GMC Quick Access

Revision as of 23:41, 24 March 2010

This is an idea for Improving Guitarmasterclass.net

On behalf of the *how to improve GMC competition* I was thinking about what this already great site could be improved on... My train of thought was: Look if there is a problem and then find a solution!

Guitar Masterclass is a site for learning how to play the guitar so obviously if there were important Improvements to be made, they should improve the learning experience! The rules for the competition are strict: Simple, easy to implement and well thought out... So what is there to improve on the guitar lessons?

GMC features some of the best video guitar lessons on the whole internet, we not only have quantity (2000+ Lessons!) but quality! GMC offers a unique standard of high quality lessons: We have every Genre covered, we have original song lessons, all lessons in great audio and video quality, backing- and jamtracks for every lesson, theory lessons, spoken lessons, online metronome, helpfull instructors, direct interaction with instructors (video chat), we have a mentor program, we have the lessons sorted in categories and a powerfull searching machine - we even feature some non guitar lessons on other instruments!!!

...I came to the conclusion that I won't find anything bad about the teaching system on GMC; the only improvement to Guitar Masterclass is getting personal 1:1 lessons with a guitar teacher! Sure nothing is perfect and there might be some room for little improvements but nothing major that could be easily implemented and drastically increase the value of GMC for the instructors and the members...

the MEMBERS?!?

Suddenly I had an idea! I had found a Problem and thought of a Solution

The Problem

How to make GMC accessible to more people willing to learn?

Guitar Masterclass is offering the perfect online-guitar-learning experience for every paying member. Now if you observe the site carefully, you can see that we have a lot of visitors every day; there are non registered Users reading the forum, there are non-members viewing the free parts of the video lessons and there 'guests' in the chatroom - I am sure the GMC staff in charge could confirm that there is a lot of traffic on the site by visitors from outside. The people that have found Guitar Masterclass on the net are browsing the site out of interest; some were just surfing the web, some only read a certain thread in the forum because google linked them there but the majority of the visitors on GMC are looking for online guitar lessons!

Some of the visitors will subscribe and enjoy GMC to it's full potential and some others will look further into the features of the site and think about subscribing - and a good lot of the visitors are intrigued by GMC but they won't become members and miss out on becoming a better guitarist!! The reasons are obvious:

-There are free videos but no complete lessons. Potential users can't try to learn a complete lesson and see if GMC is actually the way to go for them! Most people only buy after they try!

-GMC offers over 2000 lessons, what if the potential user is only interested in a handfull? Why would anyone pay monthly rates if he only intends to use GMC for a couple of hours?

-To access GMC you have to start a subscription, that throws a lot of potential users of right away! A whole lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of a selfprolonging subscription, even if it is possible to cancel at any time!

-There is the option of a one of payment but it is only possible to pay for half a year! Again this might just be too much for a lot of potential users...

- The general pricing. The prices to join GMC have increased quite a bit lately... I am not saying that the site isn't worth the price we pay, on the contrary, with all the running costs Kris has while he is offering us this many lessons and instructors and original song lessons licenses, the price is really justified! The sad part is that a lot of the potential users are simply not able to pay the subscription (because they are too young, they don't have the funds or whatever the reasons may be). A lot of the members thinking about quitting GMC in the forum clearly shows that the pricing is too much for some.

How can the learning possibilities of GMC be made available for guitarists who aren't Signed up members?!?

The Solution

My idea: Limited, instant access to GMC!

To make learning how to play guitar at GMC possible for the largest number of people there is the need for an easy, cheap and fast way to access the lessons! The term I chose for this is GMC Quick Access (patent pending^^) and it is directed at all those who want to use the lessons but don't want/can't become a full subscription member at Guitar Masterclass.net!

The concept of my idea seems easily implementable to GMC, it offers new or past members the possibility the learn from GMC, it gives the instructors more recognition by the increased number of Users and let's not forget the financial aspect that this idea could offer to Kris and his staff!

GMC Quick Access

So basicly the idea of GMC Quick Access is to offer a limited access to the Online Lessons that are offered on Guitar Masterclass. I thought of two diffrent Quick Access possibilities:

1. Buy a lesson

The *Buy Lesson* button should be located right under EVERY lesson. If a guest clicks on it it offers him to buy unlimited use of THIS particular Lesson. The pricing should be kept as small as possible, for example 1$=1 Lesson. The person who wants to learn this lesson enters his email adress and chooses his method of payment and he will recieve an automated email with a personalised code to grant the user access to this one lesson as often as he wants. It will be possible to watch all the videos for this lesson and even download the guitar pro file and use the backing tracks BUT it will not make the person a member of GMC; the person will have access to the lessons he bought but he won't get a forum name and be able to participate on all the other things GMC has to offer! The access is restrited to the bought lessons alone - for every lesson you want to watch you pay a small fee and you can learn it - nothing more, nothing less!

This Quick Access Method is aimed at people who don't need or want all the variety GMC has to offer. F For example: Guitarist George is a hughe fan of the band Lamb Of God and he wants to be able to play like his heros! George enters *Lamb Of God guitar lesson* on Google and sooner or later he will be linked to the incredible Lamb of God style GMC lessons by David Walliman and Trond Vold. George really wants to learn those lessons, and only THOSE lessons - he could just buy the two lessons on the spot without a hassle and start learning and MAYBE he likes the improvement he made through the lessons and decides to buy more lessons or even start a subscription and become a full fledged member!!!

2. Limited Access

Limited Access is a time based subsciption that offers full access to all of the GMC lessons but only for a very short subscription time. You pay a reasonable amount of money, for example 5$ for 48 hours of GMC lesson access or 10$ Dollars for a week. The pricing is more expensive than a subscription if you add up the weeks to a full subscription time but the limited Access is not aimed at replacing a real subscription! Again you won't get a Forum name or the privilages of a membership! I like to think of these as *Trial* accounts. If a buisnessman is interested in learning from GMC but he can only find time on some weekends, why should he get a full subscription? A 48 hour access he could purchase when it's needed would suit HIM much better! Another example would be an undecided, potential subscriber; with a week access he could try to learn from GMC and see if the subscription is the way to go for him!

Payment & Possibilites

--ZakkWylde 01:27, 24 March 2010 (CET)