Course Catalog / BMU 180 / Getting started

Getting Started: BMU 180 Build Your Brand: Creator and Influencer Basics

About 4 minutes to read. Read this once before your first lesson.

Welcome from BMU Learning

Welcome. We are glad you are here. This course was built for busy adults, so every lesson is short, plain, and practical. You can go at your own pace, and you can come back to any page as often as you need.

About this course

Many people want to share what they know online, and some hope to earn from it. This course is not about going viral. It is about building an honest personal brand and creator business, not fame. You pick a niche and a target viewer, plan and make content on one platform, read your numbers, learn the honest ways creators earn, follow the FTC disclosure rules, and protect your safety, privacy, and peace. You finish with a 30 day content plan and your first three published pieces.

Who it is for:

• You want to share a skill, hobby, or point of view online
• You want a plan you can keep, not a promise of fame
• You want the copyright, disclosure, tax, and safety rules from official sources

Who made it: BMU Learning wrote and checked this course. There is no live instructor and no made up teacher. When audio and video are added, the narration will be an AI voice, not a real person, and captions and a transcript will be on the page.

How support works: BMU Learner Support answers questions about the course, your progress, and technical problems. See How to get help below.

What you will be able to do

• Choose a niche and a target viewer using the three part niche test, and write a one sentence brand statement that names who, what, the content type, and a true reason why.
• Plan and produce content on one home platform before expanding: three content pillars, a 30 day calendar at a pace the learner can keep, and pieces with a hook, value, and next step that use only owned, licensed, or library music and images.
• Read basic platform analytics (reach, watch, and response, including a retention graph) and run a one change test to improve the next piece.
• Compare four income streams (platform payouts, brand deals, affiliate links, own products) by what each requires, check a brand deal offer against five questions, and note the IRS rules for creator income.
• Follow the FTC Endorsement Guides and Disclosures 101: identify a material connection, place a clear disclosure where viewers cannot miss it, use clear words, and endorse only with honest opinions after real use.
• Protect safety, privacy, and peace online: apply CISA's four core steps, keep five kinds of private details out of content, set comment filters, and write a plan for reply hours and breaks.

How to find your way around

1. Start with the Pretest. It is not graded. It shows what you already know.
2. Take the 8 lessons in order. Each one builds on the last.
3. Inside each lesson, the parts come in the same order: why it matters and what you will learn, the teaching, a worked example, strong and weak examples, practice with feedback, a short check, and a recap.
4. Do the Try it step in your real life. That is where the skill sticks.
5. Finish with the performance task, then the Posttest.

Your map of the whole course is the syllabus. Words you may not know are in the glossary.

What you need

• A phone, tablet, or computer with internet. Keep your web browser up to date.
• About 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Printing is optional.
• No special software. Answers open with a tap. Pages work with a keyboard, a screen reader, and zoom.
• Prerequisites: none. If you can read this page, you can take this course.

Your Course Project: each lesson tells you which part of the Course Project it builds. The page checks each part for you and saves your work on this device.

How to get help

• Quick answers: the BMU Help Center can help with your progress, your certificate, billing, and tech problems.
• Ask a person: use the Contact BMU support form and pick a topic. Please do not send card numbers or passwords.
• Something not working: refresh the page and try a current browser. If it still fails, contact support, choose Technical problem, and tell us the page, your device, and your browser.
• In crisis: BMU support cannot respond to emergencies. Call or text 988, or call 911.

If you fall behind or get stuck

• There are no deadlines and no late penalties. If you miss a week, pick up where you left off.
• Start each return visit with the Quick review at the top of the next lesson.
• Missed a check question? Open the feedback, reread the section it points to, and try again. There is no limit on tries.
• Still stuck after two tries? Contact BMU Learner Support with the lesson name and the step. We will point you to the right part.

How you finish

To complete the course, you need two things: build your Course Project until every part passes its automatic check, and pass the Posttest with 80% or higher. The Certificate of Completion unlocks when both are done. You can revise the project and retake the Posttest as many times as you need. The survey at the end is optional and never blocks your certificate.

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