Give a course away free to grow my list
A free course is the oldest trick in teaching that still works: give away real, useful teaching, and the people who love it become the people who buy the next thing you sell. On bernard, "free" is a setting on a course, not a different kind of course to build.
How it works
- Tell Bernard the course should be free. "Make my glazing course free" is enough — Bernard clears any price and swaps the course page's "Enrol now" button for an email form (Understand how a course is put together).
- A visitor enrols with just an email. No card, no checkout — they type an email address, and their way in arrives by email: a link that takes them straight to the course, no password to remember or lose (Let learners in without accounts or passwords).
- They land in Where do the people who buy, join or ask end up?. Every free enrolment is recorded there like any other — who, when, what they enrolled in — so you can see your list growing lesson by lesson.
- Approve and it's live. Like every change on bernard, going free drafts privately first; nothing changes for a real visitor until you publish the course and approve the change.
The marketing box, kept honest
Enrolling in the course is its own agreement — it's what lets you send the things a student needs (the welcome email, their access link). It is not, by itself, permission to put someone on your general mailing list. The free-enrol form carries a second, separate box underneath the email field — "Also send me news and offers" — and it starts unticked. Someone has to choose it deliberately; enrolling doesn't tick it for them. That split keeps your list honest: you always know who agreed to what.
Free alongside paid
Nothing about making one course free touches the others. A studio might run a short free course as the taster and sell the full syllabus behind it, or simply give away a whole subject to build an audience before they have anything to sell at all. Each course keeps its own price and its own door — sell one, give another away, and change either later without touching the rest.
The prompt
“Make my [course name] course free so anyone can enrol with their email.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- What does 'free' actually mean here — no card at all?
- Right, no card, no checkout. A visitor types their email into a form on the course page, and their way in arrives by email — a magic link, not a password. Nothing goes live on your site until you publish the course and approve the change, same gate as everything else.
- Can I run a free course alongside courses I sell?
- Yes — it's a setting per course, not an account-wide switch. Keep your priced courses selling on-site and make one course free as a taster or a stand-alone lead magnet; each course carries its own mode.
- Does enrolling free sign someone up for my marketing emails?
- Only if they say yes separately. The free-enrol form has its own, unticked box — 'Also send me news and offers' — under the email field. Enrolling gets them into the course; it doesn't get them onto a marketing list unless they tick that box themselves.
- What stops someone typing a fake or someone else's email address?
- The way in only works once the email is opened — enrolling sends a link, not instant access, so a mistyped or made-up address gets nothing. It's a real address or nothing happens.