How much should I give away for free?
The answer: everything.
When we first created The Side Project Accelerator, I was afraid that if we gave away too much of our material for free, then people wouldn’t sign up for the paid program.
This is the biggest rookie mistake in the book.
Rather than hiding most of our valuable content behind a members-only paywall, we should be giving it away for free and getting it into the hands of as many people as possible. This may sound farfetched and suicidal for the business, but allow me to explain.
Almost half a year in, and one successful batch down, I realized that we’re not actually selling the lessons. The real value someone gets by joining The Side Project Accelerator is that they will actually get their shit done. Throughout the program they find and grow their audiences, build their personal brands, and develop sustainable routines that allow them to continue to work on their side projects long after the program ends. This is because of the help, motivation and accountability that they get from the other members, from the experts we bring in, and from Sagi Shrieber and me.
The lessons are excellent, and in them we share everything that we learned while growing Hacking UI, including our failures and our biggest mistakes. But that doesn’t mean that we need to hide this material from people because if they get it, then they won’t need to join. On the contrary. I believe that when people get access to it, they start to realize the possibilities of what they can do, and get a taste of the potential of their side project.
Once they get that taste, the next step is to want to execute it. In order to do it well, there’s just no better way than working through each lesson, and making every decision with the additional knowledge and experience of 50 like-minded entrepreneurs.
So we’re starting to do this now with The Side Project Accelerator. We are running live webinars, where we teach large portions of the lessons from the program, and then answer questions from the participants.
Not only is this a wise business move, as we‘ve collected more than 600 highly qualified leads in just the past week, but it also democratizes this valuable information. We know that The Side Project Accelerator is too pricey for a lot of people, but through these webinars we can make sure everyone, regardless of their budget, has access to this material and has a chance to start pursuing their own creative and financial freedom.
The reason that we started The Side Project Accelerator is because we wanted to help people. We were able to scale our own side project to the point that it allowed us to quit out jobs, work on our own terms, and pursue our dreams. We want to help as many people as possible do that too.
This just so happens to be the best decision for the business too.
Our next free webinar is on Wednesday, October 26 and it’s about how to start building your personal brand.
David Tintner is the co-founder of Hacking UI, and the co-creator of The Side Project Accelerator. He’s also in the middle of a 30-day writing challenge, and this is article #18. If you enjoyed this article hit that 💚 to let him know that he should write more.
