Bonus Lecture Do's and Don'ts: Affiliate Links?

[MarieLeRoux]

A quick question about Udemy's Bonus Lecture Do's and Don'ts. 

The guidelines are very specific, but I would appreciate clarification about this point: 

"DO feel free to include coupon codes or links to other Udemy courses, external links to your website/blog, or other supplementary products (e.g., books) that will be relevant to students."

1. Can these supplementary products include affiliate links?

2. If yes, do I need to declare my affiliate status?

Many thanks for your expert insights!

[FrankKane · Accepted solution]

They've never said you can't - the bonus lecture is your opportunity to upsell students on things, with almost no restrictions.

If you offer affiliate links, I think it actually does more good than harm to disclose that you are an affiliate. By the time students reach the bonus lecture, you probably have a good relationship with them, and they would be more than happy to help you out a little via an affiliate link that costs them nothing extra.

[SoyMarketer]

Hey @FrankKane , is this still the case? "the bonus lecture is your opportunity to upsell students on things, with almost no restrictions." Because I think there is restrictions. I mean, policy@udemy said we could not have the link in the description or as a downloadable file next to the Bonus Lecture, so where are we supposed to put the link then? This seems like the worst restriction. Are we supposed to create the Bonus Lecture as an article and then we can put the referral links in it???

[FrankKane]

They have added some restrictions since I wrote that 3 years ago. Notably you cannot put anything in the title of the bonus lecture that even hints at what you are offering within it.

The official rules are at https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229232847-Bonus-Lecture-Rules-and-Guidelines - I don't see anything about downloadable resources within the bonus lecture though. Personally I do use the article format as it makes it a lot easier for students to find the links and click on them, otherwise they would have to hunt around in the Udemy UI for them.

[SoyMarketer]

Thanks Frank. That´s what I´m leaning towards. An article with the links in it. But I did see one of the top instructors say that she went away from that, and went with the downloadable PDF instead, because her students asked about not getting the certificate for 100% completion due to having to actually consume the bonus lecture which they thought was optional...I guess I gotta try both ways, and see which one fits me best...I just don´t want to get banned! 

[Practicalbu693]

Can I put the links of my courses in the resources section of the bonus lecture?

[ElianaC]

@Practicalbu693 When adding resources to the sections they must be related to your lecture topic, and in no way promotional. So this means you are not allowed to add course links to your resources section, please check the following article that describes what information you can add to the resources. If you have a more specific question, please send an email to policy@udemy.com.

Eliana Cerna

Udemy Community Moderator 

[MichaelPog]

@ElianaC are you sure this is the right link?

The question is about the BONUS lecture.

[ElianaC]

Yes @MichaelPog I added the incorrect link to the reponse above, but I have updated it already! Thanks for the heads up 

[Practicalbu693]

I asked to udemy team via chat by sending a screenshot as shown below. And they said it is fine to do so.