Getting your first sales

Hey guys,

I've created a fairly extensive course on band management that I put a lot of time and effort into. The camera work, editing and subject matter are all up to scratch. I have gotten a bunch of free students onto the course and some have left reviews, all good. But I have not gotten any sales.

I have run ads on google for people searching phrases like "band management" as well as ads on Reddit (which was the source of most of my free students). Lots of traffic and no sales.

What successful actions have you done to break the ice with sales of your first course? i.e. not including promoting to existing students.

Comments

  • Hi Sebastian. Welcome to Udemy and congrats on your first course!

    However, you've kindof come on board at the "worst" time of the year. September is notorious for low revenue, because Udemy doesn't have many sales this month. I can imagine it's frustrating having put so much work into the course and it hasn't (yet) gained traction. Success here is a long game, so my advice is to try to be patient. November tends to be a big month. Find a post on this forum from Scott Duffy about Udemy's promo schedule for the rest of the year.

    Also keep in mind that successful Udemy instructors generally all agree that success takes months to years and multiple courses. Your preview videos look great and your reviews so far are excellent. So don't get down about it.

    Honestly, man, your stage (on-camera) presence is great; maybe you can make a course about how to be comfortable in front of a camera or audience :)

  • Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, it has been a little frustrating, but I do see your point.

    Does Udemy promote new courses such as mine as a usual thing when they have promos? I worry that without my promoting the course myself, students may not find it.

    With the course being on Band Management I would think that it should be fairly easy to promote it to students of musical instrument courses, and as far as I can see it is one of the most, if not THE most extensive course on Udemy on the subject.

    Did your very first sales come from your own promo or from Udemy promo?

  • Lizzy
    Lizzy Posts: 162 specialist rank

    @SebastianHowart
    The preview of your course looked great. I found it interesting and I don't even have a band. Lol.

    I will publish my first course soon but one thing I've gathered from Udemy is that it's a long game. My goal is to make 10 courses, then I'll evaluate if it's working out. It seems the instructors who succeed usually have a lot of courses. Or they release a tech course that everyone wants.

    If I were you, I'd spend my time making another course. If you have several courses, you will look like an all round expert. I don't think Udemy has a lot of one hit wonders.

  • I really have no idea how Udemy's promotion algorithms work. Some of it is obvious (good-selling courses get promoted), some of it will be auto-cross-promoted (students enrolled in other music-related courses will get emails and ads to take your course), and I'm sure a lot of it is experimental and proprietary algorithms.

    That said, your course is the first result searching for "band management" and #3 for "music management."

    I have/had my own off-Udemy following because of textbooks I've written in the past, and I draw some traffic from my website and youtube videos. But 2/3 of my traffic is organic; just people on Udemy searching for courses and finding mine.

    In your case, I think the most important question is whether people will come to Udemy looking for courses on band/music management. Tech-related courses tend to do well here because Udemy has a big reputation for tech courses. I don't know anything about the music industry, so I don't know what the inflow is like. But anyway, some side promotion is definitely a good idea. If you haven't already, you should put several of your course videos (ones that make sense on their own) on youtube, your website, etc, with links to the Udemy course page. That'll drive traffic.

    Many instructors have come to the conclusion that paid ads (google or facebook) are a waste of money.

    Otherwise, just be patient and keep working on courses. My first month on Udemy was a November, which is the biggest month of the year for most people, and I made a whopping $20. In the entire month.

  • Thanks so much for all the info and suggestions. I appreciate the help and support.

    In the marketplace insights tool it said that there was definite demand, so hopefully that is accurate.

    I'll get going on creating another course though, I know one course will not cut it. Just wanted to get the formula right with my first course before going through all the effort on another one, you know?

    Cheers.

  • Hey, thanks for the response. Maybe you should take my course and start a band :P

    Yeah, I know it isn't an overnight success thing. I was more asking about getting those FIRST sales to break the ice. Like, which actions have published instructors successfully used to get their first sales on a course. Obviously, the more sales a course has the more credible it is and the more likely it is to be put forward to prospective students so getting those first sales is key.

    There is an answer from Mike Cohen that basically answers the question though. Onward and upwards.

    Good luck with your first course as well!

  • Lizzy
    Lizzy Posts: 162 specialist rank

    @SebastianHowart

    If only I had time to start a band... but I'll have to stick to karaoke! Creating courses takes up all my spare time!

    Have you checked the most popular search terms on Udemy and google analytics? For example, people might search for 'get a gig' rather than 'band management' Make sure your title reflects the most popular search terms.

  • For sure. There were a few relevant variables.


    @Lizzy
    wrote:

    @SebastianHowart

    If only I had time to start a band... but I'll have to stick to karaoke! Creating courses takes up all my spare time!

    Have you checked the most popular search terms on Udemy and google analytics? For example, people might search for 'get a gig' rather than 'band management' Make sure your title reflects the most popular search terms.


  • Hi, I just made my first sale today, but my question is, if my course had a price of $12,99 including the discount, why did I just receive $2,68? Thanks for your comments.

  • ElianaC
    ElianaC Posts: 5,502 Udemy rank

    Hi, @Nicolasgv1993
    It all depends on how the student purchased the course. You can check the revenue share and check the details in your revenue share. Here are the several scenarios of the revenue share:

    Organic sales mean that the student found the course via the Udemy site, or via a Udemy marketing e-mail.

    Affiliate sales, means that within the last 7 days, the student had clicked a link from an affiliate advertiser of Udemy.

    Ad program sales means that a paid Udemy ad led the student to the site and to purchase your course.

    In all the cases above, we help give you context about what led the student to make the purchase, but the revenue share for these sales is all 37% now. If you will like to have a piece of detailed information about a specific sale, please reach out to instructorsupport@udemy.com.

    Eliana Cerna

    Udemy Community Moderator

  • Fervent
    Fervent Posts: 57 storyteller rank

    Presumably similar to band management, it’s a marathon - not a sprint

  • Good day Mike!

    That's a lot of investment to get your course out there!

    I just know that with patience and consistency in delivering impeccable value, paid students would come flocking with time .