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My first CENTS Analysis (Video Course) - Feedback welcome!

YouCanDoThis

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Hey all,

Just finished both TMF and Unscripted , and I don't intend to spin my wheels in the world of theories very long.
Today I did a CENTS analysis of a business idea I've had for a while now. I know, the only way to verify if this is a solid idea is to test it against the market-mind, but I would still ask some of you more experienced entrepreneurs to take a look and shoot. :)

The idea is to create a video course for a piece of music technology. As a hobby, I create music in a very small music niche, where a lot of people use the same piece of software. I asked myself how I could contribute value to the community and noticed a lot of people found the learning curve steep and were constantly asking questions like "how do I learn X?". Aha!

In essence I would create a video course of about 15-30 videos covering the software. Either I'd self-host it, or use platforms like Udemy/Skillshare/etc. If someone has more experience with these, I would love to hear about that.



Control
  • Self-hosting a membership website would give the most control
    • Payment processing could be handled by a service like Stripe
    • Video’s could be hosted unlisted on Vimeo
    • I suspect WordPress has membership website set-ups
    • All these services could easily be replaced by another
  • I could opt in for using a platform such as Udemy, Skillshare, Coursera, Kadenze, Teachable, etc.
    • This would relinquish distribution control over to those platforms. I’ve checked Udemy and they say you retain all rights and am allowed to use other platforms.
    • I suspect others have the same terms, but I need to research that
    • Udemy only lets you host if the course price on other platforms isn’t cheaper
    • In any case, the fact that I can use multiple means I’m not dependent on any one platform
Entry
  • The software itself is known for its steep learning curve. This is a selling point for my course, and it also raises the entry level
    • I am aware that by educating people I’m lowering that barrier, but that goes for all educational products
  • No other products exist in this space, except for:
    • An amount of scattered free youtube video’s by several people
    • One artist made a free 4-video course
      • The view numbers are respectively 3085/835/482
      • I’ve gone through the course, and it is not very in-depth
    • Several colleagues in the scene have voiced wanting to do something similar, but “life gets in the way” and they “can’t really find the time”. I'm sure someone could find the time, but at least they view it as a hassle.
  • Not everybody feels comfortable recording themselves
Need
  • Being a domain expert, I know there is a need for a decent course.
  • Most community groups are commonly flooded with “how do I learn X?” posts
  • A lot of users use old versions of the software, ask what’s new and how they can upgrade their knowledge. This is a common pain-point
  • Apart from the manual, there’s no comprehensive guide that goes through everything. There wasn’t one when I started, and there still isn’t
Time
  • Time is definitely on my side. I have to create the course only once, and everything after can be done pretty much automatically
  • As a rough estimate, I assume a course of about 15-30 videos should be possible to launch within 6 months
Scale
  • The largest facebook community is about 7k+ members big.
    • In that sense this is not “impact millions”, but this is my first fastlane idea and I’d be willing to accept that if it still brings in good money + experience.
    • These are all people who have already proven interest in the genre.
    • I might be able to pull in musicians outside of the genre if this turns out to be a productocracy.
  • Udemy courses for learning e.g. Ableton Live (really popular) go for around €100+.
    • Our software is less advanced, so that may be a big ask. Maybe €50? (I have little experience with this).
    • Self-hosted is of course 100% profit, Udemy somewhere between 25%-50%+.
    • Assuming I can sell this to a 2000 people (is that reasonable?), that puts me somewhere between (rough estimate) €25.000 - €100.000.
      • For where I live, that’s good money for a couple of months work


I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and discuss this. I'm inclined to buy a decent podcast mic and start recording, but it would be nice to know if experienced users here see a huge flaw ;)

Also, if anybody has experience with MOOCs like Udemy, course creation or video recording, Iwould love to hear about that.
 
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George Appiah

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  • Self-hosted is of course 100% profit, Udemy somewhere between 25%-50%+.

Actually, no, not exactly 100%.

You're going to pay for hosting and on-going technical maintenance of your website (or subscription fee, if you use a hosted course platform like Teachable), .... and credit card processing fee. And, of course, you'll be 100% responsible for every eyeball that visits your website and makes a purchase.

I'm not saying it's not worth it to roll your own. I'm just pointing out that there's a cost to it, and your sales will not be 100% profit as you're saying.
 

YouCanDoThis

Start with Empathy
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
129%
Jan 2, 2021
63
81
Europe
Actually, no, not exactly 100%.

You're going to pay for hosting and on-going technical maintenance of your website (or subscription fee, if you use a hosted course platform like Teachable), .... and credit card processing fee. And, of course, you'll be 100% responsible for every eyeball that visits your website and makes a purchase.

I'm not saying it's not worth it to roll your own. I'm just pointing out that there's a cost to it, and your sales will not be 100% profit as you're saying.
Ah, you're 100% (;)) correct, of course! What an oversight...

Haven't decided on the self-hosted vs. platform issue yet. Hoping there's people on here with more experience with either/both.
 
Last edited:

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