Launch of Structured Literacy Lab

A Step-by-step record of how we are turning Structured Literacy Lab from an educational idea into a real business - including the books, website, systems, mistakes and lessons along the way. [https://structuredliteracylab.com].

This is not a story written after everything has been figured out. We are starting from where we are now - with an idea, the first book in development, and plenty of decisions still to make.

The Idea

Although I am publishing this first entry in September 2026, the journey began several months earlier. I have gone back to May to document the initial idea and the decisions we made at that time.

Zahra wanted to help children learn spelling through stories that resonate with them. A child may struggle to remember an isolated spelling rule or list of words, but a memorable story can make those same words easier to understand and recall.

That became the foundation for the project: teaching common spelling patterns through engaging stories.

Zahra has been working on the idea for 3 years since 2023. She created multiple drafts, tested the stories with multiple children, refined the stories a couple of times.

Zahra’s initial plan was to create a series of around 12 books, with each book focussing on a particular group of spelling patterns and words.

However, we do not want to produce books alone.

More than a series of books

Each book will be supported by teaching resources and activities connected to the words introduced in the story.

These may include:

• Printable activities
• Spelling exercises
• Games
• Board games
• Resources for parents and educators

The purpose is to help children encounter and practise the same words in different ways. They might first meet the words in a story and then reinforce them through a printable activity or game.

The story introduces the learning. The additional resources help make it stick.

Our plan for the first book

We plan to make the first book available for free.

This will allow parents, children and educators to read it, use the supporting activities and tell us what works - and what could be improved.

At this stage, we are considering publishing through Apple Books and Google Play Books. However, the downloadable teaching resources will be available through the Structured Literacy Lab website.

Readers will be invited to provide their email address to receive the printables and activities connected to the book.

This serves two purposes.

• First, readers receive practical resources that help them get more value from the story. Second, it allows us to stay in touch with the people using the books.
• When the next book is ready, we can let those readers know.

The Initial Strategy

The idea was clear, I began thinking about how we could turn it into a product and bring it to market. These were our initial thoughts.

Target Customer

Though the target customer was already quite clear as Zahra has been working on this for the past 3 years, it is important we spell it out.

The initial target customers are:

• Parents of children who have difficulty in spelling
• Teachers and structured literacy practitioners
• Tutors, therapists and learning-support professionals
• Dyslexia advocates and organisations

Initial markets:

• English-speaking countries and countries where English is widely taught as a second language

Age group:

The books are primarily intended for children learning to spell, although some of the resources may also help oder learners and adults.

Does the product work?

Yes. Zahra used the books with a few kids. Zahra also got great feedback from the pilot set of users (therapists) who gave great positive feedback.

Ideal Customer Journey

• Customers should be able to buy on Apple Books and Google Play.
• Ideally, we should be able sell printed books on Amazon (that's for a later stage once we get the initial steps rolled out).
• To get the printables for each book:
  • There must be a landing page where customers can register their email address
  • Once customer fills their email in the landing page, an automated email containing a link to download the printables.

Technical requirements

We are not planning to build a large, traditional blog. Instead, we will create a smaller collection of highly relevant pages and resources addressing the questions and difficulties our customers are already searching for.

• A simple website - primarily geared for high conversion. Ideally, each book page needs to be a high converting landing page by themselves.
• Since this is a product website, I don't think we are going to be creating a lot of blog posts to get SEO traffic. So the website will have limited number of pages with limited content, but needs to be spot on to ensure the site performs well in traditional search and AI-generated search results.
• Email marketing system to capture leads, and send printables. Possibly, an email sequence needs to be built.

Marketing

• For Organic SEO, we will need highly relevant content targeting our customer's pain points.
• We would like to start YouTube channel. We need to figure out how to use YouTube as a mechanism of organic outreach. If it works well, YouTube could also be a revenue source.
• Paid Advertising is something to be considered when we have the above systems are in place.

What we did not want to do

We were quite clear on the things we did NOT want to do from the beginning.

• We did not want to sell to our customers directly on our website
  • We would prefer to sell the digital books on platforms such as Google Play and Apple Books as these platforms are better equipped to handle taxation and regulatory requirements.
  • For example, if we sell on our website directly, we have to track GST/VAT, etc, and pay the relevant authorities. Additionally, we have to be responsible for invoicing and managing the fulfilment process.
• We did not want to ship the products manually
  • We would prefer selling the books through Amazon or other platforms that can print and ship on demand.
  • If we were to ship the products, we would only want to do that when we have enough revenue to outsource the operations to a reliable third party who can handle the entire fulfilment process (packaging and shipping)
• We did not want to show our faces
  • We are shy and the very thought of putting our faces on YouTube makes us nervous.

Key Decisions on Tech Stack

We will create the website on Framer

Why Framer?

• Relatively cheaper compared to Webflow.
• Relative speed and ease of building landing pages.
• The website StructuredLiteracyLab is not going to be content heavy. But it will need landing pages for sure.
• I don't need a CMS.
• I don't need localisation.

The problem: I don't know how to use Framer. I haven't used Figma as well in the past. So this is going to be interesting.

I have watched quite a few YouTube tutorials on the basics of Framer. I have created a dummy landing page. I think I can make this work... I think! Let's see!

Why not WordPress or Webflow?

I am not a technical expert. I have used WordPress, Webflow, but I decided on Framer for the following reasons:

1. Webflow has become expensive. It has amazing technical capabilities, but the ongoing changes in pricing, then for workspace, collaborators, etc is daunting. I still use Webflow for other content heavy sites, but this project is not a content heavy website. Webflow is definitely the way to go for content heavy sites with localisations.
2. WordPress is getting too difficult to maintain.

We will use MailerLite for email marketing

Why MailerLite?

• I have used it in the past.
• It is user friendly.
• Plenty of YouTube tutorials
• Relatively better pricing than Mailchimp.
• More importantly, my needs are simple:
  • I don't need complex automations or any comprehensive reporting.
  • I just need to get email sign-ups, and then send emails with the printables.

We will use Canva for designing the books/printables

Why Canva?

• I have used it in the past.
• I love it. It's just easy to use!
• Previously, I had used InkScape for complex detailed illustrations, but for our purposes, it is not required.
• We might use other software/apps for image editing. More on it when we get to it.

The next step is to map the complete customer journey - from discovering the first book to receiving the printables and hearing about the next release.

Initial thoughts on the website

Before I started designing the website, I had the following thoughts on the key pages.

• Home Page
• A page for the series that includes 12 books
• For each book, a separate page that works like a landing page for that book.
• A page for Printables (if required, yet to decide).
• The usual pages such as Terms and Privacy Policy.