Is selling udemy courses is more profitable than selling digital products Online?

[veajawad]

Hello All!

Hope you are doing well.

I am VFX Artist and I am making a VFX Compositing Course.

50% work is done and I have already spent 2.5 months on this course and still 50% work is remaining and after 3 to 4 months of hard work this course will sell for just few dollars like $10 - $20 due to different udemy discounts.

And there are a lot of other earning options like Selling 3D Models, Animations, Stock Videos, Graphics etc Online at more than a udemy course price.

For example we can sell a Stock Video or Stock Animation at the price of $30 or 40 Online at createive marketplaces which will take maximum 1 week to create and upload.

So I am confused about it. If I can create a product in a week and sell it online at higher price then Why should I create a Udemy course by spending 4 to 6 months on single course and sell it at only for example $12.

What are your thoughts? Is selling udemy courses is more profitable than selling digital products Online? If Yes.. 

Then Explain how?

Waiting for response. Thanks 🙂

[FrankKane · Accepted solution]

Before I discovered Udemy, I was selling software I wrote online, mainly to defense companies. I licensed this software for around $3500. It brought in enough money to pay the bills and live comfortably.

My income today from Udemy is double what it was from that business. It's because the audience is much larger; even if you only get $5 per sale, if you can teach a topic that's in high demand there is the potential of hundreds of thousands of customers. It can add up.

It all depends on your choice of topic, how good the existing courses in that topic are, how good your courses are, and a bit of luck. But it's worth a shot. Much better odds than the lottery, and all you have to lose is some spare time.

[FrankKane · Accepted solution]

Before I discovered Udemy, I was selling software I wrote online, mainly to defense companies. I licensed this software for around $3500. It brought in enough money to pay the bills and live comfortably.

My income today from Udemy is double what it was from that business. It's because the audience is much larger; even if you only get $5 per sale, if you can teach a topic that's in high demand there is the potential of hundreds of thousands of customers. It can add up.

It all depends on your choice of topic, how good the existing courses in that topic are, how good your courses are, and a bit of luck. But it's worth a shot. Much better odds than the lottery, and all you have to lose is some spare time.

[veajawad]

Thanks a lot for quick and awsome Response. I appericiate it. 🙂

[tallojuuday]

Exactly, i completely agree with your statement

[İlkerErdal]

There is an ocean of opportunities to make profit. My decision is to create online courses because I love creating this content and help others. You might think creating digital assets is better and this is fine 😃

All of these take time and effort. To be successful, your motivation is very important and reading a comment says "you are awesome" or watching people create something you taught make you energized and refreshed.

You may feel more energized when you create assets and that makes creating assets more profitable since you can create more and more.

Profit is the end result so you should do what you enjoy, I believe 😃

[veajawad]

Thanks a lot for your response. I think you are right. At the end we should enjoy what we are doing. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I am sure you will get multiple responses to this question, each containing their own wisdom based on individual instructor experience.

Here is mine.

Before joining Udemy as an Instructor I had a long succesful career as a therapist, pofessor and author of text books.

I stopped and wanted to compile my research into online courses and products. I looked at Udemy and like you was concerned at the low price that courses sell for. So I walked away and spent a year and a half trying to forge a way forward elsewhere.

The problem is that I spent so long trying to organize multiple outlets, find potential customers, set up payment processing, and accessing an audience, the high price paid for my products when someone did purchasse them was meaningless.

So much admin work and unreliable sales, depleting the illusion that my reputation and track record would do the work for me.

With Udemy I am able to spend my time making courses and EVERYTHING else is taken care of.

And because courses are cheap, students commonly come back and buy another one.

If they are not happy, they get a refund, which does not hurt me too much because they are cheap.

You get lots of students, because they are cheap.

If you think you can create a dependable business elsewhere by selling your range of products at higher prices....go for it.

And if it does not work out, come back to Udemy and take advantage of millions of potential students seeing your course for sale at an affordable price every day.

However, when you say:

For example we can sell a Stock Video or Stock Animation at the price of $30 or 40 Online at createive marketplaces which will take maximum 1 week to create and upload.

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Are you talking reality based on existing business, or fantasy based on hope.

Furthermore, Udemy is not a market place for those kinds of products.

So it is not really a viable comparison.

Notwithstanding, thousands of people upload ebooks to amazon, templates to creative market places and so on every hour, and they are still sitting there withotu a single sale months later.

Lastly,  the average price of a course on Udemy is equivalent to the average price of a popular non-fiction book.

In my opinion that price is right and represents the way things are headed for knowledge products.

I wasted time before joining Udemy.

And time is one thing you cannot get back.

So I would think carefully before abandonning making your courses for the dream of easier riches.

It would be great for you to discover what Udemy can bring to your life - little by little, modest dollar by modest dollar, now and for the forseeable future.

Good luck....

[veajawad]

Thanks a lot for your detailed response. 

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Are you talking reality based on existing business, or fantasy based on hope.

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Yes I was talking reality based on existing business.

I think you are right, I should try my luck with both options. 

[LindsayMarsh]

It is a volume game for sure. I can build a decent audience and sell my courses for only $10, but maybe a little higher on average overall and still come out making a decent about of money, more I was making working full-time. 

I had zero audience before I came to udemy, now I have over 80,000 students between a few platforms. 95 percent of my sales are organic, meaning I did not have to pay or find that student. That is priceless and worth the big discount in my sales price I take for each course sale. 

If I were to sell my courses for what I think they are valued at $200+ dollars I will still get sales, but sometimes low price and high volume can win. It just depends on the type of courses you teach as well.  

[veajawad]

Thank you so much for your response. Its very helpfull for me. 🙂