Stop Complaining instructors!

Recent months I see a few instructors yapping about low revenue and blaming Udemy for it.
Market is bad, ChatGPT has impacted heavily. Now people do not buy courses for every tiny thing ChatGPT explains it to them in their customized language.
Also, new instructors are coming; they are also taking away shares along with the subscription model.

Course publishing is not a profitable business anywhere tell me a single website that is successful by selling courses apart from Udemy.
Stop yapping, update your content and knowledge.

Lol some instructors are yapping that they will leave the platform LOL, where will they go?
There is no better platform than Udemy.
You think creating a course is the difficult part? it is the easiest part of teh job.
Create your own platform, then set up payment gateways for each country, then market your course.
Unless you have a huge audience on platforms like YouTube, nobody is gonna give a damn about your course.

Be grateful for Udemy and what they are providing.
Constructive criticism is always great, but blaming your own incompetence on a great platform like Udemy is LOL. Get better and be grateful.

I am excited for 1:1 coaching it will definitely help everyone.
Thanks to all the Udemy staff and moderators.

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Comments

NerdNebula

When the axe entered the forest, the trees said: the handle is one of us. :)

ThomasMitchell

Yeah, I'm sure the people that won't pay $12 for a 40-hour course are gonna absolutely jump right on the 1:1 coaching for $150 for a half-hour session. lol…. Come on, now.

Dr. Kat

I get your point but why the disrespectful and degrading language? It just takes away from your message, and does not make it possible to have a fruitful discussion.

LindsayMarsh

Make sure we continue to speak up as instructors. The last thing we need is to be complacent. Great companies are made when they are constantly challenged to improve and make it a more sustainable company through changes that were brought about by those speaking up. The way you wrote this was very combative in tone, not a great way to spread a message of hope and challenge.

Jose_Moreno

Clearly, you don’t speak for us. This is not only about market changes, it is about how a large company is poorly managing those changes and failing to be transparent with the people involved. As instructors, we are concerned because many of us made a living from this and invested years of work in building a solid income system, which is now suddenly falling apart.

RonErez

Stop complaining about people complaining. I have an excellent job at a university, however if I am displeased with something or I feel something can be done better then I might express my opinion. All of my courses are up-to-date, I respond to every single question and every review and I am not incompetent. Perhaps you are speaking from firsthand experience. I am happy to be on Udemy but sales are dropping despite publishing another 8 courses in the past 6 months. I am making almost half as much as I made a year ago with twice the number of courses. This is a fact. I appreciate everyone on Udemy but it doesn't mean everything is perfect. If you don't want to complain then don't complain.

SivakamiS2017

When there is a lot of pent up frustration, over many years, complaints are natural !
We should not take it out on Udemy employees, by being rude or nasty to them. And too much negativity is counterproductive, so it's important to try and stay positive and constructive, especially in our criticism !

That said, I can fully empathize with the frustration, anger, and disappointment, 100% ! Many of us have worked quite hard to get here, and continue to do so. To see revenues constantly dwindling, for no fault of ours, and not see any of the promised returns, will make anyone angry and frustrated !

Esther

"stop yapping", "be grateful", "Lol", "LOL" and again "LOL". I think I have an idea why you think Udemy is a great platform …

Sushy

will be careful in future thank you

Sushy

That’s the problem ChatGPT now answers most of the basic questions that people used to purchase courses for. And it does it instantly, in their own language, with follow-up questions, clarification, and a variety of examples tailored to what they actually understand.

Udemy has been doing a lot of promotions in recent months, but despite all that effort, nothing seems to be working the way it used to. The entire market has shifted.

There’s a solid reason why there isn’t a single course-selling business anywhere that is as successful as Udemy. The model itself is under pressure:
AI reduces beginner-level demand
Hundreds of new instructors flood the platform every month
Subscription models eat into individual course sales
Students expect fast, personalized learning something AI provides better than static videos

I understand you I’m going through the same phase as 98% of instructors. We all work hard, and so does everyone else. The market has changed, and despite that, the platform is doing what it can. The new features they are adding will hopefully improve things and make it easier for us.

Sushy

You’re right I understand you. Unfortunately, the ability to scale is very limited when it comes to the course-selling business. The top two companies in the world, Coursera and our Udemy, have almost the same valuation, which shows how saturated and capped the market already is.

I’m still hopeful, just like all of you, but we need to be patient. We’ve all worked hard, and the industry is going through a transition phase. If we stay consistent, adapt, and keep improving, things can still get better over time.

Sushy

I think they are very transparent their revenue-sharing model is clearly explained on their website.
I understand, man, I’m on the same boat as you. But the threat of AI is real. People don’t purchase courses for the most basic things anymore; they just use ChatGPT. And honestly, for beginner-level tutorials, it’s better than any instructor. That’s the truth.

Sushy

If the course price is $12, then yes, people have to pay that amount. But every month there are still a few students who purchase a course for $54 or even $74. Even just two or three of those 1:1 sessions at that price can make a meaningful difference for many instructors. The revenue sharing for 1:1 sessions is probably around 70:30 with 70% going to the instructor and 30% to Udemy — so yes, it is definitely helpful.

And honestly, why would I charge $150 for a 30-minute session teaching helpdesk, coding, cloud, cybersecurity, or anything similar? We’re not offering quantum physics or astrophysics masterclasses. Our topics are not that important anymore.

Sushy

Calm down, Everyone here is facing similar challenges, but most people try to discuss solutions or share insights instead of repeating the same frustrations. It’s understandable to be upset, but there’s a point where it stops being constructive. We’re all dealing with the same market shift, so staying level-headed helps more than constant negativity.

ThomasMitchell

Stop it. You sound ridiculous. You are speaking about things you don’t even understand. You sound like a 16yo kid who thinks they know everything about the world.

You’re trying to lecture me about 1:1 coaching and asking me why you’d charge $150 for it while not even having the basic understanding that $150 is the minimum we are allowed to charge. LOL.

You also try lecturing me about why people only pay $12 for courses while not understanding that the only reason they sell for $12 is because Udemy, over the years, conditioned people to not pay more than $10. It’s taken several years just to get people to move from $10 to $12. The course prices are $12 because the vast, vast majority of people don’t buy when it’s much higher.

Do some homework and learn your history, mate, before trying to tell folks here how things work.

Dr. Kat

You do know that a 1:1 coaching is not teaching, right? The 1:1 needs to be tailored to the specific student you’re talking to, otherwise the entire format doesn’t make much sense. And Thomas is right, Udemy has done everything in their power to attract and nurture an audience that’s on the lookout for cheap, discounted education. The entire format doesn’t fit that audience.

Naresh498

The cheap crowd ask you bunch of questions and expect you to reply immediately if not leave a negative review embarassing you in public. I had some students enrolling my course, asking me to provide license for free of cost, and leaving bad reviews for not agreeing to their agenda. We could have avoided this situation by raising the bar high. All we need is quality students.

Naresh498

Straight from Tik Tok to Udemy.

Sushy

I’m not trying to lecture anyone here, sir I’m simply stating my perspective. I’m sharing what I’ve observed, not telling anyone what to do. My point is just based on the reality of how the platform works and how the market is changing.

The only reason Udemy prices most courses at around $12 is simple it’s far easier to convince 100 people to spend $12 than it is to convince 10 students to spend $50 on a single course. Selling online courses has never been a billion-dollar idea on its own it's a volume-driven business model.

And now we’re seeing how quickly platforms like Udemy are being impacted by tools such as ChatGPT. Learners don’t need to purchase a course for every small topic anymore; AI explains concepts instantly and in personalized language. Naturally, this reduces demand.

Show me one platform that consistently sells courses for $100 and has reached the scale and success of Udemy. There isn’t one. The business reality is clear: high-ticket course marketplaces don’t survive at Udemy’s scale.

Udemy didn’t tailor i anything special they simply did what was viable to keep the platform running: low pricing, high volume, and constant discounts. That’s the only model that works for a marketplace with millions of users and thousands of instructors.

JosephPhillips

Could you be any more condescending?

RyanJaress

Hey there everyone!

We want to keep this thread active because it's an ongoing discussion, but we encourage everyone to maintain a civil tone.

We always appreciate your thoughts and opinions on this forum, and we encourage them, but sometimes things can get a little heightened throughout the thread. and want to ensure that this is a safe space for you to express yourselves.

Thank you!

ThomasMitchell

Can’t have a civil discussion when OP opens with “stop yapping” and LOLing at people whose livelihoods are being flushed down the toilet.

aaltug

You cannot tell people to calm down when your initial message was nothing but calm… You did not try to discuss solutions at all.. you just starting with a degrading tone and continued to blame people instead of understanding what the real issue here was… I cannot take anything you say seriously…

Dr. Kat

Not the "calm down".

I can't do this anymore.