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Udemy Instructor Knowledge Base

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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...    
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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 
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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 
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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 
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  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 
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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.  
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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.   
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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. 
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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  
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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.  
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I see a lot of people asking, "Why didn’t my course succeed on Udemy?"   Honestly, though, this question often comes too late for us to help them because they have already filmed and published a course. They have spent countless hours and effort to build this course, and they are discouraged because it didn't get a bunch of students buying it up in the first week.     So, with that in mind, here are my four tips for increasing your chances of success onUdemy based on my experience. It is a long read, but worth your time and consideration before you start filming.   (Following all of these tips will NOT guarantee success, but they will certainly put you in a much higher chance of finding success here on Udemy. Remember, Udemy is a crowded place these days with 100k courses from 50k instructors...how will you stand out and succeed?)   Please please please, follow these tips in order. After all, if you don’t get Tip 1 right, the rest of this post doesn’t even matter...   (1) Proper category selection.    This is probably the number one mistake of new instructors on Udemy. People think, “Hey, I know Java and the top Java course makes like $90k a month. I want some of that sweet sweet Java $$, so let me throw together a 3 hour course on it, publish it, and I am going to be instantly rich!”   What they don’t realize is topics like Java, Web Development, iOS Developer and Python are highly competitive topics with 500-1000 courses already released and in the marketplace on each of them. This means you are likely to get buried in the noise (sheer volume of available courses) and no one will be able to find your course. This equates to low or no sales.   Instead, you really need to find a topic that isn’t overcrowded and make a name for yourself there. The topics I have had the most success with (translation: the one with courses making large amounts of money if we measure success by revenue) is categories with less than 10-20 courses in them. Once you find a category like this that you are knowledgeable and can teach, we can then move on to step 2...   (2) Make a better course than what is out there.    Once I find a category, I actually watch the top 1-5 courses for that category (at least their free preview videos). I analyze their course and ask myself, “Self, if I were to make a course on this particular topic, could I do it better than this instructor?”   My first breakout hit for a course was in a topic with only 10-15 courses in it. The #1 course made around $3000/month, and when I watched the previews for that course I was bored. The videography was ok, the audio was ok, but the presentation was outright BORING. I knew I could create a better course than that instructor, so I built one. Within 3 months, my course became #1 for that category and has been my top selling course ever since. (Oddly enough, the top course revenue went up significantly as a result to, moving to 2x the previous top revenue because now there was a better option for students to buy, which in turned increased conversations for this topic area across the Udemy platform.   Now, the hard part here is that there are some categories I found that “looked” like a good opportunity (high demand from students and low number of courses), but the leading course was already very good. For some of these topics, I opted to ignore these categories because I didn’t think I could take the top spots from the existing courses. Could I make a great course? Sure. Could I make one significantly better than the existing leader? Probably not.   When you look at these existing courses, you have to be truly realistic in your approach. I have considered making a Python course before. Python is one of the most searched terms on Udemy and may be the single best selling topic on the platform, BUT the top courses are already REALLY REALLY good. I mean, Jose's Python course is top notch. Could I make a really good course, too? Sure, but there are already so many good courses (and literally hundreds of Python courses on Udemy already), I would likely get buried in the noise, so I don't make Python courses.   Let's take for example, a topic like ITIL 4 Foundation (my #1 course). If you look at the Insights tool for you would think this is clearly a topic you should make a course for. Low number of courses and high demand. But, you would be wrong...   Why? Because the top course is my course. It has great visuals, an energetic and well liked instructor, and exceptional video quality. The course is a complete study solution, where I give the student all the videos needed to pass the exam, quizzes, 2 practice exams, and a downloadable study guide. I give students so much value for their money, it would be hard to displace me from this top spot, because there isn't much you can do to give more value than I already have.    Now, if you are a brand new course creator, it is going to be hard for you to steal students from me. In fact, 9 out of 10 people who search the word ITIL on Udemy end up buying one of my courses. When I have spoken with Udemy has told me, “You clearly dominate this topic.”   But even beyond me thinking my course is the best,  (and students agreeing), you have another challenge in entering this particular topic. This topic is regulated by Axelos, owners of the ITIL brand. If you publish a course there without their authorization and approval, they will have Udemy remove your course under copyright infringement. So again, not a topic you want to join unless you jump through the very time consuming and expensive process of becoming “authorized” by Axelos to teach ITIL. (The same holds true for the CEH certificatoin for those in the IT space who want to teach hacking.)   (3) Make courses people actually want/need.    This may sound stupid, but do people want/need your course? If you are making a course on Underwater Basket Weaving, will anyone want or need it? Is there a big enough audience to support it?   I personally make most of my courses on IT certifications because it gives me a natural audience who is searching for courses to pass these exams. People go to Udemy everyday to search for “CompTIA Project+” or “AWS Associate”.    When you are starting out, people will find your course because of your topic. This is why finding a topic with less than 20 courses is so crucial, because it virtually guarantees you will be one page 1 of the search for that term. Over time, as you become more known and liked by student, then they start searching for you and you can break my 10-20 courses in a topic recommendation.    For example, many of my student search “jason dion python” or “Jason dion Java” because they want to learn those topics AND they want to learn them from me. (They won't find one, because I don't have those courses, but they keep searching.)   Going back to our Java discussion at the beginning of this thread, I now have a big enough following that I could launch a Java course and do pretty well. I won’t knock out the top guy, but I could probably make a few thousand $ a month with one because enough students know me and would buy a course in that topic from me at this point. But if I was where I was 2-3 years ago, forget it. That same course (regardless of how good I made it) would earn me maybe $100/month if I was lucky, and I would be on page 5, 10, or 15 of the search results. It would be very hard for students to find it and discover me.    (4) Happy students.    The last strategy I use is that I put my students first. I give them a complete course, a full study solution, in their Udemy course. I answer their questions. I support them in our FB group, etc.    These students are my biggest marketing effort. Just go into any CompTIA Facebook group and ask what you should study if you are going to take the CompTIA Security+ exam. I bet within the first 5 comments you get at least 3 of them saying “Jason Dion’s course on Udemy”.    This is marketing for me. Now, I don't get 97% because they didn’t use one of my coupon links (I am not the one marketing in these groups), but these recommendations are all over Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn, an they are all driving warm traffic back to my website and Udemy’s looking for my courses.    You have to be patience with this strategy though. It doesn’t happen overnight. These students took my course, passed their exam, and now they share the good news of "Jason's courses" with others because my courses worked for them. For that to happen, it takes 3-6 months from their first purchase, so you have to be patience. But, once the flow of recommendations starts to flow (you’ve primed the pump), it becomes a snowball effect.   Bottom Line:   I am not saying to go create courses in areas you are not an expert in. Please don't read it that way. I am not trying to make you a mercenary for hire. But, I do want you to consider all the things you COULD teach before deciding on a particular category. Your BEST thing, the thing you are the biggest expert in, may not be your best choice on Udemy because the market is too crowded in that topic.   For example, I have a friend who has been teaching Web Developement (HTML and JavaScript) for a few decades. He is an excellent teacher, and makes outstanding courses, but that is a tough topic to succeed in. Should he go teach a cooking class instead if that has high demand and less competition? Well, maybe...   This particular person is skilled in many things. He has been an online instructor probably longer than anyone else I know. He knows how to do some amazing things in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, and Audition. He knows how to program computers. He knows how to run a profitable business. He knows management and human resources from running his companies. He knows educational design and learning management systems. You get the idea...this guy knows a lot of things. I just listed 6-10 different topics he could teach, teach well, and with expertise.    Most of us are like this. I look at my own background, and I have 20+ IT Certifications across cyber security, IT service management, and project management. I also can play guitar, run a business, manage people, do videography, and numerous other things that I could  teach.   So, when I started making courses on Udemy, I looked at various topics. My third course (which became my best seller) was on ITIL. It is something I had done at my job for over 10 years. It wasn't the thing I was most passionate or excited about, but it was a high demand area with a low number of courses. Yes, I have expertise in it, and I am certified in it, so I decided to make a course on it....and it paid off (big time).    That is my point here, because I could have created another Web Development course, or Java course, or Python courses, but I didn't. Even though I am knowledgeable about those things, I knew I would be fighting an uphill battle teaching them. For example, I used to own my own web development company. I have been a web programmer since the late 90s. I definitely could create a "Complete Guide to Web Development" course if I wanted to. The same with Java or Python, I program in both of those languages, but it doesn't mean they will provide me the best return on my time investment by creating courses on them. Some things may be good topics, but they may not be good FOR YOU.    Now, when I say things like this, I often get the objection, "But Jason, the only thing I know is Python", or Java, or Web Development. To that I say, "Well, nothing says you have to be on Udemy." Yes, I know this is a Udemy platform I am writing this on, but remember, no one is forcing you to use Udemy. Udemy is awesome, but if you are going to spend 50-200 hours building a course and get ZERO traction because you are hidden in a sea of other courses, then maybe you need to find your own path...or be prepared to market the heck out of the course yourself on Udemy.    Either is fine, but remember, if you are making the next Web Dev, Java, or Python course, you better have a plan for how you are going to be found and how you will stick out among 500+ other courses on that topic. If you think you will just click "Publish" and students will flock to your courses in these highly competitive topics, you are going to be sadly disappointed, I promise you.    I hope this helps some of you out there as you embark on your Udemy journey, Jason Dion   Author: @JasonDion 
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Hello, I am working on my future first Udemy course and I am facing a problem when recording my voice simultaneously with my screen. I am using a Blue Yeti micro which is very performant at capturing sounds and a video recorder and editing software called Free Cam 8. Since I don't have any 100% isolated room within my studio flat, my recordings are biased with noise from fridge, cars outside etc... I am also facing another problem which is reverbations.  Could you advise me how to get rid of such noise using  some material and/or techniques or maybe denoising software ?   Thank you very much in advance,   Author: Mehdi (@SakjiMehdi359)   Setting up the right acoustic environment for your recording is for many the most taxing, time-consuming, yet important technical task in teaching on Udemy.   It is an investment worth making, but you need to be aware of this:   You need to: 1. Sound proof the room OR 2. Sound proof some part of your environment, like a walk in wardrobe OR 3. Build a shell around your desk to make a DIY mini room and sound proof that   AND OR   Turn off appliances   Before doing all that, you might like to try boxing the Yei into a cardboard box lined with foam. Search Google for 'Microphone Box'.   You can use Duvets or foam to sound proof the environment.   You tube is full of videos showing you various ways to do this.   Search for how to do DIY sound proof for podcasters or something similar.   Once you have done it once you won't have to do it again.   @SakjiMehdi359 , I use a Blue Yeti and had similar problems with computer sound being picked up (I foolishly bought an all-in-one that puts the computer fan about a foot behind my mic.  Padding my environment with foam squares helped a little but I was able to greatly reduce unwanted sounds using a Kaotica Eyeball:   The mic stuffs into a foam ball with a cutout to speak into with a blue pop filter over it.  The thing isn't cheap ($199) but it cuts sound nicely without a lot of effort.  I was barely able to stuff my Blue Yeti into the thing.  I noticed they now offer a Fatboy option for larger mics.   $0.02,   ---Brian   @Vigasan: Hey Sakji,   There's really only two ways around that problem.   1) Change the environment - See if you can book a private conference room, other instructors have prepped in advance so they can book just 1-2 days and get their recordings done and done the editing at home.  An alternative is to see if you can use a friends house, someone who lives outside of the city, to record. You can offer to dog sit, or house sit when they go on vacation for example. 2) Change your set up - This won't help with all problems of course but the best thing to change out is the microphone. The Blue Yeti is a decent entry mic but is known to pick up a ton of background noise as well. Depending on your budget, I would look into good dynamic mics to pick up. There are mics out there that will pick up only objects super close to the microphone itself so definitely do some research and listen to sample audio before deciding.   You can use software like Audacity to help remove noise but it works best when the same noise is present throughout like a hum or fan sounds for example. It's not as great for random sounds. Always try to get the best sound quality directly from the mic though.   @BrunoG: Hi, I would suggest using a dynamic microphone such as a Sennheiser E835 as it does not pickup far sounds as condenser mics do. You have to speak close to the microphone as it's effective range is about  2 to 15cm.   @Umar: nVidia recently released NVIDIA RTX VOICE. It removes noise in realtime in many applications. I started using it for my recordings and the results are amazing. The only catch is that you need to have nVidia GPU on your PC (non-RTX gpus also work through a tweak). Here is the link to setup : https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/guides/nvidia-rtx-voice-setup-guide/       @PranavP: Have been in similar situation where i tried few things like using a very closed room or using zoom inbuilt cancellation,but more efficient then it found recently a nice AI based tool named Krisp ,which helps cancel all types of background noise with its advanced algorithms. Give it a try,would be surely helpful.   
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Hi guys, I thought it could be useful to publish a list of shortcuts by keyboard for moving inside the Camtasia different panels, so here it is:   Media Bin is the panel where all files used in your project are showed... to view that you'll use the "B" key in your keyboard Media Bin = Keyboard Key: B Library panel has all the intros and music... the key to go directly there is the "R" Library = Key: R   Annotations is the panel with all the objects you can use to make annotations and pointers... the key is "N" Annotations = key: N   Transitions is the panel with all the transitions you can use in your videos... the key is "T" Transitions = key: T   Behaviors is the panel with all the movements with intros and outros you can give to things in your video... the key is "O" Behaviours = key: O   Animations is the panel where you can add an animation to your video like scale up or scale down... the key is "A" Animations = key: A   Cursor Effects is the panel with the effect to add to your cursor... the key is "U" Cursor Effects = key: U   Voice Narration is the panel where you can add a voice over your video... the key is "V" Voice Narration = Key: V   Audio Effects is the panel where you can add effects to your audio... the key is "D" Audio Effects = Key: D   Visual Effects is the panel where you can add effects to your video (like chroma key)... the key is "X" Visual Effects = Key: X   Interactivity Panel is where you can add quizzes to your video... the key is "I" Interactivity = Key: I   Gesture Effects is where you can add effects to your mouse gestures... the key is "G" Gesture Effects = Key: G   As usually if you want to add something to this list or if you want to modify something or simply correct some errors that I could have done (English is not my primary language), you're welcome to do it, just leave a message and I will correct it. Hope this can help someone to work better and faster! Ciao Massimiliano (@MassimilianoAlf) 
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Hi All,   By the time I started my Udemy journey I had already been making video content for many years and was using video editing software which was affordable but also had plenty of functions (VideoStudio X6). When I started on Udemy I realised I needed something different. My sound quality from my camcorder wasn’t suitable, the camcorder only took proprietary microphones which required batteries for the lapel mic (and there wasn’t a compatible mic to place on the camcorder). The lapel mic batteries only lasted about 4 hours and I had times when the mic would cut out (it was bluetooth) or where the batteries would run out and I wouldn’t have noticed and would end up with a silent, unusable video.   So I realised I was going to have to capture the audio separately (I was using my Zoom H2 and then more recently my Zoom H2n. I now also have the Zoom H1 and Zoom H4n Pro, all of which serve different purposes) to the video and then synch it in video-editing software. I initially tried to do this manually by zooming in on a clap in the waveform of the video and audio and lining them up, but frequently they would be slightly out of synch and it was time-consuming if I have recorded 100 videos for an eCourse and I now have to synch 100 videos of audio, and then there was the added problem that when cropping the video I had to make sure I cropped the audio at the same time and didn’t accidentally just crop the video, or I would quickly have a video way out of synch, so I was saving each video as an unedited video with the external audio as a track, and then editing this video, but that took a long time to do.   So, for me, the biggest decision over choosing new video-editing software for making my Udemy courses was whether it could auto-synch the audio and video file together and have a single file created quickly which I could work with. I found that the most recent version of the software I was already using happened to have this feature included, so I upgraded to that software (I now use VideoStudio X9 Pro). It significantly sped up my production time.   I have recently found out that there are video-editing software programmes available which allow you to bulk process videos. Currently I have to edit a video, then wait ages while it processes before I can edit the next video. What would be ideal is to do all the editing during the day and bulk process all the videos over night, so I may be finding software which can do this and upgrading my software again as this is one of the most time-consuming parts of my editing stage.   How did you pick your video editing software? What is important to you in the video editing software you choose?   All the best Dan   @DeniseFletcher: Hi @Hypnodan, I'm at the low tech end of editing so I just use Camtasia, Audacity, my iRig mic my iphone and powerpoint. I try to do as little editing as I can 😉    @GregReverdiau: Hi Dan, Several factors I consider: - ease of use: this really depends on how our brain works. There’s no right or wrong answer. Try the software and see what works.  - compatibility with your operating system: some software works better with windows and some better with Mac.  - price: free vs one time fee vs subscription model.  - functionalities: Does it do all you need to do   Based on all those, I am a Mac user and I tried both Premiere and Final Cut and went with Final Cut. It reportedly works faster on Mac than Premiere because it was designed for the hardware, it’s a one time fee vs a subscription and it was easier for me to use. It has functionalities like multi cam which I love for my editing. With that said, Premiere is an industry standard and an amazing software. Btw, both do batch exporting so you can export everything at the end of your editing day and let the computer do the work while you sleep!    @GrahamNicholls: I'm not what I would call technically advanced with editing software to be honest @Hypnodan    I edit everything on my Ipad and started out just using iMovie but after a few courses I wanted something with more functionality but was still easy to use. I came across LumaFusion which claimed to be the cloest thing on a tablet to that of PC software. After trying it out I found it very easy to use and it processes videos really quickly so I went with it and haven't looked back since. Author: @Hypnodan 
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I've gotten this comment many times myself, so you may be wondering, what should I do?   First, you have to decide if the delivery was really a problem or if it is just this student. I have had students tell me that I talk too fast, and others say I talk too slow. Obviously, I can’t make both of these groups of students happy, so I decided to simply talk at the speed that is comfortable for me. In the case of delivery speed, it is an easy fix since the video player allows students to playback the video at 0.75x or 1.5x, too. I also mention this in my introduction video, and the complaints about delivery speed have decreased. If you get complaints about your dialect or accent, you do have to remember that you are serving an international audience. I am an American and I had a British student complain because my slides used the word “color” instead of “colour”. Again, you can’t please everyone, so pick a format and go with it. I’ve also had complaints that my “accent” is hard to understand because I speak “American-ese”. If you have a thick accent, it can be beneficial to take some vocal courses that help you minimize your accent, since this will make you easier to understand regardless of where your student is in the world. Often, international students seek out “American” or “British” accents because they are more common and easy to understand in the global marketplace. If you get complaints that your delivery is “monotone” or “boring”, you should take that criticism and work to improve your delivery. Students want to be engaged and entertained. Try to use different peaks and valleys to your voice and tell stories as you teach. This will go a long way in creating engaging delivery.   Hopefully this helps a bit for some of you who are new to the platform and building your first courses. Remember, you can't please everyone, but do take the time to stop and think if they have a valid point! Jason   @Hypnodan: I occasionally get told I talk too slow, but for others that is what they say they like about my presentation. A couple of years ago I decided to make a YouTube video where I tried to talk as fast as I see other YouTubers talk. It was only a five minute video and it felt like it was going to kill me trying to keep up that speed for five minutes. I have never done that again and wouldn't do it for a course, but it was interesting that no-one seemed to notice I was talking fast (for me) and that I was struggling throughout the video.   I saw a post somewhere in this community a few weeks ago mentioning about mentioning that you can adjust video speed. I have obviously always known this, but for some reason never thought of it as a solution to suggest but think it is a great idea and will likely do this.   All the best Dan Author: @JasonDion 
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Hi everybody,   I'm wondering how I could go about recording my screen (a regular screencast) and then with a tablet or something how I could draw on the screen with a stylus? And then when I'm done I could clear my doodles and return back to regular screencasting again. I actually have no idea what that's called, but if someone could help guide me in the right direct, that'd be really helpful!    I'm using a MacBook Pro, if that makes any difference.   Thank you!    Hi,   I'm not sure for Mac, but for my courses I have used Microsoft OneNote to draw on a touch-screen laptop.   This is how I do it. I connect a graphics tablet to my computer using usb that comes with the tablet. The I run my powerpoint slide. I may have a blank slide with my preferred colour (black). When runing the PowerPoint slide, go to the "pen" icon next to the navigation at the bottom left corner. Click it and the pen appears as a dot. You may choose the colour of the pen at this point. Keeping my eye on the screen and guided by the dot on the screen, I can write on the scrren as I would do on papre using a pen. When I'm done writing, I simply navigate to the next slide. But when you want to exit the slide show, you will be promted to save this inking of the slide. You may discard it but it will of course appear in your screen capture. If you're using camtasia, you can hold "ctrl + shift+ D". A pen appears and you can write on the screen. You do not need to use PowerPoint. Hope this helps.   @KalobTaulien  I use Camtasia 2018 (Windows/MacOS) to record my screen while drawing on a tablet attached to my computer.  I can then edit my recordings in the Cmatasia 2018 video editor in post-production to remove transitions from PowerPoint slides and other unwanted errors.  I draw using the application Clip Studio Paint. Hope this helps, ---Brian   I record on a Windows system and use an free application called ZOOMIT. I did a quick search on MAC alternatives and this one came up, https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/draw-on-my-screen-ez/id1082177879?mt=12   I haven't used it but looks similar to ZOOMIT on Windows, plua it's free. Worth a try.   In my opinion, if you want accuracy when drawing, you need a dedicated drawing tablet.   I don't use it for my courses, but for my photography projects I use an XP-Pen Deco 01 tablet, which connects to my computer via USB.  I use it on Windows but it works on Mac as well.   There are more expensive ones, but this is enough for me at the moment. It has a big enough drawing surface, detects pressure, works very well and it is not too expensive ($60.00).   I use the iPad Pro with Notability. It's extremely powerful and the handwriting optimization makes it great.    Now, the trick it to record it easily! I fire up Quicktime and use iPad as a camera in there. That brings in the screen of the iPad so now, it's just a window that I can use. Doodle away! Shift to whatever other window you want to show/code in/animate.    Hope that helps.    Any tablet will do the job, buy the Wii Styles Pen it works with all devices, record right to the tablet using any screen recorder and you won't face any problem  Use OneNote   You could use a graphic tablet which comes with a stylus and not as expensive as iPad.   Basic model: https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Graphic-Drawing-Tablet-Beginners/dp/B07S1RR3FR   Pro model: https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Digital-Graphic-Drawing-PTH460K0A/dp/B07PPQH867/   Author:  @KalobTaulien 
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I am now contemplating upgrading my current set up of webcam and mid range mic.   I would like to spend some money on investing in a camera, mic and some lighting with a backdrop.   What is your current set up it terms of camera and mic, plus what lighting fo you use?   Really intersted to know before I take the capital expenditure plunge.   Julian   @GrahamNicholls: Hey @JulianJenki396  Here's the basics of what I use.   I use an Ipad as a camera that has a Rode Lapel mic plugged into it via the 3.5mm port which provides HD quality video and great sound (the Rode mic is fantastic).   As far a lighting goes I've got 4 Pro Softbox lights to light the area I record in.   @LawrenceMMiller: You will find a huge range of responses in terms of the sophistication and expense of the equpment that instructors are using. I suspect that I am somewhere in the middle. Here are two photos of my office/studio. One is from behind the camera, the other looking toward the camera from where I stand.  Obviously, I use a green screen and insert a background photo in editing. Here is my gear breakdown. I have been using a Fuji XH1 camera with a variety of lenses, usually the 16-55/f2.8 set to f5.6 and a custome K scale level (3300) to match the lights, auto focus off and auto white balance off. I recently acquired the new Nikon Z7 and I may use that for my next course. I use a laptop for a teleprompter, but that is just to give me an outline or a graphic, which I use a lot of, to remind me of my key talking points.  I use a Sony URX-PO3 wireless receiver and transmitter. This is a relatively expensive unit ($500) but I went through several other cheaper units and they kept failing for one reason or another. This one is excellent.  Lighting is probably the most critical element of your set up. I have four  Generay Spectra 500 bi-color lights. These allow you to adjust the color temperature of the light. Two are in front of me and two only illuminate the green screen. I have two smaller lights that are above and behind my head aimed at the back of my head, this eliminates the glow you can get around your head. These aren't shown in the photos.  Oh, notice my mascot, Bella on the couch. Very imporant. This is her position while I am filming so she isn't looking out the window downstairs and barking at people or dogs walking by. Hate that!   @KylePew: I started out with a logitech webcam and a couple of small lights. After a couple of courses I upgraded to using a Sony A6000 with a Sony ECM-GZ1M mic in the cameras Multi-Interface Shoe. I also purchased a simple retractable green screen, from Elgato. When I made the upgrade I also changed from using Camatasia to OBS. OBS is super easy to use with the green screen adjustments. I recently upgraded to a Sony A6400. This camera gives me more options as far as microphones are concerned as the A6000 didn't have a Mic input other then the Multi-Interface slot at the top of the camera. My lighting has also changed over time, I now have a couple of LED panel lights to light me and the green screen.   @Hypnodan: Hi @JulianJenki396  For camera, I use a Sony AX53 camcorder or Sony A6400 camera. On either I use Rode Mics. Either the Rode Lavalier microphone (about £40) or the Rode VideoMicro (about £40). Obviously the cameras I mention here are quite expensive, but the microphones are reasonably priced. For lights, I use the 'Neewer 3 Packs Dimmable Bi-color 480 LED Video Light and Stand Lighting Kit - LED Panel (3200-5600K) with U Bracket Light Stand for YouTube Studio Photography Video Shooting' (about £150 for 3 lights plus stands. You can buy them cheaper individually if you don't need 3) I used to use softbox lights which were much cheaper (about £40 for two plus stands), but they take up a lot of room. I rarely use green screen, but do have a green screen setup I can use if I want. It was quite cheap (about £35) to purchase the set which included green screen plus white, black and red and the frame, which at it's largest is  2m x 3m. I also have a teleprompter. I don't use it often. It was about £80 and you put your tablet device lying down on it and read off (using any free 'teleprompter' or 'autocue' app) the slanted perspex which is in front of your camcorder. It fits on the tripod and you put your camera on the telepromper.   All the best Dan   @AliciaPaz: I've made some upgrades recently, not sure your area but I also initially used Omni which is an app where you can borrow stuff and tried a DSLR first.  I made an Amazon list of what I use/have used- not an affiliate link below, a wide range of items and all pretty cheap.  I started with an iPhone 7, $9.99 lapel mic and a $9.99 app (ProMovie.)   Current set up is a lighting kit; 2 on tripods and umbrellas and one softbox on a tripod, blue ICE mic which is bungee corded to another tripod with a pop filter.  I use a Canon DSLR as well which has made a huge difference in quality.     My basic kit for social media and promo is that I use my iPhone and a ring light that attaches to it.   I don't use a green screen and my videos are all talking head (it's less ego and more that I am a therapist!) and I have this as my background in all videos.  I also use Mac products so I also have 23029508 adapters due to the C-port.      I should add I also have a room I use as a studio with no windows (3/4 basement) and white walls so lighting is easy as is sound.  And to prevent echo I have a mattress against a wall- it might also be my never used guest bedroom so it also has a dresser and nightstand to the sides.   If I had to choose what to buy looking to upgrade presuming someone's set up is alright, to begin with; mic > lights > camera    https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1X1J354MTOLQI?ref_=wl_share   @GregReverdiau: I just finished construction of my home office/studio. This is my setup.    Logitech 920 Pro or iPad available light or 3 photo LED lights Greenscreen on a frame and stand Auna USB MIC 900B with mike stand and pop filter (might be a different brand in the US) which is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone. The mike is very important because I do screencasts. This mike is simply overwhelming and really makes the difference. This has improved my sound quality dramatically. I used to have a Rode smartLav+ before, but in comparison, the Rode is like phone quality.   Bottom line: mike is king, the rest is nice to have.   @RobinHills: Some of these bits of kit are very impressive.  They may be very off putting to new, inexperienced instructors.   PLEASE do not think that you have to have all this gear to be successful on Udemy.  I started out with a Logitech c690 webcam giving me HD video and a Blue Yeti microphone giving high quality sound.  Together both cost about £150 (~$150 equivalent).  They got me started and established with my courses.    Over the months I have invested my Udemy income in a DSLR camera (Nikon d5600), a Rode Video Pro microphone, a white screen, a lighting kit and a teleprompter.     Having got got my professional kit together, I still haven’t mastered the art of producing great videos that I am 100% happy with!   Author: @JulianJenki396 
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So ok you’ve had this great idea to create an online course. You were full of enthusiasm but today you’ve hit a brick wall. You just can’t seem to get going. You are procrastinating. It’s all milling around in your head but nothing is happening.   Don’t worry we’ve all had those moments. I am a super procrastinator so I can go off track really easily especially if I’m finding something challenging to do, like course creation.   So how can you unblock yourself? Here are some tips to try out…all you need to do is grab your notebook and a pen. Just pick 2 or 3 things from the list below and do each one for just 20 minutes. Just doing something different for a short time can trigger your brain into focus and bam you’re back on the production train again.   1. Get your outline onto the Udemy dashboard if you haven't already - so you can physically see the course building bit by bit. 2. Explore your course objectives / course landing page and see if you can improve them – again write them into your course and keep tweaking. 3. Start to fill in the lecture descriptions - and remember you can tweak as you go along. 4. Watch a variety of preview videos from courses in the same topic area as yours to understand their offering and work out how yours will be different. 5. Get a blank sheet of paper and brainstorm your own Bio – explore other instructors Bios for ideas 6. Start to write your Bio into Udemy - and remember you can tweak this at any point. 7. Research and explore additional documents /material you can add to your course. 8. Create your additional documents. 9. Spend time here in the forum Studio U observing and getting involved. 10. Brainstorm course titles and subtitles. 11. Have a play and experiment with your test video and filming in general. 12. Take the plunge and submit your test video - you'll get great feedback. 13. Get creative and start to explore your course image(s). 14. Get brave and hold yourself to account by posting about your course and course launch date on social media. 15. Try not to be a perfectionist. Tell yourself your course is a "work in progress" and you can continually improve it after it is live. 16. Remind yourself that doing something is better than nothing. 17. Have a complete break, grab a coffee or go for a walk.   Have you got any other tips to add to the list?    @AliciaPaz: Love this list and I am the Queen of procrastination at times.  I would add for me to do something!  If you are like not into filming today and the script seems overwhelming go choose something else- #14.  Make the graphic for the course, write the landing page, anything even a 2 min. project just to have some momentum.   My best/worst tip and this might be bad if you truly procrastinate and don't do anything- I post on social media my launch date!  Yes, I give myself a public (reasonable) timeline that I feel an obligation to stick to.  I create a countdown on IG and the pressure is enough for me to put my ass in gear!   Also over time, I have streamlined my process (I think @GregReverdiau started a post on it a month or two back) and it has helped me make this so much faster and also choose my next step over a long to-do list that is too much to handle so I just eat ice cream instead!   Great list. Thank you. Here are a couple items I’ve found that might be appropriate.   Do something on your project every day. DeniseFletcher suggests 20 minutes. I opt for 10. In any case, the point is to do something every day. If you are still not in the mood after that initial 10 (or 20) minutes, then stop. I find that if I don’t EVER honor my commitment to stop after 10 minutes, then I never start. I seldom abandon my project after 10 minutes, but there are times when things just aren’t working. Forcing myself to continue just generates frustration, resentment (and garbage). Be willing to scrap an afternoon’s / day’s / week’s / (okay, not month’s) material. If you are anything like me, some of your best work just will not fit your course. My biggest frustration is trying to adapt my course to include a lecture that doesn’t fit. It may be entertaining, interesting and some of my best work. And I’ve spent hours and hours developing it. But if it disrupts the course flow, it needs to go away. That’s hard. But continuing to try to make it fit creates an almost insurmountable course development blockage. Author: @DeniseFletcher 
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It seems that every instructor on Udemy has an opinion about what makes an effective online presentation, but rarely do we have a discussion about evidence based research. So... I thought I would post some of the research I have found, encourage others to post additional research, and hopefully, instructors (Including myself) can make better informed course creation decisions. 1. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/   How Video Production Affects Student Engagement: An Empirical Study of MOOC Videos Key findings:     2. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED560520   Seeing the Instructor in Two Video Styles: Preferences and Patterns   Key Findings:    Instructional content designers of online learning platforms are concerned about optimal video design guidelines that ensure course effectiveness, while keeping video production time and costs at reasonable levels. In order to address the concern, we use clickstream data from one Coursera course to analyze the engagement, motivational and navigational patterns of learners upon being presented with lecture videos incorporating the instructor video in two styles--first, where the instructor seamlessly interacts with the content and second, where the instructor appears in a window in a portion of the presentation window. Our main empirical finding is that the video style where the instructor seamlessly interacts with the content is by far the most preferred choice of the learners in general and certificate-earners and auditors in particular. Moreover, learners who chose this video style, on average, watched a larger proportion of the lectures, engaged with the lectures for a longer duration and preferred to view the lectures in streamed mode (as opposed to downloading them), when compared to their colleagues who chose the other video style. We posit that the important difference between the two video modes was the integrated view of a "real" instructor in close proximity to the content, that increased learner motivation, which in turn affected the watching times and the proportion of lectures watched. The results lend further credibility to the previously suggested hypothesis that positive affect arising out of improved social cues of the instructor influences learner motivation leading to their increased engagement with the course and its broader applicability to learning at scale scenarios. [For complete proceedings, see ED560503.]   3. https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/presentations/delivering-presentation Delivering an effective presentation   An effective presenter needs to be flexible, energetic and enthusiastic. This guide will help you turn your written presentation into an imaginative public performance.   Your turn.     Author: Lawrence M. Miller (@LawrenceMMiller) Management & Leadership Coach
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What process and tools do you use to create a new course from scratch? Particularly for courses that are mostly either talking heads or slideshows with a voiceover (rather than courses that are mostly screencasts of software being used).   Do you, for example, sit down and script the entire course before recording your talking heads/slideshows. Rather than using a script, do you use bullet points to cover everything?   Is there a tool that you use to help you with the course planning and scripting process. Does anyone use Scrivener for example, or something similar. The few times I've looked at Scrivener, it looks pretty confusing.   I've been using Microsoft OneNote and I find this has been quite good, but maybe there's something more intuitive. My process varies, dependent of course on the kind of course I'm creating. I generally create slide-based lessons, so the text on the slide determines what I'm going to talk about, so detailed scripts can be unecessary, but when doing talking heads I script every word. I think planning a course has been one of my weaker areas in the past as I tend to start creating content before the planning process has been finished.     @GrahamNicholls: I don’t script anything, I sit with pad and pen (yes I’m old fashioned), I mindmap the subject and then do a lecture list. Then, when I’m ready, set up and record.   simple yet effective      @DeniseFletcher: Hi @CharlesCorn  Mostly the courses I create are from things I've delivered in person but none the less in trying to improve content I go through the same process as what I do when I create a course from scratch.  1. I buy an A4 hard backed book to jot notes in. Each course has it's own book. 2. I create a summary structure of the course on one page as a mind map which then becomes a linear structure which then I set up in Udemy ( I find that seeing the course visually on Udemy helps). 3. Then for each part of the landing page - objectives, ideal student, course description I create a one page minde map 4. I do the same with each section / lecture 5. I research lecture content where I see gaps 6. I go to a coffee shop / pub and sit in a quiet corner to start thinking about visuals and scripts so I have no distractions. 7. I then create each lecture as a powerpoint presentation and use the Trainer Notes view to write bullet points / script 8. I explore / create draft additional resources 9. I record the lectures one by one and add to Udemy 10. I finalise additional resources lecture by lecture and add them to Udemy 11. I then revisit the landing page and tighten up 12. Press the magic button and plan out marketing / promo   So my note books become full of mind maps and drafts and powerpoint helps me to polish it all.  I should add I am a terrible procrastinator and I faff a lot - one of the reasons for making myself go out to a coffee shop with no laptop and just the notebook.  I hope that helps Best Wishes Denise   @Chris_Haroun: Charles here are 2 videos on how I create the content for a course from scratch (the first video below shows how I come up with and script/organize the content and the second video below shows how I place the content in my teleprompter set-up...I used 2 videos with lower resolutions as you can't upload more than 500MB per file here); thanks:        Please let me know if you have any questions, Chris   @GregReverdiau: Personally, I use an Excel spreadsheet to create my strawman of all the areas I want to cover, then I divide it into logical categories. Then when I create my slides, they contain the bullet point ideas of what's important and I expand on each of those in front of the camera. Sometimes (most of the time) I show the bullets to the students, but sometimes it's just for me to stay on track. I never script, I tried for my promo videos and I'm horrible at it. I'm much better with just an idea that I can expand on. With that said, everyone is different so whatever works for you and makes you comfortable in front of the camera.    Author: @CharlesCorn 
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