Course not selling

[DaliaAlQtai744]

Hello everyone,

I published my very first course this week and have got 1201 students from distributing free coupons.

But for some reason nobody is buying it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[FrankKane · Accepted solution]

The three things that jump out to me:

- You're only offering "part 1" of this course. Many students won't pay for an incomplete course, especially when there is no guarantee you'll ever finish parts 2 and beyond. Dropping "part 1" from the title might be best, when parts 2+ don't exist. I'd also consider just expanding this course over time as opposed to selling follow-on courses; marketplace students value comprehensive courses that stand on their own.

- The title "Networking review" is ambiguous; for many businesspeople "networking" means establishing professional connections as opposed to computer networking. It might benefit you to make your title more clear.

- Your promo video is just a single title slide with you talking over it for a minute. That's not a powerful first impression. Adding more visual interest in that promo video would go a long way.

Free coupons tend to do more harm than good... there are lots of discussions about that here.

Best of luck!

[RandyMinder]

Hi @DaliaAlQtai744 - Giving away large numbers of free coupons is almost always a bad idea. Worse yet is making your course free. It's been the experience of many instructors here, myself included, that those "students" who enroll for free usually never actually go through the course. And, for whatever reason, those that do seem to be more inclined to leave bad reviews. 

I took a look at your course and was immediately turned off by the fact that you have "Part 1" in the title of the course. Yet, the course is only 2 hours in length. This implies a part 2 is coming that would require another purchase. I suspect you are doing this to increase the likelihood people purchase both part 1 and part 2. And, that's not a terrible idea. However, if you are going to do that, the part 1 course needs longer than 2 hours (IMO). I have done this same thing twice, with pretty good success. However, both part 1 and part 2 are 5+ hours in length.

Also, have you taken a good look to see how much competition you have? In most cases, when an instructor creates a post like yours, the reason for poor sales is because there are already dozens of other courses teaching the same thing. In cases like this, the new course has almost no shot of success unless the instructor does his/her own marketing.

[DaliaAlQtai744]

Thanks @RandyMinder and @FrankKane for the insights!

I’m working on making the modifications. For the course duration, I think it’s reasonable for a review course (don’t you agree?). But I’m planning on adding more content as I’m not done working on the course yet. There are a couple of topics that I need to add.

My question is, any suggestions on how to indicate this in the course and let people know that there’ll be more content on the way?

[FrankKane]

This isn't Kickstarter - students aren't interested in buying a promise of future content from you. Just focus on finishing the course would be my advice.

I'd also focus on aiming your title and landing pages around the concept of interview preparation; that's what makes your course unique in the networking space, and interview prep courses can do quite well on Udemy.

[Alexia]

@DaliaAlQtai744 For a published course, you can send announcements to let your students know you are publishing new content. 

https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605788-Send-Promotional-Emails-and-Educational-Announ...

Great advice from experienced instructors on this thread regarding title, content, introductions. 

[RandyMinder]

@Alexia - I think you are going about this all wrong and you are likely to irritate many of your students. Why would any of your students want to purchase a 'work in progress'?  You are basically telling your students, "thanks for purchasing this course but it's not finished yet and more content is coming". I would give you a 1 star rating and ask for a refund. 

BTW, I don't have any problem with a review course being only 2 hours in length. What I have a problem with is you labeling it Part 1 and telling your students more is coming. This will not end well for you. 

[Alexia]

@RandyMinder 

You are spot on. I was quoting the original poster (OP) to respond to a specific question, as something to add to the feedback already offered in regards to send announcements when the OP does add more content. 

I can see why it was seen as my post as I didn’t use quote marks. Been on cruise critic and there is a quote option to click on to respond to a specific post and there are many in one thread. Got my forums mixed up. Edited!