Ask Me Anything - Phil Ebiner, long-time instructor

[PhilEbiner]

Hi, 

I'm Phil Ebiner. I'm a long-time Udemy instructor - been here since 2012. And I'm excited to be a part of this community. Please feel free to ask me any questions!

Since 2012, I've made over $1.5 million from Udemy. And I don't say that to brag, but to show you what a normal guy like me can do... someone who started like many of you without an audience, experience teaching, experience selling, email list, website... nothing.

It has taken a lot of hard work and time to do this, but I believe you can achieve your goals if you have the right mindset and put in the right amount of effort!

I love Udemy, and hope to help you out on this amazing platform!

Cheers,

Phil

[DennisTraub · Accepted solution]

Twins! Congratulations!

[Vijay_Saini · Accepted solution]

Woow. That is impressive 🙂

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

Thanks!

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

I teach creative skills like photography, photo editing, video editing, motion graphics. 

Great question about how long a course should be. I always say that they should be 'as long as it takes to teach the topic.' I wouldn't focus on just simply trying to reach a certain length of course... just focus on teaching a topic in an efficient and easy-to-digest manner. You don't want to drag on and on about a topic.  On the flip side, I've seen longer courses do better on Udemy. So adding additional topics/content, and making the course comprehensive enough to be 5+ hours is generally my rule of thumb.

In terms of finishing the course - do it! Just get the course done and launched!

[RubbieNKing492 · Accepted solution]

Wow. That's impressive. I have been procrastinating with my courses. They are written but I've not taken the first stepl to launch. What advice do you have as to making it grow once i launch the first course.

[JoseSalvatierra · Accepted solution]

Hey Phil, thanks for doing this. Big fan of your Online Course Masters podcast.

How many Q&A's do you get per day? How long do you spend managing that? How big is your TA team?

How many people work with you in course production (if it's more than just you)?

Jose

[JaskoKoyn · Accepted solution]

Hey Phil! Congrats on your success on Udemy. Along with being an instructor, I'm also a student of some of your courses. I wanted to ask about your marketing. I noticed that a decent portion of your earnings come from self promotion (basing this on the screenshot you've posted).

What do you do to market your content? Which platforms do you use? Do you do Facebook advertising? I would love to know your strategies. Thank you for doing this AMA!

[UmairSimjee · Accepted solution]

That's all becasue of hard working and your consistency 

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

I definitely think free courses are a great way to build your brand and student base. Not only should you put that free course on Udemy, but also on YouTube and potentially on your own website so you can use it to build your email list that you will send the paid course to when it's done. 

You'll have to pay attention to the rules on Udemy though, because you can't send free coupons to students in a free course via an announcement. This would have to be done with your own email list or on a website/YouTube channel to your own audience.

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

At the end of the day, what ends up making more money is making more great courses. So while I truly believe building your brand (website, YouTube, social media) is super important for the long run, I also think if just starting out, you might want to just focus on creating as many good high quality courses as you can.

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

Great question! What I've learned is that those ups and downs are just the normal trends across Udemy for all instructors. November, January, June, August... those are usually peaks. Other peaks will be when I launch a new course. 

As for when it's a new month, and it's going slow... I just want to ask what you are doing to improve it? Are you working on a new course? Are you building out a website? Are you growing an email list? Are you growing a YouTube channel? Are you testing out new ways to promote? 

What are you doing to grow?

[gztibs · Accepted solution]

Thank you for being selfless and sharing with us. What do you have to say about the many sites that promote udemy free or discounted coupons？ Is it worth a try？ If it is, which sites are recommended？

[AliRazeghi · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Do you think using Google Ad is uesful for marketing my courses?

[AdimoraChimex · Accepted solution]

Hi Phil,

You have done so well for yourself and for that I say congratulations to you.

Please am new on this platform and really don't know how to start up.

Is there a way you can help me?

[PramodAgrawal · Accepted solution]

Hello Phil!

I am Pramod from India, a brand new instructor raring to go. Your story is amazing & inspiring.

I need your suggestions on - how to reach where you reached or better it. I give a few details about me and my class.

My class name: Stock sutra

What does it teach? Stock trading, currency trading, commodity trading.

Total class length - 3.45 Hrs

Total videos - 101

Design - Powerpoint slides and me talking in the background. The class is engaging with pictures and examples. The class is in such simple words that even a 15-year-old child in any part of the world can master stock trading and benefit from it.

Current status - Class is completed. Instructor verification on.

About me: I am from India. I have been trading stocks for the last 15 years. Also, I have many years of work experience in other fields too. I am now 60. This is my 1st class ever anywhere online. I am a passionate teacher and love teaching. I have worked for over a year on this class and invested all my money and loans from friends and family. I would like to return the loans as early as possible with handsome returns. I want to make my 2nd class on - Simple Yoga & Meditation.

Could you please give 5 tips to success that I should be looking to act upon.

Best wishes.

Pramod

[Naeem-Malik · Accepted solution]

I see you haven't published a course yet. 

[LaorKaelHel200 · Accepted solution]

Hello Phil, how can we talk in person about your offer? 

[Ibrahim13 · Accepted solution]

Amazing job Phil... I'm really impressed! I hope I can make my first $1.5 🙂

[BiggiAgile]

Great!

[PhilEbiner]

Thanks

[DennisTraub · Accepted solution]

Twins! Congratulations!

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

Thanks!

[Vijay_Saini · Accepted solution]

Woow. That is impressive 🙂

[PhilEbiner]

Thank you!

[Lidya]

Hi Phil,

very inspiring, what kind of courses you are doing 

I just joined Udemy I am an Artist and art instructor for many years I want to start a cours but don’t know how .

can you guide me to start 

how many hours should a cours be is it like continued courses ,

should a cours or a project be finished in one course and continue doing another project ?

Thank you 

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

I teach creative skills like photography, photo editing, video editing, motion graphics. 

Great question about how long a course should be. I always say that they should be 'as long as it takes to teach the topic.' I wouldn't focus on just simply trying to reach a certain length of course... just focus on teaching a topic in an efficient and easy-to-digest manner. You don't want to drag on and on about a topic.  On the flip side, I've seen longer courses do better on Udemy. So adding additional topics/content, and making the course comprehensive enough to be 5+ hours is generally my rule of thumb.

In terms of finishing the course - do it! Just get the course done and launched!

[Auroreb]

Amazing ! 

I am a new instructor on Udemy and I am so excited about this experience.

Do you have some advices to be well-known on Udemy and most of all how to attract new clients ? 

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. 

It's really motivating !

[Razvan]

Thank you. You were an inspiration and great help for lunching my first Udemy course. 

[Tam621]

Hi Phil, 

Congrats on your babies!! 

Just want to share it's my first day here on Udemy and I seeing your message is super inspirational, I look forward to sharing here on the platform and learning new ways of doing things! 

Much love and success!

[Andrew_Edwards]

Thanks Phil, I'm a new instructor, not yet published and that is super helpful. 

Thanks for sharing your experience! 

[RubbieNKing492 · Accepted solution]

Wow. That's impressive. I have been procrastinating with my courses. They are written but I've not taken the first stepl to launch. What advice do you have as to making it grow once i launch the first course.

[PhilEbiner]

Honestly, he best thing is To create multiple courses - some free and some paid on Udemy. 

At at the same time, you should be building your brand off of Udemy with weekly YouTube videos, blog posts, and building a social media presence.

but my biggest success is by creating more and more courses that grows my audience on Udemy, which helps when I promote my new courses.

[JoseSalvatierra · Accepted solution]

Hey Phil, thanks for doing this. Big fan of your Online Course Masters podcast.

How many Q&A's do you get per day? How long do you spend managing that? How big is your TA team?

How many people work with you in course production (if it's more than just you)?

Jose

[AmrinGrewal]

 Great job Phil. Thank you for being so open to answer any questions! 

[PhilEbiner]

Great questions!

i now have one TA who answers questions, and two others who help with assignments.

i also have a 20-hour per week virtual assistant who helps with replying to reviews and other non-Udemy things.

for courses, it’s just me unless I co-instruct courses, which I do a lot.

[JoseSalvatierra]

Thanks Phil! Appreciate the reply. Keep being awesome!

[FilipGorzka437]

Hello Phil,

Do you ever bought any advertisement for your course on other website or social media ?

[PhilEbiner]

Hey, I haven’t had any success with ads. I think since the price of courses is so low on Udemy, it’s hard to make a profit advertising your Udemy Course. If you spend money on ads, I’d suggest sending that traffic to your website or somewhere else you can try to ‘capture’ that lead. 

I focus on other free free ways to promote my brand - YouTube, website, social media