You will get many answers, for me, I created 1 free course to test this. I got a ton of students, very little engagement and reviews were hit/miss over maybe 4 months before making it paid and now it's a best seller. It was neither good nor bad and I got 1 free student to buy another course.
My new method is I make paid courses and then give away some free coupons usually a select group of people; people in my field via Linkedin, sometimes prior students who I know can't afford it and sometimes social media giveaways. I create at most 10 free coupons a month to students I see either as a referral source (for me LinkedIn) or those who will engage in the course who are likely to leave a review.
That being said you have some successful courses on here so I would also question if you need a free course unless you are doing this for altruistic reasons or a test to see if it funnels into more paid students in your other courses. For me, it didn't go bad or good, but while it was free my reviews took a hit down to 4.0 which made my paid courses less desirable imo.
Alicia Paz M.A, QMHP
