What I love about Graham’s story is that it reinforces the model of passion to profits, and he’s profiting with a monetization choice that has become increasingly popular…
Selling video courses and memberships!
Say Hello to Graham Cochrane
I first heard about 32-year-old Graham from a Business Insider article. If you follow my Facebook page, you may remember me posting this a few weeks ago. His story was so inspiring, I thought I’d reach out to him to answer a few questions for my blog.
How it all Started
Graham lost his job in 2009, and like a lot of people, he didn’t feel very entrepreneurial.
He wanted a steady, stable 9 to 5 job to support his family, but his savings were dwindling and he needed to do something fast. His goal was to ramp up his freelance sound recording and mixing side gig, and hopefully earn enough to do that full time.
In addition to freelancing, Graham also had a blog, which has now been rebranded as The Recording Revolution. He used the site to answer the constant stream of questions he received from friends and family about mixing and recording.
For the first two years, the site hardly made anything at all.
I hope you go back and re-read that sentence again. There’s a misconception that success should and does happen overnight, and for most people it doesn’t. This is why I’m such a fan of choosing niches you are passionate about. You will remain more patient during the income drought because of the love for what you do.
From Freemium to Premium
On the blog, Graham continued to offer amazing, free content, but then branched out into selling video courses that range between $39 and $897. He also has a $27/month membership site that offers additional content not included in his courses.
Over 6,000 people have taken his courses so far and he is now earning between $35,000 and $75,000 per month! Those dollar amounts certainly got my attention, so I reached out to Graham to answer a few more questions about his courses.
1) What software are you using to host your courses and membership site? (WordPress plugin? Custom built?) Why did you choose to go that route?
I currently use Kajabi to host most of my premium courses.
It’s easy, professional, and allows a lot of customization. I used to deliver videos directly as a download only but I feel the membership site platform offers a better user experience and allows me to update and add to the product with ease.
Lisa’s note: I remember a time when the process of selling courses and creating membership sites was so intimidating. Today, with so many options that make it super easy (Udemy, Skillshare, Fedora, Creative Live, countless WordPress membership plugins, etc.) there’s no reason to put it off any longer.
2) How do you drive traffic to your products?
Via my blog and email list. The blog is the key – as that’s where I create all my free content in order to grow my brand, following, and eventually email list subscribers. The email list is where I alert students of my in-depth paid courses.
Lisa’s note: By the way, Graham’s blog traffic was all generated organically through content creation. He uses social media regularly, but nothing more than sharing new articles.
3) Did you package up your existing free blog content that is already online for your courses/membership site or is a mixture of new and existing content?
My paid courses consist of new and more in-depth material. Nothing that I offer free is repackaged and sold. That to me would be dishonest and miss the point.
Lisa’s note: I do think it’s best to offer mostly new material for your premium work, BUT some people do find value in packaging up existing content into an organized format. And as long as you are upfront about it, I think it’s fine. Many bloggers make a killing re-packaging their content and their audience loves it. Darren Rowse did it with his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog free autoresponder course that he turned into an ebook.
4) What advice would you have for someone who is new and/or not making anything online, but wants to start selling courses and/or create a membership site?
It doesn’t matter how good of an online product you have if you don’t have anyone to sell it to, and selling blindly to the world isn’t a good strategy. Sell to your mailing list as they are warm leads who already love your content (free stuff) and are excited to deeper and learn more.
Lisa’s note: Amen to that. Too many new bloggers focus on selling without first generating an audience to sell to. That’s where the real work comes in, and it could take a couple of years to do it. Don’t put the cart before the horse!
5) You read The Four Hour Workweek regularly. How has that specifically helped you and/or your business succeed?
The 4HWW has helped me stay focused. It’s taught me to eliminate, automate, or delegate the least important things so that I use my time for things that have big impact on my business growth (i.e. creating free content, paid content, and promoting to my list).
The book reminds me that being busy is really a form of laziness – mismanaged priorities. It challenges me to keep my business lean, simple, and effective.
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Graham is a freelance mix engineer based in Tampa, FL and the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world’s most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month.
Graham is my idol 🙂
Thanks for the post.
your earnings are really inspiring dude
This is really inspiring!
My eyes are opened. Wow. This post has revealed a lot to me.
I am happy that you have shared this information. I too have enough material to create courses for my visitors and also those in my email list.
Hey Lisa, I have about 950 subscribers to my website. Is this a good number to start with.
Please let me know.
Thanks again for sharing.
All the best. 🙂
Absolutely! It’s never too early to start marketing to your list. You have plenty of people interested in your content!
I really love Graham’s attitude – it’s given me an inspirational boost!
Thankyou
Great Info Lisa,
I really love your writing style and your no nonsense approach to “keeping it real”.
I can tell that you love what you do and your living your dream. Keep providing great insight and
great solutions to your readers (which I’m sure you will…lol).
I look forward to reading more of your blog and even sharing some of my life experiences, which has allowed me to make some very good money in a few niches.
I’m in the process of converting all my knowledge from my head to the online world now.
You provide a great blueprint to follow.
You are blessed.
Cecil Jones
This life story of Graham is very inspiring for me! Over the time i have learned that if you love something or passionate about something then give your best shot to it and you will find success in your way, this is exactly what he did.
Thanks for sharing this interview with Graham, Lisa!!
Wow, I always wondered how it is possible to rise so much-from being poor and unemployed to being rich and famous. Your interview proves that possible. Inspiring.
Hi Lisa, and how are you today?
I Love The Post … EXCELLENT Work 🙂
I figure it was high-time I get over to your site and say … Thanks! for the awesome content you offer on each of your mailings. I always anticipate the next journey, though it takes me a little time to get over here.
From the start. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned there is a “misconception” about success happening overnight. However, a very minimal number of successful online entrepreneurs has EVER achieved such instantaneous success, and over night — very rarely does it happen.
And, having a passion for what we do online is one of the fundamentals the Hub and I emphasize on. And, as you mentioned Lisa, “You will remain more patient during the income drought because of the love for what you do.”
It would be real amazing if people would realize this very reality. And perhaps there wouldn’t be so much controversy on the net with related content … Ha! Ha!
In addition, what a HECK-OF-A interview with Gram! Thank you so much Lisa for the heads-up 🙂
Take care, and I will be looking for your next mailing.
PS: I’m bookmarking this post.
Your articles are terrific Lisa. Thanks for great content and for your great classes too! I have recently started a Membership site and will use this particular info to help me in that endeavor.
Thanks Lisa, that was really impressive successful and motivating for beginners
I know about Darren Rowse, Pat Flynn and of course my most favorite among them all, Liza Irby. But, it’s actually my first time to encounter Graham Cochrane here on this post so I went to search for more about his background and his story is indeed very motivational and also very inspiring.
Well, there you go. He just told us the secret to his success. It’s all about his large lists of email Subscribers. I just wonder how is he able to handle his large numbers of readers (200K monthly readers) especially when they are sending or asking him multiple inquiries.
Excellent. Thanks Lisa for posting about this story.
On my health/fitness blog , I’ve been selling a book I self-published. So far, I haven’t had as much success, but I think some of it is a matter of giving folks what they actually are looking for. I am also developing a workout plan that I am testing with some of my subscribers who signed up to try the workout plan for free. After they help me refine the workout plan, I will officially release it for sale. I know that a workout plan is what a lot of people are looking for help on, and I will feel better knowing that the plan is actually tried and true.
Selling our own product is ultimately the best thing.
Nice interview Lisa!
Hi Lisa,
Again directly from my inbox to your blog post!
Yeh, it’s inspiring article for new comer. Very interesting is ‘s Graham’s story you shared with us.
I am wonder most of his customers are from email list. May be he has some good email subscriber.
Now i am going to his site!
Anyway, thanks for sharing his success story with us.
Have a nice day!
As promised earlier, article up and ready to be read and commented on http://www.onlinemoneykeys.com/top-5-bloggers-i-follow-read-their-blogs-everyday/ anytime
You just rated Liza on the fifth spot.
Elmo, actually, there is no rating. They all inspire me, I love them and trust them al.
Amazing. Very inspiring.
Another audio related case of success is Launchpad-pro.com. They got their audience by distributing free content. And just recently they released a training course, with an ebook, video lessons and bonuses. And 1000+ people enrolled already.
Self hosting the courses may end up being more profitable the using sites like Udemy.
Thanks Lisa,
Have been short on inspiration of late so this is quite timely. Actually just got off a Youtube video of comedian Kevin Hart talking to DJ Sway about how he has organised his brand. It’s a marketing 101 lesson. Truly familiar if you’re in the online game. He’s quite a smart guy.
Here’s the link if you get a few free moments, it’s worth a listen/watch: https://youtu.be/OKobFb6hpWQ
as always thanks for the great insights.
Best,
Eden
Hey Lisa;
This is impressive, Graham is more than successful. It’s very motivating for us as beginners to see such successful buddies online. Great interview Lisa, I liked it. By the way, I am writing a blog post about every successful blogger I follow, read and comment on, guess what? Lisa Irby’s name is also featured, I am always motivated when coming to 2createawebsite.com, the post will be up in 3 hours on my blog OnlineMoneyKeys.com today!
Thanks again
Sandile