One of the most common mistakes you can make as a first-time course creator is to charge too little for it.

You’re worried that nobody has heard of you before. You don’t have any track record, reviews, or history. You’re not sure you’re ‘expert enough’ and you feel like a bit of an imposter!

To counteract this fear, you decide to lower the price barrier and make your course as cheap as possible, hoping that will get you the sales you want.

I completely understand this temptation, but you must resist it.
Because If there is one rule in pricing it is this:

Never undervalue yourself.

You must have faith in the course you have worked hard to put together.

It will deliver real benefits to the person who follows it, whether they have heard of you or not.

Setting the price too low sends a message to those potential customers that you’re not as good as the competition and that you don’t have faith in your own product.

As a result, a lot of people who should buy your course may mistakenly avoid it, or buy it with nagging doubts that it’s too cheap and won’t help them much.

What you might also get from your super low price is a flurry of bargain hunters and tyre kickers who don’t have the commitment or respect for your course that you would like.

These people can be extremely hard work and many of them will refund.

So I’d urge you to override that feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’ that you might have as a first-timer.

It doesn’t matter if you are new to the online course market. You have created a course that justifies a good price – one that benefits you and your customers.

And the price you decide can make a big difference to your potential profits.

Just look at the table below showing potential gross sales figures based on price (hint – it is not 10x as hard to sell a £1997 course as a £197 one…yet look at the difference in the potential returns!)

Based on sales of 10 courses per month:

Based on sales of 100 courses per month:

So how do you decide what you should charge?

Instead of guessing, or basing your price on emotional factors, I recommend you consider these seven factors to work out your price (I go indepth on these in my Course Creation Academy but this should get you started).

• FACTOR ONE: Find out what your competitors are charging

Do your research and have a look at what your competitors are charging for their courses. Make sure you understand what they are covering for that price, their offers, including the guarantees and the way in which they frame their price. Do not include Udemy in your calculations. We aren’t competing with the ‘pile ‘em high market!

• FACTOR TWO: What level of interaction will you have with your customer?

It’s also important to take into the level of interaction you’re going to have with your customers.Examples of interaction include email consultancy (they can ask and get advice via email), communicating through caching calls, videos and webinars, running a Facebook Group, sending email updates, or offering one-to-one coaching.A course might have all of these or just one or two – and this will influence what the price should be.The rule being: the higher the levels of interaction with customers, the higher the value of the service, therefore the higher the price should be.

• FACTOR THREE: what is the cost benefit worth to your customer?

Your course is something that will deliver a benefit to your customer. Depending on your niche it might do any number of things including help them save money, make money or save time.So when you come up with a price, consider what your customer can make or save following your advice, then price it accordingly (I realise some benefis are difficult to put a value on so if you are unsure please let me know)

• FACTOR FOUR: the scale and scope of the course.

Some courses might look at just one step in a larger process, or cover one sub-topic of a larger subject, while others might cover a whole process or a series of topics. Which one you choose will influence the price (I’ll go through examples of course types in a future article).

• FACTOR FIVE: What you are already charging

If you already charge for your services as a coach or trainer, whether it’s a consultation, course, presentation or live event, then bear that in mind when it comes to pricing. You won’t be charging the same as they won’t be getting one to one access but make sure you don’t undervalue your consultancy charge by offering a very cheap course!

• FACTOR SIX: Your Results and Proof

The more credible your system or process is, the more you can charge. So factor in anything that proves the benefits of what you are offering. These include:

• Testimonials from clients and customers
• Real life case studies and examples
• Results (charts, tables and statistics)
• Profits and earnings
• Coverage in the media
• Awards

• FACTOR SEVEN: Decide your income goals

Remember that you are creating this course with the aim of earning an income.

Which means you need to know the minimum price and sales volume that will help you achieve this goal.

For example, let’s say you’d like to make £50,000 over the next 12 months. To do that, if you price your course at £9, you are going to have to sell at least 500 of them to hit your target.

However, if you priced your course at £997 you’d only have to sell 50 courses over a year to achieve your income goal.

If you find that your price point will not get you to your income goals go back to factor two – is there a higher level of interaction you can offer that will allow you to push up your course price.

A final piece of advice

While pricing is important, don’t panic that you might get it wrong first time round.

Remember that the price is not set in stone. It can be changed.

And of course, it’s perfectly fine to test prices as you go along. That means trying a higher or lower price and seeing what kind of results you get in terms of upfront sales and refunds.

I have a full training on how to price your course in my Course Creation Academy so if you’d like to find out about how you can take part just email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the details.

And whatever you do don’t get stuck on price! Even if you get the price wrong to start with at least you’ve learned something and you can fix it!

If you are stuck in the decision making mode you won’t ever start selling your course (and profiting from it).