Thread by @p_millerd

More people should experiment with offering their courses in the spirit of a gift economy

When I first launched my consulting skills course I used a link people could click to ask for a free link.

Problem? Zero people actually used/took the course.

Heres how I made it better

I always want to be able to offer everything I'm doing through spirit of the gift economy. I highly recommend people try this.

Will you sacrifice revenue? Maybe. Will you connect with amazing motivated people around the world? Definitely.

Here's my positioning

After inspiration from people like @ceisenstein who offered his living in the gift course as a gift and used an onboarding survey, I decided to try the same and combined with with @andrewjtaggart gift exercise he has used with people

Full exercise: airtable.com/shrusiOFsDyimd…

Outcomes of this? 98% of people offer some sort of gift and it enables me to get to know their motivations from the start.

Sometimes people detail financial distress and I'll send them a free link but then reply back that they'd still like to offer $5 if possible.

With online courses the truth is that completion rates increase both as the price increases and as you offer more structure and a personal touch (either through cohort or one-on-one engagement). The problem is that the price of optimal completion varies widely globally.

I think scholarships for high price course are fine but I'd love to see some people offer more ambitious gift policies. There are many great people we might be leaving behind.

You'll be surprised how few people take advantage of things if you communicate with care and honesty.

I've increased my course from $199 to $429 for the basic version now and have had about 236 gift requests. I'd say 60% of people follow through after I send them a coupon for the course.

Average gift "offer": $106.46

If you want to check out more how this is structured or are interested in the course I'm always open to feedback

learn.strategyu.co