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

19 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

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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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For new comer, should we publish our course for free for a limited time and then convert it to paid? What is your suggestion Phil?

ardit
Storyteller Storyteller
Storyteller

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Hi Phil,

 

What's the best video scene/background for teaching?

 

Deep/big stylish workspace, black background, white background?

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Hi Phil,

 

How are things going on the Amazon's Prime Video Direct?  When it first started you seemed pretty excited about its possibilities, but haven't heard much about it since.  Your course on it hasn't been updated since January 2018, so was wondering what your opinion is about it now.  Is it worth the effort?

 

Thanks!

 

Leisa

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Phil, thank you so much for sharing your success and inspiring those of us striving to get there!  Q.: I have a FB ads course on Udemy, updated to Jan last year. Is it worth my time to update it to 2019 in hopes of getting new students, or should I just take it down and repackage/rebuild it and re-introduce it as a  new course, and maybe even make it niche specific ie FB ads in 2019 for coaches and consultants? Or should I just start a brand new course? I'm just wondering what you would do:) Thanks so much!! 

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Hi Phil,

 

Love what you are doing.

 

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but here it goes. I watched an interview where you mentioned that for a launch of one of your courses you sent personalized welcome videos to your students... how did you do that?

 

Thanks and congratulations for all your success!

 

Gus

MassimilianoAlf
Community Champion Community Champion
Community Champion

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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?

 

The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success (Paramhansa Yogananda)

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Hey man great profile and trend thank you! My question is i am planning on creating fitness and health videos and i don't want to show myself. My videos will be mostly screen recording and voice. And i have a friend that'll show the excercises and i am going to talk and create programs. 

Do you think it is ok and can i have a connection with the viewers?

Thanks!

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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

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Hi Phil,

Elisha Elias Lomay from Tanzania - East Africa.

I have gone through your video.

Thank you for being an inspiration.

You really touched me to connect with you especially when you said that you are a father of tweens.

I am a University lecturar and a father of four boys two of them being tweens.

 

For a long time I have been investing in teaching online and Udemy seems to be the best.

 

Is it possible to teach, run my courses and be paid for my courses in udemy from Tanzania ?

Anonymous
Not applicable

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@PhilEbiner

 

Thanks for posting this.  I've long been curious :-).

 

I've been on Udemy for almost 5 years and am just approaching $100k.  Looking at your chart I like to kid myself that you were flat for several years before things took off and my take off is just late in coming.  So, your chart gives hope where needed ;-).

 

Questions related to your chart:

 

1) What did you do in 2017 to have revenue explode?

2) Organic and Ad revenue seem to have taken off the most.  Any explanation?

 

Just thought, I should browse the responses to see how many times these questions have already been asked ;-).

 

Again, thanks for the leadership,

 

---Brian

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thank you so much for all your effort to help us.

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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 

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Hi; Thanks for your effort to informing us. Regards;

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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

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Hi;

The best software i think is BB Flashback;

It has free version so you can try it.

Regards;

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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? 

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Can you give me some advice on choosing topics for new courses? Obviously I would look for high demand and low supply but can you give me a few tips on how to evaluate potentional topics?

Anonymous
Not applicable

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@SteveVeloudos

 

It sounds like you already know about Marketplace Insights.  That's a great place to browse the potential and competiion of a huge number of niches.  Keep following the related niches and gather keywords for your course titles and subtitles along the way.

 

Next, actually enter each keyword and see what the competition looks like in each niche as far as course length and the number of reviews you'll need.  Try to find niches that you can dominate by having the most courses, longest courses and best reviewed courses.

 

Definitely begin your search checking out your passions and areas of expertise.  Just remember that you don't need to be the worlds greatest expert in a subject to do a course on it.

 

Hope this helps,

 

---Brian

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Thanks Brian, this info is useful. Yes I know about the Marketplace Insights and using that with the tips you included will help me come up with some really good new course topics.

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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?

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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

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