Udemy

RandyMinder · Wednesday

@JeremyZhang955 - I saw you have created so many courses, how did you solve the cold-start problem at the beginning? Mostly by being patient. My first couple months I may have made $20. And, even though I was in a fairly crowded market, most of my initial courses offered something no other instructors were offering. So, they were somewhat unique, in a crowded space. Almost 4 years, 30 courses and 6,000+ students later, I have carved out a niche and do fairly well. At least compared to the average instructor. I'm able to average $150 - $300 per month just in self promotions where we get to keep 97% of the proceeds. Regarding ChatGPT - If you think about it about the only thing you can really focus on is prompting. So, almost all the courses on GPT focus on prompt engineering, as they should. But, it makes it really hard to differentiate yourself.

RandyMinder · Wednesday

Hi @Rahmat S.T. - That is really a rather pointless question because all courses can be purchased very cheaply if you are willing to wait until the next sale, which is usually within the next week or two, if a sale isn't already occurring. Therefore, it doesn't matter if a course is priced at $29.95 or $89.95, wait until the next sale and it can be purchased for $11.95 (or less). Besides that, Udemy is going to price them at whatever level they choose. So, IMO, the price you set doesn't mean much. I have created 30 or so courses on Udemy and most of them are under 5 hours. If I think they can go over that I will split them into two courses, a Part 1 and Part 2. This has worked extremely well for me. I have two courses now, Kusto Query Language Part 1 and Part 2. At least 90% of the time when a student buys one, they will buy the other at the same time. You can't beat that. Both are about 5 hours in length.

RandyMinder · Wednesday

Hi @JeremyZhang955 - The cold hard fact is that it is REALLY hard for most new courses to gain traction on Udemy, especially in a hot area like GPT. There are already many, many courses on this topic and Udemy is going to promote the ones that sell well and are rated the highest. It is extremely unlikely Udemy will promote your course, at least initially. You will have to do that yourself until you get enough sales and ratings (4.5 or higher) so that Udemy notices. BTW, I was seriously considering creating a course on ChatGPT and Bard. However, there are simply too many courses already existing, that are very highly rated. I felt like I would be wasting my time.

RandyMinder · ‎05-19-2023

Hi @ElizabethDj0021 - I have created close to 30 courses over the past 3.5 years and all my courses are faceless. Most of my courses are rated 4.3 to 4.7 so my students do not seem to care. However, I will say I think it depends a lot of what you are teaching and whether you can keep the student engaged without including a section of the page showing your face. All of my courses are very engaging with regards to what I am teaching so I've never felt it necessary to include a shot of me talking. I also don't particularly enjoy taking courses where the instructor shows him/herself talking during the whole course. I usually find that rather annoying.

RandyMinder · ‎04-13-2023

Hi @MichaelEric298 - You have to keep in mind that it really doesn't matter what the list price of a course is. Rarely will any student pay full price for a course no matter what the price is. Udemy has really painted themselves into a corner with all these ridiculous sales where a $100 course is sold for $11.99. Virtually the whole world knows not to buy any Udemy course until they have their next sale, which is usually no more than a week or two away. Therefore, it really doesn't matter if your course is priced at $19.99, $59.99 or $109.99 etc. Almost no student will ever pay that when they can wait a week or two and pick it up for $11.99 (or something close to that). 99% of my sales only occur when Udemy is running some sort of sale or special promotion. And my courses are relatively cheap (around $29.95). Such is the way of life in Udemy-land.

RandyMinder · ‎03-06-2023

The price of $12 is only if students from particular countries purchase the course. For example, if someone from the US purchases the course, they would pay $12. If someone from say India purchases the course, they might pay something like $4. It's all based on exchange rates and whatever pricing arrangements Udemy has with other countries.

RandyMinder · ‎01-27-2023

Hi @LandonCrigl966 - A few things come to mind: It really doesn't matter how much success you have had in your career teaching students when it comes to getting initial traction on Udemy. About the only way to succeed (however you define that) is to find a topic that isn't already saturated with courses. You have your list price for the course set at $85. Almost no one will pay this kind of money for any course on Udemy. Why? Because the entire world knows that if you wait a few days, your $85 course will be on sale for between $9.95 and $13.95. You are in a rather crowded market. I did a search on "Realtors" and returned 102 results. So this means there could be at least 102 courses teaching what you are teaching. And, when I did a search on "Real Estate" there are 200+ courses rated 4.5 or higher on the subject. There simply is no way you are going to be able to compete with those courses unless you find a way to draw students to your course by your own marketing. I took a look at your promotional video. It was ok but I think you need to spend more time talking less about the real estate market and why I should purchase your course. Also, it appears you are reading from a script. IMO, that doesn't give a good impression. You should know your material well enough (or rehearse more) so that you don't have to do that.

RandyMinder · ‎01-13-2023

Hi @Keibai - Since there are already 90 courses available on Udemy covering chatGPT I doubt you are going to run into any issues. All those instructors would have received cease and desist orders already. However, it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. Then you would have your bases covered.

RandyMinder · ‎12-27-2022

Hi @CraigSebastian - Welcome to Udemy! Before you get too far into your course creation, you should be aware of the competition you will be facing. I did a Udemy search on "Russian Language" and limited the search to just those courses rated 4.5 or higher. I got 2,687 results back. This means there are that many courses teaching the Russian language that you will be competing against. So, while you are creating your course, I would give serious consideration as to how you are going to make your course stand out above all the others. Also, keep in mind that Udemy probably will not promote your course at all because you are a new instructor with a new course and Udemy would much rather spend their advertising dollars on proven courses in this space. If you are going into this to just have fun and maybe make a few dollars, then by all means, go for it and have fun. If your intent is to make a lot of money, well, that might be tough for many months or years until your course gains some traction. And it will involve a lot of self-marketing work on your part.

RandyMinder · ‎11-15-2022

@NoleenDaya - Basically he means that Udemy is probably not going to promote your course until you get quite a few sales and your ratings are strong (4.4 or higher). By "kickstarting" he probably means you need to tell others about your course, through your own advertising and not expect Udemy to do it (because they probably won't), at least initially.

RandyMinder · ‎11-12-2022

@Sunshine_Naburika - I see two possible explanations. The first is that your course is only 1.5 hours long. I have never had much luck with really short courses. I think it often comes down to students feeling like they are not getting much for their money. The second is competition. When I did a search for Pandas, I got 1,350 results back. When your course was free, it probably stood out from the others because it was free. But, now that you are charging $30, you are competing with the other 1,350 courses. This is not going to be easy and could take a lot of time to get noticed.

RandyMinder · ‎01-14-2022

@Bella - Thank you very much. For instructors in the United States, will Udemy also send the appropriate forms to the IRS or just to each instructor?

RandyMinder · ‎01-13-2022

Yes, most of those sales were bots. There is almost no reason whatsoever to offer a course for free. 99% of the signups are bots. You cannot promote to actual students that do signup for a free course. And the course is limited to 2 hours. New instructors often offer courses for free in hopes of getting reviews (good reviews of course). But, from what I've heard, this often backfires. I would suggest you never offer a course for free. I don't know what you mean by "...and/or offer a discount (to free) if a review is supplied after."

RandyMinder · ‎01-07-2022

It will have to be the very best ever because you are competing against over 3,000 Udemy courses that teach the exact same thing.

RandyMinder · ‎12-28-2021

Hi @ariyam66 - Have you checked to see how many of those 4000 students who signed up for your free course(s) have actually started the course? I think you will find that very few have. The problem is that when someone offers a free course, there are bots that automatically detect these free courses and sign up for them. These are not real people. I have no idea why this happens or why Udemy allows it to happen. This has happened to me. Early on I offered a free course and got almost 1000 "students". They were not real students. They were bot signups and none of those "students" ever actually started the course. This is one reason, among several, offering free courses is not a great idea.

RandyMinder · ‎12-24-2021

@DamiMayo - My first two thoughts are this: 1) Your course is in Spanish. Udemy is primarily an English speaking site with English based courses 2) If I was able to translate your course title correctly it means "Virtual Private Server Administration for WordPress" - This is extremely niche and narrow. You might have a hard time finding people interested in such a thing. Plus, there are already hundreds of courses related to WordPress.

RandyMinder · ‎12-24-2021

Frankly, If I were you, I would unpublishing every course that is below 4.0 and recreate it so that you are confident students will rate it 4.0 or higher. I have done that on occasion. I've created around 30 courses. A few have been duds. I simply unpublish them. I don't want prospective students seeing I have a course rated well below 4.0. There must be a reason why so many of your courses are rated so low. Look at your reviews and recreate the lowly rated courses.

RandyMinder · ‎12-23-2021

Hi @ariyam66 I took a look at your course offerings and I see many of your course ratings are: 3.5, 4.0, 2.4, 3.0, 3.7, 4.0, 3.0, 3.5, 2.0 etc... These ratings are really pretty bad and will absolutely impact your sales. To be successful on Udemy, your course ratings must be roughly 4.2 or higher. I have no idea what your courses were rated in 2020, but certainly in 2021 your course ratings are hindering your sales. You need to work to get your ratings above 4.0.

RandyMinder · ‎12-21-2021

Hello and welcome. I would STRONGLY suggest you find out how many courses already exist on Udemy on hair braiding to see what your competition is. So few new instructors do this. They then spend months creating a course and wonder why they are not getting any sales when 100+ courses already exist on the subject. By the way, I did a Udemy search on 'Hair Braiding' and got 300+ results back. So, somehow you would need to figure out how your course would stand out among 300+ competitors.

RandyMinder · ‎09-27-2021

@ADchauhdry - I see that at least 9 of your courses are rated 4.0 or lower. This is not good at all and will impact sales of those courses and quite possibly your other courses. No one can really compete on Udemy unless their ratings are at least 4.2-4.4.

RandyMinder · ‎09-27-2021

This is a silly question so I'll give you a silly answer. You can earn between $0 and $100,000,000. All depends on the course you create, quality, competition and a host of other things.

RandyMinder · ‎09-20-2021

@SRINIVASGOUNI - Yes, this is what I would.

RandyMinder · ‎09-19-2021

@SRINIVASGOUNI - You really do not want to produce free courses. 99% of the signups you get are from bots which search the Udemy landscape looking for free courses and then sign up. I have no idea why this happens but it does. These signups will never become actual students (usually). Secondly, Udemy prevents you from sending promotions to any real students that do sign up for your course. Therefore, there is very little reason to offer a free course.

RandyMinder · ‎09-19-2021

Hi @wisdomf41 I took a look at your course. I can think of two possible reasons you don't have any students. The first is competition. Do you have any idea how many courses already exist covering Microsoft Word? There are 4,587 courses, rated 4.5 or higher, covering this topic. Therefore, you have to ask yourself why anyone would purchase your new course, from a new author when so many highly rated and established courses already exist? The second, less important reason, is your accent. I watched your promotional video and your accent is very thick and hard to understand. For me personally, I will almost never purchase a course from someone I cannot understand clearly. I will always purchase a course from a native English speaking instructor if possible. So, what can you do about this? I'm afraid the only alternative you have is to draw students to your course yourself because Udemy will not be promoting it until you have a significant amount of sales and a high rating (4.4 or higher).

RandyMinder · ‎09-05-2021

What does that mean, "I want to make my career with udemy"? Does this mean you want to work for Udemy? If so, send them your resume. Does this mean you want to sell so many courses that you can be an instructor full-time? If so, the odds of this happening are almost 0 percent. Sure there are some instructors who are able to do this, but VERY few. Let's say you lived in the United States and needed to earn $60K per year to live the sort of life you want to live. The average instructor earns between $1 and $5 for each course sold. Let's be optimistic and say you can earn $5 for each course sold. You will need to sell 12K courses each year. I have no statistics to back this up but I would guess that less than 1% of all instructors on Udemy are able to do this.

RandyMinder · ‎09-04-2021

I would strongly recommend you do not make your course. The only sign-ups you will get will be from automated bots that constantly look for free courses and then signup. These are not real students and will not go through your course. I don't know why this happens, but it does. And, then, even if you do get a few real signups, Udemy will not permit you to send promotions to them. So, there isn't any real advantage to offering your course for free.

RandyMinder · ‎09-03-2021

I had my best month ever, both revenue and new students, by quite a large margin.

RandyMinder · ‎09-01-2021

Hi @ElaJones I listened to your promotional video and your accent is a little thick but I could understand you pretty well. I think the problem you are having is the number of courses that already exist that cover using OOP with PHP. I did a Udemy search for PHP OOP with course ratings of 4.5 or higher. I got back 2,515 results. I think this is your problem. You are competing against a huge number of existing courses covering the same topic. To be quite honest, if I had to decide between purchasing a PHP OOP course rated 4.5 or higher with hundreds of ratings, or a course from a new author, I normally would not select the course from the new author. This is a problem every new author runs into. You will need to draw students to your course yourself until you can gain some traction. Then Udemy might do some marketing on your behalf.

RandyMinder · ‎08-24-2021

Hi @CLINT I have been doing this for about 2 years now and have close to 30 courses. For my first couple courses I spent MUCH longer than I do now creating the actual video. There are a couple reasons for this. The first is simply because I've gotten much better at creating content. The second is I no longer "sweat the details". Most instructors will earn between $1 and $5 for each course sold. You simply cannot spend 2-3 hours creating a simple 2:45 video when we make so little money on each sale. At least I refuse to do it. Of course, this is a bit of a balancing act. You cannot produce junk because then you are wasting your time. I try to create my courses to be good enough and then move on to the next course. Most of my courses are 3-5 hours long and I will spend a couple weeks creating them. Virtually all of my courses are rated between 4.2 and 4.7. There is no doubt I could spend a lot more time making my courses absolutely first rate. But, then, Udemy will sell my $29.95 course to someone in India for $5 and I will make $2. For me, I would rather spend my time creating many good enough courses.

RandyMinder · ‎08-23-2021

Hi @ElaJones I took a look at your course I would say you have two hurdles to overcome. One is easy, one isn't. The first is the price of your course. Very few students will pay $90 for a course from an unknown author. Most won't pay $90 from a known author. They will just wait for the next sale and pick it up for $9.95. I would suggest lowering your price to $19.95 since you have no track record. The second is there are currently 2,300 courses on PHP rated 4.5 or higher. Let me ask you an honest question. Why would a student purchase your course (from an unproven, unknown author) when they can purchase a highly rated course from well established authors? This is the problem you are facing. And you are not alone. MANY new and newer instructors face the same problem. So, what can you do? You will need to do your own marketing and draw students to your course yourself until you can get some sort of track record on Udemy. Note that Udemy does market courses for us but in most cases they will not spend their ad dollars on marketing courses from new authors when there are others, highly rated, from established instructors that are a better investment for them.

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