Took 1 year to build a course. Should I give it away for free?

[André Casal]

I've spent 2021 building a course (150+ videos). Except for 300 subscribers on YouTube, I have no audience.

Seeking the wisdom of those who've already gone through this: should I publish my course for free on YouTube to build an audience and trust I'll figure out monetization later or should I figure out how to build an audience now (that doesn't involve publishing my course)?

 

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[NewManRising]

Build the audience. Give away something smaller maybe like an eBook.

 

[100k]

Take the best piece from the course and use that as a lead magnet, then upsell them the full course as a tripwire, then upsell those that buy the tripwire your core product - that could be your 1 on 1 consultation to help them execute whatever they just learned.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjAqfsLwEm0&t=1s

Product Splintering: How we Generated $188,674 from a Dead Email List and a Tired Offer - DigitalMarketer

In 2011, I stumbled across a business that was struggling. They had a great product and were targeting a passionate, growing market. Their sales copy was well-written. They were using opt-in forms and squeeze pages and they even had an email list of 113,636 people. But, despite all those...

www.digitalmarketer.com

If you need help executing this PM me. I'll see what I can do

 

[Stargazer]

Course in what?

If it was Maths for school age children the answer is not really. If it was in how to give your dog a pedicure the answer would most likely be yes.

Dan

 

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[Andy Black]

I've spent 2021 building a course (150+ videos). Except for 300 subscribers on YouTube, I have no audience.

Seeking the wisdom of those who've already gone through this: should I publish my course for free on YouTube to build an audience and trust I'll figure out monetization later or should I figure out how to build an audience now (that doesn't involve publishing my course)?

Maybe things in here might help:

• MARKETING - Just start already

 

[André Casal]

Thanks for your answers guys, appreciate it!

Build the audience. Give away something smaller maybe like an eBook.

Take the best piece from the course and use that as a lead magnet, then upsell them the full course as a tripwire, then upsell those that buy the tripwire your core product - that could be your 1 on 1 consultation to help them execute whatever they just learned.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjAqfsLwEm0&t=1s

Product Splintering: How we Generated $188,674 from a Dead Email List and a Tired Offer - DigitalMarketer

In 2011, I stumbled across a business that was struggling. They had a great product and were targeting a passionate, growing market. Their sales copy was well-written. They were using opt-in forms and squeeze pages and they even had an email list of 113,636 people. But, despite all those...

www.digitalmarketer.com

If you need help executing this PM me. I'll see what I can do

The course has two parts: getting up to speed with the software and configuring it so it automates most of the process and integrates a lot of usually external workflows. I was thinking about giving the first part up for free.

Thanks for offering to help 100k, appreciate it! I'll check the video asap.

Course in what?

If it was Maths for school age children the answer is not really. If it was in how to give your dog a pedicure the answer would most likely be yes.

Dan

It's a course for programmers to master VS Code so I think it qualifies as building the audience seperately

Maybe things in here might help:

• MARKETING - Just start already

Thanks Andy!

 

[Simon Angel]

Go to a Facebook group/Discord/Forum for VS and become "that guy" by consistently helping out others and establishing yourself as the expert. Then you could do what @100k posted once you've got a good rep with that particular community and offer 1 on 1 coaching.

 

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[WJK]

I've spent 2021 building a course (150+ videos). Except for 300 subscribers on YouTube, I have no audience.

Seeking the wisdom of those who've already gone through this: should I publish my course for free on YouTube to build an audience and trust I'll figure out monetization later or should I figure out how to build an audience now (that doesn't involve publishing my course)?

You should have plenty of material to put together some short teaser versions of parts of your class. Create your "hooks" carefully and thoughtfully. If the receiving person is interested, they will come back for more. That's where you put your link to buy your class. Your next step is to create a following through a targeting marketing plan. It sounds like that is a new skill for you...

And here's the hidden gem -- by testing the market with some "shorts", you can find out what part of your course you need to expand. Target your client's exact needs.

 

[André Casal]

Go to a Facebook group/Discord/Forum for VS and become "that guy" by consistently helping out others and establishing yourself as the expert. Then you could do what @100k posted once you've got a good rep with that particular community and offer 1 on 1 coaching.

Yeah, I was starting to get a rep after having recorded 500+ videos on YouTube for VS Code settings. They even featured me at a Microsoft event. I then focused on creating the course and didn't have time for that anymore, but I'd like to keep offering that kind of value. I think that's something I'll start doing soon now that the course is almost done.

You should have plenty of material to put together some short teaser versions of parts of your class. Create your "hooks" carefully and thoughtfully. If the receiving person is interested, they will come back for more. That's where you put your link to buy your class. Your next step is to create a following through a targeting marketing plan. It sounds like that is a new skill for you...

And here's the hidden gem -- by testing the market with some "shorts", you can find out what part of your course you need to expand. Target your client's exact needs.

Indeed building an audience/community is a new skill for me. First time building one. Creating "shorts" is a great idea, thanks for that!

 

[Simon Angel]

Yeah, I was starting to get a rep after having recorded 500+ videos on YouTube for VS Code settings. They even featured me at a Microsoft event.

Ok, then you're way ahead of the curve. Just leverage that.

How many subscribers and average views per video do you have? A friend of mine here on the forum built a channel from scratch about Facebook and Google ads to 14K subscribers and has a lot of business owners reaching out to work with him because they see him as THE guy. And that began way before he got to 14k. So make use of that YouTube channel for your funnel.

 

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[hisamats]

One thought/recent observation: Was researching offers to learn Python – and basically, I felt torn between two types of courses: 30 Minutes vs. 30 Hours. Neither one gave me the feeling of being in the right place.

Can't help with YT / community.
Also started an online training venture (in B2B), and was driven by fear of underdelivering, ending up offering too much stuff with nobody completing the damn thing or people shying away from too much complexity. Reworked everything and threw stuff out making things more modular, so HR/buyers feel they have a say. MS inviting you sounds awesome; you seem to do a great job content- or topic-wise! And great job producing; for me that was a long ride through the desert.

 

[André Casal]

One thought/recent observation: Was researching offers to learn Python – and basically, I felt torn between two types of courses: 30 Minutes vs. 30 Hours. Neither one gave me the feeling of being in the right place.

Can't help with YT / community.
Also started an online training venture (in B2B), and was driven by fear of underdelivering, ending up offering too much stuff with nobody completing the damn thing or people shying away from too much complexity. Reworked everything and threw stuff out making things more modular, so HR/buyers feel they have a say. MS inviting you sounds awesome; you seem to do a great job content- or topic-wise! And great job producing; for me that was a long ride through the desert.

I appreciate your input. Something I'm definitely doing is modularizing the course and allowing customers to choose the level of complexity they feel most comfortable with.

 

[André Casal]

One thought/recent observation: Was researching offers to learn Python – and basically, I felt torn between two types of courses: 30 Minutes vs. 30 Hours. Neither one gave me the feeling of being in the right place.

Can't help with YT / community.
Also started an online training venture (in B2B), and was driven by fear of underdelivering, ending up offering too much stuff with nobody completing the damn thing or people shying away from too much complexity. Reworked everything and threw stuff out making things more modular, so HR/buyers feel they have a say. MS inviting you sounds awesome; you seem to do a great job content- or topic-wise! And great job producing; for me that was a long ride through the desert.

Regarding the Python course, check these awesome resources: Find the best online Programming courses and Tutorials - Hackr.io

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks Andy!

Curious if that helped, and what your takeaways were.

 

[André Casal]

Curious if that helped, and what your takeaways were.

My takeaway was pretty straightforward: just start. So I did.

 

[André Casal]

Curious if that helped, and what your takeaways were.

I've built a newsletter, linked it to my Twitter profile, and started writing weekly articles.

Revue is nice by the way: Twitter bought it and it now integrates directly into Twitter

 

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[hisamats]

Regarding the Python course, check these awesome resources: Find the best online Programming courses and Tutorials - Hackr.io

Great, thank you. Will check them out.

 

[Andy Black]

I've built a newsletter, linked it to my Twitter profile, and started writing weekly articles.

Revue is nice by the way: Twitter bought it and it now integrates directly into Twitter

Ooo. A newsletter.

I've been dabbling:

• EXECUTION - Figuring Out Paid Email Newsletters

And I've dropped Twitter for now:

• EXECUTION - Figuring Out Twitter

 

[André Casal]

Ooo. A newsletter.

I've been dabbling:

• EXECUTION - Figuring Out Paid Email Newsletters

And I've dropped Twitter for now:

• EXECUTION - Figuring Out Twitter

Nice. This is one of the best articles I've seen to understand Twitter, other platforms, and newsletters.

 

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[Andy Black]

Nice. This is one of the best articles I've seen to understand Twitter, other platforms, and newsletters.

Ah yes. I found his stuff when I was on Twitter. He’s excellent. I’ve not read that article, thanks for the share.