I've made 1000$ on my first course [Here's what I learned]

HilalHakla522
HilalHakla522 Posts: 17 trailblazer rank
in First-time course creation

After six month from publishing my first course on Udemy, I only made 1000$.

HilalHakla522_0-1653137849990.png

While this is certainly a good milestone per se, and I know I won't be making millions from publishing courses like other senior Udemy instructors that already got the benefits of being first movers and already publishing course after course and built a personal brand.

I just wanted to share my humble experience on this platform and maybe shed some light to future aspiring course publishers:

  • You need to publish A LOT of courses to gain traction, don't expect that to happen tho, proceed at your own time risk.
  • Udemy kills your income with discounts that are tuned geographically, for example buyers from India will purchase your course at 0.5$ to 2$ while buyers from european countries might buy it at 4-5$
  • Udemy courses are a maintenance headache, you need to keep promoting your courses, updating them, answering questions etc...
  • Udemy's "buy once, own it for life" business model is flawed - imo. This is a huge down side for me, courses on udemy are not "subscription" based, current students don't pay for updates and don't support your ongoing maintenance plan. App developers charge subscriptions to update their apps why can't course be like that ? There's too much value provided to students at extremly low prices, apparently this profits Udemy but not much instructors-unless they bulk upload courses and content ?
  • Don't publish course to make money Publish courses maybe to help students, build a brand or any other goal, just don't think about money and don't expect it either. You won't be motivated making content if you think much about revenue.
  • Competition: There's so much competition on high traffic courses (courses that users search for). Competition is fierce AF ! So If you search for some key words and you found that one or more courses are ranking top with tags like "best seller" "highest rated", I don't think It's a good idea to waste time making that course, unless you have your own audience for that and 100% sure about your plan.
  • Most important lesson in my opinion is : Udemy is a long term game. Udemy is one of those things similar to blogs, you spend years building blog pages, eveeeeeeeeennnnntttttuaaallyyyyyyyy those pages will rack up traffic and provide decent ad revenue.

Just my 0.2$

Comments

  • SAPBuddy
    SAPBuddy Posts: 206 specialist rank

    Good work

  • HilalHakla522
    HilalHakla522 Posts: 17 trailblazer rank

    Thank you

  • Bella
    Bella Posts: 3,694 traveler rank

    Hi @HilalHakla522,

    Congratulations on your $1,000 milestone! Well deserved!

    Thanks for sharing your experience with Udemy, we really appreciate you taking the time to give advice to other instructors in the community.

    Wishing you all the best!

    Bella Almeida

    Udemy Community

  • HilalHakla522
    HilalHakla522 Posts: 17 trailblazer rank

    thanks bella

  • Blogging Betty Boomer
    Blogging Betty Boomer Posts: 28 traveler rank

    Thanks for the boldness and transparency. Wish you much continued success because I do believe going forward you will rock!

  • HilalHakla522
    HilalHakla522 Posts: 17 trailblazer rank

    Going forward it is ! Thanks !

  • NzangiM
    NzangiM Posts: 5 researcher rank

    Thank you for the insights!

  • MianMuhammadUsman
    MianMuhammadUsman Posts: 9 researcher rank

    Wow amazing.

    I am also create my first course. And I hope it will be the best course.

  • SamuelOfori097
    SamuelOfori097 Posts: 4 researcher rank

    great insight. thank you

  • FurkanGozukara
    FurkanGozukara Posts: 7 researcher rank

    What price tier do you suggest for someone first time publishing a full course?

  • ajaykrishnan
    ajaykrishnan Posts: 2 researcher rank

    Great insight! And you're right, Udemy is not a place where you can get rich by making a course. It can be a good side hustle and a way to disseminate and polish your own skills. Congratulations on 1000!

  • SantoshKuma1
    SantoshKuma1 Posts: 1 observer rank

    Thank you for the insight mate. Keep writing.

  • MousaAlBate448
    MousaAlBate448 Posts: 2 researcher rank

    This resonates with me as well. I spent a good amount of time trying to tune my courses and try to improve things; tried promotions and even ran ad campaigns. I got to the same conclusion. You can't really retire off Udemy Instructor's average revenue.

    I ran an ad campaign and it was total waste because the cost of advertising almost always exceeds the revenue and the internet got used to cheap prices; so Udemy can't be seen as profitable business today but more like a charity.

    The most successful courses usually market themselves as the "70 hours" course for the same price despite the fact that those courses aren't necessarily better. Very few instructors are very successful due to the perception of value they offer.

    Overall, while I got disappointed with the possibility of earning income, I feel proud of contributing into sharing skills/knowledge and experience with the junior Devs.

  • IamDhanush
    IamDhanush Posts: 3 researcher rank

    "Great job explaining your experience, HilalHakla! It will definitely be valuable for other instructors building their courses. In addition to building a brand on Udemy, consider attracting students from other platforms or building your own brand outside of Udemy to increase your chances of success.".

  • Santhoshkum526
    Santhoshkum526 Posts: 2 researcher rank

    Thanks for sharing.

    I am coming to the same conclusion too.

  • RogerKayAllen
    RogerKayAllen Posts: 73 storyteller rank

    Thanks for taking the time to share your experience, @HilalHakla522
    .

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