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Who else has been approached by Specialists?

moonpool

Hello All

Since uploading my courses I have been approached by numerous so-called 'Udemy Course Promotion & Digital Marketing Specialists' wanting to help me increase the uptake of my courses, via email and also wanting to connect on LinkedIn.

Are they legitimate and has anyone used their services?

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Comments

Rafał Podraza

I wouldn’t use them. Some may use methods that violate Udemy’s policies and could even put your account at risk.

moonpool

Thanks for your comment @Rafał Podraza. That was my guess and I have no intention of using them.

RandyMinder

Are they legitimate and has anyone used their services? - No and no. Don't go there. Nothing good can come from it.

RonErez

They are scammers. They want to leach off of other people’s honest efforts.

AnkitShriva591

They are 100 % scammers…Don't fall on that trap….even if you would observe their portfolio, then You would see 1000 or 5000 students but no review. How is it possible?. If you will pay them, then they will ask you to send free coupon links. After that they will send free coupon link on students group, who will join your course for free. That means no revenue. Except you, everyone would get profit. Don't increase number of students by their method, Udemy policy may violate.

ZENITHACADE059

I too had similar experience, but I politely shrugged them off.

moonpool

Thanks @RandyMinder - I guessed as much.

moonpool

Thanks @RonErez

moonpool

Thanks @AnkitShriva591 - interesting as all are from bland gmail accounts although purporting to have 'a large team behaind them'!

moonpool

Thanks @ZENITHACADE059 - curt politeness is the best way. Worth noting - I do think I saw one of these experts posting on one of the community chats (can't be sure as I've deleted all of their emails) but they may be in the house!

moonpool

Having said all this, there must be a market for advice on how to increase student sign-ups. I've had courses uploaded for 2 months and take-ups have been in low single figures. Someone must have advice on how to become legitimately more visible on Udemy. Surely?

RandyMinder

You need to understand that the Udemy world has changed significantly over the past couple years. Udemy is doing everything in its power to get students to purchase subscriptions and not buy individual courses. And, they don't spend nearly what they used to in advertising and they do not advertise the same way they used to. Virtually every Udemy instructor is affected by this and has seen their revenue drop significantly.

You might find some way to attract students to your courses but once you do, Udemy will STRONGLY encourage them not to purchase your course but to purchase a subscription instead. Nobody likes this but this is the way it is.

Also, have you checked to see how many other courses exist that cover the same material you do? So many instructors overlook this before creating their course. You might find there are already dozens of highly rated courses that already exist in your space. This makes selling courses even more difficult.

moonpool

That may be the case @RandyMinder but then why do people come to the platform in the first place? And why do they stay around even though their revenues are allegedly plumetting? Udemy take an enormous proportion of fees for themselves so where is the pushback?

RandyMinder

"but then why do people come to the platform in the first place" - I assume by "people" you mean instructors? If so, new instructors still come because they have no idea how bad it's gotten here. All they know is that some people have made life-changing money on Udemy. And, that was true, many years ago. It's rarely true anymore.

Very few new instructors do any sort of homework before creating a course. They don't know that Udemy is aggressively pushing subscription instead of purchases. They don't know they are only going to earn $3-$5 per sale. They don't bother to check to see how many existing courses already exist that cover the material of the course they intend to create. Invariably they come to this forum and gripe about it. We see it every week.

"And why do they stay around even though their revenues are allegedly plumetting?" - Let's personalize this. Why do I stay around? What's the alternative? Removing all my courses from Udemy? Why would I do that? I still earn close to $5K per month. And that is all passive income. I rarely create new courses anymore and I rarely update any of my existing courses. I just collect my passive income each month. Why would I turn that off?

You may wonder why I don't create new courses anymore? The only way to make any money on Udemy today is to have your courses added to the Udemy for Business platform. This is where 90% of my income comes from. I have ~12 courses on UfB. But these are courses I created at least a couple years ago. This was back when Udemy was still pushing the marketplace and not personal subscriptions.

The only way to get a course on UfB is via the marketplace. You need at least 25 ratings with an average of 4.4 or higher (I think). And then it might get added. That is Udemy's decision. But, it's getting so hard to sell courses in the marketplace that the likelihood of a new course ever getting accepted in UfB is getting slimmer and slimmer. Thus, the incentive to create new courses is pretty low.

RandyMinder

I didn't view your initial post as a griping post. You asked a legitimate question about people promising to bring students to your course(s).

Your comments make it should bleak for new instructors though. - Yes, it is bleak. Very bleak. And Coursera / Udemy have done nothing to brighten the outlook. But, to be fair, I don't know what they can do. Fewer and fewer students are interested in sitting through 3-5 hour courses when they can probably learn what they need to learn in a 30-60 minute YouTube video. I used to purchase courses somewhat regularly but I haven't purchased one in at least a year. And I'm not sure I ever will purchase another course. YouTube and AI make learning much faster and much more targeted.