Video Course Survey Results

Video Course Survey Results

Last week I published a survey asking what video course I should publish here first. I sent this survey to my email subscribers, Facebook and Twitter followers, and promoted it to the general public.

The results are in and the winner is…”Sell Digital Products (ebooks, printables, images, etc.)”

Click the image below to see the ranking of all the video course suggestions.

Video Course Survey Results

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Knowing what to create is great information to have

Before I started building this site I knew I was going to create full video courses. The plan was always for these courses to dive deeper into individual subjects, plugins, or services than the video tutorials for my blog posts do.

I started mapping course outlines and as you might assume, planning and executing a worthwhile video course takes time. Lots of time.

In order to ensure I was spending my time wisely, I took a step back from planning and decided to run this survey. The idea being that I would be put on the proper path by you, my valued readers and members.

How I created this survey

If you took the survey, you probably noticed the cool drag and drop feature for reordering the choices. If you haven’t yet, go here to see how it works.

Many people have already asked how I made that survey. I didn’t use a survey service. I created that survey using the Gravity Forms plugin with the Survey addon.

Gravity Forms is great for any form you need to create or for creating special use case forms like the survey. If you’re a regular reader, you may recall this tutorial on how I collect guest post submissions and have them automatically formatted as blog posts.

If you’ve been thinking about creating more advanced form-based features for your own site, Gravity Forms is worth a look.

The next decision to make…free or paid?

Free or Paid WordPress Courses

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I don’t know yet.

I’ve gone back and forth with this question and the truth is that I’m just not sure which way to go.

On one hand, this course is going to take a great deal of my time to create. Time that I could be charging hourly elsewhere in my business. If I do charge for this course, it will be included in a new member level subscription package. Because this site is still new, I don’t have any content that’s exclusive to members except the forums (which I’ll be posting about soon).

So, does access to one video course make financial sense to my visitors? It might, especially if I price it very competitively and then add more member only content on a regular schedule.

One problem that could occur is that I promise more member-only content and then I get sidetracked and don’t post any additional courses for awhile. That wouldn’t be fair to paying members and I don’t want to run that kind of business.

On the other hand, making this course freely available adds more value. And providing real value to your followers is the first step in establishing my Authority as a resource for showing WordPress users how to enhance and monetize their blogging businesses.

In short, deciding when and where to monetize your blog content is sometimes hard (for me).

I’m hoping to finish this course and make it available by next week. Of course, I’ll be writing a post about it when that happens but if you could take a few moments and share your opinion on pricing in the comments, I’m happy to receive your feedback.

Please note: The course will detail the use of a specific digital downloads plugin I currently use myself. It’s free with dozens of available paid addons as options.

The course contains 20 videos, broken into easy to understand sections and will total between one and half and two hours.

 

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7 Comments

  1. Kaley on January 8, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    I think since this is your first course, pricing it free or near free (maybe they have to do some sort of sharing, following commitment or a couple bucks) may be in your best interest. I think it’s hard for people to part with money on a course if there is no proven record of them every being successful!

    • Adam W. Warner on January 8, 2016 at 6:23 pm

      Hey Kaley,

      Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it.

      This is the first course on this site, but I also have several available elsewhere. But that doesn’t really matter to new visitors here does it? They have no way to measure my previous successes (unless I specifically point them out I guess).

      I’ve been giving this a fair amount of thought today and I’m mostly decided on not charging at all.

      However, since I do have the free membership already available, and people are taking advantage of that and subscribing every day already, I’ll probably make this course available to free members.

      At least that’s the line of thinking right now.

      Also, I checked out your site and it’s very interesting. And you’re just two hours away from me in Sarasota;)

      Thanks again for joining the conversation and I wish you the best with your endeavors!

  2. Amanda on January 8, 2016 at 9:31 pm

    I agree that as “your authority” 😉 is not yet established, that maybe your first course should be free. When I first started blogging I would only take free or next to free ecourses/ebooks/etc. But now, there are bloggers that I have followed and enjoyed for a long time that offer these services for a price, and because I trust and follow them, I am willing to pay their prices. I don’t think I would ever buy a course from a complete stranger. Just my thoughts. 🙂

    • Adam W. Warner on January 8, 2016 at 10:12 pm

      Good feedback Amanda. I think my choice is clear.

      I hope you’re following along and giving me a chance to prove my “Authority” to you too:)

  3. Meredith on January 9, 2016 at 10:04 am

    What is you did a test group, first. Using your subscribers, and asking them to blog about their experience and how it benefitted them. I know that I am more likely to pay for something if it has stellar reviews and proven results! I am hoping to make the jump to wordpress, soon. Good luck!

  4. candy on January 9, 2016 at 10:06 am

    So many free videos out there, going free would be the best. Choice is always yours. Videos are so popular now your going in correct direction. Best of luck.

  5. Misty Eilar on January 9, 2016 at 10:10 am

    i think because you are starting out on this blog, it should be free to help build up your loyal viewers. Then when you have posted a few you can make them paid and once in awhile give a free one.

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