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

[yasmineshafie86]

Hello Philip, I'm Yasmine, I'm  happy for your success and I wonder if you can guide me how to start on Udemy I'm a new instructor here and I don't know which is the best method to be  used to start  preparing my course and I feel a little bit lost here on Udemy so  i will be really glad if you could tell me the right steps to follow. Thank you in advance.

[Jack_Bosma]

Did you learn a lot from the community platform?

[tallojuuday]

Yes, we can learn.

Welcome

[ChidamberKr]

Hi @PhilEbiner 
Congratulations on becoming a successful instructor on Udemy.
I'm new to instructor community and looking for some leads to begin with my first Udemy course.

In the video above, you mentioned about a process that you follow. It would be a great help to me if I could get to know it. 

Also, it would be grateful if you could share what video/audio recording/editing tools would be best to use.

Thanks

CK

Chidamber Kumar

[MartyRitz_23]

Thanks for the video! I'm new here and I want to create a Udemy course. I am not sure what the first thing is I need to do. Is there a step by step process I can run myself through that will show me how to set up a structure for my course content, how to upload a video, delete a video, move a video around within my course content? Can I do all of this 100% from my phone? I have so many questions but I'll start with that

Thanks

[ChijiokeOtikpa]

Will love to be close close to you Phil, I'm just starting out with a lot of confusion

[nicolasschurman]

Thank you Phil for your will to share with the community. Recently I created a paid course and also an unlimited free coupon to share with my audience, I got 25k students enrolled and that helped to kick things up, however I received a strike 3 because some ratings were flagged by the spam filter. Do you know if anything like this has happened before? now I'm afraid to do the same strategy again. Did I violate some rule? 

[LeighWhites481]

Hi. I'm a new instructor on Udemy. I'm struggling to work out how percentage of fees work. I thought instructors get 50% of course fee but every time a student buys my course I only seem to be earning between 3 and 6 USD even though Udemy has my course up for between £11.99 - £13.99

Ive Read through all the info I can find but can't seem to find an answer to this. 

I'd so appreciate it if you could tell me where I'm going wrong? 

[Astrohansraj]

Hello sir.... I am new here.... Can i create a course with teaching on whiteboard?? 

[tallojuuday]

Yes, you can teach but since its digital u would prefer video or at least PowerPoint and completely its up to you but just thought of sharing my point.

Happy teaching

[aakriti-elearn]

Hi @PhilEbiner, first of all thanks for doing this and sharing your vast knowledge with us.

I run 2 courses on Udemy, and my question is - After the initial launch, marketing etc. and once we have got to the point where the course is selling somewhat, how can we build on that momentum, and keep getting more new students? 

Do we still continue our marketing, or rely only on Udemy promotions? Will Udemy keep promoting my course?

Thanks,

Aakriti

[Milivoj108]

hi Phil!

Congrats on your success!! It is amazing to see what one can do! Thank you for taking the time to answer questions. I wanted to ask you one thing. I have a highest rated best selling course on Udemy called "Sculpting in Zbrush". I was selling exclusively on Udemy for a year now, but i decided to try selling on other sites as well, so i made my course available on one more site (putting the same price as on Udemy site).

I noticed that my sales on Udemy have dropped since then (past two months), upon inspection i've seen that there was a drop in add program and affiliate program revenue. This would indicate Udemy is not marketing my course as much.

Do you think Udemy doesen't like when we sell on other platforms so they tend to support such courses less? Or is one not connected with the other and this is just some natural progression or a bump in the road for the course?

I would appreciate any insight on this matter.

tnx!

[PhilEbiner]

Hi Milivoj108!

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

[gleyderh]

Hi @PhilEbiner congratulations, here is my question:

If you could go back to 2012, what piece of advice would you give to you about something you didn't know at the time regarding teaching on Udemy?

Thanks

[PhilEbiner]

Hi! 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

[حليمامين891]

هذا رائع   امل ان اكون مثلك لكى اربح المال 

---

@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

---

[KatiePud]

Phil,

I did buy one of your courses about 2 years ago FYI. 

Can you tell me how much you are allowed to self-brand on Udemy?  I already have a long format course I host on a non-Udemy site (totally self promoted). Would like to do a similar topic but more focused and shorter on Udemy. How am I allowed to mention my longer class? I think it would be an important part of my background but don't care to mention often in my Udemy course b'c heck, they just bought something. Can I put my logo in the bottom corner of the Udemy video??

Thanks

[JeffSharman592]

Hi Phil,

You obviously have put time and effort into your courses. What topics are you teaching? What is your marketing strategy? 

I have 7 courses on Udemy and have been publishing for about 3 years. My average monthly income is around $700.00. My fields of expertise are Control Systems, Instrumentation and Networks. What would you suggest to increase my sales? I am in the process of building a website which I hope will help? Any other ideas?

Jeff

[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!

[JesusFdez]

Hello, congratulations on your experience.

Could you answer some questions for me?

1. Do you know if it is possible to use a voiceover from another person for the promotional video of a course? Having the rights to said audio.

2. Is it possible to show an embedded YouTube video fragment in one of the chapters of my course?

3. Is it possible to show a fragment of a PDF document in one of the chapters of my course? This PDF is publicly available on Google.

Thanks in advance.

[MelissaEEEE]

Hi Phil.  How do you market your courses, or does Udemy do it for you?

[SansaoSeara]

Wow, your results are impressive, congratulations.

What tips would you give to get more courses included on Udemy Business?

thanks!

[ImranZakir72]

Good to hear. Thanks for sharing your experience on this platform.

[NUSRATILLAS264]

Hello sir! I am 18 years old and founder of Techeducation.pro online course selling industry and also uploaded my first course on udemy also wanna join udemy deals program to promote my course, what suggestions do you give me?