Ask Me Anything - Phil Ebiner, long-time instructor
Hi,
I'm Phil Ebiner. I'm a long-time Udemy instructor - been here since 2012. And I'm excited to be a part of this community. Please feel free to ask me any questions!
Since 2012, I've made over $1.5 million from Udemy. And I don't say that to brag, but to show you what a normal guy like me can do... someone who started like many of you without an audience, experience teaching, experience selling, email list, website... nothing.
It has taken a lot of hard work and time to do this, but I believe you can achieve your goals if you have the right mindset and put in the right amount of effort!
I love Udemy, and hope to help you out on this amazing platform!
Cheers,
Phil
Comments
-
Great!
2 -
Twins! Congratulations!
6 -
Woow. That is impressive
3 -
Hi Phil,
very inspiring, what kind of courses you are doing
I just joined Udemy I am an Artist and art instructor for many years I want to start a cours but don’t know how .
can you guide me to start
how many hours should a cours be is it like continued courses ,
should a cours or a project be finished in one course and continue doing another project ?
Thank you
2 -
Thanks!
3 -
Thank you!
1 -
I teach creative skills like photography, photo editing, video editing, motion graphics.
Great question about how long a course should be. I always say that they should be 'as long as it takes to teach the topic.' I wouldn't focus on just simply trying to reach a certain length of course... just focus on teaching a topic in an efficient and easy-to-digest manner. You don't want to drag on and on about a topic. On the flip side, I've seen longer courses do better on Udemy. So adding additional topics/content, and making the course comprehensive enough to be 5+ hours is generally my rule of thumb.
In terms of finishing the course - do it! Just get the course done and launched!
27 -
Wow. That's impressive. I have been procrastinating with my courses. They are written but I've not taken the first stepl to launch. What advice do you have as to making it grow once i launch the first course.
4 -
Hey Phil, thanks for doing this. Big fan of your Online Course Masters podcast.
How many Q&A's do you get per day? How long do you spend managing that? How big is your TA team?
How many people work with you in course production (if it's more than just you)?
Jose
2 -
Hello Phil,
Do you ever bought any advertisement for your course on other website or social media ?
1 -
Amazing trend Phil - congrats!
2 -
Amazing !
I am a new instructor on Udemy and I am so excited about this experience.
Do you have some advices to be well-known on Udemy and most of all how to attract new clients ?
Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
It's really motivating !
2 -
Great job Phil. Thank you for being so open to answer any questions!
3 -
Honestly, he best thing is To create multiple courses - some free and some paid on Udemy.
At at the same time, you should be building your brand off of Udemy with weekly YouTube videos, blog posts, and building a social media presence.
but my biggest success is by creating more and more courses that grows my audience on Udemy, which helps when I promote my new courses.
6 -
Hey, I haven’t had any success with ads. I think since the price of courses is so low on Udemy, it’s hard to make a profit advertising your Udemy Course. If you spend money on ads, I’d suggest sending that traffic to your website or somewhere else you can try to ‘capture’ that lead.
I focus on other free free ways to promote my brand - YouTube, website, social media
4 -
Great questions!
i now have one TA who answers questions, and two others who help with assignments.
i also have a 20-hour per week virtual assistant who helps with replying to reviews and other non-Udemy things.
for courses, it’s just me unless I co-instruct courses, which I do a lot.
2 -
Hey Phil! Congrats on your success on Udemy. Along with being an instructor, I'm also a student of some of your courses. I wanted to ask about your marketing. I noticed that a decent portion of your earnings come from self promotion (basing this on the screenshot you've posted).
What do you do to market your content? Which platforms do you use? Do you do Facebook advertising? I would love to know your strategies. Thank you for doing this AMA!
2 -
Most of my own promotions come from direct sales from YouTube or my website, and some email marketing - no Facebook ads or any type of ad.
cheers
3 -
Thanks
1 -
Phil,
Thank you for being open to help others in the course creation process. We all really appreaciate your contributions to this community. I wish you many more success-filled years ahead!
Have a geat day!
John
2 -
Thank you!!!
1 -
Hey Phil, thank you for sharing this graph with us too. It took you quite a few years to find your stride, and i think that is a valuable lesson for a lot of us right?
Any thoughts on how to persist, how to keep improving, and what are the things you wish you knew back between 2012 - 2016?
Thanks!
2 -
@PhilEbiner
, my only question is, when is Season 3 of the Online Course Masters podcast going to drop? I love listening to the show on my commute to my day job. It really inspired me during my first year, and can't wait to hear from more instructors on your podcast (and maybe even some "where are they now" updates)!Episode 2 with Scott Duffy was a really great one that helped keep the perspective on why I should continue to focus on Udemy (at a time when my focus was shifting), and there have been countless others that I learned a lot from (Diego Davilla, Dave Espino, and too many others to name). Without an official Udemy podcast out there, I find OCM to be a great "unofficial" one since so many of your guests were Udemy instructors.
Jason Dion
5 -
What marketing tools do you use to get students ?
2 -
Hey Phil!
I'm here because I watched your course about creating a course. You rock man, love for the kids. Stay blessed & keep pumpin stuff!!!
Naeem Malik.
1 -
You are helping and inspiring the community over the years, thanks a lot for that.
Wish you a lot more success.
I want to ask , Do you still generate revenue from your old courses that are 3,4 years old?
for most of us, few of the courses generate most of the revenue, is it true for you as well?
Thanks
3 -
Thanks Phil! Appreciate the reply. Keep being awesome!1
-
Phil, huge congratulations on your success! I’ve got a couple of your courses and you deserve the success you have achieved.
ive only been on Udemy as an instructor since September 2017 and I certainly have the passion for it that you do.... I love it!
I hope your results are a true inspiration to others.... I know they are to me
3 -
Hi Phil,
I teach programming courses and my question is related to screen resolution while recording.
My Macbook Pro default resolution is 1440 X 900. I use a third party software to get the resolution adjusted to 1280 X 800. I record all my courses on 1280 X 800. Is that going to be problem in the future? What do you suggest?
2 -
Outstanding Performance :smileyhappy:
2
