What made me decide to create a second course?
For me, I did not expect much when I created my first course. I created my first course mainly as a side hustle job to earn a few extra bucks to pay the bills. When I made my first 10 dollars during the first month, I could not be more excited. I expected to make a few bucks but kind of felt more real after that first sale.
Over the next few months that one sale per month increased to 10 a month, then 15 sales per month for that first course and that gave me a thought. If I can do this with one course, what would the sales be like if I had two courses, three, four? The income could add up to make a livable wage that could seriously supplement my freelancing income. It would take me a while, but I have my evenings free after work, I needed a side hustle.
I came up with a course creation schedule by creating one course every two months with a goal of creating 6 courses that first year. I would have to work in the evenings as I still had a full freelance business I was maintaining.
6 months ago I let all my freelance clients go to focus full-time on teaching. I have been able to more than replace my income. There has been some stressful days, and this recent thread about insturctor burnout is a good read and very raw and real - Instructor creativity burn out?
At first, it was about the income, but then it started to become about helping others, not only students but other instructors. I found a wonderful community at Udemy that was warm welcoming and helpful.
Now with 14+ courses it is safe to say I am in this for the long run and look forward to increasing student reach, enrollments and have a positive influence in the educational space.
I thought I would share this to encourage others who may feel like they have to have one amazing successful first course. You can still make a lot of money by just by making one course, some instructors on Udemy have done just that.
For those building a fresh new audience, it can take several courses and a growing student base to get the ball rolling in the right direction. For me it was not until course 5 (8 months after my first course was published) that I started to have a fairly popular course.
My first course is actually no longer available as it has already been replaced by another course. It made a few hundred bucks over it's entire lifetime (18 months), but has since faded away, but it did its job of solidifying (and started) a student base for me, even if that student base was fairly small at first.
Comments
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Thanks for sharing @LindsayMarsh
! Have you been following your course creation schedule?1 -
@JocelynH
So far so good! I am producing one course each month now. I will be reducing that down to one course every other month so I can focus on updating older courses this year.2 -
That's awesome! Is there a particular order you create courses in?
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Interesting personal story and congratulations on making the full-time transition to Udemy.
I was naive when I began Udemy almost 5 years ago and I think that was a good thing. As a result I created my first 10 courses in my first 10 weeks not realizing at the time that such an achievement was not possible. I'm currently up to 44 courses and trying to add another 6 by my 5 year aniversary in a little over 3 months (I'm concerned about course quality though as my reviews have started dropping of late).
So, in answer to your question: I created my second course by never giving myself a second to think too hard about it. I recommend to all new Udemy instructors that when you make the decision to take the plunge, put on the blinders, don't second guess yourself and record like the devils on your tail.
Hope this helps,
---Brian
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I was not sure the demand for certain classes when I first started. I started off teaching a beginner level software-based course at first.
Then I started to extend that by adding theory courses and finally my 5th course I decided to make a masterclass that included a bit of both software and theory. It was much longer and has been more successful.
Since finding that out I have made longer courses that contain both theory and software learning with practical student projects we work through as well.
I now have produced several intermediate level courses and have to yet to develop a truly advanced level, simply because the demand would not be as high as other levels but that is in the works for this year.
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Great post @LindsayMarsh
, thank you for sharing.My story is very similar, I didn't really to know what to expect from my first course but always knew there would be a second, third, fourth and so on. It was my 5th course that really took off and I haven't looked back since.
Starting with zero audience is never easy but the truth is that it is absolutely possible and we are both proof of that for anyone out there who is unsure!
Congratulations on your success and may more of it come your way :-)
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Very inspiring. Very straightforward with no spice. I feel motivated.
Dr. Veda
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Full disclosure: I'm brand new here and have NO idea what I'm talking about. Ok, given that, and the fact that I just launched my first course about a week ago, here's what I think: Using FREE coupons and social media, I got a lot of early signups. A surprising number of them actually took my course and provided GREAT feedback - some of it seemed so obvious but I somehow didn't implement it before I launched. What I've learned: I'm glad I chose to create a SHORT first course. I'm taking all the feedback and will post continual updates with new features and enhancements directly in response to student suggestions. This first course will be my beta test course, refined to perfection. Once it's a truly great course, it will serve as a model for the next course, and so on.
Have no idea if this makes sense, but that's where I am right now. Good luck to all!
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Congrats.
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