Teaching how to use my website builder for free instead of selling it or creating a SAAS. A good idea?
A one time payment for a course that teaches anyone to create any number of 100% free websites. No subscription. Free hosting. And a super performant static website to handle practically any use case from a simple personal website or blog to an e-commerce or business website.
I would offer a video course explaining all the technicalities in simple steps and talking about good practices of the web in multiple areas like design, proper markup, SEO, ... I would demonstrate multiple use cases with advanced ones like e-commerce.
I am currently thinking of a price tag around 350€ for lifetime access to the course, including updates (for new content or when I improve the software and introduce new features).
Just writing about it I can't see how anyone would hesitate for a second...
But obviously I am biased...
So I would really appreciate feedback from iHackers who have experience creating courses and all the difficulties it bring.
Also, I am not 100% clear on who is my target audience. If you feel it would be for you or know someone who could, I would greatly appreciate knowing why. What are the most compelling arguments in your opinion.
Any feedback is more than welcome.
I run https://versoly.com/ and even technical customers struggle with basic things.
Teaching them how to edit a static site, get it hosted and do DNS sounds very hard.
"the most compelling arguments in your opinion." focus on finding out if people actual have a problem with current solutions and are they googling for your "solution"
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have discovered Versoly a few months back thanks to some of your answers. We are often interested in the same topics. ;)
That is awesome to see more solutions rising to build static sites!
We are definitely targeting a different audience. I think a lot of people are interested in finding a "hacky" way of building websites for free. They are willing to invest time more than money. They will never spend 30 or even 15$/month for a website and they will struggle setting up and maintaining a WordPress instead.
Among these people, some probably won't invest 300$ on a course either. But I think some will. I am just not sure how to reach them yet.
Looking more into google search queries is a great idea. I haven't been doing it thoroughly yet. I was hoping for more insights from other iHackers to begin with.
Good luck with Versoly. You seem to be on the right track!
Have you talked to a real potential customer yet? Often times, we know they exist but not in the way we would like them to be.
BTW, I find it hard to find and talk to real users, too. It's just not an easy problem.
Sure, I've talked with a few people who are interested but it is difficult to evaluate the potential reach.
Anyway, I have decided to create a mailing list and if enough people are interested I will create a free course first with all the common use cases covered.
Then I will see from there how to get paid for all that work. ;)
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
(Oh I missed the notification for your answer somehow... thanks for the reply)
Hosting, yes, but not building.
What I mean is I'd want my course to be an alternative to SAAS website builders. I am not an alternative to hosting.
I can teach people how to build free websites for life with no-code. I believe this has value.
What I definitely get from your comment is that marketing might be the hard part because people are not familiar with all the intricacies of creating a website and all the different ways to do it.
@Wessel I see you are a developer making courses. Are you teaching to "common folks" or only to developers?