Many people, especially young instructors, ask how much can they earn on the course, why the courses do not explode and that sort of questions.    During my first mentoring session with Scott Harris (as an award for Journey to Black Friday Challenge), he mentioned a lot of building the audience.    Since February is not a perfect month of organic sales, also for the launch of a new course, I decided to put the extra effort and develop my audience more.   This is a long term strategy, but let me share the action samples that gave me the growth in February. Actually, you can observe, how my activities influence the sales:      I want to share with you Guys, what way i have chosen, what was going on and how did I found the response:   1. I spent a week trying to figure out improving the quality of my youtube live sessions using DSLR.  Invested in HDMI grabber (BTW. thanks Jason Dion for the model recommendation).  A week later, after around 100 attempts, finally, the quality of the live stream was as I wanted,   2. Decided to focus on my youtube audience more (my channel is a small expert corner, I upload new episodes 2-3 times per week), encouraged to join my new facebook group by contests, tools, and challenges.  Then I introduced live stream weekly program and also topic months (Feb was only for aerial photography, March is for begginers with a few experts tips, etc). That is a long term strategy to establish a membership site eventually...   3. So what are the first impressions:    - longer youtube sessions, especially live weekly programs give me great effects, this is an easy way to interact, classify the audience and build a more involved community and that is what we need for our courses. Even if a number of views is not massive, the watch time grows. I put a lot of effort to encourage, interact with the audience, notify them and also organize challenges, inform of specific facts,    - there is also a magical, thin line to not overwhelm the audience, but to create the interest,     - I found also that topic months are great for both sides. During February I created the course of aerial photography, but in the meantime, based on the same recording sessions & footage, I created several Youtube episodes. Each of youtube episodes refers to the course but gives the value as well. Each of them involves the audience and calls to act (eg. challenges with small awards),   - my total youtube visits nr was 25,5 K with 100 K minutes watched, each of the episodes includes a small reference to the online courses, but what is more important, the sales ratio develops slowly.    As an effect the new course launch goes nice, it is NEW and HOT, my promotions gave me decent effects,  also decided to increase the price of my coupons from 9,99 to 11,99 USD.  Hope you will find inspiration and answer how to sell more.   Thanks for Scott Harris, Caroline  Walthall, and Jason Dion for an advice.    Sincerely,    Rafal     

Question Guys i have a question about FB, i'm not much of a FB user, i only started using it to have some sort of online presence for Udemy. Right now i don't have a large follower base that's interested in my courses, so the only FB marketing i can do is to post in groups. I try to follow all the rules, be as active as i can, not only be there to promote the course and try to not spam.   So the question is: How often do you post with coupons (free or discounted) in FB groups? Once a day per group? Once a week? Right now i'm posting discounted coupons for all my course about once every two days mostly in coupons groups, and that helps with the sales, but sometimes i see that my post starts to show too much in the group page and i fear that people think i'm spamming and kick me out.   Answers Hi there,    To share my too cents...    I created my own Facebook group around 6 months ago and post regularly with education content, the group is now 3.5k members, hot a tipping point and growing by 100+ members a week. I was doing this for a while before even thinking of Udemy, but now that I have my first Udemy course, I have gotten quite a bit of support from it. It is a careful balance between posting and talking about the course and spamming.   My feeling as a promoter on Facebook is passive selling works best, discuss the course and have a discussion as opposed to telling people tk buy this course... as people are very adapt to spotting and ignoring a sales post.    Kind Regards,  Toan   I have a facebook group, think 1 1/2 years old, closing in on 10k members now.  95-98% is helpful content, 2-5% is me selling stuff.    My students are my best marketing tool, they pass certifications, like my teaching style and recommend me to friends and others in groups and forums.    I post content to my group 1-2 times daily (95% auto posted from my blog), students post 1-5 posts daily. I welcome all my group members, I share my knowledge freely, and recommend study resources that are good, not just my own.    I do the same on other groups, but the first 2-4 months I am in groups I post 0% promotional stuff, I help, I answer questions, I support.  After a few months I approach the admins and ask if they are OK with me every so often post my courses/coupons, so far everyone has said yes because I proved myself first. Here the split is also 95/5.    If you join a Facebook group that has a focus on Udemy coupons then just ask the owner/admin how often you can post coupons. For a group like that they usually don't mind very frequent posting of coupons. For a group that doesn't focus on coupons only, make sure you have the permission of the group owner before posting any coupons, even free ones.   A sudden post directing traffic away from the group can be considered spam.  Thor gave good advice above when he stated that you should do a lot of helpful commenting and being a part of a group (when it's not your own group) before even asking to post coupons. It's just polite and shows you have an interest in the group and not just their pocketbooks (which feels like spam again).  I have several groups on FB, my largest one is almost 90K. I don't allow spam in my group (most groups don't) and if someone's first post is directing traffic somewhere else, they get blocked from the group. I do allow some advertising posts but they have to ask permission first.   I do post my own promotions in the group about 2 - 3 times a month. Sometimes less. I balance that with posts that are educational and informative, besides answering endless questions.  So balance what you're doing by being polite, engaging in the groups and be careful not to spam.      I don't post coupons very often, maybe every couple of months or so.   I noticed that most group members are only looking for free stuff.   I neither have time to do this more often nor do I see the benefit of it (same for contributing to groups).  

I have received good advice on this forum before regarding starting a Facebook Group or website to support students.  I would prefer a small / serious group versus lots of uninterested / uncommitted people.  My thought is not only to have a "closed" group, but to limit it to people who COMPLETED the course.  (For  example, The automatic message sent at course completion would have a password to get into the website.)  Any thoughts on this?   Author: @RichardDeut752    Hey @RichardDeut752    I have an FB Group that any of my students can request entry to whether they have completed the course or not. I think the stats say that only around 10% of people actually complete courses so you are limiting your reach if you go that way, in my humble opinion.   What you have to remember about a website is that you are not allowed to send students to a link / page that requires email address, password etc. From that perspective a Facebook group works better. I hope that helps   Hi @RichardDeut752 I think you need to have a clear view of what you are trying to achieve with your small serious closed group. Is it just for chatting or will you want to use the group to promote. What's the long term plan for the group? I have a small, non serious, non promotional facebook group and also a website. Generally with most groups the problem is "how to get people to interact?". 10% of my students have joined the Facebook group I have and it was open to any student joining the course. The people in the group won't have your sense of purpose for the group so you will either need a superfan or 2 to create interaction.    I would not limit it to just students who complete the course as many end up not completing the course. I use my exclusive student Facebook group for students only, but their only requirement is to purchase a course and answer three questions.  This gives them a safe and open community to post student projects, but also personal ones. We also discuss things like freelancing. I kept it small, but it is now over 2,500 but still manageable, and they are paying students, or have bought a course in the past.  I also post when new resources or lessons are added to the class and also run a monthly live stream where I review student work and give design challenges to them (graphic design is what I teach mostly)  I have seen in several of my reviews where my student Facebook group comes up as a big benefit to the class. I see it as an extension of my class.  I would make it a closed group and have 3 questions they have to answer to get in.  There are people who lie and say they are a student, and you do not want to have to double check enrollment of reach student either. So, I ask them which class they are a part of (I have 14) and what are they most interested in getting out of the group, and a third one that is more detailed of a question. These questions naturally turn away anyone who is not serious about being active in the group or someone who is lying about being a student.  It takes extra effort to run the group, and some moderation time required (I also required approval from for for each post) but it is well worth the effort.    I did open group with I assume some uncommited students, that being said it still drive a good deal of paying students who are interested in my topics, but has no clue about Udemy.   I use the group to support current students, get new students, and give free content to anyone who is interested in the topic.   Not all members has to be students, they may do it on their own, but down the line recommend me to others who will be come students.   I also have a website with a lot of resources, my own udemy course links, and my own course hosting.   

My latest course got Udemy's badge "Hot & New"  Here's what I did to get it! Recently, I've been participating regularly with my drawing posts on one of Facebook drawing groups. As my posts there were so engaging, I decided to post about my new course after publishing it on Udemy! So I posted a catchy image of my drawing and I posted that I have this new course where I teach realistic food drawing with ink markers and that I need their help to review the course! Here's exactly what I posted in the group:   It's win-win! 20 people will take the course and give me reviews! And at the same time I've marketed to the course in an indirect way. That's because when the free coupons were sold out, those who were interested in the course have ordered using the discount link. By the way, I was so happy to receive comments from people who said that they don't want to disappoint me by enrolling in the course and not able to watch it and review it! This was really honest! This reminded me of my first courses when I used to share free coupons on Facebook groups that are created for sharing free Udemy courses; something that I realized is terribly bad. That's because you get students enrolled in your course only because it's free although they wouldn't be at all interested in it. Consequently, you get a large number of students with ZERO  review and minimum or no student progression. On the other hand, when I started to share free and discount coupons on Facebook groups that are specialized in the fields of my courses (polymer clay and drawing), I got students who are interested in my courses and who wrote me reviews. They got benefited from the course and I got reviews which are so important for further marketing and sales. Besides, people who missed the free course have bought it because they grew interested in it. On sharing your course's link on Facebook groups, take into consideration that: Some groups' rules don't accept sharing links or selling, you've to respect that! It's better to be an active member on the group from the begining. It'd not be decent to post on the group for the first time just to sell your course there. Be kind first! I've been on Udemy for only one year and I'm still learning more and more every day! As I'm a relatively new teacher here, I wanted to share this marketing tip with those who might be new or still haven't enough audience to market to! Hope you find it useful!  

Social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be wonderful ways to expand your digital footprint and hopefully grow your online business. However, the trap is that if we’re not prudent they can also take a tremendous amount of time. Instead of trying to use them all, choose one or two that seem popular with your student base, for example send out a google form and ask them, they may check Instagram 15 times per day, but only look at Facebook a few times per week - ask how MUCH TIME they spend on them - they may only spend a total of seven minutes on Insta and two hours on FB. This helps makes an informed decision where your time goes to establish your brand. When you do post, remember that you’re representing your fledgling business. You could add some personal pics to be more relatable, but generally, it’s better to share your expertise than your holiday snaps.   Creating blog posts that get traction is also a wonderful way to show people you really are an expert in the field you instruct in. Plus don’t forget other creative ideas of what else you can offer. Are you an expert at creating infographics? Perhaps e-books are a passion of yours? How many podcast interviews have you or could you give - who can you approach to interview you? What about dynamic YouTube or Instagram TV videos? more online resources that are a mix of free and paid content.   How have you expanded? Do you have any tips to share?     Hi @SharonRamel,   I mainly use LinkedIn and Twitter for promoting my blog posts, courses, etc.   I have a blog that gets a few thousand page views every month but what I observed, is that people who visit my blog, rarely click on links for my paid products such as courses and software.   It is like, they all come for the free stuff and never interested in any of my paid products. This is somewhat discouraging...        The way I see it, it is really difficult to sell online. The competition is huge and for people that are just starting out, it is even more difficult. Even in marketplaces like Udemy where someone might say it should be a little bit easier to sell courses, because students come with the intention to buy, again it is way too difficult.    I assume what is needed is hard work and a lot of patience!      Thanks, @SharonRamel, for me I am creating a Udemy funnel to move people beyond awareness into a purchase, then advocates and finally what I call tribal leaders.   I have now created my path and using predominantly YouTube and Facebook to build a social presence of snackable content with a call to destination which is my site.    I offer a free course if they sign up to by email and then they go on a four email nurturing campaign over 10 days with help and guidance along the way and with the final push being back to my site and my £9.99 coupons. This is starting to provide me with valuable data and sales, plus I can engage and find out what other courses people want.   I recently undertook a survey monkey with my social media supporter base and the findings have really helped me design and formulate my new studio, content and ultimately my next course based on the problems and issue they face.   It is a lot of work to get the digital ecosystem in place but I am sure that with the ease and quality of the Udemy platform I can solve problems, provide value and scale, three key components to being successful online. Maybe there is a course on this subject xxxx Julian   Just a bit of an update, the udemy free course Call To Action on the site has now had over 120 people sign up with 61 people joining the udemy course.   It will be interesting over the next 14 days to see if they convert to my udmey group and to the final email of the 5 which is to purchase other courses with a discount code.   Really pleased so far and I hope my other social media is providing a valuable funnel to Udemy.   Keep beleiving. x Author: @SharonRamel 

Question Is it more effective to create a promo video on youtube and create an AdWords campaign, or are facebook boosts a better bang for the buck?   Answers I personally get a few sales from putting a link to a coupon in my description on YouTube and it keeps a slow stream coming in each month.  If you have a free course, nothing faster than facebook although it's not the most effective student list.  Either way, I think facebook works out more expensive than YouTube if you're paying for advertisement, as they also own Instagram and on adwords you could just have ads running on youtube rather than the entire network.  Which makes the target audience more relevant.  Every category is different though and if would largly depend on promo videos etc so for each case I'd suggest, running a small ad campaign and keeping an eye on the results.   Youtube works as it is based on videos... Facebook doesn't work at all... don't waste your money there... better to spend money to push a video on Youtube... once it has some views it keeps getting new views... so your money for the initial push keep giving you results in time...   Hi Luke. In my experience, and from reading about the experiences of other instructors over the years, is that paid ads that sell Udemy courses are a waste of money. The cost of making a sale through paid ads will be more than the $10-$15 that you make on a Udemy sale.   Instead, use coupon codes in the description of a YouTube video, or use paid ads to drive traffic to your own site, so you can collect emails in return for some kind of freebie, then market your Udemy courses to people on your email list.   As a marketer, here’s the best answer: Test both. The ultimate marketing is when you bring the right message to the right people at the right time. You can’t know that for your specific topic until you test. Everyone else will have wildly differing opinions and experiences because their topic, right people, right message, right time may be different from yours. So test both and see what happens for your own situation. Having said that, it’s also important to know that running paid ads to a Udemy course is often not profitable because of how little you receive per enrollee. The basic math of it is that you should be receiving more than your ads cost. Well, it can be really difficult (if not impossible) to run ads at effectively less than $2.50 - $5.00 per enrollment. It is actually more likely that it will cost you $10 - $20 in ads / clicks to get one enrollment and that’s if you’re good. The reason is that you’re dealing with “cold traffic” or people who don’t yet know you, don’t know if they trust you and don’t know if they like you yet. (“Know, like and trust” must be there before people do business with you) So, if you’re going to be doing any kind of paid advertising, I’d recommend a strategy that doesn’t immediately go for the enrollment but instead puts them into a follow up sequence (email or chat bot) to build up the trust first.   Based on my own experience on udemy, I would suggest upload 20% of your course on your own YouTube channel and optimize it for organic reach to your potential students.   This will be much better strategy to drive paid enrolments to your udemy courses.   I second Youtube promo vids. Personally I've not seen much action from FB ads, although GoogleAds can be excellent if you're diligent with very specific keyword targeting for your niche.  But overall, we've had great success with sales from weekly youtube videos which for our company are half educational and half marketing as a means of bringing even more value to my users.    I am embarassed to say that I have spent thousands of dollars buying ads on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google AdWords over the past 3 years and it has been an awful investment. I realized that the power of selling courses on Udemy is that they are our sales distribution channel...they are a marketing machine and I am grateful to be a part of this community. Please don't spend money buying ads as I promise that you will lose a lot of money doing so, like I have. If you figure it out, please let me know as I would love to learn from your all.   My long term customer acquisition strategy is YouTube; I create a video every day on YouTube and I am starting to slowly see students buying courses on YouTube. The great thing about YouTube is that it's the only gold rush in history that costs you next to nothing to create the product and you have access to bilions of consumers.    Thanks : )   I’ve had mixed experiences on FB. Loss, break even, and double my money. Fine tuning demographics, easy to access purchase/landing page, and cool vid or image helps tons. Sadly, if I put boobs in the image, it’s guaranteed to double the views/reach.    Making the promo video in a way that you cover what is this video about & Instresting things about your course in first 5 seconds and then start explaining so that your ad is not skipped and interested people may click on the ad video and Join I prefer YouTube ads as well as will also do Facebook ads, both have it's own benefits   I have tested Google AdWords, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads. I will get into details below but in conclusion, if you are capable of creating some free content in Youtube, go down that route rather than paid advertisement. Produce free content in Youtube and direct your viewers to your course. Details below;   First of all, online education platforms will be able to beat your bidding in all platforms in terms of cost. So, you will have to pay almost the twice as these big platforms do. Just to explain what I mean online education platforms, Udemy is also one of them but of course we love Udemy 🙂 The main reason is because they have re-marketing capability (with the help of scale) and they buy traffic in bulk which reduces the price.    Even if I will not use paid adverts at all, Google AdWords was the best among these. Facebook Ads didn't create much traffic, almost none. My personal Facebook post created more traffic 🙂    LinkedIn Ads are way too expensive for a course that you will earn £10 from. If you can sell your course for £100, then Linked Ads will work the best among these, but if not, you can forget it. The click cost of LinkedIn was 4 times more than Google AdWords.    I haven't tried Youtube Video Ads which might perform better.  

There have been many discussions in the community about using social media to promote courses and it seems like everyone has their own strategy.   So we’d love to know: Which social media site do you find the most effective in promoting your courses?    GREAT QUESTION!!  My course is less than 2 months old, so I'm FAR from an expert in this area, and really looking forward to hearing from others, but here's what I've found so far:  Facebook and Reddit have been great.   BUT, you have to do your homework.  The two main challenges are 1) Will the group accept some type of self-promotion? and 2) Is this group really my target audience? My course is a beginner course on the Go programming language.  One mistake I made is accidentally posting to a Facebook group for advanced developers.  Some of those sales were refunded and a few others resulted in not so great reviews.  My course clearly says it's for beginners, but the Facebook group members assumed I had done my homework, and rated me accordingly. So, those (Facebook and Reddit) are my 2 favs so far.  I would say participate for several weeks before promoting yourself, do your homework, follow their rules, and sales can be significant.   While I want to answer your question, I really can't. Udemy only allows us 3 coupons per month, where prior I could target specific social media channels or campaigns, now it is just everything in one bucket, we have no clue. I use FB group (1 w/18k members) and pages (2 w/2-4k likes), LinkedIn (7k connections), Discord (4k members), email list (12k), YouTube, Twitter.  As mentioned as instructors we have no idea where is most effective, we might guess but the coupon system makes it impossible to actually track.     I use Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest, Linkedin & Quora. I create videos and publish them on Youtube. I am a writer, so I post all types of content and the description of my courses. I have not seen many responses from most of them apart from Linkedin, Quora & Facebook. So I wondered whether Udemy has any unique methods to promote the courses of their instructors. Further, I have a website I post to social media daily that includes the Udemy course intro as well.   It is very difficult for me to answer. I actually generate the three days unlimited redemption coupon and share in different Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups, and my broadcast list. Unfortunately, there is no feature to track which source gives the most students.   @Bella - thank so much for this great question Bella- so for me I use YouTube Facebook and Insta- but I agree with Thor above with only 3 coupons to share a month there is no way to track this- or even know if your Facebook page is driving sales or your Facebook group- so really its not ever going to be accurate - whereas under the old system I was easily able to understand the effectiveness of a youtube video driving traffic compared to a facebook live or even answering a question on facebook with a link to the course for those who are interested in the topic- or on our bio in instagram- so if they could give more coupon options so we know where our efforts are making the most impact that would be super helpful when driving traffic on social media! thanks! Love Sal    I use these social media platforms to promote our course among our students and target new students to research out  my course Facebook  LinkedIn and some others but mostly that  above social media sites    I use Twitter, instagram and youtube but the most powerful is my own website    I thought Quora was a joke..... I could tell from miles away that the questions were weird and artificial, the whole thing felt like Robot Land. As for Reddit.....never bothered with, never will, I think I only had a look once and got out of there as fast as I could. Personally I think it's a bit like the sewers of social media. At least on FB one gets to see real names.....for the most part. I am not going to be anywhere at any costs, just to sell my courses, and I will not deal with anyone just to sell more. To me the internet is not much different than the physical world....I would not go anywhere I don't like.....I have been doing my stuff for almost 30 years and I know I am real good at it, and I will not cheapen myself being where I don't belong, and with people I have nothing in common with. I apply online the same things I apply in the real world, it makes no difference to me. But that's just me, again I am certainly not in a position to make recommendations about how to sell more. Recommendations which to me seem, for the most part, to be almost always easier to suggest than to follow. It seems to me that it is very hard to be successful, online or offline. Chance and luck have a lot do with it, which is why we get to see people who have better skills and talents, doing worse than others who aren't anywhere as good. Another big part is played depending if you do things on your own, or if you team up with others. For a team is obviously more influential than a single person, for the reason that a team has perforce more skills and talents (more people). A single person, even very talented, can only go so far on his own.  

Udemy Promotional Announcements are by far the most effective tool I use to promote my own courses. A promo announcement for a new course is many, many orders of magnitude more effective in driving sales than posting about it on social media, YouTube, blogging, etc. At least for me. Of course you need an existing audience to send them to first, which is why it’s so important to have more than one course.   Coupon links in bonus lectures would probably come in second place, followed by YouTube (sample videos posted to our channel with a link to the Udemy course in the description). Other social media and mailing lists are barely a drop in the bucket, despite steady efforts put into them.   Now, I know some other instructors have been much more successful in using social & mailing lists than I have - I’d love to hear tips from them. What's been most effective for you?   I'd have to agree with you @FrankKane that the promotional announcements are the most productive in terms of sales.  My next closest is sales from my FB student group and to be honest, after that, I have very little sales from other avenues. General social media posts and Youtube videos may get a couple of takers but the number is small.   I'm looking forward to hearing tips from others as well.   Hi @FrankKane ! In my case, for now, I make more sales for my promotions. I call this a factor of simultaneity, I mean that I could not unify in a single channel the effectiveness of my marketing. But if I should mention which channel is the one that receives the most sales, it is for my web page (also because I centralize a lot of traffic by that means). In the marketing courses that I dictate, I just mentioned that it is important to exploit all the free media that exist today, to automate all the tasks that are most possible since we will not always have the time to attend them and that is fundamental, to respond to all the that they write to us consulting about our courses (asi also I generate the means of communication so that they can arrive at me of direct form). The means by which I make more sales are as I said my website and youtube (I do not have many subscribers). In fact I must mention that 10 months ago that I started in udemy, without having a community, or YouTube channel or social networks with my personal brand, and now I am lucky to have almost 13 thousand students. I do not say egocentric, but as an example that you can start from 0 and reach good goals (I'm proud of my achievements and so is the effort I do, you have to work every day (Saturdays and Sundays inclusive) . In summary, for me, all channels are important (but if they are free as social networks are used today, this is called digital presence). If you leave your fingerprint on the internet everywhere, sooner or later whoever looks for a subject that you dictate in your courses, will find you, and if you have a well-made homepage and an incredible promotional video, you will surely buy your course with your coupon   "In summary, for me, all channels are important (but if they are free as social networks are used today, this is called digital presence). If you leave your fingerprint on the internet everywhere, sooner or later whoever looks for a subject that you dictate in your courses, will find you, and if you have a well-made homepage and an incredible promotional video, you will surely buy your course with your coupon"  Thanks. Very good.   I also believe that leaving a digital presence is incredibly valuable. Connecting with the groups of people who could most benefit from my courses is what I'm finding to be most useful - I work with grief in clients so connecting to different grieving groups (that represent my own journey) is most useful. Thanks for sharing your experiences and tips here too. Although I've made courses for a while, I'm only now looking at digital marketing! Be well everyone!   Great achievement, but how did you manage to enrol 13000 students in less than a year? Did you give away a lot of free coupons?  I would love to know.   Some good advice here. Congratulations. One question. You have your website. I also have a website. How do you get traffic, the right kind of traffic to your website? I am just getting a trickle in spite of promoting it on my mailing list and social media. Any advice and suggestions will be gratefully received.  

What are the best days to do promotional emails?   Hey @AbdulAziz  Honestly, I haven't found a best day! For me, it is more about having an engaging title so that people want to open that email, not about what day you send it.   Best Regards Graham   Tuesday morning works best for me outside of Udemy promotions.   In my experience, I noticed that they work better if you send them at the beginning of the week, like Monday or Tuesday, better if in the morning... weekend is to avoid...    

Has anyone experimented with using article-based bonus lectures vs. video-based?   If you're trying to drive students to your website or other courses, I wonder if an article format would be more effective. In a video lecture, students would have to find your links in the attachments to the lecture, or type them in by hand after seeing them on-screen. But in an article, you can put the links you want them to click on right in front of them.   But, an article misses the personal connection a video can bring.   If you've tried both, how did they compare in terms of results?   I’ve not tried both but it is a very interesting idea from the point of view of engagement. All of my bonus lectures are in article format at the moment as I think that clicks would come easier than typing it in...... but would be an interesting experiment!   I can confirm that yes you can create an article bonus video. I use article lectures for my bonus videos where I link out to my other courses and it works moderately well.   Hi @FrankKane I have tried both - the video was a spectacular failure, I love the personal connection however I rarely had people purchasing my other courses from it. Once I switched to using the article version it changed immediately - this brings in a healthy swag of sales week in and week out.   I use a video lecture, and point out how they can get the coupons from the downloadable PDFs in that lecture (They are attached as resources). I get about 30% of my own coupons from my bonus lecture, and my own coupons are about 15% of my sales (so bonus lecture is ~5% of total sales).   I saw a significant increase in sales from my bonus lecture when I added video.   I am also sending students to my website for additional resources, but not sure how many from the bonus lecture. Author: @FrankKane 

Hi guys, I just wanted to share with all of you my thought about bonus lecture... I took the time to make a bonus lecture for all my courses and put there all my coupons code and it is really paying off... Every day I'm having some student using a coupon to enroll in one or more of my courses... I'm writing this post as I also notices that many of the courses I'm enrolled in as a student don't have a bonus lecture or if they have there are not all the coupons for their courses... That's really a big waste!   I have not used that heaviliy in all my course, I have tried in a couple only - I was not impressed by the outcome. My courses are long and students need weeks, months to finish it... so getting to a bonus lecture takes a very long time and we cannot advertise it.   However, do it fully or do not do that at all 🙂 So... hard to judge.   It is on my list to do next month - add a bonus lecture with a coupon.   Will share my views when I finish it 🙂   I think Bonus Lectures and Course Promo are the most under-utilized features on Udemy courses. They are a great way to get more students for sure!  For those wondering what can and can't go into the Bonus Lecture, be sure to check these Udemy guidelines.    We have one bonus lecture and accompanying files that link to all our other courses with coupon codes. We use the same one on every course so it doesn't take much time to add. We have a separate summary/congratulations message for students as they complete a course, that is unique to that course. We find a pretty decent amount of sales from the bonus lecture. It is one of our many sales tactics that only takes an extra 30 seconds or so to add to a new course. This month, for example, the code we use in the bonus lecture is our second highest promotional code-the top one being our new launch code for the course that was released this week.   Completely agree, I have a short "Now what" video where I suggest next steps for the student, then I talk about my other courses, the books and tests they should use. Less than 2 minutes. Then I have a text lecture where I have links to my own classes, books and all the other resources I mentioned.  My highest coupon this month, it is normally in the top 2, that and my promotional announcements. (unless I launch a new course then that would be #1).  Author:  @MassimilianoAlf 

Hi all,   To help promote my courses I create instructor coupons. I have a coupon code which is the same for all of my courses. This is more to make it easy for me to remember than anything else, and it makes it much easier if I encounter someone and we get talking and they say they may consider checking out my courses, I can just say ‘if you use this coupon you can get any of my courses for this price’. Whenever I create a new course I always create that coupon code first. I set the number of coupons to 1,000,000 because I know I am very unlikely to ever reach that limit, and if I ever do then that is a good problem to have. If I am doing a specific promotion then I want to track whether it has led to any students, so for example, if I decide I want to do a promotion on Facebook then I will create a code for that promotion. I don’t normally put a time limit on my coupon codes unless that was part of the promotion I was doing, in which case I normally put a time limit one day more than the promotion to account for time zones or I don’t put a time limit, I just turn the code off a day after the end of the promotion. This allows me to use that same code for future promotions. I also create specific coupon codes if I am doing a promotion with an organisation, for example, if a company is going to share my course(s) for continued professional development, then I will have a price and coupon just for that company so that I can see how many people signup from them. I almost never create free promotional coupons, if I do it is because someone is going to take a course and talk about it on their blog, website, podcast, etc, and so I make them a coupon to give them free access. Occasionally I may create more free coupons, for example, if I teach a live course and as part of that course I will be giving the students free access to the online course or if I would like to offer a friend free access to a course. I send promotional coupons out to current students, cross-promoting my courses (I make sure all of my courses are related). I also share coupons on my blog in blog posts and on a dedicated course page, and on my Facebook page and when relevant, in the description of YouTube videos and sometimes in Twitter posts - especially if I am sharing about a new course. How do you use instructor coupons?   I do pretty much the same as you do, Dan. The only difference is that I create a different coupon for each YouTube video I create (it has a version of the video name in the code). That way I can see which video are more popular and bring the students over. I have one specific code I share on Facebook groups when I see people asking about which course to use for such and such.  If I hand out free coupons, they are always personalized with the person's name.  Last thing, for all the promo codes, I usually don't set expiration dates, just in case someone find it late. I wonder if you still get credit for people who get to Udemy on an expired instructor coupon?    I use one coupon code per course in all areas of advertising, whether it be as an promo announcement or social media, blogs etc. I create one coupon code when it's launched, don't put an end date on it and add 1000000 coupons so that it will never run out! I've never got into creating new ones for particular avenues for tracking etc, I simply get the link and but it through bit.ly to shorten it and then use that.     Author: @Hypnodan 

  Sorry for my month-long hiatus! After vacation and the release of my latest masterclass I am able to finally focus on the community and on my students.  I just released a new course and with each course release comes a new promo video you have to produce. I wanted to walk through tips and tricks on how to build a strong, compelling promo video as it can be the deciding factor for your course to be chosen over others.    First of all, a promo video should never be too short or too long. How do we determine this? My rule of thumb is the longer the course, the longer you can push your total promo video length. 2 minutes is a sweet spot but for a class that exceeds 5 hours, it is very challenging to truly condense all aspects of your course in that short amount of time, so expanding it by an additional minute to 3 minutes is usually a good length. There are times where I need to reach closer to 4 min (like my latest course, still in review) simply because I had a lot of extra downloadable resources, I really wanted to explain in more detail than my usual courses and those are a BIG selling point.  Shorter 2-hour courses should have a shorter promo, perhaps that one and half min mark or less.   Should I start with introducing myself?   Not always. For some, talking about yourself toward the end may work better and putting your course topic and content first tends to grab people’s attention. Of course, if you’re a therapist or in coaching, things may have to shift more toward your introduction. I usually like to keep this super brief and toward the middle/end. How do you handle music? Music is so important in peaking one’s interest in promo videos as music can give viewers an emotional response can be utilized to sell your course. I find keeping the background music lower during moments when you are talking is best, making sure the music never overwhelms your spoken words. A trick I use in my promo videos is to pick multiple songs, perhaps two. I like to start out with a high energy song, and then move into a softer background track for the middle portion and exit with a quick 10 second music clip to end it on a high note. When picking your music think about the emotional response it gives, how can you best use this to sell your course? Is the music too overwhelming? Post it on community forums to get that sort of feedback.   What do I talk about and in what order? The overall structure I use for my promo videos are as follows: Course Topic and Overview: Two sentences that sum up the entire course, your thesis statement basically. The software used or the topics should be mentioned.   Who this class is for? Mention briefly who this class is best suited for. Best to do this early to go ahead and weed out students that the course would not be a good match for. Why I should take this class? Mention the benefits of learning this software or industry. Can it move you higher in your career, satisfy life goals?   What am I going to be doing? When it comes to this section, I am always showing final finished course work (and also showing me in the process of creating it in short high-speed clips). In my field of graphic design, this is a bit easier to do. I show them the final created pieces early, so they know right away what they are going to be able to produce by the end of the course.   What comes with the course? Is there anything that comes with the course outside of just video content? Talk about your downloadable resources, extra community groups, quizzes, worksheets etc. It is best to bring all of these “extras” up right before you bring up your final pitch! The final pitch and call to action: HUGE one here. Always end your promo with a question or call to action statement. “see you in lesson one”, “Let’s start your new career now” etc. Make this very short and sweet and add that pop of music to add an additional emotional overtone. Try not to end your promo video with a soft statement.    Quick tips: Make sure to keep each section brief. If you have 8 sections to your course, only spend 15 seconds or so on each section. You can go into more detail about your course in a course guide our course introduction later on. This is video is meant to sell your courses, not be your course outline. Make sure you craft this video for marketing not for small details. Your most important course aspects should be highlighted here.   Be very visual. Trying to make your promo more polished than any other video in your course. You should spend at least 4x the amount of total editing time for your promo over other lectures.    Make your intro impactful. Studying your competitors’ intro can help you find a way to make yours more memorable and enjoyable.   Just a few tips from someone who has created over 74 promo videos in the last 2 and half years. I do believe my intro videos have helped my course sales dramatically.    Example of my latest intro, a little longer than I usually shoot for, but wanted to accent all the extra freebies the students get and the student Facebook group.    Author: @LindsayMarsh 

As a graphic designer for 14 years, I have created 1,000’s of images for my clients. Course images need to be both dynamic and also effectively communicate your course subject matter.   You also need to produce a clean image that communicates a sense of professionalism. Using more than three images may overwhelm the viewer especially when course thumbnails are viewed no larger than 200x100 pixels at times. I like to create a course image and then zoom out, so I can see how effective it is as a small thumbnail. Can I see any course icons, logos? Is the background graphic or photo effective or not too busy? Are there any elements that seem unnecessary?    Text is not allowed on cover images, so make sure you use icons, logos or symbols effectively, but using only the ones that are absolutely necessary to tell the story of your course subject matter. How about the color of the course cover image? That does matter. I once created a bright yellow cover photo for a design theory class because I could not find one other yellow dominated couse image in my topic. I believe using that unique cover photo has helped that class stand out among heavy competition . Looking at what others do in your category, what do the top three ranking courses do with their cover photos? Why do you think they are effective? Lastly, should you have a theme with all of your classes, some sort of unifying design element across all of your course images? Yes, that can be helpful if the classes are connected (in a series) or you want to establish brand recognition. For example, placing your headshot on each cover photo so when people view your course cover photo, they already know who the instructor will be (but that may not be for everyone, including myself).  You can also have a design: banner, slash, swoosh, circle, geometric shape, color that also unifies your courses in some way without making them all look line clones of each other.  I have done something similar to this with a two-part series, creating those bright vivid yellow cover photos so those two courses seem linked in some way visually. If I were to make all of my course cover photos the same color, it may be harder to establish two courses in a linked series or to highlight particular course types.   Just a few tips to think about as you start to create those course cover photos! Also remember to think about the course tags (best seller, new, hot and new) when creating your course images, everyone gets a tag at some point (new tag) so do not put anything that cannot afford to be covered up in that upper left area.  Please feel free to post tips of your own that has helped your course stand out from the crowd visually.  

Hello dear colleagues!    I want to ask which type of teleprompter are you using? I have experience with this BestView T1 prompter but it is small, and when I read the text, it either goes quickly to the bottom or goes slowly, in general, it does not work very well, but I want to read and so that it would be convenient. The prices for prompters are different and 1 k and 2 k, as for me it's a lot.   Want to know which type of teleprompter are you using, instructor community?     I have heard good reviews of Glide Gear linked to an IPad or phone. https://glidegear.net/products/glide-gear-tmp-100-ipad-smartphone-video-teleprompter     MagiCue Studio 15" Prompter Kit with Hard Case MAQSTUDIO15K   Which ever teleprompter you choose, I suggest downloading an app called Prompt +... The app is free but has limitations unless you purchase the pro version, which is about $15 CAD. With this app you can control font size, scroll speed, import/edit scripts from other programs. I use this on my phone and it works brilliantly.   I don't write a script so I don't use a teleprompter. I write outlines and diagrams which I place in PPT for prompting my brain. I use a tripod desk that I place my laptop on and then advance the PPTs with a clicker (not the right word, but you know what I mean.) See https://www.intension-design.com/tripodtable.     I use a Glide Gear TMP50 teleprompter with my Canon M50 and the Prompt Smart app on my cell phone for my scripts.            I use a Padcaster Parrot Teleprompter attached to my DSLR - just $79 and does the job nicely. The best app I've found it PromptSmart Pro. It listens to you as you speak and automatically adjusts to your speed - even if you speed up, slow down or pause. You can also go off script for a bit and it will patiently wait you're back and then carry on. It's brilliant 95% of the time, which I find is more than enough for me.   I'm a new instructor, and I had to buy most of my course gear. To avoid overspending, I normally start assessing the cheapest options, leveling up in case the quality is not good enough for the outcome I desire.    In case of the teleprompter, I settled for the cheapest option. I bought the Pronstoor/Ambitful teleprompter. Be warned: the case is made of plastic, and the reflective glass is made of plastic as well. Only the adapter ring is made of metal. But it gets the job done. After all, I only needed something to reflect the text from my iPhone. I recorded my videos with a Canon 80D and I started to see the black borders only at 20mm approx., so a pretty wide angle.   I bought the package with the Bluetooth remote control included and only paid 25€, so an excellent value for money in my opinion.     I am cheap and also use a Parrot Telemprompter, attached to a DSLR I had anyhow. Generally the only lectures I actually script are the promo video and maybe section intro videos, so it's not something I use often.   If you are just getting going learning how to present to a camera and practicing with a Webcam on your laptop, you can make a full script teleprompter that you control the scroll using a mouse with a wheel (can't usually hear it at all) using MS Word for example as your teleprompter. 1. Type out the script 2. Enlarge the font and double or triple space 3. View the document in full screen read mode to clear all the tool bars 4. Scroll with your mouse wheel so no clicks are heard HINT: If you wear glasses put word in BLACK MODE so your screen does not reflect on your glasses. Now practice. Even though you see your eyes shift back and forth while reading its a great way to practice. Like what you see? You're ready to level up to the great suggestions the Udemy pros offer here.   

Hi,   To create our training courses, the use of the correct microphone is critical. When I began my journey on Udemy, I invested in the Blue Snowball USB Microphone. It is outstanding and works superb even today after six years of its regular use. I use it to record audio lectures.   With that said, as I progressed and started using a DSLR camera, I required another microphone that could connect to the camera. So, I purchased the Rode Video Mic Pro+. Its a compact directional shotgun microphone with an outstanding sound quality.   Some details of both these microphones are as below:   Blue Snowball iCE USB Mic for Recording and Streaming on PC and Mac, Cardioid Condenser Capsule (Price ~$40 on Amazon)       Rode VideoMic Pro+ Compact Directional On-Camera Shotgun Condenser Microphone (Price ~$265 on Amazon)     Which microphone do you use to record your video lectures? Share your thoughts.   Author: @Rahul Iyer    @FrankKane: I'm a Shure SM7B guy, paired with a "CloudLifter" box to boost its signal, and a "Blue Icicle" device to convert it to USB. It's more expensive than the other options listed so far, but not crazy-expensive like the professional-grade Neumann microphones. It's a dynamic mic so it's not too sensitive to noise, and it sounds really rich.   @StanVangild204: I use the Blue Yeti Nano on a boom arm.  Nothing fancy, but I'm happy with the sound quality, it's affordable, and super easy to set up and use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DTTGZ7M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1       @LawrenceMMiller: The mic you use is partly determined by how you shoot. I stand in front of a green screen and my camera is back abut 20 feet on a tripod. I use a wireless mic. I went through three different cheaper brands and finally decided to spend the $500 on a genuinely pro quality Sony transmitter and receiver. This has worked very well plugged into my Nikon z6ii camera.  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1484178-REG/sony_uwp_d21_14_uwp_d21_camera_mount_wireless_omni.html   View the full discussion and comments here. 

Firstly I am happy to have my courses on the Udemy Marketplace. In my 3 years of creating course materials I have learned the following points and  I hope it can help new and aspiring creators to make better courses from the get-go so here goes.   1. Always keep the student in mind and try and simplify the material   2. If you are using a screencast video, generally engagement will be low as viewers may get bored, alternate between screencast and stock video. Or just bite the bullet and record with the camera on. I have found students completion rates are much higher for courses that have video recording. It took me almost 8 months to brave the camera but it was worth it. The courses where I face the camera reached best-seller must faster and have a higher enrolment rate.   3. Ensure you use stock videos and pictures which are either free for commercial use or ones you have purchased. A great source for free images and video is pixabay and Pexels .    4.For simple animations and intro-videos you can use softwares that add extra professional look. It's easy to use and saved me tons of money than hiring a video editor to do intro videos and animations. You can get started for as low as a dollar.    5. For presentations and templates use canva. It can help save a lot of time making slides and worksheets. You can get started for free and then upgrade according to your requirement. Nowadays you can even use canva's presenter option to record your presentations.   6. Try and bring your own story and personality to the surface to engage better with the students. Including examples of own life, experiences helps build student rapport.   7. Don't wait for your course to be perfect to publish it. Start with what you have and work on getting your course out there. You can always improve based on student feedback and update your course   8.Always keep a hard disk and back up your videos to ensure that you don't lose them or they get corrupted    9. Investing in a ring light and a microphone can help the quality of your audio/video and the sooner you do it the better and more time you will save editing. The blue yeti is a good microphone to get started with .   10. Success may not happen overnight so don't be discouraged. It takes a little while for students to find your course and enroll. Having a good promo video can help.    So these are the top 10 learnings I can share with any new instructor. Hope they help you in your journey of course creation,   Wishing you a Merry Christmas and A Happy Prosperous New Year!   Author: Jasmine Bayer (@JasmineBayer)

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.   Topic title (with key words) Subtitle Written course description. Category in which the course falls Quality of the promo video – video technical quality Quality of promo – explanation of content and benefits Quality of the promo – personality/style of the instructor Quality of other sample videos Instructor’s bio/resume/CV Instructor’s prior ratings and courses List price of the course Length of the course (longer) Length of the course (shorter) Number of competing courses Rating of competing courses Instructor’s marketing efforts – YouTube Instructor’s marketing efforts – mail list Instructor’s marketing efforts – website 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  

Course creation takes a lot of time and sometimes being productive is hard. I would really like to know from all the instructors how do you stay focused and productive? What kind of schedule do you follow to complete courses? Your guidance would really be helpful. Thanks.   @GregReverdiau: Hi @ShubhiSaxena  Making a realistic schedule and sticking to it is important. There are many steps to producing a course and what has worked for me in the past is to mix and match all the different steps so I'm not always doing the same thing for an extended period of time.  For example, you could record 7-10 hours of content over 2 days, then edit it over a couple of days, then upload everything to Udemy the next day, then publish your course. Personally, I like to record 2-3 hours at max, then spend the afternoon editing (during my lunch break, the computer creates my proxy files so I don't have to waste time waiting for that to happen). In the evening my computer exports all the videos while I sleep, directly to a Dropbox folder, which uploads by itself while I sleep. Then in the morning, I load those videos in Udemy using the bulk uploader and while the videos are getting converted by Udemy, I record my next 2-3 hours of video.  Getting more proficient at editing will also save you a ton of time. I used to spend 4-5 hours to edit 1 hour of content. Now that my process is more streamlined, I spend about 2 hours to edit 1 hour of content. Big time saver!  What are your main issues or bigger time wasters at this point in the process?    Here, check this article out. Look at the discussion about quadrants, this may help you. If you don’t have the book, it’s a good buy, cheap on Amazon.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/07/24/the-only-thing-you-need-to-remember-about-the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-people/#4c43a6c167f7   Make sure you have a filming 'studio' set up so that you can walk in and start filming whenever you are ready...   Great question! I don't really have a set schedule, but I try to do at least something for my new courses every day, even when I'm on vacation. That might be some programming for a lecture, making slides, taking notes or writing scripts, or filming or editing. I notice that if I take a few days off, it get progressively harder to get back into it. That helps keep me in the right frame of mind.   I'm very new to this whole formal teaching thing but I think I am finally getting a groove. I have taught before online but nothing formal or paid so I wasn't as concerned about all the small details. I digress..   I would love to do the batch processing thing except I tend to do some research, then talk. Then research, then talk. So, because of this, I only batch record a few videos at a time. Actually, let me step back.    My newest method I just started and love so far is this: I have a written script of what I am going to say ahead of time prepared. Maybe just 8-15 paragraphs worth. I record myself talking through the script without the camera, errors and all (I can edit those out). The key is to talk a bit slow and create natural breaks. Then, I start diagraming or creating slides for my script if I already didn't have them in the script. I'm actually editing the content now.  Finally, I will green screen myself talking about what I talked about behind the scenes. So, as I edit, I learn more or realized I needed to add something else. This is where I would switch to "me" on camera and just talk it. Then I splice it in.  So far, I really think this method is going to be my winner.   One slow down for me is that I switch between a Mac and a PC alot. I love the Mac but certain things I am just faster at with Windows on a PC.   Like I said, I am very new but enjoying the ride so far. Good luck.    I do nearly the same as @GregReverdiau regarding a schedule; although mine looks different as I have an FT job as well:   Film 3-5 hours at a time, I have done 8 the latter is a bad idea if you want quality.  3-5 hours of "tape" 2-4 hours of useful material for me. Next week or a few days later I edit it all of it, my editing is basic (maybe too basic tbh) so that's 1:2, one hour for every 2 filmed so 6-10 hours later all done I upload as I go in these bulk sets so that's usually a large chunk of my course overnight and hope my wifi doesn't fail me.  It usually does so I then upload the last of it in the morning or hit up a co-working space by the day- well worth the $20 for free coffee (& beer!) and fiber speeds! During the week I engage in social media, type landing page info, etc. Repeat this 3-4xs over a month or two and viola a new 4-6 hour course! Watch entire course before going live, I often submit and keep private for a week to tweak and have select students in "early" to give feedback and build some hype It total does help to have a home studio, saves me 1-2 hours to not have to set up now.     What motivates me? Let me be real, I can't stand editing, seeing my face and hearing my voice for HOURS is painful and I mean in a cringe, why did I do that, why is my hair a mess, etc, so I am quick to film, edit and have a live course up to generate revenue.  Yes, money and enrollment motivate me to complete a quality course quickly and on schedule.  I also update my social media accounts and students with a launch date early on.  It makes me stick to a schedule.  Right now I have 10 days to complete my next course; 10 hours unedited, 5 more to film and I can see the sweet sweet finish line!!!   this is a great question. My favourite motto is "Eat the elephant one bite at a time". For me that means instead of being overwhelmed by all you have to do, just concentrate on one thing - do that until it's done! This has helped me alot especially when I am not feeling motivated.   Hi Shubhi,  It a great question. Staying on track is important. When off track,  better to come back quickly.  Since you need to be creative whileaking content a break also serves as a breather.   This is how I stay focussed : Categorize and break your course creation task. Mine are : 1) Outline,  research, Script writing 2) video shoots,  screen recordings, audio files.  3) editing  4) prepare downloads in PDF.    I take up things in batch.  I complete point 1 and point 4 simultaneously.  I complete the scripting first. Mark the lecture numbers also. So redo is avoided  while recording.  Mostly first I  make my own outline.  This keeps my content original. Then do the research and improve it.  Keep adding parts to the main outline.    Only once this step is complete I start recording. I record everything in a batch again,  mark and save my files to edit in batch for next week.      Right now, for me it takes time. I follow a tight scripting schedule.  For e. g.  lecture 1  to be finished by (date) This has to be done to stay productive.  Since we are our own boss.  By following this it's easier for me to be productive. I can easily script for two to three lectures ( 10 minutes each)   in a weeks time. So in two months 8-12 lectures can be scripted.  You could just do one in a week and see it will start becoming easier. Sometimes it's just the load of work that needs to be done bogs us down. So little steps are also good to be productive.  After scripting I take 3 days for recording and a week's time for editing. I rerun everything again before producing.  So another 3 days.  Udemy has a template for video editing.  It's quite a help.  On the days I do not feel creative,  I simply research and find myself writing in an hour or so.... 🙂   Hope it helps.  Ekta 🙂       @GregReverdiau I love this! I did my first course recently (published on Friday, so I'm about to embark on a week of promoting it through various means - wish me luck!) and I was chewing over a solid workflow for my next one. I was thinking something similar, but a little different: -Pre-Produce all my lectures and sort out my talking points (I've never liked presenting with a finished script. Bullet points FTW), outlining what next steps I'll be finishing each lecture with. -Film everything over a single day (2 if needed). -Offload footage, backing up and transcoding overnight. -Then aim to edit a bunch of V1 drafts, ready for my business partner to have a read of (benefit of having another set of eyes) each day - batch exporting these (To google drive - love your Dropbox idea Greg!) with Media Encoder. -Start each edit day with any changes to existing edits, then queue up to Google Drive, ready for Bulk uploading and also getting Rev.com ready to go for captioning. I'll be processing these as soon as each edit is signed off. -Eventually all of my lectures should kind of be there within a couple of days to a week (depending on what other stuff I've got in my calendar that week.) Any thoughts as to how I can improve this anyone? I'm hoping to save myself a tonne of processing time in not shooting the whole thing in 4k (Yeah, that was a bit silly last time) but any feedback from more experienced minds would be super welcome!  

Editing takes the biggest bulk of most instructor’s time. Some instructors are lucky to have video editors who can work with them/for them, but not all of us are so lucky! I do one hundred percent of my own editing and finding ways to streamline that process can save me the most time. First of all, I create a theme or template video for my course I am working on. This theme will have a standard look for a lower third, banners or an intro screen. These graphics look consistent or have a branded theme. I start each lesson with this template, so I already have the first few seconds set up in my editing software, same for the outro, music and fonts. This saves me a ton of time as I do not have to set it up each time, I start a new lesson as there can sometimes be 60+ lectures. I also film in one day. I can film up to four hours of screen recording content in one afternoon. This way I can record it all and save the editing for one session. This also helps to cut down on editing time and streamline my process, so I am not going from filming to editing too often and shifting gears too frequently. I also plan ahead. I open up a google doc with my course outline and I write out the title of each lesson. If I need to write a script ahead of time, I will do all this at once. There is a theme here of sitting down to do one task before moving onto another. As instructors we can get excited about teaching that sometimes we rush to film before we really planned out the outline to our course, and “play it by ear”. I found that to be more time consuming in the end as I had to go back and refilm things I have said because I decided to change up the course after filming the first few lessons.   What are some things that you've done to create a course in less time?   Author: @LindsayMarsh      @Artemakis: I also find it more efficient to first record all lectures/screencasts, and then start the editing process.   In my first course, after recording each lecture, I would edit it and only then I would proceed with the next one. It was a nightmare! 🙂    Then I switched to record all-first, and then edit them, which works much better for me.    @GregReverdiau: Personally, I too like to record one chapter in one day. I try to keep the editing to later in the day, the morning is my prime time to record while I'm fresh. Plus, editing in the afternoon means I can export the videos while I sleep, and since I export directly to a Dropbox folder, they are also synched by the morning, which means I only have to add them with the bulk uploader.  A few tips that have saved me a ton of time:  - I use FCPX and there is a way to save some of the edits and apply them later. For example, color correction, where my body is located on the final video, the size of the screen that I'm showing, my fake background, my keyer, etc... is all saved for each of the angles I have. It makes it super easy to do the entire setup before I start editing. I'm sure other software have the ability to do the same. It also helps with keeping everything consistent.  - In FCPX, there is a Multicam option available. This allows me to set up an unlimited number of "angles" that I can easily switch between when editing. I simply click on 1,2,3 or 4 on my keyboard when I want to switch to one of the angles. They are all synched in and all I have to do once it's setup is to play my course and cut between all the angles.  - I play my course at 2x the speed when I edit. I can still hear everything I say and catch the bloopers, and it really saves down on the time!  I hope this helps someone!      @SatyaAnandaDhar: I do basically the same. I've also switched from more expensive and complex video editors to camtasia 9 to speed up the editing process. What wears the most is the time lost waiting for rendering! Breakes the work flow! I always record the course and then I'll edit at the end. Sometimes I add one class or another when I see the material ready, for polishing What works for me is to create a video file with the introduction ando other for the "background"  parts like text, images, quots etc.   @LindsayMarsh,   I just wanted to add that I do screencast and PowerPoint based presentation courses and I've found that a lot of my time can be sucked up producing PowerPoint slides -- especially if I go for high production value with lots of animation.   Want to speed up your video production to the max?  Do pure screencast software demonstrations.  I can record as much as 1 hour per day using this method.   If I start messing around with PowerPoint slides, or of late talking head and green screen, the minutes start spinning like Clark Griswald's electricity meter when he had all the lights on in "Christmas Vactation".  You get my point -- at least you do if you're a John Hughes fan ;-).   ---Brian   @Anonymous Great tip! This is exactly what I do. I do not even mess with PowerPoint and do all of my text and instruction right in screenflow (the mac video editing software I use). It is great because there is just one program I am juggling. I record my screencasts there but also edit video there as well, streamlining the process. It also adds a much more professional touch to my courses as my text is almost always, animated and structured.    If you are using Camtasia, you can render all of your Camatasia projects in bulk.  What I'll typically do is record all my lessons, mistakes and all. I'll then edit them all. Once edited, I'll open Camtasia, select all of my lesson projects, and bulk process them - sometimes letting it run after I go to bed.  When I wake up (or get back from food shopping, or return from the gym, etc), all of my lessons are ready for upload.   @kalimaAcademy: Hello, I use a " debut "program from a company " nch "  that is easy to use and the payment is $ 49 for one time. For montage, I use Filmora. Around my house there is noise, so I only shoot early in the morning for two hours, and then I do the montage and for noise removal I use the Audacity program, which is free. It is better to record several videos at once, because you will shorten the time to set the device and lighting, and then devote yourself to editing. The other command was prepared using PowerPoint, a simple introduction and I use it as an introduction before the videos and arranged all the things in one folder, and so I find everything I want in one time.