Why pricing is important
As an online teacher, it’s important to think about pricing for your courses. Many factors go into setting the price for your course, including the length and complexity of the course, the number of students you’re teaching, the number of hours you’re teaching, the materials you are using, and the amount of people teaching the course with you.
Pricing is important because it can affect how many students enroll in your course and how much money you make. If you charge too little, you may not make enough money to cover your costs. If you charge too much, you may price yourself out of the market.
The best way to find a good price for your course is to talk to other online teachers and see what they’re charging for similar courses. You can also look at online courses that are similar to yours and see what their prices are. We’ve provided some useful information below on how to price your online course.
What to consider when pricing your course
When it comes to pricing your online teaching course, there are a few things you need to take into account.
- First and foremost, what is the value of your course? What are people willing to pay for it?
- Secondly, what are your costs? Make sure to factor in the time it takes you to create and deliver the course, as well as any materials or software you need. You may be able to cut down on time by pre-recording content and reusing it in the future.
- Finally, what is the market for your course? Research other courses like yours to see what they cost and how they’re priced. With all of this information in mind, you can start to price your course in a way that meets your needs and those of your students.
The different types of pricing models
On Wilder Paradigm we focus on a pay-per-course model, where students purchase each course individually. Educators can choose to give students lifetime access or a limited time access giving students access to the course only while it’s being taught, or for a limited time after the teaching period.
To decide which model is better for you it’s important to look at a few factors.
- Will giving lifetime access limit the amount of classes you can run?
- If you only give limited time access will some people not be able to get through the whole course?
- Will your sales be dramatically different with one of the models? Note: Lifetime access can sell for more expensive.
But what about the price?
This is totally up to you, but if it’s not selling then being $100 or $500 won’t really matter! First and foremost, let’s think about what your sales goals are around the course. You need to consider how much time you’ve spent creating the course, and if you will need to spend more time with students while the course is running or if it runs itself. If you have spent months developing your course, or give people group live sessions then you need to charge accordingly. Try to define an hourly wage for yourself and break down how many hours are required for you to do one course. Be sure to add 10%-25% for taxes, fees and unexpected expenses so you’re not working with no margin. It’s also good to add an additional 10-25% to have the ‘full price’ a bit higher, but margin to run discounts and promotions. If you’re looking for a high quantity of buyers try to stick to a lower price (Under $100 triggers a different decision process in consumers than the $100+ courses). Moreover, if you’re looking for quality with a focused target audience and don’t need the ‘power in numbers’ approach you can start on the higher end.
You also need to think about what sort of audience you are catering for. If your courses are aimed at beginners, then you can’t charge as much as if they were aimed at advanced/mature students. It is also important to consider what sort of competition there is out there. If there are already a lot of courses available on the same subject matter, then you will need to price yours competitively in order to attract students.
Let’s Sum It Up!
As the world of online education rapidly expands, many educators are left wondering what the best price is for their courses. While there is no one answer that fits all cases, there are a few things to keep in mind when pricing your online education course.
- The first thing to consider is what your course is worth. This means taking into account the time and effort you put into creating the course, as well as any associated costs (such as hosting fees). Once you have an idea of how much your course is worth, you can start to think about how to price it in a way that meets your needs.
- Will you be giving lifetime or limited time access (lifetime can be higher, while limited time a bit lower)
- Scope out the competition – for your first course you don’t want to be the highest on the market with no brand awareness. If possible, offer an under $100 course to bring people in, gather testimonials, and then you can build up to the higher price points.
- Think of your target audience and if they would be able to afford your course.
If you come to the conclusion that your course should be higher than the competition, or higher than your target audience could afford, consider making larger class sizes, decreasing the amount of time it runs for, or perhaps making it a limited time course, then having proceeding courses to create continuous cash flow.
At the end of the day, testing your price, or getting feedback from the community can be another way to lock it in!
Create a survey – pass it along to us and we can survey our audiences, while you do the same. Send it out to your target audience and gather information right from them on what they would pay. Once you pick a price, play around with promotions in the beginning to find the sweet spot of highest sales to price ratios.
Don’t let price be the thing that keeps you from launching – launch your course and test the price then the rest will fall into place! The only thing worse than launching at the wrong price, is never launching at all! So let’s see those courses.