn't just sit down one day and plan a whole course. Instead, he collects ideas over time. For example, when he made his JavaScript30 course, it took him a year and a half to come up with 50 different exercise ideas. Then, he chose the 30 best ones to use in the course. This slow approach helps ensure that the course covers topics that are really useful for students.
2. Improving the content: Once Wes has his ideas, he starts to improve them. For coding courses, this means writing better HTML and CSS for the exercises. HTML and CSS are languages used to create websites. Wes makes sure he's using the newest and best ways of writing this code. He also checks that he's using the latest JavaScript features. JavaScript is another important coding language. By using up-to-date methods, Wes ensures his students are learning current, relevant skills.
3. Recording the videos: This is the most time-consuming part of making a course. Wes spends a lot of time recording himself explaining concepts and writing code. For the JavaScript30 course, he spent 3-4 months working full-time just on recording. That's about 40 hours a week for several months! This shows how much work goes into creating high-quality video lessons.
4. Editing the videos: After recording, Wes has to edit the videos. This means cutting out mistakes, adding helpful graphics or text, and making sure the sound quality is good. Good editing can make a big difference in how easy it is for students to follow along with the lessons.
5. Building excitement: While he's making the course, Wes also starts to tell people about it. He shares screenshots and short video clips on Twitter. This helps get people interested in the course before it's ready. It's a smart way to make sure people will want to take the course when it's finished.
6. Testing: Before releasing the course to everyone, Wes often has a small group of people test it out. They can give feedback on what works well and what might need improvement. This helps Wes make the course as good as possible before the official release.
7. Launch: Finally, when everything is ready, Wes launches the course. This involves sending emails to his subscribers, posting announcements on social media, and making the course available on his website.
8. Updates: Even after a course is launched, the work isn't done. Wes often updates his courses to keep them current. If a new version of a coding language comes out, or if students consistently struggle with a certain part, Wes will make changes to improve the course.
This whole process shows why Wes's courses are so popular. He puts a lot of time and thought into every step, from coming up with ideas to launching the finished product. This careful approach helps ensure that his courses are high-quality and truly helpful for people wanting to learn coding.
How Wes promotes his courses
Wes Bos uses several methods to tell people about his courses. Let's look at each of these methods in detail:
1. Twitter: Twitter is a social media platform where people share short messages. Wes has over 388,062 followers on Twitter, which is a lot of people! He uses Twitter in several ways:
- He posts "Hot Tips" about coding 1-2 times a week. These are quick, helpful bits of information that people find useful.
- He talks with other people on Twitter, answering questions and joining conversations.
- He posts about 10 times every day. This keeps his followers interested and engaged.
- In the past, he often used the fire emoji (🔥) in his tweets. This made his tweets stand out when people were scrolling through Twitter.
Wes Bos Hot Tip
2. Email: Wes has a list of over 165,000 email subscribers. This means 165,000 people have said they want to receive emails from him. When Wes sends an email, between 30% and 70% of these people open it. That's a very good rate - many businesses would be happy with just 20%!
When Wes is about to release a new course, he sends 1-2 emails to build excitement. On the day the course launches, he sends another email asking people directly to share the course with others. This is called a "hard ask" because he's clearly asking for something, not just hinting.
Wes Bos Black Friday Email
3. Free courses: Wes offers several free courses. These courses serve two purposes:
- They help people learn coding skills without having to pay.
- They show people what Wes's teaching style is like. If someone likes a free course, they might decide to buy one of Wes's paid courses.
Wes Bos Purchasing Power Parity Discount For India
4. Blog posts: Wes turns the content of his courses into blog posts. A blog post is an article on a website. This helps in two ways:
- It helps more people find Wes's website when they search for coding topics on Google.
- It makes the course content available to people who prefer reading to watching videos.
For one of his courses, Wes spent about $3,000 to turn the course transcripts into 80 different blog posts. This was a big job, but it helped many more people find and use his content.
5. Word of mouth: Many of Wes's new students come because their friends or coworkers recommended his courses. When someone takes a course and finds it helpful, they often tell other people about it. This is one of the best ways to get new students because people trust recommendations from people they know.
By using all these different methods, Wes is able to reach many people and tell them about his courses. This has helped him build a large and loyal group of students.
Wes's own course website
Many people who create online courses use websites like Udemy or Teachable to sell their courses. These websites handle things like payments and delivering the course content. But Wes decided to do something different - he built his own website for his courses.
Here's why Wes chose to make his own website:
1. Control: By having his own website, Wes can control exactly how it looks and works. He can make sure students have a good experience when they're taking his courses.
2. Payment process: Wes wanted to control how people pay for his courses. With his own website, he can set up the payment process in a way that works best for him and his students.
3. Student information: When you use a platform like Udemy, you don't get to know who your students are. You can't contact them directly. But with his own website, Wes can collect email addresses from his students. This allows him to stay in touch with them and let them know about new courses or updates.
4. Flexibility: Having his own website means Wes can make changes whenever he needs to. He doesn't have to wait for another company to add new features or fix problems.
Building a website to sell courses is a big job. It requires skills in web development, which Wes has. He advises that if you're just starting out and don't have these skills, it's okay to use a platform like Teachable. These platforms make it easy to start selling courses quickly.
However, Wes strongly advises against using marketplace websites like Udemy. While these sites can help you reach a lot of people, they have some big downsides:
- They often take a large percentage of your course sales.
- They don't let you contact your students directly.
- They can change their rules at any time, which might affect how much money you make.
By having his own website, Wes avoids these problems. He can build direct relationships with his students and have full control over his business.
Course prices and student help
Wes has given careful thought to how he prices his courses and how he supports his students. Let's look at both of these aspects:
Course prices:
Wes's paid courses usually cost between $100 and $140. This is in the middle range for coding courses - not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either. Wes sometimes offers sales where the prices are lower.
One interesting thing Wes does is change the price based on where the student lives. This is called "geocoded discounts" or "purchasing power parity". Here's how it works:
- Wes's website can tell what country you're in when you visit.
- If you're in a country where people generally have less money to spend, the price of the course will be lower.
- This means that someone in a country like India might pay less for the same course than someone in the United States.
This approach has helped Wes sell many more courses in countries where people have less money to spend on education. It's a way of making his courses available to more people around the world.
Student help:
Wes offers several ways for students to get help when they're taking his courses:
1. Slack group: Slack is a messaging app that many businesses use. Wes has a private Slack group for students who have bought his paid courses. In this group, students can ask questions, share their work, and help each other.
2. Course-specific slack rooms: For each course, there's a specific room (like a chatroom) in the Slack group. This means students can ask questions about a particular course and get help from others who are taking the same course.
3. Encouraging study partners: For his free courses, Wes encourages students to find someone to study with. Having a study partner can help students stay motivated and learn from each other.
4. Personal emails: Wes personally answers about 40 emails every day from students who have questions. This is a lot of emails! It shows that Wes is committed to helping his students succeed.
By offering these different types of support, Wes ensures that students can get help when they need it. This support is an important part of why his courses are successful - students know they won't be left stuck if they don't understand something.
How well Wes's courses have done
Wes's courses have been very successful. Let's look at some numbers to see just how well they've done:
Total sales: Wes's courses have sold over 55,000 copies. That's a lot of students! And this number is probably even higher now, because it was last updated 2-3 years ago.
Recent course success: Wes's most recent course was about a web development tool called Gatsby. This course was available until September 2023. While we don't have exact numbers, it likely added several thousand more sales to the total.
Free course popularity: Wes's free courses are also very popular. His JavaScript30 course, which is free, has had over 682,363 people sign up for it. That's more than half a million students!
Financial success: While we don't know exactly how much money Wes has made from his courses, we can make a careful guess. If we assume that each student is worth about $200 to Wes over time (this is called "lifetime value"), and if we guess that he's had about 70,000 paying students, then Wes may have made over $10 million from his courses. And this is probably a low estimate - the real number could be much higher, especially when we consider that some of his students are businesses that might pay more.
Consistent growth: What's impressive about Wes's success is that it has grown steadily over time. He didn't just have one big hit course and then stop. Instead, he's consistently created new courses and updated old ones, building his business over many years.
Impact on the coding community: Beyond just the numbers, Wes's courses have had a big impact on the web development community. Many developers credit Wes's courses with helping them learn new skills or even start their careers in web development.
Reputation: Wes has built a strong reputation as a teacher in the web development world. His name is often mentioned when people ask for recommendations for coding courses. This good reputation helps him continue to be successful as he releases new courses.
Future potential: Given the success of his past courses and his strong reputation, Wes is well-positioned to continue being successful in the future. As web development continues to change and grow, there will likely be many opportunities for new courses on new topics.
Conclusion
It's important to note that this level of success is not typical for most online course creators. Wes has built his business over many years, consistently producing high-quality content and building a strong relationship with his audience. His success shows what's possible in the online education industry, but it also represents a lot of hard work and dedication.
Wes's approach includes creating both free and paid content, using social media and email marketing effectively, and providing ongoing support to his students. He built his own course platform to maintain control over the user experience and student data.
His pricing strategy, including geocoded discounts, has helped him reach a global audience. While exact figures are not available, estimates suggest his course sales may have generated over $10 million.
Wes continues to create and update courses, adapting to changes in web development technologies. His experience demonstrates one path to building a sustainable business in online coding education.
