Looking back at my Journey on Udemy
The purpose of this post is not to show the money I make on Udemy (in fact there are no numbers in the screenshot I uploaded), but to share my journey as an instructor, in the hope of inspiring others who are perhaps just starting theirs, or who are frustrated because things are not turning out as they expected, and can't spot what is going wrong.
I have divided my journey into 4 stages. In all of them there is a single common denominator (mistake-learning process) and a single result when adding up all the parts (growth).
Stage A represents what we could call "magical thinking": I'm going to publish a course and I'm going to get rich right away. Who hasn't fallen into that wonderful fantasy? I have. And in the worst way. When that didn't happen I got frustrated, I blamed Udemy, I blamed the students, I blamed the review system, and I blamed my competitors. I blamed everyone except the person I was supposed to blame: myself.
The obvious result of this mentality was to stop trying. Why would I do that? I had created what I thought was the most magnificent course possible and no one was smart enough to give it the sacred value it had! As a result I lost 2 valuable years.
Stage B begins when I said to myself: "let's try it one more time, but this time let's look at what the winners do, and let's start from there". In this stage I dedicated myself to do two things: to be inspired by the right people (thanks Phil) and to produce non-stop, without focusing on the numbers. The only thing I was looking at was what I could do better in my next course.
Something very important at this stage was that I understood that nobody is an expert in everything (specially me), and therefore I needed to learn a lot, and for that I had to associate with others, exchange experiences, link up with my colleagues.
I took advantage of every opportunity that Udemy offered to network. These actions were reflected in my charts, and reinforced that conviction. The big step (fruit of this mentality) and that gave way to the next stage, was the decision to participate in the global event Udemy Live Berlin 2019. It was not easy, I live in Argentina, and my income still did not allow me to travel so comfortably, but I knew that this was the right step.
Stage C (immediate growth and subsequent fall) was a direct consequence of 2 aspects: the Berlin meeting on the one hand (which gave me contacts, successful partnerships, support groups, great friends, and mostly a lot of learning) and on the other hand the explosion of the Covid pandemic in March 2020.
At first my sales exploded, the quality of my products improved, I started to develop a team (why did I resist so much?) and everything seemed to go up. But there were still lessons to be learned.
Sales dropped sharply in the following months, and then just kept growing slightly. But this time I was ready to blame the right person: me.
I was guilty of taken for granted that success was guaranteed. I was being kidnapped by the dumb idea that my students will love my next course, just because they loved my previous one. At the same time the world was changing and I couldn't see where it was going, and I was letting my courses be a constant reproduction of themselves. I was giving my students more of the same, in an ever-improving package. Something needed to change, and fast.
That's how stage D began, where the chart shows the biggest growth lines I've had in my entire career. What are they due to? Because I reacted to what I learned during Stage C. I decided to stop thinking about making courses that make money, and focused on making courses that improve the life of my students. When it used to take me 1 month to do a course, now it takes me 6 months. I plan my next courses as if it were a Netflix show (I'm not saying I'll make it, I'm saying I use that concept as a goal).
The paradox is that I learned that when you produce with total love, the student falls in love with you, and you achieve in an indirect way the objective you were looking for directly before.
My success on Udemy does not mean that I have surpassed anyone, it only shows that I have surpassed myself. That I have learned from my mistakes and that I must have a humble attitude if I want to keep growing. That's why I shared this graph without numbers, because what's important are those lines that go up and down, moving to the rhythm of my own wisdom and my own stupidity.
If you ever feel stuck in your career as a course creator, run to the nearest mirror, there you will find all the answers.
Comments
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Very Nice! Well explained and should be helpful to others.
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Thank you bro, your information is timely and this is what we need now, we all need your persistence attitude.
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Very well explained and a great story!
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I love hearing about your journey so far as an instructor! It's just the beginning, my friend!
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Surely didatic and inspiring
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You are so much a part of it. Thank you for your generosity. It changed everything for me!
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This is so inspiring!
Thank you for sharing with such honesty!
Wish you all the best!
Salil Dhawan
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What an amazing story, so powerful and inspiring. Very well done, probably one of the best posts I have read for a very long time. Thank you
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Amazing journey and well explained. Congratulations.
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Wonderful story and kudos to you.
Actually, I think it's better NOT to have revenue numbers in your chart to avoid demotivating people at stages 1 & 2.
Keep up your great work.
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Thanks for sharing this! And you are totally right! Specially about the part of taking 6 months to create a single course instead of 1 month. I can vouch for this, as I have taken longer than average to create a single YouTube video and it is showing in the results it is getting.
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Very well explained
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Thanks for taking time to share, it's inspiring and encouraging, well done!
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Great story and congratulations for your persistence. Hope to see the part D and beyond later on.
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What a great story! Congratulations, Fede!
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Steep drop over the past two-three months (Feb-Apr). How do you explain that?
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March was the best month of my entire career.
April is the month that is still ongoing. That photo was taken on April 9, so I had just a few days of revenue, and still missing UB.
My current calculations indicate that April is going to be even better than March.2 -
Hey @FedeGaray
, the same thing happened to me. Of course, at a smaller scale than you! But nonetheless, March was my best month ever as well! I wonder why? Why do you think that we both are doing better while a lot of other instructors say they are doing worse?I would say it is because you got courses for businesses like Excell, and I do as well, like Email Marketing...Do you think that is why? The niche/market?
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Hi @SoyMarketer
!I don't have a complete answer to that interesting question. But in March even my "soft skills" courses sold better than the previous months.
I think my main, most cherished, and updated courses are pushing my entire business up. Its all algorithmically related inside the Udemy multiverse.
I noticed the more "love" I give to my content, the more "love" I receive from Udemy and students. There are ups and downs, of course, but keeping our content shining it pushes everything up.
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Thank you so much for sharing.
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And also, in this month, I'm having a problem of channel attribution in the revenue report graph. For some reason, it is not properly updating the organic, ad program and affiliate sales...
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March was also the best month for this by far. But this was probably due to the course I made in a partenership with another instructor.
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@FedeGaray
Honestly, I truly appreciate your answer. Because I was just looking at SEO, was really doubting the strategy because I don´t want to "Link Build". But appearently, like in YouTube, and as you just mentioned in Udemy...It is all about content. The greatest content simply surfaces thanks to all these algorithms...Which really motivates me to keep going.Would you be interested in doing a course together?
Te interesa? Veo que has trabajado con Phil Ebner...Creo que tradujiste uno de sus cursos a Español. Si miras mi perfil, verás las calificaciones de mis cursos...Realmente estamos alineados tu y yo sobre la calidad de los contenidos...Y tal vez podríamos crear algo juntos.
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Outstanding analysis and insight! Thanks for sharing with the community!
Great results from great work, and it is all because you tried to solve the problem instead of blaming others!
Jason Dion
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Thank you @JasonDion
. I have to say that your presentation on Berlin about working with a team was a huge source of inspiration to me. It opened my eyes about that need, and helped me a lot during my journey.I am so lucky to have the opportunity to learn from instructors like you, leading the route.
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Berlin was a great event!
We’ve continued expanding, and we now have team member number 15 joining our team tomorrow. Two of those are new “instructors in training” as we continue to expand our team beyond just me being the only on screen person.
Keep up the good work!
Jason Dion
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I´m interested in that. Are you interested in doing something in Spanish? I could be the Marketing instructor for the Spanish market, if that´s something you have considered. @Jason
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We currently focus on the English market and IT certification courses.
We tried a bit of Spanish courses previously, but we couldn’t make it profitable when hiring instructors and support for the courses.
Thanks!
Jason Dion
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Thank you for answering!
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I am always interested in future collaborations. Right now it would be impossible since my backlog list is really full of projects (more than I should consider) so it wouldn't be fair to say "yes" and then never calling back again.
I really wish you good luck and keep looking for collaborations. There must be a good partnership out there for you.
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