Never Again (aka What Hasn't Worked)

Hello Reader,

You know I love sharing what's worked for me so you can try things yourself, but I recently thought it may be fun for you to hear about some things that have not worked this year.

A Month-Long Enrollment Period for Summer of SEO

Whew... I will never ever do this again! Last year, several people who did not join SOS shared that they felt that the enrollment period was too short and that they wanted longer to join. I thought this was fair feedback, so I decided to give people a whole month to decide this year. This was a big misstep.

Here's what happened:

• More people told me they missed enrolling this year because they had so much time they forgot.
• I had to up my email frequency, which increased my workload at a time when I didn't have that to spare.
• None of the folks who said they wanted more time joined this year.
• I felt burned out from talking about SOS for a whole month after spending so much time building the waitlist in the previous months.

Never, ever again.

Quarterly Course Updates

My original plan for my Squarespace SEO Hacks course was to do quarterly enrollments and updates. I know a lot of people love this cadence but it's just not for me.

I immediately felt like I was constantly updating and enrolling, which isn't great. Instead, I'm shifting to ad-hoc updates (if you have this course, you'll see some updates in there!) when changes happen, plus a 2x yearly updates and open enrollment.

Announcing Pricing Changes/Last Calls

Okay, this is technically from the end of last year, but, again, I tried this in response to some complaints that I didn't give some a chance to get in on services prior to my changing prices. So, I tried it—twice. And here's the funny thing: It didn't matter. I had no random update in sales or people raising their hands, "I need this now!"

Turns out, my audience buys when they're ready and pricing shifts have minimal impact. This is a great bit of recon, right?

What I think is most interesting about this, is that I personally know people who've had wild success with all three of these tactics. So, that doesn't mean they don't work, it simply means that it's not the right approach for me, right now.

I don't even regret the trying—that's data! We love good, applicable information that we can use to make future decisions. This is a good thing!

So, tell me, what are you never, ever doing again? (Yes, I really want to know! Hit reply and tell me!)

Talk soon,

Sarah