Hi @GowharAli009,
When I started on Udemy, I also used the same strategy as yours. In the first few days, I kept the course as FREE, then changed it to a paid course. I later realized this strategy did not work well. Here are a few of my learnings:
- Most students who take the FREE course hardly convert to paid students. They also rarely complete the course.
- Students who get the course for FREE seldom leave a review. If they do, then it is a 1 star, 2 star review. They do so because they are NOT invested. They have not paid for the course.
- Your enrollment to review ratio takes a hit. For example, if you have 20,000 students enrolled and only 100 reviews, that's is 0.5% reviews of total students. In this situation, new students who visit your course landing page would find it suspicious. The question is, "Why does this instructor have so many students and so less reviews?"
- Your course will get the Best Seller or the Hot & New tag only if it is a paid course.
So, after learning these key points, I changed my strategy and kept all courses, strictly paid. I have only one course that is forever free.
Now that you have 600 students, I think it is a good time to convert it to a paid course. With paid courses only, your start may seem slow. However, you will have students who are invested in their growth. These students can become your raving fans and contribute to your success by purchasing your courses regularly.
Just my two cents. Hope this helps. Wish you good luck! 🙂
