Lessons in Growth Hacking a Skillshare Class | Hacker News Reader

Lessons in Growth Hacking a Skillshare Class

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13 pointsmattangriffel11 comments

I've been thinking about writing an article like this for a while, but most of my tips are New York City specific, so it won't help most people.

Here are things I've learned from my Skillshare Class (http://skl.sh/NlGdYU) that might help you:

1. Get out of Brooklyn. Seriously. It's really really difficult to get people to come to Brooklyn. Finding a venue can be hard, but keep it in Manhattan.

2. If you NEED to have a class in Brooklyn, lower the price significantly. TELL people you lowered the price.

3. Teach your class even if only one person signs up. Some days are just bad for sign ups. Teach your class anyway.

4. Ask for endorsements/feedback at the end of your class, stress how much it actually helps you.

5. I find higher attendance rates on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

6. If you want your class to eventually be $39, teach 3 or 4 classes at $10. Get the positive endorsements, then up the price for future classes.

7. Blog about your area of expertise. Promote your blog, not just your class.

That's all helped me. Good luck!

Thanks Dan (Josh here).

I've only taught @grind - I'm trying out Brooklyn next week because I wanted to test another area. So far, no good.

I always stress endorsements, which is why I have 11/13 endorsements.

One thing I've also offered was money back to those who've already taken the class when they refer a friend (forgot to include this one). Still, no one has taken me up on that yet.

Interesting that M, T, Th are best days. I've always wondered about that.

Btw, my class can be found here: http://skl.sh/SsWGKJ

I think OP may be over-looking something obvious ... maybe people just aren't that interested in a Poker class?

A few arguments why this might be the case:

1. through WPT, ESPN, youtube etc, it's easy to get access to poker pros to hear their war stories ... i.e. it dilutes the draw of "experts"

2. good (not great) poker strategy is pretty simple ... play premium hands aggressively pre-flop from late position; following that advice would get most people to break-even, but, that strategy can be boring (lots of waiting around)

3. most people play poker for the social element (i.e. to get drunk and suck out on their buddies) ... improving this usually means finding ways to encourage your buddies to drink more

I definitely agree that marketing is hard ... but, when you've made a good-faith effort to get the word out, and nobody is biting, it may be time to "pivot" and find something else to sell.

This is very possible, and something I've worried about. I don't agree with your reasoning, but that's probably because it somewhat belittles what I teach. Still, it's very possible that startup people just aren't as interested in poker. The finance market is probably a better target market for me.

Didn't mean to belittle, I was just trying to talk out loud as to why I haven't signed up for a poker class.

In some ways, I'm an ideal student (play casually 1/mo, visit Vegas / Reno 1/yr, know enough to know that I don't know enough, etc), yet, I've never taken a class. I have purchased a few books.

Part of it might be that for something like poker, at the point of decision, I'm thinking "I could spend this money on the class ... or I could take this money and go play poker." Tough business! Good luck

im surprised you purchased a book (which is often stale) but wouldn't consider a relatively cheap class. i can pretty much guarantee you you'd learn way more with me.

in any case, good luck on the felt.

I was disappointed to see that this was really a list of things that haven’t really worked out well for the author.

As someone who’s having a hard time gaining lots of new users for my service[1], I was really looking forward to some actual lessons in what’s worked. I checked out the Case Studies, but the content wasn’t anything new or particularly relevant to the scrappy startup situation. I think the most useful content on Grow/Hack right now is this post with actual lessons learned in growth hacking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4603640

[1] It would be remiss of me not to mention it: Iron Money https://ironmoney.com/

The lessons of what not to do is just as useful as figuring out what to do. Because you might try out things that won't work, rather than trying new ideas that nobody knows work.

Adwords? I just typed in "poker course" and no adwords came up. Way different timezone but it's interesting that nobody is trying to get my business.

Also, I think you're using a shotgun method - try everything, see what works. I suspect if you can pin down who your absolutely ideal customer is, target your marketing at them, and charge higher prices, you'll do better. Have a way to increase the potential customer lifetime value much more than the $35-ish price - e.g. 1-on-1 classes for more money. Who is the type of customer who would pay you e.g. $200-500 for a lesson? What do they need? Or run a 6-month subscription class where you guide a customer's learning and play a couple online games with them here and there, check them on video for tells, measure their skill over the period.

I've bought a book on poker at one point and did read it but was not particularly good. I played a home game this last weekend that was Texas Holdem, so brushed up a few skills, bought a book on holdem math and am trying to work my way through properly calculating EV etc. I downloaded PokerTH and run it in the background every so often. What could you do for me above and beyond that?

I ask mainly to help you think about the customer's needs. I live far away and we probably share very little wake-time. I imagine there are home-game losers who want to beat their friends, people who want to be able to play in local tournaments, people who want to iron out a couple weaknesses for online games. Each will pay different amounts according to the value you can offer them.

oh god now a whole site dedicated to the fluffy job title. Posting an ad on craigslist is not a growth hack, people have been posting classified ads for over a century now (albeit through other media, but the idea is the same).

If we must use the term "growth hack" it should really be in reference to actual novel ideas, like some sort of incentivized social referral system or a play on game mechanics in an otherwise standard application.

Maybe no one wants your product?

http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/

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