The same course sold two ways: live cohort vs evergreen

The same course sold two ways: live cohort vs evergreen

Context: an educator sold an identical curriculum first as a live cohort, then as a self-paced evergreen product, and published both results.

What was measured:
— Same material, same instructor, similar audience size at each launch
— Cohort: $1,200, taught live over 6 weeks
— Evergreen: $390, fully recorded, sold continuously

Reported outcome:
— Cohort: 34 students, about $40,800, but ~80 hours of live teaching per run
— Evergreen (per equivalent quarter): 96 students, about $37,400, near-zero marginal teaching time
— Similar gross, radically different time cost

Caveats: single educator; the evergreen figure benefited from an existing audience primed by the earlier cohort's reputation, a sequencing confound. Completion and refund rates differ sharply between formats (cohorts complete more, refund less) and were not fully reported. Self-reported.

Implications: per-dollar, the formats nearly tied; per-hour, evergreen dominated — illustrating that headline revenue hides the labor denominator that determines real effective wage.

What we still don't know: refund and chargeback rates on the cheaper evergreen product, which erode net more than gross suggests.