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 🙂

[tallojuuday]

Great, very inspired

---

@PhilEbiner wrote:

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

---

[IjlalHussai350]

Hello Sir, I am really amazing to read this post and come to know about your successful experience with Udemy. Congratulations to you on this success.

I hope you will be a great inspiration for all of us (as I'm new instructor).

Thanks for sharing this post which encourage us to move forward with positive mind and hard work.

Regards

Ijlal Hussain

[RobLittlepa912]

Good morning Phil, I've taken a few of your courses on video production and Premier Pro.  I've got 6 live courses on Udemy and about to publish my 7th.  I'm still only getting 3% of the revenue.  Any suggestions on how to turn this around and get the 97% Udemy says I can achieve when doing my own marketing?  Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Rob

[Noova73]

hi Phil, just uploaded my first course last week. already getting some spam DMs in messenger for fake reviews and the likes 😞

i have 3-4 more courses outlined but it will take me a long time to do it...what would be the best way to get some early traction, enrollments, reviews of proper students?  put it out there as a free course? reduce the price? coupons are great assuming you have other channels, which i don't really have, so what is the best tactic to get some traction on Udemy (assuming keywords are ok). 

thanks 🙂

Guy

[Ihab Dakak]

Hey Phil, Thanks for the inspiration. I have seen your comments about driving traffic from youtube and the website. which website platform best to be used to have one place for all my future courses? 

[PhilEbiner]

Hi Ihab!

It's been a while since I posted the original post, and I'm planning on making a video soon that includes a response to your question! Sorry for the delay, and keep a look out for that!

Cheers,

Phil

[YossefZedan379]

I'm a new instructor here.

I published my first course and got 2,990 students in 4 days, the course was free, i turned it into paid and now i'm publishing an another free course

I have shared the url of my course on Twitter using hashtags, but I am worried about the following courses because they will be paid courses and I am not sure my knowledge of marketing my courses is enough.

Can you help me please?

[PhilEbiner]

Hi Yossef!

It's been a while since I posted the original post, and I'm planning on making a video soon that includes a response to your question! Sorry for the delay, and keep a look out for that!

Cheers,

Phil

[YonkeuKweya703]

I'll like to know how I can do to get more auditors and of course gaining income.

[VittorioLiu92]

Hi Phil ! 

I have buy your course about YouTube in spanish language , 

it is a good , very good  information , 

Have a nice day ! 

[Jack_Bosma]

It's all about content and keeping it moving.

[StephenRWar158]

Hi Phil

I'm a first timer, working on creating courses for Udemy marketing. Can I mention the titles (only) of my other courses in the video of one course? And list them by titles only with no links at the end of the course? Not referrring to the bonus lecture, where I understand that this is OK.

Many thanks

Steve

[ElianaC]

Hi @StephenRWar158 To ensure you meet the standards of what is allowed on the platform, the best thing you can do is to write to policy@udemy.com and the team will be happy to help you.

Eliana Cerna

Udemy Community 

[EricYeboah294]

Great work, your success on this platform is a big motivation.

[NextGenHR506]

Hi Phil, good post and congratulations!

my sales are going up and down every now and then.. 

it would be great if u could give me some tips on how should be the free preview lessons.. it would be great if u can have a look at my course preview videos and give me some tips on how to improvise them .. if that’s not possible some general tips are ok … 

also please let me know what r things to be avoided in teaching?

regards Meghana

[PhilEbiner]

Hi Meghana!

It's been a while since I posted the original post, and I'm planning on making a video soon that includes a response to your question! Sorry for the delay, and keep a look out for that!

Cheers,

Phil

[PhilEbiner]

Wow! I can't believe how many replies this has gotten since I posted the video.

Perhaps I should look through all the comments/questions and do another video or something.

Got any questions for me? Reply to this comment to make sure I see it!

Cheers!

Phil

ps. while I've been continued making a lot of courses over the past couple of years, I have also learned a few new skills like making sourdough bread 😛

[PhilEbiner]

Hi Aakriti!

It's been a while since I posted the original post, and I'm planning on making a video soon that includes a response to your question! Keep a look out for that!

Cheers,

Phil

[tiago_b]

Dude, first of all congrats (: hope i can get this kind of result someday hehe

my question for you:

1 - Do i have to worry when i launch a course and it doesn't sells? Maybe this course will starts to sell later, when i launch more courses?
I ask you ths coz i dont understand how Udemy algorithym works.. My first 2 courses here was free courses, coz i was thinking Udemy was considering my students number to promote all my courses, but seen to not work like that. Maybe the key is the number of courses, at least, more than the number of students?

thanks (:

[Create Your Own Products]

Phil,

Thank you for making yourself available to ask questions. I just launched on Udemy a week ago and I am super excited. I want to be at the $1.5 million level one day. 

To launch, I'm offering the course for cheap to friends, family, and early supporters to get reviews and feedback. I'm also using Udemy Promotions to deeply discount the course early on. I hope to get early reviews (50+) to gain enough traction to sell my course at full price.

Do you think this is a good strategy to start? What are some ways to build awareness and enthusiasm without an email list or many followers? 

[Aleksandar Maric]

Well, Udemy Organic and Ad Program bring the most of revenue as seen from your example.

Thanks for sharing!