Hi there new course creators,
Every once in a while, a question pops up like "Should I appear in my video's?" or "Should I use my own voice (even though I have an accent)?" After years of experience on Udemy, I am convinced that students come to Udemy for the authenticity. They want to be trained by real world experts who put together a course in their own unique style.
They can easily go to other platforms and get hyper professionally produced online courses by professional studio staff. But they do not. They come to Udemy where the average course is not produced by studio staff. Why? Well, they value the authenticity. A bit of an accent, or the fact that you are not a professional spokesperson, is just fine. Just have a look around on Udemy and convince yourself.
So here are some tips:
- Show yourself to the students. Almost all very successful courses on Udemy show the instructor (at least in some videos). There are exceptions, but those are just exceptions.
- The instructor should be the subject matter expert. Spokespersons who are not the subject-experts come across as not authentic.
- Use your own voice. Do not use those speaking machines. It sounds fake and not authentic.
- Use your own unique visual style.
Now that I typed this, I suddenly get flashbacks of this movie called 'Wayne's World' that I watched years ago. It dealt with the same topic, namely importance of remaining authentic.
Best regards,
Maz
