I Got my first 1 Star Review and It's frustrating
I spent more than 7 months of my off days crunching through documentations, recording, editing and transcribing video after video. I purchased audio equipment, hardware and software and tried my best to make a course that possibly helps students learn.
All that for someone to buy my course for 1.45$ and leave a 1 star review..
I'm pulling my hair right now, the student didn't even provide constructive critism on why they didn't like the course. It seems this platform discourages good quality content and encourages recycled short content like pratice tests and what nots.
Literally if you google "AZ 204" you will find courses that are just practice tests recycled from previously banned courses.
I'm having a hard time on this platform, I feel like my efforts are going to waste, I put so much resources only to get one stared like that.
Comments
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It is hard at first @HilalHakla522
, however, we must accept that no matter what we do, we cannot be universally popular.I understand your frustration, it is true there are a lot of scam courses here on the platform. I advise you to grit your teeth about that and rise above it. I have tried and failed for years to raise the standards - however, the platform have little desire to enforce standards. Thus we must make our own personal standards and stick by them. Produce your best, look at your competitors and stand above and apart from them. With a high-quality course - it may take time - but hopefully, you will be rewarded.
It took me a few years to become established. This is a long term game.
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Thanks Sharon for the motivational reply, It's true that It's more of a long term game.
I will keep my standards high, keep pushing quality content and maintain high hopes
Thanks again
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Try to think of Udemy as purely a marketing company, not an education company. Education is what they sell but not who they are. They are great marketers of an online shop full of courses of every variety imaginable.
You should also look at Udemy For Business potential - see if your course fits what they are looking for. If so approach them if you have sales and reviews already in the marketplace.
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I understand how you feel and your point of view. However I would not worry about that review, especially if the person did not explain why. Some people are just unhappy no matter what you do and what they do! Just be happy for your great work, try to improve it, if you can and Keep going. The right students will not be influenced by a review, especially if it isn't clear. All the best.
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Thanks a lot Rita, I will shake it off
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@HilalHakla522
We understand your frustration. I seen your course it’s looks good, can clearly see you put lot of effects. This is common problem when the students leaves 1 start with no feedback, it happens to most of us. I course take almost an year to create courses which require lot of investment for hardware, still some does this. There could be multiple reasons. May be they haven’t understand subject, the style of teaching or language and so on…. My view just ignore them… so for your course is good, you have good intentions to teach, there will be hundreds of students waiting for you. But you need time and patience to get your courses visible to them.. When you get the 5 ">️ this frustration will go away. 3 -
thanks ! Appreciate the support:)
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It comes in cycles.....I generally get lots and lots of 4.5 and 5 star ratings....then out of the blue comes the 1 star review...I used to feel annoyed but now I just shrug it off, keep producing as well as I can..and move on. Best of luck. Keep your standard high and it will pay off.
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Appreciate your support
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Hi @HilalHakla522
,First of all - sincere congratulations to you on publishing your first course! The first course is the hardest one. Many people start with a 3-4 hour course. So it's amazing that you took the time to start with a 9.5-hour course. 7 months is a huge effort, for sure.
As already answered by others, the 1-star without comment are really frustrating. We should ignore them basically, but of course it is very hard to ignore them at the beginning.
Now, I just wanted you to be aware about yet another thing that can frustrate the instructors. It is that the online courses marketplace is a really, _really_ competitive landscape. So it really takes time for the course to get traction. Why? Because there are many similar courses with way higher ratings to begin with. When I type say "Azure exam prep" in the search bar, it is highly likely that the top 10+ courses will be the ones from the top instructors. It makes the new instructors with way less chances to get organic sales.
So what should we do about it?
First of all, don't expect high sales in the beginning. If you expect too much too early, and get too little, it's a recipe for early disappointment. As the saying goes: "Happiness Equals Reality Minus Expectations".
Second, do your own effort to market your course. There is a fantastic article about it from Lawrence Miller (big thanks to him!) :
And third, proceed to create more courses. Yes, it is quite hard to keep creating courses when the sales are low. But it should work out in the long run.
Hope this helps. Keep rocking!
With kind regards,
Vlad.
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Thanks for the support, I noticed that It needs time to gain traction
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@HilalHakla522
I just published my first course... No reviews yet. But I have "FedEX" on my mind.The story that Tony Robbins tells of them is: On Day 1, they had 3 parcels delivered. 2 to themselves by themselves. So in reality only 1 public customer. And this was after huge investment in planes and infrastructure. What did Fred the founder say about this while everybody else was being a naysayer? He said - that's a result. Now we know the system works. We only have to work on improving the numbers.
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Good job
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Thank you for raisingup your voice; because, that's what Moral governance should expect from the Moral freedom, in order to resolve the issue of Moral complexity. I encourage you to continue trying; because, 100 times mistakes is never a failure, but a lecture!0
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Facing the same problem here. My first course and a 1 star rating out of the blue. The reason was that the student could not install the free software I recommended. Well I have zero control over that. I have lost sales due to the low rating for no fault of mine. The course took 8 months of rigorous toil to produce and amounts to 27 hours of content so I am in the same predicament as you.
I see many encouraging replies here stating to hang on, grit your teeth and continue. But for what incentive ? You get a few dollars per student and in the initial stages, one bad rating or a few of them can kill your course. I see no point in struggling for a few dollars, waiting for sales to pick up in years time with anybody coming along and shooting down your course with wrongful low ratings. So if you want to quickly generate revenue and be justly remunerated for your efforts, UDEMY is not for you. If you value your course and have put in a lot of effort and brainwork behind your course, then stay prepared for disappointment. This is my first and last course I put up here and just because I can't withdraw the course, I'm leaving it behind as I have some students on it.
There are answers which advise marketing your courses, well if you wanted to do that, there are other platforms where you get the complete payout for your course and you get to price it and filter your reviews. Also if you do not enable promotions on UDEMY, your course will not sell anyway. I got on to UDEMY because I did not want to do my own marketing.
I will be shifting to a paid platform to host my next course, create my own mailing list and sales funnel. If I have to market myself as well, makes sense to swich over. I am certain the reward there will be proportional to my efforts.
There are a handful of instructors here who have made a lot of money but thats not the general trend.
So if you still want to put anything on UDEMY, don't work hard or produce high quality materials. Just produce medium quality short courses. Your time and intellect will not be rewarded here unless you are lucky.
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