Video Polymer Clay Tutorials + Color Mixing Recipe Cards To Download
Getting Ready To Open The Polymer Clay Tutor ‘Members Only‘ Club… Need Your Input:
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I am receiving various renditions of the following question every day now… “I would like to see more of your wonderful videos but do I need to be a member to view them?” Thank you to Rachelle for sending the latest email just this morning. I really do appreciate hearing from all of you :)
ADDENDUM: Since the writing of this post, there have been many upgrades to our membership, tutorials, color recipes, newsletter and more. Therefor, the information, and links are no longer valid. If you want to learn more about what we offer now, check out our PcT Store.
First off, to address you specifically Rachelle, I see that your name has been added to my Guest List. What this means is you will now receive an email every week with a link to the “full version” of a selected “members-only” video tutorial. That’s the big benefit of subscribing to this Polymer Clay Tutor Guest List.
However, there has also been an overwhelming demand from subscribers to also have access to back issues of the weekly video newsletter.
In response, I’ve been working *really* hard at putting together a new video content management system that will be opening up within the next couple of weeks. It is being set up as a very cool Video Library with a Table of Contents and search functionality.
Plus, I’m adding in a feature that I think is going to be quite popular. Each week along with the new video release, I’ll also be posting a custom clay color recipe card that you can download to your computer and print out.
On each of these weekly recipe cards will be a spot for you to glue on the actual clay color chip. You’ll end up with a collection that should become an invaluable resource to help you make lots and lots of beautiful polymer clay beads and jewelry.
In order to make this new system the best it can be, I would love to get everyone’s feedback before adding the final touches. As I’ve stated above, the main objectives are:
1) To provide a convenient method for providing access to back issues of the weekly newsletter.
2) To add in a downloadable, custom color recipe card feature.
Is there anything else you would like to see included? By the way, this new membership club is where you will be able to access the full video courses as well. As of Nov 1, I’ll be on track for releasing one new polymer clay course per month. Very excited about that!!!
So please do tell me if I am on the right track in putting these things together for all of you. And if there’s anything I’m missing, use the comments section below for letting me know your “wish-list” suggestions. Finally, if you have any questions about the new membership club, you can ask them here too. Thanks so much.
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Want to chat about today’s post? That’s what the comment section below is for. Scroll Down… We’d love to hear from you!
Or... if you would like to request a topic for a future post, here is the link to do that… PcT Suggestion Box
Again… thank you so much to everyone for all the above comments, opinions, feedback and support. You gals and guys mean the world to me.
Rather than posting another lengthy response like I did earlier in this thread, I published a new article instead. Click on the “Free Polymer Clay Tutorials” link by name to go there. It’s Good News… let me know you think over in the comments section of the new post.
Thanks, Cindy Lietz.
Cindy, I have loved getting your videos and have tired to watch most of them. The ones I have seen are good. But I can not afford to pay for them, at the price you would need to charge or are thinking about charging. I have to agree with some of the other peoples comments like some of the videos are for beginners and I don’t want to pay for something that I already know.
You do a great job and I will miss seeing your videos but I will still check in on your blog.
Good luck in this.
Hi Cindy,
With all the hard work that you put into all of this I think 10.00 a month is more than fair. I am one that has searched the internet for help for hours on end. I drive a truck and not home as often as I would like, so I for one would be more than happy to pay 10.00 a month to be able to go to just one place for help and stop wasting my time off searching. Thank you so much,
Cheryl
Hi, Cindy
I have joined other pattern sites (in a different medium) and the subscriptions to those sites ran $24 or $25 per year, so that is my suggestion as far as pricing. That seems to be what others are suggesting, also.
Linda
I am new to your cite but have been working with polymer clay for about a year and have been through many books from the library and ones I have purchased. Your videos have helped me significantly. It is a hobby that I would like to develop to a greater degree. The cost of $10.00 a month would be a bit pricy for me but I would agree that having different packages for beginners, intermediates, and advanced would be good. Thanks so much for all of the time and work you have put into your videos and it is really appreciated so much.
Cindy: Here are my second thoughts after reading your posting.
When I suggested $59.95 yearly I wasn’t aware of all the actual costs on your end, only of your time involved, so the $120.00 yearly is justified. HOWEVER, as much as I would like to be able to pay that much I simply couldn’t,(plain and simple), and think that there are a lot of other people in the same leaky boat
that I am in. Unless something drastic happens to improve our finances you will lose a large portion of what would be your base, which is something to consider.
Luv ya whatever your decision is.
I have given this some thought since I posted a few days ago.
I think Jodi is right, I too have usually felt it was better to sell lots of items at what is preceived to be a very good value (ie relatively low) price rather than one or two much more expensively – and if people think they are getting very good value for money they are more likely to recommend you to their friends (advertising which costs you nothing).
Again now I’ve thought more about it, I am also in favour of $12 for 6 months, $20 for 12 months – you’ll tempt a lot of people that way
I am new to clay and have enjoyed the tutorials I have received. The one I signed up to get, I could not get as it was a past one and I was unable to access that area.
During the charm bracelet craze, I owned my own gift shop. My thoughts were that I would rather sell 50 charms at $4 than 10 at $8. If you can keep the price down, I believe you will have plenty of subscribers. With the economy the way it is right now it will be hard for many people if the price is too high. However, I would not go with a monthly charge, but maybe a 6 or 12 month charge, as this will make less work for you keeping track of subscribers. Say $12 for 6 months, $20 for 12 months. This would be a big incentive to subscribe for a year, and again, less bookwork for you.
At the UK exchange rate of aprox £5 mth/£60 yr, I also would not be able to take this on. I, like a lot of others have welcomed the free content with open arms & are greatfull for the time it takes you to produce everything. Some of us have allready purchased your beginners course [39 videos]how is this going to fit into the pricing bracket? The idea of being able to download is a good one.
Cindy,
Your videos and tips are wonderful as always & I think everyone agrees that you are a very accessible resource, always willing to answer questions and provide advice. Unfortunately though, in the economic times most of us are in, people are focusing on buckling down. While I, like many, agree that paying a small fee for access to your information is fair, I cannot support a fee of $10/month or the like. I just simply can’t afford $120/year for something that would be considered a luxury as this is a hobby for me, not a business. And like others have said, as good as your advice is, there are many people that don’t utilize it all because they are not beginners and don’t need instructions on the basics.
The lower the price, the more people you will get to purchase, particularly because they will see a great value for little money. My guess is that anything over about $40/year will drastically affect the amount of subscriptions you sell, given that there are other free alternatives out there. Granted, those free sites may not be as centrally organized, however they are still free, and you will probably see people head toward them if you charge a high rate.
I know you have worked hard to build up a network of interested parties and make a comprehensive website. Perhaps you could consider other ways to recoup your costs. Maybe offering payment via ProPay, Paypal or Authorize.net etc., to avoid the higher % fees of credit cards? Maybe offering topic-specific ‘tip sheets’ or those color recipe cards that people may purchase separately? Just some suggestions off the top of my head, but I wish you well in whatever you decide and hope there is some way to come to a reasonable solution.
As an artist I know how difficult it is to price courses and teaching. I don’t think $10 per month is unreasonable but it largely depends on what people are looking for. Up to now I have only had the free weekly video and haven’t enrolled for a course as I am waiting for the cane course. As an ‘almost’ intermediate/advanced clay user I wouldn’t want videos that cover really basic stuff like using a pasta machine or storing canes etc. Would a pay per view system work? If all the videos were listed by difficulty and your $10 dollars bought you a downloadable new video and say a couple of downloadable back issues per month, along with whatever colour cards there are for that month? You could perhaps include project cards for specific pieces to print out.
Being able to download and keep the video would be important for me I don’t use clay round my computer!
Maybe a monthly package that wouldn’t involve you having to put in tons of extra work would be more attractive. You could then tell people some of what they will get next month and there will always be a small element of suprise when the link arrives!
It’s just a suggestion.
Being able to use paypal to pay for the courses and videos is helpful to those of us in other countries, but of course they take their cut too.
Someone mentioned making more than jewellery, why not have feature videos by guest clay artists for other things such as tea light holders and bigger more ambitious projects? these could be on an occasional pay per view footing.
I think offering this as a pay per month and a yearly subscription would allow the system to be more flexible and allow people to see that they aren’t going to part with a load of cash for nothing, I think this is particularly inportant for getting new subscribers.
also what about a new subscriber pack?
The ideas could keep coming, so I’ll go!!!
Thanks for all your hard work Cindy.
I think you have great ideas Cindy. Five dollars a month comes to mind, but don’t know if everyone would agree. That’s about $60 a year and you could get ppl to pay $50.00 if they wanted to pay by the year…is this enough? I guess it’s according to how many ppl you have suscribing….?