There are many course and product creators out there who like to give away the first round of their course or product for free.
The premise behind this is to get the product or course into the hands of some of your ideal clients so that you can get feedback and testimonials on it.
I understand this.
But should you really offer your course or product for free?
How many free things do you have on your computer just collecting dust?
You sign up and download the free thing because it can help you.
But you never get the chance to actually go through it. There’s so much information there and you only have so much time.
Then a week goes by and you completely forget about that freebie that you downloaded last week. But you just found something else, and alas, you start the whole process all over again.
It works the same way when you do this with your course or product.
The people who are volunteering are doing so, mainly because it’s free.
They are people who don’t like to invest much, so they always jump on the wagon when someone is offering something for free, especially when it’s going to be a paid item.
They will get your course or product, skim through it, and then forget about it.
You’ll follow up asking if they need any assistance and when you can expect feedback and their testimonial.
“Oh! I totally forgot about that. Let me go work on it now.”
And you still don’t hear anything back from them after that.
People don’t value free.
Free isn’t going to make many people do the work to make a change in their life or business.
Put a price on your course or product.
If you really want to get feedback and testimonials before you put your course or product out into the world, still charge for it.
You can offer a 50% discount for those who sign up to the first version of your course.
People will do the work and complete the course more often if they have paid for it.
But there are statistics out there that less than 10% of the people who buy courses actually complete them.
I see 2 other options
1. Just put your course or product on the market and sell it.
You don’t always need to have testimonials for people that completed the course before you can sell it.
Just get out there and start selling it.
Prove to your potential buyers what is going to change when they buy and complete this course or product. You can do that without testimonials.
2. Teach the course live.
Not only will you usually get more students who participate in the course this way, you’ll get immediate feedback from your students because you can ask questions while you are teaching.
You can also make sure the lessons are tailored to your students that are taking the course.
People tend to value live time with the creator more than anything. They get to ask questions and have them answered in almost real time.
And at the same time, you get to make sure what you are teaching is understood and it’s what your students want.
Are you going to charge for your next new course or product?
The next time you create a course or product, are you going to charge for it? Or are you just going to keep asking for volunteers to give you feedback and testimonials?
It really does help you and your business more when you just start charging from the beginning.
You already offer a lot of free content just posting blog posts and videos and your social media content.
