Udemy

Each week, we’re showcasing one of our 5 community values to celebrate what makes our community of instructors unique.  This week we are highlighting the value of “Be in it for the long term.”   “My passion is cinematic style portrait photography, and I have run over 50 workshops in my studio. I feel that although many photographers have the technical know-how and easy access to equipment, the finer details of posing and especially storytelling is just as important. It gives me great pleasure to see my students elevate their portrait shoots to another creative level!” - Sandy (USA)   The most successful instructors are those who have worked on developing their courses and their teaching skills over time. Patience and persistence are qualities of a successful Udemy instructor.   “After almost a year to the day since the publication of my first course. I can finally say it, Udemy brought a balance in my life that changed a lot of things. Especially since at the time I was not at my best (health concerns, difficult breakup) I'm not going to say that it literally changed my life, but it feels just like it did.   I was already doing some videos on YouTube but I could not find my desired audience. On Udemy we feel immediately that people are involved and ready to surpass themselves to succeed. And sharing one's knowledge is so rewarding. Knowing that some people manage to achieve their childhood dreams or just grow in a field they love through your courses is an amazing feeling.   Some students became pillars on whom I know I am able to lean on when needed for a project or when I have doubts about various course topics. And then building a community around your courses is pretty crazy.   Initially, I saw Udemy as a simple opportunity to seize, just to see. Today it has turned into a real long-term project.” - Michael (France)   How long have you been teaching on Udemy? How have you improved as an instructor in these past few years?   If you’re new, let us know what you plan on doing to continue improving your courses and skills this year! ... View more

We’ve talked about social proof before in the community, what it means and why it’s important but how do you get social proof? Below are some questions to ask yourself after you’ve launched your course and are looking to gain social proof.   How do I launch my new course if I don’t have an email list? You probably know more people than you think and even a list of ten people is better than nothing. Open a spreadsheet and start to make a list of friends, current and former colleagues, and past clients. If you haven’t launched yet, send a simple email teaser message letting them know it’s coming (hint: plain text is fine). Consider building buzz by sharing it with your network a few times on social media. It’s even better when you can offer a bit of a preview of what the course is for. Once your course is live, email your list and blast your social network again with an invitation to join using a free or highly discounted coupon code. Give them a deadline to sign up before the coupons expire and remind them one day before the expiration. After that, start to research other relevant groups you could join or hashtags you could use on your chosen social channels. When you join those groups or conversations, don’t start promoting your course. Instead, join conversations and be helpful to show you’re an expert. Over time, people will grow to trust you and you can start to let people know where to get more (i.e. your Udemy course).   What’s the best way to use Udemy coupons to get a large number of student enrollments? We recommend starting small with a limited number of free coupons with an expiration date set. Free enrollments can be good to start, but we’ve seen instructors have the most success when they also start getting some paid enrollments in their first couple of weeks and months. This is because paid students are more likely to leave ratings and reviews and actually take your course. It’s also because of the Udemy algorithm factors in student engagement. Once you get through your first batch of say 400 coupons, you can take a break to focus on getting paid enrollments. You can always continue to offer the opportunity to get a coupon on your own website and on other off-Udemy channels, but we recommend you check periodically that these channels are supplying good qualified traffic of students who are truly interested in your course.   Students are not leaving reviews for my course, what can I do? First of all, you want to make sure students are compelled to start watching your course. Educational announcements are a great way to pique their interest and remind them why they purchased and what’s exciting inside. Additionally, you’ll want to take a look and make sure your course is offering value in the first 3-5 minutes. A lot of times instructors have long introductions where they spend too much time talking about themselves. It’s best to get students right into the material and offer a “quick win.” A quick win is a short activity that gets students thinking and engaged within the first 7-minutes. If you don’t have one, consider creating a short new lecture. Courses that have “quick wins” are more likely to get early student feedback. Consider adding a request for honest feedback in the automated welcome message. You could also add a mini-lecture or short video clip that explains how much you value student feedback.   I made my course free for my launch so that I could start to get more feedback from students at the outset. When’s the best time to switch it to paid? Because free students tend to give less and lower ratings and reviews, we recommend limiting the amount of time you let your course be free on Udemy. It will always differ by course, but you’ll want to switch it to a paid course when you start getting some traction. We’ve seen instructors use this strategy and not change it back until they got 3,000+ enrollments, in most cases, that’s too long. Once your course has over 500 enrollments, you’ll want to keep a closer eye on what the student feedback is so that you don’t get stuck with a lower average rating. Also keep in mind that if you want to use this strategy, Udemy has limits on it. If you change your course from free to paid more than one time, your promotional announcements will be disabled. Generally, we do not recommend switching back and forth more than once.   For instructors who have published a course before, how do you get social proof? ... View more

At a workshop we held in our San Francisco offices in 2017, Udemy Instructor Alexa Fischer led a presentation for new instructors to help them supercharge their delivery in their online courses. During her presentation, she covered the mechanics of public speaking, increasing engagement, and how to connect with your students without the same feedback that you get from a live audience.   Alexa talks about the five pillars of engagement (Timestamp: 15:23 - 26:52) needed to become the confident, fun teacher that students crave in their video-based courses.   When it comes to engaging your student base, Alexa has five pillars of engagement:   Connection - remember to speak to the student on the other side of the lens, not to yourself and especially not to the camera Be Yourself - show your personality! Students want to see someone that is real on the screen so be yourself and don’t be afraid to be human. Alexa talks with her hands so she always includes her torso in her videos so that students can see her hand gestures. Be Prepared - know what you want to say, how you want to say it, and be organized. Anyone can tell if someone is rambling or at a loss for words. If you prepare, everything will come across as natural and relaxed. Own your Position - you are the expert! Never forget that you are the expert and you have a wealth of knowledge to share with others. Don’t be shy or timid about sharing your expertise, own it! Lead with Enthusiasm - high energy = high engagement. Students can tell if you’re waning or are not interested in your topic. Show your enthusiasm for your area of expertise and you’ll create winning videos every time. If you’re interested in watching her entire workshop, you can find the full 48-minute video here. ... View more