Udemy

Hypnodan · ‎06-14-2019

Hi @VascoYebra , I use the Rode SmartLav+ too and think it is great. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎06-04-2019

Hi @RobertDwayn909 , I have Doodly and Toonly. Both were affordible. I paid a one-time fee for each. I have only just got Toonly so I haven't really had a chance to fully try it out, but what little I have tried has seemed easy to use. Doodly I'ev had longer. I used to use different whiteboard programme but found Doodly much better value. I don't know if Toonly and Doodly have their one-time fee offer on their websites, but if you scroll through their Facebook posts you can find the posts which have the one-time-fee offer. Here is a review someone did of Toonly and at the top of the review is their review of Doodly. I wouldn't pay the ongoing subscription, but that is just me, I like to be able to pay a single payment and then have access to the software I've now purchased. I would search for the one-time-fee offers. They are always showing as ads for me on Facebook. Toonly is an animation software described as being to create explainer videos, Doodly is a whiteboard animation software. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎06-04-2019

Hi @GailMiller536 , Welcome to the community. I've not got any courses in Udemy for Business currently so I can't answer about whether that is worthwhile. I'm sure other instructors will share their experiences of this. Unless you have an alternative way of selling your courses (like a following off of Udemy/mailing list etc) for a higher price or have very low competition on Udemy and know people will pay the higher price, most instructors opt-in to the Udemy promotions, this means that their courses will frequently sell for perhaps $20 or less, often about $10-$15. It is very rare for individual Udemy sales to be for a higher amount than this. Udemy is more about volume of sales rather than price of any individual sale. For most of these sales you will get about 50% of the sale amount (so perhaps about $5-$10 per sale). The Fixed Price Promotions option is the option which has courses selling for under 75%, the Percentage promotions can discount up to 75%. I can't remember the last time I saw that I had a sale for over $20. I probably get one or two every few months over this price (up to about $50) and may get 50% of the price or higher perhaps once every year or two. By opting-in to the Marketing Boost option you get ad sales and affiliate sales. These will also often be sales between $10-$20 and you will usually get about 25% of that. There is more information about the options here and here. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-30-2019

Hi @JulianJenki396 For camera, I use a Sony AX53 camcorder or Sony A6400 camera. On either I use Rode Mics. Either the Rode Lavalier microphone (about £40) or the Rode VideoMicro (about £40). Obviously the cameras I mention here are quite expensive, but the microphones are reasonably priced. For lights, I use the 'Neewer 3 Packs Dimmable Bi-color 480 LED Video Light and Stand Lighting Kit - LED Panel (3200-5600K) with U Bracket Light Stand for YouTube Studio Photography Video Shooting' (about £150 for 3 lights plus stands. You can buy them cheaper individually if you don't need 3) I used to use softbox lights which were much cheaper (about £40 for two plus stands), but they take up a lot of room. I rarely use green screen, but do have a green screen setup I can use if I want. It was quite cheap (about £35) to purchase the set which included green screen plus white, black and red and the frame, which at it's largest is 2m x 3m. I also have a teleprompter. I don't use it often. It was about £80 and you put your tablet device lying down on it and read off (using any free 'teleprompter' or 'autocue' app) the slanted perspex which is in front of your camcorder. It fits on the tripod and you put your camera on the telepromper. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-30-2019

Hi @Mohamed_Mira , Nowadays I either use my Sony A6400 with a Sigma 55mm lens and lapel microphone (I could use a different microphone but the way this camera fold out screen works, any microphone placed on top of the camera gets in the way of the screen), or (more often than not) I use my Sony AX53 camcorder with a Rode VideoMicro on top. In relation to the camera used vs software used to edit and process the video, I find generally most cameras record in standard formats which are compatible with the software I use. In the past I used to use a couple of other Sony camcorders and a Zoom camcorder (it was essentially the audio quality of Zoom microphones, but with an HD camcorder attached, but only gave good picture quality under ideal lighting conditions and had minimal on-camera settings), and different mobile phones (Sony, Nokia and Apple). All have worked fine with my video editing software, but some are easier in my opinion to work with. I love being able to simply pop out an SD-Card from the camera or camcorder and put it in my laptop, copy the files to my laptop and then get editing. I don't want to have to try to plug phones or cameras etc into the computer or try to transfer using dedicated software etc. Waiting for processing, you are correct, waiting for the edited video to process into a single MP4 file when you hit render or start or process or whatever the button is listed as to turn the edited video into a final video to upload to Udemy. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-30-2019

In the early days I used to use Windows Movie Maker, then you end up one day having to do something it doesn't do, so you hunt for software that does that one thing, and then eventually you find something else you want to do that this new software doesn't do and so upgrade again until you have something which seems to fit. For me, I too don't think of myself as technically advanced, so I try to find something which for me feels intuitive and easy to navigate and not so many options (especially options with names I don't even understand) that I can't find anything and it feels overwhelming... All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-30-2019

I use Windows, but do have a Mac. Price is something I didn't mention, but it was a consideration. I personally prefer a one-time fee vs subcription but find most software is moving towards the subscription model. I might have to check out Final Cut. I took a look many years ago, but stuck with what I knew as there were very few differences in options (that I use) and I didn't notice, and probably at the time wasn't thinking about bulk exporting... All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-30-2019

I definitely like to try to minimise required editing... I've not tried Camtasia but know it has always been the one recommended in Udemy forums. I am now considering taking a look since I read a post mentioning you can bulk process...

Hypnodan · ‎05-28-2019

Hi All, By the time I started my Udemy journey I had already been making video content for many years and was using video editing software which was affordable but also had plenty of functions (VideoStudio X6). When I started on Udemy I realised I needed something different. My sound quality from my camcorder wasn’t suitable, the camcorder only took proprietary microphones which required batteries for the lapel mic (and there wasn’t a compatible mic to place on the camcorder). The lapel mic batteries only lasted about 4 hours and I had times when the mic would cut out (it was bluetooth) or where the batteries would run out and I wouldn’t have noticed and would end up with a silent, unusable video. So I realised I was going to have to capture the audio separately (I was using my Zoom H2 and then more recently my Zoom H2n. I now also have the Zoom H1 and Zoom H4n Pro, all of which serve different purposes) to the video and then synch it in video-editing software. I initially tried to do this manually by zooming in on a clap in the waveform of the video and audio and lining them up, but frequently they would be slightly out of synch and it was time-consuming if I have recorded 100 videos for an eCourse and I now have to synch 100 videos of audio, and then there was the added problem that when cropping the video I had to make sure I cropped the audio at the same time and didn’t accidentally just crop the video, or I would quickly have a video way out of synch, so I was saving each video as an unedited video with the external audio as a track, and then editing this video, but that took a long time to do. So, for me, the biggest decision over choosing new video-editing software for making my Udemy courses was whether it could auto-synch the audio and video file together and have a single file created quickly which I could work with. I found that the most recent version of the software I was already using happened to have this feature included, so I upgraded to that software (I now use VideoStudio X9 Pro). It significantly sped up my production time. I have recently found out that there are video-editing software programmes available which allow you to bulk process videos. Currently I have to edit a video, then wait ages while it processes before I can edit the next video. What would be ideal is to do all the editing during the day and bulk process all the videos over night, so I may be finding software which can do this and upgrading my software again as this is one of the most time-consuming parts of my editing stage. How did you pick your video editing software? What is important to you in the video editing software you choose? All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-23-2019

@GrahamNicholls, I also love mindmapping ideas and working with pen and paper than on an IT system. I have dozens of notepads full of ideas etc., and find it interesting to go through them from time to time and I find ideas in years old notepads that for some reason I never fleshed out at the time, perhaps it wasn't the right time or I didn't feel I had the skills at the time, or maybe there would be demonstrations of therapy/hypnosis etc that would be needed in the course that I didn't have the opportunity to do for the course and so decided against making the course. I also stumble upon book ideas I've had and YouTube video ideas and many other ideas, so I definitely think it is great to revisit old notepads and just see what you were scribbling down years ago... All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-23-2019

I wanted to share what my workflow is to create my courses on Udemy as efficiently as possible. I always keep a notepad of course ideas, some of these I think are better ideas than others. I get ideas from student feedback and questions and from ideas I just have perhaps from things that came to my mind while creating other courses etc. When I think this with a few courses I will write them on separate pages and bulletpoint what I think are the main points the course would need to cover. From this, often one or two ideas stand out as already being formed in my mind. At this stage I will start marketing and sharing that I am putting together a new course and start sharing about what the course will be about and ask what people would like to see in the course etc... With the idea I plan on turning into a course, I will create a PowerPoint of the whole course. Usually each slide will be a lecture, but there are times when this isn't the case, for example, in a parenting course I could have a slide of ways of managing challenging behaviour of children/teens, and each bulletpoint will be a lecture, so I may have a lecture on consistancy, a lecture on consequences, etc. The PowerPoint isn't being done specifically to be used on screen in the course, but to let me know what I will be covering throughout the course. When I look through the PowerPoint I can then see whether it looks like everything I want to cover is covered. I then record all of the lectures back to back. I do this because I want consistancy, I want to look the same in each lecture and know that the sound and light etc is all the same in each video. I use the same environment and set up for all my videos, but there can always be subtle variations, like perhaps between videos I've filmed something else and shifted the white balance or some other camera setting, or for some reason an automatic setting is slightly different, or maybe between videos I've been out in the sun and now have a tan, etc., or maybe I was more or less shaved, or had longer or shorter hair. So, once I get to the filming stage I make sure to do it all back to back. I plan each slide as being about 5-10 minutes in length, and then assume it will take 20 minutes per slide to record so that I account for mistakes etc. Normally it doesn't take much longer than the length the lecture is supposed to be. I also factor in 15-30 minutes for every hour of recording of needing to take a break. I don't edit anything or do any other tasks while recording, I get all the recording done and then drop all the video onto my computer to edit and process the videos. I do this back to back. I don't have software that can bulk process videos, but I read here in the Udemy Community a couple of months ago about software which can do that. This would make a big difference to my time and workflow, so is something I will look into. While videos are processing and I can't do any editing at that time, I go to Canva to design a thumbnail for the course and start creating the Udemy part of the course, working on the course description etc, in all the times when videos are processing. I also continue to share on Facebook etc that I am working on the course and that it will be coming soon. While videos are processing I work on other things like workbooks etc and adding any quizzes or anything else not related directly to the video lectures to Udemy. I don't upload the videos to Udemy until all the videos have been processed. I name each video with a number at the beginning of the title so that I know where it fits in the course and when I do upload it, I use the bulk uploading to add all the videos at once to Udemy and then can easily find each one by listing them in title order. I then create all the lectures on Udemy one at a time adding in the relevant video for each video. Once I have submitted the course for review I start working on a blog post to promote the course and on Facebook posts and Tweets etc, and a Udemy promotional announcement that I can send out once the course has been reviewed. After the course is live I share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and my blog and send out a promotional announcement. About two weeks later I send out another promotional announcement and over the first few weeks I post often with related posts that can link to my new course, I also share with people who might be good to help promote the course further. Creating the Udemy course isn't the end of the story. I follow this up by taking the PowerPoint, placing it into Word and turning each slide heading into a chapter heading for a book and each bulletpoint becomes something that will be covered within that chapter and over the few months after creating the course I write a book on that topic which can be made available as an eboook and/or a paperback book, I then do PR to promote the book in local and national press and promote that I have an eCourse on the topic available etc and do speaking engagements and run short courses off the back of the book where I then also mention that I have an online course available. So this is my workflow of how I approach creating my Udemy courses in a way I find most efficient. I would be curious to hear others workflows and whether you have any great tips which can help streamline workload or to easily create additional income with the content you have created for Udemy?

Hypnodan · ‎05-23-2019

I like to wear the same thing all the time in all videos. I think over the years I've been on Udemy I have had three different shirts I've worn in my videos, one shirt I wore in my 2014/2015 eCourses, another shirt in my 2016/2017 videos and another shirt in my 2018/2019 courses. I tell myself that this is for consistency in the videos (which it partly is), but I like having a 'work outfit' and I like things to be unchanging. When I was working full-time in my last couple of jobs I wore the same shirt every workday from 2007-2015. My wife hated the shirt and made sure it was thrown out once I left my last job.

Hypnodan · ‎05-23-2019

Hi @JackieHall164 The important thing is that each course feels complete. Generally longer courses do well, but this isn't exclusively the case and parents may well feel that they don't have time for a longer course and so would prefer shorter courses. If I had that number of subscribers etc I would probably ask them a poll of what they would like me to teach first and offer a selection of different course options and use that to inform your decision. I would then market that course (and subsequent courses) to your current audience to kick-start Udemy organic sales by demonstrating that the courses are popular. My courses are all a mix of both long and short courses, but the length is never the consideration I've used, it has been about creating what I feel is a complete course, so if it take 10 hours to adequately cover a topic then that is how long the course will be, if it takes 2 hours, then it will be a two hour course. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-07-2019

Hi All, I was thinking about how I decide what to teach. I thought I would share some of my thoughts. I'm curious how others decide what to teach? For me, there are some subjects I don’t mind teaching about (I won't teach things I don't know about or don't like teaching about even if I think they could be popular) which are more popular for me to teach about, so most of my courses are on these subjects, then there are subjects I am passionate about but which don’t seem popular for me to teach on Udemy. I teach these subjects because I want to, even though I know they will get very few students. So, the more popular topics I teach to create the income to allow me to teach the topics which aren't so popular but which I want to share knowledge about. I use the insights if I am trying to explore ideas for different areas to teach, or to explore what could be linked with what I teach, but within my main area that I teach I started with creating longer courses which dive deeper into the overarching elements of the topic and then shorter courses expanding on elements of the topic in more depth that only those interested in those parts are likely to be interested in exploring further. How do you decide what to teach in your course? Do you typically teach the general principles of the topic or do you dive deeper? All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎05-06-2019

Hi @Snehal_Mishra2 , Great to see you here. There are plenty of posts in the community, you can use the 'search community' box to search for things before asking any questions as you may find the question you have may already have been answered. You can also find helpful information on the Teach on Udemy section (https://teach.udemy.com/) and it is worth taking the courses by the Udemy Instructors Team (https://www.udemy.com/user/udemymanager/) I look forward to seeing your posts as you reach different milestones. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎04-26-2019

Hi @ShubhamKumar , Welcome to Udemy. My view on creating Udemy courses is to make sure it is something you know about, something you know you can answer students questions on. Obviously, from time to time people ask questions you might have to research, but generally you want to have much more knowledge of the subject than what you are teaching. I feel that it is important to be able to state what makes you an expert/gives you authority on the subject, why should people learn from you? It is also important to be teaching because you want to teach what you are teaching, rather than because you want to make money. That doesn't mean you don't want to make money, but the money isn't guaranteed whereas the teaching is, so it is better to focus on the fact you want to share knowledge you have to share. I look at things as what is the worst-case scenario? Here, that would likely be that no-one takes your course, or that people give it a low rating. If your course has good structure, good audio, video, lighting and delivers what it says it will deliver then it should do fine. If you were concerned about your age in relation to what you are teaching then I would bring this up in the description and introduction, stating why you feel students should learn from you and make your introduction and free lectures really count. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎04-24-2019

Thank you for having me as a community champion. I look forward to continuing to give back to the community which has contributed so much to me over the years since I uploaded my first course in 2014. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎04-04-2019

If the mic has a long enough lead (my SmartLav mic sounds fine with my extension cord) then the wire can be out of shot and attached to you with the wire up inside your clothes and you can record the audio and synch everything afterwards. There are other mics, I mainly now use the RodeVideoMicro. Before this I used to use my Zoom H1 in my pocket with a Rode SmartLav from the Zoom in my pocket recording onto the Zoom and I would synch the audio afterwards. I still do this when teaching in front of groups where my camera is at the back of a room and it is easier just to synch everything later (I use VideoStudio X9 because it has an autosynching feature). I've not done it, but I imagine that even without something like a Zoom H1, you can probably put your smart phone onto airplane mode and use an audio recording function to record the audio onto that in your pocket from a SmartLav+. I occasionally do screen cast on my courses and whatever I do I always record the audio the same, with the same mic into the same device so that the audio will be the same. There is a risk of using different mics and ways of recording that sometimes it can sound odd with slightly different ways the noise is picked up, so I think it helps with consistency. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-28-2019

I agree, I wouldn't describe it as 'minimum viable product' but would say that I aim for good enough. It is common to think I could change this about the delivery or could have said that, etc. The trouble often it is bits which students never point out and there is a risk of 'over teaching' and putting too much in the course which is off topic because I think it is interesting and related to what is being taught, but it isn't what is being taught, it is a tangent... All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-22-2019

I occasionally get told I talk too slow, but for others that is what they say they like about my presentation. A couple of years ago I decided to make a YouTube video where I tried to talk as fast as I see other YouTubers talk. It was only a five minute video and it felt like it was going to kill me trying to keep up that speed for five minutes. I have never done that again and wouldn't do it for a course, but it was interesting that no-one seemed to notice I was talking fast (for me) and that I was struggling throughout the video. I saw a post somewhere in this community a few weeks ago mentioning about mentioning that you can adjust video speed. I have obviously always known this, but for some reason never thought of it as a solution to suggest but think it is a great idea and will likely do this. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-21-2019

If it is your course and you hold the rights to the course you can publish it where you like, Udemy doesn't hold the rights to your courses posted here on Udemy, so as long as you hold the rights to the course and the rights aren't held by someone else (a company/other course host etc) then you can have the course on Udemy. What you can't do is have the course free elsewhere and then publish it paid here on Udemy. You would have to publish it free here on Udemy if it is free elsewhere. If it is paid elsewhere, then you can publish it paid here on Udemy. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-15-2019

My top two goals are: 1. To finish and release a course about how to work with autistic individuals 2. To then go through my courses working on my copywriting to hopefully increase my conversion rates on my various courses These are the most important two goals. Obviously I have other things I want to work on as the year goes on, like going through the auto-generated captions on all my courses and correcting errors in these and for some of my courses I want to re-do my videos. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-14-2019

Unfortunately as a business according to the gifts part of the guidelines they can't put it down as a gift, even though that is what I would see it as, but perhaps for future if they do similar either ensure they put the cost price of the item rather than perhaps the retail price so that if it is just something like a t-shirt it is under the £15 limit, or make sure that they say upfront that there maybe customs, tax and fees due, then people can check what these will be and whether they want to still receive the item. Like most people I hadn't even thought about customs and tax, I just thought it is a free item being sent. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-13-2019

I am assuming I'll get a letter saying to do the same then. I would think of the T-Shirt as a gift and so at that price not something to pay VAT on, but unfortunately it isn't a gift if it is from a company. If it isn't classed as a gift then if it is under £15 you don't pay VAT etc, so it is annoying that it is just over this if it hasn't been sent as a gift and so you have to pay the handling fee to pay the charge which is higher than the charge itself... Here is the guidance from the UK Government website: VAT You pay VAT on goods sent from non-European Union (EU) countries and EUspecial territories (eg the Canary Islands) if they’re: gifts worth more than £39 other goods worth more than £15 alcohol, tobacco products and fragrances (eg perfume, eau de toilette and cologne) of any value You have to pay VAT on all goods sent by mail order from the Channel Islands no matter what their value. You’ll be charged at the VAT rate that applies to your goods. VAT is charged on the total value, including: the price paid for the goods postage, packaging and insurance any duty you owe All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-13-2019

There isn't a hard and fast rule, obviously what is important is to make every minute count. There is no point making a 15 hour course of content that students take and feel could have been taught in 3 hours, this will lead to low ratings and long term won't work as a strategy. However, if you have 15 hours of great content that teaches what the students want to learn then this will be more successful. One thing is to look at what competitors are doing, do they have short courses of a project or two per course, do they have courses containing 10-20 projects? What is the value to the student of more projects vs fewer projects or could they learn what they need to learn from fewer projects? Would a student want to learn everything in the course, or would they be taking the course for a specific bit of learning and would a different student be after a different bit of the information? Generally, although again, not a hard and fast rule, longer courses sell better as long as they contain useful content the student wants to know throughout. For example, I've just finished taking a piano learning course on Udemy, it taught lots of things which could have been in separate courses, so it could have taught the basics and then the section on Jazz piano could have been a separate course, the same with classical piano, blues piano, etc. But it was all in one long course, so I chose the long course because I knew ultimately I would want to work through all of these things, so I would rather pay one price for it all than pay for the basic course, then for the other courses separately when the cost on Udemy is usually the same regardless. So if your competitors have everything in a long course then when people see all the courses at $9.99 each and they see a long course covering everything they want to learn, they will likely take that course because it has everything in it, rather than pay exactly the same price for what is essentially the first module of the long course but by a different instructor. It could be that the short course is actually better presented etc, but people do consider how much content they will get for that same payment. If both courses claim to teach exactly the same content but one can do it quickly and the other takes hours, rather than having additional depth to it, then people would be likely to choose the shorter course and learn what they need to know in that shorter period of time. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-13-2019

I never make free coupons but all coupons I have for promotional announcements I price at $9.99 - $14.99. Off of Udemy I no longer price much above this as once the student realises they could likely have got the course for much cheaper they all for a partial refund. Going back a few years my coupons were never lower than $27, and usually full price or $49.99 with frequent monthly sales at this price. Now I think unless you don't enrol your courses in promotions and you have an audience etc I would just stick to coupons around the Udemy price perhaps up to $19.99. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-12-2019

I quite like the idea of an accepted solution series of badges, or maybe as the community grows some way people can see an accepted solutions leaderboard perhaps in categories so that perhaps as the community grows people could tag those in the category likely to be able to answer the question in the same way in the old groups in Facebook people like Scott Duffy were often tagged and Udemy staff were tagged, and that might reduce staff being tagged when a fellow instructor may be able to help, although it does run the risk of the top people just ending up always being tagged and so often answering questions and maybe then keeping them as top of the pack ,but this could be reduced by having it by default perhaps showing top this week at the side so that you then know who may well be most active currently... Also I was wondering ,as I've not found it yet whether there is an easy way to see the community champions and the main advice staff on a page so that if you had a question, especially if you were new to Udemy, you could visit that page if you wanted to find who to perhaps tag and see at a glance who's who... All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-11-2019

For me it was sharing knowledge and making income. It is still these things 5 years later. I didn't at first necessarily think of it as something to make a full time living just that if I am putting in time I need to make a certain amount to live on and I only have a limited number of hours in my day, so there was a hope I would make enough income to at least cover the hours it takes me so that I don't have to put those hours in for free on top of a full time job in my personal time. Obviously most things involve investment so you invest time ,but hope you get your time free to do what you want with it further down the road rather than working 60 hours plus commuting and in your free time working 40 hours and then never having time for loved ones or your own wellbeing... I have been able to achieve these on Udemy, where I get to share knowledge and make a living while being able to focus on my wellbeing and loved ones. This motivates me to keep doing it and to help others achieve the same. All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-11-2019

I've seen sales which look like Udemy have been trying out selling bundles, but as far as I am aware there isn't yet a way for us to bundle courses together to sell with a single link. It would be great if it does happen... All the best Dan

Hypnodan · ‎03-10-2019

Hi @ZygimantasK , You never know how a venture will pan out until you have tried it. If someone thinks about it as a get-rich quick scheme and they want to just quickly create a course, upload it and make money the chances are they will be disappointed. Many businesses take a while to find their feet. I would recommend treating it like any other business venture, creating your plan of things like what courses will you make, what will you do to get those first few paying students to your first course, what other ways will you continue to drive traffic to your course and other courses in the future and to build your reputation around the topic you teach, what subsequent courses will you teach, will you have these complimentary to each other so that you can cross promote your courses to students in other courses of yours. What will you do to stand out and to get organic sales (thinking about things like search engine optimisation and copywriting etc), what is your plan around production of your course, how will you make the course(s), do you need new equipment/location to film etc. I would be treating it like a business to give myself the best chance of success. This is what I did when I became jobless and had to make a living from Udemy. I took Udemy's own courses and courses by others on these various topics. They say it takes about three years for a business to start making a profit. I don't think that is the case on Udemy, I think you can start making a profit much sooner, how soon will depend on how you work things out and what you need to purchase to make your first course. I don't recommend using a built in microphone of a phone or webcam or computer or camera etc, so it is likely you will get some kind of external microphone. If you will be video recording yourself you need suitable lighting. If you can get the lighting right then the HD camera on most modern mobile phones can get a good enough video image quality, or decent HD webcam, so you don't necessarily need to invest in a top camera or video camera. If you don't have a clear space to record yourself that has an acceptible background I would recommend getting a green screen, and if you did this you might need to get some different video editing software that can do chromakey. All of this can be purchased for just a few hundred dollars and you may not need it all, so investment is minimal. If you take into consideration the time it takes you to make your course and work out how much this would cost if you paid yourself for it then you could say that that and other expenses mentioned are what you would want the course to make to make it so that it has at least covered costs. Beyond that you would have an idea of what you need to make per month to make a living. As an example, my first course took me perhaps 60 hours to make (through to having the course live on Udemy) it was a course with a couple of face to camera videos but mainly slides and voiceover, so nothing too technical or time consuming to make. I already had a camera and external microphone and editing software, so I didn't buy anything new (I have done since!). So for the course to breakeven including covering my time I had to cover what I would value those 60 hours at. Say I valued those 60 hours at about $15 per hour, I needed the course to make $900 for me to feel I didn't lose anything by doing Udemy. I passed this in my third month on Udemy, the first month nearly all my sales were my own promotions, sharing discounted access to my course with friends and family and asking them to share it and to a small Facebook audience (I would recommend starting as early as possible creating an audience of people who like what knowledge you have to share so that when you release your first course you have people to tell about it, rather than making the course, then starting to market it and create an audience). To date that one course has made the equivalent of about $1000 per hour of time I spent making the course. I have to respond to student questions and do things to drive traffic to the course and I occasionally do updates to the course, but if I worked out what time I spend specifically on that one course, it probably works out about an hour or less per week of time on average. It is unlikely the first course will be the one that makes it. Obviously this happens for people from time to time, but more likely is that you will release future courses which are related so that they are all getting students, all being promoted on Udemy and by you and all being cross-promoted so that students in one course can go on to take other courses of yours. My experience is the more time I put in to Udemy the more I get out of Udemy. Once I lost my job and put full-time hours into my Udemy business I quickly started getting a full-time income out of my Udemy business. Obviously ideally I wouldn't suggest quitting a job and taking that risk, but rather gradually building your business and reputation and over the course of a few years reaching a point of noticing perhaps your Udemy income is matching or exceeding your full-time income and taking up far less of your time than your full-time job, and then would decide to perhaps quit the job and focus on fully developing an online business. Here is my sales chart since I started on Udemy All the best Dan

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Dan Jones

Hypnodan •
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Autistic Hypnotherapy & Psychotherapy Instructor

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Dan Jones

Hypnodan • Community Champion

Autistic Hypnotherapy & Psychotherapy Instructor

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Hypnodan •
Community Champion