How Much Free Content is TOO MUCH on YouTube?

A question I get asked all the time as someone who sells courses is, Lauren, how much content should I put on YouTube if I'm trying to sell a course? Won't people not buy my course if I'm putting free content on YouTube? We're going to talk about that in detail here.

So let me fill you guys in on a little secret that you may not know. When I first started on YouTube uploading guitar lessons in 2017, a lot of the first videos I uploaded were actually my course. Almost my entire guitar course was, was on YouTube for absolutely free. And if anyone wanted to go and just watch the YouTube videos, they essentially would have watched 80% of my course. Which is pretty crazy, right? Because I didn't know any better. I was like, hey, I already recorded this course content and I got to put content on YouTube. Well, why don't I just upload the course to YouTube? Now you're probably like, Lauren, okay, so you had all your course materials on YouTube. Did anyone even buy your course? And the answer is yes, because, you know, I always tell people, don't be afraid to put stuff on YouTube because the whole goal of YouTube is that you need to help people, you need to help your clients have wins. And if you can do that, it's called the law of reciprocity. So if you help someone, they want to help you, and if they know you have a course, they're going to buy it from you. Okay? Because you're going to help them solving a problem. And, and if you have a course, well, you can help them solve multiple problems. And I always tell clients, you know, when I'm doing consulting work, what stuff can you put on YouTube? And then what can you elaborate on in the course? So a lot of my practice stuff, a lot of my application stuff is not here on YouTube. You're only going to find that in the course. The other thing is my course comes with a big PDF workbook of all the printouts of the strumming patterns, the picking patterns, the stuff that people really want. I don't really give out PDFs and downloads on YouTube. So that is something that is super valuable to my student. So think about things that will add value when someone buys a course. For example, I have a private community where I interact with my students. I answer their questions and we have other clients who are there supporting them and motivating them. Build something off of YouTube that is valuable to, to your students. Alright? The rule of thumb for YouTube is this is your lead generation. This is where you find people. This is where you reach out to people, connect with them, help them. I am helping you right now, okay? You help them, help them solve a problem and then tell them, hey, if you need more help with this specific problem, I go into way more detail in my course over here. Go in the description below. Click on my course and I'd be more than happy to help you solve and finally be able to make your dream come true or solve your problem, whatever it is. So don't be afraid to give things away for free on YouTube because that is what's going to make people like you. That is what's going to make people want to buy something for you. So even though my entire course, almost the entire course catalog was here on YouTube and I've gone and redone it and expanded it and built upon it, so there's way more in the course than there is on YouTube now. So make sure your course has something more to offer outside of YouTube. Remember, people want to interact with you, the creator, give them an experience they can't get here on YouTube. All right, maybe that's a membership platform where you do a Q and A monthly with clients. That's super valuable. All right, if you're not doing lives here on YouTube, doing a Q and A once a month with clients to answer their questions is highly valuable. Can you offer a workbook, a PDF, something where they can write down answers and help them step by step getting their goals? All right, YouTube. There's stuff popping up everywhere, all over. Go watch this video. We recommend this video suggested there's a lot of information on YouTube and that can be overwhelming. If you offer a step by step plan or structure for the people that are watching your videos. People want the blueprint, they want the shortcut. Alright? So if you're feeling frustrated, this is what you tell your clients. Hey, if you're feeling frustrated with all this information you're being Bombarded with on YouTube, go check out my course in the description below where I go through, step by step, how to go from A to B. And don't forget that students want to support you if you've helped them. I've had students reach out to me who have bought my course. They have emailed me and said I didn't really need your course, but you have helped me so much that I went and bought it anyway. All right? That's how much you should be helping people here on YouTube. So don't be afraid. You're like, oh, I'm giving out all my best stuff secrets on YouTube. That's okay, put those best secrets on YouTube and also put them in your course, but expand upon them, take them to the next level in YouTube. Okay. I always tell students in my guitar course stuff, you know, I have a lot of beginner, late beginner, and early intermediate stuff here on YouTube. I don't have a lot of my more intermediate and advanced stuff here on YouTube. It's all in the courses. You can only get that stuff in the courses. You can only get me in the courses. You could only get my workbooks and my tips and my tricks, how to practice step by step, how to go from A to B, what the goal of this exercise is that's only found in the course that's not found on YouTube. I'll give you a little quick tip, little interesting point, and then I'll say, hey, if you really, really like that strumming pattern, well, guess what? I have an entire course on strumming. You guys can click the link in the description below and I go through over 50, 50 different strumming patterns that you guys can use in song. So you can see how that might be interesting for someone who's trying to learn guitar on YouTube to say, hey, I'm really having problem with strumming. I should just go over and do Lauren's strumming course and I can solve this problem entirely. So if you guys feel like this video was helpful and you got some value out of it, then I would highly recommend that you go in the description below and check out my YouTube jumpstart course. It's a 30 day jumpstart, but it shows you lots of valuable tips and tricks on what to be focusing on when you're just getting started on YouTube. Maybe you're under a thousand subscribers or you've just crossed that thousand subscriber mark. What do you need to focus on as a small YouTuber? I go over that in detail at my course, scroll down to the description below, click on the link, and I hope to see you guys in that course.