Charging Toward $100K by 5 Years; Is That Good or Bad?

Comments

  • SharonRamel
    SharonRamel Posts: 1,312 rolemodel rank

    Congrats @
    and welcome to the milestone club!

  • Sharon,

    Thanks. Is $100k a milestone. I don't know if you're sworn to secrecy, but does something happen?

    I've been equally interested in 100k students and 5k reviews that I'm also approaching.

    Here's hoping for good news for all in the future ;-).

    ---Brian

  • Also, notice that as Udemy revenue flattens out SkillShare and Stack Commerce step in to more than compensate. I've recently been switching the bulk of my efforts to bolstering this platforms along with iStudy and Teachable.

    All the best,

    ---Brian

  • Thor
    Thor Posts: 2,331 rolemodel rank

    Only you can decide if that is good or bad :)

    I think it is better than most instructors do on the platform (or any platform), and where they wish they were.

    Stackcommerce is just your own hosting? If so good traction, actually regardless if it is own or them offering your courses, looks like good progress.

    Skillshare to me was just not worth it.

  • @Thor
    ,

    I feel like after 5 years spent on this platform I'm what's known as a midlist instructor. Sigh...

    StackCommerce is some magical platform that found me and has since provided a lot of money per year. Once I've figured out how it works I'll no doubt be providing a Udemy courses ;-).

    I was less than impressed by SkillShare at first, but then the $500 per month became more and more significant.

    Thanks for the input,

    ---Brian

  • Thor
    Thor Posts: 2,331 rolemodel rank

    Very cool man on the stackcommerce :)

    Magic money totally works.

  • Sijal_Ahmed
    Sijal_Ahmed Posts: 247 specialist rank

    Which one is best? What about the teachable?

  • @Sijal_Ahmed
    ,

    They all pay money so I'd recommend publishing on as many platforms as you can without distracting from Udemy (my primary cash cow).

    I do Teachable as well but have only managed to give away free courses on that platform. Unlike Udemy, SkillShare and StackCommerce, Teachable requires you to build the marketing infrastructure to bring students to your school. I have yet to build that infrastructure. Another platform I've only just begun to explore is iStudy in the UK. Hope this helps.

    ---Brian

  • JocelynH
    JocelynH Posts: 1,536 traveler rank

    Congrats on hitting $100K!

  • Congratulations!

    It's good! The slope of the line is good. Progress is good.

    We are all different, in our cost of living, or field of knowledge, our financial needs, etc. so I think comparing one instructor to another is a bad idea. You have to decide whether the time you put into course development is worth it relative to other ways you could spend your time.

  • ScottDuffy
    ScottDuffy Posts: 888 rolemodel rank

    Not sure what you're expecting as an answer.

    $1000 per month on Udemy probably puts you in the top 1000 instructors. But not the top 500. So, it's not amazing, no. But congratulations. Money is money.

  • Sijal_Ahmed
    Sijal_Ahmed Posts: 247 specialist rank

    Udemy has over 25K insturctors. And around 24K are earning less than $1000/month! Is this true?

    What about $5000/month? How many instructors are earning this much amount on udemy?

  • Sijal_Ahmed
    Sijal_Ahmed Posts: 247 specialist rank

    You have 40+ courses and you are earning around $2500-$3000 /month, this means that you are earning less than $100/Course. Is it normal?

  • @Sijal_Ahmed

    It's worse than that. I have 44 courses, over 90k students, almost 5k reviews and a 4.3 instructor rating and I'm making more like $2000/mo from Udemy. Yes, my courses are old and getting tired which doesn't help but I keep adding to them and try to update them.

    The other thing to note in the chart is that my Udemy revenue pretty much flattened out by my 2nd year. I'm happy with the other sites kicking in additional revenue and am focusing on that area of late to increase my overall online course creation earnings.

    After coming off earning $500k in 5 years self-publishing Amazon books I'm pretty disappointed to have only made $100k in the same time with Udemy.

    I would hope that others are seeing better returns from their efforts and what I'm experiencing is not normal.

    ---Brian

  • Sorry everyone for whinning about only making $100k. Sometimes I need to kick myself ;-).

    ---Brian

  • Sijal_Ahmed
    Sijal_Ahmed Posts: 247 specialist rank

    It is not bad. If you ask for a person living in Paksitan, earning 2000-3000 USD/month is a big amount. I can change my car every year, dine in fine resturatnts etc.

    But it might be low for living comfortably in Newyork or san francisco!

  • ScottDuffy
    ScottDuffy Posts: 888 rolemodel rank

    Udemy does not have over 25K active instructors.

    How many instructors do you think have published or updated a course in the last 12 months? Let's start there. Because if someone published a single course 3 years ago, they didn't put any work in and they deserve to not be getting good results.

    $1000 per month is good money in many parts of the world. Exceeds what a lot of people make at their full time jobs. And Udemy is not a full time job and for many people, they do nothing (0 hours of effort) to earn that each month not even answering student questions.

  • @ScottDuffy

    1) Reporting from California, $1000/mo is not good money.
    2) I'm working my butt off to be the most student responsive instructor on the site. I find it somewhat insulting suggesting that we deserve lesser income because we of the middle are slackers.

    3) "Udemy is not a full time job." I agree and find this unfortunate compared with alternatives.

    ---Brian

  • @ScottDuffy

    I think I was looking for the same response I had and the one you just gave me.

    Effectively: "$100k is always good, but in this instance it isn't great."

    Thanks,

    ---Brian