You don’t often expect comedy to do anything other than make you laugh. But sometimes, there’s a lesson in laughter, and leave it to comedian Louis C.K. to teach all us LMS geeks a very valuable lesson.
Laugh and Listen
Stand-up comedy is a solitary endeavor – just the comedian and his or her microphone and a roomful of people who buy tickets, abide by the two drink minimum and expect to be compensated with side-splitting laughter. Louis C.K. has been providing that, and making a darn good living at it; and recently, he decided to cut out middleman distributors by selling his latest comedy special directly to his fans via a $5.00 download on his Web site. Fans of the comedian didn’t have to subscribe to a premium cable channel or shell out big bucks for pay-per-view to see his latest special, “Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater.” All they had to do was fork over a fin via PayPal to download it and watch it as many times as they want.
As of last week, the show was downloaded 175,000 times with 200,000 anticipated, totaling $1 million. The show’s production ran $250,000.00, so that’s a cool $750,000 in profit. No middlemen or distributors got a chunk of that; Louis C.K. gets to keep it all.He proclaimed the venture a success, telling his fans on his Web site, “I’m really glad I put this out here this way, and I’ll certainly do it again. If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that I can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I’ll do it here [his Web site] and I’ll continue to follow the model of keeping my prices as far down as possible, not over marketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.” He may have ticked off many in the entertainment world, but Louis C.K. used himself as an incubator to teach us something we all needed to learn.
Distribute Thyself
Content creators, I hope you’ve been paying attention. What Louis C.K. did on his Web site is exactly what Coggno provides to creators of online learning and training. We give you the ability to upload and sell your content without all the hassles usually associated with doing so. Our Market Place gives you the ability to expose your course offerings on thousands of different Web sites, reaching millions of potential customers. You control pricing, accessibility and copyright; you can even create coupons and offer discounts on your content. Plus, you also get to keep track of how many times your content was purchased, and even how you get paid for it. You have complete and total autonomy to distribute at will. After all, it is your content. And that’s no joke.
Take a tour of our sales capabilities and we’re sure you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
________________________________
Coggno.com is a leading provider of high quality Learning Management Systems
