10 Things I've Learned Throughout my 2.5 year Udemy Career! [Tips & Advice]

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10 Things I've Learned Throughout my 2.5 year Udemy Career! [Tips & Advice]

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Hey guys!
Filip Kordanovski here. I'm very much enjoying this new community and what a better way to start than with some valuable tips I've learned through my relatively short, but amazing, Udemy career.

1. Be consistent with communicating with your students.
Send out promotional announcements whenever you have something new to sell or upcoming course release. Send out educational announcements with related course content, at least once per month and provide even more value to your existing students.

2. Gather your exsisting students within a community group.

I prefer Facebook Groups, Discord chatrooms or anything other, really. Let this be a hub for your existing students and connect with them. Students like when they are receiving attention from their instructor and 1-on-1 communication with them may be crucial for that student to enroll in your new course!

3. Respond to private messages, reviews, Q&A questions and assignments.

Student engagement is by far the most important thing you can achieve as an instructor. Engaged students are likely going to enjoy your upcoming courses based on how you treated them in your previous ones!

4. Research what your existing students are interested in, besides your course topic.
This is important because you get to know what your audience would like to learn next and what a better way to surprise them than with creating a course they are simply dying to watch! Udemy provides in-depth statistics of this matter.

5. Quality over quantity
Always focus on delivering high quality content, catchy visuals, crystal clear audio and always improve on your delivery. Don't rush to create course that is not perfectly made or even not finished completely. If you want any specific tips about the things I mentioned in this tip, feel free to ask away!

6. Quality courses equals high selling price

Don't set your courses at 20$! A carefuly crafted course is worth way more than that. Always aim for the 100$+ price mark, so when Udemy has a sale, the student will be excited to see that the course they want to purcahse is 90% off!

7. Learn from the big guys

Always research your competition before creating a course on a particular topic. I'd say, research about 10 competitor courses in your niche, and start listing out things that their courses are missing and make sure to include them into your courses! This is the best tip I can give you to win on Udemy.

8. Free coupons is a risky move!
Most students who enroll in your premium course for free are not interested in your topic as a person who would pay for your course. Be cautious with this, since this may lead to low review ratings, overflooding your course with inactive students and thus resulting in incorrect statistics like engagement, analytics and more. I'd say just give 10-15 free coupons to close friends and let them criticize your course!

 

9. Bite sized lectures are the way to go!
Don't make your lectures long videos that the student may feel overwhelmed by watching! Let them grasp a concept in a short video and make them feel like they've learned at least something throughout that short lecture! They are also more likely to watch a shorter lecture, thus, increasing your engagement!

10. Never stop learning

I've been an instructor for 2.5 years but I'm still learning new things daily. Always research delivery techniques, learn from more successful instructors than you, visit this community hub at least 1 hour per day and learn and contribute! It will return ten times higher in your journey to become the best instructor you can be.

Don't forget that you're changing lives of students daily throughout your courses. You help them land their dream job, get an internship or simply learn a new skill!

Feel free to talk and share your ideas on how to improve on any field! Let's make this thread the ultimate go-to for any newcomer and seasoned instructor!

You're awesome, keep rocking!

Filip Kordanovski

- Filip is founder of www.teachermethod.com, 1-on-1 mentorship program dedicated to teach you how to create and sell exceptional Udemy courses
2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

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Thank you for your tips Filip, I have a question how can I see what the other instructors are doing now 

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Thank you for sharing this info Filip 


 

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Great tips Filip!! What has also helped me is defining my style and niche. While I think this is difficult to do when you haven't started yet, it's something that will help you along the way and it's better to start sooner rather than later.

Anonymous
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I couldn't agree more with point 8. Had my course on free for almost a year and the reviews were just random as people would click on a any of the stars (usually in the middle) whenever Udemy asked for a review.

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Thanks for the great advice.  I am close to publishing my first course. It's very exciting. 

LL

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Me too, i am very close to publish my first course, i am still working on the last 5 sections.

It will be published soon

I wish you good luck @Lizzy 

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Thank you so much for these valuable tips, it is really helpful for us as new teachers on Udemy

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Excellent advice thanks for sharing

____________________________________________________________________________

Digital Course Creator - Happy to connect with other instructors

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Brilliant tips - thank you Filip!

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i LOVE THE PART OF NEVER STOP LEARNING!  That is one of the resons I love teaching Digital marketing becuse you always have to learn even more to be able to teach... 


@FilipK wrote:

Hey guys!
Filip Kordanovski here. I'm very much enjoying this new community and what a better way to start than with some valuable tips I've learned through my relatively short, but amazing, Udemy career.

1. Be consistent with communicating with your students.
Send out promotional announcements whenever you have something new to sell or upcoming course release. Send out educational announcements with related course content, at least once per month and provide even more value to your existing students.

2. Gather your exsisting students within a community group.

I prefer Facebook Groups, Discord chatrooms or anything other, really. Let this be a hub for your existing students and connect with them. Students like when they are receiving attention from their instructor and 1-on-1 communication with them may be crucial for that student to enroll in your new course!

3. Respond to private messages, reviews, Q&A questions and assignments.

Student engagement is by far the most important thing you can achieve as an instructor. Engaged students are likely going to enjoy your upcoming courses based on how you treated them in your previous ones!

4. Research what your existing students are interested in, besides your course topic.
This is important because you get to know what your audience would like to learn next and what a better way to surprise them than with creating a course they are simply dying to watch! Udemy provides in-depth statistics of this matter.

5. Quality over quantity
Always focus on delivering high quality content, catchy visuals, crystal clear audio and always improve on your delivery. Don't rush to create course that is not perfectly made or even not finished completely. If you want any specific tips about the things I mentioned in this tip, feel free to ask away!

6. Quality courses equals high selling price

Don't set your courses at 20$! A carefuly crafted course is worth way more than that. Always aim for the 100$+ price mark, so when Udemy has a sale, the student will be excited to see that the course they want to purcahse is 90% off!

7. Learn from the big guys

Always research your competition before creating a course on a particular topic. I'd say, research about 10 competitor courses in your niche, and start listing out things that their courses are missing and make sure to include them into your courses! This is the best tip I can give you to win on Udemy.

8. Free coupons is a risky move!
Most students who enroll in your premium course for free are not interested in your topic as a person who would pay for your course. Be cautious with this, since this may lead to low review ratings, overflooding your course with inactive students and thus resulting in incorrect statistics like engagement, analytics and more. I'd say just give 10-15 free coupons to close friends and let them criticize your course!

 

9. Bite sized lectures are the way to go!
Don't make your lectures long videos that the student may feel overwhelmed by watching! Let them grasp a concept in a short video and make them feel like they've learned at least something throughout that short lecture! They are also more likely to watch a shorter lecture, thus, increasing your engagement!

10. Never stop learning

I've been an instructor for 2.5 years but I'm still learning new things daily. Always research delivery techniques, learn from more successful instructors than you, visit this community hub at least 1 hour per day and learn and contribute! It will return ten times higher in your journey to become the best instructor you can be.

Don't forget that you're changing lives of students daily throughout your courses. You help them land their dream job, get an internship or simply learn a new skill!

Feel free to talk and share your ideas on how to improve on any field! Let's make this thread the ultimate go-to for any newcomer and seasoned instructor!

You're awesome, keep rocking!

Filip Kordanovski


 

Marianna Monroy

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Great tips. Thank you.

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Thanks for the great tips!

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Hi Filip. Thank you for taking the time to write down your thoughts. However, I think it's also important for people to realize that there are many paths to success, and what worked for you is not necessarily "the only" or even "the best" strategy. For example, I would like to politely disagree with 4 of your 10 points:

 

2) Gather students in an off-Udemy group. I'm not on facebook and I don't direct my students off Udemy. This has not hampered my success. And I think it's ethically questionable whether Udemy does (or should) allow you to make your students feel compelled to register or sign up elsewhere. Your students have paid to be part of the community here; why do they need to make additional investments off the platform? That leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

6) Coming from the world of technical textbooks, I think >$50 for an online course is ludicrous. I have a 600-page textbook that costs $50. Very very people actually pay $200 for an online course (I wouldn't). In my opinion, this whole business model of 90% off feels like a marketing scam, and you don't have to search hard to find opinions on the internet about how $200 for a 2-hour course is something to avoid. I don't like it, and I price my courses on the lower end, even my courses that are 30-40 hours of lecture (and each lecture has an exercise, so my courses are actually closer to 80 hours if the student does everything). Again, hasn't hurt my success. As far as I can tell, students ignore the "original" price of a course. See other recent posts about experimenting with lower course prices having no effect on sales.

 

😎 Free coupons are great. Free courses are another matter. I give away lots of free coupons, to my "real-world" students, to my Udemy students who leave nice reviews or who just message me. When a student posts a Q&A about something I address in a different course, I will give them a free coupon to that other course. Those are my most loyal students, and always leave glowing reviews. I would say that free coupons has been a big contributer to my success, particular when I first got started and had few students and few courses. Sometimes I even give someone two free coupons and ask them to share one with a friend.

 

9) There is no optimal length for lectures. I've had complaints about 5-minute lectures because the students felt I didn't go into enough depth (several times I've had to make additional videos because the students were right), and I've had many students mention in their public reviews that they appreciate the longer (20+ minutes) videos because I take the time to explain everything in detail, which is sometimes missing in other courses. A lecture should be as long as it needs to be. If the lecture topic is simple, then maybe a 3-minute lecture is perfect. But if you cram a 15-minute concept into 7 minutes, you are taking value away from the course and decreasing the quality for the student.

 

 

Again, I don't mean to be antagonistic here; I believe that your suggestions worked for you. But I think it gives a misleading impression to make the case that your points are a formula for success, because in my cases my success has come from doing the opposite of what you write. 

 

Mike

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@MikeXCohenThanks for this Mike. I agree with your points.

 

I like your approach in 😎 (Sending free coupons to selected Students via private message).

So far, I rejected this as I considered this to be at least "Grey Area" with regard to Udemy Rules.

 

Anyone with a clarification on this? IMHO it´s a Business Decision by an Instructor that should result in long-term benefits for the Instructor and Udemy. No need to regulate this. 

 

Thanks in advance.

Alex

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@MikeXCohen 

Hi Mike

Thanks for sharing your thoughts because there is a lot that I agree with but I haven't read other instructors post these views. I would rather focus my efforts on making courses than social media so it's good to hear this works for you. Also, I was planning to be realistic about pricing. Good advice. 

LL

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Thanks for sharing this!

Appreciated!

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Very useful post. Short and to the point.

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Thanks Filip for the great tips.  I am just getting started.  My first course has been submitted for review.   I was a bit concerned about publishing during a $9.99 sale period.   I do not think that will be an issue this time around.  

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Right on, Filip. I think you put everything new (and experienced) instructors need to know right here.

How do you drive your students to outside groups like Facebook or Discord? I know Udemy doesn't allow outside links in many circumstances, so how do you reach out to your students to connect outside of Udemy?

 

Shannon Murdoch, VPM Total Seminars

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I was wondering this too.

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Hey there,

Thank you for the list. Great read. But can you point as to how to go about achieving 2nd point, i.e, directing students to a FB group.

 

So far as I know it is against Udemy guidelines to ask students to sign up or join a group outside of Udemy. I may be wrong on this.

 

I would love your thoughts on this.

 

Thanks

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Thanks for taking time to write this post and also for a well organised and clear explanation.. Helps a lot..😊

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I liked the way you have described it here. Quite useful. Thank you.

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