This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey everybody, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Got an interesting question today from a listener in the UK. He has recently dusted off a project that he worked on with his wife a few years ago.
It is a birth preparation program. And for a while they were doing it offline, I believe, but now their new goal is to take it online. So they put in a lot of work, but unfortunately they're not seeing the results they'd like. So let's take more of a look under the hood. And also I've been hearing from a lot of people starting online courses of various kinds.
And I've noticed that people tend to get hung up kind of in the same places or the same roadblocks. So when I answer this question, I'm gonna try to think about how it's relevant to other people as well, which I always do. But in particular with online courses, if you're out there and you've been building an online course, I would love to know what's working, what's not working, what your questions and challenges are. You can always write me directly from sidehustleschool.com or my main website, chrisguillebeau.com. You can tweet me @chrisguillebeau, whatever's good.
Let me know about your experiences with online courses. And I will continue to do more with this subject as we build out this year. But for now, how can you sell an online birth preparation course? That's what we're gonna look at in this episode after the message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is James from Bristol in the UK.
I've been loving your side hustle book and making my way through it. I've got an idea which I think is feasible, profitable and persuasive. It was an online birth preparation program that my wife and I developed four or five years ago. And it was actually not a very good side hustle insofar as it took years and years and cost of fortune for us to get up and online. Now, when we actually got it online, we didn't manage to sell more than a handful of subscriptions to this birth preparation program.
And we concluded that that was because people much rather preferred to do these courses in person. Now, with the advent of the coronavirus, in-person courses are not an option. So I thought this might be the ideal time for me to relaunch the program, tweaked it a little bit, made it mobile optimized, to see if people would be more open to signing up given that they couldn't attend in-person courses. So I did all that over the course of a month and I tried to stick to the guidelines that you set out in side hustle. And lo and behold, I still haven't had any takers.
I'm using Google Ads to advertise the course. And my one question is, what one tweak could I make to this online birth preparation program that might make people, more women specifically, more inclined to book on the course? Thanks so much, look forward to hearing your answer. Cheers. [Music]
Hey James, thanks so much for listening.
Shout out to you and Leila in the UK. Bristol is a place I haven't been to in a long time. So I'd love to come back at some point, but let's not talk about that. Let's talk about your idea. Okay, so I've got some good news, good news and bad news.
And the bad news is really not that bad. Just a couple of suggestions, which could actually be good. Wow, crazy. Okay, so good news first. I think the website is really strong.
Got a great welcoming video there from Leila, very clearly explained process throughout. I don't think the website needs a lot of work. I think you've really put a lot into that and it's well done. The price is also affordable. I was looking on the frequently asked questions page, it says the investment for the calm and confident birth program is either $29.99.
This is in British pounds, that's about $37. So 30 pounds, $37, or there's a premium package that is a few pounds more, about $7 more. It might have more of a difference in those prices since that's almost the same. But I think the bigger challenge here is in asking, it's just kind of what you're pointing to. Like you put a lot of work in here, but you're not seeing results.
You thought it was because people wanted it to be offline, but now that you've put more work on the online process, people are still not signing up. My question is, are expectant mothers searching on Google for something like this? Okay, because you mentioned using Google ads and maybe they are, but maybe it's the kind of thing where they don't know they need it. Do you know what I mean? Like it seems to me that giving birth is like the ultimate personal experience.
I was gonna say something like giving birth is kind of personal, but right, it's the ultimate personal experience. So I think this is the kind of project that spreads primarily by referral. You know, we did an episode recently, number 1242, about a woman named Natalie in Australia who was teaching these hypno-birth courses and kind of similar, she was doing offline stuff and then had to transition to doing online and she's been able to be successful with it. So first I would go and look and see what she's done. But I think more broadly, you know, I would start by, if you're in a situation like this and you have developed a course where you know the material is helpful and like there's not something obvious you can do on the front end to fix it more, like I would start by giving it away actually.
Like I would just regroup, I would go on, let's use that work group again, I would go on Facebook groups and post that you are reintroducing this course and you would love for people to try it. Like there's a lot of Facebook groups and other communities of expectant mothers. Don't be stingy with it. Like actually try to reach a lot of people with it. It could be a limited time.
It could be, you know, the first 50 people, the first 100, you know, whatever it is. The point is I would try to bring a lot of people in to experience the course even if they're not paying and then serve those people really well, which of course, you know, you and Layla will do and see what you notice. See if they're actually using the product. Like is it possible to see are they downloading and completing some tutorials more than others? So what is being used?
What is most helpful? Maybe even call some of them on the phone or call them up on Skype to ask about their experience. Like you can't obviously do consultations, you know, for all these people, but the point is more, you know, for you to serve them and also to learn along the way, maybe there is something that needs to be adjusted in the messaging, but I think overall, I think it's just a question of referrals. So it's a time consuming process, but I expect it will help with the course itself and the marketing of the course, the future growth. And one final thought, it might be nice to have a community or a Facebook group or forum as part of the member suite.
And the member suite is what James and Layla call their paid program. That could be an attractive feature and would also help with those referrals, right? Because, you know, to be in the Facebook group or forum, you have to be part of the member suite. Anyway, lots of options there, but I think the key is finding more evangelists and ambassadors for this helpful program. So thank you for sharing.
The website is calmandconfidentbirth.net. Go check it out. See if there's something there that you like, or if you know somebody who might benefit from it, send them there, calmandconfidentbirth.net. If you have a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects.
All right, I'll be back again tomorrow. Be sure you're subscribed wherever you get your podcasts. It's completely free. We even have a premium pun package available at no extra charge. You know, it's free and there's no extra charge for the upgraded program.
All right, I'll stop now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
from the Onward Project.
