See what instructors are using to edit videos!   My workflow is based aroud Adobe apps. Premiere Pro is a main "work horse", I also use a bit of AfterEffects, when I need infographics (to be honest, I don't do that too often). I record videos in Camtasia, but I don't edit there, it is way simpler to organize big project in Premiere Pro.    Personally, I use Final Cut Pro X (Mac only). It is an industry standard along with Adobe Premiere. It provides me with the video editing, audio editing, acts as file organizer. One thing I love is that it lets me save presets from previous videos (such as how much crop, where the video is positioned, color corrections, etc) so I can apply them to future videos. That's been great to save a lot of time once I setup my studio correctly. It also has a great green screen option, it allows for outside plugins (such as on-screen graphics and animations), and the multi-camera option has allowed me to save a TON of time when editing. It's a bit of an investment at $299 and I know there are lots of other options for free out there too.    I use Adobe Premier Pro and love it. With that I also use Audition to clean up our sound. I tried Final Cut, and while it has amazing tools, Premier just clicks in my head. I am working on an iMac Pro if that helps too. I used iMovie back in the day but one of the version updates they did took away all the features I liked and used and I got mad at it and have barely touched it since.   Screenflow for Mac has been amazing! I do have the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, so technically, I can start to explore Adobe premiere and Adobe after effects, but for teaching courses screenflow keeps it nice and simple with some pretty decent transition effects.    I use Adobe premier pro. Mine is just slides and voice over. Only takes couple of days to edit. So, usually when I finish editing, I unsubscribe the service. Adobe is so generous that they do refund if service period is less than 2 weeks.   I also use ScreenFlow on my Mac. I have been using it for many years now and it has grown from an application to just record and edit screencasts to something more capable. So nowaydays I even use it to edit talking head videos etc.   I am sure that pro-level applications like Premiere or Final Cut Pro X have a lot more bells and whistles. And I might look into that in the future. But for now I am pretty happy with it. Author: @Marious 

Instructors share how they dress up for when they're recording their course lectures. Read this post to get some inspiration!    Most of my videos are just screencasts or slide narration where I don’t appear, so in reality I’m usually wearing a t-shirt and jeans! But when I do appear on camera, I do put some thought into my attire. You want students to identify with you, yet you still want to look like a respectful authority figure. For courses aimed at engineers, I’ll usually wear a collared shirt, but without a tie or jacket. But for courses aimed at executives, I break out the sport coat. It’s also important to avoid complex patterns in your attire, as they can create odd interference patterns on camera. I have a section of my closet that consists of tailored, solid-color shirts for use on camera. And I also think it’s important to have some sort of “signature” in your apparel. Steve Jobs had his turtlenecks; Bill Nye has his bow ties. For me, it’s a flat cap, and I’m never on camera without one.    Do you have a "signature"? What is it?     Greg Reverdiau: I do mostly talking heads and I use the same grey short sleeve collared shirt. I don’t know that I would call it a signature per se but it does help with consistency and it is easy to white balance.    Graham Nicholls: As all of my videos are me on screen I wanted to look presentable and professional so I started out with a black shirt and that has continued throughout my courses. The only difference being that I now have my logo embroided on it..... I guess, therefore, that the black shirt is my signature.   Although I did get one review with someone complaining that the black shirt made them feel dark and down so they requested a refund..... you just can't please everyone!   Hypnodan: I like to wear the same thing all the time in all videos. I think over the years I've been on Udemy I have had three different shirts I've worn in my videos, one shirt I wore in my 2014/2015 eCourses, another shirt in my 2016/2017 videos and another shirt in my 2018/2019 courses. I tell myself that this is for consistency in the videos (which it partly is), but I like having a 'work outfit' and I like things to be unchanging. When I was working full-time in my last couple of jobs I wore the same shirt every workday from 2007-2015. My wife hated the shirt and made sure it was thrown out once I left my last job.    Alicia Paz: Mine are all talking head and I wear different things every 3-5 videos and have a rack of clothes while filming I organize pre-filming to change into as I film 8-12 at a time. I joke privately I have costume changed like Beyonce.  It's business casual and low on patterns but overall brighter colors.  Partly it's because my courses are meant to be done 1-2 video per week (Udemy suggestion: courses that can be "dripped,") so in my head, different clothes signal some kind of "stop" to students who want to binge the whole course.   My signature...I would say 80% of my videos I have the same red lipstick in, a handful I have a purple color which has received some comments on in the past and I stopped wearing- but at this point, I brought it back from my newest course.  Also, I rock some funky and ornate nails and use my hands a lot (East Coast problems) so I get a lot of comments on social media about them- although all positive and sometimes for close up shots of them.  This also fits my demographic.     My background is the same in all videos, but one which is busy on purpose as it's about distraction.     Author: @FrankKane 

You do not need to spend a lot of money to get started. Here I share a few tips to help you.   This short video was filmed using my four-year-old iPhone and its microphone. The green screen cost me $15aud for the material. I have an orange ring light - the only light I used for this from Amazon. The image at the end was free from Pixabay. It was edited in Screenflow which cost $149 - there is cheaper editing software out there. Most of all practice loving the camera and allow your love and knowledge to shine through.   Author: @SharonRamel 

Hello fellow instructors,  I think that recording studio setup is one of the most difficult subjects to get your head around. Microphones, audio interfaces, lights and sound all seem to be important. However the amount of technical details and hard decision on priorities are making studio setup quite overwhelming.    I've gone through a long journey of building home studio from $500 to $10k setup, made many mistakes along the way, bought few pieces of equipment that I almost never used, and some other pieces that I can't imagine my work without.  I decided to record a short video and describe the priorities and options for your home studio. Check it out! How to set up home recording studio If you're curious, here's the list of my equipment that I use for recording. Notice that videography is my hobby, so I also shoot some short films, interviews and occasionally corporate promotional videos, so this equipment set is a bit of an overkill for Udemy Microphones: Neumann TLM-102 (voice-overs) Sennheiser ME-2 (lavalier mic for talking to a camera) Radio transmitter/receiver set for mics Sennheiser G3 Audio Interface Focusrite Clarett 2Pre (thunderbolt version) Field recorders Zoom H6 Zoom H1 Cameras Canon C100 MK-II Canon Legria HF G-25 (cam B) Lenses Canon EF 24-105mm f/4l IS II USM Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8l IS USM Lights LEDGO 2x 1200 Bi-colour Lighting Kit Monitors (headphones) Audio Technica AT-M70x   @Khushboo98: Is this complete set up is necessary..? Can't we use our smartphone to record and create our course..?   @GregReverdiau: There is no requirement for equipment and you could record your course with only a smart phone. However, the microphone on your smartphone is not going to give you great results compared to even some of these cheaper microphones on this list. Remember that students will give you some slack for lower video quality but you will get bad reviews if your audio is bad...    @JeffSharman592: I would like to add my experiences in course creation right from the beginning. My first course was trial and error. I made some talking heads video using a Canon camera on a tripod. The sound quality was terrible. I then did the same thing using a Samsung Smart phone on a tripod. Much better than the camera. I use a Dell laptop with built-in webcam and Mic. Originally on quite an old laptop. It was OK but the sound quality needed improvement. I purchased a separate Mic which improved it a lot.  It is always necessary to have some good audio and video editing software. There are some free ones around, but I opted for NCH Videopad, Wavepad and Debut Video Capture. All excellent and not that expensive. Very user friendly and effective.  I now have a new Dell laptop and I still use the built in Mic and Webcam. Excellent quality and after editing, noise is virtually non-existent. I don't use a separate Mic anymore or Webcam for my recordings. I have made a recording booth to cut down echo and outside ambient noise. Cheap and easy. A plastic box covered in a thick multi-layered blanket. Works beautifully.  It is nice to know that you don't have to spend a fortune to obtain good results. Author: @Juriy 

Check out what instructors are doing to remain motivated during the course creation process!   @GregReverdiau: It can be difficult from time to time to stay motivated but think about all the future students you will help with your course. It might seem like a gigantic task to create an entire course so create a little checklist of all the things you have to do and tackle one after the other. I also like to mix it up by just doing different tasks throughout the process. Like creating slides, then recording, then editing, then creating slides again and starting the process. It helps with the daunting task like editing which can take a long time.  Best of luck to you.    @Laurence-Svekis: This is one of the hardest parts I find to building the courses. I break apart the process in manageble chunks then set my weekly schedule to accomplish them.   I have courses that have taken sometimes 6 months or longer to build and the task tracking has kept me one track.   @GianniBruno011: Hi,   My key tips are: careful planning breaking down tasks into sizeable chunks scheduling As they say, 90% of the work is preperation. If you've planned your course well, then, like a jigsaw, it will all form together nicely.    I spend most of my time planning the course sections and lectures within those sections. I gain an idea of what I want to cover and then I bullet point key points. I then (since my courses are technical) plan the code that's to be used during the lectures.    Once happy with the planning, I start creating content by recording videos. I then place these draft videos into a depository before editing them to a finalised version.   If I take a step back and look at all the tasks ahead, it would be like looking at a moutain of work. To avoid this, I schedule by outstanding tasks and then schedule time each day week-by-week to clearly state what I want to achieve and devote time doing it.   Bit by bit you will complete lectures and sections. By the end of the schedule you'll have next to a perfect course that has been well formed and designed.   As they say, each journey starts with a single step. The motivation for me is finding out if my course is going to be successful. People I'm sure will say it's mostly about helping people (for which it plays a big part) but money is also a motivator. Some courses (if done right) could make considerable amounts each month.  For me it's 50/50. 50% helping people and 50% to provide a new source of income (yes, I'm being very honest - but hey, we've got to live, right? 😉)   Finally, I would say that hard work pays off. Many people spend time after work watching tv, playing games etc. Some of us (especially on this instructors board) make use of our spare time and from that everyone's a winner. It takes devotion and effort but remember the pain of it all is only temporary.   Keep motivated!   Gianni       @McCleish868: What helps me to stay motivated is knowing that I will be added value to at least one person. Also, in the building process, I usually like to try something new that I have never done before so it makes it to be fun as well. Lastly, just talking with friends and family where I am at with the building journey and they adding value to me with their thoughts on the course.   Continue to keep building! Author: @MalayaBiswal 

Marketing is not an event, it is a process that extends over a long period of time. Get started now!   None of these are an instant path to instructor success.  But, they are things that work if you are serious about building an online business on Udemy.   When you are planning your first course, shoot your best shot! Your first course will establish your brand and a bad hastily created course is not the way to get started. Your first course should be on a topic in which you have genuine expertise. Take your time to make sure this is a high-quality course. I am now working on my sixteenth course and I am taking three months to develop it. Take your time. Get it right. BE an expert in your topic. Read, study, and demonstrate state of the art knowledge in your field. If you aren’t this… nothing else is likely to work. Some people fake knowledge in a topic in which they have no experience and it quickly becomes obvious. It results in failure. Be sure that your course landing page communicates your expertise… “Why should I listen to you?” And, be sure that your course landing page communicates the “benefits” of your course, not merely the “features” of your course. Customers buy benefits, not features! The features describe the topics covered. The benefits answer the “so-what?” question. How will this change my life? Remember that most of your future students will be on Udemy searching for something. That “something” are key words that they will put into the search bar. Think carefully about the key words your future students may be search for and be sure they are in your title and/or your subtitle. This is how students will find you. Your promo video is what catches students after they land on your page. Spend ten times the amount of time perfecting your promo video as you do on any other lecture. State the benefits of your course, your qualifications, and invite them to join you. These are more important than outlining all the topics (features) of your course. Also, remember that buying decisions are not simply “rational” decisions; they are emotional decisions, and that is about how you make them feel! Smile! The viewer is asking him/herself, “do I really want to spend hours with this person?” Be your own “brand manager” and build your brand. Brands are built over time by building trust in your marketplace. Brand value is created by being trustworthy, creating consistent value for your customers, over time. The most successful instructors are focused on “marketing”, not just “selling.” Know the difference. Identify Facebook and LinkedIn groups related to your subject matter. Join them. Participate in discussion. Demonstrate expertise by publishing a blog/website with your biography, articles you have written, a page for your courses, and regular blog posts that are educational, value-adding posts. Google the names of some of the more successful instructors and you will find their personal websites. Then, share these blog posts or articles with all relevant groups on LinkedIn or FB. Your LinkedIn page should have articles by you, on your area of expertise. Prove that you are a “thought leader” in your field. Build your own email list by capturing visitors to your website. I use Sumo, but there are other WordPress plugins to do this… oh, use WordPress for your blog. You don’t have to be a web development expert to create a WordPress website. Your Udemy students will become your own mail list in that you can send both educational and promo announcements. As you build the number of students there is a multiplying effect when you share what you write. After your first course, plan to develop additional courses in your area of expertise. The more courses you have the easier it is to launch a new course by marketing to your current students. Obviously, do a great job of developing your on-camera presence and your courses. Engage in continuous improvement. Alexa Fischer’s Confidence on Camera course is excellent for improving your on-camera presentation skills. Develop a YouTube channel where you can upload the introductory lecture(s) to your courses and include a link, with a discount coupon, to your Udemy course. Develop a Facebook discussion page for your students and to publish articles (the same ones as on your blog page and LinkedIn page. Watch Scott Duffy’s course on Udemy SEO Marketing. It is a consensus of experienced instructors that paid Facebook ads do not work. Do not give away of free courses or thousands of free coupons. Those who take these coupons are not likely to go through the course and are likely to leave poor reviews. Give away a few free coupons to those on your personal FB page, those who know you, and may go through the course and may give a good review. This is something to do only at the first launch of a course. Do not even think about purchasing reviews!!! They are now spotted and removed by Udemy’s Trust and Safety group. Have patience… you are building a business and like starting any business, it is not a get rich quick thing. It takes patience and persistence. Udemy is not a path to quick riches and it is not “passive income.” The above is only my advice, but they are informed by the experience of many other successful instructors,   Author:  @LawrenceMMiller    View the full discussion here. 

Hi guys, I thought it could be interesting to have one post with a list of all the usefull sources for instructors, like music, graphics and software.... I started with what I usually use and with what is free. I hope you can add some more sources to the list so it can become very usefull for everyone in the comunity. If you want me to add something write it in an answer to this post and I'll gladly add it to the list.   THE LIST: Free Pictures and Videos: - PIXABAY: https://pixabay.com - PEXELS: https://pexels.com - FREEPIk: https://www.freepik.com - FLATICON: https://www.flaticon.com - UNSPLASH: https://unsplash.com - NEWOLDSTOCK: https://nos.twnsnd.co - VIDEEZY: https://www.videezy.com/ - VECTEEZY: https://www.vecteezy.com/ (Vectors) - THENOUNPROJECT: https://thenounproject.com/ (Icons)   Free Music and Audio Fx: - INCOMPETECH: https://incompetech.com - YOUTUBE AUDIOLIBRARY: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music - FREESOUND: https://freesound.org/   Free Video Capture and Video Editor Softwares: - IMOVIE (Mac only): https://www.apple.com/imovie/ - QUICKTIME (Mac only): https://support.apple.com/it_IT/downloads/quicktime - OBS STUDIO: https://obsproject.com/ - LIGHTWORKS: https://www.lwks.com/ - OPENSHOT: https://www.openshot.org/ - SHOTCUT: https://shotcut.org/ - HITFILM EXPRESS: https://fxhome.com/hitfilm-express - VSDC (Windows only): http://www.videosoftdev.com/ - DAVINCI RESOLVE: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/ - SCREENCASTOMATIC: https://screencast-o-matic.com/   Free Photo Manipulation / Editing Softwares: - GIMP: https://www.gimp.org/ - CANVA: https://www.canva.com/ - INKSCAPE: https://inkscape.org/   Free Power Point Templates: -SLIDESCARNIVAL: https://www.slidescarnival.com   Udemy Specific Resources: - Official Udemy courses on how to create Udemy courses: https://www.udemy.com/user/udemymanager - Instructor revenue share: https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605008-Instructor-Revenue-Share - Verification process: https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229234067-Instructor-Identity-Verification-Process - Educational Announcements guidelines_ https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605828-Educational-Announcements-Rules-and-Guidelines - Promotional Emails guidelines: https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605908-Promotional-Emails-Rules-and-Guidelines - Bonus Lecture guidelines: https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229232847-Bonus-Lecture-Rules-and-Guidelines   Author: @MassimilianoAlf 

When you first start out, you are going to make a ton of mistakes when filming your course. Before filming the entire course, film a few lectures and go back to watch them. There is nothing worse than filming an entire course to find out the audio was muffled, or the video was blurry!   When you first are getting started, remember that audio is much more important than video. After all, if a student can’t hear you or understand you, they will quickly stop watching. Video is much more forgiving than audio, so it is important to invest in a good microphone. There are numerous good quality microphones you can get for under $100 USD, like the ATR2100, the Blue Yeti, or the SmartLav+. When I started on Udemy, I used the SmartLav+ for about 18 months. It records very good audio, and I never got complaints from students for my audio quality.   Next, you need to figure out how to record your video. If you are doing a talking head style format (which I highly recommend), you need a smartphone or webcam to get started. The Logitech c930 is less than $70 USD and films in 1080p HD. This is the camera I used for my first 18 months on Udemy, as well. It provides a great picture for talking heads.   To record your screen, you need some form of screen capture software. For Mac, you can always use the built-in QuickTime software. For Windows, OBS is a good free option, but a little complicated to configure.   You will not be perfect and make Hollywood quality blockbusters when filming your first course. Remember, your first course is always going to be your worst course. Just try to improve each and every course.   Also, when filming your first course, pick a topic that is reasonable for you to complete in a relatively short period of time. Don’t try to make a 20-hour Python programming course on your first attempt. Instead, pick something in the 90-minute range. Make it a project-based course. Something that you can finish in 1-2 months.   For most people, it will take 15-30 hours of writing, filming, and editing to create a 90-minute course. It is a lot of work, but it is worth it if you can do it right.   Now, will the equipment above be all that you use forever? Well, I certainly hope not. This will get you started. Hopefully, you then start earning some money and can reinvest back into your new business of online teaching. My current setup includes a set of LED lights ($800), a prosumer model HD video camera ($1200), a really nice lavelier mic ($400), a teleprompter system for my camera ($500), and a really nice desktop computer to do all our editing on ($4200). Did I need all that to get started?   No! But over time we added a piece here and there, and now our quality of our new courses i son par with the professional production companies here on Udemy and beyond. That makes it easier for students to decide to buy our courses when compared against the "pros".   I hope this helps you get started out there, Jason Dion   Author: @JasonDion 

Hey instructors! "Personal brand" has been a pretty hot topic in the marketing world these last couple of years, especially with the boom of social media where everyday people are developing their own brands and becoming influencers.   Do you think it's important to have a personal brand as an online instructor?    Though I have been struglling with this. Not konwing how to do it. I think it's very important to have a personal brand and even a respectbale website.   I think that the Branding part is very important for anyone that has an activity online, people can recognize your product, they know where to find you (website, Fb, etc.) and this brings you more sales and more success. But I also think that for someone that is just starting this activity it is not so important for now... I think he should concentrate more on building a solid course catalog and a base of at least 1000 paying students, after that he can start spending time for branding his image and his work.     I think that you are your brand and your 'brand' improves as you produce high quality courses.   When your name becomes known as a good, or even great instructor people will start looking out for your name in the emails that come from Udemy announcments.   Quality 1st, 2nd and 3rd = Personal Brand   I think having a personal brand is important and helps with marketing. Having a brand specifically as an online instructor can’t really be achieved unless you have created good quality courses which people like and which you can build a brand as an online instructor around. Building a brand around being an expert and knowledgeable in your topics is very important and can be done from as soon as you have the opportunity to start building your reputation online. It can be done by interacting in forums, groups and on courses, through being interviewed on podcasts, writing guest articles and blogs, creating YouTube videos, etc. By being helpful and demonstrating your knowledge and being consistent in how you do this, all helps with creating a personal brand. By having the same pictures, consistent social media and website names etc, people instantly recognise that guest blog post was by you, you are who that podcaster is interviewing, that Twitter post or Facebook post is yours, those forum posts are yours etc, even before you say (or they read) a word.   It may be that you work on your reputation first, but at some point you will want to flesh out the brand to include consistent logos, images, colour palette, username, the way you word things or say things etc so that you are instantly recognisable just from the profile images to videos you have shared and so that people easily know how to find you and can easily remember your business name or tagline etc to Google you or search for you on YouTube or any other platform.   @MassimilianoAlf, yeah I think you hit on a key point. Branding is really important so people recognize your product and what you have to offer. But I think it's also true that it's more important to concentrate on creating a good base and good courses before spending a lot of time on branding.   Totally @GrahamNicholls! I think an instructor's brand could be that they have high quality courses, amont other things. I think it's also possible to have a brand that may not equate to quality. Some things examples that come to mind are Wish which has a reputation for selling super cheap things with questionable quality and some restaurants that might be dirty but have delicious food (or even vice versa, really pretty space but medicore food).   Really great tips on how to build a personal brand @Hypnodan! There are a lot of different factors that folks can leverage and really make their own.   I think its very important atleast for me.  I want to create an impression in the minds of students that I am a source of knowledge and be a "go-to " person when they want to learn something.    I feel ingraining this in the students mind is very important for long term success.   Once that trust is built then those who have been influenced will become a marketing channel indirectly through "word of mouth" and that is much more effective than ads or any other type marketing.   These are my thoughts on the subject.