Udemy

@LiamDavin1  sound engineering! Now there's a topic that has my interest.   I've been recording videos from home for almost 7 years now, and fighting with sound (particularly echo but other issues too) has been a long battle.    This will be some honest feedback, ok? I'm not trying to be harsh, but you're looking to improve so I'm going to tell you what I think as I go along.   My first impressions: - I am not sure about your course images. Particularly the level 2 courses seem cluttered. You might do well to have a quasi-professional make some new ones for you. (Does Udemy still make course images? @Bella , do you know?)   You can test new images, and if they don't improve your sales after a month, easily put it back to the old images. 🙂 No risk to try to do something better here.   - Nice promo video 👍; I have to appreciate how good the sound quality is. I like the style of the promo videos, the cuts, the script.    - You have a good teaching style. - Honestly, the level 1 course looks like something I would be interested in. Many instructors probably would be good candidates for this course or something similar.    - I watched the free previews, Lessons 1 and 3. I felt a bit lost in Lesson 3. I felt like I would have liked to learn a bit more about "sound". How does sound work? What is sound engineering?    - This makes me think, maybe you should start with a quick demo BEFORE introducing the software. Show me before you tell me. Take a raw bit of sound (maybe a music track straight from the mic), bring it into Reaper, and then YOU go through the process of cleaning up the track. Spend 5 minutes getting a track from raw to finished. Let us HEAR the before and after. Show us what a sound engineer does.  Wow us! Then, teach us how to do it.   Maybe I say this because I don't know what a sound engineer does. I would not search Udemy for "sound engineering". So the title of your course limits the audience to people who associate "sound engineering" with "improving your audio quality" for music, podcasts or courses.    So to summarize my suggestions: - instead of emphasizing "sound engineering", use words that people might search for. What problems will the student be able to solve once they take the course? Make sure those words are prominent enough in the title and/or subtitle and/or description.    - record a video demonstrating what a sound engineer does, as video 2. Show before you tell.    - Is there any way you can create a version of this course specifically for spoken audio, podcasters and/or Udemy instructors? You have a market of 100,000+ people HERE at Udemy who want to learn how to improve their audio. It's tough for beginners.    - Heck, contact @ChrystieV and volunteer to make a video/ama for the community talking about audio. You can grow your prominence by helping others.   ... View more

Hi there, thanks for asking.   I notice your course is called "Structural Analysis of Statically Determinate Trusses".   I can't say that this is a topic that I am familiar with.    For this particular course, you need to identify who your ideal student is. I think you did a pretty good job describing them in the course landing page. It appears to be Engineering students who are stuck on this particular element of learning structural engineering, who also speak English. Do you have an idea of how many people in the world that may be? Maybe 10,000 total? I don't know.    Next, you have to get this course in front of them. I am not sure if enough of those 10,000 are on Instagram and searching the right hashtags for your posts to get in front of them.   You might try Facebook ads, to catch people in the right age group, college and university engineering students, etc. But it's hard to see how you can make money advertising to a small group of people at this price point.   Your course has 4 students and 0 reviews. I always say that you need to push that thing to at least 10 reviews. So you might have to give your course away for free to "a few" people and ask them nicely to review it (honestly). 0 reviews is not a great place to be.   To be honest, I'd think about your next course. That's your highest expected value move. Something that might have some mainstream appeal.    Think about the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, and mass entertainment youtube channels and tv shows - and what kind of programs they air related to your expertise in Engineering.   Find the most-watched engineering videos on YouTube. Find the most popular TV shows in your field. What are they teaching?   "The Science of Suspension Bridges - How They Stay Up" "The Science of Burj Khalifa and Other Mega Skyscrapers" "How to Build in Earthquake Zones"   Things like that. What would a million people potentially be interested in when they are bored on a Saturday afternoon related to engineering?    I think your success on Udemy will be in that space.   If you want to remain on the academic side of engineering, you might have to do more marketing. Write a newsletter, build a mailing list, start a community, start a YouTube channel on the topic.... find a way to bring free information to people that can hook them into your paid course.   Have a look at Arjit Raj on Udemy, you might have some things in common:  https://www.udemy.com/user/arjit/   Good luck! ... View more

Cool ... View more

Be Positive is one of the community values?   I have a question about that...         ... View more

Love this. I asked for this change years ago.    Obviously, there are courses that were published 6 years ago, which haven't had a student enrollment in years, and are just taking up search result space. Like a library that only adds books and never removes them. It's just clutter.   And as the announcement says, this improves Google SEO by not having useless results in the Google Search index.   This should be a benefit for all instructors.    ... View more

@KPutala66  changes like these are always launched during the slowest month of the year.   So no coincidence, but not in the way that you think.   Udemy would never launch a rebrand during a busy season. ... View more

Congrats on the new look, Team Udemy. Big thumbs up from me.👍   Smoothly executed too.  ... View more

If you paid your taxes on your Udemy revenue, you can perhaps claim the amount the Americans withheld as a credit so that you pay less in taxes.   Otherwise, nothing to do.   You can also consider filing a W8-BEN form so that no taxes are withheld by Udemy if you qualify for that. ... View more

If you move your mouse to the bottom of the gray box, there is a "plus sign" that will add a lecture.   ... View more

@Marcello Pattarin most instructors are seeing almost no change to revenue when you do the math on your last few months' revenues. So do the math on your own numbers to see.   So nothing is really changing today. In some months, when Udemy is running $1 Billion worth of ads and traffic explodes, maybe we would have earned more under the old model. I'm still expecting my revenue to be much higher in 6-12 months than it is today. ... View more

So on the one hand, logically speaking, they wouldn't be making this change if it had no impact at all. So clearly there is a future growth potential that they are going after that they can't currently go after.   And they're trying to be as fair as possible to everyone based on "today's revenue share". To the best of their ability, this is revenue neutral today.   People opting out of ads/affiliates are affected the most, sure. That was a bit of a loophole in the revenue terms, and now the loophole is closed.   I'm excited for the next 10 years on Udemy. Grow the platform! Capture market share! Be front and center in the world of online learning. And take me with you!   Either adapt or be left behind.   I want Udemy to innovate faster. I want them to develop their learning platform for instructors and students faster. It's been way too long stuck in the old video/quiz model. Faster, faster.   And if they need to tweak the revenue settings to get there, let's go.    Faster Udemy! Leave the laggards behind.   ... View more

Yes, you can publish the course as "private" and invite individuals to try the course.   ... View more

I coulda' been a contender. I could've been somebody... *sniff, sniff* ... View more

Good luck trying that.  ... View more

Every two years, Udemy holds a Fortnite competition. If you can beat me, you can have my badge.  ... View more

Paging Dr @JohnBura , you're needed in the pending IPO room. Paging Dr Bura! ... View more

The US internal revenue service considers royalties paid by Udemy to be income earned in America, and they will want their tax on it. Unless your country has a tax treaty with the US. ... View more

Congrats and good luck!   ... View more

Could be "1", if it's the right course.   https://www.businessinsider.com/rob-percival-online-coding-courses-2015-2  ... View more

"How to get psychic powers through hypnosis" doesn't have a huge "actively opposed in the scientific community" element, true.   That's because it's completely ridiculous.   I encourage Udemy to evolve a bit faster on banning stuff that is clearly, clearly false. ... View more

Regarding "fringe" theories, are we going to see the end of "hypnosis", "EFT", "tapping", "NLP", and other unproven theories too?   There are instructors who have nothing BUT hypnosis courses. Will be interesting to see how that goes.   ... View more

I thought PLR hasn't been allowed for 5 years or so.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/UdemyStudio/permalink/900261143328408/   Interesting that it's now banned again.   The post doesn't say UFB. There should *not* be on PLR on Udemy, period. Make original content. Don't try to sell someone else's work as your own even if you're legally allowed to.   (Edited for typo) ... View more

Welcome Lili! ... View more

Please purchase software.   I realize that maybe you think it's expensive. But that doesn't mean you can take it. ... View more

I don't think you can. ... View more