A few weeks ago I said that I wanted to create educational products that are so actionable the Mixergy audience would be eager to pay for them. The problem was, to quote that post, I had “no freakin’ idea what to create.”

Well I still haven’t figured it out, but I’m getting much closer.

Before I tell you where I think I’ll end up with this public experiment, I have to tell you why there’s no Testing Tuesday product today and there wasn’t one last week.

Charging people is damn hard.

Well, not charging. That’s easy. Toss up a link to PayPal and you’re set. Easy-Peasy. No, the hard part is everything else.

Before I started charging, most people were just hangin’ out on Mixergy. Yeah, I’d have insightful interviews and some people would use what they learned, and a few of those people would email me about what they built as a result. (I love that.) But less than 1% of the people who heard my interviews contacted me, and I have no idea how many took action after giving my work a listen.

Once I started charging, just about every customer took action. I sold a course on how to do interviews, and a bunch of Mixergy-like interviews started popping up online, like this one. (Nicely done.) This guy took the course and hustled his way to an interview with Guy Kawasaki *before* I got to interview Guy — and I’ve known Guy for years, so I should have had an advantage. (I’m so proud! Nice hustle.)

They’re probably doing it for the same reason that I wore a one-size-too-small sweater to work today. I bought it recently and even though it didn’t cost a lot of money, it cost *something*, so I felt an obligation to use it.

Any way, I don’t just hear from people who love the stuff I created. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if what I learned in Mixergy interviews ensured I could instantly create stuff that everybody loved?! Turns out it still takes time and patience to get things right.) Once people paid, if there was even a little problem, they emailed me and told me about it. Then I had to solve it.

Thankfully, I have a good relationship with my audience and they’re understanding and patient. (Thanks guys. I hope to spend the next 60 years working on Mixergy and proving your trust is well-placed.) But even though I always wanted to do every single thing I could for every single member of the Mixergy community, once money is involved, I feel the need to dig waaaay deeper and do even more.

Over the past few years, if a Mixergy fan told me he couldn’t download an interview, I did what I could to help him out. But now, if the same person can’t download an MP3 *and he paid nine bucks for it*, well then I’m in real pain and I want to give him my cell phone number (or Google his number) and get on the phone and make sure we work things out (or find some other solution).

It may only be nine bucks, but it changes everything. For both sides of the relationship.

So that’s why there’s no Testing Tuesday product today. After talking to some customers, I figured out a few tech solutions that will make life easier for them and avoid a few customer service issues. I want to implement the ideas before I create a new product.

(Was it Eric Ries or Hiten Shah who said in his Mixergy interview that a new product’s first customers will be early adopters who are smarter about the product than the creator? I’m not sure. Maybe both. Whoever said it was dead-on right, in my experience.)

Oh, so I said I was closer to figuring out where Testing Tuesdays will lead and promised I’d tell you. I think the next step for Mixergy is to add paid online courses which will be taught by successful entrepreneurs. (That’s in addition to the free daily interviews that I’ll keep doing. Yeah, it’s exhausting, but I’m getting help.) There’s not much money in it and it’s been very time consuming to put on, so I can’t say for sure, but so useful that that I have to keep at it.

Past Mixergy interviewees have already volunteered to teach topics they know best and the people who sign up have been eager to use what they learn. (You don’t know pride until you hear someone say that what you taught them turned their business or life around. There’s nothing like teaching an ambitious student, but that’s a topic for another day.)

You’ll see some of these courses here in a few days, but until I hammer out all the tech issues, I’m only going to allow a small number of people in each course. I want to make sure that I deliver customer service that lives up to what Tony Hsieh & David Hauser taught me. (Thanks guys.)

And if you have a Mixergy Premium Membership, you’ll have access to every single thing I add to Mixergy this year, whether it costs 9 bucks or 900 bucks. (And, of course, you’ll have access to every past Mixergy course, interview, etc.)