What are your top 3 goals for 2019?

[RobynJ]

It’s hard to believe we’re already 3 months into  2019! At Udemy HQ we spent some time reflecting on successes and failures and plotting our priorities for the year ahead.

As an instructor, there are many different things you can focus on to improve your business. You can create more courses, you can improve your marketing, you can increase your engagement with students and more. What are your top #1 and #2 goals for 2019 on Udemy? Tell us below!

[FrankKane]

#1 is to create a big new course by the end of April (with a co-instructor)

#2 is to refresh my top 4 courses with updated and re-recorded content before Black Friday 2019

#3 is to grow my Udemy revenue by 10% year over year (which will hopefully happen as a result of #1 and #2!)

[vinod]

I had only one goal in mind, but since the question is asked, let me break it up:

This is for the financial year 2019-20

#1 - 1 course a month (at minimum), and if possible 15 courses by end of March 2020.

#2 - Build a bigger student base (FB page, email list, etc)

#3 - Cross the $10000 mark and go beyond 

Vinod.

[Thor]

I have a looooonnngg list of items, finish current course series (3/4 published), have another 1-2 large courses planned and in early stages. Hiring a VA to assist with all the practical stuff that doesn't have to be done by me specifically. 

Off Udemy, update my own hosting, get more things I can cross sell that my students needs.

Grow my Facebook page and student engagement. 

Grow my relationships with the organizations making the certifications I teach.

If it needs to be top 2.

#1 Finish 2 major course series.

#2 Grow my company with onboarding a VA and grow what I can offer.

[RobynJ]

Those are big goals! Hope you'll keep us updated on your progress and what's been working for you!

[NikkiParsons]

I feel like I literally have just one goal for the year - to finish my first course!

Once I finally get it published, then I can see whether it's worth - adding more content / improving that course, breaking it up into smaller ones, or creating a new one altogether! 

[JocelynH]

That's a great goal! You got this @NikkiParsons 😄

[NikkiParsons]

Thank you!

[Thor]

That is what I did with my first 2 courses. 

It was really just to see if Udemy was for me, and if I wanted to do this.

Clearly it was a yes and a yes.

Been on this path for less than 2 years, and I was able to leave my day-job to do training full time. 

It is fun, exciting, terrifying, overwhealming, rewarding, and 20 other things. 

Some days it is this:

Some days it is this:

[GrahamNicholls]

My targets are aimed at Black Friday as I set them after the last Black Friday was finished, here goes with my top three from now until then (in no particular order)

1 - Release 1 course per month, so that's 8 more before November

2 - Top the 20000 student mark

3 - Add a minimum of 50% to last Black Friday's sales

That should keep me busy!

[RobynJ]

Those are great goals! Big but certainly achievable. Please keep us all updated on your progress.

[Lizzy]

That's a great question. Here are my top 3 goals for 2019:

1. To have as much enjoyment as possible from my work. This means I follow Marie Kondo's life clearing advice to my business. I do what 'sparks joy' and when I start to get bored of a task, I move on. This means I rotate a few tasks but I don't get tired working.

2. To establish my social media presence. I have always worked directly with people and avoided social media, but now I want to embrace it and make the most of it. Once I start releasing courses, I figure I won't have time to get this up and running afterwards. So I want to get my stall set up before I start trading!

3. To make three short free courses for Udemy. I want them to be good quality and add value to the students' lives. I will evaluate the feedback for moving forward.

These are my goals and I think they are doable! Let me know what you all think, fellow instructors!

[Vesna]

Hey @Lizzy 

I don't know whether you already have published courses on udemy, but if these 3 will be your first ones I would recommend making at least one of them a paid course.

Free courses on udemy attract freebie hunters and pirates. Most of them never even start the course. Those that do start watching, almost always rate it low. 
Typically and historically free courses on udemy have lower ratings that paid ones. 

Not the best way for you to determine wheter udemy is what you want to focus on longterm or not, right?

I understand your desire to test the market and give a lot of value to students, but that doesn't require 3 free courses. One will do 😉

[Lizzy]

Great advice, thanks so much.

I have not created online courses before so there's a lot to learn.

I think a paid course will take much longer to produce because of the length. However, your explanation makes sense. So, I will amend my goal to one free course in 2019.

Then I will start working on the paid course and publish by the end of 2019.

Great to get this feedback from you as a published author. 🙂

[ScottDuffy]

"Free courses on udemy attract freebie hunters and pirates. Most of them never even start the course. Those that do start watching, almost always rate it low. 
Typically and historically free courses on udemy have lower ratings that paid ones. "

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with most of this. I mean, that's not been my experience.

I don't think most instructors use free courses and/or free coupons correctly. And spreading this view of free courses is actually harmful. There are proper ways to use free courses.

[KarolyNyisztor]

Hi Lizzy,
I'm glad you mentioned Marie Kondo. I've been unstoppable since I started applying her advice along with Sean D'Souza's practical hints about energy management.
Keep up the good work!

[KarolyNyisztor]

Hey @RobynJ,
That sounds great - can't wait to see what you guys are coming up with! Hope Udemy grows at an exponential rate this year. 😉

Here's my list of priorities for 2019:

• Improve my presentation skills
• Publish the course I've been working on since December last year
• Update/enhance my existing courses

Besides:

• Publish three new books
• Reach 5,000+ subscribers on my Youtube channel
• Hike 500+ miles
• Bench press 240 pounds for 8 reps (instead of 4)
• Visit Norway or Iceland

That'll do. More or less.

[RobynJ]

Those are HUGE goals @KarolyNyisztor, I'm sure you'll tackle them easily. Keep us updated on your progress!

[Hypnodan]

My top two goals are:

1. To finish and release a course about how to work with autistic individuals

2. To then go through my courses working on my copywriting to hopefully increase my conversion rates on my various courses

These are the most important two goals. Obviously I have other things I want to work on as the year goes on, like going through the auto-generated captions on all my courses and correcting errors in these and for some of my courses I want to re-do my videos.

All the best

Dan

[AxelRittershaus]

1. Publish 10 courses on leadership/management in German (5 done, 5 to go)
2. Publish 5 of these courses in English (1 done, 4 to go)
3. Use YouTube strategically to build momentum and a funnel for my courses

3a) Attend Udemy Live if it happens at a time while I am in Germany 😉

[RobynJ]

Great goals @AxelRittershaus are you using Closed Captions for your English courses?