Udemy

FrankKane · ‎06-16-2019

You can't embed YouTube videos in a Udemy course, and in no case can you embed someone else's video in your course if you don't own the rights to that video. Your course needs to consist of your own videos, uploaded to Udemy's platform.

FrankKane · ‎06-16-2019

Text to speech software isn't allowed on Udemy. If students notice it's not a human, they can report you and your course can be taken down. https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229232367-Audio-Standards-and-Choosing-a-Microphone

FrankKane · ‎06-11-2019

One question I have is whether you expect students to be following along with you, modifying the code exactly as you are doing - or if they are expected to just watch. If the former, I wonder if they'd find the manipulation of comment blocks you're doing rather quickly to expose blocks of code to be confusing. From a video production standpoint it's great. You've really got your format down to a science. It's so far beyond a typical Udemy video that I think you're far into the world of diminishing returns by trying to improve that further at this point. I actually like that you kept some typos in there, for example starting to type with caps-lock on by mistake. You turned it into an opportunity to remind students that case matters. Your ability to narrate a screencast at a nice, slow pace and without filler words is quite impressive. I can only do that with a script, but I don't think you're using one (and scripts are hard to follow while doing a screencast, too.)

FrankKane · ‎06-11-2019

Engagement and conversion are two separate goals. If you want to improve conversion, you should be looking at things such as: - Is my course landing page as compelling as it can be? That includes your promo video and course image, and what you're telling the student they will learn. - What are my competing courses in my topic, and are they offering a better value to students than I am in terms of comprehensiveness or quality? - Is there anything I can do to send pre-qualified traffic to my course landing page? (ie, links from relevant blogs, YouTube videos, podcasts, online communities, etc.)

FrankKane · ‎06-11-2019

Hot damn. From a production quality standpoint, it's awesome - and an eye-opener for me that compelling promo videos don't need to include "talking heads" at all. It is however long. Instead of cutting stuff, maybe think about what the most important bits are that you want students to see, and put those at the beginning. Assume they'll stop watching after 30 seconds. Most of the video is walking through the course curriculum and what will be covered - but is that the most important information to convey? I think it's more important to lead off with: - What problem this course solves for students, and who your ideal student is. Get the viewer to identify with what you're offering - The freebies you're offering as course resources - students love that, but they need to watch almost the whole thing to learn about them - A call to action to enroll Then, start going into the course curriculum in detail. Then if they drop off in the middle of that content, you won't have lost some of your key sales messages as a result.

FrankKane · ‎06-10-2019

Udemy only accepts video courses; audio-only isn't an option. Is your intent to sync up your audio with some slides, or with video you've recorded? If you can tell us more about the end result you're after, we can certainly help.

FrankKane · ‎06-03-2019

It would save you a lot of trouble if you used a webcam, such as a Logitech C920 or C930. That way you can connect both your mic and camera directly to your PC, and record them together - avoiding the need to download video from your phone and sync it up.

FrankKane · ‎05-29-2019

I don't think Udemy keeps track of which co-instructor created the coupon. No matter which of you made it, 97% of a course attributed to an instructor coupon will go toward the instructors, which will then be split up however you've agreed. So, short answer: yes.

FrankKane · ‎05-28-2019

I think you'll find that the best way to promote a course is to create a second course, and cross-promote the two using Udemy promotional announcements and bonus lectures. But to answer your question - I find YouTube to be the most effective external channel. You have to be clever though, and select preview videos to upload that fit with what people might be searching for on YouTube. The videos on YouTube that end up taking off for me are often unexpected; there's a bit of luck involved. I also have my own website where I list my courses, and link off to Udemy. LinkedIn is also a fairly good channel. I also have my own mailing list, and social media presences on Facebook and Twitter, but I find those to be much less valuable. Udemy has a good writeup with even more ideas at https://teach.udemy.com/marketing/use-external-marketing-tools/ Hope this helps.

FrankKane · ‎05-28-2019

I record slides and screencasts separately, and edit them together in Camtasia. I could see you doing this live if you have multiple monitors and something like OBS Studio though. You could have PowerPoint up on one monitor, your screencast on a second, and OBS on a third where you switch between them. Seems like more trouble & complexity than it's worth, though.

FrankKane · ‎05-21-2019

Yeah, I'm using the SM7B and love it. Just bought my third one! It's not a USB mic, however, nor would I call it low-cost. But I think it's a good investment.

FrankKane · ‎05-21-2019

Wow. Come to think of it, I did get a one-star review once from a guy who didn't like "my stupid hat". Really can't do anything without upsetting somebody it seems.

FrankKane · ‎05-20-2019

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?

FrankKane · ‎05-16-2019

Johnson, I checked out your instructor profile. I'm curious why you chose course creation and video editing with Filmora as your first course topic when you're new to it yourself. You'll generally be more successful teaching something you're experienced at - and so will your students.

FrankKane · ‎05-14-2019

100% agree. Over time I've even been using less and less video in my courses - at least for my students, they want to see code, not me. Also bear in mind more and more students are watching our courses on tiny screens on their mobile devices. Clear audio is required for a successful course. Fancy video should only be attempted once you've got audio nailed, and there are plenty of successful courses out there with minimal talking head videos. And don't start messing with green screens until you've got clear audio first.

FrankKane · ‎05-13-2019

The best way to find out if that's a good idea is to use the Marketplace Insights tool. After entering Instructor mode in Udemy, you'll find it under the Tools menu. From there, you can explore lots of interesting stats around the "Handwriting" topic. The short answer is that there is a fair amount of demand for courses on handwriting, and the median monthly revenue for courses in this area is $53 / month. If that sounds worthwhile to you, then go for it! The most successful course in handwriting earns $338 / month, so that's pretty much the upper bound. The top-earning course in this category is only 3.5 hours long with a 4.4 rating; so if you were to make something both better and more comprehensive, you'd have a shot at displacing it. But for your first course, the median revenue is a more realistic expectation.

FrankKane · ‎05-13-2019

Yes. Really, you can do pretty much whatever you want as far as the structure of your course is concerned. Most of my own courses have intros at the beginning of the first lecture video of a section, and an outro at the end of the last. But there's no requirement to even have intros and outros at all, or to have them on every section or every lecture. Just remember students favor shorter videos. If any one video is over 10 minutes, you really should consider splitting it up. Around 3 minutes seems to be the sweet spot for keeping their attention.

FrankKane · ‎05-12-2019

This is especially true in tech topics. One topic I teach recently had a major release that has required me to re-record the entire course from the ground up, and I'm probably going to spend the rest of this year just updating the courses I already have. The bright side is that being a Udemy tech instructor really forces you to stay up to date on current technology, and to learn it yourself well enough to teach it confidently. I'm a much better technologist as a teacher than I was as an industry practitioner, oddly enough. As a teacher, our knowledge must be broad, deep, and current all the time.

FrankKane · ‎05-12-2019

If you're turning around and producing your second course this quickly, then personally I think offering your first course for free wasn't a bad idea. In some ways, offering it for free on Udemy is better than distributing tons of free coupons all over the Internet. The latter approach tends to attract people who just hoard free stuff, even if they aren't interested in it. But if someone discovers your course while searching for something on Udemy, at least they have some interest in what you're teaching. They'll be more likely to "get it," have a positive experience, and leave a positive review - at least compared to some random person who found a free coupon on a free coupon site. So the plan would be to create a final, "bonus lecture" in that free course that promotes your second, not-free course. If a student makes it to that final lecture, they must like what you're doing to some extent - and they'll be likely to purchase a follow-on course you've produced if you put it in front of them. Your first course becomes an automatic lead magnet for the second. This is exactly how I got started. As for pricing - well, list prices don't matter much in Udemy's current system, as students know courses will go on sale for $10-$19. I just set my list price consistently with other courses in my topic of similar length. But you will need to choose a price for the coupon to your second course that you'll offer in that bonus lecture of the first. Again, students know that if they wait long enough, they can get your course for $9.99 - so I set my coupons at $9.99. I'd rather get 97% of $9.99 through my instructor coupon through that impulse purchase, than for them to wait for the next big Udemy sale, when I'll only get 50% at best.

FrankKane · ‎05-12-2019

Although the allowed price range you can set is from $9.99 to hundreds of dollars, you'll find that students expect to purchase courses in the $9.99 - $19.99 range. You can set a higher "list price," but students will wait for your course to go on sale before they'll actually buy it. So for planning purposes, I'd assume you'll receive on average about $4 per course sale. It's all about volume here - success on Udemy means teaching topics that are in high enough demand that you can find thousands of students who need your course. Udemy's Marketplace Insights tool in your instructor dashboard can give you a wealth of data about what you can expect from your chosen topic, and the existing courses you're up against.

FrankKane · ‎05-03-2019

Your audio quality in lecture 7 is noticably better. It was actually hard to understand your voice in lecture 6 due to the echo in the room, and some sort of effect where it seemed like your voice kept cutting out when it got below a certain level. As for the intros - I think most Udemy students are quite impatient, and want to get right into the content of the lecture as quickly as possible. An intro might be appropriate if each lecture were longer and meant to stand alone as their own videos, but personally I don't use them except in my promo video. Consider dialing it back to just the beginning of each section, and not each lecture. If you want to open every lecture this way, then I'd make it much, much shorter. Get rid of the animation on the course title and get through it all within less than 5 seconds - lecture 8 was better in this respect. But as a student, I really don't think I'd want to listen to that same music clip at the beginning of every lecture. It would have to be something much shorter and subtle for that to work - a piece like the one you're using that involves string instruments is at a similar frequency to the human voice and is a little distracting. In short, my advice would be to axe the music and intro entirely unless it's the beginning of a section. And whatever you did to improve the quality on your voice in lecture 7, do more of that! It's a shame that you started off with a one-star written review over one small aspect of your course - that's every instructor's worst nightmare. But you're right to just try and fix it - after 3 months, that review will no longer count toward your total.

FrankKane · ‎04-30-2019

You can't get the email addresses of your students, unless they offer them to you voluntarily. It's how Udemy respects the privacy of students and ensures they don't end up on hundreds of mailing lists that are outside of their control. That said, there are many ways to interact with students on Udemy: Udemy's private messaging system; you can message any student directly through Udemy's platform Udemy's Q&A system, where students can post questions that you can answer publicly You're allowed to give students a signup link to your own mailing list where they can do so voluntarily, but only in the final "bonus lecture" of your course. Some instructors also host their own course materials and communities on their own websites, and direct students there as part of the setup for the course. If students find your mailing list signup there, that's OK. But you're not allowed to require students to sign up to your own mailing list as part of the course.

FrankKane · ‎04-24-2019

I agree the best thing you can do is make a second course, so you can start doing cross-promotion using Udemy promotional announcements. But you might want to give the first course some time, first. You may get valuable feedback in your early reviews that you want to incorporate into your next effort. Meanwhile, do all you can to promote your course. Talk about it in relevant online groups and communities to the extent you're allowed. Post some preview videos on YouTube. If you have a blog, blog about it. Guest-blog about it. Your immediate goal is to get a few good reviews on the course, which will drive its sales further - and the more students who are enrolled, the more likely you are to get reviews.

FrankKane · ‎04-04-2019

Do you mean badges in the community here, or badges on your course on Udemy? If the former, just the joy of feeling smug about it. If the latter, it gives students confidence in the quality of your course, which should lead to more sales.

FrankKane · ‎03-28-2019

Been at it for over 3 years now. Slow and steady definitely wins the race. I want to share my revenue chart showing my first couple of years: I chopped off the numbers because I don't want to seem brag-gy, but the important point is that those first couple of months only reflected a few hundred dollars. It took over a year of sustained, hard work to grow things to the point where Udemy could actually pay the bills. Don't come to Udemy looking to make a quick buck. It's a long game, and it requires persistent effort to grow and maintain the impact you're having.

FrankKane · ‎03-26-2019

Before I discovered Udemy, I was selling software I wrote online, mainly to defense companies. I licensed this software for around $3500. It brought in enough money to pay the bills and live comfortably. My income today from Udemy is double what it was from that business. It's because the audience is much larger; even if you only get $5 per sale, if you can teach a topic that's in high demand there is the potential of hundreds of thousands of customers. It can add up. It all depends on your choice of topic, how good the existing courses in that topic are, how good your courses are, and a bit of luck. But it's worth a shot. Much better odds than the lottery, and all you have to lose is some spare time.

FrankKane · ‎03-24-2019

Yes; otherwise producing your course will require a lot more effort than necessary. Just make sure you are prepared with a script or at least talking points before recording, mentally run down what you're going to say before recording, and don't hesitate to do another take if your first take isn't smooth, or contains too many filler words.

FrankKane · ‎03-22-2019

What a great story. It's wonderful that you're not only preserving these memories for your own family, in a modern format that they will enjoy, but are showing others how to do the same.

FrankKane · ‎03-19-2019

@Hypnodan should totally do this. Join us...

FrankKane · ‎03-14-2019

Not automatically. You'd have to create a new course or expand an existing one, adding in the new sections and lectures and re-uploading the videos. Then unpublish the smaller courses you consolidated if you wish. Students seem to like comprehensive courses, so this isn't a bad strategy IMO.

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