Ask Me Anything - Phil Ebiner, long-time instructor

Hi Phil, you're an inspiration for everyone here and for me too... I would like to ask you something technical... I'm about to buy a background panel to put behind me when I film my talking heads videos... I want to know your thought about what would be the best color to have in this panel... I am programming to have a light at the floor behind my back to get that nice effect I see in Udemy staff videos... what do you think? I am thinking maybe a light blue?

I am definitely impressed with what have you done here!

I am in the same boat to start with no experience at all. It's exciting and scary but I'm pushing forward.

My question is, are there tools to explore topics? Similar to like keywords on Google. I will be teaching how to be a successful independent contractor. Both free content and the nuts and bolts of running a successful businesses.

I do not see a ton of others teaching what I plan to teach and hope that means I have a huge niche to fill. On the other hand, it would be nice to know there is some sort of interest on this platform.

Any advice you could give would be phenomenal!

Thanks,

Carl

Hi Phil!

Great to see you have found success in your teaching! Bravo!

I've been teaching in university classroom for past four years, but that might all changes shortly.

I want to bring my passsion for teaching online.

Any suggestions to get started again creating first course?

Your teaching and helping others learn is inspiring!

Thanks,

Jannet

Hi Phil

I'm new at Udemy...could you please advise me as to how toto crea or which software shall I use to build my content.

Warm Regards

charu

Congratulations @PhilEbiner
. This kind of income is great with two kids

Did you switch a free course to a paid course to get the leads?

hi.

I publish my course (2D Archery Game in Unity3d) at 5/2019, but after a month, I only earned $ 4.
Can you help me to sell more?

What is the best way to advertise your class? I just published my first class a couple weeks ago, and have 4 students. Two of which are members of my facebook page that I offered a free course in return for an honest review. I just wondered how to get more traffic to see my course. Thank you!

Rhonda

Hi Phil. Great that you make yourself accessible to everyone. I have decided to take my Udemy career more seriously . I was wondering whether to spend my time updating my 6 courses to make them more professional or maybe my time would be better spent creating new courses. I think there is a niche for graduate level maths and physics courses .

Hi Phil,

Congratulations on your Udemy success - I'm currently working my way through one of your courses and the quality is fantastic.

I have a question and would greatly appreciate your input (it's slightly different).

I joined Udemy back in 2014 and launched 4 courses within a couple of months. Just as these were taking off (I quickly jumped to $350/mo in revenue) I was offered my dream job, which had long been in the pipeline. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I let my Udemy business go and did very little to keep it going and support my students.

Fast forward to today and those 4 courses are still live, one of which has a rating of 4.7 stars from 17 reviews and has generated thousands of dollars in passive income. That course currently ranks on the 2nd page for 'Amazon FBA'.

I feel ashamed for having let my Udemy business go, but most of all, for letting my students down. Teaching is a real passion and seeing people succeed is both a pleasure and honour - and i've made a committment to myself that I'm going to recitfy this.

Out of the four courses, one of them has done well (considering I haven't touched it in 4.5 years), is in an area where I have had some great success and is a topic that genuinely interests me (Amazon FBA).

Do you think I should build on this one course and focus on Amazon FBA type courses (baring in mind how competitive it now is) or would it be better to start a fresh in a less competitive niche?

Whatever I do, all of my existing students will have lifetime access to every course I publish for free.

Thanks in advance for your input - it's gteatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Adrian Knight

Thanks for the all the great info.

You had mentioned "1920x1080 is the norm on Udemy, you'll wish you had recorded your courses at a higher resolution" and you also suggested to record in 1440x900. Confused :smileyhappy:

Also, what resolution monitor should I be getting. Does 1440x900 or 1920x1080 monitor do?

Thanks!

Good luck with your course @Prizzy-fashion
. Keep up the positive attitude and I am sure you will succeed.

Congratulations @PhilEbiner
.

Those are impressive results!

Having been a long-time instructor on Udemy, have you noticed any fluctualtions with the implementation of the new coupon and refferal system?

Regards,

Joyce W. Solomon (Standout Personal Branding Coach)

Hello,
I am about to make my first course. It will be a long course covering a deep subject.
I imagine it growing to be about 15-20 hours of material (maybe more)

I read that the udemy guidelines allow for courses as short as 30mins in length.

Is it possible for me to release a 30minute long course (or course that is just a few hours) and gradually add more modules to it?

Is it possible to create "blank" module (or something of that sort) so I can display the modules that are yet to be produced so the audience knows what they can expect to be rolled out in the future?