How to Price Your Course
Apr 30, 2025
Someone on my Youtube channel asked: “I need help on how much to charge.”
In this post I will give you four steps to pricing your course.
First, price your course higher than you instinctively think it should be.
Underpricing = biggest mistake
You cannot afford to be the cheapest course on the market.
Going cheap will cost you more than it will make you.
“Why?”
Because the number one thing that attracts difficult clients is an under-priced product.
The reverse is also true. A higher price creates more perceived value, drawing clients who are looking for high value instead of the best flea market bargain.
Today I met with an applicant for Craftsmen and he told me he plans on charging $250 for his course.
And I said, “So you are going to give 20 years of compiling high value data in this particular sport you want to teach, and give it away for $250? Not only is that unfair to you, but you will end up with some very high-maintenance clients.”
And he said, “You know what Seth? You’re right. As a renovation contractor, the most difficult clients are the $75 jobs who pick at everything.”
My favorite example of this is Apple products. The very fact that they are priced higher than many of their competitors puts them in a class on their own. Even their retail packaging creates so much perceived value that customers find it difficult to throw the box away.
Take Amazon, for example. Most people think Amazon’s chief value is offering the lowest price possible.
But In March 2024, 48% of surveyed U.S. respondents said that free shipping was their main reason for shopping on Amazon.
In spite of Jeff Bezos’ flywheel model that drives prices down, Amazon sellers charge so much more on Amazon than other places like WalMart.com that multi-million dollar arbitrage companies are built off the model of buying from WalMart.com and selling on Amazon.com for a profit.
The temptation to believe that if you just lower your price then you’ll get the sale is strong. But most of the time it’s a lie. Instead of landing you MORE clients, it will land you high-maintenance clients.
And even worse, some of the very best clients won’t even consider buying your course because of perceived value. “He’s selling his course for $250 bucks? It must be really low quality.”
Second, your end goal is not more clients but more revenue and lasting impact.
Which scenario would you prefer?
2,000 clients who pay you $500 each? Or 100 clients who pay you $10,000 each?
Both end up with the same revenue: $1,000,000.
(By the way this is not a fake scenario. You CAN do this. I did course sales greater than this multiple years in a row and I teach the Craftsmen in my cohort how to do the same.)
But which would you pick?
Do you believe you could help 100 people more effectively or 1,000?
Of course having more clients means your overhead costs will go up far more than having only 100 even though your revenue is the same in both scenarios.
And wouldn’t it be nice to be free to pick whoever you want to work with versus desperately trying to close every possible prospect because the pay is so low?
If you chose the 100 clients, you are wise.
Third, the more niched down you are, the more you can charge.
By niched down I mean a very specific category of clients and topic.
For example, if you sell a course on how to sell, you could probably only charge $50 for it.
But if you sell a course on how to sell HR software you could charge around $500 for it.
What if you sell a course on how to sell HR software to C suite employees? You could charge at least $3000 for it.
Let’s go one step further. You offer a course that teaches how to sell HR software to C Suite employees in the medical industry. Price $15-$20,000.
What just happened?
Two things:
The more niched down you went, the less competition you had until it was a blue ocean market. If no one else is selling it, you get to charge a whole lot more.
But also, when a sales manager who works for a company that makes HR software sees your training, he’s going to say, “That’s exactly what my sales team needs! There’s nothing like this on the market.”
Scarcity increases value. And increased value = increased prices.
Fourth, test your pricing.
No matter how much entrepreneurial experience someone has, you don’t know until you test. The market never lies.
Online courses usually go from $1,000 to $50,000.
But if people will only pay $500 for your course then you either failed to niche down enough or your niche has low demand.
The solution is NOT To lower your price. That’s making a huge assumption and it lowers your brand value.
Find out why.
“But Seth, how do I test my pricing?”
This is a general rule of thumb. Start at $1,000 and go up $500 every sale.
Once your sales slow down, that does not mean stop going up.
Stop going up when your revenue does not go up for charging more.
Get it?
For example, if you can sell 10 courses a week for $1,000, that $10,000 a week in revenue.
But if when you raise your price to $1,500 you only sell 7 courses/week, that’s fewer sale but $10,500 in revenue.
Your revenue just went up by $500. So selling at a higher price means
Fewer clients to help
Greater revenue for your company
Higher likely of successful results for your clients = more great reviews = more growth = you can charge even more
"Okay, great, Seth but what about monthly pricing?"
First, let me recap:
Price your course higher than you instinctively think it should be.
Your end goal is not more clients but more revenue and lasting impact.
The more niched down you are, the more you can charge.
Test your pricing and keep going up until your revenue caps out
Monthly versus one time fees
Even if you charge a one time fee up front, do not offer an indefinite community of value where people do not pay regularly for it. If you do this, every day your pay goes down as you give more and more time and value without anything in return. A laborer is worthy of his wages.
But there is also a time where you only charge a monthly fee and no upfront fee.
If your course topic is a lifestyle, daily kind of topic, then charge monthly instead of upfront.
For example,
how to build a morning routine that actually sticks
mastering focus in a distracted world
confidence & charisma for everyday life
journaling for mental clarity
breaking bad habits without willpower
minimalist living: declutter your home & mind
the art of meal prepping for busy families
cleaning hacks for a low-stress life
natural remedies for everyday ailments
gut health 101: reset your system naturally
diy skincare with clean ingredients
communication skills for couples
how to set boundaries without guilt
budgeting for people who hate spreadsheets
how to live well on less
digital minimalism: reclaiming time & sanity
Don’t undercut yourself
In 2017, scientists at the University of Bonn conducted an experiment with 15 men and 15 women. Each participant was asked to taste three different wines and then rate how good each wine tasted to them. The participants were shown the price of each wine before tasting them: 3 €, 6 €, and 18 €.
But unbeknown to the participants, all three wines were the same wine. Not only did the participants rate the 18 € wine as tasting the best, but each participant was hooked up to an MRI scanner that records brain activity. The scientists discovered that the brain activity both in the medial prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum were activated more when the wine prices were higher.
The study concluded, “Identical wine leads to a better taste experience when a greater quality expectation is associated with the wine due to its price.”
Perception is so powerful that the brain's reward and motivation system is engaged more intensely from the influence of a higher price tag!
Don’t undercut yourself. Take the time to build a badass course and the future will reward you for it!