Ask Me Anything - Phil Ebiner, long-time instructor

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Ask Me Anything - Phil Ebiner, long-time instructor

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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!

 

Screen Shot 2019-02-05 at 10.41.53 AM.png

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

Cheers,

Phil

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Twins! Congratulations!

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Woow. That is impressive 🙂

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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!

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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.

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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

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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!

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That's all becasue of hard working and your consistency 

U Simjee

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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?

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Hi,

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

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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?

 

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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

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I see you haven't published a course yet. 

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

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

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Hello,My name is Panos Hadjigeorgiou.I am a personal trainer coach,am trying to create my first video on udemy.I want your help....What video editing do you recommend to me.I thinking to make one big video about 30 minutes and then small videos for the explanations of every exercise and the to combine them together.Or is better to write them in a slite before every exercise?

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Outstanding Performance Smiley Happy

Shigeru_M
Community Champion Community Champion
Community Champion

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Hi Phil, good see you here! When do you re-start your podcast series? I am dying to know!

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The plan is April!

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Hi Phil

 

Thanks for sharing your story, and your advice, it's very inspiring. 

 

I am beginning to structure my course on special education and wondered if this is a good strategy:

Produce a 30 min course on the topic - Free course

Follow up with the paid content course. Also, offer free coupons to students who signed up for the free course?

 

Is this a good way to go or would you recommend a different approach?

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

LL

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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.

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Any advice on getting free courses to convert? I have one free course now, conversions have been poor. Lots of signups, few people moving to paid courses.

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Hi Phil,

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge!  I am just creating my first course for Udemy and my focus has been mostly on learning how to create videos, so far.  I'm excited to take the next step.  (I read several of your responses to questions.) Your info is very helpful and inspiring!

Best, 

Sally

 

 

 

 

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I have observed you on various platforms such as Youtube, Facebook e.t.c. I understand the hard work that you have gone through. But, as an instructor who teaches concepts other than computer programming, I am very surprised that you have earned such a huge fortune with Udemy. And for that reason, I surely want to hear from you about the practices that made you successful. Apart from that I also want to know the time it took for you to earn 4 figure income on an average per month.

 Although my question may seem to be very focussed on the earnings, I know as an instructor I should focus on delivering good content and I am working on it and I am able to differentiate my previous courses with the new ones on the basis of quality. 

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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.

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That's what I'm doing I have one done working on two more 

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Hello,

This month 8th was my payout day. Due to some technical issues with my Paypal account my payment was failed. So I have updated my payment method from Paypal to payoneer on 9th September. And the same day only I have informed them about the issue.They said they will initiate repayment asap.But still now they are not confirmed anything.

If anyone faced this issue please tell me when will I get my payout to the new payment method.I am new to this platform and It is also my first payment.

Please share your experience if you have faced my situation.

Thanks in advance

K.Sathyaprakash Reddy

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That's all becasue of hard working and your consistency 

U Simjee

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Very Impressive 

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Man, totally inspirational. I notice a lot of ups and downs on the graph... and i’m Currently suffering a very slow feb start. Any advice, from one dad to another? 🙂

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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?

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Some things i’m doing this month to push myself.

 

1. Launched a new course and reached out with coupons and ads for customers. It’s helping tons with the slow feb.

 

2. I’ve started re-recording my first course. It’s my best seller, but even after only 3 months, I can see how dated it is. Heck, I recorded all the audio with just my phone memos! lol

 

3. It’s Chinese New Year.... so took a week of for visiting and eating. 😄

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Hi Phil... great to hear! I would love to contact you and discuss some things I am looking to do to expand my course creation business. Is there a way to get some consultation time from you offline?  BTW, my course did over six figures in the first year. I now have three courses and 1 collaborative. I'm planning to make a big push this year. 

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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?

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Hi,

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

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Hey Phil wow! man i've been making courses for the past 4 months. I've already made one which i have just published in udemy and im already working on my second one.

How do you think is the best way to set your course production goals? for example i always plan to make 2 to 4 courses a month but i end up only making one, trough all of the struggle of learning how to make it and how to voice over since english is not my native language. I work from 6 to 9 hours a day usually on courses as my full time new job since novemeber 2018. How do you stay motivated? beat insolation? stay productive? dont get discouraged by the obstacles you were facing at first? feel fullfilled? find work life balance? (sometimes i feel like all i should be doing is working on a course and not doing anything else, leaving my life behind and at the end feeling burned out and overwhelmed), how to dont feel frustrated about not accomplishing any of the deadlines you are looking for? specially if you feel you have to make money to pay debt and make a living while you grow in this. Thank you so much for making a QnA bro!

You're awesome!

Zem
Researcher
Researcher

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Hi Phil congrats on your success. Hard work pays off. I’ve just launched my first course yesterday on Valentines Day at 40% off. It’s a beginners guitar course and I got 2 students (both friends). What’s your top 3 tips for new instructors in getting a customer base? Thx man. 

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