I've taught a quality, 5-day Plone developer class from anywhere from $150 (heavily subsidized) to $2499 (offered by another company, using me as the trainer). What's the right price?

Of course, many students would answer "the least expensive!", of course. But, consider: if the class is that inexpensive, you'll have fellow students who may not be well-prepared. They don't have much incentive to get serious for class. At the lowest end, companies may send lots of students who want to learn to use Plone rather than build a Plone site--and having many people who aren't web designers or scripters in a developer class isn't fun for those people who are.

There's also the reasonable chance that if you go to free or ultra-low-priced training, the trainer is hoping to make their money elsewhere--usually, from consulting from students. While it's nice to get work from training, if that is a signficant income stream, it can put the trainer in a quandry: do I teach them everything? Do I leave the good stuff out so they hire me later?

On the other hand, the trainer may say the right class cost is "the most expensive--I want to make money!". Sure, I do earn a living partially from teaching. But making the classes on the expensive end also means smaller classes and students who may also not be as prepared as possible--after all, if they're paying you hundreds of dollars a day for your class, they may expect you to do all the installation and trouble-shooting for them. Which, in the end, is less fun for me, and less learning for them.

Very expensive training also reduces the diversity of the students: at $2500, you get mostly larger corporations. Smart people, to be sure, and often great developers. But Plone has a rich ecosystem of users, from tiny startups to established but small nonprofits to large companies to huge governments. I really think they have a lot to teach each other and, from my experience being in the room when it happens, I want to encourage them to meet each other.

So, I've been offering the bootcamps for about $400-500. A great deal, I think, for a week of quality training from an expert (and value is frequently mentioned by my students).

The challenge is that at these prices, my 5-day build-a-site-oriented classes are still less expensive (less than half) of most learn-to-use-Plone classes. And, as such, people who'd gain more from that class often end up in the developer classes.

I'd been thinking of raising my prices, mostly just to discourage these students from buying the wrong class. I worried, though, that higher prices might mean smaller classes which might mean fewer people get to learn, and fewer courses in fewer cities, and the whole magical card building falls down.

Instead, I've decided to start offering a 2-day, how-to-use-Plone class, the "Content Manager Workshop". It covers everything I think you need to know about Plone: adding content, where to put it, understanding metadata, installing products, and how to get help. I developed this class concept initially about 2 years ago, taught it publically at CIGNEX on a contract basis for a year, and still think it's a very valuable offering. I'm offering this first in San Francisco (my home city) and pricing it at $350. Still a great value for 2 days of quality training, half of the competition, and, I hope, priced right, so that everyone can find themselves in the class that makes them happiest.

Let's see how it works.