I've made $140,000 in the last 4 years on Udemy. Fellow Steemian, @jordanlindsey asked me how I was "killing it on Udemy"! So here's my 7 tips for "killing it" on Udemy.
I wouldn't say I was "killing it" there. I'm actually making less these days that I used to. Not sure why. But now I'm making less courses as I'm interested in other things these days (cryptos, anybody?)
Anyway, I do know a thing or two about Udemy. And I've got a lot of friends who are successful there.
1. Enjoy creating content!
Be passionate about your subject!
Make sure you love creating videos about it and you love writing blog posts about it.
The most important thing in business is to enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy your business, you’re in the wrong business.
2. Create lots of courses
The worst thing you can do is just hide yourself away and spend months and months on perfecting your first course. (A nd then you'll put it on Udemy and wonder why nobody's buying it).
Get the first course out as quickly as possible – and make sure you tell all your contacts you're doing it so you can get their ideas – and peak their interest.
And then you can make the second, third, fourth, fifth course.
Just do it.
You're not going to be successful with your first course. It’s more likely to be the third, fourth, fifth, or the tenth course that you will strike gold with.
3. Create free courses
Udemy doesn't like free courses so much these days. But what you can have a course for free for a few weeks and get loads and loads of students on the course, because there’s always loads of freebie seekers on every platform.
Then you can add more videos and more value to it and then make it paid.
Udemy allows you to promote to your students on paid courses, so you can do promotional announcements to all the thousands of subscribers to that formerly free course.
It’s a great idea to make free courses on your own site anyway. I have 5 free courses on my own site here: https://robcubbon.com/freecourses
This is a Teachable site: I get the email addresses of all the people who sign up to my free courses so then I can promote to them my other paid courses as well. Upsells!
4. Create courses in a non-competitive niche
This is a bit of a cop-out really. I create courses around subjects that I know about, eg. WordPress, web design, etc., there are the things that I do so they're my niche.
But other people may be creating courses on Perl, on Java, on JavaScript, etc., and these are great niches because not a lot of people are doing courses on them and there’s not a lot of competition.
5. Marketing!! Sell that puppy!!!
This is a really big subject because you can't just put a course on Udemy and expect it to sell (or you'll be very lucky if it does).
Create loads of great free content. Create great blog posts on your site. Create great YouTube videos – you can put 30% of any course on YouTube. that would be fine you can sell
You do this for one reason and one reason alone and that's to collect email addresses.
So get opt-ins on your own site for a free ebook or free video content you've and get people's email addresses – then you can send them value emails as well as promotional emails asking them to buy your premium Udemy courses.
Udemy will see you're driving traffic and you're getting sales and then they will start to promote your courses
6. Meet other instructors
This is the best idea in entrepreneurship: meet other entrepreneurs online and offline!
Talk to them about what they're doing. Tell them what's working for you
It's a lonely a whole world out there if you're doing this all on your own!
7. Don't just concentrate on Udemy
That would be a big mistake. Don't put all your eggs in one basket!
Sell your courses on your own site, and there are loads of other platforms out there. You don't have to be exclusive to you to me so don't just do Udemy.
What do you think?
Is this a viable business opportunity for you? Let me know if you have any questions. Always happy to help.
Or check out my free courses: https://robcubbon.com/freecourses – one of them is about selling e-books and video courses.
if you dont mind sharing, how much money did you spend on marketing and fees? im curious how much profit you made
this is profit @storcogato there are no fees on Udemy. However, I have been building an online audience for a while and that is my marketing - sending them emails, etc.
Good advice, thanks for sharing!
It's all about getting the SEO right and targeting good niches. Without any competition but still proper search results, bam, there's your money. Or you just go into saturated markets and ADVERTISE the hell out of em
Either that or to sell to your own audience @avilsd
On average, how long does it take you to author a course?
About one month, working one hour a day @superskillz followed you as well :)
@robcubbon Hey Rob what do you think of alternative platforms like optimizepress and clickfunnels for selling courses versus udemy? Of course udemy is like amazon with their own traffic but I wonder about the other options as well. Thanks for this post I am working on my first udemy course for chess.
@andrewlarson Never tried either but I don't like the idea of Clickfunnels because it look expensive and has too many bells and whistles. I don't like the idea of using WordPress plugins like Optimizepress because it of the resources it takes up on the server and you have to take care of security. I used 3 WordPress plugins to sell courses and they were all unwieldy (WishList, MemberMouse, and DAP). I was hacked on DAP. I'm now using Teachable which is so easy and off my site so security and speed is their problem. I would also recommend Thinkific for these reasons.
True Flip {ICO} - Already running a transparent blockchain lottery! Bomb! Bonus 20%! Hurry! :)
The platform is already working and making a profit :)
https://steemit.com/ico/@happycoin/true-flip-ico-already-running-a-transparent-blockchain-lottery-bomb-bonus-20-hurry
Thanks for these tips, Rob! Nailed it.
My Udemy revenue doesn't come close to what you have been able to accomplish, so well done!
I have personally steered away from creating videocourses for the moment, because I can't do everything. I'm trying to focus.
I'd like to add one extra tip to your post: if you script your videocourses (like I do: mine are not screencast recordings, but courses on (1) yoga and (2) productivity), you can use that script as a first draft for an ebook.
You can then either use that book as a giveaway to collect email addresses, or publish that ebook for Kindle on Amazon. That's what I did. Well, actually I did that for my yoga course. Not yet for my productivity course.
Note to self: Must turn productivity video course script into an ebook...
Thanks @livenowandwow – yes I've repurposed courses into books and books into courses. It's all about making your content work for you. I've also repurposed a book into an email course now I come to think about it.
I love you for sharing this. I was just noticing an ad for udemy today - tried to clik it but it snagged. Then I was thinking hey I love making educational stuff. Then I found this post. End.
wow @live2love sound like a Udemy fail. Never mind. It's not a perfect platform but there is an opportunity there
Thank you! I have to try it. But what if my English is not the best?
That should be a problem. Depending on your English, you could hire someone to do the voice overs for you but that would be expensive. Many non-native speakers teach in English. Also you can do a course in your language, there'll be less competition (but less demand).
Thanks for the info. I'm going to check it out. Respect. Upvoted.
let me know if you have any questions, @thedonfreeman
Great tips, Rob! Upvoted!
Thanks @daveespino good to see you here! :)
Likewise!
Would you believe Rob I made this on my first online course. However I made a big mistake. I have been teaching online since 2010. In 2013 I put a course on Udemy and nothing happened so I walked away. Thinking back that was a mistake. At the time Udemy was rather new. Had I of stuck with it and engaged more with the community and platform, I would of had success. I returned to Udemy mid 2015. Now I am making four figures a month, but I still do better with my own site
Interesting @paulag I never knew that about your history with Udemy. Maybe it's for the best, it's actually great news that you're doing better on your own site than on Udemy. Whereas maybe my initial success with Udemy educated my audience into expecting low prices – so you've got to factor that in as well. Thanks for the comment.
This is really interesting! Thank you. Udemy seems like a good place to reach a lot of people with your skills and teaching! AWesome
ty @linuslife
You are really starting to get me inspired to go do my eCourse. I have been putting it off for too long, but I already know what kind of hook I could use to sell the full course. Thanks!
let me know if you have any questions about the process @openmindedtravel
I'm going to start putting an outline together and then play around with my Vlog skills a bit...I have to do a travel video for a big hotel here - so depending on how that comes out, might give me an idea of where I am for hookin up my first eCourse. I only recently dove into the video blogging - not sure if I like myself on camera, but I've done it several times for local television so maybe I am ready for this.
research the niche on Udemy, @openmindedtravel, and see if there are courses selling on the subject already and check out the competition, that should give you some idea. But, certainly, if you're creating video content already, it could be an idea to try to sell it
meep
Great post , with amazing content like yours , you will be in the top of this community
thanks man @machhour you too! Although slow goin' at first :)
Really glad to have a content creator of your ability here on Steemit! Have you thought about creating a free content course on Udemy for Steemit? I think it would lead to a lot of new followers for you here on Steemit growing your reach and rewards and also help build this community at the same time.
Following you and looking forward to more!
Thank you @jordanlindsey – yes I will make a course on Steemit for my site and Udemy (and all the other sites). But I really feel like I know NOTHING about Steemit so far so ... give me a few weeks, months. Thanks for commenting
Great info i Appreciate your work
thank you @infoguro
What is udemy exactly? I have never heard of it before
@michelleb it's an online learning platform
thank you i am in the process of creating my first course, its about self empowerment and how to harness your inner potential and learn to live the life you love. I posted the first lesson to my blog under "what motivates you" I would love some feedback on it and any tips. feel free to follow me im going to add you now so i don't lose your awesome info, resteemed you too love the value here!
@cryptog I would try video. Udemy likes courses to be 75% video and that's the way people like to learn courses these days. Thank you for the resteem I appreciate it.
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I've given a lot of thought to doing this over the years and I think your post has finally sparked the fire I needed to get going with and just do.
Thanks for the motivation and the share!
always happy to spark a fire @androsform
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STOPThank you. I think giving this is worth trying.
thank you @gokike
Nice I should look into selling my courses on here
Please break it down for me. What is it all about? Never heard of it.
https://robcubbon.com/how-to-make-money-on-udemy/
https://robcubbon.com/make-money-month-udemy-skillshare/
there's some more articles where it's broken down for you @shyne07
Seems like there's some good advice in this article. I've been meaning to get on Udemy ... both posting a course, and taking some.
Sounds great, definitely an up-vote from me, time to spread the word
..cool..i ll check it..and maybe learn..thx..
hey buddy! great content! It was a great idea to follow you! Followed, upvoted - you truly deserve it!
If you have some spare time, check out my profile, too!
fetmom - real estate investor and donator :)
Honestly, I think it's pretty tough competition right now. Really tough for new players. You really need to find the unique topic then you might get lucky.
it may be tougher than it was, true enough, @sampurna
Thank you for sharing your insight that I would never have gotten otherwise. I think anything we try to do to earn a living takes a big effort. I applaud you for making this effort!
Upvoted 100%. Resteemed.
agreed @morseke1 thank you
This is a very Smart... You seem to have a lot of knowledge on several subjects perhaps we can work together in the near future.
thankyou @adsactly
that's true @dishmur