New Language Course Just Published in Belarusian

Hello Udemy community,

After a month of hard work with my Belarusian native partner, we finished our first course, Complete Belarusian for Beginners, first of its kind on Udemy!

My name is Jarrett and I'm a pilot and linguist that speaks multiple languages. I already recruited a few other native speakers to help me make a Russian, Chechen, Icelandic, Canadian French, German, and Norwegian course making Chechen and Icelandic the first of its kind on Udemy.

So my course was published a few days ago, I know there are many marketing sources on this forum which I've taken a look at, I've done a YouTube promo channel, Facebook page, reached out to potential interests, took advantage of all of the Udemy promos, but I do not see many articles on how to market foreign language courses, especially uncommon/unique languages like Belarusian. Any tips to drive up student counts would be greatly appreciated. Open to ideas and criticism. :)

Thank you!

Comments

  • MeryMejia
    MeryMejia Posts: 352 Udemy rank

    Hi @b738pilot
    , Welcome to our community! You might want to take a look at this great thread where instructors shared some marketing tips: https://community.udemy.com/t5/Marketing/How-can-I-market-my-course/m-p/435

    Also, can you edit your post to remove the course link? (click "options" then select "edit message") We don't allow self-promotion (course links included), thank you.

    Mery Mejia

    Udemy Community

  • Hi thanks link removed. I saw that article, I was more or less looking for language course specific marketing advice. It's pretty easy to market programming language courses or marketing courses from what I've seen so far on Udemy, but foreign languages seems to be a tough market to break through.

  • Vlad_B
    Vlad_B Posts: 113 specialist rank

    Dear Jarrett,

    Congratulations on publishing your first course!:)

    While I don't have a specific marketing advice, let me share with you something that might help. I've met quite a few people who divide their projects into two categories:

    1) "I want this to happen". And it is profitable.

    2) "I want this to happen". It is not profitable. But I want to create this thing.

    If the projects in "1)" are so profitable, that they cover their own costs plus the costs of "2)" - then the whole economy is working. So projects from "1)" sponsor (fund) the projects from "2)".

    Why discuss this? Because it is quite possible that some very niche courses might not sell well (sell very slowly), simply because the audience is very small. But I hope that you will create the next courses anyway!! Even if the first few courses are not profitable straight away.

    Also, they might become profitable later - after a long period of time, when enough people enroll to cover all the costs to create the course.

    And by the way - the programming courses are not as easy to market as it seems. The competition is fierce - any popular topic is already covered in depth by best-selling instructors. So creating a niche course is really a good thing: small niche -> small competition -> larger market share.

    Another aspect is COVID-19 - unfortunately, some people study new language when they prepare to travel to the specific country. When travel is postponed to next year, some people might postpone the language learning (i.e., why learn today - I'll travel next year, so I'll forget anything... I better learn next year, right before I travel). Good news - even if this factor is affecting (maybe it's not), it will go away next year.:)

    All the best!

    With kind regards,

    Vlad.