Ask Me Anything - Phil Ebiner, long-time instructor

[PhilEbiner]

Hi, 

I'm Phil Ebiner. I'm a long-time Udemy instructor - been here since 2012. And I'm excited to be a part of this community. Please feel free to ask me any questions!

Since 2012, I've made over $1.5 million from Udemy. And I don't say that to brag, but to show you what a normal guy like me can do... someone who started like many of you without an audience, experience teaching, experience selling, email list, website... nothing.

It has taken a lot of hard work and time to do this, but I believe you can achieve your goals if you have the right mindset and put in the right amount of effort!

I love Udemy, and hope to help you out on this amazing platform!

Cheers,

Phil

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

At the end of the day, what ends up making more money is making more great courses. So while I truly believe building your brand (website, YouTube, social media) is super important for the long run, I also think if just starting out, you might want to just focus on creating as many good high quality courses as you can.

[Michael Mickey]

That's what I'm doing I have one done working on two more 

[Sathya195]

Hello,

This month 8th was my payout day. Due to some technical issues with my Paypal account my payment was failed. So I have updated my payment method from Paypal to payoneer on 9th September. And the same day only I have informed them about the issue.They said they will initiate repayment asap.But still now they are not confirmed anything.

If anyone faced this issue please tell me when will I get my payout to the new payment method.I am new to this platform and It is also my first payment.

Please share your experience if you have faced my situation.

Thanks in advance

K.Sathyaprakash Reddy

[UmairSimjee · Accepted solution]

That's all becasue of hard working and your consistency 

[Kadirijhay]

Very Impressive 

[Ed_Foychuk]

Man, totally inspirational. I notice a lot of ups and downs on the graph... and i’m Currently suffering a very slow feb start. Any advice, from one dad to another? 🙂

[PhilEbiner · Accepted solution]

Great question! What I've learned is that those ups and downs are just the normal trends across Udemy for all instructors. November, January, June, August... those are usually peaks. Other peaks will be when I launch a new course. 

As for when it's a new month, and it's going slow... I just want to ask what you are doing to improve it? Are you working on a new course? Are you building out a website? Are you growing an email list? Are you growing a YouTube channel? Are you testing out new ways to promote? 

What are you doing to grow?

[Ed_Foychuk]

Some things i’m doing this month to push myself.

1. Launched a new course and reached out with coupons and ads for customers. It’s helping tons with the slow feb.

2. I’ve started re-recording my first course. It’s my best seller, but even after only 3 months, I can see how dated it is. Heck, I recorded all the audio with just my phone memos! lol

3. It’s Chinese New Year.... so took a week of for visiting and eating. 😄

[RobertLunte]

Hi Phil... great to hear! I would love to contact you and discuss some things I am looking to do to expand my course creation business. Is there a way to get some consultation time from you offline?  BTW, my course did over six figures in the first year. I now have three courses and 1 collaborative. I'm planning to make a big push this year. 

[gztibs · Accepted solution]

Thank you for being selfless and sharing with us. What do you have to say about the many sites that promote udemy free or discounted coupons？ Is it worth a try？ If it is, which sites are recommended？

[AliRazeghi · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Do you think using Google Ad is uesful for marketing my courses?

[Dairoダイロ342]

Hey Phil wow! man i've been making courses for the past 4 months. I've already made one which i have just published in udemy and im already working on my second one.

How do you think is the best way to set your course production goals? for example i always plan to make 2 to 4 courses a month but i end up only making one, trough all of the struggle of learning how to make it and how to voice over since english is not my native language. I work from 6 to 9 hours a day usually on courses as my full time new job since novemeber 2018. How do you stay motivated? beat insolation? stay productive? dont get discouraged by the obstacles you were facing at first? feel fullfilled? find work life balance? (sometimes i feel like all i should be doing is working on a course and not doing anything else, leaving my life behind and at the end feeling burned out and overwhelmed), how to dont feel frustrated about not accomplishing any of the deadlines you are looking for? specially if you feel you have to make money to pay debt and make a living while you grow in this. Thank you so much for making a QnA bro!

You're awesome!

[Zem]

Hi Phil congrats on your success. Hard work pays off. I’ve just launched my first course yesterday on Valentines Day at 40% off. It’s a beginners guitar course and I got 2 students (both friends). What’s your top 3 tips for new instructors in getting a customer base? Thx man. 

[mahmudahsan]

For new comer, should we publish our course for free for a limited time and then convert it to paid? What is your suggestion Phil?

[ardit]

Hi Phil,

What's the best video scene/background for teaching?

Deep/big stylish workspace, black background, white background?

[LeisaEining]

Hi Phil,

How are things going on the Amazon's Prime Video Direct?  When it first started you seemed pretty excited about its possibilities, but haven't heard much about it since.  Your course on it hasn't been updated since January 2018, so was wondering what your opinion is about it now.  Is it worth the effort?

Thanks!

Leisa

[TriciaBelmo308]

Phil, thank you so much for sharing your success and inspiring those of us striving to get there!  Q.: I have a FB ads course on Udemy, updated to Jan last year. Is it worth my time to update it to 2019 in hopes of getting new students, or should I just take it down and repackage/rebuild it and re-introduce it as a  new course, and maybe even make it niche specific ie FB ads in 2019 for coaches and consultants? Or should I just start a brand new course? I'm just wondering what you would do:) Thanks so much!! 

[Gustavo]

Hi Phil,

Love what you are doing.

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but here it goes. I watched an interview where you mentioned that for a launch of one of your courses you sent personalized welcome videos to your students... how did you do that?

Thanks and congratulations for all your success!

Gus

[MassimilianoAlf]

Hi Phil, you're an inspiration for everyone here and for me too... I would like to ask you something technical... I'm about to buy a background panel to put behind me when I film my talking heads videos... I want to know your thought about what would be the best color to have in this panel... I am programming to have a light at the floor behind my back to get that nice effect I see in Udemy staff videos... what do you think? I am thinking maybe a light blue?

[KaidanFit]

Hey man great profile and trend thank you! My question is i am planning on creating fitness and health videos and i don't want to show myself. My videos will be mostly screen recording and voice. And i have a friend that'll show the excercises and i am going to talk and create programs. 

Do you think it is ok and can i have a connection with the viewers?

Thanks!

[crevy336]

I am definitely impressed with what have you done here!

I am in the same boat to start with no experience at all. It's exciting and scary but I'm pushing forward.

My question is, are there tools to explore topics? Similar to like keywords on Google. I will be teaching how to be a successful independent contractor. Both free content and the nuts and bolts of running a successful businesses.

I do not see a ton of others teaching what I plan to teach and hope that means I have a huge niche to fill. On the other hand, it would be nice to know there is some sort of interest on this platform.

Any advice you could give would be phenomenal!

Thanks,

Carl

[elishalomay]

Hi Phil,

Elisha Elias Lomay from Tanzania - East Africa.

I have gone through your video.

Thank you for being an inspiration.

You really touched me to connect with you especially when you said that you are a father of tweens.

I am a University lecturar and a father of four boys two of them being tweens.

For a long time I have been investing in teaching online and Udemy seems to be the best.

Is it possible to teach, run my courses and be paid for my courses in udemy from Tanzania ?

[Anonymous]

@PhilEbiner

Thanks for posting this.  I've long been curious :-).

I've been on Udemy for almost 5 years and am just approaching $100k.  Looking at your chart I like to kid myself that you were flat for several years before things took off and my take off is just late in coming.  So, your chart gives hope where needed ;-).

Questions related to your chart:

1) What did you do in 2017 to have revenue explode?

2) Organic and Ad revenue seem to have taken off the most.  Any explanation?

Just thought, I should browse the responses to see how many times these questions have already been asked ;-).

Again, thanks for the leadership,

---Brian

[NaliniKantajena]

thank you so much for all your effort to help us.

[JannetWalsh]

Hi Phil!

Great to see you have found success in your teaching!  Bravo!

I've been teaching in university classroom for past four years, but that might all changes shortly.

I want to bring my passsion for teaching online.

Any suggestions to get started again creating first course?

Your teaching  and helping others learn is inspiring!

Thanks,

Jannet 

[csking1981]

Hi; Thanks for your effort to informing us. Regards;

[Charukhanna1025]

Hi Phil

I'm new at Udemy...could you please advise me as to how toto crea or which software shall I use to build my content.

Warm Regards

charu

[csking1981]

Hi;

The best software i think is BB Flashback;

It has free version so you can try it.

Regards;

[JohnBura]

Congratulations @PhilEbiner . This kind of income is great with two kids 😉

Did you switch a free course to a paid course to get the leads? 

[SteveVeloudos]

Can you give me some advice on choosing topics for new courses? Obviously I would look for high demand and low supply but can you give me a few tips on how to evaluate potentional topics?

[Anonymous]

@SteveVeloudos

It sounds like you already know about Marketplace Insights.  That's a great place to browse the potential and competiion of a huge number of niches.  Keep following the related niches and gather keywords for your course titles and subtitles along the way.

Next, actually enter each keyword and see what the competition looks like in each niche as far as course length and the number of reviews you'll need.  Try to find niches that you can dominate by having the most courses, longest courses and best reviewed courses.

Definitely begin your search checking out your passions and areas of expertise.  Just remember that you don't need to be the worlds greatest expert in a subject to do a course on it.

Hope this helps,

---Brian

[SteveVeloudos]

Thanks Brian, this info is useful. Yes I know about the Marketplace Insights and using that with the tips you included will help me come up with some really good new course topics.

[hmchenaran]

hi.

I publish my course (2D Archery Game in Unity3d) at 5/2019, but after a month, I only earned $ 4.
Can you help me to sell more?

[RhondaPorter777]

What is the best way to advertise your class?  I just published my first class a couple weeks ago, and have 4 students.  Two of which are members of my facebook page that I offered a free course in return for an honest review.  I just wondered how to get more traffic to see my course.  Thank  you!

Rhonda

[RossMcGowan]

Hi Phil. Great that you make yourself accessible to everyone. I have decided to take my Udemy career more seriously . I was wondering whether to spend my time updating my 6  courses to make them more professional or maybe my time would be better spent creating new courses. I think there is a niche for graduate level maths and physics courses . 

[AdrianKnight]

Hi Phil,

Congratulations on your Udemy success - I'm currently working my way through one of your courses and the quality is fantastic. 

I have a question and would greatly appreciate your input (it's slightly different). 

I joined Udemy back in 2014 and launched 4 courses within a couple of months. Just as these were taking off (I quickly jumped to $350/mo in revenue) I was offered my dream job, which had long been in the pipeline. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I let my Udemy business go and did very little to keep it going and support my students. 

Fast forward to today and those 4 courses are still live, one of which has a rating of 4.7 stars from 17 reviews and has generated thousands of dollars in passive income. That course currently ranks on the 2nd page for 'Amazon FBA'. 

I feel ashamed for having let my Udemy business go, but most of all, for letting my students down. Teaching is a real passion and seeing people succeed is both a pleasure and honour - and i've made a committment to myself that I'm going to recitfy this.

Out of the four courses, one of them has done well (considering I haven't touched it in 4.5 years), is in an area where I have had some great success and is a topic that genuinely interests me (Amazon FBA). 

Do you think I should build on this one course and focus on Amazon FBA type courses (baring in mind how competitive it now is) or would it be better to start a fresh in a less competitive niche?

Whatever I do, all of my existing students will have lifetime access to every course I publish for free.

Thanks in advance for your input - it's gteatly appreciated. 

Kind regards

Adrian Knight

[VijayB]

Hi Phil,

Your Intro is Awesome 🙂

I have a quick question, Can I use video from Youtube (posted by other people) in my course content as embedded videos with Link to Youtube?

Thanks

Vijay

[Prizzy-fashion]

it's nice thing to  hear because it helps MI also  not to give up and also be hardworking  and patient like the years you have spent on udemy

[Lizzy]

Good luck with your course @Prizzy-fashion . Keep up the positive attitude and I am sure you will succeed. 

[RamziDeveloper]

Congratulations, this is amazing and inspiring

[JoyceWSolomon]

Congratulations @PhilEbiner . 

Those are impressive results! 

Having been a long-time instructor on Udemy, have you noticed any  fluctualtions with the implementation of the new coupon and refferal system? 

Regards, 

Joyce W. Solomon (Standout Personal Branding Coach)

[AdimoraChimex · Accepted solution]

Hi Phil,

You have done so well for yourself and for that I say congratulations to you.

Please am new on this platform and really don't know how to start up.

Is there a way you can help me?

[jWheeler]

Hello, 
I am about to make my first course. It will be a long course covering a deep subject. 
I imagine it growing to be about 15-20 hours of material (maybe more)

I read that the udemy guidelines allow for courses as short as 30mins in length. 

Is it possible for me to release a 30minute long course (or course that is just a few hours) and gradually add more modules to it? 

Is it possible to create "blank" module (or something of that sort) so I can display the modules that are yet to be produced so the audience knows what they can expect to be rolled out in the future? 

[PramodAgrawal · Accepted solution]

Hello Phil!

I am Pramod from India, a brand new instructor raring to go. Your story is amazing & inspiring.

I need your suggestions on - how to reach where you reached or better it. I give a few details about me and my class.

My class name: Stock sutra

What does it teach? Stock trading, currency trading, commodity trading.

Total class length - 3.45 Hrs

Total videos - 101

Design - Powerpoint slides and me talking in the background. The class is engaging with pictures and examples. The class is in such simple words that even a 15-year-old child in any part of the world can master stock trading and benefit from it.

Current status - Class is completed. Instructor verification on.

About me: I am from India. I have been trading stocks for the last 15 years. Also, I have many years of work experience in other fields too. I am now 60. This is my 1st class ever anywhere online. I am a passionate teacher and love teaching. I have worked for over a year on this class and invested all my money and loans from friends and family. I would like to return the loans as early as possible with handsome returns. I want to make my 2nd class on - Simple Yoga & Meditation.

Could you please give 5 tips to success that I should be looking to act upon.

Best wishes.

Pramod

[Samad_karim]

Congrats on your success!

[DustyDrummer12]

Hey Phil. Great post. I'm thinking about starting a Udemy course on "learning to play the drum set". Any thoughts off the top of your head??

Thanks for your time!

Dusty

[Milad_Zoghi]

Hi dear Phil,

I have published my first course and I have some concerns!! Your advice, and sahring your experience means a lot to me and help me to keep my expectations reallistic.

I published it around three weeks ago and since that time I'm getting almost 1 student every other day, mostly from affiliate and adpro of Udemy (I did no marketing yet).

1- First of all, how do you think about this performance? Is it strong, week, or very normal for begining? How is the growth trend usually? I mean if I don't do any marketing, does this enrollment trend remains? goes up or down? How is it ususally? (Its like 6 days that I have no new student!!)

2- I know there are much to do with marketing, but I'm not sure how much I can improve current trend? One of my biggest conerns is I have no clue about " time-versus-#students". I'm spending full-time to make new courses and I'm eating from saving!! So as a questin: within next two months, if I put 2-3 more courses with potentially similar performane and do my best with marketing, can I expect to get around 100 students per month?

3- Almost there are no serious competetors around my courses (although they are not very high demanded like programming stuff), that's the reason I descied to give a shot full-time. But now, I'm in doubt that maybe whole this process takes time to return minimum surviving revenue (I don't know maybe 6 month- 1 year). So do you think I should get a full-time job somewhere and follow courses at the side? How was it for you at the very begining? How long did it take for you to get your 100 student/month for example? I want to regulate my expectations based on experience and reality.

Thank you all for giving me your opinion and experience.

Bests,

Milad

[BenitaUdoek304]

Hi Phil

i have not started yet because I do not understand some stuff yet.

could you help in answering some questions 

1. Who set the price please 

2. What percentage is paid out to the instructor 

3 Are the courses outright purchase or subscription based?

Thank you

[Naeem-Malik]

The instructor sets the price, it can be a number divisible by 5 between $19.99-$199.99. 

Following is the instructor revenue

50% of organic sales

95% of sales caused by instructor promo(the student visited your referral link in last 15 days)

25% of affiliate sales

25% of ad based sales

25% for App store and Google play sales

Most courses are outright purchased by students, a small proportion is offered under "Udemy For Business" which is a subscription service for large businesses. 

I have 4 courses on Udemy, In the past three months they've been collectively bringing in about $750. It is possible that only one course will make you this much, but the opposite is also equally possible. 

Feel free to ask more questions, I'd love to help. 

[MarouaOuakrim]

---

@Naeem-Malik wrote:

The instructor sets the price, it can be a number divisible by 5 between $19.99-$199.99. 

Following is the instructor revenue

50% of organic sales

95% of sales caused by instructor promo(the student visited your referral link in last 15 days)

25% of affiliate sales

25% of ad based sales

25% for App store and Google play sales

Most courses are outright purchased by students, a small proportion is offered under "Udemy For Business" which is a subscription service for large businesses. 

I have 4 courses on Udemy, In the past three months they've been collectively bringing in about $750. It is possible that only one course will make you this much, but the opposite is also equally possible. 

Feel free to ask more questions, I'd love to help. 

---

Hi Naeem, I have a question ,750 d for each month or three months brought 750, I am sorry if my question was intrusive, thanks in advance