I'm going to preface this statement with the fact that I do appreciate being able to use Udemy to get started in this world. I've been fairly negative due to recent events (not just with this change, but some other issues I've had with Udemy), but the fact is I have made money and I'm happy about that. That being said, anyone defending this decisions as a way for Udemy to survive is GROSSLY disillusioned. Udemy is a for profit company. They have a board. They have investors (that have invested $296.5 MILLION dollars). Their goal is pure and simple: it is to spend as little as possible to make as much as possible. PERIOD. End of story. The community champions who think Udemy is out there to make sure we make as much as we can may have some great experience as they've been on the platform for a long time, but newer instructors will have a different experience. Udemy has a lot of evergreen content that will continue to fund the old guard and they have no reason to spend more money on newer instructors. If Udemy cared about the instructor's ability to make more money, you wouldn't have a literal competition with them regarding coupon codes. We would be able to set whatever coupon codes we wanted, we'd be able to share them however we wanted, etc. Instead, they have an extremely smart system that involves us not being able to compete with their prices without cutting our own, driving down our margins and raising theirs by pure volume alone as we provide most of the support for these students. On top of that, Udemy's instructor support is abysmal at best. We have: 1. No support system other than an email address and no way to follow up or see status. 2. No modifications to our metrics, which are paltry. 3. One type of quiz and no other features. 4. A review system that is absolutely horrible and allows for students to accidentally leave terrible ratings without review. And no process, other than chasing down the student on Linkedin, to rectify this. This literally affects sales, a single 1 star review can brick a new course for weeks. Not to mention the 48 hours before new ratings come in while waiting. 5. Shady practices such as not allowing students that are referred to gift your course without stripping the referral code from the purchase on the last step. 6. 48 hour+ delay to even see our reviews 7. 30 day no questions asked return policy where students constantly return courses and exchange for lower prices 8. No way to even modify notifications to strip out udemy for business enrollments from paid enrollments. This seems small, but it's so small that a company with a $296.5M cash infusion should be able to fix it. 9. Having to manually request 1080p for your videos recorded in 1080p. Literally setting you up for failure. This is just a small sample of what I've seen in the forums. Now, THIS BEING SAID, I'm happy to be here making money. Is this a long term solution? Possibly not, especially given the new terms and Udemy's blatant disregard for Instructor satisfaction. I'm not saying the support people themselves are necessarily bad, they're just doing their jobs and their hands are tied. I'm also not saying that Udemy has no right to do these things, they absolutely do, but until we stop taking these things for granted because we made a little money last month, this trend will continue. Now, if anyone asks me if I recommend Udemy? Absolutely. It's a way to cut your teeth and get into this world. But is it a permanent solution? Absolutely not. They're too volatile and the process just isn't always enjoyable. So please, Udemy community leaders, consider what the new instructors are going through. You weren't faced with a massive percentage cut when you started. And many of you probably didn't start because you had just lost your living due to a global pandemic. And finally, please stop supporting a VC-funded company blindly just because they helped you make some money. They did it for themselves and their investors. You might have some pull if you've been around here forever, but we don't.
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