Udemy

FrankKane · ‎07-11-2019

They've never said you can't - the bonus lecture is your opportunity to upsell students on things, with almost no restrictions. If you offer affiliate links, I think it actually does more good than harm to disclose that you are an affiliate. By the time students reach the bonus lecture, you probably have a good relationship with them, and they would be more than happy to help you out a little via an affiliate link that costs them nothing extra.

FrankKane · ‎07-10-2019

Something we talk about a lot is how most successful instructors put in a steady, persistent, effort and work toward long-term goals. Short-term setbacks are just that - setbacks. But they don't prevent you from continuing to push forward.

FrankKane · ‎07-10-2019

I agree, the mining fees and other fees involved in transferring Bitcoin into currency you can actually use to pay your bills makes this a non-starter. Toss in the volatility of Bitcoin and there's no way I'd want to be paid in it.

FrankKane · ‎07-07-2019

Well, you can at least get a range by using the Insights tool in your instructor dashboard: https://www.udemy.com/instructor/marketplace-insights/?q=Blockchain&lang=en You can see the median monthly revenue is $22 per month. As a new instructor, that's probably about what you should expect. On average one paid student will net you around $3-4, so that's around 5 students per month. Although Blockchain is a hot topic, it's already saturated with high-quality, established courses that are hard to compete with. There are already 146 courses on this topic, and yours will be #147. You'll need to produce a course that offers more than what's already out there, and do good job of promoting it, in order to succeed in this category.

FrankKane · ‎07-04-2019

Udemy won't prevent you from uploading the course with it, but it certainly won't look good to students. Best to bite the bullet and activate Windows. If you can't for some reason, you could crop it out while editing I suppose.

FrankKane · ‎07-03-2019

Choose a new course topic, and complete its research phase. Also - a refreshing vacation to Northern Arizona 🙂

FrankKane · ‎07-03-2019

It can also help to mount your microphone on a boom arm with a shock mount. That way, the vibrations from your keyboard won't be transmitted directly to the mic.

FrankKane · ‎07-01-2019

Wtf. That should have been caught in the review process, Udemy.

FrankKane · ‎07-01-2019

I took a look at your courses. You probably won't want to hear this, but I'm trying to be helpful. For your Python course, the main issue is that you're trying to compete in a category that is already flooded, and has entrenched top-selling courses that are offering 20-40+ hours worth of content. You're going up against that with a new, one-hour course. Students have no reason to take a chance on an unproven course in this category, and will generally opt for longer courses in order to get more value for their money. For your InPixio course, it's the opposite case. According to Marketplace Insights, this topic doesn't even exist, implying that there is little to no student interest in the topic. Yours is the only course on the platform in it - which would be good, if people were looking for instruction on this. But it seems they are not. It's also clear that English is not your first language, and you're struggling with getting your wording correct both in your spoken and written material. It might be a better idea to offer a course in your native language, which may also have less competition. My advice is to just learn from this and apply your learnings to your next course. If you want to continue, familiarize yourself with the Marketplace Insights tool at https://www.udemy.com/instructor/marketplace-insights and understand how to choose the right topic. This is hugely important. And, consider producing your next course in your native language, or teaming up with a native English speaker.

FrankKane · ‎07-01-2019

It's not required. My business does have liability insurance and I also have a personal umbrella policy, but it's hard to find coverage that will protect you from someone claiming damages resulting from what you teach. Generally these policies are meant to protect you from someone hurting themself on your property and things like that, and mostly makes sense only if you have a physical office outside of your home. I've never had a reason to file a claim on either of those policies. But I don't think it's a bad idea to talk to an insurance agent and find out what is and isn't covered, and what it costs. However Udemy does not require any insurance in order to publish on their platform. You do so at your own risk. If you're worried about being sued, it's a good idea to meet with a lawyer and learn how to shield your personal assets to whatever extent possible. I have a convoluted structure involving an S-Corporation and a family trust to that end.

FrankKane · ‎07-01-2019

To add to Lawrence's reply, remember you are not an employee of Udemy and you should never represent yourself as such. As an instructor on Udemy's platform, you are self-employed.

FrankKane · ‎06-27-2019

On the bright side, it's great that you identified this challenge early. Since presumably Udemy for Business doesn't plan on offering cooking courses, you do have the freedom to distribute your course on all the platforms you want to. The ones you listed are reputable and there's no reason not to do that. You may find that certain platforms do better for different topics. I teach technical topics, and Udemy is my biggest revenue generator by an order of magnitude. But other platforms specialize in lifestyle skills such as cooking. If it's a crowded market on Udemy however, it's likely to be just as crowded elsewhere. We could rant about how the glut of content creators in general on the Internet has exploded in recent years, making it really hard to find a new audience. YouTubers are feeling this too. But it's the reality we have to contend with. One strategy to consider is "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Can you identify popular cooking instructors who you might be able to team up with, and co-produce a course with? That could give you the initial jolt of students you need to build upon for your subsequent, independently-produced courses. Are there popular YouTubers or podcasters in the cooking space who might promote your course in exchange for an interview or something? That might be another way to leverage an existing audience as a way to start building your own.

FrankKane · ‎06-23-2019

Hello! I trust you're familiar with the Marketplace Insights tool in your instructor dashboard; the data in there is indispensible in forming this sort of strategy. I just don't know if existing topics are narrow enough to guide you toward a specific mathematical topic there. Given the niche nature of these topics, it will be important to choose topics that aren't already covered by existing good courses, on Udemy or elsewhere. Sounds like you're already doing that analysis. It may also help to set up some sort of "learning path" amongst your courses that guide students toward these higher-level courses as they progress. Right now Udemy doesn't have a good way of communicating recommended sequences of courses to students, but you can at least call this out in bonus lectures, promotional messages, and your own website/blog/etc.

FrankKane · ‎06-23-2019

Let us know what you need!

FrankKane · ‎06-23-2019

Welcome! As you go through the process, you're bound to have questions - we're here to help. To get you started with advice, I'll refer you to a recent post by Jason Dion that I 100% agree with: https://community.udemy.com/t5/First-time-Course-Creation/Four-essential-tips-for-increase-your-chances-of-success-on/m-p/22143/highlight/true#M1951 The main take-away is to be careful in your topic selection. Within the field of cooking, try to find a specific topic that is in high demand, yet doesn't have an existing great course that covers it. Then make that great course yourself. That really is the key to success.

FrankKane · ‎06-19-2019

I adopt the mentality that everything I do is a calculated bet. Many of those bets don't pay off, but the ones that do allow me to make more bets. As long as I'm proud of the things I've created in the end, that's enough to keep me motivated. Still, a string of "bad bets" can be disconcerting - and I've had a few lately. But as long as we learn from our mistakes and are proud of our creations and accomplishments, that can keep us going. It's also helpful to be realistic about what the worst-case scenario is, to keep the impact of failure in perspective. If your Udemy income suddenly dried up overnight (which is highly unlikely,) what would really happen? For most of us, we'd just go back to a "day job" or refocus on the one we have, and adjust our lifestyle accordingly. Not the end of the world. It's OK to take risks. For any given project, like creating a course, there can be obstacles as well. What motivates me is the knowledge that the effort spent creating that course has absolutely zero value until that course is released. Quitting means losing all the effort you've put into it thusfar, and nobody wants that!

FrankKane · ‎06-17-2019

Well, you need a minimum of 30 minutes of video content and 5 lectures for a Udemy course. But if you're willing to put in at least that minimum effort, I think it's a good idea. I got started using the same strategy; I released a free "Big Data Basics" course when I started, that promoted my larger, paid course on big data in its bonus lecture. You have to give this strategy time, however. Only a small percentage of students will complete the free course and see your offer at the end, and only a small percentage of them will take you up on the offer. But over time it can add up to something meaningful. The "con" is that the bonus lecture is really the only opportunity you have to pitch your paid course from a free one. You cannot send promo announcements to free students, nor do you get their email addresses.

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?

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Sundog Education by Frank Kane

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Sundog Education by Frank Kane

FrankKane • Community Champion

Founder, Sundog Education. Machine Learning Pro

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