Udemy

There is. But you have to ask for the instructor support to do it for you after you have uploaded your videos. After that, you have to ask for every new video you upload. It's just a way for Udemy to save bandwidth. It sucks (hey, it's 2021), but that's how it is. ... View more

@JasmineBayer My understanding is that this is just to limit the scope of the pilot, so if Udemy proceeds with the Personal Plan after the pilot, it won't just be UFB courses that are available. ... View more

@Abbie, how does the Personal Plan work in regards to instructor promotions? I understand that this is a pilot so it might not be set in stone for the long term. But for now, I assume that Udemy will not promote the subscription model to traffic sent by instructors through referral links and coupon codes? For the long term, I'm curious how the model would work with promotions, if at all.   Also, the FAQ states the following: "For first-time subscribers, there may be an option to trial the collection for a limited time before subscribing."   What happens if someone trials the subscription for a week and watches a lot of content, asks questions, etc., but ends up not paying? Are the watched minutes just not added to the pool, so the end result is similar to refunds (i.e. instructors won't earn anything)? Or are the minutes added but no dollars are added to the pool (i.e. the minutes are factored in, but the "pie" won't be larger)? ... View more

It does work correctly for me. Looking at my sales, the change happened just recently, so perhaps there was a brief transition period? ... View more

Thanks for the response, @Abbie. It's true that if the revenue goes up (without adding more work), the revenue share doesn't matter much. I actually believe Udemy can do this; the numbers just looked odd to me. Anyway, I'm fairly optimistic since changes Udemy made have historically not impacted instructors negatively, so I hope this won't be an exception. ;)   ... View more

I also don't understand the revenue split. To me the presented arguments seem more like excuses for maximizing profit. UFB has sales teams doing a lot of work to get companies to join, and given how UFB has grown, that has been well worth it for both Udemy and instructors. Fair. The same won't be the case for the Personal Plan (correct me if I'm wrong), which is going to run alongside the usual transactional sales. Potential students who are driven to the website one way or another will just be presented with both options. Of course there are nuances for pushing one or another, but anyway... Over time, it's not hard to imagine which option Udemy is going to push the most.   I do understand that it is an investment to build and scale a subscription model. But how is that different from all the other platform investments Udemy has made? And if Udemy believes subscriptions is what is needed to increase revenue, won't that investment pay off even with 37% for instructors? Did Udemy just "automatically" go for 25% because that's what instructors are used to with UFB? Again, for sure there is lots and lots of work for Udemy in building out a subscription plan, but how is that work different from everything it took for the transactional marketplace to get to where it is today?   Based on the limited information available, I just don't see how it makes sense. ... View more

Awesome, thank you! :)   ... View more

Just ran the numbers, and it looks like I'll be losing $300-500 per month with this change. That being said, that's only the case if the number of sales don't increase. That's the whole point of this (at least officially), so I hope that will indeed be the case. Logically I like the simpler revenue share. Financially, I'm 20% skeptical but Udemy has earned 80% of my trust over the years. Even if I lose a few hundred dollars per month, I am confident that Udemy will be able to grow my revenue over time. So yeah, we'll see. I'm sure I'll be alright personally. ... View more

Awesome! :ok_hand:   Another thing I'd love to see is suggestions for existing questions when asking a new one. That would hopefully eliminate many duplicate questions. Stackoverflow has been doing it for many years, and it works extremely well. :)   ... View more

Definitely before Black Friday. The earlier you can get it out the better, because then you have a chance of getting a few ratings before the sale. But if that's not possible, just try to get it out before BF and Cyber Monday. If that doesn't work out for you, it's not the end of the world since January is also a good month on Udemy. But moving forward, I'd say try to get a new course out a month before BF or so. Best of luck! :)   ... View more

What does a 1440p recording look like downscaled to 1080p when playing it from the local file? I.e. the exported video file, outside of Udemy. Just to factor Udemy out of it. My 720p videos on Udemy look really blurry compared to the files I export. I imagine Udemy is pretty aggressive when it comes to saving bandwidth. ... View more

I have limited knowledge of these things, so don't blindly trust me on this... ;)   Which resolution did you record in? I found that recording in 1920x1080 gives me the best results, because that matches the aspect ratio that the videos will be viewed in (16:9). When I first started out, I recorded videos on my MacBook in some weird resolution and found that the videos would get all blurry due to changing the aspect ratio. Of course you can record in a higher resolution as long as the aspect ratio is correct. So if you are not recording in 16:9, then that is probably your biggest issue. Since you have to contact Udemy to even enable 1080p, I'd say that uploading anything above 1080p is not worth the effort. I'd say record in a resolution with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and then upload your videos in 1080p. If you recorded in 2560x1440, then you should be fine. ... View more

Congrats Ross, awesome job! :)   ... View more

That conversion rate is not alarming for a new course at all. For established courses, I'd say a conversion rate of 10-15% is common. But for a new course with few reviews, the conversion rate is going to be lower. As for the accent (I didn't actually check it), I am not sure if it affects the conversion rate much, but some people do mention it in reviews. Anyway, it's not a major concern if people can understand what you are saying. Anyway, your conversion rate is fine for the time being, at least in my opinion. ... View more

Now that's pretty cool! It's a small reminder that we are teaching on a platform that's on fire (in a good way!) :fire: :rocket: ... View more