The Art of the Paid Consumer Model

I've spent four years growing Paperless Post, a paid consumer service online that has delivered about 70M online invitations to about about 30M unique recipients since it launched in April 2009 - all with no ads. Along the way, I've learned what I believe to be a number of valuable insights worth sharing. 

This is an online class perfect for anyone interesting in learning about monetizing products for consumers. You'll leave this class with an understanding of where to start to figure out the right business model and cost structure for a product you've created or want to create. If you have an early stage startup, an idea for one,  or are just curious about the topic, you're an ideal candidate to enroll! 

In this class, I'll cover topics including the following: 

• How to price according to what matters to your customers, rather than cost-based pricing
• Determing a model that is internally logical to your customers
• The difference between why people use your product vs. why they pay for it

This class is project-based: 

You can't decide on a pricing model until you've tested it with your potential customers. If they like your model, they'll buy it if they don't they won't.

Because of the variety of different offerings you may be considering, I will not prescribe how you should test this - in order to do that you'll need to present it to your potential customers either in a survey, in person, or at the register itself. This simple project is constructed to help you put together the basis of testing. Ideas in a lab are useless. When it comes to consumers, you'll be shocked and amazed by what you find in the wild.  

Using something as simple as a text editor and bullet points, or as fancy as photoshop if you are talented like that, write down your 3 best pitches, in clear simple language (and/or with a visually compelling presentation) to a consumer for what, why and how they'll need to pay you if they use your offering.

This is an online class. I'll share a lecture on the topics above and curate some helpful resources to give you a better understanding of the concepts.