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What will determine the success of your course?

We often discuss whether sales are going up or down and we discuss a lot of factors over which we have no control, such as Udemy’s advertising, the pandemic, etc. But we do not often discuss how our own work product determines the rate of sales. So, I thought it would be worth making a list of instructor’s “controllable” factors that will determine the rate of sales of a course.

 

Let’s do a survey. Assume you are launching a new course, so it has no current students and no ratings to begin with. Let’s not discuss inclusion in UFB because that will come later. What will impact its initial sales?

 

Please reply by stating the numbers of those you think are most impactful in order of important… #1, 2, etc. Pick your top five factors in order. Or, add to the list if you like. If you suggest an additional factor, I will add it to the list in this message so others can rate it.

 

  1. Topic title (with key words)
  2. Subtitle
  3. Written course description.
  4. Category in which the course falls
  5. Quality of the promo video – video technical quality
  6. Quality of promo – explanation of content and benefits
  7. Quality of the promo – personality/style of the instructor
  8. Quality of other sample videos
  9. Instructor’s bio/resume/CV
  10. Instructor’s prior ratings and courses
  11. List price of the course
  12. Length of the course (longer)
  13. Length of the course (shorter)
  14. Number of competing courses
  15. Rating of competing courses
  16. Instructor’s marketing efforts – YouTube
  17. Instructor’s marketing efforts – mail list
  18. Instructor’s marketing efforts – website
  19. Instructor’s paid ads (Facebook, etc.)

 

Author:

@LawrenceMMiller 

 

@Mufaddal: Here is my top 5 in descending order of their impact to sales Irrespective of Udemy or self hosted site 

 

1, Category and level of interest in market  for the course or topics

2. Level of awareness about the instructor and courses - Reach - Mailing list, youtube, Linkedin etc 

3. Instructor bio- Trust is huge factor. Once students trust to be an authority or someone worth listening to and learn they will keep on buying.

4. Ratings and Reviews 

5. Competition 

 

@Marious: Here is my list:

11, 1, 12, 9, 4

For me it is all about advertising the course and targeting it.

 

If targeted by Udemy, I will get a lot of sales... Udemy is really good at targeting people with ads. It is much harder for individual instructors... It is enough to look at Black Friday (not a year ago, but 3-4 years ago...) - crazy results! I do not want to panic (yet), I want to wait till the next big promotion from Udemy but my current results show huge drops despite my efforts in publishing new courses. I want to wait till the next big sale by Udemy to see if this trend keeps going 

 

So from things I can control it is all about the price and showing that students own this course forever and can rely on me (I think it would be a good option to be added - active support from an instructor). So in a way it is about advertising Udemy as a great platform, showing the benefits, and saying there is a cool course that I actively support.

 

From marketing tools, Facebook worked for me a few years ago but no crazy results...

 

I think owning is a key factor here - I have heard a lot of comments from students from Udemy and outside of Udemy saying that they like to own a course, it feels better than 'renting' it for 2 months - they feel some kind of a connection. I get that and like it. On the other hand a lot of people enjoy UfB, I used to make a lot of money of it (not the case anymore and I have no control over it, unfortunately - 50% drop for me).

 

Also, try a number of things and see what works for you. Try new titles, new projects, and new ideas. 

 

Thanks Lawrence for an interesting topic!

 

@Rahul Iyer: Hi @LawrenceMMiller , 

 

This is an excellent list. In my opinion, all the factors you've listed are important. Not one  can be singled out. The best part is if we control these factors (which are rightly in our total control), Udemy does it's part very well. Some may not agree to my statement. But if it is an in-demand topic and all these factors are taken care off, we are making it easier for Udemy to market our courses. Thanks again! 

 

Regards, 

Rahul

 

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