Q&A: What separates a $30 course from a $1,000 course?

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Some online courses cost $30, maybe even less. Others cost $1,000 or probably even more. What is the difference between a lower price course and a higher priced one? Are the more expensive ones just better, quote unquote, better, or is there more to the story? That is what today's caller wants to know and welcome, by the way, to Side Hustle School, the only daily podcast for more than 1700 days, bringing you case studies, stories, tips, action-packed ideas you can use to make more money, create more freedom for yourself, more security, all good things.

So when it comes to pricing, we're gonna talk about this today, you could ask this question about a lot of things, not just an online course. What separates $100,000 car from a $30,000 car? Is that $100,000 car $70,000 better? Well, presumably something is better. Like it's not all smoke and mirrors, but there's also an element of perceived value.

And I would argue that that's pretty much always true. So let's talk about it in this question, what separates a $30 course from a $1,000 course, listener question, and my answer is coming right up. [Music]

Hi, Chris, this is Samantha from Scottsdale. And I've noticed you've been sharing a lot of examples of online courses lately. And some of them have been really profitable.

You also talked about how the price ranges a great deal. Some of them are only 20 or $30, and then some are as like $1,000. So what separates a very inexpensive course from a much more premium one? Like I assume there are a lot of factors and it might not be a simple answer, but wouldn't it be better for course creators to always aim for the high end? Or is this the thinking that they'll sell to more people with an inexpensive price?

Thanks, Chris, bye. [Music]

Hey, Samantha, this is an excellent question. Thank you for raising it. I actually meant to provide some more kind of, behind the scenes about the recent course I released, which was I just sold it for $30. It's called Idea to Income.

You can find it at courses.SotaSoleSchool.com if you'd like it, or if you'd like to know more. But I wanted to price it really low because I wanted it to be really simple, very simple course with a clear objective and also just a clear end process for me. In the past, I have built more extensive courses that had forums, live calls, lots of follow-up materials. Well, you don't get that for $30. So what separates a $30 course from a $1,000 course?

Generally speaking, I would expect a $1,000 course to have a lot more depth than a low price course. But it's also true that some of this is a matter of positioning or perceived value, as I said. So we have looked, some of these online courses we've looked at, they are in the field of continuing education. So imagine a course that helps medical professionals or accountants or whatever the field is. Imagine a course that helps these professionals earn continuing education credits, which are required for their professional license and so on.

Well, many of them would be skeptical if that course were sold for only $30. Like a good continuing ed course has a lot of value for them. And besides, they're used to paying more, okay? So that's where the perceived value comes in. So in some ways, as to the point of like, isn't it better for course creators to always aim for the high end?

Well, more money is better than less, but it is true that the higher the price, usually you're going to sell it to a fewer number of people. There could be some exceptions to that. Then also the other key point is a $1,000 course or a high end course, whatever the number might be, it's all relative. Generally, it's gonna provide a more immersive experience for the learner, those forums, those live calls, additional modules or materials, whatever it is. So that's also going to be a lot more work for the creator.

So to come full circle with the one I did recently with text messaging, I just wanted it to be simple. And I didn't want to have a lot of followup work that I had to do. I wanted to put it together and have it be done. So those are the general pros and cons. The more expensive course is going to have more materials, be more in depth, require more of a commitment from you, hopefully provide more for the learner, but there's also this big element of subjectivity and perceived value to it as well.

Hope that is helpful. Let us know what kind of course you make and listeners, if you're making a course, let me know. If you got questions about it, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions or if you just want to tell me about it. We will share many of them with our amazing community through this ongoing daily series. And thank you for tuning in today.

Speaking of, you can subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.