Charge once, or sell a year of access
Two honest shapes, one payment each. Pay once, keep it suits a course people work through at their own pace and return to for years. A fixed term - a single payment for, say, a year of access - suits teaching you update often, priced lower for the window it covers.
The prompt
“Change my [course name] course to [pay-once / a fixed term of [how long]] at [the price].”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
A term works the same way on a document library (a buyer’s thirty days with a security pack) and on a client hub.
How it works
- Say the shape and the number. “£30, theirs to keep” or “£20 for a year of access.” bernard never invents a price - the figure is always yours.
- The course page says it plainly. Learners see exactly what they’re buying - “Yours to keep - pay once, watch any time” or “Access for a year - one payment, no subscription” - before they pay.
- Approve. The updated page goes live when you say so.
A term is not a subscription: nothing renews and nobody’s card is charged again. The learner’s access carries its own end date, and when the date passes, it ends quietly. They can always enrol again. If what you actually want is people paying you monthly for ongoing access to everything, that exists too - see Run a membership or paid community - people pay monthly for my courses - with the failed cards, grace and cancellations all handled for you.
More than one price
A course does not have to have one price. Sell it several ways - “£200 on its own, £250 with three months of the club” - each with its own button on the course page (Sell one course several ways, at different prices), and give your members a lower price only they see (Give my members a better price on my courses). It can also be sold with other courses as a bundle, where each course keeps its own term (Sell several courses together as a bundle). Say once how long everything you sell gives access (“12 months”), and every new way of selling takes it.
Each enrolment’s terms are fixed at purchase. Your enrolments page shows who has access and until when (Sell a course from my own website), and the price a buyer sees is the price they pay - bernard adds nothing on top (Where the money goes when someone enrols).
See it on a working example: a demonstration pottery school shows Glaze Explorers, a course sold for a year of access on its pricing page.
Questions people ask
- Can I sell time-limited access to my course?
- Yes - a single payment for a fixed window, say a year. When the term ends, access simply lapses. There’s no subscription, no failed-payment chasing, and existing learners always keep whatever terms they bought under.
- What happens to learners who already paid if I change the price or the term?
- Nothing. Price and access changes apply to new enrolments only. Someone who bought lifetime access keeps lifetime access, whatever you sell next.
- Is it a subscription?
- No. Both shapes are one payment: pay-once means the learner keeps the course; a term means access for a fixed period. Either way, the change you make drafts privately and takes effect when you approve it.
- Can one course have more than one price?
- Yes. A course can be sold several ways - on its own, or with extras such as months of your membership - each with its own label, price and term, and members can have a lower price of their own. A price someone has paid is never changed; a new figure applies to new buyers.