What advice would you give to new instructors?

Hello community ,

Becoming an instructor is a journey filled with growth, learning, and memorable moments. For seasoned educators, it's a path paved with invaluable experiences. But what about those who are just starting out on this exciting adventure?

To guide and support the next generation of educators, we want to tap into the collective wisdom of our community of instructors:

What advice would you give to new instructors?

Share your pearls of wisdom, insights, and tips to help new educators thrive.

Share your advice in the comments below!

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Comments

RandyMinder

I would offer two pieces of advice:

1) Before the instructor spends months creating their first course, they should do their homework and research how many courses already exist in the topic area. A routine question I see here from new instructors is, "why am I getting so few sales?". A common reason for this is because 20+ courses already exist, all rated 4.5 or higher. It's virtually impossible to compete against this.

2) Understand how little the instructor will earn from each sale. A typical question I see here is, "I put so much work into my course, published it and set the price at $49.95. Udemy sold it for $9.95 and I earned $3. What happened?" Typically an instructor will a maximum of $2-$5 per sale. Sometimes as low as $.65. And, if the instructor stays in the Deals program, they have no control over the price of their course. Udemy attempts to determine the optimum price.

SivakamiS2017

Quite frankly, if someone is entering this space now, they are a very late entrant, and their success is dicey, except if they are making Courses on AI !

UB and Subscription Margins are very low. Marketplace sales are deteriorating rapidly, and have been for a while.

ThomasMitchell

Yup. If they haven’t already, Udemy should include the planned reductions in UfB in TOS and promotional materials so when a new instructor is considering the platform, they know.

If I were new, signed up, spent 6 months building a course with the intent to get into UfB, only to find out after the fact that my 25% revenue share will be cut each year over the next few, down to 15%, I’d be angry.

I guess that’s the long way of saying I’d tell people to re-think their plans altogether.

Alexia

We each have a unique style, so bring it boldly. I recently read Generation Z, the youngest entering our workforce, prefer Millennial managers. Food for thought when it comes to their preference for online courses and perhaps a younger instructor. Coming from an older member of the forum. Diversity of instructors offering similar topics is necessary for the 5 generations we have in the workforce.

Annyves221

Wow this is good information for anyone new

DamianMcKinnon

You lose nothing but tie and a little in terms of resources to create a course. What people say about how revenues are dropping is pretty much true and hat's got a lot to do with how Udemy is restructuring to make sure it gets the lion's share of your hard work and if you came to Udemy expecting to leave your job then you'll be disappointed. But if you just want a side hustle and to refine your content creation and teaching skills in a live environment then it's a good place for that. They say the tide lifts all boats equally and, with diminishing returns, the opposite is also probably true. There is room for good marketers and hustlers to move and shake - especially now Udemy is delivering less and taking more from it's instructors.

GMA

Hello,

This information is really helpful.

GMA

This is good to know.

HeatherStua219

Jeepers! This is a bit depressing! I don't understand what people are saying about how Udemy is taking more/ diminishing returns. I thought the % price was set? I must admit, I did think it was a but much that Udemy takes 67% but it seems that they can take even more than that...! What the...?

Mohamed scientist

warm up you can do too much for yourself and others

AhmadAlameh108

Thank you for the advice.

Iam new instructor also, published my 1st course in animation 2 weeks ago.

So far I have 41 students, is it low number or I am on the right track ?

Another question :the number of students coming from Udemy marketing is really low compared to my effort in getting traffic, like 15/85%

_jason

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.

MarcJ578

Hi I am Marc , I am a new here , Its nice to be part of this educators instructors community , im learning a lot from this instructors program and how to set up a course , something i never did before, its full of challenge and new things to learn. I beleive in learning new things to advance in life, it is a challenge for me to do this and im curious about it all...

AhmadAlameh108

I have 41 student and they paid me for every student less than a 1$

ElianaC

Hi @MarcJ578
Welcome to the instructor's community! You will be able to find useful information about the course creation process by using the search bar tool.

MarcJ578

Hi thank you for this opportunity to be able to join and work on my project with this Udemy platform, i like to do this, not exactly for money but for a specific other reason.

CarolinaPor480

Thank you for those advices!

mcwilton

Build a community here and take it to your own platform where you can %

Varun sh

I would say focus on one thing at a time. Complete your first course with proper dedication and tools. Don’t just put your course for running a trial. Try to include coding , quiz in your course that is very important. Create an awesome promo video so that students would get to know as what benefit they will get from your course.

Good things take time.

Always remember: Winner don’t do different things, they do things differently:)

RoG

Thanks for the advice, Randy. I understand from your first response that it would be good to create a unique course. With what you said in your second response, I guess I'd ask whether you still think it's worth it to teach on Udemy. If folks are earning an average of $3.00 per course, it all comes down to how many courses sell. I do have the impression it's a good idea to do your own marketing as well.

RandyMinder

Hello @RoG
- I cannot tell you if it's worth it to teach on Udemy. If you do, just be aware of what you are getting in to. It is EXTREMELY difficult for new instructors to make any sort of real money (more than say $200 per month) on Udemy. The competition is fierce and unless your course has something to do with business or technology, it's even harder.

Also, before you start creating your course, do a little research and see how many other courses already exist on the topic. Very few instructors bother doing this and they then wonder why they are not getting any sales.

RoG

@RandyMinder
, thanks so much for your response!

DrAdityBhushan

For new instructors it is important to note a few points:

1. Select a course/topic for which there is a gap/need in the learning field

2. your course is addressing an unmet need

3. You are sure of the target audience for the course

4. You have a plan to send the note once published to the target to gain momentum

Once this is defined, you need to start with the tools for the process

1. course creation

2. video generation methods

3. audio devices

4. presentation format

These are the basics which fluster the newbies

Good Luck.

TomOphir

1. When thinking about what courses to create make sure you feel there is space in the marketplace for it to thrive, i.e not in a topic area that is already flooded with very high quality courses.

2. You need a create at least a few courses to get going on udemy so don't necessarily start with your top course and most specialized area. Get to know how Udemy works first, get used to the process of filming, editing and sound engineering etc with one or two courses and then focus on your main areas.

3. Be innovative with your student coupon promotions and you can make a lot of revenue that way.

DrAdityBhushan

Thank you. This was insightful. I have lots of work to do now :

BusinessTouch

It's a nice little and cute question that can help many newcomers. From my side, I would add one point and that is that instructors should promote regional languages through courses. Or say it the way, more courses should appear in regional languages. People think that if we are coming in English, we will get millions of students. It is not true always. Udemy is expanding globally and I feel people around the globe love to find content in regional languages. For example, I am presenting courses in Hindi/ Urdu languages and getting good responses from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc.

DrAdityBhushan

Thank you. And yes that makes sense. Automatic translator facility should be looked at as many like us would not be too familiar other regional languages other than the common ones.

Thanks again. Happy new year