ITPRO.TV - Inspiring membership site helping IT professionals advance their careers

[Andy Black]

I loved this podcast:

• ‎Membership and Subscription Growth: Three Key Breakthroughs that are Game-Changers for Membership and Subscription Growth on Apple Podcasts

From memory I think they said they're doing about $5m annually and have 50 employees now.

I love how his emphasis is on serving his "members" (and they're very specific in calling them members).
He also tells the story of how they switched from higher priced courses ($2,500 to $25,000) to $39/mth memberships.

Here's their site:

• Online IT Training & Certification Courses | ITProTV

What's your takeaways?

 

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[MrRobot]

In what way is it better than pluralsight? Did they just copy the idea and did some nice marketing?

 

[Andy Black]

In what way is it better than pluralsight? Did they just copy the idea and did some nice marketing?

I doubt they "copied the idea". There's lots of businesses providing training because they're such a demand for training. I suspect both platforms have different strengths and weaknesses, and the importance of those strengths and weakness depend on each individual customer too.

Also, people don't build a $5m annual revenue stream by "just" copying an idea and doing some nice marketing.

Thanks for the heads up about Pluralsight. I didn't know about that platform.

 

[MrRobot]

I use pluralsight a lot and itpro.tv seems they have similar courses (maybe less than pluralsight) similar grouping / layout and the pricing is also in the same range. Pluralsight is worth 2.5B currently and due to COVID online courses are more popular than ever so maybe there is room for more such companies.

 

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[Andy Black]

I use pluralsight a lot and itpro.tv seems they have similar courses (maybe less than pluralsight) similar grouping / layout and the pricing is also in the same range. Pluralsight is worth 2.5B currently and due to COVID online courses are more popular than ever so maybe there is room for more such companies.

Yeah, I suspect all these companies are seeing explosions in growth.

I can't see instantly in Pluralsight any courses on career development (creating great CVs, getting and doing well in interviews, going from employee to contractor, etc). About 15 years ago I was thinking of creating courses about the above (as well as specific Oracle DBA courses that help people on the ground rather than help people get certified).

Have you watched the couple of videos in this thread @MrRobot?

• HOT TOPIC - 10+ Years IT Contracting at €300-900/day (Learnings)

My thinking for my own membership currently is that a lot (most?) of the people who've taken my Google Ads courses are people who want to become Google Ads pros, rather than business owners who want to run campaigns for themselves. I could niche down and serve those people specifically (since I've been a freelancer or consultant since 2000) rather than try to appeal to the broader market.

 

[MrRobot]

You are not the only DBA here btw
Thanks for the link about the consulting videos. At the moment my pay is just too high to consider consulting as no one would pay me 1K per day and below that it would not be worth it.

I have heard that Pluralsight pays really well for the videos (maybe they require your videos to be exclusive, so only available on pluralsight). Some big names like Paul Randal (SQL Server) have made videos for pluralsight so the pay must be not bad. As I see the oracle videos are mostly made by 2-3 people (Tim Boles, David Berry etc ...). So if you think some stuff is missing either on pluralsight or itpro.tv you might produce a tutorial video and upload it for some extra passive income.

 

[Kid]

So if you think some stuff is missing either on pluralsight or itpro.tv you might produce a tutorial video and upload it for some extra passive income.

Like "Google Ads for programmers"

 

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[Andy Black]

You are not the only DBA here btw

I'm an ex DBA now!

Mind you, team mates figured DBA means Does Bugger All. But that's because I'd automated most of my tasks.

 

[dennisgerik]

In what way is it better than pluralsight? Did they just copy the idea and did some nice marketing?

I guess my question to the above quote is - why does it matter? If they have built a $5M/year biz - they must have a customer base that is attracted to their content.

So, in the spirit of an Infinite Mindset - perhaps there is room for more than 1, 2, 10 or even 100+ "competitors" in a marketplace. It makes product research a hell of a lot simpler.