Blog – Full Posts

Now you can subscribe to Earmark CPE

Blake Oliver · June 28, 2022 ·

Today is a big day for Earmark. In the latest version of the Earmark CPE app, you’ll see an option to subscribe. Thank you to everyone who took our survey to help us determine the price.

Your annual $99.99 subscription unlocks unlimited free courses so you can earn CPE without limits. It also supports our work at Earmark so our team can continue to bring more CPE courses to the platform and improve the Earmark app.

But don’t worry, The free CPE isn’t going anywhere. We’re just putting a speed limit in place. If you stay on our free plan, you’ll be limited to one free course per week. Just keep coming back every week, and you’ll get all the free CPE you need. But I do hope you’ll consider subscribing to support our work.

We’ve also added support for Premium and Sponsored courses. Premium courses will feature exclusive premium content available nowhere else and will be sold separately (a la carte) for a fee determined by the course author. Sponsored courses will be offered for free by vendors in exchange for your name and email address and will not be subject to the one-course-per-week limit of our free plan. Premium and Sponsored courses will be identified with a label on the course.

In addition, this version of the app includes support for:

Terms & Conditions
Integration with Meta for Business
Improved scrolling behavior
One tap scroll-to-top
Improved network retry
Visual improvements
Bug fixes

I hope you enjoy the new Earmark CPE app and consider subscribing to support the future of CPE. Not yet a member? Download Earmark CPE today.

Results of the pricing survey

Blake Oliver · May 25, 2022 ·

Last week, I sent a survey to all of you asking, “What would you be willing to pay for an unlimited subscription to Earmark CPE?” Watch the video below to learn the results and how it’s changed our plans.

Re-focusing on unlimited CPE

An incredible 157 of you responded to this survey (which is a lot, considering it only went out to about 1700 or 1800). Thank you to everyone who participated!

We’ll get into the numbers, but first, here’s my takeaway from the feedback you gave me in the notes: Unlimited CPE is what you’re here for. The Media Player and the Premium Content were not so necessary to your valuation.

So we’re just going to look at the pricing for this Unlimited Subscription in the context of Unlimited CPE, which is what you’re getting right now. And then, as we add the Media Player and the Premium Content, we might add additional, higher-priced tiers to capture the value of those additional features once we have them.

The results

So back to the numbers.

The count of responses is 157.

The maximum that anyone would be willing to pay? — $600! Wow!

The median is a hundred dollars.

The minimum is $0. Plenty of you said, “Hey, I get free CPE now. I love Earmark, but I’m fine with just getting free CPE. I don’t want to ever pay for it.” And that’s okay because we also generate revenue from advertising. We’re always going to have a free option for Earmark that sponsors will support.

The average is $122.

The standard deviation is $117.

The analysis: $99 is the sweet spot

I grouped all of the responses into buckets of “would pay X or more.” For example, if you answered $80 to the question of what would you pay for an annual subscription, you’re counted in the row “$49 or more.” If you answered $600, you’re also counted in that bucket.

Right away, something stood out. The “$99 or more” row has the most significant chunk of recurring revenue, representing 45% of the total possible ARR.

So $99 per year is the place we’ll start. Because most of you said, “I’m happy to pay that.” And if we’re going to offer a single subscription price, this price will generate the most revenue.

The table also shows there’s a gap. We could be making 55% more money if we figured out how to create and sell both less expensive and more expensive subscriptions. We will figure that out as we continue to add 5-10 CPE courses every week.

Adding in a member community

There’s one thing that I want to add to this: a Member Community. As part of the annual subscription, you will get access to a community of fellow Earmarkers. You’ll be able to talk directly to the Earmark Team (including me) and tell us what you want from Earmark. What sort of content? What authors? What features should we build? You can help guide the development of this app.

The importance of member support

The community is critical because I want to make Earmark a member-driven organization. That’s important when upholding the quality of the educational content. We appreciate the support of our sponsors, but independence is essential, and financial support from our members is what makes independence possible.

Again, thank you to those of you who participated in the survey. If I missed something, hey, let me know. The team and I look forward to continuing to build Earmark with you. And I’ll come back to you with more info as we move forward to launching the subscription, hopefully in June.

What would you pay for an unlimited subscription?

Blake Oliver · May 19, 2022 ·

Hey Earmarkers! Or is it Earmarks? No. Earmarkers. That’s better.

It’s been a while! I figured I’d give you a break from these updates during busy season. Now that you’ve gotten some rest, I’ve got a favor to ask.

I really need your input on pricing.

I’ll come back to that in a moment. First, here’s where we stand.

Earmark CPE, by the numbers.

If you open up your Earmark CPE app and start scrolling, you’ll count 150 free courses across 35 channels.

We’re up to over 1,800 members who have earned more than 5,400 CPE certificates since our launch in January.

We’re growing 15 to 20% per month. And almost all of that is by word of mouth.

So thank you so much for sharing Earmark with your friends, family, and colleagues. I really appreciate it!

Now back to that favor.

I need your help with pricing.

“Pricing what,” you say. I’m glad you asked.

The Earmark team is working on a paid subscription to offer in addition to our free membership. The free CPE isn’t going anywhere, but soon you’ll be able to subscribe to get even more.

So, I’m going to tell you what we’re planning, and then I hope you’ll tell me what you’d be willing to pay for it.

I’m asking because I’ve talked with a few of you in person over the last few weeks and the numbers I get fall into a huge range.

So I figured I should just ask rather than guess what you all think is fair.

After all, the big idea of Earmark is to make it into a member-driven community. So what better way to figure out how to price it and make this business sustainable than to ask all of you.

I’ll average your responses to figure out the best price. And maybe you’ll also give me some better ideas for what features should go into the subscription.

So to summarize, I’ll tell you what we’re planning to put in the paid subscription. You’ll tell me what you think it’s worth. And in exchange, I’ll come back to you and report the results. And I’ll make sure that your input guides the design.

So let’s get to what’s in the subscription.

The paid subscription will include:

1. Unlimited courses

“But I can take unlimited courses already,” you say. Yes, you can. For now.

When we launch the subscription, free members will be limited to one course per week or a few courses per month. Something like that.

Paid subscribers will be able to register for courses without limits, which will be very appealing to those approaching their certification or license renewal.

2. A built-in media player

Download episodes or videos to watch offline, and save your place in the audio or video portion of a course, so you don’t lose your progress. That sort of thing.

Enjoy conveniences such as these without having to leave the Earmark app to go to your podcast player or the YouTube app.

3. Subscriber-only premium content

These are special courses available exclusively to subscribers.

For example, Greg Kyte has recorded a four-hour behavioral ethics course called “Drunk Ethics.” I’m not sure I need to say much more other than that. It’s like the comedy traffic school of CPE. You have to get your ethics every year. Why not enjoy it?

As a subscriber, you’ll get free access to this premium course and others that we add in the future.

How you can help — take the survey.

So that’s what you get with a paid subscription. Unlimited courses, a media player, and premium content.

Oh, and one more thing, the subscription will be paid annually.

So what do you think it’s worth? What would you pay for it? What do you think Earmark should charge for it? Go to EarmarkCPE.com/PriceSurvey and let me know.

Thanks for your help building Earmark into the future of CPE, and I’ll see you again soon.

We need your input!

Take a two-question survey to help us price our unlimited access subscription.

Take The Survey

The Earmark CPE app is working again on Apple devices

Blake Oliver · March 31, 2022 ·

I’m pleased to report that Earmark CPE is working again on iOS devices. I appreciate your patience while we worked to bring the app back online for our Apple users.

So what happened?

We’ve outgrown the first version of the Earmark CPE app!

Since launching in late December, we’ve added over 30 channels and published over 100 courses. While we anticipated growth, we did not expect to achieve these numbers so quickly, and we’ve blown right through the limits of our MVP.

The exciting news is, we’re almost ready to launch the next version of the Earmark CPE app. Once it’s live, we’ll be able to host thousands of courses.

Meanwhile, we’ve hit pause on publishing new courses. Our goal is to resume publishing next week.

Thanks so much for sticking with us as we build the next great thing in continuing education!

1,000+ Earmark CPE members! 🎉 Here’s what’s next

Blake Oliver · February 11, 2022 ·

1,035 members!

As I write this, that is the number of you who have downloaded and signed up for the Earmark CPE mobile app.

That’s with zero advertising—all word of mouth. And in busy season, too!

How have we grown so quickly?

You’re excited to earn practical CPE in a way that fits into your busy schedule.

And you’re learning from authors who educate in a way that’s entertaining.

You’re also excited to hear from new voices—voices with diverse opinions and fresh ideas.

That’s where I need your help.

Earmark has a much bigger mission than just delivering free CPE.

Our mission begins with amplifying the voices that represent the future of our profession.

We’re off to a good start. In just 1.5 months, we’ve added 55 courses and nearly as many authors. At the current rate, we’ll have hundreds of courses for you to choose from by the end of the year.

And because voices need to be heard, the next part of our mission is to grow and support a community of accountants willing to listen.

Getting to 1,000+ members is a significant milestone. But we can do better. The new goal is 10,000 members by the end of 2022. (I suspect we may have to set our sights even higher.)

Finally, we will empower our members to share their expertise with the community.

Who better to learn from than your fellow practitioners? You’re the accountants doing the work. You know more than anyone else.

Earmark will tear down the barriers to creating high-quality CPE. That’s why anyone can author a course on Earmark for free.

Earmark is a new model for continuing education where anyone can contribute, regardless of where you’re from, what you look like, where you went to school, where you worked, what you scored on the CPA exam—or if you even cared to take it at all.

None of that matters. What matters is what you know. And when we share our knowledge, we all win.

So when it’s time to make your mark, I hope you’ll choose Earmark.

And let me know your thoughts about Earmark.

Send me an email at support@earmarkcpe.com to tell us:

What features do you want in the app?
What types of courses do you want to take?
What authors do you want to hear from?
What are we doing right? What do you love?
What isn’t living up to your expectations?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you also enjoy the ridiculous amount of new, free CPE courses added to Earmark since I last wrote.

👩‍🎓 New Free CPE Courses

Holy smokes! That’s a lot of new courses.

Open this email on your mobile device, then click on the links below to go to each course directly in the Earmark CPE app.

📲 Download the Earmark CPE mobile app

To earn free CPE for listening to these courses, download the Earmark CPE mobile app for Apple or Android: