Video testimonials: they usually fail to move me, I want to see content, not people saying what the content did for them.

Free stuff: precisely, in most places you will get *more* when you pay. I think you have the right of it there. Beware of not overestimating the bottleneck though. I always find it illuminating to think about how much I earn per hour, it makes the cost of some things very tangible. Of course, it’s not always possible to trade money for time (working less), but over the long term it is.

Tools: Yes, I agree they can be seem as a form of behavior change, in a way.

Exercises: the point is not to make the exercises hard on purpose, but rather to make the student learn something. If deploying the skill in practice is hard, then the exercise should be hard. I tend to give the students all the pieces they need to figure out for themselves, and them let them do just that — so that when they are faced with a similar challenge in the future they can follow the same pattern.

Engagement: you’re not wrong.

Tiny and exclusive: idem.

Supporting our work: I see many examples where it works, mostly “youtubers”. But I think you need a certain volume. I would only “support the work” of someone whose work I really like and that really needs it (of course if everyone thinks like that you can never make a living…).