Introduction:

Let’s discuss this polarizing topic.

There are people who love to take courses, learn something new, and essentially invest in themselves to earn more money.

But those people are outnumbered by those who are against courses.

As soon as they see someone mention a course, their brain screams red flag! They just want the money! Scam! Avoid!

I will admit that I’ve been both of these people.

Since last August, when I launched my first course ever, I’ve also been on the receiving end of feedback from both sets of people.

To this day, I am very wary of people selling courses.

If I’m interested in buying a course, I do a lot of digging before making a purchase.

I need to see this person’s results, how long they’ve been getting those results, how their audience communicates with them, and lots of other details about the course.

I look out for unrealistic promises and results, like “You will make £5000 in 30 days,” etc.

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The truth is…

There are far too many people bringing out courses these days. It’s easier than ever to throw a course together.

You can find step-by-step tutorials on how to put a course together easily. This means anyone can do it; all they have to do is choose a topic.

I’ve noticed that a lot of course creators make courses before they have mastered the topic they are “teaching.” They are literally one tiny step ahead of their customers in knowledge.

I don’t think that’s fair.

You shouldn’t put a paid course together if you have only read a few books on the subject or have sold a few products.

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My Personal Experience with Courses, etc

Let me tell you about my experience initially paying for a self-publishing course and mentoring.

In 2019, I wanted to make some extra money on the side as my partner had just revealed she was pregnant.

Finding out that you’re going to have to support another little human really lit a fire under my butt and forced me to take action.

I’m going to assume that the start of my self-publishing journey may be similar to yours.

I started my search on Google, typing in “Ways to make money online” and “The best ways to make money in 2019“, etc.

After going down a rabbit hole, I finally came across self-publishing books on Amazon KDP.

I happened to be in a Merch by Amazon Facebook group at the time, and the admin of the group was promoting a new way to make money on Amazon by creating low and medium content books.

They were advertising a 21-day challenge in which the hosts would go live for an hour a day for 21 consecutive days.

Each day, they would explain how to do each part of the publishing process: niche research, keywords, cover design, interior creation, etc.

After a bit of internal back and forth, I decided to invest in the 21-day challenge. I knew that taking this challenge would save me a lot of time in learning how to do the whole process. I didn’t have the time to sit there and figure each step out on my own.

Here is a screenshot of my invoice.

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What have I done!?

I was super excited to start and hopefully learn some new skills that would produce an income. But I was doubtful that it would work, or that I would have the skills required to make desirable books that people would want to buy.

My full-time job repairing and installing overhead line equipment on the railway was worlds away from designing pretty-looking books.

Nonetheless, I went for it!

I took the course and showed up every day.

It was hosted by three people who had skills in different areas. They took turns showing us how to do each part of the publishing process.

Out of the three hosts, Jacob Bates clearly had more knowledge.

He was able to answer questions from the students immediately without hesitation. If the other two were asked a question, they would look for help from Jacob.

When Jacob showed us how to create interiors, he flew through the process, and you could just tell that he’s done this process hundreds of times.

The other two were clunky, stuttered, and generally looked unsure.

Maybe one or two of you were part of that 21-day challenge back in 2019? At the time, there were over 300 people going through it. I’d love to know if you were one of them.

Anyway, the course was immensely helpful. I was taught the whole process and had the confidence to create my first book.

Halfway through the course, I reached out to Jacob to see if he offered mentoring.

He responded, and to my delight, he said yes. We hopped on a call to discuss the price, how long the mentoring was for, whether it was for me or not, and so on.

I wanted mentoring from Jacob because I knew he was the real deal.

He shared his results from KDP, I saw firsthand that he knew how to do most tasks to a great standard, and he was able to explain things in detail effortlessly.

Aside from that, I wanted results fast. I wanted to learn from the best; after all, “success leaves clues.“

However, the price for three months of mentoring was $1800!

This included an hour-long video call each week where he would critique my book covers, teach me new things, set me tasks for the following call, and generally hold me accountable.

I remember being shocked at the price.

That was a big leap from investing $47 to investing $1800!

He promised that I would make that money back within a year, but hopefully a lot sooner if I made a real effort.

Of course, I was skeptical because more often than not, if someone wants your money, they will state these promises.

I thought about signing up with him for a few days. But I decided to take a leap of faith.

I knew there was a lot more I could learn from him, and I knew that I would put in the required effort, even more than that.

After all, I was soon to have two mouths to feed.

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Let The Fun Begin!

He started mentoring me a week after I signed up, and during those three months, he taught me a bunch of useful information, information that I still use today.

He taught me things like how to organize my files to make my life easier, how to be more efficient with my time, and more advanced strategies. But more importantly, he showed me where I was going wrong and how I could improve.

The benefit of being coached by someone who is getting real results and has experience in a certain field is that they save you time—time that you would waste making mistakes over and over.

They can steer you towards making the right decisions that produce results.

In the first three months of being mentored by Jacob, I earned back the money I had paid him, plus I learned skills and knowledge that have set me up for life.

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Fast forward to today, I have earned 130 times the cost of the 21-day challenge, plus the $1800 for mentoring!

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Paying for those two things has been the best investment I have ever made. I wonder if I would be in the position I am now if I chose not to invest in myself.

I do believe that investing such a large sum of money definitely forced me to put in above-average amounts of effort. (I literally couldn’t afford to lose anymore)

So, I am forever grateful to Jacob and to Amazon KDP.

However, I can appreciate that not everyone who sells a course will be like Jacob.

Based on your own experiences, you will either fall into one of the two opinions on buying courses and investing in yourself.

I created my Facebook group, KDP Secrets, three years ago, and not long after, I started my YouTube channel, “Money on the Side.”

Over the years, I have answered thousands of questions regarding self-publishing, put out tutorials, tips, and insights into making more sales for free.

However, last August, I brought out a paid course dedicated to Amazon advertising.

As soon as I mentioned a course, people seemed to treat me differently. It was instantaneous, and it was like a lot of people suddenly didn’t trust me or my knowledge on self-publishing.

That was a strange thing to go through. It felt like the previous two years of helping for free was instantly undone.

But now I’ve come to realize it wasn’t a personal attack on me. It’s just that some people are against the idea of charging someone in exchange for knowledge, especially when there is so much free content out there.

I’d be curious to know which side you belong to on this matter.

Personally, I will continue to reinvest in myself in order to learn, grow, and save myself time.

Thank you for reading this long post!

Ben