This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Why do online courses cost so much? Or is it that they cost so little? Everywhere you look there, online courses, you can sign up for courses on all sorts of topics. We have featured many course creators over at the long time archives of the podcast. And some of these courses cost 20 bucks, others cost $2,000 or more, and everything in between of course.
So why is there no consistency in pricing? And if you're out there thinking like, maybe I wanna make a course, maybe I wanna make some of this passive income where I have made the course and I can go to bed, wake up in the morning and see that there are sales notifications that have come in while I've been sleeping, which is a pretty great feeling, right? Like you've got your day job or whatever it is you do for money, but then there's also money coming in on the side. And that's what we're all about here with Side Hustle School, helping people create passive income or some other type of asset that is making your life better, right? I wanna make your life better.
So as we think about different courses or taking something that you know and documenting it, creating some sort of transformation effect for readers or viewers or however learners go through your course, how do you then decide what to price it? And why is there such a great range of prices in this world? How can you determine what your price should be? Now, that's a lot of questions, but I'll do my best in a short action-packed episode to give you a few helpful tips that will guide the process. We're gonna hear from a caller from Vancouver, Canada, and he's basically wondering like, why is there such a range and how do we figure this out?
Is there an easy way to make the decision? Detailed question from Larry and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Larry from Vancouver and I've followed the show for years. I've heard many case studies on the show about online courses. One thing I've noticed is that the pricing for these courses is all over the map.
Some costs $50 or $100, others are $1,000 or more. For example, you recently had someone who does voiceover work share their story in a failure Friday episode. I went to his site and he sells his courses for $3,000 plus a monthly fee to keep accessing them after a year. Part of me thinks that's outrageous and another part thinks that's ingenious. Why is there so little consistency in pricing all of these courses?
And how does someone decide what their price should be? Thanks, and looking forward to your response. [Music]
The interesting thing about this is in some ways you price something, whether it's a course or anything else, based on the audience you want to attract. And you will attract different people, different customers at different price points. Doesn't mean that there is complete flexibility.
Some courses probably should be on the lower end and other courses probably on the higher end. It depends a lot on what you're selling. If you are teaching people a complex investment strategy that's proven to work at a high rate of effectiveness, let's just say that actually exists. Well, it shouldn't be cheap. You know, if it's sold for $10, wouldn't you as a potential customer be skeptical?
Or consider a course, maybe this is more realistic, that allows you to be certified as a real estate agent in your area. Okay, well, such a thing has clear value. You're like, okay, if I take this course and I get this credential, which then allows me to access these particular listing details, allows me to represent buyers and sellers, et cetera. So wherever you have a clear value proposition, that is often a good connecting point to your potential price. If you are selling something that is more of a lifestyle experience, an exercise plan, you know, that's where it gets trickier because anything in the personal development world, there are courses for those things for free or for thousands of dollars.
And everything on YouTube is also your competitor as well. Even if you're like YouTube, why is that my competitor? Because that's where people go to learn. So you really need to think about the outcome you're delivering, not just the information, but the outcome you're creating for the learners who take the course. What is that value?
And as a general rule of thumb, I will say price a little bit higher than you think you should. That's my advice today. Good luck, Larry. Listeners, good luck. Always cheering you on, wishing you well.
If you have a question or a comment, sidehustleschool.com. You can also access our notes pages there for every episode, download or stream. More than nine years of episodes, in fact, all completely free. And of course, new episodes out every day. Thank you for being there.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
