3 Reasons People Buy Courses Online Even If There's Free Content Available

You might wonder why someone would buy something they can get for free, including online courses. But there are some very good reasons people buy online training courses even when they could find the information elsewhere for free. Take advantage of these factors to want to create and sell your course. 

Reason #1. Accountability 

One big reason people buy online course content is accountability. This comes down to the fact that if you purchase something, you are much more likely to use it. Yes, you can find plenty of information on YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, and other free online sources. But if you get it for free, there’s no accountability. Because you didn’t pay for it, you may not be compelled to learn and use the information. 

By contrast, spending money on a course makes you more inclined to use it. The same mindset works for other things, like maximizing a paid streaming service or studying hard, knowing that you pay for your education. 

Reason #2. The Completed Puzzle

Another major reason people buy courses online is that you provide them with a complete picture of a puzzle. While the information in your course may be available online for free, it comes in a million tiny pieces and is scattered throughout the Internet. To get the same information for free, learners would have to spend hours or days searching YouTube and other websites to find relevant content. They would even come across conflicting information, leaving them confused and having to figure out the best advice or most accurate data. 

But with your paid course, everything will already be conveniently packaged for them. They can just buy the course and follow your process. In the long run, this saves them time and effort, increasing their chances of learning exactly what they need. 

By seeing a complete picture of the finished product, they would feel more motivated to follow through. To illustrate this, puzzles can be overwhelming when you start working on them because of all the scattered pieces that don’t make sense. But when you only have five or ten pieces left, completing the puzzles becomes exciting and easy. By providing a picture of the completed course, you present your students with a goal that is attainable, giving them the confidence to start and complete the online course. 

Reason #3. To Compensate for the Free Content You Already Provided 

Finally, many people choose to buy online course content as a way to compensate course creators for the free content they already provided. This is part of the reason why it’s important for you to offer your potential learners high-quality content via blogs, videos, and your lead magnet. 

Simply put, if someone has been learning from you for a substantial amount of time without having to pay for it, they will want to compensate you somehow. If you’ve given them valuable content, they’re likely to appreciate you. Buying your course is a simple way for them to say thanks and a seamless way of coming back for more valuable information. 

Conclusion

Even with free content available all over the Internet, people still buy online training courses because paying keeps them accountable and encourages them to finish the course. They also buy courses online for the convenience of a well-packaged learning system and as a way to compensate course creators for the free content they already offer.